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Chapter 3
Distraction
Marcus was gone when I awoke. Many years had passed, and he didn't need me any longer. His determination and will had given him the strength to wean himself from my blood decades ago. We were never as close as Moses and I once were, but we knew each other almost as intimately. Well, as much as any two acquaintances can when they are in each other's company for a couple of centuries.
I suppose it has always been different for me. Long ago, I learned that life on this rock is little more than one distraction after the next, interrupted by the odd obsession and occasional sorrow. Marcus hadn't lived yet, and I wouldn't take that torment from him. Time, and the endless litany of days, would eventually tear at his soul as much as it has mine.
Still, that didn't mean I couldn't feel the loss. He was young, and hadn't yet learned what life on this rock was all about. I envied him his naivety. There was the infinity of time, and so much more, for him to discover.
Years passed like forgotten breaths as I lived alone on Islay. People crossed onto my land with greater frequency, and eventually I grew tired of the battle to keep my piece of this planet mine. It was time to move on to my next distraction, and I wanted to see how the people of the world were progressing.
I walked the land as a human, and traveled the star lit nights, only taking flight to cross the water between islands. The first hint of civilization I encountered was the small fishing town of MacDar, on the sandy beaches of Ayrshire. What I suspected were green covered mountains had taken on night's blue hue, and more resembled great shadows rising in the distance. Behind me, waves clawed at the shore like onyx talons and the ocean seemed to stretch on forever, as I walked toward a clay and rock structure. The air was cool, as it always is in this part of the world, and the smell of the sea clung to the thick wool robes wrapped around my body.
For a fleeting moment, thoughts of Marcus entered my mind, and I was now grateful he was so enamored by the things he claimed from his victims. Recently it had also become my practice, though not in as grand a scale as he managed. Each summer I would insist he remove a generous pile of his bounty from the cottage and burn it. Even though he washed the hides and fabrics he pried from his victims' still warm bodies, a stench remained. It was as if the last trickles of their horror had somehow permeated the garments and could not be wrung away.
"Hold, stranger!" A mound of animal skins shifted and moved forward out of the shadows.
The man's voice rattled, deep with congestion, and I wondered if I had interrupted his sleep. I could sense the power and strength in his arms and legs, and knew that this lump of a man was not what he appeared.
"I seek shelter for the night," I replied in Gaelic as I continued to approach. The language had changed some over the centuries, but still the basic structure remained.
"I said hold, stranger! I will end your life without a second thought. There are things that roam the night here that even the gods have forgotten, and you may well be one of them." The lump of a man now stood like a waking monolith and snatched up the spear that lay beside him.
I couldn't contain my laughter, and stood still while he readied himself. "Forgotten indeed, truer words have never been spoken," I paused to search his mind and spoke his name, "Kesan."
His name meant spear, and it made me smile that his parents had named him so appropriately. The fact that I knew his name, and that he hadn't given it didn't set well, however.
"Foul creature. By your man's voice I know you not to be Phaerie. You will not be the first of your kind I've killed during this moon's turn." He spat out the words like they were venom.
Kesan rushed forward and thrust his spear into the center of my chest. The sharpened stone blade was fastened to a wooden shaft that snapped away where it was bound by leather cord. It fell to the ground and he was left with only a splintered staff to defend himself.
He wielded it deftly as he spun and attempted to strike me, but I moved much too quickly for him to land any of the blows. Soon, he tired and backed away to block the entrance to the structure behind him.
The building was more of a mound of rock and clay, with a wooden frame on the inside, scarcely holding it aloft. It was half dug into the earth and half above. Had it not been for the orange glow of fire licking at the sky from two torches, a traveler might think it was just another hill.
"What, and who... are you, creature? I would know the name of my opponent." Kesan spoke with labored breaths, but was recovering.
"I am Lucif of Islay." His eyes widened but he held his terror in check. "Ahhh... I see you know the place."
"Many of my clansmen have gone there and have never returned. It is cursed, and the womb of all evil. Once, the island was a right of passage, but the God Galen and the Goddess Dorianna warned us away from that place. Still, we went as was our custom, until these last few centuries. My grandfather passed on the stories of that place to us as children. We thought they were only meant to scare us away, but now I see the legends may have had some merit." Kesan's eyes glistened with a combination of sorrow and rage as I rifled through the memories of his past.
I had killed his three sons. It had only been a few seasons ago. I could see their faces in his mind and knew their fate. They would not relent. They would not leave, and I have little patience for ignorance. Their death was quick. The fish had fed upon their dead bodies, and their bones were washed away by swift ocean currents long ago.
"Many people came to my Isle of Islay. Those that did not return are dead." I answered him as best I could, and watched as the words struck him as surely as any hammer might.
Kesan staggered backwards into the recessed entrance of the inn, fell to his knees, and sobbed.
