by David Weaver
The Aslaric Vampire
By: David Weaver
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organization, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.
LCCN:
ISBN:
Cover Design/ Graphics:
Author: David Weaver
Typesetting: David Weaver
Consulting: LaKiesha Weaver
Editing: Tina Nance
Copyright 2011 by David Weaver. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except by reviewer who may quote brief passages to be printed in a newspaper or magazine.
PROLOGUE
1899, England
Bristol was outside enjoying nature when it happened.
“Get in here Bristol. Now!”
She looked up from her garden and saw her father running towards the house at a frantic pace. She didn’t have a clue what was going on, but could sense that something was wrong. She quickly abandoned her flowers and ran into the house to find out what the issue was.
In the house, her father was hunched over a chair, as if he was in deep pain. Her mother was standing with her hands on her hips trying to figure out what was going on as well.
For a moment, Bristol’s father didn’t say a word. He just stood there and took deep breaths. Bristol knew that it was definitely serious. He always grew quiet when he was in the deepest of thought.
Finally he spoke.
“They’re coming after us right now! I was at the court earlier and got into a conflict with the Duke of Shulzzington. He accused us of being vampires and claimed that he had witnesses that could tie us to at least 4 murders. Susan, someone has been watching us!”
Bristol tensed. The Duke of Shulzzington was a live-wire, and once he was convinced of their guilt; there would be no way to prove their innocence. He would certainly go to the Chief Inspector and demand their arrest and the court would waste no time convicting them and sentencing them to death by hanging. Of course, hanging would hardly kill them, but Bristol didn’t want her secrets exposed to the public. If the public learned that they were really vampires, there would surely be hell to pay…for everyone.
Susan looked at her husband with concern.
“What does this mean Eric?”
Eric sat down on a wooden chair. He crossed his legs and yawned. His nonchalant attitude put both Bristol and Susan at ease. They knew that if he didn’t have a plan, he would pace the floor until he had one.
“It means nothing actually. They’re on their way. The village people, and the Bobbies; it seems that they have finally found a common purpose to unite them. If those fools would just realize that the Duke cares nothing about them, and just uses them to further his own agenda, he would have much bigger problems on his hands than us!”
“Eric… the Chief Inspector will want to hang us for this! What are we to do?”
Eric took out his pipe and lit his tobacco. He took a few puffs and let the smoke float through the air.
“Eric! Why are you playing with the one thing that could kill you? Are you mad? Tobacco? Really, what utter nonsense! Have you forgotten that fire actually can kill us? What are you thinking?”
Sighing heavily, Eric put out the pipe and set it down on the coffee table.
“You really worry too much, my dear.” He said to Susan
Susan and Bristol both just stood there, baffled. They had no idea what Eric was talking about, but they were confident that it would be a brilliant plan once he clued them in on the details. They trusted Eric wholeheartedly. He had never led them wrong and was always getting them out of situations that seemed impossible.
As soon as Eric opened his mouth to speak, a wooden log burst through one of the front windows.
“They’re here.”
“My God Eric, what are we going to do? I’m frightened. What will they do to us?”
Eric stood up without saying a word and walked to the kitchen. He looked out of the window and evaluated the size of the crowd with a single glance. There were at least 1800 people in his front yard, and he knew that he would have to use this to his advantage to get him and his family out of this situation. He went outside to his porch and stood staring at the crowd. He wasn’t angry that people had spread rumors that reached the Duke; he was angry because the Duke had brought the Bobbies with him. The Chief Inspector was present along with some of the most influential individuals in the county. However, Eric knew that it wouldn’t be a problem persuading them. And once he had convinced them of their innocence, the villagers would be satisfied as well, that they were a normal family.
The Chief Inspector held up his hand and the crowd instantly quieted down. Bristol and Susan both walked outside and stood behind him as they quietly waited for the inquest to begin. Bristol was nervous, but Susan and Eric were angry.
The Chief Inspector began to speak.
“It has been brought to my attention that you are a family of vampires. Is that true?”
As soon as he asked that question, a burst of murmurs erupted from the crowd behind him. The level of excitement and energy from the crowd was amusing to Eric. He could clearly see the delight in their eyes as they anticipated the family’s demise. He found a certain irony in their blood thirstiness.
“Sir,” Eric answered with a burst of authority. “We are not vampires.”
The noise level increased as the crowd started back with their frantic murmuring. The outside of their house began to sound like a cricket match. The Chief Inspector raised his hand again and the crowd instantly quieted.
“Very well then sir… perhaps you will agree to endure a series of tests to prove to the public that you are not vampires?”
Eric could hear the tension in the Inspector’s voice as the Duke exited his carriage and joined the Inspector.
“No Dad.” Bristol said to him. He turned around and looked at her and Susan and smiled.
