How insidious is evil? Can it become genetic? Can good be genetic? Where does that leave freedom of choice?

I wish to thank Maggie Finson for her advice and support.

Darko returned from Arizona only to find that the majority of his junior acolytes had been killed. His best cook had gone missing and his senior acolytes ready to grab power from him. These were all major blows to Darko, but the thing that upset him the most was the loss of his cook.

* * *

The spell to get him home wasn't nearly as powerful as he had hoped and he landed up in Illinois. In Chicago to be precise. He didn't understand why the spell hadn't been strong enough, he must have used more magic against the vampire than he thought. He stayed in a motel for the night. As soon as he had a room he collapsed on the bed and slept for 18 hours.

When he checked out, he went straight to the airport to get a flight back to New York. He didn't have the correct I.D. for the flight on him but he could always use magic to make the airport officials believe he was showing them what they wanted. However when he the official at the check -in counter asked him for his I.D. the spell didn't work. Security was called and he was charged with suspicious behaviour. He spent the night behind bars after being told that he fit the description of a suspected terrorist.

His magic was still not working properly, but it was enough to get him out of his cell, although getting out of the station was another thing altogether. His magic wasn't working for him properly and so he had to resort to tricks he had learned during his childhood — beating people up. The police officer never even saw him coming. By the time he left the station three detectives and two uniformed police officers were dead.

Nobody caught the killer of these law enforcers but from the gruesome way their throats had been ripped out it would be five years until the investigation became a forgotten cold case. Darko then decided to call the New York chapter of his guild and tell them to send a car to him. Of course the person answering the phone was his senior apprentice, the man who had served him for 600 years.

Daemon Swill was nothing if not ambitious and after getting off the phone with Darko he knew his time had come. He was losing his power, not that Darko came out and told Swill but still, it was obvious that his fight with the vampire had left him weak and a dark magician only leads as long as he is the strongest. Loyalty to a leader plays no part in dark magic and so 600 years of companionship lead to only betrayal for Darko.

After Swill told Darko that Estacado had attacked and all the cars were destroyed Darko realised that he had some how given himself away; that he was now being challenged. He slammed the phoned down angrily on Swill. He was hungry and that likely had to do with the anger he felt. It was almost midday and he hadn't eaten since yesterday afternoon, he decided to go and have a deliciously rare steak for lunch.

The day was unusually bright and he had to shade his eyes from the glare. He must be coming down with something he thought, he felt very light-headed. The break in his magic must have let in a virus somewhere and because his body had been protected by magic for so long it probably felt worse than it was.

He eventually arrived at the restaurant after losing his way twice. It was cool and dark indoors out of the glare of the sun. He ordered his steak extra rare but when it came he found that the thought of eating it make him uneasy. He just put that down to his illness and forced himself to eat as he needed his strength if he was to defeat Swill.

The way back to the motel was even worse than the drive to the restaurant. The cab driver dropped him back at the motel and drove off after Darko paid. But Darko made the mistake of walking into the house across the road from the motel instead. By the time he realised his mistake he was sweating and beginning to shake.

He was 66 yrs old and had lead a fulfilling life. What he saw the man stumbling down his path he felt more than a slight twinge of unease. Adam Lambert would have liked to say that he had helped the man out of the good of his own heart but that would be lying, no, Adam Lambert just wanted him off of his property as soon as possible and he helped the man to leave.

Darko got back to the room and closed all the blinds. It was 5pm; he couldn't believe it when he looked at his watch and wondered what had he been doing for five hours? All of a sudden he felt nauseous, he got to the toilet just in time. However he threw up much more then just the steak he had eaten for lunch. Much, much more.

His next meal was at the same restaurant only it wasn't indoors but in the alley behind. His next meal wasn't steak or lamb or anything else that used to have four or more legs. No, his next meal was the bum who lived off of the scraps of food that the restaurant threw out. Darko's magic might have disappeared but his vampire gene had been activated.

He was now a nightwalker. If he hadn't been given immortality by the Darkness all those years ago and had been bitten by the soldier, he would have had no limitations. The only reason he would have a weakness against sunlight now was because the aspect of the Darkness used to give him his immortality was the same thing the Darkness had used in It's experiment to make the nightwalkers.

