Chapter 1: Parmasus

As I opened my eyes, I awoke to darkness. The candles and lanterns in the room had been extinguished, shrouding the room in complete darkness. Yet, I could see--I could see, as if it was, as clear as day, I could see the minute details of the paintings on the wall, I could see that one crack, in the mudbrick wall. It excited me, the fact that I could see so well, even though I was in complete darkness. It absolutely excited me!

As a human, I had always feared the dark, afraid that the demons who walk at night would devour me. Of course, I knew such a thing was rare, as the Church had sanctified the city grounds, but the fear of the dark, is innate in all humans. But now it was gone! I felt safe, I felt at home in the darkness. In my fifteen years of life, never had I felt so secure, so at home. I had always lived in fear, the thought that I would have to endure more beatings, the fact that I could do nothing about them. But now I was in power! Never again would I face such humiliation. ‘Next time I met that bastard father of mine, the roles would be reversed!’ as my face darkened. What was I thinking? I had just had the thought of killing my father! I shook my head, and calmed down.

I couldn’t have such thoughts, but then I remembered. The things that transpired just before I fell asleep. I had killed a girl in her twenties. I really killed her! What would I do? The City Guard would take me, and imprison me! Then at sunrise, they would execute me! But wait. The sun would kill me before that could ever happen.

No, what am I thinking! Palazar said he would take care of it. He has been doing such things for who knows how long. I’m sure it’ll be fine.

As I sat pondering on my thoughts, the door opened. “Oh, Parmasus, you’re up. Good, I was just about to wake you up. The sun has set, and we’re going to be leaving. Right now, we’re in the city of Tarmas. I want to go to a smaller city, where I can teach you the ways of the vampire. But first, put these clothes on.” He said, as he handed me a bundle of clothes. These clothes were of much better quality than what I wore before, they belonged to what the higher class wore. Quickly, I put my new clothes on.

I really liked them, they made me forget my past as my father’s son. They made me feel like I was a noble, or someone of power. After I finished getting dressed, I followed behind Palazar’s back, until we arrived at the city stables. There were two horses there, waiting for us.

“Do you know how to ride a horse?” Palazar asked. I nodded. “Yes, it was one of the things father taught me.” I said, as I jumped on the horse. “Good. What other things did he teach you?” He asked. I stared off into the distance for a while, as I reminisced about our ‘training’ sessions.

“Swordsmanship.” I answered, with a single word. Palazar nodded in satisfaction. “That’s a good skill to have in this world. Now, let’s go we’ll need to make it to the next city before sunrise. Either that, or we bury ourselves beneath the ground, or find a cave.” Palazar said. I nodded, as we began riding, not very keen on the idea of burying myself beneath the ground.

Even though he said that, we rode at a brisk pace, as the city was only a three hours ride away on horseback. As we rode, I decided to ask him some questions.

“Where did you come from, Palazar? I mean, your name sounds weird, and you have grey eyes. I’ve never seen grey eyes before, so I’m curious.” I asked. Palazar looked at me, then smirked.

“You have grey eyes too, you know. All vampires of our clan, have grey eyes. As for where I’m from, that’s not important. It’s a long forgotten place, maybe I’ll tell you about it later on.” He said, again with a distant look.

“What, I have grey eyes? Last time I checked, they were green!” I exclaimed, finding it hard to believe that my eye colours changed. Palazar’s smirk widened a bit. “A lot of things change, when you become a vampire. You have become more handsome, your skin became silky smooth and paled, and your eyes became grey. You might not recognise yourself, at first glance.” He said.

“Really? I have felt that my body has changed a lot, like I’m stronger, and I can see very well, but I didn’t think I would become outright more handsome.” I said. Palazar laughed at me. “That’s some of the many gifts of vampirism. At the price of forgoing sunlight, and drinking the blood of others, we have gained many great powers. As you age, you will become even more powerful. Some of the abilities we possess are, hypnosis, speed, and even blood magic. We can use our own blood, to cast hexes on our enemies, or shape it into weapons of destruction. We can also run faster than the average eye keep up with. But we have many weaknesses. We are weak against silver, for example.” He explained.

“Before, you mentioned our clan. What did you mean by that? Are there several clans of vampires?” I asked.

