Vampire Hunters

Do you ever just wonder how you got into a situation and then realize it’s your brother's fault? Yeah, same here. Actually, now that I think about it; it doesn't happen that often. However, no matter what my brother gets us into, it will never be as bad as the day he almost got both of us killed. It happened over two thousand years ago. During a calm and cool midsummer night in July in a small village called Bethlehem. Which is about six miles south of Jerusalem. The Christian bible doesn’t get a lot wrong but one of the few things it does get wrong is the day Christ was born. The planets that align to form the star of Bethlehem wouldn’t be in the right position to rise the star for the wise men to follow in December to the manger. The right time would be the same night my brother Jake and I turned into the one thing we feared the most. It was the night we were turned into bloodsucking demons called Motetz Dam or as it is known in the English language, Vampires.

It started as a typical day for us or as typical as it could get for two young Roman men in their early 20s. I was outside getting our family mule ready to go to the market. The wind was lightly blowing through my hair. Our mother was washing clothes on the side of the house. While I continued getting the mule ready, I heard someone yell my name in the distance behind me.

“Hey, James!” The voice yelled as I looked up and, I could see my brother Jake making his way towards me. He is four years older than me, 26, five foot nine inches tall, with dirty blonde shoulder-length hair and dark brown eyes. My brother and I look alike. I'm just a couple inches shorter than he is. He waved to me and I could see a huge smile on his face as he got closer to me.

“Hello, brother!” I yelled back as I waved back to him. I turned to finish packing the gear onto the mule. Jack came up to me and wrapped his arm around me and pulled me tight into his body.

“How have you been, little brother?” He asked as I tied a rope to the mule and started to guide him to our house.

“I am good, why such a big smile?” I asked as I tied the other end of the rope from the mule to the side of the house. He pulled a piece of parchment from his robe and handed it to me. I grabbed it and started to read it. The parchment said ROMAN SOLDIERS NEEDED! 225 DENARII PER YEAR OF SERVICE! MEN, NO YOUNGER THAN 20 YEARS OF AGE! Then it said where we would have to go to sign up. I leaned in closer to him and whispered. “Are you sure we should do this today? We already have so much to do.”

“James it’s at the market, we can stop by and enlist and be off to training next week. We have been dreaming about this since we were little kids; to be just like father.” I started to make my way to the front of the house as Jake followed. We stopped at the front door and I turned to him.

“Fine, but we will tell mother when we get back from the market. Deal?” Jake nodded and we went inside where mother was sweeping the kitchen of our little hut.

Our hut isn’t very big; it's only big enough for Jake, our mother, and me. Our father died last year from a wild animal attack, his throat was ripped out and his body was drained of all his blood. The hut has three main rooms. The kitchen, which is also the family gathering area, mother's room, and the upper part of the hut which is where Jake and I sleep. We have a little window in our room, and on a crystal-clear night, you can see Jerusalem far off in the distance.

Our dream is to one day be Roman soldiers to see the world and live in Rome. To start our own families, and be able to provide for and take care of our mother in her old age. Yet, nothing really goes as planned, now does it. We were about to head off to Jerusalem and sign Twenty years of our adult lives away to fight for the Empire of Rome. All I worry about is whether will it break our mother's heart? Her only two children are going to become one of the things we feared the most, or at that time, the thing we thought we feared the most.

“Mother?” I said. She stopped sweeping the floor and looked at me with her beautiful smile, she was also Roman, like Jake and me. She has beautiful long, about the middle of her back length, blonde hair, and dark brown eyes like my brother and me.

“Yes, James?” She said with a huge smile.

“Jake and I are going to leave for Jerusalem. We will be back after nightfall so don’t wait up,” I said as I grabbed my coin purse from our kitchen next to the fireplace. She nodded and walked over to Jake and I gave us a hug and then we left the hut. We stopped by the side of the house so I could grab the mule.

Then we made our way to Jerusalem it only took us a couple hours to get there. I’m just going to jump to the market. So I won’t bore you with non-important stuff like Jake talking about every woman our age in Bethlehem and other explicit things. I really don’t want to think about it again. When we made it to the outskirts of Jerusalem, we could see the market. The dozens of market vendors, and tents filled with tons of different things, such as Gold, pottery, scarves, clothes, fruit, meat, and lots of other things.

