When in a desperate situation, the most important thing you can do for yourself is to remain calm. It may not be easy to do, but staying rational when panic is lurking on the periphery is what differentiates a potential survivor from a potential victim. Pardon my language, but in such scenarios, the play of the day will always be made by the ones who keep their shit together.

During an emergency, possessing a correct mindset is everything.

That was why I didn’t immediately place Rachel into storage when I learned how close she was to experiencing the affliction. Doing so would have added additional stress to what she was already undoubtedly beginning to experience. The sudden change in her surroundings might have even driven her insane.

I wouldn’t have been able to command her to sleep, either. During a frenzy, a vampire will obey nothing but their urge to feed. Even the voice of their master is dimmed by the overwhelming hunger. It is a fearsome state during which we are at our most monstrous.

The worst part is that it couldn’t be resisted. The hunger came by design, courtesy of great Crusica herself. When lost in the throes of the affliction, it had to be appeased. And a mere sip wouldn’t suffice.

Rachel was going to have to kill a few people.

Poor little fool.

I couldn’t let it happen in the Narrows, though. Things were beginning to develop nicely for us here. What manner of guest repays the hospitality of his hostess by allowing his child to massacre her neighbors? That was the sort of faux pas that got people whispering about you behind your back.

Fortunately, there was a solution.

“What are you doing, Kyler?” Rachel asked in alarm as I took off racing for the nearest wall of the settlement and scaled it, leaping to the forest floor and running from town as quickly as my feet would allow. Behind me, I could hear Schulz’s frustrated barking as he was left behind.

Sorry, boy, I thought sadly. But this isn’t a party you’ll want to attend. I’ll make it up to you later.

After about twenty minutes of dashing madly through the forest, I finally slowed so that I could better survey my surroundings. There didn’t appear to be anyone nearby, and we were far from the traveler’s road used to connect the Narrows to Gardenia.

Excellent. We were now exactly where we needed to be. Things should work out just fine for us now—

“Kyler!” Rachel yelled with growing fury. “Where have you taken me?”

—Ouch. Was there anything half as painful to endure as someone’s angry voice yelling in your ear? If Rachel were any louder, she would have given me tinnitus.

“I had to get you away from the town’s residents,” I said to her calmly as I reduced my pace to a walk. “You don’t appear to have realized it yet, but you’re about to snap.”

“If I’m about to snap, it’s because of you playing another one of your ridiculous games with me!” she retorted. “Just tell me what’s happening!”

“What’s happening, Rachel, is that you haven’t been feeding,” I said as a little anger of my own at her foolishness rose to match hers. “You haven’t absorbed even a drop of energy from any of the kills I’ve provided for you and now you’re about to experience a dangerous psychotic disconnection that will turn you into a ravenous, uncontrollable fiend until your body receives what it needs. Our only hope of preventing this is to get you some blood now.”

“I’m fine! I feel perfectly fine!” she insisted. “If anything’s wrong in this situation, it’s your paranoia! I am a divine armament, fit to be wielded by those with the purest of hearts! My very touch burns the wicked! In the name of my goddess, I am meant for righteous deeds!”

“You’re deluded,” I said to her. “Rachel, if any of what you just said was true then how am I able to hold you? My hand isn’t exactly bursting into flames. I’d notice if it did, it’s a very memorable sensation.”

“Stop mocking me!” Rachel shrieked. “All you do is laugh at me, give me orders, and disrespect the holy purpose for which I surrendered my mortal life! You’re cruel and heartless! Y-you’re without tact and a-and unkind!”

“I apologize if I’ve hurt your feelings,” I said. “My only intent was to help you adjust during your time of transition. I may have been thoughtless in my approach, but it was only with the intent of helping you.”

“DON’T SPEAK TO ME AS THOUGH I WERE A CHILD!” thundered Rachel at me. “Stop patronizing me!”

“I’m being sincere, I assure you. My method was clearly flawed, but I was never good at interacting with my progeny to begin with. I’m poor at developing healthy relationships with my children.”

“I AM NOT YOUR CHILD!”

“You are. And as your maker, I now challenge myself to do better by you than I have with others in the past. We may very well be the only vampires to exist on this planet. If that is so, I’d prefer my daughter not hate me.”

“I’m not your daughter, Kyler,” she raged. “I am NOT YOUR CHILD! You didn’t father me, you pathetic corpse; you’re the disease raging inside of me! It hurts! Every moment of everyday hurts! Why is it so painful?”

“You already know the answer to that,” I said to her. “And it only grows worse the longer you resist. This isn’t something that can be conquered by strength of will, Rachel. Denial of reality will just lead to more tragic results. You need to trust me.”

“YOU DID THIS TO ME!”

