The First Vampire

We were waiting for the last of them to arrive, the vampire nobles. Most of the lower vampires hadn’t even been invited here today, but they would hear the tales of what happened here today. Everyone wanted to know if the legends were true, if vampires could truly walk in the sun. Some of them had spent their entire lives searching for more power and others, like Alucard, had done so in futility.

No one here trusted me, a one-day-old vampire, telling them legends of infinite power. They were scarred, the alleged oldest one among them had fallen, and I was the last one to hear his tale. We had been waiting for this moment, the arrival of the now oldest vampire and new King, Lars.

“Lars! Excellent to see you, maybe you can scare these Romanian dogs into submission,” said a man, who I had been told was the Vampire Chancellor, a sort of liaison in this time of uncertainty.

“Damascenes, mustn’t let them push you around. These Romanians all think they’re Dracula.” Unlike the others he paid me a great deal of attention, albeit subtly, and the number of bodyguards that he traveled with was amazing for someone who claiming to be the strongest vampire alive. “No formalities. Convenient that you survived that attack that killed him.”

“He was already dying when he found me, in his weakened state not even my blood would save him. He gave me his own for memories and my transformation, but I have to save the details –”

“Just odd that we did not receive word of the story until after he died,” Lars said.

“From what he has told me, Alucard never planned on sharing this information with us. And perhaps had already attained it himself.” Damascenes explained, “I can’t say that I’m really surprised by it.”

Lars whispered, “Then how did they manage to kill him?” Perhaps they weren’t used to being around vampires all the time because the whispers were rather loud, or perhaps they were too arrogant and didn’t care.

Everyone began to move into the seated section. I had chosen this place, a deserted warehouse in the Midwest United States. It didn’t matter though, they would have traveled anywhere for Alucard’s funeral and for the chance to claim his throne, and tales of power were a bonus. As everyone moved to take their seats, Damascenes moved with me up to the podium, pointing out the vampires that he’d already introduced me too.

Lars was accompanied by his wife Maria, the 5’ 10” Queen of Africa, who by comparison was small in stature. I was told that she was a Vegetarian and relatively young as well, a combination of weakness and yet she controlled Africa. Lars genuinely loved her though, even more then he loved the power that she gave him.

Then there was Sebastian, the French king of Europe and Raul, the Mexican king of the Americas.

Damascenes shushed the crowd and started, “Esteemed family, we have been brought here by our departed, beloved Alucard. His ward here, whose name…what’s your name?”

“I’ve never had one.”
“A vampire name?”

“A name.”

“Well I won’t keep him from you any longer.”

Appearing nervous, I approach the podium, where they gave me attention befitting not that of an equal but of a superior, and time would tell. I began, “When Alucard came to me he was dying. He said that three men had jumped him as he was passionately feeding on a baby; the taste of such young blood was the best last meal he could have had. He gave me no details of the men as he quickly turned me and imparted the details of the story. As I’ve experience, it would be faster to share this to all of you through blood…one of the few ins and outs of being a vampire that I have first hand experience of…but it is important for everyone to learn at the same time,” I could tell that some of them were growing impatient, they didn’t want to hear about me but they had no choice. At this point, if one of them tried to feed on me, it was likely that the entire room would attack him.

“You’ve all heard stories about day walkers, vampires who fly, whose power appears to mimic gods…and of those who seek to destroy you, us. Alucard told me that the first vampire, is also who we call ‘The Light Bringer’.” The range of reactions was dynamic; it appeared as if some had never even heard that name before. “And today, I offer stories into the background of who The Light Bringer really is…his origin, his trials, and where he may be today. I don’t know why we call him The Light Bringer, perhaps it is because he has killed so many of us or perhaps it is because he received his powers directly from the Prince of the Morningstar…Lucifer.”

Before the war in Heaven had even begun, Lucifer was cast out; his refusal to bow to man had caused this exile. Yusef was a farmer and took pride in his work, an appreciation for how things work and the natural order were things he understood. Life, death, the perpetual circle seemed so beautiful to him. Lucifer fell from Heaven to Earth; the first Demon was also an Angel, and being so close yet so far from God’s love caused Lucifer physical pain. Unable to move, he remained trapped in Yusef’s fields, his body exuding famine and destroying the crops. The townspeople felt the effects instantaneously, malice filled their hearts, they became warlike, and were drawn to him. The townspeople came to Yusef and tried to attack him, to burn his crops, and to kill him, but Yusef was selfless and offered himself up to God and to Lucifer and asked for a way to save his people. God did not respond, while Lucifer said ‘Bite me’. With little hesitation Yusef bite down into Lucifer’s neck and no sooner had he done so, then a hole had opened from Hell and swallowed the Devil, saving the world. In that same instant, Yusef was blown backwards with burns all over his body; burns that began to heal right away. Yusef absorbed the Angelic nature that had been in Lucifer and trapped him in this world, and by splitting Lucifer’s opposing halves he had also saved the Earth.

