New Blood: Dark Canticle

by Ryan Hunt

  She was pregnant and in her final trimester. But how, but how? She thought. Elizabeth clenched her belly, and grimaced as her water broke. A clear liquid flowed from the bottom of her gown, soaking the quilts. Her vagina contracted over and over.

  I'm in labor, I'm in labor! raced through her mind.

  The pain of birthing a child grappled Elizabeth's body and slammed her back down into the mattress. She clutched the quilts so tight that her knuckles grew pallid; it felt as if she was being split in half as the baby's body made its way through her birth canal. She gritted her teeth and screamed through them as the baby's head started to crown. Every muscle in her body flexed in agonizing pain.

  Her frail body trembled in an ocean of sweat, and she sucked the air slowly trying to calm herself, relieved that it was over. The baby lay crying between her legs. She tried to swallow but found it was too difficult.

  A worm of fear burrowed through her intestines. What did I just give birth to; is it a monster like the one that raped me?

  Elizabeth struggled up in bed on her boney elbows to have a look at it. “A baby boy. A beautiful baby boy,” she managed to whisper in a frail voice, not knowing if she should be terrified or overcome with elated joy.

  She closed her eyes with an overwhelming sense of comfort. Elizabeth had never felt this way before; she felt strangely at peace with herself and with the world. She smiled as she slipped into darkness. Giving birth had killed her.

  As Elizabeth lay dead, the demonic baby stopped whining. Its body grew and transformed slowly. It was a toddler for a moment, the next it was in adolescence. It grew until it was a full grown young adult, a man in his early twenties. He looked at Elizabeth with a placid look devoid of any emotion and dug his nails into his wrist, piercing a vein.

  “Drink mother,” he said.

  Droplets of blood plopped onto her pallid lifeless cheek and then into her open mouth. Her eyelids flung open immediately, and she followed the stream of blood with an opened mouth up to the demon’s wrist. She kissed his wrist with her delicate lips and fed. An odd memory flooded into her mind. She could see his memory, a child growing into a man. He had decided to save her, but why?

  “That's enough,” he told her and drew back. “I'm growing weak.”

  “Who are you?” she asked as she wiped crimson blood from her lips.

  “I have no name,” he said.

  “Why did you save me?”

  “Because you’re my mother.”

  At first she felt terrified, but her fear was quickly replaced with joy. She had a son! She wasn’t lonely anymore! Elizabeth didn’t care how it had happened, that he was a monster, all she knew is he had saved her life.

  “My beautiful baby boy; I shall call you Alucard. My father’s name spelled backwards,” she said and placed her slim feminine hand onto his chiseled jaw. “You shall be a better man than he ever was. But my son …”

  “Yes mother?” he asked.

  “I'm thirsty for more.”

  “Then lets feed.”

  He took her hand like a loving child and helped her out of bed. He led her out of her home into the backyard. He was bare naked, but the midnight chill did not affect him, nor Elizabeth, even though all she wore was a silk night gown. They both looked to the night sky. It was speckled with a myriad of magnificent stars flaunting their glory to all the world.

  Elizabeth strangely knew what to do. Her body became lighter; it felt as if she was made of the very air that caressed her. The ground became further away and gravity became an option rather than a law. They slowly ascended into the black heavens like a pair of dark angels and flew off towards the inner city to quench their thirst.

  The view from the heavens was breath taking, it seemed so surreal to be above it all. Elizabeth always wished she could fly, to fly away from all of her troubles, and from the cruel unforgiving world she had become so well acquainted with. Feeling the wind rush by her body as she and her demonic son surfed the clouds was exhilarating; she never felt so alive. It was funny to her. In her entire life she had never felt alive until she was undead.

  She looked at her son, Alucard. His shoulder length hair was as black as the wings of a raven, and swayed violently in the wind. Moonlight shimmered and reflected off his supple bare body as if he was made of water rather than flesh. He was as handsome as the stranger that gave her the book, and she felt proud that she had created such a being, her beautiful boy.

  Her entire life Elizabeth had been a devout Christian, she had been the perfect woman, yet her God would not answer her prayers. She often prayed for a child of her own. To her astonishment it was an incubus, a devil who answered her prayers, not God.

  “There mother in the alleyway,” Alucard said, only it came from his mind rather than his luscious lips. They were flying too fast to communicate verbally. “You see the prostitute and her client?”

