Xenthe And Sophia

Xenthe Creillaic felt luckier than most and sometimes unluckier than others. He was a 23 year old European Vampire, in the linear sense although physically he resembled a 21 year old. Aunt B as a Circulator was able to manipulate his age and alter his necrotized body to appear as an adult male. His Aunt B had been aging him every six months since Xenthe was ten, when he was first made into his supernatural state.

When Xenthe was 10 years old, he was taken on a camping trip by his mother and father, whom brought his little sister with them. The family name Creillaic was Irish, although his parents were born and raised in Memphis. It was called a ‘family escape’ that made Connor and Stella Creillaic take their little ‘uns for a camping trip to Alaska. It was later called ‘fate’ that made Connor and Stella Creillaic pick the Lokoti National Park in the Alaska Range to pitch their tent on this particular night.

Sitting under the pale twilight sky of the Alaska Range towards early June; Xenthe pulled out his roll-up keyboard. He was a gifted pianist but he didn’t mind playing the cliché camping songs for his family to sing along to, such as “and the clock stopped short, never to go again when the old man died…”

Xenthe sang along with his Mom, Dad and lil’ sis, as the four of them merrily sung away complete with their campfire and hot chocolates. It was nearing eleven o’clock in the evening but the children were allowed to stay up late since this was a holiday. It was around 10.58 PM that Xenthe noticed something in the distance, which made his playing halt.

He craned his neck as his blue eyes narrowed, trying to make out in the pale summer’s twilight the sight of such a large group of people. There appeared to be around thirty strangers of European appearance, moving quickly across the grassy plain where the Creillaic’s had pitched their family-sized tent in the mountainous National Park. Xenthe wondered at how such a group of people who appeared to be only walking, moved at a speed which he had only seen Olympic athletes run?

It was in no time at all that the family of four were surrounded by the group of adults. It was a matter of seconds that the thirty strangers eyes turned glowing white, with snake-like fangs jutting out from their mouths. It was within a minute that his father died at the hands of five thirsty European Vampires, with his eight year old sister a close second by another three. It was whilst his injured mother was dangled before him that the apparent leader of the group spoke;

“I heard you play, I would be obliged to let your mother live if you played again.”

With trembling hands, Xenthe pressed into the flat keypad of his roll-up keyboard. However with his dead father and little sister lying a short distance away and his bleeding mother was gasping for breath? His fingers slipped clumsily and he made many mistakes.

“My Chihuahua can play better than this.” one woman said in a French accent to the first man who spoke.

“He’s frightened of us that is all.” The first man replied in a German accent. “Let us give him courage.”

The first man walked over to where the trembling 10 year old sat, crouched on the ground over his fold-up keyboard. He picked him up with one hand about the boy’s neck and soon the ten year old felt an excruciating pain in his throat. The first man was drinking from him, with two snake-like fangs piercing his jugular. However another sensation soon overtook the pain, as Xenthe began to feel a combination of nausea, dizziness and a horrible coldness. He wasn’t quite sure how, but he sensed there was poison in the man’s sharp teeth.

Just as Xenthe was about to pass out from poisoning as well as blood loss, the man moved his sharp teeth away. The half-conscious Xenthe just made out a cut wrist moved towards his face, before it was pressed against his mouth. After a moment or two, he realized the man was bleeding into him and he was too weak to pull away. He reluctantly swallowed a few mouthfuls, when both the man and his wrist suddenly went away.

With half-opened eyes, he made out some kind of battle take place. Another group of adults around fourteen in number, attacked the group of thirty. These adults looked strange; with thirteen Native Alaskan men who were topless, incredibly strong looking with glowing eyes, long jagged teeth and extremely long, strong nails; battled the thirty European Vampires.

Fighting in the fourteen, was a woman who looked part Native Alaskan, wore elasticized gym clothes over her muscled body. Instead of using teeth, claws or muscles, as her male counterparts; she swung a silver sword, lopping the European Vampires’ heads off. When two European Vampires looked like they were going to jump her from behind? A huge, hulking, hairless, dog-like creature with glowing green eyes and razor sharp jaws jumped them! Once it made waste of the woman’s attackers, it jumped another two European Vampires and another two after that.

