The Red Daggers.

“Stay where you are,” I growled at the Party. Just in case they decided to attempt some manner of heroics. We may usually have the advantage over these adventurers, but we were tired and spent. The risk wasn’t worth it.

I could see now the man holding my wrist to my left was the armored one, and the woman was on my right holding my other hand to the wall with some manner of force spell. There was something about the spellcaster… I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

“Didn’t take you too long to go off solving mysteries, did it?” The dwarf scoffed and shook his head.

The rogue was standing by the dome, juggling one of his daggers. Perhaps he knew that the dome would only last so long. Still, if Angelos dropped it and they were prepared…

The dwarf stuck something against my chest, and it burned. “Got pretty beaten up for a giant rat warren. Perhaps they should have sent adventurers.”

I glanced down at the object - it looked like a hot poker, yet had no obvious source of heat. Still burned just the same, however. “What do you want?”

He tutted and looked around. “You’d think that was obvious? We want you out of the picture.”

“Jealousy is-ah!” He pushed the poker into my stomach, threatening to break the skin. I could practically hear Florence’s teeth grinding in the hopes that she could do something soonish to immolate this group.

“Talk a lot for an old guy. Usually hardship beats that out of you… you should know when you’ve lost, when it’s over.” There was almost some pity in his eyes, although it came through a veneer of disdain.

With the constant agony every time my muscles twitched, I wasn’t so sure I could push either of those restraining me away - even with Enrage. Or at least, if I did make the attempt, the dwarf would just stick me with the poker again. Maybe just finish me outright.

“Take me,” I said. “Let the others go.”

The armored man beside me snorted. “Typical hero bullshit.”

In agreement with the fighter, the dwarf shook his head. “What do I have to gain by doing that? I’m going to kill you, anyway. I don’t need three other pricks out for vengeance.”

That was fair. Still, it was worth the gamble on the assumption the adventurers either had a lick of decency or a lack of common sense. That they had picked me to grab was either luck or smarts on their side. I was more likely to cause them damage.

I looked over at the spellcaster, who was still avoiding looking at me. A sharp pain flared up my cheek as the poker moved my face back to front and center.

“Eyes up front, big man. Normally we’d like to take our time on this sort of thing. And you’ve got a lot of surface area to cover - but we know your friend’s bubble has a time limit before it pops, and we’d need all hands on deck to finish them off.”

He shot them a quick smile before turning back to me. “So, we’ll make this quick - straight through the heart. Well, not especially quick or painless, in honesty… but there’s much worse ways to go, huh?”

My heartbeat had increased now. A rhythmic pumping that vibrated through my ears. I should be furious, kicking and screaming for any small chance of escape. Instead, I just felt tired. Done with the terrible experiment. This life was too difficult, and I had been a fool to give up my safety for… for this…

I looked up at the dome with bleary eyes. Not all of it had been bad. For the brief time I had been good, it had at least allowed me some form of normal companionship. Even now, I wanted a way to save them. The failure I owed them felt like a bigger burden than my own personal failures.

“Any last words?” The dwarf held the poker up to my heart, my skin singing from the proximity.

As I opened my mouth and drew breath - he wasn’t intending to allow me to say anything, and the poker blistered through my skin into muscle. Red hot agony flashed through my body in an instant.

But then, things dulled and seemed to… stop.

A figure of scratchy mist stepped into view, peering at the surroundings before putting his face near mine.

“I’ve…come for my…payment…”

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An oddity. The demon seemed content to rescue me from the jaws of death before, and I was half expecting another deal to be brokered. But instead he wanted payment… my life, perhaps?

“What do you want?” My voice was slurred and ethereal, not really existing on the current plane.

The demon leaned closer, and I could just about make out a crooked grin widening on his face. “I…like you…Victor…so... the cost is…only…something temporary.”

“What?” My mind raced. I was in no position to refuse unless I died, and if I allowed myself to be killed, then my friends were next. Friends? He could ask what he wanted, and I’d have almost have no choice.

“I want…your…willpower and…restraint…just for a…few hours.”

His wispy voice scraped through my ears. I didn’t quite understand it - that didn’t seem like something that would… Oh. Panic tore at my insides. A request I couldn’t refuse. An action that the consequence would be dire. My mind swam.

“It…wasn’t…really a yes…or no…thing…you have…no say.”

And then it was taken.

“Delicious…good luck…”

Anger burned inside me. A terrible storm of fury and disgust. These worms thought they could get one over on me? That they could kill me?

