After so bad reviews I've fixed it. I hope it's better and makes more sense than it did the first time.
I am a Death Dealer, sworn to destroy those known as the Lycans, or better yet I was. The war has been going on for the better part of a thousand years, and it should have ended six hundred years ago with the death of their leader, the dreaded Lucian. Should have, but didn't.
Six hundred years ago the war had all but ground to a halt in the blink of an eye. Lucian, the most feared and ruthless leader ever to rule the lycan clan, had finally been killed. The lycan hoard scattered to the wind in a single evening of flame and retribution.
Victory, it seemed, was in our grasp. The very birthright of the vampires. Nearly six centuries has passed since that night, yet the ancient bloodfeud has proved unwilling to follow Lucian to the grave. Though lycans are fewer in number, the war itself has become more perilous, for the moon no longer holds her sway. Older, more powerful lycans are now able to change at will. Weapons have evolved, but our orders remain the same; hunt them down and kill them off, one by one. Is has been a most successful campaign, perhaps, too successful. For those like me, a Death Dealer, this signaled the end of an era. Like the weapons of the previous century, we too have become obsolete. Pity, because I lived for it.
I had been living the life of a death dealer since around the supposed death of the lycan lord, oblivious to the cause of the war and why all lycans had to be wiped out. That was before Lucian, Michael, and Kraven happened, and then my world was flipped upside down. Now however, I have realized that my world was turned the right way after I met them.
For you see, I was not born vampire and it would have worked out much better for myself and Viktor had he never taken on the task of creating me. My story truly begins when I was taken from my home after a night of fire and blood. My family's blood was the blood being drawn that night, and I was powerless to stop it.
The lycans had broken into my home was I was a around the age of twenty-four about six hundred years ago. It had been the middle of the night, and we were all sound asleep. I heard screaming and ran outside my room to see what was going on. I went flying down the hall, my nightgown flapping behind me, towards my niece's room. I wasn't thinking clearly in my tired and fearful haze, and I should have taken a lantern or at least a candle with me. What happened next had burned itself into my retinas and it will never leave me. When I close my eyes to sleep this is the last thing I see each night.
During my mad dash across the house I tripped over something, and I was sent soaring into the far end of the room, hitting my head on the wall. I regained consciousness sometime later. I walked over to the source of my fall and to my horror I found my sister's lifeless body that was almost mauled beyond recognition. Blood was everywhere and in the pale moonlight it appeared black like a lake in the middle of the living room. The tears then started to sting my eyes and I closed them for a moment to bite them back. I did not go to look for my parents, knowing with tearful awareness that I would find them in the same state. I found out later that night that my mother died with the servants in the kitchen, and my father befell the same fate out in the yard fending them off from his homestead, the thing he had worked his whole life for.
They had wanted food, and they figured that a family of six would be sufficient dog food. Even after they killed my parents and my sister they still hadn't been satisfied. My twin nieces were the only people in the house that were left. I ran to their rooms dread and fear in my heart. Could I get to them before whatever horrible creatures had invaded our home? Could I save them? I know now that somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind I knew I was too late to save the babies. They weren't babies anymore, at the age of six, but that was my name for them. They used to make faces at me when I called them that, saying: "Auntie Selene, we're not babies anymore", in perfect unison. I can still see their beautiful faces destroyed; smashed to pieces by the hideous claws of a creature I had yet to see and the evident starches on their throats. And then Viktor had appeared and my human life was forgotten.