“Well, more than clans, they’re bloodlines. Depending on the vampire who turned you, you will have a bloodline. The bloodline we belong to, is the Tenebris Bloodline. We are known as the most powerful vampires, so be proud of it. Our Clan usually serves as the guardians and cleaners of the vampire world. If someone breaks the rules, and exposes our existence, our clan will take care of that person, as well as the aftermath that comes with it. Anyways, I will explain more of this later.” He said, as I marvelled at his words. We belonged to the most powerful clan of vampires? I must say, the thought excited me. But he talked about rules. Could it be that there were rules, even in the world of vampires? Then who enforces those rules, except for the Tenebris Clan? He made it sound like we were only the enforcers, so there has to be someone even higher up, the ruler class. Oh well, I will find out later.

For three hours we rode, until I finally saw a small city appear on the horizon. After another fifteen minutes, we arrived outside the city gates. With a few words, Palazar somehow managed to make the guards open the gates. Inside the city, we began looking for a tavern, or a hotel. After a short while, we finally found one, and Palazar reserved us a room. When we were inside, Palazar opened the window.

“Go out, and climb to the roof.” He said. I looked at him weirdly. “Climb to the roof? But there’s an entire floor above us, how am I supposed to do that?” I asked.

“Just do it.” Palazar said, slightly annoyed. Slightly unwilling, I walked over to the window. I made sure that there wasn’t anyone that could see me, then I climbed out the window. I was very nervous, as I grabbed onto the wall. Then to my surprise, I found that I could easily pull myself up, and climbed to the roof, in just a few seconds. Right, I had forgotten about my strength. When I got up to the roof, Palazar was already there. In surprise, I looked back down, then back at Palazar.

“Wait, how did you get here!? I went out first, there’s no way you could get here before me!” I said. Palazar chuckled at my antics. “You’re slow, so I got out here before you could notice. Now follow me.” He said, as he walked to the edge of the building and jumped to another. I was hesitant about doing it, but I decided to trust in my newfound strength, and tried to jump. I easily made it to the next closest roof.

We jumped from roof to roof, until we finally found someone outside. Palazar mentioned how it was hard to find people outside these days, as they were too superstitious. Always so afraid of the demons that hide in the dark, though demons rarely ever came to the mortal world, apparently.

The person we found, was a middle aged man, walking through some alleyways. “Alright, finally we find someone. Now, since you don’t have the ability to hypnotize someone yet, you need to do this the brute way. Just quickly sneak up behind him, and bite into him, but make sure no one can see you first. If someone does see you, you have to kill that person.” He said. I nodded excitedly. I was really thirsty now, since I hadn’t drunk anything since yesterday. I really got hungry quickly these days. In a quick motion, I jumped down from the roof, and sneaked up on the man. Losing control of my actions, I quickly bit into the man, and started draining his blood. Then I went into a trance again. I drank, and drank, until it the blood flow halted. Then, as I realized, I quickly dropped his body. I looked, as he fell limp to the ground.

I had killed someone again. A tear escaped my eye, as I began shaking my head. Then I remembered that young girl. Palazar said that she was a murdered, so I didn’t feel as bad, but this was an innocent man that I knew nothing about!

I had lost all control, and killed an innocent man! “No, no, no.” I started to chant. Palazar noticed, and quickly made his way down. “Calm down, Parmasus. He’s just a human, it doesn’t matter. You can choose not to kill, but when you do kill, there is no need to feel bad.” He said, as he grabbed my shoulders, and looked into my eyes. “Listen to me! Killing humans is fine. They are despicable beings. Pure humans do not exist! Even your father was despicable, as he killed your own mother, then killed you. Do not feel bad, as humans are nothing more than cattle. They do nothing, but destroy. They deserve nothing, but to be cattle. Their lives, are in our hands, to kill, as we see fit.” He said. At the time, I was only fifteen years old. My mind wasn’t fully developed, I was naïve, so his words firmly imprinted into my mind. I was desperate, to be told it was fine. I was desperate, to be told I hadn’t wronged, so I let his words change. Completely willingly, I firmly believed his words, as they were the divine truth. I started nodding as i said “That’s right. Humans are humans. They kill, they war, they destroy. My own father beat me every day, even raped my mother. He killed her. He killed my mother, then he killed me. Humans are nothing but scum, right Palazar?” I said, as I looked back at him. I wore a depraved expression.

