"What I don’t understand mister is why we fight each other, there is already enough pain and sadness in this world, why add to it? At the end of it these people will hate the others, and then they will try to get revenge on the other side. What will that bring them, I tell you what it will bring, more pain and sadness, that’s what?"
"Why are you here then?"
"I want to help, but not with the killing, no way, I couldn’t shoot straight if I tried, not that I would mind you. I want to help with the living; life is too short, let's help the living live better."
“Such a wise head on a small boy"
"I will have you know I am nearly 15 sir"
We chatted for a while and when the sun rose the next morning I fell asleep thinking of Fred's words. He was right, and I decided that rather than fight the wars I would help Fred with the living. That evening I went back to the hospital to say thank you, but again I was too late. He had been killed in the cross fire, I found his small body broken and bloody. I hadn’t even been in time to ease his suffering. That night I buried him but not his words.
They changed the course of my life; I didn’t return to France but headed to England. I spent the next few decades watching people, Fred was right people with anger focussed on revenge, and eventually they destroyed more lives.
Learning to let go of my hatred was hard, really hard. My life continued to be empty, no roots, no plans, and no people around me. I actually started meeting other vampires, learning about this somewhat dark and hidden society, I became desperate for acceptance. I wanted to be part of this society; I no longer wanted to be alone.
I had no idea there was a vampire hierarchy, until I found out I was at the bottom of it. During this Era, Jeffrey was at the top, I was challenged by other vampires on a regular basis. As I aged in vampire years I found that I developed new skills. I could now jump distances that made it look like I was flying; this is still quite a rare skill. While most vampires can produce fire to set a heart on fire, I could actually produce enough fire to kill a person and I was strong, really strong.
It wasn’t long before I was singled out by Jeffrey and offered a place in his Warrior Breed, a group of hand chosen vampires, who were expected to prevent vampires taking advantage of the vulnerable humans and weaker species. If a wrong had occurred it was the Warrior Breeds who were sent in to clean house.
This suited me, I wanted to give back and let go of my hatred. Jeffrey seemed to be a fair and just leader. He would meet with the Warriors every evening and hand out the orders, which as the warriors we would enforce. We all lived in a large stately home, where we worked together and trained together. The grounds were well armed and people generally tended to avoid the area.
I made some good friends there, we went out hunting for food, we played billiards and went to the new theatres. For the first time since I left France, I felt part of something; it wasn’t the same as family but better than nothing. I sought food from the dregs of society. I handed out my punishments where needed, in a swift no nonsense manner and I was completely loyal to Jeffrey.
I had been there about 10 years when we had an influx of vampires, one of which was an ancient, they started causing trouble, attacking humans, obliterating groups of shifters, before they started taking out Jeffrey's Warriors. We lost three men in the space of one night, to this day I don’t know the name of the leader and I didn’t need to.
Me and three others went in as soon as the sun set, they were staying in a house just outside of London, it was secluded in a populated area. Jeffrey had given an order to go in, take them down and get out. Unfortunately when we arrived there were over a dozen vampires in there. Most were still asleep; we managed to take down the first 6 without any problems. Then they started descending on us, there were swords and stakes flying everywhere, in the ensuing battle I saw this woman making her way out of the house. She exuded power, her long blue black hair cascading down her back, her gown was red velvet and from the back she looked a picture, when she turned and met my eyes the insanity was obvious, her eyes were almost black, but tinged with red, they looked wild. She had no intention in fighting with her men, this was the leader and she was leaving them to die.
I followed her outside where she was waiting, I prepared to fight but she had a different way of getting what she wanted.
"Well aren’t you handsome, such a fine specimen of a man" her voice seductive and hypnotic.
"You need to come with me" I still held on, trying to shut out her voice.
Instead of backing away she walked forwards "oh darling I want you to come with me, in fact I want you to make me come."
I had never met a female so obvious in her sexuality, she started to cup me, then stroke me. In my head I had images of us writhing around in a large sumptuous bed, her breasts in my mouth, my cock pumping into her. She continued stroking me as the picture in my head played out.
"Like that image? Come with me, join me and that will be a reality. Just think of us together" And then she sent me another image, me and her on a bed, my face in her wet heat, another woman under me, taking my cock into her mouth. The erotic image making me swell even more, I didn’t know how the hell to make it stop.
It was a window smashing that brought me out of my daze, I didn’t know what the hell had just happened, but as I looked at her and saw her eyes swirling I saw that it was something she had put into my head. She continued to stroke me, but this time I saw through it.
I plunged my hand into her chest and pulled out her heart, I watched her eyes widen before she dropped to the ground in front of me, I set fire to it and went in to help the others. We lost another man that night, but while I mourned him Jeffrey and the others celebrated the victory.
