Lifeless (Adult Content Warning)

[demonic_monkey]

Yeah, so I had a story on the old ww.com by this name, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was about aside from vampires and stuff. I've decided to do a bit of revamping (for lack of a better word) on that story. I hope you like it.


Prologue: Solomon's Song


The nightclub's speakers pounded out a steady beat as the occupants of the dancefloor moved to the music as if in a trance. From the bar, a sharp pair of eyes scanned the crowd. Hazel irises watched as pupils within expanded and contracted in response to the ever-changing lighting of the club. The keeper of those sharp eyes ran a hand through his soft black hair. He was watching a dancer in the center of the crowd who seemed to be changing partners frequently.

From her place on the dancefloor, she looked up to see him watching her. Her dance partner didn't seem to notice as she smiled at the sharp-eyed man and motioned for him to come over to her. She smiled as he stood and started to wade through the crowd, stepping around the dancers gracefully, seeming to dance in his movements. As he reached her and her partner, the song came to an end and she pushed away her old partner, turning to the sharp-eyed man as the next song started. The tempo was slow and the sharp-eyed man smiled as the dancer got closer.

"Hi," she said. "I'm Kenzie."

"Hello, Kenzie," he replyed, his voice strangely hypnotic. "I'm Solomon."

"That name would seem so strange on someone else, but it seems to work for you," Kenzie said.

"Thank you," he said. "Are you having fun?"

"A bit more now than for the last few hours," she answered. "None of these guys seem to know what their feet are for."

"It's a shame so many lack the capacity to dance," Solomon mused, "but I don't think that's why most of these guys come here."

"Yeah, I know," Kenzie said. "It's the same reason some of girls us are here."

"Is that why you're here?" Solomon asked.

"Yes, it is," she said, drawn in by his unbelievable charm.

"In that case, what would you say to getting out of here?" he asked, baiting his hook.

"I'd say 'let's go,'" Kenzie answered, biting.

He reeled her in, his arm snaking around her waist. He took her out of the club through a side door in an abandoned alleyway. She turned toward him when the door closed behind them. He simply sat atop a crate and lit a cigarette. She looked at him in confusion.

"When are we going to your place?" she asked.

"Who said anything about going to my place?" he queried in return.

"Then my place?" she amended.

"I didn't say anything about going anywhere other than out of that club," Solomon told her.

She took in her surroundings as though seeing them for the first time. The alley was dark and abandoned. They couldn't be seen from the road it emptied out into. Solomon was tall and looked to be powerfully built. She opened her mouth to scream, but before she could utter a sound, his hand was clamped over her mouth.

He pulled her head to the left and smelled the right side of her neck. He opened his own mouth and a rush of cold breath touched her skin, making it tingle. She then felt a sudden sting as his long canine teeth sank into her neck. She felt the flesh tear as they penetrated a blood vessel. She could only stand in silence as he consumed her blood.

When he was finished with her, Solomon discarded Kenzie, letting her bloodless body drop hard against the pavement. He strolled out from the alley and turned right. Kenzie, her vision fading, reached out to the end of the alley for him, knowing that action would do nothing to forestall her death. Her arm sank back down to the pavement and she let out a final breath. She moved no more.

[demonic_monkey]

Chapter 1: Blood on the Snow


He stood atop one of the taller buildings in Akron, Ohio. It was a dreary winter day and what light there was coming from the overcast sky glinted faintly on the silver ring he wore. The ring bore celtic knot patterns all around its circumference. The finger it was wrapped around was as pale as the freshly fallen snow. The hand the finger was attached to twitched as a snowflake attempted to make the hand its new home.

The figure paced along the edge of the roof, his dark eyes scanning the streets far below. His ears listened for any sound, no matter how small, that would alert him to a person in some sort of peril. In such a large city, there was sure to be someone in danger at some point during the day. He shook the snow from his hair and pulled up the hood on his black hoodie. He sat on a corner of the roof and waited patiently.

As he suspected, it wasn't long before a scream of "Help!" reached his ears. He turned toward the sound and leaped from the building. He soared through the air until he touched the next rooftop, only to leap from it after he ran across it. Leaping like this, he was able to drop into the alley where the scream originated. He dropped down between a young woman and an attacker.

