Dracula: Patient zero

Chapter: 9

Troublesome harem

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Vladus looked around the house for a while and ended up finding a hidden trap door under a rug opening onto a staircase leading to the basement. Vladus kept walking toward the direction he could feel the two presences coming from.

The basement was dug by hand and rocks had been strategically positioned to support the structure above. To walk in this basement, Vladus needed to duck since the ceilings were so low. His quick search led him to a wooden wall, visibly hiding something behind it.

Vladus looked around a bit trying to find a mechanism or something to go through but couldn't find anything... So he ended up simply punching a hole through the wall. He then crawled through the hole and emerged on the other side, in a dark, dusty and damp room.

In this room were two box/coffins stacked on top of each other hidden under a tarp. Vladus immediately understood that the two vampire he could feel were inside and most likely 'hibernating' if that's even the proper word for it... Vladus considered it more as being dried up.

Carefully, Vladus placed the two coffins side by side and opened them. Inside were what looked like two dried up girls looking more like mummies than anything else... Vladus first thought was that maybe it would better to leave them alone since the chances of Markus being their maker were very high.

If he waked them up, they would eventually discover that Vladus is their maker's murderer... They would most likely go after him and be a pain in the ass later. And what was the point of waking them up if it was to simply kill them afterward...

He needed more time to think about it and consider his options before making a move... And anyway, he had spent too much time talking with Markus and now the sun was about to rise, so Vladus simply laid down next to the two mummies for the day.

A couple of hours later, Vladus woke to the sound of someone unlocking the front door of the mansion. Was Markus expecting someone? 'What a pain in the ass' thought Vladus. At first the foot steps were calm and regular, but after stopping around where should still be Markus ashes the foot steps started to show more energy.

The person was visibly panicking and running around the house looking for something. Vladus got up, and positioned himself under the basement stairs and listened carefully.

«Man's voice» No..no.no.no.no.no.no.... Master!? ..... Master!? ... Please don't tell me.....

The footsteps quickly approached to where the trap door was located, he opened the trapdoor and quickly ran downstairs. Vladus finally saw him, an old man looking to be in his 50's who was looking all around and stopped in front of the now broken wooden wall.

«Old Man» Noo no no no no Crap crap !

The man quickly entered the hidden room and took a look around.

«Old Man» Sobsobsob* He would never have left you behind if he was gone to someplace else... Sniff* sniff*... Master... Must be dead... Sob*sob*

Vladus sneaked behind the gray haired man who was wearing all black clothes and simply stood there. The old man was holding his face with both hands knelled on the floor, mourning the lost of his master. Vladus was intrigued... Why does a human mourn a vampire?

He wanted to have a conversation with the man but his reaction was unlikely to be a positive one. A few minutes later the old man still hadn't moved or noticed Vladus’s presence right next to him, so Vladus cleared his throat to catch his attention.

«Old Man» HAAAAAAaaa! Surprised, the old man backed away the other side of the small room.

«Old Man» Ww.wWho are you???!! What happened to Markus?

«Vladus» Markus... You saw the pile of ash upstairs didn't you?

«Old Man» D..d.d.Did you do it? He said his eyes full of anger.

Vladus gave a devilish smile before answering.

«Vladus» I'm afraid I didn't have any other choice considering he was trying to kill me.

«Old Man» How could this happen... buhuhuhu* sob*sob*

«Vladus» What a beautifully loyal servant... Huhuhuhu* The old man gave a look filled with hatred to Vladus.

WANNNNNnnnnnnnnnnnnn*!!! WANnnnnnnnnnnnnn*! Suddenly the cries of a baby coming from upstairs caught Vladus attention.

«Vladus» A baby? Don't tell me...

«Old Man» Master's favorite meal... He would have been so happy.. sobsob* You can have it if you want... He then stood up and led Vladus upstairs to where the baby was.

The young baby girl was laid in a basket, crying its eyes out. Vladus slowly approached the crying baby and stood next to her. The old man stayed away from Vladus, standing next to the front door. Luckily for the young baby, Vladus wasn't hungry after eating a delicious meal earlier.

