Foreword: See chapter 1 for disclaimers. Feedback can be addressed to Sky at makutu_matakite@yahoo.com. If you want you can also join my group at:
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Chapter 2:
I slowed down to preserve what little blood I had left and tuned my senses behind me, scanning for any signs of pursuit. I ducked down an alley and peeked around the corner, every iota of my concentration focused on the direction from which I came. I tried to calm myself and re-organize my thoughts, seeking some coherence. I needed to get back to my haven, but first I needed to feed before the madness descended upon me again and my actions were no longer my own.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Looks like someone chose the wrong night to come out and play. Lets get him boys, looks like our entertainment came looking for us tonight" came a gruff voice from behind me.
I spun around and noticed three guys standing about eight feet behind me. How did they get so close without my noticing, then I realized I was preoccupied with something else. They were all ugly, burly, dishevelled looking pieces of shit with, by the looks of them, very little in the form of brain power and shit eating grins plastered to their cruel faces. They each had baseball bats, using them for walking stick as they approached with the stagger that only over confidence can give you.
Shit, this was just too easy...
I hid the grin I was inwardly feeling and plastered instead a look of abject fear and horror to my face. I back further up against the wall, tensing my body and making my arms and legs tremble as if in fear. With my keen vampiric hearing I listened for sign of pursuit from my original prey-turned-predator... Nothing, excellent looks like tonight was set to be full of role reversals.
"Grab him and gag him boys. We're gonna take him somewhere nice and quiet where no one can hear him scream..." The leader of this poor little group ended with an evil chuckle. Tonight was just getting better and better.
"Now if you behave and don't struggle too much boy you might just live to see another day" The 'boys' chuckled stupidly and grabbed me roughly, using a dirty rag roughly tied behind my head to keep my mouth closed and prevent me yelling out. They needn't have bothered though as I was a mute.
To keep up the appearance of fearful victim I began to struggle a little before relaxing in mock surrender, letting them half-march, half-walk and half-drag me to their lair.
Did I mention that this was just too easy?
Caden's rapture continued, much as he struggled to break the spell. His consciousness had been viciously shoved out of the way and his sub-conscious mind took control, drinking in the beauty and absolute perfection of the creation before him.
Every single detail had been almost lovingly rendered, each line a hidden epiphany, each colour a hidden truth, every detail and shade, the emotions which linked them all in glorious revelation, but why him and what meaning the words?
'The artist', as Caden had come to refer to him as, had rendered every detail perfectly; from the colour of his eyes and hair, down to the very clothing he was wearing presently. It was a warm night and though his undead body only really registered the discomfort of extremes of temperature, he was still required to look the part of a typical mortal teenager even if he was hundreds of years old. One had to preserve 'the masquerade' after all.
Yet still he wondered how the Malkav knew what he was going to wear tonight, not to mention how he knew him well enough to paint with such precision.
Caden couldn't remember ever seeing him before whether on any of his other missions, out feeding or even during Elysium gatherings. He would have remembered seeing him before, no one could forget a creature so beautiful, but where had he come from and how old was he to be so powerful as to use disciplines that weren't even typical of his clans. The more he pondered the strange vampire the more questions he had, but they would have to wait for this painting required all his attention.
What could these words mean?
'MY FRIEND, MY HERO...' '... THOU SHALT NOT KILL!'
Re-reading them over and over again, something deep inside him stirred. Some lost and forgotten fragment that while stirring as if from some ancient slumber continued to evade his desperately grasping awareness. He sought answers as to why this creature held such power over him through his art, but was left with only more questions.
The bliss of the rapture began to fade and as he came down from his reverie, he found himself once again drunk full of emptiness, granting his existence a meaningless purpose that drove him ever onwards.
Clarity and focus became his again and he reached for the digital camera in his backpack. Quickly he snapped off about ten pictures, all from different angles using varying flash rates and shutter speeds to try and capture as much of the pictures true essence as possible. He replaced the camera in his backpack and using auspex, he once again heightened his senses hoping to find the trail of his elusive artist, but the psychic impressions had faded beyond any hope of recognition. Shit!
He looked at his watch - 5:30am, the sky would be lightening soon and dawn wouldn't be far away. He pulled his cell from his pants pocket and dialled a number. One ring... two rings... three...
"Hey D' its Caden..."
"Yeah, sorry I didn't report soon I got kind tied up with something..."
"Yeah, look D' I said I was sorry ok, something came up that was kinda urgent and I couldn't interrupt it so can we just drop the subject for the time being?"
"Yeah, one of those things, I'll explain everything when I get back..."
"Yeah, sure on pain of final death. Now can you send a car round to pick me up from the bus interchange at Sunshine station?"
"Thanks girl, you're the best..."
"Coolness, tell Jord to give my cell a call if he gets lost ya..."
"Okay, see ya soon..."
"Yeah, laters."
Click!
