Eternal Enemies

Eleven years ago I was kidnapped by an obscenely rich family which declared to be vampires. Immortal-ish, burn in sunlight, vampires. Not some British or European secret society founded around XVIII century, practicing weird rituals as an excuse for powerplay and kinky sex outside the wedding-lock. I though the same thing you probably would, more a few unpolite words you would not have used due to your polite mental habits.

Turns out, they were actually not delusional. They are the real deal.

I was forced to admit that, after they turn me. Harrowing six days process that I cannot mention here without commit a crime against vampiric society.

“Why me?” was a question that emerged in our conversations, some moment before this process start. I insisted in refuse their answer for months after I was already hunting human beings. Less for their blood than to satisfy a metaphysical necessity common to all vampires.

The answer is so simple that such simplicity makes it frustrating.

Vampire families compete against each other for dominance and for a percentage in the quota of new vampires available to their Nocturnal Court. Nocturnal Courts compete against each other too, for about the same, in global scale. The process is older than the last Ice Age on Earth, and both more violent and chaotic by one side, and more civilized, than it sounds. Depends on from which angle you look at it.

Almost all vampires have the same basic portfolio of powers, that place us above humans in the food chain by themselves, almost inevitably. Those grow with time, about as fast for all individuals of same sex. Men start with advantage and improve faster, what makes male vampires stronger and vampire society unapologetically patriarchal. No matter what you do, you cannot change this rate of development much. Older vampires will always be stronger than younger ones.

However, each individual starts life as a vampire with a potential to develop powers that are far less universal and do not grow without specific practice and personal effort. The Blood Seeds you have are dormant in your blood as a human. Only those with the dormant Blood Seed for a given power can develop this power. Each dormant has something between 7 and 25 dormant Blood Seeds. Not all of them compatible with the individual personality of this human.

In principle vampire families choose members of their own human family, but they have some vampires with the power to identify Blood Seeds by seeping human blood. Constantly use those Apprisers to search for new vampires with rare and useful powers. Whatever they need at the moment.

My fate as a vampire is particularly fortunate.

I was recruited by the Flaming Oak family, an old and respected family, but not one of the big powers in our Nocturnal Court or on Earth. Larger families tend to be more cruel and less personal, the FO are fairly decent people, as far as that can be said about vampires.

Given the chance I would not have chosen that life, I would have stayed human and risked to die by the fangs of vampires for the rest of my life. Even knowing vampires exist, and how unlikely is for humanity to ever raise a war against them. Say nothing about win that war. My preference if that was possible would be to live in a world where vampires do not exist, the world I believed to be real until I was kidnapped.

However, would be hypocrisy from my part to pretend there are not pleasant aspects in this life. To me, in particular, the situation is less bad than it is for most other vampires.

I have the Sunflower Seed, the rare power that make some vampires capable to walk in sunlight without danger. Right now I can do that for four hours each, almost two hours at the time with some effort. Eventually, few more decades, my immunity to sun shall become permanent. I can eat food, that’s a different Seed. Eat human food and get my sustain from that, what means I will only need to hunt humans and drink their blood to satisfy the need for Hunt. Once I fully develop my powers.

We all need to hunt intelligent people who do not agree in give us their blood, take their blood against their will. Aside that most vampires need more human blood, that can be taken from voluntaries or even blood bags, and complement that with animal blood. Drink too much animal blood is dangerous for vampire health, we need to balance it with human blood, but we can keep the Hunt to a minimal using voluntaries. Or, as they call it in vampire society, human-cattle.

The combination of those seeds open to me a perspective of live by day and build a routine more similar to the one I used to have as a human than what most other vampires can dream.

Those are rare powers and the combination makes them particularly useful, but I would not be a vampire if those where the most attractive things in my blood. I am glad to have those powers, but they are not immensely useful for our society. Four in each five vampires can turn humans into blood-thralls by given them their blood, and those slaves of our blood age much slower, or not at all. They get a small portion of our powers, and remain human for most practical purposes. Because of them a vampire able to pass for a human is less useful, most things I could be asked to do a small group of blood-thralls, or a really old and well trained one, can do too.

