Vampire Hunters

So now you know how my brother and I became vampires. However, you still don't know why we hunt them down and kill demons. Actually, that story is quite simple. It was a brisk spring morning forty-nine years after the night our mother was killed by Jedadiah. We were now Roman soldiers and very high rankings ones at that. We were Centurions, we were over two different Centuria of course. However, we were in the same legion. I believe you do know the story of the crucifixion of the Messiah. How two Roman soldiers nailed Him to the cross and hoisted it up into the hole as his body jolted in pain. Yeah, those two soldiers were my brother and I. 

As I said a simple story. However, that's not the full story. It started as a simple day for us. This was our last week before we would retire and move to Rome and live very long lives as vampires. What we didn't expect was that we would be nailing God to a wooden cross and then would kill him. We were joking around with our Centuria like we did every other day, somehow today was different. I couldn't tell what it was but I knew that something was off about today. I started going through my head to make sure our daily routine was done and made sure I had all my weapons and gear. I kept trying to think eventually I had to pull Jake to the side and try to talk to him to figure it out. 

"Can I talk to you?" I asked Jake as I pulled his arm away from the Centuria. He nodded and followed me to behind a tent that was deserted. 

"What is it, James?" He asked as I crossed my arms and looked at him. I just shook my head.

"I honestly don't know what's wrong, today just doesn't feel right," I said as I started pacing back and forth between the tents. I could feel him judging me as I paced quietly thinking to myself. He kept looking at me like I was a nut case in a mental ward. 

"Will you stop pacing and telling me what's going on," he said sternly as I stopped and looked at him. 

"I don't know!" I shouted as I threw up my arms. "I don't know. All I know is that today doesn't feel right like we are gonna kill someone important." I continued. Jake nodded as he leaned against the tree he was standing next to. When his armor-covered body hit the tree it made a Clinking sound, like it does when we are in battle. He folded his arms and looked at me like he was waiting for me to explain the nonsense I was rambling about. 

"You do know that to this day we have killed easily over two hundred thousand men. Yes, some were for food but that's not the point. The point is every day we kill people; whether they are kings or peasants we kill them it's who we are James. So if we kill someone today then we kill them." He said as I started to pace again. I had a sudden and random sharp pain in my head, like when you get a headache. I raised my hand and started to rub my temple. "You okay James?" He asked, I nodded and continued to rub my temple. 

"Yeah, I'm fine just a weird headache. But as I was saying today I just feel weird..." I was cut off by a crowd cheering and yelling. My brother and I started to make our way toward the loud cheering. When we finally got there it was a huge crowd. It was a mix of Romans, Roman soldiers, Israelites, and Judeans. We tried to make our way to the middle so we could see what the commotion was about. When we finally made it to the center there was a road and on that road was a man dressed in a blood-drenched ivory white robe. Upon his dark brown shoulder-length, curly hair was a crown made of thorns that cut into his scalp and had blood dripping down his face covering his full-face beard in blood. He was dragging behind him a huge twelve-foot-tall wooden cross. As he staggered along the road he fell a few times. A Roman soldier walked past us; I stopped him by his arm. 

"Who is that?" I asked. He laughed like I was joking then when he realized I wasn't he stopped. 

"That sir is Jesus of Nazareth, he is the king of the Jews. What a disgrace, he claims to be god and heals people but he can't even save himself from a sure and painful death." The soldier said as he continued down the road following the man. I looked at my brother and then back to the man. It was a shame because I finally knew what was off about that day. It finally became clear to me that we were gonna kill the man that would one day save the world from Armageddon. 

"Jake that's him, that's the man we will kill today," I told Jake as he grabbed my arm and started to drag me. I looked at him then I released my arm from his grip then I continued to keep up with him. We finally made it to the man's destination it was a hill that the Israelites called "Golgotha" or in English "place of the skull". It was a couple of miles away from the city. Jake and I follow this so-called king to the top of the hill.

"Drop it here!" Jake commanded Jesus. He dropped the wooden cross, Jake and I then stripped him down to his undergarments. I grabbed him by the shoulders getting ready to push him down to the cross. He leaned into me and whispered. 

