Darkness in Daylight

by Della C

A young man named Raven learns something about his favorite book characters...warning, this is an ongoing story, so if you're into stories that end, look somwhere else

1. This is actually 3 chapters...

Darkness in Daylight

By Madella Chorida

I do not own any characters mentioned in either In The Forests Of The Night or Demon In My View. I do, however, stake out a claim on Raven and the Deamons. Just FYI, that's pronounced 'Day-AH-mon,' not 'demon' 

Ch. 1

Bloody Feet.

A part Native American boy sat on the porch of one of the houses in Ramsa, New York. He had just moved in, and school was about to start soon. He would be a sophomore at Ramsa High. His father was a retired Naval officer, and his mother was dead. They had moved to Ramsa to be nearer to their relatives.

His full name was Thomas Andrew Warner, but everyone called him Raven. He was often considered an odd one, but here, no one seemed to care.

In his hands was a book called Tiger, Tiger by Ash Night. He loved vampire stories, and Aubrey was the perfect villain; a guy you really could love to hate. And Risika...well...she was everything that Raven liked in a female vampire character, silky-smooth, beautiful, and deadly.

But he wasn't reading it at the time. He was thinking about the last things said to him by the kids in his old school. No one liked him much. He'd never had a real friend. Sure, there had been kids who said 'Hi' to him in the hallways, and the kids who would share gossip with anyone, but Raven's true friends had always been the animals.

It had been this way for as long as Raven could remember. No animal ever ran and hid from him. It made hunting really easy, for his father. But Raven hated guns. If he killed an animal, he used old weapons, a spear or bow and arrows. He skinned it and tanned the skin. His room looked like a lions den, what with all the animal pelts inside.

But he never, ever killed birds. No crows, hawks, starlings, herons, or especially ravens would die by his hands.

His father called him. They were going to a party at someone's house soon, but Raven didn't want to go. He wanted to explore the woods nearby.

So he leaped up, and ran.  

 The forest was not incredibly dense, and he was able to move swiftly down the path in his bare feet. He hated wearing shoes. If he stepped on something, he ignored it. That wasn't very hard; he had an amazingly high tolerance for pain. He had once stepped on a four-inch nail when his father was stationed in Japan, and it went straight through his foot. He had hardly felt it, and had simply left it in until his dad, panicking, called the hospital and got him a tetanus shot.

But there was nothing for him to worry about here. The path was so smooth. A few deer gazed at him as he raced by. They seemed to disapprove of his breaking the silence of the forest with his running. The ground felt good under his feet, he felt like he could fly...when...

.... Crunch.

Raven looked down at what had made the noise, then cursed. "Damn it!" He said aloud. "What idiot would leave a glass bottle in the middle of a forest!?" Still grumbling, he sat down and pulled the shards of glass from the bottom of his foot.

His aunt had told him that he was a very lucky boy. His gift for taking pain was a very useful one. Raven had always thought that, (it was really a crazy idea,) perhaps it was she that had given him the gift. For, ever since his mother's funeral, ever since his aunt had blessed him, he had been this way.

He sat and frowned for a moment. What was his aunt's name again? He should be able to remember, but she was never around much. It had started with a 'T', he knew.

Raven looked up at a pigeon that was sitting in a tree overhead. "Have you ever been thinking of a name but can't remember?" the pigeon simply cooed. "Guess not."

Then it hit him.

"Tertia!" He shouted aloud, frightening the pigeon from its perch.

"Her name is Tertia Arun!"

Ch. 2

The House of Monkeys

                        Raven's foot was still bleeding rather badly, but he ignored it and continued walking. After a while, he stopped and sat down against an oak tree. Very slowly, he drifted into sleep.

            And he dreamed.

            Rebecca had to keep on running. The black hawk was still following her, but the falcon was gone. That means Mother hasn't made it. She thought.

            But there was no time to think. She had to keep on running and running. For...if the vampire managed to catch up with her...

            But why doesn't it just stop me? She wondered. It could just get into my mind and make me fall asleep. Maybe...maybe it's because of Tertia. Maybe it knows that the Arun line would avenge me...

            Suddenly, the voice of the vampire echoed in her mind. I do not care in the slightest whom you happen to be related to, mortal woman. I give chase merely because I enjoy flying. No other reason. A pause. Rebecca thought that maybe the vampire was giving up, but no such luck. Anyway, you're growing weaker. You can't keep this up for long. You'll drop soon.

