The Beginning of all things

by Thomas G. Arndt

This was based in the House of Night thought, but has complete swayed away from the story, I hope you see what I have tried to do here, and since it really doesn't follow the House of night characters, I feel I don't have to give a disclaimer

1. Chapter 1

The beginning of all things

Written by; Thomas G. Arndt

In the beginning

Chapter 1

My name is Ryan Allen Nolan, I had a good life as a kid, we were not rich by any means. My dad was a builder, when I was young he did siding on houses, in the long run he became a general contractor. We lived in a huge four bed room house, or at least I thought it was, the things you perceive as a child. I was sort of named after him, his name was Allen Ryan Nolan, my mom didn't want a junior or second in her family. My world fell apart for my family when I was sixteen, you see my dad fell in love with another woman. I was the eldest of five, I would love to tell you that my world ended happily and they got remarried, that stuff only happens in the movies. You see I saw it happening when I was thirteen after I broke my leg, and my brother and I could hear their fights. There were two bed rooms up stairs, my littlest brother the baby got the one by himself, ours was twice the size as his. You see our bed room was directly over theirs, my dad would stay out until late drinking, then he would come home and the end of the fight would be my mom crying. It hurt us so bad, my brother since then got a divorce, it was truly messy, and he was never the same.

So you'd think this would turn me off marriage, quite the opposite, in fact I think I was so in love with the thought of marriage, that I ended many of my relationships. Well it wasn't me that ended the relationship, it was always them, I think they all knew I loved another, it was a love so pure that it effected my relationships. Then you had my life when I was sixteen, as I told you we were well off, as in upper middle class. This all ended when they got divorced, so I had to go out and get a job, what could I do except be a janitor, I hated my jobs. Everyday was a struggle just to make it through the day, I struggled at school, I struggled at work, and I struggled at home. Now I'm not going to tell you I was a bad kid, I had a hard nose effect, if I put my mind to it I could do anything. After the divorce my dad wasn't part of my life, he came around to see my younger sister and brother, but the other older three never had him in our lives. I graduated when I was eighteen, out of a class of three hundred seventy eight, I was three hundred seventy seventh. There were eighteen that barely graduated, and as a artist I got a scholarship to go to college, but I thought I was smart, so I tried to go to my dad so he could send me to college.

It was a big mistake, oh I should tell you that my dad lived in Detroit, and my mom had moved us to California to live with my Grandma. We lived in a rent house in West Covina, and I finished my schooling at Covina High. You should have seen my school, it was a sprawling thing, it had it's own football field and a full track facility. In my senior year we got a weight room. That's how I lettered, I got the Cif championship in the dead lift, you would never even had thought of a weight lifting artist before. Anyways that wasn't what got me the scholarship, it was my art, I loved to paint light pictures, but they always came out dark. My style was so unique that they gave me a scholarship, I loved to paint in oils, but my scholarship was because of my water color ability. Most people that painter in water colors painted such light pastel pictures, but I could paint the urban plight very well. I even painted a picture of Jesus, my teacher said it was an expression of the darkness of religion in the world. That's not what I thought, it was just a picture of Jesus for God's sake, I painted a seen of two lovers in a field of lilies, that's what really got me notice in more ways then one.

After my failure with my father I worked more janitorial jobs, then in desperation I joined the Army. With my test scores I could have joined any branch, so why did I join the Army, they promised me the world, they lied. So I joined at the age of twenty, and spent my four years in misery, you see the field I wanted was closed. I had no job with no job prospects, my recruiter told me that I could switch fields after a year when my field opened up, he lied. I joined a combat Mos, (Infantry) which you can't switch from, even worse he talked me into an extra year. I could have re-upped and made a career of it, but I hated that they lied to me, do you know how it is to find out everything that had been told to you was a lie. Plus I had my problems in the Army, I didn't take orders well, so I was always in trouble, how I got out with a good conduct medal I'll never know. Do you know what kind of job the Army trained me for, I was a sought after security guard or I could go back to janitorial. So where did I get a job at, neither I worked in a convenience store, yeah my life was going places. In a way I really need a change, I needed something to put my life back on track, so how did I do this?

I died!

