Narfordshire – 1200’s

Three nights ago Enid had received a command to travel to the village of Narfordshire. The message had been cryptic, something was killing human and vampire a like. A revenant they called it. Enid had seen many things in her day but had never heard of a revenant. Apparently, the local vampire lord demanded assistance, which the imperial council was required to render.

Enid walked into the walled keep of the vampire lord. She knew nothing of him save his name, Odocar of Savia, he’d signed the missive to the council as if she should be aware of who he was. He wasn’t imperial and that was obvious from his name and the fact the council had sent her alone.

Guards at the keep gate crossed their pikes as she approached. She could hear their pulse grow rapid at her approach.

Blood slaves, mortals, disgusting.

“Halt woman.”

She pulled the scroll bearing Odocar’s seal and let it unravel before them.

“You must leave your blade.”

Enid’s lips became a thin line.

“As entertaining as that might be, I must decline. Let me pass or I will drain you both and pass anyway.”

“You can go in, milady.”

Smart choice.

Enid walked past and into the keep proper. She barely paid the mortal servant that greeted her any attention while he guided her into the Lord’s hall. She noticed several vampires arrayed here, eight in all.

Pugmentia, the lot of them. Trash was such a good description of the Children of Lilith.

The lord sat on an ornate throne of all things. He was a rather chubby man with a black beard and dark complexion, for a vampire.

“You imperials took your sweet time providing the assistance requested. And only one comes?”

“If I am not to your liking, I can leave and let you handle this, “revenant” yourselves.”

Enid removed her hood, revealing her face. Her face was freckled, her nose was slightly too small, her mouth was also on the small side, she was pale even by vampire standards. She was a very slight woman. And by all estimates was probably sixteen when she died.

“We may as well, weeks without word and then they send one imperial and it’s a girl-child. What are you going to do that my court cannot do?”

Really, his village is being hunted by a monster and he’s going to swing his dick around?

Enid approached the lord with deliberate footsteps, purposely invading his personal space. His face twisted with anger.

“How can I render assistance Lord Odocar?”

“You dare to treat me with such disdain in my own domain!”

“You are concerned about the delay in assistance arriving, perhaps we could skip the posturing and get to the part where you tell me what is going on so I can kill whatever it is and get out of this shit hole.”

“You fucking cunt.”

Enid clenched her fists tightly, she hated that word, in any language.

“Lord Odocar, I’m trying my best to be civil with you, you have a monster killing your subjects and your food, and I’m here to kill it, so shall we get on with it?”

Odocar scowled at Enid.

“It’s a revenant, my child Joiten fed on a passing merchant family and made a mess when we cleaned up the scene we found two of the bodies missing, one was a young girl, the other her mother. The mother managed to wound Joiten with a dagger. She was babbling to the villagers about a blood sucking monster, hand how her daughter had risen from the dead and started devouring her brother’s body. There have been attacks, every few nights since. My men found the woman but she escaped into the church where they could not follow. Then during the next day she was moved to the templar’s keep down the road.”

Fuck

“You are a fucking moron, who is surrounded by fucking morons, who are all dumber than the last. You have a Strix lose and a witness and you didn’t manage to kill either?”

“You can’t talk to me like that this is my domain.”

Enid’s fist flicked out of existence. Before any of the assembled vampires could blink the pugmentia lord in front of her hit the stone wall of his keep, shattering his ornate throne. She heard the unmistakable crack that would mean a broken jaw. He tried to speak again but his mouth was unable to produce audible sound. The other vampires began to rush forward. Enid drew Bloodseeker and the silver of the blade flashed in the firelight. He was thirsty and she resisted his urge to strike the lord.

“Attack me but know that every single one of you is in violation of the covenant and I can and will kill you all. And if I’m not able to silence the witness and the templars I will do just that. So please feel free to drain my reserves before I assault their keep.”

Lord Odocar pulled himself up on the wall and rubbed his jaw which had healed itself by now.

“Stand down.”

Enid sheathed Bloodseeker.

“I need to go kill every living thing in a Templar keep which probably has hardened crusaders amongst its inhabitants because your men were too scared to enter holy ground which has absolutely no effect on vampires! By the time I return I expect the priest and all his deacons to be dead and the church burned to the ground. If it is not I will do it myself then kill the lot of you. Your spawn had best be staked and ready for my return. And if you still believe in God or Gods you best pray to them that the Templars haven’t gotten word to Rome.”