Darko decided to attack Swill who obviously thought he was still a mage although becoming a vampire had caused him to lose his powers, Swill wouldn't know that and all the traps he laid for he previous master would be ones to stop a magician. Not a vampire.

Darko cursed the vampire gene that he had been born with, it had taken away his magic and left him vulnerable to the daylight. He now would have to hire a car to get back to New York but suddenly he realised that he could run faster than a car and he would not tire until dawn. He snuck into the blood bank at the Children's Memorial Hospital of Chicago and stole 50 blood bags for the road- and he made a meal of the orderly who tried to stop him from getting in.

After stealing one of the overnight bags from a sleeping patients room he took out the clothes, replaced them with the blood bags and hit the road, running non-stop until dawn By the time he reached Pennsylvania and booked into a motel for the day the sun was just beginning to rise. He holed up in his room and drank thirty of the fifty blood bags behind the curtains blocking out the sun. As he sat in the dim light of his room contemplating the different ways he would torture Swill, he felt an energy that he hadn't since he lost his magic: the demonic energy of the Darkness.

Suddenly the television that had not been on flared to life and the most hideous being appeared on the screen. Darko however, never saw It's ugliness, only the beauty of it's power. The Darkness, first demon of the void spoke, “Sonny Darko you named yourself Sonnetine when I granted you immortality. What inspired you to change the name you took after receiving my gift?' Before Darko could answer the dark entity continued by answering it's rhetorical question, “Perhaps you decided that you were a better choice as my host.”

Sonnetine didn't say anything, the fear that the Darkness in it demon form inspired in him had wiped his mind of the cognitive ability to use words for the first minute of their one sided conversation. Finally Sonnetine got command of his mind and body enough to utter some words. “Uh- uh,” It continued indicating that It hadn't finished talking. “As much as I dislike dealing with my host, I have to admit that he is the strongest host I have ever had. He has defied me, he has stalled me and once he even wrested control from me.”

'No, you would have stood no chance against Estacado. As a human magician you were always hiding what you really wanted behind a veneer of False gentlemanliness. Now that, that has been stripped away from you, you can be the barbarian you have always wanted to be.”

“You see Darko, you and I are more alike than you would think, we both love chaos and we like to be the ones causing it, doing it. We don't like to be on the sidelines.”
Estacado has done more for me on his own than he would have under my direction. He spreads little bits of my Darkness on anybody who has dealings with him. He sows chaos wherever he goes because he loves being a 'gentleman' criminal. He is organised, I am more inclined to thuggery.”

“The veil between realities in the universe has begun to get thinner, the balance has tipped in favour for me and the crack in the doorway for me to enter this plane of existence has widened. I am now able to take a second host. We can do great things, starting with the vampire nation. Be my vampire host and I will make you stronger than Estacado.”

Darko was ecstatic. He'd waited a millennium for this, now it was his time. He'd take back what was his and then he'd begin his destruction. The demonic entity downloaded all the knowledge about the vampire queen into his brain. “She is the future of the vampire nation, kill her.” he was told. “She is more than she appears to be but then, so are you.”

Darko found that he could now go outdoors in the daylight but he was only as strong as a human in daylight hours. He became stronger in shaded areas but his full strength came at night and in the dark. He drank 10 more blood bags and kept the rest for his run back to New York. He spent the rest of the day deciding the numerous and painful ways he would kill Swill.

He left the motel at 6pm, although it wasn't fully dark yet it was dark enough for his vampire strength to reassert itself and when he arrived back in New York City at 10 pm. that night. It was 10.30 pm when he tore through the gates of his private estate. Nobody was prepared for such a thing to happen and by the time anyone thought to sound the alarm Darko had completed his task.

Daemon Swill was had just completed the ceremony to assist him in the increase of his magical strength, when the doors burst open and directly in front of him was Darko. Swill had prepared a spell to protect him from the wizard's magical attacks and so he was totally unprepared when Darko's lifted him by the throat.

He knew Darko was not that strong and so he deduced that the man was using magic and so he released his magical trap. To say he was surprised when it didn't work is an understatement, in fact if he wasn't being strangled he'd be hyperventilating. But whet Darko's fangs extended Swill realised what had happened. He crapped in his pants.

