Chapter 11: Confrontations in the Light

  The elf’s blood was most unusual. It was fairly sweet, with a soft zing to it that I couldn’t quite place, but it felt strained despite it being filled with energy. Almost as if she scarcely recovered from the last feeding session. It wasn't as filling as I thought, so I drank deep until I felt it was on the edge of too much. I think my hunger wanted a vampire more than an elf, but an elf would do nicely for a snack in the meantime.

  If Amelia were here with me, she’d be all over the elf in ways she was with me. I would have to give them space to be themselves and wait outside. Instead, Amelia is at my house as a ghost and I was lying next to Lyra wishing Amelia was with us to enjoy the moment.

  Lyra lay on the bed with my head resting atop her soft chest pillows, listening to the steady thump of her heart, one arm tucked under mine as we cuddled. I stared at her exposed belly button and traced the shape around a pearl piercing with my fingernails. She had decided to strip down to her underlayers so as to not ruin her beautiful dress when we moved to the bed. I had my heart pump blood throughout my body to give it some semblance of life and actually feel what the elf wanted to do to me, rather than just watch with a bored expression.

  She still hadn't uttered a single word, which made me wonder if she was mute or just the quiet type. I enjoyed the silence, but I wished to hear her voice. For perhaps it was as beautiful as she appeared, perhaps it was husky or hoarse, or velvety, but I’ll never know if she didn't speak.

  I closed my eyes and smiled.

  I hadn't received any messages from Caleb. There was no way I was moving to grab the device to check again. I assumed he was interrogating the barkeeper for anything he could get his fangs into.

  But, from what I could tell, the barkeeper was a dead end. They sent me to the back where I found appealing sustenance that ran her hand through my hair and scratched ever so playfully behind my ear. Even the flute of blood was normal. Maybe Dinner was the culprit after all?

  No, I drank the two glasses Dinner bought and felt no ill effects. Nothing was adding up. Lyra was a dead end, so unless Caleb found something then we were being lied to.

  Which wasn't surprising considering it was Jean’s fledgling giving us the work. Both of them detested me even when they moved from New Orleans to Encinar. They were fearful that the Inquisition was making steady progress with new settlers. As what we were calling the Great War was in fact turning into an elven civil war with three different factions fighting each other and using the earth based armies as proxies.

  At least according to the internet. For me, the time was fuzzy, because I was so focused on Encinar, werewolves, thunderbirds, witches, spirits; and balancing the delicate struggle between California Natives, those of us from across the sea, and Spaniards coming up from New Spain. I just didn't have the time or energy to care about what was going on along North America’s East Coast.

  Lyra’s movements were slow and methodical as she pushed one hand down my blouse and rested it on my breast while the other continued to dance through my hair.

  I lost track of time, as again, my phone was on the nightstand along with the woman's belongings. Not that I cared. It was a nice moment where I became complacent in listening to her heartbeat. That nice, soft, thump-thump of a living person who fell asleep.

  Then the elf shifted underneath me as she inhaled sharply. I didn't move beyond resting my hand on her stomach. A book gently bumped into my head and stayed there for a moment. It felt like she was writing into it, because it shook every so often.

  She held it in front of my eyes, pointing to the newest passage in a long string of sentences to other people. Snippets of a one sided conversation. ‘You took a bit more than I was expecting! I’m so tired now. Lol!’

  Lol? Just what in tarnation is that word?

  I glanced up at her now very pale smile and heavy golden eyes. She mouthed something that looked similar to, ‘thank you’.

  “You're welcome,” I said. It occurred to me that she might know something about the disappearances, so I asked, “Do you know anything about the disappearances?”

  Lyra shook her head, long red hair flinging about. She dashed any hopes I had of her being the culprit. It seemed I was back to square one with the idea. At the same time, I just wanted to stay put until the sun rose and set again.

  “I need to leave,” I said.

  She pouted as if I had just punched her in the gut, so I rested my head on her chest pillows again.

