A Book and Some Blood​

Later that night, Liam was sitting in his bedroom with the only light in his room being from a fluorescent lamp on his nightstand. He was sitting halfway off his bed next to the lamp with a small black book in his hands.

The same book from before.

It was around eight o'clock at night by now and the rest of the Davis family was still as busy as can be. Liam's mother, Olivia, was downstairs in her 'Art studio' as she liked to call it. Unfortunately for her, no one else would see it that way.

The room itself looked like a revamped bedroom with a large table in its center and plastic sheets covering the floor. Olivia spent most of her days in there painting away at what she called her 'Abstract' art which was nothing more than semi-recognizable splotches of paint on a canvas.

But hey, who cares? It sells better than anything else she could do with her art degree.

Liam's father, Carter, was around a block away at the Deustsche Bank just South of the World Trade Center. It was a small place made of a mix of brick on the outside and wood on the inside. Carter was the reason most of the money came into their household.

He would be there till eleven P.M., upon which he would return home to a distraught wife and a once again missing son.

Although right now he didn't know any of that; he was more worried about the talk around the office that there was going to be a company merger soon and some of the less competent people are going to be out of a job. Hopefully, Carter wasn't going to end up as one of them.

None of this would really matter to Liam though, not for a long while.

As Liam sat in the dim light of his bedroom, one of his hands slowly pulled the leather cover of 'The Book of Daedra' open. Maybe it can help with...this. Liam thought still a little shell shocked from before.

His brown eyes flashed a grisly crimson as he continued by growling, "She left it, after all."

Meeting Liam's face was the same statue from before, and as he began to read the line of text below it, he only became more confused.

Azura, whose sphere is dusk and dawn, the magic in-between realms of twilight, known as Moonshadow, Mother of the Rose, and Queen of the Night Sky read Liam in his head.

Unlike before he didn't get any vision or much of anything from the unwanted commentator in his head. The black scrawl had what looked like more recent handwriting to it's left. It was comparable to what someone would write when taking notes.

Overall the paragraph looked like it was just a jumbled mess of thoughts and one-liners. The only two things that stood out were the words Aetherius, which was crossed out, and the word Oblivion which was circled in blue ink.

"Looks like someone's done their homework," commented Liam as he flipped it over to the next page.

The next few pages went on and on about describing the star in the woman's hand and theoretical uses of it with a name signed at the bottom. Written in a bright blue that contrasted horribly with the otherwise bleak tome was the name 'Malyn Varen'.

The first thing Liam thought was, What kinda name is that? followed by the want to get a dictionary.

Throughout the section dedicated to what was aptly named Azura's Star Varen used words and terms that Liam would have no trouble admitting he had no idea of what they meant. That's without even getting into that it was mostly more drabble about Varen's want to beat death than anything else.

As Liam pieced his way to the bottom of the page, he came across another name. Arkay...or as Varen liked to refer to him, Arkay the enemy in reference to someone named the King of Worms. Suffice to say it was a jumbled mess. (1)

Interrupting his read was the grave voice that seethed, A pathetic excuse for a god.

A god? Asked Liam pushing up his left eyebrow despite his early reservations.

The voice didn't answer.

After trying once more to get into it, Liam gave up and began to skim the titles for anything about his current condition. The writing was above what he could really understand besides the basic description of the now named gods.

It's better than doing nothing at least. Thought Liam as he flipped another page.

The second being that had a section of the book dedicated to it was one named Boethiah. This drawing once again was of a statue, but unlike the other, it gave the viewer a keen sense of trepidation just from viewing it.

It was a woman...or a man, Liam couldn't quite tell. After looking down at the rippling muscles on the being's chest Liam decided to call them a man. In the man's right hand he was holding a broad two-sided ax which he hefted high into the air.

The god's face was split by a sadistic smile, while their gray skin had thick lines of blood that fell to either side of their face. As Liam's eyes traveled up the ax's head, he could see where the blood came from.

Just out of the pictures frame a bloody body stood with its face pitched in utter horror.

Quickly Liam skimmed the description and notes below but ultimately found nothing worthwhile. It was only more of the same blue penned clutter that filled the previous pages only this time it was in mention of some tournament and how he could ask for a boon.