“There is nothing that they can do to me, nothing they can do to us. Relax you two.”
“Excuse me sir, are you ready for the first test?” The Duke interrupted while Eric was trying to comfort his family.
“Yes, please proceed.”
With a gleam in his eye, the Duke retrieved a bag from his valet and opened it. “Come over here sir. For the first test, I will pour this holy water over your head. If you are who you say you are; then God bless you. But if you’re not, you will disappear under the demon cleansing powers of the holy water.”
Eric walked up to the Duke and bowed his head awaiting the first “test.”
He emptied the container of Holy Water onto Eric’s head, and waited. The crowd went wild and began to cheer as they just knew that he was a vampire and at any moment he would dissolve into an evil puddle. However, Eric just stood there, drenched in Holy Water, smiling at the Duke. Then the Duke grabbed a cross and hung it around Eric’s neck. Eric glanced down at the cross and smiled again.
“Thank you. I really like this gift.”
The Duke’s face turned tomato paste red, and the crowd that was once so frantic and restless behind him; was now in complete silence.
Eric stood in triumph. He was an Aslaric Vampire, one that had a completely separate DNA makeup than the normal vampire. There was nothing that could harm him except fire. Slowly, the people at the back end of the crowd turned around and began to walk off of his property. When the people in the back started leaving, it cleared the way for the middle of the crowd to disperse as well.
The Chief Inspector shot a frown of d
isgust at the Duke for giving him bad advice and wasting everyone’s time. Now he would be a laughingstock for participating in such foolishness. The villagers already held contempt for the police and this debacle certainly did not help matters.
The Duke held his head down refusing to meet the Inspector’s eyes. He felt like a fool, as if he was the victim of the public humiliation that he had intended for this family. Keeping a stiff upper lip, the Duke thanked the Chief Inspector for his time as the driver started turning the carriage around so that they could exit the premises.
Suddenly, Eric spoke up.
“Wait a minute! You have the audacity to come onto my property and accuse me of being something I’m not, make a fool out of me and my family and then just leave when you’re wrong? You must make this situation right!”
The Duke shot a look of alarm at his assistant, but his assistant simply raised his eyebrows in response.
“Sir, how do you propose we make this right?”
Eric stood and pondered his question for a moment. He actually didn’t know what to request; he simply wanted to deter the Duke and the Chief Inspector from thinking that they could just walk all over him and his family at will and at no cost. He looked back at his family and was suddenly encouraged.
“Sir, my wife would like a new home, a new wardrobe, a carriage, gold; and some land to build a proper farm. My daughter would like much of the same; however she would also need some additional compensation in order to go and study abroad. There is no way that she can go to University after this scenario. She’ll undergo ridicule and depression and-”
“If I didn’t know any better sir, I would think to call you a con man.”
“Well I’m glad that you know better. I am simply a man who wants better for my family after the hurtful ordeal they have just endured. All you would have to do is put yourself in my place and you would know that I am sincere.”
“I understand. I will have my assistant put together a nice package for you in the next day or so. It should be fair enough compensation.”
“Thank you, I will look forward to your correspondence.”
“Don’t mention it. And I mean that.”
After putting a safe distance between them and Eric’s property, the valet spoke up.
“I too have seen that man and woman attack someone in the middle of the night. Before, I couldn’t put a face to it, but now that I am seeing them up close; I am certain that those are the people.”
The Duke sharply retorted, “What good is the heat of the night when there is no proof in the light of day? I say that you put together a package well enough so that they can exit our country. They are certainly not welcome to stay here. That family needs some sunlight; they are definitely the palest group of people that I have ever seen in my life.”
The valet nodded his agreement.
“I agree Your Grace. They are certainly pale. It’s almost like they’re not human. Almost like sunlight has never been absorbed into their skin. Something is definitely wrong.”
The Duke rode along in silence on the way back to his estate while he thought about his valet’s statement. He knew that he would have to get that family out of there immediately for the good of the county and quite possibly the entire country. There was just no room for outcasts of that magnitude.
CHAPTER 1
2011, Georgia
Knock-knock-knock-knock.
“Marvin! Answer the door”
“I’m doing my homework Mom!”
“Fine… I’ll get it… I have to do everything in this house except eat your food. You’re so lazy it’s a shame.”
His mother turned down the temperature on the stove and made her way to the door. She narrowed her eyes and looked though the peephole trying to see who her visitors were. Quickly, she backed away from the door and jogged to her son’s room.
Without knocking, she burst right in.
“Mom!”
“Hush child. Keep your voice down. It’s a white lady and a white man outside wearing business clothes. I think they’re bill collectors. They may be here to tell us that we have to move out of this house. You know I’m behind on the mortgage.”
