Queen of the Damned

Chapter 1 -- A Story

In a world not different from our own…

Year 2312

“Tell me about William the Bloody, father.”

Hank Summers looked up from his book and across the fireplace at his eleven-year-old daughter sitting cross-legged by the edge of the rug and holding up a rusty, maroon book that she had picked up from the book shelf.

“My dear Elizabeth,” he chuckled, putting on his spectacles that had been lying on the table next to him. “Haven’t you grown tired of the story yet? You ask me to read it to you every night!”

“That’s because I find it fascinating,” she smiled and stood up to sit on her father’s knee. Hank ran a loving hand through her thick, golden mane, admiring his favorite daughter. She had always stood out from all the others, intelligent, quick, and sweet.

He sighed and set aside the book he had been reading to open the one she handed to him. “Well, if you insist…”

“I do!” she clapped her hands and buried her face into his shoulder to settle herself in.

“Alright, then,” he said, flipping to the correct page. “In the beginning…”

…………

In the beginning, there was only good. The ancient clan of the Banduros traveled throughout the earth bringing joy and happiness to all the lands. They worshiped the god of good named Ciclethos and knew not of the sins that lay about the world, waiting to be stepped on and let free.

Ciclethos saw this and saw that it was good. He rejoiced in the loyalty of his people, the tributes brought to him, the sacrifices made to him, and was pleased. But he was not happy. He learned before time began that the worst thing in life was loneliness.

Thus, he made himself Heralta from the moonlight and the stars. He molded her from the darkness and made her more beautiful than anything the world has ever seen. She was crowned as his exalted counterpart, his lover, and his soul mate. He saw her and saw that she was good and loved her. They walked together through the jungles of the earth together and Ciclethos was pleased.

But pleasure is one that never satiates and soon, Ciclethos found himself in want of more than his one Heralta. And so, he made himself Domicka. He took the rays of the sun and wrapped them with the wisps of the cloud and baked her in the heat of the light. After he gave her the breath of light, he saw her and knew that she was good.

Thus, Ciclethos walked his jungles with Heralta and Domicka at both his sides and he was happy.

But, soon, Heralta found herself walking one step behind Domicka whenever they come upon a narrow path. She found that her hand was being let go as he kept a grip on his golden sun-kissed beauty and she uncovered an emotion that was yet unknown to the expanse of the world.

Jealousy.

She didn’t understand the burning feeling in her chest and the churning of her stomach whenever she saw Ciclethos and Domicka walking the fields without her. She didn’t understand why her heart sank whenever they laughed, kissed, and became intimate. But, she never said a word of it and kept her eyes shining with the moon whenever Ciclethos came back for her.

Four hundred years, they walked together, known as the Great Triumvirate and worshipped by the people of the land. Four hundred years, the churning of Heralta’s heart festered within her bodice and she became consumed with the jealousy that raged silently within her soul.

Four hundred years it took for her heart to finally explode and she turned away from Ciclethos and his lover, Domicka.

It happened at night when they were asleep, believing that all was good. Heralta arose and stole into the forest, determined to seek a form of revenge. She was determined to cause pain to the man she loved and the woman who had come second and now sought to be first.

…………………

“But that’s not fair, right father?” Elizabeth looked up at him with glistening eyes. “It’s not her fault that Ciclethos was greedy and wanted so many women!”

“Right you are, my sweet,” he kissed her forehead.

“Why did he want another woman when he already had Heralta?” she asked, frowning.

Hank tilted his head to look upon this daughter of his. “I do not know. Sometimes, the urges of man are very… “

“Stupid?” she offered. Hank gave her a sharp look.

“Do not say stupid, dear,” he chided. “It’s hard to – “

“Okay, go on to the next part,” she interrupted, losing interest.

…………………

No matter what she did, she couldn’t seem to rid herself of the hate and the ill feeling that had collected over the years. Ciclethos and Domicka were too powerful for her to harm and they had effectively blocked her from their realm of light.

Heralta sought to make herself a new lover.

She took the light and she took the darkness and melted them together. She poured in blood and all the emotions found in Pandora’s box. She gave him greatness, love, strength, cunning, wit, and life.