Jake stopped by one of the vendors that were selling fish and picked up a dozen and a half pounds of Nile perch and catfish. While he did that, I went to a couple tents and picked up four pounds of each: apples, pears, potatoes, leaks, and lettuce. I also picked up six and a half pounds of chestnuts, walnuts, and almonds. Jake placed the fish in two of the six wicker-style baskets we had on the mule. I also picked up six bundles of barley so we could make flour for bread.

It’s a nice day in Jerusalem, I thought to myself as Jake and I walked around the market. We also got a couple live chickens, so mother could start collecting eggs. We were getting ready to leave the market, we just needed to pick up a perfect gift for our mother since her birthday was the next day. While we were looking at clothes and jewelry for her we came across this one merchant who we didn't see when we were walking around.

He was an older man probably in his eighties, and he was wearing ragged clothes that were old and torn. I couldn’t see his face since it was covered up by the hood and cloak he was wearing. I started to look at his table he had a few random things on his table, but most of it wasn’t anything interesting just a bunch of old scrolls, wooden boxes, and a few bronze daggers. Then there it was surrounded by three or four more little glass bottles just like it. What made this one stand out was that it was the only one with a reddish liquid in it. I picked it up and looked at it, Jake was the tent next to the merchant, he was looking through the stuff the tent had. He then came to the table and was staring at the bottle with a confused look on his face.

"You like it, young man?" the old merchant asked as I looked at him. I nodded and then Jake started looking at the scrolls.

"Yes, sir. I do it is very interesting. It’s the only one with liquid in it. May I ask what’s in the bottle?" He grinned showing his rotten yellowed teeth. He licked his teeth in an evil and vile way he then looked up at me to where I could see his eyes, which were dark in color. He held out his hand as he was reaching for it so I proceed to hand it to him. He grabbed it and held it to eye level with my brother and me.

"This small little bottle holds the answers to all the questions in life, it holds great power so powerful that it can grant all wishes. Whether it is money, power, or even land. It can even grant immortal life," he said as his eyes glossed over, they were no longer dark they were now red, almost as bright as fresh blood when it leaves the body through an opened wound. Then they glossed back over to the dark color they were. My brother and I looked at each other and then back at the old man.

"How much?" Jake asked as he opened a scroll and read softly what it said. "The powers that be, quench my thirst, heal me with skin as hard and pale as a diamond. For as when I will start to thirst for blood let the light of the moon drag me into its immortal life of the night."

The old man looked at my brother and then back at me. "For you two, free. If you buy that scroll you are holding," he said as he placed the bottle in front of me and my brother. He held out his hand palm up as if like he was asking for money and my brother handed him two copper pieces and then closed his hand then I picked up the bottle then he continued to talk about it. "All you need to make your deepest wishes come true is a single drop."

I opened it and took a sip and it burned like it was a hot steel rod being pushed down my throat. I handed it to my brother, and he looked at it and then had a sip, he turned his head and coughed. He then looked back at me with a face of disgust. It tasted horrible like a copper taste mixed with salt and iron, almost like the taste of blood. We looked at the old man, who was no longer there. We started to look for him in the crowd of people. It was like he was gone almost as if he had vanished and we looked back at each other then back at the table and the bottle which was gone too like they never existed, but we still had the taste in our mouths.

Jake turned his head to the table next to us and saw a beautiful purple, red, and gold women’s headscarf. "Hey James, mother would love this. Excuse me, ma'am. how much for this scarf?" He asked as he pointed to it on the corner.

"10 copper pieces but for you, since you’re cute, I’ll give it to you for 5," she said, she wasn’t much older than us probably in her late 20's. She was beautiful too, makes sense why she was flirting with Jake. He handed her the five pieces and picked up the scarf and folded it then shoved it in the bag on top of the food. We made our way to the group of Roman soldiers that were huddled behind a small table with stacks of money and stacks of papyrus.

We walked up to the table, a roman soldier was sitting there with a pen and a tub of ink. He looked up at my brother and I, he then stood up and held out his hand as he was suggesting for us to shake his hand. I extended my arm and grabbed his hand and gave a stern and stiff shake. He then moved it toward my brother, who did the same thing.

