Julien Gregg's Days of Atlantis 10: The Vampire Saga
Days of Atlantis: The Vampire Saga
by [Julien Gregg](mailto:juilengregg85@gmail.com?subject=Days of Atlantis on Nifty)
This is the story of Darias and Ren, two gods born of a human queen. They were born the princes of Atlantis and their lives were nearly destroyed by the Olympian God Zeus. After a lifetime of rape, torture and violence, Darias attacks Zeus and is cursed by Apollo. He can never see the sun again and must hunt humanity for their blood. The vampire is created. Learning of his brother's plight, Ren attacks Zeus, thinking that he is the God who cursed his brother. Ren will be cursed by Artemis. He will be ruled by the moon and be forced to change into a beast who hunts humanity for their flesh. The Forsaken is created. This is their story. Many of the Greek and Egyptian Gods will be featured in this story. I did research, but I felt it was necessary for this story to change certain things about the Gods. This is only a story so please don't try to correct me. This is the beginning of the Vampire Saga. This is how it all began. So just enjoy the ride. This story contains scenes depicting violence, death, murder, torture, rape, homosexuality, heterosexuality, homosexual sex, heterosexual sex and has a strong violent and sexual theme. If it is not legal in your place of residence for you to read this type of material, or if you are offended by this type of material please leave the site now. For all others the chapter links are below.
This story is a work of fiction its characters do not exist outside the story. Any resemblance to living people or places is strictly coincidence. This story is Copyright © 2015 Julien Gregg. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This story contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.
Epilogue
The people around the palace were in turmoil. Homes were destroyed, crops were ruined and livestock had been slaughtered. Ren saw all of the damage and destruction and felt it all crashing down on him like a mountain. He had done all of this. He was responsible for all of this damage and loss. Three men were being treated by the physicians for what he'd done to them. At least he'd left them alive, but then he thought about what that meant and he wanted to kill Zeus again.
The people he passed regarded him with fear. So they knew that it was his fault. They didn't know that it could all be laid at Zeus's feet. Zeus had brought the monster upon them. No they feared the Dark God of Wolves. That was fine with him. He didn't need them to love him. He was a God after all. Let them fear him. He looked at Darias and sighed. They were both Dark Gods who would cause such destruction in the world. If it wasn't the two of them causing the destruction then their offspring would do it for them.
They made their way to Ren's apartments, watching the palace staff scurry away from them as they passed. Ren hardened his heart as this happened. Darias paid it no attention at all. He couldn't be bothered. Ren didn't know what to say to make him snap out of whatever was going on with him. At the moment he was too bothered by what the people around him were thinking and fearing. They were fearing him.
"Mother and Father both told us that we'd eventually have to leave the humans to themselves, Ren," Darias said when they were safely inside his living room and away from the people. "This is only proving the point of what they said. I don't know why you're getting all upset about it. Your wife loves you, although you married her very fast and failed to tell any of us what you were up to. Now she's carrying your child."
"How do you know that?" Ren snapped.
"I'm a God, Ren," chuckled Darias. "I know."
"For the love of all that's sacred," sighed Ren. "I didn't want to leave behind a child to live with the knowledge that his father is a monster."
"Did you think your child was safe?" Darias asked. "You know that Zeus found a way to make sure he's just like you. I know this in exactly the same way that I know your child is male. I know that every male child from your line or any other of your Forsaken will change at the full moon once they reach their maturity."
"Are you speaking as a God or as my brother?" demanded Ren. Darias could see that he was angry. He smiled in spite of that anger.
"As your brother, Ren," he said. "Calm yourself. The Fates told us all of this, remember?"
"And what do you propose to do about all of this?" Ren asked.
"I've already done it, brother," sighed Darias. "You were there. I made him an immortal human who will be cast out by other humans, hunted by some but never able to die."
"You should have killed him," said Ren, shaking his head.
"Yes, but this is better," Darias insisted. "If he were dead all the fun would stop."
"This is fun for you?" Ren barked.
