Demon Vampire (The Redgold Series) (81 page)

“I got my caravan through the pass with all of it intact. It took so little time to get there, they actually gave me a bonus! A bonus! My first successful delivery as a traveling merchant and they gave me more than we had negotiated!” Yugo was very happy with his progress in life.

Damien smiled and raised his glass. “Well thank you kind young man.” Damien's low voice sent shivers down Yugo's back.

“You're welcome, old stranger.” Yugo was being polite. Damien unnerved him. He could see that the color of Damien's eyes were unreal, there was something wrong about him.

“You wouldn't happen to be heading east would you?” Damien asked.

Yugo thought about his answer carefully. His next destination was east. He wanted to be friendly, at the same time, Damien didn't seem to give off a pleasant vibration. Reluctantly, Yugo replied. “Yes, I'm going that way later tonight.”

“Would you mind a companion?” Damien was imposing and he knew it. The situation was just too good to let it get away.

Yugo was young and inexperienced as a merchant. It was an opportunity for him as well. “A paying companion, yes. A freeloader, no.”

Damien smiled. “Of course.” He raised his shot towards Yugo.

Yugo raised his glass in turn. “To mutual gain!” Yugo cheered.

Everyone in the room shot back their vodka. Yugo smiled. His display of ebullience was attracting attention.

After a few hours in the bar, Yugo approached Damien. “Shall we go?” Yugo was functionally drunk.

Damien was not. “Sure.”

Damien helped Yugo out of the bar. A few moments later he spotted five shady men from the bar. They were following Yugo. Waiting for a moment to assault him and take the money he gloated about earlier.

“What's your name?” Yugo asked Damien as he slumped into his shoulder, his words nearly too drunk to be understood.

“Damien Attolauss.” Damien told Yugo.

Yugo had great levity when speaking to Damien. “At-ta-house?” Yugo was clearly too drunk to steer his horses. If they were leaving that night, Damien was going to drive.

The weather had lightened, the trails were visible. Yugo gestured in the direction of his carriage. After a half a mile, Damien could still see the five men.

“Yugo, what's your last name?” Damien attempted to distract Yugo from the men getting closer. He hoped the conversation might cause him to fall asleep, giving Damien the moment he would need to fully defend against the assailants.

“Yugo Demetrius.” Yugo lifted his hand in the air and stated as he promptly fell over.

“Thank you Yugo. Not everyone can accept an invitation from a monster.” Damien set Yugo down by a mound of snow. “I'll return the kindness.”

Damien walked onto the main road, standing, waiting for the five men to come. He was the essence of equanimity. They wasted no time in identifying themselves as hooligans. Two of the men reached for knives, one for metal knuckles, the last two for a chain, and a pipe respectively. They came up to Damien with every intention of beating anything he had out of him.

“Give it up.” The one with the metal knuckles said. His tattered thick brown clothing was stained with smatterings of blood from multiple assaults.

Damien refused to answer. Deciding to wait for their first move instead. He was thinking of how to hurt them without killing them. The exact way in which he was going to make them learn what they were doing was wrong.

“Okay, fine by us.” The grumbling man with the metal knuckles said as he began to swing at Damien.

Damien let the man break his hand on his face. The metal knuckles cracked and fell to the ground. Damien didn't need to move. They were no threat to him at all. The leader of the group nodded to one of the men with a knife.

“You sure you want to try that?” Damien asked the knife wielding thug.

The man jabbed at Damien with his blade. Damien only needed to raise his hand and close it around the weapon. It bent and crumbled in the man's palm. There was no blood.

“What are you?” The man with the knife was shocked. He stepped back and quickly ran away. He was far smarter than the rest of the group.

The man with the chain swung at Damien, easily tying him up in a rope of thick iron rings. The thug with the pipe followed by striking at Damien's head.

The pipe bent instantly over Damien's skull. No mess, no pain, no blood.