“Not intentionally,” I reminded her. “Don’t paint over the details of what happened with fantasies of victimization. It was a fight to the death, and we were both trying to hurt each other. It wasn’t a good night for either of us.”

“I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU!” she began to drone with increasingly rabid intensity.

“You don’t even sound like yourself anymore,” I lamented. “Is this who you are? Where’s the pompous little squire gone to? Where’s my little church mouse hidden herself? Who’s this raging lunatic that’s taken her place?”

… “I’m hungry, Kyler. I’m so hungry.”

“I know you are, Rachel. That’s why we’re out here. I’m going to help you,” I promised her. “But you must hold on just a little longer, all right?”

“Where are we going?”

“There was a wanted poster in Jamie’s tavern,” I said. “I noticed it when we first arrived. Bandits, Rachel. Highway men plaguing the road between the Narrows and the next settlement. Five, maybe ten disposable little lives committing petty indecencies against the common good. Isn’t that nice? I bet you can practically taste their blood already, can’t you?”

“I…where are they?”

“Nearby. They’ve left traces of their passing. They moved cleverly for ordinary men, but they can’t mask themselves from my eye or nose. Any moment now, we’ll come across their hideaway. Any—"

The terrified voice of a young woman begging for help suddenly filled the night air, startling me.

—moment now,” I finished a moment later.

__

Before long, I discovered the entrance to a large cavern alongside a massive outcropping of stone that was covered in large swathes of vegetation that made it difficult to see in the darkness of the forest. Before it sat two suspicious looking men warming themselves in front of a campfire.

Suddenly, a young woman in torn finery ran out of the cave, crying. A bald man wearing only a pair of battered trousers followed shortly after, yelling angrily as he chased her. Across his face were four vivid lines of red, where the girl’s fingernails had scored him.

“Bitch!” he bellowed after backhanding her, once he’d caught up, knocking the poor thing to the ground and rendering her unconscious. “Look at what you did to me! Look at what you did!”

“Girl’s got a legal right to defend herself,” one of the watchmen snickered.

“I didn’t even do anything to her yet!” the big man groused. “But I will! She’s gonna make this up to me, I promise she will!”

“I don’t see any difference, Hren,” snorted one of his companions. “You’re as pretty as ever.”

“Fuck yourself, Carter!” Hren yelled in return. “I gotta visit my mom on Sunday. I can’t have this little cow making me look like this, can I? It’s not right!”

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“Looking like what, I wonder?” I asked as I deactivated my stealth skill and held my hands out over their fire. “A thief and a would-be rapist?”

The three of them nearly jumped out of their skins at the sight of me, which I found gratifying. I could see myself having a lot of fun with stealth in the future.

“And who the fuck is this?” bellowed Hren. “You fucking let someone sneak into camp, you stupid shits?”

“He just popped out of the air!” Carter said defensively. “What are we supposed to do about that?”

“You’re supposed to keep your fucking eyes open!”

Dismayed by Hren’s vulgarity, I held a finger over my lips before pointing at the girl he’d attacked. “Sir, even if she’s presently insensate, we’re still standing before a lady. Is such foul language truly necessary?”

“Fancy, isn’t he?” said the second guard as he stood up.

“I want his clothes,” Carter said as he drew his knife.

“Fuck you, we roll for each item,” Hren said nastily as he waddled towards me. “You get lost on the road, fancy Dan? Tried to take a shortcut? Too bad, son. You took the wrooong fucking turn.”

“Is this all of you?” I asked with some disappointment. “I was hoping there’d be more.”

“No need to wake anyone else,” Hren said. “They’re still sleeping off yesterday’s fun.”

“Anymore like her?” I asked, tilting my head toward the girl.

“Last pick of the litter,” Hren leered nastily. “We made her watch what we did to the others.”

“Well, that’s an awful thing to do to someone else,” I said quietly. “That’s going to be a hard thing for her to live through.”

“She ain’t gonna live through it. As a matter of fact, neither are you,” Hren asserted.

“That girl’s fate isn’t for you to decide, pig,” I informed him. “Rachel, have you heard enough?”

“Kyler…” she said.

“I assume that’s a yes,” I said. “Have at it. Enjoy yourself.”

“Kyler,” she said once more.

“Yes?”

“Please… please kill them,” she begged.

I paused, surprised by her request. Then I shook my head. “No,” I said.

“Why not?” Rachel asked in a desperate voice.

“Because you need to do it,” I said. “This isn’t for my sake. I won’t deny you your first kill.”

“I’ve killed before!” she exclaimed. “Dozens of times! Hundreds!”

“No,” I said. “You were wielded. Directed. It was never of your own volition. You were used as a tool. That changes now. If you truly despise these men, if you want to punish them, if you desire their lives and their blood, then claim them.”