The attacker held a knife and the hooded man saw that it had already shed the woman's blood, which stained the snow pink. The hooded figure clenched his teeth and forced back his hunger, turning to the knife wielder. The man seemed surprised at his sudden appearance between him and his quarry. He started to backstep as the new arrival stepped toward him. In a foolish attempt to gain control of the situation again, he lunged out with the knife, only to have his wrist broken and the knife removed from his hand.

The hooded man closed the knife and held it up, examining it. The knife was rather mediocre, a simple lock-blade. It wasn't the knife that held the hooded man's attention, but he blood that he smelled on it. He opened the knife once again and looked at the woman's assailant. The man's complexion paled quickly as he considered what could be done to him with his own blade.

"If you don't mind," the hooded figure said, "it would be greatly appreciated if you didn't attack women anymore, because if you did...well, you might just find out how to really use a knife."

The assailant backed out of the alley and ran away. Swallowing down his hunger again, the man walked to the woman's side. He lowered his hood and took her arm in his hands, having found the laceration left from the attack. It was rather short and not as deep as it could have been. He counted himself luck that it was as shallow as it was.

He pulled a small package from one of his pockets and extracted what he needed to bandage the wound. She watched as he worked to bandage her wound, her eyes occasionally drifting upwards to the edges of the rooftops seventy to eighty feet above. She looked back at him, knowing no average human being could survive a fall from that height with no physical damage. Two questions entered her head. She thought the first too demeaning and rude, so she asked the latter.

"Who are you?" she asked, eyes wide in wonder.

"David," he said. "Not that the information is going to be of any use to you."

"What do you mean?" she asked as he finished bandaging her arm.

"You will go to the hospital from here and then file a police report on your attacker," David said in a very convincing voice. "You will not mention me. I was never here. A random person walking by made your attacker lose his nerve and he bolted."

He stood and walked away from the dazed woman. As soon as he was free of the alley, he turned into the flow of the sidewalk traffic, effectively vanishing into the crowd. After walking a short distance, he slid out of the crowd and into another alley next to a nightclub. A smell assaulted his nose that screamed out from his past. In the snow, not far from where he stood, he found the body of a woman who had been bled dry in the night.

"Solomon," he growled.

"Solomon?" a voice called from behind him. "Who's that?"

David looked back to see the man who spoke to him. The man was dressed in black like him, but wore a leather jacket instead of a hoodie. He also wore large motorcycle boots that always seems to be very well polished. His hair was short and blonde, spiked skywards, and his blue eyes seemed as cold as the morning. A silver earring adorned his left earlobe, catching the morning light strangely.

"An old acquaintance," David said. "Good morning, Alex."

"Doesn't seem like it was good to this girl," Alex said, holding out a cup to David. "Come on. Take it. You know you need it."

David took the cup, staring at the Starbucks logo. He swallowed a few mouthfuls of the blood and set the cup down on the snowy pavement. He opened the girl's purse and extracted her identification. He took up his cup and tossed the ID to Alex. Alex read the name aloud.

"Kenzie Williams," he said. "So this Solomon you mentioned killed her?"

"Bled her dry," David said. "We have to dispose of the evidence, of course. We can't have the news getting out that vampires are in town. You know how humans are."

"Right," Alex said. "I'll bring the car around."

Alex left the alley and David took Kenzie's arm, pulling her body from the ground. He did his best to make her appear, for all intents and purposes, alive. He pulled her arm around his shoulders and walked her out of the alley and helped her into the backseat of Alex's gray Oldsmobile. Once she was laid across the backseat like as passed-out drunk, David took his place in the passenger seat. He drank from his cup of blood again, knowing the silence wouldn't last.

"David, this may be none of my business," Alex said, "but who is this Solomon character?"

"I don't want to discuss that now," David said. "Once we're rid of Kenzie, we're going to Rachel and Kara. Then, we'll discuss it. Agreed?"

"Okay, man," Alex said. "When we get to Rachel and Kara, then."

