The Dhampir Dimension

by Viktoria Alukard

  The crew all stood still, observing the rising object, seeing the tops of a circle of black obelisks arise from the water, and surround the ship in an obsidian cage. These monoliths had a very strange, tenebrous red glow around the black hematite material they were made of, and several Sailors tried to reach out and touch them out of curiosity.

  In the distance, planes of the Air Force were approaching, but took heed to the obelisk formation, and to the giant black, inky blob sticking out of the water, hanging on dregs for life. All the pilots were told to hold their fire from the air traffic control towers in Hickam Joint Forces Base. When one pilot had took note that the pyramids were shooting rays of blue plasma at the ink blob, they joined in aide, completely disregarding direct orders. On all decks and levels of the ship, where power still hadn’t been brought back, all Sailors felt the sudden rumble beneath their feet that caused them to stumble over. Many of them experienced a feeling of weightlessness as if they were traveling down an elevator of a high-rise skyscraper.

  On the flight deck, there was cacophonous screaming and shrills, as the obelisks suddenly made a deafening screeching ring when the bow of the ship collided with one of the structures, which had caused the ship to violently tremble. A few Sailors tried to call their families in desperation, not knowing if they were going to make it, but their electronics exploded from the unseen high frequency that interrupted all electrical power. The Air Force pilots were ordered to retreat and abort mission, and plenty of them were conflicted with leaving an entire crew of innocent Sailors behind.

  Not even in a split second had the planes began to retreat, when their power suddenly cut off and they went diving without any engines straight into the ocean, near the obelisks. They made a loud, foaming splash as the ocean engulfed their planes entirely with the pilots trapped inside. On the flight deck, blood covered the non-skid, as ear drums burst from the ultra-frequency, and the pyramids went crashing down with the planes. No waves were formed from the crashes, because they were sucked into some sort of portal that was just underneath the surface of the bay and dove straight into the interdimensional abyss.

  Off the coast, the young vampire Leilani had just made it back to the big island that night, to look for survivors of the eruption of Kilauea. She had the gift of flight given to her, and she used this to help fly over the perilous regions that were now blanketed over in liquid orange, scalding magma. The air reeked of burning charcoal mixed in with a sulfurous after-odor, and the weather was infernal from the lava spillage. Many trees and vegetation had been decimated, except for the high cliff she found in flight, which was a palm-tree and plumeria oasis.

  It was just to be a night like any other, when she had heard the distant gunfire from aero planes, as she called them, when she’d gone for a walk in the woods to leave an offering for Pele, to thank her for her immortality, and the chance to reunite with her Ohana very soon. When she saw the risen obelisks in the water, from afar, she knew that she perhaps was too late, but still, perhaps she could save an entire crew, and bring a good name to herself and a newfound benevolence towards vampires. She knew immediately, that the obelisks were a product of the evil doings of the Dragul, the coven who had originally offered her the dark gift, and taken her in.

  Her ex-girlfriend, Aurelia Tepes, mentioned them often from when she read and practiced tailored spells from her spell book she’d had since she was a child. Say, come to think of that spell book, Leilani had snooped through it one day to where there was a hand-drawn family tree on the first page. In clearly legible handwriting, the names “Enttu” and “Nayeru” were crossed out and overwritten by “Narciso” and “Nikita.” Also, Aurelia’s full name happened to be Vanya Aurelia Tepes. When casually inquired about it, Aurelia, as she vehemently preferred to be called, went off the deep end with Leilani. She had a notable, visceral hatred towards whoever this supposed “Enttu” character was. Aurelia had later revealed that he was her supposed biological father who abandoned her as a baby, and that Narciso wasn’t a man to ever lie to his little princess, and she knew this to be true from how well he treated her. It had been Nikita who found Aurelia, with the spell book in her basket she was found in, right in front of the Magalesti Cathedral.