I can still see him now, in my mind's eye, he was the essence of control and power. He looked elegant with a full head of shimmering silver hair that fell to his shoulders and his face was that of a kind man that treated all with kindness. His gray hair was not due to age for he appeared to be young and strong. That's the thing about vampires: some age and some don't. Most stay the age they were when they were created, and some do to a malfunction age a little, but then stop. Those that are born vampires grow to adults and then never age again. He was dressed in all black, and his cloak was leather that had gray metal trim that was in knife-like shapes. He had smiled, walking slowly towards me. He seemed to float across the room and I swore that the room was suddenly then filled with fog that had blocked everything out, the blood, my dead nieces, and the pain the now radiated from the walls of the room. Everything was blocked out by the haze, except Viktor. I supposed now that was his intention; to block everything out, leaving only him and the vampires. He wanted me to forget everything and follow him, and that's exactly what I did. I watched mesmerized while he sauntered towards me as if he was taking a summer stroll. He finally reached my fallen form, for I had fallen to the floor and seeing the babies dead in a bloody lake. He had wrapped his strong arms around me and I had no will to protest him. I closed my eyes tightly and shivered in his arms when I felt a cold surround us, but after a moment I felt warm again. I held tightly and sobbed against him, a stranger, but he felt safe and familiar like my father had been. I should have wondered about how his voice could be so smooth and even in the face of all the atrocity that was all around us, but I was to caught up in his commanding and soothing presence to even suspect that their was a fallacy in his voice, as if he had rehearsed this before and I was probably not the first to hear it. I was weak then and couldn't tell the difference between truth and lies.
When I finally stopped sobbing long enough to open my eyes I realized we were not longer in my home. We were in a black room that somehow had some light in it despite the fact that it had no lights or windows. It had a red velvet couch though, and that's where I found myself sitting. I looked to Viktor and he was looking at me strangely as if he was my father and I he daughter in distress. He looked like he wanted to sooth the pain away. I know now that I was right. He moved closer and put his arms around me and told me everything.
At first glance I knew that Viktor was elegant and powerful, it was confirmed by the way he spoke. It was like liquid gold, meaning that it flowed like something sacred and exquisite, and you wanted to catch up every bit of it, like a wealth of infinite knowledge was contained behind those lips and locked inside that mind. He should have been a speaker, for he sure would have left a more lasting impact on the clan, and maybe it wouldn't have forgotten his message and I would not be sitting here in the underground deserted subway tunnels writing this.
I found out what had killed my family. They were called lycans, humans that had contracted some terrible virus that was similar to the vampires, but it manifested in a different way. This was an illness that had no cure and would not be purged from their bodies like a typical virus, but caused them to become vicious wolves that walked on two legs. I saw Viktor's eyes darken in rage in disgust as he spoke of how their skin was stretched violently across their bodies when they changed, and they contained so much muscle beneath their skin that all of the veins that lay under the skin were clearly visible. They had superhuman speed and strength and had to be approached cautiously. Few vampires contained the prowess and skill to successfully do battle against the beasts. They only changed in the moonlight, and then it was only while the moon was visible. I was told that in earlier times they could only change when the moon was full, but then they had evolved, becoming stronger and better able to control their bodies. During this time I was first told the story of Lucian, the most ruthless and violent of all the lycan leaders. He was not to be tangled with, for any battle with this werewolf would end in almost certain death. He spoke about how a task force was being put together to end his reign of vampire torture and death.
He explained everything. The lycans had attacked and killed them all, and would have killed me too, had he not come out of the shadows and taken me away to his mansion. He talked about how the werewolves had started a war that had been raging for four-hundred years. He spoke with pure hatred about the ways of the cold blooded killer, Lucian, who was the leader of the abominations that had killed my family as well as countless other families.
Viktor turned apologetic when he moved on in his explanation. He spoke of how many attacks like the one that had happened to my family had been occurring. There had been few survivors of these attacks, and those that lived and been recruited to join the vampire clan. I wondered if he would ask me to join, certain that if he did my answer would be yes. I was being filled with bloodlust by his speech. I wouldn't just be fighting for my family but for the countless other families that had been destroyed by the lycan clan. That was his intention, and he was very persuasive man. He made me love him and feel his pain. He made me respect him. Even thought I feel such rage and sorrow towards him now, I still love him for giving me something to hold on to during those rocky times. Too bad he was the cause of these bad times, for that almost would have sounded sweet.
He then rose from his seat, his hands flying about as he spoke of the pain and suffering that vampires as well as vampires endued in the war.
"We have tried to keep the war from spilling into the human world, but we have sadly failed. We did not ask for this war, but the lycans wanted more power. They weren't satisfied with controlling the underground and being able to exist in the human world, one thing we cannot do, but they wanted our empire. When they discovered they would never get it until every vampire lay dead, they then decided that they will simply kill us off, since they will never rule over us."
