Prologue

My name is Matthew McClain, I was a preacher in Ireland for four years when I first learned that the existence of vampires wasn't just folklore. It was a terrible tragedy that eventually took my brother's life. At a young age of eighteen, he was attacked by chance early morning right before sunrise. He was almost completely drained of blood by a blood deprived, tortured vampire by the edge of the ocean. Our guess is he committed some crime in his coven and was tortured and released just before sunrise with the intention of him dying. Just as the sun came up, I stabbed it through the heart, not knowing it was any different from any other human. We weren't anywhere near a hospital, so I stayed with him and prayed. I was by his side all day long, I could see his life fading away. For the first time in my life I wished to God for him to take my life instead of someone else's, seeing the way he suffered. By early evening, just before the sun went down I thought he was taking his last breaths, but then the unexpected happened. The shocking horrific unexpected. As the sun went down, I looked into my little brother's eyes, and I saw them go completely white. He began gasping for air, and began to tremor. For what seemed like hours I tried to constrain him, but it was no use. He was inhumanly strong and inhumanly vicious. His flailing leg hit my side, cracked two of my ribs and sent me flying into some trees, which actually saved my life. His tremoring turned quickly into sprinting, fast. As I landed in the trees, the incident scared some deer out from the forest into the field, he went after them and they didn't have a chance. He was on them and they were down, it seemed like only seconds for him to cover a hundred meters. I didn't realize at first that he was drinking their blood. It wasn't until he stood up completely calm, looked at his hands for a moment, and then fell down crying that I noticed he wasn't going to die, though he sounded like he wanted to. I began limping over to him, and from where there was no way he could here me he yelled, "STAY AWAY FROM ME!" and ran off into the woods. I still had no idea what happened until I examined the corpses of the deer and saw bite marks. That made me horrified, and completely confused. I didn't see my brother for months, and I didn't have a clue where he went. I traveled all over Scotland and Ireland, preaching and staying with people for refuge. It wasn't until I gave up and went back home that I found him in my house, waiting, crying. He explained everything, what happened, where he had been, and what had become of him. I didn't want to believe him, but I had no choice. The evidence was overwhelming. He told me he wasn't any threat to me or any other humans, so I wasn't scared of him. Over the next couple weeks he explained everything there was to know about vampires, how they survive, how they stay hidden, their strengths, their weaknesses, and how much he utterly loathed them from the very depths of his soul. I shared the same hatred.


For five years my brother and I led raids. Containing large amounts of people in them just for looks, since we had no need of them. My brother was more than enough. We only brought them along to gain momentum and to spread the hatred and knowledge of vampires. The Law of God is clear to abhor evil, and God forbids drinking the blood, for the life is in the blood, and not just in a metaphorical sense. We must have killed over 40 vampires in 5 years, but since it isn't any trouble at all to turn people, we weren't making any progress in exterminating them, and no one volunteered to become one themselves, since that would be defeating the purpose. Making more vampires. It was during this time that I married my wife Kassidy and had my first son, Kaleb. Kassidy joined our first raid, and hadn't missed any until Kaleb was born, I didn't want him in any kind of danger. It was late April when another unexpected event occurred.


"Matt, I don't want to do this anymore.", the sadness in his eyes tore at my heart. It was something that I had been noticing everyday for a while now, but never this dominant. He must have been bottling this up a long time. Probably from the moment this all started. I knew what his next words would be before he ever spoke them. "I don't want to be a monster anymore. I want to finally die."
My heart sank as we both crossed our arms and faced the sunrise at the same time. "I understand." I didn't want to see him go, I'd miss him too much, but this wasn't something I could ask of him. To remain something so vile just for my sake. It was a long time coming, something I didn't ever want to think about, hoping it wouldn't be for much longer. Though I hated what my brother had become, he was still my brother. "How soon?".
"I want to do something first." Relief shot through my veins, at least I had a little more time to spend with him. "I know that no one else wants to become... this... But I don't want you to stop the cruisades. I still hate them with all my heart and want them dead. So I want to help you make some kind of weapon to be able to fight against them on equal ground."
I wasn't sure what he meant, "What do you mean?" I asked.
He uncrossed his arms and began, "Isn't it odd that only a vampire has such incredible strength and speed?" I nodded. "And isn't it by their venom that they spread their plague and give those supernatural abilities to others? Well I was thinking, what if there was a way to receive those abilities from the venom without becoming a blood lusting monster? Through some kind of process of purification we should be able to figure something out."
Awestruck I stared at my brother for what seemed like minutes. His expression grew more and more impatient awaiting my response. "Chris that's the most brilliant idea you've ever had." At that moment a smile crossed his face the likes of which I haven't seen since before this whole thing ever started. Back when he was human.


