Vampire Storm (Volume 1 : The Hurricane Journals)

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  As I recall it, it was as normal a night as any other in this southernmost swamp of this newly founded province of Louisiana, no reason for me to think otherwise. It was just after midnight, the birthing of a new day, September 22nd, 1722, and I was simply minding my own business, like I always was, looking for something that I had lost track of quite some time ago.

  I had only just recently made my way, getting lost after following some fresh tracks that I’d found along the banks of a mighty river that cut through this newly found land from top to bottom, The Mighty Mississippi, they would come to call it, to a swamp near the end of it all.

  I’m not even sure if it had a name at that time, the river or the slowly building settlement hidden within that crescent swamp. But either way, that’s where I was, on the edges of that, as of yet, unnamed mortal settlement that hugged the northern tip of a wide crescent as it curved the great river east and then south before its final miles out to sea, like a wild snake carving through the land.

  It was a sight to behold, that river, before they contained it with their levees… murderous yet magnificent, monstrous and wild, its sheer power at times simply breathtaking, as were its depths at all times. Its current was like a thousand cold and suffocating hands, splashing and crashing violently, up and down as it churned constantly southward. But while speaking of cold and suffocating hands, that brings me to the claimants of this new land, the mortals.

  And I can’t even stand the sound of it… mortal.

  I even hate the way it is spelled, though it may be the best way to describe them – not words like cruel or hateful, although both would apply, just… mortal.

  They welter quickly and break easily.

  Those letters, when placed together in that order, translate a natural death, one brought on by nothing more than time, which I suppose is normal to them. But they should be given a much more degrading name because of all the hurt they’ve inflicted upon the Mother Earth… maybe something like big dumb ape! I think that would be fitting.

  She suffers now because of them, Earth does… and in turn, she will always cause them torment. But now I’m just getting ahead of myself. Let me just say that… they are creatures that I am not particularly fond of. In my horribly humble opinion, they are horrid creations… cruel hearted, hateful, greed filled, ill minded, spite driven, war hungry, horribly dressed, murderous souls… just downright disgusting little animals. But I am sure you already know that.

  These particular mortals, though, the ones colonizing the swamp, were French settlers migrated from the old world to establish their own colonies here in this new one. They were claiming it before anyone else could, just like their greed always forced them to do, ignoring those that already called it home. And then, just like always, they will fight over it. But that would be me getting ahead of myself again. For the time being, they simply built shoddy little shacks and huts to mark it as their territory. They even built a nice sized church. And it, of all they had built, was where most of their time had been spent. They put more time into building that thing than anything else, for whatever reason.

  What strange creatures they were, indeed. And as one of them crossed in front of my line of sight, his head turned sharply to the side, suddenly startled.

  He’d heard something. And so had I.

  It was a scream coming from the not too far off distance, cutting through the warm night air and catching both of our attentions. But while he ignored it and went about his own business, carrying with him a pale of fish that he would probably go and cook for his family, I moved to investigate.

  Leaving him behind, I ducked into the darkness of the tree line alongside the river, slowly and quietly making my way forward, towards the noise, hiding within the shadows that the moonlit swamp provided. The mud squished beneath my feet, but I worked to balance my weight as best as I could, distributing it properly to make the least amount of noise.

  As I grew closer, the sounds of struggle became more apparent. More screams were followed by muffled speaking.

  “Stay down, bitch, and hold still!!!” A man’s deep voice shouted. He wasn’t speaking English, but I am more than happy to translate. Another voice quickly followed his, saying, “Hurry up, damn it! We’re going to get caught!” This voice trembled, the words almost squeaking their way out of his mouth.

  That voice was clearly nervous.

  “You shut your damn mouth!” The deep voice countered, “You had your turn, kid. Now don’t rush me!”

  I could hear a woman’s voice beneath his, pleading in her English dialect, “Please stop! Please… no more!”

  Then I heard a third man’s voice. “You keep your mouth shut, whore!” He growled at her before smiling and telling her in pure English, “You haven’t even met me, yet!”

  I could see them now, on the river bank at the water’s edge. I saw the man atop the woman, her bare skin being animalized by the wicked thrusts of his hips between hers, and two more of them standing next to them, just watching, a young boy and an older man.

  The older man was watching intently, stroking himself like some kind of sick animal would if it had limbs to do so. That is all these humans were, anyway, just sick animals that were too smart for their own damn good. The young one, though, was terrified. I could see the fear in his eyes as he looked from side to side, afraid of being caught by whatever god he hid from. I could have killed them all where they stood, in that instant, giving their kind exactly what it deserved for all the years of injustice they had given to this world and all the creatures upon it. But this was not my fight, not my place to get involved. I had searched in silence for too long to speak up now, and I was closer than ever before.