  “Isn’t that where that crazy vampire killer priest lived in, and how did he not notice you being dropped off? He very easily could’ve staked you through your tiny little infant heart, so easily too. Either your real parents really didn’t give a flying fuck about you, or Narciso and Nikita are full of shit,” Leilani had mentioned to her before.

  Aurelia had rolled her eyes, trying not to let her anger get the best of her, and akin to her narcissistic self, she changed the subject completely, or walked away from Leilani. When she got fed up with being treated like shit by the blonde brat, of course, Leilani knew how naturally beautiful she was, and figured the best revenge was to start fucking her adoptive dad. But truth be told, they were all pieces of shit, and Leilani included, she told herself. She felt a moral obligation to start using her immortality to probably not be so much of a hedonistic douche bag and help the world to be better than she’d found it the night before.

  “Welp, I’m already dead, I guess putting myself in harm’s way literally won’t kill me,” she said out loud.

  She flew over the Pacific Ocean, unaware of the grand hazard that the salt-ridden waters presented to her vampiric condition. One drop to touch her lovely Hawaiian skin, and bye-bye Leilani. She’d be the lovely bouquet at her own aquatic funeral. The obelisks made a deafening screech the closer she came to them, and this was rendering her weak. Portions of the ship had started to become transparent, as they disappeared in the flashes of blinding crimson light that blinked intermittently, with an excruciating ring that bled ears and made a few Sailors go into seizures. Leilani wasn’t ever prepared for any kind of encounter like this, then again, who would have been? She came plummeting to her knees on the hard, gritty surface of the flight deck, and she put her hands to her ears, gritting her teeth as the sound painfully coursed through her brain. Her head felt like it was about to explode, and she was fixed into place from the severe pain.

  “Fuck! This was not the way I planned to die!!” she screamed to the ground, spit falling out from the tips of her fangs.

  Sailors around her were dying of the pain, or from brain damage caused by seizures. More parts of the ship kept disappearing into the blinding red mist, and the last part that remained was where she was. She inhaled deeply, to resign to her death. Suddenly, a forearm lifted her up from behind and looped around her waist. Before she blinked again, she was out of the dark bloody prison of the monoliths, and once again, she saw blue waters twinkling below her, and then finally, she was back on land, and on her espadrille-clad feet.

  She regained her balance quickly, and in front of her, stood a tall man, with impeccable posture, and excessively long black hair, and equally long mustache handles that blended into his straight beard. His eyes were oriental and violet. He resembled those legendary Huns from Mulan, just from the way he appeared, and the icy countenance he wore, along with his loose black robe, and jogger pants, with black canvas slipper shoes. He bowed down to her in a surprising gesture and extended out his hand to her. Hesitatingly, Leilani shook his hand through a consternated expression of rounded eyes and half-opened lips, and thanked him for saving her life, if it was him that had done so.

  “Yet, what are we going to do about those Sailors? They are all trapped on that ship!” Leilani exclaimed.

  “Worry not. Our real problem is about to lie within San Diego, if we don’t get there soon. Your transformation is not a coincidence, child,”

  “You mean those black obelisks? And what do you mean by transformation? You couldn’t know what I am, unless you yourself also happen to be….”

  “A vampire. Indeed. And indeed, to the black obelisks. I had a premonition this day would come, since our King fell into the hands of death a long time ago.
I saw him staked through the heart,”

  “I suppose you’re talking about a vampire kingdom of some sort, I imagine?”

  The man sighed, and looked sideways, almost as if he sadly reminisced a time, place, and persons he missed.

  “Yes. It was a tragedy. The King was one of my martial art proteges. King Enttu,”

  That name rang in her ears, and caused Leilani’s heart beat to accelerate a bit, when in her head, she tried to loosely connect all the ties together. So, this man, who Aurelia stated was her biological father, was also a King of a separate vampire tribe apart from the Dragul. There was more to this mysterious figure than she thought, and she wanted to know the truth as to who, what, where, when, and why.