Alex drove to the outskirts of the city and up to an old crematorium that had long been abandoned. With a little care from Alex, all of the equipment still functioned quite well. Alex parked at the back door and opened it for Daivd to carry Kenzie's corpse through. In short order, the girl's corpse was in the incinerator, burning into non-existance. David and Alex stood wordlessly as they waited for her body to burn away completely.

David turned away from the incinerator, walking about the room, his hands in his pockets. Solomon, he thought. Why, after all this time, is he back? I thought our last meeting had convinced him to stay on his side of the pond. I should have killed him when I had the chance.
"Something on your mind, David?" Alex asked.

"Nothing of any importance," he answered. "How do you think she spent her last hours?"

"My guess is on the dance floor," he said.

"Yeah, that was probably it," David said, finishing off his cup of breakfast.

Once the task was done, they left the building. Alex stopped beside the passenger door and tossed David the keys. David looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Just try not to drive her too hard," Alex said. "She almost didn't survive the last time."

"I'll try not to destroy her," David promised as he slid into the driver's seat.

He turned on the car's stereo and turned up the volume. He shifted into drive an stepped on the gas, slinging gravel out behind them as he peeled out of the crematorium's parking lot. Alex shook his head as David turned the Olds around and sped back out onto the highway. Just like last time, Alex thought. Just like every time.

[demonic_monkey]

Behind the wheel, David's mind wandered. In his head, he saw the quiet streets of 16th century Prague. The winter was hard that year and the snow was thick. He remembered trudging through the snow, listening intently to his environment. He knew an attack was coming, but he didn't know where it would come from yet.

"David," Solomon's voice called to him.

David turned, his rapier sliding quickly from its sheath. Solomon stood in the snow behind him, blood dripping from his chin and into the deep snow. Solomon's black hair was long, tied back with a red ribbon. His hazel eyes had changed, the green becoming more prevalent. He was smiling.

"I'm here to kill you," David said.

"You always say that, David," Solomon said, brushing snow from the front of his gray frock coat. "You never deliver, though. Why is that? Are you afraid that once, you've killed me, you'll have served the one purpose you have elected to have in your second life? What is one to do with an eternity when they no longer have a purpose in life?"

"I don't intend to stick around after you're dead," David said.

"So that's it, is it?" Solomon asked. "You kill me and then kill yourself? Cheap."

"Two less monsters in the world," David said.

"I only have one more question," Solomon asked. "Why haven't you attacked me yet?"

David thrust at Solomon with the rapier, but Solomon was already behind him. Solomon kicked him in the back, causing him to fly through the air and collide with a tree. The rapier fell from his hand when he impacted the trunk. David turned and leaped onto Solomon, the two of them disappearing into the deep snow. A moment later, David was thrown up into the air.

Solomon followed him upwards, pulling a knife from his belt. He grabbed David in the air, drove the knife into his chest, and slammed back to the ground on top of him, sending up a cloud of powdery snow. The knife had not touched David's heart, but Solomon made a point to apply pressure to the blade stuck between David's ribs. David gritted his teeth, groaning in pain. Solomon laughed at him.

"Never forget this night, David," Solomon said. "I want you to remember how easily I could have killed you. Never forget that, my child."

Solomon had stood and walked away from him, leaving his knife stuck in David's chest. David had not forgotten that night. Even after five hundred years, the memory was as fresh as though it had only taken place five minutes ago. David eased off the gas pedal and pulled into a spot in front of Rachel and Kara's apartment. He saw Kara wave to them from one of the windows and waved back.

"Come on," Alex said. "The sooner we're inside, the sooner I get to know who Solomon is."

"Alright," David said. "Let's go in."

[demonic_monkey]

Chapter 2: David's Tale


David and Alex were met at the door by Rachel. She smiled and pushed some of her long brown hair behind her ear. Alex returned the smile, while David just looked up at her. Concern flashed in her eyes when she noticed he wasn't smiling. She ushered them inside wordlessly and closed the door behind them.

Kara was waiting on the other side of the door for them. Her blue eyes immediately registered David's face. He attempted to smile for her, but only managed a half-hearted smirk. It didn't take much for her to know that he was worried about something. She touched his arm gently.

