by Stead, Nick
Leon wasn’t far behind me.
“When the full moon rises this evening, you are free to roam the grounds and hunt in the surrounding woodlands,” he said. “But if you can try to keep from killing any of the locals, it will help us remain hidden here.”
I gave him a dark smile. “I’ll try.”
“Good. Then I suspect I will see you again in four nights’ time, unless I happen upon you in wolf form.”
He turned away and started up the stairs, presumably to his room.
The feelings our sparring had awoken in me soon wore off, and I was forced to re-think the decision I’d made the previous day to turn my back on the war with the Slayers. If sparring could make me feel so alive, perhaps real battle was what I needed after all. There was still the problem of Ulfarr convincing the other undead I was guilty though, and if we were ever to have any hope of making a proper stand against humanity then I did need to clear my name. It was either that, or hope Leon would let me spend eternity hiding out in his mansion. But I doubted it would last. Sooner or later, either the other vampires would find me and carry out the death sentence Ulfarr would no doubt order, or something would happen to bring the Slayers to the mansion. There was nothing I could do that day though, so I enjoyed more TV while I dozed on and off, awaiting the call of the moon.
CHAPTER TWENTY–ONE
A Taste of Heaven
The full moon passed without any trouble that month. My lupine half knew it was safer to prey on the animals in the woodlands than stray to the village, and there was a whole herd of deer in the woods to keep him happy. I suspected Leon had used his powers to bring the prey within his territory and keep them there. He had to feed as well, and I doubted he went into the village for fresh blood. Twice he’d asked me to stay clear of the local humans so he could remain in his mansion, and if it was that important to him, surely he wouldn’t risk throwing it all away for a bit of human blood. Not that it really mattered, I was just grateful for the supply of fresh meat.
I was eager to resume my sword fighting lessons as soon as the full moon was over, and we spent the next few nights trading blows as I sought to gain some skill with a blade. The sparring sessions continued to give me a sense of being alive, but a monster like me was never going to get a fairy tale ending. It seemed the enjoyment it brought me was to be short lived.
It had only been a week since I’d first arrived at Leon’s home and our mock battle grew especially frenzied that night, when suddenly Dad reappeared.
“Don’t you think this is all a bit too convenient, Nick?” he said. “Being back in a house with everything you’ve been missing; how can you be sure it’s real?”
As he spoke, the walls of the room fell away and I found myself back out on the moors, as if I’d never left. Sparring with Leon had felt so real, from the scent of the vampire and my surroundings to the sound of his voice, but the sudden change in reality felt equally so. I could feel the cold wind whipping across the land and battering my body, and smell the scent of the grass covering every inch of the ground as far as my eyes could see. The waning moon was bright overhead and the night sky was clear and spattered with the shining dots of the stars. But I wasn’t alone, and the blade slicing through the air towards my chest was real enough, except it was no longer Leon wielding it but a human enemy – a Slayer no doubt.
My own sword had fallen from my hand, if it had ever truly existed at all, and I barely managed to dodge the blow. My opponent struck again and I grabbed his arm in an attempt to wrench it from the socket. But somehow the man twisted free and pulled me into a stranglehold.
His arm pressed against my windpipe and I struggled for breath. I fought to free myself, arms flailing. The pressure only increased. I grew lightheaded, my lungs gasping for fresh oxygen. Then the moorlands faded and I was sliding into unconsciousness, utterly helpless in the hands of my enemy.
I came round to find myself on the floor and Leon kneeling over me, looking concerned. I was back in his mansion, or at least I seemed to be. My grip on reality had been weak for some time but if I could no longer trust any of my senses, how could I be sure of anything anymore? For my brain to fool me with Luke’s ‘presence’ was one thing, but this had been something else entirely.
“Easy, wolf,” Leon said when I tried to sit up. “Do you know where you are?”
“In your home, I think. But for a minute there I felt like I was back outside, facing another of the Slayers.”
“Okay, that’s enough training for tonight.”
“No, I’m fine,” I growled. “It’s just my mind playing more tricks on me.”
Leon shook his head. “You’re not fine but I know what might help. More wine is in order I think, or I have some beer in if you’d prefer.”
I growled again but the vampire wasn’t taking no for an answer, so I followed him into the billiard room where we’d talked before. He poured himself another glass of wine and offered me a bottle of beer. I accepted it with a grunt and drank deeply.
“So, do you want to talk about what’s troubling you?” he asked, sitting.
I shrugged. “I guess part of me still feels guilty for all the lives I’ve taken and doesn’t think I deserve the luxuries you’ve allowed me by letting me stay here.”
“The hallucinations, do you have them often?”
“Yeah, but that’s the first time I’ve felt like I was physically somewhere else. Usually I just see people and hear voices.”
“It might help to talk. Why don’t you tell me about everything that’s happened since the night you were bitten.”
I laughed bitterly. “What is there to tell? I was turned, I killed a lot of people at full moon, my bloodlust spilled into the human half of my personality and then I killed a lot more people outside of the full moon. I thought fighting the Slayers was what my bloodlust and my rage needed, but after the battle back home I realised I couldn’t go on living like a human if I didn’t want people I still cared about to get hurt, so I left it all behind. And I’ve been moving around ever since until I ended up here.
