Shadow Hidden in the Darkness
Chapter two: Remus
Her? Blood
relation to one of the families that my own had been suffering against? What
utter nonsense! Certainly not that little girl. I was inside one of the many cafés they
had in San Francisco. Somewhat large,
dark, and full of ear-pounding beats, it was a favorite spot of many vampires
in that area of the country and most certainly a favorite of mine. Plenty of humans looming around the front of
the place, dark and shadowy surroundings, and the drinks were pretty good,
ranging from anything to bottled water to bloodwyne, a drink made with blood
and some type of wine, depending on the bartender. The floor was made of polished, dark brown wood that was cast
blue due to the infinite number of the many laser lights they had flirting
around the place. It had been here for
quite a while, and though the managers have come and gone, the place has been
kept more or less the same, save the fact that the music has changed throughout
the years. The bar was of oakwood and a
few shades darker than the floor, matching the shelves in the back where they
kept the wines and other beverages. Add
this to the crystal wine glasses just above where the bartender worked, and it
looked like a classic bar one would see in the old black and white movies. At least, it would if there wasn't an
occasional blue strobe light running across it every now and then.
The deep crimson stool I was sitting in squeaked
slightly under my weight as I turned from the bar to study the guests in the
club. Lifting a hand to brush back my
dark brown hair out of my eyes, the corners of my mouth turned up
slightly. No, not in a smile. I hardly ever smile, I suppose I'm just
never in the mood.
At the time, I was wearing a midnight blue, relaxed
fitting sweater over a similar colored t-shirt. It was winter, and I wanted to blend in and not draw attention to
myself, so I had of course put on something warm. The sweater really had no pattern on it; just a simple one,
looking as though it had been knitted. The jeans I wore were of a navy blue, a few shades darker than the
sweater, not loose fitting, not tight, but just right. You couldn't get jeans like this just anywhere,
they were of high quality. I find I'm
disgusted by the new style jeans they come up with…Children these days! No taste in clothes whatsoever. The jeans were pulled over a pair of black
boots that came up just over my ankles, so the bulge of the boot cuff didn't
show.
I set my drink, which happened to be bloodwyne, down on
the counter, it making a soft clatter as it came in contact with the wood. I doubt anyone, except others such as I,
heard the sound as the music was so loud. The song, tune, whatever you wish to call it, was one of those new
"techno" beats. Incredibly fast paced
beats with no words, only various instruments who's names I do not know, nor
wish to know, thank you.
I leapt gracefully off my stool, and landed silently
on the ground having caught sight of a girl by herself in a corner. Waiting for someone, most likely. Alone, worried…should be easy enough, I
thought with a small smirk.
Walking across the dark-colored wooden dance floor, my
shoes made a soft "tap-tap" noise as I strode over to the girl, assuming the
friendliest expression I could, my eyes flirting over to her, arms swinging
just slightly, the corners of my mouth tugged upwards just barely, not quite
smiling, but not wearing my regular expression either. Upon crossing the vast ocean of dancing sharks and always zooming, always
shooting blue-colored lights, I reached her. I stopped and smiled, my dark eyes seeming to light up as the grin
spread across my pale features. She
turned her head, her blond hair whipping back her shoulders in surprise to my
sudden, silent appearance. Her green eyes
looked me over, took in my clothes, my pale complexion, my jet-black eyes, my
dark brown, almost black hair which was combed back at the time. She smiled back at me and said "Hello,
there. What's your name?" Fool girl.
I played along with
this..this foolish game of where the one partner leads the other on, then
leaves it up to them to start the music. I find humans foolish. Find
their habits foolish. Don't get me
wrong.. I felt the same those many
years ago when I was still alive. I
sort of set myself apart from the rest of humanity and watched them as a bird
watcher might watch a group of rare birds, oddly different from the rest. I didn't just develop this attitude when I
was changed, heavens, no. My views on
humanity have changed very slightly over the years in which I have been able to
study them from an entirely different point of view.
I returned her smile,
having dropped it unconsciously while I was recalling a bit of my past
character. "Does that really matter?",
I asked her, taking her hand and raising it up to my lips, kissing it softly
before letting it go.
She was surprised at
my response and even more so by my action. I was in one of the darker, pooroer areas of London, England and I
suppose she didn't meet many "gentleman" (I smiled inwardly at the word,
wondering what she'd say if she had guessed what I truly was, though the girl
most likely didn't believe in such "superstitious nonsense") in this part of
the city.
She smiled once more,
from the action or from my influence I couldn't say, and murmered, "No..I
suppose it doesn't." Straightening up,
I smiled at her yet again, yet pitied her at the same time for having succumbed
to my "spell" so easily and so quickly. "Care to go outside? It's rather
loud here, don't you think?" Nodding,
she followed me outside to the side of the club.
I led her outside,
away from the crowd and then noise and
into the night, the shadow-filled night which harbored me so easily. She seemed
to be thinking her decision to leave the building with a strange man (or at
least..something that resembled one..) over now that we were away from the
roaring crowd and into the darkness of the night. She looked back at me, her black hair billowing a little in a
light breeze, her light brown eyes looking me over again as if trying to
discern what kind of person I was. Once
again…fool girl. Why must humanity
insist that everything is exactly as it appears to be?
