SHADOW OF THE IMPALER-A CONSPIRACY TO VANISH
I had entered the abandoned monastery alone. Before me was an assembly of the major vampire chiefs of the region you breathers today call the Czech Republic. These men were often rivals, and I saw them cast threatening glares at each other, their hands on the hilts of their swords. I looked to the elder of the group, a man known as Valec. He rapped a small gavel against the rostrum and the room grew quiet.
I hooked my thumbs in my belt and began to pace in front of the audience.
"My friends; I come to bring you hope. I have heard the plights of vampires from across Europe: black-haired children on top of Ponyta's ride across graveyards, where they stop is where they attack.
Vampires that have fed too much have had their caskets torn open, and wooden stakes plunged into their hearts.
"None of us can possibly estimate how many of our brethren are trapped under running streams.
How many of our kind are trapped beneath the ground at crossroads?
How many are wrapped in nets, forced to untie those accursed knots until they starve?
How many, I ask you, how many are trapped in their coffins by wild roses until they are driven to the point where they must consume their own flesh?"
I stopped to hear their murmurs to each other.
"He's right."
"I know he is, Good Lord, have you seen what these peasants do to their dead?"
"You should see my home churchyard, it's like there was a damn battle underground."
"I turned my wife the first week I rose, they put her under a stream. Screamed and screamed until she became dust."
I held out my hands widely.
"What is the cause of such misery? It is the Breathers; they know us too well!"
More murmurs arose as I continued.
"Do you not see? When you gamble you do not hold your cards facing out. We have done that! We have allowed them to gather information about us, to use against us! By word of mouth, our kindred has been destroyed by stories! But…this is no reason to surrender. I, Vlad Dracula, have created a plan to use against our enemies…"
"What is this plan? How sure are you of it?" interjected one of the older members.
I held my hand up, commanding silence. "This plan is not immediate, it's benefits will take many years to take effect; but it will work!"
They were interested now.
"We must…use their knowledge against them. We must appeal to their curiosity to disprove our existence. These things: the gift of safety, life, and peace I will give to you if you will follow me!"
The opinion was unanimous. The speech was a success.
I stayed a while longer, talking with some of the chiefs, instructing them to go back, and rally their followers to me. They would receive my orders soon.
Wishing to leave for my resting place as soon as possible, I shut the heavy doors behind me and went on my way. It was quite windy that night. September weather. It was chilly, and falling leaves rapped the road lightly. I remember thinking to myself what a miserable person it must be that would be out on a night like this.
I then put my weight on one foot and propelled myself into the forest. Whipping around, my arm lashed out and caught the frightened young girl who had been following me.
She screamed and tried to escape my grip. "Who are you? What is your purpose here?"
I asked in Czech. She began screaming in Romanian for me to let her go.
"Quiet!" was my response in our shared language. She stopped screaming, but was still visibly upset. My captive was a woman of nineteen, with tanned skin suggesting a long existence in the sun; raven black hair; full red lips; and quite handsome. In other words, a gypsy.
She was painfully thin, and I could tell from her struggles that, though she had excellent strength, it was rendered useless by deep hunger. I studied her for a few moments before relaxing my grip a little.
"Come," I gruffly commanded, "You'd collapse before I could get any information from you."
She was silent as she followed me to a local tavern. Her light, timid footsteps sometimes received an extra supply of blood and adrenaline to try and escape me, but her logic always got the better of her and she kept behind me. I swung the door open and sat at a table, ordering some meat and ale for the girl. I glared at her as she ripped into the bloody meat like a hungry Houndour. "You are…" she began between bites "The great Vlad Dracula, Prince of Wallachia. My father served as a mercenary in your army."
She stopped for a gulp of ale.
"When you died, my father took the gold that you paid him and fled from the country into Moldavia, where we joined with the rest of our gypsy clan."
I had remained silent as she regarded me and I her. Here now, I spoke.
"How did you find out about me?"
"Shortly after we arrived, the clan's chieftain decided to move into Hungarian territory, for the Turks were menacing Moldavian territory. Upon the way, we came across a loup-garou."
I was somewhat surprised. Werewolves were known, of course, to be friendlier to gypsies than to other Breathers. They are pitiful creatures. Many are among the world's homeless, populating the streets of those great, but often cruel metropolises that have risen across the planet.
"He was in his human state, and grateful to be given some food and comradeship for the night."
It was regrettable that I knew the hidden meaning of her words. Gypsies are nomads, impoverished peoples who travel across Asia and Europe. Sadly enough, through the centuries they have developed a reputation for stealing. Of course now, there are those who are truly guilty of thievery, but it is not fair to generalize them as being an entire race of kleptomaniacs. However, there are those who refuse to change their opinion about the Romany, this led to the gypsies in joining another group of outcasts, the Jews, in that madman Adolf Hitler's dream of racial purity. (Perhaps someday I will tell you about an odd event that I stumbled upon in 1943 Europe.)
"The werewolf told us about you, and how you had risen and were rally the undead to your cause. Father told me all about what it was like to serve you."
"Yes, yes, but why have you come to me?"
"My father is dead."
I raised an eyebrow at her and leaned against my chair with a bored look.
"So? It is too late to restore him, if that's what you want. There is nothing to be done now."
"He was killed by a Turkish raiding party led by a man named Miklos."
Now she had my attention…
"He led a brigade of Janissaries into Transylvania, when he came across our train, he massacred my clan."
I could see tears beginning to well up in her eyes.
Miklos. So, he lived and he continued to ruin the lives of innocents. Now, the third man waiting for my vengeance would be destroyed.
"I see…Very good. I shall take care of it."
I reached into my sack for some gold when she grabbed my arm.
"No, please! I want to destroy him!"
I was shocked and stared at her, waiting for an explanation.
"Make me like you, so I can kill him more horribly than he killed my clan. Please…"
"You do not know what you ask!" I grabbed her and lifted her from the chair.
"You can still feel the sun on your face; something you can never do as a nosferatu.
No, leave him to me."
I tossed the owner a few gold coins and left. The girl continued to follow me.
"What is your name, child?"
"Constantia."
"Your father will be avenged, Constantia."
With that, I took myself away from that place.
For an idea of what I'm talking about with these vampires, read "Dracula-The Profile".