Tristan
Tristan groaned as he slowly slipped back into consciousnesses.
With a start, he realized that he was alive.
And with another, he realized that he was lying in the middle of an open field, encircled by a crowd of people who were aiming arrows at him.
Flaming arrows.
“He’s awake!”
Tristan looked towards the voice to see two men standing on a platform behind the formation, the commander being one of them.
At the sight of him, Tristan remembered.
Remembered how he awoke beneath a pile of stone, breaking free with newfound strength in his veins as he smelled all the blood and smoke in the air.
Remembered how an arm grabbed him from behind and struggled to keep him still as a deep hunger overtook his body.
And remembered the commander’s voice low in his ear as he held Tristan back and suffocated him with his hand, the image of the vampires taking his sister away in the distance being his last before he passed out.
“You’re not going anywhere, kid.”
Now he looked down at Tristan with curiosity, the sun shining high above.
The man next to him also seemed to be a soldier, but his badge was a tad larger and more ornate.
And from what he’d seen of pictures in his sister’s books, it flashed the symbol of Azeris, not Danethal.
At the thought of his sister, Tristan felt a heat of anger rush over him. Anger at those repulsive monsters, anger at himself for being too weak to stop them, and anger at the world for finally showing him a glimpse of freedom only to take it all away.
“You, there,” the soldier said, his voice booming with authority as it filled the field. “Explain yourself at once.”
Tristan stood, thinking he was going to have an aneurysm if one more person said that to him with weapons shoved in his face. “My village was just attacked by vampires before they abducted my sister who you were trying to kill. I’m the one who deserves a damn explanation!”
“Do not speak to me that way! You are being accused of treason!”
“I’ve already been accused of treason, not to mention murder!” He yelled, not caring about the consequences any longer. “Why not accuse me of witchcraft while you’re at it?”
The commander who’d held him back stroked his beard in thought. “That depends, does your kind fall under the category of witchcraft?”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!”
“I mean vampires as a collective group.”
Tristan scoffed in disgust. “Now you’re accusing me of being a vampire?”
“Not at all,” the commander clarified, to his relief. “I’m saying it as a fact.”
More outrage quickly replaced it. “You take that back right-“
Stolen novel; please report.
“Enough!”
They both turned to the soldier with the fancy badge.
“One who has been accused, are you denying these claims?”
“Of course I…”
Tristan’s eyes widened.
He didn’t question it once he awakened, but there was no way he could’ve survived being tossed into that house, let alone the roof falling onto him. But he did, and he emerged atop the rubble with not so much as a scratch, feeling more alive than anything.
Alive and hungry.
It couldn’t be…
“Answer the question!”
“I, I-“ Tristan faltered. “I’m a human!”
The air around them stilled.
The soldier sighed, reaching into his holster to remove a pistol. “If that is really true, then I’m sorry.”
“Wait! Sto-“
The blast echoed throughout the field as it hit Tristan point blank in the chest.
He could almost feel it pierce his heart, his breathing staggered as he fell down to the ground in agony, his golden blood painting the grass below.
Tristan waited for death to come, more pain than he’d ever experienced in his life surging throughout his body. He welcomed both with open arms.
He waited.
And waited.
But the pain began to subside and Tristan almost felt disappointed.
The only way he could describe his next feeling was that it felt like his heart began to sew itself back together. With a grunt, Tristan leaned on his elbows and looked down at himself to see his skin…regenerating as the hole in his chest slowly disappeared beneath his blood.
It still hurt like hell, and a heavy blanket of exhaustion crept over him, but he was alive.
No, it can’t be-
“As I assumed,” the soldier said, still holding his gun. “You’re no human.”
Tristan looked up at the soldier and was genuinely lost for words. If he was in his position, he probably would be just as distrustful of himself.
But still…he couldn’t believe it.
Was he always like this?
No, it wasn’t possible. He only felt this…strength since he woke up in the rubble. And don’t vampires not age anyway, at least according to legend?
Perhaps he knew nothing about them at all, nothing apart from the fact that he apparently was one.
It drew so much anger that Tristan’s entire body shook with it, something rising from deep within. His world had been turned upside down, the only two people he cared about within it taken away by those monsters.
That’s what he was, a monster.
He couldn’t help the laughter that suddenly erupted from inside his now healed chest.
Everybody stared at him as he buckled over and filled the open field with his roars.
“Is something funny?” The soldier asked.
His words only made Tristan laugh harder, so much so that tears began to well in his eyes.
What wasn’t funny about him being a monster? It was rather fitting, after all.
“Tell us everything you know about the attack- how were you able to help them?”
A silence fell.
“Help them?” Tristan murmured, his voice breaking beneath his breath. “You think I helped them?”
“Are you saying you didn’t-“
“I would have rather died than helped those beasts!” He cried. “They took everything away from me!”
The soldier looked to the commander. “What do you make of this?”
“On the one hand, I find it hard to believe. There’s not a single record to prove he even exists,” the commander said as he studied Tristan. “But on the other, he truly wanted to kill the vampires who took his sister away- I saw it in his eyes.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“To be quite honest, this situation is above both our pay grades. Procedure dictates that we take him to the general.”
“Since when have you been a man of procedure?”
The commander gave him a smile. “Since this glorious opportunity presented itself.”
“What opportunity? What the hell are you talking about?” Tristan yelled.
To his surprise, even the soldier seemed puzzled. “Whatever you’re thinking, forget about it. He’s a vampire. We’re lucky he hasn’t killed us all already.”
“What is it you’re suggesting, Bole?”
“We end this here.”
A heavy panic set over Tristan as the soldier, Bole, raised an arm and called out, “Ready your aim!”
Some of the soldiers who had been watching the exchange with interest snapped out of their trance and pointed their flaming arrows back at him.
Why was he afraid? Isn’t this what he wanted?
The bullet may not have done anything, but fire could kill a vampire.
If that’s truly what he was, then he deserved this.
“The general will not be happy if you kill such a fascinating…suspect,” the commander said. It made Tristan happy to see the panic in his face.
“I will not put the lives of my men and my people at risk, I will not allow him to do to Azeris what they did to Danethal.”
“You’re committing treason. They can have you beheaded for this.”
Bole shot a glare so vicious at Tristan that he expected to burn just from beneath his gaze. “If it saves humanity, then so be it.”
The last thing Tristan saw before he shut his eyes was the downward sweep of his arm.