Chapters:

Chapter 1

Thomas woke to the sound of rhythmic drumming, loud thunderous booming that echoed in his ears, to find himself in a bathtub in an unknown room. He was cold and sore, but most of all he was thirsty. He felt completely dehydrated, from the alcohol his mind would tell him, and needed to get something to drink. It took him a moment to get his footing, stumbling out of the tub and onto the cold laminate floor of the small apartment bathroom.

The pounding hastened and sounded closer. The ramshackle interior looked either like one hell of a party went down, or the people living there were complete slobs. Everything was out of place, tables shoved to one side, furniture all moved along the far wall, and empty bottles of alcohol littered the floor. Thomas didn’t notice the disrepair; his singular focus was finding something to quench his thirst.

Thomas stumbled to the open window, toward the pounding sound he heard, and looked out to see he was on the fifth floor of the apartment complex. Across from the apartments was the quad they walked through earlier. The sound in his ears didn’t come from music or construction, it came from the quad. He could see through the darkness with an unnatural clarity and focused his eyes on the source of the thumping, a jogger in the quad.

On autopilot, Thomas leapt from the window and soared effortlessly over the street below. He landed on the sidewalk with solid footing, lunging toward the jogger with an unholy adrenaline pumping through his veins. There was only one thought on his mind; blood, blood, blood. The jogger turned at the sound of his impact, seeing the monstrous predator behind him, and ran. Thomas’s teeth descended into sharp white fangs and his fingers lengthened into claws.

With a mighty leap, Thomas closed the gap between him and the fleeing jogger in a matter of seconds, tackling him to the ground and sinking his newly formed fangs into the throat of his first victim. It was a visceral need, a brutal animalistic attack that ripped, gnawed, and tore at the flesh of his prey with reckless fury. The blood flowing down Thomas’ throat was pure, it was honest, it was right. The maddening animal instinct to hunt, to kill, to feast, slowly subsided and the complete horror of what he had just done begun sink in.

“Damn homeboy,” Julio’s voice came from behind. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“I don’t…”  Thomas stuttered, spitting chunks of human flesh from his mouth.

“Yeah, yeah,” Julio said. “Use your words, newbie.”

“I’m gonna throw up,” Thomas said, crawling away from the body.

“Nah, that’s not something you need to do anymore.” Julio told him, walking up beside him.

Thomas heaved loudly.

“Or, maybe you do?” Julio said, stepping back from the projectile vomit. “That ain’t right man. Don’t waste the mother’s milk like that.”

“Oh my god,” Thomas croaked.

“You feel that feeling?” Julio knelt down beside Thomas again. “That power running through your veins? The feeling of being alive for the first time in your miserable life?”  

“Don’t mind him,” Edgar’s voice came from the nearby trees. “He was dropped on his head one too many times as a child.”

Julio stood up quickly, looking nervously at Edgar.

Edgar held a skinny young student by the throat. The student was completely docile, looking almost euphorically high.

“I was going to bring delivery,” Edgar said, holding the student forward. “But it looks like you went for drive-thru.”

“Yo man,” Julio said nervously. “It wasn’t my fault, I just stepped away for a minute and when I turned around, he went all Jackie Chan on this meat sack.”

“Shut up, Julio.” Edgar said forcefully. “Get him back to the apartment. I’ll call clean up.”

“Yeah, yeah man,” Julio said, grabbing Thomas up by the arm. “Come on man. Why you gotta piss him off like that man?”

“I didn’t …” Thomas recoiled from Julio. “Get your god damned hands off me. I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Yeah right,” Julio said with a sigh. “If you keep this shit up, Edgar’s gonna kill the both us, fool. He in a bad mood, I dunno why, probably something you did, but come on.”

Thomas shoved Julio away from him and took off running through the quad. He was fast and felt powerful, in fact, he felt better than he has ever felt, despite the fact he just murdered someone and drank their blood. The quad was fairly empty but he could hear the heartbeats of other people nearby, the rushing blood in their veins sounded like water running through plumbing at the cheap apartment he woke up in.

His senses were heightened to the point of superhuman levels. Everything buzzed with new life, details so minute that the human eye could not perceive fluttered by in a heartbeat, and the primordial calling of blood pounded in Thomas’ ears.

“You can’t run from me, homeboy,” Julio said, standing ahead of Thomas in an instant. “We’re connected like Vader and Luke, I am your new father, but you can call me daddy.”

Thomas skidded to a stop, stumbling over his new found athleticism and fell to the ground.

