Yugo raised his finger high into the air with definite proclamation. “You're an alteration type.” Yugo was beaming.
“How can you tell?” Orhn was too centered on Yugo's disposition to notice.
“There's no blood. I sliced you up so that the wound would not close quickly. Even for a vampire it would bleed heavily. There's no blood on your shirt Orhn. It's proof that you have an alteration gift affecting your own body. As to the extent of that control, we'll discover everything through more tests.” Yugo laughed out loud. He enjoyed the idea of torturing Orhn more. “How does it feel? Does it hurt? And did you have to think about it when I stabbed you?”
Orhn poked the slowly closing open flap in his gut where the sword was. “No, I didn't think about it at all.” He moved around a little, surveying his overall condition. “I don't feel any pain either, nothing really. Come to think of it, it was more of a shock that you did it at the time than anything.”
“And now? How does it feel? Is it sharp? Does it sting or burn?” Yugo quickly moved closer to Orhn, probing at the open hole in his stomach.
“No, it feels cold. Not freezing, but cool. When I touch it, it's not numb, it feels different. Almost like the sensation of pain has been replaced by cold instead. What does that mean Yugo?” Orhn watched as the wound closed fully and the cold feeling disappeared.
“It means that your gift is completely internal. It means you are rare Orhn.” Yugo sounded pleased.
“So I'm unique too?” Orhn asked.
“You're rare, not unique. Remember that and you'll live longer.” Yugo's approval was gone with a dash. He did not like Orhn's assumption. Yugo backed away and ignored Orhn.
“So what comes next?” Orhn was ready for anything.
Yugo chuckled. “Dismemberment.”
“You're kidding right? You mean taking off a limb?” Orhn stepped back from Yugo.
“What's the matter? You're not afraid, are you?” Yugo was poking fun at Orhn. He turned, smiling.
Orhn was afraid. “I'm not afraid. I just want to make sure whatever you cut off will grow back.”
“We won't know if we don't try and find out, right?” Yugo smiled again, he was enjoying watching Orhn squirm.
“Wait, what? That's not good enough for me. I need some assurance certain things will grow back, intact.”
“Okay.” Yugo said on a whim. “You have my assurance that everything I cut off will grow back in full.”
“You're lying.” Orhn barked at Yugo.
“Does it matter if I am?” Yugo was being a smart ass and knew it.
“Of course it matters!” Orhn screamed out.
“Okay, we'll test in less strenuous ways.” Yugo said calmly to Orhn.
“Wait, you didn't really have to do that, did you?” Orhn was amounting any defense he could come up with not to get stabbed again.
Yugo wasn't going to let Orhn circumvent him. Yugo came up with a plan. “Hey, Orhn, what was that?” Yugo pointed in the direction of the door.
Orhn bought it. “What? What's out there?” Orhn turned around, he opened his arms wide, readying himself for whatever might come.
It was exactly what Yugo wanted Orhn to do. Without warning, Yugo lopped off Orhn's right forearm with the blade in his pocket. Orhn didn't realize it at first until he saw the dismembered arm bounce on the ground next to his foot.
Orhn screamed loudly. “You cut my arm off!!”
“I said I would, and I did. What's the problem?” Yugo was being smug about it.
“You cut my arm off!!” Orhn was still screaming.
“We need to find out if it will grow back.” Yugo was perfectly calm as Orhn's arm twitched on the ground.
“But you cut off my arm!!” Orhn was furious.
“It will probably grow back faster than you think.” Yugo failed to hold back a half smile he had felt coming on. The grin was plastered all over his face.
Orhn was still screaming. “And if it doesn't!!?”
“Then we'll know one of the limitations of your gift.” Yugo was being calm and cold again.
“And if it doesn't!!?” Orhn yelled in Yugo's face.
“Let's wait and see first.” Yugo gestured for Orhn to have a seat.
“Easy for you to say! You didn't have your arm cut off!!” Orhn wasn't calming down.