Actually he was wearing a robe that he had used for the ceremony and he didn't wear underwear when he did a ceremony. Losing control of his bowels probably saved his life. But it is doubtful that he saw that as a fortunate thing. When Darko first got hold of Swill he was so angry that he would have strangled him to death without thinking about it. Swill's loss of control brought the newest vampire back to himself.

“Daemon, Daemon, you've been a naughty boy and you need to be punished. The first thing you will do is tidy your mess up. Don't try to run away now because my new friend will tell me. Swill almost fainted when a darking appeared. The vampire left the room while Swill made all evidence of his fearfulness disappear.

Darko arrived back in the room with a dog leash, collar and a burlap sack. “Strip and put those on,” he said pointing to the sack and collar. “The sack has holes for your head and arms, once you've put them on get down on all fours. Once Swill had done as he was told Darko put the leash on the collar. “You are now a dog and a dog serves his master. You will never again walk on two legs in front of me. You will now sleep outside with the dogs and when it rains you will have a kennel. You may do a ritual to make yourself grow extra hair on your body to protect you from the cold and,” he grinned evilly “you will be my daily snack.”

Daemon Swill lived for just under a year, everyday half a pint of blood was taken directly from him by Darko or was taken from him via needles to be stored for Darko's travels. After 11 months Swill's body had had enough and he fell into a coma. He died 351 days after he had received his punishment from Darko.

* * *

“Why did you say the others can't drink the synthetic vampire food while they're still touched with Darkness aspects?” Ella asked Satanna.
“It's a very scientific explanation,” her mother told her, “I will try to simplify it for you. Every living creature, no matter how good or evil, has a soul.
At least it was that way when the world was first created. When the creator decided to create the universe the souls used to assist in the formation of physical matter from light were angels. It was decided that they would be the first to embody as humans.”

“The First Man was an angel embodying a human body. But without the Light the Angelus provides he could not see as he did when he was in spirit- form. “Now when I say he couldn't see, I don't only mean physically. The angel that had embodied as human was also spiritually and mentally blind. All he could think about at first were his wants and needs. He forgot his divine origins and only took what he wanted, he didn't plan or imagine, without Light he was less intelligent than a dog. The Creator saw this and sorrowed that the angel had forgotten.”

“Before the Angel had embodied, It had left part of it higher spiritual self as a conduit to communicate with the Creator. Although he had forgotten this because of his blindness, but a part of him deep inside remembered and sent a call for help and the Light was sent in the form of a woman and she brought him Sight.”

“Man and Woman played and created together for millennia but while their children had sight from the light handed down to them from their mother, the Man could only see when he was with the Woman.”

“It was about this time that the creator decided to give mankind freedom of choice. It was at this time that the Man- Angel was able to fully reconnect with his higher- self and they decided that there needed to be a tighter connection between higher and lower dimensions. So the angel left some of himself in the man but most of his essence returned to the higher realms.”

“What this separation and connection did also unknowingly, was open the door for dark energies. For all intents and purposes this is where the Adam and Eve story began. But the apples and snakes were really metaphors for choices and Darkness. But there are differences in the story. Because in patriarchal society men have altered it to keep women under their control.”

“Part of the angel stayed behind in the Man, but whereas most of the man's spirit was human, most of the Woman remained of the Light. Dark energies had been released into this dimension and grabbed the attention of the Man. They twisted his thoughts and he began to hold contempt for the Woman, as he believed that she kept the Light for Herself.”

“He tried to take It from Her by force and she rejected him. She left the physical dimension the second time he tried to force her to give him the Light. And from then on she remained with out a physical body and continued to fight the demon that had taken over his physical body.
And so came about the story of Lillith and Adam.”

“Adam was taken over by the Darkness completely and this saddened my father, your grandfather greatly as Adam had been part of Lucifer. So he came down to try to bring that part of his essence that was Adam back to himself. So while fallen angels are a big thing theologically, your grandfather's reason for coming was noble even if it was self- serving, and yes to get the Adam part of himself back he had to understand the Darkness. In doing so he did terrible things.”

“However I think that in the long run, if he hadn't been here to restrain the Darkness things in this reality and on this world would have been much worse. For it was Lucifer who banished the Darkness to the void. But not before the demon made a pact with a man to hold a piece of his essence. That deal was made with the man known as Abel.”