  I could feel it.

  I had noticed something off to my left, something that was hiding just as I was, but did not notice me. I froze where I stood, unwilling to reveal myself just yet. And to my complete amazement, there it was, just what I’d been looking for, the creature I had lost track of back in 1717, when my reaction to realizing it was missing prompted my love to leave my side. I had halted out efforts towards our destiny to hunt it down, an importance that she could not yet see, and she decided to follow me no longer.

  She felt it a useless piece to the puzzle we were attempting to build, a statement that I refuted by chasing after it instead of her, and now, completely by accident, by sheer chance, or maybe it was no more than fate’s design… either way, I had found him at last.

  Four years of strenuous searching, endless heartbreak, following unknown trails, taking directions from tribes of natives that I could hardly communicate with, from the frozen tundra of the north to the sweltering burn of the south, it had all led me to this very moment, the exact patch of mud my feet were now stuck within, when I could watch one of the rarest creatures alive on this Earth hunt with my own two eyes.

  All the pain that my lost love left behind was gone. Suddenly there was only relief, and maybe a bit of restlessness along with it. Regardless, though, there was no need for me to get involved, none at all. I only had to watch now. I was at that moment freed from my search, and my studies could thus resume.

  My love would have to wait. There was no choice in that. From that moment on, just as it was planned, I was merely there to observe, to watch this… this spectacle of nature… that I had been following from the frozen peak of this land to the deep hot swamps of its southern tip, where I found him once again.

  He silently stepped towards them, not too far away from where I was crouched in the bushes, the young boy catching his motion out of the corner of his eye. He froze as his eyes darted from side to side, searching for what he could have seen. After a moment passed, however, he realized that there was nothing else around that fit the height of the movement he saw, and came to the quick conclusion that it had to be someone sneaking around in the swamp.

  “Somebody’s here, guys.” The young one said in a near panic to the other two.

  The man that was on the woman s
tood up. After putting his pants back on and looking around, he turned back to the boy. “There isn’t anybody anywhere.” He groaned. “Now shut up and stop being so damn paranoid!”

  The woman was trying to slide away, but the older man stopped her by putting his boot upon her chest, right between her bare breasts. “You aren’t going anywhere, missy.” He said under his heavy breath. “Like I said before, you haven’t even met me yet.”

  But the darkened figure had already made his move by the time the old man had finished his sentence, reaching out and grabbing the middle aged ‘gentleman’ by his long blonde locks and pulling his head closer to him, ready to feed. The mortals bone structure, though, was much weaker than the shadowy figure had expected, and he wound up ripping the man’s head right off, taking half the spinal cord with it as he nearly lost his balance. His attack became awkward as he swung around with the head still in his hands, knocking the young boy straight in the face with what was left of his friend. As the young boy screamed, the stupefied stranger was left with the blonde wig of his friend gripped tightly within his grasp as he stumbled backwards. The boy’s shrill had startled him, and he nearly tripped over the nude woman on the ground, but he stopped himself from falling with an outreached hand around the boy’s neck, pulling himself towards him.

  The third man finally turned around as he felt and saw the blood raining down upon him, only to see someone, or something, ripping into the throat of the boy. It looked human, but there was something vicious, something cold about the figure that separated him from them.

  There was nothing human about this unknown figure, nothing at all.

  “What the hell is this!!!?” The mortal yelled out, stumbling back over the naked woman to fall on his ass.

  The boy was tossed into the dirt beside her, bloodied, his throat torn open and eyes left wide, staring right at the old man’s feet. The old man’s eyes then turned upward to meet those of the killer, who, with blood running down his chin and staining his chest, sent a cold chill straight up the man’s spine with his mere glance. He stunk of fear as the blood stained figure bent down towards him and growled in a low and painful voice from behind the black hair that hung like vines to shroud his face, “I guess you must not have met me yet.”

  A demonic grin split across his face just as he leapt over the body of the boy and the crying woman and sunk his extended fangs deep into the man’s neck, taking from him the life force that kept him alive as he lifted him up to his feet, the blood rolling down his shoulder glistening in the moonlight.

  The old man vibrated with terror as he went into shock and lost all consciousness, but was drained until his blood began to taste strangely sour, almost sickly, and the body was then dropped down next to the river as the bloody hero fell back onto the rocks beside it in exhaustion. He must not have been used to taking on so much rich blood, such as that of the mortals, as it seemed to leave him throbbing with energy. But an acrid taste seemed to be left behind in his mouth as he spat into the water, one that he seemed to ignore.