“What the hell did you do to me?” Thomas looked up to Julio. To his eyes, Julio looked like an Adonis, strikingly handsome and yet somehow maddeningly frightening.

“You ever hear of being a born again Christian?” Julio asked. “It’s kind of like that, minus the pretense and the excessive righteousness. To put it bluntly, I made you into a vampire.”

“A vampire,” Thomas said skeptically. “Vampires don’t…”

“Let me guess,” Julio interrupted. “Vampires don’t leap from tall buildings and eat random strangers in a single bound? If that’s the case, you must be cannibal Superman. Cause, you just ate someone.”

“Oh god,” Thomas heaved again.

“Don’t sweat it man,” Julio said. “Everyone loses their shit on the first kill. To be honest, you handled it pretty well, considering the circumstances. I didn’t expect you to wake up so quickly, after I turned you, and I kind of stepped out to call my girl, my bad. She worries.”

“I can’t believe this,” Thomas said. “Why the hell did you make me into a … why me?”

“Because,” Julio said, deepening his voice and standing at attention. “You are the chosen one.”

“What?”

“Nah, I’m just fucking with you.” Julio said. “We need your father to do some shit for us and the easiest way to get him to do it is use you as leverage.”

Thomas climbed to his feet and looked down at his shirt. His face and shirt were covered in blood and there were bits of flesh under his elongated fingers. When he noticed his fingers, he recoiled back away from them.

“What the hell?” Thomas screamed.

“Yeah, right, I forgot,” Julio said. “Look, you’re going through some shit right now. Kind of a transformation, if you will, and you’re probably gonna want to do that somewhere private.”

Julio put his arm around Thomas’ shoulder and ushered him back through the quad.

Edgar was standing there with an impatient look on his face. The student he had arranged for Thomas to feed on was nowhere to be seen.

“Julio, you take care of this shit storm,” Edgar told him, motioning to the body. “I’ll take the kid back to the apartment and set him straight.”

“Yeah, okay,” Julio said. “Go with him, kid. I’ll wait for the cleanup crew.”

Edgar turned and walked through the archway of the quad. Something about him made Thomas nervous, made him afraid. Thomas quickly caught up to him, looking at him out of the corner of his eyes as they walked across the road toward the apartment building.

“I don’t envy your situation,” Edgar said. “Julio isn’t the most traditional of sires, but he’s loyal and a hell of a soldier, he just lacks finesse when dealing with freshly turned children.”

“So this is real?” Thomas asked.

“Very real,” Edgar told him. “You’ve been thrust into a political game of chess that’s been played since the dawn of time. If it’s any consolation, I’m here to help.”

“What do we do now?”

“Well, for starters,” Edgar said, opening the door to the apartment building. “You need to come to grips with the fact that your life has become infinitely more complex, and at the same time, utterly simple.”

Thomas could feel the heartbeats of the people in their rooms as they walked the hallways. He could smell the blood, hear the breathing, and sense their fear. Humans have an innate fear of the dark, bred into them from the very first moments of consciousness, and even though they may forget from time to time, deep down they are always afraid.

“You only need to worry about feeding, for now.” Edgar told him. “It’s very simple, really, just take enough to sustain yourself and don’t leave a trail of bodies. We’ve existed, behind the scenes, for thousands of years by being smarter than the humans and convincing them we’re not real.”

“Why hide?” Thomas asked. “I can feel their fear and I’m so much stronger than I was.”  

Edgar pushed a couch over effortlessly and sat down when they entered the room.

“Sure, you are stronger than them,” Edgar said. “But they outnumber us millions to one, they have the entire daylight cycle to hunt us, and, oh yes, they’re vicious little monkeys who have become surprisingly efficient at genocide.”

“So,” Thomas said. “What happens in the sun? Do we explode, turn to ash?”

“It burns,” Edgar said. “If you stay in it too long, you will die, but that’s not the problem. The problem is that we are nocturnal and there’s a powerful force that makes us sleep during the daylight hours. You’ll be so tired that, unless you are extremely strong, you’ll just pass out.”

Thomas idly pulled at his fingers, which returned to their normal shape and size. The effects of the initial frenzy were wearing off and his entire body ached with muscle fatigue. He felt like he had lifted weights all day, ran a marathon, and took a cold shower all at once. It had become hard for him to stand, let alone walk or function normally.

“What’s happening to me?” Thomas asked in a panic.