No reason to expend a valuable vampire sitting in the family.

I got the Healer Seed, that one is a little more useful. All vampires can heal very fast, instantaneously compared to humans, but not really instantaneously. And if costs us some blood, every time. The Healer Power, once developed, allows a vampire to heal himself and other vampires he chooses to help, even from some few meters of distance. Up to some limit it costs us no blood, after that costs us a fraction of the blood it normally costs for vampires. And each vampire can only heal himself.

We can feel the “vitality” of living things, natural and supernatural things. By now I can do at first sight a better diagnosis of any human I talk to in person. And my senses are more precise than anything human doctors would be able to get after dozens of invasive and non-invasive tests.

All that is useful, specially considering the family has farms with herds of bovines, pigs, goats, gooses, rabbits, bees, humans, and some orchards too. The Healing Seed is not the first option for frontline fighters, usually it works better in a support role.

Still, sometimes you may use this as advantage in battle.

Most members of this family have the Mind Torch seed, the power to set things in fire with their minds, including the body of other vampires. This being one of the few vampiric powers capable to permanently destroy a vampire from distance the family imposes respect that way. Unfortunately, we don’t have defensive tools of similar power.

I got the Torch Seed, what is the reason why this particular family managed to get me in the Nocturnal Court debates. They are the best suited to train vampires in the development of this power.

I also got the rare seed that allows a vampire to shapeshift and manipulate the shape and structure of other living organisms. Other vampires recover from any change as they recover from injuries, but in humans, animals and plants the changes are permanent. This is a power effective for defence and for offense, make me able to change my appearance to look like another human, or vampire. Like healing, is more useful in preparation for war and in daily life than in the frontline. What is very convenient to me.

However, it also helps a lot in combat against other vampires and their thralls.

The shapeshifting power combined with healing are the main reason why I was a desirable candidate for the family. Not so much for actual war in the night, or for the uses those powers have in regards to the economic interests of the family. The immediate use for this combination of power that advances the interest of our family the most is inside the festivals in the strongholds of Nocturnal Courts.

Vampire families define their position in the structure of power, and settle their disputes, by duel. At least as much as they define those things by actual tactics of war.

The details are complicated, but the general line is that families are represented by relatively young vampires. Duels between elders are possible, but extremely rare. Those fellows are too important to risk, and their actual capacities are kept secret to be revealed only at the defining moments of extreme conflicts.

Duels happen between vampires of same age, or close enough in age, and same sex. Some powers are ruled out by mutual agreement and general consensus, the weapon of choice used by our family is in that list. Besides, takes a long time to develop enough control and intensity of power to use the pyromancy effectively in a duel against another vampire.

Healing and Shapeshifting are very acceptable, and I am already able to use both during duel.

I am not the most powerful duellist in my category on Earth, not even one of the 10, but in our Nocturnal Court no vampire turned less than 50 years ago was able to secure victory against me yet. I play a defensive game, until they lose control or collapse.

Most duels end once a side is clearly victorious, no one dies.

Only when the conflict between two families, or two elders of different families more likely, is too serious for that sort of solution. Is that we go for a definitive, irreversible, resolution.

My branch of Shapeshifting Seed has alchemical properties that make it even more advantageous than the average Deep Sea Seed of shapeshifting. And the usual shapeshifting power is already a strong advantage in regards to this definitive confrontation of will.

The act of a vampire killing another vampire, permanently, is a secret most young vampires nowadays ignore. I was taught about it only when I was being prepared to fight a fellow infamous for finishing his opponents permanently. Even when he was not supposed to.

Basically, we drain all the blood and the core seed of vampiric nature from the hearth of our defeated enemy. It is not easy to do, even when our foe is defenceless.