"For a stay at your inn, I will save your unborn child," I said evenly, and waited for his response.
"What do you know of my unborn child?" Kesan glanced up and into my eyes with broken defiance, and gazed at me as though trying to comprehend his next tragedy.
"I know that a vampire lays eyes upon your precious wife, R¢s, as she sits tending a pot of stew in the burrow. She seems a delicacy, with your child in her womb, and he means to take their life's blood. Grant me safe passage, and I will save them." No sooner had I spoken the words, than did Kesan leap to his feet and burst through the door behind him.
He charged into the center of the room, and I followed. I stood to one side, looking on. The vampire spun quickly, and moved from his empty table to the ledge of the fireplace beside R¢s. His hands wound around her head in a blur, and he held her neck exposed. She rested against him now, almost intimately, as a whimper escaped her throat.
"Do we have a deal?" I asked barely above a whisper.
The vampire glanced in my direction, and I knew that this was the first moment he had felt fear since his change into what he was. He hadn't sensed me, and it frightened him.
"Yes." Kesan hissed the words as though they were something he couldn't stomach and left him with too much bile.
The next few moments were a blur. As soon as Kesan answered, I held the vampire in place as he sat poised to kill the fair R¢s. I burned him to ash and, at the same time, Kesan turned on me, blade in hand.
I felt the bite of metal against bone as he plunged a small dagger into my chest. It was made of iron and the sudden impact stunned me. Nothing but iron could have pierced my flesh. Our eyes met, and I saw his terror. I still stood, though I can't say I wasn't shocked.
A second passed between us before I moved in front of R¢s. I held Kesan in place with my mind, as I knelt beside her, so he could witness what he had done.
"Pull it out," I said as I gazed up at her.
R¢s glanced at Kesan, and then back to me, as she raised a trembling hand toward the hilt that stuck out from my chest.
"NOW!" I yelled, as the hiss of my blood churned against the foreign metal.
Her hand finally wound its way around the leather-bound hilt and pulled it slowly from my chest. Once the blade was all the way out, she shuddered, and it fell from her hand to the floor.
I moved from kneeling in front of her to the pile of ash I had made of the vampire behind her. Still, Kesan looked on, unable to move, watching. As he stared at me, I slowly raised my hands to caress her cheek and forehead like one might an ailing child. Then... with a twist of my wrists, I snapped her neck and let her pregnant body slump to the floor below.
Screams filled the room, and there was a rush of people toward the door leading outside. It was closed, and I would see that it stayed that way until I was finished.
"We had a deal," I whispered as I watched the light in his eyes twist and die.
I don't think I will ever forget that look. It was as if age suddenly possessed him, and knowledge filled every fiber of his being. The depth of sorrow I saw in his brown eyes reminded me of a forgotten reflection. The last time I had seen eyes like those was when the ocean's waves crawled up the shore, and a full moon lit the sky. They were my eyes, after the death of my precious Moses.
I am not completely without mercy. Kesan's suffering ended soon after I finished with the rest of them. I killed them all that night. Every man, woman, and child in the room, that possessed a heartbeat when I entered, was nothing but a heap of dead flesh when I was done. I left Kesan for last so that he could watch what his betrayal earned him and those he loved. Releasing my hold on his body, he slumped to the floor and sobbed.
"You should not have betrayed me, Kesan," I whispered. "This did not have to be."
His head hung like a weight pulling at his convulsing shoulders. Kesan lifted his head as I approached. Anguish filled his eyes and, as I drew near, his gaze began to change into something more malevolent. He lunged forward as I stood directly in front of him. My hands gripped his head, and a sickening crunch followed as I twisted his skull in a direction it was never meant to go. As I said... I am not without mercy.
It wouldn't be long now until the sun rose, and I decided it would be best to get some rest until sunset. Other than the odd spray of blood, and occasional bit of carnage here and there, the place was actually quite cozy.
The burrow was circular in shape and housed several wooden tables and chairs. Each was worn to a silky sheen that only age and constant use can bring. The walls were sturdy, and seemed to absorb the light as shadows writhed and flickered. A fire still burned in the fireplace that sat in the center of the room, and the smoke flowed upward through the roof.
Along the walls were small openings that led to smaller pockets of space that were used for sleeping and other nightly activities. From the myriad of odors that filled the room, it seemed that sleeping must have usually been an afterthought. I hadn't noticed, until now, how pungent the place truly was. Wood and earth mingled with whatever dead animal cooked in the pot that hung over the fire, and still there was more. Human waste tainted the air, as well as the stench of too many unwashed bodies.
I picked a sleeping space that seemed to be the least offensive, and lay down on a pile of animal skins that covered the floor. It was surprisingly warm for such a large burrow with only a single fire to heat it, but I knew that the earth leant its own warmth. These weren't the most civilized people on the planet, but they were advancing and, for once, the future seemed to offer something that might dull the monotony and passage of time.
