Reborn by Blood

by Richard Murray

  “Yeah, I think so.” I said.

  “Then why did he have to kill someone?” Beth asked quietly with an apologetic glance towards me.

  “The amount of energy required to make that first connection and those first changes is phenomenal. You could have taken a smaller amount of blood from a dozen people but the change is so urgent, the need puts you into a frenzy and you take all that you need at once.” Anna said sadly.

  “So why am I not like the others?” I asked. “I don’t feel a need to compel anyone, I don’t feel a need to kill anyone or control them. Why am I different?”

  “You are not that different. The changes are there and in time you will likely grow to be as arrogant and hungry for power as the rest of your brethren. You were an accident though, you were not chosen like the others would have been.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If a Vampire is going to sire another, there is a cost. To create a new Vampire you lose part of your parasite. That small part goes into your chosen human and grows into a full parasite. Your parasite is still diminished though and with it, your strength and speed of healing. If you healed fully in ten seconds before then after siring a Vampire, you would only heal fully in nine seconds.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. To make you a Vampire, Sebastian made himself weaker. That is also why he can compel you; his parasite is still connected to the newborn one within you.”

  “What would happen if you made a dozen new Vampires?” Beth asked.

  “Then the Vampire who did that would be little more than a human and easy to kill.” Anna said, “Which brings us back to choosing.”

  “If you are going to make yourself weaker, you chose someone who has attributes that will help you. You chose the competitive human, the one who wants to be the best, the richest or the most powerful. You want someone who is basically a bastard, so that when they are a Vampire they are a super bastard and you keep them close.” Anna said with a slight smile.

  “Yeah, well no one ever claimed that Ray had too much drive and ambition” Beth said with a low laugh.

  “So it would seem. Which makes it surprising that Sebastian chose to make him a Vampire.” Anna said. “No, Sebastian has his own reasons for doing this and I am concerned as to what they are.”

  “Why are you concerned? You work for him don’t you?” I asked.

  “No. I do not work for him.” Anna said slowly, anger laced her voice. “We have an agreement and that package is part of it.”

  “Sorry” I said quickly, “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Now if you have any more questions, ask them now and then leave me.”

  “Can I break Sebastian’s control over me and how can I stop myself becoming like these other Vampires?” I asked, hopeful for an answer.

  “You can’t.” Anna said, “The hold will remain until he dies and you would have more chance of walking to the moon than being able to raise your hand against your master.”

  “Wonderful, I’m a slave for eternity then.” I said.

  “What about the other thing” Beth asked.

  “The changes have been made and you will find yourself distancing ever further from your humanity. You won’t be able to stop that any more than you could refuse your master.”

  “There must be some way.” Beth said.

  “If he worked at it, at seeing humans as people and not food then perhaps he would have a chance. It wouldn’t be easy and even if he succeeded then Sebastian may notice and decide it is against his plans. He would compel you to do the darkest deeds imaginable just to wipe out that last bit of humanity.” Anna said with sorrow.

  “Well thanks for your time anyway, I better get this back to him.” I said with a nod towards the box in my hand. I didn’t want to hear anymore about how doomed I was.

  “Before you go” Anna said to Beth, “I would like to ask you something.”

  “What?” she asked wearily.

  “Why did he not have to compel you to help him? What makes this all so easy for you to believe?”

  “I don’t know.” Beth said.

  “Please, give me your hand so that I can understand.” Anna said and held her own hands out towards Beth.

  “Ok.” She said and offered up her own hand though she looked uncomfortable.

  Anna took Beth’s hand in her own eagerly and held it for a moment with her eyes closed. When she opened her eyes she had tears forming.

  “Oh child. I am so sorry for what has been done to you.” Anna said softly.

  “I don’t know what you mean” Beth said as she snatched back her hand, her face had lost much of its natural colour.

  “It’s ok...”

  “No. Shut up right now.” Beth said as she stormed from the room.

  “What the hell?” I said.

  “Look after that young lady. If you harm her you will face my wrath.” Anna said before gesturing me to leave.

  With a shake of my head at the absurdity of the whole situation I left the back room and then the shop. I had to squint behind the shades as I opened the door to the outside and stepped out onto the street.

  “Hey, can you take that to Sebastian without me?” Beth asked, “I need a beer.”

  “Sure, you ok?”

  “I’ll be fine. Here, take my phone and you have a spare key to my flat so you can let yourself in. I’ll see you later.” She said as she handed over her phone and headed over to her car, leaving me standing on the pavement as I watched her go.

  Chapter 8

  It occurred to me, as I watched her drive away that I was standing in the centre of Leeds in the middle of the day with no money or transport and still damp trousers. I sent a text to Sebastian’s number asking for a location to drop off the package. I had no real desire to talk to him after everything Anna had just told me.

  The idea that I had a parasite, even a supernatural one was decidedly icky and I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was watching me over my shoulder. I gave an involuntary shudder and glanced down at the phone as it vibrated in my hand.