“Xenthe…Xenthe…?” his injured mother dragged herself over to his position and then laid protectively over him, as the battle raged on.

With his face squashed against his mother’s heaving chest, Xenthe didn’t see much more after that. He could feel that his body was dying, as was his mother’s as she inadvertently bled over him. They were both wheezing, as it felt like not enough oxygen was able to enter their bodies let alone their lungs. Xenthe’s eyes started to drift closed for what he thought would be his last time…

…that was until he felt something warm, thick and tasted utterly delicious start to fill his mouth. He swallowed it down, before drinking another mouthful. He did this again and again, as a new strength overcame him. He opened his eyes to see a topless Native Alaskan man with tearful eyes, was propping him up. It was his wrist that was in Xenthe’s mouth and it was his blood that he was feeding the ten year old.

Xenthe never felt so gratified and yet so humble to a complete stranger before, although he couldn’t work out why this man who was saving his life looked so sad? When Xenthe’s eyes skipped away just for a moment, he saw that another Native Alaskan man was also sharing his blood with his wounded mother. As he continued to look about, he saw the pretty half Native Alaskan woman looking on, as did a naked blonde-haired Caucasian, muscled man. For some reason, like it was a new instinct warning him? Xenthe immediately knew that the blonde-haired, muscled man had been the huge, dog-like creature he saw earlier. The same creature that protected the woman? Was the same man now standing beside her, still in a protective manner.

“Xenthe…?” his mother pushed away the other Native Alaskan man’s bleeding wrist. “Where is my son?”

“Your son will live.” Her helper promised. “But he will live as a European Vampire.”

“Isn’t that just peachy?” the blonde-haired, naked, muscled man griped. “We killed thirty fang heads tonight just to let a new born fang head survive?”

“Declan.” The pretty woman glared at the man whom Xenthe later learned was her mate. “Once upon a time, everyone in the tribe thought my Grandfather was nuts for sparing the life of a three year old European Werewolf. If you could be trained not to hunt human, then so can this new European Vampire.”

Then the sad man who had been sharing his blood with the ten year old Xenthe, pulled his wrist out of his mouth to put inside his own. When he removed his injury, Xenthe saw that it was now miraculously healed-over. The sad man next laid Xenthe back down, stood up and walked over to somebody else lying on the ground. In one heave, the sad man slung this limp body over his shoulder before he began to walk off into the night. The body looked like an older boy possibly sixteen years of age by his height and muscle bulk. It was a day later that Xenthe learned it had been the man’s fourteen year old son, who had been drained and killed by the European Vampires in battle.

Xenthe’s and Stella Creillaic’s lives changed irrevocably that night. Not only did they mourn their husband/ father and their daughter/ sister? But Xenthe and Stella Creillaic moved to the Lokoti Tribal Lands in the Alaska Range to live; so that the Lokoti Werewolves who had been the Native Alaskans who fought the European Vampires? They could train Xenthe to curb his bloodlust from craving human blood to animal instead.

The first year of Xenthe’s existence as a new European Vampire was hell. There was no nice way of putting it, it was agonizing, torturous, horrific and downright desperate. The thing that saved the ten year old from completely losing his sanity was love; from his mother Stella, from the pretty half-Native Alaskan woman whom he learned to call ‘Aunt B’ and from the surprising friendship with the new Lokoti Werewolf, Kevin Wisetail.

The Lokoti Werewolf whom saved Xenthe’s life the same night he lost his eldest son, was called Walt Wisetail. With his eldest son Kurt’s death, his next son Kevin took his place among the pack with his Lokoti Werewolf gene activating on the next full moon. As Kevin Wisetail was trained to curb his bloodlust from craving human flesh to that of animal? Xenthe too was taught to hunt animal instead of partaking in human blood. As other ten year olds played baseball, soccer, football or go-karts? Kevin and Xenthe hunted animal in the vast National Park not with weapons, but instead with teeth and claws. When it was a full moon, they hunted with the Lokoti Werewolf pack which included Aunt B, her European Werewolf mate Uncle Declan and their two daughters, the ten year old Lucia and the five year old Sophia.