I was twenty-six when it happened, I always worked the over night shift, it was three in the morning when it happened. A group of three boys came in, I saw them at the beer cooler, they were surely under age, and very nervous as it was. One had a gun, two filled their arm's with those twenty-four packs of beer, then they made a run for the door. I was a hero, I tried to stop them, the one with the gun spun around and shot me right in the chest, the Army trained me in this. I had a sucking chest wound, I crawled up under the counter and called the police, we were supposed to use the pay phone. My manager had left her cell phone, it's funny now, it was a huge thing that's not even used today, a relic by today's standards. They put me in the ambulance and I died on the way to the hospital, I could hear her crying as they put me into the ambulance. You see I had a recessive gene, and death wasn't the end of my life, they have these things call trackers that come and find us out. He got there just in time to keep me from the embalmer, then he had to allow me to be buried, you know to give my family closure.

So now I was of what they call the undead class, the public call us vampires, some of the proper undead call us vampyres. Most just call ourselves blood drinkers, it's a rare gene that only one in ten thousand may have, and only one in one hundred maybe gotten to in time. So in a country of two hundred million they only may save two hundred, it's no wonder why no one really knows about us. We really don't need to eat, and we can eat normal food, it does nothing for us, only blood helps with our death. The reason for the blood is that we use it to regenerate our bodies, oh and all that crap about vampyres is totally false. We can't fly, we aren't subject to only the night, we can't read your minds, well we can do something that has been mistaken for mind reading. We can run fast if we stress out our bodies, and we can jump really far if we do the same thing. This has been mistaken as flying by those whom have seen us, can we out run a car, well yes, a Ford not a Lamborghini. Our minds are enhanced as well, we taste, feel, see, and hear things no one else can.

If you eat a steak you taste the pureness of the meat, but you also taste it's impurities as well, so if you love steak don't become a vampyre, not that you can't help it. I can see things that no one else can, even the night truly isn't the night anymore, where as normal humans can see a shadow, we can see a perfect outline. Hearing is strange in it's own right, I saw I lady being raped, I could hear him tear her as he ripped her insides, I detest rape, so that man is no more. But feeling is one of our greatest things, unlike movie vampires we don't have fangs, well we do, except they're more like unusually long canine teeth, so they are easily explained away. When we bite it looks like a normal human bite, but as we feed our blood reacts, so we can used this to heal the wound. All you have to do is bite your tongue and heal their wounds, but you can feel you teeth entering their flesh, and the bite to your tongue is a euphoric feeling. Even the lick of a wound has a euphoria feeling to it, so you can imagine how sex feels, but unless they are one of our own, our frenzy as we feed would kill a normal human. Two vampyres having sex could last for days with only one act, but this is rare since there are so few of us.

You can turn a human into a vampyre, all it takes is a blood transfer, but two things have to happen. First the blood transfer has to be so great that it could kill a normal vampyre. Second the infection can't be fought against, if it is, the blood won't take hold and complete the transaction. There was a rumor that if you transfer blood three times this will happen, but the learned elders have said that this would just take far to much blood and the humans would die in the end. In the rumor mill there are three great ones, first there are really old vampyres, up to six thousand years old. In the old day they ruled the world, and one day they would rise and take over the world again. Second vampyres can sleep and raise after thousands of years, most of our kind can't put any truth to this as none of them have slept longer then twenty years. Even though there's a rumor of one sleeping over one hundred years, I never met him or her. Third is that there is a utopia of vampyres somewhere, and when you feel it's time you can walk right into it. Most believe that in the end you just will yourself dead, oh that's another thing, you have to have the will to stay alive, the gene doesn't take hold unless this happens.

So how do I know all this stuff, well at school of course, the tracker finds you, then your taken to an elder whom teaches you. You just can't wake up and know how to be a vampire, you have to learn how to give up your old life or thought's, and transcend these thought's. Do you know how hard it is to jump up on a four story building if you don't believe you can, it's like that Star Wars movie. Luke you have to transcend your thought's and just know or believe, most elders live in covens or clans, clans is the preferred name, all clans have a haven, a place where they can be themselves. The oldest elder I met was three hundred years old, Amy wouldn't tell anyone how old she was, but it was rumored she was here in the revolution. Oh Amy was my elder as we were compatible to each other, you see the tracker goes to a haven and gives you to them, then they have a meeting and decide whom you're compatible with. I heard how she seemed to fight for me, so I was very proud of that, and being the child of such and elder had it's perks also. Most of the children were jealous of me, and she bought me the best clothes, when they were all going around in robes I was wearing Italian suits.

