Chapter 2
"Descent"
She heard her high heels click against the very edge of the building she stood on and adjusted the cloth that hung from her mini-skirt, over a pair of pantyhose tucked into her wide-ankled boots. Clutching a large, thin box in one arm with a heart on the front with spades at the four corners, Diamond Finesse looked down on the streets and surveyed the open area. The moon was beginning to wane tonight, but there was still enough light that she didn't need technical aid.
She fixed the tight-fitting white sleeve she wore on her right arm, flicking away what draped over her left from the wide-sleeved fixture there. The top of her "superhero" outfit consisted of a silkish material draping over the front from a black spade in the center of her chest, linked by a pearly chain to the choker around her neck. That all was over a body-fitting, neat-woven material covering her chest, midriff to her stomach with a low-dipping collar. Her short, black hair slicked back on her skull, the only pieces of hair in her way were the tendrils in front of her eyes.
Finesse crouched down and opened up the card box she carried, pulling out a red-colored poker chip.
"All right, you little sucker," she said to herself as she clicked a small button to activate a tracker, "Let's see where you're hunting tonight."
No sooner had she begun to track down her victim did she see Jump City's famous protectors pass her by. She narrowed her pale, green eyes and sneered.
"Could've done without the competition," she revised. "Damn troublesome."
Diamond Finesse opened the card box that she had slung around her waist and fixed her standard 52-card set into the box, along with the poker chips she carried being in a separate pouch on that same belt. Her larger, thinner box detached in two pieces, and she carefully applied them to match the footprint dentures to her heels. There was a click indicating they would stay in place.
She jumped down from the building head-first as she activated the thin jets built into the two box pieces, and flew away. It would give her more mobility, and she eyed the poker chip that was flashing white in her hand. The faster it bleeped, the closer she got. Beating the Titans would be a problem—they had the head start.
Mounted on his trademark bike, Robin gave a layout of the plan they had to catch their vampiric perpetrator. After Raven's report to them the other day, he was sure there was a way to track this creature and kill it, or at least interrogate it to see if it had friends. Friends were not what they wanted.
"Okay, the newest victim was attacked at the docks! We'll split up and do a clean search of the area! If any of you find anything suspicious, report it immediately and we'll meet up to try and capture this thing! Remember, don't let it bite you!"
The other Teen Titans voiced their understanding before reaching the docks and splitting in four directions. Robin took the straight path, while the others took sideways and backtracking paths.
The Teen Titans searched the dock high and low for almost an hour until their communicators cried a signal for a report. Raven was the one to appear on the screen.
"South side of the docks, making his way to the back alleys. I'll trail him and keep you updated on his status when necessary."
"Affirmative," Robin replied through his communicator. "Good job, Raven. We'll be there as soon as possible."
Raven tucked away her communicator and eyed the tall, black shadow taking its meal from a male victim. The vampire's face turned sideways, but she still couldn't see his face, which was veiled by thin strands of stringy black hair. It spoke a language that sounded Slavic before gently knocking the victim unconscious, attacking a sensitive bundle of nerves in the neck. At least now she could determine the general ethnic descent of the vampire and try to get a clearer grip on its possible powers.
The vampire paused in his movements. He looked to be the age Beast Boy described; from the back, at least. Suddenly, he turned around, becoming sensitive to the thought of a follower, and she hid herself behind the wall. Straining her ears to listen, Raven heard footsteps approaching closer and closer.
Just as the nocturnal creature turned and looked down the streets, Raven phased through the wall with her soul self to the top of the building and watched. This time she had a slightly clearer picture of his face. A flat nose, a sharp chin, and piercing red eyes. He wiped a clean trail of blood from his mouth and sunk back into the alleyway, then leapt up, unbelievably reaching the building just across from her.
"That was some impressive shadow magic you used, but it's stupid to use it if it won't serve its purpose."
Raven stood up. No purpose in running if the jig was up.
"It's not shadow magic," she growled, "But it will be enough to stop you."
The vampire turned around and stared her down in the face, smirking before leaping over to her own building. He stood and put his hands on his hips, revealing the wing-like attachments to the sleeves of his long, black trenchcoat.
"Bitch. You need silver to hack my head off." he boasted. Raven ignored the name-calling, glaring at the vampire from under her hood. He laughed at her.
"Your voice is distinctly accented. Romania?"
He scoffed, "Russia." In his heavy Slavic accent, he added, "Those conservative Ancients in Romania haven't been alive for centuries." Raven shifted into a stance to attack just in case she should have to defend herself.
"Why travel so far to conduct your hunts?"
The seemingly teen-aged vampire lifted a single, thin eyebrow. He smirked, revealing his fangs. They were definitely very sharp.
"Where I go, I go."
"But even in its present economic state, Russia should have a plentiful population for you to feed on." Raven argued. The vampire chuckled.
