Chapter 52 - Vampyres

[Present Time]

“Well then, my guest, since I have wet your appetite as to what is to come ten months later, what say we satisfy our hunger? After all, stories cannot fill us, though I would like to think mine would be interesting enough to stay hunger for a while.”

I had transformed into my human form already in an instant, a six feet tall and well muscled man with long white hair reaching toward the waist.

I stared down at my guest, looking into his surprsied eyes, but I was glad to find that he had no compunction about my nakedness.

“So tell me, my guest, what are you doing here in my lair?” My eyes turned hard and piercing as I asked the question. I could see hesitation fill his similarly colored eyes—emerald. “Also, I have a feeling that you are not human, though you do look like one in all aspects.”

The slim, human man started nervously. “I am a vampyre, kind host, and I would be very grateful if we could indeed obtain some nourishment. My diet consists of the blood of creatures; most blood are suitable for me.”

“Intriguing, vampyre. But I would not want to call you by your race name, so you must tell me your name.”

“It is Marius Whitewill, kind host,” the vampyre said, his eyes looking searchingly into mine, albeit with some trepidation.

I could tell that my guest had a question from looking at his eyes, and if my hunch was correct, it was similar to the one I had asked. I ventured a guess:

“And no, Marius, I shall not tell you my name. You may continue calling me your host, though. Also, in case you do not know, I am a dragon. You must have heard of such creatures, though they are rarely, if ever, seen in human lands. Lesser dragons, perhaps.”

As my guest and I neared the mouth of the enormous cave at the base of the mountain, which was my lair, I felt a slight tingle in my mind from my gift for sensing danger. Not really danger per say, just a feeling of annoyance; It was along the lines of needing to relieve a small itch.

“It seems we have company, Marius Whitewill. Perhaps they are your friends?” I asked with mirth, my eyebrows raised questioningly.

The blonde vampyre instantly turned fearful, and looked as if he would jump out of nervousness anytime. “They are not friends, kind dragon host. They are vampyres from my clan who are chasing me. Please! You must not let them find me here!”

“You do not command me, vampyre. But, since you are my guest, I shall give you the benefits of doubt...that is, after I have met these friends of yours. Then we shall see what mood takes me.”

I was trying to sound imposing for the sake of amusement. In reality, I was mostly indifferent to what would happen.

“Follow along, Marius. Let us meet these clan members of yours.”

The reason I had him follow along was that I did not wanted him to escape when he was out of my sight. Also, I wanted to watch the ensuing interaction between Marius and his pursuers.

As soon as we were out, seven vampyres came out of the forest, coming onto the rocky stretch of ground leading to my cave located at the base of the mountain.

The color of their alert and predator-like eyes consisted of blue, green, and brown. One of them—the tallest one—however, had a pair of red eyes.

All of them were wearing similar black cloaks that reached almost to the ground; they also wore tight-fitting black garments which hugged to their sleek muscles. On the chest of these garments, there were red emblems of an inverted triangle barely inscribing a circle pinned onto them.

When the group of vampyres finally saw the two of us, they bared their twin fangs at us in hatred. Well, not us, exactly. It was mostly toward Marius Whitewill. I was just a stranger to them, and they soon got over their small initial surprise at seeing someone with their “hunted,” especially since that someone was parading around entirely naked.

“Marius! You halfblood bastard! I have finally caught up to you. Prepare to be executed immediately for your transgressions against my clan!” the red-eyed vampyre shouted in a voice full of hatred.

“They do not seem to like you, my guest,” I commented.

“Obviously,” Marius muttered under his breath. It was in a voice so low that even I could barely hear him. Then he said in a louder voice, wrongly thinking that I had not heard him, “Of course not, my dragon host.”

Before I could even speak, three of the vampyres started dashing toward Marius, their black scythes held ready with a hand, the cruel edge of it curving sharply. The weapons were almost as tall as their ferocious wielders.

“Do not worry, my guest,” I said in a calm, indifferent voice while looking at the three vampyres cut across the distance to reach us. They would reach us in just a short moment. “I have decided to protect you.”

“No! You do not understand. You cannot fight them. They are all pure-bloods and those are some of the best fighters in my clan!” Marius shouted, the worry in his voice escalating. “Each of them are far more powerful than dragons!”