“No, the vampire that made me what I am today, did more. It was my first-” Yugo stopped as his somber tone reached Orhn. “My first life before what I am now.”
Orhn sat down and began to listen.
“My gift was very difficult to determine. He hurt me, and I did not have the luxury of feeling a cool sensation as you do.” Yugo remembered something from long ago, in a time where his gift was first realized.
Orhn was silent.
“His first experiment was to remove my arms and legs. I bled, everywhere. He doused me with enough blood to close the wounds and left me to regenerate alone, a gimp. With no way to defend myself should someone find me in the small wooden box he had chosen to leave me in. I had to wiggle to reach a rock in which I used to cut my own shoulder open to reattach the severed arm to my socket. The same for the next. After a few hours I could use the arms again. What followed was easier, the legs took longer than I expected though. I knew that the limbs would be easier to rejoin than to regenerate. I had no idea when he might return. I had to risk putting myself back together. However, he was watching me the entire time. The next step was to cut my head off for an hour. Just to see if I would be able to move without it.” Yugo hesitated. “I couldn't. By all definitions I was dead for that amount of time. I hated him for that. All I could hear before I blacked out was his laughter.” Yugo breathed deeply and continued. “He dragged me out into the sun to see if I would burn and I did. I caught fire within a second and smoldered. It fused my clothing to what was left of my skin a moment later. He brought me back with a few gallons of blood and it took a day to fully recover.”
“Is that how you knew what to do with my skin? With the clothes that were on me?” Orhn asked Yugo.
Yugo nodded. “Next, he concluded as I did with you, that I was an alteration type. He then made me concentrate on various objects in an attempt of effecting them in some way. First, I had to try to make them burn, then to freeze, to push over, and finally to lift. Nothing worked. He concluded I was worthless and told me I wasn't able enough to remain with him. At the time, I couldn't fathom what he meant. He was talking about having personal security or something. I didn't have a clue what that meant. Not then at least. It's sad to know that I'm searching for the same thing.”
“Then how did you learn to develop your gift?” Orhn was calm considering he was missing his right arm.
“Through my second mentor. My original sire failed me, and I ran from him. Or at least it was mutual. I eventually found a man that pitied me for not having a gift. In time, we discovered a trigger to my gift. A phrase that would activate the beginning of all my abilities to come. Through his nurturing, I was able to become a powerful practitioner within two decades. He helped me in ways I was never able to convince him of.” Yugo retreated slightly into his memories. “Until that one day.”
“Did he die?” Orhn asked immediately, breaking Yugo's reminiscing.
“Oh no, he's very much alive, I think. It's that we don't speak any more. I can't tell him how he influenced my life after all this time.” Yugo smiled. “We came to a divergence of philosophy one night and parted ways promptly. That led me to what I am now. In the end, he was right, I should have stayed.” Yugo exhaled with emotion. “Now let's look at that arm of yours. Does it still feel cold?”
“Yeah, it does.” Orhn raised what was left of his elbow so that Yugo could see it better. There was no blood, just the exposed bone and the flesh. Nothing was dripping, and nothing was oozing. It was strange.
“Well, it hasn't scabbed over, that's something noteworthy.” Yugo remarked.
“Noteworthy good or noteworthy bad?” Orhn asked, he was worried.
Orhn tested his fingers, reflexes, and arm. They were all fine. “It's like it never happened.” Orhn pulled the sleeve up, Yugo saw that it had already sealed, instantly. There was no semi-soft seal, the cut just wasn't there.
“That proves it. You have an alteration gift and your sole domain is your own body.” Yugo laughed.
“What's funny now?” Orhn dreaded whatever Yugo was thinking.
Yugo looked to the door. “Too bad it's night time. I would have loved to see it happen sooner than later.”
“See what? What do you have in store for me now?” Orhn squinted his eyes at Yugo. Orhn had become weary of Yugo's intentions.
“You'll see tomorrow. Get some rest for now.” Yugo instructed.
