unholyterror | AU Daemon Vampire Continuation

Continued from here and about two months later

It was rough at first. Jake rarely slept as long as he needed to keep an eye on Dee. His transformation was rougher than any Jake had seen or read about but he accepted that it was likely due to his connection to the deadlands. Jake was tireless and the wolves patient with his newest child. He hoped, with time, that Jay learned and found a place to be something. It was a struggle for the human too.

Eventually, they got Dee's beast under control. It was a bit of manipulation, a few blood charms, partially threats, and the honest realization that as things stood the beast and the man were under the whims of the spirits in the deadlands. That last fact had irritated the beast enough that it came around, sort of, better than before. It wanted to control and the revelation that something else had control drove it to madness, enough to behave.

Now, they were working on controlling Dee's abilities. Jake was glad that his beast was, more or less, on board with helping. At least there was routine and structure again which Jake thought had helped Jay and Dee both settle, but then again, maybe it was just seeing progress.

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"It could happen outside the tent door too." Jake obviously isn't worried about dying even if he should be more worried about it than he is.

Jake did like to kill, or his beast did, and that was a difference between his and Dee's for sure.

"He goes whether I do or not." Jake mentioned. "Two is safer than one."

"He's right, though... Until I'm strong enough to stop it, I go where I'm called... just like I always have..."

Jay sighed. "I know... and I know I've never been gifted with the art of interpreting prophecy, but the things you've said, coming out of some of your trances... It worries me."

He opened the journal he'd been keeping, and began to read a few passages.

One day at a time, one day at a time
Listen when we're calling.
Your time has arrived.

Tonight, our chapter will begin.
It's time, to wash away the sins.
And no one can deny, we are the Sons of Night.

Here's to your martyr,
watch the mortals bend an empty story as we grow hungry.
To reclaim the notes we lend, you cannot win.
When saints are glory I'll die slowly.
What you became.
Some things never change.

Your life is hollow and so is your head
We are ready to rise again
You're a victim - the greatest con
Time is a weapon because you're gone.

"I know you said it's nothing but meaningless chatter, but what if someone, or something, out there... is planning something."

Jake was listening and if his posture could be described in animal terms it would be one of focused eyes and ears pulled all the way forward. All attention was on the words Jay was speaking.

"I'll kill them." Jake snarled so aggressively that poor Davy, who was just stepping back into the tent, cried out and almost dropped what he was carrying.

'If they want war...." Jake growled so low that it almost rattled the air instead of being heard. "... None of you know the unholy terror that I keep quiet within."

Davy had barely collected himself when Jake approached him to take the item. Jake had intended to do some blood magic, to make a stronger amulet for Dee but now his mind are on other things.

"You were made to save your life and your beast wants control." Jake pointed at Dee then to Davy. "You wanted ... well that is private and your beast wants left alone to itself."

Jake sat down in the middle of the tent and opened the hide with his tools inside. "I was made to kill everyone and my beast thrives on hunger and death."

Things were about to get dark. While his voice was calm and he was speaking without rage, his beast was so far in the forefront that even Jay might feel the dread of its presence. " While you've been gaining strength, I've been studying Necromancy."

If Jay's blood didn't run cold when Jake's beast took control, it certainly did when he heard the word for one of the darkest magical arts.

"...nec..necrom..man... NECROMANCY?!"

Never mind the fact that blooddrinkers were technically a result of necromancy. And were considered just as taboo, just as dangerous.

Jake curled his lip and growled.

"How the fuck do you think we're going to get control of the spirits who are treating you mate like mobile food cart?" Jake's beast is definitely speaking but the mannerisms are still Jake's. Jake had managed to find a way with his beast to coexist.. usually.

"Do you expect me to go up there and ask them nicely to stop?" Jake growled, and that was the beast, but the eye roll and sigh was all Jake. So much so that Davy had to swallow down a snicker over it.

"I may have a way to give them a taste of their own bullshit." Jake's beast was angry, maybe even angrier than Dee's but actions like these kept the internal peace.

Davy leaned in to Jay and whispered. "He's been teaching himself to consume spirits like they do."

"...n..no...." Jay stuttered. If asking them to stop worked, any prophet could have done that. "...that...well... probably wouldn't work..."

Coupled with the eye roll, even Dee couldn't resist snickering too.

All was calm for a moment, before Davy leaned in, and told Jay the true nature of Jake's revenge. His blood ran cold. His legs threatened to buckle as his heart pounded.

"...w..w..with WHAT?" He hissed back to Davy, eyes quickly returning to the only easily-detachable spirit in the room. He wasn't accusing. He didn't dare say that out loud, especially with multiple beasts so close to the surface. But he was still terrified of the possibility nonetheless.

Jake was setting out some items to make another amulet, of a different kind than Dee already had.

"With my teeth." Jake's growl was a little quieter. "I need to find a target to test my work."

And that was one if the reasons he was so adamant about going with Dee.

