Chapter 3

Ender’s father, Silhar, and his mother, Valiren, were among the oldest vampires that ruled their world, and both were still active members of the Vamyr Counsel, which translated into almost infinite power. Everybody knew who they were, their role in the vampire society, and most importantly, they knew they should be afraid of them.

They lived for centuries around humans, pretending to be mortal, learning, imitating, working… but when the new world came around and humans started to evolve, to create machines, electricity, guns, they were forced to hide in darker places.

And they were the first ones to vote in favour for the war to start when their son began his revolution.

Humans had started to get too close to them again, and retreating or fleeing and starting over again in a new place was an idea that most vampires despised, but not many places on Earth remained untouched by men, and vampires didn’t die easily, which meant that its population was far too big to move together to one location and not be noticed by humans.

Uncertainty about what should be done started to set in, and with so many Elders still in deep slumber, unable to wake and make decisions, the vampires that lived in society began to complain about Vamyr Counsel, stating that no solution had still been found, but the problem grew bigger day after day.

In return, the Vamyr Counsel asked for more patience, reminding those who spoke up about the issue that vampires and humans had lived together for centuries without major problems, and that a solution would soon be found.

Ender did not agree with that statement, however. He, along with others, realised that this time was different. Humans had weapons, guns, armies, and would find a way to get rid of the vampires in a relatively short time if they were to find themselves face to face with the creatures. In fiction, vampires were wildly popular, but reality was very different, and any human with a few brain cells would see the danger in the monster before they saw the beauty.

So every week, when the Counsel was in reunion, they also met, they planned, thought about ways to stop the humans without making it obvious that they weren’t simple men and women. They thought about retreating to colder areas, about creating their own guns and weapons, even about slowly turning any humans that came to contact with them into vampires, but none of those ideas were good enough to stand a chance at a fair fight.

But why should they fight fairly? They had the advantage, they were nonexistent to humans, not a threat known to them yet, so what if it was them who attacked the humans first?

And so, with that first question in mind, they began to plot against the human race.

When they felt their ideas were good enough, they presented them at the Counsel, who naturally refused it completely at first.

‘Have you all gone mad?’, said Silhar, giving his son a sharp look.

‘We haven’t, actually, not yet at least, but we all will if we keep hiding and letting humans take over the world’ Ender said calmly. He sounded very confident, almost cocky.

Silhar just hissed at him and turned around quickly, taking a seat and looking at his wife, who was also staring at Ender, trying to understand what was going on inside her child’s head.

‘We just want a chance to explain our ideas, and if you think they are not good enough maybe you can help us too’ said Raynor, Ender’s best friend and also the son of two Counsellors.

Raynor’s parents weren’t so old, definitely not originals, but they had risen through the ranks as great fighters. Families like that were known for their great strength and tactics when it came to war and fighting, and Raynor was the best at what he did, and so were his parents before they reached the Counsel.

In terms of appearance, Raynor didn’t look as sophisticated as Ender did, but he was very beautiful nonetheless. Black hair and a black, well kept beard that framed his strong jaw, making a contrast with his white eyes. He was very tall and very bulky, and his pale skin was only disturbed by the red marks of blade cuts from past battles. His lineage is originally form somewhere in northern Asia, and some of his distant family still lives there, as they are very accustomed to their way of living and cherish their land.

‘You know very well we don’t have the numbers to win, Ray’ answered Hyla, Raynor’s mother, after taking a sip from a tall, wine glass.

‘Don’t we? How can you possibly know that? Do we keep track of every vampire there is? Do we know when new vampires are born or humans bitten? Do we have a secret list that no one knows about?’ Ray spit back at her, and the entire Counsel. He seemed agitated.

‘Raynor’s got a point. We truly don’t know how many of us are there. How many of us would join the fight’ said Ender, taking a step forward and putting his hand on Ray’s shoulder to calm him down.

‘There are many of us, yes, but not enough to beat the humans’. That sentence came from a deep, raspy and tired voice at the back of the room. A very old looking vampire walked towards the light of the flame, looking past the Counsel and straight into Ender’s eyes.

At the sound of his voice, every head turned towards him and got up in a hurry with a look of disbelief. For what felt like hours, no one dared speak.

The old vampire walked towards a fountain at the side of the room that contained enough blood to feed the entire coven. He looked at it for a second, smiled and submerged his entire face in it, gulping enormous amounts of the liquid with desperation.

Silhar gestured to Ender and Raynor to get out of the room, but the old vampire put his hand up, face still under the blood, to stop the young vampires from leaving the room.

Valiren looked at her son with concern, and then back to Silhar, who gave her a small nod.

After a while, the old vampire removed his head from the fountain, now practically drained of contents, and took a sharp breath. Drops of blood still falling from his hair made it impossible for his face to be fully seen.

He shouted at a servant to bring him a towel and some water to clean up.

He walked towards the old, dusty table at the end of the room, taking a look at the emblems sculpted all over it. He caressed one, smiling faintly. He took his long, brown, moth eaten coat off and threw it to the floor, when the servant approached him slowly with the bucket of water and the towel.

He cleaned himself, getting rid of most of the blood on his face and hair. The wrinkles no longer there, his eyes shone a deep tone of red and his skin looked almost glossy.

He turned around towards the round table of the Counsel laughing.

‘Is that any way to welcome me back?’ he said, resting his eyes on each member present.

Not a single vampire dared move, for what their eyes were seeing was almost impossible.

Finally, someone broke the silence.

‘Father, you have awaken' said Valiren, turning her body completely towards him and walking with arms open.