"Of course it's fun for me, Ren," Darias said seriously. "My wife is untouchable by me. My child will never know me. I can never know the love of a female. I will take my fun in whatever form I can find. Torturing Zeus in much the same way he made sure that we were tortured is the only satisfaction I can take from this whole thing. Now you tell me what would be better."
"We went to Olympus and didn't die," Ren pointed out softly.
"I've been thinking about that," Darias replied. "I somehow do not believe that Apollo will share Mount Olympus with either of us, besides I don't want anything to do with those Gods."
"And what of our mother and father?" Ren asked.
"They wouldn't help me when you were changed," Darias said hotly. "To Hades with all of them."
Elle permitted Darias to enter her apartments again now that Ren was walking around in human form once more. Never was now the size of a small child. He was talking in full sentences, understood everything that was said to him and Elle had even taught him to eat and to bathe. Darias still hadn't told her what he had put into motion for Never and children like him. He wasn't sure his wife would understand.
Instead he put his hand to her belly and felt the child moving inside her. This child would be a Demigod and nothing more, but one day a child born from a union of his line with his brother's line would create a perfect vampire, a God of the new era. He could almost see the face of that young vampire God. His beginnings would be wrought with pain and treachery much like Darias's own beginning, but one day they would come together and that young Godling would know that he was loved above all else.
"The people still worship at your temples," Elle said, bringing him out of his thoughts of distant vampire Gods and back to the discussion he'd been having with her about the fear the people had of him and his brother.
"Well that's something," he said, but he kept staring at Never.
"It is good for the people to fear the Gods they worship, Darias," she said.
"Shouldn't they love us?" he asked.
"And why should they?" she asked, turning to look at him over her sewing.
"Because we're their Gods, Elle," he said.
"Well that's not a good reason to love you, my husband," she said. "Remember what you are to the humans now. You are their deaths."
"Only the evil," he argued.
"Yes," she said and sat the sewing aside. "You only hunt the evil of them. Duku does as well, but any night now three more of yours will wake to this life. Duku has one of his own as well. Where will it end?"
"It will never end," he replied, rubbing his temples. "It will go on for time immortal. There will be daytime human companions and hunters of the rogue vampires. There will be halflings like Never who will marshal these hunters and be their eyes and their strength. It will go on forever, my wife."
"Such things you say," she said, taking up her sewing again. "Things will have to change when I am among your ranks. Alternatives shall be found for food."
He only sat there saying nothing to that. She could never be among his ranks, yet he couldn't tell her that until the child was safely born which would be very soon. Then he'd have to tell her the truth of the matter. Oh how he hated Zeus for this. He didn't know how to tell her the truth.
"Just care for the little one inside you, wife," he said carefully.
"I'm tired now," she said, putting the sewing away and grabbing the bell she rang for service. She gave it a shake and a servant came running.
"Yes, Ma'am?" she said as she knelt in front of Elle.
"Never will need seeing to," she said. "I'll need a bath run and then I would like a little milk with honey before bed."
"Yes, Ma'am," said the servant girl. She was up and running after that and Darias was amazed.
"I'll leave you to it, my wife," he said, getting to his feet. He never flashed in and out of her apartments. He considered that rude.
"You mean you want to hunt," she said coldly as she stood.
"Elle, don't," he said, stepping closer to kiss her chastely. "Rest well, my wife."
He said no more and neither did she. He simply walked out the door and through the palace to the front entrance. Then he was out and one with the night once again. His curse was so different from Ren's. His brother had described to him his experience on his run through the night. For Ren it had been an assault. Darias had tried so hard to describe his own experience, though what his experience was each night was so vastly different from Ren's. Darias was one with the night when he was out experiencing it. Feeding was essential, but it was in no way different from being a part of the night itself.
He passed the trees and could feel the life inside them. They sang for him much like the blood sang from within the veins of his prey. The flowers that he touched with his fingers sighed as he caressed them. The sounds of the life of the night didn't stop when he walked through it. The creatures of the night welcomed him as if welcoming a brother. They sang to him and for him as he passed them in their hiding places.