“But it's dark out, this is the time I should be awake.” Orhn thought about it. He thought why Yugo would want him to rest up during the night. “You! You want me to walk out into the sun! You want to see if I can burn, don't you!?” Orhn stood up quickly and shouted at Yugo.
“I prefer to think of it as seeing if you're fire proof or not.” Yugo grinned.
“That's not funny, Yugo. You mean my hand right? Just using my hand?” Orhn proposed a compromise.
“Yes, we'll test it out on your hand, first.” Yugo sat back against the wall. “Get some rest, you'll feel better. If you pass the next test, like I think you will, we'll be able to hunt together in the day as well as well as the night. Although I admit it is more efficient after hours, when everyone is already gathered at the bars. It's quite easier to feed on drunken people, they bleed out quicker.”
“I've been meaning to ask you Yugo, is this how you smell the world? Ever since that seventh day I've been noticing the food cooked from town long after nightfall. The grass after the rain. Even the scent of the blood from these new clothes you gave me. Is this how I'm going to feel the world from now on? I can't imagine what it will be like when we come back to the city.” Orhn's commentary irritated Yugo.
“Orhn, we're not going back to town, ever.” Yugo was stern.
“Why not? Where else are we supposed to go?” Orhn shrugged his shoulders. “Where are we supposed to hunt?”
“Orhn, I framed you for a murderer a week ago. Has the pain of transformation caused amnesia?” Yugo reminded Orhn that he had set him up when they left nearest town.
Orhn shut up.
On Yugo's callus remark, Orhn sat back on the still damp dirt bed and laid down. He attempted to relax and prepare for the morning. Orhn closed his eyes. He was out, this time by choice.
* * * *
Orhn awoke to a bright light pervading his eye lids. He strained to open them and look around for Yugo. He slowly got up . His backside was covered in caked dirt. Orhn didn't understand what was going on. He found Yugo standing casually in the shade a few yards away. Orhn was groggy and stumbled to get to his feet. The sun was beating down on the entire area and it was very hot out.
Suddenly, Orhn realized what had happened. “Yugo, you bastard! I thought we agreed that you would try it out on my hand before it came to this!” Orhn was pissed and half awake to make things worse. He raised his arm to shield his eyes from the sun.
“I did, but you never woke up.” Yugo sat with his legs crossed. His back was propped neatly against the large oak tree. A piece of wheat was in his teeth. Yugo smiled.
“What do you mean I never woke up? Don't you mean that you were going to?” Orhn asked, worried as to what Yugo had done to him this time. “You intended to wake me, right?”
“No, I did try. I cut your arm off in your sleep and took it to roast in the sun. When it didn't burn, I reattached it. Then I drug you out here to wake you up.” Yugo was sipping on a clay cup of blood.
“You what!?” Orhn screamed. Then wondered why exactly Yugo wasn't in the sun like he was. “And why are you over there in the shade?”
“It's hot of course, a little too warm for my taste.” Yugo sipped more from the earthen cup.
“And how do you think I'm-” Orhn was cut short by Yugo.
“-You're perfectly fine. You're even still cool to the touch. In fact I bet you're not even warm, are you Orhn?” Yugo was making a point.
Orhn put his left hand on his arm, then his forehead. He was fine, just as Yugo said. “But how? How am I not on fire right now? I mean I'm actually still cool. Why?”
“Part of it's your gift, the other is the fact you're a vampire. We have an operating temperature that is cool to the touch, normally. That can change easily though. Our bodies are very efficient. That's at least what my mentor told me. Our only fault is that we do poorly in sunlight.” Yugo sipped more from the clay cup.
“How is that? You're in the sun right now, and you brought me out here. What changed to make you immune? If my gift is what's preventing my from dying here, what's happening to keep you alive out here? You told me that you caught fire that first time, what's different now?” Orhn walked over to Yugo and into the cool shade.
“I can't tell you that Orhn. All I can say is that I paid a price for what I am able to do and that you should be grateful there is no toll waiting for you at the end of this life of yours.” Yugo was being illusive again.
