• The Elf and the Vampire
    Chapter one

    "If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ...let him have accursed
    fate god save you from it...amen.”
    The stake smashed into my heart, I felt it cutting deeper and
    deeper as blood gushed from my chest. I coughed up blood as I opened my eyes to see a dark figure standing over my coffin with the stake In his hand.
    "...Have...I......been bested....this way?" I asked
    "Yes you have my friend all your minions and servants have been destroyed, this is one nightmare you will not be waking up from." I could tell he was right, sensed none of my servants or my faithful men. My vision was blurry all I could see was his piercing blue eyes and the silver cross around his neck. He took his hand and balled it into a fist and slammed it down on the top of the stake drilling it deeper into my heart. I screamed in agony as I felt the spike cut through my heart.
    The figure grabbed my shirt and jerked me towards his face. I could see his piercing blue eyes cold and heartless as mine could be.
    "Count you have nothing left...no castle, no minions, the
    woman you love is no more, you have nothing YOU ARE
    NOTHING!!!" He screamed. I could feel death overtaking me as my eyelids got heavier and heavier I knew it was the end so I let death take me where ever it was going.

    "Carlos...Carlos wake up breakfast is ready. Get up you sleepyhead." My eyes shot open at the sound of Mayu voice. I had fallen asleep in the chair my father had given me. The chair looked like something out of a horror movie with it's high back and ancient faded wood color. I looked down at my hand to see several drops of blood on it.
    "A dream...was..I...dreaming? Humph...how absurd. It was nothing more than a feeble dream."
    I looked around my room nothing had seemed to move the bed was made
    perfectly as I left it the night before. My bookcase had a few books out of place
    but nothing out of the usual and my night stand needed serious cleaning Mayu
    I could hear Mayu coming down the hallway. She came in and saw the blood on
    my hand.
    "Carlos are you okay? where did the blood come from?" She walked
    over and took my hand in hers. I didn't want to tell her my dream I
    didn't want to think about it. So I lied about it.
    "I must have bit my lip last night in my sleep. I've done that several times
    before it's nothing new to me." She still looked worried it was just in her
    nature to.
    "It's nothing to worry about Mayu my lip is fine see." I showed her my lip
    there were no signs of blood or bite marks on my lip. one of the perks of being a
    vampire quick healing powers.

    She finally calmed down and smiled at me.
    "Well in that case please try to be more careful Carlos. I don't want to come in here one morning and see you covered in blood." I laughed.
    "Alright Mayu I promise. Now let's get some breakfast I have something special for you. As we made our way into the kitchen I washed my hands clean of the blood on them.
    I was through making sure that I didn't miss any of the blood. By the time I was
    done cleaning my hands Mayu was already done making breakfast. If there was
    one person I could count on, It was Mayu.
    She was my student I was teaching her to use a katana and my dearest love. I couldn't believe how much she had grown in the time I've known her. She had come a long way from the over excited elf she was several months ago, to an unbelievable swordsman I trained her to be. Like me she had an unbelievable ability to keep a cool head and strike when the opportunity presented itself. And along with that she was the greatest cook I ever knew.
    "Mayu...where would I be without your cooking abilities?" I said teasing her.
    "You probably starve to death or go back to drinking animal blood again.
    You never were a good cook Carlos." She joked.
    "Ha ha very funny Mayu, you ought to tell jokes for a living." It seemed so long ago when I found he near death in the forest three months ago. She had been attacked by someone or something, I was never able to find out who tried to kill until several days later when I found a message stuck through on my door. And ever scene then I've always repeated the same phrase.
    "Don't let her die."

    * * *

    I was on my way home from a hunt I was really thirsty when I went so I was glad to have found that heard of elk a few miles so close to my cabin. While on my way back I caught scent of blood it wasn't human nor was it an animal I couldn't quite make it out. This scent was very intriguing to me.
    "What is that smell...it's very unique and yet...sort of familiar." I followed the
    scent to a meadow a half mile east of my cabin. When I arrived I found a girl
    lying on the ground bleeding to death. It wasn't till I rolled her over on her back
    and saw her pointed ears that I realized who she was.
    "An elf?! Well this is interesting I've never seen one like her before."

    In all my decades of traveling I've never encountered an elf before. To me they only existed in stories and legends. Her features reminded me of Ravens her hair was long and a golden color although some of it was covered in blood. Her face was just like I had heard about in stories stretched tight in a beautiful way over he cheek bones and her skin was soft to the touch. I knew if I didn't do something to save her she would eventual die here in the meadow. I quickly looked around to see if someone was watching and for any signs of a fight. There were no foot prints or any trails leading to where who or what attacked het. I sat listening for several minutes before I decide to move her.

    "Glad I decided to wear my overcoat today." I thought. I wrapped her up in my coat and picked her up she was like carrying an empty cardboard box, light as a feather. I rushed her through the woods. The wind catching her hair blowing it around like weeds in a field. When I got to the edge of the wood line where my cabin was I stopped. The place looked so innocent and peaceful in this little place I liked to call home. With it's smoking chimney and faded ash wood . I walked up to the door I held her with one arm and opened the door of the cabin with the other. I walked into the living room and laid her on the floor.
    "She's in bad shape...really bad shape." I said to myself. Her stomach had been cut wide open and her right shoulder was laid open to the bone.
    I had to do something and quick or risk loosing her. I was running through
    options when I thought of Raven's magic training and how to use it to heal
    wounds.
    "Thank god Raven taught me how to heal wounds with magic." I placed my hand over her stomach and began the healing process. I said the incantation that would start healing her wounds.
    "Hiatena, Ata Nacoso." A green light emitted from my hand as the blood slowly began to flow back into her body. She started moaning and her chest was moving up and down in a regular motion it was a good sign of her responding well to the healing process.
    She started speaking in a weak voice and her eyes were starting to open up
    "Where....am...I." She asked weakly. She was already trying to get up. I had to comfort her so she wouldn't get excited
    "It's alright...just rest now." I placed my other hand on her forehead and let magic put her to sleep, she would need it to heal quicker. It was the best thing for her right now with all the blood she had lost.
    "Don't let her die Carlos you don't want to make the same mistake you did when you lost Raven. Not here...not now...not ever. Just keep trying and hope for the best that's all you can do." I kept repeating it to myself so I would stay focused on healing all her wounds.
    It was beginning to be a strenuous process. It was taking every ounce of my power to heal her wounds They weren't normal wounds that much was certain. I was sweating. I never sweat when healing someone or myself. I had the feeling someone meant to kill her and make sure she didn't survive the attack.
    When I finally finished healing her wounds I placed her on the couch still wrapped up in my overcoat. I was amazed at how well she healed, although she was far from the status of the regeneration of a Vampire by any means. She still impressed me though. I had to sit down all the energy had been drained out of me, I went over to my favorite rocking chair I looked at the mantle above the fireplace and starred at a silver Celtic cross that hung there. I remembered the last time I saw that thing and shuddered it was one memory I could never escape form.