  Blood soaked the rocks along the river’s edge as he sat along them, the bodies of his victims surrounding him. The woman then stood up cautiously, keeping her eyes on the strange new being basked in her assailant’s crimson red blood. She covered up her breasts with one arm and wrapped a piece of her torn clothing around her waist as she walked ever so respectfully over to the strange man sitting on the rocks beside her, the strange man that had just saved her life.

  She then spoke nervously. “I don’t know who… or what you are… but… I have to thank you.” She spoke softly to him despite her nerves, her head lowered in a show of shame. Her savior, though, just looked up at her with puzzlement upon his face, but not because of the way she was acting. It seemed as if he was not quite sure what she was telling him.

  The woman then dropped down to her knees and tears began to fall into her hands as she covered her face. “Those men would have killed me,” she cried, grateful to this mysterious savior, “And you saved my life. You saved my life! Thank you!”

  With curiosity, he looked into her teary brown eyes, ignoring completely her exposed breasts that she was so quick to cover up again, and smiled, realizing what she was telling him despite the clear language barrier. “Oh, no,” he said to her as he sat up and reached out to stroke her face, wiping away the strange wetness upon it. “Do not thank me for saving your life.” He told her softly. “I have done no such thing.”

  The woman looked at him strangely, still more worried with covering herself up than anything else. “What… what are you saying?” She asked with curious wide eyes, trying to push away the sudden brushes of fear tingling throughout her flesh.

  The stranger smiled brightly towards her, showing clearly the two fangs that were extended down from his gums, overlapping his canine teeth. “I have merely saved you for last.” And with that, he grabbed her by the back of the head and pulled her into his tightening grasp, her face showing the sudden fright that she felt. But not a sound was made as he sunk those fangs deep into her neck, piercing through her pale white flesh and lifting her up off the ground to better drain her of her sweet crimson life, it tasting so much better than that of the old man and the boy. The rush from it was so intense he could not even release her from his arms. He wanted to suck out every last ounce of it, finding no reason to let such fine blood go to waste.

  But then, just as suddenly as he had leapt forth from the bushes, two hands grabbed him by the shoulders from behind and flung him high up into the air with a mighty show of strength. The woman fell from his grasp to crumple onto the ground in a heap of tattered skin as he flew backwards through the air, almost grasping towards the delicate flesh that was being wasted right before his eyes.

  He must’ve been twenty feet up and thirty feet away when he finally regained his bearings in mid air, realizing he was now being attacked by an unknown assailant, and back flipped out of the fall to land on a foot and one knee, skidding back through the mud and rocks some fifty feet away from where he’d been thrown.

  He lifted up his head, flinging back his night-black hair from his face to see whoever it was that had thrown him. Because whoever it was, they had shown him a strength that he had never felt before. It made him ever so curious.

  As his eyes focused, he saw, standing about twenty yards away, three figures alongside the river; a large male, muscles bulging, tattered blonde hair swiping at his shoulders, a small male, his form more sleek than anything, with his brown hair slicked back tight across his skull, and the slender figure of a female, her stance bold but unthreatening, eager but at the same time cautious. Her blood red hair was shining brightly in the moonlight and bouncing lightly behind her in the wind, standing out as the most clearly visible feature he could see from his distance.

  The lone stranger to this new and unknown land stood up quickly after assessing the situation. He thought he had them figured out as soon as he got to his feet, and he recklessly began to charge them. Feeling threatened, he was reacting on instinct alone and showing no fear to his new opponents. But before he could even set his first step upon the ground, just as his back foot was rising up off the dirt, the small figure was in his face, smiling at him as he smacked him back down to the ground with a swift and surprisingly powerful right hand!

  He was dropped onto his ass and slid backwards by the impact, but recovered quickly and got right back to his feet. By the time he looked up to fight back, though, which only took a moment, all three figures were stiil standing together off in the distance.

  Instead of taking up a logical defensive stance, though, his instincts thrust him back into action. He began to charge forward again. But before the second of his steps even hit the ground, the same fist slammed into his face again.

  He didn’t even see it coming, even though he should have expected it, and nor did he know who had thrown it. He did manage to keep himself standing that time, however, and by the time his head spun back around, the three figures were still stan
ding in their same positions, twenty yards away.

  He shook away his dizziness, asking no questions as he charged forward yet again, only this time he noticed the movement he’d been missing. It happened quickly, hardly even noticeable at all, but the small figure suddenly vanished before his eyes. Then, within that same second, his fist was once again slamming into the intruder’s face. That time, the punch dropped him to one knee.

  He was quickly back up, though, one hand on his jaw and the other held in a fist out in front of him, only to find himself staring back at the same three figures, still standing twenty yards away.