            Rebecca gave a sharp moan of despair. The vampire was right. She needed water, and she couldn't keep running.

            But she had to.

            Come on, Becca! She shouted at herself. Keep going! One foot in front of the other! One, two! One, two! One...

            ...Fall.

            The hawk gave a shriek of triumph, accompanied by the vampire's mental voice. You see?

            Rebecca gasped for breath as the vampire circled down and shifted back to the form of a man. His black eyes were cold and unforgiving. "Ah! I do enjoy a good chase! Mortal woman, you are quite a fast runner!" He gave a smirk. "But that's all you are."

            Rebecca rolled her eyes. You've really messed this one up now, Becca. Just keep talking. The longer you talk, the longer you live.   "Yes, I know. That's all I am. I run. I hide. I'm the rabbit fleeing from the wolf. The prey hiding from the predator."

            "Yes, that's basically it."

            "Do you often have conversations with you're meals?" Rebecca couldn't stop herself from asking. "Or did your parents never teach you not to play with your food?"

            The vampire looked at her with a hint of admiration. "But brave! You know, if I wasn't so hungry, I might change you, woman."

            "In case you're interested, my name's Rebecca." She snapped. "And I'm dead either way, aren't I? So just get it over with. Kill me."

            "Well, Rebecca. Since you won't be alive to tell anyone, my name is Silver." Silver smiled, flashing fangs. "I think I like you, Rebecca. I will allow you to live long enough to do the one thing you truly wish to do."

            "I wish you would shut up and drain me dry already. I'm sick of your taunting." Rebecca's words were far braver than she felt, and she knew the vampire could sense it. Even as she snapped out her own replies to the vampire's taunts, she could not help thinking of her son... Thomas.

            "No. You want to speak to your son for one last time. How sweet. You humans really do build up a lot of useless sentiment among yourselves." Silver yawned like a cat. "I'll hunt somewhere else for tonight, but I'll be back for you tomorrow. Goodbye, mortal Rebecca."

            That evening, Rebecca said her last words to her son. "Remember, Raven. No matter who you are now or what you become later on, God and I will always love you."

            The pigeon squawking in his ear woke Raven with a start so sudden he forgot his dream. He flapped his hands at the irritating bird and shouted, driving it away. Unfortunately, he wasn't careful about where he was waving, and his hand snagged on a rosebush.

            Raven swore again. "Damn it! No matter what I do, I always managed to cut myself! I don't care if it doesn't hurt." He shook his injured hand. "I'm gonna get blood poisoning for sure. Else I'll die of blood loss. Ugh."

            Then, he noticed the odd color of the roses.

            Black.

            Raven leaped up. "Holy shit!" He cried. "What if...what if it's real!" He began running in the direction of home, the fear of Ash Night's vampire becoming real fueling his muscles.

            Beyond the rose bush, Silver watched in the form of a black hawk. The boy was powerful, more powerful than he knew. Rebecca had contacted the Arun witch and told her to watch over Raven. But all Tertia could do was give him a tolerance for pain of nearly vampiric levels. Silver found the boy interesting. He would keep a very close watch on him, for sure.

            When Raven reached his house, his father was prepared. "Thomas Andrew!" He shouted. "Get inside. Now!" For a brief moment, Raven thought about running away again, but the fact that his father was behind him sort of nixed that idea.

            "What did you think you were doing? And you knew we had to go to the Grey's house tonight! Go to your room, young man, and don't let me see your face until tomorrow morning! And tomorrow we are going to the Grey's house. We. Do you understand me?"

            Raven stayed silent throughout his father's ranting. But then he said: "You're going back? Again?"

            "No! I canceled it because of you! The whole point of this was so you could meet this Tyler Grey!" His father jabbed a furious finger in the direction of the stairs. "Now get to your room now!"

            Raven's room was rather empty. He had only been in Ramsa for about a week, and quite a lot of his things were still in boxes. So he lay back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. Quite softly, he began to sing. "Black blood. Enter your veins. Enter your mind. Enter your heart and soul. Black blood." It was a song that his mother had once sung when a sister of hers mysteriously disappeared and was presumed dead. She had thought he wasn't listening, but he was.

