The vampiric realm edge of the undead part 1
The Vampiric Realm:
Edge of the Undead
By
C. S. Parker
©2013
1
The pale green gray glass like grass grew in a web askew and tangled, except for the early drops of a cooling realm’s dew found the straightest path to the ground in droplet’s and pristine tears dripping off blades. It served as a remembrance of the time when Human blood was so prevalent in a populous so big that their near extinction was unthinkable. Those days of Human prevalence in deep space were gone. The war for their very soul playgrounds, Edges, a twelfth dimensional entrance to Vampires and Werewolves and others keen to certain arcane wisdoms, decimated their numbers. These Edges are harvested from Humans by both of these higher species. Now the only Humans remaining were those that had been ferried into the partial realities of what Vampires and Werewolves called Edges, a personal collection of partial realities harvested from Humans by both species that contained a likeness of the individual harvested. They still existed, complete and unharmed, but they were not in the reality that Humans had called home, this was a different reality, the Vampiric Realm, as the Vampires called it. This realm was dying. Edges, as the very idea would suggest, were not eternal and they died over time.
The Werewolves did not keep the realms instead they threw them away and just harvested attributes that would make them stronger, faster or smarter. This had infuriated the Vampires and thus war had broken out for the Werewolves refused to see any value in the realms. The web of grass extended as far as the eye should see and behind it a padded grove of wood and a small entrance path of stone set in ground mirrored by a ten foot tall stone wall on either side of the path that outlined the wood. The leaves were falling from the trees which now were no more than half covered in leaves. The pines had it the worst of any and looked skeletal with their needles covering the ground beneath them.
Inside the thickness of the wood which used to choke out the morning sky to complete darkness now let in shards of light. The path had been moved several times to save the travelers from the light. Green runes lit the path of safety and were located ever 4 feet or so. Only the outer tree’s bark shone half way round to shadow. The dew dripped down the tree trunks too, the seepy sap of morning meandering through the flakey tree bark as caverns on each’s colossal journey. The day broke and slung over the sky deepening the shadows into the wood and alas when night began to strike. This was no planetary sun but a Human remembrance of what it was like to be on a planet. This memory could not last for long the remembering Human was long since drained dead by a Vampire of renown known as the Scientist or by his friends simply as Derrick. Soon this sun would be no more and all that was once Human would be gone from the Edges and its deep space manifestation. The beauty of the day was collapsed with a glorious sunset orange-pink against the baby blue sky. The green grass shone in contrast, a beautiful occurrence.
There was in the midst of a night like morning a lamp post sprung from ground and then two more lighting the way from the wood down the meadow some way. The dusk brought darkness for naught more than a minute or two then a false sun shown high up in the sky but there was no oppressive heat or bright rays of light and the wood seemed to glow as if it had come to life.
A droplet fell crashing into the ground in an explosion soundless and free, absorbed by the thirsty ground. There was laughter in the wood. Two figures talking strode on the forest path and to the Edge of the wood where a stone shone green in the stone walk.
“Ok,” said the man looked down (at the stone) holding the woman back “we can pass.”
“Of course we can silly it’s a beautiful day.” They ran together uninhibited to the top of a hill and he pulled her close. “Mmmm” she moaned and put her arms around him with a “humph” as their bodies collided. She ran her finger down his tight chest remarking at how powerful he was. Her gaze looked up and their faces were so close but she put her head on his shoulder her lips so close to his neck she could not resist a loving peck below the ear at the top of the neck.
He tried to say, “Don’t kiss me there.” but the reflex kicked in and his fangs came out. He dug them into her soft Human flesh releasing a flood of blood.
A tear rolled down his cheek. He had really had feelings for this one. As much as she was Human he wanted to turn her. He bit his wrist and there was a shrieking from the sky as an object formed to view and faltered as it fell. Then with a whistle and a wishing regained its control of the great black bat wings and landed at the foot of the Human with the thundering impact of a meteorite.
“What have we here, Derrick? You were eating without me dear?” Said the Vampire Princess who was recoiling her wings behind her.
