The Dhampir Dimension

by Viktoria Alukard

  I made it home by myself in three nights, and was back by the 7th of December, to my wife and daughter, exhausted and freezing to death. I wished to be alone with Nayeru for intimacy and comfort, telling everyone I will tend to them later. Vanya was insistently knocking outside of our chamber door to the point where we couldn’t ignore her, so I answered, half naked, and asked her what she needed. She practically dragged me outside in the hall, up into the ballroom dedicated to the spirit of Alucard and had me follow her outside into the outdoor spire that was meant for stargazing. She pointed and exclaimed at something off into the distance at the snow-capped ridge of the mountains. A fleet of three red orbs of light in the formation of a triangle caught my attention.

  It turned out her imagination was a little more tangible than I accredited her for. In a week, Mother had pulled me outside into the garden to have a serious talk with me. Her arms were crossed, and her innocent, angel-like red lips were pursed in disappointment or worry, I couldn’t tell with her. She could have passed for my older sibling because she looked so eternally youthful, with her radiantly blonde curls lively framing her small face, with kitten-like features. Mother was an angel in my sight, as much as we tended to disagree with each other at times. She placed a delicate bare hand with red-painted nails on my cheek, and it felt ice cold, looking up at me, a whole foot shorter in stature than myself.

  “My dear son. Your time, and my time has come,”

  I didn’t like where this was going because Mother never had this much grief in her voice except when we conversed about my father.

  “Mother, please enlighten me,”

  “Son, I will not go with you to America. My home is here, in Europe, where I established my life. If I go, anything I have left of my Nicolae will be left behind. Which is why my son, because I know you will be going away, you will be coronated as King in by the eve of the new year. It cannot wait, Enttu, especially now due to the ever-growing danger from the Dragul, from the humans, and the vampire hunters. They need a leader to be present there with them. That is, you. That is Nayeru. King and Queen of the American coven. I will stay in Romania and rule the coven who wishes to stay here with me. If all else, fails, I shall return to Paris.”

  I shook my head, and for the first time, in a long time, an incredible sadness filled my heart, and I almost wept in front of my mother.

  “This can’t be. Mother please, I beg you, we need to stay together, it how we’ve survived even without Father around,”

  “For what? For ten years? That is but a blur in the lifetime of a vampire. We are not safe. Believe me when I tell you, it is better if I stay here. You need to go to America and never look back. Think about Vanya,”

  “Mother don’t guilt trip me,”

  “I am not. But my decision is final. And the Goddess herself gave us the affirmation and blessing for your coronation coming very, very soon,”

  I sighed, at loss for words, absorbing the information painfully slow, like porridge being pushed through a dirty sieve. Soon enough, she had announced to the Selenians of Nayeru and I’s coronation to King and Queen. It would happen around the 25th of December, Christmas night, in combination with the annual holiday festival of Yule, ten days from now. As the week seemed to drag on, I frequented the bar with my friends and had a eulogy toast in memory of our companion Tiberiu, an in a few instances, Nayeru went with me to join in on the alcohol. An older woman, a human named Malena from the United Kingdom, owned the bar, and she made the ale herself, and imported vodka, gin, scotch, and a selection of snake venom alcohols from Vietnam. I was a few drinks in and my wife was trying to catch up with me, so I bought her a drink and drunkenly toasted to her, in front of all my friends.

  I was probably making a fool of myself as I climbed the top of the wooden table and projected my voice, so the entire bar could hear me, we had an audience where we were. I lowered my glass to my men who raised their glass to mine, and the loud clinking of mugs filled the ambient, then we gulped down our ale, drinking to the dregs of foam. However, Nayeru did not seem her usual, boisterous self she was after a few drinks, and as a matter of fact, she had barely touched her drink. She looked at me and silently conveyed a message that she needed me all alone, and all to herself. I excused myself from our friends and walked her outside the bar into the frigid night, where snow softly fell.

