A Renegade’s Jeremiad

Chapter 2: Vampiric Vow

April 21st. 10:29 PM

Moon: Waxing Crescent

Henry raced through the forest, not wanting to arouse any further discovery from the hunters as he began to weave through the trees to throw off any hunters that could be tracking him. However, Henry's head received a scorching sense of danger coming from behind him. 'This isn't Nick or any other hunter,' Henry mused, 'Have the wolves begun to pursue me?' Henry rushed to the left, making a swift detour from his hidden home so that it wouldn't be exposed to his pursuer. From the corner of his eye, Henry saw something shifting closer to him, as if tracking his movement and attempting to intercept him.

Henry was tackled by something that was at least a foot taller than him, feeling long strands of rusty brown hair caress his face and neck affectionately. "There you are~ my dear," a womanly voice said. Henry immediately recognized this was a female vampire and tried to move away. However, his body didn't move. In fact, despite his intention to get out of the vampire's grasp, his body relaxed in her feminine arms. Henry's muscles only began to convulse once he felt the vampire's fangs extend and nuzzle close to his neck. Each of Henry's cells began to feel like they were burning and that something was attempting to manifest within Henry. Thankfully, Henry's hunter instincts had his hunter energy blaze through his bloodstream, making his circulation poisonous to both vampires and werewolves and blasting the vampire off his back as he regained control of his body.

The vampire hissed as she felt the hunter energy repel her. "Ouch!" she growled, "I should've anticipated this… You were raised by that man after all." Henry tilted his head; his left eyebrow raised with a frown on his face. "If you're speaking of my father, I'd like to know how you came to know his identity, Vampire," Henry demanded tersely. The vampire calmly rose to her feet, her eyes giving Henry a soft gaze, something that Henry's eyes widened at. "I understand," the vampire said, her tone gentle and sweet, "Please, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Vanessa, and I am here for you." Henry narrowed his eyes, glaring at Vanessa. "And why would a vampire come after a random hunter like me?" Henry asked. "Oh, my dear… You are no random hunter," Vanessa purred, "You are someone I've had a vested interest in since your birth." Henry tilted his head, furrowing his brow. "What are you talking about?" Henry asked. "Please, allow me to explain," Vanessa answered.

Henry paused, allowing Vanessa to say her piece. Vanessa began, "Before your mother met your father, she was my servant." Henry's eyes widened, clearly realizing where this was going. Vanessa continued, "Through high and low, she was by my side, and I ensured she would never leave me by placing my vampiric essence into her blood culture so that I would always keep an eye on her." Once again, the image of his mother's demise flashed across Henry's mind, remembering the fangs and the crimson irises his mother had as she held Henry close, cradling him before she was forcefully executed before him. Henry interrupted, "Hold on! Your vampiric essence?!" Vanessa replied, "Yes. My essence." Henry's perception of his mother's death shattered and slowly pieced itself together, unveiling to Henry that Vanessa somehow set these events into motion. "Why?!" Henry exclaimed, his gaze pointed and scathing, "My mother died because of you!" Henry's jaw clenched, puffs of steam coming off his scalding head. Vanessa continued, "Yes, I am aware of that, and I apologize. However, I simply couldn't allow the injustice at the time to hold water." Henry huffed, his face red and puffy. "What?" Henry asked, "What are you talking about?" Vanessa answered, "Because you, my dear, are the vessel to the King of the Vampires. And I wasn't going to allow those foul, worthless hunters to cut you down before you reached your prime." Henry growled, "You… You're lying! That's not true!" Vanessa sighed, patiently accepting Henry's response to the situation. "This is the truth, my dear Henry. Haven't you faced countless vampires that hunted you? Haven't you noticed they weren't trying to kill you, but rather to turn you into one of my kind?" Henry looked back over his memories as he was trained to be a hunter, and he did indeed recognize what Vanessa claimed, making his face pale and his mouth fall agape.