"David, what's wrong?" she asked, her voice full of genuine concern.

"We should go sit down," he said. "I have a story that needs to be told."

The quartet moved into the den and took their seats. David looked from Alex, eagerly awaiting the story, to Rachel beside him, who seemed clueless about what David was about to say, to Kara, who was only concerned about what was troubling David. He played with his ring for a moment as he tried to decide where to begin. Kara's hand touched his and he looked into her concerned blue eyes. He nodded.

"Alex and I found a woman's body in an alley this morning," he said. "She had been drained of blood. The vampire's smell was all over her and it was a smell I recognized from long ago. She was killed by a vampire named Solomon. Solomon is the vampire that made me."

"He's your sire?" Alex asked. "You made me wait all morning for that? Asshole..."

"Alex, this is serious," Kara said.

"Very serious indeed," David said. "I last saw him a little over two hundred years ago, during the revolution."

"American or French?" Alex asked.

"American," David answered. "He had volunteered his services to King George III to help him sieze control of the colonies again. I met him on the battlefield at Breed's Hill. My intention was to kill him there, but he escaped. All this time, I thought that my strength in that battle had convinced him to stay across the pond. Clearly, I was wrong."

"How many times have you met?" Rachel asked.

"Since he sired me, Solomon and I have met sixteen times," David answered. "This is the seventeenth time he's wriggled into my life."

"So Kenzie was just his way of letting you know he's in town?" Alex asked.

"Pretty much," David said.

"He doesn't show much respect for human life," Kara said.

"He has no respect for human lives," David said. "He lost that part of himself long ago...and I watched it happen."

"How did it happen?" Rachel asked.

"It happened during the fifth century," David said. "I was not his first creation. You see, by the time he got around to making me, he had already gathered a small family unit. There were five others..."


David followed Solomon through Jerusalem's streets on a warm summer night. It was quiet that night as he followed his new father. He had been a vampire for only six months, but had learned more by that point than most vampires learned in their first two years. Solomon took pride in his newest child and often told David how proud he was of him.

"We can seduce the human mind," Solomon said. "We have to feed on their blood to survive. We are stronger and more swift than any one of them could ever hope to be. Does this make us superior to them?"

"No," David said.

"Very good, my son," Solomon said. "No living creature on this planet is superior to another. All life is precious, my child. We know this, but that very concept seems to be lost on humans. They take from the world without thinking of the consequences of their actions, thinking that there is no force on this planet that can hold them accountable for their actions. They are wrong, my son. Do you know why?"

"Because we can hold them accountable for their actions?" David offered.

"No, my child," Solomon said, laughing. "It is not our place to judge them. Their own actions will hold them accountable. They can assault Mother Earth only for so long before she decides that she's had enough."

"What if we could teach them to change?" David asked.

"It would not matter," Solomon said. "People are not fond of change. They tend to see change as a threat, even when it is the only thing that can hold them back from the brink of extinction."

"Then why are we here?" David asked.

"That's an excellent question, my boy," Solomon said, "but I'm afraid I have no answer to gi-"

Solomon stopped in mid-sentence. The sounds of shouting and screaming reached their ears. Solomon's world crashed around him when he recognized the voice that screamed out. He broke into a sprint, David following closely behind him. A few seconds later, they came upon the scene.

Five burning crosses stood in front of the house where David's new family lived. The five vampires that occupied the crosses screamed as the mob watched them cook. Solomon sank to his knees. His second family was dying before his very eyes like his first family. The mob of humans turned to David and Solomon and started to advance upon them.

Solomon sprang up from the ground and rushed into the mob. Screams arose as he tore into them with everything he had. He pulled off arms and legs, tore off heads, and occasionally ripped their bodies in half. A massive pool of blood formed on the ground as he slaughtered the mob. David watched in abject horror as his father broke the one rule he held most sacred.

After a span of time that seemed to stretch on forever, the screams subsided. Solomon stood amidst the wrecked bodies of his family's killers, covered in their blood. David cautiously stepped toward him.

"Father?" he said.

"I was wrong, David," Solomon said. "These creatures are filth. They cannot control their own actions. They killed our family, even though we never killed any of them. We must make them pay for this. We have to kill them all."