We couldn't just put the crusades on hold, since the people who joined our cause wanted to keep destroying them. I couldn't just tell them we couldn't do it without my brother, because I was the only one besides my wife that knew his secret. Since we would all be slaughtered without him, we could only experiment in between the crusades. We had absolutely no luck at all for the first eight months. We tried everything from boiling the venom, to freezing it, but it never seemed any different to Chris, which meant I wasn't to touch it. I felt terrible finding nothing that worked even the slightest knowing that my brother was suffering so much every moment of every day. I remember the night very well that we finally found our saving grace.


"Kass, how was yours' and Kaleb's walk?" My wife Kassidy took my 3 year old son on a walk down through the grove near our home and up through part of the hills to look for flowers to bring to church the next day. They were gone about 2 hours, which was normal for their Saturday night stroll. Kaleb always asks her questions about anything and everything he lays his eyes on.
"It was great honey, we found plenty of beautiful flowers. But be careful because I saw a cluster of Midnight Roses up on top of the hill. I haven't seen them around here for quite a while, so I had to be extra thorough when explaining to Kaleb just how dangerous the toxins are from it." The Midnight Rose, that was our solution. It's toxins are extremely poisonous. A small amount can give even the largest men and animals a terrible fever. But that wasn't what caught our attention. It is a flower that only blooms during full moons, and only opens to drop seeds at night. We began to see the relation. Vampires special abilities only manifest at night, or not under sunlight, which was close enough for us to try something.

It didn't take long for us to think to try to use his venom to nourish the flower's roots. It was an incredible leap in our development. The venom didn't kill the flower, which we were half expecting. Instead, it made the flower change to the strangest purple and light blue colors. We transplanted half of the cluster of flowers just in case they were to die and we failed with one. We were going to figure something out using these roses, we could feel it. The excitement filled our veins with adrenaline, we kept forgetting meals and got little sleep for the next few days. Kassidy didn't mind since she loves seeing Chris happy almost as much as I do. Through all the elation I started being careless and I fumbled around with one rose too flippantly, and one of the thorns pierced right through my glove into my finger. That must have been the scariest moment of my life, wondering if I would become a monster myself, or how much worse the fever would be with the added effect of the venom if I even survived at all. To all of our surprise, I felt no effect for hours. Which turned into days. That was a cause worth celebrating, until we realized that on the other side of the same coin, that maybe the venom completely neutralized the plant and all our efforts and hope we had in this flower were in vain. We lost all of our gumption, but we kept going.

