by Nick Stead
“Be grateful I am feeling generous enough to spare your life, for now, but do not test me or that may change,” he said, before finally turning his attention to me. “You may not be so lucky, dog.”
Silently I strained against his control over my body but it was no use – he was too powerful. If Lady Sarah could hold me under her spell, what hope did I have against an Elder vampire, one who was clearly among the most powerful of his race? For he had to be considered all powerful in the vampire world to command so much respect.
The same male vampire who’d brought us to the warehouse reappeared, carrying something which he laid on the workbench as before, with the utmost respect. Adrenalin flooded through me in response to my fight or flight instincts when I realised it was another body, the sheet covering it bloody this time, the stench of decay worse than that of a human corpse, making it hard to tell how long the body had been truly dead, or even how many centuries old the vampire had been. Lady Sarah had moved out of my sight and, still held in place by the Elder vampire, I couldn’t see her reaction to the latest body.
Moments later the first of the vampires and ghouls began to arrive, and Ulfarr forced me to jump up on the workbench beside him and turn to face them, before freezing me in place once more. When the last of those he was expecting filtered in, he greeted them in a similar fashion to the first meeting he’d called, wasting no time explaining why he’d called them back.
“There has been another murder, a third vampire felled by another undead. You will recall I promised to find the killer and bring him to justice, and that is the very reason I’ve called you all back here today,” he said, his eyes settling on me as, after a brief pause, he continued “And thus, I give you the murderer!”
Suddenly he released his hold on me but his mind brushed against my own, reaching out to various parts of my nature – namely my hunger and bloodlust – as if beckoning to them. Both had been controllable after feeding so well this full moon but he called to them, exerting a power over me as complete as that of the moon itself. Enslaved to my most primal instincts once more I let out an angry, threatening growl and readied myself to fall on the masses, wanting to indulge in the same mindless slaughter that the human part of me committed time and again. No matter how much I hated it for such acts, the bloodlust was tied to that part of the human, and that in turn was tied to the curse and my unnatural hunger brought on by each full moon. When I truly lost control I could no more fight it than the human could fight the transformation induced by the full moon, and I’d just had that control ripped from me by the Elder vampire.
As powerful as the vampires were, uncertainty rippled through the crowd. The ghouls were ready to flee, knowing they stood no chance against me with the power of the moon overhead and my own bloodlust driving me. In my most mindless state I would become a force of raw power and fury, virtually unstoppable unless one of them could deliver a killing blow. Even vampires with the same level of power as Lady Sarah were unsure of their chances against me, knowing their ability to hypnotise victims would be useless whilst I was at my most primal. However, I never had chance to attack, finding myself frozen in place again, though this time it was different to the mind control Ulfarr had placed me under before. Meanwhile, the Elder vampire just laughed.
“You should have more faith in your Elders. Did you really think I would present him to you for a trial without taking any precautions?”
As he talked I found myself forced into the transformation back to human. If I hadn’t been so overwhelmingly in the grip of the bloodlust, I would have been afraid then. Ulfarr was demonstrating how he was more powerful than the moon, and just as I was still very much a slave to the full moon and my own primal instincts, I was no more than a mere puppet to him either. He could kill me at any moment he pleased with no more effort than it took to lift a finger, and he probably would before the night was through, but first he wanted to enjoy humiliating me in front of his audience.
The change was the most violent I’d ever experienced, pure agony even compared with my first transformation just over a year earlier. Despite the higher pain threshold I’d developed, it was so intense that it was no longer the Elder vampire’s hold over me keeping me frozen in place, but the pain itself, and I couldn’t help but cry out. If I’d been in human form I’d have been screaming, but instead, as my lupine self, my cries were the canid high pitched yelps and whines of an animal in suffering. The crowd only jeered at my cries. Even the ghouls joined in, though they had no reason to share the vampires’ prejudice against me, as far as I knew.
My innards seemed to twist and writhe as if they’d turned to snakes. Breathing was painful, each breath shallow and quick as if my lungs were damaged and unable to fill to their full capacity. My chest felt tight, my heart hammering against my ribcage in an irregular rhythm, seemingly struggling to continue to pump the blood boiling in my veins round the rest of my body. Bones ground together as they grew shorter while others lengthened, and there was a blow to my spine where it reversed direction, becoming convex. Just as I felt like my body would be ripped apart by this brutal transformation the Elder vampire was forcing me through, it stopped. I knelt on humanoid hands and knees panting heavily, weakened enough that I couldn’t immediately attack the crowd as I still wanted to.
Ulfarr clicked his fingers purely for show, using telekinesis to move the chains which suddenly whipped up to bind me, shackles snapping shut round my wrists and ankles. The chains binding my arms wrapped themselves round hooks in the wall, forcing me to my feet so the assembled undead could see me clearly, now in my hybrid form and straining against my chains with renewed fury, snapping at the air and howling and snarling in frustration.
“You see, werewolves would have us believe they are like us, and indeed have even convinced some of us of this over the years,” the Elder vampire said. “But, no matter how civilised they can be, they will never be anything more than savage beasts at heart, a danger to all others, living or undead. The Slayers have done us a favour hunting them to extinction; it’s time we put this last dog down before he turns on any more of us.”
