The air in the small meeting hall was thick with smell of wood smoke and the stench of garlic. It seemed as if the entire population of the town was crowded into a room large enough to hold less than half that number. Chairs and benches had been removed to give enough standing room for the numbers that had gathered.

The attention of the masses was focused on a man standing at the far end of the room on a small raised platform. He was a tall man with sharp features and hard green eyes. He looked out at the faces of terrified townsfolk, all of them looking to him for answers. He suppressed a shudder.

Within a few moments, the gathered masses grew quiet and turned all eyes to the man standing on the platform. Dalin Masrik could wait no longer. He had to present them with what he knew. They deserved that much.

"As many of you have suspected for the past week, our town is under siege by a vampire clan." He paused for the expected outcry, there was none. Everyone had already known. The first few people had only gone missing, but the latest victims had been left behind.

Three corpses lying in the center of the town.... each drained of blood and marked by at least two sets of small puncture wounds. The victims had been identified as the three young daughters of a man who had vanished a few days earlier.

Dalin continued, "I see no choice but to evacuate the town. One vampire we could fight, but we face at least three." This did bring the expected reaction. Cries of outrage came from all parts of the room. Dalin was able to understand only a small number of individual voices. The general idea was clear. No one wanted to leave the only home they had ever known. Not to mention their shops and their fields.

No-- the community had been founded by survivors. Their ancestors had battled legions of orcs and goblins to claim the land, and had forced life from ravaged souls to make it habitable. These were not people who would give up easily. Dalin had known that well enough. He was their leader and embodied the same values, yet what choice did they have?

Just as the chaos was starting to dissolve into organized protest the door swung open. A man dressed from head to toe in black stood in the moonlit street. A rush of chill air flooded the room causing the torches to flicker. "May I enter?" he ask. His voice was cold and smooth, like ice sliding across the edge of a sword.

Everyone turned to look at the man. There was no doubting just what he was. The two black on black eyes; the raven hair shimmering in the moonlight; ivory skin so thin the veins could be seen beneath it. Those veins did not pulse to the rhythm of a beating heart. This was a vampire. The ease with which he could be identified suggested he had not fed recently.

The man who wasn't repeated his question, "May I enter?" Before her mother could stop her, a small girl stepped forward. "Sure mister, it's not safe to be outside right now." The man stepped inside and knelt down to look into the child's eyes.

"Why, thank you kind lady." He stood as the girl's mother snatched up the child and moved away from the man as quickly as possible. She was not alone in this. Despite the cramped conditions, a wide space had opened up around the new arrival. "Children are such amazing creatures. They see the good in everyone. ..even if that good is centuries dead."

His words caused those few too far away from him to recognize what he was, to realize it. Paralyzing fear griped nearly everyone in the room. Those who would have thought to fight the monster were frozen in place by one soul-piercing glance from those shining black on black eyes.

"I did not come here to harm you, and you most certainly will not harm me, therefore; there is no need of fear." Only Dalin recognized the hypnotic magic in those words. He raised an eyebrow. What did this creature want? He had no reason to calm them down if he wanted to kill them. Fear would only work for him...breeding the kind of chaos that would make his job all the easier. He finally voiced his thoughts, "What do you want of us, demon?"

The vampire moved toward the speaker's platform. His hypnotic voice having done its work, the people simply parted from him, showing neither fear nor trust; much the same as they might act toward a human stranger.

"I don't want anything from any of you. I can offer a solution to your problem. You are hunted by my kind. When hunted, one does not enlist the help of prey to slay the hunter. One needs a more powerful hunter. I am such a hunter."

This brought looks of absolute shock from everyone in the room. Dalin stepped down from the speakers platform and backed away from the creature. By recognizing the vampire's magic he rendered himself immune to it. He was very much afraid.

The vampire mounted the platform, "My name is Gralivon. I am, indeed, as you have recognized, a vampire. Your town is haunted by three of my kind. I will destroy them for you. My price is high, though. A vampire does not need a constant supply of human blood to survive, only to retain the human appearance, except for the occasional transfusion, we can live on the blood of animals. That occasional transfusion is my price. Once each year, for the next three centuries, you will send me a... human...transfusion... young; old; a criminal sentenced to die; an innocent, I don't care. So long as, you pay my price."

