In spite of Shadows
By Kaitlin Whited
Chapter one
When ever I close my eyes I dream of her. It is only a dream I tell myself but it fells so real. She is in my room, her long brown hair drapes over her blood red dress. Her white skin glistens in the moon light as she glides towards me.
She stops at the foot of my bed. The essence of death and beauty rolled in one. My heart races in my chest. I try to call out for help but my voice is confined in my throat. A smile plagues her mouth and it reminds me of a lioness about to consume her prey.
In a instant she is over me. Her hands hold down my shoulders as the rest of her slides on top. "Why are you here," my voice barely comes out as a whisper but she still hears me. I try to get up, to move, to push her off but her grip is iron.
"What's wrong don't like playing the victim," she laughs. Her grip on my shoulders becomes painfully tight and I fill like they will pop out of place. The pain she sees on my face makes her laugh even more.
She lets go of my shoulders and runs her hands along my face. A shiver rolls down my neck.
"Why are you here," I repeat, my voice a bit stronger.
Her hands go to the sides of my face and hold me so that I have to look into her eyes. Fear, pain, hatred all burrow into me as if they were my own. I have to look away but when I do I find myself staring at the scar across her neck. With her white skin it is barley noticeable but this close you can make out the thin line running across her neck.
She smiles when she notices what I am looking at. Gently she lifts my hand so it is now on her neck and guides it along the scar.
"But I ……I….. didn't do this to you." My voice brakes and she lets go of my hand. It drops like dead weight to my side.
"You did nothing to stop it either," she hisses.
"So your just going to kill me then."
"Kill you? Who said anything about killing you?" Her head drops and I can fill cold kisses making its own trail across my neck. The trail leads her to my ear. "All I want is blood for blood," she whispers. Then I fill a sharp pain at the side of my neck.
The sun had long since set but it wasn't until the wind blew threw the small cracks in the old house that Clause began to awaken.
He awoke in the attic of the house, hunger already gnawing his insides. He pulled the drapes from the only window and welcomed the night. "I see your awake."
The voice came from a distant corner of the room. It was rough and crude, unlike most of the race it lacked the hypnotic tone, however it was the only voice that had keep him company for the past forty-three years. "Good evening Bruno, how long has it been since the sun set?"
Bruno walked over and sat down on one of the old chairs that plagued the attic floor. "About 5 hours know. Your sleeping a lot longer lately." That was true, when he had first turned he was usually up before the last rays of the sun sank below the horizon, now he was sleeping later all the time.
The beast stirred reminding him it was time to hunt. "Hungry kid?" Bruno said as Clause walked past him to the stairs, "Don't bother looking for humans, the war has driven them off the street."
The moon greeted him as he stepped out of the old house and onto the ruined street. No one was on the street, not even during the day. For the most part, this section of the city had been evacuated. It was amazing anyone was left in the city at all since the bombing started.
Walking along, he managed to find a stray dog, two rats, and a cat. He drained them then continued to walk down the long line of buildings that once contained shops, now they had all been abandoned, with nothing left inside but dust.
He moved past them all until one of the shops caught his eye. It wasn't very special. Just another old brick building with broken windows and nothing left inside. It was the sign at the top that caught his eye. Harpers books. Where it all began.
Bruno was worried about his companion. Usually Clause would be the one up and out before Bruno could even open his eye's but now he was sleeping later and later. At first he thought it was just the drastic diet change from human to animal. Since the war began there was less and less humans to feed on, so they had to substitute with what ever they could find. Dogs, cats, chickens, rats all of them could sustain a member of there kind though the taste was awful, especially the rat. But Bruno hadn't been affected by the change at all, so why was it affecting Clause so.
What was going on with his cold blooded friend?
The shop had been abandoned for years. Probably even before the war. Old shelf's lay empty on the floor. Old newspaper and parchment where scattered everywhere.
'What are you doing here you fool? You know she's not here. No one has been here in a long while.' He took the steps leading up to the apartment above the shop. 'Why am I doing this?' But he already knew the answer to that. He had to make sure.
He entered the apartment. Like the shop, it was empty. Old furniture covered in dust was placed in the corner. "See no ones here…She's not here." he said aloud as if to persuade himself.
He stood at the window and looked down at the street below then at the sky above. How many times did she look out this window. A hundred maybe a thousand. He threw his head back and snarled. As if it mattered. As if she cares for you. Ha. You fool. You damned fool. And for the first time since he had turned, tears began to fall from his eyes.
Darksiders. That's what they were called. Vampires that could no longer walk in the light and they had been popping up everywhere.
No one is quite for certain why the light had forsaken them. Some said it was because God himself did not want them. That they where damned, and had no right to be in the sun with the humans. And maybe that was true.
There was another theory that darksiders had a disease that made their blood much weaker then the lightwalkers.
Bruno did not believe the first one. Sure he had killed people. Many people. Most of whom deserved it. But the lightwalkers had also killed people, and they didn't seemed to be damned. As for the second it was possible. Maybe they did have a disease, the question was how did it pass?
When one is first changed they can walk out in the sun as if they were a regular human. But then their eye's become sensitive to the sun, then blisters start to form on exposed skin, finally you can not step out side at all with out getting horrible burns even on covered skin.