"Oh, you'd be surprised." He moved his neck and head in a liquidated motion, licking his exposed fangs. "We are more numerous than you think. You could say that our kind must soon require a migration, though our Elders believe to remain with our roots is the best course of action."
Raven secretly prepared to try and weaken this vampire who stood in front of her, to ease the capture for when Robin and the others arrived. The nocturnal hunter crossed his arms, looking puzzled.
"I am unfamiliar with the general...customs of this country."
Raven arched an eyebrow under her hood. "Oh?" she piqued. Her enemy nodded, sighing.
"Yes, is it...is it such a common tradition to bait one such...'attacker' as myself? Because you must not be working alone, by the way you are luring me to...monologue..."
Raven paused. "...I underestimated you, vampire." she admitted. "But that won't make a difference!" And at that moment, she lifted up her arms and shot her hands out to throw a quick-attack spell at him which required no chanting. A blast was seen as well as heard, but Raven was shocked to suddenly lose track of the creature's position. She tried to pinpoint her enemy, and only found her head jerking left and right, and her body moving in alternating circles.
Arms clutched Raven from behind, yanking her against a solid body.
"Underestimated me..." the vampire snarled. Raven yelped a sudden cry when a sharp sting of pain etched under her skin at the muscles between her neck and shoulder. She felt blood rushing to the spot, and instantly knew what was happening. She attempted to struggle once, and her enemy presented a surprising show of strength to lock her into a stiff position that would give her no upper hand. The vampire was done after exactly three seconds, and let drops of Raven's blood drip onto her clothes before licking his fangs. He threw her to the ground, and he saw her face.
"...More than you think."
Growling and bleeding from her wound, Raven attacked again, and missed again. She thrust her body forward from the ground, only to find nothing. Once more, she scanned the immediate area, but found nothing. She had lost the perpetrator and had also been bitten. Raven felt over the two freshly-pierced holes in her skin that had broken through the material of her outfit, and rubbed the drops of blood between her fingers.
"Raven, what happened?" Raven turned her head on the streets to find Robin and the others finally arrive. She held her hand over the bite wound, applying some pressure to the seeping blood. Robin jumped off of his motorcycle. "Where's the vampire?"
"I...I lost him. He was too fast."
"Too fast?" questioned Robin. "What did he do?"
Beast Boy shapeshifted to his human form. "He might have accelerated speed or something," he suggested. Raven nodded.
"That must be it. Whatever the case, I couldn't keep him here."
"It's okay. We lost him tonight, but we'll get him tomorrow." Robin said. He saw Raven's hand on her shoulder and frowned, walking up to her. "Let me see. Did he bite you?" Some pairs of eyes widened at the thought. Raven sighed and removed her hand, showing the bite. Beast Boy went crazy.
"Oh, my God! That's great! Just great! Now Raven might turn into a vampire, too!"
Starfire gasped. "Please say it is not true, Raven!" she cried. Cyborg stonily waited for the answer.
"Raven, do you think you'll be okay?" asked Robin, keeping a cool and level head. Raven nodded.
"He didn't take enough to harm me. Only a sip's worth, if anything. But he shouldn't have bitten me in the first place..."
"Hey," Robin said, patting her shoulder, "You said yourself he had some sort of accelerated speed. There's no way we could have known that. At least now we know we'll have to be more careful when we fight him."
"So are you going to turn, Raven?" asked Beast Boy, rushing up to her. "Didn't take a lot? Didn't make you drink his blood? Didn't weaken you or something?"
"I said I was fine." Raven repeated. "If he had done something I was concerned about, I would have elaborated on the bite." Beast Boy still stared at her with worry sketched in his features, checking her over himself to reassure his assumptions. Starfire took Raven's answer as a good sign and sighed with relief.
Cyborg clicked his tongue. "Damn, how old do you think this thing could be? You know, bein' that it's immortal an' all."
"What'd he look like when you saw him?" Beast Boy asked. Raven thought back on the face of her attacker.
"...At least seventeen, maybe eighteen. He was definitely the one who's been attacking everyone lately." Beast Boy pumped his fist in the air.
"Yes! Score! We've found our perp!"
"He was a vampire with Russian descent." Raven continued. Cyborg crossed his arms.
"So what's that mean for us?"
Raven drew her cloak around her body. "It means he may be from a very long line of vampires, which means he'll be much more powerful than we think. He might still have some abilities we don't know about."
"Like?" asked Robin. Raven shook her head.
"I'm not sure. Speed enhancements, sight enhancements, shapeshifting abilities...those are some definites. Vampires that are from a Slavic bloodline tend to pass on the ability to transform into a bat during the daylight hours, but only to the males. Even then, it could be a wild guess. I've read in some more recent scriptures that the power to shapeshift is becoming harder and harder to find, simply for the fact that the vampires are beginning to adapt to their modern surroundings."