  It seemed that Sebastian’s address was outside of the city, almost into the countryside which made my lack of transport irritating to say the least. My options were to walk or, the thought occurred that perhaps I could use the compulsion ability to make someone give me a lift.

  Two streets away from the Magik Earth shop; I encountered a middle aged man placing some of his shopping into the boot of a car. He seemed to be alone and the street was fairly quiet so I approached him with as much confidence as I could muster.

  Of course I had no real idea how compulsion would work but Anna had said that it was the first thing that most Vampires learnt, which meant it should be fairly easy. Sebastian had just glanced at Beth and commanded her to be silent and it had worked, which made me think that it was all about willpower.

  I tapped the man on the shoulder and he looked around in annoyance.

  “What do you want?”

  “I want you to give me a lift” I said as firmly as I could.

  “Sorry mate, I have to get home.” The man said with a puzzled look.

  “No you don’t. You will give me a lift” I instructed quite forcefully I thought.

  “Look, sod off will you. I don’t have time for games.”

  “You will do as I command” I insisted as I concentrated as hard as I could on making him obey.

  “Alright mate, I think you need to back off.” The man snapped as he slammed shut the boot of his car and walked around to the driver’s side door.

  “Do as I say” I said with a touch more desperation than willpower.

  “Yeah, whatever mate. You need some help.” He said over his shoulder as he ducked into his car and slammed the door.

  The engine started and the car pulled out and I watched as he drove away and wondered why it hadn’t worked. With little choice, I started walking.

  I was not particularly unfit, though I avoided the gym like any sane ra
tional person would and I had a preference for a beer and a kebab over a salad any day. I still tried to maintain a light exercise regime and at one point I had even been a regular jogger.

  Despite that, an hour into the journey my feet hurt, I was sweating and in need of a sit down.

  In the films and on television shows, the Vampires could run really fast and were never winded. They were incredibly strong and could Jedi mind trick anyone with a wave of the hand. I was starting to resent those shows for raising my expectations.

  The pavement beneath my feet was cracked and dirty, covered in splodges of chewing gum. Sweet wrappers and weeds marked the boundary between pavement and garden wall. The sounds of children at play indicated that school had ended for the day.

  It wouldn’t ordinarily have been a problem or even registered for me, but since I was now almost blind in the bright sunlight and forced to walk carefully anyway, pavements crowded with children were dangerous. I kept nearly tripping over the damn things.

  After the third parent shouted at me for stepping on her little darling child, I ducked down a side street and found a park where I could sit for a little while on a bench until the streets cleared a little.

  Summer was almost over and I assumed that when the days became shorter, life would be a great deal easier. For now though, the late afternoon sun was unpleasantly warm and the tingling on my skin had become an irritation and the faint breeze that touched my face stung as though I had sunburn.

  With a sigh I realised that I needed to get out of the sun and the easiest way to do that would be to complete my task and deliver the package to Sebastian. I pushed myself to my feet and headed back to the road.

  Another hour and a half found me walking down a country road. Although it was narrow it was just about wide enough to allow two cars to pass each other as they went in opposite directions. It did not have a pavement though, just a grass verge that I could walk along.

  Thankfully it had been a dry few days with little rain and the grass beneath my feet was dry and firm. I was listening intently for cars and every time one passed I pressed myself into the dry stone wall that bordered the road.

  It was remarkably terrifying to be almost blind and unable to see the cars coming towards you. I spent a good deal of the walk swearing about why Sebastian had a house so far out of the city.

  I was crossing a low stone bridge over a shallow stream when the car hit me. It was travelling at speed and I was catapulted off the bonnet and over the side of the bridge to land on the sharp rocks in the stream below.

  Consciousness returned and with it the agony of what felt to be a broken arm and several fingers. I could feel the blood leaking from a number of cuts on my face and the cold water was numbing my extremities.

  I had lost the shades somewhere, though the dim light below the bridge allowed me to see that I had lost Beth’s phone and Sebastian’s package was lying in some weeds on the banking. I pulled myself off of the rocks and towards the bank of the stream.

  As I pulled myself onto the banking an ominous growl sounded from the bridge above me. It was deep and guttural and raised the hairs on the back of my neck as some primeval part of my brain started gibbering in terror at the sound.

  I felt more than heard the thump as something big and heavy landed on the banking just beyond the bridge, out in the sunlight where I was unable to see properly. My heart was beating faster and my breaths were coming in shallow gasps as I pressed myself up against the coarse sandstone bricks of the bridge.

  The growl sounded again, closer and I cast desperately around for a weapon of some sort. With little to choose from I bent down and grabbed a sizeable rock from the river. As I stood upright I came face to face with a creature of epic proportions.

  It was crouched on all fours with thick brown fur covering much of its body; it was almost five feet tall at the shoulder and looked to be pure muscle. Its canine face turned towards me with eyes that glittered golden in the sunlight reflected from the water.

  Sharp white teeth showed as it growled once more, low and dangerous. It glanced at the rock in my hand with what I could swear was contempt before looking straight back at me.

