(Author note; Here is the prologue of this new book I am working on I will start posting more chapters after I completely finish The Twin Mage.)
To a starving vampire, the sound of a human heartbeat is a symphony. The thump, thump, thump echoes through the world like a joyful trumpet, announcing the opening of the hunt. The aroma of blood quickly follows, sweet ambrosia overflowing with life. Either one is tantalizing, but together they are enough to drive you to madness.
Thirty-three days ago, I was a happy parent of two. My friends called me Mary, instead of Mary, and I worked a job that paid too little, to provide for a spouse and children who showed me nothing but love and affection. It was honest work. The kind that made the world a little better with each passing day and gave me a sense of satisfaction that I was doing good.
Then they shattered that life.
If you had told me watching anime with my child, Luke, would one day let me understand the most bizarre experience of my life, I might have laughed. Those silly shows were too ridiculous to offer more than the simple pleasure of spending time with my kid, or so I thought.
Thirty-three days ago, I was isekaied, summoned from our world to another like some tragic anime cliché, but instead of some noble king needing a hero to save a kingdom, I ended up in the middle of a dark cult, hellbent on becoming vampires.
They made a literal deal with the devil, while holding me in chains. It was a creature so foul that its presence nauseated me in a way I cannot adequately describe, making me want to curl into a ball and tremble as I tried to scrub away the filth crawling under my skin from being in its presence.
The ones who summoned me called me 'hero,' another cliché. Then, as newly turned vampires, they feasted on me, which was the only part of the experience that was remotely original.
I died in the same room where I was summoned, where the demon was summoned, where they blunted their new fangs on my flesh and drank the life from me. Then thirty-three days ago, I returned to the world of the living. And I did not come back as the same person who left.
I once viewed life through an emotionless haze, due to a concussion. Being a vampire was a little like that. My emotional range and interests were smothered when compared to what they once were. My objective morality was skewed, and my compassion was so limited as to be non-existent.
The loneliness of the small, damp cell I'd woken in would have driven me mad in the past. The screams of my neighbors in the other cells by me would have driven me to tears. Now, the only thing I cared about was the fact that no one had fed me. So, I sat in the cell I couldn't escape and allowed time to flow by as my hunger grew.
My insane thirst for blood had me aware of the party of adventurers the moment they arrived.
They came through sewers, wading through the filth and muck, heartbeats erratic and fearful. They entered via the pipe where they disposed of the subterranean structure's waste, likely thinking it would disguise their entry.
There were four of them. Some wore leather and steel, while others were dressed in soft fabrics.
Through the barred window in my cell door, I watched them skulk down the brick-lined hallway with great caution. They were not half as quiet as they thought they were, and they were not ready to face what awaited them in the darkness down here.
So, I did them a favor, possibly the last favor of my life, and told them so. "You're all going to die down here."
My voice had changed during the transformation. It was deeper, smoother, filled with confidence and predatory intent, giving me the sort of English accent you only see in movies. It was rich and compelling.
My spouse would have loved it, the way I loved their American accent.
A blonde young adventurer, in their early twenties and dressed in a pristine white robe, spun, raising the head of a staff in my direction and muttering a single phrase: "Holy Shot."
A blast of radiant light burst from the end, engulfing my head with the intensity of a lighthouse at night.
I blinked away the stars I was seeing, otherwise unaffected, but a little surprised by the action. "Did you just say holy shit to blast me with magic? I'm not going to lie, but never in a million years would I have thought that those would be the words that someone used to kill me. Do you get some sort of perverse pleasure from making the last words people hear profanity? If so, you should talk to someone about it. That can't be healthy." My words came out in a disjointed rush as I tried to distract myself from the thirst clawing at my throat.
The four-member party of adventurers stood in the middle of the hallway, staring at me with their weapons raised. They had been on edge as they made their way here; now they were ready to swing at anything that got too close.