Before Vanessa could continue, Henry tried to run away, prompting Vanessa to pout before summoning a barrier through a vampiric ritual, trapping Henry with her. "What the?" Henry exclaimed, glancing back at Vanessa. "You're one of the older ones… Aren't you?" Henry asked. "That's correct," Vanessa confirmed. Vanessa took five steps towards Henry, standing in the center of the barrier. "Now," Vanessa calmly continued, "Allow me to finish." Vanessa sighed as Henry sat at the edge of the barrier, listening for now. "So, when your father came to my home to destroy me, he ended up falling for your mother and to my surprise, even after swearing her loyalty to me, the interactions she had with your father over those four weeks he was there made her reciprocate the feelings he had for her," Vanessa explained, taking her time with her words to make sure Henry absorbed what she was saying, "So, when I faked my death and relinquished my control over your mother to protect myself, I kept an eye on her and your father. I learned his position in the local hunter guild here, and I saw the birth of both your brother and yourself. However, I had a strange attachment to you and didn't know why until I saw the operation your father had commissioned for you and your brother." Henry began to sweat profusely, remembering that both he and his brother underwent a medical operation to 'remove' something. He wasn't sure what his father was talking about at the time, but now he realized that due to Vanessa's vampiric essence in his mother's genetic culture, it likely passed on to both him and his brother genetically. Meaning, the operation was done to remove any possibility of either Henry or Marcus becoming easily seduced by vampiric transformation.

"You see," Vanessa elaborated, "After your operation, you had no vampiric essence in you at first, but then it regenerated from your bone marrow and genetic information. I saw it all through the eye of your mother. Your very existence allowed the essence to flourish. When I felt the same strange attachment to you that I felt before that operation, that is when I knew the essence of the Vampire King chose you as its host, which made me honored to be the one who brought my lord back in some form." Vanessa smiled at that thought while Henry stood up, glaring at Vanessa. "So that's why you're here?" Henry asked, "You want to make me the Vampire King?" Vanessa laughed at Henry's question. "No, that is only the bonus," Vanessa answered, "I'm here to claim you as my mate." Henry's eyes narrowed. "I'm sorry? You are a vampire, right?" Henry inquired with mocking undertones. Vanessa scoffed at Henry's ignorance. "Werewolves aren't the only creatures with mating bonds," Vanessa spat, "Vampires have them as well."

Vanessa recoiled from Henry's reaction, observing his clenched teeth and crouched position. Vanessa's heart began to beat again as she saw Henry's trembling eyes. Vanessa's hands shook as images of Henry doing something reckless to get away flashed across her mind. Vanessa walked straight to Henry, took his wrist gently, and pressed his hand against her chest. Vanessa quivered when Henry noticed her heartbeat, looking at her with rapid blinks and a hanging mouth. "T-this… This can only happen when a Vampire finds their mate," Vanessa stammered, her body trembling. Venessa felt a cup in her stomach overflow with her heartbeat, causing tears to coat her eyes as if she were alive. Vanessa looked right into Henry's eyes. "When I came here, I saw couples holding hands, laughing, enjoying their time together… And… For the first time since my transformation, I felt alone," Vanessa confessed, tears falling down her pale cheeks, "I don't want to be alone. I want to be with you, Henry. I want to forge a future together. With you and me residing in a paradise far from the prying eyes of the world." Henry's features softened as he saw Vanessa's watery eyes. Henry understood that Vanessa was serious and felt her voice shake and shiver in her words. Henry's heart, however, did not beat for her. Instead, his mind raced with questions. "Hold on," Henry began, "If you are quite old, does it not disturb you that I'm so young?" Vanessa shook her head. "Of course not. We vampires do not care for our former lives, nor do we care for restrictions when our desires are in focus. Of course, with that being said, most of us do not target children for anything unless they decide to disturb or intervene in our plans. Such is the fate of all creatures who dare to get between us vampires and what we desire. Any vampire who explicitly targets the youngest humans for unnecessary reasons such as indulgence or any interest outside of preserving the future of our kind are considered barbaric or insane since humanity still needs to exist for our benefit and sustenance," Vanessa explained, completely oblivious to Henry's sensibilities. Henry, after hearing this, began to take in quick, shallow breaths, his eyes began to widen again as he thrashed around, trying to get out of Vanessa's grasp. Yet, Vanessa held on with a steel grip, refusing to let go. "You're mine, Henry," Vanessa muttered, the tears drying from her cheeks and eyes, "I found you through a ritual, traveled all this way feeling lonelier than I've ever felt in my five centuries of unlife, the whole trip here, and now I have you. I'm never letting you go!"