It was finally the night of a full moon, we took two of our roses, and brought them and planted them outside. We wanted to see if the full moon had any effect still on the roses, since apparently the toxins were no longer a threat.
"Sun's almost down" I said as I came outside again with a few glasses of water in my finest silver kitchenware. I was hoping for something, anything tonight to celebrate. "Thirsty Kaleb? How 'bout you Kass?"
"Yes please!" They both exclaimed at the same time, joy finding it's way up the side of my face with my right lip.
"Sorry Chris, I know.. Well.." I wish I hadn't said anything.
"It's okay Matt, I appreciate the gesture." He smiled a half smile at me that said more than his words. I set the platter on our porch rail and stood out with the rest of them, waiting.
"Are you sure you guys don't want a jacket or anything? It's pretty cool tonight." Kassidy looked at me with her beautiful smile and shook her head at me. I had already asked 3 times. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry, I'm just being impatient, I guess I should practice what I preach huh?" We all had a hearty laugh which faded after a few moments as we all stared up into the darkening sky. Shortly after, we began to notice the flowers begin to bloom as the moon became more and more visible. Those two roses had to have been the most beautiful flowers I had even seen, until they became completely consumed in a strange purple and blue flame, similar to the colors of the leaves. They burned quick and hot. Really hot. Everyone oohed and ahh'd at the spectacle for a short moment as if it were some kind of show, just forgetting our worries and enjoying the moment. And before we knew it they were completely ash, but it was still getting hotter. "Why is it still getting hotter?" I asked, wiping sweat from my face, getting quickly agitated.
"Matt?" Kassidy was concerned quickly.
"What are you talking about?", Chris began. "They were only hot for a second, are you okay?"
"What? It's so hot how are you guys so calm?" Right then I started to realize that I could feel my blood getting hotter, and that it wasn't from the roses' combustion. It was a combination of burning, itching, and stinging on every inch of my entire body. It was the most excruciating feeling I'd ever felt in my whole life. All I wanted to do was to jump into a freezing cold river. My vision was starting to jump around on me and I couldn't stop myself from itching and rubbing my skin all over. I couldn't think straight at all, but I was able to muster, "What's happening?"
"Chris, do something!" Kassidy began getting frantic. "Chris!"
"It must be from when he stabbed himself with one of the thorns! Blast it! Matt, can you still see me?" I fell hard on the ground. I couldn't focus at all, I couldn't even tell if he was my brother or not. "Can you feel my hand on your chest?"
"Nhhaa!" I groaned as I tried gasping for the cool night air trying to cooling my blood as it was boiling inside my veins. I felt something on my chest that didn't belong there so I grabbed it and threw if off of me. I wasn't expecting to get a glimpse of my brother flying through the air. Did I just throw him? "Chris?"
"Matthew!" I could hear Kassidy crying, but I couldn't tell from where, I wanted to see her one last time before I died. "Please Matthew calm down, we'll get you to the hospital!"
"Kassidy!" I yelled as I tried desperately to find her with my eyes, but all I could see was still images every second or so. I don't know what got into me, but for some reason I decided to try and run to the nearest body of water, I wasn't sure how far it was, or even in what direction. I couldn't think at all. All I wanted was to stop my blood from this terrific pain and heat. I stumbled up quickly but couldn't tell at all which direction I was going. I think it was Chris that tried to grab me to subdue me, but without knowing what happened he was suddenly off me and I was falling to the ground again, something sharp and incredibly painful suddenly jetted into my side. But to my surprise, it didn't make my suffering worse, I could actually begin to feel relief in my side where the pain was. This was what I wanted, I didn't care what happened, I didn't have a clue. All I knew is that my blood began cooling, and then everything went black.
I woke up in my bed struggling to remember what happened the night prior. "Matthew!" Kassidy jumped to my side from the chair she was sitting in. Looks she had been there a while. She hugged me tightly and kissed my face. "Matthew you're alright! Thank God!"
