The sun was out – shinning brightly as it seldom did in England, even on early summer afternoons. The fields behind the very large country house – well more like a castle really – were alive with bright greens, purples and yellows of flowers still blooming from spring. Looking tiny and small against the natural beauty of the land, 2 boys played with wooden swords, chasing each other, attacking and running, jumping and laughing as often young boys did.
- “I got you that time – come on admit it!” the boy on the left said with his wooden sword raised high up above his head.
- “I will never admit it, because you didn’t get me – and you can’t prove it!” the other boy said, lunging at him with his wooden sword.
The first boy dodged and rolled on the ground, and popped back up amidst the flowers, sword in hand, leaping at the other boy in a fit of laughter and determination.
- “I will not stop until you admit it!” he said, “Edward you have to admit it! I won!” The boy said again.
Edward stopped jumping and lowered his sword, “Is it really that important to you that I admit it - I mean these aren’t REAL swords, and we aren’t REALLY fighting…”
- “Yes,” the boy said, “fair is fair and I got you fair and square!” he said and pointed his wooden sword directly at the Edward, in a challenging pose.
- “Alright! alright!” Edward said, “I, Edward, future King of all of England, have been beaten by Derek of Kent,” he said giggling, “who is not now or never will be king!” Edward said, “satisfied?” he asked
- “Well you could have left that last bit out”, Derek said, “there’s no need to be cheeky,” he continued, “plus father said you are not the future King of England, you are only going to be King if someone kills your brother” Derek said.
- “Well,” Edward said walking slowly towards Derek, “Harold says that the men in our family don’t live very long anyway, so chances are I will die before I ever become King,” he said, “but I can still pretend!”
- “Why would you want to be King anyway?” Derek asked, “seems like a boring and stuffy thing to do having people all over you all the time.”
Edward shrugged, “I don’t know – everyone wants to be King, Harold said, so if everyone wants to be King then I do too!” he said, “and Kings can tell people what to do and that seems like it would be kind of fun” he said with a smile.
The boys both picked up their coats and started to walk back towards the house. Edward looked at Derek and asked, “how long are you staying this time?”
- “I do not know” Derek said, “father said I could stay until his business in London is finished and that could take up to a month.” He looked up at Edward with a happy smile, “You want to go riding now? I bet Walker is not at the stables we could sneak in” he said to Edward expectantly.
- “No,” Edward said, “I’m hungry” he continued, “let’s go see what cook has – I want some honey cakes” he said. He looked up at Derek with a twinkle in his eye, “I bet I can beat you to the house!” he said.
Derek bit his lip and looked at the house and back at Edward, “No way” he said, “No way you can beat me!” he said
The two boys dropped their wooden swords and coats and began running towards the house. Between gasps and giggles they both made it back at the same time.
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Derek woke up startled. The dream had been so vivid that for a moment he was right back there with Edward. Poor Edward – he had heard from the Abbot that Edward had been killed by the same “plague” that had hit his own family. These kindred were a disease – he was convinced that nothing good would ever come of them – of him. He shook his head as he sat up in bed and tried to get rid of the last vestiges of the memory still in his mind. How much simpler things were back then.
As usual the sun had already set by the time Derek woke, got dressed and came upstairs. He was strangely hungry again – he thought it odd that hunger did not affect him like it once did. His stomach did not grown, he didn’t feel that emptyness inside of him. This was more like a gnawing, a burning. The knowledge that he hunger was there – he could not control it – all he could hope for was to quench it before it became unbearable. Claude was already upstairs in field tending to their horses. It seems another one of their horses had managed to return.
- “So she is back too?” Derek asked, “Is she alright?” he asked looking at the mare.
- “Yes”, Claude replied, “she came back last night on her own – when I woke this morning she was grazing. She has an injury to her front leg but she should recover.”
- “Good” Derek said, “that’s good” his voice trailed off…
- “What’s wrong with you?” Claude asked him.
- “Nothing” Derek replied
Claude walked up to Derek and took his chin with his hand, much like a father would do to a son, he looked Derek straight in the eye, “You need to feed” he said, “Go, when you get back we will get started”, he said.
Derek looked up at him in surprise. “You mean…” he said, “… alone? You wish me to go alone? To hunt alone?”
- “Yes,” Claude said, “I have helped you enough in that area, it’s time you stand on your own.” he said, “now go and don’t dawdle – we need the time”
Derek nodded to Claude and walked off into the woods. This was the first time he would be hunting alone. Every other time Claude had gone with him to make sure he was ok. This time he was on his own. He was scared – not of what he would find – but of himself. With Claude he knew that if he lost control somehow, Claude would bring him back with that strange mind thing he did. But now, alone, who would bring him back if the beast took over?
It didn’t take long – perhaps a couple of hours and Derek walked back out with color back in his cheeks. Being able to hunt on his own made Derek feel empowered. He knew that he could go out and hunt on his own – and keep complete control of himself. This was reassuring.
He came back to the castle in time to see that Claude had once again laid all of the weapons out. They spent the night training, working on speed more so than strength this time around. Derek had a very difficult time keeping up with Claude, and tried tapping into his own supernatural speed with very little success. He found it much easier to tap into strength instead of speed. They worked on it for the rest of the week, and although Derek felt his body strengthen every night, he just couldn’t find a way to speed himself up like Claude did.
After a week of training, Claude added mind games once again. At first Derek was caught by surprise, but it wasn’t long until he was able to easily put up his mental defenses and keep them up even while he was focusing on physical feats. Another week of training went by and although Claude told Derek that he was improving, Derek did not think it was so. He still felt slow and inadequate compared to Claude.