The burly-looking one in the steel breastplate seemed to be in charge, because they took control of the situation. "Lela, it didn't work. Hit it again."
"Holy Shot."
Another burst of light hit me in the face, but this time I had enough experience to close my eyes. I also heard them properly this time. "Oh, you said Holy Shot. My mistake. Sorry for the accusation."
"What the fuck?" Burly said.
"Language," I growled, bestially. "There are people present."
Burly took offense to my suggestion. "Look, I'm not going to be fucking lectured by a bloody blood-sucker. Kindly shut up and die."
"Holy Shot."
Light enveloped my head a third time.
"It's not working," Burly said.
"I noticed," I said, trying to be helpful as I ignored the hunger demanding I tear their throats out and drink their blood. It was difficult.
I was ready to die, ready to step beyond the veil.
Living as a monster for a chance at a few more lonely years didn't interest me. I wasn't safe to be around. And I still remembered what it was to be a good person, and I'd rather die with dignity than live like this.
These new instincts were pushing me to hurt people, and it was taking everything I had not to throw myself against the door and try to break through with my fists, even though I knew it was pointless. The door was too strong. Every attempt I had made to escape had utterly failed.
Burly ignored me as they focused on their allies. "Lela, why isn't it fucking working?"
The young adventurer blushed and took a tentative step forward, peering through the bars at my face, holding their lamp higher. "Um, excuse me, ah, sir. Have you killed and eaten any people since becoming a vampire?"
It was an odd question. "Would you believe me if I said no?"
"Of course, we won't believe you if you say no," Burly hissed. "We need to stake this vampire and move on. Peppy, shoot an arrow into their chest."
"The door's kind of in the way," I pointed out as I turned to the archer, who had nocked an arrow. They were a big person with dark hair and a mischievous face. "Also, is your name really Peppy?"
She nodded, far too doe-eyed and innocent for this place. "They are the only ones worth listening to."
"I give it a fifty-fifty chance that I try to eat you. I've been locked in here for thirty-three days, and you all smell like cold beer on a hot afternoon. I think the only reason I haven't gone mad from the hunger is because my wife made me do a weeklong water fast with her once, and that hellish experience taught me how to tolerate hunger."
She grinned. "You're pious."
"No, I was fat."
Peppy snorted.
It was good to have someone to make jokes with again, but this had to end. "Look, there are several hundred ghouls down here, along with the thirteen vampires that turned me. You all seem like nice people, so I suggest you climb back down that hole you came out of and get as far away from here as you can. Actually, that brings up a question I've been wanting to ask this entire time. How are you all so clean? I know what you climbed through."
"It's a spell," the second woman said.
"Rena can't stand being dirty," Peppy added.
"Cleanliness is next to godliness, they say."
"I like that," Lela said. "Do you mind if I use it?"
"You're welcome to it. Now if you would kindly head back the way you came, just look for the filthy tunnel that leads to a long, happy life."
"She's got a point," Peppy said. "We aren't equipped to deal with a vampire nest. If these ghouls wake up, we're dead."
"I'm personally surprised they haven't woken up already. You lot aren't exactly quiet."
Lela frowned. "That is odd. By now they should have broken out of their cell and torn us apart." Her head tilted to the side the way, Kathrine, my daughter always tilted hers when she was thinking. "You said you've been in here for thirty days."
"Thirty-three, but who's counting."
"Did these vampires summon this demon to become vampires, by any chance?"
"Yes. They then ate me and the entire nearby village, from what my old neighbours complained about. Apparently, they thought they were being invited to their lord's manor for a feast, only the invitation didn't specify that they were the feast."
"They're slumbering," Lela whispered.
"For your sake, I hope so."
"No, you don't understand. Vampires' spawn need to eat and then sleep to transition into full-fledged vampires. Then vampires need to eat and then sleep so they can transition into elder vampires. Elder vampires need to eat and then sleep so they can transition into ancient vampires. When they go through this transition, the only thing that will wake them is the death of a nearby vampire. Right now, they're vulnerable."
