Heyyyyyy. This is only my second story so reviews- criticism and all is appreciated :)
This one might be a little boring, but I was trying to set the scene to build up the story, so wait for the next chapter... ;)
Enjoy!
To the west, the golden setting sun brought a wave of colour to the night. Splashes of oranges and pinks littered the sky in a spectrum of abstract art. It was an explosion on the horizon- tendrils of paint stretched outwards from the sun, like the orb itself had been shattered and shards were flying away across the sky. Not razor-edged shards though, not like the ones Adelaide was used to, ones that could inflict damage- ones you could fight with. These were soft round the edges; melting and merging the bright colours into the background light blue of the sky instead of a clean edge. It looked serene, it almost gave Adelaide a sense of peace as she gazed up. That was until she followed these wisps across the dusky sky to see the east, where the very tip of the moon was just rising up. It was a full moon tonight. Around the peak of this glowing circle was a midnight blue, threatening the inevitable setting of light, whereupon the city would be submerged into darkness.
Not that London ever was dark though, the city lights would turn on any second now, bringing a whole new glow to the streets- not comparable to the sun's light but in its own way, it was beautiful- at least it was to Adelaide, who looked upon the city…differently to other normal humans. This was because the life she led was not normal, not in any way.
"Almost time for me to go, baby," Adelaide turned her head around from the skylight she had been looking through to meet eyes with her sister, Martha. They were huge and blue, matching her own. The colour of ocean waves, they even had that undertone of green which made them all the more mesmerising. She was starting to not have to look down on her sister much anymore. She was three years younger, 16 right now and had stopped growing. Adelaide had thought Martha would overtake her grand height of 5,10 at one point, but luckily hadn't. Adelaide had always thought it would be odd for her younger sister to look down on her protector, her guardian.
"Okay sure, will you be back at the usual time?" Martha asked as she walked across their open plan apartment floor to the kitchen, taking her time choosing an apple from the fruit ball before taking a huge bite from a red one, which was perfectly ripe.
"Yeah, hopefully as long as the Lycans don't stir up trouble again." Adelaide couldn't help but roll her eyes as she thought back to the incident last time. She had been attempting to make a deal with a particularly aggressive werewolf who wanted some rare plant he thought would protect him from the moonlight on a full moon. Adelaide knew it wouldn't help him, but as an Underworld dealer, no the underworld dealer- she hadn't wanted to turn away such a good deal for such a good price.
It had unfortunately led to the whole north wall of the Lair being decorated with claw marks. She would be more careful next time when dealing with Mutts.
"Alright then, but isn't it a full moon tonight?" Martha questioned, taking another bite from her apple and chewing slowly, waiting to hear her response.
"Indeed. So I'll just hope he doesn't come back with more Mutts from the London pack. That wouldn't work out well for the Lair, or my throat. But they're probably roaming the forgotten, crumbling parts of the underground right now- in wolf form." Lycans hated the moonlight, turned them into aggressive beasts- not that Adelaide thought they were anything but aggressive to begin with- but they claimed they had humanity, unlike vampires.
"Are you sure you should go out to work tonight then?" Martha asked, clearly worried, "cause if anything happened to you I would not be good fending for myself…" she ended with a smile.
"No Mar, promise I'll be safe, see you around 2-ish if I'm lucky." Adelaide patted her sister on the head, which she'd been doing since it had only been the two of them, since their parents had died. It was almost like a motherly gesture, she didn't really know why she did it. She then opened the door and locked it behind her before taking the stairs down, out of the apartment building.
It was quite a nice apartment they had now- her earnings as the sole dealer this part of London had been very beneficial for her and Martha. Creatures of both night and day came to her, either for common things they wanted to buy or for unusual remedies or magical objects that they wanted a hold of. Adelaide mostly gave them what they wanted, for a good price. But occasionally there would be a being, most likely faeries because they desired the rarest of objects, where even Adelaide wouldn't know what they were after.
She pondered over her thoughts and what the night's work would bring her as she made her way to the Lair. It was only a few blocks from their apartment and was quite a small building, but it was the place to be on dark, gloomy evening for creatures of the night. This mostly included werewolves- the common beings but still one of the most powerful of the underworld. There were usually a few faeries, the most intelligent of the creatures. Adelaide was always wary around them, striking a deal could result in horrible consequences. There was a long history of dealers who bargained with faeries and didn't read the small print.
About once a week there would be a warlock or witch visiting which Adelaide didn't mind. She actually found them good company. They were clever, but not deceiving and were up for a bit of gossip, which Adelaide kept track of, making sure nothing ever came up about Martha and her.