  Little did he know it at the time, but these were no mere mortals that he was dealing with. These were three powerful and skilled Witches. And not any ‘pointy-nosed, mole-faced, broomstick witches’ that Hollywood likes to throw around either, but instead, the species known as Wicca Urth Dawnicus, beings that had been evolving on this Earth long before human kind had ever even found their way into the trees in the first place.

  They called themselves many things, Willborn, Warwalker, Waken, and their evolution took many paths at once, Wizards, Warlocks, Sorcerers, but there was one thing that they all had in common, through blood relation, through genetic code, they were all Witches. They were all connected to that element of the universe that humans were not, the realm of physics that mortals just simply couldn’t grasp. Each witch had a vast understanding of the energy fields that covered the Earth, and filled each being upon it. Anything that breathed life, or produced energy of any sort, the witches had the ability to access that energy supply at will, as well as much, much more.

  One of these witches standing opposite my find was familiar to me, very familiar. Her name was Jade Tytanicus, and she was the daughter of the legendary elder witch Katrina Tytanicus, who was a former member of the Elder’s High Council, and whose story is for another time.

  This is the story of how her daughters’ quest for power collided with a lost soul’s journey for knowledge, and they were just about to meet each other.

  Earlier in the night, I had seen Jade speaking to several of her superiors. A storm was coming at them from the south, you see, and a very large storm, one with enough power for them to sense its approach many days in advance. But weeks before that, they began sensing something far more powerful than even that storm, coming from the north. They had no way of knowing what it could have been. All they knew was that there was no witch or wizard currently alive that could generate such immense power.

  They became curious.

  Maybe another storm was coming?

  A storm that powerful, though, from the north, made no sense. As the witches understood it, storms like that needed time to generate such power, time that the land would not allow, so as it grew closer, coming within a few miles of their hideaway, they sent Jade to find out what it was.

  Jade was one of the more powerful witches among them, having a bloodline that ran pure, all the way back to beyond ancient times, to the ‘Time Before Time’. Not many witches left alive could say that. That was why she had been given the task of finding the source of that power, and finding it was exactly what she had done. It led her right to this creature, this Vampire, and no, he did not sparkle. She knew what all the legends said, what all witches believed, that vampires could never be trusted, that they would always create war, but this was the first one she’d seen in this new land of theirs, the land that they so luckily found after being forced out of the Old World. And besides the battle that had forced them out of their old home, this was the first vampire she had seen in millennia.

  Now she too was curious.

  She wanted to know who he was and why he was there. She wished to learn from him. There were many questions she wished she could ask him, or any vampire for that matter, most of which pertained to that night, that battle five years before, when they were banished from that home of theirs. But at the end of the day, she knew she only had one choice, one option, one solution… and that was to kill him.

  Instead of charging recklessly once again, this time the vampire stood perfectly still, waiting for someone else to make the first move. Even at such a young age and with no training whatsoever, he was learning when to react to someone stronger than himself. The witch, Jade, could have put any number of spells on such an unsuspecting victim from where she was standing. But, then again, from where she was standing, this was a vampire that already knew how to counter each and every one of those spells, a seasoned assassin.

  This vampire, though, was anything but that.

  After a few long moments of silence without action, he finally made his move, one that showed his inexperience. As soon as his shoulders turned, the small one disappeared again, and I was ready to watch that fist slam back into the vampire’s face. But the vampire was ready for it this time, surprising everyone by catching on so quickly to the game they were playing with him. On this third attempt, he slid in the dirt to stop his forward momentum, keeping his vision spread out in all directions, and then reached out his arm. His hand then wrapped tight around the throat of the small figure as he blinked suddenly into view.

  The eyes of the little warlock opened up wide with fear, no, not fear, not quite. But to the senses of a vampire, it was close enough. He began to feed off of that emotion, letting it drive his reflexes. He was ready to rip that little throat in two, and he would have done exactly that had it not been for the witch. With the wave of her arm, the air around the vampire whipped him across the face and punched him in the gut, all at once, like one big wall of water!

  The vampire was thrown back, releasing his grip on the warlock, who then began chasing after him as he flew back through the air. The vampire watched the little warlock dart behind him as he rolled over himself in the dirt, and then felt the point of his knee as it was driven into his lower back in mid-roll. The vampire bent backwards from the shot, allowing the warlock to stretch around him and send one hard hammer-fist down into his chest, dropping him into the dirt. Everything happened in a flash, the little warlock hardly even able to be seen. The vampire recovered quickly and tried to stand, but was held down by a tiny foot pressed down against his throat.

