Chapter 284 - Last Rites part 15

"Even with the living blood, he nearly died before the Strix quickened in him," I said to Lukas. We were tramping across a snowy field, Hambach Forest far behind us now. The lights of Kerpen winked on the horizon like Christmas decorations. "It knitted the injury to his throat as it remade him, but because it had to do both things at once, each was especially slow and agonizing. I thought I would go mad watching him writhe there in the abandoned mill. He choked on his own blood as the Strix remade him. He thrashed as his flesh turned blue, and then purple, the capillaries in his cheeks and eyes rupturing. It was terrible to behold, and it was my fault, all my fault, because I had orchestrated the whole affair. I forced him to accompany me into that battle, hoping he would beg me for the blood if he witnessed my great powers, or failing that, that he would be injured and I would have to 'save' him!"

I laughed.

"Save him, indeed! He was doomed! He was doomed the moment I beheld him. I had to have him, and I let nothing stand in the way of my desire for him. I seduced him, I destroyed his faith, and then I forced the living blood upon him."

Lukas seemed impressed by my ruthlessness. He gazed at me with grudging respect-- another dagger in the heart!

"What happened then?" Lukas asked.

"He became a blood drinker. He is not an especially powerful blood drinker, and he bears the marks of his grievous injuries—his throat is runneled like melted wax, and his face is discolored with a black filigree of ruptured capillaries—but he lives. He lived, and he lives still."

"No, I meant back then. What happened in Getvar? Did Justus join you when it was over?"

"It took two days for Justus's transformation to complete," I answered. "I sat at his side until it was finished, accompanied him on his first hunt—a stag-- and then we returned to the village of Getvar.

"I feared he would be angry, that he would hate me for what I'd done to him, but he was not angry. He did not hate me. He behaved as though he believed I had acted out of love. He seemed oblivious of my machinations. And, of course, he was enchanted with his newfound powers.

"We returned to Getvar and told the villagers what we had done, that we had hunted down the remaining vampires and destroyed them. We even led the mayor and his cronies to the old mill to show them the remains of the degenerate ones. They burned the mill and salted the earth, and saw us off with great fanfare.

"He accompanied me to Hungary, abandoning his order, forsaking his god, for me-- a thing that never failed to fill me with shame when I thought on it. He joined the Court of the Night's Watch, lived among our kind, as my companion, for many years, helping us to hunt down and exterminate the degenerate ones, who were becoming an ever increasing threat to the mortal world.

"Eventually, due mostly to the increasing numbers of degenerate vampires plaguing Western Europe, the Church took a more aggressive stance against our kind. They formed the Venatori, and began to hunt us down. It was called the Internecion.

"The Church attacked and destroyed the Court of the Night's Watch while we were in France. They hunted down and destroyed all but a very few of us. In the Old World, only the Eternals survived the Church's crusade against us. The Eternals and the lucky few blood drinkers under their protection. Though there were great casualties on both sides of the conflict, I knew it was not a war we could ever hope to win. We have always been greatly outnumbered by mortal men.

"So we fled. We abandoned our own kind and fled from Europe. We traveled across Russia and into Asia, resided in Tibet and China for a few decades, beyond the reach of the Church, where our race could still live in relative peace. The vampires of the Far East are quite an interesting breed. Very wise and enlightened creatures, though there are always a few bad apples. There always are.

"We finally parted ways in the spring of 1662. There was no great falling out in our parting. He wished to return to Italy. I wanted to see the New World. I thought he was mad, for the Church was still hunting our kind, but he was determined to return to his homeland. We parted amicably, and have not traveled together since. Our paths have crossed once or twice in the intervening years, but our mutual infatuation was a short-lived thing. A flame that burns twice as hot burns half as long, as the saying goes. Besides, Zenzele was and has always been my soul's mate, and I had learned that she roamed the New World and wanted to see her again."

Lukas snorted. "A vampire fling!"

I smiled and tipped my head. "As you say."

We walked on in silence, Lukas staring down at his feet, I gazing up at the sky. The lowering clouds had moved on to the north, sweeping back like a curtain to reveal the endless vista of the heavens. The stars were especially bright and sharp tonight. Moonlight glittered on the snowdrifts. A vehicle zoomed by on the road at the far end of the field, its headlights gliding smoothly through the darkness. I could smell the mortal who drove the automobile, a man of middle age. Scent of cigarettes and snack food. Stale sweat gone sour in the creases on his body fat. He was dying of lung cancer, this anonymous passerby. I could smell the tumor growing inside of him. I wondered if he knew his end was near.

Engine humming, the car diminished into the distance. The mortal passed beyond the range of my vampire senses, though the faint odor of him lingered—his vices, the disease that would kill him very soon.

I am going to die soon, too, I thought. By choice, of course, not of some mortal disease, but it was all the same in the end.

I realized I was vaguely frightened by the thought of dying, and it pleased me.

So, I was still human enough to be frightened of death!

"Why are we going to see this Justus guy anyway?" Lukas asked. "Why him and not one of your other vampire children? What makes him so special?"

"I've heard he's returned to his faith," I answered, "and I am in desperate need of absolution."