            Suddenly, the connections were made. Black blood. Black roses. The symbols of the vampires. Could it be...

            "No!" Raven said out loud. "It's a book! Don't be an idiot, Raven!" A pigeon cooed outside his window. Raven stood up and looked towards it.  "I didn't ask you. And anyway, what are you doing here? Oh, well. At least you're not the same damn pigeon as in the forest."

            The pigeon gave a squawk and flew away. But before it could get very far, a black hawk dropped down on it. Raven gave a sigh. "Well, that's one less annoying bird."

            He turned around, and almost screamed. A man wearing black was behind him. His eyes were cold as ice. But he was gone almost instantly. Oh, God. That HAD to have been a hallucination! Raven sank back down on his bed, and clutched at his chest. "Holy Night." He said aloud. "The stars are brightly shining and I'm gonna give myself a heart attack if I keep this up."

            "RAVEN!" His father shouted from downstairs, making him jump about three feet into the air.

            "What is it?" Raven called back. "An' you don't have to yell!"

            "I've got to go to the store for a while. I know I can't expect you to stay in you're room, but I've told the neighbors to page me if they see you take one step outside. Is that understood?"

            "Sir! Yes, sir!"

            The door slammed, and Raven ran downstairs into the living room. He made sure his father's car was out of the driveway before attacking the boxes where the books were kept. He ripped one open with his pocket knife, and dug around, looking for nothing in particular. He found a book called Timeline, and mumbled "Oh, what the hell." He began reading it, but swiftly became bored, and threw the book across the room.

            "I know!" He said, leaping to his feet. "Let's see what's in all these other boxes! Won't that be fun?" Raven often talked to himself like this. He figured that if it meant that he was insane...well...then he'd be insane.

            So he started rummaging through the boxes, and found his old hockey mask, a pole, an ugly green sheet, and some air freshener. Then the doorbell rang.

            Silver stood outside the boy's house, wondering what he would say. He couldn't be like Ather, and tell the boy to his face what he was going to do to him. But he wanted to see what the boy was like; get the measure of him. And make sure he won't do what his aunt did. Silver thought, a bit pessimistically.  

            When the door opened, a figure wearing a green sheet like a cape, and a hockey mask holding a pole and a can of air-freshener stood before him.

            "You have entered the House of Monkeys." Raven said, his voice muffled slightly by the mask. "Leave vile intruder from planet Z." Raven sprayed the air-freshener all over Silver. "There. Now you smell like lemons." The fifteen-year-old slammed the door in the vampire's face.

            Silver shook his head, half amused. He should have expected Rebecca's son to be like this. He rang the doorbell again...

            Raven almost laughed at the look on the strange man's face as he sprayed him with the aerosol. He didn't actually know what 'the House of Monkeys' was. he just made it up on the spur of the moment. Now, the man rang the doorbell again.

            Well, thought Raven evilly. He's askin' for it!

            Raven threw open the door, pulled off the sheet and tossed it over the man's head. "I told you to leave, being from Planet Z!" He said in his strange voice. "Now you must feel the wrath of the Keeper of the Monkey House!"

            "That would be you're father, I assume." Murmured the man from under the sheet. As soon as he managed to get it off, Raven pulled out a cheap water gun that he had bought the day before.

            "No, vile intruder from Planet X. I am the keeper of the House of Monkeys! And, if you do not leave, you will feel my powerless wrath!"

            The man gave a half smile. "Yes, I'm sure. I just wanted to know if your father was home, but I see that he's not. Now, I bid you good-day, young sir."

            Raven hadn't the slightest idea on how to respond to that.

            The man simply turned, and began to walk away, when Raven called after him. "Hey! What's your name! I have to take a message for my dad!"

            The man turned back around. His eyes glinted in the evening sun, but their color didn't show. They were black. He smiled, showing canines far to long and pointed to be human. "My name is Silver, young Raven. Remember that."

            Raven refused to show how surprised (and a little scared) he was. "Okay! And you'd best remember that I and I alone am the Keeper of the House of Monkeys!"

            Silver grinned, saluted, and disappeared.

            Raven just stood there, not quite knowing how to react. "Damn." He murmured, turning to walk back into the house. "Maybe I should go on medication...."

            Silver reappeared in New Mayhem, just in front of Las Noches. He paused for a moment to look up at the sky before stepping inside.