At this, Dalin overcame his fear and took a half-step forward. "And if we refuse?"

The vampire shrugged, "I leave each and every one of you to your fate. My kind will not stop. You know they live, or rather, don't. The bodies you found were a message. You have been marked as lambs for the slaughter. Go wherever you like. Run or stay. Without my help, you will all die."

With that, the vampire stepped from the platform and walked to the door. "You have until midnight tomorrow night to respond. Send the first payment to the bluff three miles from the town's north gate. If it arrives, you have my word, the threat will end within three nights. If you don't..."

With that, he opened the door. He turned his head slightly, as he left, "Either way you decide, get rid of that damned garlic. All it does is season the meal." For a long time, after that, the only sound to enter the room was the door slamming shut behind the strange vampire.

A pale faced Dalin took the platform once again, "I do not feel that I need to state the obvious. We simply cannot accept this proposal." As he looked out into the crowd, he saw something worse than the monster that had just left them. He saw indecision in the eyes of the towns people. My people, he reminded himself. Damn your soul, you blood-sucking beast!

"He said he would accept condemned prisoners and it is just once a year..." it was the voice of Warren Alrik. No surprise, Alrik was in charge of the towns small prison. A man convicted of a capital offence was a rare thing and Alrik knew it..

Dalin shook his head. "That creature said we would have to pay in one life per year for three centuries. That means the decision we make will effect our children and our childrens' children. Not to mention, that we make the assumption, that he is even capable of fulfilling his end of the bargain."

Alrik would not be so easily swayed. "We have three men awaiting death in the prison now. We send one out tomorrow night and if in three nights' time, if the killing hasn't stopped, we pack up and leave. If it has, we have two more years of peace sitting in our jail."

Dalin wanted to scream at them. He wanted to think that they were still under the spell of the vampire. He wanted to do anything but what he knew he had to. Say anything, but what he must. "We will put it to the vote of the people. At noon tomorrow we will vote on this. I ask all of you to consider the blood you will pour onto the hands of our children if we agree to this. The blood-- and the guilt."

Alrik just sniffed and smiled, "We do what we must," he said. Dalin wondered if the real monster had come through the door, long before the vampire. Problem was, there was more than one of them.

The next morning came, seeming very much the same as it did every day. No new bodies had been discovered. That was both a blessing and a curse. Many of the people, who had been skeptical about trading one evil for another, took it as a sign that the strange vampire that had appeared in the meeting hall could do what he had claimed.

Dalin understood their need to believe in something. They had seen too much death in the past few days, their choices were too limited. They needed to believe in something...even if that something was one of the very creatures that had caused their problems. There was no doubt in Dalin's mind, that the vampire that had visited them was one of the three plaguing the town. A mercenary blood-sucker that just happened to show up at the one point of chaos his insane proposal would be given consideration.

The sun rose in the sky just as it always did. Dalin was the first to arrive at the town hall. It was still more than an hour before noon. He could hear his voice from hours earlier. Everything he had said sounded so hollow.

The vote would be taken as always. A large slate would be placed on a stand atop the speakers platform. The slate was divided into two sections by a single vertical line. One side labeled "Yea" the other "Nay". Each citizen would mark the side of his vote, while Dalin watched to prevent tampering.

The town had grown to such that the system had to be modified slightly. Each of the citizens entered the hall alone. They marked the slate and left. After the tenth person the count was recorded in a small notebook and then the slate was cleared.

The first man was Alrik. He left his mark on the slate but did not leave. Dalin understood. With such an issue before the people, both sides needed to be represented. Everyone trusted both of them to preserve their best interest. Problem was, they each had very different opinions on what their best interests were.

The voting took nearly two hours. The count was checked and double checked. Three hours past noon the towns people where called together to hear the verdict. There was no real need to speak the verdict. The guilty looks almost everyone seemed to be giving Dalin, said it all.