Time seemed to speed by as Liam took a quick glance at each section of the book in front of him.

The Prince of Bargains.

The Tentacled BookKeeper.

The Huntsman.

The Outcast.

The Father of Change.

The Spider Queen.

The Pure One.

Followed by one who would catch Liam's eyes. The name written across the top of that fateful page was 'Molag Bal' with a drawing like each of the others.

The thing's head was raised high with two large horns jutting from its temples. Behind him, he held a thick mace that had a multitude of spikes that jutted off in every which way. The mace itself had a close likeliness to the creature's face.

And what a face it was.

The gnarled, almost blue, skin was sunken in with two horrible blue eyes laying just below it that seemed to glow on the page. It's nose looked like it had something in common with Voldemort while the thing's set of needle-like teeth wouldn't be doing it any favors at the dentist. (2)

The beast looked powerful sure, but whenever Liam looked into the drawings he felt a little sick to his stomach, like it was only staring at the next morsel on its plate. Slowly, Liam's eyes were drawn to the description beneath the image.

Liam's mouth opened then read, "Molag Bal, whose sphere is the domination and enslavement of mortals..." he stopped himself for a second then thought Why do all the weird gods in this book have to be so awful?

Continuing where he left off Liam uttered, "whose desire is to harvest the souls of mortals and to bring mortals souls within his sway by spreading seeds of strife and discord in the mortal realms."

Not thinking much of it compared to the other abominable gods, Liam looked down at Varen's notes below. It looked like he finally got a lead. Underlined with a question mark after it was the word 'Vampirism' in big letters.

It's a possibility. Wrote Varen.

I would forever damn my soul to the shores of Coldharbour should I fail, but the ritual should still exist somewhere. He continued.

Below that line was a small drawing of an altar filled to the brim with what looked like blood, a small list of ingredients, and a date on which to "spill the blood of the weak and feeble."

Written shortly after that was what could only be described as absolutely vile.

I'd also need a virgin woman, which could be a problem. She would also need to be in the age of the majority which makes that selection much harder to find. Although I would assume they don't need to be willing to spend a night with the 'King of Rape' after all. Recorded Varen in the same research like tone.

The ritual itself wasn't described in great detail, but it would be considered much more than demeaning as Varen described it. Scarring would be a better term for it. Thought Liam with a look of disgust on his face.

The described ceremony would involve the woman being raped so brutally that almost none who underwent the endeavor would survive. They would come back a bloodthirsty vampire and would enter what was defined as a blood rage upon which they would attempt to do what was just done upon them to any mortal around.

It was disgusting.

Almost not being able to stomach it, Liam flipped to the next page which was discussing more about what happens when one actually becomes a vampire.

It acts as a disease to most, the different strains of the disease cause different forms of Vampirism as well. You could almost call them different species. After two to three days those infected well...they die. Shortly after death, their bodies rise to become newborn fledglings with a thirst for blood. Unlike what happens to the aforementioned Daughters of Coldharbour. Noted Varen keeping up his search for immortality like always.

With another mention of the substance, Liam subconsciously swallowed his spit. In the back of his throat, Liam felt a small itch, nothing much right now but it was there all the same. It almost felt like someone was dragging a small feather along the back of his throat and it burned.

The feeling wasn't unbearable, but it was surely uncomfortable.

By this point, it was almost nine-thirty at night. Outside for the first time in what seemed like months, the snow stopped falling in the streets of New York as people and vagrants alike came out underneath the stars.

Liam's mother was sitting on a recliner in the house's living room. In front of her, their house's main television was turned down low playing Hallmark reruns due to the coming Holiday season. The room was fairly close to the door leading the garage.

-Outside the Davis Family Home-​

Meekrat always hated the cold. It bit and stung but unlike the yellow things when the flowers were about the cold could kill. It had to get out of it somehow. The little creature looked at the falling flakes of ice and let out a high pitched hiss. It looked like it was finally starting to let up.

He had fur, but without some way to get out the freezing weather, Meekrat would surely freeze!