"It's okay my son, this is your destiny." I looked at him as I pushed him down onto the cross; he then laid on the cross. I grabbed his right arm and pulled it to the cross beam and tied his arm to the wooden beam as I prepared the nail in the center of his palm. I struck hard and blood squirted everywhere. 

"Aaaah!" Jesus yelled in pain. I struck two more times and more blood squirted everywhere. He continued to yell in pain with each strike. I then moved to his left arm and I did the same thing I did to the right. I pulled his arm straight and tied it to the cross beam and nailed him to the cross. Jake grabbed his feet and placed them on top of each other, right over left. He tied them to the cross and drove a nail through them. 

Two soldiers helped us lift and lower the cross into the hole. When it dropped into the hole, Jesus' body convulsed in pain, and he let out a final scream of pain. He looked at Jake and me and he mumbled "Forgive them for they know not what they do." I looked at him in confusion then I looked at Jake, who moved off to the side and picked up the rope, and started to wrap it into a coil. He placed it in a leather satchel that was on the ground next to him. He looked at me with a merciless look; like he had no shame that he nailed a man to a piece of wood to die. 

"What?" He said to me as I approached him. I shook my head and just shrugged. 

"I don't know why, but what we just did wasn't right," I said as I started to pace. Jake just looked at me with confusion. 

"How so, brother?" He asked and I stopped, I was facing the man we just crucified all I could do was shake my head. I couldn't answer I just stood there shaking my head. I started my way down the hill back towards Jeruselum. Jake started to follow and quickly caught up to me, he grabbed my arm and jolted me around to him. 

"What is wrong brother?" He asked as he glared at me with a turmoiled look. I transformed into the demon I was, and my skin started to smoke and burn in the sunlight. 

"This is what is wrong Jake, we are Motetz Dam," I said as I transformed back into my human form so I didn't burst into flames. "I don't want to kill people anymore, I want to help them. " I explained to Jake; he nodded as he looked to the sky and watched the birds fly past. I turned around and started to make my way back toward the center of Jerusalem. I stopped by a tent at the market and bought a rat from the tent and took it into an alleyway where the sun didn't shine on the ground. I transformed into the demon I was so ashamed of being and I sunk my fangs into the rat as I drained it of blood. I dropped the bloodless and lifeless animal to the ground and transformed back into my human self. 

I stuck my head out of the alleyway and looked both ways, I noticed no one was paying attention so I left and started to make my way to our camp on the outskirts of town. It didn't take me long to get there, and when I did I went to my tent and started taking off my armor. I took off my belt and placed it on the ground next to my cot, with the gladius facing up so I could draw it if I needed to. Then I untied the leather straps that held my breastplate together. I slid off the breastplate and placed it between my cot and helmet; which was next to Jake's helmet and cot. I sat on my cot and pulled out a wax tablet I kept under my cot; I opened it up and started to write down a financial plan to help me until we move to a different country to start a new life as we planned for all eternity. 

I have saved over eighteen thousand ninety Aurei or the equivalent of four hundred fifty-two thousand two hundred fifty Denarii. I had forty years of service with thirty of that as a Centurion making fifteen thousand Denarii a year which is sixty-seven times what I started to make as a foot soldier. I drew a line down the middle of the left tablet making two sections than on the left side of the line I scratched numbers onto it that corresponded with the amount saved. Then on the other side, I scribbled places I wanted to go and random things I wanted to buy. I did it to pass some time, eventually, nightfall came. I closed my tablet and placed it back under my cot and laid down with my arms crossed behind my head. I stared up at the ceiling until I fell asleep. 

I started to dream about the man we crucified today. He was in a white robe with a purple sash draped around him. He wasn't dead he was alive and a light was shining down from the sky on him. He had wounds on his hands and feet where we drove the nails through them. He spoke to me with such a godly and powerful yet kind voice.

"Come to me my sons and I shall destroy the evil that lies within you both," he said as he started to make his way toward us. He laid his hands upon our heads and there was a bright white light as the evil was destroyed by his god-like powers. The earth started to shake and it cracked; Jake dropped through into the hole then I heard a voice. 