Once a full on mermaid had come in, fish tank and all. That had surprised Adelaide. Not that merfolk were rare species, but one doesn't usually find one on land. She hadn't got to speak to the scaled woman though, as she had just rolled the tank over to a booth in the corner, there to meet with someone.
Most other customers in the Lair were composite species- misfits that came to the Lair as a hotspot, having nothing else better to do. They and humans who knew about the underworld made up the extra space in the building. It was dangerous for them though, most humans, no nearly all humans who were aware of the underworld underestimated the power of the creatures. Adelaide had seen countless of them die horrific deaths in the building, but there was nothing she could do. That was simply how she kept herself but more importantly, Martha alive. She stood and watched, then listened and used that to her advantage, swapping secrets with others. She didn't have any ability to use on anyone, she couldn't grow claws or fangs so used her wit to stay alive. It got her through- mostly.
Adelaide finally arrived at the Lair. It didn't look like much on the outside. In fact, it looked run down and old. It was a simple 2-storey pub-like place. There was no one outside, as to not attract unwanted attention from drunk humans passing on the street, but there were other precautions to keep out unknowing humans. Anyone from the underworld could go in, and they did.
Adelaide opened the door and made her way to the bar, where she worked as both bartender and dealer. She opened a little gate on the side of the bar and made her way to stand in front of all the unusual beverages they served to cater for all underworlders. She sighed loudly, not caring what the other occupants cared before running a hand through her long, waving dark hair. It matched with her sisters. Hair like a raven's feathers. She pulled it all up to a messy ponytail so it was out of her way. There was no point making it neat, she probably would end the night looking overworked and messy so why start it looking immaculate?
Ready to start her shift, Adelaide finally surveyed who was in tonight. It was quite busy. A warlock sat at the bar a few metres from her. She recognised his face, but his name evaded her. There were so many regulars; she never bothered keeping track of them all.
Glancing the circumference, she saw nothing out of order and turned to her left to see one of only 5 people who ever worked here- Grace. She was also a bartender.
"Hey!" She smiled that perfect grin at Adelaide like she did every night.
"Hello." Adelaide replied through gritted teeth. Grace was a human as well, how her dim-wittedness hadn't got her killed up to this point Adelaide had no idea- although she hadn't been working here that long.
"So, last night when you weren't here, this really cute guy came in- I think he was fae but I'm not sure, but anyway he was just sat at the bar right here, and I started talking to him, y'know friendly chat and that but he started talking about…"
Adelaide had already stopped listening. This useless talk was what she despised more than anything. She served a man who looked half cat a regular shot of some spirit or other, before looking around the room to take her mind off Grace's monotonous storytelling with no real point.
That's when she noticed him.
He was tall, and broad. He had his back to Adelaide but she was sure she recognised seeing him. As if it was embedded deep in her memory. Somewhere dark that she kept shut away.
His hair was dark and slicked back smartly for such an informal setting. Adelaide mentally begged for him to turn around so she could see his face. Almost as if sensing her gaze, the man turned his head round to the side to meet her eyes from across the room.
He had an attractive face, it was defined and he had that look of wisdom about him, something that she usually found attractive in men, but that wasn't what drew her attention. It was his eyes.
They were red. A vampire was sat mere metres from her.
But not just any vampire, she knew this one. She just begged to any god that would listen that he didn't recognise her.
It wasn't that vampires were rare, they were as common as werewolves, but they were not seen or heard of often as they kept to the shadows. No other Underworlder seemed to notice or care that a vampire was in the room. Probably the latter. Vampires kept to their own if everyone else did. The only other thing that needed to fear them was… humans. Their food.
He was still looking at her, but recognition didn't seem to flash across his ruby eyes. Unless he was hiding it well. Adelaide was barely registering if Grace was still talking to her.
Not after long, he stood from his seat and left whoever he was talking to, and without shifting his gaze, made a direct path for where Adelaide stood, frozen from fear, but predominantly anger.
When he reached her, he leaned over the bar top, only inches from where she stood.
"Why hello there," he purred. He didn't recognise her, Adelaide immediately realised- he probably thought she could be his next meal, as he didn't seem to think of the memory Adelaide had of him.
"Now, would you mind getting me a drink, love?" He growled, lowering his voice for a seductive tone, one that would have no effect on Adelaide.
Vampires had many special abilities, one of which was to sense and manipulate emotions- she was surprised he hadn't sensed her fuming anger yet. Hopefully he was too drunk to notice the disgusted face she had plastered on, or feel her emotions.
Adelaide looked him in the eyes and did not turn around to get a drink. She met his red eyes and started, deep enough as if he had a soul she could look into. If looks could kill, he would be spilling his entrails on the floor before him, for the look she gave him was one of years of pain.
As this was the vampire who had murdered her parents.