"What happened?" I managed to ask, still a little dizzy from the events of the previous night. "Is everyone okay?"
"Silly! You were the only one who was hurting at all!" I could see her wipe tears of happiness from her eyes as she sniffled her response. "Oh Matt I love you."
"I love you, Kass." Her warm embrace was surprisingly nice considering the fear of heat my body now held.
"Somebody woke up finally huh?" Chris walked in the room, carrying Kaleb. "You gave us quite a worry the other night!" So I was wrong about waking up after just one night.
"Yeah, again, what happened?" I asked.
"Well, apparently you didn't make it out of that bout with the rose completely unharmed like we thought." Chris began to explain. "Well, like those flowers that combusted, the venom enhanced roses' toxins don't have any effect until a full moon. Which must have given you incredible inhuman strength, and quite a nasty case of almost burning to death from the inside out."
"Wait, strength?" I was quite confused. "What do you mean?"
"Well the effects of that poison in you when under a full moon give you the results we were hoping for, something on par with vampires. You sent me flying!" Chris winced. "Twice actually, probably would have killed a normal human. But unfortunately that nasty side effect nearly killed you, so we won't try that again."
I didn't quite know what to think. "Amazing. We were so close. Wait, how did I survive? I felt like my blood kept getting hotter and hotter, I didn't think it was going to stop, what happened?"
"It's actually kinda funny," Chris laughed out loud, which shook the bed a little. Which didn't bother me since I was feeling completely well again. Kassidy punched him right as I noticed an aching in my side. "After you threw me the second time, you push me away so hard that you fell to the ground yourself. You broke your precious favorite silver platter, which actually saved your life." I was completely lost. "I don't know why, but I guess silver has some antidote to the flowers effects. It cooled your blood almost immediately, which also resulted in the loss of that strength that you had. You didn't wake up the first day, but I removed the silver from your side as soon as dawn broke and you were fine. But upon nightfall I was sure to stick by you just in case, and it was a good thing I did too because you started heating up quick, so I had to stab you again. Sorry about that."
I couldn't help but chuckle a little. It served me right for beating him up when we were kids. "Ha, that's alright Chris. Man that's heavy. So my guess is if this new characteristic of mine is anything like yours, it's permanent." I could see tears welling up in Kassidy's eyes. "Which I guess I'll survive, you didn't notice anything else going haywire did you?"
"Nope, just that." Kassidy returned to the conversation. "I've been by your side day and night, Kaleb mostly too. Chris here has been a big help. But overall we all think that you are completely healthy otherwise."
"Chris!" He looked at me suddenly, interest in his eye. "There must be some way to prevent this blood boiling thing but still keep the enhanced body. If we can do that, then won't that work? Won't we have succeeded?"
Chris let out a long sigh. "Well sure, but we nearly killed you, I'd really rather not try a bunch of experiments on you now that we've found such a dangerous thing."
"Chris is right dear, I'm not losing you, I'm not- ", she covered Kaleb's ears. "Making our child grow up without a father!" she whispered. "Promise me Matthew! Promise me you won't try anything else on yourself!"
I didn't want to, we were so close. But looking into the eyes of the woman I loved, and knowing I needed to honor her. And I can't forget about my son, he is so important in my life. "Okay, I promise." She let out a quick, happy sob, then sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes. It hit me then, the missing piece of the puzzle. "I got it!"
"What?" Chris was quickly back to full attention after giving us a little privacy.
"Kassidy you're amazing! I think I figured it out. I just promised not to experiment on myself right?" Chris nodded. "Well, humans are some of the most fragile creatures on the planet, without proper gear, we can't survive in nearly the range of climates as other creatures. What if we can find an animal that has the constitution to endure the heating of their blood?"
He stroked his chin for a moment, then said: "I suppose that we could try! Got nothin' to lose right? When should we get started?"