“Lady Sarah had us make the most of whatever shelter we could find – old buildings mostly before we ended up on the moors. There was an abandoned campsite we made use of and that was where I ran off to find human victims to slaughter under my first full moon after the battle. My rage and my bloodlust were all that were keeping me going; I just wanted to feed them and the only way I knew how was with fresh blood. I don’t even remember everything that happened after that or everyone I killed.”
I paused to take another swig of beer. Leon was giving me that same piercing look as before. His face was otherwise neutral. There was no sense of impatience and he made no move to prompt me to go on. I swallowed more beer, appreciating not being rushed.
“Lady Sarah found an old barn for us to shelter in at some point, out in the country. There was a town nearby and a small patch of woodland, but my rage was starting to burn out by then and I don’t think I killed any people in that area. Then there were a couple more massacres after we’d moved on, including that one you cleaned up for me.
“I’ve been empty inside since my anger faded and I just wanted to feel something again, but it seems all it brought me is fresh guilt. So now I have to deal with whatever new torment my mind conjures up for me.”
A look of understanding settled into his features, though his eyes were no less intense for it. “Ah, this is the struggle we all face when we are first turned. And you’ve had it especially hard now the Slayers are so big a threat and there’s so few of us left. But you seem strong, so you will learn to adapt.”
I took another swig from the bottle. “I don’t want to talk about it. What about you? If you’ve been here over three hundred years that makes you what, a few centuries old?”
“A few centuries,” he laughed. “Try over two millennia.”
“Over two thousand?” I said, stunned. He seemed so modern compared to the other vampires I’d met that I’d just assumed he was younge
r. But then again, Vince had been the same age as Lady Sarah and he’d also embraced the modern era. “Wow. So how did you end up as a member of the undead and how did you cope in your first few years?”
“Ah, my tale is not so epic as Ulfarr’s which I’m sure you will have heard from Lady Sarah by now. I was no one as a human really – no champion of ancient Rome, no warrior of great renown. But my name did become known in my last few months as a human, when I was caught stealing and condemned to the arena. There I would spend the rest of my mortal life, fighting as a gladiator.
“For many it was a death sentence, and given my slender build, no one expected me to last beyond even my first game. But I was sent to one of many gladiator schools that existed at the time for training, not because anyone wanted to give me a fighting chance but in order to make a spectacle of my death. There I picked up new combat skills, and what I lacked in strength, I made up for in speed.
“First they pitted me against other men and I emerged victorious each time, much to everyone’s disgust. They wanted to see me die in the bloodiest, most glorious fashion the games had to offer, after a long struggle against one of the many favoured champions. But against all the odds I survived match after match, no matter how great my opponents.
“It was in my time there that I saw my first lion. I’d never seen such a majestic animal before or a creature so powerful, and I was fascinated by him. Then the day came when my masters decided to pit me against one of these mighty beasts, but that match surely would have been a death sentence. I’d just been wounded in my last game – a nasty cut to my sword arm which would have caused lasting damage to the function of it if I’d stayed human. They patched me up but I hadn’t been given training in the use of fighting with my left arm, because they wanted to make an example of me. I was never meant to last in the arena, only to suffer a violent death for their enjoyment. I knew I was doomed.”
He paused and I couldn’t help but ask “What the hell did you steal to make them so desperate to watch you die?”
“That is a story for another time. But to answer your first questions, it was the night before what should’ve been my last match when I was visited by the vampire who turned me. In her way, she was every bit as majestic as the lions I’d grown to admire so. And she offered me a second chance, though my freedom came at the price of my humanity.”
“Why?”
“That’s also a story for another time. But I agreed of course, or I wouldn’t be here, now. And so we fled the arena, and I became a vampire.
“It was easier to adjust back then, without the Slayers forever hunting us at every turn, and I was already accustomed to killing for survival. Taking human prey was not as hard as it has been for you. I chose to live among humans for as long as possible, until eventually it became too dangerous and I was able to make this place my home – a happy compromise between hiding in the shadows and living in the world of men. I have been luckier than most to be able to stay here, and it’s the longest I’ve ever been in any one place.”
It struck me then that he spoke without any discernible accent. Other vampires still seemed to have a hint of their original accent when they spoke as if, no matter how many times they may have relocated over the centuries or how far, it was a part of their never-changing, ageless bodies. I wondered if it was as a result of moving around so often and learning to blend in that had caused him to lose it, but no doubt that was ‘a story for another time’ as well.
I also realised the portrait of the woman and child I’d seen during my first day in the mansion couldn’t be the vampire’s family – their clothes were from the wrong era and it was unlikely the painting would have survived his time as a nomad. Unless it was an artist’s impression of a description he’d given them, I supposed. But I wasn’t given the chance to find out any more before he spoke again, interrupting my thoughts.
“Now, if you’re sure you don’t want to talk, I know what will help keep your mind off things,” he said, standing. My curiosity piqued, I followed him to a part of the mansion I hadn’t seen yet.
