The Vampire's Heart (6 page)

“
We’re not going there.”

“
Ah, okay. We could... We could go to Lankar, we might not make it there before dawn, but I’m sure we could find somewhere to hide out during the day.”

“
That will be fine.”

Kellum nods and begins to walk a little faster. I have no trouble keeping up with him, but he soon begins his ‘teaching’ again, and I do have difficulty listening to that. I keep walking tirelessly along the rock strewn beach, taking in whatever I can that Kellum is telling me. It’s not a lot.

***

When we were about a mile past Khorale we began to head across the low sloping land towards Lankar. I can’t remember the place, but it is familiar. Kellum has found himself an abandoned shed, and I’ve come to take a look at the place.

Lankar is a medium sized village, which has its own hall, setting it apart from other settlements of this size, and many larger ones.

To begin with I had stayed with him in the dark shed, attempting to listen as he spoke and spoke about unimportant things. I soon decided to have a look at the village. I’ve kept my distance so far. As bits of the village are familiar I guess that I must have come to this place while I was alive. That seems to be the only answer.

***

We are walking into the centre of the village of Lankar, to a small cobbled square with the hall on the south front. Houses have been built on the northern, eastern, and western sides of the square.

Kellum continues to school me on the ‘principles’ of being a vampire. This schooling has gone on for most of the daytime, as neither of us need sleep.

“
With feeding, it is much the same as the myths and stories say; we bite, draw blood, and drink of it. Normal vampires usually drain their victims, unable to stop drinking because the demon inside has them in a thrall. You, on the other hand, will be able to control your demon, allowing you to take only what you need, meaning that you won’t have to kill. But as a Lys-Karalis it will be expected that if you feed on someone, you’ll either kill them, or turn that lucky individual.”

“
Turn? That’s when I make someone into a vampire isn’t it?”

“
Yes,” Kellum nods, “you must drink of their blood, and they must drink of yours, but you have to kill them, after all, who ever heard of a vampire that’s alive?”

There is so much about vampires that I never knew.

“
Does a vampire you turn have to obey you? That way you could have slaves forever.”

“
No. Firstly, we are not invulnerable; we are immortal. That holds a significant difference that many of our kind seem to shun. We can be killed, but we will not die of natural causes. And we will always live on in some kind of way because if we are killed the body is destroyed and the demon returns to Hell, along with the memories of being a vampire. Duck into this alley.”

I do without question, and Kellum keeps talking.

“
As for whether they have to obey you, the simple answer is no, although many newly turned vampires tend to stick with their sire. It gives them someone to learn from and some kind of protection if they get found by Calcian Hunters.”

Kellum gestures that we should wait. I do so, leaning on the alley wall, while he leans opposite me. I recite to him what I have learned.

“
Calcian Hunters travel the land in search of vampires, witches, and demons. They want to kill them all so that the followers of Calcia will be safer.”

Kellum smiles, exposing his vampiric teeth.

“
Very good, you are learning. Though they hunt more than just our kind, witches, and demons; they will hunt and exterminate anything that is thought to be evil or sinister by the Church of Calcia. They killed all of the werewolves, they hunt the fey-kind, lamiae, spirits, revenants, harpies, golems. Anything they fear will hurt them.”

What even are half of those things? I hear something, which stops me asking. At the far end of the alley, and walking towards us, is a youth of about ten and four, probably on his way to work in one of the taverns.

We return to walking in silence and as we are about to meet, the boy steps to the side of the alley to let us pass by. Kellum’s hand shoots out and catches the boy’s throat, stilling a scream before it can pass his lips and get out into the freezing night air. Bending down he whispers into the boy’s ear. My senses allow me to hear his words.

“
Do not scream if you wish to live. You will take a message to the most gallant men of your village. Tell them that there are vampires here for the women and children. Once you have roused the men you may run as fast as your little legs can carry you. But know this boy: if you run before our message is passed on we will hunt you down and make you suffer eternal torment in the pits of Hell. Understand?”

The boy nods, but barely. A smell punctuates the air: urine. The boy has pissed himself. A vicious grin spreads across my face, full of malice and delight. The poor boy whimpers even more at the sight and Kellum releases his grip. He falls as his legs are now too weak to support his terrified body.

The power of just a few words really is amazing. Something within me stirs, but it is not a physical thing. I know it is the demon. I let out a bestial roar which echoes through the night, and the terrified boy scrambles, crawling on all fours until he can get himself up to shakily run away. Kellum looks at me, eyebrows raised.

“
What?” I say, knowing he’s wondering why I roared. I continue to ignore the unspoken question.

“
So, we’re going to fight the men in the village? That could be fun. I’ve not really tested myself yet,” I say to Kellum.

“
No, we’re not,” he replies, confusing me.

“
Then why have you called them out? Do you know that something’s going to happen?”

“
Yes, something is going to happen. That boy is going to come back here in the morning, scared witless at what he’ll find, only to find exactly what he expects: a massacre. But ‘we’ are not going to fight them. You are,” he explains.

“
What? On my own? I can’t take on an entire village single-handed!”

“
But you won’t be on your own.”

“
I won’t be on my own? You said you weren’t–”

“
The demon within,” Kellum cuts in, “you can draw magic from it. That magic will help you win the coming battle. A trial by fire is how you will start your training.”

As if on cue, my ears hear the sounds of running feet, and a group of large men fill the alley. I immediately sense their weaknesses, as if the demon has indicated the way it thinks this battle will be won. I like its thinking. Their brute strength and slow speed will be their unmaking. Smiling at Kellum, I nod to let him know that I accept his test.