We finally entered the last step of our quest. Chris captured all sorts of different animals over the next few months. Things went slowly since we could only try once a month. A couple days before the next full moon, Chris would find 5 to 10 different animals, ranging from birds, to bears, to cougars. Any more and Chris wouldn't be able to restrain them all if they all went savage. Nothing seemed to work. Each full moon they would all start to rampage, begin to run in circles since we had them tied to Chris. And one by one, they all fell over and died. Some of their temperatures reached as high as 120. We failed time and time again. We were temped to completely give up hope, but something inside us kept pressing on. Until the night everything went entirely wrong. June 23rd, the night we gave birth to our terrifyingly awful, new weapon.

"Think any will survive this time Chris?" Like always, it was only Chris and I. We stood in the field with plenty of distance between us and my home, where my family was. I carried a crossbow with silver arrows for precaution, just in case one was to get away from Chris before it died. Or in the case we were hoping for, Chris would have to kill it because it survived. Once we found an animal that could survive, we would then try to tame another before forcing it out under a full moon. Chris stood 10 meters from me, holding chains to only four animals this month: a horse, a young tiger, a chimpanzee, and a wolf. Since they were all pretty big we thought only four was fine.
Chris shrugged. "Only one way to find out. I got good feeling about the wolf though, dog's have a pretty good cooling system. Sweating didn't save you anyways."
"Yeah, I don't know why we didn't think of it sooner." We both looked at the happy looking wild dog. "Better not get our hopes up though." I suggested. Chris agreed. "Alright, looks about time for my nightly medicine." I winced as I looked at the long silver needle in my left hand. Like always, it hurt like crazy shoving it into my hip. Luckily, we've found that due to my body's slight changes from my blood getting so hot, I actually heal a little faster. The needle's only about two inches long, and not very big around. I get a little warm each night, but it's completely tolerable. My temperature never exceeds 101.
"It's time." Chris warned as he regripped the chains. It never takes very long for the animals to start whimpering or whining in some way. The monkey was the first to go. That made sense considering they were the most like humans in the bunch. It didn't put up any kind of fight, it just laid down spread eagle trying to cool down, and passed shortly after. Next was the horse. Seeing how they had the most blood, the overabundance of liquid heating faster than expected. It neighed a lot and kicked, but it wasn't anything Chris couldn't handle. I tightened the grip on the crossbow. The wolf was panting hard, just laying on the ground, drooling like crazy. But I guess that's how they sweat.
"Daddy!" Kaleb called out from the porch. "I can't sleep!"
Chris and I both looked back at the house. That was a mistake. "Kaleb! Get your butt back inside now!", I screamed at him, I was panicking. "Kassidy! Kassidy!" Kaleb, inside!"
"Matt!" Chris yelled, louder than I was expecting. By the time I turned around, the tiger was dead, and the wolf was trying to break free of Chris's grip. I'd never seen an animal dart around so fast and switch directions with such agility. I could barely keep my eyes on it. "Matt! Shoot it! It's not dying!" The exhilaration in my heart due to the excitement we found an animal that could survive proved to be our downfall. I aimed, I shot, and I missed. It only took me a second to reload for my second shot, but it only took a half a second for the wolf to break free of my brother's grip. I made the mistake of trying to shoot it again, instead of giving the crossbow to Chris. I missed the second time.
"Daddy!" My stomach jumped to my throat when I realized Kaleb was still outside, this time, all three of us, Chris, myself, and the wolf all turned to look at him. He was now only 30 yards away from us. Crying, he was trying to run to me. It all happened so fast I could hardly tell what happened. I don't know why the wolf was so provoked by my son, but it tore up the ground bolting after him. Chris chased after it, but he was too far away. The next thing I knew my son was under the wolf's giant physique, then the next instant Chris had grabbed the wolf's neck and ripped it off Kaleb. He was screaming, I was horrifed, and Chris was fighting for his life.
"Matt help! Shoot it!" It must have only taken me a fifth of a second, I lifted the crossbow and fired my last shot right into it's back. It howled, and it's bulged muscles started to shrink. I heard a loud crack, then I realized Chris had snapped it's neck. Running for another few second I finally made it to my son, who was convulsing on the ground.
"Kaleb! No, Kaleb!" Tears quickly blurred my entire vision. I had to wipe them away every few seconds.
"Matt, I am so sorry." Chris said to me as he kneeled next to me as I embraced my son.
When I finally mustered the grit to look at my son head to toe, I saw that his right shoulder had been almost completely severed from his torso. "Kaleb no!!" Tears filled my eyes again as I heard a shrieking scream coming from the house. When I had wanted her our here so badly only moments ago to bring my son into safety, I wanted nothing more but for her to have never heard me. "My son... No... Please God, No... PLEASE GOD NOT MY SON!" I screamed up into the sky with all my might knowing full well this was all my fault. I should have never attempted to alter God's creation.
"Matt, we need to stop the bleeding," Chris interjected calmly", we can still save him. Rip off his shirt."
I looked at him horrified, but with hope, so I did what he said. As I ripped his shirt off, I was startled to find hair on his chest. No, on his whole body. "What in the..." I began to say when suddenly Kaleb let out a scream, that turned into what seemed like a howl. As I stared at my mutilated son, I saw his body begin to tremor, and his bones change shape under my very hands. I watched in horror as we gave witness to the birth of the fruit of our labor. My son, my weapon.