Benoit knew this was a bad idea. He really shouldn’t be doing this. If his father found out, he’d be in big trouble. But he wanted to see for himself the new “wizard school” his father and the others kept complaining about. It was because of this school that his father had told him he could only eat the old magic humans right now. The old didn’t taste very good and Benoit wanted to go after an adult, but his father said that was too dangerous. Benoit was only ten years old and he was told that magic adults were dangerous. They were more agile, knew more magic, and wouldn’t hesitate to capture vampires with their spells and curses and burn them alive with the sun.
But Benoit didn’t need reminding. He knew what magic humans were capable of.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Benoit remembered his first time hunting. He was five years old; it was a year before his meeting with the king and the dying of his hair. He went with an older child, Jean. Jean was eight at the time and was allowed to show Benoit how it was done.
The two boys flew in their bat forms to a nearby village just as the sun was going down. Their bat forms protected them from the sun’s burning rays. Once they reached the small simple human houses, the two separated. Jean hung upside down on a branch outside a home. The branch was next to a window and allowed Jean to watch the magic humans inside.
Benoit did the same. He picked the house on the other side of the large dirt path and hung outside a tree branch that gave him a view of the inside. He’d been lucky. There were three magic humans inside, one was very young, she looked as young as Benoit at the time. Though she was human, so she hadn’t lived nearly as long.
He watched the human family finish their dinner as the sun finally set. The young girl was holding a doll and asked her mother if she could go play before bed. Her mother told her that she could only play for a little while, and then she needed to take her bath and sleep for the night.
Benoit watched the girl leave the kitchen. He looked back at Jean, who was no longer perched on the branch. In fact, Benoit couldn’t see him. Was he inside the house? Benoit flew to the back of his house and saw the girl sitting on her bed and brushing her doll’s hair. He could hear her with his superior hearing.
“Alright Lucy, after I comb your hair, you’ll be ready for the ball. I bet the prince will fall in love with you on the spot. He’ll dance you off your feet and he’ll be very handsome.”
Benoit noticed that the sun was well and truly gone. The moon was shining brightly and the stars were twinkling. Now was the perfect moment. He had his target alone. He had his darkness. He just needed some courage. Benoit was nervous about feeding off a living human for the first time. Father had always brought home humans he recently killed. But Benoit couldn’t rely on father to feed him forever. Benoit was five, plenty old enough to get his own meal.
Benoit was still nervous as he flew close to the ground and transformed. He walked a few steps to the girl’s window and knocked gently. He wanted only the child to hear him.
She looked toward him, startled. Her eyes were large and round as they saw him. Was she frightened? Did she know what he was? Should he flee?
The child put the doll down and walked over to the window. She lifted it up. Her eyes were still large round saucers on her face. Her pale cheeks were quickly coloring with blood. It made Benoit hungry. He felt saliva build up in his mouth. Neither of them spoke for a moment.
Then the girl asked a ridiculous question. “Are you my prince?”
Benoit didn’t know what to do. He feared opening his mouth and drooling all over himself. He simply nodded.
“Are you here to take me to the ball?”
Another nod.
The girl looked toward the kitchen, where her mother was washing dishes with magic. She could no doubt hear her father snoring in his room. “Okay, hold on. I’ll be right out.”
Benoit stayed as still as a statue. She was coming to him. He wasn’t even old enough to entrance his prey and yet she was willingly coming outside. He could hear her tell her mother that she dropped her doll out the window by accident. He mother just told her to be careful. That there were dark creatures that lurked in the shadows.
He saw the human child round the corner and run up to where he was. She stood only a few feet away. He could grab her. No, he needed to lure her into the woods. He needed to cover her mouth. Then he could feed. He couldn’t let any of the others see him.
Then the girl spoke again. “You have such pretty hair. Like moonlight. And your suit…you’re so dapper!” The girl blushed harder.
Benoit looked down at his suit and ruffled cuffs. He’d never thought about his style of dress before. His mother picked out his clothes every day. It was formal attire befitting a noble vampire.
“Where’s your carriage? Your horses? How are we getting to the ball?” She asked.
Benoit looked at her hands. No wand. The child didn’t know magic yet. Perfect. Now he had to lead her away. He still couldn’t speak with his mouth full of saliva. He held out his hand. He didn’t have gloves on and his nails were still long and pointy. He’d forgotten to shorten them before he showed the girl. But it didn’t matter anyway. The moment he held out his hand he heard a scream from the house across the path.
Both he and the human child swiveled their heads in the direction of the sound. A woman was screaming. Then he heard another scream. The magic humans were coming out of their houses and running toward the commotion. To the house Jean had targeted.