Seeming to relax a
bit, she said, "You know..I should really be going back.." I looked into her eyes and felt her slip
slowly into a state of relaxation in which she allowed me to gently take her by
the hand and use it to draw her toward me. "Are you absolutely sure you couldn't stay here with me a while?", I
whispered to her, her mind numbing at the sound of my voice. She was now drawn up to me and was making a
reply of some sort while I lowered my face to her neck and gently, very gently
nuzzling it then pulling back just a bit so I could examine her features as to
see just how "out of it" she was. (She had now stopped talking and had her eyes
closed, her mouth open just slightly)
Smirking a bit, I
stroked her face lightly with my right hand. If she had not been completely in a state of relaxation, she was
now. Most vampires simply induced sleep
upon their victims. I did that
sometimes, when I was in a rush, but I much prefer to simply get them into a
state of hypnosis. They don't struggle
and I don't have to go through the trouble of holding them up when they're
about to fall after going to sleep.
The girl was breathing
deeply and I placed my hands on her shoulders while my fangs slid down. Drawing her close to me gently so as not to
rouse her, I sank them in neatly into her throat and drank. The bloodwyne had not sated my thirst,
rather it gave me a craving for something fresher and I took it gladly,
drinking in more of the girl's blood.
Like always, the
memories of her life came to me as quickly as the blood, however I had learned
to push them away, and push them away I did letting her blood roll over tongue
a bit before moving it down into my throat, swallowing it gratefully and
supporting her body on myself when she started to pass out from the blood
loss. I had my arm around her waist,
continuing to drink, trying to satisfy the thirst I had developed over the past
few days.
I finally dropped the
girl, having finished with her and licked my lips, my fangs sliding back into
my mouth. I hadn't fed in a couple of
days..simply hadn't found the time, busy as I had been. Needless to say, I was quite thirsty at the
time and dissapeared, off to find another victim.
Back in the United
States, I was sitting in a vampire club called Calypso. (Named after the nymph in The Odyssey
by Robert Fitzgerald Homer, which entertained Odysseus for seven years while he
was marooned on an island.) The club
played its music just as loud, if not louder, as the club in London, and it had
a far wider range of varieties. I was
drinking, as always, another glass of bloodwyne. I'm rather fond of the drink, the wine stereotype of being for
the upperclass, the blood supposebly for the vampires, so I found it suited me
perfectly. (I have such modestly, do I
not?) The glass, the wyne, everything
was tinted a crimson shade due to the flashing lights that dimmed and boldened
depending on the beat of the song that was playing. I took another sip of the wyne, but lowered my glass and look
over the brim of it to Sheila, one of the usual vampires that came to Calypso.
Sheila wasn't really
old, though not that young. Made about
ninety years ago, give or take a few years, she had built up a reputation for
knowing exactly what, where, and when any events have happened. Sort of like the vampiric version of those
schoolgirls who make it their business to know who did what and so forth.
She was a nice girl, I
suppose, though quite annoying at times.
I sighed and looked at
her over the rim of my glass, "What is it, Sheila?"
She looked at me then
at someone over her shoulder. Who it
was, I couldn't say, though I knew she had obviously been put up to this.
Lowering my glass to
the counter, I asked her again, this time lowering my tone of voice. "What is it you came to tell me,
Sheila?"
She looked at me, her
brown hair tumbling over her shoulders. Taking a deep breath, she lowered her eyes and murmered. "Remus…Lyre's dead."
Well, of course, that
didn't tell me anything.
"Sheila," I said,
lightening my tone, though it must not have been lightened up enough, it seemed
she knew there was impatience behind it. "Would you like to tell me how Lyre died?"
"He…he was killed,
Remus..," she responded, her eyes still on the ground.
Is this girl going to
give me a direct answer, or am I going to have to pull it out of her mind? I chose neither.
Relaxing back on the
counter, I lashed out with some of my power, seeing it strike her and force her
back into a table of several vampires who's named I forget, all who got up and
moved. I'm not exactly a patinet person. She gasped and looked up at me as if
studying my expression would reveal what I was planning. "Sheila," I said, not
bothering to hide my agitation and impatience. "What exactly do you know about Lyre's death, and more importantly," I
lowered my voice. "How do you know
about it?"
"He…he was killed by
Matthew," She shut her eyes and continued stammering out. "I-I don't know where or why…and.." She
looked up at me pleadingly. "I can't
say who informed me and told me to tell you..he..he'd kill me."
So….Lyre was
dead. Well, that wasn't of much
importance to me! It doesn't matter to
me that he's dead, I didn't like the boy much anyway. What was important was that he was killed by someone who I threatened,
and that seemed like a challenge to my reputation, seeing as how he knew I had
taken to letting Lyre hang around.