“No, well yes actually. Where have you been?” Said Derrick.
“Hunting for Humans.” She joked. “What was that jolt? Are you hurt?”
“No not at all.”
“Did she bite you?” She examined his neck and wanted to kiss him but held back. She smelled something, like blood in water to a shark, the smell of blood oxidizing in air brought hunger to her lips and mouth, her fangs fell. “What the hell were you about to do?” The word (hell) always made him smile. “Do you think this is funny?” She continued while he shook his head. “You told me I was the only female you would make and I knew you meant it.”
“That was over two thousand years ago.”
“So you are way older than that. You have had your fun and besides you haven’t even taught me half the stuff you know. It’s not right turning another when I can hardly fend for myself.” This was an egregious overstatement of the situation for she was a fearsome fighter and he had helped her learn hundreds of Vampire secrets; flight, Edge management and multiple body manipulation being a bare scratching of the knowlEdge she had learned in their close to a thousand years together exclusively.
“Now is not the time to discuss this.”
“Fine but I am taking this one away.” She took up the limp body in her arms, spread her wings and flew into the distance until she was like a dark sun in the sky being enveloped in a black hole of nothingness, leaving only the beautiful light blue sky and the false sun’s shining rays. He had work to do anyway, this trip to his Realm he had scraped together from the Edges harvested from thousands of Humans over the years was a luxury he thought he could afford being so close to a solution, a solution that could save the entire Vampire race from the chaos it found itself slipping into. He had to think of the Vampires who were being kidnapped and ransomed for Human stock and those Vampires who refused to drink the artificially grown Human blood and degraded into insane killing machines turned on the masses, the only masses left, Vampires. This was worse than a terrorist who could be found and caught. These non-feeders were often shut-ins that many thought were already dead. Their Edges had either died completely or they had over harvested them. These Vampire terrorists were the greatest threat the Vampire Nation had known since the end of the war and they were getting worse.
The truth was when there were Humans to harvest the Vampires hadn’t really noticed their realm’s decay because they were constantly adding to them and a Vampire could harvest a lot of Edges in the roughly hundred to three hundred years it took for a single Edge to decay. This was the very reason it was nearly impossible to storm an Edge, for indeed many had tried. The Edges were added from the center and spread out like a circle. To storm an Edge one would have to come from the outside of the circle where the Edges were decaying quite literally into nothing. To pass through time and space was not the same as to pass through the absence of substance. To pass through absence, where the matter of your own body started to rot from the outside in, was to pass through a place where nothing existed only to corrode existence.
He had to get back to the lab. He missed his mate though. He just hoped she wouldn’t still be mad the next time he chose to come back to his Realm.
2
A hundred and fifty years before.
The village stood in the distance and was viewed by close to a dozen riders on horseback. The horses hooved the ground in anticipation of battle. “Steady steed there will be plenty of time to rumble the earth soon enough.” The horse lightly hooved and snorted a vain recognition. “Brothers let us end this massacre with peace that the last of these wretched free Humans be destroyed and this war for the ages will be over with. Too many have fallen.” The others lowered their heads in a bow of recognition to the dead and their horses stomped agreement.
“Let us ride to the completion of this mission or to the fiery deaths of us all.” He yelled it barbarically and the others cheered and raised their silver, moonlight-glistening weapons high in the dark air. There was a howl in the distance. “The enemy approaches! Godspeed gentlemen!”
Together they rode down the small hill in a thunder of hooves and rattling of armor and weaponry. They were upon them in a flash igniting and changing the essence around their fingertips to flame and releasing it to the thatch rooftops. These were the houses of the naturalists spurned from the once vibrant cities, now only the home to corpses, and hanging to the old ways in an attempt to regain a sense of self and purpose.
The inhabitants came out to a flurry of swords, the fanged race truly moving with God’s speed. It was treachery and debauchery on their Vampiric minds a willingness to end the centuries of horrors they had seen. The naturalists came out in groups and in ones and twos to find their limbs severed their throats slit and for some complete dismemberment. It was as gruesome a fate as being drawn and quartered with as much blood spilling onto the cold ground as ghastly screams cut through the air.
