“As I stepped away from her house, and once again headed down the road, more people stepped out of their homes and watched me walk by. In their faces I could see they knew what I had done for the old woman and they wanted the same release for themselves. I did not deny them their request. It took me a month to clean out the town of the sick. When I left, I walked to the next town. I sought out the seriously ill and offered my services. I had a very steady food source for the next decade.
“When the plague ended I had to seek out a new source of food. With the population so seriously depleted, thieves and cutthroats were rampant. I merely had to present myself as a vulnerable wanderer and my new victims came to me. From that point on, my food source has never wavered; only my hunting styles have changed over the years. At first I would simply wander the streets looking for crimes taking place. But as methods of policing these criminals became more sophisticated, my hunting methods needed to be…revamped.
“But there were always other ways around an obstacle. I would read wanted posters and hunt the criminals the police could not seem to catch. Where there was one criminal, you could usually find two or three more. I thought that I would run out of food and have to resort to feeding off the innocent again as I bled one criminal after another. Of course that is not the case. It amazed me the violence and hate man could show toward one another.
“It was about five hundred years ago the first time loneliness hit me. The vampire inevitably feels isolated as they roam the centuries alone. I wanted companionship, craved it as hungrily as I craved blood. One night while feeding I noticed a man who had noticed me.
“For several nights I allowed this man to watch me feed. It is in the vampire’s best interest to be invisible, but I felt no ill will from this man; only a desire to know who and what I was. He was clearly afraid, but still he watched. He kept his distance and did not approach me, but he was ever in my presence. I decided the only way to resolve this dilemma was to approach him.
“One night I used my vampire speed and pinned him to the wall he crouched behind to watch me feed. I moved his head to the side and placed my fangs delicately close to his neck. I could feel the excitement coursing through him. ‘You know what I am.’ I whispered into his ear. He shuttered in my grasp, but he did not struggle.
“‘Yes,’ he said.
“‘Are you afraid?’ I asked.
“‘No,’ he said, and I saw the lie in his eyes. Although he was clearly afraid, he was not afraid of me. I believe he was afraid that I would not pass on my gift to him.
“‘You should be afraid,’ I said.
“It is important to understand that vampires do not feel lust as humans do. A vampire having sexual urges is the stuff of movies, a myth. Vampires are quite literally dead down there. My only interest was with his blood. I wanted companionship, so I would give him the gift. I was going to take his blood and allow him to rise, but I also needed to know he was worthy of the gift. I pulled away. His initiation into my world would not be as easy as that. He had a lot to prove before I would do this thing.
“‘If you had approached another vampire,’ I explained. ‘He would have taken your blood, decapitated you to prevent you from rising and have been done with you. It is only coincidence that you stumbled onto me. I am not like the others. Vampires can be sadistic and cruel to their prey, like when a cat plays with a mouse. That activity holds no interest for me. I merely wish to feed, so I choose to feed on killers who have no remorse for their acts. I wish to be left alone so I do not make a spectacle of myself. My prey will not be missed. I will not take your blood this night,’ I said. I pushed him away. As he started to protest, I sped away so fast he had no idea how to find me.
“He did not have to find me; however, because I sought him out the following night. He was there every night waiting for me. He was persistent. After a month of waiting for me to convert him, I decided to give him what he wanted. If I was going to spend an eternity with someone, he was as good a choice as any. Also, my resistance was crumbling.
“‘What is your name?’ I asked.
“‘Bane Haywood,’ he replied. ‘When will you change me?’
“‘When and if I deem you are worthy,’ I said.
“‘You are a liar then.’ He pointed an accusatory finger at me.
“‘What?’ I asked, perplexed.
“‘You said you don’t toy with your prey, but you’re toying with me. You’re torturing me.” He screamed at the sky in frustration. I laughed. I took his face in my hands and pulled him closer to me.
“‘Bane, what you are asking for is very gruesome. You have to be sure it is what you want. There is no going back once the process has begun.’
“‘I never want to go back to this weak, pointless life.’ He staggered back as I released his face.
“‘It is a painful thing, to have your blood drained. For the vampire it is an ecstasy like no other, but for the victim it is pure misery.’
“‘I don’t care. Whatever it takes I am willing to endure it,’ he said.
“‘I will drain you and you will die. By not beheading you, your body will rise at dusk of the following night. You are willing to go through with this?’
“‘I am,’ he said with a tiresome lilt. ‘I know this; you’ve told me before,’ Then, more seriously, he added, ‘I mean it. Whatever it takes I will do this.’
“‘You must promise me you will adhere to my code of taking the truly unrepentant. Never drain an innocent. Innocent blood corrupts the vampire, makes him turn insane. Promise me you will only take the vilest of victims.’
“‘I promise,’ he said. His impatience was palpable.
“He offered his neck to me and I bit down. His blood tasted exquisite and I regretted that I would only be allowed to take his blood this once. I could have drunk from him forever.