He walked closer towards me. He spoke softly then. He was telling me this was the part where it gets good.
"I can give you what you want, Selene. Tell me, what is it that you desire most? I am an elder vampire and I can do whatever it is that you wish me to."
He had wasted his words in asking me this. He could see the fire on my eyes, the burning hate. He knew exactly what I wanted. He had told me what it was I wanted with his speech.
During his whole long speech that had carried on late into the night I spoke not once, but rather I sat spellbound and never questioned him. Not once. I spoke with cold steel in my voice.
"I want revenge, sir. I want to make them suffer as they have made me suffer."
"Excellent", was his only reply. And then he granted my wish.
The room suddenly went dark and I couldn't see, only feel. I felt cool hands on my neck and that's where me world exploded. I saw red and black, then red again. I felt razor sharp teeth digging into the soft flesh of my neck. I felt a burning sensation, as if my whole world was on fire. I can remember the feeling of warm liquid rolling down my neck and onto my nightgown. My body started to convulses in a jerking motion as he sucked in each sip of my lifeblood. I shook and starting to panic I tried to push him away, but he never lost his perch, but rather came closer and closer until my world glazed over. I then found myself gripping his shoulders as my knees weakened and buckled to keep myself from falling so that he wouldn't rip my flesh off. I became weaker by the moment, losing consciousness steadily. I felt myself being lowered to the floor. Eventually the weakness from lack of blood set in and I died.
I woke up in the light again, alone. The first thing that hit me when I cleared the gray from the vision was the pain of the light. Moments ago… had it been moments? Moments ago the light had been to dim and I couldn't see and now, it was too bright and I couldn't stand it. The worst of it was that I didn't know if the gray warmth that I had floated on in death had last moments or days. Maybe even centuries. I hadn't been dead before. I realized that I was standing in front of a mirror that had suddenly just materialized in front of me. I then saw the change. It was brutal. It was the last thing I have seen or ever will see in a mirror. After it was over I smashed that glass. It symbolized the end. I looked in the mirror and saw the two holes in my neck. They were small but they stung like multiple bees attacking the flesh at once. The blood was running down, making a sticky pool at the base of my neck. I touched it and it burned like hell's fire. Was this real? Had it really happened? This had to be just some part of my imagination, but then it happened.
It started at my scalp, like an oil slick running on in my hair. I didn't know what an oil slick was at the time, but I would have compared it to that. My brown hair was slowly becoming black, like ooze was coming down my locks, consuming, freezing my hair. It was ice cold and it burned, but I couldn't cry out or anything. I let out a hiss instead, but it was not a human hiss of pain, but an inhuman beastly hiss, like that of a snake. My dark brown eyes were lightening and becoming dilated as the burning fever set in. They grew wide and the color was swallowed up except for a little dot of color. The color blue. I was falling now, slowly in a dreamlike state to the hard floor. I hit forcefully on my knees, but barely felt it. My head flew back and I looked to the looking glass. Fangs were starting to grow. My teeth grew I front of my eyes and I felt them, growing and protruding even more through my gums. It didn't ache, only burned. I got my reflection in the mirror; I was fading away. The burning haze was just too much. I slumped against the mirror and slid down to the floor. I must have passed out then, for I don't remember anything more of the change. I realize now that my parent's beautiful brown eyes were the only thing that I had gotten from them. They were fair, so the hair was no loss, but my eye color was gone and so was my human life.
I awoke with Viktor there again, looming over me, and I was suddenly filled with hunger and rage. I lashed out at the mirror, smashing it, and then I turned maliciously towards Viktor. He knew what was coming for he didn't fight back. I ran towards him in a flash and pounced. I didn't know what I was doing. I was biting into his neck, draining his blood as he had drained mine. I was sealing my immortality and he was more than happy to do so. I was a new creation and now a member of the house of the house of Viktor.
I have only done anything relatively human since then, and that was going to my brother in law's funeral when he died a year later of an apparent broken heart. He hadn't been home at the time of the attack. Viktor had let me go to the funeral, saying that I needed to bring closure to my past life and so I did. I stood in the shadows on that sunny day as they lowered his grief stricken body in the ground. Poor soul; may he rest in peace with the rest of my beloved family. I will probably never see them again. Viktor saw to that by sinking his fangs into my neck, which I let him do willingly, drawing my human blood from my body and giving me his. He became my creator, and I his daughter. Little did I know why I felt like he daughter and he my father, and it would be many years before I did.
