The Enlightened By Josh T.
Prologue: They finally found me
I knew I was taking a risk in making contact with Rideon, I had not had contact with any vampire for 10 years, ever since I started started my ordeal to archive Golconda, vampiric enlightenment. The state of Golconda was thought to be a myth, something made up to make younger vampires think that their was something out their to save their souls. Well I found that, that state was not myth but fact, however it will not save your soul, but it gives you some nice perks. One of those perks was able to go for about a month without feeling hungry, instead of a week.
I walked into the dark warehouse, but any vampire could see clear as day in the dark, we are, after all 'Predators of the Night'. I saw Rideon, an old friend of mine, also a vampire, standing in the middle of the large chamber next to a small crate, about 25 by 25 yards, I saw around the outside edges of the chamber was a walkway about 5 feet across and 10 yards high, a perfect place for an ambush I noted It looked like it would have been a loading dock at one point. Now, it was abandoned and left to rust and rot. The windows were broken, but their was no moon and the stars were blotted out by the clouds.
"So Logar, I don't hear from you for 10 years and all of a sudden I get a call from you, out of the blue looking to get strapped. So where have you been for the past 10 years?" He asked, he was talking loudly, I could tell he was nervous but about what.
"I've, been away," I said to him, he made a small smile.
"I hear you went searching for Golconda," He said, that was more than he was suppose to know, how did he know?
"Yeah, I did," I said to him, I bent my knees, I could sense he was very tense now that I was a few yards from him.
"Did you find it?" He asked still smiling a little. I picked out a strange tone in his voice, contempt perhaps.
"Yeah as a matter of fact, I did," I answered, playing his game, hoping that my gut feeling was wrong. That this wasn't a trap of some sort. I started looking around but still, didn't spot anything.
"How dose it feel?" He asked, he seemed genuinely interested in an answer.
"It feels strange, it is nice not having to feed daily though," I said to him, telling him the truth. He seemed to digest this, trying to see through if it was a lie or not. I couldn't tell what his answer was.
"I hear your a wanted man," He digressed drastically. This made me stop dead.
"Where did you hear that?" I asked, trying to hide my now extreme paranoia. Rideon was never very preceptive. I was however very perceptive, very emphatic and with my heightened senses, thanks to auspex discipline. I could almost always see the true meaning behind someone's words or what ulterior motives are, wither they are hostile or not. And my years away from the hustle and bustle of the city only heightened my awareness. I would probability be the best psychologist out there, I could hear things, see things that others couldn't through someone's words, through their body language and their appearances.
"I have my sources," He said, he was hiding something, something beyond the obvious of his sources, something related to why he was nervous.
"Don't worry too much, they aren't after you for searching for the vampiric enlightenment: Golconda. Their after you for an entirely different reason," he finished, I needed more information, quickly. I had a feeling that something bad was going to happen, a foreboding I could call it.
"Who are they," I asked, trying to hide my eagerness, he might not be that perceptive a person but he wasn't stupid.
"They, are the royal blue bloods' dogs, Retrievers I think they call themselves, royal thugs are what I call them. The search and retrieve whatever any royal blue blood wants, no offense intended," He said, with more contempt than when I mentioned Golconda. I was a blue blood to, but not royal. Blue blood are the nicknames of those vampires in the clan Ventrue. They really are the Royalty of the vampire race. The populate the ranks of high society, aristocrats, lawyers, executive types, blue collars. Most other vampires loath them for they take the higher echelons of both the mortal and immortal worlds. However when theirs a problem, most vampires look to the blue bloods. Of all the 13 great vampiric clans, the Ventrue are the ones with the most "fingers in the pie" of both worlds. Almost all of the Ventrue vampires share one sin in common, Pride, they pride themselves on their positions and also their burdens. One of their few redeeming qualities is that the face their burdens with pride as well. Taking on challenges head on and with courage, stoically bearing their burdens.
"No offense taken," I commented, lightening up but not letting my guard down.
"Are those the weapons?" I asked, gesturing to the small crate next to him.
"Yes, that would be them, a standard package really, for a vampire. one heavy pistol with three clips, one clip with incendiary rounds, 12 rounds a clip, single shot or semi-auto. One bulletproof vest. One SMG with two clips, 30 rounds a clip, full auto or three-round burst. One finely crafted, expensive impersonator katana. And last but not least, a 200 trenchcoat, extreme black, fitted with the measurements you gave me over the phone.
"May I?" I asked.
"It's yours," He said. I couldn't help but smile. I ripped open the crate lid that was nailed shut with my bare hands. I grabbed the trenchcoat that was folded neatly on the top. And threw it up and let it slip on to my body.
