The Dragon's Bane

XXVIII

Évrard D'Aboville-The Creature 

I need you all to understand, what I am not is a vampire. You would not call me a vampire. Firstly, because I sincerely dislike the connotation buried in misguided lore. Spun by decades of exaggeration based on masturbatory fantasies of puerile fiction writers. Secondly, because it is simply not true.

There is too much about me that doesn't fit what you or anyone would define as a vampire. Thirdly, by the time you utter the word by instinct I would sink into the second syllable with ivory teeth and pull out your larynx. And watch you as you watch me at breakfast.

A vampire certainly wouldn't do such a thing. He would no doubt make love to you and simultaneously drain you at the neck as you climaxed. Right? I scoff in disgust. Vampires...

I do drink blood. And I know you won't like this detail. It is a chaser to the flesh and organs. I have studied endlessly the mythos of angels, the curiosity of demons. I have determined I am one or both of those things. Some aberration of nature, accursed of some lesser-known, no-name God. I do consider myself spiritual in nature and my journey has led me to all sorts of interesting areas of faith.

In fact, as I recall this back, I had very recently visited the rarest of Sunday worship pleasures. My first priest/feast this year. There were still pieces of him all over the room. Just this and that. Here a little. There a lot. Aging, drying, leathering. I strip certain parts from the bones, you understand. And it can age weeks before it becomes no longer edible.

I love holy raw innards. Well preserved by floating in years of too much sacramental wine. Oh yes! I confess I drink blood by the gallon but more importantly I devour flesh by the pounds. A vampire certainly would not do that!

Thoughts of vampires marched through her muddle mind as she peaked at me from the corner of her eye. Had I mistaken the effects of the blood bond for fear? It had been a long time since I allowed another creature to taste my blood.

'I wonder' static 'ghoul or strigoi?' These strange little musings occupy her thoughts as she stares blankly in the distance.

Can I turn you into an immortal?

Can I make you...me? This has to be one of the most asked questions. So, I will answer thusly. No. Nope. Never. And out of the question.

For one thing I am very specific. So, you can't just ape my formula and out of the oven pops a new batch and breed of Évrard. As I am sure you are starting to learn. I am something like a one of one.

Furthermore, I can't do a blood pass. Tried it; didn't like the results. I did get a crop of badly built lessers. The "Flagitium Hominis". Trust me you wouldn't want to struggle through your clipped eternity as one of them. I also got sweating sickness.

Yeah, that was me. Look it up. No sewage crisis. No sanitation issues and poor water conditions. Just me. My bad. I tried to warn them that it wouldn't go well but they insisted on taking what was not offered. And for that reason, I didn't even put up a customary fight. I let them have it and they paid the ultimate price.

She shouldn't be able to drink my blood. And as far as me wielding the kind of magic it would take to set eternity into anyone's bones and bind their soul here... I think I'll have to do a separate confession on me and magic. It's actually quite funny.

I stare at her picking at her nails pretending not to notice me. And I begin to wonder is it because she is magic that she has survived. She looks normal. It has been more than 12 hours since she has consumed my blood.

"Is there a reason you've returned." Maelys begins and I roll my eyes.

"I felt...something amiss with Izmir. I left her unprotected-"

"You left her with me." She interrupted hands on her hips. "She is safe where she is."

"She is not yours to protect." I straighten to my full height. "Do not mistake me, Druid. I sought your help to cloak her and only to do that until she is able to find her own power."

"She can find her power here with me!" She shouted; her face nearly as red as her hair.

"Whoa! The two of you. Stop it! I can decide for myself where I go and what I do." She stood pressing her hand against the stone table.

"Have you forgotten that you are still being hunted by strigoi and God knows who else!" Gaius was certainly not working alone. He did not have a tenth of the power it took to summon a Aqrabuamelu nor to entrap Izmir. He was in deep with some very powerful people.

"I haven't forgotten!" She shouted back. Flashes of her thoughts filtered between her words. "And you! You have some nerve coming in here barking orders after you just upped and left."

I instinctively sought to comfort her. Within a few strides I closed the distance between us. 

"No, don't" she said, and her raised palm pushed hard against my chest. I slid halfway across the room. This was not a feat that could be accomplished by some mere mortal. I understood now what my blood had purchased.

Maelys looked on with wide-eyed shock, but her unease was quickly replaced by amusement. "Hic Sunt Dracones"

"Here be dragons." Izmir said in a small voice. "How-how do I know that? I don't speak Latin."

"But I do." I didn't like where this was going. Not one bit.