Book: The First - Part: Two - Chapter: 4 - Installment: i

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They were the Trinity. It was said that their office predated the Holy Trinity. The Nosferatu who had held the positions had changed over the centuries.

The Mamissii, despite her African title, was the New World representative. There was no official breakdown by which the Trinity members were divided. Indeed, half a millennium ago the New World was too new to have a representative. The vampires of the New World were too few, and too young to have the strength it took to hold a position in the Trinity. Back then, for a brief time, Asia and Africa had been shut out of the Nosferatu council – a state that politically could not last.

Her real name was Mawu. She had been born to ex-slave Mawon parents in Haiti in the mid-eighteenth Century, and raised into Vodou as a Priestess – a Mamissii. Following the Slave Revolt of 1791 her first life came to an end at the hands of a nosferatu who had been living as a French lord until the revolution, which forced him into hiding. He had decided that he could make his way more easily with a Maroon ally. As it turned out, Mawu was not a wise choice. He taught her how to live as a vampire, but in order to maintain control of her, there was much he selfishly did not explain. Foolishly, he trusted her ignorance. He believed that Mawu needed him, and thus he had no fear of her. Strong of will and identity, Mawu refused to be subjugated. She had been born free and would not long accept the rule of a Sire. After learning her way over the course of several decades, Mawu struck upon opportunity and destroyed the fallen nobleman. 

Fortune was hers when unwitting of the implications she chose to finish her maker by exsanguination. Mawu correctly reckoned that if a vampire needed blood to survive that depriving one of the same would weaken them, and then they could be easily overpowered and left for the sun. She had no way of knowing that to drink a fellow vampire’s blood was to buoy your own strength with theirs. He had been an old vampire. He had witnessed the fall of Rome. He had gained great strength over the centuries, and now much of that was passed on to her at an unusually young age. Two hundred years since had done much to give her wisdom in pace with her strength.

The second member of the Trinity had chosen the title The Rose. He was a master secret-keeper. Very little was known about him and what was known was under a consistent burden of doubt. He was of European descent, but when he had last made his home there was uncertain. He spoke with a perfect English accent, and claimed his true name was John. But nosferatu had the gift of time that allowed them the patience to learn languages and refine accents down to precise regional distinctions. He could just as easily be a Johann, Jacques, Juan, Sean, Ian or Ivan or no derivative of John at all. It was said that he was over six hundred years old, and indeed that was an age that one would expect of a Trinity member, but had he been present at the Crucifixion, or conversely drank his first blood on the beaches of Normandy it would only serve as testament to his mastery of obfuscation.

Ironically, Xiang, the remaining Trinity member, was thought to be the eldest active nosferatu. 

By ‘active nosferatu’ it was meant that it was accepted that many vampires, when weakened beyond their ability to otherwise save themselves and replenish their blood, would claw their way to safety beneath the earth, in hopes that someday enough blood would be spilled in that place to revive them. It was a desperate gamble. Given enough time, it was inevitable that blood would fall where they lay. But would it be enough? It was just as likely that they would be uncovered and turn to dust in the sun before any excavator had the opportunity to glean that they were anything but a small pocket in the earth. Or, they might fall victim to geology – ground to pieces by the earths plates, burned to ash by rising lava – though naturally that took eons to occur.

It was accepted by all nosferatu who had learned their way in the world in their undead life that beneath their feet lay ancient vampires, hidden away from time.

It was also thought that it may be possible that a vampire might, after many centuries become so strong with age that they were truly immortal, divested of all weakness including that primary characteristic of the seemingly endless lust: hunger for blood. And perhaps it was possible that such a creature, freed from all needs might also lose all desire for dominion and once again walk among men in the sun. It was the panacea to their curse that all nosferatu dreampt of.

After over three thousand years Xiang still lusted for blood. He was a miracle among nosferatu. His first life had ended when he was still a child, during the Shang Dynasty. Child vampires were typically seen as the nosferatu equivalent of invalids. Being small vessels, they exhausted their blood supplies fast and their powers grew slowly as power relied on blood. The more blood, the more there was to distill the power. And furthermore their small size, gave them a proportionate disadvantage in strength.

Child vampires’ accelerated thirst for blood meant that they were vicious. They fed with wantonness which disturbed other vampires as it was dangerous to all. The trail of death they left behind was harder to hide than a vampire with greater discretion would leave. They were feared for the danger they meant to all of their kind, and thus were prime targets for other nosferatu to destroy with predjudice.

Xiang was not only the oldest active nosferatu, but had done so as a child vampire. As such he was full of pride. When he had ascended to the Trinity he had refused to choose a title. He was Xiang. He was notorious. He needed no other name.

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The Trinity dictated the course of all Nosferatu in the world. It was a position of honour and of danger. Trinity members could step down if they so desired, but they rarely did. It was far more common that an ambitious up and comer would destroy a Trinity member and ascend to their place. Not one of the three currently reigning the nosferatu had filled an empty seat. Each had taken theirs violently.

With the gift of a life without death came great patience. The three of them had not all met together in over two decades.

“It is ready.” The Rose informed them with vain assurance.

“It will happen here, then.” Xiang agreed. “It is time.”

“It has been long since our kind were thought of as anything but myth.” Mused The Mamissii. “I barely remember it.”

“You barely lived in it.”

“Indeed.” She conceded.

“But it is growing more dangerous for us to stay hidden much longer. Man is getting too strong.” The Rose. “They are many and we have great numbers to feed upon, but it is time to cull the herd and take control.”

“They are very many. Individually they are weak, but there is strength in numbers. I’m afraid they will overpower us if they know we are among them.” Argued the Mamissii.

Xiang leapt, standing upon the chair he sat in. “That is why we must assemble. We will take them slowly here, in this city. Before they realize we are here they will be over-run. Then with Vancouver as our stronghold we will enslave them all.”

“What is to stop them from turning their weaponry upon us? The light of the sun is captured in one of their nuclear weapons. If we are all in one place…” She continued to press.

The Rose stepped in. “It is taken care of. I assure

You, I already have that well in hand.”

     Chapter 2   CLICK HERE for an explanation of the non-linearity of chapter numbers.