The trip to the Templar garrison was quick by horseback. Enid left the horse a half a mile from the keep. Scaling the wall unseen was also a simple matter. The problem would come once the killing started. She could keep the shadows around herself but once she started acting any suspension of disbelief among the cattle would cease and the alarm would be raised and all subtlety would be lost.

This is going to be messy. And for it to work the keep will need to be slaughtered and burned. One witness is too many. Curse Odocar for his carelessness. Power vacuums in times of crisis were bad for everyone, wish I could just kill the Pugmentia and be done.

She used the power of her blood to make the humans disregard her presence. They could see her if the managed to spot her stepping through the shadows, but their minds wouldn’t process her presence. That only worked so far as she didn’t make her presence obvious. She crept up behind the sole guard for the portcullis. She kicked in the back of the knee and as it collapsed wrapped her hand around his mouth and spun him around shoving him to the ground. She stared into his eyes.

Mortal minds so easy to confuse and manipulate.

“I am a priest; I have information from Rome. There are Saracens coming, they have invaded England and spies are in the keep they are going to try and open the gates. You must seal them and break the mechanism and defend it at all costs or their men will get through and raze the keep. They are dressed as templars and will pretend to be friends but don’t believe them. Now take Eucharist and drink of his blood, and be strengthened for the fight ahead. You are drinking from a golden chalice blessed by the pope himself.”

Enid bit her wrist and put it to the templars mouth he drank the blood deeply.

“Don’t raise the alarm that will only alert them. Now defend your post in God’s name and smite the heathens! You will remember this conversation when the moon reaches its zenith. That is when the spies will appear.”

Enid imparted one last impression in the man’s mind, that all Templars he saw would be dark skinned under their helmet and armor.

Fool will die thinking he’s a hero. Mortals.

She slipped through the into the keep setting up oil and candles in various knocks and crannies the candles shortned to act as timers for when her true attack would begin. Eventually she found what she was searching for, the master’s study.

Empty. Good.

She sifted through his desk looking at his various correspondence.

Keep finances, patrol reports, donations, there it is seal already on it.

Enid lifted the document titled Witness testimony to satanic activity in Narfordshire. All of the evidence of the Strix laid bare in a written form. And a request for permission to commence an inquisition on the village. The murders, the mother’s testimony, and her mark. Her name was Mary Thatcher. She held the letter up and willed fire to incinerate it and dropped it. Ashes and melted wax hit the wooden keep floor. She wrapped the shadows around herself again and crept back into the long corridors of the keep. She looked out of an arrow slit.

Moons almost at its zenith, have only a little time, maybe half an hour, three quarters before the fire starts in earnest.

She walked past two patrolling knights templar. They were not in their chain armor, just padding with swords. The fights would be quick when she started the battle. As she crept, she looked in the various rooms, she found the one she was looking for the keep’s master. She slipped into the room and put her hand over his mouth then looked into his eyes when they opened trying to pierce his mind.

Resistant bastard.

He began to struggle against her and managed to get his hand around pitcher. He hit her with it, with not much effect. Enid continued to kneel on his chest holding the arm with the basin at bay her other still covering his mouth.

“Don’t make a sound, I can end you faster than your pathetic mortal mind can perceive. Tell me what I want to know, and you might wake up with a headache.”

His struggles became more violent; Enid frowned. She bared her fangs.

“In that case, I will turn you and you will be cursed by Satan and Lilith and never reach your lauded heaven. You’ll be forever from God’s graces. And you’ll tell me what I want to know anyway because you’ll be under my thrall, right after you finish butchering your templar brethren for their blood.”

Fool look how his eyes widen with terror. Threaten him with death he’s brave. Threaten him with imaginary damnation he cowers.

“Do we have an understanding Sir Devorey?”

He nodded and relaxed. Enid released her grip on his mouth but kept him pinned. With her other hand and knee.

“Excellent, know that I’m a seer, I will know if you lie and I will get the truth one way or the other. Where is Mary Thatcher?”

“Why?”

“I need to silence her permanently; She knows too much. I give you my word the death will be clean and painless. It is a mercy. Should she have to live with having to see her family butchered and her daughter turned into a soulless monster, forever out of heaven’s grace?”

“Why do you care monster? You are the devil’s whore.”