“Indeed Parmasus, humans are scum, but you mustn’t lose control of yourself. You can’t go on a killing spree, as that will only result in your own death. But killing a single human, is fine. Now, let me take care of this body.” He said, as he pointed his hand at the carcass, while still holding me with the other. Suddenly, the body started rotting, at extreme an pace. Then the earth, started absorbing the corpse, until nothing was left. I looked in awe, at the strange sight.

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That night, my mind had changed. After the events of my father, had really registered, a deep hatred for humans, had sprouted within me. I didn’t understand how I ever could have felt compassion for those two humans I killed. I mean, humans are scum, right?

After we were finished, we went back to the hotel, where Palazar decided to have a little lesson.

“Parmasus, for now, it’s important that you learn self control. If you kill all your victims, you will leave a trail. Leaving a trail of corpses drained for blood, can be very bad. I won’t be able to constantly be with you, and you can’t dispose of corpses well yet, nor can you hypnotize. Luckily, when you bite someone, it will leave them in a stupor for a short while, and they won’t remember what happened. So just sneak behind your victim, making sure he never sees you, then drink, but only as much as you need. In the beginning it can be hard to stay in control, but after a few times, you will get the hang of it. The night is still young, so you will get hungry again in a few hours. We will go out again then. After that, I will teach you more about how to feed, without leaving a trail.” He said.

“What, I will get hungry again in only a few hours? So soon?” I asked, hoping that it wasn’t true. The hunger definitely didn’t feel nice. “Yes, for the first few weeks, you will need to feed several times a day, but that will shorten with time.” He said.

Two hours later, I had gotten hungry again, so we decided to go out again. This time, we took the moonlit streets, instead of going up on the roofs. The only illumination on the streets at night, came from the moonlight, so it was always hard to navigate as a human. Luckily, there was a full moon tonight, making it easy to see, even with mortal eyes. But even then, people very rarely even went outside.

We weren’t very lucky this time, as we didn’t find anyone for a full hour, and the guard patrols didn’t do much good, as there were at least two people in every patrol. I somehow felt that Palazar had a way to find someone quickly, but he wanted me to lead, so we walked around the dark alleyways of the city, for an hour.

But then, we finally found someone. It seemed to be a beggar, an orphan. It was a kid, maybe a bit younger than me, around fourteen years old. The kid was sleeping in the ground, on what seemed to be a half rotten piece of leather. He was even worse off than the slaves, as they at least had a roof above their heads. Palazar looked at me, and said in a quiet voice.

“He’s perfect. He’s asleep, and he won’t wake up from the bite, so just sneak over to him, and drink.” I nodded, as I slowly started to walk over to the boy. When I stood above him, I slowly crouched down, and bit into his neck. This time, I was very careful, so that I didn’t lose control. As I felt his blood flow into my mouth, I resisted against all urges, and slowly drank, making sure not to kill him. But then, that voice came back, urging me to stop. Shouting at me, not to drink the blood of humans. It was the human side of me.

I let a tear fall out, as I was about to pull back. “Don’t stop.” Palazar commanded again, and once more, I felt myself clutch to my victim. As he said those words, it was as if I lost all ability to stop. I kept drinking for a while, until I felt satisfied. Only then, did I pull back. This time, luckily, I hadn’t killed him.

I slowly stood back up, then looked at Palazar. “What was that?” I asked. Palazar looked over to me. “Your subconscious I guess. The remainder of your humanity, not willing to accept your new state.” He said. “Not that, why wasn’t I able to stop drinking, when you said don’t stop?” I asked again.

“Oh that. It wasn’t anything really. I just said don’t stop. Your vampire side probably took to it, and prevented you from stopping.” He explained. So my human side didn’t want to drink, but when Palazar said ‘don’t stop’ my vampire side took control? Sounds dangerous. Anyways, I had finally succeeded, in drinking the blood of a human, without killing him.

“Anyways, good job. Now, let’s go back. You’ll probably need to feed one more time tonight.” He said, making me quite downcast. “One more?!” I almost yelled, as I had already fed twice in a three hour span.

Thus, we navigated our way back, through the moonlit streets and alleyways. After a short walk, we made it back to the hotel. Back inside our room, I decided to ask Palazar another question.

“You say that our bloodline are in charge of enforcing the rules of the vampire world, right? Is there a whole society of vampires, or what?” I asked.

