Georgie

Chapter 1

I stared at the ground in front of me; all I saw was mud and weeds. I was lying on my belly in the tall grass. I could hear voices coming nearer; I glanced upwards to the top of the grass and noticed a huge hairy spider hanging over me.
“AGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs and scrambled to my feet. John and Pete ran over to see what was wrong.
“It was huge” I gabbled “A huge, great big, hairy spider walking towards me”
They just laughed at me, saying I was only a silly little girl and couldn’t hang around with them. It was my dream, to become part of my brothers’ gang. They were twins and had loads of friends, when we were younger we used to all play together, but now they wouldn’t let me.

I wasn’t what you could call a girly girl, I liked to climb trees and crawl through mud, and I could swim, run, throw and jump better than them both put together. They wouldn’t admit it though; imagine your younger sister being stronger than you! I was only six months younger than them, only one school year behind them, but they still wouldn’t admit that I was better at some things. Ever since I was five I knew I was different from the rest of my friends, some of the children used to call me a freak, but I wasn’t, I just wasn’t like them. I didn’t have a dad, mum said he died when I was born, but I knew better, he was still alive and he was going to come and get me soon.

When my mum had had my brothers she a bit short of money, so my dad went to the extreme and did something stupid. He found a man that would give us enough money in return for a simple favour. He needed my dad’s help to keep him alive, he needed his blood. So this man, Mr Terly, took my father’s blood and gave him scars on his hands that will always be there, until he dies. As soon as it was done mum and dad had me, a half-cast. I get most of my characteristics from my dad, the watery blue eyes, pale skin, amazing strength and hearing and my perfect balance. The only two things I inherited from mum were my jet black hair and fear of spiders. Even the smallest one sets me off screaming, I can’t even be in the same room as one. My brothers used to pick on me about this, throw them at me, even their friends used to do it. But now none of them want to even come near me, not after what happened to Callum.

Callum and John were inseparable; they should have been the twins instead of John and Pete. One time I was walking with them, Pete was ill, Callum spotted a big spider hanging from a tree. He scooped it up and put it in my hair. I could feel it crawling around on my scalp, I threw my head this way and that trying to throw it off, hitting my hair with my hands in a frantic scream. Once it was off I turned to Callum, who was laughing his head off, furious. I picked him up by the scruff of his neck and threw him against a tree as hard as I could, knocking him out in the process. John stared at me in horror before running off to get help. While he was away a horrible feeling came over me and I felt something evil rise up inside me, I turned sharply to look at Callum, groaning softly, semiconscious. My eyes glinted red and a nasty grin spread over my face. I knelt beside him and slit his arm open slowly, with a sharp thick nail. The glutinous red liquid oozed down his arm and a drop fell to the ground, making a small pool on the dusty earth. I ran my finger up the stream of blood, stopping it mid-flow and licked the delicious fluid from my hand before quickly and urgently clamping my mouth around the cut and drinking deeply. A lovely warm feeling came over me as I felt my strength re-growing. I opened my eyes in terror at what I had done and pushed myself away from the poor boy on the floor. My mum’s voice was coming closer shouting to me loudly; I spat on the cut and watched it heal over. Footsteps behind me grew louder and I wiped my mouth clean of blood before twisting around to face my mum. She saw my guilty look.
“Oh Georgie” she said disappointedly “how could you?”


Blood. I needed it. My mum knew and had an agreement with the butcher, who supplied me with two litre bottles of fresh animal blood each week in return for her cleaning his house, top to bottom every fortnight. This didn’t keep me strong for long though. Mum also had a brother who worked in a morgue; he knew about me and supplied a bottle of fresh human blood every time a new body came in. Mum, dad and Uncle Simon from the morgue were the only people who knew about me, and I wanted to keep it that way. Everyone else thought that I was just weird, a freak with no dad, that’s what they thought. Everyone else ‘knew’ that dad had died in a car crash nearly 14 years ago, that was the same week I was born. I was born on the Monday, Monday 9th April. On the Tuesday I sat up and smiled. Wednesday I bit off a nurse’s finger when she tried to feed me, on Thursday dad realised what I was and told mum everything. On Friday, the worst day of my life, even though I can’t remember a thing, dad faked his own death. Friday the 13th. My dad ‘died’ and I was fed a bottle of blood, I had to embrace what I was and to do it I had to loose my father.
As I reached my room the thought of that spider hanging over me made me shiver slightly. I pushed open my door and slammed my hand against the light switch. CRACK. The bulb had gone. I strode across the room to close the curtains before going to change the light bulb. As I neared the wall I banged into something hard and knee height on the floor. Cursing loudly I attempted to step over it, just as I did a voice spoke from the direction of my bed.
“Language! Your mother obviously didn’t bring you up like I would have done.”
Dad.

