Vampiris Sancti: The Vampire

A Chapter by katricardew

My name was Bethany Trent and at age twenty three years, six months, four days and ten minutes I ceased to exist. Don’t misunderstand, I didn’t die, I won’t die for an eternity by human standards.

Destruction, hence, like creation, is one of Nature's mandates.

Marquis de Sade

The young man walked slowly down the byways of the city untroubled by his solitary circumstance. The freeway lined one side of him and the towering historical buildings housing the elite of inner city business shadowed him on the other. Here, he walked the fine line between out in the open and lost to the gloom. He was unperturbed by the revealing scrapes that followed in his wake as he continued his journey. Impeccably groomed, his presence was out of place in the dark location as his attire was more appropriate to trading by day. With metrosexual beauty enhanced by a moon unobscured by city smog, his was a clear presence easily visible for those passing to notice. He stood over six foot, with a young unlined face and his lean form moved with the fluid grace of a dancer as his sandy brown hair and coffee eyes shone with silver glints.

He hummed to himself"not from boredom, but because he enjoyed tracking the faint sounds that followed him. It amused him that this predator thought their clumsy attempts at stalking would go by unobserved. As nearly an Aunsin"the Ancient status, there was not a leaf falling nearby that he wasn’t alert to as Galt had been a Vampire for a very long time. Survival ensured that he was aware of every aspect of every environment he entered, and he had already possessed strong survival instincts long before the demonic virus had infected him. He could feel the emotion dancing through the air as this would-be executioner chased a far greater predator, unaware that his life was forfeit already. It was like a fox tracking a wolf, this foolish human who believed in his own power"this serial killer. He felt the blood lust rising from the one who would follow, it was similar to the Vampire, yet in comparison he was controlled, civilised, and refined in his killing.

Galt had no interest in the objectives of the human world for those desires were left far behind when he embraced his destiny of a privileged existence within a extremely old House. This allowed him power, strength, wealth, and the luxury of obsessing upon convoluted motives forged by nearly a century of hate, which were to be executed with both careful and brutal precision. It was no coincidence that he and this clumsy killer had crossed paths, and once noticed by the Vampire the invitation to follow had been received with predictable success. His victim would be a useful addition, a pet he could unleash upon the unsuspecting. His was a revenge framed within a mind bound by no belief but his divine right for satisfaction.

The body that ruled"the Council of Aeternus"better known as the Ghuvk believed that the technological advances of humans gave them the ability to detect those who deviated from the norm. The paranoid humans unable to police their own spied upon each other, and this gave them the opportunity to notice the deaths caused by the Vampire wraiths that lived in their shadows. In anticipation and reaction to the modern world, they decided to prohibit the outright killing of humans. Vampires didn’t require the death of their subject for nourishment as it was an attempt to ensure silence before the age of Mesmer. But this was no longer the age of unnoticed brutality and the eyes of civilisation reached into every corner. For Vampires, blood was now supplied via contractors as willing victims made pacts, addicts created and abandoned, and death was no longer the staple of the Vampiric world. The pronouncement of the ever watchful Council didn’t suddenly leave them open to attack because it would be a foolish beast that tangled with the go-between of the Empire.

The Ghuvk!

The thought of the weak fools who would in their ignorance rule the Vampire world filled him with contempt. The audacity of the gaggle of morons to declare that he"Galt"was to do no more than snack upon delivered cold fare when these mortal cattle with their warm blood singing to his soul tramped about in freedom. He, who had killed with finesse for centuries, who had sat at courts, who had witnessed the birth of the technology that now imprisoned them in a cloak of fear"would not be repressed. An Ancient"such as he was becoming"was now held hostage by the slash and clash of stupid New World Tyros, who in the past had left the streets raw with blood. To the Ghuvk his duty was clear as approaching Aunsin he was to remove himself to the mediation of an Ashre where he would finish his evolution into Aunsin to become more demon than he was Vampire.

Galt ignored the commands of the Ghuvk for he was an Old World from the most powerful House of Balsescu, and he had far more vital things on this mind than the mumblings of the appointed leaders of the Vampire world. He was waiting with the patience of one who had eternity to spare, and for the fruition of a plan that had taken him nearly a century to put into effect. He knew the ones to bribe, the ones to torment, the ones to Unveil, the ones to watch as death took from them what had been stolen from him.

Earlier in the night, he had stood at the entrance of the upper Chambers while searching the rows of cells built into a vast brick warehouse on the outskirts of the city. Here was where the Ghuvk housed those who would break the Veil"the protection of all Vampires"by their unruly behaviour. His eyes raked across the occupants, demons, humans, Vampires, all had broken the laws or created a disturbance, and their fates would differ between tossed back through the Reveal or death. He searched for the object of his interest, and once he found the girl his gaze devoid of compassion or affection rested upon her intently. It was his second visit looking for her because during the first she had been dead to the world while unconscious from fear. The drop from the roof didn’t harm her and he knew it wouldn’t when he let go. Fear, however, was a powerful master and her inability to deal with several shocks in a row had her slip into a merciful respite as short lived as it was.