“Yes, there is one. The vampire society is comprised of all the different bloodlines. On the top, there is the Ventus Regulis Clan, serving as the rulers. On their side, are us, the Exsequor Tenebris, serving as the Royal Enforcers. Other than us, there are a number of bloodlines, like the Nosferatu. They are maybe the most cursed of our kind, horribly disfigured, and very unpleasant to the eyes. But they serve as master spies and assassins, as they have the ability to turn invisible. I will teach you more about our world, at a later date though. For now, let’s focus on the here and now.” He said. I nodded in compliance.

“I’ll tell you a bit more on feeding. Sooner or later, you will have to do it on your own, after all. Let’s talk about who you should feed on. If you want to feed on someone no one will miss, then go for the bums and drunkards, or orphans, like before. No one really cares about those people, so no one will miss them if you kill them. After all, they’re useless bums.

If you want a better meal, you can find a small family, figure out where they live, then sneak in at night. Only problem is you can’t stalk them during the daytime. After you get in, you can take their kid, maybe snap his neck, then retreat out of the city, and drink his blood, just make sure you don’t take too much time, as the blood will go bad after an hour or two. Bad blood will make you sick for a few days, so stay clear of it.

If you have a lot of money, you can also buy a slave. Slaves are your property, so you won’t be punished for killing them, even if the law finds out. Or you can just go for an innocent passer-by, just make sure no one can see you. As I said before, the bite will put the victim into a stupor, and he won’t remember anything, he’ll just be left wondering how he got a wound on his neck.

And lastly, if you come across a lone patrol guard, he will do as well, just, once more, make sure no one sees you. Especially in smaller cities like this. It’s hard to clean up, and in some cases, the city has to disappear, due to ‘natural disasters’, if you know what I mean.” He said. I looked at him in a stupor for a while.

“You mean to tell me that entire cities have been wiped out, because they discovered a vampire?” I asked. Palazar nodded. “Yes, it has happened before. It’s very rare, and usually it’s only small towns, and villages, but it does happen from time to time. Last time, I think was about a hundred years ago now.” I listened to his words, a bit terrified at the cruelty of vampires, but then I remembered, just how despicable humans could be. I had been a vampire for less than two days, but I already felt a natural.

A few hours later, we went out again. It was past midnight now, so the bums weren’t sitting in the taverns of the poor district any more. We were walking through this ‘poor district’ watching for prey. Many buildings here were beyond repair. Large holes in the roof, no doors, a missing wall, and such. We came upon a small building, close to the edge of the town, nearing the walls. There was no door, and it was very dark in there, as no moonlight could shine in, but I could hear breathing. Even though I wasn’t inside the building, I could hear the breathing of a sleeping man.

Another gift of vampirism. All my senses were enhanced, so I could hear, see and smell better than any dog or eagle. Slowly, I walked into the building, Palazar waiting outside. The man was sleeping in a corner. He wasn’t a pretty sight to behold, his beard thick, and it even covered his neck. I crouched down next to him, and instead of biting into that neck, I grabbed his wrist. Palazar had told me that it was also pretty normal to feed from the wrist, especially when it was from some dirty sob, or a human friend. There were some humans that knew of the existence of vampires.

As I grabbed his wrist, I let my teeth sink into it. After I became a vampire, I had grown fangs. I was a bit scared that they might reveal me as non-human, but Palazar told me that I would be able to retract them after a few months.

After a moment, I pulled away from him, finally feeling full again, then exited the house. Finally, I felt like I would be able to control myself fully, when feeding, as long as I wasn’t too thirsty. After we came back to the hotel, Palazar told me that we would be going to an estate of his, where he would teach me more, as well as train me in the art of being a vampire. I didn’t ask him why I needed to be trained, but I was pretty sure it was because of our bloodline, the Exsequor Tenebris, the enforcers of the vampire realm.

As I was tired from a long night, I went to sleep, while Palazar went out somewhere. And that, was my first day as a vampire.

End of chapter 1

And thus, the first chapter has been released. This story is pretty fun to write, as it is very different from my other story. I can't wait to see the response from my dear readers. And if you're hungering for some more vampire action, go ahead an read my other story, Rise of the Vampire (link below). Although, most of my readers here most likely came from there...

Any way, please rate and review, as it helps me a bunch.

And thanks for reading!