Vanya knelt beside me and tried to poke the dead man with a branch. I sternly told her to stop and had one of my guards escort her back to the palace. When she was gone, I meditated quietly, touching Tiberiu’s hand with the tips of my fingers, with the remaining guards surrounding me, when a vision of a male dressed in a black altar robe flashed into my thoughts. Tiberiu had gone up to Upper Meytros to hunt animals to feed on, when a human male ambushed him from a distance and drove a dagger through his heart. I couldn’t distinguish the face of the attacker, only the blur of black clothing, and the splash of spilt vampire blood repainting the grass a deep viscous crimson.
“Your majesty, you might want to take a look at this,” said one of my men who brought me back to reality from my meditation. In his hands he held a silver cross that ended in a dagger, a smaller replica of what my wife would have impaled me with when I first met her. This was the work of either her father or his fanatical, religiously fueled zealots that dubbed themselves vampire hunters. This was the work of humans, the very same humans we had so long endeavored to be convivial with and peacefully blend our bloodlines with, partly the reason the Dragul coven frowned greatly upon us for being a little bit too open minded. I held a council in front of the entire village that same night before dawn came.
Mother had warned me to not dare go into Upper Meytros on my own to go and investigate the situation we had in our hands, as well as my wife, who was stoutly assured it was the works of her father and his likes. She suggested coming with me if I went where the humans resided, but I vehemently forbade her from doing so. It was us three behind the curtains before we appeared in front of the entire Selenian village. A sea of pale faces, glowing eyes, and fire torches and kerosene lamps were swaying pacifically in the crowd. I made my way down the stairs which were exquisitely carved in ancient limestone, of the Temple of the Goddess, and joined the crowd, so they could all hear my message as I projected my voice as loud as I could.
“My fellow Selenians, vampire and human, tonight’s gathering is a rather solemn one in highlight of the most recent incident. We have gone without death even of natural causes here since 1884, ten years ago, when my army and myself trekked the Carpathian Mountains, northwest to Targoviste, to find and avenge the death of my father and your former King, Nicolae Tepes, who was brutally slain after failed efforts to persuade the Dragul to stop hunting humans. A decade has passed since any deaths have occurred on or around our soil, a decade that has been stained with the most recent death of one of our own, well respected people, Tiberiu Kristian,”
I paused poetically, in silent elegy, while the congregation absorbed and took the time to process what they just heard. In the distance, I could hear the inconsolable sobs of Raluca Kristian, a former human woman turned vampire, and now a widow, and her two young children about Vanya’s age. She came forward, and tears stained her cheeks. It was a heart-wrenching sight to see her on her knees, and holding her grieving children in each arm, in tears of desolation after losing her partner and lover of almost a century. I swallowed the lump forming in my throat.
“We all know Tiberiu was a great man. Hard worker, who forged all our weapons for our army, as well as for trade. He was very skillful and intricate in all his work that he did. He custom-made me a silver dagger that I keep with me everywhere, and now I will remember him dearly when I look at it. The same thought and care he put into forging every weapon, he put into providing for his family, always being loving husband to his lovely wife Raluca, and building forth the best future out of his relentless efforts, for his two children he loved unconditionally, and whom are my daughter’s classmates and friends. When one Selenian dies, it’s not just a death of another human, or just another vampire. It’s a loss we all feel, because we are not just a coven, we are family. And when somebody meddles with one of us, they meddle with all of us. Tiberiu was murdered on the outskirts of town, past the invisible portal, and it was my daughter who found him with a dagger through his heart. I cannot fathom who would commit such a heinous act, but I do fathom that the humans in the world outside, absolutely despise the fact that any other species other than them can exist in the same land, let alone, the same planet! I understand fully that some members in our coven are human, and I know you have come to seek refuge with us to escape the ignorance and violence that is currently being brought about by the evangelism of the Christian faith. I am aware that you are all grateful to have this place to call a home, and the chance to start over. And I am grateful for your endearing support