  The vampire groaned in anger as he grabbed the warlock’s foot and yanked it out from under him, wasting no motion. As the warlock hit the ground, his leg was being tied up by the now standing vampire. The bloodless one had the warlock by the ankle, wrapping one arm around his leg and slipping the other through it, grabbing the toe of his boot and then using his own forearm for leverage as he began to twist. The warlock was clearly in pain, the tendons in his foot popping slowly, but never did he let out even as much as a yelp of displeasure. The vampire was ready to completely shatter the ankle of the warlock when he was again hit by a massive gust of air sent forth by the witch.

  The vampire was thrown over top of the warlock, but managed to hold onto his ankle, bending his leg as he was toppled, cracking it and twisting it in a very awkward way. As soon as the vampire hit the ground, though, shoulder first, his grip was released and the warlock quickly slithered away. The vampire was face down in the dirt for a moment as the warlock stood up and began limping towards him, dragging his now injured foot. He heard him inching closer, his limp foot grinding against the rocks, and he flipped over onto his back as he spun himself around, instantly kicking the warlock’s legs out from under him. The little warlock hit the ground with a thud, straight onto his back, as the vampire stood tall, driving his foot hard into his gut as he catapulted off of him and started charging towards the other two figures. He saw the witch wave her hand and got smacked again with a gust of air, the shot focused solely on his face, and it flipped him over sideways.

  The vampire hit the ground face first, followed by his chest and finally his legs. After shaking himself off, he simply looked up at the witch from the ground and let a smirk cross his lips as he pushed himself back up, showing her that he was indeed enjoying himself. As he charged again, she saw it only fitting to smile back at him, a
nd then she waved her arm once more. This time, though, the vampire rolled to the opposite side of her movement, dodging the invisible air being thrown at him, which was very impressive for someone who didn’t even understand the physics behind what was happening.

  His roll hardly made him break stride as he continued his break for the both of them. Jade then waved her arm again, but this time it was to order the giant figure on her right to attack. His muscle-bound body all but obscured the moon behind them as the giant silhouette stepped out in front of the witch, but the vampire never backed down.

  He wasn’t hesitant of the larger opponent. Instead, he ran straight at him, almost as if he was used to fighting foes bigger than himself, and he easily dodged the first swing from the giant arm, sliding backwards in the dirt as it swung in front of him. He then ran right for him and leapt straight up into the air, a fist rising above his head as he did, preparing to strike… but he was swatted away like a fly before he could even make contact with the large warlock’s face.

  After that strike, the vampire was sent skidding into the dirt, sliding to a stop fifteen feet away. But he was back on his feet in an instant, raising the eyebrow of the witch. And upon getting back up, after wiping away the dripping blood from his chin, he was ready to charge again… but the upraised hand of the witch stopped him.

  “Wait!” She shouted out as loud as her voice would carry, calling a halt to the action. She allowed her voice to sink in for a moment before stepping out from around the giant warlock, giving the vampire a better look at her in the moonlight, and she gazed upon this new foe of hers.

  The vampire, though, stared right back at her, his knees suddenly trembling with a feeling unfamiliar to his bones. Her figure stood before him as if molded by a god. A long slender blade was strapped to her side, her dress tight around her body, solid black. It extended out slightly below her waist and frayed edges hung down loose to her ankles. Her shoulders were naked, her breasts pushed upwards, and long sleeves of lace wrapped around her hands and stretched up her arms, beyond her elbows. And her dark red hair waved up and down with the breeze behind the look of curiosity that covered her face.

  “So now that you see that I am clearly not dressed for battle, tell me,” she began to ask, demanding an answer with the tone of her voice, “Why are you here?”

  The vampire seemed confused, as if he wasn’t used to answering questions. He merely shrugged his shoulders and responded with a question of his own, “Why did you attack me?”

  “Because you are a vampire,” the witch answered him simply.

  That response seemed to confuse him even further. He repeated the word several times in his own mind, unsure of what it meant, before asking aloud, “A what?”, having no idea what he was getting accused of being.

  “Do not play ignorant with me, vampire,” Jade snapped at him, waving her finger back and forth, “We saw you feeding. You cannot hide from us what you are.”

  But the vampire could only shake his head as he asked her, “How can I be hiding something that I don’t even know of?”

  He spoke with honesty, confusing the witch. But after thinking about it for a minute, she shook her head as well, responding with, “I cannot believe that you do not know of yourself. I would be a fool to believe that.”

  “Well, maybe I’m the fool, then.” The vampire laughed before getting serious again. “Look, whatever you think, it isn’t what I was doing. If this is your food here, that’s fine, I can just leave. You just have to let me pass, and trust me… I will not bother you again, ever.”

  Jade looked at him strangely for a moment, but then began to shake her head again, allowing a sinister grin to lift up her lips. “I am sorry, vampire… but I cannot do that.”