Orhn realized it was a dead end to probe further and stopped. Orhn knew that if he wanted to get along with Yugo, he was going to need the self control Yugo required him to develop. Orhn knew that coming into his new gift was going to take patience, trust, and cooperation. Something he needed from Yugo. Orhn decided to ally himself with Yugo.
* * * *
In the following eighty three years, Yugo instructed Orhn in the ways of being a complete vampire. Proper etiquette, use of his gift, hunting in low profile, all were necessary traits learned with adequate and repetition through the decades. A constant system of give and take developed between them. Orhn had become good friends with Yugo. Mostly due to the fact Yugo had refrained from assaulting Orhn in his sleep after the first ten years or so. Beyond that day, things were quite pleasant. They had come to build upon each other's strengths. Yugo soon found that having another alteration vampire on his side was more convenient than he had anticipated. Coupled with their equal immunity to sunlight, they were a powerful duo. Orhn and Yugo traveled through New Zealand smoothly over the years. Taking in the cities, the villages, and the towns as they went. There was little incident of them impressed upon history. Just the way Yugo liked it. They killed as men, not monsters. Finding ways to drink the naturally spilled blood from fights and altercations as common locals started up brawls with them over petty issues.
Through the many tests Yugo had conducted on Orhn, they had not yet found a limitation to his gift. Orhn was assiduous as a vampire. All to Yugo's perpetual delight, Orhn had become a faithful student and companion for his ideals. As to exactly what those goals were, Yugo refused to share with Orhn. The majority of a century had bonded their futures, giving them a perfect union at a certain distance. Yugo and Orhn were relatively new to the western coast of New Zealand. They had yet to find any rivalry in their small conquests for food and fun. No other vampires were present to defend against their roaming. To keep under the radar of the locals, Yugo often enjoyed picking fights with several larger men at a time. This made them believe that he was drunk and an easy target. Then he would lead them off somewhere to be slaughtered without anyone ever hearing.
Yugo had proved to be an artisan in his own right when it came to deception and subterfuge. Not to mention his actual tastes in artwork. He had allured to creating a few masterful paintings in his long trek around the Asian and European continents. A f
act that he used many times as a conversation piece to boast of his wealth and position in life. Making him a prime target for any rowdy individual that thought Yugo was too haughty and loud for his own good.
Yugo was bragging loudly as Orhn's attention shifted to an unfamiliar scene as they approached the outside of a two-story local tavern. More than thirty men and women were huddled towards the double doors of the bar. Their glasses were swaying with the bright cheers being sang out into the night, echoing into the nearby villages. There was a commotion inside, someone was fighting, violently. Over the heads of the few shorter northern-Atlantic women, Yugo spotted a rather small young woman in the middle of the attention. She had nearly pitch white silvery short hair reaching just below her ears. The girl was five foot three inches tall, thin and tiny. Her skin was porcelain, without equal, almost unnaturally white. She wore a strange white fur jacket and pants. Orhn had no idea what it was made of. Yugo did, it was polar bear hide. Meaning she had traveled further north of where they were. Her arms were bare and her fists were clenched. Her feet were in a bearskin hand crafted boot that seemed very old and worn. She was rugged, and well versed in brawling. It appeared the young girl had a temper as well. Yugo smiled at first sight of her. Her chin was small, and her jaw line jagged to an angle. Yugo could see her cheeks were petite. The girl's forehead was large with small scratches from her assailant's blows. She was bloody from the fighting. The girl was no more than the age of nineteen. She was beautiful, a vision in Yugo's eyes.
“Who is that?” Yugo asked the crowd.
An older man to Yugo's right answered. “That is the white pixie.”
“White pixie? Why's she called that?” Orhn asked.
“She works magic when fighting for money or beer.” The old man replied. With the white hair, it just stuck.”
“Who's she contending?” Orhn asked the old man.
Demon Vampire (The Redgold Series) Page 36