I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, thoughts kept racing through my mind. I couldn’t forget the fact that there was a coffin on my bedroom floor. My dad had come for me at last and told me a lot about being what I am. I had so many questions to ask him, I only got round to asking him one, ‘What am I?’ He said I was a miracle, people like us can’t have children and I was conceived after the blooding. My mum’s pregnancy had only lasted five months, and then I came, healthy and strong. Doctors were amazed at how quickly I grew and how easily I learnt. I could read before my brother John and walk before Pete. Dad also said that if I were a half cast I wouldn’t be able to heal with my spit, but I couldn’t be a full me either because I could still survive in the daylight. But I was too strong for my age, when I went through the terrible twos I broke the television and attacked the kitchen table, breaking off a leg. So my mum enrolled me into a martial arts class to channel my strength. But I still had to be careful about who saw me do what, even though I could erase their memory if they did find something out. This I found out at school, I told my friend Tiffany a secret that I didn’t want her to tell anyone, but then we fell out. So I somehow hypnotised her with my eyes and told her to forget everything I told her. She forgot the secret and her six times table and everything about me. She had to go to a councillor for five years and never remembered much anyone has told her since. When I told my dad this he looked concerned but amused. He then told me that I was special, I was an amazing child and his friends couldn’t wait to meet me. Then he said I had to be taken away soon, to start my journey to meet the king.
“But its Queen Elizabeth on the throne at the moment, Dad!” I said, confused.
“No” he replied, chuckling, “to see the king of our species, to see king Duiscall, king of the vampires.”

It just wouldn’t fit, no matter how strong I was, I couldn’t move it. I could hear my brothers getting closer talking about strange noises in the night. I shoved it roughly with all my might and the coffin containing dad sped under my bed. I yanked the bed covers back down to hide it and jumped back to my feet, just as Pete came through the door.
“You look guilty Georgie, what have you done?” he asked as John came to a stop behind him. They were both staring at me intently; I just smiled innocently and ran past them mumbling something about breakfast and how nice a day it was. I ran down the first part of the stairs and then, after checking they weren’t watching, jumped the rest of them in one bound. I virtually flew into the kitchen and started gabbling to my mum about coffins, vampires, birthdays, kings and light bulbs. Luckily my mum understood completely what I was going on about and said to me
“Don’t worry Georgie, I know that this isn’t exactly a well timed thing. Especially seeing as you have just started making progress in your anger management. But I will not let him take you anywhere you don’t want to go.” Then she calmly opened her book and returned to eating her Cornflakes. I stood there in awe, I never realised that my mum knew so much about vampires. A shout from above broke the silence, it was my brothers.
“Wow! A coffin, Georgie why do you have a coffin under your bed?”
Pete smirked when he heard about dad and me,
“You mean dad sleeps in a coffin? Mum, its not April fools yet you know!” he grinned at us, obviously not believing a word of it. John stood behind him looking grim, I think he believed it, but that’s only because he loves comic books and horror films, so I suppose he believed that I was an evil vampire. Finally he spoke,
“It would explain a lot, you know.” He said to Pete “The fact that she’s stronger than us and only a few months younger than us.” Pete turned to look at him in disbelief,
“You’re only saying that because of your stupid love of comics, how babyish. And anyway if she was a vampire, which I really doubt, where are her fangs?”
“They only come out when she feeds, dumbarse”
“How come she can walk around in the daylight?”
John thought for a minute, “I’m not sure, that I’ll have to research, but either way, I’m never going to trust her again” he almost spat out the last part. As if me being something that he was fixated with was almost as though I betrayed him. He stalked of shouting at mum about going to the library. Pete watched him go.
“Well I don’t believe it at all, you’re just making it up because you have nothing going for you. A vampire, yeah right. You’re such a looser Georgie.”
I really wanted my brothers on my side for this, wanted them to understand and take it well. But this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.
“You’re not going.” My mum said making me jump. “I don’t want my little girl running off into the night with somebody I haven’t seen for nearly fourteen years. It’s just not right.” She finished defiantly before standing up and marching straight past without looking at me. I thought that maybe she realised what I really was, finally had to come to terms with it. Maybe she thinks I’m evil too, maybe she’s too ashamed to even look at me. I wanted to go though, I was getting stronger every day, and soon someone would notice and wonder what was going on. I didn’t want to upset my family, but I knew I would do even more damage if I stayed.