Dalin didn't bother with an introductory statement, "The vote has been counted. Two- hundred for.... Fifty against, with fifty abstaining, including myself and Warren Alrik. Per the request of the blood-sucking fiend, one of the three condemned will be taken outside of town and be left bound and gagged." His tone made the unspoken plural on the word 'fiend' very clear.

At sunset, a great mob packed the street leading to the north gate. Alrik and his deputies were wheeling a large cage down the street. The crowd cheered and howled at the sight. The man in the cage was bound and gagged but the terror in his eyes was clear. "Bloody-fitting this. He killed a man in a bar fight.. said he was drunk. Well, he sure as hell, will be now!" a man called from the crowd. This was followed by laughter and cheering.

Dalin was waiting just outside the city gates. He would walk with Alrik and the condemned man. He owed him that much. Then he would sit and wait till midnight. He was no longer afraid of the vampire. It had already killed everything that had meaning to him.

The event was timed so that the Warren and his men could be safely back in the town gates just before the last rays of the setting sun vanished completely. After all, there was still the matter of trusting a vampire, no one did.

The cage made it's rumbling way up the steep incline that led to the bluff. Alrik said nothing to Dalin as they made their way. Aside from the occasional, curious glance wondering just what it was Dalin was up to.

When they reached the top, Alrik opened the cage. He turned to Dalin, "I don't know what you are up to, Dalin, but, I know you. I'm trusting you will not interfere with the decision of the people." Dalin only nodded in response.

Alrik guided the man out of the cage and left him sitting on the ground. The Warren and hid deputies began the long march back to the town. No one bothered to ask if Dalin would be following. Alrik figured he would want a few words with the man. That was fine, whatever he needed. The town still needed Dalin to lead them, not a man consumed by self-doubt.

Dalin stood silent for a long time watching the man at his feet. The terror in his eyes was still there, but it was mixed with hope. "I can't let you go. He's right about that, but I can't let you die like this either." The hope in the man's eyes was replaced by tears.

Midnight came slowly. At first it was no more than a chill breeze. Then a disembodied voice, "I had a feeling I might find you here. It's a rare man that knows himself well enough not to be affected by the voice of chaos.

"I suppose you mean your magic?" No response.

Within a few moments the man behind the voice appeared. Before the vampire drew within half a dozen paces of the bound man, Dalin went for the dagger at his belt. The blade cut a gleaming arc as it descended to slice the bonds that held the man. The man wasted no time jumping to his feet. His choices were very limited: the vampire in front of him; the edge of the cliff and a fall to jagged rocks behind him.

He bolted for the cliff. The vampire was the quicker. It was over in an instant. When the vampire was finished with his gory feast, Dalin spoke, "The other two of your kind are already slain?" The creature smiled, "Indeed perceptive, but not quite. They died in a small town some twelve centuries ago. Still a useful story though, eh? So easy to pull off, too.. . Just a large meal. I open one of my own veins... feed again and again... add a couple extra bites for good measure."

"What will you do with me?"

"You are too powerful of a foe to let live. Yet, I have fed once this night...."

Dalin shivered and looked to the cliff. Maybe he could move quicker than the bloodless corpse that now lay on the ground. After all, he had an even stronger motive, "Do you actually think I will serve you?"

"No, not at all."

"Why then?"

"Consider it payment for trying to resist my plans. I've grown weak in the last centuries. Given enough time your people might have taken me, at a high cost, yes, but taken me, none the less. But this way...."

Dalin made for the cliff. He was faster, but not fast enough. The fangs cut deep. He felt his blood draining from him, then it stopped. There was a great silence then. He realized then it was not an external silence. He could still hear the sound of the wind and the creatures of the night. Not only could he hear them but they were clearer than he had ever imagined possible.

The silence, Dalin realized, was the silence within his own body. He could no longer hear the subtle sounds he had never before even noticed. He could no longer hear the rush of blood in his veins. He could no longer hear the sound of his own breathing. He rose from the ground his ears still filled with that terrible silence. "What do you want of me now? Take the place of one of those two in your little story?"