"Sheila," I said,
softening my expression which seemed to relax her. I smiled almost sadistically walking over to her, stopping until
I was right in front of her. She saw
the malice behind my smile and leaned back onto the table, but I took her
lightly under her chin and used it to raise her up again, gently. "You really should tell me who it was that
told you," I whispered to her. I
dropped my smile. "Because if you tell
me, you die later. But if you don't
tell me, you die now…" Smiling again,
her pale violet eyes widened and she stammered out the name of her
informer. "B-Bran…he told me.."
Bran? I have heard very little of him. He was supposed to be somewhat strong,
though just how strong had yet to be seen. If I killed this girl, it would probably annoy him, but I don't think
I'd have anything to worry about. Very
few people have ever openly challenged me and those that did didn't live to
tell about it.
Why is this? I was naturally strong as a vampire, though
thanks to the one who created me, I had one other nice little gift.
Letting go of her, I
stepped back. The crowd in the club had
been watching, but seeing as I stepped back, they returned to their own affairs
and I saw, out of the corner of my eye, several couples a couples head toward
some of the rooms in the back. How very
entertaining.
Sheila's expression
relaxed and she started to turn when I lashed out once more, sending her back
into the table with such force, the heavy wooden table was knocked over, making
a loud "CRASH!" as the glasses that were on it fell and shattered, splattering
glass and various liquids everywhere. Coolly, I continued walking over to her, seeing her panic but remain on
the floor. Wise, should she have standed,
I would have taken that as a challenge and most likely have killed her. I'm like that, I suppose. I have a great reputation, and I wasn't
going to let a childe like this put a dent in it.
I shook my head. "Tsk tsk…shouldn't have made me wait so long
for the information, Sheila.." I smiled again, but my smile dropped as I was
thrown a step back, and knocked into a stool by some invisible force. She had thrown a whip of her energy at me. Now, really, she should have known
better! I had been planning on
torturing her a bit more before walking off and letting her live, but now it
seemed as if I had to kill her.
Frowning momentarily,
I took another step forward and lazily threw a whip of my own at her, smiling
in meager satisfaction as it successfully latched on to her own aura. She had her teeth gritted, sweat on her
forehead and her lavendar eyes narrowed. She was trying to throw me back, I knew. But I was far older than her, and of course, far more powerful
and reckless.
At this point, some of
the vampires who had been nearby got up and left the club. Smart move, I suppose as I was now about to
use my special "gift".
No one inside club
would have noticed, but the moonlight outside was suddenly covered by dense
clouds. Dark black clouds that rumbled
ominously and showed a spark of lightning now and then. Inside Calypso, I smiled again and
the shimmering space between me and Sheila glowed a light yellow and saw her
aura being sparking. I heard her gasp
in pain as some of the crackling glow moved toward her and my smile grew. I hadn't even started yet.
A loud crash of
thunder was heard outside and I felt my aura start crackling with
electricity. I held it in, waiting for
the crackling to build up and with the strength I had left, held Sheila down in
place. She was now crying out a little
in pain, the yellow instensifying and moving over her aura, and even some
tendrils visible, creeping over her body.
I could feel the
electricity building up and I gritted my teeth, my forehead perspiring from the
effort of holding it in. My eyes were
narrowed, the shimmering space between me and Sheila was now writhing around, a
bright gold. The hair on the back of my
neck and on my arms was standing on end from the high amount of electricity in
the air. Sheila was trembling, her eyes
closed and her head tilted up as she struggled to loosen my hold on her, her
hair flying around from the static.
The club was now
somewhat empty, though I could sense several of the stronger auras behind me,
in the far corner.
A loud, ear-splitting
crash of thunder was heard outside and even inside, over the blaring
music. I couldn't hold the electricity
in anymore and my eyes brightened up into a dark gold, a wicked smile playing
maliciously over my lips. I let
go.
A blast of golden
light illuminated the room and the sound of something rushing through the air
was heard coming from what seemed to be every directly while what seemed to be
a giant bolt of lightning zoomed through the shimmering space in front of me
and hit Sheila full blast. Her eyes
scrunched up in pain and she couldn't hold it in any longer; she let out an ear-piercing, blood curdling
shriek that I'm sure must have been heard throughout the neighborhood.
I sank down to one
knee from the energy it took from me, though it was plain I had enough for the
broad grin on my face. My eyes were
still a gold, though it had paled a little, black streaks now visible among the
gold.
The table behind her was now reduced to
nothing but a pile of cinders, and I'm afraid I could say the same for
Sheila. Ah, well. We all must go sometimes, must we not? Some of course, more quickly than others,
I thought with a slight laugh.
Pulling myself up by a
stool, I chuckled softly to myself, casually sitting down and sliding my glass
of bloodwyne over to me. The clouds
outside thinned and let out a light rain letting a bit of moonlight in through
the clouds, as if pouring out the tears that no one would cry when word of Sheila's
death got out. As I finished up my
glass, several people came back into Calypso, heading for the back
rooms. Honestly, what a nice society
we're living in..
As I slid my glass
away from me, I sensed someone leaving the club, but by the time I turned
around, he was gone.