Coming out of the alleyway, the creature saw a light in the distance. A small yellow thing from within a red-stoned human hobble. It's scaled face stretched into a wide smile as its stomach growled. Food and Warmth thought the beast.

The little monster absentmindedly licked one of its claws while looking for a way to get in the place. It's pale yellow eyes shot up to where the light was on the second story before thinking, No. Glass break, loud noise...attract more human.

The snow below its clawed feet crunched as the creature trudged towards the other side of the house. After a quick look-see for the big door a lot of the human houses have, Meekrat bounded towards it.

Meekrat small and Meekrat smart the monster declared before it thought back to its other hunts.

Human's always leave something open to let him in, and when they do...Meekrat gets his fill. His long tongue snaked between his razor-sharp teeth before being pulled quickly back into the orifice from which it came. It would only take a few seconds.

Using his claws to fit underneath the garage door, Meekrat strained his muscles and pulled it upward. The metal gave out a solemn creak as the creature slid underneath the door and into the dark garage. In the darkness, two yellow eyes blinked.

As his eyes came into focus, Meekrat saw through lady Nocturnal's cloak. The darkness melted away to reveal an empty room with nothing in it but a door and a snow shovel leaned up against the wall, not that Meekrat would know what it is.

The scaly beast ambled over to the door and reached for the handle, with one pull Meekrat knew something was wrong.

Worried he thought Why no open?

The small creature's muscles bulged as the metal handle let out a few creaks. The inhuman thing scowled to the best of its abilities before letting out a low growl. Bringing up its other hand Meekrat gripped the handle and with a loud hiss pulled as hard as he could.

The handle being made of some type of aluminum didn't take kindly to that.

A deafening clang rang out in the darkness as the handle broke off the door onto the concrete floor below. Surprised, Meekrat jumped backward away from where he stood. From inside the house, a distinctively female voice called out, "Liam was that you honey?"

Above where Meekrat stood, he could hear the boisterous footsteps of a man-child followed by a younger voice answering the other one by saying, "No mom, what's wrong?"

Quickly, Meekrat looked around before eyeing a lone light-bulb on hanging from the top of the room; a smile came over his face. As the footsteps and voices got closer Meekrat slowly drew himself into the darkness; his brothers who made fun of his darker colored fur and scales would rue the day!

-Davis Residence's, Kitchen-​

Liam and his mother Olivia were both standing inside their house's kitchen; Liam's mother had a worried look on her face as she went to answer her son's question. She walked towards the kitchen's main counter while answering, "I don't know; I think I heard something coming from the garage."

The slightly tense expression on Liam's face started to melt away as he responded with "Mom it's probably just a raccoon again. You know they always get into stuff when winter comes around."

His mother's look didn't change as she continued to pace around the room. She was always one to overly worry about things. Liam's father would call it cute, but Liam found it annoying at times. He walked over to a nearby drawer and pulled it open as an idea came to mind.

The wooden drawer rolled on the wheels hidden underneath it to reveal a large host of kitchen utensils. Knives, vegetable peelers, an assortment of spatulas, a cheese grater, and even a meat tenderizer. Liam's hand gripped the wooden handle of a chef's knife before he thought better of it.

Slowly his eyes traveled over to what looked like a large chunk of stainless steel on a stick, the tenderizer. It was shaped like an abnormally large hammer, almost like a shortened version of a sledgehammer but one side had small metal spikes on it.

"Just go sit down mom. I'll scare it out of there," reassured Liam as he hefted the impromptu mace in one hand.

As he looked at it Liam thought It'll do better than a broom at least; I'd just break that.

Olivia looked over, cocked her head, then fretted, "But what if it has rabies or something...just leave it alone. I'll get your Dad to deal with it when he gets back in, he'll-"

Liam cut her off by saying, "Mom, It's probably just a coon. I'll just swing this thing around and yell a bit then it'll run off! Come on, I'm not so little anymore. My twelfth birthday is tomorrow too!"

After taking a few seconds to think Olivia thought It couldn't hurt; it's just that...fine then.

She missed the days when Liam would always rely on her and Carter for everything, back when he was still just her little boy. Ever since he'd first gotten kicked out of Lowman's, a local private school, Liam tried his best to not rely on them.