  “My love, something seems to be troubling you. Is it my drunken behavior? I am sorry if it has upset you. We can go back home and enjoy each other alone in our bed if you wish,”

  She sighed, and then parted her red lips softly as if to speak, shaking her head.

  “No, it’s not your obvious inebriation, though it is pretty apparent, and you reek of a distillery. No. I just,” she paused. I blinked at her a few times and gave her an “I’m listening” expression. She was visibly trembling, and not from the cold when she continued, “I wish I could join you all in your drinking. But in my current condition, I will not be able to until America, well into next year,”

  I had a suspecting hunch as to where she was getting at, and for a moment, I was in disbelief and suspense of what she would tell me next, though I already knew, but just needed it affirmed from her very lips. She walked up to me and gave me a playful slap to lighten my seriousness, and she spoke through a smile that went from ear to ear. ‘

  “You got me pregnant….again! ” she exclaimed, not able to contain the overjoy of bearing me the news.

  I cupped her face in my hands and kissed her, a warmth flooding inside my chest, and the feeling of nervous butterflies in my stomach. It didn’t occur to me that I probably tasted like everything they were serving at the bar. She pulled away and indeed, did make a face of disgust.

  “Your breath tastes like fucking turpentine,”

  “And you taste like raspberries and cream, and not just on the lips of your pretty face,”

  She playfully slapped me again, “Enttu, watch your tongue,”

  ‘You’ll be watching my tongue tonight, my love,” I smirked, through my fangs.

  She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Come on, stop acting like a dingbat, its freezing out here. Are you happy with the news?”

  “Are you kidding? I couldn’t be better! Vanya is going to have a sibling, and clearly, my sperm still perform superbly,”

  “Oh, shut up.”

  My face turned red and my wife was puzzled, but nonetheless amused. Our celebrations continued until dawn, and we walked the haven of our home that kindled us in the nurturing warmth of the fireplace. She found her secure haven in my arms after I cleansed the drunkenness away. I stayed awake for a while, staring out of our window into the cemetery that was adorned in a somber winter wonderland cresting over the cenotaphs. My life was a temporary gemstone, made of breakable glass, and I would have to learn to let it go, soon enough. It was a synonymous action of all things that ever painted my life with a watercolor of what happiness was, or what I thought it was supposed to be. For everything that had ever come to be, I was grateful.

  CH. 8

  SURFACING OF THE

  LOWER ASTRAL PLANES

  December 22nd, 1894.

  It was a night like any other, except tonight was the opening festival of the Alucard, the first dhampir, and our great ancestor who led the Selenian revolution against the Dragul. Children ran the streets begging random merchants for trinkets, in their snow boots, colorful scarves, and thick coats made of the pelt of different animals. Vanya was growing impatient as both her mother and I helped her get ready and pick out a nice outfit for her to wear so she could play with her friends. I gave her a choice between a red velvet dress, or a white and gold taffeta, and she chose the red velvet, with white chiffon and satin bows. She wore this dress with matching red wool leggings, her tiny boots made of mink, gloves, a pink scarf, and wool cap that I didn’t let her take off. I forced her to wear a white jacket and didn’t let her take it off because of the bit
ter, biting cold and snow. She complained the entire time as to why she didn’t understand why she needed gloves and a scarf if she already had a coat and argued with both my wife and I as we headed into town.

  “I hate you!” she screamed at me, pouting, stomping, and hissing at everyone who tried to talk to her. She was most certainly behaving like a pompous, spoiled little princess.

  “Vanya you better take that back, now!” Nayeru scolded her. The little girl refused to listen and told my wife that she hated her.

  Without a warning, and without giving it much thought, she really hit a nerve, and my reaction in response to her behavior was to suddenly slap her for the comment she made to her mother. The child looked up at me with the gleam of surprise in her eyes, not believing that it was the avenue I took with her. It wasn’t a hard slap, but it was enough to get her to get a hold of herself. Or so I thought. She then broke down in tears and cried out loud. Now both her and Nayeru were mad at me, and I felt remorseful for my actions.

