Flashbacks of an elder ~Liam Goodryke/Silver Argent~

[Liam Goodryke]

((OOC: This was originally posted in Battlecry which was started by Azraeth, but decided to put it in here too.))

~August 1st, 2012~

A dark day we witnessed last night. The Broussard, the stealers of blood, are dead. I did not want this, and others of us did not either. Yet, as usual, the young give in to their lust for blood and death. Once more war is breaking out between humanity and the undead.

The young, they are fools. They do not see, they do not understand. The say this and they say that about protecting the masquerade, killing those who appear on the list Crow provides us. Why must it always be about death? Why must killing be the only method allowed to teach? There is so much more we could do to help those that struggle to keep the secret of our existence. But by taking this path, the one thing they hope to avoid, the second holocaust, the first only twelve of our kindwitnessed first hand, is what they are helping to bring about even quicker.

Vampires were around for so many centuries, maybe millenia, I do not know, I should talk to Zachariah Staus, or maybe even Mircea Grigori or Isabella Drake, to get the details. Then through greed for power, a select few revealed our existence to the human race. And so, one hundred and ninetynine years ago, I died the same night I was created. In the last year, since we twelve escaped the inescapable realm of shadows, the humans have already become aware of our existence once more, either through carelessness, or through bounty hunter groups hunting in public. Hell Hounds were first, they never did find out why I joined them, some knew, but they never did. They might have still been around too if personal contracts had not have been getting accepted, and then of course Asher's attempt to steal control, which he managed, but he couldn't hold on to the power. Then came Tytonidae, who I truly believe had the right mission statement when they started out, but they have lost their way. It was agreed many months ago that none shall be killed in the Quarantine Zone in Gambonville, to give those trying to lower their bounty that oppurtunity if they were over there doing just that. But that agreement seems to have been forgotten, for several of late have been killed while over there busy killing zombies, maybe stopping for a minute or two to have a quick rest before going back to the fray, and that is when they are attacked, and killed.

I used to like the idea of Tytonidae, but then they broke in to my home, killed my friend Jack without even teleporting him out first. They turned my home in to their own personal war zone. That is why I now hate them the way I do. That is why I was invited to Fifth Column.

Fifth Column, that is what started this for me I suppose. It was there I realised that the blood thieves, the Broussard, were not the goons the others of our kind would have us believe, for they never attacked us, unless we attacked them first. They could have come after us in gangs, in numbers, overpowering us and draining us dry for our blood and give us no money. But that wasn't what they did, they offered us money, and if we said no, they did not attack us. It was always vampires who struck first. It has always been my wish since learning more of what happened two centuries ago to find a way to bring peace between our two races, and during my time in Fifth Column I truly believed that the Broussard were the key to the peace I sought, and with Fifth Column wanting to ally themselves with the Broussard, I felt I was truly in the right place. We were betrayed, Asmodeus spying on us and giving our names to Velveteen, allowing Tytonidae to kill Hariasa and anyone else on that list they wished. Fair enough, the statement was made that the members of Tytonidae should die repeatedly until they gave up and disbanded, reason enough I suppose for anyone to want to go after a new group like Fifth. What amused me though, they never once hit me, never tried, and I was the one who said it, not anyone else in Fifth, me.

So, when Mircea announced that Emanuel had reached out to ask for peace, to stop the bloodshed on the streets, I contacted Emanuel Broussard, I offered him my services, my allegiance. He never replied. War was called for, and I tried again, just a few nights ago, and again, no reply. I wish he had replied. It was after the first email, after I'd began to lose so much, my relationship with Elizabeth, all my childer but Dulce, my home at Deux Corbeaux, cast out from Worthington for the second time, but I still had Noble to call home, still do, that I decided to leave Fifth Column. I need to try and fix things with those I brought in the world of the night. I need to try, I don't think I could stand eternity with them forever hating me. They don't hate me for being in Fifth, they hate me for something else, but that's why I left, so I can concentrate on regathering my family again. My family. I stayed long enough though to learn of Killian's plan to attack Prudence, the wife of my childe Cliff, and I emailled Cliff, warning him of the threat against his love. I asked him to not mention my name, to not reveal that I was the one who warned him. He has to have done somewhere because Killian knows what I did. But what is done is done.