I spent the whole day packing and re-packing my bag, wondering what to take and where we were going. That night when my dad woke up I told him what had happened during the day.
“I knew it would come to this.” He said to me “Georgie, you need to be with people like you, your own age.” I agreed with him completely, so we walked together down into the sitting room. Pete was playing on his playstation, alone, mum was knitting on the sofa. I wondered where John was and was about to ask when dad started to speak.
“I’m taking her with me; she can’t live here, not like this.” He stared at the wall. Pete jumped and turned around suddenly. He screamed and started yelling.
“Oh my GOD! Its dad. John was right they’re alive and he’s gunna kill me in my sleep and suck my blood and AHHHHHHHHHHHH!” he then ran from the room like a mad man still gibbering on about locks on doors and garlic and crosses. Mum sat there on the sofa silently watching this spectacle, when he had gone she stood up and looked dad straight in the eyes.
“You do what you think is best, dear, and I’ll do what I think is best.” With that she gave me the jumper she had just finished knitting and told me to pick up some supplies and a present from the kitchen table. She kissed me on the forehead and walked out the door. Half way up the stairs she turned back to face me,
“Please Georgie, don’t do anything stupid.” And then she ran the rest of the way to her room crying.

I went into the kitchen and put some money and some food into my bag along with special Wiccan pots and her present for me. A bow and arrows with spare bow string and an arrow making kit. When I finally went to join dad outside I was nearly crying.
“Hurry up, we’ve a long way to go tonight” I stood and starred after him as he sped down the road, wondering what I had got myself into.



Chapter 2

The first day was awful. The cold was below freezing point and I was numb all over, December was not the best month to walk around the countryside with only a T-shirt and jumper on. I was tired from trying to keep up with dads fast pace all night. I was also really hungry. We only ate twice a day and then it was usually just a soup or a stew. The witch pots were harder to use than I thought. They were actually specialist camper’s pots which shrink to save room when not being used, but they were invented by a witch. I wasn’t used to cooking in them and the pot I was using to cook the stew shrank halfway through, spilling boiling water and vegetables everywhere. Dad said I needed to concentrate more, give the pot my full attention; otherwise they would get bored and shrink again. I was about to ask how a pot could get bored when he handed a bowl of steaming soup and told me eat. I slept solidly that day, but was woken at sunset by voices.

When I opened my eyes I saw dad talking to a strange little man, well mouse-man. He was very short with a mound of sandy hair flying above his head, he had whiskers protruding through his cheeks and small pink ears that twitched constantly, like his nose. He was wearing a green tunic and black ripped trousers out of which came a tail, a long pink thing that looked remarkably like a giant worm. His feet were bare, hairy and looked as tough as old boots, bits of glass and stones were stuck to them. The small man gestured wildly with his hands, it was then I noticed his nails, he was a half human, half mouse vampire! Strange. I stood arguing with myself about whether or not I should go over and talk to them. I wanted to stay, but I decided to go over and say hello. I had just reached the place they were standing when I heard a rustling in the nearby bushes. I immediately thought ‘danger’ so dived into them and pulled out a scrawny little boy, screaming and kicking like a lunatic.
“Derrick!” the mouse-man said looking rather surprised at the sight of us.
“Dad” the boy squeaked “She is hurting me, she grabbed me very roughly” I was amazed by the poshness of the boy, whose name was obviously Derrick, and looked down to where I had hold of him. The pink worm wiggled in my hand and I dropped it in shock. There were two mouse-men.

