Vampiric

The Stand-Off

Damien’s POV

I can feel her! I feel Mia! Her emotions are rushing through me, but they aren’t good! She’s scared, sad, in pain, worried, panicking. I know she’s been through hell, but I can’t help but feel so excited to feel her! I’ve been empty without her, my soul fills with her the closer she gets. I need to see her, to feel her, to make everything okay again. “Godric, they are close.” Godric nods and takes a deep breath. “We shall alert the elders now.” We head to the tomb, all eyes turn towards us as we head down the stairs. “Mia is close, I feel her presence. Which means rogues ate quickly approaching. We need to be present when they arrive on the property. Let’s stick together and try to remain civil with them, hopefully we can get this over with peacefully. Arius is waiting for us upstairs.” The elders stand up in unison, serious faces, ready for anything the rogues may throw at us. We migrate up to the main floor. I watch Asura closely, watching his every move. He is nervous because Arius is here, he doesn’t know the army is set up around the parameter of the property. They are hidden, camouflaged within the foliage around the gates. We’re ready, but they have no idea. Knowing how they rogues are, they are probably going to come with Mia alone at first but have a fleet of wild rogues close behind. Idiots, so f*****g predictable. Although I have to admit, if it wasn’t for Leah and the hidden security cameras, we would have never known. Headlights break the darkness down the road. This is them, and the closer Mia gets, the more nervous I get. She’s hurt pretty bad, I know it. I need to play my position wisely otherwise I could endanger her again. I’d never forgive myself if I let her slip through my fingers again. As the headlights draw closer, I prepare the elders for our venture to meet them out front. “They’re almost here, whatever happens, stay strong. We’re the heads of the greatest association in the world. Nothing can stop us as long as we stick together.” Leah opens the door and the elders start heading out the door to meet the captors. Before stepping out with them, Arius places his hand on my shoulder and whispers “Don’t worry Damien. The army still recognizes you as the rightful Primus and they are ready for attack. The first sight of trouble, they’ll step in.” I give a half hearted smile to Arius, “Thank you, I appreciate your loyalty, Arius. You’ve always been like a brother to me. I just need my girl back, nothing else is more important to me than her.” He empathizes with me, he’s got a wife of his own, I know he’d go to the ends of the earth for her, too. Arius and I join the others outside just as the car pulls up and stops. Two men emerge from the vehicle, the driver, a human, retrieves Lamia from the backseat. The rogue vampire is glaring at me intensely, trying to burn through me with his fierce stare. “Good evening to the almighty, powerful, registered elders! My name is Abaddon, and as you can see, as promised, I have returned the girl alive. You see, rogues keep their word and I’m elated to see that love prevailed in this matter. Damien! Your w***e is here!” Lamia is on her knees, her head hanging in shame. She is injured badly, I see just a few of the bruises, pox and bite marks riddled over her body and it enrages me. I’m going to rip this guys f*****g head off. “I stepped down in exchange for Lamia. You have what you want, now give her to me.” I’m in no mood for his bullshit, I just want to fix her! “Oh, is that what you think? I have what I want now, everything is okay? The world is restored to its rightful place and we can all go home now?! No! You dumb ass! That’s obviously not all I want!” Abaddon reaches down and grabs Lamia by the hair, bringing her to her feet forcefully and tossing her towards me. I speed to her and catch her in my arms before she lands on her face. I cradle my girl in my arms, pushing her hair away from her face. Her wounds glow in the darkness, still wet with blood and bruising everywhere. She looks up at me with her wide, beautiful blue eyes. “Damien, I missed you so much.” Her first words to me almost push me over the edge. “I missed you too, sweetheart. This will all be over soon.”  