Underworld Tales

**Chapter  21**

**Underworld Tales**

Victor steps down from the balcony edge talking to
Celeste in French.

Victor: Although I must say I am surprised that you
still have the vampire; Fernand is it? Yes..surprised he's still around...

Celeste: Surprised? What do you mean? (saying with
the scrolled message in her hand)

Victor: Surprised you got him to control his
hunger...figured it out....

Celeste: What that if you feed the beast until it's
full it won't want to eat? Wasn't hard. They use the same tactic on farms...No
big deal.

Victor: I don't doubt it.

Celeste: What exactly do you want Victor? I mean you
lure me here with the promise of answers... you tell me to get my friends
hunger in order...and only after..after you spend days lying to me...What are
you playing at?

Victor begins to pace the balcony.

Victor: You're right... about everything... I was
wrong I shouldn't have mislead you, there was good reason. But I must admit it
is only because I wanted to help... it is all I have ever want to do.

Celeste: You can start by telling me why I should
trust you?

Victor stops pacing.

Victor: Wasn't me saving you and your friends life
the other night not good enough?

Celeste: Um...Insane? yes...I mean are you fucking
out of you mind? You seem to keep forgetting the lying, the alluding
questions... oh and how about the strength and um...the flying?! How do you do
that  without an enchantment? Are you
witch or something else entirely?

Victor: Look, I promise answers to that and much
more in time... which we have very little of...what we need to start worrying
about is the vampires!

Celeste: Shh....(looks around) keep your voice
down...not here. (saying as she jumps off the balcony and Victor follows)

The two begin walking and talking down a small path
in the woods.

Victor: Sorry...it's just...time is important right now...
and there is allot to cover.

Celeste: What are you talking about...what's going
on? You said something was coming...what?

Victor: Tell me...what do you know...or should I
say...what have you been told by the vampires?

Celeste: Told?... well um...they feed on blood to
live...mostly of animals... humans too but very little...they um... protect the
lands from the creatures of the night that would do themselves, the land or
humans harm....

Victor chuckles.

Victor: Is that what they told you? The Mondragon’s?

Celeste stops walking and looks at Victor cautiously.,

Celeste: How do you know about the Mondragon’s... I
never told....

Victor slows down walking and turns around to look
at Celeste.

Victor: You didn't?

Low growling comes from the shadows of the trees and
bushes around them and glowing eyes follow. The two soon find themselves
surrounded by werewolves.

Celeste draws dagger from her hip.

Celeste: Son of bitch! You betrayed me!

Victor: It's not what you think! Please hear me out!

Celeste: Walked me into a fucking ambush! What do
you mean it's not what I think?!

Victor: These wolves have been here the entire
night! If they were going to do as you think they would have the moment you
stepped on that balcony...I told them not to.

Celeste: What do you mean you told them not to? Are
you...are you a werewolf?

Victor: No...

Translate in Spanish.

Victor: Leave us, Please!

The wolves begin to leave.

Translated In French.

Celeste: Then if you are not a werewolf..what are
you...

Victor: ...(looks away)

Celeste: You told them to leave....why?

Victor: Forgot you spoke Spanish...never mind
that... I showed them to you to prove to you that what you know about
them...EVERYTHING is wrong.

Sheathing her blade.

Celeste: What's going on? Start talking.

Victor: The vampires don’t feed on human blood in
case of an emergency or something... they feed on it for not only
nourishment...but also pleasure...luxury..some even get off on it..
'specifically the kill...and yes.. even the hunt.  Animals are only  used if they need substance in a hurry...for
survival...like if their stuck on a ship at sea for months or they haven’t had their
fill before sunrise or injured and need to heal quickly and not a single person
is around. They don’t protect the land for the humans...they feed on them and
if there is a threat to their territory they eliminate it with extreme
prejudice....

Celeste: ....

Victor: The werewolves aren’t the enemy.. not all of
them anyway. But are seen as such threats to their territory and feeding
ground.