  The small warlock was right behind the vampire, and the vampire knew it. He had heard his limp leg being dragged across the dirt the entire way. And he also knew, from that last comment, that they had no intention of letting him go free. So, finding no other options, he spun himself around without another word and kicked the warlock right in the injured ankle, dropping him again to the ground. But as he spun back around, he was chopped down himself by the huge fist of the other warlock. He fell onto his side and scrambled to his feet, getting out of the way of the second fist as it came crashing down into the dirt behind him. Then, with the large warlock clearly off balance, the vampire lunged forward and smashed him in the jaw with his extended fist.

  As the impact knocked him backwards, staggering him, the vampire very quickly followed that punch with another, this one right to the gut of the behemoth. In response, though, as the huge warlock curled over from the shot, he grabbed the vampire by the head with one hand and balled the other into a fist. And to detail the enormity of this warlock, as he punched the vampire, his fist covered his entire face, with the knuckle of his pinky touching the vampire’s forehead, and the knuckle of his index finger just under his chin.

  The vampire was knocked back with intense force, putting him at the feet of the injured warlock, who had just stood back up.

  As the small warlock reached down, the vampire kicked upwards with his feet from his back. His feet, though, slipped just to the left of the warlock’s face, and the sound of his injured foot dragging in the dirt sounding his evasion as the vampire had his legs snatched up and slammed down onto the rocks near the river’s edge.

  His knee caps smashed against the jagged stones, payback for the injury he’d given the warlock only a few moments before. As he moved to push himself back up, the ground literally exploded in front of him, throwing him to the furthest edges of the rocks, inches away from the rushing water. He couldn’t help but glance down at the raging current, only inches from his face, as a single droplet of sweat tumbled from his brow and disappeared into the river.

  As the vampire wiped away his nerves, it took him only a few seconds to scramble back up the river bank, right towards the little guy, unsure of what had happened to get him that close to the river but sure of how dangerous it was to be that close to it. One wrong step could easily be anyone’s last, and he understood that better than most. He had tossed many corpses into its depths, the bodies of those that had fed him along his journey south, and he assured himself that he would not be the next.

  Upon stumbling back into the dirt, away from the rocks, the vampire was greeted with a sudden and swift kick to the back of his left knee. It knocked him off balance and sent him down onto his back again. Luckily, though, he found himself right next to the limp leg of the warlock. So, with nothing else to do, he balled his hand into a fist and punched the little guy right in his injured ankle. With a pop, his leg buckled. And then with a few hops, the warlock stumbled away, seemingly thwarted.

  This gave the vampire enough time to stand back up, but only to be snatched up from behind once again by the larger of his foes. The little warlock then hopped back around, trying to ignore the pain that shot up his leg with each step he took, and he began throwing out fists in rapid succession. The vampire was beaten in the face at least eight times without it ever looking like the little warlock even moved his arms away from his sides. After the quick beat-down, the big warlock lifted the vampire up into the air, ready to slam him down hard, but the vampire somehow wiggled free of his grasp and slipped behind him. He was still a bit dazed, though, and had no counter for the little warlock as he shot between the legs of his larger counterpart and connected across his chin with a looping left hook.

  With the vampire now staggered, Jade snapped off the branch of a nearby tree. With one stroke of her hand, the branch became cleaned of all leaves and its tip sharpened. She then tossed it over to the little warlock, who snatched it out of the air. The vampire just looked over at him with weary eyes, his arms raised lazily in front of him. He was doing all he could just to keep himself standing. The power of those punches was like nothing he’d ever combated before, that was evident in his posture. He had been confident at first, standing up straight, but now he was slumped over, becoming unsure
of how to defeat these two. Thus the dagger being waved at him, which should have served as the ultimate threat for a vampire, instilled in their DNA, it hardly even got his attention. He was more concerned with taking that big guy down. The little one was hardly even taken as a threat, despite his wooden dagger.

  So as the big guy began to circle around the vampire, drawing his attention, the little one struck. He lunged forward with the wooden shard, only to get snatched around the wrist. As he and the vampire struggled for control, though, the big one came in from behind and wrapped him up in a bear hug, pinning his arms up against his sides.

  The skinny little warlock showed no emotion at all as he stabbed down once more. The vampire, however, with his eyes locked on the wooden shard, kicked off the ground to lift himself up a bit. Then, while still wrapped up in the bulging arms of the large warlock, he knocked the little guy back with two solid feet to the chest. As the vampire’s feet hit the ground once more, he slid straight down to escape the large warlock’s grasp. But as he popped back up, it was only to see the blur of a dagger stabbing down at him, and with no time to think about reacting, in a purely defensive reaction, he simply stuck out his fist to defend himself.