Henry took in a sharp breath as he began to channel orange hunter energy, his sclera turning orange, and his pupils morphed into diagonal cross slashes. Henry's facial muscles scrunched up; he bared his teeth at Vanessa and growled at her as a wolf would. From the orange energy, Henry manifested three yards of barbed wire and wrapped it around Vanessa's arms before pulling. The pain from the resulting cuts caused Vanessa to hiss and release Henry, who then covered his legs in a pair of weaponized boots manifested by orange hunter energy and promptly hammer kicked Vanessa before punting her to the other side of the vampiric barrier. "Get away from me, you madwoman!" Henry shouted, his fists shaking with white knuckles due to how tightly he formed them.

Vanessa rose to her feet, huffing with her fangs bared and her irises glowing with a crimson red light. "Why?" Vanessa asked, "Why do you deny me? Why would you forsake paradise?" Henry huffed, grinding his teeth with a piercing glare. "Don't make me laugh! What you are offering doesn't sound like paradise to me, especially not for humanity," Henry answered curtly. "But you left the hunters. So why would you still care about all of these inferior humans?!" Vanessa exclaimed. Henry retorted, "I may have left the hunters, but that was to protect the people from my baggage! I am not going to sacrifice the human race, nor my humanity, for a personal convenience." Vanessa scowled, puffing from her desires being denied. "It is a shame that you cling to something as pathetic as humanity. It will only weigh you down, keep you tied to the less evolved," Vanessa bemoaned with a condescending tone. "I'd rather perish as a weak, soft human rather than live forever as a vampire that has no respect for life!" Henry exclaimed, his mouth forming an animalistic snarl as he spoke.

Vanessa and Henry stared each other down, crimson sparks floating around Vanessa's eyes and orange hunter energy flowing like multiple rivers in and around Henry's arms and legs. After a moment, Vanessa charged at Henry, determined to knock him unconscious. Henry, in retaliation, manifested orange claws on his fingers and rolled under Vanessa, slashing her legs while the orange hunter energy slowed her natural regenerative capabilities. Vanessa hissed and channeled her power, her irises going from crimson to magenta as two fish hooks emerged from her hands, reeling in the moonlight from the ground and air until it manifested as two balls of light in her hands. "So, you want to deny your place and refuse to embrace the subjugation of humanity? Then I'll have to straighten you out!" Vanessa stated venomously. The light in Vanessa's left hand slowly flowed around her arm and blasted shots of concentrated moonlight at Henry. Henry manifested two chains and used them to knock the moonlight shots away from him and into the barrier, causing them to ricochet off the barrier, exposing a central weakness in the barrier's construction. These weaknesses were a few gaps in the structure that were built to keep things out and halt blunt attacks, but it also made it vulnerable to piercing attacks from the inside of the barrier, which would create gaps that Henry could slip through.

Noting this, Henry guided the moonlight shots towards Vanessa to stun her. Once Vanessa was stunned, Henry covered his hand in orange hunter energy, manifesting the tip of a spear over this hand to pierce the vampiric barrier, creating a slim hole in a part of the barrier covered in shadows formed by the nearby trees that he couldn't physically slip through, but Henry had other plans. Vanessa snapped out of her daze. Seeing what Henry was doing, Vanessa focused the balls of light into a single concentrated orb of energy, preparing to fire it at Henry. Henry took a slow breath, switching away from orange hunter energy. The sclera of Henry's eyes turned to a deep purple, and his pupils broke apart and spread into it, creating a hazy look in Henry's eyes. Channeling this purple hunter energy, Henry touched the nearby shadows and silently merged into them, slipping through the c***k he formed in the barrier and getting a good distance away from Vanessa before she fired a beam of moonlight in his direction.

Henry, straying low to the ground, saw the moonlight beam punch through the trees like a ballista. Henry said nothing, remaining perfectly silent as he crawled away so gracefully, he made no sound as he moved or touched the ground. Vanessa canceled her barrier and searched the area, trying to find Henry with no luck, as Henry receded into the shadows, going back to his hidden home with no further incident. However, he paused at the door, noticing that a lock of hair was cut from his head during his nightly scuffles, deciding to keep a large amount of carefulness prepared for the next few days and nights. Meanwhile, Vanessa screeched into the night, tears running down her face as she fell to her knees. "Henry…" Vanessa muttered, "You may have slipped away this time…" Vanessa looked up from her tear-stained hands, her irises glowing crimson as she glanced wistfully in the direction of her moonlight blast. Vanessa continued, "But mark my words; You will be mine. And we will have our paradise!" Vanessa stood onto her feet and ran off, seeking shelter from the coming daylight.