I quickly rose up in the ranks; Jeffrey gave me more and more responsibility on the justice side. I knew he had other business interests but I didn’t have any involvement in them. Frankly I had no interest in them; I now know that I should have asked questions, if I had more lives would have been saved.
In 1682 we had a new member for the Warriors, her name was Belinda, and we called her Belle. She was just over 200 years old when she joined us. I remember the first time I saw her, she was tall, taller than me and at 6'2 I am pretty tall, her long blonde her was always tied in a chignon, with stony grey eyes, that seemed to see into the depths of your soul. She had a way of putting people at ease. I was her mentor and she was a good student.
Belle was ruthless; she had no concerns in dishing out punishment. In fact I haven’t met many men as ruthless as she was, she always volunteered for the worst jobs, and if there was a fight she was in it, hell normally she started it.
But there was another side to her, she loved to read and write poetry. We grew close, for a while we even had a brief liaison, but when I found out she was also having a brief liaison with Jeffrey I stepped away. I was angry but not devastated. It just made me more cautious around Jeffrey and Belle.
We had been out on a trawl; there had been some reports of people being attacked in the red light area. There were two others further on; I and Belle were just checking out the seedier side of the business. We saw a woman who looked to have just returned, approaching her I prepared to offer her money in return for any information she could offer. The streets were dark and there weren't actually many people about, but it was still early, and cold, damn cold. Well he didn’t really feel it, but the humans did. The woman was still quite young but her face looked haggard, she was also a little drunk.
After she understood that we were not there to buy her services, she started walking off, I was about to offer her some money when Belle grabbed her and spun her round.
"We want to talk to you" the steel in her voice was unwarranted. In her long coat, and boots, Belle looked intimidating enough. But her hard facial expression doubled that, so there was absolutely no need for anything else. The woman though, wasn’t easily frightened and tried to push Belle away.
"I got work to do lady."
&
nbsp; "That is not my problem, but you will answer our questions before you go and try and find someone to give you pittance" I could hear the scorn in her voice, when she spoke to the woman.
"I don’t think so Mrs" I could see Belle holding her by the arm, and saw when she added unnecessary pressure. Grabbing her hand I pulled her away, she was furious, I ignored her and took a different approach. Taking my time and giving the woman some money in return, I gathered that the women were scared at the recent disappearances.
The rest of the night followed in a similar vain, money handed over no information of any help. Belle was becoming more agitated, she didn’t agree with providing a financial incentive. When we spoke to the 7th woman, she spoke of seeing a dark haired man coming round early evening, with friends. We were getting somewhere She remembered the man as he seemed to be the ring leader. She was coughing so hard and was clearly sick. I gave her the name of a good doctor (one I had gotten to know in the last 10 years) and told her to visit him and tell him Darrell would pay the bill. I could feel Belle's stare piercing my back.
When we arrived back, Belle flew into a rage; she called the women whores, the scum of society. I was astounded, but even then I was used to people treating prostitutes in this way. She made a complaint to Jeffrey that I was too soft on the women, and could have gotten better results by using a more direct manner.
Although Jeffrey did not support Belle, he did speak to me about transferring her to a different team, I agreed. Belle's new role was adding an extra person to Jeffrey's personal guards. I was happy with this, her contact with humans would be more limited.
For me, my job was getting busier, more and more vampires were going rogue so to speak, the challenges to Jeffrey were coming quicker. We spent many hours contemplating the best course of action, in the end he decided to add more Warriors. I was amazed at how many were coming through, they were great fighters and I had to say I was impressed by the training they had received. I didn’t have a lot of involvement with Jeffrey himself, there was no need.
I also had no involvement in the training; I managed them when they came out of the training. Jeffrey was becoming more powerful, he had started expanding his reach across the vampire world. He soon started offering protection to the weaker species. And in principle I liked this, I actually offered to manage and organise this, and Jeffrey declined. Although I was put out by this, it wasn’t a major problem.
Within months of this new protection enterprise, I heard rumours that some of the Warriors were actually charging a fee for this service. I didn’t agree with it, but if it helped their species and they were happy with the arrangements I had no argument. However, I then found out that if the species did not pay up, they suddenly had a huge increase in problems, people went missing, their homes were ransacked at night, some of the leaders were beaten. Eventually the groups entered into an arrangement with the vampires.
This time I didn’t foolishly rush in telling Jeffrey of my concerns. But when I did have enough information to challenge him, I did. I found him sat in the lounge room with a human woman, he was feeding from her, he fed often and the house had a high number of human staff members. These staff members fed the vampires, I included, when I couldn’t get out to find my own food.
He had the girl sat in his lap, he was drinking from her wrist, but using the other hand to fondle her breast, the lace on her dress was undone and she still had her cap on. I waited outside until the girl came out.
