Maggie's Chanel Black Satin painted nails tapped angrily against the glass table top in the bistro across that one street with all the vendors. She chose an indoor table specifically. So she could block out all the noises on the street. She needed pure focus on the task at hand.
Her powers.
She needed to practice strengthening them. Her telepathy and earth magic were the strongest things about her. But any vampire could read minds. Only Maggie had a secret weapon. Most vampires felt more comfortable with shields over their minds. So as to block them from their own kind. But while no one was capable of breaking that shield down to peer inside another's thoughts, Maggie was. She could see past any mind spell.
Which was one of the many reasons Viceroy appreciated her being added into their clan.
She peered over the table and across the fancy restaurant–possibly the nicest place in this dingy little town–at a woman in her late thirties. Maggie focused her energy on the woman. Humans were so simple to read. No shield, no mind reading powers, and zero suspicion. It was also fun to read them though.
Vampires could sometimes feel you in their head once you broke a shield. It was like a tickle in your brain. Indescribable and awkward. But humans felt nothing. You could read them as long as you wanted. They wouldn't notice.
The woman was thinking intently about her lover. He was tall, blue eyes, and jet black hair. A little older than her. Her husband didn't know.
Interesting. Maggie smiled. She pulled out of the woman's thoughts. Not feeling the least bit guilty. Why should she? This was her gift. Given for a reason.
She focused on a small child. He was sitting at the table, looking bored out of his mind while his parents talked. He was thinking about the waiter coming with the burger he'd ordered and how maybe the food would shut his parents up. They were discussing their jobs. Again. He's had enough of hearing about lawyers.
Maggie pulled out again. She felt very much satisfied with her skills. They were strong as ever.
Finally her raw tri-tip arrived. She licked her lips and felt the razor sharp fangs hidden behind them. Thank god Manhattan had taught her how to be chic while ordering food that could only please a vampire.
Auria couldn't feel her toes. Her newly manicured, cotton candy pink toes were gone for all she knew. Her whole body felt tense and at the same time like it was a live wire.
I'm so stupid.
I'm so stupid.
I'm so stupid.
Her mind chanted. He probably only used her to lift the spell. She'd never see his blue eyes again. His brawny torso or sexy crooked grin. He'd probably run back to that Veronica bitch. For all she knew the whore could still be alive.
He could've made the entire thing up just so she'd remove his heinous spell and be done with it.
But then again...
She knew he couldn't have. He didn't seem like he'd do that. She felt her insides warm and the feeling in her numb toes came back. She wriggled them as they dangled off the end of the white chaise lounge.
She was inside her dressing room. Clothes were all over the place from a recent shop-and-try-everything-on-as-soon-as-you-get-home spree. Jimmy Choo, Christian Loubiton, and Miu Miu shoes boxes were stacked up against the door. A makeshift barricade.
She want to see anyone.
Her little self pity party was too much to bare. Auria had to maintain her strong and confident demeanor. Because right now she felt like everything was falling through the polished wood floors.
She scowled at her self and sat upright. Glancing around the huge walk in closet she laughed half heartedly, it looked like a garment tornado had hit.
On her way downstairs she saw Leon sitting by himself on the leather loveseat. The living room walls looked nothing like his pale complexion. Even though the Valspar paint they'd had it painted claimed to be "Powder White".
His back was turned but she could tell.
Something was wrong.
She was by his side on the couch in the blink of an eye. Her expression relaxed. She needed him to know whatever the situation, she could handle it.
"I know you'll handle it just fine, Auria."
She almost forgot her shield was down. She immediately put it back up. Her thoughts now hidden.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry. I just know you'll be fine hearing this. It's what you might do that worries me. Please keep in mind none of this is in your hands." he smoothed his hair with a quick wrist movement. "Daughter of Darkness or not." his voice sounded farther away with each word.
"Spit it out, Leon." She grumbled. She wasn't in the mood for beating around the bush.
"Something's...happened in Rio. Something that even Viceroy and I cannot begin to fathom."
Auria's teeth clenched. Vic could handle anything. Heaven or Hell, he knew what to do. If this was the one thing he couldn't handle, she wasn't so sure she wanted to know.