"That's possible?" Dee gasped. He was equal parts interested and disgusted. Or rather, his beast was interested, his human side had far too much experience on the other end.

Jay might be leaning on Davy for balance by this point. His head spun as he thought about it. Vampires that sucked out souls for food instead of blood...

"None...none of us, though. Right?" He gulped. Even if he knew the answer, he still really wanted to hear it aloud. He hoped that wasn't something that could only be tested on prophets.

"I don't know." Jake admitted. "The writings I've found aren't clear if only some vampires can learn or all can."

Davy was ok being supportive. He had been mortal when Jake was out of control. None of this was as terrifying as those months.

"The writing suggests it is from feeding on the spirits in the deadlands. I don't know if it would effect one still in a body." That was an honest answer. "I would have to learn to control the type of feeding I'm doing if it does."

His own mate was mortal and they bit each other a lot. No doubt Jay and Dee had seen Jake with a ragged bite more than once by this time. It was something Jake would have to be cautious of but added. "It looks like it is a conscious choice similar to manipulating shadows. It doesn't always happen, I have to concentrate on doing it."

"Dead ones can." Dee replied far too matter of factly. "But that would be because they are dead, I thought, not because they were - are? - blooddrinkers."

He knew that much to at least be true from personal experience. He had encountered at least one vampire in the deadlands, and his soul had been eaten all the same.

"And I think we all know how it affects someone still in a living body..."

Ask any prophet.

Which might be damn near impossible, honestly. The deadlands were inhabited by spirits. But when a prophet died, there wouldn't have been enough of their spirit left to even cross over.

"You forget... blooddrinkers are alive and dead." Jake's response was just as matter of fact. "We are dead...and we are alive but we are neither completely."

Jake was running with that thought as to why it might be possible. It also opened up a whole world of possible abilities that he might be able to access and learn. That might eventually be a detriment to someone or some groups but for now, Jake was barely passed being a fledgeling vampire himself.

"Potentially, but I might take the soul and the blood of the living." Jake spoke but with concern. This wasn't as haughty and strong as the previous comments. With a mortal partner he worried. "If it works then I can teach Dee and it might make them think twice before calling him for a meal."

"Dead dead. Not Alive-dead." He corrected, for whatever it was worth. Jay gulped silently just for being in a situation that needed such distinctions. "The kind of dead that's stuck in the deadlands and can't come back out."

He paused.

"Or, can't come back out... yet."

"You think they're stuck there?" Jake started to laugh until it turned to a growled cackle. "Haven't you ever heard of somewhere haunted?"

Jake shook his head then went back to work. He had to draw some of his blood into a bowl. "Jay has met a spirit that lives on this side of the veil... you went to the Cairn and saw the guardian?"

"If all spirits could move as freely out of the Deadlands as I can be pulled into it, wouldn't there be a lot more haunted places?" Dee asked.

Surely, he thought to himself, most of the dead had to be stuck there, just like most of the living was stuck here. At least, while they were alive.

Jay, meanwhile, just shuddered. He didn't even want to think about that trip, and he certainly wasn't going to do it again, no matter what side of the veil they planned to meet on.

It was Hope that chirped a soft reminder, "there are good spirits on this side of the veil. Like us."

"You're different." Jay mumbled, clutching his notebook.

The birds chuckled.

"Why do you think there are guardians at the mystical places?" Jake questioned, but it was more rhetorical. "Unfortunately, there are beings that have made a point to kill or otherwise remove guardians in some places where the veil is thin. I've been wondering if that is what was meant by the temple being built where prophecy is easier? Did they find a thin spot and build there or somehow thin the veil?"

Jake sighed and then laughed right along with Hope. "They're very similar to our beasts. An outside voice that sways us and teaches us." He stroked Karma and shook his head. "I'm glad you aren't in my mind too. Three inside voices are more than enough."

"The veil is not thicker or thinner in certain places." Jay blinked, rephrasing his response when the vampires looked at him. "I was always taught... that the veil was thinner around Blackest Night because the Blackbird has closed its eye. It is a time when prophecy is easier. Not a place..."

Dee couldn't confirm or deny. While most of his visions happened at the temple, that was because he was The Prophet. He had some before he was brought there, and continued to have them after.

"That happens too." Jake confirmed. "There are places where the veil completely disappears. The wolves know more about the veil thinning than I do."

Jake had no problem admitting that there were others more knowledgeable than he was in some fields. This though was Jake's specialty as he worked on solidifying the blood into a crystal.

"I'd learn where and when the veil disappears. At those points even humans can walk across unaided."

"Disappears completely?!" Jay's jaw dropped. He muttered to himself the trappings of the cult he was raised in, "No, no no, the Blackbird would never allow that..."

"Is that really true?" Dee asked Jake. "If there are places where both can cross over, why do the spirits call for prophets? Why not just, go to where people literally are?"

"If the Blackbird exists it allows its messengers to be consumed and curses them to a slow death." Jake looked toward Jay growling. "If any were to allow this to happen it would be a being with those standards."