“There are no words to describe what Yusef had become…the Bible calls the children of Angels and humans the Nephilim, but where those are few he is but one. Yusef became the Light Bringer, the first vampire, but while vampires are Demons he is an Angel. The villagers that he had lived with rejected him, and his young love Rebecca married another. Embracing his still half human side, he made it his goal to protect humanity not from themselves but from supernatural and other worldly threats.”

My audience seemed entranced; they knew that the Devil and demons existed, so Angels could too. “How we came about is unknown to me because Alucard said that Yusef never bite anyone or caused them to turn even though he really is the first, so I apologize for being slightly deceptive. Even though he may have been the first leech, he was not the first vampire…but that doesn’t mean we should forget about him.” Searching through the room none of them were yet alarmed and I didn’t have many details left to tell them.

Today things are very different for vampires. Blood banks make things easier, and a much larger and denser population makes things seductively complicated. The Dark Ages were great times for vampires; the population was much lower and a lot stupider. Nobody seemed to notice when somebody else went missing, and nobody talked to each other…but he ended that. He brought light to the Dark Ages; a pillar of balance and order, he stopped Dracula and ended his empire. And following that, he sought to tip the balance in man’s favor, and so Yusef became Joseph and worked with Leonardo da Vinci. Together they made medical and cultural discoveries that would bring mankind forward and make up for the vampire inspired Dark Ages. And through this he and Leonardo worked together…killing vampires…most notably Machiavelli, but who amongst you knew that Leonardo was a vampire? One who still lives and works to better mankind to this very day…

“Indeed many of man’s best inventor’s have been, before their discoveries or converted afterwards into, vampires. There is nothing that they do, that we cannot control…but some, like Leonardo who like to reminisce and support their human lineage are ruining it for the rest of us.” I had to finish my story before most of them caught up. My tone becoming increasingly stern and preachy, “And I will not regale you of the adventures of Leonardo and Joseph, but I will tell you that they did not kill many vampires. Joseph was actually quite compassionate and only ever acted defensively, just as he did when he saved the world by allowing the Devil passage into Hell. He was a great man, err…being, who was alive up until three days ago. Three days ago, in the dead of night, there was a rap against his door…”

It was a normal night, nothing out of the ordinary except for a late night visitor. Joseph had just finished making love to his wife Rebecca, who was the first woman he had loved in a very long time, when they heard a knock at the door. They hurried downstairs and found a broken and battered man at the door. They aided him through the doorway –

At that exact moment, I felt Lars’ sword clash against my neck. Instantly it broke and the pieces flew past me. One piece bounced off of my neck and impaled a younger vampire in his seat. I paused a moment and responded sternly, “I will finish my story.”

Upon being taken inside and granted permission, the vampire Alucard no longer acted weak. He quickly through Joseph against the wall, knocking him unconscious, and began to feast on his wife. He took his time bleeding her dry and then turned on Joseph to do the same. It was over before it had even really begun and Alucard fled into the night. Joseph and Rebecca lay dead on the floor and their less then a day old baby dead, but ready to born.

Lars had finally heard enough and was ready to make his second move, his sword already in pieces he rushed me and grabbed my face. The vampires cheered him on and began to scream but stopped when almost instantaneously he burst into flames when coming into contact with my skin. A lull fell over the crowd once again, I hadn’t known what to expect but rather enjoyed this showing of my powers.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that Angels pass on their powers to their children, and lose their own in the process. My parents conceived me 3 nights ago, I was born 3 days ago, and 2 days ago I killed Alucard. He wasn’t jumped by anyone, I challenged him and it wasn’t even close. And yes I did enjoy myself and did it rather slowly; being honest, I don’t know what I’m going to do with the rest of you yet. Vampires, the lowest of Demons…basically dogs. You sneak around in the darkness waiting for the kind, stupid humans to offer themselves to you, practically babying you. I can’t kill you all, I mean I can, but out of fairness I won’t. My father’s rebirth was a necessity for humanity’s salvation, whereas I’m more of a justice guy. I’ll only kill whoever of you can’t adapt to our new rules. Effective immediately, all of you are now vegetarian vampires. You won’t be feeding on humans, deer, dogs, or even rodents. You won’t be feeding on human blood from banks either. You’re gonna starve yourselves for a few weeks, I haven’t decided how long yet, and then some ‘divine intervention’ is gonna to lead to a synthesizable blood substitute. This way there won’t always be a blood shortage for people and you guys won’t have to feed on anyone. I do not anticipate any objections, but before I open the floor to questions I plan on feeding on a few of the older ones here…you know, just to shake up the hierarchy.”