The Fallen Vampire

Chapter 8: Hunger Pains

Indra had somehow ended up in the western wing of the castle looking through all of the old rooms and closets.

There wasn't really any particular reason, in all honesty he was simply trying to distract himself from his dry throat and aching stomach.

While he could go out and hunt, something in his mind was deliberately stopping him.

Every few seconds he would hear it.

'Stay in the castle.'

'You cannot yet leave the castle.'

'You are still unprepared for what lies outside.'

As a result, Indra was trying to tell himself that he wasn't as hungry as he was.

Vampire physiology is a rather interesting thing.

They have certain starved states that they undergo depending on their level of hunger and mental state.

The first and most commonly known is referred to as 'Ravenous'.

It occurs when a vampire can think of nothing but their empty stomach and lose all sense of reason.

Their skin becomes paler, their eyes become black with red sclera and their claws pop out reflexively.

In this state, their predatory instinct is in overdrive, and they receive a massive boost in strength and speed to increase their chances of catching prey.

If they are still unable to feed, they fall into a state known as desiccation. The lack of blood in their system causes their body to become mummified and they fall into a deep sleep.

There are also some vampires who purposefully expel blood from their bodies so that they may rest for an extended period of time.

However, there is a training method vampires are taught to undergo to avoid these inconvenient fates.

Simply put, it consists of controlled feeding.

When feeding from a human, a vampire can choose to circulate some of the blood they feed on throughout their body, preventing them from desiccating for up to three months.

Because Indra was not in the right state of mind upon waking up, he neglected the training he retained through muscle memory and instead sent all of the blood he consumed directly to his stomach.

So as of now, he was in a rather delicate situation.

If he could not keep his mind off blood for a while, he would become ravenous and lose all of his rationale.

Creak!

Indra suddenly found himself inside of an extremely large room.

There were dust and cobwebs everywhere, but that did not take away from the regal impression the room gave off.

The cracked walls appeared to be made of the finest marble and the room was utterly bare save for a large bed that had already been stripped and an old painting on the wall.

The painting was covered in a thick layer of dust, but Indra was still able to see what was captured.

There was a man surrounded by a large family.

The man had long silver hair and skin as white and unblemished as a pearl. His bright red eyes contained an unwavering conviction that was translated even through this ancient tapestry.

It was really quite unnerving.

The man wore an immaculate red suit with a kimono like the one Indra wore draped over his shoulders.

He was sitting on a throne with four women behind him and two sons.

Indra's eyes were drawn to the woman who stood on the left of the throne.

She was a dark-skinned woman with long black hair.

She had a lithe and petite figure that somehow made her feel incredibly dangerous. Her body was veiled behind a starry black dress that exposed her slim arms that were adorned with golden jewelry.

Her bright violet eyes contained the same kind of light as the man she was standing behind.

"So that's what you look like..." Indra muttered.

His parents were just as beautiful as Enyo described.

All vampires are blessed with supernatural beauty as a means to approach potential prey without violence.

Why would you bother knocking your prey unconscious if you were so beautiful that they wanted to give themselves to you willingly?

But Enyo was adamant that the beauty of King Alucard and his third wife Dhalia was unmatched by any of the other members of their species.

And as their son, Indra had of course inherited this charm, he was more than handsome enough to put his parents to shame.

However, no one cared much about this.

Indra was the ideal man physically but so what? He could not cultivate and so he was deemed a weak failure.

A vain race like vampires prioritized the body above all. Since cultivation improves the body and the soul, it was the only respected method of gaining power among the nightstalkers.

Because his father was a 9,000-year-old powerhouse in the Quasi-god realm and his mother was his best assassin, Indra was faced with enormous expectations from a very young age.

He was trained in swordsmanship and the basic powers of a vampire as soon as he could walk and even learned his mother's assassin skills.

But when Indra reached maturity and it became time for him to start cultivating, it was revealed that he was incompatible with cultivation, but he had an aptitude for arcane arts.

Overnight he went from being the favorite son of the vampire king to the bastard he could barely stand to look at.

This was the sad story that Enyo was keeping from him.

If he wasn't going to recover his memories, she wanted him to live this new life unencumbered by the pain of the past.

As a result, when he stared at this portrait of his parents, he felt... absolutely nothing.

There was no anger, no sense of betrayal.

He was merely looking at the two vampires responsible for bringing him into the world.

Indra took one last look at his father in the portrait before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

The vampire was now once again in the dark empty hallway.

He looked in all directions down the long corridor as he decided where to head to next.

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

Indra's neck snapped around to the left when he heard the sound of something heavy dropping.

'That's coming from the armory, right?' He had previously gone in there as well but because there was a giant hole in the ceiling in which sunlight was leaking through, he immediately left.

He prepared to investigate when he suddenly heard the sound of voices coming from that direction.

"Do you think they came in through the ceiling like we did?"

"They had to I don't really see any other way they could have gotten inside."

"Are we sure they even made it in here in the first place? There was a dead body outside so maybe there was an ambush?"

"Let's look around just to be sure."

Indra didn't know it but the knowledge that there was fresh prey within his grasp triggered the deeply buried instincts that'd been carved into him by his mother.

As the world's most dangerous assassin, Queen Dhalia Ascalon desired nothing more than a son she could pass all of her techniques and knowledge to.

Unfortunately, Indra's inability to cultivate made that dream impossible.

However, hunting in the dark was an entirely different matter.

It was the first thing she'd taught him and it was undoubtedly the thing she spent the most time drilling into him.

Even if he'd lost all of his memories, he could do this as easily as breathing.