  “She’s only a child, Enttu, for fucks sake what’s gotten into you lately?”

  I bit my lip, not being able to formulate a response in the adequate time. I knelt to my daughter to try and comfort her, and atone to her, but she was very emotionally distraught. I felt like such a horrible person at that given moment, because at the end of the day, I loved my daughter very much. Lack of patience had tested me, and I failed, terribly.

  “No, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!” she continued, with tears on her cheeks. I sighed to the ground, and got up, and muttered a whispered, “That’s fine,” in defeat.

  There was a stage set up in the center of our outside courtyard that faced the distant lavender fields in front of the shrouding forest. Our people were gathered in crowds, waiting for our arrival onto a red carpeted walkway adorned with the petals of red and black roses, and every person, including children apart from the humans, held a raised crystal fluke of blood into the air and tipped their glasses at us when we passed them by. Up at the top of the stage, there was an assembly of a choir, several young teenagers with brass instruments, and a red-haired girl tuning an organ. There were two seats at the end of the stage where my daughter and I would sit, and observe my wife perform the opening act to ignite the festival. My daughter and I sat at the end of the row next to the choir assembly, and Vanya was still very poutful and upset from earlier.

  My wife graciously proceeded to the center of the stage, her presence unfolding before our coven, like a swan regally spreading its wings. She wore a fitted red velvet and sequined bodice with black chiffon petticoated skirts that reached the floor, with a sensual slit running up the fabric, exposing her right, lace-gartered thigh and red sequined pumps that I had bought for her in a boutique in France called Lanvin, that is now a well-known and high-end designer label. The crowd cheered for her as she hit the first note of the “Alucard’s Threnody”

  “Alucard, Alucard, come be with us, Alucard. Through the night, the perilous fight,

  Bring us longevity, our guiding light,”

  The crowd joined in the chorus and everyone stood up, raised their glass, and drank the blood. After the performance, the Selenians, and my family and I took to the streets for the festivities, the harem belly dancers, the fire-breathers, and the motley-haired and skirted hip-shaking witches performing levitation acts and spells of nature.

  We made it into the lively city festival, where children ran everywhere, and the adults drank, danced, performed sorcery, and chanted our hymns and played our melodies. Vanya’s sadness was soon forgotten when she saw Andrei and Florentina in the crowd. Nayeru met up and went to converse with Raluca, and I met up with Cain and a few other vampires, near a bazaar serving ale. My wife and daughter didn’t stray too far, and they were still within my range of eyesight. Off in the distance, there was a golden dragon made of red and yellow tulle and many embroidered sequins, with people moving and shaking it wildly from underneath the fabric and steel rod frame. Cinnamon, the smell of smoky pine, and searing meat for the human Selenians to eat filled the air, and the smell was delectable to inhale, I could taste what was being grilled. I was almost tempted to eat human food, but I refrained from doing so, since I always ran the risk of poisoning myself because my circulatory system was metaphysically and physiologically fused with my digestive system. This was part of the reason we were damned and condemned to consume blood. I knew that my wife occasionally had cravings for human food even now as a fully transfigured vampire. The baby growing within her would sometimes demand raw red meat and lamb.

  Nayeru was in the distance while I drank with my war companions, and she’d seen me from far away, and budged me a sweet, subtle smile, as I saw her head towards the snowed woods with Raluca. A wave of genuine apprehension shot through me, because they were heading almost too dangerously close to the invisible barrier that kept us hidden from the human civilization.