"James, wake up, wake up brother," the voice said as I was shaken awake. I opened my eyes and I could see a tallish figure wearing armor. I couldn't see who it was since my vision was blurry. I rubbed my eyes to clear the fog; it was Jake who was shaking me awake. I sat up on the edge of my bed. I looked up at him with a drowsy look in my eyes. He continued to talk to me. "You awake? We have to go to the hill, the man is dying." 

"What?" I asked in confusion as I placed my hands on my face and pulled them up and back through my hair. Jake picked up my belt and threw it at me, it hit me in the chest and proceeded to bounce into my lap. Jake exited our tent and started to run at a human pace toward the hill. I got up and put my belt onto my waist and exited the tent. I looked up into the sky it was dark like nightfall was brought upon us however when I looked at the sun it was black with an orange glow around it as if the moon covered it. I started to run after Jake. We got to the market near the alleyway I drained the rat of its blood. Jake suddenly stopped and I slammed right into him. 

He looked at me, "Do you see that?" He asked as he pointed to the alleyway. I looked at the alleyway and could see four or five men huddled around a fire with blue flames as if they were performing a ritual. I turned my head slightly to the left and focused my hearing in their direction. They were speaking Latin however it wasn't Roman Latin it was northern Latin the same tongue used in magic. They were saying " We summon the Archangel Lucifer, the father of the dammed, the angel of darkness." 

"Jake we need to stop them, I don't know who they are summoning but I have a feeling it won't be good," I said as the flames started to grow larger. The chanting continued, I looked into the sky and the sun was completely black. We heard a bloody female scream, Jake and I looked at each other.

"It's okay James, I have these weirdos covered, go check out what that scream was about." My brother said as I sped off towards the scream, I made it to the hill. I looked at the man on the cross, he had a javelin in his side and it was ripped out with blood squirting everywhere from below his liver. The Roman soldiers started to lower his body by ropes. I sped back to the alley when Jake was. 

He was being held to the ground in his demon form by two of the men and one was standing over him with a dagger that glistened in the little light we had. I transformed into my demon and used my night vision so I could see them better, I sped towards the man with the dagger; he spun around and swung his arm slicing my right cheek wide open. The wound burned and I grunted in pain, I looked at him, and he just smiled. I glanced at the blood on the blade, it started to smoke and burn off the blade.  

"It's silver. One of the few things that can kill a Motetz Dam," the man said as his eyes including the whites changed to a completely solid black color. "You have no chance against five of Hell's strongest demons now do you, James." 

"No, but together we might stand a chance," I stated as Jake teleported from the ground to next to me. "What's your name?" I asked the demon, he smiled and chucked the dagger at my brother and me. I drew my gladius from the sheath on my belt and deflected the flying dagger out of the air. The demon didn't look surprised he just smirked.

"My name is Legion, the right-hand demon to the angel of death Lucifer. I am the most powerful demon to walk this earth, and thanks to you two the only one strong enough to send me back to hell is now dead." Legion said, he started to move in a circular motion around my brother and me. I stared at Legion long and hard before I decided to attack. I sped towards him and stuck him in the face with my fist, he went flying into the wall behind him cracking it. 

"Ouch, that hurt," Legion said sarcastically, he flicked his wrist, and I went flying as if he hit me without touching me. I flipped and landed on my feet skidding backward in the sand. Jake ran towards the fire and skirted to an abrupt stop flinging sand on the fire putting it out. "NO!" Legion yelled; he charged at Jake, my brother bent down and forward into a front fighting stance. They made contact and wrestled to the ground with Jake on top; he was striking Legion in the face multiple times over and over again. Legion tried to strike Jake in the face but missed and struck his armor. His hand started to smoke as my face did when the silver touched me. Then it popped into my head, iron will work to destroy these demons. 

I grabbed one of the liner iron strips of Jake's armor and broke it off and chucked it into one of the other demons' chests; a bright light ignited from their eyes and mouth and they disappeared. Jake grabbed a piece of his armor and stabbed it deep into Legion's chest, he started to shake and the light came out of his mouth and eyes and then he was gone. The other two demons vanished as if they did it on their own. At the time we didn't know much about demons or vampires.     