Leaning down, I kiss her on the forehead. I pick her up, bridal style and hand her over to Brian, “Brian, take Lamia to the tomb and get her a meal now. She needs to feed and go to sleep right away. You and Leah best stay in the tomb, too. I have a feeling this isn’t going to go over so peacefully. There is a safe room in the tomb, beneath the stairs. If anything happens, the three of you hide there.” Brian nods, accepting my important task given to him. I watch the three of them head to the house, once I feel they are safely inside, my Viking starts to take over. Turning back around, I lock eyes with Abaddon. He’s got his arms crossed, impatiently waiting for me to finish caring for Mia. “That was quite a display there, Damien. Just as I thought it wasn’t possible for you to be any more of a p***y. Congratulations, you’ve proven me wrong!” This guy is a total d**k! I can’t imagine the pain he caused Lamia! “What do you want Abaddon? The position is vacant, you have everyone’s attention. Let’s get it over with! I’m tired of playing games!” Abaddon laughs at my demand, his hands on his side now. After his fit of laughter his face turns serious. He and I haven’t broken eye contact since Lamia went inside. He squints his eyes and speaks intensely “The next plan of action is to f*****g slaughter every single one of you. Then when I take over as Primus, I’ll pick a new elder counsel! Ones that will support my vision of the future! We’ll no longer be divided, Damien! I plan on merging rogues and registered vampires together! Brining peace between us. Wouldn’t that be ideal? Wouldn’t you like to see all vampires accepted into the association? Just to bring everyone together, removing boundaries and regulations for just being reborn! It’s no fault to a new vampire if they are born rogue, so why push them to the side? Punishing new vampires is counterproductive! We can spread troops of united vampires throughout the entire world! Setting up districts and have a Vampire ruling each one to ensure order is kept. Then, when we have everything in order, we’ll wage war against the humans! You and the association that you protect so dearly is holding the vampire race back! Why the f**k should we hide in the shadows from the pigs we feed on? Why do they get all the control? We’re smarter, faster, stronger, deadlier! We are the superior f*****g race! Humans are nothing, scum, slaves, whores we use temporarily then slaughter to feed on  like the animals they are! We’ve evolved into something they can’t even comprehend! So why are they in charge? Why do they suppress us? Keep us secluded? Afraid to openly hunt, worried about the f*****g joke of a police force possibly finding evidence of our existence? The f*****g doctors who would want to experiment on us? Under my ruling, we’d treat the humans as they are, cattle! All vampires would be united and unstoppable! It’s f*****g perfect! And all the current elder members are too stuck up to believe that uniting our forces is a good idea! Stuck in their ways, thinking they are somehow f*****g better than the rogues. Well if that’s how you feel then f**k you, too! I will become the Primus! In front of the current counsel I declare that I, Abaddon Asmodeus, hereby accept the vacant position of Primus, abandoned by Damien Mastema. And now, I will begin my term as Primus by slaughtering the elders before me!” After his rant is complete, I erupt with laughter. Once I start laughing, the entire counsel joins me, besides Asura. All of us pointing at his ignorance, laughing so hard, tears form in our eyes. I walk over to Asura as I laugh and place my hand on his shoulder. Still laughing and pointing to Abaddon, looking at Asura. He nervously giggles softly back to appease me. I step behind Asura, placing both my hands on his shoulders and shove him forward. Causing his body to fly and land at the feet of Abaddon. “Get the f**k over there where you belong Asura! You know that’s where you’ve been wanting to stand all night!” Asura gets up slowly, the impact of his ass to the ground slightly dazed him. “Oh you thought we didn’t know?” I laugh again. “You really are f*****g stupid! The only thing I didn’t figure out is why, Asura? Why the betrayal? Why now? What has gotten into you?” Asura regains himself from the push and looks me in the eyes to speak “Abaddon is my prodigy. I made him after you, in case you weren’t a successful turn, I had a back up. However, both of you were successful and both of you were too powerful to let either of you go. Before we had human assistants, I had to go hunting myself for our meals, when I went hunting, I was caring for the other at the same time. As for the registration, he wasn’t registered on purpose. I too, knew uniting the rogues and the association would be beneficial. Abaddon became the strong leader of the rogues with my guidance. I was able to control both Rogues and the Association without any of you even knowing for centuries! Each time an attack happened, it was a direct order from me. It was to prepare Abaddon to lead as Primus. The only thing standing in his way now is you, my son. This is my shared vision