Driech Fhoula Castle Ireland
Year 1845
Dosei found the idea of biting into a human's neck to be repulsive. However, when he found his otousan doing so, he made it seem like it was nice. The woman also seemed to like it.
It was disturbing.
His blood usually came from birds and cows, occasionally he was rewarded with lion's blood which was his favorite as a sauce on a steak.
"Do you bite human necks mama?" he asked.
His mother tilted her head in confusion. Her pretty smile and eyes shining with curiosity She picked him up and put him in her lap. It was always so warm, he just had to nuzzle into her chest.
"Why that question my love?" she said to him in old Irish.
He was already fluent in English and Japanese so she had thought it time to get him to learn her mother tongue.
He thought hard on how to respond. He must have made a face because his mother squeezed his cheeks.
"I saw otousan," he finally was able to say. "I was wandering and I opened a door. Why was he drinking blood from a human?"
It sounded disgusting to him.
"Oh your father," she replied a little less amused. "You're much too small to understand my love, but it is normal. Good even."
He scrunched his face and his mother laughed. The bell-like sound made him laugh too.
"But why mama?" he asked. "Oisin says humans are nasty and dirty."
"Oisin is one to talk," she muttered. "Don't listen to your uncle. Oisin partakes in humans as much, if not more, as anyone else. He thinks he is above the family curse but if you ask me, he is the worst when it comes to humans. He takes them like candied nuts. "
"I'm not going to," he said firmly. "It looked funny and I like when you mix juiced pears with some cow blood instead but I do love candied nuts.."
His mother smiled sweetly.
"You'll understand once you're older, my love."
He huffed. It was always when he was older. He was already 3, almost 4.
"Can I try some then?" he asked his mother.
She giggled and shook her head.
"When you're older my love," she said.
He pouted and was about to tell her was older now but then her guards rushed into the room.
"My Lady," they said, their eyes wide. "It's Lord Cormac, he is outside the gates with an army of bitten."
His mothers eyes widened as well and her skin became so ashy.
Something was wrong and Dosei just knew it.
"Mama?"he asked.
His mother ,however, ignored his calls as she stood and headed straight to the doors, her skirts in her hand as she began commanding her guards.
"Come little lord," his guard, Eabha, said as he was yanked up. "We must get you to the safe room."
His guard, who was a very fast woman, had managed to get him to the safe room in seconds and was opening it up.
"Stay very quiet little one," she whispered. "We are under attack."
Attack?
Dosei knew that meant trouble, that someone was trying to hurt them. He nodded, wanting to make sure he listened and didn't get hurt.
His guard was messing with an old organ his mother had in her private quarters. She pressed the keys but no sound came out.
Dosei felt a pain in his head from the confusion. He didn't like being confused.
Suddenly the floor rattled and the piano began to be lifted up by a part of the ground that also was rising. When it stopped there was a door and his guard opened it.
"Go on little one," she said. "Run as fast..."
She was disrupted by the door to the room being blasted down. He heard her yell at him to run but before he could ,both of them were falling to their knees.
"You may go, Eabha," a voice said from behind them.
Dosei turned to her and while her face was scrunched up in pain, she slowly ,almost unwillingly, stood up.
Eventually she was out the door and Dosei was left with a man he had never met. He was tall but not as tall as his father. He had white hair that looked almost Grey like his mothers. His eyes were green just like his and his mothers.
He looked like his mother.
The man ,whom Dosei guessed was this Lord Cormac, took a step forward. His presence made Dosei feel heavy, like he needed to sit down.
He knew what this was. His grandfather Finn had explained to him once that was called compulsion. It was a skill many of their people could do.
His father was the same and so was his mother but they always relaxed that skill when he was with them.
His otousan once told him that he would be able to do this and he would be even stronger at it. His otousan said he would be able strong man one day.
But right now he did not feel strong, even as hard as he was trying to not stand up.
"To be resisted by a little toddler," this man named Cormac said. "It's quite impressive. You're going to be so strong."
Cormac knelt down. Dosei could see his face very well now. He really did look so much like his mother.
"You look like our mother now," he said, touching Doseis' cheek. "But I think you're going to grow and resemble Lord Fuyuhiko, it's inevitable. Perhaps you'll be a perfect mix. Such a handsome boy."
Their mother?
"The bewilderment on your face is so innocent and sweet," he said. "You don't know who I am ,do you? "
Dosei shook his head.
"I am Lord Cormac Driech of the Driech Fhoula family. Son of Lady Niamh Driech Fhoula and Lord Acton Alkan of the Alkan family. I am the legal heir to the Driech Fhoula family and I am your older half brother."
Dosei felt his head start to pound from the confusion and the compulsion to kneel that he was fighting.
Cormac smiled. It made Dosei feel sick inside.
"Your aura is like mothers," he said. "It's soft and pure, the only taintedness coming from that cunt of a man that helped her make you."
A sharpened nail cut Dosei on his cheek and he fell back with a shriek of pain. Cormac, with his eyes now red, moved forward menacingly but stopped abruptly.