The place was chaotic, as usual. But it appeared to be even more so than usual, considering that two vampires of from his line were chasing one another around the room. One was male, Silver recognized him as Aubrey. The boy had been a bit of a pig in the past, especially where Risika had been concerned. But he had changed a little. The female who was chasing him looked only half angry. She was almost laughing, but that could have been because a few of the human boys were standing on tables shouting "Aubrey! Aubrey! Aubrey!" in a rythmic chant.

One of his own fledglings, Jager, was sitting on the bar laughing his head off. "Run, Aubrey!" He shouted. "There's nothing more fearsome than a woman in a rage!"

Young Ash answered this by slapping Jager as she ran by. He fell backwards off of the bar into the half human Kaei, who worked there.

Silver shook his head as he sat down at the bar. "You're a genuine piece of work, Jager."

The vampire's head popped up from behind he bar, his black hair was in a mess. "Aren't I though?" He helped Kaei to stand up again, then sat down next to his vampiric creator. "That little Deamon brat, Ty, came in here and spiked our drinks within seconds."

Silver smiled wryly. There were very few things that could make a vampire drunk; wine from the Deamon caverns was one of them. "I assume that he also provoked this?" he gestured to the back door of Las Noches, where Aubrey was carrying Ash over his shoulder, ignoring her pounding on his back.

Jager rolled his eyes. "Of course. He bet a human that he could make Ash notice him. He kept on pestering her and she, of course, ignored him. Then he made some incredibly obscene remark about her relationship with Aubrey. She responded by slapping him across the face hard enough to knock him down. Aubrey then told her to get up, they were leaving. When she asked where, he said: 'To my room, of course. We wouldn't want to prove Ty wrong, now would we?'" 

Silver laughed. "That sounds like something that little twerp would start. What did he give you anyway?"

Jager shrugged. "I'm not sure. Probably something he dragged up from the caverns. Little bastard. He always shows up to pull some stupid stunt like this."

"Who're you callin' stupid?" A raucous voice called from a table in the far corner of the room.

Kaei answered for Jager. "He's calling you stupid, Ty! And with right good reason, too!"

The Deamon boy made a face at her as he walked over to the bar. "High, ho, Silver! I assume you met this Raven character today?"

"I did." Silver didn't feel like going into details, but he knew that Ty would make him anyway, no matter what he thought. "He was exactly like I figured he would be."

"Could you explain something to me?" Asked Ty, his face and voice (for once) serious.  "Now, when it comes down to it, I'm not really as stupid as I act. And I can mostly figure out a reason for a vampire's behavior. But why do you have to study this Raven kid? I mean, what's the point?"

            Silver pulled a bottle of some unidentified substance from behind the bar. "Do you really need to ask that, Ty? Don't Deamons study whoever they choose to be their fledgling in life?"

            "We do, but vampires don't have the same need for strong fledglings as we do."

             Jager interrupted "Why do you need strong fledglings? Wouldn't they eventually overpower you?"

            Ty waved a hand dismissively. "Because we constantly have to fight for our race's survival. But Silver has yet to answer my question. Why?"

            Silver took a sip of the liquid he had taken, then sighed and set his glass on the bar. "Raven's family is a very odd one. His mother is distantly related to the Arun line. She had a sister once. I found her...interesting. Rather in the same way you found Fala interesting, Jager. I changed her, but she rejected it. She claimed she was going to feed; it was her first time ever killing anything I should add. But what she really did was take herself to that bitch Dominique Vida's house. When Vida answered the door, she said 'I am a vampire. Kill me.' So Vida did." Silver gave another sigh. "And that's why I never changed Rebecca. She would have done the exact same thing."

            "So that's why." Muttered Jager. "So you wanted to make sure Raven won't do the same thing, right?"

            "Exactly."

            Ty leaned forwards a little. "So, will he?"

            Silver shook his head and took another sip of the unidentified liquid. "I have no idea, Ty. Absolutely no idea."

CH. 3

DEAMON'S LAIR

            "I'M HOME!" Sarri winced. Her brother could make more noise than any other Deamon in the Nine Clans. "DIDJA MISS ME, SARRI?"

            "How could I miss an annoying little brat like you?" Sarri called back. "Ripfire's looking for you, by the way. He said something about some kind of alcohol you brought up from the caverns."