Being an amateur at best, she forgot the one key ingredient to make a mortal. Time.

Thus, she created the first vampire.

He was a magnificent creature – more beautiful than the glorious seas and more handsome than the snow-capped mountains. He was stronger than the winter storm and faster than the hurricanes.

As he erupted from her cauldron of imagination, he sought out what he needed to survive. Blood. Which he took in the form of his creator, draining her until she was nothing but a few bones and pallid skin.

Heralta was abandoned in the Dark Forest by the creature she had created to love her and he was left to fend for himself. He wandered in the forest, lost and confused. Blessed with the intelligence of thousands, yet lacking in the training of his mind.

Until he was found one day by a hunter named Liam that belonged to the clan of Aurelius, rivals of the Banduros people. Liam found the vampire and took pity on the creature who could not speak and who did not know anything there was to know about the world.

He brought the vampire back to his town and raised him as his own, giving him the human name of William and introducing him to the ways of the world.

…………

All seemed to be going well, at least for the first few days William was introduced to the Aurilians. They danced, joyously, and branded him one of their own. One of their loved. They showered flowers and gifts upon him and taught them their ways.

All was well until the one fateful day when William stepped out back to the pen where the Aurilians kept their chickens and hogs. Drawn in to the lure of blood flowing freely from one of the hog’s wounds, he found himself draining the pig of all it’s blood, effectively killing it.

The townspeople stared on in shock as the newcomer made his way through the town’s livestock. Furious, the hunters and farmers raised up their pitchfork and lit up their torches, determined to kill this slaughterer of animals.

Thus introducing mankind to the exhilaration of murder. They never actually killed ‘William the Bloody’, as they called him. He outran all of their fastest horses and made his way across the continent. In his trail, he left behind frenzied men with a lust for blood as they turned upon their own fellow friends and family to satisfy their newfound thirst.

Left all alone, William wandered across the lands in search of a higher purpose. He was surprised at his own behavior and didn’t understand. He didn’t know why he craved red blood in his mouth and why he surged with the power of a hundred men. Near and far, he traveled until one day when he stepped foot into the temple of Ciclethos and Domicka near the outskirts of the Banduros town.

He knelt down before the alter and prayed for guidance. He prayed for an answer to the millions of questions streaming through his head.

Ciclethos heard his cry for help and came to him in the form of a shepherd.

…………

Taking pity on this creature of blood, Ciclethos lead him about the world. He taught him about the nature of humans, good and bad. He told him about the ways of society and the physics of the natural earth. He showed him the light and the good.

And when all that was done, he showed him the darkness. He gave him the emotions that run through the very veins of mankind and taught him how to control them.

William grew to love Ciclethos as a father and Ciclethos loved him as a son. From him, he learnt that in order to survive, he needed the blood of the living.

…………

After a hundred years, Ciclethos gave William the blessing of his protection forever from all enemies of his. And with this, Ciclethos ascended to the heavens, leaving William to walk the earth alone and make his own way.

William traveled back to his native town, Aurelius, and found that what was once a nation of good became a nation drowned in deception and murder. The hunters and farmers became killers and thieves and the maidens became whores on the street. Everything was in destitution.

There was a man that went by the name of Angelus, who walked discreetly among the vile drunkards that horded the streets of Aurelius. This man had an eye for the strong and spotted William from afar.

Angelus went out of his way to befriend William and gain his trust…

…………

“Father!” Elizabeth rolled her eyes and noisily smacked his shoulders. “Get to the part about the lady!”

“My love, who was the one who taught you that horrible habit of jumping around in stories?” her father fixed her with a glare, but soon relented. “Fine, fine.”

“Yay!” She grinned, relaxing again. “Read about Droosilla and the horrible Angelus!”

With a sigh, he turned the page. “William found himself…”

…………

William found himself falling deeply in love with a woman named Drusilla. To say that she was a beauty would be an understatement. In fact, she so enchanted the great William that he gave her the one thing that her heart desired.

Her youth forever.