So Emanuel ignored my two attempts to contact him, and feeling that perhaps I had been wrong in my feelings that the Broussard could help bridge the gap, I joined up with Noble, Docere, and believe it or not Tytonidae, for the final assault on the Broussard compound, the Seigneur de l`Azur, which when translated from French is roughly Lord of the Azure. I was meant to come in at the fourth floor for the final assault, but I was kept back for the fifth, allowing Mora to join Regan and Gaijin instead. I got hit by a poison trap (which I promptly disable and stole) right before another of the team found the card to the 6th floor. Up we went, Nathaniel and I working together in our area, Tytonidae in theirs. Countless times he and I were thrown out, and then Kacee brought me back in, her last possible summon before having to call in the next summoner for the final assault. I moved, I saw one of Emanuel's Lieutenants, and I killed him. Never did I truly expect what I found. The security pass for the Penthouse level. Of all the people, it was me, the one who had tried to ally with Emanuel twice.

I won't lie, part of me still wanted to help them, still wanted to protect them. I came so close to either just keeping quiet, or even using the power of celerity to get out, to take the card with me, stop them getting up there to the Broussard family, vie for more time to try again for peace. I choose instead to save my own skin, to be a coward. I knew if I ran I'd be hunted by my own kind, branded a traitor. Perhaps I should have stood up for what I believed in more. But I didn't. Instead I gave the card to Velveteen to allow for the final assault, so Emanuel could be killed for what he did to Zachariah's daughter. So was I a coward? I never met Emanuel, only ever Batman and Blaine Walsh as far as blood thieves go. I choose family over people I didn't know, I choose family over what I believed. When I say it like that, I don't think there was ever a right option that could have been made the moment we declared war against them.

Now the war is over, all but one or two of Emanuel's family are dead. One was still too weak to be fighting us, and so was spared, the other, an eight year old child. If anyone harms her I will kill them myself. She is just a little girl, I don't care who her family is, I don't care if I had been wrong about them the whole time, because I still think I was right about them, she is just a child. We are not gods, we do not get to say who lives and who dies. So what if the Broussard were ******** hybrids of human and vampire together? As the saying today goes, **** happens, get over it. I saw one up there defending the family, one not of their blood. Momento I think her name is. I will be looking for her when she returns, I have questions, and I think she has answers. I made a mistake, again. I need to put it right, I need to put them all right.

We could have worked together, they didn't want to work together. We could have been one, they didn't want us to be one with them. We could have had peace, they didn't want peace. They wanted war, they wanted bloodshed, they wanted death. And they wanted it out of greed, for none other than vampires should ever possess our powers. Temperance, my own childe, uttered those words to me not so long ago, about the time I found out from Killian what he had planned.

They really think it's over. They couldn't be more wrong, for it's only just starting. Do the younglings really think this enemy they made for themselves only has one head? The Broussards are, were, a crime family, a mafia I suppose, and if there is one thing I do know about them, is that families like that always have more than one head.

A new darkness approaches, and we just opened Pandora's box. I fear the old teachings of the hunters are about to be learned once more.

Yet I still hold hope, and if Emanuel's family and Momento come back from the realm of shadows, then that hope could shine, if they will hear me. If.

[Liam Goodryke]

~August 3rd, 2012~

So much has gone on. Where do I even begin to start? The beginning I think, but not quite the full 217 years ago. I think I'll jump ahead a bit.

My mortal life, my parents, my brother. My father was called Liam Argent, my mother Judith MacKinley. Chad Worthington III is my brother, well half-brother technically, his father was Chad Worthington II. Big boss man in Harper Rock back then before he died and our mother met my father and my brother inherited everything. That's when I arrived., 217 years ago.

It was a simple life back then, not easy, but simple. I liked it. So much has changed though, technology, computers, moving pictures, or movies and films and television as they call them. Painting and woodworking, those were my passions back then. I still use my hands now, crafting traps and security equipment, but I spend most of my time reading, researching, learning, and teaching what I have learned. I was a boy of 10 when I first learned to paint. I begged and begged my parents to find me a tutor, and eventually my father found Beth.

She was amazing, she still amazing, and by the time I turned 16 I was completely in love with her, and I thought she was with I. I was wrong, and she left, and only recently did I discover why. She loved me yes, but not as a lover. She is my ancestor by 9 generations. She is Elizabeth of the Noble line. She had intended to sire me on my 16th birthday, but when I kissed her she walked away, and did not sire me. She never left though, she was watching the whole time. Over the next 2 years I met a girl, and I was happy. Her family was Irish like mine, more colonists from Ireland to Canada, settling in Harper Rock. Sorcha was her name, Sorcha O'Hara. Our loved blossomed, and we were to wed, but that was a day that never came.