"Show off, you were always a show off," Rideon muttered playfully.
"I don't show off often anymore but I still do get my moments every decade or so," I said light heartedly. I shook the coat from me, and laid it on the crate lid. I slung the SMG over my shoulder with it's strap, and loaded the trenchcoats clip holders I had installed. I picked up the pistol, unloaded it, saw a clip and reloaded it. I loaded up the pistol clips as well and holstered the pistol putting on the straps that made the pistol drawable from under my arm. I moved on to the katana, and carefully picked up the sheath, belt and all. I drew the exquisite blade, the inside of the blade was black but still reflected. I returned the blade back to the sheath and put the belt on. And donned my trenchcoat again. I pulled out a envelope from my pants pocket, and handed it to Rideon.
"3,000 US currency" I said to him. He took the envelope and stashed in somewhere in his coat.
"Pleasure doing business with you Logar," He said, extending his hand. I looked at it and shook my head. He withdrew his hand and started to walk away. I was following Rideon out the door of the abandoned docks when the door suddenly slammed down, just as Rideon exited. Lights lit up the room perfectly. I turned around quickly and saw 2 men in total black outfits, they looked like ninjas, only their eyes were able to be seen. The were holding SMGs on the walk way directly ahead of me about 25 yards away and 10 yards higher than me. I saw 3 men in the same outfit on the ground each holding a di-katana, or 2 handed katana.. I noticed that they had the symbol that resembled a eye on fire, on their uniforms. That must be the badge of the vampire that hired these guys I thought to my self. I could have swore that I recognized the symbol from someplace, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I crouched and was about to pull my sword and pistol when I heard a voice.
"Stop, before we start a fight, let me offer an alternative," I heard the voice say, it was coming from one of the men on the ground. One of the men moved forward, lowering his di-katana to ready position. I eased up on my battle stance, just slightly.
"I give you a choice, you can either fight us, and lose. Or you can come quietly with us to the palace of the Prince," I heard them say, Price rang some bells.
"Kaylinn didn't want us to hurt you too badly, but we need to take you in," He continued. Kaylin rang more bells. Kaylinn I said to myself, dreaming of the good times we had together. She was a vampire, turned so by the same vampire, we had the same sire. We fell in love, it was the best thing to happen to me, falling in love; not getting turned into a vampire. However she was favored by the Prince and was taken in and she stopped talking to me, she couldn't see me if she wanted to keep favor with the Price, It took me 5 years to recover enough for me to be able to go about my own business. That is when I went out to search for enlightenment. Kaylinn begged me not to go, she even used the Prince to try and stop me but I was gone before she could convince him to stop me.
"So she finally found me," I said, hiding my small smile from my face. I assessed my situation, 5 on 1, I bet they were vampires, I was pretty sure that they weren't as good as me in single combat, but together they might be able to bring me down. I didn't worry too much about the SMGs, I remembered the old lesson "A bullet is useless against a dead heart.", unless of coarse the rounds were incendiary rounds, fire is damage that even our resilient skin can not 'soak' up, but I could. I had such stamina that I could shrug off fire and sunlight, for a few seconds at least. The 2 others on the ground looked like they had seen combat, but I still think I could beat them. I figured I had about a 50 chance of surviving, 40 chance of dieing or being subdued, and a 10 chance of surviving but with too grievous wounds to get to a suitable place to get away from the sun. I had a feeling Kaylinn wanted me to hurt for leaving her, for abandoning her, she might even go so far as to torturer me. The odds were against me, I didn't like it, if it was just three than I would have a chance but it was five, not three. I sighed and held up my hands. The ninjas on the ground came forward, wary that I might try something. One of them went behind me and put a sword to my back. Ready to pierce my hear.
To pierce a vampire's heart will just paralyze the vampire, not kill them, to do that you need to inflict an awful lot of damage on the vampire's body. The other ninja, who wasn't the leader moved to my side and readied the sword to slice my arm off. The leader stood in front of me, sword out and ready
"Remove your weapons," He said anxiously, he was surprised I gave up without a fight, just as much as his men were. I pulled out my pistol and threw it a few feet away, I unslung my SMG slowly and tossed it with my pistol, I removed all my clips and tossed them with my weapons. I unstrapped the belt of my sword, and slowly set down the sword.
"Is that all?" He asked, I nodded.
"Against the wall please," I tuned slowly towards the wall and put my hands on it. The leader frisked me and after he was satisfied I had no weapons. He hit me in the back of the head with some sort of weapon with a circular striking face, I was out like a light.
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