  “Yes son,” Elizabeth said using telepathy, although she wasn't sure how she knew how to do it; she really didn't know how she was flying for that matter. It seemed to be hardwired into her being. What was even more surprising was her hawk like vision. She could see their prey even though they were miles up in the night sky.

  “Which one do you want?” Alucard asked as they descended towards the small city.

  “I'll take her.” Elizabeth smiled.

  They landed gently on the pavement of the dark alleyway as gently as two nightingales returning to their nest without making a sound. Even if they had, Elizabeth was pretty sure their prey would not have notice. The prostitute, a young pretty blonde, who looked like she still had her mother's breast milk on her breath, was busy serving her client, her head bobbing back and forth in front of his pelvis. Her client, a man who looked old enough to be the prostitute’s grandfather was enjoying himself too much to have noticed Elizabeth and Alucard.

  Elizabeth could smell their blood, could hear their racing hearts drumming its rhythmic beat within their chests. She and Alucard stalked through the thick veil of night towards their prey like two lions in the bush slowing advancing on gazelles, anticipating the kill, and somewhat savoring the moment.

  Sensing the perfect moment, Elizabeth dashed forward through the night at such a speed the trash that littered the alleyway blew up into the surrounding air. Her hands grappled the prostitute's blonde locks, and startled the poor girl so bad she bit her client's penis.

  “What the hell!” The man tried to shout in pain, but Alucard was upon him, and shoved the man's words back into his throat. He muffled the man's horrid cries as his fangs plunged into soft supple neck tissue.

  “Please don't hurt me,” the prostitute sobbed. Elizabeth forced her against the cold alleyway wall.

  A torrent of tears and black mascara poured down the poor wench’s face like ebony streams. She stared into the eyes of the devil accosting her. For a moment Elizabeth almost felt sorry for the girl, almost. She caressed her gently as if they were lovers, and rubbed the back of her tiny hand down the wench's frail rosy cheek. She kissed the prostitute’s neck fondly with soft lips, and then sunk her tiny daggers into the wench's jugular.

  Sweet metallic blood filled her mouth and a myriad of memories poured into her mind. Elizabeth could see a small white cottage out in the countryside with the most gorgeous field of wildflowers stretching out behind it. Silver silky clouds held steadfast against the backdrop of a crystal blue sky as if they had been painted in place by the very hand of God. A yellow sea of the most beautiful daffodils swayed timorously in the spring breeze. Elizabeth saw a young child frolicking in the field of wildflowers curiously chasing a group of black and blue swallowtail butterflies without a care in the world.

  “Sabrina, dinner's ready!” an older woman shouted as she pushed through the screen door of the small cottage. She was the spitting image of the prostitute on which Elizabeth fed, nearly a doppelganger, only older. Her sister perhaps.

  “Yes mother,” the little girl said melancholy, reluctant to give up the chase of the elusive butter
flies.

  Another memory blazed through Elizabeth’s mind. This time she saw the young girl diligently working on her homework, to become as great a woman as her mother said she would be, when the door of their small home came crashing in off its hinges. The door's shattered jam littered the floor of the small living room. Three masked men entered the home with the same sense of urgency of famished wolves closing in on a wounded animal. Elizabeth saw young Sabrina being ganged raped to the brink of death, and her mother beaten savagely by the group of burglars. With her mother brutally murdered the battered young girl was now an orphan forced to become a prostitute to survive.

  Elizabeth saw every client Sabrina had serviced, tasted every penis she had pleased with her mouth. It was overwhelming.

  “Please God don't let me die.” She could hear Sabrina thinking as she fed on her. The poor girl was horrified.

  “God? God's not going to save you my dear; in fact God's not even in Romania this time of year.” Elizabeth projected the words into Sabrina's mind while she continued to feed.

  “What the hell are you?”

  “Your savior.” Elizabeth projected the words into Sabrina's mind, and then pulled away from her supple throat before taking her life.

  “I saw your life, your memories. Your life was as wretched as mine before my son here rescued me. I could give you my blood. You can be one of us.”

  Sabrina was silent for a moment; her fear left her mute. She stared into the cold hazel eyes of Elizabeth, terrified at what this monster would do to her. She thought about trying to flee, or at least fighting this beast, but terror leaden her legs leaving her standing still in a paralyzed stupor.

  She managed to work up the courage to ask in tremulous voice, “What … what will it do to me?”