Thinking quickly, Marvin responded, “O.K. Mom, stay in here. I’ll go find out what they want.”
Marvin’s mother sat down in one of the chairs in her son’s room. She was nervous because she knew that if they had to move, they would have nowhere to go. She felt bad that she was unable to do a better job with the bills.
Marvin put down his American Literature notes and tied the laces on his knock-off Air Jordan high tops. He glanced at his mother’s frightened face and felt sad that they had to struggle so much.
His father, Murphy died on the day he was born, and his mother instantly felt the financial and emotional burden weigh heavily on her shoulders.
“Marvin, please tell them that I’m not home sweetie…”
“Mom, don’t even worry. I promise you, I’ll handle it.”
He squeezed his mother’s hand to reassure her that everything was going to be alright. At the age of 17, Marvin was the man of the house and would protect his mother at all costs.
Before he opened the front door, he checked to make sure that his aluminum baseball bat was within reach in case he had to defend himself.
He opened the door.
“Hi! We’re the Frosts and we’re your new neighbors! I’m Eric Frost, and this is my wife Susan, and… how old are you? About 17 years old or so?”
Marvin blinked his eyes a few times, thinking his mind was playing tricks on him. The Frosts had to be the palest white people that he had ever seen in his life. And they were his neighbors? For the life of him, he couldn’t understand why anyone would willingly move into the ghetto.
Moving out of the Benson Brown neighborhood was at the very top of everyone’s list.
“Yes sir, Mr. Frost-”
“No, please… call me Eric.”
“O.K… yes Sir Eric, I am 17 years old.”
Susan said, “That’s great! We have a daughter your age, her name is Bristol. Do you go to Cedar Hill High school?”
Marvin noticed that Susan’s husband tensed up when she mentioned Bristol.
“Yes…”
“Well perhaps you can show her around tomorrow since she’s new?”
Marvin found himself answering questions without even thinking. It was almost like he was in a trance of some sort.
“Sure… I’ll show her around.”
Susan and Eric both smiled at him. Eric’s smile seemed forced, but he couldn’t tell one way or the other. Their teeth were porcelain white and their eyes seemed to have changed from gray to green right in front of him.
“Are your parents home?”
He didn’t know if his mother was prepared to meet them since she still had on her work clothes, but something wouldn’t allow him to lie to them.
“Yes, my Mom is here, I’ll go get her.”
************************************
After Marvin finished his homework and ate dinner, he put on his basketball shorts and went outside to shoot around. It was a nightly routine for him to take a thousand jump shots so that he could wow the college scouts. He was the starting shooting guard for the Cedar Hill Varsity basketball team and desperately wanted to make it into the NBA.
It was dark outside, and the only illumination came from the moon and the old street light that had been around for years. He listened to the sounds of nature; the screaming of cicadas and the whispering breath of the slight wind’s breeze. He was one of those guys who could smell rain coming, but tonight; he smelled nothing but the storm of the night’s darkness.
He looked into the light of the moon and imagined that he was playing in a major spotlight. He looked into the trees and imagined that there was a sold out arena with people cheering him on. He always came out at the darkest of night because to him it brought him the brightest of life. He could dream.
He was dead set on being a maj
or athlete, and there was nothing that could stop him from his passion. There were so many things that he wanted to do, and he was determined to finally take his mother out of the struggle. He knew that if anyone deserved better, it was his hard working mother.
He ran to the three point line and pulled up for a jumper. Swish! Nothing but net. He smiled because he knew he had a nice jump shot and there weren’t many people he knew that could shoot like him, so his chances at making it to the big time were pretty good.
He retrieved the ball and ran full speed to the same spot, turned around and shot the ball again. This time, he had a little too much force on the ball. It bounced off of the rim and landed in his neighbor’s yard.
Dang! He thought to himself.
Usually he would climb the rusty fence and get his basketball, but that was before the Frosts moved in. He knew that it would be rude to just trespass on their property, but it had gotten too late for him to go knocking on their door. It was almost 9 P.M. and he didn’t want to disturb them for something so petty.
He knew he was quick, so he would use his speed to climb the fence and retrieve the ball before anyone would notice. The fence was about 7 feet tall and there were a few vines entangled in it, so he had to be careful so that he wouldn’t get pricked by the thorns. Marvin scaled to the top of the fence, put his legs and body on the other side and leapt to the ground.
When he landed, a cloud of dust formed from his impact. It hadn’t rained in Cedar Hills, GA in a month and a half, so the land was extra dry. It took almost 30 seconds for the stubborn dust to clear. He was temporarily immobilized from the lack of visibility.
When it finally cleared, however; the basketball was gone.
Must have rolled into the bushes, he thought as he squinted his eyes trying to see where the ball had gone. He took a couple of steps forward and stopped in his tracks.