“Is that all you've got?” Damien was toying with them now. The immense strength he had gathered from his thirty years as a vampire had made him invulnerable to these types of attacks. It was almost humorous to him.

“Hey, I least got him! He ain't no freak.” About fifteen feet away the other man with a knife called back to the leader of the group. He was the dumber one.

The fifth man had walked over to Yugo in the commotion while Damien was thinking of what to do to punish them. He had stabbed Yugo in the chest several times, managing to pick his pocket before blood spilled over it.

Damien flew into a rage.

Damien tore the man's head from his body and severed the hand holding Yugo's money. The coin purse landed in the snow with a red puddle next to Yugo's left leg. Damien used the chain to beat the others to formless pulp within seconds. Eventually the iron chain gave way and broke from the concussive blows. Three men were emulsified, one decapitated.

The only one of the gang to survive was the one thug that had run away before Yugo was stabbed. Damien wasn't pleased with himself. He didn't enjoy the concept of killing. This was different. This was an execution, fueled more by revenge and rage than the pursuit of blood. It was what Damien told himself as he drained two of the men before seeing to Yugo's injuries.

In Damien's travels, he had studied a great deal about vampires. Their abilities, powers, weaknesses, and methods of reproduction. Damien knew much of how the exchange of blood from the vampire was able to change the living into the undead. Although it was never written down, he himself was proof that the recently deceased were able to be revived in this same way.

Before Damien, there was an opportunity. He remembered the concept of building an organization of monsters that would be able to perform great deeds for good and God. He knew from watching, Yugo was a good man. Unless Damien acted quickly, he was going to die. A perfectly respectable man cut down in his prime. Damien wasn't keen on bringing another monster into the world, but in his journeys, he hadn't found any other vampires. Not one wayward soul that might join his cause. Without others to form the foundation for his new ideals, Damien wouldn't be able accomplish anything. There were surely more vampires in the world like Fear. Abominations that wielded astonishing powers even greater and more terrifying than his. The problem was that Damien hadn't found them.

Damien decided. He used the tip of his right index finger to cut into his palm. Blood poured into Yugo's four stab wounds. He squeezed his fist and let the blood fall into Yugo's open mouth. He waited.

Twenty minutes passed and nothing happened. The wounds didn't close, Yugo didn't move. Damien had expected as much. He knew it took three full days for his own body to reanimate. He had hopes that he was just slow. Damien buttoned up Yugo's jacket and tried to cover up the blood stains. He picked him up. Damien found his way to Yugo's carriage and placed him inside.

They spent the day there, while Damien rested, thinking about the taste of the human blood. It had been four years since the last group of bold muggers had attacked him. The group had threatened to kill a small child that had wondered in on the commotion. Damien killed them before they were able to carry out their threat. There was something different about this incident. He was confused as to why he didn't notice when Yugo was attacked. Damien was so caught up with the other thugs, he was oblivious to it. He couldn't find his answer.

A day had gone by. Yugo's damp body was beginning to smell inside the cramped carriage. The snow had barricaded them inside the cabin. Hiding their presence from anyone that might wonder who killed the gang outside. Damien patiently waited for the third day to come. Since Damien was full from the night before, feeding was not necessary until after Yugo's change was final. Damien occupied the time by singing old church hymnals. His voice was low and almost inaudible. It helped to pass the hours.

Later on that night, the holes in Yugo's chest had closed. He was starting to regenerate. He was finally turning. Damien prayed that he keep his sanity as a vampire and not be consumed by the thirst for blood that the many pieces of literature he read had talked about. He prayed for nineteen hours, then fell asleep while staring at Yugo's body.

At dusk on the third day, Damien sat in the carriage. He wondered what type of home life Yugo had when he was alive. If he had any family, or a wife. He pondered that since he was a merchant, Yugo might have been raised by other merchants as a child. He could have learned the trade from them. He wondered if his parents were still alive. Damien played with the idea that Yugo might actually be just a simple drunk. A thought that did not sit well with him. That through all his effort, the three nights spent might be for nothing.