  I went to take a brief walk alone out in the moonlight and headed to the cemetery to let my thoughts stabilize. Here, I sat upon a meadow in the center of all the tombstone arrangements and traveled inwards, alone with my flooding thoughts. The elation of the hearts of my Selenians was felt in my chest as a growing warmth, and I could hear everyone’s laughter, murmurs, conversation and thoughts. I needed to quiet my mind a while. The somber emotion of wishing my father was here had set in, and I questioned myself as to whether I had made the right decision in leaving for America and if I had done the right thing by sending the first group on by themselves. Sure, all female vampires were a force to reckon with, and they were second to none when it came to self-defense and offense attacks. Still, there was a worry tugging at my heart that I couldn’t shake off.

  On a bench blanketed of crystalline, glittering snow by Nicolae’s tomb, I sat and dropped a single red rose on his grave., I sat and watched my breath materialize in white vapor in front of me. It was always so blustery and cold around this time of year, at least the humans had the ability of their metabolism and ATP for homeostasis and warmth. For a vampire or a dhampir, we could stay warm for the first three days after a feeding, but afterwards, needed to be by a fire or a source of heat so our body temperature wouldn’t plummet dangerously low. We didn’t die from freezing, it was physiologically impossible, but it did feel as if tiny daggers were piercing into the flesh, and it severely limited metaphysical capability and our gift of flight. I contemplated on this for a while, and then inhaled deeply, just enjoying the silence.

  The sight ahead of me was an epic backdrop of steep rock formations and snow-capped peaks of the Carpathian range, much further ahead, past the horizon of the full moon, over the white sea of frozen diamonds, was the land of Transylvania, and the Dragul city of Targoviste. The peaks were black except for the shimmering reflection of snow caps, and the pitch-black sky illuminated by the full moon, with smoky dark grey clouds dancing around her orb. Selene, the goddess of my people, protected us for centuries. We had always been fiercely loyal to her. However, not doubting our Moon Queen, I still pondered about the dream of those little grey beings with the obscure, oversized, and viscous black eyes that created such a visceral fear in even a nocturnal creature like myself. What did they mean and why was I dreaming such things?

  A cold hand with neatly manicured, red-lacquered nails rested on my shoulder and moved further to massage the back of my neck. I submitted to the touch that gently grasped me from my wakened reverie. Nayeru knelt behind me and wrapped her delicate graceful arms around me and rested her chin on my shoulder. I rested my head on hers and we overlooked the moon and the mountain range together from the cemetery. Stone gargoyles cast their macabre shadow on the soil and grass that bloomed from the compost and humus.

  “What is the future King doing out here all by himself? The festival is dead without you my love. You are kind of an important aspect in our celebrations, my Enttu, come back, and don’t turn into a block of ice out here,”

  I kissed the top
of her forehead gently and then sighed into her hair.

  “I sometimes feel this life isn’t enough,” I whispered to her.

  “I think you’ve had a bit much to drink. You have it all here. Your coven, your castle, your people who look up to you, you have me and Vanya. We are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to start over. What more do you need? Don’t miss out on what’s in front of you by delving too deeply into your constant state of existentialism,”

  “You’re right. I think I am a bit anxious about the move to America, and I cannot stop thinking about the wellbeing of our women and children we sent out there. Somethings troubling me,”

  “Enttu, stop being so pessimistic. That is your worst quality. You expect the worst all the time,”

  “What can I say, it’s what being a warrior teaches you to do,”

  But she was correct, I had really let the past darken me to the point where sometimes I admitted I acted insufferably, and maybe a little too controlling of every aspect of our lives. I meant well, and I always strived to make sure my family was always provided for and always on our guard. But perhaps Nayeru was right, my stoic ways were beginning to stifle everyone around me.

  “I love you and I only want what’s best for you. I just want you to be happy. If I make you miserable….” I told her, the melancholy shaking in my voice, before she placed a finger on my lips to silence me. She dived deep with her eyes into mine.

  “Don’t even suggest to me what you were about to. You are my husband and I am your wife. It’s until death do us part, and I don’t see either one of us dying in the next eternity. I do wish you’d open to me more! I deserve for you to trust me! You don’t think, after I carried our daughter in my womb for nine months, and then you still turned me into a fucking vampire…”