"That'll be enough information for now," Robin said. "We'll go at it again tomorrow night, when the trail can still be fresh. As soon as it gets dark."
Cyborg's vision turned to the alleyway when he heard a weak groan. He was surprised to find the victim stirring.
"Hey! We got a live one here!" He approached the waking teenage boy, and tilted his neck. Cyborg looked up at Robin when the others came to check it out.
"Not surprised to see he got bitten. Must've interrupted his dinner, Rae."
The young man looked up, confused. "Hnh...? Where's Alex?"
Beast Boy coiled back. "Alex?" he blurted.
"Yeah, Alex...my name's Greg...Alex was here a moment ago..."
Robin frowned. "That must be his name."
Greg blinked. "Why, what happened? Did something happen to Alex?"
"Yeah, somethin' happened." Cyborg replied. "He leeched your blood like a parasite. Feel the bite mark on your neck?"
Greg's eyes widened and his hand flew to the place on his neck where "Alex" had bitten him. "Leeched me? I thought it was a hickey!"
Raven pulled up her hood. "Greg," she began, "Do you clearly remember consuming any blood?"
"N-No, why? Alex is some sort of vampire? Is that why it's bad I got bitten?" he bowed his head. "I mean, I know he said he liked it rough..."
Beast Boy jumped. "Way too much information," he mumbled. "But Alex? What happened to the cool-sounding Dracula names? Like, the 'anovich' names? Alex?"
"It's short for Alexander." Greg said. He looked between the five Teen Titans, frowning. "Look...I'm totally confused. A moment ago he was feeling me up and giving me a monkey bite."
"Perhaps we should check to be sure he is not...infected?" suggested Starfire. Robin nodded.
"It's a good precaution. Greg, would you mind if we took you to the Titan's Tower for a blood sample? We want to be sure you won't be turning into the same thing that Alex is."
Greg bit his lip. "So he really is a vampire?"
"Yeah, and we wanna make sure you're still human by sunrise." Cyborg explained. Greg sighed.
"Then, by all means, I guess. God, and I thought he was just some off-the-wall queer..."
Starfire frowned. "He...'swings both ways'?"
Greg grinned. "Why don't you ask him? Personally, I wave the rainbow flag."
"Alex" shorted his tapping into super speed roughly thirty city blocks from where he'd had a run-in with Raven. Walking back out into the empty streets, he sighed and turned a corner. Suddenly, he jumped as a young woman stared him in the face, grinning.
"And just when you thought your problems were over." she said sarcastically. Stunned, "Alex" was caught off guard when Diamond Finesse sucker-punched him. When he recovered, he swirled his tongue over his teeth to make sure he still had his fangs, and then glared at her.
"That wasn't very nice," he snarled.
"Neither were you." Diamond Finesse produced a blue-colored poker chip between her fingers. "I tried asking you, then I tried telling you, but you just never listened, Vincent."
Vincent glared at Diamond Finesse and stood up on his feet. "I told you firmly I'd be staying here. Nothing you do can convince me to go back to Russia." He sighed. "Vanessa...let me come home with you."
"No!" Finesse grabbed Vincent by the collar of his zip-up midriff shirt. "I will treat you exactly like the thing you've decided to become, Vincent—a sucker invading my hometown!" She held up the blue poker chip. "And no amount of sweet-talking or vampire charm will inspire sympathy!"
"You intend to hit me with a miniature strobe light?" asked Vincent. Finesse glared at him.
"You would prefer I tie you down in front of my blinds and wait for sunrise?"
Vincent gazed into Finesse's eyes, treating her as the Vanessa he was familiar with, and not the Diamond Finesse who threatened his existence.
"At least...in front of your blinds...I can die close to your home."
"Besides, the pain wouldn't last as long." Finesse hissed, leering at him. Vincent scoffed.
"You're a tenacious little thing, do you know that?"
"Don't tempt me, suckhead," Finesse grumbled. Vincent glowered at her and grabbed her by the shoulders, slamming her against the wall and flicking away the chip in her hand.
"The terms of affection are growing a bit stale, Vanessa."
Vanessa struggled in futile bursts of power. "Let me go, Vincent!"
"First, you admit to me those four simple words you have collecting cobwebs in the back of your brain. They need air."
Vanessa snarled. "Only at sunrise."
"Fine, if that's the way you want to play it, I'll give you another night to reconsider." Vincent leaned in close enough to allow his breath to touch Vanessa's skin. "Good night, Vanessa."
Vincent morphed into his bat form and flapped away before Diamond Finesse could do anything to harm him further. Finesse watched him leave, and then crossed her arms, growling. She'd let him get away again—this was the third time. It would soon become the last.