What was going on? Should he hide? Steal the girl away? But he was curious. Benoit decided to do the wrong thing. He slowly walked to where he could see the house. He hugged the wall as he did. Then he bent down behind a bush to watch. The human child hid next to him, afraid, but not of him.
They both watched as the humans shuffled into the house, screaming and cursing with their wands raised. The scene lasted a while. Benoit didn’t see Jean until half an hour had gone by. One of the humans shouted over the others. “Take it to the center! Tie it to the pole!” Then Benoit saw him. Jean was levitated in the air by their magic and was restrained by thick magical rope that squeezed him so hard he screamed in pain.
Benoit was in shock. He could feel himself shivering where he crouched behind the bush. He saw Jean levitated down the dirt path and out of sight. Benoit didn’t know why, but he walked behind the houses in the direction of the mob. The child followed him. He crouched behind another few bushes when the group stopped in a large open area. There was a tall pole in the center and the humans magically tied Jean to the pole. He even saw his neck tied tightly.
The humans hadn’t stopped screaming and shouting at Jean and at each other. The one who had told them to tie Jean to the pole earlier spoke up again. Benoit wondered if he was their leader. “Send a search! We need to make sure no more demons have invaded the village! If you find anyone you don’t recognize, bind them on the spot and bring them here! We won’t let these vile monsters terrorize us anymore!”
“I’m not!” Jean tried to say, but the leader cast a spell at him and Jean began screaming. It was common knowledge that when one of us was faced with a seemingly impossible situation such as this, there was only one thing you could do: deny, deny, deny. Even if you, as Jean was, had human blood all down your front.
Jean knew he was done for. The humans were going to kill him. All he could do was say he wasn’t a monster and didn’t do anything. Within magical bonds, Jean couldn’t get away. He couldn’t transform into his bat self. He didn’t know how to entrance yet, and even if he did, he couldn’t entrance so many. He was only eight. He’d only lived for a few centuries.
Benoit knew he needed to leave. He couldn’t stay here and let them find him. He’d be in the same situation as Jean…but he couldn’t leave.
He felt something touch the back of his hand. He looked down and saw it was the hand of the human child. She was trying to tug him away. He let her lead him into the woods. Then when they were far enough from the center, she spoke.
“They don’t know you’re my prince. If they find you, they’re going to think you’re a monster too. Hurry, we need to run away. First I need to go back to the house and change into a dress so we can go to-”
Benoit quickly covered her mouth and sunk his fangs into her throat. He began drinking deeply. The blood was the best he’d ever had. It was fresh blood from a young magic human. He’d done it. She squirmed feebly in his arms, then eventually went lax. She went unconscious and he laid her on the forest floor. He continued to drink the warm nectar until there was none left inside the small body.
Now he had to hide her corpse so the others wouldn’t find her and see the marks on her neck. A vampire’s saliva could not heal the dead, so the holes made by his fangs would remain. And that was the best way the humans knew a vampire had been there: the fang marks.
Benoit ran to the nearest house and stole a shovel. He brought it back to the corpse and quickly dug a large hole. He heard the humans running about. They were looking for more monsters. They were looking for him.
Benoit worked as fast as he could. Once his hole was big enough, he threw the body into it and began covering the hole back up with the displaced dirt. The hole was shallower than he’d wanted, but he was running out of time. The humans were getting closer. The moment he finished hiding the corpse, he transformed into a bat. He was about to fly home, but he flew back to the village center instead. He perched himself on the hay roof of a house that was right near the center. He could see Jean struggling in his bonds and screaming as the villagers took turns casting spells at him. Even some of the children in the village had joined the group now and were gawking at the vampire child.
Benoit wanted to leave, but his curiosity and fear got the better of him. He needed to know what would become of the boy who’d been tasked with accompanying him on his first hunt. He hadn’t known Jean well. Benoit never played with other vampire children. He mainly stayed at home. Sometimes Darci came to visit with her father, but she was his cousin.
Benoit only met Jean once before this. Their fathers used to be good friends when they lived near each other. All the same, Benoit couldn’t help feeling bad for the other vampire. Jean was a noble, like him, and now he was…what? Was Jean going to die? Humans killed vampires. Benoit knew that. But maybe Jean would be able to escape somehow. Benoit waited and watched. There was nothing else he could do. There was no way of helping the other vampire without being caught and killed himself.
Time past as he hung from the roof. He thought about the human child he drank from. He was lucky that she followed him, that she brought him to the woods. It made it all easier. He’d had to kill her. She’d seen him. If he’d let her live, she’d tell the others about a pale boy with glowing eyes that tried to take her away. They’d know there was at least one more vampire nearby and try to kill him. That…and he’d been hungry.