"Father, how can you say that?" David asked. "All life is precious, remember?"

"Not human lives," Solomon spat. "They kill us because they fear us and they fear us because they don't understand us. If we let them live, we're allowing them to continue killing anything and everything they want. I will stand for it no longer and you would be wise to stand with me."

"No," David said.

"What?" Solomon hissed, spinning to face David.

"I said 'no,'" David repeated. "I will not help you kill them."

"They are filth," Solomon said. "We are better than they are."

"No living thing is superior to another," David said.

"If you will not stand by me," Solomon said, "you would do well to stay out of my way."

"I can't," David objected. "If your aim is to kill them, then I will stand against you."

"The only way for you to stop me from killing them is for you to kill me," Solomon said.

"So be it," David said.

"You think you're up to the task?" Solomon questioned. "Well, do it, boy. DO IT!"

David stood in place, unable to bring himself to kill the man he considered a father. He lowered his eyes. Solomon scoffed at him.

"As I thought, you don't have the strength to kill me," Solomon said. "When you find the strength to hold true to your convictions, find me. I'll be waiting."

Solomon spat at his child and turned away, walking off into the night. David dropped to his knees in the pool of blood and looked up at the charred bodies of his brothers and sisters. His tears fell into the pool of blood that he now knelt in. He looked down at his hand, clenched into white-knuckled fists. He swallowed a lump in his throat.

"I swear to you, my brothers and sisters, that I will stop him," he said. "I will kill Solomon."

[demonic_monkey]

Kara's hand had wrapped around David's as he recounted the story to them. She squeezed it reassuringly as he finished, her blue eyes glistening with tears that were begging to fall. He brushed one of her blonde curls behind her ear. She closed her eyes, but two rogues tears managed to escape the closing of her lids. His hand moved again and her cheeks were once again dry.

"David, you are our friend, our teacher, and our sire," Alex said. "I think I speak for all of us when I say that we will stand beside you in this fight."

"He does," Rachel spoke, nodding.

His eyes returned to Kara and she nodded.

"I will walk with you to whatever end, David," she said.

"I admire your enthusiasm to help me in this fight," David said, "but this is a battle I must fight on my own."

"Bullshit," Alex said. "You've always gone it solo because nobody ever helped you. Whether you like it or not, we're in this with you. You may be our sire, but vampires can't compel each other. You cannot make us go away."

"Not without a fight," Rachel said.

"And you'd have to kill us in that fight," Kara said. "We fight him together. Agreed?"

David looked to each of them. Alex's eyes told him that there was no way that David could stop him from fighting by his side. Rachel's eyes spoke the same thing to him. When he looked into Kara's eyes, however, he saw something more that the desire to stay be his side in this fight. In her eyes, there was a burning need to be with him to whatever end.

"Agreed," he submitted, "but this means we're going to need a ton of extra blood."

"I think I can manage that," Rachel said. "Who's your favorite phlebotomist?"

"We're also going to need to test our limits daily," David said. "We'll have to push ourselves to our physical and mental limits. We have to be on guard at all hours, tensed for an attack that could come from anywhere, at any time, in any place. Solomon enjoys the collateral damage of a crowded public place."

"Shouldn't be a problem for you, should it?" Alex said. "You never let your guard down."

David smiled and everyone in the room smiled with him. It was the only time he'd smiled that day and they were all glad to finally see it.

"He may have decided to sire more children to assist him," David said. "I've only seen him do it twice, to date, and I killed both of them."


Across the street from the apartment, a man, looking to be in his twenties, pulled out onto the street and drove away. The driver of the black car ran a hand through his long black hair. He pulled a cell phone out of one of the pocket of his black leather trenchcoat. He dialed a number and waited as it rang.

"Yes, Armand?" the other side answered.

"He has sired three, Atticus," Armand answered.

"The magic number," Atticus remarked. "I'll inform Adrian and Father. It might amuse them. Come back."

"Right," Armand said, ending the call. He looked into his rear-view mirror to see the young woman that was tied up in his backseat. "Terribly sorry about this, Rain, but Father likes his meals to be fresh. If he hadn't lost his ring to our brother, he would probably be out hunting instead of using me."