Yes, William, believing himself to be her one and only, gave her his blood, releasing her bind to the threads of time and granting her the gift of immortality.

…………

“But she tricked him, right father?” Elizabeth turned sad eyes to his father as he nodded. “She was a bad woman and tricked him! I hate Drusilla.” She pouted and Hank smiled, continuing with the story.

”With his blood flowing…”

…………

With his blood flowing through her veins, she turned her back on him and soon desired the dark, sinister Angelus, William’s only friend. She offered him a share of her immortality and he quickly accepted, not thinking or caring about whatever consequences there may be..

From William, two vampires rose from the living and now reigned upon the earth. Like him, they were creatures of greatness and strength. But unlike him, they were missing a factor of their making. Love. William had been created out of a burst of wild passion – Heralta had taken care to give him the wonders of life: passion, love, happiness, wonder, light. These traits had not been passed on to the vampires created under him and they existed in the darkness.

Drusilla and Angelus had a thirst for their power and a lust for blood. They soon began taking human blood into their system and brought about the horrific Reign of Terror in all of Europe.

Heartbroken, William left his vampiric family and set off alone, once again. His story ends here. Legends say that he had ascended to the heavens to be with his father figure, Ciclethos. Others say he had withered down to nothing, living on sewer rats and mice. Nobody knows what exactly had happened to the great Vampire, and nobody cared enough to find out.

But the two vampires he left behind made no effort to hide their presence from humans. They fed off of them and occasionally, they made another to add onto their ever glowing clan of terror.

…………

“Elizabeth?” Hank stopped suddenly and saw that his daughter had fallen asleep on his shoulder.

Smiling at her still form, he put down the book and carried her into her room.

…………………………………………………………..
A/N: The next chapter will take place in 2322.

Believe me… this is a Spuffy story.

I wont be updating this for a long time, though. I just needed to start this and get it out of my system. I’m going to be working to finish my other stories before I really get into this one. Hope you guys like it… it’s a little different. I know.

Chapter 2

2319

The sky had darkened to a deep, orange-red. It had been changing for years, slowly losing the friendly blue quality and turning to a shade of blood red. Some said it was the blood of the dead, filling the air. Elizabeth didn’t like to think about it like that, though. If she did, she wouldn’t be able to breathe.

“Elizabeth…” Her father’s eyes never left the dark-haired vampire that he was currently facing as he called out her name. The vampire let out a low growl as her eyes flashed a startling violet and continued to circle around him. “Elizabeth… run…”

She stood there at the edge of the forest, glued to the ground as she watched the catlike vampire lunge at her father with lightning-like speed. Her scream died in her throat and drowned with his mangled one as he fell over.

Crack…

One sharp twist of the neck. One deafening, sickly crunch of bones and he was gone. Elizabeth couldn’t move… she couldn’t bring herself to run, hide, she couldn’t even bring herself to fight.

The vampire – her name was Carmen – turned around. She didn’t bother to drink from him, being satisfied already with the neat, concise sound of a life draining in her hands.

“Leave now,” she told Elizabeth in a smooth, calm voice, not bothering to face her and walked away.

That brought her back to life. With an inhumane scream, her feet lifted themselves off the ground and ran to her father’s lifeless body.

“You killed him!” she hissed at the retreating back. Not looking again at the body lying on the dirt, she gathered all her strength and sprinted at the vampire who thought she could just kill Elizabeth’s father and get away with it. “You murderer… you killed him!” she screeched.

Before Elizabeth could even touch her, Carmen had whirled around and kicked her to the ground. She took two steps towards the blonde girl who was trembling with fear and rage, bent over on the ground.

“Yeah, I killed your father, little girl,” she said, icily, looking into the blonde’s green eyes with her violet ones. “And he killed my sire. We’re even.”

Before she could turn, Elizabeth gritted out a shaky, “No.”

Carmen laughed and shook her head. “You don’t understand at all, do you?” She let out an exaggerated sigh and dramatically waved her hands in the air.

“I understand that you’re a complete monster,” Elizabeth ground out, pushing herself up slowly and painfully. The vampiress merely raised an arch eyebrow.