The fanged fed on the carnage delighted at the taste of spraying veins and chunks of shattered bone which lent their marrow to fanged open mouths. One thin young woman appeared with a book clenched to her breast and the other older male there yelled to her above the chaos all around them, “Into the flames with it!”
“But father no!”
“Yes it is the only way they must not find our secrets.”
“Yes sir.” She threw the book into the flaming thatch but never got to see her success. Her severed head rolled under the feet of one of the waiting horses who crushed it and then, with fangs as well, drank of the blood and chewed on the sinewy brains.
In the forest deeper bright glistening eyes watched, their being devoid of color drenched in thirst for vengeance.
3
A hundred and fifty years later the war was long since over. The Vampires and Werewolves had receded to their planets in their orbital fleets. The Human worlds were divided some to each side based on battle lines and both were happy, but they had done too much. They had killed too many and captured too few. In their angst to rout the other they had slit their own throats. Sires were eating their offspring and their Sired. Both sides grew weak and weary ready to devour the other as a non-cannibalistic solution to the very real problem of lack of Human blood and Edges, but across the reaches of space a scientist named Derrick labored on the solution in complete solitude.
(A Violin Techno-Trance song was playing that sounded very similar to Lindsey Stirling.)
The Vampire sat at a laboratory table in a long white lab coat unbuttoned in the front to show his black jeans and dark purple and deep red shirt. His full black hair was long on top and his age appeared to be 35. He was handsome with sharp features of a pronounced jaw bone and nose. He sang along in an unknown language that sounded like the secret language of mystics and birds.
The Scientist, Derrick, seemed happy and completely at ease around the beakers and peatry dishes. He went into the storage room and came back with a pie of three frozen peatry dishes he set on the table beside the chair and microscope.
He took the cover off of one of the dishes and prepared a slide for viewing in the microscope to check and see if the dead tissue and bone had come alive.
“Yeah no such luck.” He assured himself as he leaned over and with an eye dropper released several drops of a blue liquid called ‘Batch 1,978’ and they dropped in the peatry dish playfully. He did indeed feel like a magician at times with his alchamanic ability to bend the elements to his will, breaking or making Atomic bonds to his liking. His Vampiric condition was created by a virus, a virus that gave longevity but did not increase knowledge that was a path he chose for himself.
“Odder things have happened in nature.” He assured himself looking at the nearly frozen fish tank with icicle ridden colorful fish and a mud paste on the bottom containing several frozen frogs. The serum was a derivative from their own body chemistry but he had given it significant tweaks and regenerative capabilities by combining it with other animal compounds. He was using the Vampiric virus as a base which he had to significantly altered to allow for the other animal DNA. It was an attempt, one of thousands, “A great attempt!” he would at times have to remind himself, keeping his spirits up. In the lab it was difficult for some to stay focused but the scientist knew the entire Vampire race was counting on him for a solution to the loss of the Human populations.
He had been here a while and the day was a strain on his body. He adjusted his shoulders releasing a few snaps and pops. “Yes you have!” He said talking to the silence of the room. He was starting to lose his mind. He had been working on the solution for over 5 decades now and such a long period of time alone with such absence from outside influence made his head feel like the enemy. He would hear voices that weren’t there and often times, after spending hours looking at samples, he would see apparitions that weren’t there either. He slowly dropped a bit of the blue liquid onto the bone and blood fragments that were on the slide.
He adjusted the eye piece to focus.
There in plain view the cell tissue was alive and even seemed to be reforming, he blinked his eye and rubbed it and took another look. It was the same reforming tissue he could almost not believe it. His mouth turned into a smile.
He had done it! He was the first to successfully reanimate dead tissue! He would save his race and prevent another war! He was elated and leaped from his chair and left the room.
4
“I’ve done it!” He exclaimed jubilantly. Derrick’s voice was shaking as if he was going to faint from the sheer exuberance of the situation.