“How?”

“Use my power. It’s your right as my kin.”

“I…I can’t do this,” she said. “I can’t! I’m forbidden to take the lives of ordinary men. Even if they are sinners!”

“No, you aren’t,” I told her. “I give you permission. Take them. They belong to you. Drink well.”

“I…I can’t!” she trembled. “This is not the purpose for which I was made.”

“But it is the purpose for which you were reborn,” I said.

“Kyler, I cannot—”

“Daughter,” I said, cutting her off. “Stop fighting yourself. Stop hurting yourself. You’re hungry. You’re tired. And these so-called men have nothing to offer the world. You say you believe in justice? Then enforce it!”

“Enforce it…” she murmured.

“Punish them,” I whispered.

“Punish them…” she repeated.

“They deserve it,” I urged her.

… “They do deserve it,” she decided.

“Who the fuck is he speaking with?” asked Hren.

“I don’t see anybody,” said Carter. “He must be on something.”

“I hope he’s still got some in his pockets,” the third man said eagerly. “Let’s find out…huh?” he suddenly said in dumbfounded surprise.

I released my grip on the spear and stepped back. To the shock of the three thieves standing before me, it floated in midair in perfect stillness. Then it slowly shifted into a horizontal position and began to turn towards the bandits, moving from left to right and back again, pointing its tip at each man as if trying to decide which it wanted first.

“What’s it doing?” asked Carter. “What the hell is that thing doing?”

“If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say she’s playing "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,” I informed him.

Suddenly, Rachel shifted sharply to the center and aimed herself directly at Hren, the one who’d attacked the girl earlier. I then heard her begin to growl.

“Hey, big man? I think I’d start running for my life right about now if I were you,” I helpfully suggested.

“HE’S A FUCKING HUNTER!” Hren bellowed. “ON YOUR FEET, ALL! WE’RE BEING RAIDED! WE’RE BEING RAIDED—”

In the blink of an eye, Rachel went through him. Once, twice, thrice. Like a large sewing needle through a bottle of juice. With her final strike she rose higher into the air with him hanging off her point, drinking him as they floated together. Then she dropped his body onto his companion, Carter, pinning him to the ground with the weight of his friend’s corpse. When Carter parted his lips to scream, she plunged downward into his mouth and embedded herself into the earth through the back of his head. Then she drained him as well.

Meanwhile, eight more men came running from the cavern entrance in various stages of undress, all of them wielding weaponry and wondering what the hell was going on.

Truly, the dinner bell had rung.

“Justice,” whispered Rachel as she prepared to throw herself at them.

Sure. Why not?

__

Later, I journeyed back to the Narrows while carrying the girl in my arms. While I walked, Rachel floated happily above me, undoubtedly feeling a great sense of relief now that she’d finally stopped battling her nature.

After Rachel had dispensed with the remaining scum, I explored the cavern and saw that Hren hadn’t lied about the fate of the girl’s fellow prisoners. I now carried their bodies inside my storage, as well as the merchandise that had been stolen. I also took the remains of the bandits themselves, having decided the best course of action would be to deliver the girl, the goods, and the bodies to town. That way I could claim the posted reward, as well as offer Jaime an excuse for my sudden disappearance.

“Is it like this all the time?” Rachel asked me dreamily, as she coasted along the wind. “Does it always feel this…perfect?”

“When we feed? Always,” I said to her. “But now that you’ve overcome your first obstacle, a second challenge stands before you. Now you need to master your hunger.”

“Huh? But you were always telling me I had to feed! And now that I have, you’re telling me to do it less often?” she said plaintively.

“It’s paradoxical, isn’t it?” I said with a grin. “Sadly, everything seems to be that way with our kind. You nearly experienced the affliction, when you denied yourself blood for too long. But there’s an equal danger lying in wait if you feed too often, known as the revelry.”

“The what?” Rachel asked.

“The revelry,” I repeated. “It’s where the myth of the bacchanal comes from. Are you familiar with the story of poor Orpheus? He came across the brides of Dionysus while they were having a feast and became their main course.”

“Oh, right,” Rachel said. “That was a horrifying tale. It ended with him being torn apart, didn’t it?”

“Converted into a vampire then torn apart,” I corrected her. “So that he could spend the rest of eternity as a head on a plate. Dionysus was an alias for my brother, Vitor. He didn’t appreciate a musician cavorting with his women and made his feelings known.”

“He sounds like a complete bastard,” Rachel said, aghast.

“He could be a difficult person to love,” I admitted. “He had his challenges. Our mother was always strictest with him.”

“So, if I drink too often…?”

