7 The first vampires

The sunlight burned through my eyelids as I came to life. It was warm and welcoming, a little prickly but I could survive the heat. I rolled on the dirt to stretch myself for my muscles felt stiff from being still all night. Where am I, I questioned internally before turning over to find a decapitated head staring at me in horror.

"No!" I screamed struggling to my feet, falling over a log of wood from behind me. What in the world was that, I thought while my hands felt for leverage on the ground. Touching the log, I noticed it to be soft and squishy unlike the hard bark of a tree. Looking down at it, my stomach churned at the sight before me. A disemboweled body of a young woman torn into an unrecognizable figure laid there. The world felt too real and I wished I could wake from the nightmare I was having.

A cold shiver of fear ran through my body as I stood to my feet taking in my environment. I found myself in a field painted red with blood, shredded bodies strewn all over in a careless mess. My heart hurt while I looked on at the slaughtered bodies devoid of life and warmth.

Who would do such a thing? Did a war break out in Vlagsir and I didn't know about it?

A closer look at the bodies and I found claw marks to be visible from my position. What beast could cause such unfathomable damage to these people and leave such horrifying trail?

"Well aren't you a rosy peach?" a voice chirped from behind, frightening me into a fighting stance. "Don't worry I'm not here to hurt you."

She dropped some body parts on the ground giving me a full view of her face startling me. She looked exactly like me — her white hair, brown eyes, oblong chin — everything except for the bloodstained robes she had on.

"What are you?" I asked after finding my voice.

"I am you from the future," she answers with grave seriousness before bursting into laughter. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. By the gods that was a terrible joke."

She kicks a torn off hand hitting a broken leg with it to my horror, "Can you stop doing that?"

"Doing what?" she asks tossing a heart to a pile of bodies.

"Whatever it is you're doing. Just stop!" I exclaimed in horror repelled at her calm composure.

"Why?" asks the girl.

"Answer my question," I implored ignoring hers.

"I am your twin, Umbra," she answers casually stretching out a bloodied hand to which I shook cautiously.

I had a twin, I thought. Maybe I wasn't alone as I had imagined, but my happiness was shortlived when the stench of rotting flesh hit my nose, sickening me to my stomach.

"What happened here?" I asked putting a hand over my nose. "Was it a war or something?"

"Oh it definitely was a 'something'," she replied, with a nonchalant shrug. Her casual behavior started to get to me making me wonder if she was the one who had caused the damage.

"Okay miss Umbra, what did these people do to deserve whatever it is you did to them and how did you kill them?" I asked in astonishment at the number of bodies on the field. "Are you a mage or something?"

"She didn't kill them," a voice answered from behind. "You did."

Turning to the direction of the voice, I found Ramul staring at me also with body parts in his hands.

"Ramul?" I called in surprise.

"Hello sister," greeted the boy. "Welcome to your new life as a vampire."

A flock of birds flew into the air causing a dramatic tension with his words sinking into my head.

I was now a vampire.

***

"...and that was when we came into the clearing to find everyone dead," Umbra explained, eating a rat roasted from the fire Ramul had created.

After I had run away from home, it turned out I had come to a clearing filled with lumber people. They were a group of Drakans with lumbering as their main occupation. Over the night I had appeared on the field, I had slaughtered around fifty humans draining them of their blood in brutal ways.

"Why didn't you guys stop me!?" I choked in horror at the piled up bodies ready to be burnt.

"We're vampires Reya, not beings with omnipresent powers," laughed Umbra.

"How are you so calm about what I just did?" my voice croaked. "I killed people."

"Mistakes happen. You had no control," Ramul said with indifference, picking up a burning wood to toss onto the piled up bodies.

"At least give them a proper funeral," I sobbed.

"That is a proper funeral," said a deep voice from a man who had appeared out of nowhere.

"Oh good, you're here. Reya I want to introduce you to everyone," Ramul started.

"Let me do it," Umbra pleaded before being interrupted by the strange man.

"My name is Enzo Angus, leader of the Angus family and a Primordial. Those two right there are your sister Umbra and your brother Ramul who are also Primordials."

"What are Primordials?" I asked, gazing at the tall man.

"The first set of vampires to be created," answered Ramul who had tossed the flaming wood onto the bodies.

"I don't understand," I said glancing from Ramul to Enzo.

The man sat beside me on the ground laying his back on a tree, "Then let me explain. Ten thousand years ago, my mother who was also your mother Lady Angus became the first Xaj by unlocking the secret technique to accessing all three enchantments — nature, iron and darkness. Now you see a mage can only be one of these — a dark mage, a nature mage or an iron mage — but never three of them. Only a Xaj has the power to use and control such rare abilities together thereby pushing their ranks from a mage to a Xaj."

My mind started to comprehend his narration as I sat up intrigued by his story.

"Now as the first Xaj her powers weren't perfect and she tried to contain its output. The townsfolk at the time saw our mother's powers and begged that she teach them how to use the three enchantments at the same time. Out of excitement she agreed, coming back home with ancient scrolls to practice with," he paused to show Ramul a broken leg which had fallen off the burning pile.

"I still remember the first time mother taught the entire mages in the town. She was ecstatic as only five of the mages had the ability to do so. It turned out that in a town filled with magicians, only a handful could learn such complex techniques making Xaj's even rarer than demigods at the time."

"I'll be back, I need to go for my fencing session," Ramul said in an off handed manner before blurring out of the field. He was a vampire all this time and I hadn't known.

"Back to my story," he commenced. "One day, mother came home with a stone tablet saying she would like to use one of the creation enchantments only gods could perform. Our father told her to be careful with such dealings but mother being mother refused to listen. Unknown to her, the tablets were necromancy spells used by the first mage to conjure up a demon from Archeron. Mother called her children to stand before the stone as she cast the spell depositing in us the demons of Archeron thereby turning us into the first vampires."

So many questions I had in me to ask but I knew he was going to answer them all for Enzo did not look like the kind of man who liked suspense.