“Settle down. Let me get this straight. You have found a piece to the antidote. This is what you are saying correct?” Said the tanned Vampire, his tan being the true sign of dominance and nobility. His skin could deal with sunlight a secrets of the leaders of the Vampire race inherited from the blood of nobles. A full stock of the blood leader of the Vampire race Venicious had access to stockpiled in a cellar not dissimilar to a giant wine collection complete with dust but with names like Venerable and Yarki the night sky god who had left his post as he receded into his Realm Edges hundreds of year before the war never to be seen again.
“No Sire I have found the antidote itself, a way to reanimate dead tissue.” Said Derrick speaking to the hologram that hovered in the air above the large clear white crystal. Sire was the term used for the Vampire High Commander as it was a term of stature and reverence. Many were called sire by the Humans they had turned to Vampires but Sire was a term only used for the leader of the Vampire race. The question lingered could it reprogram DNA to rebuild from bones and dust? That remained to be seen.
“That’s brilliant none of us had any doubts that you would. You have created or found so many useful devices, your blood growing program is the only reason that we have gotten this far.” His mind went over the carnage that was happening daily and what could have happened, his desk was littered with the reports of Vampire on Vampire violence and a long list of wanted subjects. Feeding on another Vampire, while it had always happened by those wishing to advance, was now happening with a frequency that mirrored madness, for indeed his race was slowly going insane, there would be none of them left in another 150 years. This was the reason that some on the council were pushing war with the Werewolves they were partially Human.
Then he smiled Derrick had done it, he had saved his race from extinction. The program had put them at the basest of levels for blood consumption one that could not support growth so the Vampire race had been stagnant for years, not growing but shrinking as some who refused the synthetic blood fell into blood shock a state that made them desperate, so desperate that they would contemplate the unthinkable: Vampire on Vampire violence. This was something used by rebels, renegades wanting to advance up the ranks, a civilized Vampire did not do this, in fact they would not even think of it.
“Created is the best word to use to describe the work. I had to morph the Vampire virus and attach it first by building guider proteins and growing the attachments it took some time but I perfected the process and I can make thousands of liters of the substance with hardly any…”
“Slow down I know you are excited but first we must have a field test.”
“Yes Sire” Derrick said and rational heads prevailed.
“You have created something worthy of highest honor and praise.”
“That’s a bit much.” He wanted to say but he held his tongue. He was talking to the high ruler of his clan and the ruler of the Vampire race as a whole. He had a reputation for fierceness and had held his position through the entire war and the panicked times that followed.
He fiddled with a slide which caused a reply. “What are you doing fiddling with something that means you have something to say what is it?”
“A field test?”
“Ahh…” He understood perfectly. “I guess you want Lindz and Warbleed.” He spoke Warble’s nickname which got more practical use than his given name.
“Yes Lucivious.”
“Ok do you want Roben too?” The scientist laughed at the mention of his funny old friend. He hadn’t seen him in so long. Had it been decades now? How many years? He had been cooped up in the lab for perhaps a 50 years but it felt like a few hundred.
“Yes if you can spare him.”
“Indeed I can if you can convince him to come away from that night club of his and his lucky waitress of the month.” Again he smiled at the thought of his friend up to his old tricks. Waitress of the month was such a gaff.
“Hopefully Sire.”
“Ok and I will send along those filthy beasts you used to love so much.”
“That would be splendid Sire.” He was overzealous with happiness at getting the old crew back together again. He had so much to do to ready their arrival and he fractured himself, bodies coming out of the Edges inside himself, into the many bodies, hands and feet needed for the tasks at hand and they all went out in a flash except for his remaining self which said, “Thank you again Sire.”
“It is I should be thanking you but you’re welcome.” Lucivious said graciously. “If this works you will be a hero of the Vampiric Realm once again.” Derrick tried to smile but his mind was coordinating 50 tasks at once and the hologram closed and he sat in a soft armchair and his eyes moved erratically as he saw through the eyes of his other selves.
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