Keep Your Enemys Close: A Vampire Slayer Novel

Chapter 8- Vulcan, a History

That afternoon, in the library, I was issued a reading list from our studies director, Rolanda. Despite her old name, she was still quite young, with brown hair that flowed down to her waist. She introduced me to Fredrick, who ran the library. He peered through his spectacles, skimming over my list before he began pulling books from the shelves two at a time.

I settled down at a small, wooden table in the library next to Aiden and Noah, before cracking open the first book. Our allotted two hours of study time flew by in a blink of an eye as I immersed myself in the history of the world I was now apart of. Aiden had to physically take the book from my hands just to get my attention once the clock struck four. I was in a daze on the ride up the elevator as I thought over the new information I now had.

A lot of the books were repetitive, each one hitting a key point in time starting from the creation of the first Headquarters, to the creation of Vulcan. I was only halfway though the stack, but I had learned a lot.

For starters, the Vampires used to run free in a small, off road city in southern France; they lived, hunted, or killed wherever and whoever they wanted. They were the dominant species, ruling over the humans and frightening them into doing whatever they wanted, while still keeping the city running. Most people avoided them at all costs, knowing that one fatal bite would turn them into the monster they feared. But there was a few citizens who wanted to become them. They would seek them down and beg them to be turned, but most were killed in the process.

It was the anger of one man, named William Vulcan, who brought them down. He was driven mad after finding the love of his life drained of blood on the eve of their wedding day. He did his research, recruited other fed up citizens, and together they built the first vampire slayer headquarters. Battle broke out, and eventually the vampires fled. At the time, the British Colonies were just being established, and many of the vampires ran there seeking freedom. Everyone thought that the vampires had went into hiding for good, until William started to hear reports of colonists drained of blood. He hopped the next ship to America and set up another headquarters near Pennsylvania.

Eventually, a war broke out between the vampires and the humans, and it soon turned global. Headquarters locations started popping up all over, and we soon had the weaponry and the numbers to run the vampire species close to extinction. But instead we made a deal with them. They had to lay low, go undetected, and feed on only animals. In return, we let them be. Any breach of the treaty would result in immediate death on either sides.

The war left a lot of the headquarters damaged, so once it was over, William relocated his headquarters to where it sits now, and when he died, it was named after him. Today there is sixty-eight active headquarter locations around the world, but they all answer to us, here in Tennessee.

Over the years, the vampires built up their own government, just like we built up ours. Not all of them like to follow the treaty though. Some become roughs and start running around, killing people. Its our job to keep our people safe, and so we track down the roughs and kill them in return.

Our governments have lived harmoniously over the years, but lately, according to Aiden, there have been more and more roughs, and their government is becoming less and less content every time we take them out.

Some would say we're on the brink of war. His voice echoes through my mind. Could it be true?

The ding of the elevator doors bring me back to reality as they slid open. I'm the last one out, and I trail behind the rest of the division as we make our way down the hallway. Aiden notices after a few minutes, and slows his pace till he's walking by my side.

"You okay?" he asks, while pulling a buzzing phone from his back pocket,"Hold on a sec."

He held the phone up to his ear with a brisk 'Hello', exchanged a few 'okay's and then stopped abruptly as he slid the phone back into his pocket. By then we had all stopped and turned around to see what the call was about.