“Cane had a lover the was not a descendant of Eve, but of Lillith and therefore understood what was happening to Abel. The Darkness had not completed its transition of giving part of itself to Abel when Cane killed him. In revenge, the Darkness marked him as it's own and even though Cain never did anything evil to anyone in service of Darkness, he was shunned where ever he went. My father assisted Cane and ensured that no one could harm him, but that was all he could do for him.”

“The sad thing is that his lover was the first to shun him. And only on her death-bed did she learn the truth about what had happened. But Cane had died 200 years before her in his 700th year.” At Ella's appalled expression she laughed and said, “Yes once upon a time people did live that long.”

Ella shook her head, “No, no, it's not that. It's just that someone should write this down so people can really know what happened.”
“Oh. It is.” Satanna said. It's in another dimension at a place called BCTS.”

“So why is it that I'm the only vampire able to have 'vampire milk'.”
“As I was going to say, before I went on some tangent” She smiled, “Once the Darkness had entered this realm the higher aspects of the ascended beings and angels created beings specifically to fix things that it had caused to go wrong. This was done by combining aspects of their spiritual selves and then use these in bodies with greater strength than humans as their tools on earth to fix things. They were just bodies, and had no soul because the angels needed to remember what they were doing. These people were like puppets for the Divine.

The Darkness tried to take control of them but It couldn't, however it could hurt them. “'Vampire milk' can heal human illness. So when these bodies were hurt they were given vampire milk. Sadly we found out that if a person with similar DNA to vampires is touched by darkness, and they drink 'vampire milk' there bodies begin to die. These un- souled bodies designed by the angels had the same DNA that vampires do. Some of these beings were injured and were given Vampire milk to heal but instead of healing they began to rot.”

“All vampires but you and” Satanna's tone softened and her eyes saddened “another have been touched. I don't know what will happen if you feed the others the milk, but I would prefer to err on the side of caution.”

* * *

After Ella had taken her fill and was no longer hungry as she farewelled her mother. She had a lot to think about and she had not noticed that she still had a splash of milk on her cheek, if Darko had not been waiting for her in her rooms she would have noticed it and cleaned her face before she saw anyone. However the newest vampire surprised her, she certainly didn't expect him to attack.

Darko smelled something wonderful on the vampire queen. Actually all of her smelled delicious but there was a spot of liquid on her cheek that smelled even better. He had knocked her on the ground and was on top of her holding her down when he noticed it. So instead of going in for the kill he licked it off her face.

The Vampirella saw the man leap at her, normally she would have moved out of the way in time but he had surprised her. His mouth came down toward her, but surprising ly he didn''t go for her jugular.
“Mm-mm-mma,” Darko said as he licked the liquid off her cheek. “Tasty.” The dark overtones of his voice reminding her of the child molesters she'd put away as Gleason.
“Oh shit.” She muttered to herself as she gathered her strength and threw Darko off of her body,.

In that instant a dizziness came over him and this gave her a chance to throw him off but she realised what had happened and a sudden knowing that if he was left alive he would cause havoc.
Her encounter with celestial flame gave her abilities far beyond other vampires and so even as she moved in for the kill, she knew he would get away.

Darko escaped with his life — barely.

'What do I do now?' she thought when she realised that Darko had tasted the splashed milk on her face. She didn't know how the milk would affect him but she did know that he had to be kept away from the other people in her fledgeling nation. Her first call was telepathic, giving every member of her race a description of the man and a warning for them to stay away from him as he was suspected of being infected with a contagious and incurable disease.

After that, she phoned Dani and told her what had happened she asked the Angelus for her aid. “You see the problem is that I don't know how this will affect him or those around him.” She continued,”He seemed different Dani, like a nightwalker only stronger. The nightwalkers have more demonic essence than daywalkers but this vampire felt like he had a hundred times that essence. Something's happening, I'm not sure what but I've a feeling I'm going to need all the help I can get in dealing with this.”

* * *

The entity that was the Darkness was satisfied. Now that a new gateway had opened, It had a chance of dealing with the Angelus on equal footing. With two hosts now available to It, worldwide chaos was almost in it's grasp.
* * *

As always, you comments are appreciated.