Vampire Sub-Species

It should have been a great day, a day of celebration, but all that was happening right now said otherwise. The blaring sound of sirens hurried everyone's footsteps and the snow being crunched underneath their feet was lost in the ever-bustling streets. As the last footprints were left forgotten in the snow, and the sirens faded, a bell chimed in the middle of Blackgarde City, signalling the beginning of Christmas.

After being on the run for the entire day, night had come, and I settled down on a bench in a deserted street. As I sat down, I created a veil of heat surrounding my body causing the snow around me to melt and steam.

"Haaaaa..." I let out a sigh. "The vampires sure work fast."

Around the city, there were wanted posters of me pasted everywhere. They even offered a bounty of five million gold for me. So not only were the Imperial Guards after me, but also bounty hunters and people with nothing to do. There were certainly a few close calls where I almost got caught, but I managed to escape without arising suspicion.

Alphyn had come out and did a few mini laps around my lap before settling down. She was curled up in her tiny snow-white fox form. I stroked her fluffy fur, releasing the pent-up tension that had been building up the entire day.

"I should probably find another spot to settle down before they search this area. But let me just rest here for a while." I said while rubbing her head.

"Purrrrrrrrrrr..."

"Do you think I can pass off as a merchant and pass the border?" I asked.

"But you need a trading license to prove your identity." Alphyn replied sleepily.

"Hm? What's that?"

"You have been out of touch with the world for too long. After the War ended, many things changed. Rules and regulations had been put in place, and the World had become a much stricter place. Things were not as easy as it used to be. A license is something traders and merchants have in order to prove their identity."

"That's a bugger, I guess it can't be helped." I stopped talking and raised my head, watching the snow fall under the lamplight.

"How was life after I was gone?" Breaking the silence after a short period of time.

"Boring, terribly boring. I don't ever want to leave your side again." She snuggled even deeper into my lap.

"Me too Alp, me too... We will become strong enough to take on the world, and no one will ever separate us again." I promised.

After resting for half an hour, I left my spot and continued roaming. Being a dragon, I did not require as much sustenance as the other races. I could go on days and nights without eating or sleeping. With that advantage, I can always be on the move without worrying about being snuck up upon.

"Hmmm what other ways is there to get out of the kingdom?" I pondered.

"You can try out the slums," Alphyn suggested. "The people in the slums probably have information that people here don't. They're the ones who should know the ins-and-outs of the city as they live underground."

"You're right, I'll give it a try."

Asking around the city for the direction of the slums, I was ignored several times but finally managed to get the directions to it.

As I approached the sewer tunnel which was the entrance to the slums, I found several imperial guards roaming close to it. I hid behind a bush and observed the guards.

"Damn, they really are persistent, going so far as to guard the sewer entrance. How am I going to sneak pass them?"

I stayed in that position for a few hours before I spotted a slight movement not far from the entrance. A vampire who looked about forty years of age was sneaking around the guards, heading towards the direction of the sewers.

"His movements are very suspicious and that is most interesting."

I immediately left my spot and followed him at a safe distance. Every now and then, he would turn his head left and right, checking to see if anyone was following him. Instead of heading directly to the entrance, he travelled quite a distance from it before entering an abandoned warehouse near the sewers.

As he entered the seemingly empty warehouse, he touched a strange contraption and descended into the ground of the warehouse.

"Pppft! Tell me this isn't the most cliché villain hideout you've ever seen." I gestured at this entire place. "Sneaking around in the dead of night, entering a weird warehouse, if this isn't screaming at me that he's a bad guy, I don't know what is. Let's check out what he has in store for us."

I approached the spot where he disappeared and saw a small switch on the ground. After flipping the switch, a slab of stone on the ground shifted away and revealed a flight of stairs heading underground.

"Wow, even the walls are lit with lights. I feel like I'm entering some kind of dungeon. Feels pretty exciting. Hehe."

The wall smelt musty and the air was damp, but I trudged on with my curiosity. The passageway slowly opened up as I continued down the stairs, and then I heard it. The sound of growling. The walls were reverberating with the echoes so I did not know how many voices I'm hearing.

The narrow passage suddenly expanded into a wide area. The first thing that I noticed when I entered was the blood. There was blood on the ceiling, there was blood on the floor and there was crusted blood on the walls. It was everywhere.

"What the fuck is he doing down here?"

The sound of growling intensified as I neared one of the closed doors in the area. The doors looked like prison doors, with only a small opening. I bought my head close and peeked in.

"GGRRRRRRRRRR..."

The creature in the cell spotted me and immediately launched its whole body at the door.

~CLAAAAAAAAAAAANG!

The chains that bound the creature was yanked and prevented it from reaching the door. But it got close enough that I caught a glimpse of it.

"Yikes, what the hell is he doing with a Nosferatu? No... not just one but dozens." I looked around a found many similar cell doors with familiar growling coming from them.

The Nosferatu is a sub-species of the Vampire. They were thralls who have failed their transformation into a vampire and developed an insatiable hunger for blood. Their appearance is grotesque and they had lost all semblance of sanity. With skin even paler than a vampire, and fangs that were unnaturally long, the only other feature that differentiates them from normal vampires were they bald heads.

Amongst the vampire sub-species, they were the ones that were hated most. One thing that vampires hate was anything that would disgrace their species. The nosferatu is a sub-species that's usually killed on sight as soon as they were spotted.

Now it begs the question, why are there so many of them here and what is he planning to do with them?