  “The supposed biological father of a girl named Vanya Aurelia Tepes? The daughter he abandoned in front of a cathedral of vampire killers?”

  The man almost fell back and let out a hearty chuckle.

  “That’s how low the Dragul stoop with their lies? Oh no, you are gravely mistaken. Enttu loved his family more than anybody could fathom. Vanya was six when she was abducted from him and his wife, the same night they were murdered.”

  “That lying bitch,” Leilani seethed, clenching her fist.

  “I wouldn’t blame her. Perhaps she still doesn’t know nor remember,”

  “You’re right. But knowing her, she would be apathetic either way. Oh, by the way, I’m Leilani. And really, thank you for saving me just now,”

  “Not a problem Miss Leilani. I’m sorry I forgot to introduce myself. That is not the samurai way. I was once a Master Samurai, when I was accepted into the Selenian-Alucardian coven, but I guess I’m only a master of one now. My name is Hideki Tendo,”

  Past midnight, Bucharest, Romania

  Her wicked, fang-revealing grin made the chief of police immediately regret his decision, as she went into a harlequin laughter, and delicately advanced in his direction. Regina was able to absorb the one million volts she was hit with. All the surge did was tickle her and cause her hair to expand with static. The leather of her coat reflected the blue light in her palms as it was shot forth directly into the chest of the most senior policeman in front of her, and this sent him somersaulting up in the air. His back collided with the protruding cement edge of the supports of an overpassing freeway, and then he collapsed to the ground face first with a thud. It was without a doubt that the drop from that high was a fatal one for the old man. Poor bastard.

  The squads had peppered her with gunfire in poor attempts to hit her, but she moved too fast for them, becoming nothing more than a blur that showed up in front of them when they least expected it, and by the time they’d seen her it was too late. One by one, she knocked every officer out stone cold, with punches, headbutts, head-splitting roundhouse kicks, and claw slashes. Two male cops had tried to flee the scene in a patrol car, but she quickly stopped them, and karate-chopped the car’s hood inwards, essentially turning the entire frame of the car into a V-shape. The car was rendered useless since both sides of the tires stuck outwards in the air, and the car was supported by the middle of its undercarriage, scraping and arcing sparks against the pavement. Both scared men took off on foot, until Regina seized them both by their throats and violently crashed their heads together, which caused shattered noses. She left them in a comatose pile by the contorted piece of junk she wrecked with her bare hand.

  When they were all lying and writhing on the floor, she marched her way back over towards her companions, and placed one palm on each of their foreheads in attempts to awake them by the touch of her icy skin. A soft, broken sigh escaped from Enttu’s soft rosy lips, and his eyebrows twitched when she touched him. He felt a little warmer than normal and had a bit more color to him than she’d remembered, despite the perpetual rain that cleansed them all each battle. Regina felt an incredulous exhaustion throughout her entire body, and her appendages were starting to feel like lead. She would feed soon once she recovered from this dizzying spell. Everything, including the street under her eyes shifted uncontrollably, and a sickening nausea crept up her digestive track.

  Who and why did this sweet baby boy, no older than two, keep appearing at every corner turned to? He stood here, in the physical plane, in front of the unmoved patrol car, with the same adorable, pint-sized violin he played with virtuous talent. “Alucard, Alucard.”

  No lyrics were needed to know what he was playing, nor whom he was invoking. The grey asphalt between him and Regina turned gold, and he trotted clumsily towards her, making those cutely irresistible baby noises as he did. The sweetest thing was witnessed when the little boy touched her cheek, which made her look up to whatever had gently brushed her. It was contrastingly soothing to the sickness she felt overwhelming her, though she herself couldn’t see the child. How could she not though, when the boy was as tangible as the rain that washed over her? Maybe she needed to feed badly, which rendered her metaphysical gifts weak if she hadn’t.

