Vae Victis - B2 Chapter 8 (Patreon)

First Steps

I opened my eyes in the real world. Meeting Shadow again had left me somewhat drained, exhausted, but in a good way. I had worried so much about the weight of everything that I had to do, and even though it had been just a few days, I had felt lonely. Shadow's presence, or at least a part of him was most welcome.

I had his guidance once more, even if there were things that he couldn't talk about, that he couldn't share. I wondered just what the purpose of his presence was, but Shadow had said that all Masks had a variety of features to them, aspects that served different purposes. I didn't know if that was the Grand Spell speaking through this version of him, or if it was the real Shadow. In truth, for all I knew this Shadow was just a shell made out of the real person's memories for the Grand Spell to use as a mouth piece, as a test. I didn't think that I would ever be able to tell the truth.

Still, I was glad. This also opened up a lot of different things regarding my Mask. If I could get freely given blood from other people, would I be able to get their copies too? I've discussed it for a short while with Shadow, and there were some very interesting questions. But those were matters best left to the future. Now, I had more important matters to think about.

I had taken the other two new skills from the raiders I took blood from, which were [Quick Strike] and [Quick Step]. They were interesting skills, and I wanted to test them out, so I swapped out my second profile skills for the three new ones I gained, replacing the [Sonic Screech], [Lesser Impale], and [Quick Claw] with [Double Strike] and the other two. When I swapped them, I also felt like the process was different than when I changed the skills of my primary profile. When I did that there was cooldown until the skills became active, and this felt somehow different.

So, I rolled my shoulders and stood up. I glanced at Felix's sleeping form and then focused inward, triggering my [Swap Profile]. I felt my skills swap around, and I the new ones come awake. I tilted my head, then whispered.

"It worked," I said.

Saia flew up and landed on my shoulder, then responded in a low voice just next to my ear. "Statement: I will add it to the data collection about your Mask."

I nodded. She had taken it upon herself to keep track of all the things we learned about my Mask. This meant that I could activate new skills, faster, though it cost me the cooldown of my [Swap Profile] skill, which I knew was around an hour. It wasn't that bad, though this new profile didn't have any bonus as none of the new skills had a <beast> tag, and only one of them had a <movement> tag. Though, with the [Quick Step] skill I did now have three movement skills which meant that I could make a profile that would give me the Movement bonus.

But I really didn't like having a skill profile that lacked any offense. I would have to think about it, but that was for later. I focused on one of the skills and activated it with a thought. I raised my foot and [Quick Step] made me skip ahead. I frowned, the movement was strange, I didn't feel like I was moving faster, but my leg had skipped ahead in a blur, faster than what I was capable of. It was a short skill, but I could see how it could be useful. I waited for it to come off cooldown without moving, wanting to see if it had a requirement like [Mist Step]. After a minute of waiting, I felt like it wasn't going to come back without me moving. It didn't feel like a skill that should have a long cooldown. I started taking steps, counting as I walked around the camp. On the tenth step, the skill came back. It was longer than [Mist Step], but then that one had been a higher Investment Skill, at least from what Shadow had said.

With one skill down, I tested out the other two. [Quick Strike] did the same thing that the step did, only it accelerated a movement that was intended to be offensive. From what Shadow had said, there were ways to trick skills and use them in ways that they weren't fully intended to. I tested it out a few times, finding out that it too had a requirement based cooldown, which was a dozen offensive movements. It also seemed to work on any action that could be called a strike, regardless of which body part I used it for.

The last skill, [Double Strike] was time restricted, with the cooldown being around five minutes. That was a long time in a fight, but the skill was also a lot stronger than the others. If one didn't know that it was coming, it was incredibly dangerous, as I knew first hand. If someone stronger had used it on me, I could've lost my head. The only reason I wasn't badly injured was because of my superior speed.

I finished my tests and returned to my place in camp.

I looked over at the kid again, wondering how he had even managed to fall asleep after everything that had happened the day before. He had clearly been unsettled by learning that I was a vampire. And seeing three men die in front of him had to have left a mark. Or... Maybe not. His story about what happened to him had been filled with death already. The last month had been hard for the people living on Earth too.

Still, him knowing that I was a vampire changed things. I had planned on keeping my nature a secret from most people I met. The reasons for it were many: because it would give me an advantage when dealing with people. People mostly accepted that vampires were a reality that had to be dealt with, but coming face to face with one was difficult. The vampire population wasn't high enough that average people dealt with them in their everyday life. They saw us on the tv, read about us in the news, they saw us from a distance. Very few humans ever interacted with a vampire, hell, the shifters were more commonly seen in public.