  It was odd for sure. A place so brazenly selling blood without any secret code words or gestures. I’d have to come back when I was looking for an easy meal.

  A few frantic thumps echoed from the door as Caleb’s voice barely penetrated, “Sire? Sire! Are you in there?!”

  I sighed heavily, even though I didn't need to, and slid out from the quiet woman’s embrace. Then pulled my coat on and silently made my way to the door.

  Behind me, Lyra pulled the blankets over herself to cover her barely clothed body. Once she did so, I cracked the door and peered out to find Caleb running his hands through his short hair as he shifted from foot to foot like a nervous mortal.

  “What's wrong?” I asked.

  He gulped, red eyes darting from me, down the hall, and back to me. “The vampire spooks are raiding the place right now! They're occupied with the dance floor, but it's only a matter of time before they come back here.” He gave my fancy revolver back to me.

  I holstered the weapon and closed the jacket around it. Of course the law was sticking its nose where it shouldn't, but it didn't make sense to me, because I thought the saloon was a legitimate one selling blood to people until my sire’s words came back to me. ‘What Caleb did was highly illegal. Our dragon overlords don't like us drinking from living mortals.’

  So the world moved on but it's still the same…

  When I looked back at Lyra, she tilted her head at me, blinking a few times. She motioned to her neck, and shook her head, mouthing, “No more blood to give.”

  “The police are here,” I told her.

  Her golden eyes widened as the color drained completely from her face. She clamped her eyes shut and held her forehead, wobbling visibly. I rushed to her side, holding the elf steady until she looked at me with pleading eyes I couldn't say no to. I knew what to do without her saying anything.

  I hooked one arm under Lyra’s legs and the other under her back, lifting the taller elf woman off the ground fairly easily. Once she buried her face in my chest, I made my way to the door and nodded to Caleb.

  “We’ll meet you at your pickup,” I said.

  He frowned at me. “How am I going to get out of here?!”

  “You’re a ThinGen vampire, so use that to your advantage. Focus your heart on feeling as alive as you can and pretend you don't know what is going on.”

  “What if they want to see my ID?” he asked as he rubbed his head, narrowing his eyes for a moment. “I can't just lie to the cops!”

  “Give it to me and say you lost it,” I replied. He followed my instructions, so I added, “Now. You can try to sneak your way out or I can bite your wrist and you can lie. Your choice.”

  It took all of a split second for Caleb to show me his wrist. I bit it, taking no blood. That way the man could look like he was a mortal caught up in the moment. He closed his eyes as the color partially returned to his body. To me, he looked as mortal as the silent elf in my arms. His heart thumped once, waited… thumped again, then continued in a fairly slow and weak manner.

  I focused on the shadows around us and sent blood pumping through my veins for a split second. Lyra’s borrowed lifeblood warmed my body with a singular beat as shadows engulfed the two of us.

  Caleb ran on ahead while I stuck to what darkness there was and moved from shadow to shadow with my silent charge clinging desperately to my shoulders. We resembled nothing more than a shadow moving through the back rooms. I couldn't drop her or attack, because something nagged at the back of my mind about saving her. A quest if you could call it that.

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  A System Message popped up in the upper right of my vision: New Quest! Protect Lyra from danger.

  The back rooms were in chaos as vampires slowly and steadily heard the news. Some disappeared, but were still slightly visible, while others ran for the ‘emergency’ door near the furthest door. A door I had noted earlier, but dismissed out of not knowing what it was. I followed to watch what happened, because letting another vampire be the first to touch something unusual is the best way to stay alive. Even more so if they get caught and you don’t.

  Alarm bells rang out the instant the door was opened, piercing through my ears like an angry cannonade. Vampires rushed into an alley outside. It seemed like they would make it out. Right up until a holy amount of light illuminated the narrow alley as if it were daytime, stunning the vampires. They came to a stop, holding their hands in front of their faces or fleeing.