Dad introduced them as Mr Turly and son, Derrick. Apparently Derrick was my age even though he only looked about 10. He was the spitting image of his father except he didn’t have whiskers and he wore shoes. Mr Turly was the one who had blooded dad in the first place. When I asked what Derrick had been doing in the bushes Mr Turly (“Call me Collin”) told me he was supposed to be hunting for breakfast. Derrick on the other hand argued that he had seen a badger go into the bushes and had followed.
“A badger, at this time of night, in December!” I exclaimed not going out of my way to hide my disbelief.
“It does happen!” Derrick claimed.
“Hmmm. Occasionally.” Collin replied, but I could tell nobody really believed him. I wondered what could have been so interesting that Derrick would hide and listen to my dad’s conversation. Then I wondered why no one else had heard the rustling. Something strange was going on and I knew it.

I had a chance to speak to Derrick the following day, we had stopped for the day to sleep and rest before starting on towards where ever dad was taking us. He told me loads of stories about him and his dad, which usually resulted in them narrowly escaping mad vampire hunters or evil circus owners, none of which I believed. When he finally stopped boasting I asked him a few questions that I was dying to know the answers to.
“What should I call you?” I asked
“Well,” he paused slightly before continuing in a very haughty tone. “Derrick Arnold James Turly the third is my full name. But you can call me Derrick.”
“Don’t be insolent” I snapped back “I was going to call you Derrick anyway. I really don’t care if you’re Sir Lord Derrick the twenty-ninth; you’re still a little mouse-man to me.” During this outburst he had turned his back on me, but as I spat out the last few words he stood up in anger, turned to face me and shouted back.
“Actually I’m a Ratorian Vampire” he noticed my smirk at this and turned up his nose to me. “At least I have a proper name you half-cast freak.”
Anger boiled within me, I kicked his legs out from under him and sat on his back, pinning him to the floor. I bent over and hissed in his ear,
“I am not a half-cast you stuck-up, little, murine thing. I am an amazing vampire, I don’t have the downfalls of the whole daylight kills you thing, but I still have proper powers, like healing spit and the ability to hypnotise people.” I stood up with a flourish and proclaimed “I am the start of a new race of superior vampires that will rise above you puny rats and take over the world.” I walked off out of the shade and into the dazzling sunlight, as if to prove my point. But I couldn’t stop thinking about why Derrick had been eavesdropping on dad’s conversation.
“Georgie, come back. I need to tell you something” I heard Derrick shout from the shade of some trees we were camping under. I turned back to see him stood at the edge of the sunlight trying not to let any touch him. I walked back towards him and yanked him by the front of his T-shirt into the sun. He screamed and dived backwards, but I held him there.
“Apologise to me and I’ll let you go” he screamed some more, then realising that he wasn’t dead said a quick
“I’m really sorry I said you were a half-cast. Please let me go I’m going to die”
I laughed at him and told him that he wasn’t going to die. Sunlight only kills after a few hours, vampires burn slowly, and the ratorian side to him prolonged this even more. Then I pushed him back under the tree and sat down beside him.
“So, what were you going to tell me?”

Derrick said that he had ‘accidentally overheard’ dad and Mr Turly’s conversation. Apparently we were heading, eventually, for a place called Jaceney’s Isle. They were saying how awful it was, the dangerous marshes full of stinking bogs and sinking sand. Then the freezing cold rivers that were full of ice, the dreadful creatures that were just waiting to kill you and finally the huge mountain. Mount Montem, the most harsh, jagged and uninhabitable place on earth. I couldn’t believe they were going to take us there. Probably to our deaths. We sat in silence for a few minutes thinking about this horrible place and how we would survive. Slowly Derrick turned to me and, looking very ashamed, asked quietly,
“What does murine mean?” I turned to meet his gaze feeling very confused.
“What?”
“Murine” he repeated gaining a bit more confidence “You called me a stuck-up, little murine thing. I was just wondering what it meant!”
I chuckled at him, breaking the tension.
“You need to get better at your Latin.” I saw his puzzled expression and laughed. “You didn’t think it was bad did you?” he nodded his head sheepishly and I laughed a bit louder. “Don’t worry it only means mouse-like, so technically, it’s completely true.” He realised his mistake and we were both laughing loudly, even though it really wasn’t very funny, but at least it broke the uncomfortable atmosphere following an argument.