            Ty stopped dead in the hallway in front of his room. "Uh, just what did he say, exactly?"

            Sarri waved her hand, enjoying the look of pure terror spreading across her fellow Deamon's face. "I can't remember, really. Oh, it was something along the lines of... Oh, yes. He said something like, ah, 'If that boy's stolen more wine from the caverns, I won't rest until I have him over a slow fire!' That's all!" Sarri smiled sweetly. Ty turned a bit green.

            "I'm dead." He moaned. "He'll keep his promise, I know it! I'm gonna die!"

            "As long as you don't bleed all over my rug, I'm fine with that." Ty gave a theatrical wail as he slipped into his room. "And close the door, will ya?!"

            Life was never really quiet in the home of a Deamon. Of course, their houses looked exactly like a normal persons home, and nothing any human would notice would give them away as Semi-immortals.

            Of course, this applied solely to humans.

            Any other sentient creature of the night would be able to see at a glance that no ordinary being lived here. Not exactly see, more like sense. There were wardings up all around the property, and many minor curses set to prevent robbers.

            Suddenly, the front door flew open. A very tall, muscular, blond man stormed into the house. "TYYY!" he roared. "GET DOWN HERE! NOW!!!"

            Ripfire.

The door to the youngest Deamon's room opened and shut again with a loud smash, but no Ty appeared on the top of the stairs. Ripfire scowled. "Tyler Grey, get down here!"

No answer.

"Do you want me to come up there?"

The only sound from upstairs was a few stifled laughs from Sarri. Although she was slightly in love with Ty, she seemed to enjoy watching him get into trouble.

Very slowly, stomping down on every step, Ripfire climbed the stairs. "All right, young man! This is your last chance!" Three more steps. "Okay, Tyler! I'll count to three! One!" He took the first step. "Two!" He took the second. "Three!" He took the last step and stood at the top of the stairs, waiting for his fledgling to come out with his patented "I didn't do it" face that always seemed at the same time to scream: "Guilty!"

However, no teenager appeared. Ripfire prepared to yell again, when a growl from inside Ty's room startled him.

Very cautiously, Ripfire eased the door open, and got a surprise.

A huge panther, so black it was almost blue, stood in the middle of Ty's room.

            Ripfire crossed his arms. The panther was just one of Ty's many forms. Ripfire was about to make a comment about allowing cats into the house when Ty sprung.

            Normally, Ripfire would have stepped to the side just enough so that the panther would miss him and crash into the wall behind him. However, this was completely unexpected. Plus, Ty had apparently planned this out. The panther had disappeared for a brief moment, and when it reappeared it had already pushed Ripfire into the floor.

            The big cat snarled, then leapt down the stairs and zoomed out the still open front door.

            Sarri opened her window just in time to see Ty disappear into the forest in the back yard.

            As soon as he was out of sight of the house, the Deamon changed into the form of an eagle. In this shape, he flew to the only place he could hide.

            The Caverns.

            The Deamon Caverns were not your ordinary series of caves. Well, technically, they were. Every cave on earth was linked together, but only a Deamon could open the passages. It was very easy to get lost in the mazelike tunnels that seemed to shift their places regularly.

            Back in his human form, Ty paid for a ticket into Luray caverns. From there, he could easily get to the Tunnels. The Opening was almost directly next to the entrance to the cave. Plus, Luray was in Virginia. Ripfire wouldn't look there in a million years.

            The Deamon stationed himself at the back of a group. First making sure no one was looking, he became a shadow being.

            It was in this form that Deamon's were most feared, because they were silent and swift. They could kill someone without being noticed at all. Many Deamons could become completely invisible to all but another Deamon. Some could become invisible to all.

            Ty was in the latter group.

            Since no one was looking, he opened the passage. He slipped inside and quickly closed the Opening.

            Once inside the Tunnel, he began running again. If he stayed in one place for too long, Wyrna, the leader of the Deamons, would be able to sense his presence. And Ripfire would definitely go to her to help him find Ty.

            However, in Shade-form, Ty was stronger than any other Deamon. The boy knew this, but no one else did. Occasionally this bothered him. In his past, he had been called a devil-child constantly. The people in the town where he had lived were terrified of him, solely because of his silvery eyes.

            Then they had found out about his powers.

