FicWad

“This is the last time we shall travel together Frederick. I am sorry but it has to be this way.” Valeck looked at him with cold blue eyes.

“Don’t try to escape boy you have no idea what will happen if the master becomes displeased.” He said sternly back.

He saw a sickly smirk rise on the man’s face and as Valeck rode forwards he saw the truth of the matter. The vampire pulled his hand up to block the oncoming sword but failed to see the stake as Valeck launched from the horse and slammed it into the vampires’ chest.

Frederick’s eyes widened, the blood thundering around his body swiftly pulling towards the open wound ready to heal him, but the stake hit his heart and he moved no more. He fell from the horse paralysed and Sergian leapt down towards them both. Valeck already had the sword ready to swipe but Frederick’s hand was held around it and fixed as he was he could not pull it free.

“Idiot child.” Sergian booted him out of the way and wrenched the sword from the deathly grip before moving towards the stake.

“Wait!” If you release him he will kill me! Or he will tell the master and you will have to explain why you did not see this coming.” Valeck stuttered. “Let me finish this.”

“What the hell are you thinking? Valeck he’s going to punish you! You could be killed or worse.”

“I want the worse Sergian! I want what you have.” Valeck told him and pulled the sword from the generals’ hand. “I need to secure my fate and you cannot afford to get in the way.”

“Ah gods! If it were anyone else.” Sergian un-tacked Frederick’s horse and slapped its rump sending it into the town. A free wealthy beast for a villager at least, he then swung up onto his own and waited.

Valeck brought the sword down, the first hack clumsy and ill-aimed, it struck the side of his neck and cut it wide open. He tried again, this time the sword wedging into the bone and he had to try hard to rip it free. The blasted thing always looked so easy in the soldiers’ hands. He finally got the neck severed and ripped the head up into his hands, a bloody and tired mess of a man he dropped the sword.

“Do we feel accomplished now?” Sergian looked at him impassively. “We are going to have to ride hard to get home on time now.”

“You do…” Valeck nodded in jest. “Okay, we shall go now. He put the head into his back and wondered if it would stay in one piece. It was already drenching through the leather and he wasn’t sure if they rotted fast or didn’t at all. He vaulted onto the horse. “I’m ready.”

“Good.” Sergian kicked his horse on up into the forest. “We need to ride fast, the beasts in the forest will smell the death you carry with you.”

Sergian led them through the forest at a harder pace than usual, he couldn’t afford to push the horses however as they needed them to get up the mountainside. He hadn’t expected the boy to make that move and wondered if he would be more hideously punished for the situation if Vladimir chose to blame him. Valeck rode alongside him in relative silence as he pondered how to make his desires known to the elder of the castle Master.

The ride up the mountainside was freezing cold as the wind whipped up and when they finally got back into the tunnels and into the stables it was a blessed relief. The young man noticed that Sergian seemed unaffected by it; he presumed that since he was dead he must not have to worry too much about it. He was to learn later than unless it was extreme cold and the liquid inside the walking cadaver froze it was not really all the worrying an issue.

“Did it hurt?” Valeck looked at him as they finally put the horses to their beds and Sergian threw the bloodied bag at him.

“Dying?” Sergian looked at him. “Of course it hurts. You’re body shuts down, you’ll piss and shit yourself and if you’re lucky you’ll pass out before your fangs come through for the first time.”

“Do you hate me for my choice?” Valeck looked at him a little concerned his only real friend was about to be lost forever.

“No…” Sergian sighed and ruffled his hair. “I think considering everything you have and are about to venture into trying to do it by choice is a better thing.” With that the vampire stalked out to his quarters, only Valeck could temper the anger and feelings of contempt that Sergian had towards anything to do with the castle and it’s faux appearance of a working Lord’s home. The place was a den of nightmares and now he was part of it.

It took Valeck some time to muster the courage to head up but he knew that it was getting light and if he could get to his room unspotted with the thing he had in the bag. He had to think of it as just a thing, if he thought of the reality he would likely be quite sick. He managed to sneak across the hallway and over to his bedroom, he slid the rancid bag of flesh, blood and bones under his bed and pulled the heavy curtains across to block out the daylight.

He had accomplished the first part of his barter but he also had to sit there with the thing under his bed which meant even when he tried to sleep he would dart up in a panic. What if he hadn’t killed him entirely? Perhaps he was wrong, the vampire’s head might regenerate and if he were sleeping when he rose then Frederick would make him his victim. Valeck shuddered; the act had been easier when he hadn’t got the time to reflect on it. He didn’t much care about having butchered him more that he had to put up with his own doubts and it irked him that he had them in the first place.

The night came and the head had not grown any appendages or moved and Valeck realised that instead of that it had taken on the hideous stench of decay. It was starting to stink out the room. It was vile, he shuddered and dressed before pulled the damnable thing out from under the large oak frame and then finally with grim determination took it and the account notes towards the study.

