Old Blood New Bonds

Chapter 46 part 2

"Tell me."

Baxter wasted no time as he began to explain. "You're not the first person I've told this to. And over the last few generations of my bloodline and with the help of various other vampires who have lifted through these events, like Husk. I've been able to recount an accurate history of where the vampires truly originated from."

Baxter looked Alastor in the eyes. They almost looked like they lit up with excitement as he continued. "Your father is Gene. But not even he was the first of the vampires. The first was a woman. All the way back in the medieval era. There was also something else that existed back then. A special species of bat that isn't alive today." Baxter turned to the display screen and clicked a few buttons on it. Alastor just watched him as he continued. "This bat was called inmortui vespertilio, which is Latin for 'undead bat.' In the medieval era Latin was their primary language thus the name."

Baxter pressed some keys on the screen and turned it to face Alastor. An old black image of a diagram was shown on the screen. It was of a bat, or what he thought looked like a bat. It was an artist rendition obviously. But the bat was drawn next to the scaling of a person.

"The inmortui vespertilio was said to be larger than our average bats. Its body alone was about the size of your head, and its wings were larger and wider." He paused, pointing at the diagram. Alastor looked, he saw the bats fangs, how they were long and curved. Razor sharp at the end....Like his.

"We still don't know why, but this extinct species of bat fed on people rather than fruit like our modern renditions. In my person opinion I think it's more interested in the plasma in our blood than the blood itself but thats besides the point." He went on. "The inmortui vespertilio held a very unordinary vile fluid in its fangs that it would normally use to incapacitate its victims before it drank them dry."

"Like a vampire..."

"Yes." Baxter dryly answered. He went on. "However one day, a woman who was the target of this bat fought back when it got its fangs in her. In an attempt to defense itself - and this is just a theory - but we think it emptied out all of that fluid into the woman. The bat died though, and in the history books about a year later there were reports of this "vampire woman - lamia woman - as they called her."

Alastor fell silent. He never knew that woman, but he wondered...If she had come to hate the curse she'd been given, same as he did.

"Did she die?" Alastor asked grimly.

"Eventually." Baxter replied, surprising Alastor a little.

But then he scoffed, "right...she went on a rampage probably and killed people like Gene.

"At first." Baxter replied bluntly.

"How do you know all of this if some of it's not listed in the history books?"

"Like I said," Baxter eyed him. "My family and I have been in relations with vampires for a few generations. All in an attempt to gather information so we can better understand why they came to be and what we could possibly do to stop those who are evil, and help cure the ones with good hearts that just want to be normal again." He explained. "Me and my family have met countless vampires, even ones far older than you, far older than Husk even. Vampires can live forever, so long as they keep feeding or they aren't killed. So my family's met quite a few vampires who were old enough to - maybe not be alive during that era - but be old enough to remember more accurate details than what is or isn't in the history books."

Baxter paused, "for example. Husk was bitten in the 40's," he began, gesturing towards the man as he spoke. "He was drafted into the coming war of that era. Bitten during the war by Gene to stay alive. Thus, he knows more about Gene during that era than I would. Because my family knew about what sorts of things Gene had done for nearly a decade that weren't listed in the history books. Or if it was, it wasn't credited to Gene. It was listed as accidents, or due to wild animals. That's why we work so well together. They bring me information that I can use, and in return I help work on something that could bring them all peace."