and alliance with both the dhampir and purebred vampires, and the peaceful coexistence we have shared for many centuries and confidently I say, centuries to come. Due to the emergency unfolding for our coven, if any of the human population wishes to undergo transfiguration, we will be having a transfiguration ceremony tomorrow night past dusk right here in the temple. I ask that you pick your sire wisely, but for most of you, it should be your spouse, or parent. I ask that you really contemplate your decision before going through with it. Vampirism is irreversible, and you will hunger for blood like never before, and yes, daylight will kill you. But you will also be mostly immortal and endowed with the strength of twenty men. However, immortality has a bitter duality, so please think it through. Additionally, until further notice, any travel to the human sector of Meytros is absolutely forbidden, and under no circumstances is anyone to breach that portal without a military escort and permission from the royal family. Anyone caught will face imprisonment and hard labor in the cemetery. Lastly, everyone will have an option to become a part of the North American Selenian coven very imminently. We cannot continue to linger in peril here, and in our recent visit, Nayeru and I have seen the booming industry and golden opportunity to excel in the United States. I really plead to all of you, especially those of you with children, to please join us to sail to America. It will happen at the commencement of the year 1895, and we will travel by ship from the port of Constanta in the Black Sea, through Istanbul, and into the Mediterranean Sea, and then into the Atlantic Ocean, where we will make our final docking in New York, New York. If you need any clarification, you are now free to speak,”
The cacophonous murmurs and voices filled the air with question after question, and the time I stood in front of the crowd was an hour more. Within the next week, I was going to set out on my own to Upper Meytros to start my own investigation of the murder. My battle companion, Tiberiu, had his funeral pyre in front of the temple, with his widow and children enrobed in black garments. That night, I went out alone to the city, dagger in hand, and went on a mission to the Magalesti Cathedral, carrying the same silver dagger in my hands that was left as evidence.
The city was a gnarly sight to behold, and even for a warrior like me. In the forestall outskirts three miles past our lavender field, I witnessed a dead man hanging from a tree branch, covered in what resembled tar, and had an army of insects crawling in and out of every orifice, including a centipede crawling out of his mouth. Out of morbid curiosity, I approached him to observe what had happened. The stench was overpowering, unlike anything I’ve smelt before, it wasn’t like death, but it was most certainly biological and very fowl, with sulfurous undertones. When I got closer, I realized he was covered in human excrement, and immediate nausea took me over. On the trunk of the tree, I saw a sign on paper, written in Romanian, “Ser Strigoi,” literally translated to, “is a vampire.” This wasn’t possible and very false, because if the hanging man was indeed a vampire, his body would have been a pile of ash by now, and his death wasn’t recent, marked by the hanging flesh falling off the bones. A cockroach landed on my sleeve, and I frantically swatted to vermin off, and continued my way into town.
Two guards in armor with torches in their hand guarded the entrance to the cathedral, so I worked some of my magic, and flashed them an electric blue stare, and bared my fangs at them both.
“I’m here to see an old friend. It would be kind of you to let me in,” I said through a sardonic, hissi
ng grin. The two guards didn’t blink an eye, and pulled the two wooden doors open, and I proceeded on through.
The usual suspect had his back towards me, arranging something up ahead in the altar. The inner structure was vast, made of marble, with wooden pews for seating, and a red carpet down the center that led up to the altar, a stained glass dome right above the altar where the priest sat, and the Beatitudes painted along the halls on either side, and stairs leading up to a second story hall whose wooden rails lined the perimeter all around. He didn’t seem alerted when the doors opened. He must have thought I was another one of his clergymen or altar servers. So, I broke his little lollygagging spell and threw the dagger-cross with such extreme precision, that it narrowly missed stabbing between his finger and thumb on his left hand. He turned around, visibly startled, and then his face scrunched up with disgust or anger.
“You. You dare set foot in the house of God? He will strike you down if you move an inch!” he yelled at me. I sighed heavily, thinking about how to respond to his ridiculous antiquities and how to keep myself entertained.