Jake converted back into his human self. He investigated where Legion had laid and there was a black body silhouette with wings burnt onto the ground. He then got up and walked over to me, I went back to my human self. 

"So that was fun," Jake said sarcastically. I just shook my head as I walked out to the sliver dagger and picked it up, I turned to Jake. 

"This will be useful in the future," I said as I slid the blade into my belt. I reached my hand to my face to feel the wound on my cheek and it was gone, it must have healed itself, I thought to myself. My brother and I made our way to the hill where the empty cross stood covered in blood. We stood there and stared at it until the moon was no longer over the sun. A couple soldiers from our legion came up the hill to us. I looked at them as they came and stood in front of us. 

"Yes? May I assist you two?" I asked as they looked at each other and then back at me.

"Yes sir, the legion commander is asking to speak with both of you as soon as possible." I nodded and started to make my way down the hill. I got to the base of the hill and looked up at the cross and saw Jake was still standing there. I turned back and continued my way to the campsite to meet with the legion commander. 

I made my way past the market which was now deserted as the sun started to go down. I felt a hand on my shoulder and I jolted around and stuck. It was Jake; who had caught my hand mid-air. 

"Sorry, brother I didn't mean to scare you." He released my hand from his grip and we made our way together to the camp. When we made it to the campsite, legion commander Darius was standing there waiting for us. With his arms folded across his chest, he didn't seem very pleased. 

We confronted the commander and slammed our right hands, which were in fists, against our chest. He then did the same thing in response. He then extended his arm out toward Jake and they both walked away. I turned my head to listen to their conversation. 

"So the Army has tasked us with guarding the tomb as the King of the Jews. They fear that someone might vandalize the tomb or will steal the body. So I will be tasking your Centuria with this task until further notice." Commander Darius explained to Jake. Jake nodded and saluted the Commander by slamming his arm to his chest and lowering it. They separated ways with Jake making his way back to me. Jake walked past me, he came to a tent of the Legionaries who were fresh to his unit. He pointed at two of them, then pointed in the direction of the tomb. They nodded and picked up their equipment then proceeded to their way to the tomb. 

Jake then made his way to his tent and went inside. I stared at the stars for a little bit then made my way to our tent. When I entered Jake was on his side facing away from the entrance asleep. I laid down on my bed and fell asleep. I started to have the same dream as earlier, it started the same way too with the man standing on a hill in a white robe and a purple draped sash holding out his hands to my brother and me. He said something different this time.

"I am proud of you both, together you stopped Legion from raising Lucifer. You stopped him from wreaking havoc on this world." He said as I looked up at him. 

"Who is Lucifer?" I asked him. He closed his eyes and nodded. 

"He is a very powerful archangel, many years ago when I first made this beautiful world he disobeyed me and I cast him into the pits of hell for all of eternity. More will be explained to you as the time comes my son. For now, go and enjoy the next couple of days before I return for when I do I shall destroy the evil in you and your brother." He said as he vanished into thin air. I then woke up from the sunlight shining through the front opening of our tent. I laid there looking at the opening as soldiers walked past.                                                                                                   

"Jake, you up?" I asked. No answer, I sat up and turned towards his cot. He wasn't there I then got up and walked out of the tent and I saw him leaning against a tree sharpening his gladius. I walked over to him and sat next to him. 

"Good morning brother," Jake said as he continued sharpening his blade. I picked up a stick and started to bend and break it, continuously into smaller and smaller pieces until they were too small to break. "How did you sleep?" Jake asked, I nodded and kicked my feet out in front of me, and crossed them.

"I slept okay, I guess. I had a dream about the man we crucified yesterday. He was talking to me about destroying the evil in us and he rose from the dead." I said and Jake looked at me. He stopped sharpening his blade, he then placed his sharpening stone on the ground in between us and slid his gladius back into the sheath. 

"James, he is dead and he isn't coming back. No one can come back from death." Jake said as he got up and went inside our tent. That day was like any other day nice and normal. We Farmed for a while and built wooden spike barriers. We also trained by sparring against each other's Centuria. I stood back and watched as Jake sparred against three of my men. 