"You two interested in joining the Legions?" The soldier asked while he laid a few pieces of papyrus in front of us. Upon the papyrus was the contract for a Legionary, which was written in Latin.

"Yes Sir, we are," Jake said as I nodded. The soldier smiled and sat down, he placed a pen in front of my brother and me. He proceeds to explain what the documents in front of us were.

"These documents contain a legal contract of the Roman Army; it states that you get paid every four years with your first payment of nine hundred Denarii today when you sign the contract. It also explains that you are required to buy your own armor, gear, weapons, clothes, and food. When in a campaign you will be given a week's ration at the beginning of each week. It will consist of flour, cheese, meat, wine, and bread. Depending on the campaign you will have more of one thing than the others." He was explaining as he flipped the first papyrus over to the next and then continued explaining.

"You may also carry food you buy from towns during the campaigns or that you bring prior, which can be salt, oil, vegetables, or other things. You will be required to purchase armor and weapons as I explained earlier. The Armor and weapons will always be kept clean and in battle-ready condition. You will report to training next week twenty miles south of here at the roman training camp. Any questions?" He explained.

"No sir," My brother and I said. The soldier flipped over the second papyrus, on the third, and the final one was a line at the bottom. He pointed at the line.

"Sign here," he said as Jake and I dipped the pens into the ink and proceed to sign our names on the lines. The soldier grabbed two-coin purses that were behind the stacks of money and placed them in front of us. "This is your pay; it is nine hundred Denarii. Here are your orders, we will see you next week." The Soldier handed us a piece of papyrus that had the location of the training camp. I placed it in the market bag which I had slung over my shoulder.

We then proceed to leave the market for home since it was getting dark, we decided to walk for a couple miles then we would stop to make a small camp so we could eat before we finish our way back home.

However, it didn’t go the way we planned at all. On our way home the sun started to go down, which made the temperature drop at first it was slow then suddenly when the sun went all the way down it dropped fifty-some odd degrees. We continued for a little longer until we got cold and tired, so we stopped and pulled out some wood we got from home and put it in a tee-pee shape. Jake took some dried grass and stuffed it into the hole at the bottom and lit it with the flint and iron fire starter he had in a small satchel on the mule.

In seconds the fire engulfed the wood into a nice size fire, Jake grabbed the cooking pot and the water skin, and the wine, which was in a leather skin, from the mule. I proceeded to take food out of the market bag, I grabbed some lettuce and a few leeks from the bag along with a couple pairs and a couple hand full of chestnuts. I put the food on a small piece of cloth on the ground. Jake started to prepare the pot to start cooking the vegetables and the fish he grabbed. He poured some water and wine into the pot and used his dagger to pull some white-hot coals from the fire and placed them next to the fire and large enough to put the pot on to cook.

Then he placed the pot on the coals and started preparing the fish, he cut it into rectangular chunks. while he did that I started on the vegetables, I took my hands and pulled the lettuce apart into small bite-size pieces. Then I used my dagger to cut the leeks into small chunks about the size of the tip of my finger and then I tossed the vegetables and the chestnuts into the water and wine broth mixture. Then Jake tossed in the fish chunks and we waited for it to cook, I handed him a pear and we snacked on them while we waited. A few minutes went by and it started to smell good, like a sweet caramelized fish and onion wine stew.

I got up and went to our mule and grabbed our bowls, spoons, and a ladle to dish out our Cena, or dinner in the English language, I handed Jake his, and I sat down and used the ladle to pour some into my bowl then I handed the ladle to Jake so he could get his. I started to eat mine it was very tasteful; the flavor combination was great from the sourness of the wine against the salty and sweetness of the leeks and chestnuts. while we ate our Cena, we heard the clanking of metal and footsteps, we looked behind us and saw a Roman Centuria marching towards us. It was about a hundred men, I started to sweat and I felt my heart start to race then all of a sudden I felt my heart stop beating, and as they were getting closer I could hear their individual heartbeats and their blood pumping through their bodies.

