"Fallen Soul" by Rachel L. Baade

Between the aisles stood a man, and albino. His white hair flowed down his back and his skin was pale, and eyes were the color of the sky during dawn, a sight this vampire had never seen. As a rule, he wore all white, but his usually immaculate white suit was now red with blood.

Tetsu slowly turned toward the figure at the door, his ghostly white face splattered with crimson. "A Knight Templar. Only one…pity. I was in the mood for another massacre."

"You will pay for your sins this day, vampire," said the Knight. "I, Antoine Drake, shall see to it."

"One day…" Tetsu laughed, the sound beautiful and cold like ice crystals breaking. "Dear, dear sir knight…it’d take more than a day to atone for all my sins."

Antoine scowled. He drew his sword, a piece forged by the best smiths the Templar had. The hilt was designed to look like a cross and the blade was made of a special alloy, made with silver so it would still hurt vampires. "Mock me not, vampire."

Tetsu smiled. He stepped closes towards Antoine, inspecting the Knight. He was actually rather pretty, if one would excuse the scar that marred the left side of his face, slashing over the eye. The warrior had a fine bone structure and the waves of dark hair accentuated it. All that bulky armor made him seem too thin, rather than merely slender. The ancient vampire smiled, decision made.

"You think you can kill me, Sir Antoine?" Tetsu asked softly. "You’re too arrogant, but I suppose I’ll let you try your hand at it."

"God seeks retribution for all that you’ve done!" the Knight Templar shouted, and charged the pale figure. He swung his sword at the vampire.

And he was not there. Antoine looked around. "Where—"

Tetsu, appearing behind the Knight, grabbed Antoine’s wrist, his tight grip breaking the bones of the Knight’s swordarm. Antoine screamed loudly.

"Such beautiful screams," the vampire murmured into the warrior’s ear. He nibbled on the lobe softly. "I’ve never kept a Templar before…it would be amusing to play with one."

"Never…" whispered Antoine softly.

"A promise, is it?" Tetsu laughed. "It’s one you’re going to break." And he bit savagely into the Knight’s unprotected neck, drawing a cry from the dark-haired man. He drank deeply until Antoine’s life hung by a bare thread.

Working swiftly, the vampire slit his wrist, blood welling up from the wound. He forced open the Knight Templar’s jaws and made him drink the red nectar.

When Tetsu felt he had enough, the pale vampire let him go. Antoine groaned, feeling the changes wracking his body.

"N-No…"

Antoine sank into darkness. Before he passed out, he heard the laughter of the albino vampire.

"You’re mine now."

~^~^~@

"Defiled…"

He stared at his pale skin and scratched his nails across it. Blood welled up, but the cuts healed themselves almost instantly. He did it again, harder this time.

"The blood of the damned…tainted by it. Get it out! Get it out!"

Nails dug into his flesh as he tried to get the vampiric blood from his body. His once dark hair was now streaked with white. His good eye was a pale yellow, staring with a mad intensity at what he was doing.

"Antoine," Tetsu said softly. The fledgling vampire’s head shot up and his wolf-like eye settled upon the master vampire. This was the man who did this to him. Surely he must be the Devil. The Devil cloaked in white.

"If you wish it so," Tetsu said, amused, picking up on this thought. "If I am, then does that mean I made you what you are to pay for your sins?" He walked closer to this former knight and kneeled next to him.

"Damned. I am damned. I tried to protect the world, but you have tainted me!" Antoine buried his face in his hands.

Tetsu grabbed the man’s hair, pulling his head back. Cold blue eyes glared at him. "You tainted yourself. You killed vampires and other creatures your kind deemed ‘evil’. Murder is murder, my pet. Your sins are your own." His voice softened, one hand trailing down Antoine’s chest suggestively. The part that was still human in Antoine, the part that was taught that such things were wrong, recoiled, but the vampire didn’t even flinch. "But a life of sin can feel very good. Allow me to show you…"

The former knight stared blankly ahead as Tetsu carefully undressed him. He did not resist, he did not respond. His mind was breaking under the realization that he was now a vampire, what the Order of Templar reviled and sought to slay. His very existence was a sin. He was defiled, a tainted thing that should not be alive. He was damned.

Tetsu took him.

He liked it. He embraced it.

His mind shattered and Antoine died.

~^~^~@

"You are mine," Tetsu said, stroking his new pet’s hair.

"Yes, Master." A yellow eye blinked up at him.

The pale vampire smiled down at his toy. The Templar had broken surprisingly easily. The Knight could not handle being turned into something he had hated all his life. It left him mad, but sanity was not a necessity for what Tetsu planned on using him for.

"Well, then, Antoine…"

That yellow eye blinked again. "Antoine is dead."

Tetsu smirked. "Well then, you’re going to need a new name, then, won’t you?" He was in a good mood, as tormenting a human being often did to him. "Do you want me to choose one for you, or do you have one in mind?"

"Charon," the fledgling vampire said softly. "Charon is his name now. Antoine is dead and only Charon remains."

"Charon…" Tetsu said. He looked down at his pet. He barely looked like the knight who once attacked him. The face was the same, but his hair now contained stark white streaks in it that in Tetsu’s mind made him look even more appealing. The eye that stared out of that wild mass of hair gleamed palely and undoubtedly held madness in it. "The name of the ferryman of the underworld. Fitting, I suppose."

"Yes." Charon cuddled against his master. "Charon is hungry."

"Well," Tetsu grinned, seeing the vicious gleam in the vampire’s eye. "Time to go hunting, then."

He had a feeling he was going to enjoy his new toy.