Before Marius could turn to run, I turned toward him, my piercing green eyes rooting him to the spot. “Do not even dare to move from this spot,” I whispered in a voice that was deeply inhumane, the voice of a dragon. (I had used transformation magic to change the necessary functions to allow this).

I suppose I should have went easier on my guest, since he had never seen an Astlan dragon before. He had most likely assumed that I was boasting in calling those smaller Xieth dragons lesser dragons, and that the only thing I had as an advantage was my size, which was abnormal for a lesser dragon.

He should have known, however, that I was different. It seems to me that my transformation into a human had still not registered in his mind, and all that entails with it.

The worry on Marius's face had not disappeared, but the weak frown told me that he would obey my command, though with dismay.

I turned back to look at the three vampyres and I could tell that they were far stronger and faster than humans, their huge scythe weapons held easily in one hand, probably as if the weapons weighed no more than little toys.

One of them lunged at me, while the other two skirted around me to attack Marius.

Their motions were a blur, almost too fast for human's eyes.

But mine was not even a blur. No, they could barely comprehend what had occurred.

“You see, Marius,” I said softly in my human voice just enough for him to hear, my left dragon-talon hand pierced through a vampyre's throat, “you had nothing to fear.”

My other talon hand was pierced through one of the two vampyre's throat that had tried to bypass me. The third one—the furthest one—however, had his chest cleaved opened by a spiked dragon tail.

The evidence of the result of that action was a monstrous, jagged hole in the vampyre's chest as he fell down to the ground, his heart an unrecognizable destroyed mess.

The vampyre with his sundered chest fell to the rocky ground with a hard thud. Then I retracted my fingers from the throats of the other two vampyres, causing their corpses to slump to the ground in a tangled heap.

I used my transformation magic, which was unobservable to lesser talented mages, and was instantly back in my human form, the blood stains on my talons and spiked tail magically disappearing along with them.

I did not question this curiosity—it made cleaning far easier. And were you I, you would not question it either, especially since magic itself was a curious field full of unknowns.

Now, I only had the red blood of vampyres on my hands—figuratively and literally speaking.

The remaining four vampyres looked shocked at what had transpired. They had not been prepared to see three of their pure-bloods eliminated in a bare instant.

As I observed their faces which were alternating between various reactions, I thought for a moment that they were going to retreat. But instead of doing that sensible thing (not that it was sensible for me), the remaining four chose to bare their fangs and come rushing at me.

The head of the group of vampyres, the one with the red eyes, transformed before my very eyes. His fangs grew longer, his fingernails lengthened into almost four inches, and his appearance turned wild, as if he had become a beast of nature—a predator.

They were faster, much faster than the first three vampyres. Still, there was enough distance between us for me to use magic to defeat them.

The magic inside me felt natural. It was like a gated pool, which I could open and close at my beck and call. And though all creatures were born with a permanent size for their magic capacities, mine had increased due to certain reasons in these seven years since I had reincarnated into a dragon.

I channeled my magic into the ground, quickly drawing a line of path to where the group of vampyres would take their next step. At the end of this line, I spread the magic to cover a large area.

The magic went entirely unnoticed to those who were not perceptive to magic. This meant that none of the vampyres had noticed my black-colored magic traversing the ground.

I willed and imagined the magic into doing what I wanted done, forming an image in my mind.

To my small satisfaction, I heard male screams slice the air as twenty large spikes, each about an average human's height, impale the four vampyres. The red-eyed, head vampyre was impaled by two earthen spikes—one splitting through him almost symmetrically in half and the second skewering his thigh.

The four vampyres looked frozen in time, their motions suddenly stopped by the brown, earthen spikes. Only the head vampyre and the other one close to his right were still twitching, signs of their impressive vitality.

Luckily for the two that were still alive, the spikes had not pierced through to their heads. They stopped short of their necks, resting just near their chests, their hearts most likely still pumping their lifeblood away as it drenched down the length of the spikes.

It took only a few steps before I was face to face with the impaled head vampyre. There was still enough light in his red eyes to glower at me in hatred.

I stared back indifferently, my green eyes meeting his.