It was explained to me that there was an elite task force that resided in the house of each of the three leaders called Die Todeshändler, meaning "the death dealers". These vampires were designated to kill off the remaining lycan factions, thus ending the war. I jumped at the opportunity to join, and my training began immediately. There I learned the art of dealing death to those who so greatly deserved it.
I was trained in all different styles of fighting and learned how to use every weapon that I could get my hands onto. I met Khan, a weapons developer and ballistics expert and he became my only true friend. He has invented many weapons used to kill the lycans, including a steel disc that has barbs on it. I threw those into Raze, Lucian's second in command, and I'm sure they had to be pulled out by someone very strong. Khan's brilliant. He is a small black man, but very strong, smart, and resourceful. Somehow he retained his brown eyes in the changing process. I am starting to thinks that each vampire family had a different eye color that they pass on to all their decedents. Kahn must have had the same eye color ad the vampire that he created him. That is why we became fast friends, for we were created vampires, not born them. Kahn creates all the various instruments that we, death dealers use to kill werewolves. He is loyal to the end, whether or not the vampire leaders are wrong. That is what keeps the rulers of the vampire clan in power: misinforming their servants. Even I was blinkered by their lies and promises of retribution. I realize now that my work never brought me peace of mind, and could never put the pieces of my broken heart back together. If my job had brought closure to my human life I would not almost break down into tears when I think of them.
I fear that the next time I see him I'll have to kill him.
During this time period of training and growing I met Kraven for the first time. He was to be put in charge of Viktor's house after Viktor would go back to his two-hundred year slumber. All Viktor had to do was give Amelia's shriveled body some of his blood and she would come back to life and rule for the next one hundred years, and then she would awaken Marcus, and then the pattern would continue.
Viktor had escorted me to the reception room of the mansion. It had been filled with teems of people. I was dressed in some silly costume, that showed too much of my pale skin, and my short raven hair was pulled tightly up in some painful up-do. I glad vampires cannot have reflections, for I wouldn't wanted to have seen myself, and if I had I wouldn't have been able to recognize myself.
We approached a couch that was in the middle of the room. There were about five women there hanging around someone. I knew who they were. Those women dressed in blood red were the vampire version of gold diggers that used their good looks and graces to get into the bedchambers of strong and powerful vampires. Was this Kraven some sort of strong regal man that this many women would hang on him?
I still had yet to see him, for the blond sitting in his lap blocked his head from my view. She held a glass of that awful tainted wine that they drink and she was laughing at whatever he had said. The other women surrounding him grew silent when they saw us approaching and the blonde turned to see who had stopped the laughter surrounding her. She must have been born a vampire to keep her blonde hair. When she saw my face she paled, if that is possible for a vampire to do, and her smile faded. Kraven must have said something to her for she moved his head so he could see us. He looked at Viktor and smiled, but when he saw me his eyes widened. He looked as if he had never seen a woman that wasn't like the decorated harlots that surrounded him, let alone a death dealer. He said something to the girl and she smiled at him, giving him a kiss on the cheek. When she stood and walked past me however, I was rewarded for interrupting them with a contemptuous look. He rose and followed Viktor as he motioned us to an empty part of the bustling room.
He introduced me and I offered my hand in a shake. He took my palm and kissed it instead. It was then obvious that we came from different worlds. If the vampires as a whole lived in the underworld, the death dealers themselves live in the underbelly of the underworld, vastly unknown and misunderstood by our brethren. I still don't understand why this meeting was took place. I could not see then or now what was supposed to come out of it.
I knew that at first glance Kraven would never be a man that I would admire. He was just a fill in at the house of Viktor, which made him second rate to me. He had short black hair and the typical blue eyes that a vampire has. He was well built, but not a natural fighter or a killer like me. I could tell by looking into his eyes that he used more of his brain than his fists or a weapon. He was handsome and many a female vampire obviously had lusted after him over the years, but I knew his charm would not sway me. I was obsessed with following the will of my creator.
