Chapter 21 - The new Home [3/5]
"Don't be so hard on him, Arken. His soul is not as pitch-black as yours." Smiling, Maya grabbed her lover's hand. "People don't perceive us unless we consciously reveal ourselves to them as vampires," she told Vex.
Involuntarily, Vex felt reminded of the words of Leysha's killer. He had also claimed that Vex had not recognized her. Should it have been true in the end? With all the madness that had befallen him in the last days… Could it actually be, Leysha was also a vampire.
He shook his head. She wasn't as cold and cruel as Arken or Maya. Leysha had always been loving and warm, and why should she have played him as a vampire?
It hurt when he thought of her and the life he had lost. How much he had loved her. They and their common, contemplative life. Now he walked between the houses and courtyards of this village and felt alien, surreal.
"Where do we find these… children?" he asked, to get more into other thoughts.
"Always in order." Arken stopped and looked around testing. "First of all, we need a lonely person."
Vex swung nothing good. "What's that for? Let us rather…"
"In the house there lives a single man." Maya pointed to a building diagonally opposite.
"I'd rather have a pretty virgin." Sighing, Arken approached it.
Maya looked at him. "Pretty virgins make more trouble than single old sacks, darling."
As if rooted, Vex stopped instead of following the two vampires. He certainly wouldn't help them kill an innocent person!
"Oh, Vex." Without turning around, Maya stopped. "You're a weak vampire. You need blood to grow big and strong.
I would rather die before I drink the blood of a man." Disgusted, Vex smashed his face.
"Two things." Arken stood unnerved, holding up two of his pale fingers with crooked, yellow nails. It burned in his eyes. He looked like he was about to jump on Vex at any moment. "First of all, you can't die a vampire. If your body fails, you won't get to the beautiful sky."He sneered and came closer.
His posture was reminiscent of a predator just before the jump. Vex wanted to back off, but couldn't move. He could do nothing more than look at Arks with horror-widening eyes until he was so close to him that Vex could smell the faint smell of putrefaction and rotting that surrounded the vampire. Only a hand's breadth separated their faces.
"Even for hell, our souls are too corrupt," Arken whispered close to him. "You become a ghost of blood and are allowed to suffer infinite torments on the level of the ghosts of blood. There is no salvation for beings like us."
Vex took a step back. Infinite torments in the level of blood spirits…
Hopelessness spread through him. If that was true, there was no escape from his existence as a vampire. The only choice he had was whether he wanted to live forever the existence of a monster or suffer infinite torment.
"Secondly, I was about to show you how to tap people without killing them," Arken continued. "But if you prefer to feed on rats, please." The vampire made his face. "There is nothing more hideous than animal blood. Maybe I should force you to feed on it for the next few centuries. After sweet, pure human blood whimpering, you will come crawling to me on your knees."
But it's okay?" asked Vex, when he was halfway under control again. Animal blood might not taste good, but it seemed to him to be the lesser evil.
"You can do it if you have no other choice. Come on, I'm hungry!" Arken and Maya entered the house. Of course without knocking.
What should they have said? Excuse me, do you mind if we take a quick look at your blood? Vex remained undecided on the road. A child, laughing, chased a chicken in front of him, braked abruptly when he saw Vex, and ran away. A hammering of metal on metal set in, presumably from a blacksmith. The plainly dressed men and women passing by cast suspicious glances at Vex and made a big bow around him. Suddenly, an invisible handle grabbed him by the collar and pulled him forward with such a jerk that he stumbled into the house. At Arken's feet he struck open
on the wooden floor.
From an adjoining room, muffled noises penetrated. They didn't tear off. Whoever was there had no idea of the danger that had just crossed his doorstep.
His creator growled it so softly that only a vampire ear could hear it. "And no more rebuttals, or you'll be next!" Without making sure that Vex was following him, he turned and stepped through the door. How paralyzed Vex remained sitting. He didn't want to do that. This thought dominated his mind, filled his whole body. Even if he had wanted to get up, his legs would certainly have denied him service. Again, it was the spell that pulled him up and threw him through the door after his creator. A man with light brown hair looked up. He had worked around the stove of the small kitchen, but when she entered he left everything but a pan and eyed her suspiciously. The smell of fear struck Vex.
"What are you looking for here? Get out of here!"
Well, why so unfriendly? Is this the way guests are welcomed?With a complacent attitude, as if everything and everyone in the room belonged to him, Arken approached the man. His knuckles came out pale, so tightly he grasped the handle the pan.
"Stay away from me! What do you want?"he hissed, without letting the arks out of his eyes.
Next to Vex, Maya drew in the air. "He's afraid of the rumors that there are monsters in the castle," she whispered. Vex gave her a frightened look.
"You know we're vampires?" he whispered back. Until recently he would have rejoiced if a few men had come and destroyed them three, but the idea of an existence as a blood spirit did not please him at all. If Arken's words were right and they didn't have to kill people, it was less like living as a vampire. And maybe he could try it with animal blood.