Xenthe never forgot the first night he saw Sophia Sabre in her Werewolf form. He had seen her around Tribal Lands during the day often enough, looking like a five year old would with the typical piggy-tails. Then on a full moon night, he saw Sophia standing with Lucia and Aunt B, in their elasticized gym clothes which could handle their changed, bulked-up, Werewolf bodies. Sophia had glowing green eyes as Lucia did, just as their European Werewolf father did. Lucia looked exactly half and half, with her face not growing a snout but her mouth and nose becoming one as a canine’s did. However Sophia Sabre looked more Lokoti Werewolf, as she retained her humanoid appearance.

Sophia Sabre had the temperament of a European Werewolf if not the strength. She ran out the front of the pack with her mother and sister and was fearless in leaping upon her prey. This five year old’s gumption knew no bounds, as she leapt upon moose, caribou or even grizzly that were four times her size. Lucia, Aunt B and Uncle Declan would be right after her, to kill and to make sure their littlest wouldn’t be killed. Xenthe even caught Uncle Declan in his huge, hulking, hairless dog-like body, pause to watch with satisfaction at the ferociousness Sophia exhibited.

Uncle Declan was the pack’s one and only European Werewolf, with Xenthe becoming their one and only European Vampire. However instead of bonding over their differences, Xenthe realized that Uncle Dec would rather have killed him. It wasn’t anything against Xenthe personally, it was just genetic. European Vampires had hunted European Werewolves for generations upon generations, for their strength and regenerative capabilities. It was for these reasons that Xenthe could always smell when Uncle Dec was near and vice versa. However it was out of love for his mate Aunt B and respect for Xenthe’s mother Stella that Uncle Dec stayed his murderous impulses to pulverize the young European Vampire every time he saw him.

Stella had the assistance of the tribe’s Medicine Man, Ki as well as Walt Wisetail and Aunt B with raising her European Vampire son. Ki and Stella would experiment with different liquids to find alternatives for Xenthe to drink instead of human blood. Not only did Xenthe drink animal blood, but it was discovered he could drink 100% pure juices or even fresh milk. However just as his body wasn’t able to digest solids, it was unable to consume cream or creamy substances. During one tribal event when Xenthe looked jealously on Kevin and the other kids their age happily guzzling down ice cream? He too tried to eat the dessert, however within a matter of seconds he regretted it. He suffered the worst kind of stomach cramps, which gave him nausea and diarrhea. Ki ended up sitting with him all through the day and night, until Xenthe’s body had finally and painfully disposed of the ice cream.

With Xenthe’s transformation into his European Vampire existence, he tripped over the many pitfalls to his new body. His hunger pains which were a result of the infamous bloodlust were agonizing. Blood which pumped through the humans, tempted him like water to a person suffering dehydration. The strong and regenerative blood which pumped in his Werewolf friends, was like a starving person catching a whiff of a gourmet banquet being cooked to perfection.

There were some adults who might fantasize about having a body which never grows old, but when you were a ten year old boy? Becoming the smallest and the skinniest as everyone else grew up around you, was tragic. Xenthe and Stella learned from a scientific report on the different types of Vampires that this supernatural species do expire from old age. However they learned that most Vampires including Xenthe, retain the same bodies they were in when they were changed right up until their demise. This coupled with Xenthe’s great deal of difficulty in healing when he injured himself? He could bleed like a hemophiliac, since his organs which regulate his healing were necrotized. It was thanks to Kevin Wisetail or his father Walt, or Ki stepping forward to share their blood with the wounded Vampire, which enabled Xenthe to heal.

Sure, Xenthe was fast and he could move short distances in the speed of sound? This made him faster than Kevin and the other Lokoti Werewolves. However as Kevin and Lucia could play fight and sometimes bite each other during their rumbles? Xenthe wasn’t allowed to bite, not even in jest. It was because his species of Vampire was poisonous, which was delivered via his teeth. Xenthe became depressed on his eleventh birthday. He thought the concept of celebrating he was another year older was cruel, especially since he didn’t look it.