Vampires cultivated a certain kind of image. Both in the civilized world, and in the shadier places. The Lágrima Sangrienta Cartel was one of the very few criminal organizations that was led by a vampire and had many other vampires and shifters in its ranks, in this part of the world at least.

And that was the issue, I didn't know where exactly I was. I had returned to the estate, my home, but I knew that the Earth had been taken apart and put back together into a single landmass by the Grand Spell. I had already seen signs of it, this forest didn't fit what used to be near my home, the trees were different. The bears that attacked Felix was not native. I heard birds that sounded nothing like what I knew.

It was possible that the area around my home had been stitched together with some other part of the planet. For all I knew I was now in the middle of what used to be Europe.

I shook my head, it wasn't that bad. According to Felix I knew that Medellín was still in this area, we were still in a territory that was predominantly what used to be Colombia from what I could see at least.

I just had to meet more people, explore more and find some way of figuring where exactly I was in the grand scheme of things. Though that wasn't as important just yet.

Getting to people was. And that also meant deciding how I was going to approach them. I still had my glasses and mask, fixing them was a simple matter, but the question I had now was whether I wanted to in the first place.

Felix already knew, and though I could try and trust him not to spill, there was something to be said about just presenting as I was. I would still have to trust him about not saying anything about me being able to walk in sunlight. That is what I wanted to keep a secret the most. It was a secret that I didn't think even many vampires knew yet. The fear of the sun was ingrained in the vampires, I didn't think that any of them would ever test it out without being forced to. That meant that I had an advantage over even my own kind, and I intended on keeping it for as long as I could.

Now, I had to decide how I was going to approach the people at Felix's church. It was going to be interesting no matter what.

* * *

We set out from camp in the morning, after breakfast. I pretended that I didn't see Felix's looks, pointed both at me and Saia, as I let him eat in peace. Once he was finished, I cleaned up the camp, and we headed in the direction he said the church was.

From what he said, it wouldn't take us more than a few hours of walking. He obviously couldn't have gotten that far away from it when he ran away, he had still been just on foot. He didn't know the exact way back, of course, he was just a kid. But he knew enough to identify a direction and landmarks, a mountain that was nearby.

We walked in an uncomfortable silence for a bit, as I was unsure how to even start a conversation. What did you say to a kid that had just seen you murder three people in front of them? That had just found out you were a bloodsucking monster?

I wished that I could just stay quiet, deliver the kid to his people and safety. But there were more things that I had to know.

"Tell me more about your church and these raiders. You said that they come around every once in a while?" I asked, breaking the silence.

Felix winced, as if startled by my voice. He glanced in my direction, then looked away.

I sighed, it was obvious that he didn't know how to act in front of me anymore. I could tell that he was afraid, it was daylight, but I could still see better than a human could. I knew the signs.

The issue was that I didn't know how to make him not afraid of me. The only people I had ever interacted as a vampire were those in the areas that were controlled by my group. They had been accustomed to vampires and shifters before I was even turned.

"Felix," I said slowly. "It is still me, you know."

He glanced at me. "I-I know," he said, then sighed. "It's just that I've never seen a..."

"You've never seen a vampire before."

He shook his head. "Only on tv."

I nodded. "So what do you know about us?"

Felix swallowed and tried to meet my eyes. "Well, you drink blood."

"That is true," I said. "But we don't need to kill people in order to do that, and we can survive without human blood for a while."

"Really?"

"Of course, what do you think I did while I was away for the last month? I was in an alien jungle with no humans around. I had to drink animal blood to survive," I tried to say as gently as I could. "You don't need to be afraid of me Felix."

Felix raised his head. "Yeah," he said slowly. "I know, it's just... The way you, uh, killed those people was..."

"They were attacking us," I said slowly.

Felix looked away. "Yeah, Mr. Martin says that surviving is what's most important now. That we should be careful around anyone new that we run into, with everything that's been happening. That... that they might be desperate."

He didn't seem to believe his words.

"You understand why I did it, don't you?"

"Because you are a vampire?"

I sighed. "I'm sorry that you had to see that. I... I lost my temper. I saw that they'd hurt you, and once they attacked me... Well," I shrugged. "Actions have consequences, and they decided to act in a way that brought them in direct opposition to our survival."

He nodded. "I'm sorry for, acting this way. It's just... I couldn't do anything when they grabbed me."