“I was once a mortal woman, I had children, and if one had suffered as hers had I wouldn’t want to live with it, so after I avenged her, I would have fallen on my blade. I give you my word the Strix will be put down, and it’s creator will suffer the same fate. You think us monsters, but I tell you this mortal knight, some of us hunt the real monsters. So, the choice is yours eternal damnation, or tell me where she is, go to confession and be freed of your sins, or I turn you, I’ll find her anyway and you’ll still be cursed.”

“Fine demon, she is in the cloister with the nuns. Harm none but her I plead with what human is left within you.”

“Did you get word to Rome, the local Cardinal, or your Grandmaster about the Strix?”

“No, I was still gathering evidence. The local villagers are innocent and might get caught up in it, I had to be sure.”

Truth, hmm, almost a pity, he actually cares about his fellow man.

“Do you have anyone who is out investigating?”

“Yes, he’s pretending to be a traveling deacon. He’s working out of the church.”

Hopefully the Lord and his ilk will deal with that.

“Thank you Master Devorey for your cooperation. My great nephew would have liked you.”

Enid placed her hand on his throat and began to strangle him. The look of betrayal in his eyes. He started to struggle to breath.

“I give you my word, I will kill the Strix and stop it from hurting anyone else, and I will ensure its creator suffers. I apologize but I’m going to have to kill everyone in the keep. You all know too much. I promise my teeth will touch none and I will turn no one.”

Never promised to keep you alive.

She pressed her knee down crushing his ribcage and destroying his heart and lungs he died instantly. She pulled the blanket up over his chest and rolled him away from the door. She took the pitcher from the bed and placed it back on his nightstand. She poured oil beneath the bed and placed a candle as a timer.

Twenty minutes before the fire starts, five minutes before the portcullis is closed.

She pulled out her knife as she crept into the cloister. She found the nuns asleep in their beds. She gave them quick and quiet deaths. No need for terror. She found poor Mary Thatcher. She gently woke her.

“Mary.”

“What is going on? Who are you? You aren’t one of the nuns!”

“Shh, be calm gentle woman.”

Enid pulled back her hood.

“You’re but a girl? Why are you here?”

“I am here to tell you that I am going to end your daughter’s suffering. And that she will go to heaven once I have killed the monster that possessed her. Know that I walked with Jesus when he lived and that he will forgive her.”

“Are you an angel?”

“Yes, and I was sent to set things right for you and yours. The monster that killed your family is a damned thing, and I will end its existence. It is time for you to rest now.”

“Thank you.”

“Suffer no longer good mother.”

Enid met her gaze and willed her to fall asleep. She reached down and snapped the woman’s neck cleanly. Enid waited for her Mary’s heart to stop beating then pulled the blanket up on her.

“Rest well good mother, if there is a heaven, I hope you are there.”

No mother should see their children die.

She heard the rush of bootsteps outside. Her new blood slave must have sealed the keep. Only a few minutes before the first fire starts. She drew Bloodseeker, using the knife in her other hand.

Time to begin.

She kicked the door to the cloister open. Outside were a pair of knights, they were in their padding, tunics with swords still on their hips. Her first blow severed the head of the left most. Bloodseeker gulped the blood in from the wound drinking deeply. Her knife struck the other under the chin she left it there. As the second templar fell she picked up his sword and threw it down the hall catching another non-armored templar through the heart. She crouched and picked up the second templar’s blade. A servant came running out of a room and she cut the woman down with Bloodseeker and moved onward. Willing her blood to alter time around her and rush to her muscles. An alarm was raised and she could see glow of a fire in the keep chapel through the arrow slits.

She was a blur to her surrounding as she ran through the passageways of the keep striking down templar and servant alike. She was a whirl of blood red, black and steel bringing death to all she came upon.

The fire was raging by now, most parts of the keep were engulfed. Think smoke clogged the hallways, and billowed out of the keep’s front entryway. The chapel, the stables no part was spared. Those outside the keep were struggling to put the blaze out and She began to cut them down as well. She spared no one in her rampage.

In the end it was four knights who were dressed in their full armor a priest, and several of the servants pressed up against the portcullis trying to lift it. As she approached the group she glanced into the gate room, and saw her blood slave dead with a number of dead or dying templars around him.

Enid was drenched in blood and viscera and her hood was down, fangs out and looked every bit the vampire she was. The group cowered behind the knights save the priest who pushed past them holding up his cross as if it would slow her steady approach.

