Chapter 92 - The Raising of a Dead Child part 3

And so began the education of my vampire child Ilio.

After testing his strength that night, we hunted. Not far from the alder tree, we pounced upon a large buck deer. I took the powerful animal down, wrestling it to the ground by its antlers while Ilio watched. It thrashed and mewled and stamped its hooves.

"Hurry, Ilio, seize it and bite its neck!" I prompted the boy. "Bite deeply. You must sever the arteries and drink your fill before its heart stops beating."

Eager with hunger, Ilio fell on the beast. He savaged the creature's neck inexpertly, making it squall in pain. The blood flew out the wounds, powered by its galloping heart, and we both ended up soaked before the child had filled his belly.

I broke the creature's neck as a mercy, feeling my own blood hunger yammering in my guts, but my concern was mainly for my vampire child.

How would he feel about this merciless killing? How would he feel about this banquet of blood? Would he be horrified? Disgusted? He was so young, and in many ways, his was a gentler spirit. Yes, he was a child of a hunting society, but the men who'd raised him were protective of him, and I'd been just as sheltering.

Ilio sat back on his knees, wiping his face and then licking the blood from his fingers. He was covered in blood. There was even blood in his curly dark hair, but the look on his face was far from the expression of horror or disgust I'd expected. He grinned in sublime satisfaction, his eyes heavy-lidded. "Oh, that tastes good," he sighed. "Thest, you should drink, too. Aren't you hungry?"

Of course I was hungry for the blood. The smell was maddening. I imagined I could taste it on the air, as if a million tiny droplets of it swirled around my head, but the buck was dead and the blood would be cold and sluggish. The blood of the dead has never been to my liking.

"I will feed later. Dawn is drawing near and we should find a place to sleep, someplace remote where the warriors of the Oombai will not find us."

Ilio turned to the east and saw, as I did, that the horizon was lightening. The rim of the plain was limned with lavender and pink light. The stars there were fading.

We rose. I took a moment to look down at the buck, feeling pity for the regal animal. It was a lifeless thing now, the night's chill stealing the last of its heat in a faint vapor. Ilio noted the expression on my face and looked confused.

"I know it feels good to feed," I said grimly. "The blood hunger is so overpowering, but it is not seemly to be so callous of the living things that die to sustain our lives. My people gave thanks to the spirits of the beasts who died to feed us when I was a living man, and that is something which I still do."

To my relief, the boy seemed to understand. He nodded gravely. "Then that is what I shall do as well."

"Good. That makes me proud of you, boy."

Ilio smiled, displaying his fearsome new fangs.

I grimaced.

I had many things to teach him.

Taking his shoulder, I said, "Come, let us be rid of these fouled clothes and bathe. I can't stand to be covered in such filth. The smell of all this blood will whip me to madness. When we are clean, we can find some place to rest for the day."

We moved rapidly north, Ilio taking the practice of his new strength quite seriously. I matched my pace to his, feeling no impatience for the boy's weaknesses, only happy to have a companion with which to share these wonders. The guilt I felt at my corruption of him… that I pushed to the back of my mind. That was something I could ponder at length, when we had less compelling business. Tonight we were pressed for time, harried by approaching daylight, hunted by vengeful humans. I had eternity to question my motives and delineate, in fine detail, my offences against this child. Self-accusation and second-guessing could wait. For the time being, it was enough to fly through the air beside him, to cross the plains in great leaps and bounds, taking delight in the trill of his laughter, in his clumsy newborn antics.

We found a shallow creek and shed our clothing, then glided into the bracing water. I washed the blood and bits of bone and flesh from my skin and Ilio did the same.

"Can we still mate with women, Thest?" Ilio asked as he splashed water in his armpits.

"Yes, of course. Your penis didn't fall off, did it?"

"No!"

I laughed.

"Yes, we can still mate with women," I said more seriously. "But it helps to have a belly full of blood. When you are starved, your flesh will shrivel to your bones, as will your little schtupper. And you must take care not to lose control of your hunger for blood. It will gnaw at you a hundredfold so close to a living human female. You wouldn't want to hurt the woman who's so good as to offer her body to you, now would you?"

Ilio shook his head. "No." But he looked relieved. He'd only just lost his virginity before circumstance—and I, in my weakness—stole his life away.

"Did you not observe me copulating with the female in the village of the Ground Scratchers?" I asked.

Ilio shook his head. He grinned crookedly. "I thought you were just drinking her blood. You… put it in her?"

I groaned and rolled my eyes.

"I wasn't really paying attention!" he laughed.

"Come, boy. Let us set aside such distractions. We need to find someplace to sleep. It is almost daybreak."

I felt suddenly uncomfortable, instructing the boy. In truth, I was but a little more experienced than he was himself. I did not have the right to speak with authority on many of the things he was bound to question me about. I had spent so many millennia in solitude, a hermit in the mountains. Aioa was the first living woman I'd mated with since becoming a vampire. Still, it would do no good to admit my ignorance to the boy. Better that he have confidence in me. He would be less troubled.

As I started away from the creek, Ilio called out. "What about our clothing?"

"Leave them. I'll not wear such filth. The smell of blood on them would drive me mad."

"Oh."

"We'll steal new clothes tomorrow night."

"From who?"

I looked him in the eye. "When night comes tomorrow, I plan to visit my wrath upon the Elders of the Oombai."

He gaped at me, stunned at the ferocious look upon my face.

I spoke no further of my vengeful desires with the boy that night. Instead, I pointed toward a wooded ridge in the distance. "Let us fly that way, Ilio. There is sure to be a cave or some hidden place in that mountainous area where we can rest through the day. I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. I need sleep."

"So we must rest as we did when we were human?" Ilio questioned.

"Our minds need to dream. Our bodies, I think, could go on without pause, if we cared to push them so far."

For the last time that night, we plied the winds.

On the rocky ridge, we did indeed find a small cavern to curl up in. It was barely large enough for the two of us to wriggle into, but it was high and obscured by brush and thorn bushes and seemed very remote and secure. I fetched a large rock to close the entrance with and pulled it into place behind us. Ilio moved to make room for me and I shifted around in the earthy dark until I'd rooted out a comfortable spot.

There was not much room. I wished we'd had time to find more spacious accommodations, but beggars can't be choosy. Ilio put his head on my shoulder, his fingers twining in the matt of hair upon my chest. I was reminded of my own flesh-and-blood children, how they laid upon me when I was a living man. They'd always plucked at my chest hair the exact same way. I felt a strangling sense of melancholy then, the black and bottomless loss that dogged my every step, as persistent as my thirst for blood. I almost pushed his hand away, but I didn't, because it was good to be a father again… if only a father of deceit.

"Do you love me, Thest?" Ilio asked in the dark.

"Yes, I do," I answered. I did not qualify my reply. I did love the boy.

Ilio snuggled closer to me. "Can I call you 'father'?" he asked.

I winced. Children can always find your vulnerable places!

"Go to sleep, boy," I said in a tight voice.

If my answer hurt him, he did not betray it.