The Centurion halted the Centuria and then proceeded to run toward us until he was a few feet away then stopped and he drew his gladius. He pointed it at us and demanded that we get up. We stood up and he

came closer, I could hear his heart like it was in my own head. Ba dub ba dub. Ba dub. Ba dub ba dub ba dub. Ba dub ba dub. It was getting louder and louder with each beat.

"Give us your mule and your food, now!" He commanded us as he raised the gladius to my throat. "Or else I will kill you," he explained. I grinned and looked him deep into his eyes. My eyes glossed over, and they were no longer my natural dark brown eyes they were red as bright as blood just like the old man's. Jake looked at me and his eyes were also red like mine.

I started to feel a sharp pain in my mouth exactly like when you grow a new tooth. What I didn’t realize was that I started to grow fangs about an inch long. While this was happening, I could feel my cheekbones and the bone ridge above my eyes starting to break and grow as if I was changing my facial features. I looked at his neck and could see the outline of his veins, with the blood pumping through them. Then I saw his face, he looked aghast like he was looking at the most disgusting and terrifying monster he had ever seen.

Then he thrust his gladius into my throat, and the cold steel of the blade shattered into a few hundred pieces. The centurion dropped the capulus of the gladius and tried to run but I grabbed his throat and lifted him a couple inches off the ground, I looked him into his eyes and grinned.

"You shouldn’t have done that, now you will die," I said as I pulled him in and ripped open his throat, and started to drain his body of his blood, Jake ran towards the Centuria and started to rip through them like it was nothing, blood and body parts were flying everywhere I released my teeth from his throat and ripped off his head. I proceeded to run towards the Centuria and started to rip them apart. They tried to stab us with spears and their gladius, but they shattered into pieces against our skin.

One of the soldiers tried to run, however, Jake was extraordinarily faster than the soldier. Jake extended his arm to full length and grabbed the soldier by the throat, jolting the soldier's body snapping his neck. He slammed the soldier down towards the ground with full strength cracking the earth beneath the soldier. Jake then bent down with such speed it was a blur when he moved. He bit into the soldier's neck and blood started to drain out of the soldier's neck wound into a puddle which started to percolate through the desert sand.

Jake stood up drenched in the blood from the Soldiers. He looked at the body of the Soldier he just killed with fear in his eyes, he slowly glared up at me. I could see that his eyes were no longer red, and his face was back to normal. I picked up a helmet from one of the dead soldiers and investigated the reflection. I was normal, my eyes were no longer red nor was my face like a demon. I dropped the helmet to my feet. When it hit the ground it splattered blood everywhere. Jake walked towards me and stopped next to me.

"James, what are we?" He asked as I fell to my knees. I just sat there staring at the ground, I didn't answer his question. I didn't even speak a single word, I just sat there terrified. What did we become? I thought to myself, we stayed where we were for hours. I looked up at him, it was probably past midnight; the moon was high, and in the middle of the sky. I stared at him just shaking my head.

"I... I don't know," I said softly. I slowly stood up and turned towards the campsite, the fire was out the only thing I could see were the hot coals that were still burning. The pitch-black night turned into a grey and white like a nocturnal animal night vision. All I could think about was the liquid we drank. "We need to find the old man, maybe he can tell us what he poisoned us with," I exclaimed with anger and I looked at Jake. He nodded.

"But what about mothers’ birthday?" Jake asked as I looked at him with Serenity.

"We will hunt him down aft..." I was cut off by a woman's scream in the distance. I turned into the demon-like monster I had become. I sped towards the scream which was miles away. I came to our hut and skirted to a stop; Jake was right behind me. I could hear a faint almost lifeless heartbeat inside. Jake and I busted through the door and saw a creature like us holding our mother's lifeless body. Blood was dripping off her body, her eyes were open and a strong sight of fear was left. A single tear slowly dripped on the floor of the hut from her cheek.

"No!" I shouted in pain. The creature looked up at me and dropped our mother's body, I could see his blood-covered face. It was the old man from the market. Jake sped towards him at full speed and in a blur the old man threw him through the roof of the hut. A few seconds later Jake crashed back through the roof hitting the ground next to me, cracking the earth beneath us.

"Who are you?" I yelled at the man. He smiled and walked towards us, he shifted back to normal. He grew younger with each step toward us, he was only a few feet away from us when he stopped. He looked at me with the same evil smile he had at the market.