“Calm yourself,” Edgar said. “Your body is dying, that’s why we brought you back here. It is a very personal horror that you are going through. Go to the bathroom, take the time you need, and clean up, dying is messy business.”

Thomas stumbled into the bathroom and sat down on the toilet seat. He could feel the warmth of life fading from his extremities. The slow, gradual loss of color crept its way through his body, leaving a distinct pallor, while the constriction of his muscles tightened everything. His organs heaved inside, desperately sending distress signals throughout his nervous system in a last ditch attempt to resuscitate itself. The final cough of life fluttered from his mouth as his lungs collapsed and the sudden jerk of death caused him to crash to the floor.

Thomas lay on his back, staring up at the dirty ceiling above him, noticing every minute detail of the stucco texture. The peaks and valleys seemed to cascade off one another while the lingering haze of dust and debris provided a maelstrom of particles that clung to every crevasse.

His senses were heightened to the point where he became intimately aware of his own odor. Incontinence, perspiration, the drying blood of his first victim, every scent was overwhelming and repugnant and he suddenly understood what Edgar was talking about. It took him a few moments to regain mobility, to understand that his body was not in motion because of muscle contractions and blood flow, or because the indomitable spirit of the human soul, but because the darkness inside him willed his body to endure.

It was a matter of willpower and desire to sit upright and look around the room, for the first time in his new life. He rose slowly, initially unsure of his new body, using the sink as a crutch to get to his feet and as he stood, he caught a glimpse of himself in the vanity mirror. His eyes were sunken in, his face pale and gaunt. He looked nothing like himself in any way he had ever seen before, but to his new eyes he saw the details in his face behind the cadaverous visage.

The bathroom had been prepared for his transformation. Either Julio or Edgar had brought a change of clothes and sat them on top of some folded towels on the vanity. Thomas knew he had to shower away the filth of his last moments of life, if nothing else to rid him of the horrendous odor that permeated his nostrils. When he turned the knob, a cacophony of thunderous impacts erupted in his ears as each droplet of water exploded on the surface of the hard shower floor. Every drop of warmth that cascaded over his body was a symphony of new sensations. His heightened senses gave him an unbelievably intimate awareness of his own body and the newfound pleasures of a simple shower were almost overwhelming.

When he dried himself off and dressed in the new clothes, he paused at the bathroom door. It dawned on him that he was leaving the last bit of his human self behind, flowing down the drain and in the mess of his discarded clothing. The fear of that realization petrified him. He could feel the savage monster inside him trying to get out, to break free and gorge itself on the blood of anyone he could find.

Fear he was used to. What was disconcerting to him was the fact that he was aware of not breathing, how before he could hear his own breath in the quiet hours of the night, and how he was now so deathly silent it was unnerving.

Edgar was still sitting on the couch when Thomas opened the bathroom door. Nothing changed in the room and yet somehow everything was different. The world was new, alive in a way that he had never experienced before, everything was before him and the excitement overcame the terror.

“You seem to be doing alright,” Edgar said. “I don’t recall my death, but I’ve seen many over the years. Tell me, how do you feel?”

It took Thomas a moment to process the question. It wasn’t as simple as it used to be. How he felt was different, none of the aches and pains of humanity, all of his previous soreness was gone and a new sensation was present. While there was a lack of physical feeling, his emotional state was something else entirely. Inside, he knew that he was no longer human. The idea of having no heartbeat, no pulse, no tears or breath, he didn’t feel the need to scratch anyone on his body, or even the need to simply swallow.

 “I’m not sure,” Thomas said. “Just different, I suppose.”

There was something new about Edgar as well. He smelled of blood, yes, but also Thomas became keenly aware of other smells. Edgar smelled of rich, spicy flora. It had hints of carnation and green, with a touch of vetiver at the end. The whole scent was intoxicating, deep and potent, but it masked something truly dreadful. For the first time, Thomas smelled a lingering death from Edgar that gave him pause. It was genuine fear, like a gazelle sensing a lion on the wind.

The man, if he even was that still, that sat before him was a predator, a monster of unfathomable power and knowledge that was both timeless and unique.

“Ah,” Edgar lifted his eyes to Thomas’ as he felt the examination. “Impressive. You are trying to sense my aura and you don’t even know it.”

“What do you mean by aura?” Thomas asked.

“An aura is a sort of mood radar, to put it simply,” Edgar said. “It shows the mental and emotional state of the being you are focused on, letting you know, in a very minute way, what they are feeling.”

“Like a psychic?”