The scorching heat of the poker became the catalyst for me to know reality had resumed in full force. I lashed out with my foot, catching the dwarf in the stomach. He stumbled back and lowered the poker away from me. Too engrossed in his sadism to be wary. [Enrage].

I strained against those holding me back; the man adjusting his posture to put more of his weight into me. Try all he may, he wasn’t the weakest link.

A second kick struck the spellcaster in the knee, the snap of bone causing her to buckle and the spell weaken. It was enough. My fist flashed out and stuck her in the face, breaking her nose. As the dwarf recovered and lifted the poker from the floor, I grabbed the woman by her throat and drew her in.

My fangs sunk into her exposed neck.

It was… delightful.

For a brief moment, it was as if we were the only two that existed. My first bite and I. I drank deeply, and it was intoxicating. I was in love. I was addicted.

As I pushed her away with a gasp, my senses were dulled. A low hum rang in my ears. The dwarf tried to stab me with the little stick. Fear now shone brightly in his eyes. He knew what I now was. Some realization bloomed that they were woefully unprepared. I was ready and willing to show them just how true that was.

I grabbed him by the wrist and snapped it backwards. Pushed him away as the fighter withdrew his sword. But I was already there and my fist struck his metal breastplate, indenting it and breaking his ribs. He coughed up blood, and I stepped up to tear out his throat with my mouth.

Crimson filled my vision. Not just blood, but bloodlust. Pure, unadulterated need for consuming every last drop in the room. As the hunger took me, that is all I could remember.

Every neck drained dry. Every muscle stripped and swallowed. Bones split for their marrow. I was the red death, the roving crimson horror. Every organ, piece of skin, anything that could attempt to whet my appetite. I probably ate some rat corpses too.

And then finally, after the visions of gore and viscera were cleaned away, there was just darkness.

Not really a sleep, nothing really to dream about - hardly any thought aside from knowing I existed. What I existed as.

After some time, I felt movement. A rickety kind of shaking amongst the gloom. Gradually, focus started to filter in. At first just fuzzy grays, but then some color and shapes began to form.

“Hey, you,” a familiar voice greeted me, “you’re finally awake.”

“J… Jakob?” My mouth felt terrible.

My vision cleared, and I saw that we were on the wagon, passing by trees and muddy hills. The sound of wheels moving over the cobble road below was so clear to my ears. Angelos and Jakob sat opposite me, looking understandably tired and pensive. Florence was at the front, and she was looking over her shoulder.

A bad dream? I ran my tongue across my teeth. Fangs.

“How?” I mumbled.

“Contingency plan, you daft shit.” The Guardian shook his head. “When I went to take a piss, I actually set up a teleport point.”

“When you started… eating, we exited and went to get the wagon,” the Ranger continued.

My head was throbbing. “Why come back for me?”

“Are you going to eat us?” Florence interrupted, glaring at me.

That was quite the loaded question. “I… have no intention of it. Without feeding though, I can’t…”

“Good thing one of us doesn’t have shit for brains then, eh?” The Guardian kicked a crate beside him, the clink of glass bottles replying sharply.

“The villagers were pretty keen to show their thanks by way of donation,” Jakob licked his lips and pulled his hood down over his eyes.

Florence sighed. “Plus, we told them we could test for the mind virus thing with blood samples.”

I sat in silence for a few minutes, trying to process. Trying to understand. “I still don’t…”

“Listen,” Angelos rubbed his face as if I were getting on his nerves. “You want to be the big dick vampire turned good? You need to be an actual vampire, then. It was bound to happen eventually, so shut your arse up and deal with it.”

“What Angelos said,” Florence smiled sadly from the front. “If you want to be accepted for who you are, then be who you are.”

Silence fell over us, leaving nothing but the ambience and sound of the wagon.

“Uh, just don’t eat us though, okay?” The Ranger smiled beneath his hood.

All I could do was shake my head.

“Well then,” I exhaled, “let’s go get our E Rank.”

As they each cheered or grumbled their respective delights, I sat back and looked up to the drab, overcast sky… and smiled.

I now felt truly alive, yet a weight sat deep in my stomach. Was I now doomed to become a monster and follow the route of Villainy? Or could I buck the dark clouds of my ancestry to follow a better path under clearer skies? The truth was never so simple. My nature was now out and ready to prowl, yet those closest to me had burdened me with their trust. My destiny was now steeped in blood, and it was up to me alone to ensure I would only draw it from those truly deserving.

Hero to the weak, absolute horror to those who had fallen to evil. The nightmare that stalked nightmares. Time would only tell how much of this was delusion, and how much my future made manifest.