Red Death Incarnate: Prologue

Darian did not remember much of the time between his death and rebirth into mortal flesh. But, he could not help thinking that his only desire had been to live again. He remembered nothing of his time in death. A vast cavernous maw consumed that part of his memory. He remembered the most scant details of a life before that, his past life. Those memories were usually vague at best. He looked down at his hands. Now, even he, saw the new form he inhabited rather than the real Darian, the demon.

He shivered inwardly and whispered, "The price for being made flesh again is high. You must find a child who is to be stillborn. Be warned, you will need to feed on souls forever." The words echoed within the depths of his mind. He had been warned, yet his need for life, and for revenge, had been stronger than the alluring peace of death.

The scent of blood clung precariously in the air. The need to consume raged within him. A woman, standing nearby, watching him with a deep curiosity. The blood scent came from her, he was certain of it. He had noticed her presence as she arrived moments before, he had refused to acknowledge her. The scent drew him to her. His eyes moved over her lithe form. Her skin held the ruddy complexion of one recently fed. "We are much the same, Darian." she said quietly. "I lived as a mortal for almost 19 years. When I was turned I began to remember a past life, first only as dreams. Dreams that were half remembered but haunting just the same. My soul is vampiric therefore it was fate that I come full circle." Her voice broke as she turned away.

"This distresses you?" he asked coldly. The mention of dreams had struck a chord with him. It was exactly the same. For twenty-one years he had lived as a mortal man then just weeks before the twenty-second anniversary of his birth the dreams began. They were vivid and full of blood. At first he had been distressed, at best they had been partial memories. Fragments of his past taunting him. Eventually they became surreal and seemed detached. Then they began to make sense. The body he was now in became ill with consumption and, as the mortal life came closer to ending, the dreams connected. Death had again embraced him. This time for now more that the pause of several heartbeats, but, in that time all had changed.

The vampiric nature of his soul, twenty-one years hidden deep within mortal flesh was unleashed. Once back inside flesh the soul would no longer deny itself the blood.

"How did you do it, Darian? How did you regain flesh after a century of death?" Aurelia asked, her eyes betraying her. He growled as he felt her attempting to probe his thoughts. She had broken a crack in the surface of his mind. She had not begun to probe the depths of the darkness in which his madness lingered.

"A stillborn..." Darian began so softly Aurelia scarcely heard.

Aurelia allowed a startled scream to pass her lips as Darian clutched her wrist in a vice-like grip. He forced her close to him, He took a deep breath, smelling the sweet scent of her skin and of her blood. He smelled something else too, a bit of fear and apprehension. The traces of a smile played at his lips as he slid his fangs easily into the flesh.

He closed his eyes reveling in the blood. Images began to form, he mentally projected them to Aurelia, invading her mind. A man, young and full of life, betrayed by those he trusted most. A fatal wound, bleeding and dying, and old witch murmuring numerous incantations. An awakening, the noises deafening. The faintest sounds thunderous, the faintest scent monstrous.

The image shifted. A woman, desperate and dying, himself kneeling beside her begging her to drink, the overpowering scent of her death and fear of him. Two men entering, accusing him of her death, as she expired in his arms, her blood painting his lips.

The images flickered and leapt, centuries later, the same young man. Betrayed and burnt, his flesh peeling away as he screamed and uttered curses at those once his allies. Betrayal. It was all he ever knew. Everyone turning away from him time and again. Death and hatred, until he was reborn.

Rebirth into a new body and again betrayal. The father of the child he had become a disgusting bastard who betrayed a child's trust every time the drink seized him.

The images took on a new subject. Villages burning, bodies impaled and skinned alive. Monstrosities everywhere one could look.

Darian released her. "It is not all for nothing. Betrayal begets the best evil. And betrayal came to me again and again."

Aurelia fought to remain on her feet. She staggered toward the wall and leaned heavily against it. "Is that the way you recall it, Darian? Allow me to correct you. You killed those people for no other reason than it pleased you to do so. You had some insane idea for the destruction and ruin of the human race. You would be not only the ruler of the vampire world but of the human as well. You would kill all opposed to you and perhaps even recruit a few along the way." Aurelia paused as Darian watched her, his true nature lurking just beneath the surface.

"You killed with a fiendish deliberation. Those so called recruited were left as rogues. The rest of us had to clean up your messes. You never had the patience to finish what you started. That is why you were sacrificed to the Celtic gods it was either stop you or expose our race. You were mad, Darian."

He moved slowly toward Aurelia. His head lowered slightly, his face masked with loathing and contempt. Something within Darian faltered. No mask to shield the demon. He appeared as he was, not as the horrible monster, or the rotten corpse as vampires seem to be expected to be. He was an evil, vile shadow, moving through the darkness as it shifted loathing the touch of his hideous soul.

He leaned close to her, his breath caressed her throat, "You remembered these things?" he questioned. "I think you were sent here to deceive me. I shall tell them you failed." He again bit into the cool flesh of her throat, this time tearing violently into it. Blood poured forth in a pulsating, rubicund stream.

He dropped her body unceremoniously to the floor. Already he was bored with this game. He wanted to leave and seek victims outside the towns. He wanted them to run so he could hunt them down and taste their fear. He started toward the exit. A light rain had begun. Darian inhaled deeply, the scent of the rain had always pleased him, but tonight his bloodlust would not be abated so easily.