  And the little warlock, to his complete surprise, slammed right into it, face first, sending the dagger free from his grasp and flipping through the air. As it left the little warlock’s hand, the big guy started snatching at it, which left his right side wide open, and the vampire saw it.

  With a hop to add a bit of momentum, he drove the point of his elbow deep in between the thick ribs of the large warlock, crumpling him over in pain as the dagger hit the ground. Then, instead of capitalizing on the situation, after picking up the sharpened wood from the dirt, he turned to face the clearly surprised witch.

  “Is this what you were trying to do?” He asked as he plunged the wooden shard hard into the front side of his own left shoulder, not flinching in the slightest bit as it was stabbed into his flesh. He held it there for a moment as he held the witch’s gaze, a smile twisting his lips upwards as he did, and then ripped it out to toss it aside, allowing the blood to squirt and ooze from his self inflicted wound.

  She didn’t seem fazed at all, however, keeping her arms steady at her sides. If anything, she seemed anxious, and maybe a bit confused by his placement of the dagger, just inches away from his own heart, but mostly anxious, her fingers twitching, waiting to react, wanting to react. The wind was still gently blowing her blood red hair behind her, whipping it to and from her back as her head tilted to the side in silent question.

  The vampire’s thick black bangs were hanging down into his face, being blown back and forth with each deep breath he exhaled. Neither of his fangs was extended, showing he had no intention of feeding upon them, but both of his arms were held in front of him, hands closing into fists, ready to act. The veins of his forehead were protruding outward with aggression, pulsating in excitement, throbbing red like a river of molten lava tumbling down from a volcano. They each met each other’s gaze for a mere instant, and then both sprung forward at once, in unison, each eager to test their might upon the other. And in one spectacular, brilliant moment of explosive aggression, they both went at each other, the vampire and the witch.

  Fists were being thrown and knocked away so fast that it was hard to keep up. The air whooshed with the speed at which every attack was being thrown, and despite that speed at which those attacks were being thrown, none of them were landing successfully. His right hand would be knocked away by her left as he slid his head over to dodge her right, and then their fists would collide and send out huge shockwaves of energy, nothing that could be seen easily, but the air around them would actually vibrate with every impact, trembling with each collision, shaking the leaves on the trees above them and kicking up dirt from the ground at their feet. He would duck a kick and throw a wild one of his own, only for her to block it with her extended arm, and more violent thrusts of invisible energy would explode outward.

  He pushed himself to a limit he never knew he had, his concentration peaked. The look on his face was one of sheer determination, wanting ever so badly to just get this witch out of his way. But the look on the witch’s face was quite the opposite, filled with pure shock as she was utterly baffled by every aspect of his fighting style… the way he moved, how he attacked… as if death wasn’t a factor at all. And the surprising strength that he exhibited, it was a strength she wasn’t sure she would be able to conquer, which was something she wasn’t used to believing was possible, and it was that shock, and those thoughts, that played a major role in her concentration being broken. She went right, moving her right arm to block, when she should have gone left, and got hammered across the face with a looping right hand.

  The shot crumpled her to her knees, one punch, and the reverberation of its impact had the air trembling around them. She was actually dazed for a long moment, leaving open a chance for the vampire to attack… but he never even made a move. Thus, in response, Jade lifted herself back up and, in one fluid motion, back-handed him across the face. From left to right, her knuckles clattered against his jaw, spinning his head sideways.

  He whipped it back towards her instantly, his hair being flung from right to left, and their eyes locked together. He could have easily responded in turn, but decided against it. Instead, the vampire simply started pacing around her, sniffing the air. He was noticing that her scent was very unique, like nothing else he’d ever sensed before, even when he compared it to the scent of the two warlocks, and that was because it was unique. It was the scent of the ‘blood beyond time’, which was the powerful witch bloodline that Jade had inherited, one known as Tytanicus. It would normally cause any vampire to drool over the mere thought of it, although it was rumored to kill any that drank of it, but this vampire reacted very differently. At first he seemed shaken by it, but never taken aback, and then he seemed to simply ignore it, which was very surprising.

  “I’m leaving,” He told her simply, and then began walking away.

  But her loudening laughter stopped him where he stood. “Did you truly believe this to be that simple?” She asked as she pointed down the river bank. “Did you really think that one punch would grant your escape?”

  The vampire shrugged his shoulders as he turned back around, not surprised by her response at all. “On any other occasion, absolutely,” he told her in all of his honesty.

  “Well, this is clearly not just any other occasion,” Jade spoke wryly, turning her finger towards him, “And you are clearly not just any other vampire.”

  “Why do you keep calling me that?” He asked as he groaned in aggravation.

