In the dim light from the candles flickering off the damp walls of the castle, High Academician Delphurg ran. It had started off as a brisk walk until he looked at the portable chronometer sitting on his wrist. “Damn, I’m late.” Just a second later, the head researcher had turned into a blur of speed, grey robes fluttering behind him, running at the velocity only true vampires were capable of attaining. Several minutes later, he suddenly screeched to a halt in front of an ornate fortium door. This sudden change in acceleration would have crushed the organs of a normal human, but as Delphurg always liked to put it, “The dead can’t die twice.” Knocking three times on the door, as was the custom in Zorne, he pushed it all three hundred pounds of it with his little finger open and strode in.

“Take a seat, Academician. You’re two minutes and thirty-eight seconds late.” The raspy voice of Lord Lamiar Sharnsk, the current Undead Archon of Zorne, seemed to amplify in the shadowed room. “I deeply apologise, my liege.The dungeon stairs, as we all know, are extremely hard to climb, especially for an older one like me.”

“Oh please. You’re only thirty hundred and forty. I still remember your siring like it was yesterday. How you screamed and begged. It was deeply amusing. Now,” the leader clapped his hands, “Back to the question. How is test subject D-1447 doing?”

Delphurg bowed again and continued. “After insertion of the test chemical—”

“Pardon me. Which infusion did you give him?”

“I gave him my own derivation of the Zaarkad-16 serum. Specially brewed for his physiology. Anyway, there were initial,” Delphurg paused for a while. “Complications during the blood-drain and re-vitalising process, the subject has displayed a level of survivability beyond any of the others. In fact, it’s as if he cannot die. I request permission to continue experiments on the subject to determine his thresholds and parameters.”

“Granted. Just don’t—don’t do any more damage than necessary.”

“Here, I have a pic-crystal of the latest parameter testing.”

“What procedure did you use?”

“I used a modified version of 147-Asmodeus, which I combined with 220-Kali.”

“Gods. You must really have it in for him.”

“I just want to make sure I don’t deliver trash to your majesty. I hope this one doesn’t turn out like the one before him.”

“And the one thousand, four hundred and forty-five before her.”

“Right.”

“Delphurg?”

“My liege.”

“What are your personal thoughts about 1447?”

Delphurg smiled, a gruesome affair that displayed his mouth of jagged black fangs. “Really, I must say that his regeneration rate is phenomenal. More than mine, and, I think, more than your majesty’s. No offence, my lord.”

“None taken. I meant your personal thoughts on this subject.”

“My personal thoughts? I think I kind of like him. He’s adapting really well. I’ve got great plans for him. Come, let’s watch the pic-crystal.”

As if in response to the hushed incantation and the long finger caressing it, the crystal started playing, and a long, chilling, drawn-out shriek was emitted. Delphurg started to laugh.

This went on for many minutes.