Hidden Plots

I looked down upon the form of the vampire. Her pleas had been ringing through my ears for hours, but how could I believe them? Seria, the wife of the dead Xodus, turning from the darkness and calling for help to the path of the light? Something was surely amiss, but such a call could not go unanswered.

Seria was on her knees in a small clearing in the forest. Her hands were clasped at her chin, and she was staring into the sky at the moon. She felt she would not be able to summon a god. She had been praying for hours now. "I devote my being to good, to the light! Please, help me! I can not survive anymore, the world of darkness holds nothing for me!" Seria continued to pray.

I moved down to the mortal plane, my form coalescing from the vines which transported me from place to place. I had to find what it was this vampire was up too. Her reasons must be found, for they may lead me to some unholy plot against the light. Surely Seria would make her intent easily apparent to my immortal eyes. She could not hide the inner trappings of her soul from me. I appeared before her, waiting for her lies to begin.

"Oh! My lord! Please, I wish to become good, I can't handle the darkness anymore!" Seria yelped.

"Be calm, vampire," I commanded. I began to bore into her thoughts, trying to pull out the secrets she held behind her words. My concentration wholly on the vampire who stood before me, surmising what she was about. Perhaps I could lure her into telling me her plans through taunts.

"You are nothing but the filth of the realm. Honor and respect rest in my heart, but none of it is for you. Get out of my sight, and silence yourself, for the gods do not wish to hea-"

Then it was there, something tingling behind me, something amiss in the mortal world. Vampires had a certain taint in the world, being not truly mortal, yet their presence was all too common for me to miss such a thing in the woods behind me. That which stirred near my back was a presence which I had faced many times before in the past, but I thought it had moved on from this world. It had to be him though that began to grasp my arm and turn it up behind my back. However, his presence was altered, changed from what it had been. I now understood why I had not sensed it, for it was not of the mortal realms any longer, not even just mearly by vampire standards. Rather, it was between the planes of existence, and had been skulking about in the woods waiting for me to focus completely on Seria so that it would get a jump on me. Xodus Mentor, a scourge upon the realms I thought had perished long ago. So, Seria's ruse was for her Xodus, well what could he being doing back in our plane. Surely this needed investigation, so I decided to play along with their little game.

"Ugh!" I grunted as the form pulled my arm behind my back and Aethentus was pushed hard against my neck. I hoped my mock attempts to get away from him and my little gasps were believable to the two beings.

"You know, gods can murdered, if you do it right," spoke a voice from behind me.

I almost laughed outright at that point. Gods can be murdered, by a silly thing like you Xodus? Come now, you lived more than a millennium, surely your dealings with your unholy Seluctruh taught you more than this. Tedious mortals.

I began pulling at his mind, reading what his plans were. He had been to the death plane all right, but never truly committed to it. It also seemed his millennium in the lands had brought him great knowledge, for he knew that an immortal's blood would bring him back from such depths. Good, very good. His plan was ideal, drink my blood, then he would be back from his walk in that terrible plane of nothingness. Yes, he should definitely take my blood for this task!

"No..." I protested. "How could I not have known you were there, Mentor?" I asked, hoping that the inflection of my voice sounded sincere enough.

"Do not call me by my real name! I am known as Xodus to you and every other one of your little followers." said Xodus. He paused for a few moments, and Seria got to her feet. "You didn't know I was here because I'm not even undead. I'm still within the death plane, but that will change very shortly." Xodus opened his mouth preparing his bite. But, before he could bite down, his grip slipped and I could feel his grasp loosen on my arm. I looked to Seria and she peered up at the moon as it crested its flight for the evening high in the clear sky overhead, showing all that the midnight hour was upon the realms.

Too many things had been running through my head to think of the time. I could not let the former leader of the vampires come back to our realms only to be lost because he was too slow! He must take my blood. Seria Seria could make him get that bite into my neck and none would be the wiser.

Forcing my will upon her, she began her incantations. Everything began moving slowly for her, it was as if she were in a dream. Seria began speaking, she didn't know what she was speaking, or whom she was speaking to, but she began speaking. Then, she stopped. Xodus' eyes closed in her dream, yet...they opened again. Seria could see the form of Xodus' eyes now. They were glazed over, and he was no longer himself. He was animated; he was now only a corpse standing behind me with his hands barely resting on my shoulders. Words began to fill Seria's head. "A vampire's hunger always lasts. It will never die."

Perfect. What was once Xodus lunged foreword and grasped my shoulders with his animated arms. The corpse bit down upon my immortal neck, closed its eyes, and began to suck.

I let Seria leave my consciousness. I must continue to play this game out. Falling to the soft earth of the forest clearing, I began to howl as if in pain. Xodus followed my decent to the ground, and pulled my immortal blood into his veins through the bite. I could feel the blood being pulled from my neck, and could sense its path as it began to trace its way into the vampires arteries, then circulating back through the veins.

My howl pierced the night, but I smiled at the ground I lay upon as Xodus finished the bite. I could feel his eyes come back even though I could not see them. His mists began to swirl about us as his life came back to him. But was it going to be his life? The mists began to rise around us, and swirled, faster and faster. Xodus raised his head and began to scream. This scream was something that neither Seria nor I had ever heard before. This scream wasn't Xodus, but the vampire inside Xodus, for somewhere, deep inside, on some level of his mind's understanding, he began to realize what he had done. It was primal, loud, and completely damning. He felt something was wrong, but could not place it. It mattered little, for he was back in the realms again. Xodus stopped screaming and opened his eyes. They were silver.

He jumped from my back and left the clearing in much haste, taking Seria along with him. I continued my howl for minutes, knowing the ability of that Mentor; I wanted to be sure that the ruse was successful. I could feel both their presences as they diminished on their way back to their clan hall.

Sitting up I began to laugh. Oh these undead. They think they are so great because they have "moved beyond the mortals". "I can just suck the blood of Barset, and come back to the realm, no problem." How cute they are. Did he not think about the circumstances of such a bite? How could that vampire not think about such? Biting a devout immortal and taking his blood into your person, come now Xodus, let us see how that purest blood from my own body reacts with you Mentor.

I had to tell them. Tarin, Tatianna, Ksilyan, Sandoz, Ganat. They had to know. The change had begun; Xodus would soon find things a bit altered for him.

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