Chapter 11
To make a long story short.... My second encounter with a vampire didn't go well. Now here is the long story.
The vampire tackled me and pinned me to the ground. He was extremely strong and took me down too easily. Before I could even properly react too. He bit into my shoulder and started to drain my blood. It was excruciatingly painful, I needed to get him off. I grabbed his throat and squeezed as hard as I could, though I could feel my strength draining from me. He wailed and backed away from me. He'd made a bloody mess of my shoulder and that same blood dripped from his mouth and trailed down his chin. He pulled a dagger from his boot and started slashing out at me. I quickly jumped back but it caught my shirt and his strength threw me onto the ground behind him. He snickered realising what he'd done and threw the dagger down at me with as much force as he could muster. The metal stung like acid and slid through me like butter. I screamed out in pain.
"Yes wolf that's silver," He laughed.
I growled, reached back and pulled it from myself. Silver huh? That's playing pretty dirty. I'd just have to test this new werewolf strength on him. Though my back still stung from the silver wound, I jumped up and grabbed his arm before he could react. Under my iron grip, he struggled and pulled. I placed my foot right above his hip and pulled on his arm with all the strength that I could muster. I felt a terrible tearing sound and soon I held an arm in my hands and the vampire's body was on the ground bleeding. Both my own blood and his splattered the ground and I should have been disgusted.
Only....
I wasn't.
I felt more alive than ever.
I wanted to tear the vampire to shreds and laugh as his organs were ripped open under his very own eyes. I wanted to pull the skin off his face, like dried glue. And more disturbingly I wanted to bite into that now raw flesh and taste his blood.
...and all I wanted was done.
Now I was disgusted.
Trying to clean the blood from my face Juno found me, "Oh my gods Torsten!"
She was completely shocked, staring at the unrecognizable corpse of the vampire. I smirked at her open mouth "look I defended myself."
"More than just defended yourself, it looks like you tried to eat this vampire..... Or played with your food a little too much," she looked a little green in the face, her eyes trying to avoid all the blood. She couldn't even look at me.
"What was it overkill?" I asked, disgusted in myself not just because of the look in Juno's eyes but also the sense of pleasure and satisfaction that was still lurking around my mind.
"Overkill!" She shouted and slapped me, which stung, "you can't just do that! Do you know how that looks? You're going to anger the vampires more than necessary. It's one thing to kill them if they are attacking you but a completely different thing to do this!" She sighed, gathering her thoughts, "now look at you, all bloody."
"Sorry..." I muttered rubbing the stinging sensation from my face.
"Just go and jump in a lake," she couldn't meet my eyes.
I looked at her, confused, "You want me to commit suicide?"
There was a glimmer of a smile, "No, just to get the blood off."
I smiled at her, which must have looked grotesque, and walked off to the nearest lake.... So I could jump in it.
***
"Torsten tried to eat a vampire."
Sylvia and Lalla looked at us confused. I gave Juno a playful push, "Don't just casually say that."
My hair and clothes were still dripping and the blood still managed to stain. We stood in the wild garden of the witch which smelt like burning.
"Torsten," Sylvia said uncomfortably, "why did you try to eat a vampire? I wasn't aware that was part of the werewolf's mythology."
"I didn't try to eat a vampire! I defended myself," I exclaimed.
"That was hardly defence, you ripped it to shreds!" Juno yelled playfully.
I huffed with more playful annoyance.
"Go easy on him Juno, he is still learning," Lalla whispered.
"Lalla is right, we still have a lot to teach him. Though he might have gone overboard, he is still new. It's just more important that we tell him why what he did was wrong. Rather than just scolding him he needs to understand it," Sylvia in all her wiseness explained.
Juno sighed, probably wanted me to get into more trouble. Little cutie.
I was lead back into the house and told to sit down because it would be a lot of explaining. A silence hung in the air while Sylvia thought of what to say first. Her eyes darted around the room looking for some clue. Juno sat beside her staring down at her nails. Finally, Sylvia met my eyes "Torsten, you know the vampires are dangerous. Clearly, the fight you had today proves that. But they are far more dangerous than you could imagine. They threaten both the mythical and mortal world."