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" she screamed at him, scared to death of what was awaiting her.

[demonic_monkey]

Just letting you know, Areyes is pronounced uh-ray-us.

Chapter 3: The Brothers Areyes


Armand pulled Rain from the backseat of his car once he had gained the privacy of the garage. She kicked and fought for freedom as he literally dragged her into the house. He had thought to replace her gag with a tighter one before he got her out of the car so that the neighbors wouldn't hear the screams. Once inside, he threw her down at Solomon's feet. He looked up at Armand with a look of anger.

"Did you really have to panic the poor dear?" he asked. "Look at how she's shaking. She's scared to death! Compel them!"

"Sorry, Father," Armand said, looking at his feet.

"It's okay, Rain," Solomon said, looking into her eyes. "You are safe. Nobody is going to harm you."

Her fear was replaced with a sense of peace. In the stillness of the room, she heard the faraway notes of a violin. She looked up at Solomon as he helped her to her feet and watched as he suddenly dove for her neck. The fangs sank in and her blood was being pulled from from her body. She convulsed in Solomon's arms as he drained her veins.

His meal finished, he pushed her body to Armand.

"Dispose of it properly and I may let you hunt for me again, Armand Areyes," Solomon said. "Adrian will hunt until I'm convinced that you've learned your lesson."

The violin music stopped and Adrian Areyes walked into view, his black hair cut short and his green eyes smiling. He was dressed in an all black suit. He bowed to Solomon. Behind him, Atticus Areyes appeared with long black hair and a black goatee. He nodded to Armand.

"Father, perhaps I could help Armand to work on his compulsion," Atticus said. "He still seems to be struggling with it."

"Shove it, telepathic freak," Armand shot.

"If you think it's best, very well, Atticus," Solomon said.

"I'm NOT having trouble with it!" Armand shouted. "Didn't you ever think it might be a good idea to get used to not using that handicap when hunting so that when we are up against-"

"ARMAND!" Solomon shouted. "Humans are cattle. Our family and David's are monsters. There is no seduction, only boundless animal ferocity. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Father," Armand said.

"Go," Solomon said. "Atticus, go with him."

The two of them carried Rain's body into the basement. When they were out of earshot, Atticus slapped Armand in the back of the head. Armand dropped Rain on the stairs and swung on Atticus, who caught his fist and held it firmly.

"You need to get off this fear thing you've got going," Atticus said. "It's cruel."

"Cruelty to cattle? Please," Armand said. "We're monsters, right? That gives them a damn good reason to fear us."

"Would you rather be at peace of in total fear in your last moments, Armand?"

"You just don't get it," Armand said. "It's not the fear. It's the adrenaline. Fight-or-flight? Biology? Any of this ringing a bell?"

"I fucking get it, okay?!" Atticus shouted. "That's actually a good idea. The heightened awareness could be good in a tight spot. I'll discuss it with Father later. Until then, I have to fulfill my end of the bargain. I'm going to help you master the art of compulsion."

"I can compel just fine, Atticus," Armand said.

"I was talking about you getting a haircut," Atticus responded. "Shorter hair would look better on you. It's easier to let the prey come to you than to hunt it down, you know."


Adrian dropped into the driver's seat of his car, a red Mustang convertible. He put up the top and slid on a pair of sunglasses before he pulled out of the garage. He drove to park in the same place Armand had parked outside Rachel and Kara's apartment. He adjusted his hair, removed his sunglasses, and picked up a pamphlet. He left his Mustang and walked to the door to the apartment, knocking on the door.


"Who's that?" Alex asked.

"A Jehovah's witness," Rachel said. "I'll get rid of him."

She moved toward the front door and pulled it open. Adrian's hand reached out toward her throat before she could speak a word. He lifted her from the ground, a firm grip on her throat.

"Have you heard the good news?" he asked. "Solomon walks the day again."

He ripped the silver pendant from her neck and threw her back inside. When Alex saw her get thrown from the door, he barreled out the door after her attacker. He saw Adrian driving away down the street.

"Bloody coward!" he shouted.