  My knees were weak and I am sure that the trembling in my limbs was not just from the shock of being hit by a car. I raised the rock anyway, my only defence as against the beast I faced. A final bark that sounded almost like a laugh before it leapt at me.

  Blood sprayed over the wall beside me as the beasts teeth tore through my clothes and flesh. Pain exploded through my body with each rake of the sharp claws. The rock fell from nerveless fingers before I even had chance to swing it and I screamed.

  I lay on my back and stared into the beast’s malice filled gaze as it pressed me into the ground with one front paw and slowly, oh god so slowly, ripped apart the flesh of my torso with its other.

  Finally as I screamed out for death the creature released me. It lowered its muzzle to the crimson life force gushing from my wounds and sniffed. I watched through pain filled gaze as it turned and picked up the package in its jaws before bounding away and out of sight.

  My limbs wouldn’t seem to work no matter how I tried and all I could do was lie on the cool riverbank beneath the bridge and weep with pain and fear until I lost consciousness.

  Chapter 9

  A man’s voice roused me and I lay in the darkness beneath the bridge and whimpered quietly. Every part of my body was awash with pain. It took a tremendous amount of will to just open my eyes and stare up at the stones that formed the bridge.

  The man, whoever he may be, was speaking excitedly into a mobile phone and since he was so close to where I lay, I could only assume that he was telling the police that he had found my body. I didn’t need the police anywhere near me as I had no way of explaining why I wasn’t dead.

  I clenched my teeth against the pain and tried to move my arms to no avail. The damage done by the creature was too much. The muscles of my arms and legs were shredded and no matter what commands my brain sent, they refused to move.

  With an extreme effort I managed to lift my head enough to see beyond the bridge. A man stood on the river bank with his back to me. He had one hand holding a phone pressed against his ear while he made wide gestures with the other.

  He had thick wellington boots on with his trousers tucked into them. Mud – at least I hoped it was just mud – covered the boots. His coat looked warm and waterproof as well as expensive. I figured him to be a local out for an evening walk.

  I tried to speak but no legible words came out and it occurred to me that the damage to my throat must be just as bad as the rest of my sorry carcass. I let my head drop back to the ground and continued to stare up at the bridge above me.

  From what Anna had told me, as well as the little I had read in Sebastian’s book my nasty little parasite would be trying to heal my body and perhaps the only reason I wasn’t dead was because it was keeping me on this side of death. The dreadful thirst that underlay the pain of my wounds indicated that it wanted or perhaps needed fresh blood.

  It was hard to concentrate through the pain but since I was unable to move, I needed to find some other way to get some blood before I ended up on an autopsy table.

  I lifted my head and stared at the man who was still speaking on his phone and not even giving me the courtesy of looking at my corpse. I frowned as I tried to will the man to put down his phone and walk over to me.

  After several minutes of frowning and straining the man still steadfastly refused to move. I dropped my head back to the ground with a thump and a groan.

  “Good lord! I think he’s alive.” The man said to whoever he was speaking to. I managed to lift my head enough to see him looking across at me.

  I tried to speak and little more than a gurgle emerged from my mouth before the strain of holding my head up became too much and I dropped it back down.

  The man ran across to me and knelt beside my damaged body. He had a kind face and I could see that he was an older man, perh
aps in his late fifties. He cradled my head in his hands as he leaned close.

  “How on earth are you still alive?” he asked before continuing, perhaps knowing that I couldn’t answer. “I’ve called the police, they are on their way. They’ll bring an ambulance too.”

  I tried to speak but no words could come out. He leaned closer to try and hear and I desperately wanted him to lean in close enough that my fangs could reach him.

  “Its ok lad, we’ll get you help.” He said before muttering, “Come on, where are you.”

  Since I assumed he meant the police, I really didn’t want to know the answer. I strained that much more as I tried to lift my head a little further, or perhaps an arm.

  “Don’t try and speak, save your strength. God, how are you alive...” he trailed off as the faintest sound of sirens could be heard in the distance.

  Whatever happened I didn’t want to be lying here when the police arrived and something told me that Sebastian would be furious if I were. He had set fire to my flat because a small amount of blood may have been there to link me to the dead teen.

  Now you would have to walk a dozen feet in every direction from where I lay to not be touching my blood. With mounting panic I strained even harder to get some movement from my limbs and succeeded in doing little more than thrashing around in the old man’s arms.

  “Hey now, stop that before you do yourself some harm” the man muttered as he leant forward to try and hold me still, which put his neck and that beautiful glowing artery with striking distance of my fangs.

  He may have screamed as I bit into his neck, I didn’t notice, I wouldn’t have noticed if a bomb had gone off beside me as the warmth filled my mouth and suffused my body with a pleasure that surpassed anything I had ever experienced.

  With every gulp of his blood I could feel heat within my battered frame as my Vampiric parasite, perhaps sensing my need for haste was forcibly repairing the damage to my body. The pain increased as muscles, tendons and flesh knitted together. My broken bones twisted of their own accord and fused back as one.