“I drained him, took him to my lair and slept through the daylight hours. We woke together, and he was very excited. He was like a child with a new toy. It pleased me to see his excitement.
“‘But where are my fangs?’ Bane asked as he examined himself in the mirror. I explained it took several months for his fangs to mature. ‘Damn, that long?’ He turned away from his own reflection. ‘Then again, I have an eternity; what are a few months?’
“We hunted. I would procure his prey, open a wound and he would feed. He wanted more, however.
“Let me kill my own prey?” he asked. He acquired a razor and I no longer needed to kill for him. He lavished in the kill more than I found comfortable. His fangs were fully developed seven months later, and for the next twenty years we were unstoppable and inseparable. Then the question I had most feared finally passed through his bloody lips.
“‘Why must we only drink from the wicked? I fancy taking a defenseless young lassie; wouldn’t that taste mighty refreshing right about now?’
“‘That lassie would quench your desire to taste innocent blood, but think of all the evil killers you have tasted over the years, how do you think it would feel to have the memories of an innocent girl trapped in your head. You will wonder what she would have been able to accomplish had you not ended her life.
“‘I don’t think I would be bothered by that. Only you worry at such trivialities. You are a coward.’
“My anger was quick to come, but I suppressed it.
“I needed to find a new tact to postpone his inevitable decision. ‘You made an oath. You promised not take innocent life if I agreed to turn you. Would you abandon your promise to me?’ I asked.
“‘A human made that promise, not me. I am a vampire. No vampire in their right mind would have made such a promise. Your trickery makes that promise null.’
“I looked at him like a child lost; for that was what he was. I knew it was only a matter of time that I would lose him to the desire for innocent blood. ‘Taking guiltless blood will wear on your sanity. I have seen it before…felt it myself, in fact.’
“‘I think I can handle it,’ he said.
“I think Bane did not wish to openly disobey my wishes. He continued to choose rapists and cutthroats for several more years. When he did take his first innocent, there had been no discussion on the subject. When I saw the young lady he had taken, I knew that the curtain had been lowered on our time together.
“‘There is no guilt,’ he said with her blood still on his lips. “And you did not tell me the power her innocent life would fill me with.’
“‘That power you feel will fade fast, and you will crave more. Soon you will be seeking more and more innocent lives to take. There is no end to the craving. It will control you, this power you wish to feel. It is a disease.’
“‘So you say.’ He was unconvinced. He was lost to the desire to feel that power.
“I tolerated his indulgences because I still longed for his company. But I soon realized he was no longer the friend I had created. He was now a beast of immense cruelty, torturing and terrorizing his victims before doing them in.
“Our lair was an abandoned building on the fringes of London. We had reinforced it so that no light could penetrate its walls. We avoided staying in the city for fear that our lair would be inadvertently discovered. We pulled up the floorboards and hid in the ground beneath the building so that even if some unsuspecting wanderer stumbled onto our hideout, they would not know we were there beneath their feet. On a few occasions we woke to the pleasant surprise of having a band of thieves taking refuge in our building, counting and dividing their loot. Imagine their surprise when two men popped out of the floor right in front of them.
“‘There is nothing tastier than taking back the shock and horror of our prey’s victims,’ I said as we finished off the last of the gang members.
“‘I disagree,’ Bane said, and I had no trouble taking his meaning.
“‘You risk insanity if you continue to indulge,’ I admonished.
“Bane laughed off my warning. ‘You fret like an old woman.’
“My companionship was no longer enough to amuse Bane. He took his first underling one night while I was prowling, and I returned to find him burying the young woman in the floor of our abandoned building. The female was the first of five underlings Bane took for his own pleasure as four male underlings came soon after. The original lair had become too small, so I set out to find us a new lair that would accommodate the extra bodies. I located an abandoned coal mine not far from our original lair that suited our purposes. When everyone agreed it was satisfactory, we settled in.
“Months went by and the group began to get restless. Bane was unable to control his underlings, but when I pointed this out to him, he overlooked their mischievousness.
“‘You are too much of a worrier my oldest and dearest friend,’ he said. ‘I’m sure your worrying will give even you wrinkles.’ He laughed.
“We invaded a pub one evening when the female of the group decided it was time they learned to hunt in a pack instead of individually. I went along because I did not want any surprises.
“The pub was full of regulars, so they were immediately suspicious when seven strangers walked through the door. Our female was very outspoken and garnered the attention of the men in the room. There were twenty-five people in the bar, so I would have to take my share. A vampire might be able to take the blood of five victims if he must, but the extra weight slowed them down. Made them vulnerable and lazy. Too much blood led to a vampire’s death. I would have to help kill.
“The room consisted mostly of men, but there were three serving wenches and the bar owner’s wife. In the back of the bar were several tables set up for card games. Closer to us in the entrance was a table set up for Shove Board. This is basically where shuffleboard originated, but in this early stage of its evolution the players shoved coins across a table. No one in the pub was interested in what they had been doing before we walked in, as now all eyes were on us.
