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Authors: Duncan McGeary
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do?” Terrill said. “I’m only human.”
“Well… about that.”
Terrill felt a chill. “No,” he said.
“You can’t fight them as a human. Only as the old Terrill, the most powerful living vampire, can you fight them.”
“Don’t you mean second-most powerful vampire?”
Michael smiled at him. “I wonder. And as far as they know, I’m dead. There is no way around it: you must become vampire again. Vampire… and something more. I’ve been researching this for centuries, Terrill, and I now believe that you were not the first to have made such a conversion. Long, long ago, there was another. The other vampires couldn’t stand to see it, and they tried to Turn him back. But he emerged as something different: a hybrid, stronger than both species. He kept his humanity, he could walk in the daylight, but he had all the powers of a vampire. Only thus can you defeat them.”
No, Terrill thought. I’d rather die.
“You have no choice, Terrill,” Michael continued sternly. “They’ll force you to join them in any event. But you’ll be powerless, a figurehead––the great Terrill, the Maker of the Rules of Vampire, giving his approval to all of the Council’s actions.”
Terrill shook his head, still resistant. There was another option, and he was prepared to take it. He could give up his life and be thankful for the time he’d been granted. He was mortal. He never wanted to be vampire again.
Michael watched him sadly. “Don’t you understand? The Council will take Sylvie. That’s their edge. They know that you love her. You’re human now, Terrill. If you were vampire, you might be able to walk away. But not now––not from the woman you love.”
So it was that Terrill gave up his life a second time.
Chapter 12
Stuart figured out what he was pretty quickly. When he walked out of his house the next morning into the sunlight, his skin started crinkling and turning black, and then the pain hit and he dove back through the doorway with a yelp, startling his parents, who were sitting at the breakfast table.
He got up, hiding his face, and yelled, “I’m going upstairs to play video games!”
In his room, he watched his blackened, blistered skin slowly smooth out and return to a whitish hue––paler than he remembered, but normal-looking enough. It took longer and was more painful that he would’ve thought. In the movies, the vampires just sort of reverted. You didn’t see the pain or the time it took. And you couldn’t tell from watching movies how strongly the bloodlust would overtake you.
Thank God he was a big horror movie fan, though. It surprised him, how easily he accepted what had happened to him. Maybe thanking God wasn’t right. Maybe he should be thanking the Devil. In any case, Stu readily accepted his new condition––no, he reveled in his new condition.
He sat there on his bed, getting hungrier and hungrier. He idly wondered if he should go downstairs and… well… eat his parents. Then he pondered why he would consider doing such a thing and feel so little guilt.
He also discovered that all his old doubts were gone: Was he good-looking enough, smart enough, and cool enough? Was he going to flunk algebra? Was he going to be able to find a girl to go to prom with who measured up to his standards––and those of his friends? With the disappearance of these doubts, Stuart’s conscience also seemed to fade. It was more a logistical problem, this eating of parents, than a moral problem. He needed a home base to hide out in during the day and his parents were paying the rent, so he’d let them live.
At sunset, Stu headed out the front door without a word. He spent the hours of darkness exploring his new abilities. He found that he could scoot up to the mansions on the hills above town without being seen and look in the windows at the popular rich girls as they undressed, and they couldn’t see him.
He got within inches of a number of pedestrians, who
“Well… about that.”
Terrill felt a chill. “No,” he said.
“You can’t fight them as a human. Only as the old Terrill, the most powerful living vampire, can you fight them.”
“Don’t you mean second-most powerful vampire?”
Michael smiled at him. “I wonder. And as far as they know, I’m dead. There is no way around it: you must become vampire again. Vampire… and something more. I’ve been researching this for centuries, Terrill, and I now believe that you were not the first to have made such a conversion. Long, long ago, there was another. The other vampires couldn’t stand to see it, and they tried to Turn him back. But he emerged as something different: a hybrid, stronger than both species. He kept his humanity, he could walk in the daylight, but he had all the powers of a vampire. Only thus can you defeat them.”
No, Terrill thought. I’d rather die.
“You have no choice, Terrill,” Michael continued sternly. “They’ll force you to join them in any event. But you’ll be powerless, a figurehead––the great Terrill, the Maker of the Rules of Vampire, giving his approval to all of the Council’s actions.”
Terrill shook his head, still resistant. There was another option, and he was prepared to take it. He could give up his life and be thankful for the time he’d been granted. He was mortal. He never wanted to be vampire again.
Michael watched him sadly. “Don’t you understand? The Council will take Sylvie. That’s their edge. They know that you love her. You’re human now, Terrill. If you were vampire, you might be able to walk away. But not now––not from the woman you love.”
So it was that Terrill gave up his life a second time.
Chapter 12
Stuart figured out what he was pretty quickly. When he walked out of his house the next morning into the sunlight, his skin started crinkling and turning black, and then the pain hit and he dove back through the doorway with a yelp, startling his parents, who were sitting at the breakfast table.
He got up, hiding his face, and yelled, “I’m going upstairs to play video games!”
In his room, he watched his blackened, blistered skin slowly smooth out and return to a whitish hue––paler than he remembered, but normal-looking enough. It took longer and was more painful that he would’ve thought. In the movies, the vampires just sort of reverted. You didn’t see the pain or the time it took. And you couldn’t tell from watching movies how strongly the bloodlust would overtake you.
Thank God he was a big horror movie fan, though. It surprised him, how easily he accepted what had happened to him. Maybe thanking God wasn’t right. Maybe he should be thanking the Devil. In any case, Stu readily accepted his new condition––no, he reveled in his new condition.
He sat there on his bed, getting hungrier and hungrier. He idly wondered if he should go downstairs and… well… eat his parents. Then he pondered why he would consider doing such a thing and feel so little guilt.
He also discovered that all his old doubts were gone: Was he good-looking enough, smart enough, and cool enough? Was he going to flunk algebra? Was he going to be able to find a girl to go to prom with who measured up to his standards––and those of his friends? With the disappearance of these doubts, Stuart’s conscience also seemed to fade. It was more a logistical problem, this eating of parents, than a moral problem. He needed a home base to hide out in during the day and his parents were paying the rent, so he’d let them live.
At sunset, Stu headed out the front door without a word. He spent the hours of darkness exploring his new abilities. He found that he could scoot up to the mansions on the hills above town without being seen and look in the windows at the popular rich girls as they undressed, and they couldn’t see him.
He got within inches of a number of pedestrians, who
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