Chapter 3

After about a week more of travelling, by night, my dad finally told me where we were going. We had to rest and get some new clothes, so we were heading for Newsten wood. Derrick didn’t seem too pleased at this; he told me what he thought of it once we had made camp that day.
“It’s just an over-rated, under-furnished freak show; nobody in their right mind would go there voluntarily. All they do is speak gibberish in Vamperic.”
“Vamperic?” I questioned “What is that?”
“It is the native tongue of the vampires.” He sighed knowingly “A form of Latin, you should like it. But not many vampires can speak it any more, only mirabile.”
“What’s a mirabile?”
“Mirabilis, mirabile is plural. He said in that annoying ‘I know more than you’ voice he had.
“Yeah, whatever. What is one of them?”
Derrick started to explain but dad suddenly interrupted saying we should go to sleep as we had a long night ahead of us tomorrow. I don’t think he wanted me to know.

A couple of days later we hit a wood, Newsten wood. Mr Turly and dad seemed on edge one night after they awoke. They had been cautious all off yesternight, they had heard something or someone following us. Dad told me to climb a tree and stay out of the way. He gave me a sword, it was very light and slightly shorter than a usual sword, but very well made and had small blue gems around the edge that matched the colour of my eyes. I took it and my bag and climbed up the nearest tree. Through the leafy branches I could see the clearing in which dad and Mr Turly stood. Deciding to be helpful I took out my bow and arrows, I had just loaded up my first arrow when there was a rustling below me. I held my breath and cautiously peered through the greenery. There were four of them, two carrying swords, they were very pale and their fingernails told me that they were vampires. The other two looked very ill, both were carrying many large bags and I could tell that they were human. One of them, who had blond hair, was quite small, young and male, dropped one of the bags he was carrying. As he bent to retrieve it I saw, on the inside of his left arm, many small scars along the veins. They looked like vampire scars, where one had drank from him, but there were so many, it was dangerous to the human’s health.