The girl"now a Vampire fledgling"his Tyro had not observed her maker in the corner to whom she was no more than a commodity"a means to an end. She was torn between staggering in pain causing her to heave, and to his surprise shouting in defiance at the demonic Aegai to release her. She had been chosen for not only her form, but also her lack of personality since she had drifted through life and her psyche was one easy to overpower. Had he regarded her with any emotion it might have been admiration for her sudden fortitude except he was focused only upon his own objective. Her appearance, so reminiscent of another that they had intermingled into a single being, making him observe her unappreciated life until he chose her future. The emotion that once bound him in love now burned with flames of revenge and all that remained was an imprint. Like a photograph of the woman who once was, and now the woman he had recreated. He stepped back into the shadows, a circumstance he had not visited for at least a century since Galt didn’t hide from man or demon. His reticence this time had a purpose for he didn’t want the girl to discover him"not yet. This plan had a carefully laid foundation, its roots firmly ensconced in a rage that ripped a void in his soul and tainted his pride. Although his wish was for her not to observe him once the Aegai"those mawkish idiots saw him"they would bow and scrape in the hope he would toss lucre their way. She would note their slobbering, so he stayed removed from her view. There was business at hand, business more important than her immediate comfort, freedom, or sanity.

He had many things in play because there was the one he had instructed to watch over her. The Vampire so carefully placed in the cell beside her had his instructions, and his Old World blood blazed into the air to meet Galt. Roy was a delightful Dev breaking rules wherever and whenever he was able, a bountiful liar of wonderful sincerity. He had been placed where he needed to be and Galt waited for the planned cacophony. The Vampire didn’t disappoint, and a few minutes later had tricked the Aegai into letting him loose where he ran amok until finding another exit back into the world. Once calmed, the hulking demons returned to what they did best which was grovelling for indulgences.

The Aegai were oblivious to his attempt at discretion, and huddled around their favoured guest fawning while the corners of their eyes twitched with greed. They didn’t comprehend scorn or the disrespect in the voices of those who addressed them as they lived a charmed existence under the protection of the Ghuvk. Galt glared at his new admirers while searching for one that showed a glimmer of intelligence as he had a very specific task to be accomplished. It was typical of this world that the success of his complex and well considered plans laid at the feet of those more suited to chasing cows in a paddock than following even the most basic of instructions. He found one who showed a spark of wit, and took this bastion of Aegain intellect aside as he explained what he wished to occur.

“We are honoured by Galt, Ancient one.”

The Aegai he had pulled aside praised him and the rest followed them back into the shadows as they clustered around him. The use of ancient with his name didn’t compliment the Vampire because he was aware that while their lips paid service their eyes followed his bulging wallet.

“Honoured.”

They intoned in unison until Galt hissed for them to shut up. Their bizarre habit of repeating each other put his intent in peril since the girl was bound to notice their idiotic chanting. He pointed to tall thin scribes known as Scriptors, thin parchment coloured demons sitting at the top of the vast room as they transcribed every transaction of their world. He carefully explained what he wished to occur while the Aegai nodded with such vigour that he had serious doubts that any of them comprehended his directive. He reminded the nodding peons that he was capable of reading what the Scriptors wrote so lying would be out of the question. As if to emphasize his point Galt looked towards the Scriptors who bowed slightly without breaking their recording. While they considered themselves apart from the machinations of the various worlds, he knew it was not prudent to ignore an Old World so close to being an Ancient. The power of Galt radiated around him, and even the Tyro trying not to throw up in the corner was affected enough to give the shadows a distrustful scowl between heaves.

Satisfied that those who eyed the tight coil of money he waved about understood his task, Galt retreated into the street. He had once read of a devotion that suggested"Homo proponit, sed Deus disponit, but then again Galt was no man"he was a Vampire who proposed and disposed at will, and he had no need of this or any other God.

He had waited for nearly a century, a coiled snake in the shadows watching for the perfect moment to strike. His revenge was no longer fuelled by passion for the emotion of his attachment had passed. His was a rage of affront and his arrogance didn’t allow it to dim"not for one passing second as he held fast to the right of his privileged existence. His wrath, smooth as glass slid across his soul and held him to this world. It left him unable to remove himself to an Ashre the place of meditation where he would live his final Vampire moments. Trapped by his attachment to human emotion he couldn’t evolve into an Aunsin"his destiny as an Ancient"so he stayed a prisoner of his own vengeance and a Vampire.

Women rarely fared well in his world many were so jaded from excess they barely existed beyond the ornamental, and some were driven mad from a life barren"both in the physical and emotional realm. Few survived the transformation, and those that lived beyond the initial years were often of such a strong mind he couldn’t manipulate them. What he required was the innocence and fear of one newly Unveiled, a scene of his own orchestration, and rules that would be implemented by their world. Once long ago, he had discovered a spirited Tyro at the Chambers who was unafraid of the huge demons who imprisoned her or the Vampires that scrutinized her from a distance. Her eyes glittered with defiance, and still echoing with the warmth of human life"she caused the electric heat of desire to race through him. Her bright insolence answered the eternal ache of an existence never completely sated by the temporal fragility of humans. Here, finally was a woman worthy of his attentions and he had paid dearly to bind her through an Accord as many had responded to her bold rebellion. It was exactly one year later when she had been rudely taken from him at the moment he would claim her for eternity. The damned upstart Caden Quinn, with his Numen Bryre Rhain"hiding in the shadows like vermin, thieves from the gutter respecting nothing.

Another scrape in the night demanded his immediate presence and while he left his thoughts of the past"they never really left him. He smiled with the same anticipation that his victim used upon his own prey while relishing the destined outcome of this soon to be skirmish. The unfolding of his plan mellowed him and instead of dispatching the would-be killer in the shadows, he decided to allow him a few more minutes of life to enact his inadequate course of attack. He had encountered this type of human before, an aberration that had neither rhyme nor reason since even the most vicious of demons had some underlying ethos that supported his assault. This creature was beyond human and the nether world that killed for a reason only appreciable to him, and so Galt would show him the same mercy he had shown his own victims. Then there was nothing quite like the smell of fresh blood on the morning dew.

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