It was pretty cool, Jake was throwing them around like they were feathers. After a few minutes, they were all on the ground with Jake standing over them. He then looked at me and motioned for me to spar against him. I took off my belt and drew my gladius. I tossed my belt to the ground and charged at him. He swung in an attack; I slid under the blade. The blade went over my head cutting a few of my hair as it passed over. I got to my feet and struck my blade against his creating sparks as the steel blades collided. We exchanged blows to each other gladius' and armor. 

I kicked him in the chest making him fly back a few feet. He tossed down his gladius and raised his hands into fists about to head level with him. I tossed mine to the side and raised my hands. He threw the first punch missing me. I threw one and he caught it, then he pulled me in and swept my feet taking me to the ground. He got on top of me and started to pound his fists left and right back and forth, he missed with every blow. I kicked him off of me and gave him an uppercut to the lower right part of his jaw. He stumbled back, and he exchanged a nice right hook to the left side of my face.

He attempted a jumping punch, I moved out of the way as if I knew it was coming. "How the hell." He thought to himself. Did I just hear my brother's thoughts? "Did you see how James avoided that," another soldier thought to himself. I am hearing thoughts, am I able to read minds? I thought to myself as Jake did a spinning front kick which I caught and flipped him over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He got up and nodded and limped over to his gladius and picked it up, he sheathed it. He then walked over to our tent.

I followed him into our tent he was sitting on his cot. "That was a good match. You are getting better at fighting," Jake said as I sat on my cot looking at him.

"Jake, I think I'm able to read people's minds," I said as I looked him dead in the face. He laughed and then stopped. 

"Doubt it, but what am I thinking right now?" Jake asked as he leaned in towards me. I looked at him like he was an idiot.

"You are thinking about the possibility of it since you have the ability of teleportation. Could it be possible that my little brother could have a special ability? It would make sense for me to have a hidden ability as well," I said as he leaned back surprised. I started to think about the different abilities we could have as demons. The abilities we have right now are super-human speed and strength, enhanced sight and hearing, thermal and night vision. Jake can teleport from one location to another just by thinking about the location he wants to go to. We can also just look someone in their eyes and hypnotize them to get them to do anything we wanted them to.

"Okay, so you can read people's minds. Why did it take so long for you to realize? It only took a year or two for me to discover teleportation." Jake said as one of our soldiers walked in. We looked at him. "Yes?" Jake asked as he got up and walked over to the soldier. 

"Sirs, would you like us to work on building the camp barrier or harvest the food we planted earlier this year?" The soldier asked us, I got up and walked over to the corner of the tent to where our tools were. I grabbed a pick-ax, mattock and hand saw. I then proceeded over to Jake and handed him the pick-ax. He looked at me then took the pick-ax. 

"Let's start with the barrier then towards late afternoon we will work on the harvesting," I said to the soldier as he nodded and walked away. I looked at Jake with solidarity as I nodded. "We shall keep this between us, we can't afford to have anyone find out what we are. If that soldier walked in five seconds earlier we would have had to kill him." I said as Jake picked up a basket of rope we had next to the tent opening. We exited the tent and headed toward the outskirts of the camp. When we got there we saw soldiers digging holes, cutting wood, dropping them into the holes sharpening wooded poles, and tieing them together. 

Jake walked over to the group who was hoisting up the sharpened poles and tieing them to the poles that were in the ground. He placed the basket and pick-ax down next to the group. He proceeded to help the group by hoisting up the large heavy beams. I walked over to the group that was sharpening the wooden beams into a point. I sat down and picked up a beam, I laid it at an angle against my leg and started to cut pieces off with the hand saw.

After a couple hours, I had sharpened six beams. I started to drag them, one at a time, to Jake and placed them on one of the piles of sharpened poles. Jake looked at me, he came over and sat on a rock next to me. He picked up a beam and using the mattock he began to sharpen it to a point. I looked into the sky where I saw the sun between the midpoint of the sky and the horizon.

"So we gonna feast tonight, brother?" Jake asked as he finished the beam he was working on, he dropped it to the ground. It made a thud sound as it hit the ground. He looked up at me and smiled. I glanced up so I could see his face. 