I was more like her doll then her child, and most of the elders took all the kids under their wings, so we had a good indoctrination into vampyre life. But in the end we all have to leave and find our own way, it's considered an honor when the child leaves the haven. Our haven had only eight elders, six of the elder had two children at a time, only Amy and Charles didn't have to take two. Charles owned the haven, and Amy was the second oldest elder in the Amercia's, she got to pick and choose whom she taught. You are considered taught after four years, you can stay as a fledgling for another two years, and you can rejoin the haven after ten years. My send off was very sad, she cried, and I cried, I mean she was like my mother, she died when she was fifty-two, and I was twenty-six, in years I was thirty-two when I left. I would forever be twenty-six, you see we don't really age, the blood insures of that. Oh I should tell you that it's any blood not necessarily human, we can substitute animal blood, and most of us do. It's a way not to leave to many bodies behind, if you do two things can happen. One the police can get involved, and two the elder of the High council can get involved.

Police aren't as bad as the High Council, if they have to react they don't leave anyone alive. The police may just throw you in jail, some get in trouble just so they can freely feed in jail, but that's not my way. Most vampyres don't treasure the human existence as much as my clan, so when I left I was sent on away of really liking humans. And in time I learned how to hate my own kind with the carelessness that they treated humans. I guess you could say I was a paradox as I loved humans and hated my own kind, not that I had any real inner action with humans. What I did was wonder for five years, then I settled down in the southwest, but they were at war almost the entire time I lived there. I had to wonder why the High Council didn't react, but I guess as long as we only fought each other it was ok with them. I was bounced around from Prince to Prince as I really hated to fight my own, so I settled in the Texas district, he also controlled Oklahoma and most of New Mexico. He also had assets in old Mexico, this is where he sent most of his time, so I was happy when he sent me to Oklahoma City.

He used vampyres from New Mexico and Texas, but almost never called for help from Oklahoma, I think he just put his problem vampyres there. So he made me the ward of the northern half of the city, he kind of had to because of my mother, no one would offend a true elder. She wanted to set me up in a haven house, those are really big, but since the city had so few vampyres I opted for a small house. She really went over board, I had enough furniture to fill two houses, she tried to buy me a limo, again I opted for a Ford Taurus. I did relent with my clothes though, if I was a New York Wall Street tycoon I would have been at home there. But this was Oklahoma City, so it was easy to put it all in my closet in my extra room, I was always a jeans and T-shirt kind of guy, and I fit perfectly in the city with these. I do have to say that with our eye sight we do have a problem with the sun, so it's better if we aren't out in the sun to long, but I usually wore super dark shades so I could. I wasn't stupid though, if she came for a visit, my mother, I would put my clothes in a very large trunk and a garment bag, then move all the clothes she bought me to my closet.

It was that I didn't wear suits every once and a while, I liked going to the movies in a suit with a dark T-shirt and black tennis shoes, and we would have formal meetings with our Prince. Our district always made a profit so he was very happy to leave us alone, I don't mean a profit like Los Angeles, or Vegas, our profits came from the cattle industry. The slaughter house thought it strange when we brought in cattle and even wanted them to harvest the blood, all we wanted was the blood, and we could sell the meat to the highest bidder. We had a slow turn around with our cattle, so we could raise a bull to the full state then slaughter them, and we could also buy what everyone wanted, black Angus. Of course this story isn't about our profits, because I was in the city and didn't see much of that, my job more or less was to make sure everything ran smoothly, if someone did something wrong in my city they would be dealt with right away. You could say I was the Prince's enforcer in this city, and he treated it as a hide away from his city of Houston Texas, yeah I know you'd think he would pick Dallas, but his main city is Houston, he switches between four other cities though.

I should tell you that Oklahoma City and Tulsa aren't one of them, he's only been to my city three times, and Tulsa four, I think my city is do another visit, oh and he never stays with me, he prefers an old hotel downtown. I also hire a banquet hall for is eventual large meeting he'll have, when he comes here he brings the who's who of Texas vampyres, not that I ever heard of any of them before I came here. He was in the war between United Stated and Mexico, not the one in 1846, the one in 1916, you could say it was the prewar that prepared us for World War one, not that he served in that, he was a vampyre by then. As a front many of us have men, they're like hired guns, not that they carry guns, they control our business issues during the day, then we meet with them at night, we can go into their minds and see if they're dishonest. Did I tell you we can't read minds, what we can do is match our minds with theirs, then if we perceive dishonest thought's we will know if we can hire them. They are told enough to know that if they steal from us the punishment will be sever, and most believe we are with the mob, not that some of us don't have ties, but not me, nor my city.