Fool. God won’t help you.

“Back demon! Back! The power of our lord wills it!”

Such burning faith in those eyes. Sad how it’s misguided.

Enid reached up with her free hand and gripped the priest’s shouts of banishment were cut short as she moved her arm quickly and he slammed into the keep’s stone wall his skull smashed. The ornate cross fell from his hand when he landed on the ground. The templars started to move forward sword and shield in hand.

“You will die this day demon!”

Enid met the gaze of the lead knight. She put her second hand on Bloodseeker and settled into her fighting stance.

“Let us end this quickly, shall we?”

The knights charged as one. Enid swept low, relieving the left most of his legs she stomped on his helmet crushing it and his skull beneath her boot. She rolled to the right dodging a blow from the lead knight, another’s blade hit her back, but found no purchase due to her own armor. She brought bloodseeker up to block another blow. Another of their blades cut into her arm. Then another bashed her behind with his shield. She was unmoved by the blows.

She held Bloodseeker in her right hand, holding it back-handed with the blade along her for arm blocking a blow from her right flank. She used telekinetic blast sent the knight in front of her flying then rolled backwards between the knights flanking her from behind bringing Bloodseeker up between the left’s legs the magic blade combined with her strength cut through him easily causing a spray of blood as the blade swung backwards. The leader lay several feet from her struggling to get up. The last knight circled around her, keeping his shield up as a guard.

She feinted forward faking an overhead the knight flinched raising his defenses. She used the opening to kick his knee with all her strength, it bent backwards, and he feel backwards. She stomped on his chest crushing his ribs. She approached the lead knight who had managed to get to his feet and was backing away. He’d discarded his shield in his attempt to stand.

“God will save us!”

His blade wavered as Enid approached him. She did so in a very slow and deliberate manner. The knight’s blade drooped, but then he charged. Enid stepped aside and with a two handed blow she severed him through his mid-section and with a second swipe beheaded him before his top half hit the ground. She turned and approached the servants that were still cowering against the portcullis like it would miraculously open for them.

“Please have mercy.”

The one pleading was an older woman.

How many times have I heard that request?

“I haven’t shown mercy once in twelve hundred years of this work, what makes you think you’re going to be spared?”

Enid cut the woman down. And proceeded to do the same for the rest. That was until the last one, a girl, who was perhaps six years old cowered before her. Bloodseeker urged her to let him drink deeply of it the sword shook in her hands but she sheathed it.

Fuck. I can’t leave any witnesses. I could use this though, spin a story to our advantage.

“I’m sorry you had to see that child. I’m going to spare you, but you must look at me.”

The girl looked up at her then started to move her head to look around herself and Enid put her hand on her chin to stop her.

“Focus on me child, what’s your name?”

“Katherine, ma’am.”

“I’m Enid, you have no need to be scared any longer. I’m going to make sure you’re taken care of, but first you must understand what happened here.”

Their gazes met and Enid stared into Katherine’s eyes. She willed her blood to start to influence the girls thoughts.

I’m glad children are so easy to manipulate.

“It was terribly frightening for you. You woke and there was fighting all around. You saw dark skinned men and some lighter skinned men speaking in strange a language. You had seen the lighter skinned men before, they were dressed as templars. They arrived earlier today. They said many things none of which you understood it sounded like this. The dark-skinned men and the strange light skinned men spoke in different languages”

Enid spoke several phases in both Arabic and French.

“You may be able to repeat it but your memory isn’t clear because you were running from the fighting. It was terrible, the servants were being dragged out and killed. One of the templars caught you sneaking out and trying to flee. He got you out of the gate portcullis before he closed it. He was quite heroic because he managed to get you out. As you snuck away you saw several of the other men speaking in those languages that would have been able to get to the keep but did not. You saw the fire start a few minutes after you escaped. You ran towards the village and you met a woman on a horse on the road. She took you the rest of the way, you don’t remember what she looked like because you were very frightened, but she held you close and dropped you at the village edge then road to get help for the keep. You don’t know which way she went. The night was very confusing, and you were very frightened. You wandered aimlessly but the merchant took you in, offering you a warm bed. Go to sleep when you wake up, you will be safe and loved.”

Enid touched Katherine’s forehead and she went limp.

So much for simple and clean.