The Hunt

Chapter 23

I listen to my beating heart, feel it pounding in my chest. How strange it is to feel blood coursing through the veins of my body. The warm liquid of life. And to feel cold seeping into my bones. Such cold, biting at my weak, suffering flesh. I cannot understand how they live like this.

As I have many times before, I listen. My ears don't work properly. I hear sounds, but they are fuzzy and unclear, distant and faint. My eyes have trouble adjusting to the dim light and I smell nothing. I touch my nose, but it's useless.

In the beginning I called for Clemente, but there was never an answer. I don't know where they have put him. I am surrounded by others, I hear their breathing, their screeches and screams, their cackling laughter. I think some are vampires and some are humans, but I cannot see them.

I hold on to the metal bars that trap me within these stone walls. The cold, rough metal grates against my peach coloured hands. But I cannot break them, I cannot bend them, they do not yield. I am weak.

I remember running. I remember the dart striking my chest. The pain. Powerful, all-consuming pain. It ran from the tips of my fingers through every strand of my hair. Burning like fire, moving through my entire being, swallowing me whole. Then came the darkness.

The next I remember is wakening in a dark space. It was unusual, eerie and strange. I've never noticed darkness as dark. Never noticed it as a blinding blackness until that moment. It was always welcome as a vampire. I could not see properly. I tried to break free of the bonds that held me, but it was useless. Clemente was there, he tried too, but to no avail. We bouced and moved, the rumbling sound told me we were being carried in a human machine.

I remember looking at Clemente, strapped in next to me. Something had changed about him, but I couldn't see him clearly in the darkness. Something had changed with me too.

"Do you see properly, Clemente?" I asked him.

"No, father. I am almost blind. What is happening?" He asked me. There was panic in his tone, fear bordering on hysteria. An alien and unusual sound from vampire lips.

"We've been turned." I told him.

"Father...I am sorry. It was I..." He began to say.

"No matter now Clemente. We must look forward." I said, cutting him off. We were caught, trapped and changed by humans.

When we arrived where they were taking us, we were split up, carried easily by two humans. I tried to fight but my arms were weak, my legs gave way. I was dragged through a doorway and thrown into this cell.

"Where is my wife? My daughter?" I called at the humans, but the one in front just smiled and walked away. Alesco. Leila. Wynn. Where are they now? Did they make it to the darkness? To the master?

Was I right to send them there, to that creature? They should be safe, with other vampires. They will be fed and kept and untouchable by the hunters. Yet I cannot help but remember. I remember when we arrived. Or perhaps when we appeared? I'm not sure, I remember nothing before it.

I opened my eyes, and gazed at the canopy above. Sounds filled my ears, chirping birds and padding feet. Rustling and crawling. The sounds were almost overwhelming, attacking my ears from all sides. I lay there, flat on my back, on the soft, spongy ground.

Gradually the sounds began to split apart, and I was able to distinguish. I looked around and could see others like me, others lying, eyes glowing in the night. Yellow and red eyes. Silent bodies.

I pushed myself up and rose to my feet. Others were doing the same. I recognised no one, and saw no recognition in their eyes as they looked at one another, and me. And he came, gliding silently over fallen leaves, cloaked in night, an aura of power.

"My children." His voice was a quiet hiss, carrying into my mind. He raised his arms, as though in welcome. "Welcome to the world."

"Where are we?" I asked this creature. "Who are you?"

"I am your master. The master. The father of your kind. Of vampire kind." The hissing voice said.

"You are Ambrose." He said to me. He left me then and travelled amongst us all, one to the next, naming us all, his children. When he was done he looked to the sky, blocked as it was by the trees, and raised his hands. Ebony skin merging with the darkness.

The nearest trees began to sway and bend, away from the master, further and further out. They began to fall with resounding crashes. The sounds of the forest changed, I heard fleeing feet and panicked screeches as more and more trees crashed down around us. As they hit the ground they seemed to disappear, merging with the forest floor, as though they never existed.

The black sky broke through, the silvery glow of the moon bathing us where we stood. The twinkling stars revealed in the cloudless night.

"The forest is your home. You are welcome in this clearing where we can rise together, where we can grow strong. From here we can strike our enemies." He said.

What enemies? I remember thinking. What are we? Vampires, he had said. Creatures of the night. Creatures of the darkness.

As though in the answer the master spoke again.

"You are vampires. You live for the darkness. Instinct will take you far. Your bodies know how to survive. Blood is your food. You may stay or roam as you wish. Return to me as you choose."

Another vampire emerged from the woods on the edge of the new clearing. He stepped into the moonlight to stand by the master. Unlike those around me, he looked at ease, comfortable. It was as though he had been here for a while. His glowing red eyes gazed around at us, taking us in and sizing us up.

"Welcome." He said. "I am Aldon."

Back and forth I went from that clearing, wandering and exploring the forest, to edges of the great ocean and to the border of the human lands. Many stayed and the village was born. I did not want to settle, so I never stayed long. The dwelling sprung up. Strength and power were decided in battles and fights. Those closest to the master were the strongest. They fought to protect their stations near to the magic. Gradually it took shape.

I discovered humans quickly. They were wandering in the trees, searching for us. Even then they did not enter the eternal darkness of the master's clearing. And they were slower than now without their machines, foolish but still dangerous. Already they had the poison that could change us. I watched it happen, watched a vampire writhe and scream and change before my eyes after they struck him with the crossbow bolt. He wrenched it from his chest, but already it was too late. I watched his convulsions and the transformation of his face and fangs, his hair and eyes, heard his heart begin to beat.

I fled to the master, back to the village. I had to my fight my way in, fight my way past the self-appointed guards. The vampires that had won their positions. I beat them all, one by one, in combat and I entered the house of the master. It was not fear that drove me, I felt a calm sense of disassociation. A disconnection from the things around me.

The village had taken shape quickly. Wooden huts and stone houses, springing up as if by magic.

"Ambrose." The hissing voice entered my mind like anintruder. "What brings you to me?"

"A vampire was shot." I say. "Shot with something shining. He was screaming in pain, writhing on the ground, changing before my eyes."

The master was silent, thoughtful. He looked at me, though I could not see his face in the darkness of his hood.

"And so it has begun." He said.

"What has begun, master?" I asked.

"The Hunt."

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