After we had sat down, Viktor and Kraven sat and talked about the mission that Kraven was about to undertake. He was to lead a group of vampires into Lucian's castle and kill them all including the lycan leader. After a while they both turned from me and continued talking, and after a while I left unnoticed to my room in the basement of the mansion.
A few weeks later the mission had been completed and Lucian was dead. The only vampire of lycan to make it out was Kraven and he returned with Lucian's brand, a V, which stood for Viktor meaning that he had been marked for death by the house of Viktor. After the death of his most hated enemy Viktor awakened Amelia and slept.
I have always found something false about Kraven, but that is because I have only seen what he projects on the outside. He appears vain and arrogant, and only interested in assuring that he will still have power as Viktor's second a dozen centuries from now. But, alas, the age of ancient vampire law is gone, and a new day has dawned. Also, I have discovered that I do not know Kraven at the way I thought I did, especially since the events of the past few days. I do not know what his true intentions are any more. I thought I did and then they changed, and now they have changed again. There is something there under the surface, good intentions that have been twisted over time into greedy desires. He is on the run now, just like me, from the same enemies.
Ever since I met him six hundred years ago when I was created he has had a strange fascination for me. I think it was because he had come from a different world than I had. He was a blue-blood, pure born vampire. He could trace back his family to someone Viktor himself had created. Obviously that creation married a vampire, and they made sure that their children married those that were born vampires as well, and saw to it that their grandchildren did the same. He had been surrounded with the politics of vampires for his whole existence, and knew few vampires that had been created from human kind.
After Viktor's reign ended for his slumber, Kraven turned the house of the oldest and most powerful vampire into a bureaucrats dream, full of the rich and privileged vampires and the skimpily dressed women that hang all over them. They would stare at me as well as the rest of the death dealers when we would come from a mission as if they couldn't believe that some people still held a position in the vampire clan, and didn't just sit around all day wearing bright red outfits and drink blood spiked with wine. The blissful fools had forgotten that there was a war out their, and that their brethren were out there dying on the battlefield at the hands of the flea ridden dogs that the lycans were.
Kraven was left in charge of one of the house and its people while Viktor slept for his customary two centuries. One awake and two asleep, is the covenant from the ancient times of vampires. The only people who were lead vampires were those who were of pure vampire descent and had been born into the vampire coven. No former humans were allowed to be in our blue blood aristocracy. The three eldest and strongest of the vampires are our leaders. The youngest of them being Amelia, the elegant vampire queen. This awakening that takes place is what brings me to where I am today, and the events of the past week that have brought me here.
Amelia was petite and frail looking, but one could not let her fragile good looks full you into thinking she was weak. She was not physically strong, but her mental prowess made her intimidating. That why she was made our only female leader. She was so well educated in the art of political intrigue that she had enough followers and guards that she would not need knowledge of battle skills to be a very successful leader. She had more of an entourage than a following. As fate would have it she seemed to only be resurrected in times of relative peace. The only problem that the vampires have had to deal with is the constant problem with the lycan clan. I have witnessed the rule of Amelia twice and she handled the problems that arose very smoothly. Tonight was to be the night that she would resurrect the second of the rulers, Marcus, with her own blood, but no more. Amelia is dead.
I have witnessed the rule of Marcus once, and he is the most bloodthirsty of the three. He doesn't care about ending the war or getting revenge, but only seeing how mush blood he can spill. I think that is why Kraven made his plans, whatever they may be, at the time that he did.
Though I can not predict the future, the consequences of this night will reverberate through the halls of both great covens for many years to come. Two vampire elders have been slain. One by my own hand. Soon, Marcus will take the throne and a tirade of anger and retribution will spill out into the night. Differences will be set aside, allegiances will be made and soon I will become the hunted.
The vampires are coming, I know that. Marcus, descendant of Corvinous will bring his men here and a great battle will occur. I have not true side now, but I hope that Michael can convince the lycans to accept me. I know that when the vampires come I….. No we must convince them to bring about the end to this war, for it has been waging long enough. Some of them will appose peace, they've lived with war for too long, and I will have no choice but to fight them. The war has changed and new lines have been drawn. I am now the hunted.