The time it takes to also varies from darksider to darksider. Bruno's transformation happened in a matter of weeks after being bitten. Clause's had taken longer, about ten years longer. He changed though all the same.
It was twenty minutes until sun up, and Clause was still not back yet. Bruno started to pace the floor. Where the hell was he? If the sun rose then there would be no way for him to get back, at least not until night fall. Clause never stayed out this late, not since he became a darksider.
Was something holding him up. Was he caught by some solder out on a routine walk about? Clause was a vampire so he should have no problem dealing with the humans but then hadn't he been acting weird lately. Gotten slower more sluggish, could he be locked up in a cell right now? Or maybe he had passed out on the street, where he had no protection from the sun.
Bruno walked to the attic door just as it opened. "Where the hell have you been? Its ten minutes till sun up do you want to die." Clause shoved passed him and sat down on one of the old couches. "Did you decide to take a nap somewhere…Answer me!"
Bruno slapped him on the head hard enough to crack a humans skull.
Clause did not block the attack in fact he probably didn't even here the question. He had fallen asleep as soon as his body landed on the couch.
He was dreaming again. He was back in the book store but it was different. Books filled every shelf and several tables. There where people there dressed in the clothes of the era (woman wearing long dresses that cover everything but there arms, men in their fines suites) each skimming over a book or two.
The shop was nice and tidy. Blue and white wall paper spread out over the walls making the room homey. He walked through the walls of books, several people said "Hello" or nodded at him. He made his way to the back of the shop. There were boxes piled in the corner and another shelf of books lining the back wall.
"Excuse me Sr.," Clause turned around to find a girl carrying a large stack o books. "Could you help me sir I cant see where I am going."
"Yeah sure. Your in the back do you need me to help you."
"No. This is exactly where I need to be." She moved past him to the back shelf and dropped the books in the floor. "Are you looking for anything?" she said with her back still turned to him.
"Yes…No…I don't know."
"I see," she picked up the books and started placing them on the shelf. "Well what kind of story do you want action, adventure, considering you're a boy I doubt you would want romance." she said in a teasing voice
"How do you know I'm a boy, I could be a eighty year old man." He teased back.
"You don't sound eighty," she laughed, "you don't sound old at all."
"Aw, but just because I sound young doesn't mean I'm not old." He stated. She laughed again, he liked making her laugh. Her voice was sweet and it made him happy to hear it.
"Clause," said a far off voice, then the shop, the girl, everything seemed to fall away.
"Clause," Bruno said as he shook him awake, "we need to go now."
Clause sat up on the old couch and looked out the window. It was dark again, the sun had long since set and the moon was now high in the sky. "We need to go now!" Bruno was already rushing toward the attic door.
After gathering his duffle bag and went after him. Bruno was already on the next street before Clause could caught up with him. "What's going on? Are they bombing the area again?"
"No." The followed the river to the edge of the city. Humans where their but none noticed them mostly because they were moving to fast to be seen.
"Why the Hell are we running?" That's when he saw something moving beside him. It was only there for a fraction of a second, a dark shadow among the old buildings but it was there. "Ah Shit!"
"Glad you finally noticed." Bruno ducked inside a old building and Clause followed. When they reached the basement they both stopped. When no one followed them Bruno sank down to floor. "That was too close," fresh blood rushed down his arm, "way to close."
Clause sat down beside him and looked at the cut. It wasn't very deep, but it was a huge mess. Clause pulled off his duffle bag and took out a tourniquet then rapped it around the arm. "Why are you doing that you know it will heal soon anyway."
"Yes I know," he tied the bandaged tightly around the whom. "But if the day walker gets a sniff of it he'll figure out where were at."
"He already knows where we are. He's just waiting for…." Bruno didn't finish the sentence. He didn't have to. The day walker was waiting for the sun to rise. When they will be weak and easy prey.
Darius waited outside the building. He had been tracking the two darksiders for months now, and finally he had them cornered. The others would be pleased when he returned home with one of the abominations head on a silver palter. How well would he be rewarded.
He could go in there right now but there was two of them, and one was at least a ancient like himself. He would wait, the sun will rise soon then they would be easy pickings. The thought of the two monsters on the ground begging for mercy made him laugh.
"We need to make a run for it." Clause said, he grabbed the duffle bag and headed for the stairs. "If we split up we might be able to lose him."
Bruno didn't respond. "Or we could ambush him, one of us could lead him somewhere like the tower bridge, it could work."
Bruno didn't move or give any indication that he was listening. "Bruno? Look the sun is going to be up soon so we need to make our move now. If we wait here he'll just attack us, no wait he'll slaughter us."
"Would you SHUT UP!"
"Bruno!"
"I said shut up!" Clause fell silent. "Good, ok look the problem with your idea is that we have no idea how many are out there. He could have a partner which would make splitting up a horrible idea."
"But we cant stay here either!"
"I know that." It had been a long time since he was in this particular situation.
"We could fight him."
Ah, Bruno was wondering when Clause was going to suggest that. Usually he would have been all for that, he was of old blood very powerful, he would be fine but Clause..
Bruno sat and looked at his young friend. He looked so tired, weak there was no way he could survive a fight.