I charge forward, balling my fists and pushing my body to its human limits and beyond. This is the fastest I’ve ever run, faster than any normal man could hope to run. When I reach the first man standing against me, I do not stop, but punch out at his stomach. I feel flesh rend and hot juices spatter up my arm as something hard scrapes down the side of my forearm.

By putting my hand through him I’ve slowed myself dramatically, but the group of men have stumbled and are shaken by the severity and speed of my attack, allowing me a flicker of a moment to assess the group and my next move within it. That time is all I need. Of the group of men, six strong discounting the one impaled on me, two have retreated into the open of the main square. Three huddle to the left side of the alley, and a lone man stands on the right, fear etched in his face.

Ripping my arm free of the first victim’s gut, I round on the loner, I barge into him, shoulder first. There is a wonderful noise of bones breaking that sets my soul alight with joy. I half-turn to the three men still in the alley, but bloodlust takes control and I round on the crushed man. He is still alive, but only barely. I grab him by the shoulder and lift him: his head lolls to one side at an angle that shouldn’t be possible. I sink my teeth into the exposed neck and begin to suck. It is a slow process. Fists start to fly.

All the while I’ve been trying to feed the three men have been pummelling my back with punches and kicks. Their blows do not hurt, but I can feel my ribs cracking under the ferocity of their attacks. But that does not matter; a few cracked ribs never killed a vampire. And the three men certainly cannot kill this one.

I drop my meal and it lands in a heaped pile on the floor. The barrage of attacks to my back ceases, and as I turn to face my unprepared and most likely fleeing assailants, something slams into my face, causing me to scream in agony. It feels as if my face is on fire. It’s like getting scolded, like I’d just dipped my head in boiling water.

I whip my head back to the front and see my attacker: it is just a normal man, new to the fray, armed with a shovel. I don’t understand how that could’ve hurt so much. He swings again, but this time I’m ready. I duck his wild swing and land a fist on his face, which snaps his head back and sends him to the floor.

The remaining men are now in the open of the square, and have been joined by others. There are children ferrying weapons to them. One has picked up the shovel, which I now notice is made from some other metal, not the usual bronze. He stands in the centre of the rag tag formation, while to his left there are three men, two with short swords, and one with a scythe. To his right, two men stand, the first carrying two long slender daggers, the second wielding a long heavy looking two handed sword. I want to get myself a weapon, and that big sword takes my fancy. I decide upon some shock tactics. I want to get there before they can even react.

Suddenly I am. The six men instinctively take a step back, but I’m too shocked to attack. That must have been magic; I didn’t move, yet I got to where I wanted to go. But that magic turned my shock tactics against me. Suddenly a barrage of blows takes me to my knees. Only one of the attacks ever hurts me, but I can feel the other six blades biting deep into my body. Rage builds inside me.

Striking out wildly with my left arm I connect with something and one of the men screams and falls to the ground next to me. The attack falters as some of the men stop attacking me to drag their companion to safety. I look up into the faces of my attackers; I see the shovel about to swing into my face and the heavy sword about to crash through my skull. Reflexively I reach up with my right hand to grab the blade before it can connect, and bring my left arm around my face to prevent the shovel hitting my head again. It works to an extent; the shovel sends a jolt of boiling pain throughout my arm and the blade takes half of my hand off, but it gives me the time to get up, leaping to my feet in an instant. I want these bastards to feel pain.

I swing hard for them, intending to knock them back. The shovel wielder’s head tumbles to the floor though the second man with the big sword manages to get his weapon in the way. My hand cuts clean through the bronze blade. He takes a few steps backwards and I look at my hand; the nails have grown to be about seven inches long! It is probably the effect of my magic. I look up again to see the man running away across the square like a coward.

Turning, I see the man I struck at blindly, he is on the floor about ten feet away, with one man stood between me and him, his other two rescuers have abandoned him to run from the monstrosity that I am. I stalk forwards and his scythe is brought to the ready. He is tall, young, and not in great shape. His medium length hair messily frames his face.

Smiling, I come to a halt just out of his reach. I consider my words carefully.

“
You are a brave warrior. The only one left in this village that will stand against me. I respect that,” I say to the man in the dark leathers.

“
I do not need your respect!” He shouts back at me, tightening his grip.

“
Then you should have respect for me instead.”

“
I will never kneel before a demon,” he shouts through gritted teeth.

“
Then that will be your death.”

“
Hah. If you think you scare me, vampire, you are mistaken. I came here from Scathack, and I have seen more horrors then than you could hope to imagine.”

“
I have a lot of hope.”

I surprise myself with that. Do I have hope? I guess that Kellum had given me the hope to find Elyse.

“
Not enough.”

“
You have a lot of hate. You should come to serve me.”

“
Serve you? Never,” he spits out, “My brothers are Calcian Hunters; they will find you and bring you down, vampire. I have no delusions about beating you on my own; that is impossible.”

“
Well I see you do have hope, but unless you have an army of brothers then I don’t see how they can stop me.”

“
I find your lack of faith disturbing.” He coughs, and wipes his brow. “Do you, a creature of magic, not believe in the gods?”

“
I am destined to rule all of Gatheck. And, while there is still breath in my body I will not stop until I achieve that goal. And I have the support of all the vampires to achieve those ends.”

“
You are dead, you do not breathe. You have already failed. What does that say for your future?”

At that comment I spread my arms wide, and take a deep breath into my lungs, and exhale slowly. I do not have to, but it’ll just show the human that all is not black and white. I smile a malicious smile at him, and rush forward.