The two vampires entered the clearing at the same time as three more from the other side, it was an ambush! Dad and Collin were outnumbered, I had to help. Two of the attackers stepped forward to fight whilst the others held back laughing and shouting. As the swords clashed I knew we could never win. Even though Mr Turly was amazing strong for his size and had already sliced off a few of his opponent’s fingers and was jabbing at his stomach. Dad was also a great fighter with his double ended sword staff, but he kept leaving gaps wide open for his opponent to slice a few cuts in his chest. I had to try to help. I aimed my arrow at a vampire on the other side of the copse, who was getting a bit excited and kept lunging at my dad’s legs with his knife. I released the string and my arrow sped straight into his arm, making him drop his weapon and cry out in pain. A moment later another arrow flew, this time my aim was better and I hit his heart. He died screaming and gurgling blood. His slave rushed forward, I thought to help, but he just pulled him into the bushes and ran off with his things. The vampire who was standing next to the dead one, he was a bit chubbier and had fly-away brown hair, pointed up at my tree and yelled across the clearing. A knife flew up through the branches narrowly missing my face, but clipping the sword I had balanced next to me and making it fall off. I dropped flat onto my stomach and blindly grabbed for it. But just then another knife flew up surprising me and knocking me off balance. I fell heavily onto the floor on my front by the feet of the knife-thrower, my hair spread wildly over my face. I scrambled to my feet and reached over for the sword on the floor beside me. The vampire kicked it away laughing. I looked up at him, annoyed; he wasn’t very tall, quite skinny and looked weak. He had hair shaved so short that he looked like a mole. He shouted across to the other vampire,
“Don’t worry Cedric, its just a little girl, I can handle her.” His voice was low and echoed.
“I’m not a little girl” I hissed at him. He looked surprised at me speaking,
“So you can speak our tongue can you?” he said, confusing me “That doesn’t impress me.”
I somersaulted over to where my sword was and stood up to face him.
“I have no idea what you’re going on about; surely English is the same to everyone?”
The vampire shouted across to his friend again saying something about me thinking that Vamperic was English, this confused me even more, how could I be speaking another language without realising it. Cedric looked quite scared at this, for some strange reason.
“You know who she is? She’s the prophesised one. The daughter of a God.”
He started to get hysterical and his voice moved an octave higher as he became slightly madder. “She’s going to kill you Frank, as easily as a fly she’s going to swat you and kill you and…” he carried on screaming and I thought he was going to hyperventilate. It was getting really annoying, so I took the knife that was strapped to my leg and threw it in his general direction, shouting at him to shut up. It whooshed through the gap between dad and Mr Turly and hit Cedric right between the eyes. He screamed once again and shouted,
“Have mercy, skilful mistress, have mercy on the mirabile.” Then he fell to the floor, dead. I turned back to face Frank,
“You’re a Mirabilis?” I asked, stunned.
“You’re the Doctus Domina?” he asked equally stunned, my hearing lapsed back so I only heard the Latin, Vamperic, version of the phrase. A whistling sound distracted me for a second and a knife hit Frank in the side of the head, killing him instantly. Mr Turly, the knife thrower, stood and stared at me, a dead Mirabilis by his feet. The one fighting dad turned and fled. We stayed in the clearing for a while not moving much, trying to work out what had just happened, I was really confused and had no idea what any of the Mirabilis were on about. Suddenly Derrick burst into the clearing, dragging behind him a young vampire with a mop of purple curly hair and ripped trousers.
“Look what I found in the bushes.” He announced.