I think I've covered enough to why I was even here, there might be more so be prepared for farther writing about vampyre society, I'm sure I've missed somethings. Ok, in 2005 I got into these books, they read as if the person had some connections with the vampyre world, she knew things that no author could know, as a vampyre I read the books in just a couple of days, and I loved them. I had to wonder why I couldn't find true love like that, of course I think you have to be actively looking for it. So in away I wasn't and was looking for it, I wanted it to just drop into my lap, all my brother and sisters were or had been married, my two brothers had moved back with my dad in Detroit. One of my sisters still lived in California, Sacramento, and my last sister and youngest lived right here in Oklahoma City, not that I could ever see her. Her husband was a mechanic in Yukon, so I made all the vampyres us his services for their cars, he worked for someone else, not that I wouldn't have helped him get off the ground in his own business. After all he was family.

But I could never tell anyone what I was doing, it just wasn't heard of, so I made their lives as good as I could, I mean to her I was dead. I quit the army in 1982, I became a vampyre in1984, I came to this city in 1999, and I had been it's ward for now nine years. I was excited that those books were being made into a movie, in November, the month of my sisters birthday, I went to go see the movie. Well this is more of a prelude then the story, it really won't start for two more years, I went to buy my tickets a week ahead of time, it's the in thing to do, well not really for vampyres. And I had noticed that there was nothing but fathers and mothers with their daughters, I think I was the only single guy in line, this should of told me I should have waited for a later date. Because this was a special event to me I wore my best suit, it was a dark gray Armani suit so I wore a black T-shirt with my ever present black tennis shoes. And also because I bought my ticket ahead of time, I could just walk into the theater, so I figured I had escaped the line, but I was wrong, they had a line waiting to get into the viewing.

This event would forever change how I would go to see movies, first I was near the end of the line so I had to sit in the nose bleed seats, then I was surrounded by young teenage girls. I could hear every breathe, every heart beat, and all small noises, as I waited three girls kept pointing at me and giggling, I had to wonder what they were giggling about. So I went into their mind, and perceived that they thought I looked like one of the characters of the books, maybe I should go into what I looked like. I stood six foot and a quarter of an inch, my eye's were blue with a dark blue ring around them, my skin was lighter because of what I was, my lips were stained by all the blood I drank. I went to the barber every day, not so much for me as it was for mom, she loved my hair short and a little puffy up top. Of course I wasn't a doctor, not that I couldn't have gone to college to be one, I mean I had already lived here for nine years, it would have been simple, except for the real practice of medicine. It would have been a little hard to practice and crave their blood, I guess I could have held my breathe, but I didn't desire to be a doctor, in fact I really didn't know what I wanted to be.

I kept up my painting, so I guess I could be an artist, even though I'd have a problem going to my showing and all, of course a thought about setting up a studio to attract young blood. In my time living in Oklahoma I got really good at doing portraits, you see I did everyone in Oklahoma, I should say I did every vampyre in the state, not humans. Now that would be a real challenge. Could you imagine if I had, boy my face would be on every television. Now that would be great, yeah I would have the High Council knocking at my door. Yeah it was better if I stayed a nondescript vampyre, I used oils to do portraits, and they looked almost like photographs, this was a vampire ability. With our vision we could see every line and wrinkle, I could do a painting in a matter of hours, but I would take a week or two to get every line down to the smallest little detail. I could tell you why this guy or woman smiled the way they did, the small crinkle in their eye's, every hair in perfect place. Do you know how your mother said don't make that face or it will stay that way, did you know she was kind of right, those faces usually did do damage and I could see it.

As I sat there I felt a finger come close to my head, yes I said I felt a hand come close to my head, so I said with as much restraint as I could muster, " Please don't touch my hair?"

The young lady then whispered to her girl friend, " Jeesh I just wanted to see if it was real, hey do you think that's a wig."

One of the other girls whispered, " No I can see his scalp, now leave him alone, he may get mad at you."

