The Vampire's Requiem [malexmale]

Chapter Five

Chapter Five (Xed)

"You are too reckless and wild, meni. You must learn to control yourself if you wish to become the chief of our tribe. Do you want your older brother to show you up again?"

I had this repeated to me many times as a child by my father. I came from a tribe of mer-creatures near the Mediterranean, a group of twelve or so, all of them my relatives. My two mothers, my father, my siblings, and my father's brother. My siblings and I were always competing to try and earn my father's recognition in order to take charge of the tribe. However, as time went on, the more I realized my attempts were fruitless.

I hated it. I hated wasting day after day after day doing the same thing. I hated repetition.

My days in the ocean consisted of the same thing. Waking up to join my tribe for our first meal, then swimming the perimeter of our territory for threats or new meal choices, then coming back for more food, then swimming for food or threats, then more food. Then by the end of the day, we would lay down to sleep. Occasionally my father would teach us how to defend ourselves or how to properly flee a bad situation. Bad situations for us were usually getting sucked into boat propellers or being attacked by sharks, although, the latter usually ended up bad for the sharks considering we were the most dangerous predators in our realm.

I'd heard of people from our species even taking on killer whales, something that was incredibly impression considering they were much larger and faster. However, their minds didn't work the same way ours did and their strength was evenly matched with our own.

Our species was powerful and great. We could go to great heights, but for some reason, we did not. I could never understand it. Why would our tribe stick to such a dull, peasantry way of life when we could sit on the throne of all other species?

"Peti mino," My oldest brother, Vi, would always scold, using the term of our people meaning little brother, "Just because you have great power does not mean you should use it to make others feel inferior."

"Then what do I do with it," I remembered asking him angrily, "Use it to catch fishermen and kill sharks?"

"It is safer than walking on land amongst our prey."

"How, if we are so strong?"

"There are times when prey retaliates in anger. We have killed mothers, fathers, daughters, sons. Think of it as if someone killed me. Would you want to get revenge?"

"Of course."

"And that is how they think, peti mino."

At the time, I understood. Family was everything. Family was more important than anything. And yet, I still couldn't fight the urge to want something greater. I wanted to do something more, something important, something that was even dangerous, life threatening. I wanted the thrill to knowing that I was more than just a living creature. I wanted to know why I was living. I wanted to feel like I was living.

So when a raven-haired vampire approached me on the rocky shores my family had chosen to rest for the day, offering me the chance for something great, of course I accepted without hesitation. I didn't stop to think about my family or my duties or whether or not I even agreed with this man.

He simply told me that he could give me purpose, give me a reason to live. It was as if he had already known what was going on in my mind.

That man was Edward Calhoun Drakon.

I had expected the realm of land to be inspiring and beautiful and colorful. I was fascinated, yes, but I was also disappointed. The world was very gray and very bloody. I'd seen plenty of blood before and it did not bother me, but it was the blood of prey, animals that were consumed and not wasted.