It was then that Aunt B had one of her famous visions, of how she might be able to help Xenthe. You see, Aunt B was once called ‘The Last Circulator’ before she changed Uncle Dec into a Circulator too. Not only were they strong and amazing healers as Werewolves? But as Circulators, they could see and move through time, instantaneously phase which was similar to teleporting but their bodies changed into light. Aunt B as a centuries old Circulator, was used to manipulating time and she thought she might be able to do this for Xenthe.

After explaining the risks to the youthful Vampire and his mother, Xenthe leapt at her offer. If what Aunt B proposed was successful? She could be making Xenthe grow up however the downside to this was Xenthe’s lifespan would be shortened. If Aunt B aged Xenthe’s body by six months, it would reduce his existence by six months.

This made Stella hesitant but Xenthe retorted, “if I’m supposed to live for 500 years, what’s losing six to twelve months here and there?”

So it began with Aunt B putting Xenthe’s ten year old body into phase and altering his cellular structure whilst he was a being of light. When he reformed back into his biological body, he was physically twelve months older. As Aunt B did this first time manipulation, she altered Xenthe’s age by a year so he could look as eleven year olds do. Then every six months, she physically aged Xenthe by this passing of time.

However as nothing in life is for free, neither was this ‘miracle’. When Aunt B would first put Xenthe into phase, he enjoyed the feeling being made of light. He felt warm and tingly and like he could have been hovering in mid-air. But as soon as he reformed back into his biological body once more, now a little older? His European Vampire DNA and necrotized organs objected in the worst way. After his age had been manipulated, for three days he was bedded by the worst kind of ‘growing pains’ imaginable. The spasms in his legs, arms, joints, torso and head were debilitating. The only thing which eased the agony was by drinking down a Werewolf’s regenerative blood, which either Kevin or Walt or Ki kindly shared.

Now that Xenthe was aging he didn’t look so different, although he still felt like an outsider. His friendship with Kevin and Lucia helped him a great deal, as they experienced the bloodlust he did but for flesh instead of blood. Xenthe had become accustomed that his Werewolf friends would always be bigger and stronger than him, so he began to develop his other talents.

He used his greater speed to his advantage on the soccer field. His prowess on the piano took the breath away of his music teachers. His southern accent worked well with his guile so he could charm many. He studied hard so he was up-to-date with the lessons being taught when he returned to school. After two years of training to control his bloodlust, he was able to prove to his mother, the Tribal Elders and the pack he wouldn’t be a danger to return to society.

At school, Xenthe found out another one of his abilities in being a European Vampire was he could charm and manipulate many minds. Ironically, male Werewolves and even Lucia, were impervious to this although Aunt B, Sophia or sometimes Susanna could fall prey. Xenthe wasn’t above using this ability to charm his human mother to avoid punishment after he had done something wrong. Although if a male Werewolf that wasn’t Kevin, caught him doing this? Then he knew he was in for it.

With his southern accent, his charming way of words or even his graceful movements, he began to develop a couple of female admirers. Entering his teens, Xenthe wasn’t interested in sex as other kids his age were, or even other Werewolves. Some boys chased girls because they were after ‘the one thing’? Xenthe didn’t chase girls but if he did, it would also be for the ‘one thing’. Only this thing was not found under their skirts but instead it was shown openly in public…their hot, pulsating jugulars underneath their bare necks.

Kevin, Xenthe and Lucia found they had another thing in common with entering their teens; sex was another dangerous temptation on their bloodlust. They attended school in the township of Alma, where the kids from town didn’t know about their supernatural differences as did the kids within the Tribe. In the change room, the boys would boast about how far they got with a girl, before teasing Xenthe and Kevin for acting afraid of them. However with Kevin’s strong build and Xenthe’s sharp tongue (let alone his teeth), they weren’t picked on often.