«Vladus» Are her parents still alive?

«Old Man» Yes... I stole her while her mother was distracted by something else.

«Vladus» Good... Bring her back to her parents.

«Old Man» ???? You won't eat it?

«Vladus» Why should I? The old man visibly puzzled looked at Vladus with questioning eyes.

«Old Man» Can't be... Are you human?

«Vladus» What do I look like??

Now truly confused, the old man quickly opened the curtains covering the big window next to him. The sunrays shone straight at Vladus face forcing him to lift his hand in front of his face to protect his eyes. Vladus was surprised for a few seconds, as he wasn't burning like before...

It was still very painful and not enjoyable at all but there was no smoke being emitted from his skin. Still high on 550 years old vampire blood, Vladus could feel his power overpowering the sunrays. This was most likely temporary but Vladus discovered that consuming vampire blood was making him a heck of a lot stronger... In fact it made him strong enough to go out in the sun for a short period of time.

Vladus slowly walked to the window, closed the curtain and turned around to look at the old man. Before realizing what was happening the old man had already pulled out a blade and stabbed Vladus through the heart with it.

Vladus eyes turned black, his irises glowing bright red, he grabbed the old man by the neck and lifted him 30cm off the ground. While the old man was pointlessly struggling to free himself from his grip, Vladus simply threw him across the room, sending him flying through a wall and landing into another room.

«Old Man» Cough! Cough! Cough! The old man was laying on a pile of debris, coughing and holding his neck.

«Vladus» Quite amazing... You are as stupid as your master...

«Old Man» FUck! FUCK! What is a lycan doing here??? And a fucking alpha??? Are you trying to start a war once again???

Hearing the word lycan for the first time, Vladus was now very interested by what the old man had to say...

«Vladus» Lycan?

«Old Man» .......??? You have red glowing eyes... If you're not an alpha then what the fuck are you!!!!

Then an idea came to Vladus mind. He walked up to the old man, crouched in front of him and stared at him in the eyes. It was his first time trying to spellbind someone but it didn't sound to complicated when Markus explained it.

«Vladus» All the loyalty you ever felt for Markus, you will now feel toward me. (°)

«Old Man» HOooo Nooo!!! Master!!!! Are you hurt???? I'm sorry for stabbing you! What the fuck was I thinking!!?? He said in panic, trying to remove the blade from Vladus chest.

«Vladus» It's ok. It's nothing more than a splinter to me. Now why don't you tell me your name...

«Óengus» My name is Óengus, Master.

«Vladus» Good... This seems to be working perfectly... Then, can you explain to me what is a lycan?

«Óengus» With pleasure master! Lycans are also known as werewolves or wolfmen... They have been vampire's enemies for centuries... We are now in a cease-fire type of situation with them... After a long war their number have diminished enough to force them into hiding. Young vampires don't stand a chance against them and only 1000+ years old vampire can match them, so vampires also lost a lot of people.

«Vladus» ..... Interesting.... What do they look like? What are their powers? Are they like vampires?

«Óengus» There are similarities, but the two can't be compared... Lycans have super strenght and speed comparable to a thousand years old vampire. They also have supernatural vision/sight, smell, and hearing...

But they need to transform to be able to show their true potential... Which is a weakness in itself since the transformation take around a minute or two during which they are vulnerable. They have ended up as vampires’ enemies because their bite is poisonous to vampires and they can hunt them during the day since they are not affected by sunlight.

Another one of their weaknesses is that they are forced to transform every full moon, but incapable to transform during new moons. Their most annoying trait is that they form and live in packs, finding even more strength in numbers...

Their hierarchy is based of which one is the most powerful... The strongest have red glowing eyes, like you master... And are called Alphas... The other strong warriors obeying the alpha's orders are called Betas and have orange glowing eyes, and finally the weaklings being pushed around by the others are called Omegas and have yellow glowing eyes. They usually live alone without a pack.

«Vladus» Wow this is veryyyy interesting... I can't wait to meet one of those alphas mwehehehe.