"It is not like anything that we've witnessed, or heard of except for in old Coven documents, it's centuries old . Even past lives haven't been around this type of thing. It is almost like, all of the sudden it's decided to surface again." he said going on without waiting for her response.
"It?" she raised a perfectly groomed brow.
"Yes. It's...a being. In some way." Leon looked like he was having a hard time saying this.
"A rouge vampire?" She guessed. Her mind wandered to a thousand different possibilities. "You know, Viceroy has handled hundreds of those."
"I'm aware. No, it is not a rouge. It's...much worse."
What could be worse then that? Rouge were notorious little monsters. They fed on anyone and anything. They had no desire to keep up any appearance and could care less that people were out to extinguish their population. They were horrible. Vampires feared the rouges would out their secret, like they've come so close to so many times.
But the worst part about them was their incredible strength. Stronger than a normal vamp, they could cause real destruction. They were the cause of many mass murders that were covered up for the human population's sake. It was so simple to feed the humans with a story like, an epidemic. Or some type of other fatal disease. Rouges were so far gone into madness and blood thirst that they had no problem with someone finding out about the supernatural. So it was up to the Covens to cover their menacing tracks.
Leon tapped his fingers against the leather back chaise and waited for Auria to answer.
"Leon. What is it?" She asked him, cutting to the point. "What kind of being is causing this?"
His deep intake of breath, set jaw, and sharp eyes were enough of a sign that this thing was much worse than she thought.
Finally he turned towards her and said the words that would set the entire global Covens on edge.
"It is the susceptor animae."
There were books turned upside down, thrown across the marble floors, stacked on top of the velour chairs, half open and strewn across the desk tops, and in the hands of three very panicked vampires.
To say the least, the library in the abandoned mansion was a disaster.
All 3,000 leather bound, hundred year old conspiracy books were practically off the shelves.
Jeremy was holed up in an alcove reading two of the Blood Script encyclopedias word for word. Not missing a single line of the book's descriptions.
Maggie was on her stomach, chin propped up by her hands, skimming the old texts of Byron, as avidly as if she were reading one of her manga books.
And Auria, who was leaned over in the velour backed desk chair, reading the old Coven agreement contracts, had her heart beating quicker each second that those two words entered her mind again and again.
Susceptor animae.
Soul taker.
It was something so ancient, so old, that the Coven believed it was forever locked up behind the Six Gates of Hell.
But alas, it had surfaced back in it's ancient birthplace. Brazil. The heart of the Covens. The center where vampires were born.
The Soul Taker was not exactly a vampire, or a rouge. It was a spirit. The almost opposite of the vampire. It is neither living nor dead, you cannot kill it. The spirit does exactly what it's name entails. Takes your soul.
Sometimes the whole thing, where you are no longer inhabiting your body. And other times just enough to destroy you as you watch through your own eyes. It's a parasite of some sort. A servant of Lucifer. And it is one of the only things that can kill an immortal.
Hundreds of years ago, when the Fifth Gate of Hell was opened, the spirit escaped from banishment. That was it's second attack. The first was it's birth, when the Coven was brought together. It took the immortals of Brazil to a low number and almost caused the Covens to disband. But through power and one of the most famous battles, the Soul Taker was, again, banished and locked up. This time, in the Third Gate of Hell.
The Gate of Power. One of the most feared.
But apparently it had surfaced again. Under the superior watch of the South American Coven and the rest of Rio's vampire population. Which made this, one of the most horrifying scenarios possible.
Viceroy had been around during the time of the birth of susceptor animae. So it was wretchedly ironic that he be absent tonight, the night of this hideous discovery. How much help he could have been!
Auria touched each page, the contents filtering into her mind without having to read them. Each passage of the contract stated different laws, agreements, and forbidden acts. Nothing here was helpful.
Her throat ached. She was defiantly thirsty.
She shoved the papers of the oak desk and rested her head in her hands, defeated.
And then she closed her eyes, something coming to her mind that blurred all this out for a moment. Yet at the same time reminded her she had her own problems. The vision was as beautiful as it was annoying. Ever present in her thoughts.
Hayden.