Not long after my 18th birthday, which by this time I had become a rather talented woodworker, forging weapons for use against the vampires since their discovery had been made, Chad came to see me. I quickly came to realise it was not a social visit, for he attacked me. Under normal circumstances he probably would have overpowered me anyway, he was always more of the brawling type, while I was a scholar, in our free time. Working I was a crafter and he ran Worthington Steel once he had come of age. He was a vampire, sired as a cruel joke by Chad's fathers ex business partner, a Russian. That was why my brother was there, to bring me over too. His sire, the Russian named Viktor Pradovich, had revealed to Chad that the hunters knew of vampires in Harper Rock, that they were the last, and the walls were closing in. Chad wanted an army, to help fight back. I was to be the first recruit. I was the first. Hours later though we were dead, the last 3 vampires killed, leaving only Cobb alive. Yes, I said 3, not 2. Something happened back then I forgot about until just recently, the last thing I saw before I died. Beth, Elizabeth, made herself known in that last instant. She had been about to sire me that night, but Chad beat her to it, and she followed us back to what was then Worthington Manor, now it is Argent Manor, though I'm thinking of renaming it. We'll see. Her sire and all the other elders had already died in an attack earlier in the day at Noble Manor, ironically just around the corner. It's that place everyone knows as the abandoned mansion up in the Elmworth estate. So, other than Cobb, Chad, Elizabeth, and myself, were the last three vampires in existence. Chad had already fallen, and I knew there was no way to survive. We had locked ourselves in the mansions cellar, in a panic room Chad's father had created. Of course back then we used wood for that kind of thing, a lot cheaper. Realising my death would soon follow, I decided to end it myself, but with God as my witness I was taking the hunters with me. I broke the support beams, but just before I hit them, when it was too late to stop what I had commited myself to, Elizabeth appeared in the doorway, screaming my name, killing hunters herself. Too late came the cry, and the beam broke, killing all of us. The hunters, me, and my sweet Beth.

And that was the end of the holocaust, ended ironically by me, the youngest of the elders, born the night of death, dying that very night. So, 198 years later, what seemed impossible became reality. The fade was ripped open and we cam back, well twelve of us did. Isabella Drake, Elizabeth and Antigony of the Noble line, Isabella's sibling Zachariah Staus and his childe Bella Dupree of the Docere line, Rebecca Quartermaine of the Quartermaine line, Keara Aithne of the Vedarian line, Mircea, Amaranthia and Habren Ashe of the Grigori line, and finally Chad Worthington III and myself, Liam Goodryke, or Silver Argent as I was then, of the Worthington line. I think Antigony came back a little after the rest of us, but in a nutshell, we were are the twelve who returned, who made it back, so far anyway.

It was only then that the others realised what Cobb had done, and that he was very much still around. A meeting was called, at Drake Manor, the first meeting of the elders, though I don't think all of the second generation went, but I did, and all six family heads were there. It ended with a bang, literally. Cobb knew we were back, and had a bomb sent the meeting, blowing up the wing we were in, in an attempt to kill us again, but he failed. What came next was a hunt for Cobb. He was a sneaky ********, appearing at random and shooting us and those we managed to create in those early days. He actually had us scared, well some of us anyway. Nowhere was safe from him, but we were never able to find him ourselves.

Then our numbers grew, and quite rapidly for the Worthington line. Chad got hit by a car, and it messed up his head, badly. He was siring everyone in sight, which resulted in the Dragomir. But that's another story. So we got our army. For months we hunted for Cobb, never seeing him, never finding him, except on the odd rare occasion, but by the time we mobilized to swarm him he was gone. I'm convinced he could walk through walls or something. Then one day, we caught him sleeping, and we swarmed him, and killed him, Reganleif getting the killing blow on him. I remember how excited she was over her getting the kill. I'm sure she built an alter to the weapon she used, she seems the type. And so ended the first chapter of our return, with the death of Cobb.

But I left a bit out. We have something now that was not around two centuries ago, the Crownet, and the violators list. Good old Crow. Cobb had a bounty like no other. Only one person ever came close to rivalling him for the bounty on their head. Me. Now why would I do that, you might be wondering. Well, in the early days I'd seen someone I wanted, very much, and so I asked Chad to sire her for me. Her name is Scorpia. We were lovers a short while, until I discovered she had let Nick Bowstrong touch her in the way only I was meant to be allowed. It got ugly and I threw her out. Then I lost all control, attacking every Dragomir in sight, it was those serpent eyes that let me know they were one, and I even attacked people in the Necropilis owned by Amaranthia. I've been barred from there twice now over that. I also didn't give a damn about where I was feeding, not caring who else was around, and I got spotted, constantly, and I didn't give a damn, not one bit. So my bounty was well over $20,000, Cobb I think was pushing $40,000.