"How vulnerable," Burly asked.
"They won't wake up even if we stake a vampire right next to them?"
I scratched the side of my chin. "I thought you said killing one would wake the others."
"That's right."
"Why would you stake them, then?"
"To paralyze them."
I raised an eyebrow. "Staking vampires doesn't kill them?"
Lela looked at me perplexed. "Why would staking vampires kill them? You need to cut off a vampire's head to kill them, and an elder vampire will come back to life if someone then reattaches it."
"My apologies. I'm new to the whole vampire business. Anyway, it won't do you any good. You won't be able to find them. They're in a hidden room."
"You expect us to believe you?" Burly asked.
I could see she wasn't going to listen to reason. "Since you're committed to dying young, see for yourself." I pointed in the direction from which I could sense my makers. "They're that way. I'll be here when you come back for help."
The party made a quick plan that would lead to all of them dying, and then disappeared for an entire day. I listened to them stomping around the complex from my cell as they searched for the secret room. Lela was right. The vampires that had turned me wouldn't wake up for anything.
Tired and despondent, the party returned to my cell.
"This is how it's going to work," Burly said the moment they appeared. "Peppy is going to unlock your cell door, then I'm going to get in the cell with you. If you can fight the impulse to feed on me for a reasonable amount of time, then we're going to let you out so you can help us. If you try to kill me, I'm going to knock you senseless, and then we're going to get the hell out of here."
"No," I said simply.
She frowned. "No?"
"No. I don't like you. If you waltz in here, I'm going to try to eat you. I might not even try to fight the impulse. If you want to make this work, then you have to do it my way. And my way involves using the most likely to survive, and that is Lela. Second most likely is Peppy. Then the clean one, Rena. Then some random stranger you manage to find. Then a sewer rat. Then you."
"I'll go," Lela offered.
"No, you won't," Peppy said. "Without your holy magic, you won't be able to keep her off you long enough for us to save you. I'll go."
Lela shook her head. "I'm our best chance of ridding the world of this evil. It needs to be me. A higher chance of success is worth risking my life."
"Her odds are much better, Peppy."
She turned to me frowning. "Why?"
"She reminds me of my daughter."
"And that's enough to protect her?"
"It helps that she's the one who wants to help me become human again, but it's mostly the reminding me of my daughter."
Every word I said was true. The natural impulse to value human life was entirely gone. I was a monster.
"I'll be fine," Lela said.
"I wouldn't be that enthusiastic. Let's go with you might be okay."
"Very comforting," Peppy muttered as she approached the lock on my cell door.
I stepped back and gave her room to work. In only a few seconds, she had the lock open, quickly followed by the door. Lela stepped into my cell, a room barely larger than a bedroom. The door closed behind her, then it locked.
Lela became my whole world as my instincts and hunger focused on her with hyperintensity.
Lela raised her hand. "That's a lead coffin. Only ancient vampires require lead coffins. If it's further along in the transformation than we think, we won't be able to kill it."
Peppy scowled. "But if we do, we will save the kingdom from suffering unimaginable evil."
Wanting to get out of the situation I had found myself in and return to the world of the living, I tapped Peppy's arm. "They're going to go back and forth until they eventually settle on going in, so we might as well get started on sorting the loot. Remember, tell me to stop before I step on a trap."
I crossed the room. Peppy didn't follow.
"But I don't know how to recognize traps."
I turned and glared over my shoulder from the opposite side of the room. "You waited to tell me that until after I crossed the room, didn't you."
Peppy began walking forward. "You're the only one that won't die if they discover what their intestines look like. Seemed wise to wait."
"You just moved down the survival list, Peppy. Not smart."
She shrugged.
While Peppy and Rena argued, the rest of us investigated the room. For obvious reasons, we started with the chests. Peppy undid the locks, and then the three of us whistled appreciatively.