  Jade just looked at him with an odd smirk, staring at him for a good minute. “And that may be the strangest part. Normally I would never fall for such a simpleminded trick… but…” She began to look his face over as her words trailed away, searching for any signs of deceit. “But I can find no signs of doubt,” She mumbled as she shook her head. “You seem… confused more than anything else.” Her arms then folded as she asked him, “You really don’t know… do you?”

  He didn’t say anything. He just shook his head, dropping his arms to his sides and opening up his palms to try and show that he meant them no harm.

  “You could have attacked me a moment ago. Why didn’t you?” asked the witch.

  The vampire again shrugged his shoulders, saying, “I see no need in harming you. I just want to leave.”

  Jade could only shake her head in her own confusion. “I’ve never known a vampire to act like that, not even if they have recently fed,” she admitted to him, “But you… you seem to be… different.”

  “As do you,” he let her know, “No one has ever fought me like you did. Never have I been challenged so thoroughly. You must tell me… I’ve been searching for so long, and you, the way you move, how you fight, it is the closest I’ve ever come to feeling something familiar… I must know… who are you? Are you a vampire as well?”

  Jade
looked at him strangely for a long moment before finally responding, “You know, I should really be the one asking you that question. So how about you tell me… who are you?”

  The vampire smiled, “Well, if it’s an answer you seek, you won’t be satisfied with it… not if you really want to know.” He told her.

  “And why is that?” She asked him in turn.

  “Because that’s exactly what I’ve been trying to figure out since the moment I can remember,” he explained in brief.

  Jade’s left eyebrow rose in question, “What, who you are?” She asked.

  The vampire nodded.

  Jade looked questioningly into his eyes as she stepped closer to him, doubting that it could be true, but could find no signs that he was lying. She knew, though, that vampires could be masters of deceit. They had fooled countless individuals into their own deaths throughout the ages. But as she looked into this vampire’s eyes, all she could see was a blank suffering, a seemingly empty void. This vampire knew nothing, not of his kind, nor of himself. Deep inside of him, where all of his memories were supposed to be, all she could find was a blank slate, clear of all that unavoidable fear that builds up throughout the years of each life’s experience, and full of only confusion. Witches of her nature could normally sense the emotions that one carried with them, brought on by all of their past transgressions, but this vampire had none.

  “Well,” she said, “That makes things a bit interesting, now, doesn’t it?”

  The vampire again shrugged his shoulders, saying, “I suppose… if you say so.”

  A few moments passed while Jade contemplated the situation. She knew that she should kill him where he stood, but with the way things were going within her own brood, she knew that keeping this vampire at her side would give her a position of power. It could be the chance she’d been waiting for. It was a risk, but it would be a very calculated risk, one that, because of political squabbling within her own clan, she found to be worth taking.

  “So… does that mean you’re going to let me leave?” The vampire asked.

  Jade’s attention turned back towards him, a look of brilliance painted across her face. “No,” she said, and then asked, “But what would you say if I told you that… I may be able to help you?”

  The vampire smudged his lips, finding that to be an odd offer. “Well… I would say… how can I trust you after everything that just happened?”

  Jade only smiled. “I think that, over time, you will find it to be quite simple.”

  He shook his head as he pointed at her, “But you attacked me for no reason.”

  “Ah,” she stopped him from going any further, “That is what you must learn around here. You had no right to feed upon those humans. That is something we cannot stand for in this place. No matter how much we want their incompetence wiped away… they cannot be killed. Their blood cannot be on our hands, not now, and maybe not ever again… not when we’re so frening close… and that’s just the way it has to be. Do you understand that?”

  The tone of her voice again demanded an answer, and not just any answer, but the right answer. It was like her voice was inside of his head, manipulating the correct words out of his mouth. “Yes… yes, I understand.” He spoke almost apologetically.

  “Good… now clean up your mess and follow me.” The words left her lips in a calming, almost relaxing tone, and his nerves became suddenly at ease.

  He didn’t really know why, but there was something about her, the way she carried herself, the way that words floated out of her mouth, that made him want to listen, something that made him yearn to follow her. And as he went to toss the bodies of his victims into the river, the witch was already shouting out new orders to the two silent warlocks that he had been fighting with, and, just as he had done, they listened to every word, following her instructions despite their obvious displeasure. They didn’t trust the vampire at all. They wanted him dead, and he them, but the witch’s words alone kept them from acting upon that newborn hatred. And if she ever desired, her words could always have them at each other’s throats once more… as long as she was able to put things in order, that is. The arrival of this vampire opened up her eyes to a brand new world of possibilities, a brand new world that coincided with the arrival of this storm, and she intended on taking complete advantage of it all... as did I.