"Of course we will, brother. This is gonna be one of our last feasts before we leave the army. We should send a couple of soldiers with some money to buy fish, vegetables, and wine." I said as I waved over two soldiers who weren't doing anything. I pulled out my coin purse and pulled out three Denarii. 

"Take this and go to the market. Pick up thirteen pounds of fish, six pounds of lettuce, cabbage, and potatoes. Along with three pounds of flour and a half-pound of salt. Also a couple wine barrels." I told the soldiers as I handed them the Denarii. They nodded and started to walk away before Jake tried to stop them.

"Don't pick up the cheap wine either," He yelled as they walked away to the market. He leaned back on the rock and stared at me. He smiled at me showing his teeth. I just shook my head as I stood up, I started my way to the tent. When I made my way to the tent I stopped when I got to a tree about two hundred feet away from the tent. In the distance, I saw a man in a white robe and a purple sash. He then vanished in thin air.

My brother caught up to me, he peered into the distance trying to figure out what I was looking at. He then asked, "What are you looking at, brother?" I just shook my head and continued my way to the tent. I entered the tent, tossed the tools back into the corner, and took off my armor placing it in the spot between our cots. I then laid on my cot staring at the ceiling waiting until the soldiers came back from the market. It was about an hour before Jake popped his head in.

"The soldiers are back with the food. Where should they put it, with the cooks?" He asked then I nodded. Jake then left and didn't come back for about another hour. When he did I got up and walked with him to the feast. Which was laid out on wooded tables on the outside of tents. We feasted and joked around for about three hours. Wine and food went flying around the feast. Soldiers got drunk and then would pass out all over the place. They would pass out on the tables, on rocks, in their tents, and even under the trees. 

Jake was passed out on the table. I made my way to the tent and passed out on the cot. I started to have the same dreams as the couple of previous nights. The man in the white rob and sash was on the hill facing away from me. I turned, and I saw a tomb with a huge stone near the entrance. The more I investigated it the more I realized the stone was moved from the entrance. The man turned around and smiled. 

"Hello, James. It is time for me to destroy the evil in you and Jake. However, I need you to do something very important. In about two thousand years hell will start to rise up. It is your job to keep them from rising up and taking control of the world." He said as I was shaken awake. I opened up my eyes, and I saw my brother in full armor with his helmet in his hand. 

"Wake up, someone broke into the tomb and stole the man's body," little did we know his body wasn't stolen. I jumped out of bed and quickly put on my armor. We ran to the tomb where the two tomb guards were sitting on the ground. I walked over to them. 

"What happened? Who stole the body?" I asked them. One shook his head the other looked up at me.

"No one, he walked out of the tomb alive. Like we never killed him or even placed him into the tomb." He said then he looked back down. I could feel how frightened they were. I made my way to the entrance of the tomb, I glared into the tomb where I saw the stone table he was placed on. It was empty the only thing left in there was the bloody linen cloth on the table. 

"Hello my sons," I heard coming from outside the tomb. I drew my gladius and marched my way outside. There he was standing on the hill just like in my dreams. Jesus stood there in an ivory-white robe and a somber purple sash. He made his way down the hill to my brother and I, he looked at my brother and then at me. 

"As I promised James, I will now destroy the evil in you both." He raised his hands, my brother took a step back. Jesus then lowered his hands as he looked at Jake. "What's wrong my son?" Jesus asked. Jake looked at me and took a deep breath. 

"What do you mean you'll destroy the evil in us?" My brother asked as he looked up at Jesus. 

"What I mean, is that when I place my hand on your heads the demons will be destroyed. The sun will no longer burn you when you transform into the Motetz Dam, nor will blessed water by a priest nor will the nails that crucified me to the cross. However, you will still thirst for blood. You two shall not drink human blood from a living person. You may collect the blood from a man who consents to it or you can feed on animals. Pure silver will still harm you. You will still be immortal until the day I return to free this world of the Armageddon that is prophesied to happen. Do you now understand my sons?" Jesus stated as we nodded and he placed his hands on our heads. There was a bright light, but when we looked up he was no longer there. My brother looked at me and said something I still think about to this day.

"It's our time to save people and kill demons until the end of time." He placed his arm around me as we walked to our tent.