The boy was unconscious for a long time, so whilst we waited for him to come around I decided to ask them, dad and Mr Turly, some questions that had been plaguing me.
“Dad, what’s Doctus Domina?” I asked. Dad looked around uncomfortably,
“Who told you about that nonsense?” he asked irritably “Was it Derrick? Filling your head with that rubbish?”
“It was not I!” Derrick cried defensively “I expect she picked it up from you two and your secretive talks” Dad opened his mouth to reply to this, and I could see he was getting angrier.
“I don’t remember where I heard it.” I said quickly breaking up the inevitable argument. “I just want to know what it means.”
“Well it’s a long story and not suitable for now” he answered getting up to check on the boy, again. Then a voice broke through the tension.
“I think we should tell her, it’s her destiny to know.” It was Mr Turly “if you don’t Christopher, then I will.” I didn’t understand who he was talking to, then it clicked, it must be dad. It was weird that he called him Christopher because mum had always referred to him as George, my namesake.
“Fine I will tell her” came Mr Turly’s voice again after a slight pause. Then he started his story.
“There is a legend that starts with the beginning of time, with the Gods.”
“Gods?” I interrupted, but dad shot me a warning look and Mr Turly continued.
“There are many vampire Gods, the most important is Tri, who is said to have three personalities. From each of these he made a race, the first was humans; the second was vampires and the third mirabilis. But the human side was weak, it didn’t need blood to survive but it would have easily been killed off if the other two came together. So Tri made sure that vampires and mirabilis hated each other. He made them both creatures of the night, so as not to interfere with the sun loving humans. But he made vampires drink small amounts of blood from many different humans, so to stay undetected. Whereas mirabilis took one human as a slave, to drink from and rule over until it died and another took its place. They treated humans like simple animals that had been put on Earth simply to serve them.”
“But that’s evil” I said interrupting again “And very dangerous”
“Do let father finish the little story, otherwise it could take all night.” Derrick rudely remarked, trying to sound bored but he was obviously as enthralled as I was. I apologised quickly and Mr Turly continued.
“All three creatures will live together, side by side, quite happily, apart from the occasional disagreement; it is said until one fateful night. Tri himself sent down some of his Gods and Goddesses to try to stop the war that was said to be coming. He sent down Callidus the wise to watch over the vampires, but told him never to blood anyone because his daughter would bring the end. Tri also sent Rhetor the Goddess whom teaches to protect the Mirabilis, but warned her never to fall in love because the choices that would be made will bring death to whoever knows of them. Tri sent down four other Gods and Goddesses, one was just called God and he was for the humans. The other three nobody knows much about, one, as legend tells it, was actually expelled from Aetheris (Vampire heaven) and condemned to walk the Earth, Pravus was his name. The second was a Wiccan, she taught others to fight with their minds and to see into the past and the future, this was to prepare them for the war, if it came to pass. The third is a mystery; nobody knows who they are or why they’re here.”
“So what’s the Doctus Domina got to do with some Vampire Gods?” I asked when he stopped. Mr Turly opened his mouth to reply, but somebody got there first.
“The Doctus Domina, meaning skilful Goddess, is the daughter of the god Callidus; she can speak Vamperic at times, but needs to be trained up before being able to control her switching from Vamperic to English suddenly. She can have children and can fight with the force of 3 vampires when trained. She will either be the beginning of a new race of vampires that will take over and be as they were before Tri gave us disabilities. Or she will lead the whole race to extinction if she dies before rising to the level of Supreme Being. Well that’s how the Ancient Vamperic was translated any how.”
By the time he had finished we were all staring at the purple haired boy, who had apparently just woken up.
“Oh, Tri. My head hurts like hell” he moaned rubbing the back of his head, where a nasty bump had formed. “What in the name of the vampires did he hit me with?”
“You mean Derrick knocked you out?” I giggled at the scene that had just appeared in my imagination of the tiny boy hitting the back of the pixie faced boy’s head, and it making no difference almost as though Derrick wasn’t there at all. The other boy chuckled as well, looking down towards Derrick, probably thinking the same as I was. “No, I knew you were coming so I came to warn you that there were Mirabilis in the wood” he looked around at the bodies “But I gather you found them.” He counted them up “But there’s one missing, a tall one, bald, great big flipping sword” he said gesturing with his hands. He was talking about the one that dad was fighting, the one that ran. “it was probably him that knocked me out, with his sword handle I expect” the boy jabbered on, he then suddenly realised that nobody knew who he was and were all looking at him as if he were a complete lunatic. “Oh, by the way, I’m Tom, your guide for tonight” he joked, then led us off into the woods. As we walked I started to think, if that Mirabilis had called me the Doctus Domina, and she was the daughter of a God, then that must mean that dad is actually Callidus!