Damien prayed he was wrong.

Sitting in a crouched position, Damien knelt before God. “Dear lord almighty in heaven above, I ask your favor in my endeavors to save this man's life. I ask that he be returned to this world in order to further the cause of protecting those who cannot defend themselves. To this goal, I will devote my life eternal, my time eternal. I ask of you my lord, please make him just. Make him the model for all others to come. So that one day I will look back upon this night and shed tears of happiness over the wonderful way in which you have blessed our journey.”

Yugo's hand began to twitch. At first it was closed and then it opened. The other hand started moving as well.

Damien thought about his request. He felt pain. There was a greater worry, a higher doubt in the forefront of his mind. He closed his eyes and cried out. “Lord I am afraid.” he lowered his head. “I continue to hold you as my one true god, but I am unsure of myself. Dear lord, do I still have a-” Damien stopped praying.

Yugo's eyes fluttered, he was coming to. A shallow breath flooded his chest. He coughed as dark, black sputum flew out. He reached to cover his face and fell over. Yugo wasn't used to his own muscles anymore. The same way Damien needed a few minutes to acclimate to his own body.

Yugo opened his eyes for the first time in three days. He laid on the floor of the carriage. “What happened?”

“It was dark. They surprised us.” Damien said as he helped Yugo back to his seat and sat him back. “They attacked us.”

“It feels like they won.” Yugo commented, putting his right hand to his chest.

“No, they lost in the end.” Damien remarked, smiling.

“Well, maybe you won. I did not. I feel terrible. What happened to me?” Yugo asked as he looked at Damien.

“You were celebrating.” Damien thought of exactly how to break the news to Yugo. “You had bought a round for everyone, including me.” He didn't know how to tell someone they were stabbed a few nights ago. “A couple of men followed us back from the bar.” That they had died. “They tried to mug us.” He debated as to what point to fill him in on the awful truth. “I held them off.” Damien didn't want to say it. “But they got to you.” To comfort someone that's already died was hard in itself. “They stabbed you in the chest.” It's overbearing when the only reason it happened was because of neglect. “Yugo, you died.”

“What?” Yugo turned to Damien. “Oh, yeah I know.” Yugo laughed. “I drank so much I could have killed myself. Sorry about that.” Yugo cleared his throat.

“You died, and it was my fault.” Damien went on. “I'm sorry, but I had to decide what to do right then and there. I didn't want you to have been killed for nothing.”

“What do you mean? I am not dead. Look at me.” Yugo beat on his chest. There was a wet splash. He lowered his eyes. He saw the blood.

“Yes, Yugo, look at yourself. You were stabbed four times and died in the snow three days ago.” Damien had a remorseful expression. “I brought you here. I waited for you to come back.”

“Come back? There's no coming back from dead! What the hell is this? Is this some joke?” Yugo raised his voice.

“I changed you Yugo. I cursed you so that you would regain a life that I was responsible for loosing. I should have walked right out of the bar before you came in. The men that did this would have never seen you. They'd be dead and you'd be alive.” Damien was sulking. “Please forgive me, Yugo.”

“Forgive you for what? What did you do?” Yugo leaned in.

“I made you a vampire.” Damien said with a heavy heart. “Soon, your voice will change. Your eyes will differ. You will develop fangs when you need to. If you are injured, you will heal. The sun will burn your very skin. You will forever find satisfaction in shedding the blood of others. You will revel in it and it will feel right as breathing. I'm sorry I did this to you Yugo. I'm sorry I took away your soul.”

Yugo didn't know how to react at first. “Soul? You think you've taken my soul? Are you God? Are you devil? Are you an angel or a demon sent to reap me? No. You are a man, like me. Whatever happened to me back there, whatever you did to me. Thank you. I have my carriage, my money, my life.”

Damien sat, listening to Yugo explain his feelings.