" Sarah your such a momma's girl."

Then they remained silent and after awhile the movie started, I hated that they had to leave out parts of the book, I know they have to do this for pacing, but I'm a vampyre and I could of sat there all night. To my horror though that girl just couldn't resist, and half way through the movie she caught me by a last minute move and touched my hair. Vampyre law required that I take her outside and loose her body, but she could have only been seventeen, I felt it would be a shame to waist such a life. So I used a vampyre mind trick and took control of her brain, well it's really not taking control as it is redirecting her thought's, and since she had two friends I figured I would have to do the same to them. This is no easy task, in order to control one you had to keep redirecting their thought's, to do it to three is hard, and to do it in teenagers was an experience in itself. I would have to come to this movie a second time just to see the second half, and the mind control was an on going thing just to keep get them out side to do the next part.

As the place emptied out I directed them to move in front of me, I took them to the back door, all doors emptied out into the front of the place, but the back door was under ground. It had two ways out, so I directed them one way so I could go the other, then I didn't something like what happens on computers, I put a loop in her memory of the entire event. Yes she would have to come back to see the movie like me as well, and as a mind is a wondrous thing I had to hope that the memory wouldn't be unlocked. As I finished this, then I directed them to walk forward thirty paces and not look at anything, teenager minds are so irrational I had to hope this would stick. Then I let them go and hurried to my car, you see the simplest thing could release the lock, so I had to hope that I made it before they would turn and look at me. Then using every short cut I knew, I drove straight home, and as our way, I would not report this to anyone, that's all I needed was an inquiry to my fault in this. I had to hope that my work was successful, I believe they were to young to just die, and well my own self preservation was on my mind.

So was this the end of it, well no, with movie two and three I waited a week, it wasn't as crowded and I learnt to come earlier to get good seats, I loved to sit in the middle. I also learnt to save seats for my friends, I never brought friends, I preferred to watch them by myself, this also helped to keep people from touching me, that would be a dead give away of my true nature. That's why I always wore a jacket out, most incidental touches usually happened on the arm, and in Oklahoma you never knew what the weather was going to be like, I mean in November it should be cold. Will Rogers was right when he said, ' If you don't like the weather just wait five minutes and it'll change,' we could have snow one day and 90 degree temperatures the next. Oh and that movie called Twister was true, when a storm brewed up and it changed it was easy to tell there was going to be a tornado, the May third tornado was an experience. I live on the complete opposite side of town, but you should have seen it, and I wasn't on my side of town, I was down town with Timothy, he's my accountant, he really works for the Prince, oh and he's a vampyre also.

On my side of town I had eight vampyres technically, the every small cities had a vampyre, Bethany, Warr Acres, and Star Spencer, Edmond had two, and in this part of the city we could have had six, but we only had half that number. The south side could have had one more, that wasn't under my control, and it had three less also, the ward on that side of town was also a friend, but we only related our vampyres once a year. Numbers made him more powerful, but contacts made me more powerful, well one really, and she was a great contact to have, no one would go against her. Well mostly because almost all vampyres would come to her defense, the other elder vampyre I never met, they had the run of north America. Central had also Mexico and Venezuela, all the rest was south America, Central had the most elder vampyres, three, and south had the fewest with one. Oh we had an extra two that called themselves elders, they weren't recognized by the council, so they were elders only in name, were they really elders, well I go with what the council says and not just ordinary vampyres say.

It was always our tradition to do this, well I went to the third movie and really enjoyed it, so what happened? I was leaving and I saw her two friends out front, I knew she had to be somewhere, so I made up my mind to go out the back door. I watched them as I turned and ran right into her, she then said in a harsh voice, " HEY! Could you watch where your going?"

I did two things right then, first I replied, " I'm sorry miss, I'll just be on my way."

The second thing and worst was I made eye contact, her eye's then got big, I knew this was wrong, you should never play with a humans mind more then once. But I tried to loop her mind again, and I put my head down and almost ran to the back door, I really couldn't do this as it would give away my true nature to anyone whom was looking. What I should have done was take her out and end her life, but I loved humans just to much to do this to her. Most of my friends thought it strange at the amount of animal blood I drank, in a way I was like the characters in that movie, I really didn't like the taking of human lives. So you could say this was the beginning to my odyssey, this is how I fell in love with a human, and in the end how she began a vampyre.