  Groups of armored men in black clothing held heavy looking rifles and scatterguns at the escaping vampires. Their shouts were different to the hunters from the night before. More direct, more orderly and none of them wore those odd glowing glasses.

  “Encinar Vampire Police!” one man shouted.

  Another added, “Hands ups!”

  A few vampires slowed their run and followed the directions. The police yelled for them to get on their knees. Some tried to run, but there were too many cops for the blood suckers to get by them. A couple were grabbed and shoved against the side of large four door covered wagons the mortals were using to block the alley.

  One poor vampire didn’t stop running, despite the warnings. The man made a run for the nearest opening. A hollow boom echoed off the buildings as a large shell impacted the vampire’s back and sent the man sprawling to the ground. No less than five officers swarmed the blood sucker before he could get up. To me, it looked like one officer grabbed the vampire’s right arm, the other grabbed their left, and one shoved a gun to the back of the vampire’s head.

  It looked almost comical to see vampires being so afraid of mortals they refused to use their powers. While I watched from the dark recesses of what little shadow the building provided. It would never have flown in my time. We’d have fought back and likely suffered a few losses, but got away. Not get on our knees because some armed blood sacks said to.

  The gun wielding officer racked the pump back and forth as he said, “Alright, you blood suckers. Next one’s Dragon’s Breath. Anyone want to test it?”

  “I think I see something over there!” Another officer pointed in my direction. “Check it out!”

  Lyra gently tugged on my coat, reminding me that I had to escape, so I looked beyond the bright lights. It was difficult to see the buildings past the roof mounted spotlights, even when I squinted, but I did eventually see a spot I could teleport us to.

  With a single step back into full darkness, I melted into the floor and felt myself, and Lyra, become one with the world for just a short moment. A single moment that stretched on as we traversed the crevices of the Great Beyond Life. It was a mirror realm if you could call it that. A realm of naught but shadows and darkness from which vampires came. A realm I wished to one day visit in the flesh.

  For you see, it was similar to the living realm. However, one key difference was that the Great Beyond Life had decaying buildings replacing solid structures. Cracked ground that looked better suited to a wasteland than a realm of living people. Fire and Brimstone reached into the firmament instead of clouds and beautiful night sky.

  It was terrible. It was hell. It was darkly beautiful. We traversed it all, running past the shadowed blocks that looked like dark representations of police vehicles and reemerged on the other side. The trek didn’t take long, a few seconds at the most, but it looked instant to everyone else.

  Lyra and I appeared as a shadow roughly a hundred yards away from the commotion going on at the club.

  Guards were preoccupied with the club while I carried the elf to where Caleb parked the truck. My hunger grew the more I focused on keeping the darkness around us. I couldn't risk falling so far into it that my fangs came out on their own. Oh, sure, I fed less than an hour ago, but hiding two people in shadow and teleporting a hundred yards was quite taxing.

  Once we were visible, I slowed to a walk in an effort to not attract attention. Or at least as little attention as carrying a half-naked elf could get. I set Lyra on the ground and helped her to wrap the blanket around her body like a cloak. She shivered visibly, but not from the cool air, and nodded as she clutched her black notebook as close as she could along with the blanket. I slid an arm around her waist and pulled against my hip just to make us look at least somewhat like a normal couple.

  Her thin undergarments showed off vastly more skin than should be allowed, but times changed and I need to change with them. Even still, I knew Lyra needed proper clothes. I didn’t have anything but the jacket and blanket on hand. Caleb might have something in his pickup. I think. A change of clothes maybe, but they weren’t close to the same size.

  Back at the club, police wagons surrounded the place with floodlights and flashing red and blue lights like a gunfight in the night. A strange light hovered in a circle, shining a massive shaft of light down on the scene, leading me to wonder just why the police were there in the first place. The multi-story building looked as well taken care of as the rest of the rundown structures. Nothing was wrong aside from that.

