Vampiris Sancti: The Elf by Katri Cardew Page A

how like a Fairy in
the middle of an urgent communication to become distracted by
something shiny.
    The Fairy
suddenly regained composure and continued, “...the Pixies.”
    Relief flooded
Zyre—relief combined with confusion—for what had their issue with
Pixies to do with her.
    She replied,
“How’s this of me? I don’t bother with Pixies and they not be
wandering here.”
    She hoped that
the lie would pass because she hadn’t been associating with Pixies
beyond Beb since few ever did out of choice. She was also right,
despite the abundance of gin in the human world there were still
too many lurking dangers for the Pixie. Even with the task of a
specific message to deliver rarely did Pixies stray beyond the
limits of the magical realm. The Fairy looked impatient as if Zyre
was suffering a mental challenge and explained in a patronising
tone that annoyed her.
    “Demons be
getting Pixies drunk and asking about magical, including the wishes
of the Xatn.”
    Zyre stared at
the Fairy while waiting for further explanation. He seemed to think
that she understood the ramifications of his statement and although
it did take a few minutes—she understood. The Elders wished for her
to think demons interested in a Martyc reward were interfering with
magical communications. Since no demon had ever been successful in
obtaining influence in her world, despite several marriages to
Elves, she was not convinced. The Fairy finally progressed to the
command from the Elders.
    “The Martyc who
requested union with you be Xatn of this world. You are to present
yourself to him and stop the danger to your kind.”
    He left upon a
gust of wind that removed him as quickly as it had deposited him
leaving an Elf determined to do anything but comply with this
demand. She was distressed that the Martyc she had hoped to escape
turned out to be the local prince, the Xatn, who of course now knew
of her presence. Considering the information of the Fairy, she
reasoned that demons had been getting Pixies drunk since the
discovery of the Reveal. Why would the Elders suddenly think she
would believe they were allowing Pixies to get drunk off world and
consort with nosy demons? She decided that this—like many other of
their edicts—was full of their usual lies because that was how the
Elders ensured their orders were applied. Since many of Elders were
often Elves themselves they should have learned, if not anything
over the centuries concerning their own kind, was never fib to a
fibber because it was as unbelievable as pretending to like
Goblins.

Chapter 4
    Vampires
    When the demons
crossed the Reveal they brought with them their illnesses and one
particular virus mutated to jump across the species and infect man.
Some died, some went mad, and some developed into a being belonging
to neither world—a mutant called the Vampire.
    Immaculate,
their pristine beauty could attract or repel depending upon their
audience. The Vampire, with their unnatural perfection and
preternatural qualities, survived the centuries in a life lived in
the shadows. Neither human nor demon and gifted with the best from
each world they blended into the darkness as an unobserved
passenger. Fluid, silent, immobile, beyond nature and beyond fate,
they endured despite the hostility of the worlds surrounding them.
Evolving alongside their human counterpart they soon acquired the
features a predator required to capture their prey with the least
expenditure of effort. The traits of the modern Vampire evolved at
an unnatural pace. Those who survived the mutation and survived
detection successfully passed their effective traits onto those
they also Unveiled.
    The Vampire
fared best on the outskirts of the human world for while they never
lost the tie to their origins, remaining human in form and often
their preferences and their mutation if detected ensured immediate
death. Once their transformation was complete the Vampire was
deemed Ancient with an appearance more demonic than human.