My mind wandered as I rested. I never truly sleep as a human might, but my mind did quiet itself as I lay wrapped in the mound of skins. For the first time in centuries I offered up a message to my father.
"I will make a mockery of your playthings, father. I will split their minds and souls in such a way that it will haunt you for centuries to come."
Thunder echoed in the distance, and I knew that my message was received. I had a purpose for once, in such a very long time, and that purpose was revenge. Legend and myth were going to be my legacy, and I would start tomorrow. In reality, I had started earlier, with my interference with Moses, but now... I would finish his work. He spoke with a conviction, my Moses, that I hadn't seen before, and now... I would make his beliefs come to fruition. I would make his savior, and word would sweep across the lands like a plague.
The hours passed and I suppose I lost myself in my revelry. The sun had barely set when I heard the roar of wind, and jeers coming from outside. The burrow had been set aflame. Apparently some of the town's people, from more remote areas, had come across the carnage I created the previous night, and found it not to their liking.
My eyes opened, and I found smoke and flame all around me. I crawled out through the waist high opening and stood in the middle of a torrent of burning debris. I burst through the ceiling, and listened to their gasps and cries as I exploded into the night sky. It would take more than fire to cleanse this place, and I laughed in the darkness.
I was tempted to kill them all, but decided against it. There was much to do, and these fools weren't worth the effort. This, too, would become a story of legend, and Dorrianna and Galen had already done my work for me. They had created a religion in their own fashion, and who was I to distract these people from future torment.
I moved east through the night sky, relishing the cold wind as it pushed around my form. They were below me. The vampires that Marcus made had come and gone and what were left were remnants. Weaker, though still very powerful, vampires were raging in the night as I traveled over what is now known as France, England, and Romania.
Once over Romania, something drew me southeast. It was a feeling of despair and torment of such proportion that I instantly knew that this would be the beginning of my father's torment. Such an unhappy mass of people could be easily manipulated, and so I decided. Jerusalem would be the beginning of my revenge.
It was December 19th 4 BC, though of course it wasn't called that at the time. It was the day my biggest joke on humanity began to take form, and a day I will never forget. I would create a new religion, and it would overshadow, if not devour, all the others. I would have so many people screaming in my father's ears that he would surely go insane. His torment would be as eternal as my own.
I drifted down to the earth, just outside of Jerusalem, and watched. The people were simple, and filled with greed. Little has changed since then. I moved out into the countryside, and found a Hebrew family that would easily succumb to my notions. Mary and Joseph were the proud parents of James, Joses, Judas, Simon, Hannah, and Grace. Virginal is hardly what I would call their nightly activities. The twist on that reality by the Catholic Church still baffles me to this day.
While you may scoff at what I tell you, you need only look in the current Bible to know that Jesus did indeed have brothers and sisters. Of course, at that time, a woman wasn't worth knowing or remembering, so the sisters' names were lost to all but me. I remember them though, as it it were yesterday. Mary would be remembered, of course. She was carrying a divine being inside her, or at least I would make them think so.
I appeared to them that evening, in a glow of power, and floated just outside the door of their cottage.
"Behold, I am an angel, and bring you a message from your God. Come and listen," I called to them, and heard them scramble to the window.
The little epiphany, to twist the name of my kind, struck me so instantly I had to stifle a laugh as I spoke.
They finally opened the door to their cottage, and knelt on the cold ground in front of me. Only the children were brave enough to steal glances at me as I glowed in the night.
"283 days from this night you will travel to Jerusalem and give birth to the Son of God," I announced in my most authoritative voice.
Joseph glanced up and then cowered even closer to the ground. "She is barren, Angel. The birth of Simon took her ability to bear more children."
"I see." I moved toward Mary, knelt in front of her, and placed my hand on her head.
She shivered more from fright than from the cold and, again, I had to hide my amusement. I restored her body completely, so she was without flaw. She would conceive and bear a child.
"She is barren no longer. Bed your wife, Joseph, and through you will come the Son of God." I spoke as you might whisper to a lover.
I rose in the air and looked down on my newest creation. In a matter of months, I would have a new religion birthed, quite literally, into the world.
I moved across the land, and lost my glow as I disappeared from their sight. A second plan had entered my mind, and so I moved to the colder reaches of what is now called Russia. A second creature would be born and, to this one I would be father. The birth of the Lycan, and later, the Fey, would come to be. I only wish I had known then what I do now.
I will have more out soon for the series. Any and all comments / criticisms are more than appreciated. It's what keeps us writers motivated, so give me a yell. You can contact me at gaywriter72@yahoo.com I hope that everyone has a great holiday and a fantastic new year.