Underworld Tales

Chapter  21

Underworld Tales

Victor steps down from the balcony edge talking to Celeste in French.

Victor: Although I must say I am surprised that you still have the vampire; Fernand is it? Yes..surprised he's still around...

Celeste: Surprised? What do you mean? (saying with the scrolled message in her hand)

Victor: Surprised you got him to control his hunger...figured it out....

Celeste: What that if you feed the beast until it's full it won't want to eat? Wasn't hard. They use the same tactic on farms...No big deal.

Victor: I don't doubt it.

Celeste: What exactly do you want Victor? I mean you lure me here with the promise of answers... you tell me to get my friends hunger in order...and only after..after you spend days lying to me...What are you playing at?

Victor begins to pace the balcony.

Victor: You're right... about everything... I was wrong I shouldn't have mislead you, there was good reason. But I must admit it is only because I wanted to help... it is all I have ever want to do.

Celeste: You can start by telling me why I should trust you?

Victor stops pacing.

Victor: Wasn't me saving you and your friends life the other night not good enough?

Celeste: Um...Insane? yes...I mean are you fucking out of you mind? You seem to keep forgetting the lying, the alluding questions... oh and how about the strength and um...the flying?! How do you do that  without an enchantment? Are you witch or something else entirely?

Victor: Look, I promise answers to that and much more in time... which we have very little of...what we need to start worrying about is the vampires!

Celeste: Shh....(looks around) keep your voice down...not here. (saying as she jumps off the balcony and Victor follows)

The two begin walking and talking down a small path in the woods.

Victor: Sorry...it's just...time is important right now... and there is allot to cover.

Celeste: What are you talking about...what's going on? You said something was coming...what?

Victor: Tell me...what do you know...or should I say...what have you been told by the vampires?

Celeste: Told?... well um...they feed on blood to live...mostly of animals... humans too but very little...they um... protect the lands from the creatures of the night that would do themselves, the land or humans harm....

Victor chuckles.

Victor: Is that what they told you? The Mondragon’s?

Celeste stops walking and looks at Victor cautiously.,

Celeste: How do you know about the Mondragon’s... I never told....

Victor slows down walking and turns around to look at Celeste.

Victor: You didn't?

Low growling comes from the shadows of the trees and bushes around them and glowing eyes follow. The two soon find themselves surrounded by werewolves.

Celeste draws dagger from her hip.

Celeste: Son of bitch! You betrayed me!

Victor: It's not what you think! Please hear me out!

Celeste: Walked me into a fucking ambush! What do you mean it's not what I think?!

Victor: These wolves have been here the entire night! If they were going to do as you think they would have the moment you stepped on that balcony...I told them not to.

Celeste: What do you mean you told them not to? Are you...are you a werewolf?

Victor: No...

Translate in Spanish.

Victor: Leave us, Please!

The wolves begin to leave.

Translated In French.

Celeste: Then if you are not a werewolf..what are you...

Victor: ...(looks away)

Celeste: You told them to leave....why?

Victor: Forgot you spoke Spanish...never mind that... I showed them to you to prove to you that what you know about them...EVERYTHING is wrong.

Sheathing her blade.

Celeste: What's going on? Start talking.

Victor: The vampires don’t feed on human blood in case of an emergency or something... they feed on it for not only nourishment...but also pleasure...luxury..some even get off on it.. 'specifically the kill...and yes.. even the hunt. Animals are only  used if they need substance in a hurry...for survival...like if their stuck on a ship at sea for months or they haven’t had their fill before sunrise or injured and need to heal quickly and not a single person is around. They don’t protect the land for the humans...they feed on them and if there is a threat to their territory they eliminate it with extreme prejudice....

Celeste: ....

Victor: The werewolves aren’t the enemy.. not all of them anyway. But are seen as such threats to their territory and feeding ground.

Celeste: Territory... (whispers in confusion)

Victor Werewolves... they hunger for meat...not just humans but animals as well... they can’t help it...They have little control... especially the young ones on a full moon. They turn and they just can’t control themselves. The older ones are able to control the change and turn only when they need to feed which is about as often as people do.

Celeste: The missing children?

Victor: Mhm... Wolves replenishing their ranks. They generally stay in the mountains..the forest..caves..keeping to themselves. Plenty of animals there..But every so often... there are casualties.

Celeste: Humans?

Victor: Yes...some get lost in the woods... others stay in the woods longer than need to and their scent is just picked up...It's overwhelming and around the full moon...like I said werewolves can't help themselves... vampires on the other hand...

Celeste: From the way you speak it doesn't sound like they are much different than the vampires...they eat people.

Victor: Perhaps...yes...they are monsters... But I'd trust their humanity more than any vampire if I were you.

Celeste: Why is that?

Victor: They attempt a sense of control through isolating themselves... catering to the beast that lives within the human spirit...everyone has it.... even you.

Celeste:....

Victor: Vampires tend to ignore their humanity and see themselves superior to all beings...regardless if they are or not... and it is this disregard that allows them to take life so carelessly.

Celeste: You said they...wolves have to replenish their ranks...why?

Victor: ...:because of the slaughter they have endured for the last 500 hundreds years.

Celeste: Slaughter..I... wait...I don’t understand. You said....

Victor: Please sit down...

Celeste: I'd rather stand thank you..

Victor: Fair enough....(saying as he sits down on a trunk of a tree) As I was saying the vampires have been slaughtering the wolves like cattle for 500 years.... to defend their personal cattle and business interest.

Celeste: Business interest? what do you mean?

Victor: That's complicated...

Celeste: How so...tell me...

Victor: Listen the less you know about vampire politics right now the better....I promise I will tell you more when the time comes...but as you probably know or do not now, war broke out among the lycans and vampires after the werewolves revolted.