That was when Carter started being more strict, but what did she expect to happen? Liam tried to blame it all on a "voice" in his head that told him to do it. A grimace came onto her face at the thought of that.

She raised him better than to be a liar.

"Fine, just be careful and if there is something out there just..." Liam's mother stopped mid-sentence and put a finger up to her lip.

She brought her hand back down to her side and cautioned, "Just be careful, Liam."

With his freehand Liam nervously scratched his cheek then reassured her by saying, "I will, I will."

Olivia let out a low sigh then pulled out an embroidered chair from underneath the kitchen table. After giving a few more glances towards the door leading to the garage and Liam she sat down and pulled her phone out from her dress pocket.

It's better to be safe. She thought while her fingers tapped away at a possible pest control service in case something went wrong.

Meanwhile, Liam was already heading towards his garage's side door. The door was the same thickness as the one on the front of their brick house; unlike the front door however, this one was made of a mix of metal and wood. It also had no window from which to peek through.

Liam brought the hand not holding his makeshift weapon down towards the doors handle. Two fingers pinched a small knob that was connected to do the door's locking mechanism before turning to the right. As they did so a small "click!" broke the silence.

Alright, all I gotta do is turn on the lights and make some noise. Should be enough to get the thing out of there. Thought Liam as he quietly opened the metal door.

The metal door's hinges groaned in complaint as rusted metal ground within them. It took a few seconds for Liam's eyes to adjust to the darkness but as the room revealed itself to him he noticed something new.

The absence of light didn't seem to be all that dark to him anymore.

From where he stood Liam could see the outline of the room as well as the snow shovel across, on the other side. Looking down Liam could see the switch from the kitchen's light to a more black hue as things slowly shifted to gray.

To the right of the door was what looked like a mangled piece of metal; turning towards it Liam muttered, "What's that?" under his breath.

Deciding to turn on the light despite his newfound range of vision, Liam reached one of his hands upwards towards the nearby light switch. His finger came into cold plastic before it pushed upwards. Above Liam a small spark was let out, briefly dropping to the floor before disappearing.

Oh, great. Thought Liam as a small pout came over his lips.

Liam's eyes briefly looked up towards the garage's single light. From the ceiling, there was a small black cord that dropped down with a light fixture at the end of the appliance. It seemed that something broke the light bulb out as glass littered the concrete under it and the metal part of the light was sharply bent.

Absentmindedly Liam stared into the darkness above the light-bulb, when something caught his attention. There were two pale yellow eyes staring back at him. Right above the light-bulb intermingled with the dark cloak of the night was some type of monster.

Liam's eyes blinked owlishly at the thing.

The creature was about the size of a small child; it looked like the mix of some demon and a lizard. It's lower body was covered in a thin layer of black fur while the monster's feet had long black claws that curled around the wire hanging from the ceiling.

It had some type of tail that snaked around flailing without purpose as the beast hung there mid-air as well. The top of its body was covered in muscles and scales. It was almost humanoid in a way as well with it having two long arms and a head.

The creature's arms ended in black pointed claws much like its feet while the thing's face was just as horrid. Its mouth was stretched wide into a grueling smile while a red tongue snaked through needle-like teeth every few seconds.

Liam's muscles tensed as he stopped staring at the monstrosity and exclaimed, "What in the hell is that thing!"

Answering his question the voice commented, A Scamp. One of Dagon's ilk, a stray by the looks of it. (3)

Liam had less than a second to react before the Scamp threw itself from its perch right towards his face. Liam's body met cold concrete as he pushed himself to the side just before the creature landed where he stood.

With little effort, it landed upright on its feet before pulling the door shut through the hole left from the handle. The thing let out a low growl as it turned back towards its prey, eyeing down the morsel before it.

From where he landed Liam glared at the hellion before the voice called out once more saying, Their kind are weaklings, crush it.

In the darkness, Liam's eyes shifted to crimson as he stood back up to his full height. Slowly, Liam began to feel a familiar anger bubble in his chest as the creature seemed to jeer at him. A hand tightened around an impromptu club in fury.