of the future for the association. I groomed Abaddon to follow through with my true plans while I groomed you to be the sheep the association wanted to see as a leader. It’s really quite simple. And now that you’ve stepped down, our plan is halfway complete! The next step is to kill you all!” I’m shocked, I had no idea who Asura really was. All these years of being together, he was a stranger! My world is crashing around me. Spiraling and wondering if someone I thought I knew so well was a fraud, who else have I misjudged? I have to keep my focus for now, the fate of the association depends on it! I speak calmly, and matter of fact in response to his deceit. “Asura, though I may not have known you as well as I once thought, you should know you aren’t the only one who is capable of being deceiving.” Asura looks on, confused at this, growing slightly annoyed at my retort. “Okay? And what does that mean, Damien?” The elders and I bare the same slighting evil grin. “My decision to step down from the position is illegitimate, just like your bastard prodigy.” A small, low giggle escapes me as I see both the faces of Asura and Abaddon change. The shock of this rocks their plans, unraveling right in front of them. “How can this be? We all signed it! It was an officially signed document of the Vampire Association! What the f**k do you mean it’s illegitimate?” Asura barks, demanding answers to resolve his confusion. Godric steps forward and presents the ‘signed document’ of my resignation. All of the signatures that once were have disappeared. Asura’s jaw hits the floor. His eyes cant believe what he’s seeing. The document is blank. “Yes, that means I am still the head vampire over the association, Asura. We figured out your betrayal early on. Luckily Leah and Godric brought it to my attention. I’m not really having an affair with Leah and Godric knew as soon as he arrived. Able to read Leah’s thoughts, he alerted the other elders and devised a plan before they even came to the tomb for our meeting. Oh, and the pen we all used to sign the document? Disappearing ink. You can pretty much get it at any store. Leah and Brian had the gag-pen laying around and provided it for us to sign my Primus resignation document to keep you fooled. So you see Asura, you aren’t the only one who can be deceiving. Collectively, we’re much more cunning than you and your hate motivated bastard rogue.” Abaddon screams with anger, Asura joins in. “How dare you falsify an official document of the association, Damien?” Asura trying to do anything he can to correct his oversight. I laugh at his miserable defense. “Are you kidding me? You are no longer considered an elder of the association! You’ve betrayed your own kind! You’re f*****g fired and banished from the association, starting right now. And all of your riches will fund the less fortunate members on the board!” Godric steps forward again, “You are the greatest disappointment I’ve ever created, Asura. You are hereby released from me and you will never have my assistance, advice or partnership at your disposal again.” Asura looks as if his soul was crushed by Godric’s words. Asura held Godric on such a high pedestal, you can almost see if crashing down on him. Godric turns to me, “Damien, I would like to offer to take you under my wing and stand in as your maker in the absence and betrayal of Asura. Do you accept?” My soul fills, overwhelmed with acceptance and compassion. How could I say no? “Of course, Godric. It would be an honor to be an understudy of such a powerful and wise vampire.” Godric smiles as he walks towards me and embraces me tightly. “And so it is done. Welcome to my family, my son. Both you and Lamia will be loved unconditionally.” Abaddon interjects; angrily screaming and throwing a tantrum at his failed plans of taking over the association. Watching us evolve and getting strong right before his eyes, adapting, accepting and conquering the changes enrages him. “I’d hate to interrupt the f*****g love fest, but I still have business to take care of! Just because you didn’t step down doesn’t mean all hopes of my plan are lost! That just means I need to f*****g kill you and take the position from you by force!” Abaddon challenges me, eyes locked, anger flowing through our veins, a struggle for power imminent. Abaddon standing before me in an aggressive, fighting stance as the earth beneath us starts to rumble. Faint sounds of a massive crowd begin to take over my ear drums as they grow louder, getting closer. Abaddon smiles, “My rogue army is on the way to defeat you, mighty elders! And I’ll be sure to punish, torture and f**k Mia for the rest of her afterlife, just for you Damien!”