Celeste: Revolted?

Victor: Yes... the vampires..they use to keep the lycans enslaved...particularly to guard them during the day and keep the towns people so scared they would run to the vampires for protection...giving anything to them from crops to money, wine and even people. Vampires themselves are an anomaly portraying the same traits by the clans they covet...but in those clans only a selected few have the capability to make it past their few hundred years and even small few who survive into thousands to become elders as they are called. Werewolves are similar...but because they are more human in nature.... because they are born half human, I believe, it allows them to leap forward or backward in their own anomaly. At one time, centuries ago, it stepped backwards... in a great way and mindless wolves not capable of becoming human again manifested.

Celeste: Wendigos...

Victor: Yes... Their bite and scratch is highly different like any other lycan....so when they do so...the humans turn within a matter of time...At one time they grew so abundant the mindless ones proved uncontrollable to the vampire race. So uncontrollable an immediate purge was executed on not just them but their entire kind’s existence.

Celeste: Genocide? No...that...that doesn’t sound like them.

Victor:  You sure about that? What does your heart say? Trust your instinct...trust yourself... you know something has been off about them since you began to consort with them.

Celeste: ...

Victor: For years the lycans were hunted..tortured and killed indiscriminately...It wasn't until the last first born son of the lycan race started the revolt against the vampires. It was he who was able to salvage what was left of their existence...

Celeste: The last first?

Victor:  His name was Jorge... he was a hero to the lycans...first of their kind born... and the last...he passed away a few years ago in the tide of the war. Before that he made sure his kind would stay in the shadows and control their numbers under the vampire’s noses.... But even still...the vampire race continued to hunt down and execute the lycans without mercy and will not stop until they are gone completely..even take on hired hands to do so.

Celeste: What are you saying... that I am a hired assassin of a dying species?

Victor: You're allot more than that... there's just... so much you do not know.

Celeste: Then tell me...What don't I know?!

Victor: I can’t tell you everything right now... there's no time... just know that just like the genocide that befell the lycans...something else is coming...possibly worse. The vampires have had their hand in so much that has fallen on humanity and other worldly creatures that they "claim" to you they are trying to stop or help...when in actuality they have or are orchestrating it.

Celeste: Well what... what the fuck am I suppose to do? I'm just one person... and you won’t tell me everything!

Victor: I'm sorry..there really is no time... You’ll have help... hell you currently have it in your friends back there.

Celeste: A partial feral vampire and kid who's scared to become one?! How is that help?

Victor: You got him to overturn his hunger in a single night, something I have never seen. You've a connection with him...something stronger than any bloodlust... use that it's stronger than anything you can imagine... even bloodlust..

Celeste: And Inkil? One compulsion from the sisters and this whole thing is going to be blown open wide... and I can’t lie to him.

Victor: There are ways around that...something I am sure you will figure out with your...talents. Listen...you're closer than anyone of your kind has ever been to them... You have strengths they are unaware of...use them to your advantage.

Victor looks into the woods behind Celeste and begins to pace off.

Victor: I promise in time I will tell you more...just stay on your guard...trust your instincts. (saying as he begins to run off)

Celeste: But how do I reach you?!

Victor: (looks around again as a horse begins to gallop closer) I will be around. (Flies off)

Moments later the horse slows to a stop several feet away to reveal Sadie's arrival, in a cloak, seconds later.

Sadie: Finally... I found you.

Celeste: Sadie?

Sadie: Who were you expecting?

Celeste: Not you...that's for sure...

Sadie: Well I guess this is a bit of surprise...where's...

Celeste: How did you find me... I haven’t even replied to Anabel's last message... I just got it.

Sadie: Oh good..I mean... Inkil... I...have his scent so I can track him anywhere..where is he? Why isn’t he with you, right now?! I said protect him!

Celeste: Calm down...he's in a saloon just up the road here.

Sadie: What the fuck is he doing in there? He's suppose to be with you!

Celeste: We... we uh made a stop for the night. I thought he could use a break... so ..so I bought him a couple drinks, some food and a little fun.

Sadie: A whore? Really?

Celeste: Yes...

Sadie: Damn it..you've been around my sister too long....And what are you doing here then?

Celeste: (looking down and around in the shadows and sniffing) Lycans...don’t you smell it....

Sadie: (sniffs) Yea... I do actually now that you said something... a few..ugh...fucking stinks. (saying as she looks around)

Celeste: How...how'd you get here so fast... I mean I just got this message (holding it up) and haven't read it yet.

Sadie: Yes ignore that (taking message away) I've got a new one. I need..I mean we need you to keep away from the manor for a little while...until we give word it's safe.

Celeste: Why? Is.. something wrong?

Sadie: Nothing we can’t handle... just do this. Wait for us to contact you, continue your job and above all... continue to keep Inkil safe.... we should have this settled before his siring ceremony so I will send message before then.

Celeste: This must be really important if you had to deliver this message yourself....

Sadie: Just do as I say... (vamp speed off to the horse and rides off)

Celeste: (mockingly) Whatever you say...

Celeste looks around and then begins to take the opposite way toward the saloon as Victor watches from a distance rough top alone and is soon met by a figure in a hooded cloak.

Translated In Spanish.

Hooded figure: Do you think we should go after the vampire?

Victor: No...she's no threat at the moment and sending the others into her midst will just get them slaughtered.

Hooded figure: You doubt my kind so much?

Victor: Actually quite the opposite if you were listening to my exchange with the dhampir...trust me...I'm saving them.

Hooded Figure: And do you trust her.... the dhampir?

Victor: Perhaps when she trust herself...I will too.