“You’ll become addicted to it,” I said. “An unbreakable addiction that will haunt your every thought. It’ll be as if you were trapped in the frenzy, twenty-four-seven.”

“By the goddess…”

“I doubt she’d be of much help to you.”

“I can do it,” Rachel said a few minutes later. “I can absolutely do it! I’m finished with suffering for no reason. Such a purposeless existence holds no appeal for me.”

“Atta girl,” I replied. “That’s the kind of personal growth I like to see.”

“Kyler, will you teach me more?” Rachel suddenly asked. “I want to know so much more about what we are! I feel like there are…like there are suddenly doors opening for me every which way I look! And now I’m having such difficulty deciding which ones I want to walk through! The possibilities feel so endless!”

“Okay, all right, calm down, newbie,” I said fondly. “You’ve taken a big step today, and I’m proud of you. But remember to pace yourself. Eternity awaits. You don’t have to run towards it.”

“Hmph. I’d need feet with which to run first, wouldn’t I?” Rachel said. “Gods, suddenly this form seems so inadequate to my needs. There’s so much more I want to do! Why am I like this? I don’t want to be a spear any longer!”

“Really?” I said with some surprise. “You seemed so proud of yourself before.”

“Ignorance,” Rachel said. “What did I know about anything? It isn’t fair! How can I be so confined! I need…I need…I need more!”

Suddenly I felt a painful tugging sensation coming from within, as Rachel began pulling more power away from me. “Rachel…what are you doing?” I asked in alarm.

“I need…I need just a little more. Just a little more,” Rachel said fervently as she continued to drain away my strength. What truly horrified me was that I couldn’t stop her! I tried to resist, but in her sudden desire to transcend her form, Rachel had put up some kind of wall that somehow prevented me from denying her access. I fell to one knee and accidentally dropped the girl I’d been carrying.

“Rachel, stop,” I said to her. “You’re taking too much.”

“I have to,” Rachel said pleadingly. “I’m sorry, Kyler, but I have to!”

I couldn’t let this continue. I instinctively knew that if Rachel kept this up, she would inadvertently destroy me in the process. I couldn’t allow that to happen. A thousand years of ruthless survival wouldn’t allow the existence of Kyler Stragos to be snuffed away by an impertinent child’s inability to contain herself.

Gathering my will, my power, and my desperation to live, I cast my hand toward my errant daughter and ordered her to cease this foolish behavior at once.

“No…no, Kyler! Just wait! Please! Just one more moment—”

“END THIS NOW!” I commanded her.

Rachel gave an anguished cry and dropped from the sky with an audible thud. As I stood there wearily with my hands on my knees, feeling like a weak old man, I wondered what had come over Rachel, as well as how the hell she’d come so close to ending me.

Could this insolent brat possibly be stronger than her creator? One of the four great Lords? I’ve never heard of such a thing occurring before, but the evidence was now before me.

Damn it. Was I going to have to kill another one of my children?

As I considered that dreadful possibility, a young girl’s painful moan caught my attention. Thinking it may have been the victim I’d rescued earlier regaining consciousness, I turned around, only to be surprised by the sight of an entirely different young woman lying on the grass, dressed in a white sleeping gown.

And who exactly was this supposed to be?

The girl dazedly raised her head and smiled weakly at me. “Kyler?” she mumbled before passing out.

“Rachel?” I asked with genuine shock. What was going on here?

Suddenly, a ferocious need for blood began to overwhelm me. Damn it, Rachel, I thought angrily. A quick scan of my status showed that my hunger had grown to a ravenous [8/10]. Thanks to her little outburst, now I was the one on the urge of a ravenous breakdown.

Luckily, I had my human form to rely on. I immediately switched out and relaxed as the bloodlust faded.

Do you see now what I meant about staying calm in a desperate situation? It’s like they say, kids. Cooler heads will always prevail--

“ON YOUR KNEES, BANDIT!” screamed some random guy whose voice I think I recognized as he quickly approached me. Due to the chaos of the previous few minutes, he and the partner supporting him had completely gotten the drop on me.

“Uh, guys, I can assure you, I’m not a bandit,” I protested.

“I SAID GET ON YOUR KNEES!” he yelled in reply. That’s when I noticed two things. The first was that he was carrying a big metal shield on his right arm, and the second was that he and his ally were wearing the symbol of Vandal Academy on their armor.

That’s when my memory clicked into place. I really did know this guy. This was Nick Pankratz! Heh, wasn’t that a coincidence? What were the odds of running into someone you knew out in the middle of nowhere?

Before I could comment on that, however, Pankratz raised his shield high and used it to viciously club me alongside the head.

Okay, cool, now it was my turn to be unconscious.

Great job, Rachel.

Seriously. Great job.