            Ty's mother had been a Triste witch. Like most children of Tristes, Ty had an abnormal ability. He could levitate. He could fly.

            Of course, this was over three hundred years ago, and the townspeople were Puritans. People like Ty couldn't survive in that environment. They needed something more.

            Then Ripfire had come.

            Even as Ty ran, he remembered his first meeting with the older Deamon.

            Tyler Grey lived in a graveyard just outside of the village. No one bothered him there. Every so often, though, a priest would come and try his hand at some exorcism. Of course, this only worked on demons. Ty was human, or so he thought. He had the power to levitate, and, when he heard two pair of footsteps, he used his ability to float above a gravestone.

            When the owners of the footsteps came into sight, Ty gave a short grunt and sat up straighter. 

            They were twins, identical to the last detail. They both wore black pants, made of a material that Ty didn't recognize. Their shirts were bright red, so bright that it left an after-image Ty closed his eyes.

            One of the twins came towards Ty. "Hey, kid. Do you know what a Deamon is?"

            Ty shook his head, no.

            "Do you want to know?"

            Ty shook his head, no.

            "Well, guess what? You're going to find out."

           

            Ty snapped out of his memories as he heard a noise ahead of him. He paused, and in pausing, saved his life.

            Just in front of him was one of the many dangers of the Deamon caverns. It was one of the Early Ones.

            Very few beings knew that nearly all creatures of the Night evolved from a similar being. This was an Early Vampire, or what some called a Shadow Leech. They would cling to you, and drain away your life force.

            Dammit! Thought Ty, angrily. Shadow Leech's are so easy to kill, but I'm gonna hafta take the long way around. I'll have to fight it.

            Ty lunged towards the misty figure. Its senses were even more refined than those of a current Vampire, and it danced out of the way. Then it attacked.

            It was a fight well worth seeing, but it's a good thing no one did, because anyone standing near them would likely be incinerated by the blasts of energy emanating from both the Shadow Leech and the Deamon. After about five minutes, (although it seemed much longer to the combatants) the Shadow Leech retreated, screeching in rage over its defeat.

If Ty weren't in Shade-form, he would have let out a sigh of relief. As it was now, he couldn't even pretend to breath like he did in flesh and blood forms.

            That was a close one. He thought as he began racing down the stone passageway I just hope Wyrna didn't pick up my power reading during that fight. Ty laughed. Now THAT sounds like something from DBZ! Note to self: Restrict Toonami viewings.

            Something kicked a rock at Ty from behind him. The Deamon spun around to face a short being with sand colored hair and a provocative grin. Ty recognized the being as a demon.

            Demons are not the same as Deamons. They are living, breathing creatures like humans, except they have been around a much, much, much longer time than the beginning of human prehistory, much less history. Also, they are far more powerful.

            But this particular demon seemed to be rather weak, even more so than Ty, and a lot shorter. He grinned some more and then said: "The name is Dan, and I'm the man. I talk in rhyme all the time. The rhymes are bad, so says my dad. But if you don't like it, you can bite it."

            Ty blinked, and shook his head. He knew who Dan was. He was the self-declared weakest demon of the Terra Circle, which was by far the weakest of demon circles. Many people thought that Dan was incredibly annoying, and Ty concurred. However, Dan was a messenger demon, and he only bothered people when he had a message. "Whadda ya want, runt?"

            "I just got a wire from Ripfire. Better find a portal, or you'll find you're all too mortal." The demon disappeared, which was supposedly impossible to do inside the Caverns.

            Ty rolled his eyes. The last time he had met Dan, it was in the Black Banner Circus, which was a meeting place for almost every low, dirty, and rotten being on the planet.

So far, no surprises yet. Ty thought. Then I had best just turn around and run the way I came. If I meet up with a Shadow Leech again, I'll just blast it out of my way, and Wyrna can go to hell if she reads my power level.

Now that he didn't have to worry about Wyrna, Ty could move a lot faster. It took him mere seconds to get to Luray. From there he transported instantly to his room. Once there, he grabbed an old, battered Manga, sat on the bed, and started reading.

The door opened, and (big surprise) it was Ripfire. The older Deamon glared at his fledgling. "Ty, where have you been?"

"Whaddaya mean, Rip?" Ty looked up innocently and held up his comic. "I've been reading here the whole time."