  “It will make you one of us,” Elizabeth said.

  Sabrina hesitated while she favored her wounded neck. Crimson blood seeped through the spaces between her fingers, and made its way down the back of her frail hand. Her neck felt as if it was on fire, and she thought she might pass out from loss of blood. Sabrina could not believe what was happening much less what this beast had offered her.

  “What if I refuse?” she whispered.

  “Then you'll end up like him.” Elizabeth pointed to Sabrina's client. Alucard fed on the man like a wild dog. His body twitched and shook in Alucard's demonic clutch.

  “Okay.” Sabrina replied reluctantly, terrified at what would happen if she had said no.

  “Open your mouth.” Elizabeth's tone became soft and warm. Motherly. She pierced a vein in her wrist with her glossy marble like fingernails.

  Sabrina did as she was told. Her emerald eyes clenched shut in horrid anticipation; her baby soft lips slowly parted, and she received the dark gift. The blood was warm on her tongue. Her throat contracted as the thick fluid made its way down, and she gagged.

  A montage of memories burst into her mind like a torrent of water escaping a floodgate. She saw a little girl cowering in the dark as her drunken father entered the room. He slowly made his way through the thick dark, the wood floor groaning; creaking beneath his feet as if to warn the girl of what was to come. He sat on the little girl's bed and fondly ran his hand through her hair, a little too fondly. The girl shied away from his cold touch.

  “What's the matter? I don't look good enough for you!” he grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her down into the bed. The little girl battled a barrage of punches as she cried for help, as she cried for her mother, for God, for somebody to help. But nobody came to her aid, not God, not her mother.

  Sabrina saw the young girl being beating by her mother. Her mother's leather belt flogged the girl relentlessly as she lay balled up on the floor. Her mother beat her as if it was her fault that her father had raped her.

  Sabrina saw a teenage angst soaking in a bath tub full of hot water, her head thrown back in exquisite pleasure, not from the warm water that caressed her young body, but from the stiletto that glided down her slim thighs. The teenager mutilated herself; the bath water turned a murky scarlet red like some sordid cocktail. Sabrina then saw a middle aged librarian who was depressed with only loneliness for a companion.

  “I see ...”

  “My memories?” Elizabeth smiled.

  “Yes. I saw what your father did to you; I felt how lonely you were, felt how deeply depressed you were. It felt like your heart was in a vice. I felt your torment as if was mine,” Sabrina said.

  “Don't speak of such things, darling. Lets leave the past in the past. I'm so happy now.” Elizabeth threw her arms around the newest addition to her family.

  “I see you created another child mother,” Alucard said and wiped his victim's blood from his lush lips.

  “Yes.” Elizabeth replied and what she did next surprised Alucard and startled him somewhat. She felt tears streaming down her face, but for the first time in her life, Elizabeth cried out of joy rather than pain. She didn't believe such a thing was possible, to cry in joy.

  “Don't cry,” Alucard said as he delicately wiped the bloody tears from her face.

  “Tell me we'll always be together,” Elizabeth said. She placed her arms around Alucard's naked frame.

  “For all eternity.” He embraced her. “Now we must leave.”

  “And go where?” she asked.

  “To see the world.” He smiled. He took Elizabeth's hand and then asked for Sabrina's. Sabrina did not protest. She blushed like the teenage girl she was as she took his hand; her small hand was frail in his.

  They all looked to the sky. The stars that speckled the black void of the heavens twinkled and glistened, beckoning Elizabeth and her family to join them. They did not hesitate to accept the offer.

  Note From the Author

  Thanks for reading my work. If you liked this short story you may be interested in some of my other work such as No Boundaries, a short erotic story about a woman who will stop at nothing for love. You can download it for free at smashwords.com but as of now it costs .99 cents on amazon. I would like for it to be free, but I have to wait until amazon matches the price at smashwords. Also I would appreciated it if you took the time to review this story. Feedback is always welcomed. Thanks.

  Oh and before I forget, you can follow me on twitter @Ryan Hunt 256, and be sure to be on the lookout for the next addition of New Blood, The Hunter.

  New Blood: Dark Canticle is the first installment in the mini series and takes place in 1904 Romanian. In The Hunter, the plot jumps to 2013 America, and enters Victoria Benoit, notorious vampire hunter who will do anything to kill the Original Bloods: Elizabeth and Alucard.