«Óengus» Is it really wise master? Lycan are really dangerous... I mean, once transformed, they truly are unstoppable... So when you take in consideration that they also hunt in packs... They are very bad news...

«Vladus» Huhuhu and that's exactly why I want to meet one of them... I'm sure to be entertained...

«Óengus» ....... Mhhh master? May I ask your name and... What you are? You don't burn in the sun, so you are not a vampire... You have the eyes of an alpha yet you said you weren't a lycan... I must admit to be a little confused by what might be your species...

«Vladus» That's a complicated question... Even I am not really sure as to what I might be... But if I had to take a pick I would say that I am a... Peculiar vampire... And as for my name, it is also complicated... I am, Valdrislav Vladus Tlesnasa... But you can just call me Vladus.

Óengus eyes grew big and he looked even more confused than before.

«Óengus» ..........You are nothing like any other vampire I’ve met before.... You don't burn in the sun, you won't eat this baby and your eyes are different...

«Vladus» Talking about that... I will ask you to keep the fact that I am different from the other vampires a secret... Also I want you to bring this baby back where you found it.

«Óengus» Yes master!!! I'm going right now!

«Vladus» Wait!... Before you leave... Those two girl vampires downstairs... What's their story?

«Óengus» Ho those two! They were the two last addition to Mr Markus collection....

«Vladus» Collection..??? Mind explaining more of this to me?

«Óengus» With pleasure master... Markus loved young and beautiful women... Since he liked them quite young, he turned them into vampire so they would never age and always stay beautiful.

He kept them in boxes like the ones downstairs, waking them up when he felt like 'playing' with them, then forcing them back in the boxes after he had his fun with them for later uses... He must have a few hundred of them now.

The two downstairs were his recent acquisitions... The rest of his collection is hidden in a lair far from here... We traveled the world together, looking for the most beautiful specimens from all races and countries...

«Vladus» Sighhh... What's the point... We, vampires can't reproduce... What's the use for women then...?

«Óengus» .... Master??... Certainly you can't have children but... You can still enjoy sex can't you?...

«Vladus» Sex is a mean to an end... Without an end there's no point...

«Óengus» You... are... a bit strange master....

«Vladus» Am I? Whatever... Do you know where his lair is?

«Óengus» Yes master. Interested in his collection? He said giving a lustful smile to Vladus.

«Vladus» Being dried up like that is no fun... It's annoying to discover that there's a few hundred of them since I now feel obligated to release them...

«Óengus» That's a very bad idea master....

«Vladus» Well talk about this later... This baby is starting to annoy the heck out of me... Take it away now!

«Óengus» Yes! Immediately master.

Vladus then stood in place, lost in thought. Life was getting interesting, but was also becoming troublesome at the same time. More than a hundred baby vampires... How was he supposed to deal with that? The thought of leaving them in boxes disgusted him but releasing these inexperienced blood sucking monster wasn't that much better...

They would definitively attract attention on him and on the vampire as a species if left unchecked... This truly was an annoying dilemma and no solutions seemed to be a good one. Vladus wasn't even their maker, making controlling them a lot more difficult...

Vladus still didn't have a lot of experience at interacting with vampires and the thought of swimming in uncharted territories annoyed him profoundly. A few minutes later while Vladus was still lost in thought, Óengus came back and brought up another annoying subject.

«Óengus» Master, you can go to sleep while I prepare a few horses to transport the ladies. We need to leave as soon as we can.

«Vladus» Why do you seem in so much of a hurry?

«Óengus» .....Master..... Didn't you know who Markus' maker was before killing him? He said visibly worried.

«Vladus» ......... Enlighten me.

«Óengus» Markus' maker is one of the vampire elders... He sensed his death as soon as you killed him... And trust me, we want to be as far away as possible before he arrive here....

«Vladus» Motherf-! And I was trying to avoid attracting their attentions so soon... Shhhtt...

All right... Have horses ready for tonight.

...........Fucking hell...

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Many thanks to gcman01 for proofreading this chapter!

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