  I couldn't figure it out. Unless that panicky blood sack from the bar called the cops, but why? That didn't make a lick of sense to me. She wanted to leave before I killed people. I wasn't hungry. A little parched, but nothing I couldn't handle. And why would you go to a vampire club if you were afraid of vampires?

  Unless she didn't know it was a vampire club?

  I'd have to ask Caleb when he caught up. Speculating without his side of events would only lead me to panic over nothing. Much like it did when I was a fledgling.

  The elf woman and I reached his four-door pickup. I pulled my key out to unlock it with a simple press of a button on the fob. The wagon beeped its horn in response, as did the doors clunking.

  Too late did I see movement reflecting in the window. A person was fast approaching from a nearby alley. I turned to meet them, only for their unholy strength to slam me into the side of the truck with enough force to dent the damned thing! My head slammed into the metal, cracking audibly with a sickening crunch.

  As I slid to the ground and tried to process who my attacker was. A dark clothed man grabbed the silent elf by the arm and pulled her into an embrace with only one outcome should he bite down.

  I focused Lyra’s remaining blood on my voice and cried out an order, “Freeze!”

  His body visibly twitched when it tried to listen to me. I repeated the order, hoping it got through without making eye contact, but I wasn’t that good at the voice. Not like my sire. Her voice was perfection when it came to making mortals her puppets.

  Lyra kicked him in the groin, ruining my order as his system was jolted awake. The undead monster sank his fangs into her neck. She slammed a weak fist against his shoulder. The already wilting woman became paler by the moment as I dragged myself to my feet and drew the heavy revolver.

  I wished for a sword, because then I could just run it through his side without making noise, but I had to take aim with the noisiest thing I had on me. There were two men and two women before me as I closed one eye in an effort to steady myself. My head rang as my body stitched the broken bones together and my aching fangs demanded I act.

  I didn't have a clear shot even then because my attacker turned to put her head between me and him. She tried to push away, but a vampire’s strength was just too much for a weakened mortal to fight against.

  The man let go of Lyra’s neck once she stopped moving. He shoved her corpse toward me as he said, “Mayor Colterville! How good to see you up and about! How was torpor?”

  Jean…

  I caught Lyra before she slammed into me and lowered her to the ground.

  The vampire drew a stake from his coat pocket, blood dripping from familiar fangs as a sadistic grin crept over his lips. “Now do keep in mind, I am here on business. And that business is to talk. The stake is just a precaution, because I know how you can get.”

  The revolver clicked. I frowned deeply and pulled the hammer back for a second shot to the same result. Only then did I realize I had forgotten to reload the infernal thing after I got it back from Caleb!

  Jean chuckled. “You’re still the same headstrong woman I remember.”

  I reached for his collar. He jumped out of my reach. There was a stake in his hand and a plan to make me a wall fixture once more. He was obviously working against Isabella and that’s why she wanted him dealt with.

  “Easy there.” Jean backed further out of my grasp as I stepped closer to him, practically hopping toward him. “I know what this looks like, but I am here to help you, Mayor Colterville. I present you with your own fledgling if you but listen to my next words; you’re being manipulated by your sire. She’s trying to stop you from taking your rightful seat on the council.”

  There were two kinds of vampires in the world. Those who bored you to death while they taunted you over the fact that they were a better vampire. And those who acted. Jean thought I was going to come quietly and be staked to a wall again, but never again! I had to stop the man’s plan against Isabella.

  I leapt for the man once more. He jumped back a third time, almost putting himself against the building’s wall.

  I aimed the revolver at Jean’s head. It clicked again! So I holstered the weapon and deigned to beat his face to a pulp.

  Above us, the whirlybirds circled the area, focusing on the club and the activity going on there. It was strange that they weren’t looking in our direction, but we hadn’t made much noise yet.

