Bathory Blood

Erzsebet 1610

The war had started in the west and spread slowly east as the vampire lords were wiped out. It was not a war of vampires versus humans as there were not enough vampires to stand against the entire human race. Vampires made up less than one percent of one percent, or, to be more precise, there was some fifty thousand spread over the planet. Some humans chose to fight alongside their vampire masters, which is something that irked Helwing from time to time, of which this was one.

Andreas Helwing was a tall, powerful man with broad shoulders and the long fair hair of his Helstig Viking ancestors. He was wearing a tall black hat with a thick wool jacket over his doublets and trunk hose. He carried a lit torch, waving it in front of him, alert to the slightest danger in the sheer darkness of the wood. The flames flickered with every breeze, worrying the thirty heavily armed men in his party. The men had the right to fear, as Helwing well knew. After all, there was a vampire loose somewhere in the wood, hiding. Helwing had no doubt that Erzsebet Bathory was still there. Possibly even watching them right now.

And he was correct, Erzsebet had seen this coming, but she had nowhere to run. There were other vampire lords, but, as with her, they were all facing destruction. Of course, as was typical with humans, her destruction would all be perfectly legal and above board. She stood accused of slaughtering hundreds of young girls for her own pleasure. Which was an utter fabrication, of course. Erzsebet had stuck to the rules and only accepted blood freely given. Not that her denials mattered. She knew what would happen once they caught her. There would be some mock trial with fraudulent witnesses, and then she would be executed like all the others.

As she stood high in the treetops, looking down at the terrified search party, Erzsebet knew that she would not escape the wood. She may even get through ten of them before they killed her, but kill her they would. She knew the man leading them was full of resolve and braver than ten of them combined. She wasn't the first vampire Helwing had hunted, and she likely wouldn't be the last.

However, as with all battles, if you can take out the general, the rest of the army loses morale and breaks. That was what she was relying on. Erzsebet could see them all perfectly as if it were day while their eyes were so weak, they needed flaming torches to see. It was pretty pathetic, and it angered her that she had to hide from such inconsequential creatures. It was this anger that drove her somewhat prematurely from the tree. Erzsebet had planned that she would wait for a more opportune moment, but such was her ire that she dropped, feet first from the branches, floating slowly to the ground.

The bloodhounds Helwing and his party had brought with them began to bark and whine. They knew something was coming; they just couldn't tell from where, and this confusion sent even more fear through the men. So much, so that one or two were looking at each other thinking, if you run, I run.

Erzsebet landed a few feet from Helwing. His back was turned to her, his torch waving as he tried to locate what the dogs were so concerned about. Knowing that she had to take her chances as they presented themselves, Erzsebet leaped toward Helwing. As she jumped, the dogs picked up her scent and threw all their energy into her direction. One of the dogs broke free from its handler, and just as Erzsebet was about to land on Helwing, knock him to the ground, and feast on his blood, it deflected her enough that Helwing was able to evade her.

"It's her!" Helwing screamed, and such was the terror in his voice that several men ran. "Hold your ground, or I'll skin you alive myself." Almost immediately, anyone who was considering running wasn't anymore and drew their swords. All knew that Helwing was particularly cruel to traitors, and anyone deserting was within that bracket. He was yet to skin anyone alive, but not a single man there would put it past him.

Erzsebet used her momentum to disappear amongst the trees and the sheer blackness of the wood. She knew that the humans would merely see a blank blanket hanging in front of them and would have to rely on their dogs to guide them. The dogs had her scent and were dragging their human masters after her. Her attack on Helwing had failed, and her chances of escape had now wholly evaporated.

In the year sixteen ten, all humans knew that vampire bites didn't turn them into the undead, and all knew that vampires were a living, breathing thing just like them. All also knew that vampires were merely a different species—possibly a branch from the same family tree. But humans and vampires, although being able to pleasure each other, could not produce children. So, the bite Erzsebet had managed on Helwing's neck, drawing a considerable amount of blood, didn't bother him at all, save for the thought that it may get infected. He directed the men forward with a battle cry his Viking ancestors would have been proud of.

"Think of your daughters," he screamed, "Find this foul creature and bring her the swift justice she deserves."

The dogs barked and frothed at the mouth as they tugged their human masters through ever-thickening terrain. Men bumped into trees and hurt their feet as Helwing urged them on faster. Then, up ahead, there was a scream, and then another as two of his men were ruthlessly slaughtered.