  The baby then turned towards Enttu, who couldn’t help but to flitter his fingers in a “hello” to the baby boy, and then the child gave the dhampir the most beautiful smile that for that instant, melted the ice on the tomb that was his heart. The baby ran to the dhampir, who sat on the street, supported by his palms, and he snuggled up against his chest, and playfully tugged at his long blonde hair, while giggling. Enttu softly kissed the baby on his forehead, and embraced him, knowing deep inside that it was the spirit of his boy that was never born. Just like that, he woke up, distraught from the sudden loss again of not seeing the child anymore. Instead, he woke to find Regina lying unconscious on her side, arms outstretched in front of her. Vittorio was up, and was by a patrol car, smoking a cigarette.

  A high-pitched continuous beep increased steadily as the dhampir arose to his feet and dusted himself off. He was pleasantly surprised when he’d seen that all the squad had gotten their ass kicked by none other than Regina, noted by the piles of bodies in blue uniforms stacked messily one on top of the other. None of them had died, they were just mildly to seriously injured. The screech kept on, and it was loud enough that even Vittorio paused to hear it. Tremors that came from nowhere were suddenly felt beneath their soles, and they bent forward on one leg to stabilize themselves from tripping. A small series of “what the fucks” followed, along with the cacophony of the distant screaming voices of alerted civilians downtown. Toward the finalization of the earthquake, an over-towering black obelisk that was as high as a skyscraper appeared amid an ominous red mist surrounding it. Judging from its location, it seemed to be near where the Magalesti Cathedral stood. The quaking stopped but was followed with blood-curdling male and female screams, and gunfire blasts.

  The Etheric Plane

  “Sekhmet, don’t you think your measures will be quite drastic ones that could endanger not only yourself, but this plane itself?” Selene asked her sister, as they stood near the balcony of her temple, looking out to the twinkling cosmos.

  They turned back to the massive glass orb that was suspended in the middle of three golden clasps that protruded from the marble floor. The orb glowed when the two goddesses approached it, and the glowing white it emitted transformed into a series of images of catastrophes that were occurring on Planet Earth. The common denominator in all the images were the loathsome obelisks that legend foretold that they’d make their appearance when the evil demi-god Basilisk was to make his grand entrance into the plane.

  Sekhmet clasped her hands together and bowed down her head. Her cat ears flexed, as she absorbed the emotional havoc of the images she’d seen, and she exhaled softly, letting out a sweet smell of roses from her mouth. Time had come once more, to rise to her calling, and live up to be the formidable warrior goddess that she was. A silver gleam flashed in her solid black eyes, and then they began to glow white. Selene knew that she’d have to let her sister go for the time being, even if it hurt her to do so, faced with the possibility that Sekhmet might not co
me back if she went to assist the Selenian vampires in their fight against the demon, sprouted forth with aide of the Dragul. Sekhmet didn’t want to choose sides, as she was the original mother of all vampires, but it was against her moral code that they should ever deliberately bring forth something so evil to destroy the entire universe.

  Selene looked onwards, as her sister walked away into the tall corridor made of hieroglyphed gold that led to the outside of her own temple, to the Sapphire Courtyard, and then, out to the pathway towards the physical plane, and the realm of passing souls, where Alucard guided the spirit of dead vampires.

  In gliding steps, Sekhmet found herself in the halls lined with marble and velvet, where the choir of angels played in the empty chamber, accompanied by organs, and decorated with gargoyles and frames of the Royal Selenian family. Time stood still here, and the cosmos from this vantage appeared as a sanguine and noir firmament with sparsely scattered stars. Before the halls began, there was a graveyard outside, where the spirits of many deceased vampires sat near their tombstones, amongst many flowers that Alucard decorated them with. They each bowed down to the vampire goddess in reverence, and she graciously waved at them as she passed them by.

  “Alucard is right at the threshold of the mausoleum south of the meadow,” a tall, young vampire woman told Sekhmet. The woman was naturally beautiful, and she possessed the attributes of a model, with dark hair in a half-up, emerald eyes, and a rosy pout.