With its natural agility, the Scamp bounded over towards Liam with its claws outstretched. Interrupting the creature's rush, the boy brought the meat tenderizer over his head and down onto the Scamp's shoulder just before it reached him.

A look of surprise briefly showed on the creature's face before it went flying towards the side. As the weapon met the Scamp's shoulder, it's bones buckled underneath the force it gave with a sickening crunch.

Now, the stainless steel was covered in ripped skin and blood.

Liam's nose scrunched itself up at the sulfuric smell coming from the blood. It smelled of rotten eggs and burnt food. Almost like someone overcooked meat while a gas line was leaking; either way, it wasn't a good combination. Gross. thought Liam in a moment of clarity.

On the ground in front of him the monster let out a whimper; Liam came back to what was currently happening. It looked like the thing was cowering as the Scamp covered its uninjured limb over its body. In actuality, it wasn't at all.

It was nothing but a trick.

Standing over the Scamp, Liam hefted his club upwards before hesitating. Why isn't it running? Thought Liam.

Below him, the creature let out a series of low growls that could almost pass for a laugh before the smell of sulfur increased ten-fold. At its blackened fingertips small licks of flame formed before coalescing into a bright ball that lit up the room.

As quickly as the fireball formed it launched itself forward directly to Liam's face. Feeling the heat the boy's body twisted to the best of its abilities to try and avoid the fire. A blazing heat came from Liam's left cheek as he barely moved his head out of the way.

The Scamp pulled itself away as Liam brought one of his hands up to feel the wound. As his fingertips met charred skin Liam felt something push forward from his upper lips as he let a low growl. The fire made his undead heart churn in a primal way.

"I'll kill you!" exploded Liam as he rushed at the hellion with his teeth bared in a snarl.

Luckily enough for Liam, he reached the Scamp before it could fire off another gout of flame. With his left hand, Liam forcefully pulled the creature's arm forward making it fall onto the ground. It landed face-first onto the stone, letting out another pitiful hiss.

As the Scamp crumpled face down onto the floor Liam pushed his knee into the creature's back as an attempt to hold it still. It tried its best to squirm out from underneath him but after a few seconds of struggling, Liam ended the fight.

Hefting the meat tenderizer in both hands Liam lifted it high over his head then slammed it down onto the back of the Scamp's skull.

At first, a loud sound not unlike someone scoring a home run in baseball ran about the garage, then it was followed by another and one more.

The whimpers and hisses slowly faded as heavy breathing was the only thing able to be heard in the room. Below Liam was a mess of blood, bone, and gore.

The crimson glow in Liam's eyes faded as he lightly dropped the meat tenderizer onto the floor next to him. It let out a small "Ping!" as the bloodstained steel head bounced on the concrete before toppling to the side.

The anger started to lazily dissipate along with Liam's heavy breaths. Liam took in one last deep gulp of air before looking down at the mess he made.

The poor creature's skull was caved in from the back with its gray matter splattered all over the concrete floor. Liam's arms were covered in a large amount of dripping blood while his jeans were stained and had what looked like rips from the imp-like creature's claws.

Absentmindedly, Liam thought back to his wound before tapping on it again. Underneath his bloodstained hands he could feel a rigid surface but none of the real pain from before. If one were to be looking at it they would see a black patch of skin that already looked like some type of scab.

As he continued to stare at the dripping blood on his hands Liam felt his throat itch. Then it began to burn.

As his eyes started to glow again Liam gulped down a building pool of saliva in his mouth. Shakily one of his hands moved upwards towards his face. "It doesn't smell appetizing." he groused.

The bloody appendage inched forward as he felt the burn start to build. His eyes seemed to glaze over as he opened his mouth. As his tongue reached out to meet his finger, the first thing Liam noticed was the heat.

An almost intangible heat came from the blood, like the fire you'd get from the spiciest wings in Louisiana but ten times worse. Then as quickly as the heat came it left to be replaced by an intoxicating sweetness. Liam felt the burn in his throat fade as he inadvertently shuddered.

Unaware of his surroundings, Liam didn't notice someone open the door behind him to come face to face with their son covered in blood over a corpse. Although the corpse didn't look like a monster to her.