There were calls of agreement from our audience, but I was too lost in my instincts to really be aware of what was happening. Ulfarr turned to me and again took control of my body, forcing my jaws shut, as he placed a hand on my shoulder as if to calm me. I felt his mind brush my own once more and he swept all my rage and bloodlust away as if they were no more than cobwebs, restoring my self-control. The hunger was there after being forced to transform, but it was manageable once more. Then he forced my body to resume the transformation, this time forcing me all the way back to human, and calling the human half of my mind back to the surface. I blacked out temporarily from the pain, the human back in control when I regained consciousness…
As the room swam back into focus I became aware of the same Elder vampire we’d met the previous month speaking to someone. My brain slowly registered the chains holding me upright, in front of a crowd of undead. I realised I was in the same warehouse the last meeting had been held in, and instinctively looked for Lady Sarah. It didn’t take long for my eyes to settle on her in the first row. She was staring up at me in horror, but had made no move to put a stop to any of this.
“Beast!” Ulfarr repeated, commandingly. I realised he was talking to me and looked away from Lady Sarah, letting my eyes focus on him. “Have you nothing to say for yourself?”
I felt the wolf stir in my subconscious, filling in the blanks for me only out of concern for our self-preservation, the memories shared almost with the thought of ‘don’t screw this up’.
“I didn’t do it,” I said, even though I knew it was entirely possible I’d killed more than just the human victim when I’d blacked out two nights ago due to the brief merging of our split personalities. I looked back to Lady Sarah for help but she continued to just stand there. Why wasn’t she defending me like she had before? And why was she letting them torment me like this?
“Lies,”
the Elder hissed, his hatred rearing its ugly head again. He was about to say something more when another male vampire spoke up.
“What proof do you have, Ulfarr? I for one would like to see some evidence as to why you are so convinced the werewolf is to blame.”
“I have a name,” I growled, but no one was paying me any attention anymore.
“Both murders happened during the full moon and they were torn apart as if savaged by a beast,” the Elder vampire answered. “What else could it have been?”
“You allow your prejudice to blind you, Ulfarr. The timing could be coincidence, and we all know there are more than just werewolves that would attack with such savagery. The work of demons, perhaps?”
“Demons have not been this active on Earth since the rise of the Slayers, as you well know,” the Elder vampire replied impatiently.
“That may be, but the possibility exists, no matter how slim, and it is but one possibility. I for one would like to see some proof the werewolf really is to blame before we condemn him. With the threat of the Slayers and our eventual extinction growing with each passing year, can we really afford to turn on each other? In a time when we need allies we must put the past between our races behind us; this werewolf has already proven himself on the battlefield and may prove invaluable if we find ourselves engaged in open warfare.”
Ulfarr was not happy to cut me loose but reluctantly he used his telekinetic ability once more to snap open the shackles. I’d been slumped in them after the brutal transformation I’d been forced to undergo, which had drained my energy and left my limbs trembling with fatigue. Unprepared for my sudden release, I fell to my hands and knees where I shook violently. Some of the vampires laughed but some seemed to be at least open to the possibility that the timings of the killings could be coincidental, and that maybe I was innocent and useful enough to be kept alive, at least for now. The ghouls were indifferent as far as I could tell. When the real killer was found they’d be happy to participate in his or her execution, but until then it didn’t matter to them what happened to me.
“Get out of my sight, dog,” Ulfarr spat, kicking me when he thought no one was watching and leaving me sprawled on the floor. I felt the fires of my rage flare up at last, even if it would only prove to be temporary, and let my eyes burn amber as I met his gaze with an equal level of hate. He turned away from me in contempt, making it clear he considered me too weak to prove a threat to him, and too unimportant to take up any more of his time, at least for the remainder of the night. Somehow I knew he would continue looking for an excuse to ‘put me down’, as he’d phrased it. I could even feel hate towards him from the lupine half of my mind. To the wolf he embodied all that he hated of humanity in the form of a vampire – namely the complete disregard for the sanctity of life in other species. The Elder vampire didn’t need a reason to kill me, and the wolf hated him for it.
Finally, once Ulfarr had moved away, Lady Sarah came to my side. While my rage was burning I let my anger direct itself towards her, too. She’d let him humiliate me and accuse me when we couldn’t know for sure either way whether I was the murderer or not. I didn’t know why she hadn’t come to my defence this time but I wasn’t happy at the way she’d just watched me suffer, without even trying to intervene.
“I don’t need your help,” I snarled, struggling to my feet.
She backed off and let me stand on my own. I could feel my bloodlust rising again, so tied in to my rage as it was, and wrestled with the desire to lunge for the Elder vampire. He’d proven he held more power over me than the full moon, and considering it was this time of month I was at my most powerful, if he could control me as easily as most vampires could control mere mortals I stood no chance of beating him if we ever came to blows. But still, my anger made me irrational and the temptation was there. Lady Sarah’s training finally proved to be of some use as I succeeded in channelling it into my hunger instead, which raged just as strong after the change, and turned my mind to thoughts of hunting humans.