Now you might be wondering what is so special about the Dragomir since I have mentioned them twice now. Not long after Chad sired Nikolae, Scorpia, Nick and Callista all came to me, telling me not to trust Nikolae, that he would create an army of his own, the Dragomir, and take control of the Worthington line from Chad. I tried to warn Chad of what all three had told me, but he refused to listen to me or them. He threw all three of them out of the line, but not me, not his own brother. I began to see they were right though, and I began to hate them. But I wouldn't move against them, not alone. Until Scorpia betrayed me with Nick, then I didn't care anymore, and I died, for the second time since coming back. The first time I'd seen Isabella and Zachariah sparring up in Elmworth and joined in, but Zachariah got carried away and killed me. I don't hold a grudge against him for it, it was an accident. I did the same to Antigony a few months later so... And that was when I started to calm down, when I came back from the realm of shadows for the third time, and joined in the hunt for Cobb. And after all that happened, the Dragomir did in fact take control of the Worthington line. We four had been right the whole time, and Chad realised it too, but to late.

One would think it would have been all nice and calm then. One would be wrong. There are over 1000 vampires in existence, and every single one is in Harper Rock. Too many cooks spoil the broth as the saying goes. Also, don't put all your eggs in one basket. First Hellequin formed the Hell Hounds, the first bounty hunters. They were hated, but they did what a was needed, and they usually gave warnings that if the violater did not actively lower their bounty then they would be tracked down and have their name taken from the list by force. In other words kill them. Tytonidae don't do that, they just look at the list and kill. I'll get to them later. I joined the Hell Hounds later on, after Hellequin stepped down and handed control to Phoenix. That was where I met her. That was where I fell in love with her. But I joined the Hell Hounds for a specific reason. See, I have never agreed with killing those with bounties posted by Crow, that mysterious dead telepath of old, and so I joined to find out who the targets were going to be and warn them. Sure, I hit a few of the targets, to maintain my cover, had to or else I wouldn't have been there that long. There were a few internal issues, like Asher, but it all got sorted in the end. The downfall though came when Phoenix decided to accept personal contracts to generate more income. The last was a 4 part contract, the next name not released until the current was dead. Etienne and Elizabeth were first, but the contract got cancelled before the third name could be given. I warned them of course, and recently I discovered who took out the contract, a Grigori named Cassandra. But yes, I warned them, though not directly. When it was Etienne I warned Chad, when it was Elizabeth I warned Isabella. They both still died, and I'm sure Velveteen's name would have been one of the remaining two, and I think Mr Scratch would have been the remaining name. Why those names? They were the four who conspired together to take down the Grigori, something I took part in. Rocklin became a target in that war, though I forget who it was who wanted him dead, possibly Tytonidae, but I can't remember, nor can I remember why. But I warned him, even though I was on the side that killed him, I warned him. Why? Because he was my friend, and we were working together at the time in Hell Hounds, and by this time I had fallen in love with Phoenix.

I left eventually, causing havic in my own way. A string of women with broken hearts, something I deeply regret. After what happened, I got it stuck in my head that all women of today were like that, and I decided I would do it to them first, protect my feelings and heart. Nearly got me killed a few times, and then one time it did get me killed. That is an interesting tale. By this time Nick Bowstrong and managed to seduce Isabella Drake, and I warned her not to go through with the wedding. I used several tactics, even brough Nick's wife Sarah in to it, since even though she was in the realm of shadows, she had not died, she was undead, and the wedding vows state "until death do us part." My argument was that Nick was still married to Sarah and that if he married Isabella then he'd be committing adultery. She wouldn't listen to anything I said, even threatened me with death if I spoke against him to her again. So the wedding went ahead. It did not take long for unhappiness to show, for him to be working her like a puppet. Nor did it take him long to take a mistress, which I did not realise until the night of my fourth death. To an extent I came close to getting what I wanted, Phoenix. The downside was that she had a headwound, so wasn't completely with her senses, which tore me up inside when I realised she would not have come to my bed otherwise. Afterwards she swore me to secrecy, never to tell anyone of what we had done, with the promise of a repeat performance should I keep to my word. It never came, because through my stupidness, someone found out. The man to who she was the mistress, Nick Bowstrong. I got what I wanted on the man, I made him feel as he had made me feel when he destroyed what I had with Scorpia, because I had taken his precious Phoenix for my own in that one night. We were talking, drinking, and I said something, I forget what now, but I never actually said the words, "I had sex with Phoenix," or anything close to a confession. But still, from what little I did say he realised that she had betrayed him with me. They fought, and the following night he had her kill me or else he would kill us both. I don't think she has ever forgiven me for betraying her like that. I know she's married to Malachai now, and I know she can never be mine, but I can't give up on her, I can't stop caring about her, and I will always try to remain her friend. Eventually Nick died at Isabella's orders when she realised what exactly he had been doing, everything. Finally their marriage was over. I sacrificed the potential happiness I could have had with Phoenix, the first in the city to ever look past the picture painted by everyone else of me, and give me a chance, saw the good and decent side of me, the first to truly accept me, all to get revenge on Nick Bowstrong. Was it worth it? Revenge is never worth it. He's gone and never coming back, and I am alone and broken hearted once more. Cast out from Worthington and Deux Corbeaux, but I have Noble who have accepted me.