The animals that roamed freely in the night passed right by him without hurry or fear. They knew he was no threat to them. They knew that he was a carnivore, held a higher place in the food chain than they did but there was no fear that he would exert that power over them. It was respect and love and peace as he walked through the woods at night. The urgency of the nights that Ren prowled the woods had settled into the soft sigh and acceptance for the circle of life.
Then he heard them. These men were thieves who were trying to pass freely among all of the creatures of the night and were rejected. The trees, the ground beneath his feet even the very wind told him what he needed to know. These were evil men, and his dead heart beat once again providing the beat for the rhythm of the night.
He found them easily, for they weren't as quiet as they thought they were. There were three of them and they were plotting a looting of the palace. One was talking about a distraction, some attack on the young prince as he slept in his bed supposedly safe. So there was a palace guard in league with these men. Darias would find him later, for he knew how to read the hearts of humans.
He climbed the tree near them and sat among the branches to wait and to listen. They condemned themselves with their words, but it was their hearts that he read. He needed the evidence that only their hearts could give him. Yes, these were evil men, and he was the answer to evil men.
He waited for just the right moment and then it was upon him. One walked away from the group. He was relieving himself against a tree, a thing that Darias had done probably on that very tree when he was at war. Darias waited until the man was righting himself before he struck. He let himself float to the ground behind him, making no sound as his feet touched the ground. Then he grabbed him from behind, slamming a hand over his mouth so that he could not cry out and alarm his friends. Then he sank his teeth into the vein and the blood flowed. Images of the man's crimes raced through Darias's mind as he drank the elixir of life out of the man's vein, draining his life and his essence.
When it was over he used a God power to destroy the corpse utterly. Then he waited, for he knew that when he did not return to them in an acceptable amount of time another would come. Just as he knew would happen the man came around the copse of trees to his death. Darias was waiting for him and wasted no time taking him into his deathly embrace. More images sailed through his mind of robbery, murder and treachery. Oh how wondrous the blood tasted when it was evil. After destroying the corpse just like the other he went for the last.
This one gave him a fight. He had rudimentary weapons to use against a God. Darias laughed at him and decided to toy with him, appearing before him one moment and then five feet away from him a moment later. He laughed out loud when the man called for his friends. Then he grew tired of the game and decided to take it to another level.
"Do you fear death?" he asked in his deep God voice.
"What are you?" the man asked in return. Darias could feel the fear radiating from the man as he stepped closer to him.
"I am your death," he said as he grabbed the man and pulled him into his embrace. He sank his teeth into the vein and let the blood flow over his tongue. He pulled back while the man was still alive. "You taste of such evil. Let me savor you for a moment."
"Please," the man croaked, for he was on his path to death surely.
Darias began to pull the blood again and swam in the memories of darkness and death, such evil this man had been involved in. When his heart stopped beating Darias let him fall to the ground. He'd spilled not a drop of blood, but he noticed that the animals and creatures of the night had gone silent. When he destroyed the corpse utterly the sounds of the night resumed. There was nothing to fear now. The evil had been erased.
He made his way back to his temple and up to the chamber where he slept. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that when he woke there would be three more children for him to instruct and tend. He smiled as the life left him and the sleep of the dead took him.
* * *
"They healed quickly, Sire," the physician was saying to King Pias when Ren came down the hall to check on the men he knew he'd attacked. "I wish we could say that this was our doing, but something else was at play here. Perhaps a God has chosen to intercede."
This was the answer if he chose to use it. He could say that he'd interceded, and in a way he had. That would imply that he'd done something to save them. That wasn't at all what he had done. He'd changed them utterly. That's what he'd done. When the full moon rose above Greece again these three men would change as he had. They would be scared and in pain. They would not understand what was happening to them. This was his charge. He had to walk them through this agony. He had to make them understand the way of what was coming for them.
Darias was right. This would never end. These three would infect more and more would change. The Fates were right that they were a scourge on humanity. He nearly wept from the knowledge of it. Instead he stood strong as he knew he had no choice but to face this. He'd created them after all. He had to tend them much the way that Darias would have to tend his own children.