"Enough," the uncharacteristically loud voice of his mother boomed. "Enough Cormac. Come here Dosei."
Dosei finely felt the release of the tension pushing him down and ran straight to his mother who picked him up in her arms, hugging him tightly.
The man turned to them. His eyes still reddened and he was smirking.
"I wasn't going to hurt your precious prince, mum. I was just having some fun. You've all had me hiding for so long and I've finally had enough friends for this little soiree."
"You think this is funny," his mother said, her tone so hard and icy Dosei felt cold.
The floor had actually iced up, he realized. Cormacs feet were encased in some ice but he easily broke out of it.
He sauntered towards them but his mother didn't back down.
"Why are you doing this Cormac?" his mother growled. "Lord Fuyuhiko graciously allowed you your freedom after what happened with his daughter and your subsequent escape from your first imprisonment. Why are you betraying his trust?"
Cormac laughed and laughed that almost sounded deadly.
"Graciously?" he questioned. "Fuyuhiko didn't do it out of grace ,he did it because I couldn't and still won't be caught."
"You've turned hundreds of humans!" she yelled back. "Biting and turning is forbidden to you and yet you have turned so many? Cormac, what is wrong with you?"
Cormac's eyes fell upon Dosei but the look wasn't dark or bad intentioned.
It was almost soft, it reminded him of their mother again.
"In another world, a better world, he could have been mine," Cormac nearly whispered. "But it's as if fate had different plans for me. I was gifted with a different sense of family. "
"It's the Driech Fhoula curse," his mother corrected. "It's no gift. This ability has led to the death of so many of our family. I know you may not believe me but I don't want it to take you either."
"Perhaps the Driech Fhoula curse will," he said. " Maybe the Alkan curse will take me first. The Hunters have been after my Uncle Corbin Alkan for sometime now as they should be. He doesn't take care of his children.."
Children? Dosei didn't understand.
"And you do?" his mother scoffed. "How many are going to die at the hands of my guards. How many will be executed when they are deemed unstable."
Cormac narrowed his eyes.
"They're only going to become unstable if I allow them to. I don't plan on that."
His mother and brother were now glaring at one another.His mother had frozen all doors and windows shut. Her ice was very strong and when she really wanted it to be, not even otousan could break through it.
"There were hundreds of them," she cried, her grip tightening. "How can you possibly keep track of them all?"
Cormac smirked and took a step forward.
"They are my children," he sternly replied. "I do what I can and I have yet to lose any due to unnatural causes. I keep my family safe."
His mother sighed.
"And what is this," she said. "You think you won't lose any today?"
"No," Cormad replied. " I don't. They have strict orders to escape and evade. Should any be captured I will personally save them myself."
"Will you?"
His mothers voice was not like anything he had ever heard. It was scary. He didn't like it and he didn't like his brother for making her like that.
His brother.
Dosei felt so confused. He had a brother and his brother wanted to hurt them but then said he didn't. And their mother was angry. Angrier then she had ever been.
"Mum?" he whispered.
Before she could answer him, Cormac lunged. He moved so fast that he was almost invisible but his mother avoided him with her own speed.
If the room hadn't been so big, he was sure someone would have crashed into a wall but instead Cormac kept running after his mother and his mother kept evading.
But a moment later Cormac finally landed a blow that did send his mother crashing into the wall and him falling to the floor.
"Mummy!" he cried as he scrambled to get up.
His mother groaned in pain. Her head had smacked the wall so hard he could see her blood on her neck but before he could reach her he was being yanked back up and there was something sharp at his cheek.
It was a sharp and very hot knife. It was so hot he could see his brother's hand getting blisters like the pork rind his mom gave him as a treat one day.
"A hunter's blade," Cormac announced. "I don't want to hurt the boy. I just want to take him."
"Cormac please, please stop," his mother wailed. "This isn't right."
"It's not right?" Cormac yelled. "You know what else wasn't right. What you and that old bastard did to me. You have another already brewing in your womb. What's so wrong about me taking this one?"
"He's my son!"
"So am I."
It was getting so loud and so crazy. The blade wasn't even touching him and it was burning his skin.
He wanted to go to his mother, he wanted this man to release him.
He felt something start bubbling in his chest and suddenly his mothers crystals burst from thin air. Only these were red and they were hot.
One had hit Cormac on his side and now he was bleeding but he had released him. Dosei scrambled again to get up but the hot crystals had made it unbearable, he was starting to get dizzy.
There were so many crystals and all he wanted was for them to cool down. And then they did and suddenly it was ice cold inside the room, a lot like his mum could do.
The change made him fall to his knees. Cormac was standing once more, also scrambling, but he was coming closer. Even as Doseis vision started to blacken, he tried to get back to his mum, scared of his brother.
But it was all too much, Dosei couldn't stand and Cormac was too close.
Dosei felt a hand grab his arm, yanking him up. It was harsh and it hurt. He wanted to cry out , he wanted his mum.
"Enough," the familiar voice of his otousan boomed.
Suddenly he was hitting the floor and the room was quiet. His vision had blurred but the last thing he felt was his mothers warm arms and his father's strong presence.
END