Blood does not want to leave our body. Vampires do not bleed naturally. Blood moves from outside to our hearth. The less blood a vampire has, more intense that effect becomes. To force all the blood from the body of one of us, is an act of extreme violation. That demands strong will and absolute determination.

Succeed means we earn the chance to get a new Blood Seed. It is far from certain, and the blood seed we get if we get it is dormant. We must develop it by effort. Often, we get nothing, except the pleasure and reputation for destroy another vampire.

Along with the enemies that came with such act, under most circumstances.

Still, that is the only way for a vampire to get a new vampiric seed. The maximum limit seems to be around 25, but only the old timers really know for sure.

I didn’t get anything from that fellow, the famous killer. Apparently, the only Seeds we have any chance to acquire are those the other vampire had developed to a high enough level. Was a shame that I didn’t had luck this night, because this duellist had many fine developed powers that I would love to add to my portfolio.

Since my second year as a vampire, when I had the first serious duel, I have been fighting duels twice a year, on average. Without consider friendly competitions with nothing at stake. When a vampire don’t die, he usually recovers in minutes, given enough human blood. In theory we could fight many duels in a same night. The protocol does not allow that sort of thing. Nocturnal Courts are fairly ritualistic in their ways.

So far, I had 23 fights to the death, since I am still here, well, obviously. Each one of those vampires had nicely developed and sharped skills, useful to duels. I only got one new Blood Seed. Despite the consensus about duels being the ideal condition to push up the probability to steal Blood Seeds. And despite my Deep-Sea power making me particularly gifted in that activity of stealing powers.

The vampiric power I got was interesting.

When developed I will be able to stablish a connection with some plant, a small bush for instance, by feeding it my blood while it grows. After few years of that daily practice, and discipline, I should be able to know always my position in relation to that plant. Using the principle of triangulation if I get myself three such bushes on the ground, some few kilometres from each other, I get myself a supernatural sense of geo-localization. In that small area, let’s say a city, perhaps, I should be able to know at any time where I am, and where any of my blood thralls are.

Basically like a GPS, except it is far more expensive and only works in a small region. Extremely precise, though.

Well, the plants connected with me should need blood only half dozen times a year once they grow enough. And they get some of my vampiric resistance including the exceptional resistance against fire that I get for develop the Torch Seed.

On top of that, after I reach some level of development I may plant the seeds of some trees and repeat the process. Once they are large enough, after more than a century of daily dedication, those trees should develop mind and personality of their own. Excellent memory and independent telepathic powers, some mind-control capacity. Some of my vampiric powers.

By this point my vegetable blood-thralls should grant me some advantage in the use of some vampiric powers in close proximity to them. In my case most healing and pyrokinesis. Also should improve my mental resistance against mind-control and mental attacks in general. Work as sentinels and spies. Ageless blood-thrall trees, always vigilant. Great idea, the cost in time and energy is huge, however, and may not compensate the full development of this seed.

To me, I mean. The fellow who lost his life in my fangs and gave me that blood seed in the process certainly though that have a magic GPS was worth the effort.

Anyway, that is my current situation.

If I could choose, I would prefer to stay home. Work for my adoptive vampire family in some non-violent way. Enjoy my walks in the morning, feeling the sun on my face. Learn how to cook and improve that skill, to take the best possible advantage of my supernaturally sharpened senses of smell and taste.

However, same way I cannot choose to be human again I cannot choose to not play my role as duellist. Represent the family in those festivals is my main job now.

Not the existence I would have chosen for myself. Nevertheless, an existence that has some enjoyable elements, and potential for improvement.

To live a peaceful life and stay human would be my preference. Not being able to stay human, I am happy to be member of a vampire family that is reasonable and friendly, and that I can respect. Not being able to live peacefully, have the necessary power to win the fights I cannot avoid is the next best thing.

If the good is the eternal enemy of the great, I choose to make myself the best possible friend of my friend by accepting its enemies as my own. Therefore, the good I can actually have is infinitely superior to me, when contrasted with the high ideals I can only dream about.