He stepped forward and told the physician that he would care for these men. He saw the fear in the man's eyes and tried to ignore it. He allowed the king to say that it was his will that Ren care for these men, but he saw in the man's heart that he knew what had happened. So a God had come to King Pias. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised. They meddled in everything.
He walked into the room where the three men were lying in beds they didn't need to be in. They looked like ordinary men. There was nothing visible about them that separated them from the ranks of mortal men, noting visible. It was there, lurking underneath the skin, running in their veins and behind their eyes. They were his all right. He could smell it on them. The God of Wolves could smell his own wolves.
They'd each looked up at him as he came into the room. He could hear their thoughts like a wave of voices all asking the same questions. Why am I still in this room? When will they let me go? What attacked me? He felt shame over that question. He'd been the one to attack them. He'd attacked all three of them. Oh he'd attacked more men than three, that was for certain. Most had not survived the attack. There were corpses all over the land that'd he'd left behind him. Only these three had survived the attack. Now they were cursed.
"You are the God of Wolves," said the man who Ren knew was named Tomas. He was a strong man with massive arms and thick muscles all over his upper body. The sheet covered him from the tops of his hips and over his feet, but Ren could see the powerful legs under the sheet. This man had known hard labor. His dark hair was buzzed all over his head. His blue eyes looked troubled but clear.
"Yes, I am the God of Wolves and the hunt," Ren said as he walked further into the room. "And you know the answer to what it was that attacked you."
"You attacked us," said the man who Ren knew was named Bran. His blue eyes challenged Ren, accused him. He wasn't as developed as Tomas. His arms and legs were more toned than muscular, and Ren knew he'd been a scribe for one important man or another. Now he was his own.
"Yes I did," Ren said. "I didn't know what I was doing at the time, please understand that."
"So why are we still in this room?" said the man who Ren knew was named Alain. "The physician said we were healed, so why won't they let us go?"
"I will let you leave here as soon as you understand what you are," Ren replied. "In surviving the attack and healing from the wounds I inflicted, I changed you without meaning to. The curse said that I would create monsters, and I'm sorry to say that I've done just that."
"So we're monsters?" Tomas asked. His mind told Ren that he thought it was all a pile of mule dung.
"Monsters is one word for what you are now," Ren said, knowing he was doing this all wrong. "When the full moon rises over the land you will change into a wolf and hunt the night. The change is painful but you'll all survive it. You are not immortal men, though you will live extraordinarily long lives. It is old age that will kill you. Nothing more can touch you. You can be killed but it wouldn't be easily accomplished."
"So we're the monsters that Zeus warned us about when we were at war with Atlantis," Alain said. He was the worst of the three for Ren to accept. He was more boy than man. That he'd held a sword and fought against the Atlantians in a war designed by Gods was certain but he was still more boy than man. His long dark hair was tied back with a black ribbon. His look was cultured and there were no bulging muscles on this young man. His blue eyes held knowledge that saddened Ren.
"You are the beginning of the first pack of wolves that I created that will roam the earth, forsaken and dangerous," he said, using his God voice. "You three will create others that will band with you. You will live in communities of others like yourself who will help raise your young, for all of the male children sired by you three will be wolves when puberty hits. Train them well, for you will be many."
This wasn't the way he'd wanted to do it but it was done. He could see the acceptance blooming in their eyes as he spoke. His mother had told him he had to be careful with this influence over humans. Too much would kill but just enough would cause natural laws to be born, laws that couldn't be broken no matter what the human wanted. It was essentially taking away their free will but he'd had no choice.
He left them when he saw that they had accepted what he'd said. They were allowed to go back to their homes and take up their lives. Ren knew that they would each make arrangements to live somewhere in close proximity to each other. His laws would take effect.
Two nights later the sleeping blood drinkers woke up. Darias and Duku spent several nights with them teaching them how to hunt the evil, to listen to the blood and to strike only the vile in humanity. There were now six vampires roaming the earth and four of what Ren called the Forsaken.