Jake might think the Temple was a cult but his beast really disliked them even more.

He was gentler when he answered Dee. "Everyone's blood tastes different and can hold different power. It wouldn't be a stretch to imagine souls are similar. I've drank from a few different beings in my time and your blood does stir up my hunger, not as bad as wolf blood but more than humans." Jake shrugged. "I don't know many people who live where things are continually haunted but... plenty of people disappear in those areas or are found dead."

It tracked, to Jake and his beast, that there would be things that stalked those specific areas where the veil was thin or non-existent. "We don't know if they call other people. I imagine there might be asylums that have a few that are locked up as insane or terminally ill from something like this."

He was speculating and that fact was clear in his slow and uncertain tone. Anything could be true of spirits as Jake was just starting to scratch the surface of all the supernatural things that lived in this world.

Edited Date: 2025-01-08 10:00 pm (UTC)

Jay shrunk back, behind Davy.

Dee, however, continued asking questions. "But why do they stop at these haunted places? If they can cross over into this world of the living, and eat their fill... Why not just continue on across the world, devouring every soul? What stops them?"

"Hunters... wolves.. vampires...?" Jake shrugged. "Most of the 'more than human' species are territorial." It was a thought. "Guardians."

Jake glanced over at Davy and grinned. "Not every vampire can feed without verbal consent. Maybe the same is true of spirits? I don't know but I don't think it is only one reason."

There were too many things in the world for only one thing to be affecting anything. "Fear of binding? I've read some texts that suggest binding a spirit here is easier because they are weaker."

Davy chimed in once Jake paused. "Not every spirit is strong enough to interact with the material world even if they do manage to get to it. Think about how many times you hear about a ghost versus how many times you hear about something like a poltergeist where they are throwing things and clawing people."

Jake nodded to Davy's assertion while working. He hadn't considered that angle but it was true too.

"So, in some respect... us?" Even though Dee's lips curled in only the faintest of a smirk, Jay still shuddered at the thought. He's seen vampires wolves and even a guardian, all here. Or near here.

"Do you have to make it sound like we're volunteering for the job?"

Their daemons chirped and chuckled from their post.

"Only when you make it sound like there's something out there that might be actively trying to be strong enough to bypass all of those things..."

"I was born at an inauspicious time. I was trained in the healing arts, not in interpreting prophecy. I could be wrong... I hope I'm wrong..." he stuttered.

"I'm worried you could be right." Dee sighed, glancing back at Jake. "I know there's a blooddrinker beyond the veil. The one that told me about you... that seemed to have a very vested interest in giving me a second chance at life. Does that really sound like charity?"

Jake had already pointed out countless times that his soul was a food source for the dead. Now he knew his blood, and perhaps also his soul, contained power that normal human blood didn't - even when he was still human. The fact that it was easily separated made him an easy target, and made controlling his beast all that much harder.

Surely, this wasn't charity from a dead vampire. He was being used. But for what? And why?

"Yes. It is one of the reasons wolves guard their cairn and its guardian."

Jake had a crash course on wolf culture over the past few months given his choice of mates.

"It's not voluntary." Jake looked up at Jay. "This is my territory. Your mate is my child. If we don't defend our territory another vampire could move in and, like a lion, the first thing it would do is kill my offspring and the humans that support us." That was the truth of the matter whether Jay liked it or not. "If I fail to another vampire they may hunt you even if you run."

And after those words Jake questioned the maternalness of his beast far less than he had before. He eventually did smile at Jay. "A Prince would be a fool not to have a healer in his ranks."

It was spoken with an odd mix of jabbing humor, sincerity, and perhaps even thankfulness. Jake sighed though as Dee spoke.

"If you are asking me.. the one a vampire made, dumped on the doorstep of the temple, presumably to get a hunter off their trail since one of the first living things I ran into was a hunter.... No, it's not always charity.. maybe even rarely charity that moves a vampire's will."

Jake could be generous but then he always had a strong sense of family. In part, because he had been raised by wolves. It did leave a lingering thought.

"Could you find this vampire in the Deadlands?" Jake asked Dee with a pointed determination. Why not go to the source of the problem?

"I don't know..."

As a Prophet, he had no ability to choose who called him or where he went. He had resisted only one call, and that happened this morning. It was the first and only time his own will had ever manipulated the outcome, and it didn't leave a lot to go off of.

"But I've been called by him, well... regularly..." Dee didn't always have the best memory of all the visions. The journals helped keep things straight. "Even after I became a blooddrinker. It will probably happen again. But I don't know when..."

He never knew when.

Jake instantly turned toward Jay and stopped what he was doing. "Your books. There might be a pattern if he is feeding regularly or regularly checking in on something."

Jay had pointed, undivided, unblinking attention from Jake now. His lips were curled to expose his fangs but it wasn't something he could control. His beast was clawing to get out as soon as the thought that a vampire was assaulting its child entered its feral mind. It wanted to destroy it and destroy this vampire immediately.