Chapter four: League of Immortals
Kristen was not a happy vampire. That morning, she had been woken up before seven because her perky roommate had invaded her mind to deliver a wide-awake notice. On a Saturday. But, as if that wasn't bad enough, someone had stolen the last of the Lucky Charms. After losing the ensuing fight with Mitch, she grabbed some sort of snack bar and trudged back up to her room, only to be dragged back down for a meeting.
In short, the day had sucked.
The night, on the other hand, was just getting started.
She had sensed them. She knew that they were watching her and her teammates. Two or more, it was hard to tell how many, but they were there. Vampires. Creatures like her. Ones who would understand her urge to kill and teach her to deal with it. And she had to meet them face-to-face.
Full moon hovering above her, she silently leapt out of her bedroom window. Cautious of the other house members, she closed the widow back and flew into downtown. Now, the full moon had a strange effect on Kristen, even stranger than her powers did. It was like getting into alcohol or some kind of narcotic, but without the hangovers. Usually, she fought it, which ended with her strapped to a bed or something of the ilk. Tonight, however, she gave full vent and let the glorious high of the silver orbs' glow wash over her. She was at peace with herself.
She didn't have to look for very long. They had obviously been expecting her. Three lesser goons and one group leader, adding up to four vamps. They were standing on a rooftop, waiting for her to land on the ledge.
It's a trap! The human side of her screamed. They want to kill you!
They want you to join them. Her vampire self replied. To make you like them. Why not see what they want? They can't hurt you anyway.
No matter how logical her human nature was, at this point, the very thought of having someone to talk to about her problems was motivation enough to make her land. She'd only just touched down when the two closest to her parted to let her step down. She complied without question.
"Ah, young sister." The leader said. "We've been waiting for you."
"Just you four?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Not really." The female of the group spoke out. The leader snapped his fingers and six more came flying to the roof of the building.
"I see." Kristen gulped. "Do you lot come with names?"
"I am Solomon." The leader replied. "You will learn the rest in time, Kristen."
Shit. "How did you know my name?" She asked. "And why did you lead me here?"
"We knew of you when you first set foot in this town." A blond lady smiled.
"As to our purpose, I sensed that you have the abilities, but not the durability of one of our kind." Solomon said. "We can remedy that."
"You…" she started in awe.. "you can make me like you? An immortal?"
"Oh, we can do more than that." The first lady replied. "You have an inactivated mutation. We can make it active."
"Dormant?" Kristen blinked. "What dormant mutation? How do you know about this?"
"Some of us were once mutants." Solomon said. "Almira, for example"—he indicated the blonde girl—"can sense the location and power level of other mutants."
"I can also catalyze dormant mutations." Almira replied. "Handy, huh?"
"Very." Kristen said. "But what's the catch?"
"You must agree to help us when we are threatened." Solomon waved. "We will do the same for you."
"However, there are a few stipulations." Almira said. "One, you must not induct anyone else into our fellowship without authorization. Second, you must not bring any guest to our meetings without advanced notice."
"Of course, there are some exceptions." Solomon said. "We will understand if you give proper explanation."
"And finally, you may call an emergency meeting, but it must be held after sunset." Almira finished. "Do you think you can handle it?"
"Of course." Kristen nodded. "Nothing is too unreasonable."
"Good." Solomon flashed a fanged smile. "Now, come stand beside me."
"Okay." She nodded and walked over to the taller man's left side. "How does this work?"
"A mutual exchange of blood is required to transform a non- vampire into one." Almira explained. "He will drink your blood, and you will drink his. Once the transaction is complete, you will be one of us."
Kristen's mind swam with fleeting thoughts of how strange the whole situation really was. Will they really hold up their end of the bargain? Can they actually activate another of my powers, or are they just bluffing? I'm so confused.
"You needen't be so on edge, child." The dark headed female said softly. "Our word is as binding as any document."
Only serving to reaffirm Andi's point about trusting unknown telepaths. Kristen thought to herself. Outwardly, she relaxed and allowed Solomon's teeth to pierce the skin around her neck…
XXXXXXX
Meanwhile…
Andi couldn't sleep. Not that this was anything new for her, but it was past midnight and she had to be at some command meeting in Cobra Commander's office that morning. Her psyche evaluation had stated that while she was fit for duty, she must be put under strict watch for her first few months of field training. Since she was now re-instated as team leader—and Kristen was rarely awake before noon on a weekend—she would be vouching for her team and learning what exactly the Commander expected her to do.
It sucked.
First, she hated supervision. The thought of being followed around like a little kid and having everything specially designed so that she didn't go too far was just stupid. Even more upsetting was the fact that she had gotten herself into the place of needing supervision entirely of her own power.
Second, she hated having to be the one to make the tough decisions. Ever since the escape from the labs, she had shot down and fought against being placed in charge of something. Especially plans. It wasn't that she couldn't make up the plans; she just didn't want to be the one that everyone blamed when it went wrong. And when one of her plans went wrong, it exploded in everyone's faces.
Finally, she just didn't like meetings that required formal attire. Her uniform was getting too small for her in places, and just looked pitiful on her. However, this meant that she had to throw a new one together on twenty-four hours' notice, and that was even worse.
But her hatred of enforced uncomfortable and ugly attire was nowhere near her hatred for some of the people who would be there.
Major Bludd didn't worry her too much, and although Mindbender was creepy and twisted, she had a confident feeling that any physical fight wouldn't go to his advantage. The other officials… they worried her. The Crimson Guard usually weren't around when she was on base, but the general impression she was given of them from the Dreadnoks was not a pleasing one, to say the least. And while she had never been formally introduced to the Baroness, but the fact that she was Destro's ever-present arm accessory was more than enough reason to distrust her. If Destro thought that the entirety of the team were genetic mistakes, she was bound to share his opinion.
Destro had been against them from the beginning. He had bad-mouthed and debased the group at every turn, almost to the point of abuse. And, though it was never actually spoken, he had implied on more than one occasion that she herself was no more than an accident—one that should have been aborted. That upset her more than anything else. Physical beatings, she could handle it. Mental impulses to kill herself, she had learned to deal with them. But having someone tell her that her own parents were incompetent, that was something different all together. Her family was important to her and dammit if she was going to let some jerk in a monkey suit tell her that they couldn't do a good enough job!
Even if she knew that the part about her being an accident was very true indeed.
XXXXXXX
His blood was sweet to the taste, like some kind of fine wine. What was better, she could feel his power flow into her. She had been dead on her feet, literally, for over a month now, but had never become a honest-to-goodness vampire; just a cheap imitation. Now, however, she would finally make up for that.
As she finally removed her fangs from his neck, Solomon gave her a fanged smile. "It is done." He said. "Welcome to our league of immortals."
"And you don't feel weak or anything?" She asked.
"No." He said. "I don't feel much of anything anymore."
"Almost sad." She said. "But just almost."
"Would you still like for me to catalyze your latent mutation?" Almira asked.
"Yes." Kristen nodded. "Do it."
It was painless, and that surprised her. Little more than a tickle. No shockwave, or draining sensation, or mini-explosion; only a tingle down her spine. She looked at her hands, but noticed no difference. For a split second, she thought about looking normal again, although resigned to the belief that it could never happen. But her body reformed before her eyes. The molecules shifted places and color, turning her skin tan and her hair brown. "I don't believe this." She whispered.
"Believe it." Solomon said as he put an arm around her shoulder. "Come fly with us tonight."
A huge grin spread across her face. First, the lesser vampires left, then Almira, Solomon, and she flew away into the night sky. She had no idea where she was going, but what she did know was that she would never see her life the same way after the night's adventure was done.