Darias's son was born a week after the vampires opened their eyes for the first night of darkness. Darias and Elle named him Seth after a man in Egypt that Isis told them was a great man. Then it was time for Darias to tell Elle that she could never be what he was.
"What do you mean, my husband?" she demanded, hands on her hips and glaring at him. "You told me you would change me."
"That was before the Fates told me that it would kill any woman any of us tried to change," he said. "I'm sure it's the same for Apollo. There can be no females in our ranks, Elle. To mate with a female will produce more like Never."
She stared at him for a long moment saying nothing. Then she sighed and started to cry. She looked at him with agony in her eyes as she cried. He reached out to touch her but she jumped back as if he'd burned her. She screamed and made the baby cry. Then she stopped screaming. She looked at him and a look of such sadness came over her face.
"You're dead to me now, Darias," she said. "If I cannot live forever with you then you are already dead to me."
"Please, my wife," he said.
"I am as a widow," she moaned. "My husband died the night you became this thing."
She wouldn't stand the sight of him after that. He flashed out of her apartments for the first time that night. He was inconsolable. Each night he killed so many more than the others. He would speak to no one. He spent his time after hunting in the rooms above his temple. He allowed no one inside, not even Ren.
Elle went nearly insane with her grief. She told everyone that Seth would grow up without a father and that she was a widow. She would mourn her fallen husband in seclusion with Seth. Isis would not allow that to happen. She took Seth from Elle and placed him and Never in the care of Phalon. Then she argued with Set and the other Egyptian Gods for days about what to do with Elle.
In the end it was Constantine that came to Elle. Isis watched with suspicion as the Olympian God of Equality stroked Elle's hair. She moaned against the God who was currently in female form as she held the weeping woman. Then Constantine did the unthinkable. She held out her hand and a plate of food appeared in her palm. It glowed with the essence of Olympus. Isis was about to intervene when Elle began to eat the Ambrosia.
"After you eat this," said Constantine, "you will have the immortality you wished for. For this is the food of the Gods. To eat it is to become one of us."
Isis watched as Elle's skin began to glow. Her clothing changed to the white tunic with golden piping of the Olympian Gods. She stood proud and looked at both of them with clear eyes. She was a Goddess now that was plain. She looked at Isis and smiled.
"I am the Olympian and Atlantian Goddess of Sorrow," she said. "I will be the one they pray to when sorrow touches their hearts. I will be the one they worship when they know the pain of dead loved ones. I will be their shoulder to cry on in times of misery."
She became very still and then Darias flashed into the room. He looked at his wife and smiled. Isis felt her heart warm at his smile. They would be together now, but she had to make them understand that they had to leave the earth to the humans. Their place was in the pantheon.
"I hear your worry, Mother," Darias said. "Seth is in good hands. We will move to Mount Atlantis to watch and to live our lives."
"Thank you, my son," she said.
Ren wasn't any harder to convince. His Forsaken did not need him after he'd been with them on their first change. Once they learned that the change was only painful and would not end them they set up their own community. They worshiped at his temple just as the vampires worshiped at Darias's temple.
Darias, Ren and Elle returned with Poseidon to Mount Atlantis where they watched the world evolve over time. They saw the birth of Tyron Par and the war between Darias's vampires and Ren's Forsaken. They saw technology return to the earth as it had been in Atlantis. Then it was much more than it had ever been in Mount Atlantis.
Darias watched his family line thrive. Year after year he watched them until a male from his line mated with a female from Ren's line. The child born to them was beautiful to behold. He was an ordinary man, but through him the one that Darias had seen in the future would be born. They would be there for that young man as much as they could.
When he was finally born, Darias wept at his beauty. He knew what was coming in the young man's life and he wished that he could spare him. When he was made a vampire by Doran and received the blood, Darias watched as his gifts unfurled. Then the Forsaken had come and young Eric was changed again. He was so close to the status that Darias knew he would achieve. It would take a sorrow so powerful that it would wake his powers and turn him into the God he was destined to be.
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