"Well, they eat people so yeah..." I muttered.
"There is a lot more to it Torsten. The leader of the vampires merely called the leader," Juno cut Sylvia off with -
"So original right? He's such a wanker."
I laughed and so did Juno but Sylvia cleared her throat. "This is serious. The leader is the most powerful vampire in the world and just one of his bites could kill you. That aside, he had a vision; to create a world for vampires. One were they are the dominant race all other myths dead and humans enslaved. He has been working on it for hundreds of years. Lately, we fear he might be getting close. A vampire war might be coming."
I listened carefully to her, the seriousness of the situation sinking in. Juno was also silent.
"We know we must protect the mortals of this town but what is more important is not drawing attention to ourselves. We have something they would kill for," Sylvia watched me closely, "I can't tell you what it is, sorry it's just too dangerous so don't ask. But this I ask of you. Don't kill unless it's necessary. And for the love of the gods please don't make a spectacle."
I nodded.
***
Juno came with me to show me out of the witch's house. She leant on the rusty iron fence her blue eyes filled with sadness, "I know this is a lot Torsten."
"Yeah it kinda is," I thought for a moment, "William is a vampire isn't he?"
Juno nodded, "He is of purer blood than most which means he is more powerful. We try to keep an eye on him. But if I were you I'd stay away from him."
I smiled, "It's not like we get along at all."
She returned the smile but there was sadness behind it. "See you Torsten, keep your head down."
I gave her a wave and strode down the street. The cracked pavement required all my attention so I couldn't look back but I could tell she was unhappy. She didn't want me to be a part of this world.
But I already belonged.
***
As I walked down the street I thought about what Sylvia had told me. The main message of it being to not get into any more fights and to not rip apart any more vampires.
Despite this, it felt good. So good I wanted to tear into the flesh of another soon. Part of me was excited when Sylvia told me that more vampires were to be sent when they found that dismembered corpse. The vicious beast inside me longed for the blood even though it had only been a few hours.
A opened the front door.
"Torsten, you need to stop getting into so many fights!" My mother yelled at me upon seeing the state of my stained clothes, "you better not be hurt."
She rushed over and inspected me. Thankfully my body had healed itself and I got past inspection. Still, she gave me as suspecting glare. I don't think I'd ever been in a fight before but in her mind one fight was more than enough. Maybe she applied cockroach logic to fights. You only see one cockroach but you could be sure hundreds are lurking around unseen. Maybe to her this was the only fight I had signs of as I came home.
"I'm fine mother," I smiled.
"Your teeth are so sharp you look like a bear," she snarled.
I chucked softly, "I thought more a wolf."
Her face softened into a smirk and she raised an eyebrow, "a golden wolf?"
She ruffled my hair and walked off.
Later on, after a shower to wash the lake water and the remainder of the blood from my skin, I sat alone in my room staring at the ceiling. Had I really just caused a problem for Juno or were they trying to scare me? I hoped for the latter though I wanted the problem. People describe their hearts and their brains as having sometimes conflicting views and they follow either one or the other. This beast, this animal instinct seemed to be a third. One with blood lust. Though it had no reasoning as a brain or a heart would. It wanted to kill for purely killing. And though so foreign and recent, I had accepted it as part of myself nor did I want it gone. Not that anyone knew how to rid me of it. It had so quickly become a part of me and I had so quickly accepted it. Yet no one had pointed out the changes, did they not care? Or were they just too stupid to realise? The latter I'd believe.
Looking over at the clock I realised it was already 1:00 am. I sighed and climbed out of bed to brush my teeth.
The whole house was dark and quiet until I heard a noise. Someone walking. I quickly stopped brushing my teeth and became silent. Had the vampires come for me already?
Shortly, the light illuminated my father's body and he glared at me. A glint of anger shone out from under his thick brows. Growled something about me being stupid and having an attitude in Swedish. I rolled my eyes at him and continued brushing my teeth. He yelled at me, telling me I was such an idiot then slammed the door in my face.
If the light was bothering him he could have just asked....
First edited 2/6/2018
Spelling and grammar check 1 - 25/6/2019
Workshopping edit - 5/8/2022