The men led me through a door at the end of the alleyway. I know kinda clich^Î but there it was. I had to try hard not to burst out laughing and placing myself in victim mode did that pretty well. Steps descending into the bowls of the earth greeted me along with the scent of stale urine, probably from past victims who had wet themselves or maybe even these creatures themselves. Well at least we didn't have far to go.
They closed and bolted the door at the top of the stairwell once we were all in, the leader checking to make sure that no one had spotted us as the other two thugs marched me down the stairs, muttering all the while about how couldn't believe their luck, thinking that they would have probably had to go much further into the township maybe even into the city before running into any entertainment.
I had realized a while ago that they had no intention of letting me go afterwards, but that was ok, I was here as the instrument to karma and these 'boys' were about to be paid out on big time. As we got to the door at the bottom of the stairwell, I began to struggle again, a little bit harder this time as if finally realizing how hopeless my situation was. This just caused my abductors to laugh, eliciting lewd comments about how much they would make me really squirm. Honestly, I deserved an Oscar for my performance, but I just wanted to make ure that we were somewhere where no one could hear their screams and where I could make sure that there was absolutely no hope of them escaping.
Unlike most my victims who normally felt untold pleasure in the Kiss and who I would leave without taking too much of their blood, these monsters would never leave here alive. Taking the blood of innocents always felt like theft even if it was given freely, but the blood of murderers, rapists and abusers was like sweet ambrosia as I drank every last drop, and after fasting for my vision, this was going to be a veritable feast.
The door at the bottom of the stairs was steel reinforced with a sliding steel bolt mechanism. The leader slid back the bolt and pushed open the door with the end of his bat. A fetid odour assaulted my keen vampiric sense of smell and I went to work almost unconsciously breaking down and digesting the individual scents. Cigarette, cigar and marijuana smoke were the most obvious, overlaid by the smell of alcohol, sweat, and stale air. I also detected the faint scents of human bile, excrement, and old blood partially covered by the smell of chemical cleaners. These guys had done this before, probably many times.
I was unceremoniously dragged inside the dimly lit dungeon and the door was locked and bolted behind us. Once I heard the final click of the key lock and latch slide into place, I put my plan into action.
I a blur of motion and using a bit of my vampiric strength in the process, I snapped the wrist of the thugs who held me, their cries of pain and surprise were music to my ears. I grabbed the thug who had been on my right by the hair, bringing his neck up to my lips, biting down into the large artery there in one smooth motion and drained him of his life's essence as it pumped down my throat and I sucked with merciless abandon. His screams of pain were abruptly cut off by the pleasure he was feeling only for the realization of what was happening to come flooding back in his final moment of existence, screaming as he died in my arms.
I dropped his lifeless body to the floor, rising with fluid glace and looking around. The leader of the group was frantically trying to get the door open; his look of smug cruelty wiped off his face and replaced with one of absolute terror.
Faster than he could imagine I had squeezed myself between him and the door, and sent him sprawling to the ground with a negligent flick of my wrist. He scrambled backwards on his hands and feet, attempting to put as much distance between the two of us as possible. Poor stupid creature didn't realize that it was over before it had even begun.
I took a look over at the other thug, he was huddled over the lifeless corpse of his buddy, white with fear and looking at me with a mixture of horror and resignation, at least he seemed to have brains enough to figure out what was going on and at least he didn't beg for his life, but then again he didn't know what I could do to them both.
My first victim had died a relatively painless death compare to what these two were about to undergo, but my need for blood had been great and his sacrifice did deserve some kind of reward.
I smiled a cruel smile at both of them and using a bit of my newly acquired vitae I unleashed upon them the full force of my dementation ability, forcing them both to relive the pain and horror, every minute sensation, that they had inflicted upon each and everyone of their victims, from the moment of their abductions to their final moments of either torment or existence.
It had taken me a long time to exact revenge upon them for their past crimes, there had been many victims over many, many years and before these creatures died they would have to pay for their crimes.
They had voided themselves pretty early in the reparation process but I could hardly break off part way through just to clean them up. Besides, these pieces of filth would probably be in their element. Being a vampire, my stomach had long since ceased functioning so there really was nothing that could revisit me. By the time we were finished I was famished again having expended quite a substantial portion of my newly acquired vitae.
I grabbed the other thug with the broken wrist by the hair and dragged him over in front of the leader, leaving behind me a trail of assorted human waste fluids, much like a paintbrush would paint, what an odd observation to make. I raised his neck to my lips and finished him off the same way I did his friend, in full view of the cowering and clearly terrified ex-leader, letting the corpse slip from my fingers and allowing the finality of what was about to happen sink in. As it dawned on him that there was no way he was going to survive this, I nodded before ending his miserable existence the same way.
Looking at my watch, I noticed that it was 5:45am. Just about time to turn in. With that thought, I removed the keys from the leaders pocket and left the dungeon, locking up as I did.
Nobody went down there for years afterwards and all that was found were the skeletons of the three men, lying as I had left them and those of their long dead victims chained to the walls of the adjoining rooms and corridors.
End Chapter 2