“Not quite,” Edgar told him. “Many of us develop the ability to read minds, but that takes discipline and focus. An aura is more of a feeling than it is actual telepathy.”

Thomas could barely believe what was happening to him, let alone that he could read minds or even sense the feelings of others. Two days prior, he had set up a date with a twenty five year old law student from the University and would’ve killed for the ability to sense her mood. He wondered how he would even make that date, or if he should try.

“In any event,” Edgar said, standing from the couch and dusting himself off. “We can’t stay here any longer and need to move. The sun will be up soon and you need your rest.”

They left the cheap apartment together, leaving behind the last physical traces of Thomas’ humanity in a pile of stinking clothes. Julio had returned and was waiting out front of the building beside a red Mercedes sedan. A young man stood by with the door held open, he couldn’t have been more than twenty but he wore the chauffeurs’ suit like a seasoned veteran.

To Thomas, the young man looked like food. He could see the pulse under the skin, count his heartbeats, and smell his blood. Every instinct inside of Thomas said to rip into the driver, gorge himself on blood, and revel in the monstrousness within, but it was Edgar’s hand on his chest that gave him pause.

“Careful,” Edgar said. “Mischa here is my driver and familiar. Besides, you’ve already eaten.”

It took a moment for the calling of the blood to subside in Thomas. It was fear of the indomitable will of Edgar that stopped him, not some notion that he was satiated. Quite the opposite, in fact, the hunger for blood was immense, ever present, and undeniable.

“Right,” Thomas said, climbing into the back of the car. “Does it ever stop?”

“No, it never stops.” Edgar told him when they piled into the car and started driving. “You can learn how to control the urges, but it will always win out, eventually.”

The soft rumble of the engine hummed in the background as the city flew by. Thomas could see, hear, and smell things that he barely registered mere hours prior and the world seemed new and exciting. Behind the excitement, however, hid something dark and foreboding under the cover of night.

“You said Mischa is a familiar,” Thomas said, looking at the driver briefly before turning away. It was almost too much for Thomas not to want to sink his teeth into his neck. “He’s human?”

“Yes,” Julio said from the front. “Familiars are our protectors and servants. We give them what they need and they ensure we have what we need.”

“Mischa may one day become one of us,” Edgar said. “The ultimate reward for his loyalty is immortality and who wouldn’t want a chance at living forever?”

Thomas resented the idea entirely. The kid was serving vampires, doing unspeakable things for his masters and hoping that one day, maybe, he might be turned, whereas Thomas himself was forced into that eternity because of political maneuvering. He found resentment and anger familiar feelings, feelings that he welcomed at that point.

“And what about you two,” Thomas asked, looking between Julio and Edgar. “What’s your relationship?”

“I am the Knight Commander of Georgia,” Edgar said.  “I am charged with law enforcement and executions. Julio is one of my Knights, who act as my deputies, and help keep order throughout the state. He is also my child, as you are his.”

The Collective, as they liked to call themselves, are run by a council of vampires who oversee the actions and determine the directives of the group. After councilmen come Dukes, who control great bodies of land and countless metropolitan cities throughout the world. Every city under a Duke’s control is ruled by a Prince, who enforces the will of the Duke on the vampire population by the charge of Knights under his or her control.

“We will be meeting with the Duke of Georgia tomorrow night,” Edgar told him. “In order to give you a formal introduction and let you be seen by the court. You are a key player in a bold political battle that’s been waging in Georgia for the better part of twenty years.”

Thomas felt like he was being groomed for something greater than himself. It was not dissimilar to the feeling that he had when his own father groomed him for politics and the political life. The familiarity that Edgar was giving him was comforting, unlike the rest of the night which was filled with terror and wonder, the familiar feeling of having a direction was a soothing feeling in a night of filled with chaos.

Edgar and Julio discussed the details of the plan, but, although he stared out the car window, Thomas’ attention was focused within. He could feel the hunger, the addiction to blood, as vivid and potent as any heroin user, more even. All of his hopes, all of his dreams, and aspirations were no longer important to him not really, it was as if he were listening to the world while underwater. The voices in the car were muted, the sounds of the engine were distant, and the only thing on his mind was the rapture of blood.

Blood made him feel happy. Blood made him feel good, simple as that. There were no strings attached, no baggage to it, blood was simple and easy. Blood was the thing that could make the nightmare of his un-life tolerable. He didn’t need much, just enough to get by. There were so many people in the city of Athens, so many people in the state of Georgia, who would miss a few now and then? It would be easy. He was strong. He was faster than they were. It was his to take, who would stop him? There is a natural order to things, predators hunt prey, lions hunt gazelle, and vampires hunt humans. Simple.