It didn’t take very long to reach the establishment, which was called Umbra Villa meaning shadow house. From what I had heard from Derrick I imagined it to be a small wooden shack crammed full of people and only one chair. As we reached the clearing in which it stood I found that it wasn’t even that. It was a tiny thatched building, about large enough for a toilet. I was stunned.
“Is that it?” I asked in amazement. Dad and Mr Turly turned to look at me as if I had said something deeply offensive; Derrick starred at me in shock then started to giggle quietly to himself. Tom didn’t though; he just looked at me and grinned.
“Well I am sorry your highness does our humble abode not live up to your majestic mansions?” he said sarcastically trying not to laugh. My dad was less amused about it though.
“You know Dr Who’s spaceship was based on this, his creator was a vampire” he said knowingly. I felt awful, I always speak before I think and I was just about to apologise when someone came out of the hut. I wasn’t sure whether it was female or male. It was very tall and slender with long hair and what seemed to be a beard, but the hair grew and shrank continuously. I must have appeared very rude because the creature started to stare back at me with the same expression I had. I didn’t realise what was happening to it until I blinked. I opened my eyes to see another me starring back with a look of disgust on it. I gasped in surprise and the thing snapped back into its original state.
“I am the guardian of the gate” a voice whispered inside my head. I turned to the others but they were chatting happily between themselves. Nobody else had heard the voice, it was soft and gentle seemed like the sort of voice that should belong to a fairy.
“Come with me and I’ll show you real fairies” the voice whispered again. My feet started to walk, I knew I didn’t want to go, but I was so relaxed that I couldn’t stop myself. I walked slowly towards the hut, my feet shuffling along. As I neared the building my pace speeded up and I slowly curved away from the hut. I broke into a run and my heart pounded as I tried to stop myself, but my efforts were in vain. I smashed into a tree and everything went black. A few minutes later my eyes sprang back open again, the light blinded me and I couldn’t see a thing. I couldn’t move, my feelings and thoughts were mine, but I wasn’t in control of my actions. Then I heard another voice, this one wasn’t from inside my head, the guardian was speaking to me.
“Hello Georgie” it sneered at me, the voice had changed; it was now hard and cruel. “Don’t try to fight me it will just prolong your death further. You have to understand, its nothing personal, I was just put on this earth to kill you. So that is what I will do, or die trying. Tri himself sent me, I’m not one of the mythical Gods sent down though, I was more of an after thought. A little something extra, nobody wanted me here really, so made new friends, I gather you’ve met some of these already. Tri sent me to protect you, but I don’t want to, my real friends don’t want me to. I sent those Mirabilis after you, they were my friends before you got to them. I thought they could kill you if they got you young, I underestimated you, that won’t happen again. But at least one got away, he’ll go back to his master and say such wonderful things about you.” The voice trailed off and my vision came back to me, I was no longer in the woods, but in a really big room, made out of what looked like gold. In the middle of the room was the bald Mirabile, he was walking towards a throne at the far side of the room. The room was poorly lit, by only a candelabrum over the door, all the other corners of the room were in darkness. The person on the throne was hidden by shadows and I could only see their feet. Which were in the most horrible orange trainers. The bald man started to speak.
“There were five of us walking through a wood, when suddenly 10 vampires leapt out at us. We told them we didn’t want any trouble, but they just laughed. Then a young girl walked into the clearing, we thought it might stop them attacking having a human there. But they all knelt down to her and she pulled two knives from her waist and threw them. One hit Cedric between the eyes and the other hit Frank on the side of the head. She must have been a vampire because she was so fast. She then took out a bow and arrows and shot Valeed, once in the arm and once in the heart. Valeed was only young; he had been blooded for only a month. Then she leapt forward and killed Sidney with her sword. I knew I could never win, so I ran, the vampires want a war sire.” He seemed to really believe what he was saying, even though it was all a lie. He was genuinely scared, I could feel it but it was all a lie, I knew it and I had to tell them. Fighting my mind restraints I rushed forward into the light shouting,
“That isn’t true, I only killed two of them and one was by accident, don’t listen to him.” The bald man seemed shocked to see me but I sensed that the throne sitter knew I was there all along. They stretched a fist out into the light, as they flung their fingers out I flew backwards by an unseen force and hit something. A tree. I had been in the woods all along. The guardian was standing before me, it was a she. She was in her true form, tall willowy with completely black eyes. She looked like true evil. Then she spoke,
“I am Sileash, the guardian. It is your time to die.”
I drew my sword and leapt to my feet, she took control of me when I was mid lunge. My sword stopped before reaching her and I stabbed myself in the foot instead.
“You can’t beat me I am too strong.” She taunted. I squeezed my eyes shut and concentrated on getting her out of my mind. She was in control of my right arm though, and I was stabbing myself everywhere. When I opened my eyes I had a large slash across my belly, it felt like I was missing a couple of toes, my shoes were in pieces, I was bleeding freely from both legs and my sword was rushing towards my neck. I yanked my head away at the last moment nearly breaking my neck. I knew I had to get away from my right arm. I clasped my left hand around my right. I must have looked ridiculous, fighting myself in the middle of a wood!

Somehow I managed to build up enough strength in my left arm to wrench the sword out of right. Breaking my right wrist as I did so. I plunged my sword into Sileash’s body with all my might, again and again. With each wound she received I regained the feeling in mine. I stabbed her again and again until she died. By that time I had full control of my mind and body, the pain was overwhelming I felt as if I had been stabbed to death as well. Still holding my sword I stumbled across to the hut. I burst through the door, bloody and swaying with my head stuck out painfully to my right and my right hand limply dangling. The people in the massive room turned to stare at me as I fell into the room.
“She tried, me kill me, Sileash mad, all dead, Bald one lies.” I mumbled incoherently as loud as I could before collapsing to the floor with a sickening crunch.