Cursed blood

Later the same night. Venice.

Two battleships were getting ready to set sail. Soldiers, priests, and the rest of the sailors in the docs were running all around. At the shore stud, two completely uninterested men looked in the scrolls, looking like they were not concerned with what was happening around them.

No one paid them any notice until everything was loaded up and the captain of the ship ran to them. He was profusely sweating and had a problem running thanks to his quite fat posture and already being heavily drunk.

"Bishop, we are ready to move. Everything is ready. We have more than a hundred men in total, and everyone was blessed just before we finished. We took as much silver and turned it into weapons as possible, as you ordered us."

"Good, let's go eradicate these demons. Once we push them into the open sea we will use what the believers bring from the East and send them all to hell."

"Good sea, bishop. Happy hunt"

"God be with you, my child."

As soon as the captain returned to the ship, the bishop picked up a heavy-looking wooden box that was sealed with the crosses embedded into the wood all over and then moved onto the ship. As soon as he border he turned back to the man who was standing next to him all this time. He didn’t understand anything that had happened from the time the bishop arrived in the city once again leaving nothing normal.

"Orso Ostelo. As a faithful servant of the lord, Pope Silvester II. is naming you as Bishop of Torcello. Thank you for your help, God be with you"

*****

Venice, Italy. Small villa half an hour from the Venice port. Two hours later.

The Lord was standing in the small garden looking at the sea. As a nearly two-millennium years old vampire, he knew that creating an elder vampire would take a long time and after she drank blood from him he would be significantly weakened for years to come.

He was not happy with his decision, but it was a very good opportunity to create an elder right before the war. He knew that not appearing on the battlefield was no problem, and being held in the background for a few years was no problem. His moment of silence didn’t last long, because one of the servants quickly approached him and bowed next to him. Both of them were standing there looking into the darkness.

"What is it? Did she start to react more?"

"Yes, Lord. Blood spread through her body and now healing everything in its way. Her injuries are still near the same. She has a large amount of sunburns which will heal only after she turns."

"What else? "

"From the port are departing two Roman ships. They are under the banner of the church and will soon head to our ship in the open sea."

"That's not a problem. Our ship will take care of them."

"It also seems that they had a cardinal on their ship and plundered nearly all churches in the city. They are a hunter."

"Who is the Bishop?"

"Leo of Vercelli. Bishop under the banner of The emperor Otto III. He is one of the leading."

The air around the Lord suddenly changed and the servant was buried in the ground. The air around started to feel heavy and all the vampire servants around felt very uneasy.

"Everyone move out. Prepare a meal for her before we leave and lock her in bed, so she will not feel until she turns elder. I don't want to waste my blood for some lesser vampire."

As soon as the servant disappeared large amount of vampires appeared behind the Lord, equipped with the supplies, and each of them was holding a human body in one hand. Lord sent them all telepathic signals thanks to the blood connection.

"Go to the ship we need to move into the Croatian kingdom. We will unite there with the rest of our forces and move north. We don't know what the church prepared, but they sent hunter, so he will have no problem tracking us down. In any case, don't try to feed on anyone on that ship."

In an instant nearly fifty shadows disappeared and reappeared a hundred meters away from the island. They were moving on top of the water with no problems running forward their ship with extreme speed.

*****

Clara was franticly strangely moving in the bed, but with no help whatsoever. One of the servants opened the doors inside and brought to her room a young tall boy in his early twenties and started shackling him to the wall. The room was completely dark, so he could see where he was and before the servant left, he fed the boy with as much fat meat, and water as possible until he burst open.

"What the fuck are you doing! I am Vitale Cardino. I am the future ruler of the city! How dare you do something like that to me."

"Silence."

"Don't waste energy. You need to be as strong as possible when the elder wakes up. You need to survive for a few days at all costs. Do you understand? Then you will be free and everyone will be happy."

Before Vitale managed to say something, the servant put in his mouth a gag and left. He left the boy pinned to the wall letting him only hear painful screams of Clara and clinking chains as she tried to get out.

*****