Blood Sport

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, locations, and events are either a product of the author’s imagination, fictitious or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any event, locale, or person, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Copyright 2023 by Kathi Goldwyn All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or part in any format. Blood Sport By Kathi Goldwyn Chapter One Mathius Cornelius[CR1] The dagger plunged into my chest leaving a gaping wound, my shirt drenched with sticky, red blood but thankfully it missed the mark. [MJ2]The sharp edge dug deep, and blood poured out of the ragged wound, but I would survive. It was annoying to drag out the knife’s serrated blade, but worse, it hurt like a motherfucker. I was so aggravated I could have screamed until I lost my voice and only a rasp remained. I could have shouted so long; I might have lost a lung. I had too much class to ever behave in such a dim, feeble manner. I wasn’t sure how that devilled being got to me so fast. But I wasn’t going to die, it wouldn’t even slow me down. [MJ3] I’d been around for a very long time, and when I say long, I mean for a thousand years. I went to the mountain top and almost lost my mind. I had several bachelor’s degrees and a Doctorate in English. [MJ4]My passion for the written word kept me studying and reading all these years. It was the turn of the 19th century and inventions changed our lives. Benz just started producing automobiles, [MJ5]coming off the assembly line. I grabbed one of the first vehicles off the lot. Soon, horse-drawn carriages were going to be a thing of the past. Once everyone bought a car and learned to travel faster, commerce would speed up and roads built to accommodate this new means of transportation. I would never give up my horse Brutus, but he became more of a pet now. He was my best friend and at ten years old he still had miles to go. I wanted to be happy today, I wanted to discover something interesting to get wrapped up in. My mood was more of a ‘Let’s get into trouble just a little bit’ and it sounded glorious. I’d been bored to tears for way too long and my friends, well don’t get me started about those boring boys and girls, the men and women of the deep dark-red world. Phantoms of the night. Clustered together in the murky dark, spending endless hours gossiping like teenagers.[MJ6] Kill me now. Oh my god, I could kick someone in the head. I squelched the desire, and pushed it way down, away from my consciousness. I wanted to scream, “Get a life!” And drum it into their brains. Did they have a brain was the question of the day. The sun was our mortal enemy and while life bustled around, we were dead asleep as the bright rays descended, and the skies sparkled. Tucked away in a casket, they called it the slumber of the dead, [MJ7]we stayed out of the volatile rays that splashed the earth. Rays that burnt the flesh off our bodies and left us in cinders. We tended to avoid that at all cost. Especially if we wanted to live. That was what I wanted. Maybe not.[MJ8] Of course, we wanted to live. It made me wonder, what else could we do? Commit suicide? Not me, and none of these jokers [MJ9]wanted to put their life on the line. There was only one rule we had to follow, stay hidden from the sun. I had lived a thousand years. I followed this principle quite well. I had been here in this town for a couple of hundred years[MJ10], nothing ever changed. No news to write home about. Same old people to talk to, same vicious jerks that would tear out your throat if they could move faster, get ahead of you, and wrap their spiny fingers around your neck. Same nests to drop in on. But I had been here the longest. Longer than all of them. I was king of the vampires. The Original Vampire. Known as The Original V. When I was a human all those years ago, I went on a solo expedition that would [MJ11]last weeks. I climbed Mt. Everest alone on that steep mountain. As I negotiated the ropes and steadily moved up that huge mountain top something happened that was so bizarre, so incredible, it still mystified me to this very day. Over a thousand years ago things got murky. It baffled me so much it was difficult to see this event clearly, with eyes wide open. I couldn’t find a way to explain it enough for anyone to understand what truly transpired when everything changed when heaven and earth moved, and I became different than anyone else. I became Lord of the Vampires. Truthfully, I never understood what happened to me on that historic day. What do I know about chemistry? A storm almost blew me off the side of the mountain, all the way to the bottom of the deep, dark canyon. And the colder and stronger the storm became as I neared the top, the more I lost the sensation of me. Thunder and lightning blew me all over, my body smashed against the side of the mountain and almost sent me crashing to the ground far below. Torrents of rain descended directly upon me. But I held on tight. I tried my best to find some refuge in the rocks and discovered a shallow rock shelf that provided some protection. But the changes happening to me were all inside. Molecules changed in the cold, frigid, freezing air. It was like there was a constellation inside me going to war with itself. Out of my control, things started snapping and churning, molecules contorted right before my eyes, until the storm passed, and I was left