Alex returned to the apartment, where Rachel now sat out of the sunlight. Her necklace was gone.

"I can't believe they already got me out of the fight," she said. "How am I supposed to get our blood now?"

"I'll get the amulet back for you," Alex said. "I think David and I can find that red Mustang again, right?"

"Get the plate number?" David asked.

"Ohio plate POZ-174," Alex stated.

"Then, yes," David said. "Let's go. He may go hunting for a meal of Solomon before he heads back to their lair."

"How can you be sure he won't take the pendant right to Solomon?" Kara asked.

"That does seem like the next logical step," David said. "Rachel, did he have a pamphlet or something?"

"Yeah, she said. "He dropped it when he took the necklace."

"Alex, go find the pamphlet," David said. "Kara, stay here with Rachel. You'll both need to call in sick to work. Alex and I will go to work and have them run the fingerprints on the pamphlet to see if we can find a match. Rachel, could you get our blood for the day?"

She walked into the kitchen, leaving David and Kara alone for the moment. She messed with his hair until she was satisfied with its appearance.

"Be careful out there, David," she said.

"I'm always careful," he assured her. "Don't answer the door unless it's us."

He embraced her before he left. Outside, Alex handed him the pamphlet, safely sealed in a Ziploc bag. They walked to the Olds in silence. David slipped the keys into Alex's hand and went to the passenger's side. They dropped into the car and Alex started the engine.

"Bloody fucking coward," he growled as he pulled onto the street.

[demonic_monkey]

Adrian held the pendant in the palm of his hand as he drove. He looked down at it occasionally. It was a simple silver pentacle in the eyes of most people, but to the vampires, it was so much more. There were very few witches in the world that knew how to create one of these amulets. The enchantments placed upon amulets like this allowed vampires the ability to walk the day like humans.

Now that he had taken this one from the vampire girl, Solomon would be able to go out and hunt for himself, instead of having to rely upon his newest sons. Adrian smiled as he slid the pendant into his pocket. He parked his car in front of a Starbucks and walked inside. It was meal time for him. He scanned the crowd inside and noticed a girl reading Twilight. She looked up at him and they smiled at each other.

Once he was handed his coffee, he took a seat at the girl's table. She placed the book on the table and her brown eyes surveyed him through her glasses.

"Hi," she said.

"Hello," he replied. "You like vampires?"

"Huh?" she asked. He gestured to the book laying on the table. "Oh, yeah. I love them."

"Really?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said. "I wish they were real. They're so sexy."

"Who says they aren't?" Adrian asked.

"Just everyone in the world," she said.

"Maybe they just want people to believe they don't exist so that they won't be hunted down and killed," he suggested, grinning.

"Your teeth..." she said.

"What about them?" he asked.

"You're canines are longer than normal," she pointed out. "Are you...?"

"Of course not," he said sarcastically. "Everyone knows vampires don't exist."

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Adrian Areyes," he said. "What's yours?"

"Lydia Newton," she answered.

"Well, Lydia," he said. "What do you have planned for today?"

"Nothing," she answered. "Why?"

"Would you, perhaps, like to go for a ride?" he asked.

"Sure, I'm game," she replied.

"Perfect," Adrian said.

They left the table, Lydia picking up her book, and left the coffee shop. They jumped into his Mustang and he pulled onto the road. She continued to stare at him as he drove. After a few minutes, he could no longer remain silent.

"What?" he asked.

"Are you a vampire?" she asked.

"Yes," he answered.

"Oh my God," she said. "I must have sounded so silly in there."

"It's okay," Adrian said. "It's not every day that a girl meets a vampire."

He pulled the Mustang in behind a gas station so that it wouldn't be seen and turned the engine off. He turned in his seat to look at Lydia. She seemed in awe of him, her brown eyes fixed on his green ones. He smiled at her, letting her see his fangs again. For a moment, she forgot how to breathe.

"Are you going to kill me?" she asked.

"Yes," Adrian answered.

She didn't seem afraid when he answered. She didn't try to escape the web that she was caught in. She simply tilted her head to the side and allowed him to bite her. When his teeth penetrated her skin, she gasped. She closed her eyes as he drank his blood, waiting for him to stop.