"Morning Darrell, have you eaten?" Jeffery was offering the woman he had just finished with, who was drowsy but oozed sex, her eyes focused on my teeth and I knew it would only take a little to tip her into orgasm. Jeffrey had a policy to take them to the edge and leave them waiting for the next time. As I entered he was pulling the lace on his trousers, he was sated.
"I am fine but I need to speak to you about something. I have information indicating that those protecting the other species are running some sort of racket, if they don’t pay the species get hurt."
He laughed at me, "Do you honestly think any vampire in this place does something without my express agreement?"
"So you know" I was disappointed, but strangely not very surprised.
"Which of these idiots do you think could come up with such a lucrative scam?"
Looking around the opulent room, with the thick royal blue drapes, white marble fire place and the large chaise lounge, it suddenly occurred to me that I had never questioned how Jeffrey afforded this lifestyle.
"Why would you do that?" To my mind Jeffrey was in a position of power and I disagreed with taking advantage of that. But it made no difference and instead of doing something about it, I let him convince me of the need for vampires to dominate, to make sure that everyone was led and protected. Jeffrey explained that without this, these species would eventually be able to take over and rule. If this occurred some less conscientious leader would take control. He must have found my agreement amusing; it didn’t take long for me to go along with him. I like to think that I am no longer that naïve.
Looking back this was the beginning of a downward spiral for me; Jeffrey had managed to subdue my concerns and now knew how to manipulate me. He took me into his confidence more, slowly I began taking the more personal jobs Jeffrey needed doing. I started to get involved in the protection side and collecting the money for Jeffrey.
Although part of me still questioned the need for this kind of enforcement, the other part felt important and powerful. I no longer questioned the jobs that came in for rogue vampires and when the orders came for rogue shifters, I carried out the job with accuracy and precision that was unrivalled. I eventually became a raging killing machine, who evolved into a detached killing machine. I shared in the rewards, the money and the parties.
At least once a month Jeffrey hosted these huge lavish parties, many of the local high society came. Everyone dressed in their fineries, a sumptuous meal followed by music and dancing. And later liaisons that satisfied the women and the vampires, not many humans can rival a vampire sexually. I actually enjoyed this, I was socialising with people, real people.
During this period in my life i started to enjoy sexual encounters, I thought nothing of bedding a different woman each night, whether they were married or not was immaterial. I was invincible what did it matter who I upset. I would pick a woman up at the end of the night, give them a taster of what a vampire could do, sleep a little and then fuck them through the evening. I say the word fuck because that is exactly what it was, there were no feelings on my part, in fact the only interest I really had was in demonstrating my power and virility.
I would have continued on this path if I hadn’t made a chance discovery. We had a basement all kitted out with beds and living quarters, you had to be cautious. Most of us slept in the bedrooms upstairs though, except for Jeffrey. He had a room in the basement, where he made sure he was safe and secure during the daylight hours. I had been up all night and most of the morning, I could feel the exhaustion hit me. Deciding to sleep downstairs, I made my way through the dark tunnels and climbed into one of the beds.
I awoke several hours later and realised everyone else would still be out. Making my way back to the house I came upon Jeffrey's room, the door was ajar. I opened it to check Jeffrey was well; no-one was in the room. Now this was an unusual occurrence, so I checked the room. I hadn’t been in this room before so was surprised to note a door at the end of the room. At this point I was genuinely concerned that some harm had befallen Jeffrey.
I opened the door and stepped into a long corridor. Halfway down I came upon more doors, thick heavy wooden doors on either side, there was a small window in each door. Not glassed windows, but ones with metal grills. Looking though the first I saw a lone female resting. As I checked each door, I counted 13 people in these rooms. Each had a small metal cot and nothing else.
Towards the end I heard moaning coming from one, looking in I saw a young man in the throes of the change, his thirst riding him hard.
/> "Help me, feed me, please. I can't take it anymore" he was crying and disorientated.
Even then I could remember that feeling of complete hunger "it’s okay son, everything will be fine. You are lucky to be here, who did this you? There are punishments for doing this to someone." I wanted to help this poor boy, the law was clear; you did not change anyone without the agreement of the head.
The man lifted his head towards me, "you fucking hypocrite, who did this? You bastards did this" stumbling backwards from the venom in his voice I hit the wall behind me, venom I could understand.
Moving back up the corridor, I asked each of them how they had gotten here?"
Four more gave me the same tale; they had been out at night, approached by person's looking to employ someone. Each then ended up here where they were then turned into a vampire.
I made my way back through the house, making sure to cover my tracks. I headed out for the night, my dilemma weighing hard on me. By turning my back on my morals, I had failed to question and see what was happening right in front of my eyes. I just wasn’t sure what to do with it.
The Man Behind the Vampire (The Silver Series) Page 17