What the jocks didn’t know was the reason why Xenthe and Kevin sometimes acted afraid of the girls in their school. They weren’t afraid of the girls hurting them but instead they were afraid of the other way around. As Kevin was a Lokoti Werewolf, he craved human flesh except the flesh of a Lokoti human. Xenthe simply thirsted for any and all kinds of blood. Bodily contact with a girl, let alone kissing one with their mouth? Would have been like making a chocoholic kiss a chocolate bar without allowing them to bite into it. Whereas Kevin was becoming sexually attracted to the opposite sex, Xenthe wasn’t. He felt no sexual desire at all, which was attributed to the fact that European Vampires cannot reproduce via sexual means. With his reproductive organs necrotized, he didn’t feel the biological need to ‘sew his seed’.

Xenthe wasn’t adverse to admiring a beautiful girl, as he enjoyed looking on females more than males. But whereas some males just want a female with a sexy body or a beautiful face, not caring about the mind or personality? Xenthe wanted the complete package. He wanted a beautiful woman, with wit and charm, grace and intellect. If she had a nice aroma as well? It would be like the red ribbon on top. Some males just wanted a female for sexual release? Xenthe wanted a female to look upon, enjoy a conversation with, share a similar hobby and if things did turn physical? He fantasized about his female biting him and drinking his blood and him doing the same to her. The idea of simply moving up and down on a female didn’t appeal to Xenthe at all.

Lucia Sabre acted uninterested in sex or relationships, even though Xenthe and Kevin suspected otherwise. Since Lucia was half European Werewolf, she was even stronger than Kevin. She was as tall and as broad-shouldered as he was, which made her appearance off-putting to most boys in school. When one or two would admire her beautiful face and long, wavy, dark blonde hair? They might ask her out on a date but she ignored their interest. Xenthe had seen Lucia on a full moon hunt in the National Park; she decimated her prey. On this note, Xenthe always suspected that it was the reason why she didn’t date because she was holding herself back from tearing a boy apart.

A couple of months after Xenthe’s arrival in the Tribe when he, Kevin and Lucia were 10 years old? Lucia and Sophia were joined by another sister, Susanna. The three sisters were separated by five years apart, with Lucia being the eldest. All three sisters were unique, having a Lokoti Werewolf for a mother and a European Werewolf for a father. They were also born in the dangerous times where female Werewolves in the world were becoming scarce.

When changed into their Werewolf forms, Lucia looked exactly half and half, with Sophia looking more Lokoti Werewolf and Susanna resembling the most like a European Werewolf. When Xenthe first clapped eyes on Sophia Sabre, he thought she was the cutest five year old he had ever seen. She had large, dark brown eyes and straight, dark hair. Her nickname among friends and family was ‘Princess Sophia’, which was earned for several reasons.

Sophia may not have been as physically strong as her sisters, but her temper, shouts and screams could be frightening. Her favored fighting style was either throwing something, stomping on a person’s foot or pulling their hair. If she didn’t get her own way, sometimes she would do all three with lots of screaming in between. Lucia and her mother would walk away from her tantrums, but her father was able to weather it. People wondered if it was because of Uncle Declan’s European Werewolf temper, he even admired it? He would stand completely still with his arms folded in front; as Sophia screamed, shouted and a couple of times trashed her bedroom. When she became too violent, her father would restrain her by sitting on her back. Then as she tried to struggle and shout some more, he would open up a book and calmly begin to read to her. After two chapters, she would reluctantly apologize as she turned weepy, when Uncle Declan would get off and she would next crawl into his lap for a cuddle.

‘Princess Sophia’ was also the prettiest of her sisters, even if she didn’t always act it. As Lucia and Susanna asked for certain toys or electrical goods for birthdays, Christmases or special treats? Sophia always asked for clothes or fashion accessories. She knew that her looks were her strongest asset and she was determined to capitalize on this. Aunt B enjoyed the odd shopping spree, whereas Sophia loved shopping period. As Lucia and Susanna favored their father with more hands-on activities, Sophia accompanied her mother on spending expeditions. Sophia was also more artistic than her other two sisters, as she liked to paint and study the history of art. Lucia was more analytically minded and Susanna hated school and homework full stop, but the two girls enjoyed cooking with her father.