Thomas barely noticed the car pull into a manicured road leading to the beautiful estate. The cobbled road glistened from the headlights, illuminating the path that was flanked by tall trees that reached up into the night sky. The fork in the road led deep into the black woods on one side and the other toward an opulent home that was built like the Italian villas of old. The grand entrance presented a grand two-story portico with classic Ionic columns. The magnitude of the estate snapped Thomas out of his thoughts to focus on the sight before him.

“I know,” Edgar said, reacting to Thomas’ expression. “It’s not of my own design. This house has been the Knight Commander’s estate since 1908. When I took over the title from my predecessor, he moved out and I moved in.”

The entire house was bathed in warm yellow light. Hand crafted wrought iron fixtures glowed with modern incandescence but told the age of the estate with every exquisite detail. The entire estate grounds smelled of boxwood. The grand room housed a beautiful black staircase that reflected the light of the flanking statues, each holding iron candelabra with modern lights.

“Do all vampires live like this?” Thomas asked, taken aback by the beauty of the house.

“No,” Julio said. “Most of us are just normal people, doing our thing and getting by. If you have position and power, you can live however you want. A lot of the elders have amassed huge fortunes in their time, so they sort of live it up. It’s good to be king.”

“Yeah, I bet.” Thomas said. He had lived in the Governor’s mansion as a child, which was well adorned and considered fairly high end, but the Knight Commander’s estate was amazing.

The cadre was led through the house, through rooms and corridors filled with history and class, but as they descended the last set of stairs, the décor became more personal. At the base of the long stairway was a glass case that surrounded a suite of Spanish conquistador’s armor. A full body suit of steel made the conquistador nearly invulnerable against native opponents and, when armed with the lance and sword, they were the fiercest warriors of their era.

“That was my life,” Edgar said. “Before I was turned by my master, I was a soldier and conqueror. That’s why I prefer simpler taste. Even though I was a cavalryman and earned more than my fair share, I never acquired a taste for gold or jewels.”

“A conquistador,” Thomas looked Edgar up and down as they walked. “That was in the 16th century. How old are you?”

“Tut-tut,” Julio exclaimed. “That’s not really polite in our society.”

“Forgive him, Julio.” Edgar said. “He’s had a rough day.”

The group stopped at an enormous vault door, deep under the estate. The heavy hinges clad the wall in a skin of stainless steel and the surrounding area was fortified on all sides.

“Home sweet home,” Julio said to Thomas, motioning him in. “When we sleep, we’re out cold so to protect ourselves we seal up in here during the day.”

It was still a foreign concept to Thomas, sleeping in a vault with strangers because sunlight would kill him. The idea was preposterous but somehow it felt like the right thing to do. He felt strangely safe with Julio, like he could trust him and follow his guidance without question.

The interior of the vault had been partitioned into several distinct areas. Each area had its own décor and personal touches to it. Edgar’s area was the largest, with a beautiful mural of Hernando de Soto, famed Spanish explorer and conquistador, atop his white stallion. Julio’s area had a more colorful feel to it. The area surrounding his bed was covered in multi-colored Spanish tilework, ceramics and stained glass. On the wall above his bed was a ceramic bull, laid out in hues of blue, orange, purple, and red.

A third section had been laid out for Thomas. It was plain, with a simple queen sized bed and an end table for his belongings.

“Feel free to add your own personal things to your space,” Edgar said. “You will be here, with us, for quite some time so make yourself at home.”

“How long?” Thomas asked, looking the space over. It did feel a little like being a prisoner. He knew he had no real options to go anywhere else and something told him that they would find him if he tried to escape.

“That remains to be seen.” Edgar said, lying back on his bed. “Don’t worry about that right now. For now, you need to get ready for sleep and to think about what’s to come.”

Thomas thought about his dad and what plans these vampires had for him. They were using him as leverage to force his father to do something for their benefit and he wasn’t exactly comfortable with that, it’s just that the idea of fighting back seemed moot at that point.

The giant vault door was closed by two of the familiar servants of the estate, sealing the three of them inside against the ravages of the daylight.

Exhaustion immediately fell over Thomas when he sat down on the bed. The clock on the end table showed that sunrise was approaching and he felt all of his energy drain out of him. The last thing on his mind, before he fell into the torpid sleep of the dead, was the voracious hunger of the animal inside.