After a few seconds, she realized that he had no intention of stopping. She started to push him away, but he clamped his hands around her wrists and held her down. She fought as hard as she could, but she couldn't free herself from his iron grip. As her sight started to fade, she tried to scream, but remained silent. As the last spark of life left her, Adrian pulled away.

"Vampires aren't fairy tales," he said. "We're horror stories."

He pushed her corpse from the seat and onto the pavement and threw her copy of Twilight into the puddle beside her. The engine came to life again and he pulled away from Lydia's body. He smiled wickedly as he pulled back onto the road.

"That was too easy," he said to himself.

[demonic_monkey]

Chapter 4: The Scene of a Crime


David walked into the crime lab when he reached the Police Department. He tossed the pamphlet to a woman standing a short distance away.

"Check that for fingerprints for me, Alice," he said. "Let me know when you get a hit."

He left the lab and went back to his office. No sooner had he taken his seat when a call came in about a murder. He heard the words red Mustang and was out his door in a flash. Alex was already in the car by the time he reached it. He dropped into his seat and Alex started driving. Alex turned on the siren in the Olds as David put on the red light.

"Red Mustang," Alex said. "Our boy went out for a meal, David. We could have had him!"

"Perhaps," David said, "but if we can get Solomon out of hiding sooner, we'll be able to deal with him quicker."

"What about Rachel's amulet, David?" Alex asked. "How is she going to provide us with the blood we need if she can't go out in the light?"

"We know one of them drives a red Mustang," he said. "We know the plate number. Soon, we'll have a name. He has an amulet of his own. We'll find him and we'll take his."

"You're right," Alex said. "It's best to try to end this quickly."

They stopped at the crime scene and crossed the yellow tape.

"Ah, Detective Sanderson, Detective Hammond," the forensic team's leader addressed David and Alex in turn. "The victim appears to have bled to death from two wounds on the carotid artery. No blood at the scene, but she's only been dead for about a half an hour. The wounds on her neck had saliva around them, which wasn't hard to find. There's literally no blood in her body or on her body at all. Someone removed 10 pints of blood from a human body without leaving a drop behind and they did it with their mouths. What does that sound like to you?"

"Well, it sounds like a vampire," David admitted.

Alex chuckled.

"Yeah, right," Alex said as he watched a guy put Twilight in a bag. "You may want to run that book for the killer's prints. I get the feeling we'll have this case closed in no time at all."

"How can you be so certain?" the team leader asked.

"How hard can it be to find a vampire?" Alex asked. "I hear they're sparkly now."

David laughed as he and Alex walked back to their car. They dropped back inside and Alex pulled out of the gas station's parking lot. They were back on the road, back in their thoughts.

"Alex?" David said.

"Yeah?" Alex asked.

"He should have gotten back to Solomon by now," David said. "Let's start hunting."

"Really?" Alex asked. "We're going after him, just like that?"

"Yep," David said. "Don't question it. Just go with it."


Solomon walked onto the front lawn of the house he and the Areyes brothers had taken. The sunlight through the breaking clouds glistened on the silver pentacle that laid on his black shirt. He smiled as he felt the warmth on his skin. He looked down at the blood in his glass and took a drink. Adrian once again pulled out of the driveway in his red mustang and Solomon waved to him as he went out to fetch dinner.

"Almost reminds me of David," Solomon mused as he stepped back inside.

"Who, Father?" Armand asked.

"Adrian," Solomon answered. "David was once my favorite child, until he wouldn't help me avenge his brothers and sisters. Adrian reminds me of him in a way. He's a good son."

"Does that make me the neglected middle child?" Atticus asked.

"I suppose," Armand said. "I'm the oldest and I'm always getting in trouble to get attention."

"But that also makes Adrian the 'baby' of the family," Atticus said. "We could tease him with that, I guess."

"He's hard to annoy, though," Armand said. "He'd probably just ignore us."

"He's not coming back," Solomon said.

"What?" Atticus asked.

"If I know David as well as I think I know him," Solomon answered, "he'll be looking for Adrian and will kill him when he finds him. You two will not be going out to find him, he has a message for David."