When Vladimir looked up his steeled jaw and dark set orbs glaring back were the indicator that he had not expected the boy to have the intelligence to scheme this. He had not watched his mind and had not thought him devious enough to put such a plan to action. His anger was not directed at the young man, no, it was directed at himself for failing to consider it a realistic option.

Valeck sat in his chair, pushed the books over and with a thundering heart he nervously pushed the bag over. The stench made him turn up his nose and he looked down, his jaw set tight and determined he waited to see what the master of the castle would either say or do. Time seemed to take on a new meaning as Vladimir watched him and he could feel the vampire invading his mind, seeking out his darkest desires and ripping through the memories to see if he would make a worthy choice.

He wondered if Sergian had suffered this and, if so, had he been found weak? Sergian’s determination had been the thing that fuelled him so he certainly hoped not. Eventually Valdimir ventured to open the bag and set the head of Frederick on the desk, one of his own had been killed by a mortal, how weak. He ran his hands through the hair the remained, his fingertips massaging into the skin and with some supernatural power he seemed to be loosening it like a layer from warmed milk that had cooled down and settled on top of the liquid.

Valeck watched, his eyes intensely taking the sight in, the blue orbs washed over the sight taking it in and Valeck wanted more. He wanted to taste that power, his heart yearned to know that power. Vladimir sank his fingers into the skin and down over the skull, he seemed to treat it like clay, his fingers curled and he lifted the flesh up like a velvet glove from a hand. Valeck gasped in awe.

“Why did you have to kill my spawn?” Vladimir looked into his eyes.

“I had to make you realise I wasn’t daydreaming or did not have an understanding of what might be asked of me.” He said his voice soft but determined. “I wanted you to know I was a worthy choice and mostly…” His lip curled up slowly into a smirk, “I wanted you to realise I would happily do anything to get closer to what I want.”

“What makes you think I want you? You seem very sure of yourself.” Vladimir continued his eye contact.

“Because you have trained me the way you want me for these last eight years and now I am acting to preserve myself. The role of a predator for that is what you have nailed into me, that is what I am exacting.”

“And this makes you worthy of being an immortal? That you can butcher another of our kind and you can do it without concern?” Still the vampires tone did not change.

“No because I have the intelligence you desire to give you company through these dark knights, I am of this time and not falling behind like your castle has. I can bring you to the future and I will find a way to remain up to date. You have festered here in these long centuries, seen countries around you war for so long that I bet you could not longer find the borders of Hungary or any of the lands you once knew very well. I can be your guide but I won’t do it with a limited lifespan.”

“You talk as though these thoughts have been weighing on your mind for sometime.” Vladimir cocked his head slightly; he knew everything now he had delved into the boys mind. He had been surprised by some of it. The small peasant child truly had evolved.

“Long enough to have waited for the right moment.” Valeck told him with cool conviction.

“I see. So might I ask why now?”

“I have no desire to grow old like Frederick before you decide to bring me to your ways and I will not loose my mortal ways just because you allowed it with Sergian.”

“I did not remove Sergian’s mortal desires, I removed the insanity that had come along with it. He murdered his wife and two children in the fountain by the church in a jealous rage. He had caught her in an affair and rather than let her live he chose to butcher her. The children witnessed the insanity and he coolly finished them off too.”

“Sergian…” Valeck looked at him. “I didn’t know he was married.”

“This is a working castle, self-sustained and the outside grounds of the mountain top host an entire town of people. They are happy hiding alongside this place; it does not see war and the people here do not starve. How else do you think the place continues to see maintenance done and for the blood to remain in good supply?”

“Well if he killed them I guess he has no reason to concern himself further with the affairs of the living. He can move on and concentrate on his strengths and desires without the shackles of his family to endear him to the moral codes.” Valeck assessed bluntly.

“You’re already far too detached.” Vladimir finished cleaning out the head the insides were deposited into a wooden box by the desk and then tossed the skull over to Valeck. “I guess it is only right that you would do something this conceited. Perfectly executed but I shall tell you it’s conceited.”

Valeck went to argue the point but Vladimir was not interested. He put his hand to the boy’s throat and slammed him back against the shelves of the library. The hand crushed around the frail neck and Valeck chocked as he struggled to breath. Vladimir’s fangs sank into his neck and drew on the life fluid. He let out a groan as his body responded to the intense new feeling and the dark kiss.

Valeck fell under the spell of the vampire and as he hung limp in Vladimir’s arms he found himself begging that the feeling would never end. This was how the victims fell? In this blissful state he suddenly realised why the beasts of the night were so dangerous if this was how they made their prey feel. Gods it was… amazing! Then it was gone and Vladimir pulled back, discarding him like a broken toy looking down at Valeck as his heart began to slow.