“Behind me I heard the click as one of the vampires bolted the door.
“‘My, my.” Our female companion giggled as she walked up to the bar. ‘So many serious faces I see around me.’
“‘We don’t want any trouble miss,’ said the man sitting at the bar near where she stood. ‘This is a respectable establishment and we don’t take kindly to wanderers like you. If you be looking for trouble you best be moving on.’
“‘We’re not going anywhere,’ she said. Her eyes must have turned red because the man’s mouth dropped and his face turned pale. He didn’t even have enough time to scream before she was on him.
“The room came alive. People scrambled to get out, but at every turn there was a vampire to prevent their escape. Shadows moved through the room with the crackling sound of a vampire moving at the speed of sound. The prey must have believed there were more than just seven of us, because they would no sooner avoid capture when another vampire seemed to materialize out of nowhere to prevent their escape. People were dropping exponentially as one after another was drained.
“The female drained her third victim then turned to me. ‘You must help us old man. We cannot handle them all alone, and you know as well as I that no one can live to tell of what happened here.’
“I grabbed a man who tried to bust a chair through the window near where I stood. I pulled him into my embrace. ‘Please help us…’ The man amended his plea. ‘Help me.”
“‘I have only one kind of assistance I can offer,’ I said. ‘I will end your suffering.’ I drained the man quickly, and in his blood learned that he was going to be a father in a few months. He had recently helped his neighbor build a barn. In the blood I learned that there had been so much potential for good dwelling inside this man that I had just, essentially, killed against my will.
“I killed three more, including the bar owner’s wife. She had been saving up to take a trip to Paris; it was her life’s dream.
“Her dream would go unfulfilled due to my actions.
“Another of my victims, I would learn to my distaste, was a man with an engagement ring in his pocket. He was simply at the bar to tip back a few pints of ale and muster up the courage to ask for his girl’s hand. He already had permission from her father.
“When the bar was emptied of all living humans, one of the male members of our group retrieved a cleaver from the kitchen and started the task of beheading the dead. When he was finished with all but my four victims, I took the cleaver from him. I insisted that I take care of my own dead. When I finished with the task, as the others were looting and reveling in their deeds, I hid the cleaver in the waistband of my pants.
“We burned the bar to the ground and retreated to the lair.
“The next night I announced that I would be hunting on my own. Only Bane seemed to care. ‘I think you should stay with us,’ he said when he knew the others could not hear.
“‘Do you worry for my safety?’ I asked.
“‘I do; as much—or more—as you worry about my sanity, my friend.’ He smiled at me and in that smile I saw a shadow of the Bane I had known when I first turned him. Then the smile faded and the blue eyes clouded over with the dark anger I associated with so many vampires before him; they were the eyes of the insane.
“‘I will not do this again. I will not take any more innocent life. I do not understand how you can. You are as moral a creature as I, and still you cavort with these heathens you brought into being. Let us destroy them and be done with his mummer’s farce.
“He touched my cheek gently. ‘Perhaps you were right,’ he said sadly. ‘My sanity must have abandoned me because I cannot destroy my children. I need them as much as you needed me. I wanted our future to be as you wished: just you and I. But I could not shake the desire for more. I am sorry that you alone were not enough for me. I need them as well.’
“‘They will turn on you,’ I warned.
“‘I’m sure one day they will,’ he said. ‘And when that time comes I will deserve what I get. But I will not turn on them. If you must move on, it is with great sadness that I let you go. If you wish to s
tay, you will have to abide by my rules. What will you decide?’
“I chose to stay and he was relieved. But I would never live by his rules. I had another reason for staying.
“And so it was, one hundred and twenty-seven years after creating Bane, I made the decision to destroy him. The only question left was how?
“The underlings would be first. I still had the cleaver and could dispatch the group one by one, but Bane would not be so easy. Once he had learned of my actions, he would hunt me down. I decided I would use his anger against him.
“On the night that I had chosen for our final night as a group, I waited until the others had gone and approached the female. She was the strongest of the group, besides Bane and myself. ‘Your hold on Bane will not last forever,’ I said.
“She laughed. ‘You have that backward, old one,’ she said. ‘We have nearly convinced him that you have outlived your usefulness and should be destroyed. Soon, you will be no more. Just as soon as I have worked your last few desperately clutching fingers from him, he will agree to let us rip you apart where you stand.’
“‘I believe you are too late,’ I said.
“‘What do you mean by that?’ she asked. In reply I reached out and snapped her neck. She dropped to the ground. This alone, however, will not kill a vampire. Given time, she could regenerate. She would revive and warn the others of my attack, but I had effectively incapacitated her long enough for me to sever her head with the cleaver. I stored her body in the old lair.
Immortal Coil: A Novel (Immortal Trilogy Book 1) Page 2