I blinked. I thought that he was being standoffish because he was afraid. And he probably was, but now I saw that there was more to it.

"There is nothing to be embarrassed about," I told him. "They were older and stronger than you, they had skills. There was nothing that you could do."

"Yeah," he turned his head down. "I just have a useless skill and Mask."

"It will change once you reach your first Investment," I told him.

"But will I get stronger?" He turned to look at me. "You told me that Masks change based on what we do, what kind of experience-Investment we get, right? Well, if I'm always rescued, if I'm always weak, what kind of skills will I get?"

"You will get stronger," I said firmly. "I know it."

He narrowed his eyes. "I need to do better, to learn more, that is what my Mask needs right?"

I nodded. "Yes."

He met my eyes, and in them I saw a kind of resolve that reminded me of a look I would see in a mirror when I was a kid and wanted to prove myself to those around me.

"Can you teach me how to fight?" He asked.

I blinked, not expecting it. "I don't know if that is a good idea," I said. There was a lot that I had to do, I didn't need the added responsibility of being someone's teacher, I was still a student myself. Nor did I even know how to teach. I barely knew enough to keep myself alive.

"Please," he said with eyes that bore into me. "You saw what happened, I need to learn how to protect myself."

"You'll be safe once we get you back to church."

"No I won't," he turned away. "There is no such thing as safe anymore."

I opened my mouth, then closed it. He was right, of course. Even more than he probably realized. I sighed. "I'll think about it."

"Really?" He turned back with a smile on his face.

"After we get you back to church, and I talk with the adults there."

"You promise?"

"I promise to think about it, nothing more," I said, already knowing that it was a bad idea. "Now, raiders, tell me about them," I switched topics before his puppy eyes made me make promises that I couldn't keep.

He shrugged. "They come and take milk from our cows every once in a while, and then they talk with the Padre and Mr. Martin."

I tilted my head. "What do they talk about?"

"I don't know. But I overheard Mr. Gomez say that they are bastards once. So, they are probably doing some bad things," he said with a nod to himself. "Tita doesn't let us go near them when they come, and every time we ask why they are there she says that kids shouldn't be so nosey," his face scrunched up into a grimace. "I'm not a kid, I'm thirteen! Ana and Diego even go on hunts, and they are the same age!"

I tried not to laugh at his outburst. "What else do you know about them, you said that they hunt for the rifts?"

He nodded while avoiding looking at me. "Yeah, I overheard Mr. Martin say that they had to report rift locations to them once, before Tita dragged me away." He reached up to scratch at his ear. "I don't know much more. Just that they have weapons and stuff."

I chuckled. "Well, I guess that I'll have to wait and see."

* * *

As the sun started to make its descent, Saia returned from scouting ahead and landed on my shoulder.

"What's the word?"

"Feedback: This Unit located the compound that corresponds to what Felix described. It is less than an hour from here at your current pace."

"Is everyone safe?" Felix stepped closer, looking up at the dragon.

"Feedback: This Unit cannot say for certain, as it observed from a great height in order to remain undiscovered. But, there were signs of people present."

I narrowed my eyes, I've noticed her switching between referring to herself as 'this Unit' and using first person noun again. I had some idea why she did that, but I would need to test it out once I had the time.

I glanced at the sky, the sun was coming down but won't set before we reached our destination. Which was... A problem. I turned to look at Felix then knelt next to him.

"We should talk about what we're going to say to your people."

Felix blinked. "What do you mean?"

I grimaced, trying to figure out how exactly I wanted to go about this. Hiding that I was a vampire was going to be... Too hard. I had already seen how easy it was for my face coverings to be removed, and my excuse for it was honestly not that great. Which left the only real option, not hiding what I was. Which was fine, I was not ashamed of what I was, and seeing how the three raiders reacted to it did open my eyes somewhat to what I could expect. It would give me some advantages. My eyes singled me out as an adult vampire, and most people would associate that with someone at least a hundred years old. Humans valued age and experience, it would make any interactions between us much easier than if they looked at me just as someone who was much younger. I was not even thirty after all, but they didn't need to know that.

What I really wanted to keep a secret was the fact that I could walk in sunlight.

"I'd like for us to wait for nightfall," I told him slowly. "Me being able to survive in direct sunlight is something new that most people won't have any idea about. I'd like to keep it a secret."

Felix blinked. "I can do that."

"You promise," I smiled at him.

The kid nodded furiously. "I won't tell no one."

"Good," I stood and looked around. "Then we'll wait for nightfall, and then head to the church."