"We have her cornered," came some frightened shouts. No matter, though Helwing, the men who had cornered Erzsebet would be rewarded well, he would see to it personally. Especially once he was ruler. He had already taken Erzsebet's castle for his own. He hadn't expected it to be easy. It was very rare that a vampire would go down without a fight, but many of them had become so fat and carefree, they were relatively easy to deal with. By comparison, Helwing knew that Erzsebet would be a different matter. Unlike the others, she had been aware of the plot to remove the vampire species from power for a long time. As the humans gained power holds, she saw the human strategy of politics slowly defeat the vampire lords one by one. Many had been disappeared, and Helwing knew this well as he had had a hand in many of them. Vampires were not easy to kill. Their bone structure was denser, so sword blades could easily glance off them and only then if they managed to pierce the flesh. To this end, Helwing had high hopes of the steel swords made from the new blast furnaces in England. He'd bought a consignment of some two hundred of them and given them as a bonus to all who would follow him. Thirty was a good enough number.

The screams worsened as they approached, and eventually, Helwig and the rest of his men came upon Erzsebet, where she was stood next to a tree, dressed like a man in black hose and doublets, covered in the blood of the three victims at her feet. She snarled at Helwing and his men, revealing her incisors, showing them what was in store for them if they came to close.

"Don't be afraid," Helwing soothed with all the confidence of a man who had done this many times before. "She's not a monster." Helwing turned his gaze upon Erzsebet. "Isn't that right?"

"When I am hunted down, cornered, and my life threatened," Erzsebet snarled, "Then, my dear Helwing, I turn into a monster."

"Silence," Helwing commanded as some of the men began praying. "This doesn't have anything to do with demons or hell. Approach with caution that is all."

"How many of you will die before I do?" Erzsebet snarled as Helwing, and his men tightened their circle about her, causing many of them to hesitate.

"It doesn't have to be like this, Erzsebet," said Arial Vesuvius, a tall, twenty-three-year-old, wealthy, and darkly attractive merchant. He also had ten of his own men with him, so Helwing was forced to allow him his say. "We take you home, and you go to trial."

"What point a trial? You will only execute me anyway. They're a farce, and you know it."

"Perhaps, but some chance is better than none, eh?"

Erzsebet gasped into consciousness and found that she was in the back of a carriage. No, they weren't called carriages anymore; they were called cars now. She looked toward the front seats and found that Glen was driving.

"What happened?" Erzsebet asked, startling Glen and making her gasp.

"You passed out," Glen managed.

"Then how did you get me here on your own?"

"It's a long story," was all Glen was willing to say as she concentrated on the road. Despite the extra strength afforded by the blood, Glen had found it a real struggle to drag Erzsebet onto the gurney, which was luckily in the clinic.

"What about Mike?" Erzsebet asked, knowing that, as she had passed out, Mike would have woken.

"It wasn't easy." Glen imparted.

"Never mind," Erzsebet said suddenly, as all the information she needed filtered from Glen's mind to her own. "I see what happened." Glen frowned at Erzsebet in the rearview mirror.

"You do?"

"Yes," was all Erzsebet was willing to say. "Where are we going?"

"To my studio flat. Is that, uhm... OK?" Glen wasn't sure if her place would be safe. Erzsebet mentally translated what was meant by studio flat and then waved her hand to indicate that it would be fine. "You were dreaming," Glen shared after a few more minutes driving.

"Vampires dream," Erzsebet said dismissively. "Did I say anything in my sleep?"

"Not really," Glen informed her, stopping at a red light.

"Not really?"

"Oh, uhm... well, it was just a strange thing. Hellving or halving?"

“Helwing,” Erzsebet shared.

"Yes, that was it." Glen accelerated once the lights changed to green, and Erzsebet was jerked back in her seat.

"These carriages are so swift!" Erzsebet placed her hands on the seat, feeling the thrum of the engine vibrate through her fingers. "I can't wait to see all that humans have accomplished."

"What is this?" Erzsebet asked a few minutes later while sitting opposite a computer in Glen's studio flat.

"It's the internet."

"And what does this net do?"

"Anything you want to know, it tells you," Glen said, moving into the kitchen and preparing coffee. "You know what coffee is?"

"I'm not an ignorant peasant, child." Erzsebet snapped, then turned to look at the monitor. "Computer, what is my name?" Erzsebet looked up, offended as Glen burst into laughter.

"You have to type."

"Type?"

"Yeah, it's like writing. There, on the keyboard." Glen said, but Erzsebet had no idea what a keyboard was. Glen reached over to show her, typing vampires into the search bar and pressing enter. Erzsebet frowned at the language as it was written and could barely read it.

"I'd prefer Hungarian."

"OK," Glen said, and Erzsebet sat back, amazed as Glen changed the language to Hungarian. The kettle had boiled, so Glen moved back into the kitchen to finish the coffee, leaving Erzsebet to read. After a few short moments, Erzsebet laughed out loud.

"We are a story? The vampire race is merely a story and not even a true one?"