They were 2 weeks away from the deadline that Derek had given Claude for going to London, and although he told Claude he would not change his plans, secretly he began to wonder if he was ready. With every night of training, he saw more and more of what Claude could do and he felt that Claude was holding back. He couldn’t even imagine, how superior to him Claude would be if he was tapping into all of his vampire powers. And the tought of running into not one but several of these kindred in London, was terrifying to Derek – but the fact that he was afraid to go, made him want to go even more. His father had always told him that the only way to overcome your fears was to face them and stand up to them – head on – and Derek planned on doing just that.
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Derek and Claude decided to go into the village nearby to find more servants – after all, they needed to leave someone behind at the castle taking care of things while they were in London. Claude also said that this would be a good time for Derek to work on his mental capacity and to learn to hunt among humans. Derek was scared that he would lose control – hunting animals, was one thing – but hunting humans was something else entirely.
The Village was about 3 hours away from the Kent castle. They rode hard and were able to make it there in 2 hours. The first thing they did was go to the local Tavern where Derek and his family were well known by the townspeople. His father had always been very generous and was generally well liked by the villagers. Upon arriving, they realized that news of the tragedy at his estate had already spread – they suspected by the Abbot – since they received condolences from most villagers, saying how sorry they were that Derek’s family had died to the plague. The Abbot was right, several other towns had been “hit” by this same plague, although the story now was that some of the territories affected by the plague had also been attacked by wild wolves, since some of the bodies were discovered mauled.
Derek and Claude came into the tavern and took a table at the far end of the large room. Claude looked at Derek and whispered in a low tone, “Reach out to that girl with your mind, tell her to come here”, he said. Derek looked at Claude a bit confused.
- “What do you mean? Should I call her here?” Derek whispered back.
- “No”, Claude explained, “Use your mind, the same way that I enter your mind, reach out to her with your mind – try to tell her from your mind to hers, to come here.” he said.
- “I will not do that” Derek said, “that is a terrible intrusion” he stated.
Claude looked visibly annoyed and looked at Derek with a very stern look, “You are here to learn, now” he said, “all you are doing is calling her to come here using your mind instead of your voice.” he said, “I do not wish to argue this with you – just do it”, Claude stated.
- “No” Derek said
- “Do you want to go London in 2 weeks or not?” Claude asked
Derek though about it for a minute and sighed, “Fine” he said, “You win”. He looked at the girl, and tried to focus his mind. He tried to reach out to her, trying to gently ask her, “please come here”. He had no successs.
- “This is useless” he said to Claude, “I cannot do this – it does not work.”
- “You are not trying,” Claude said, “You must command her” he said, “There can be no doubt in your mind as to what you wish for her to do – you must believe it entirely with every fiber of your being. You must know that she has no choice but you obey you. You cannot be unsure – you must be completely sure.”
Derek sighed, closed his eyes and got his mind set on what he wanted to do. He thought of his father, he thought about the revenge he wanted to take and how everything he was learning now brought him closer to that goal. He felt the rage inside of himself again, and he focused all of his strength in controlling that rage. He used that rage, focused it and opened his eyes looking at the girl. “Come here”, the though originated in his mind and he tried to reach out to her. The girl was wiping down a table, she put the cloth she was using down, and walked over to the table that Derek and Claude were sitting at. She just stood there looking at them, with a bit of a dazed look on her face.
Claude looked at the girl, smiled and said to her, “You may go” and she smiled back and went back to wiping down the table like nothing happened.
- “Do you understand it now?” He asked Derek
Derek sat in disbelief. He had done that – he had made someone do something. Every time he learned just how much power he had, it scared him. It scared him that others would also have this power and god only knows what they would be using it for.
- “The vampires in London, Claude” he asked, “Can they do this? Can they command people and make them do whatever they wish?” There was a twinge of panic in his voice.
- “Yes” Claude said in a very matter-of-fact tone, “This and more, lad” he said. “Now, again” he said to Derek.
Derek looked up at him with eyes open wide, “What? What do you mean again? I have done enough.” He said.
Claude sighed, “Derek, need I remind you of London? Do you still wish to go in 2 weeks or not?” He asked – his frustration was obvious in his tone of voice. “Do you really want to go to London to take care of your father’s affairs or is all of that just talk? Because if you wish to go – you MUST learn this, ” he continued, “there is no way around it. Either you learn it or you do not go.” He said with a tone of finality in his voice.
Derek raised an eyebrown at him, “I will go if I so wish and you cannot stop me” he said in definance.
Claude leaned in towards him, looking extremely annoyed and said in a very low and angry tone, “Do you really believe, that I cannot stop you?” He asked. He sat back in his chair, looked at Derek in the eye again, and repeated, “Now, again”.
This was the first time that Derek had known Claude that he had appeared angry. He just had taken for granted up until now that he could do whatever he wanted and Claude would simply never be upset. He wasn’t sure how to react to this – he wasn’t afraid, of course – he knew somehow that Claude would never do anything to hurt him, but he knew – after seeing all of Claude’s power, that he was no match for Claude. Admitting that – even if only to himself, was more difficult than all of the training he had done up until now. Derek thought about it and convinced himself that he would learn this because he WANTED to learn it – not because Claude had asked him.
- “Fine.” he said, and looked at the girl one more time. He managed to wrestle up all of the frustration inside him, channel it and once again, with his mind he reached out to her, “Come here”. Once again, the girl dropped her cloth and walked over to the table, and once again, Claude smiled at her, and said, “You may go”. Once again, she went back to wiping down the table.
Claude looked at Derek, “Again”.