“You wanna come and help us make pasta, Soph?” Uncle Dec would ask on ‘pasta day’ where for an afternoon he, Lucia and Susanna would hand-make pasta for the month.

“Making pasta is boring.” Sophia would always reply, before she left the house to go shopping or to a friend’s house.

Xenthe began to appreciate Sophia’s more refined tastes. He watched how graceful she was, as she politely picked at her food with her fork rather than shovel it into her waiting mouth like her sisters did. He admired her childish cuteness which blossomed into beauty, the older she grew. Xenthe shared her taste in music and art, or the kind of films she liked to watch. When one evening Xenthe overheard Sophia ask her parents if she could go to a concert by a visiting orchestra? His half-necrotized heart began to pound with new life, as the sixteen year old Vampire looked on the eleven year old Werewolf in rapture.

He had always admired Sophia’s beauty, but now Xenthe began to consider that this female could be the complete package he had been looking for. Sophia was the beautiful woman, with wit and charm, grace and intellect. He patiently watched and admired from afar over the years as Sophia’s female Werewolf body continued to develop. As was typical for being part Lokoti Werewolf? At sixteen years old her Lokoti Werewolf pheromones started up. To Xenthe, she now had the nice aroma as well, like a fine wine which tempted his palate.

However when Xenthe was eighteen years old and graduated High School, he did what Kevin and Lucia couldn’t; he went away to College. Xenthe’s brilliance on the piano had won him a scholarship to the National Conservatory in New York. Whereas Lokoti Werewolves were tied to their hunting grounds and if they should leave they can wane? Xenthe as a European Vampire didn’t have this drawback although he was reluctant to leave his mother alone.

On the same note, the pack and the Tribal Elders were also reluctant for Xenthe to leave, as they worried about his feeding pattern. New York was a large city with no wilderness for him to hunt in once a week, as he could in Alaska. However Stella had faith in her son’s abilities and control of his thirst. She simply looked up the locations of the closest wildlife reserves to New York City that Xenthe could visit on a weekend.

Stella lovingly gave Xenthe a kick out the door when it came time to start Fall Semester. He knew his mother had Aunt B, Uncle Dec, Walt and Wendy Wisetail to call on for company. However whilst he lived in New York, he and Stella made twice a week video-phone calls to each other, as Xenthe also did with Kevin and Lucia. Xenthe would shuttle back to Alaska four times a year, Christmas, Easter, Summer and Thanksgiving where upon his friends and mother would welcome him home with open arms.

Another reason why Xenthe came home so often, was so he could be near Sophia. Of course she didn’t know this, she only saw Xenthe as her older sister’s best friend. Xenthe would always come back from New York with a gift for Sophia, as he tried to change the way she looked on him. He would delight in seeing how his future mate was blossoming over time, as Sophia was perfect in his faded blue eyes. However the older Sophia grew, Xenthe started to become concerned how he wasn’t the only male who was attracted to her beauty or even her Lokoti Werewolf pheromones. Her social calendar began to fill up fast with not just the continuous parties she was invited to, but teenaged boys left, right and centre showed up.

Luckily for Xenthe that Sophia’s snobbishness also extended to her love life, so she was extremely picky whose date she accepted. It was also fortunate that Uncle Declan’s famous temper was also off-putting for any teenaged boy who tried to get around Sophia’s curfews. Uncle Declan had always been overprotective of his beloved mate and young and with Sophia’s growing popularity he became even more so. What the young men of Alma didn’t know was Sophia was a Werewolf, her sisters were Werewolves and her parents were Werewolves.

When one or two young men from town thought it would be daring or romantic to sneak onto the Sabre’s property to throw pebbles at Sophia’s window? They couldn’t understand how Sophia’s father always showed up to scare them away. They thought they were being as quiet as possible, so how did he catch them? The men from Alma didn’t realize Uncle Dec heard the engines of their hover-cars power down even if they parked a kilometer away; let alone smelled them as soon as they stepped foot on his property.




(CAUTION HARD HATS REQUIRED - CHAPTER CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION)