Chapter 836: The creator of the Dalki
It was safe to say that the question took Dwight by surprise. Out of all the things to ask for, especially given their current situation, why was Quinn’s first question something related to the vampire’s past?
’Is this just his own curiosity... or the request of someone else?’ Dwight wondered, mentally going down the list of possible candidates who could be behind the young new family leader.
"You seem to be quite interested in the tenth family’s past. With the flame extinguished, I know Vincent is gone, so I’m assuming this has something to do with his will? Maybe something he asked you as his final wish?" Dwight probed Quinn for some sort of reaction. Vincent Eno had been a very interesting person, yet he had failed to understand him in his lifetime.
Coincidentally, Dwight’s current actions were quite rude and disrespectful. If it had been any other leader before him they would have made a fuss, perhaps even accusing him of being interrogated, but Quinn wouldn’t know any better.
"Didn’t you tell me you would help me?" Quinn questioned in a sharp tone, his eyes focusing on the older vampire. "Do you perhaps expect me to explain to you everything that I do?"
Quinn acting completely outside his expectations was a grim reminder for Dwight, that the young boy wasn’t as innocent as he seemed.
"I apologise for my behaviour." Dwight bowed down, slightly surprising Quinn. "You’re right, I did promise to help you in any way you need, and this is indeed something relatively simple. Of course, you don’t have to explain yourself, I was merely surprised you knew about Jim, since there aren’t many alive today that do remember him."
Dwight looked down at the table while trying to remember past events.
"You said you wanted to know what happened after Vincent’s disappearance, correct? I don’t know how much you know about Vincent Eno, but before he left us, he had been in charge of a special project. A project that would have made us far less reliant on human blood. Unfortunately, he left our world without ever completing the project."
"At the time, there honestly weren’t too many great minds among us vampires. The common belief was that the fist was mightier than the brain and most lived according to that. The King at the time, not wanting to get involved with the humans any more than we already had, had felt like the project had to be completed at any cost. They were convinced that sooner or later the existence of vampires would become known to the humans, if we didn’t change our ways."
Quinn still vividly remembered living through Vincent’s life. It would be nigh impossible to count just how many human lives had been taken because of the vampires.
The King had been absolutely right, the detectives, just like Vincent’s partner Katie, had been getting closer and closer to the discovery of vampires. In the past, when there was such a difference in strength it wouldn’t have mattered but with the humans having caught up, it had suddenly become a problem for the vampires.
"Although many disagreed with the decision, eventually a vote had been cast and despite Jim’s past and his oath to never enter a laboratory again, he had been allowed to continue the project from where Vincent had left off."
Now the puzzle pieces were starting to line up in Quinn’s head, After Vincent had left, Jim had taken over the project, at which point he must have gone to earth where he encountered Logan’s parents and ’convinced’ them to help with the project.
’Was he searching for Vincent because he couldn’t complete the project alone, or was there something else?’
"After countless failures, eventually Jim found a solution to our problem. Alas, there was a problem with the final project that he kept hidden from us. In order to fix this flaw before we found out, he committed a grave taboo... the same one that had stopped him from entering the laboratory in the first place. In the end the project had to be scrapped altogether."
’Jim... just what did you do this time?’ Vincent thought, as he heard these words.
Dwight didn’t say anything else on the matter, as if the story had ended, but Quinn noticed that a lot of details had been left out. Was it because he didn’t know about what Jim had done, or did he think Quinn didn’t need to know?
Still, Quinn wasn’t going to back down, he needed his answers and he had someone in front of him who could help.
"The thing Jim created... the one that was unsuccessful... were they the Dalki?" Quinn asked, wanting confirmation, even though he was already sure of the answer.
Dwight’s eyes lit up at this question, making him all the more aware that Quinn knew far more about this than should have been possible. With that being the case, it was pointless to hide the small details.
"Yes... instead of having to consume the humans’ blood he had created something else, the Dalki. The only problem was that they were unable to reproduce. With the materials that we had provided him he had only been able to make a certain amount. This would have been fine, yet due to their relatively short lifespan, it would have only been a temporary, yet costly measure."
As someone who had grown up with Jim, Vincent was easily able to figure out Jim’s train of thought.
"Jim must have originally been mixing humans with the demon tier beast to create the Dalki." Vincent shared his insight. "Now there were two ways for him to fix the problems. Either find a way to allow the Dalki to reproduce... or turn them immortal. Given his prior history, it’s no surprise which option he chose...."
Dwight gave out a big sigh before answering.
"He raised one of the Original vampires, and tried to experiment on them. Only this time, he was prepared for us when we found out. By the time we discovered what he had done, it was already too late. Jim had left the castle with the Dalki and despite our efforts to track him down he was never seen again."
"What about the Original vampire?" Quinn asked. "Was he successful in creating a hybrid?"
Quinn could only imagine what a monster the Dalkis would have on their hand if Jim turned out to have been successful. What was worrying him more, was whether Jim might still be experimenting to this day.
"Fortunately not, however that ancestor perished in the process. Actually it’s a good thing you brought this up, I would be careful Quinn. The original that had been killed was the first generation family leader of the eighth family, so it shouldn’t surprise you that they had a giant grudge against the tenth family ever since."
"That being said, I have been unable to find anything relating them to the current attack. Unfortunately, the same has to be said for all the other families at the moment."
It seemed like the eighth family and tenth family had multiple clashes after that, especially since Vincent had also been the one to have killed one of their previous family leaders due to what they had done to Katie.
"Whoa, that’s a lot of enemies, I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes right now." Vincent stated amused. "You have the first family’s Bryce on your back, the eighth family, and let’s not forget about the Sith family with Vadeen. I know Arthur was the one that killed him, but it was due to you."
"Don’t pretend like everything’s my fault! You were the responsible for at least one of those!" Quinn replied annoyed.
"If you know Jim had created the Dalki, then why didn’t the vampires kill the Dalki or at least help the humans when they were getting attacked?" Quinn asked.
"I know you might start to hate me for this, since you’re a former human, but... the Dalki simply hadn’t been regarded as a threat by us. At any point in time we would be able to beat them quite easily, so we didn’t really care what happened to them. Given their lifespan, most of us appeared to think that the problem would simply fix itself. And by the time the human race was facing extinction... well we had found a way to solve our blood problem, so once again no family felt the need to intervene."
’The vampires don’t see the Dalki as a threat? Is it due to arrogance, or are they really that strong?’ Quinn couldn’t believe it, he had personally clashed with the other family leaders and had therefore experienced their powers firsthand. He also was aware of the power of the Dalki he had encountered.
If the vampire didn’t regard them as a threat...
"Just curious, but how many spikes have you seen on a Dalki?" Quinn questioned to verify a theory.
The face Dwight pulled was one of confusion as he was clueless what that had to do with anything.
"One? No, I think I recall one of them having two. I’m sorry, it’s been a while." Dwight answered, unsure where Quinn was going with his questioning. Still, he had learned his lesson, so he answered as best as he could. "Actually when the Dalki had first been created we had been unaware of their defects. The ones studying them reassured us that their intelligence was enough for us to attempt to train them, so we taught them how to fight. The idea was to use them as more than just a food source and make them hunt beasts as well. However, before we got the chance Jim had disappeared with them all in a single night."
’Did he say two spikes, but even during the war there was a four spike Dalki. Have they grown stronger in the meantime? Just like Borden. Do more spikes grow on them with age or did Jim find a way to create more? ... However, that means the vampires remain unaware of their increased strength. No wonder, they’ve just been sitting here focusing on their own internal struggles!’
This was something Quinn couldn’t have predicted. He had believed there had to be a logical reason for the vampires to not get involved, but for the reason to be... pure ignorance. Unfortunately that meant Quinn would have to somehow convince them to start treating the Dalki as a threat.
Worse, they also had to worry about Arthur now as well.
"Don’t tell them about Arthur, Quinn.’ Vincent stressed. ’Right now Dwight trusts you, but they saw Arthur help you once when you were in trouble! Both of you share the same ability and they don’t know quite how it works, but do know that he can come to you through your shadow! If you tell them that Arthur plans to get rid of the vampires, that could easily be used against you!"
Vincent was right, Quinn didn’t want any more enemies, not at this point and time.
’On that note, could you ask him who managed to create the Blood substitute? With me and Jim gone, I seriously can’t imagine anyone else being able to complete it?’ Vincent asked.
"There is one thing I don’t quite get. You told me that Vincent was in charge of the project, but left it unfinished. Then Jim was the one to try and complete it, yet he failed and created the Dalki before vanishing. However, it was completed in the end, so who was the one who managed to do what those two had failed at?"
"I don’t see why that would be a problem." Dwight replied, taking a sip of his tea. They had been talking for quite a while now. More so than he had initially thought, especially since Quinn was focusing on past subjects. "It was actually due to Jill, the eighth family leader. Believe me when I say that it was a complete surprise to all of us all when she had come up with a solution."
’Jill?!’ Vincent shouted in shock.
’What, is she someone special or something?’
’Actually..." Vincent paused. "I don’t really remember her. She must have been made a family leader after me. Although the eighth family did like to experiment as well, they were nowhere near as talented as the Enos’ Vincent claimed full of pride.
"That is everything that I know about Jim. To this day there was a call out from the agents to find him, but he hasn’t been spotted and with our agents deceased, we have decided to focus on more important things. I hope my answers have helped you."
It did help Quinn confirm a few things. For one, Jim was indeed the creator of the Dalki, and if Quinn’s hunch was correct he would be working with them even now which was why the vampires were unable to locate them.
However, there was one other, perhaps even bigger question on his mind.
Where did Richard Eno, the first King, fit into all of this?
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