“If I’m a monster, what does that make you? Tell me, please,” Carmen crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back on one leg. “I’m very interested.”

“I have a living soul,” came the unwavering response. “And you are evil. You are the dead.”

Carmen stared at the girl standing bravely up to her. She understood Elizabeth’s pain, she understood the sorrow. What she didn’t understand was the strange fixation humans had on good and evil.

“What is evil but the lack of good?” Carmen asked her, then continued without waiting for a reply. “It can go both ways, no? Your father killed my sire. Your father is evil. But if I’m evil and your father is evil… who is good? Tell me. Who was right? In my eyes, I was avenging my sire. In your father’s eyes… I don’t even know what your father thinks he was doing. My sire did nothing to him! When you have an answer, little girl, you come and find me. I’ll be very interested in learning.”

With that, she disappeared into the night, leaving Elizabeth staring after her, weary and exhausted.

…………

2322

“You can do better than that,” Elizabeth panted, narrowly dodging the flying fist coming towards her face. Her tied up blond hair whipped around, hitting the side of her face and falling into her eyes.

Her opponent, Xander, pitched forward in the momentum of his punch and hit the ground with a thud.

“I’m worn out,” he gasped, rolling onto his back and laying still, sprawled out on the ground. Elizabeth sighed, exasperated.

“How can I get better if you keep wimping out on me!?” she complained, falling to the ground beside him and staring up at the ceiling of the sparring room.

“Ah, Buffy, there’s no need to get better,” Xander told her, also staring up. “You’ve already surpassed all the men on the field.”

“Don’t call me that,” she twisted her neck to glare at his nickname for her. “And I don’t care for surpassing man. I need to surpass a vampire.”

“No,” he said, firmly, pressing his lips into a thin line.

“But, Xander,” she turned to prop her self up on her elbows. “I just turned twenty-one, and you said yourself that I was better than those arrogant men who enter the drawing!”

“Exactly,” he said, looking over at her. “You’re better than them, which means you will instantly be called upon to join that stupid army. Which will mean that you will – “

“Fight for humanity and against evil!” she interrupted him. “I’ve been working for that ever since – “

“No, Buffy, it’s too dangerous,” he ignored the glare he got from her at the use of ‘Buffy’. “And you’ll never know who they put in that ring with you! What if it’s a master vampire… a great one!”

“One vampire is the same as any other,” she insisted, indignantly. “Evil, evil, evil, see? All the same.”

He didn’t reply and they lay silently beside each other for a good while, before she suddenly closed her eyes and asked him a question that had been in the back of her mind for years.

“Xander,” she started, then paused.

“Hmm?”

“Do you… do you remember the sky about ten years ago?” she rested her cheek on her arms and opened her eyes to study his face as he scrunched him ups eyebrows, trying to remember.

“I think it was a different color,” he shrugged.

“Blue.”

Her voice was so soft, he almost didn’t hear her.

“It was blue,” she repeated. Xander heard the wistful tone in her voice and wondered where this question had come from. She sighed. “Blue is the color of tranquility and peace. I remember when I was a little girl… I would lay out in the yard and stare at the light blue sky and the white clouds. It was so beautiful.”

“Well, red’s got it’s good qualities,” he offered, but she shook her head.

“No, red is the color for blood. War. Death.”

“And passion, heat, love,” he continued and she shot him a scathing look.

“I hate this sky,” she said, plainly. “There are two things I hate most in the world. Vampires. And the color of this sky.”

“What about war?” Xander asked her, quietly. “War is what kills, Buff. Whether it’s humans, vampires… Buffy, vampires have been around fore centuries. It wasn’t until ten years when we started waging war. That’s what turned the sky red – “

“No!” she interrupted him and scrambled to her feet. Without a second glance, she turned to leave the room.

“Buffy – “ he sat up, but she was halfway to the door. When she reached it, she paused for a moment.

“Xander, my father died because of a vampire. And I will avenge his death.”

With that, she left him alone, wondering what had happened to the girl that once knew how to smile.





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Spike'll come in later... about 1 or 2 more chapters. They might take a while in the writing though.