He led me into a room he’d converted into his own personal cinema. I looked on in awe, thinking some god must have taken pity on me and let me into Heaven after all. Judging from the stacks of DVDs lining the shelves on either side of the room, he had enough movies to open his own video store, and there were speakers for surround sound. He also had numerous games consoles hooked up to the system. It turned out they were the reason he’d brought me there that night.
“Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, or something more retro?” he asked.
“PlayStation.” I sat back on the leather sofa and grinned at the sight of the console’s logo on the huge screen.
“Take your pick,” Leon said, handing me a stack of games.
I chose the adaptation of the third Lord of the Rings movie. It was one I’d owned but never had chance to complete, thanks to my lycanthropy.
“Good choice – we can play co-operatively on this one. I was impressed with these films and I especially liked the portrayal of Legolas.”
Leon passed over a controller which turned out to be for player one. I selected the co-operative mode and the first level, but once we were taken to the character select screen I deliberately picked the character he’d just named as his favourite.
“Oh really? I invite you into my home and let you stay here even through the full moon, and this is how you repay me?”
I just laughed until he grabbed me in another stranglehold, forcing me to submit. “Okay, okay. I’ll play Aragorn instead.”
He released me and gave me a playful shove, but then the game loaded and we were soon focused on fighting virtual enemies.
“Do you still see the faces of your victims?” I asked him while we played.
“After two thousand years, they all blend into each other and one human becomes very much the same as another. But yes, I can still see the faces of my earliest victims.”
“Do they still haunt you?”
“Like I said earlier, I was already accustomed to killing for survival so their deaths had less impact on me than taking human prey has had on you. And it’s literally ancient history now. We can’t change the past and it does not do to dwell on it, only learn what we can from our experiences and move on.”
“I wish someone would tell my subconscious that,” I sighed.
We fell quiet as we approached the boss fight at the end of the level but I was out of practice. Even with my enhanced reflexes which allowed for more efficient button mashing, my character’s health bar was still quick to drop down into the red.
“Oh come on, you single-handedly defeated the leader of the Slayers in your hometown and now you can’t even survive a first level boss?” Leon joked.
“Fuck off, it’s been ages since I had chance to play this game.”
We beat the level but dawn forced us to save and abandon our adventure for the day.
“You’re welcome to spend as much time in here as you want,” he said, before retiring to his chambers. “Help yourself to any of these games or movies whenever you need another distraction.”
For the next two months or so I actually began to feel, if not true happiness, then at least some form of contentment. I enjoyed Leon’s combat training much more than Lady Sarah’s lessons in survival. He was a far more patient teacher for one thing and I was always the one to instigate a training session, rather than him insisting I learn more like Lady Sarah had. And since I’d once been a typical teenage boy, learning to fight was just cool.
Once I’d learnt some skill with a blade, Leon went on to train me in hand to hand combat. I was becoming a competent fighter and if I ever found myself unable to transform and facing an opponent of equal speed and strength, I would already stand a far better chance of coming out alive for the tuition the vampire had given me. Not that such a short space of time allowed me to truly master these new skills, but at least I would be more prepared for combat when the time came to put them into pract
ice.
The full moons that passed in that time were as uneventful as my first in the area had been. Without my rage driving my lupine half into a frenzy, he had enough self-control to keep away from the humans he still craved and he kept to the woodland. And with the locals already fearful of the area, there was no danger of crossing paths with any of them. Surprisingly, I didn’t run into any trouble with any more vampires either.
As for my friendship with Leon, I couldn’t help but grow close to him, despite my initial misgivings around his motives and the wisdom in placing my trust in him. I was already beginning to regard him like a brother and when we weren’t training, we would enjoy more gaming time or watching movies, or simply chatting over a drink – all human luxuries I’d never expected to experience again, but which helped fill the emptiness. And the vampire was much easier to get on with than Lady Sarah had been, even though he was far older. He was more open with me for a start, more ‘human’ I supposed, and the friend I’d sorely needed. I was content in his company, surrounded by all the comforts I’d been missing. But I had to remind myself there was a reason I’d sought him out and it wouldn’t do to delay too long. The time had come to prove my innocence.
CHAPTER TWENTY–TWO
Quest to Prove My Innocence
“Leon, it’s been like two weeks since the last full moon and there’s been three of them since I first arrived, and we haven’t even talked about the real reason I came here yet,” I said. “Isn’t it time we started working on clearing my name?”
“Why, are you growing bored already?”
“No and I don’t mean to seem ungrateful; you have no idea how badly I needed these last couple of months after struggling to adapt to being on my own and without any of the things I took for granted as a human. That’s why I haven’t said anything sooner. But if we delay any longer, doesn’t that give Ulfarr more time to move against us? If there’s been more murders, won’t he be working his audience up into even more of a frenzy? You said this place is only hidden to humans. That means I’m not all that safe from other vampires here, and if they come in force the two of us can’t stand against an entire mob. Isn’t there a risk they might just show up one night and kill me right here, before I have chance to get away?”