Eventually Benoit noticed that the sun was just about to come up. Was that the humans’ plan? To let the sun kill Jean? Benoit didn’t want to see that. Jean was unable to transform. He’d be killed. It would be horrible. But he couldn’t look away.
As the sun rose over the horizon, Jean’s skin began to burn. It turned an angry red. The boy screamed louder than he had all night. The mob cheered as Jean burned alive on the pole. His skin lighting on fire. The crowd was still hurling painful spells at him as he burned up. Benoit watched in horror as Jean’s burning skin and flesh turned from red to black. He was no longer shouting. Eventually his body charred and disintegrated into ash.
The cheering didn’t end for a while. Mothers and children danced. People laughed. Everyone looked to be friends. But there was one pair that didn’t join the festivities. Benoit noticed a woman huddled over, crying into a man’s shoulder. She had blood on her nightgown and she was cradling a small child in her arms. Benoit could see that the child was growing very pale and blood was flowing freely from her neck.
Benoit wasn’t hungry anymore, but he could smell the blood and it made his mouth water again. That was when he finally flew home. When he was over the roof of his house, he flew down the chimney and transformed. The house’s blinds were always kept closed during the day.
When he saw his father, the man didn’t look happy. He was currently sitting with Jean’s father at a small tea table in the living room.
“It’s morning. What has kept you so long, Benoit?” his father asked.
“Where’s Jean? I told him to bring you back by three.” Asked Jean’s father.
Benoit didn’t know what to say. He stared down at the carpet. Then he looked back at his father. “The humans killed him, Papa. Jean was burned alive by the sun.”
Jean’s dad looked horrified and he suddenly got to his feet. Benoit’s father put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t do anything rash. We wouldn’t want them to know there are vampires nearby.”
“I know,” the man said through clenched fangs. Then he sighed.
“You have my sympathy. Please, you’re welcome to one of our extra bedrooms. Please stay until night.”
Jean’s dad didn’t say anything. He just turned into a bat and flew up the chimney. Benoit’s father walked over to him and hugged his son close. “I’m so thankful you’re okay.”
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The ten year old Benoit flew until he reached the school. Beauxbatons Academy was located deep within the mountains. He hung from a snowy tree and observed the students pass below him. Every one of them held a wand. He noted their ages. Some of the children looked to be on the cusp of adulthood while others looked a little younger than him. Did the humans need to be a certain age to be protected in this fortress? Did that mean there were still magical children in the villages? Why wasn’t he allowed to hunt them? He needed to ask father.
Benoit decided to spy on the school for a while longer. He flew about, looking through windows and into classrooms. Yes, these children were being formally taught. That meant they would pose a danger in the future. Was there a way they could destroy the fortress?
The young vampire perched himself on his tree again. The wands they held had always fascinated him. They didn’t hold much magic, but they acted as a conductor for it. Humans were once very weak creatures. They found it difficult to use their magic; easy prey. Then they created conductors out of wood and magical creatures and named them wands. The wands allowed them to expel their magic without too much effort. Benoit wondered how his vampire magic would be affected by the use of such a tool. Vampires had very specific magic that was unlike a human’s. Would a wand conduct it or make it more powerful?
Benoit saw a young human sitting alone on a large rock. He was reading a book with his wand resting on the rock beside him. Benoit made a quick decision and glided down and snatched the wand with his feet and flew away. He heard the boy shout, “Hey!”
Benoit flew to a small rundown shed on the grounds and entered through a small hole in the side. The shed had only one window, So Benoit transformed in a shadowy corner. He looked over the wand in his hands, sniffed it, then held it the way he’d seen a human do. He felt his magic rising inside him and focused it on the hand that held the wand. Then he thought of the broom in the sunny area of the room. He wanted it to move toward him. And it did, but not with any more power than his magic usually produced. The wand didn’t work for him after all.
Benoit turned back into a bat and picked up the wand. He would take it home and study it some more. He left through the hole he’d come from when he was quickly caught in a net.
“Got it!” a human child shouted.
“Does it have my wand?” A boy whimpered.
“Yeah, yeah. Got your dumb wand.” He said, reaching in the net and pulling the small bat out. Benoit was held tightly in the older child’s fist. He bit down on the unprotected flesh of the human’s hand. “Ah!” the child screamed, letting go of the bat. “It bit me!”
Benoit tried to fly away, the wand still in his grasp, when he was hit from the back by a spell. The spell immobilized him at once and Benoit crashed to the snowy ground. He felt the wand taken from him, then he was lifted up and thrown in some sort of metal cage the boy must have conjured.