"That is a lot of silver and gold," I said.
Rena didn't agree. "It's mostly silver. We'll be lucky if there are a few thousand gold pieces between the chests. After guild taxes, crown taxes, and the lawyers take their cut, we'll only see a thousand gold from this. The bounty on the vampires is bigger than that."
Peppy closed the lid and looked back to the entrance. Lela had finished her argument and noticed she was the only one still in the corridor. She quickly hurried into the room.
The party gathered around the lead sarcophagus, and then together we grabbed the lid and slid it open. Inside lay a pale, regal-looking woman with short-cut hair and a dense braid. Her body was covered in thick muscle, giving the impression of a sleeping knight.
Since becoming a vampire, I'd been able to sense the life in living things. The life energy that radiated from her body was dozens of times stronger than the group I was with, like dozens of undigested meals. My fangs extended as my hunger grew.
The only reason I didn't jump on her immediately was that there was no sweetness to her blood to entice me. She smelled like a corpse. Or perhaps a salad. There was certainly nourishing life within her, but it was not the sort of life that left me salivating.
Peppy nocked an arrow and fired it at an angle, going through the vampire's diaphragm and under the rib cage, before piercing the heart.
"Lady Selene," Lela whispered. "At one point, she was the queen's protector. Now, she's a mass-murdering monster. We'll stake the others. You stay where you are, vampire."
Lela led her party to the next sarcophagus, where they repeated the process. Then the next. Then the one after that. When the last vampire was staked with an arrow through the heart, it was safe to kill the vampires, and wake their paralyzed neighbors. Thus, Lela drew her dagger without ceremony and brought it down on the neck of the first sleeping vampire.
From deep within the dungeon, the ghouls began to howl. They had sensed the death of their master and woken. The vampires in the room had not.
Peppy calmly drew her dagger, stepped to the side, and thrust it through Rena's kidney, giving the knife a vicious twist. The sorcerer collapsed, with a soft whimper.
Lela nocked an arrow, muttering a word that caused the tip to glow green, and then fired it at Peppy's head.
Peppy shouted a word and raised her bracer, knocking the arrow aside, before pivoting and thrusting with her shortsword, forcing Lela to block with her bow. The wood barely held, stopping the blade long enough for Lela to take a step back. Then it snapped along the cut.
While Lela went for her shortsword, Peppy changed her grip, holding her sword like a spear. She launched it at Lela, who had picked Rena up by her hair, so she could slit her throat. The tip of the sword went through one side of her neck and out the other, killing her instantly.
The smell of so much fresh blood pushed me over the edge, wearing away my failing resistance. With the last of my will, I dove into the lead sarcophagus and slid the lid closed behind me.
The madness of thirst took me while I was alone in the darkness, and I sank my teeth into Lady Selene's throat. Sickly cold blood filled my mouth as my hunger made the world vanish.
When I came to sometime later, there was no Lady Selene, just a pile of ash at my feet and an absence of the pain that had been plaguing me for thirty-four days.
I could sense only one life outside the sarcophagus. It was weak and growing weaker.
I pushed the lid aside.
Lela sat with her back against the entrance, holding her bloody side. She gave me a red grin as she saw me. "Come to finish me off?"
The smell of blood assaulted my nostril, making me salivate, but its attraction was nothing compared to before I ate. It didn't overwhelm me, only made me feel like I was missing out on the best meal of my life. Behind her, the ghouls pounded at the door, howling madly.
"Do you want to live?" I asked.
Lela coughed. "I suppose I do."
I knelt beside her and bit deep into her throat, letting my venom do its work. She gasped as the transformation began. Moments later, her eyes glowed crimson, and her body pulsed with renewed strength.
Together, we turned to the remaining staked vampires, Lela Bet on two of them and I finished the rest of them off. then she walked into the sarcophagus next to mine and we both entered and slumbered.