“I wouldn’t think that if God had a choice of where to live, he would not pick this arse of the world. You are demented, old man. I just came here to ask you, if you knew where that dagger came from, or if you knew anything about it,”
“I don’t answer to a goddamn vampire!” he barked.
I was going to say something else to him to enrage him some more since I really loved this game. But I was caught off guard, when a large metal wire wrapped around my neck and squeezed so tightly, I almost went unconscious had I not caught the rest of the slack with my hand. The wire was then unexpectedly pulled with such brute force that it dragged me onto my back and I hit the pavement hard, with the sound of crashing bones. Whomever was behind me was attempting to strangle me, and I struggled a bit to keep control of the slack left in my hands, as the wire was starting to cut into my skin. It was sharp and meant for a killing method of strangulation, throat slitting, or decapitation. Little did they know; the first two methods weren’t fatal to me unless I bled out. Did they not realize I was already dead?
I kick up my feet and then swung down to gain enough momentum to thrust my weight upwards, and back to standing upright, still holding the slack, with the rest of the wire coils now cutting deep into me. I had blood running down the front of my chest and down my back, soaking my collar. The attacker tried to tug me back to him, but I put up a resistance where I didn’t budge at all, and then I spun around in a roundhouse kick, and his face met the sole of my steel toed shoe, shattering his nose and breaking all his teeth. He let go of the rod of a whip made of the wire, and the coils loosened their deadly grip on my neck. Now, with the whip in my hand, I walked towards Magalesti.
“You will answer to a vampire now,” I seethed, with raw anger pumping in my veins. My wounds were beginning to heal themselves. He drew up his ridiculous little silver cross at me and held it up against my chest, in a futile attempt to sear my flesh.
“You shouldn’t have come here boy! You are outnumbered!” he screamed in my face.
“Does the name Tiberiu Kristian ring a bell to you? He was one of my men, found with a dagger through his heart, and one of your petty little cross-daggers next to his corpse,”
“I owe you nothing after you took and defiled my daughter!”
He had some nerve and no shame in being gravely mistaken.
“Defiled? You used to savagely beat Nayeru and her sister. I saved her, and she is happy. And I suggest you quit sending your men into my city to harass my family. I will not warn you again, cretin,”
“You really fail to see your reflection, vampire. Not that you can in the first place,”
I rolled my eyes listening to the torrent of ignorance pouring out from this man’s thin line he had for lips.
“Did you kill Tiberiu Kristian?” And don’t think I cannot sniff out a lie,”
Out of my peripheral, I saw a man come charging at me on my right side, but I flicked the whip with my wrist, and the lash of metal sent him flying into the air and crashing against the wall, falling unconscious upon impact.
“I have killed and will keep killing every one of your wretched kind until there is no more of your sub-servient species left on the face of the Earth. I will see to it, you scum! Don’t think for once that just because you are a vampire, that you are truly immortal. You shall perish out of arrogance and by my very hand!”
“How delightful, I’d love to engage in a duel with this so-called vampire hunter,”
I dropped the whip and he dropped his cross-dagger, so it would be hand to hand combat, and I even let him throw the first hit, a very lousy attempt at a punch that I dodged with superhuman reflex. He realized I had moved, and then he came running at full charge to where I stood, but I moved again, and he crashed against the altar. We kept at this for a minute or so, and I hadn’t even thrown one hit. I was growing bored, and simultaneously, I started picking at my nails while dodging hits. I then decided to levitate in front of him, and he was red with anger, lackluster grey eyes boring into me.
“I feel the need for a siesta, don’t you? You look tired,” I told him, with the ingenuine concern of a fly in the wall.
“I told you, you will perish out of arrogance! BASILISK!”
The skin of my back flinched when I heard this name. It was the name of a demonic entity I had learnt about but never meddled with, and it came as a shock because this man was a priest of the church and I wouldn’t have ever imagined that they worked with evil spirits. Oh, how great was my naivete in the 1800’s.
A black spinning cloud encircled me, and then suddenly, a hand made from dark red light and purely evil energy dropped down from the ceiling and grabbed me, pulling me up into the ceiling, into a black hole where it came out of. I fought with all my power and strength to escape, and fly away, but I found my metaphysical powers draining away from me. I was almost about to be sucked into the black hole, when a lightning bolt shot forth, into the darkness that was in possession of me, and then, I felt the grip release. I floated away and then looking down, I was pleasantly relieved to see my wife rushing into the scene, with two other Selenian warriors beside her. She wore two golden cuffs on each wrist, and then stomped the ground with one foot, sending forth a shockwave of visible, sparking current towards Magalesti, her own father.
“Father, I will not allow you to keep harming any more vampires!” her voice boomed like a threnody through the vast space of the cathedral murals.
“I am not your father! I only have one daughter named Maria!”
“Ha! You are so poisoned by your supposed Scriptures from a benevolent man in heaven. You tell me, what all-loving God demands the persecution and genocide of innocent beings simply because they differ from you! Your life is based on a lie!”
I now stood beside my wife and was prepared to fight if the bastard in front of us dared to lay a hand on her ever again.
“Nayeru, I plead that don’t put yourself in peril,” I told her, gently tugging her hand so she wouldn’t take another step towards the true serpent in disguise.
“This isn’t just your battle alone, Enttu, this is about all of us,” she said proudly, pushing my hand away before she continued her speech, “My family. My coven. And yes father, this vampire you despise so much is now my husband and I am now the very being you’ve always been motivated to murder without a reason other than your greed, your wrath, your lack of compassion. I am a vampire now as well. And if you want to kill him, you will have to kill every last one of us. But we are a force to be reckoned with, so you best prepare!”
Magalesti threw a dagger at his own daughter standing beside me, looking so strong and gloriously beautiful in a satin emerald gown, with her hair raven hair flowing regally. I got between my wife and the incoming dagger, my altruistic nature getting the best of me, and caught the dagger between my palms. I threw the silver
weapon on the ground, and then turned around to embrace and kiss Nayeru passionately, in front of her disapproving father. He could do nothing else other than sulk and curse all of us out loud, out of power, and out of breath, exasperated from our encounter. The humans had now wanted to wage a war with us as well. I had to get my people out of Meytros much sooner than I had mentioned to them.
Nayeru and I had gotten into a small argument of how I was upset that she endangered herself, and she threw the situation back at me, at how I did the same thing without second thought. She was angry because of how Selenian women weren’t allowed to engage in battle or participate in real-life military missions, and still nonetheless, I would have been as good as dead if she hadn’t decided to go out looking for me just in the nick of time. Reluctant to admit, she was with reason. Our argument ended with passionate lovemaking under the stars on a meadow of wildflowers.
The women needed to be trained in combat if they wished to partake in our military. Within three weeks, I had an entire platoon made of female soldiers that were fast to learn the movements and weapons handling, as well as some of them being blessed with magical powers and spells of offense, defense, and healing. The female platoon was headed by my wife and an appointed lieutenant, Raluca Kristian, who turned out to be one of the most vicious fighters, while her children stayed in our palace. Now with an increased army, the journey to America could be expedited.
Winter had fast approached with its promising blizzards and falling blankets of white diamond snow that glittered under blue waves of moonlight. The very first groups to leave for America were the first half of women and children, guarded by a flank of female warriors in the platoon by nightfall, continuing their perilous journey through the Carpathians for three nights until they reached the port of Constanta. I was the only male to accompany them and ensured that they were all able to make in onto an international wooden sloop without a problem. The first crew of Selenians had set sail to America, and were embarked on a cruise to New York City, that should have been reached within a month. They had enough currency and treasure to find a permanent dwelling in the nice part of town, downtown Manhattan Island.
The Dhampir Dimension Page 20