“I’ll make it my new pet!”
Benoit, still immobile and forced to stare at the floor of the metal cage, heard a girl speak up. “You want to keep an animal that bit you, Felix? What, haven’t been hit enough with the ruler?”
“Professor Caron has only hit me five times, not nearly as much as she’s hit Ruben. And besides, I’ll train it.”
“You know she’ll never let you keep it, right? It’s wild.”
“No it isn’t…I’ll just tell her that it’s my pet bat from home that followed me to school,” he said, walking away.
Then the boy hid Benoit and the cage under his uniform until he got to his dorm room. Then he placed the cage on his writing desk. By that time, Benoit was no longer paralyzed and was looking for a way out of the cage, but it was locked with magic and he couldn’t unlock it in this form.
Benoit saw the child stare and talk to him, but Benoit wasn’t listening. He needed to think of a way out of this mess. Eventually, the boy went to sleep.
A few hours later, he saw someone walk in the darkness up to his cage. It was the human girl from before. She lifted his cage, careful not to make a noise, and walked out of the room. She walked down some stairs and out a door and into the night. When they were near the woods, she placed his cage on the ground and pulled out her wand. She quickly cast a spell and the cage opened.
Benoit didn’t waste any time. He flew out of the small cage and transformed before the girl. The girl looked much older than him. A teenager. Yet, when he transformed, she cowered like a child. She was shaking with fear, knowing instantly what he was. The hand holding the wand shook most of all.
“P-please,” she pleaded. “I-I helped you. I s-set you free. Please don’t h-hurt me.”
“Your wand,” he said in his child-like voice.
“W-what?” The girl shook her head and continued to point the piece of wood at him.
“Give me your wand and I will let you leave here alive.”
Her eyes widened in fright. “I-I can’t. Not my wand. Please, I’ll- I’ll…please.” Her hand slowly grew steadier. The wand shaking a little less.
“I can move faster than you can cast a spell,” he told her. He didn’t know if it was true, but he was afraid of the stick she held. Wands like that had been the reason for Jean’s death. They were dangerous. Benoit was still too young to entrance too. He needed to keep the human frightened. Benoit showed his fangs. The girl gasped and took a step back.
“P-please, don’t hurt me.” She started to cry. Then after a moment, she lowered herself slowly to the snowy ground and put the wand down. Then she straightened and took a step back. “S-see no more wand. I can’t cast a spell. I can’t hurt you, so please…please leave me alone.”
Benoit took a step toward her. She took a step back. Benoit kept walking until he picked up the wand and put it in his suit’s inside breast pocket. Then he looked at the defenseless human girl. He only came up to her shoulder.
“Come here,” he told her. He watched her eyes widen and tears flow freely down her cheeks.
“Y-you said you wouldn’t hurt me.”
Benoit didn’t respond. There was no more reason to talk to it. He’d gotten what he wanted. The girl was just food. Benoit moved quickly, quicker than her eye could see. He pinned her down on the snow. He needed to make this clean. Blood would be obvious on the snow. It was good he had a lot of practice. He decided to go for her wrist.
She struggled as he brought her wrist to his mouth. He licked her dark brown skin, then pierced her with his teeth. He felt her blood rush inside his mouth and down his throat. She was delicious. As was normal with a human this age, she eventually stopped struggling and began making obscene noises. Her moans were loud and he covered her mouth with his hand so no one would hear. As he drank, she bucked, but not to throw him off her. She was trying to grind against him. This repulsed him so he got off her and drank from her wrist beside her body. The hand that wasn’t currently in his grasp began playing with her nipple.
Benoit hated when his food acted like this. Was his bite that pleasurable to them? Benoit was still ten and anything sexual was unappealing to him. He wished she’d stop moaning at least.
Benoit began sucking faster. He wanted this over. It wasn’t just that he was ten or the fact that it was his food that was acting sexual, but Benoit just didn’t care for sex. He knew that puberty was coming, but he honestly didn’t think he’d ever enjoy sex. He definitely hadn’t enjoyed when-
No. He didn’t want to think about that. He wanted to forget. That was all just a bad dream now.
Benoit didn’t realize it when the girl went slack, or when there was no blood left to suck. He just kept trying to feed. Eventually he came out of his thoughts and looked down at the girl’s wrist. Two holes. Clean. Good. Benoit stood up and lifted the body with his vampire strength. He ran quickly through the mountains and dumped the body far from the school. Then he covered her with snow.
Benoit turned back into a bat and flew home.
Finnian Siog 