“Come, let us feed together again,” Lady Sarah said.
“Oh now you want to help me,” I growled. “Bit late now, isn’t it? Well I told you, I don’t need your help.”
She knew better than to argue and any emotions she might have been feeling she kept hidden from me. She merely nodded and said “Very well.”
With that she withdrew from the building, leaving me alone, except for the last of the crowd still trickling out. Then I noticed the one vampire who’d stood up for me, though why he’d chosen to help me I had no idea. Even though he was a potential ally I wasn’t in a trusting mood, and Vince’s betrayal only months earlier had taught me to be cautious. I now lived in a world where it seemed everyone was a potential enemy. Even Lady Sarah had let me down that night, and with the vampires I was starting to think they all had ulterior motives. For some reason it was in this vampire’s current interests to keep the Elder from executing me for the time being, but I felt that could easily change, and I needed to keep my guard up around them if I was to survive.
Now I could see him clearly I noted he was slender in build like myself, but I guessed he must be strong or he wouldn’t have dared speak out if he was one of the lowliest of his kind. He moved with a certain grace which wasn’t unusual for vampires, but there was something about him which reminded me of a big cat. A mane of dirty blond hair which fell to his shoulders added to the feline effect, and there was a calculating, predatory look in his greyish blue eyes. I couldn’t even begin to guess his age as he wore modern clothes – a dark blue denim jacket over a white shirt, and black jeans – and there was nothing to tie him to whatever era he was originally from.
As if he could read my mind, he nodded to me but let me approach him. I felt I should at least thank him for stepping in and putting an end to my ‘trial’, if you could really call it that when there’d been so little about it in the way of carrying out true justice.
“Thanks, I guess,” I said. “You probably saved my life back there.”
“Ulfarr was being cruel and unfair. It was nothing,” he replied. “I have a mansion less than fifty miles north from here; come find me if you wish for some company other than Lady Sarah.”
I wanted to ask him who he was and why he’d taken a sudden interest in me when we’d only just met, but before I could say anything more he was gone, moving at that unnatural speed we all possessed. I wasn’t about to follow a vampire I didn’t know I could trust, especially not when I didn’t know how powerful he might be or how big a threat he might pose if he decided to turn on me as well. Fifty miles was nothing to our kind but I was unsure of the wisdom in accepting his invitation. Maybe Lady Sarah would be able to tell me who he was, when I’d calmed down enough to talk to her. But I would worry about the vampires later. I still needed to replenish my energy and I wanted to feed the bloodlust before it faded again and left me empty once more, so I went in search of more prey.
Chapter Fourteen – Stoking the Flames
Already weakened from the brutal transformation the Elder vampire had forced on me, I couldn’t afford to change even halfway again without weakening myself so far as to be helpless if I ran into any more Slayers. Hunting more humans would be risky, but while the anger and bloodlust ruled me I was feeling especially reckless, and in my current mood I would welcome a fight if it came to it. Though a part of me wanted to transform back to a more powerful form, I wasn’t quite reckless enough to waste more energy in doing so until after I’d fed. I would have to kill again as a human, but once I’d eaten I could revel in either my hybrid or full wolf form as I saw fit, for as long as my newfound rage lasted. I couldn’t know how long that would be, so I intended to make the most of it before I fell back into the empty abyss at the core of my being once more.
Despite the fact I was still naked and bloody as I set out from the warehouse for the nearest city, the cold didn’t bother me as much while the fires of the rage burned inside. But as it happened I came across a bin bag full of unwanted
garments which I decided to raid, to make me stand out less as I wandered the streets of the human world if nothing else. I was still on the outskirts in a housing area, and these had been left out on a driveway for a charity collection next morning. I was able to rummage through the discarded clothes without being disturbed, finding a fleecy jacket, shirt and jeans. They fit well enough, though the material still felt strange against my skin as it had when I’d dressed for the first undead gathering Lady Sarah had taken me to. But it would allow me to wander the city more freely so I tolerated the discomfort of wearing them, for the time being. I took consolation in the knowledge that, not only would I soon kill again and find some pleasure in it this time, but also after feeding I could transform again, and there’d be no further need for clothes.
Once I’d dressed I stalked deeper into the city. Even though it must have been the early hours of the morning by that point, there were still people on the streets. None of them paid me much attention so I guess they didn’t notice my bare feet, the blood stained skin that wasn’t covered, or the murderous look in my eyes, which I’d allowed to revert to human again while I walked among them. Some of them were probably too drunk to register anything strange about my appearance, and these I let stagger past unharmed. I didn’t want alcohol to dull the pain I would elicit from my next victim.
As I walked, I had the sudden feeling someone was following me. I paused to listen and scent the air. Nothing. If it had been the Slayers trying to encircle me and ensnare me in another trap I’d have sensed at least a few of them, even if some had been downwind, and their hearts might have given them away – the stronger beat pumping adrenalin round bodies fired up for fight or flight, as opposed to the normal rhythm of the humans ignorant of my true nature. But I detected nothing out of the ordinary, and the street was currently empty as far as my eyes could see.
