Finger of Life

“How dare you defile my daughter!”

Morganth stared back, impassive in the face of impending doom. Gods are hard to intimidate. Dracula was not all that impressed. He desired deific rank himself and Morganth might be an easy step towards achieving it. Easy being relative, of course. Morganth achieved his own divinity by eating the essence of two lesser deities while being manipulated by Panic and Chaos. Dracula had reached his status as a vampire patriarch by a similar route, minus the defeat of two deities. Maleficience patroned the vampiric champion.

Dracula's 'child,' which Morganth first thought to be a homuncula, was supposed to be his first worshipper. She had become Morganth's first believer and acolyte. The potential they saw in her, however, diverged widely.

“I did not defile her,” Morganth proposed. “I have made her a progenitor of an empire. One that will see the end of the likes of you and your ilk. If the next incarnation of man is to be monsters, then let them be protectors of humanity, not engines of destruction and entropy, feeding upon all life until it is snuffed out. My children shall be like you, but not of you. Not mindless minions that serve without purpose, but chosen guardians that will follow a code of honor...”

“Or be destroyed? Is that so different from my way?”

“If you see any correlation to my ends and your means, you are myopic.”

Rarely does one see a several-centuries-old being give a look of utter confusion. “Myopic?”

“Shortsighted...” Morganth knew his Romanian was anachronistic; he didn't care.

“Do you think your progeny through her will not hunger for blood? The mother is a vampire. The father is a soul drinker. I think their desire to drink life will be insatiable.”

“Then, they will learn to deal with it.”

Morganth turned and started to walk away. Dracula charged his back. Two heartbeats later, a sword curved from Morganth's hand through Dracula's sternum. Twisting the blade and yanking it back out made a crunching sound that would have indicated excruciating pain had the target been alive. Morganth then took two steps back toward the undead lord and touched a fingertip to his forehead granting him the gift of active nerve endings once more. “Because I can,” he simply stated, and walked away again.