"I see the elixir worked fast. How do you boys like your new powers?" He asked as he shifted his glance to Jake who flew to his feet without a problem. I turned to him and couldn't see any scars or cuts on him. I looked back at the old man and buffed up my chest to look bigger.

"You didn't answer my question, old man. Who are you? What is your name? What are you? What did you turn us into?" I started shooting out questions at him. He flung his hand for me to stop.

"One question at a time I'm a few hundred years old my hearing isn't as it used to be," He said jokingly as he turned and started to walk towards one of our wooden chairs Jake had made. He was a lot younger than he had appeared at the market, he looked sixty years younger. He had luscious hair and smooth skin.

"Let's start with your name," Jake said with a stern voice as he changed back to normal.

"My name is Jedadiah," He said as he looked at me when I changed back to my normal self. I looked at him with anger in my eyes and pain in my heart.

"What are you and what did you turn us into?" I asked. He flung up his right hand and extended his pointer finger and started to shake his finger.

"That is two questions," he said as he leaned forward. I morphed into my new demon-like self. I sped at full speed to him and picked him up and slammed him into the wall behind him.

"Answer the questions or I swear to Morta I will rip you into pieces." He smiled and glared at Jake.

"Fine I am a Motetz Dam, and so are you." He glared back at me as I released his neck. He pulled down his cloak as if I wrinkled it.

"What’s a Motetz Dam?" Jake asked Jedadiah as he looked at my brother with a confused look.

"A demon, you will thirst for blood for all of eternity. You are now immortal unable to die like a normal human." Jedadiah replied.

"What was in the bottle we drank?" I asked him.

"My blood, it's one of two ways a human can turn into one of us. If a human drinks the blood of a Motetz Dam or if they do the ritual spell which is what he read, they will turn into one of us. Since your brother read the spell aloud the strength of it was stronger than normal since you both also drank my blood." He replied as I looked at Jake and back to Jedadiah. I shook my head and let out a short brief huff. I was extremely livid, I turned back into the Motetz Dam and grabbed Jedadiah’s head with both hands, and with all my strength I ripped off his head and threw it into the fireplace where a small fire was burning. It burst into flames and charcoaled to the bone as the skull started to slowly burn. His body then collapsed to the flood and it turned to ash and bone.

"Why did you do that?" Jake asked as he walked over to me. "Now we can't ask him how we can change back." I looked at my brother as if he was an idiot. I turned to him and shook my head.

"You do know the legend of the Motetz Dam, right? How they feed on human blood and destroy cities and villages. Every Motetz Dam in legend can't turn back because there is nothing that can turn them back human." I yelled at Jake as he looked at me with a blank stare. I shook my head as I walked over to mothers’ body.

"James, what are you doing?" Jake asked as I bent down and picked up mothers’ body and turned to start heading out the door.

"I'm going to bury mother, you can help or not it's up to you," I said as I walked out the door carrying her lifeless body. Jake followed closely behind me as we walked out into the empty field next to our hut. I found a nice spot and placed her gently down on the ground. Then I turn and started digging a hole with my hands, Jake bent down to start helping me dig the hole.

It took us a couple hours to dig the hole, when we finished, we gently lowered her body into the hole and started to fill the hole with the pile of dirt next to the grave we dug. We started to scoop the dirt into the hole, and after some time we filled the hole about halfway before we stopped for a little bit. We didn't feel restless or tired, we just felt saddened with the loss. I stared at the partially filled grave with sadness and anger. Jake sat on the ground across the grave from me, he looked like he wanted to cry but didn't. After some time, we started to finish filling in the grave. Once the grave was filled in, we stood up next to it and stared down at it.

"I can't believe she's gone, James," Jake said as he walked over to me and put his arm around me. I looked at him with great sadness in my eyes and tears started rolling down my cheeks. The sun started to rise behind us, it was beautiful with the pinks, reds, and oranges through the clouds. "So, what now? What do we do now?" Jake asked.

"What is there to do Jake, we go on with our lives as we planned, and we learn how to live as these demons. Today is the dawn of a new era." I said as I put my hand on his shoulder then we turned and watched the sunrise like mother did every morning.