Celeste: Territory... (whispers in confusion)

Victor Werewolves... they hunger for meat...not just
humans but animals as well... they can’t help it...They have little control...
especially the young ones on a full moon. They turn and they just can’t control
themselves. The older ones are able to control the change and turn only when
they need to feed which is about as often as people do.

Celeste: The missing children?

Victor: Mhm... Wolves replenishing their ranks. They
generally stay in the mountains..the forest..caves..keeping to themselves.
Plenty of animals there..But every so often... there are casualties.

Celeste: Humans?

Victor: Yes...some get lost in the woods... others
stay in the woods longer than need to and their scent is just picked up...It's overwhelming
and around the full moon...like I said werewolves can't help themselves...
vampires on the other hand...

Celeste: From the way you speak it doesn't sound
like they are much different than the vampires...they eat people.

Victor: Perhaps...yes...they are monsters... But I'd
trust their humanity more than any vampire if I were you.

Celeste: Why is that?

Victor: They attempt a sense of control through
isolating themselves... catering to the beast that lives within the human
spirit...everyone has it.... even you.

Celeste:....

Victor: Vampires tend to ignore their humanity and
see themselves superior to all beings...regardless if they are or not... and it
is this disregard that allows them to take life so carelessly.

Celeste: You said they...wolves have to replenish their
ranks...why?

Victor: ...:because of the slaughter they have
endured for the last 500 hundreds years.

Celeste: Slaughter..I... wait...I don’t understand.
You said....

Victor: Please sit down...

Celeste: I'd rather stand thank you..

Victor: Fair enough....(saying as he sits down on a
trunk of a tree) As I was saying the vampires have been slaughtering the wolves
like cattle for 500 years.... to defend their personal cattle and business
interest.

Celeste: Business interest? what do you mean?

Victor: That's complicated...

Celeste: How so...tell me...

Victor: Listen the less you know about vampire politics
right now the better....I promise I will tell you more when the time comes...but
as you probably know or do not now, war broke out among the lycans and vampires
after the werewolves revolted.

Celeste: Revolted?

Victor: Yes... the vampires..they use to keep the
lycans enslaved...particularly to guard them during the day and keep the towns
people so scared they would run to the vampires for protection...giving
anything to them from crops to money, wine and even people. Vampires themselves
are an anomaly portraying the same traits by the clans they covet...but in
those clans only a selected few have the capability to make it past their few
hundred years and even small few who survive into thousands to become elders as
they are called. Werewolves are similar...but because they are more human in
nature.... because they are born half human, I believe, it allows them to leap
forward or backward in their own anomaly. At one time, centuries ago, it
stepped backwards... in a great way and mindless wolves not capable of becoming
human again manifested.

Celeste: Wendigos...

Victor: Yes... Their bite and scratch is highly
different like any other lycan....so when they do so...the humans turn within a
matter of time...At one time they grew so abundant the mindless ones proved
uncontrollable to the vampire race. So uncontrollable an immediate purge was
executed on not just them but their entire kind’s existence.

Celeste: Genocide? No...that...that doesn’t sound
like them.

Victor:  You
sure about that? What does your heart say? Trust your instinct...trust
yourself... you know something has been off about them since you began to
consort with them.

Celeste: ...

Victor: For years the lycans were hunted..tortured
and killed indiscriminately...It wasn't until the last first born son of the
lycan race started the revolt against the vampires. It was he who was able to
salvage what was left of their existence...

Celeste: The last first?

Victor:  His
name was Jorge... he was a hero to the lycans...first of their kind born... and
the last...he passed away a few years ago in the tide of the war. Before that
he made sure his kind would stay in the shadows and control their numbers under
the vampire’s noses.... But even still...the vampire race continued to hunt
down and execute the lycans without mercy and will not stop until they are gone
completely..even take on hired hands to do so.

Celeste: What are you saying... that I am a hired
assassin of a dying species?

Victor: You're allot more than that... there's
just... so much you do not know.

Celeste: Then tell me...What don't I know?!

Victor: I can’t tell you everything right now...
there's no time... just know that just like the genocide that befell the
lycans...something else is coming...possibly worse. The vampires have had their
hand in so much that has fallen on humanity and other worldly creatures that
they "claim" to you they are trying to stop or help...when in
actuality they have or are orchestrating it.

Celeste: Well what... what the fuck am I suppose to
do? I'm just one person... and you won’t tell me everything!

Victor: I'm sorry..there really is no time... You’ll
have help... hell you currently have it in your friends back there.

Celeste: A partial feral vampire and kid who's
scared to become one?! How is that help?

Victor: You got him to overturn his hunger in a
single night, something I have never seen. You've a connection with
him...something stronger than any bloodlust... use that it's stronger than
anything you can imagine... even bloodlust..

Celeste: And Inkil? One compulsion from the sisters
and this whole thing is going to be blown open wide... and I can’t lie to him.

Victor: There are ways around that...something I am
sure you will figure out with your...talents. Listen...you're closer than
anyone of your kind has ever been to them... You have strengths they are
unaware of...use them to your advantage.

Victor looks into the woods behind Celeste and
begins to pace off.

Victor: I promise in time I will tell you
more...just stay on your guard...trust your instincts. (saying as he begins to
run off)

Celeste: But how do I reach you?!

Victor: (looks around again as a horse begins to
gallop closer) I will be around. (Flies off)

Moments later the horse slows to a stop several feet
away to reveal Sadie's arrival, in a cloak, seconds later.

Sadie: Finally... I found you.

Celeste: Sadie?

Sadie: Who were you expecting?

Celeste: Not you...that's for sure...

Sadie: Well I guess this is a bit of
surprise...where's...

Celeste: How did you find me... I haven’t even
replied to Anabel's last message... I just got it.

Sadie: Oh good..I mean... Inkil... I...have his
scent so I can track him anywhere..where is he? Why isn’t he with you, right
now?! I said protect him!

Celeste: Calm down...he's in a saloon just up the
road here.

Sadie: What the fuck is he doing in there? He's
suppose to be with you!

Celeste: We... we uh made a stop for the night. I
thought he could use a break... so ..so I bought him a couple drinks, some food
and a little fun.

Sadie: A whore? Really?

Celeste: Yes...

Sadie: Damn it..you've been around my sister too
long....And what are you doing here then?

Celeste: (looking down and around in the shadows and
sniffing) Lycans...don’t you smell it....

Sadie: (sniffs) Yea... I do actually now that you
said something... a few..ugh...fucking stinks. (saying as she looks around)

Celeste: How...how'd you get here so fast... I mean
I just got this message (holding it up) and haven't read it yet.

Sadie: Yes ignore that (taking message away) I've
got a new one. I need..I mean we need you to keep away from the manor for a
little while...until we give word it's safe.

Celeste: Why? Is.. something wrong?

Sadie: Nothing we can’t handle... just do this. Wait
for us to contact you, continue your job and above all... continue to keep
Inkil safe.... we should have this settled before his siring ceremony so I will
send message before then.

Celeste: This must be really important if you had to
deliver this message yourself....

Sadie: Just do as I say... (vamp speed off to the
horse and rides off)

Celeste: (mockingly) Whatever you say...

Celeste looks around and then begins to take the
opposite way toward the saloon as Victor watches from a distance rough top
alone and is soon met by a figure in a hooded cloak.

Translated In Spanish.

Hooded figure: Do you think we should go after the
vampire?

Victor: No...she's no threat at the moment and
sending the others into her midst will just get them slaughtered.

Hooded figure: You doubt my kind so much?

Victor: Actually quite the opposite if you were
listening to my exchange with the dhampir...trust me...I'm saving them.

Hooded Figure: And do you trust her.... the dhampir?

Victor: Perhaps when she trust herself...I will too.