Tytonidae, I used to like them, even considered joining up with them at one point, but then realised I'd be wasting my time, it just wasn't me. Then came the day they killed Jack. The foul mouthed New Yorker. He was crude, crass, but he was fun. I liked him, and we were friends. He had been bad mouthing Tytonidae, issuing an empty threat that he could take on Tytonidae single handed or something like that. Velveteen, in her infinite paranoia, then decided to kill him, but not alone, took the whole of Tytonidae with her. Jack came to me for help, a place to hide. I hid him in Argent Manor, in the basement. I even built a double layered false wall for that very purpose. Tytonidae broke in to my basement, found the false wall, found Jack, and killed him. Normally they would teleport people out, but not this time. This time they killed him inside my home, right in front of me. That is why I hate them now, for turning my home in to their personal battlefield. And so I spoke out against them publicly, and that was when Hariasa got in touch, that was when I joined Fifth Column. I'd like to add also, by this time I had entered a relationship with Elizabeth after her and Etienne broke up. We'd regained our memories of each other, and I realised that my string of broken hearts was because of her, because I'd fallen in love with her and never stopped loving her all those years ago, but we never realised who the other was when we came back, we didn't recognise each other, and we both forgot about the moment we died, that we died looking at each other. We aren't together anymore though. So, Fifth Column. An anti masquerade group, who I thought would be able to help me kill Tytonidae in revenge for what they had done in my home, and to their co founder, Jack. It never happened. Asmodeus betrayed us, turned out he was working for Tytonidae, and told them all about us, and who we were. Tytonidae started killing our members, some more than once. The one person who never died though was me. I still find that odd but nevermind. Maybe they assumed I was there undercover again like I had been in Hell Hounds to get information for whoever would need it depending on what it was. I'll never know, because I will never ask.

Emanuel Broussard. During all of that he emerged, in fact before I joined Fifth Colum his family had emerged, offering to buy our blood. Everyone else just about wanted to kill them on sight. Not me, not Fifth Column. We were always trading with them. I reached out to Emanuel, letting him know Fifth Column existed, that we were sympathetic to his family, that we wanted to ally ourselves with him in the upcoming war since everyone else told him know when he asked for peace and made us all an offer. Bastards. I always had the feeling the Broussards were the key to peace between humans and vampires, to end the fighting. No one would listen, not even my own family. I think there has been only one person outside of Fifth Column who thought the same way I do, but I wont say her name in this here journal. Anyone could find it. I got no reply, so I tried again after the war had started, once more wanting to try and help him, but by this time I had left Fifth Column. Again no reply. Perhaps I was wrong then? I joined in the attack on the final night, and I had something unexpected happen. I found the keycard everyone needed to get in to the Penthouse to kill Emanuel and his family. I held it in my hands, and I began to question what I was doing. I didn't know whether to run, keep quiet, or follow through on what I had started. I stayed, and I gave the card to Velveteen. I became the key to the final assualt being able to happen, and I betrayed my own beliefs and allowed it to happen. We got up there, and I saw Momento protecting them, hell I felt it, she attacked me. I don't think I hit her though. I went for everyone else, hell I even shot Blaine Walsh in the head. I should have stuck to my guns, should have tried harder to ally myselves with them. They fought back against us, the desperate last stand, fighting for survival. They had become use 200 hundred years ago, and we had become the hunters. It was their holocaust.

Everyone wanted to celebrate, or turn on each other, or both, once they had all fallen. I didn't, I wanted to celebrating, I just wanted away from it. I should have died that night, died protecting what I believed in, but instead I killed it, and part of myself in the process. It's not over though, I can feel it. In fact, I think it's only just begun, I think we just opened Pandora's Box.