  I stalked toward Jean, ripping a gash in my palm, and held it to the side so shadows could pour out from within. My heart beat once more to focus the stolen energy into the void. It’d be a bad idea to look into his eyes, because Jean could dominate my will just as much as I could dominate his. He knew this, I knew this. We both spent decades fighting each other, so my usual tricks wouldn’t work when he knew them. I had to go back to my mortal roots and punch him until he stopped moving.

  First, the shadows had to grab the bastard.

  Jean frowned deeply as he stepped to his right, inching toward the alley he came from. “I’m sorry, Mayor Colterville. I cannot help you if you cannot see the truth. Know I will be in touch. Just try to refrain from biting your sire in the meantime.”

  My shadow cloud crept toward the man like it had a mind of its own, small feeler-like tendrils snaking their way out and gnashing at the air, looking for anything to grab onto. Even his shadow. They were mine to command as I saw fit. A gift from Mother Moon to me in the form of a living shadow that resided within me. Only when I released it into the wild could I command them directly like they were their own person.

  Jean took off down the alley as my shadow gave chase, leaving me standing there under the streetlamp without one. I was so stunned by his move I just stood there for a few moments while I processed what in the devil he was thinking. Jean was a smart vampire and, like my sire, was old when I was a fledgling and he just ran from me!

  Did I technically defeat him in a duel?

  The system mentioned something about gaining experience again, but it was pointless to look at the message without a class. I dismissed it and turned to face Lyra’s corpse. Something gnawed in the back of my mind, reminding me of Jean’s voice as it said, ‘She’s manipulating us? How?’

  My eyes drifted from the elf’s cooling corpse toward the whirlybirds above. Their odd echoing slaps reverberated off the buildings, shaking my lifeless form and rattling the windows. The Inquisition? Were they following Caleb or were they tipped off that something was going down in the club? They knew where the vampires would be exiting the building and came well prepared with lights to drown out any shadows. Then, you had the hunters the night before where I was their primary target. Not Caleb, not the blood sack we were going to speak with, but me.

  The only one who truly knew what I was doing was my sire.

  My hands shook as a strange feeling washed over my body like a wave crashing into the rocks. It was an impossible thing to consider! She gave me gifts; a phone and a scooter I wasn’t riding! She taught me how to manipulate the System Messages. Yet that nagging feeling churned my stomach in ways I shouldn’t feel. I wasn’t mortal anymore, so my stomach shouldn’t be trying to expel everything it didn’t have inside it. My world shouldn’t be threatening to spin like it was. My eyes and fangs shouldn’t hurt like they were. I just wanted to know what the fuck was going on!

  There is no way she could betray me! We spent over sixty years together. Almost a hundred! She… she… We shared…

  My sire’s words floated through time, echoing in my head, ‘Cassandra! Kill the hunter this instant! She’ll kill you without a thought.’

  ‘No! She helped us, sire. If she wanted us dead then she—’

  ‘Listen to me very carefully; Kill her or I will. There is no negotiating this! Mortals cannot be trusted with the truth.’

  ‘But what about—'

  ‘I don't give a damn about how Robert said things worked! I ain't him! Do you want to join him? Kill. The. Hunter. Now!’

  I looked at Lyra’s corpse to distract myself from the thoughts swirling in my head. I could save her. I had to save her, for Amelia’s sake. I couldn’t let Lyra die because I made a mistake. Caleb had enough canned blood in his wagon to sate my hunger and give me enough to embrace the elf, but then I’d have to hide her from my sire or the both of us could lose our heads. Me especially, since I failed one mission already and siring without permission is considered an offense worthy of being executed.

  But the process couldn’t be done within sight of the hunters. Lyra would make too much noise when she awoke. I had to get her somewhere else and that meant driving Caleb’s pickup. Hopefully, the man made his way out of the saloon.

  A message from the System popped up as if I needed the reminder. Quest complete: Protect Lyra. Please choose your starting class to receive rewards.

  Quest updated: Find who sealed your coffin and why. Confront Isabella about what you know or track Jean down.