by JN Moon
Wailing and screeching, the masked vampire chided me, “What have you done? You cannot be here! Let go, idiot.” Her voice was suddenly silent as we heard footsteps against the wet cobble stones, but then they petered off.
Composing myself but still holding her, I said, “You will take us with you.” And looking to the other vampires, I added, “I will kill her right now if you don’t agree.”
Marcus pulled the male vampire to him which left the two others free to choose.
The female I held snorted. “Who is he? What is he?” Her face paled with shock as she stared at Marcus.
I realised they had never seen a dark nephilim since he was a product of our time, not theirs. They had seen Orion, but the resemblance between the two species was slight. Orion’s features were exaggerated. Marcus was bigger than the average human, but his features were soft, angelic in an outdoors sort of way, and his wings were more proportionate for his size.
“I am Marcus, part vampire, part nephilim.” He tilted his head graciously to them, which was the custom of this era.
“Part nephilim? The boy, is he yours?” one of the male vampires asked alarmed.
“He is not. But we do need to find him.”
The male looked to the others unsure. Marcus and I still held onto them.
“Alright, calm yourself. We shall take you. Just let me go,” the woman snarled at me.
“I don’t think so. I don’t want another vanishing trick. Lead the way,” I ushered to the others. I wanted to find these creatures’ home and gain some understanding of them in case they didn’t cooperate.
They led us into a tall cramped building, a tiny flat above a haberdasher’s shop. As we entered, one of them stopped to light a candle and using the side entrance we walked up a tiny, twisted stairway. The noxious fumes of human waste filled my senses, I grimaced and as I touched the stair rail, sticky, thick dirt coated my palms. Being so used to street lights and electricity, I’ve never known darkness like this, not in a city.
A clunk of the lock and the warped wooden door heaved open and mouldy air filtered out filling my nostrils. Their apartment was compact with little furniture and small, grime-encrusted windows which looked out onto their macabre world below. Two small double beds, a sideboard, and a few chairs along with a wash bowl and pitcher were squeezed into their home. Alongside these few belongings, piles of books sat on every available space and costumes hung from rafters. It made me grateful and determined to get back to my own time.
The tension between us grew tangible, and so I thought it time to properly introduce myself. They stood in silence before us, faces rigid and oddly one of the males came over to me and Marcus. Like a fascinated creature he stepped warily towards us, sniffing the air, looking at us from head to foot. He turned and looked at the others, like he was sharing a secret between them. They responded back to him, eyes wide with puzzlement.
“What is it?” I asked.
He shook his head in wonder. “From your time, you smell...sweet. Clean. So many strong perfumed scents from both of you, it’s intriguing. But we must smell terrible to you.”
I had noticed that they did stink, but I waved my hand to dismiss it. “I apologise for our abrupt behaviour, we had to find you and follow you back. What you did, taking Orion, has had dire consequences on the future. You left us with no choice. Believe me, we didn’t want this,” I said with a watery smile.
Marcus stood near the meagre draft of the open window biting his lip. A long time ago he had told me about his immortal past, about this city and how he wished to forget the disease, the poverty, and the dirt. Now he was back in it, but for the worse really, as like me we were used to light and cleanliness. He towered above them, being big in my century let alone theirs.
“Well...” One of the males sighed. “You seem determined to engage us. I am William.” He took off his black silk top hat, bowing and tilting it as they did in this age. His dark eyes contrasted against his pale skin and full pallid lips. Thick eyebrows lined his sculpted face. His deep brown hair, though short, had a slight curl to it. Like all of them, he appeared slim and impeccably dressed.
“This is Claude, Rebecca, and Eliza. This is our current home, humble though it is. You are most welcome.” He spoke civilly, the words forced from his tight lips.
Eliza was the one who I had clung onto, dressed in a rich black silk bustle dress, her gold and black ornate mask now removed. It revealed long, dark eyelashes and deep-set eyes, a roman style face, and claret lips, her chocolate-coloured hair up, with a few strands falling, casting the eye to her bare shoulders. As I turned to her, she curtsied, as was the custom of greeting. Claude was impossibly striking, taller than the others and slim. His eyes masked his face, being darker than William’s, and his pink wide lips, and long straight nose and chiselled chin gave him an aura of the preternatural much like a sculpture. To add to this—like he needed it—long white hair fell down his back. He, too, tilted his hat, and that left one other. Rebecca, dressed in a crimson silk bustle and matching hat, with ringlets of dark auburn falling from her hairdo. Her kohled eyes and red lips highlighted her porcelain skin and revealed something deeper. She curtsied slightly and winked at me. Making sure none of the others noticed, she turned towards me in doing so.
“I’m Anthony, this is Marcus.” I didn’t bow, although Althea had cast a spell that looked like we were wearing normal Victorian clothing, we had no hats to tilt. And it just didn’t feel natural.
“So, you risked your lives to find the boy?” Rebecca uttered, turning away as she took off her cloak. “We do not have him, so we can’t help you.”
“Please sit.” Claude gestured to the wooden seats. “You must be either very serious or mad to risk coming through the time loop.” He shook his head. “I, for one, would do anything to stay in your time. We have seen it obviously; it happens every day. Even though we only get a glimpse of your world, it smells and looks comparably better than this.” His face dropped, as did his demeanour, and he kicked off his shoes and sat cross-legged at the edge of one of the beds.
“We could help you. We know who has Orion, but she is too powerful for us. If we helped you, would you help us in return?” Claude asked tentatively.
“Claude, don’t try and reason with them, they’ll not help us. They may promise to, but why should they? They’re not the first to come through, and none have gone back.”
Marcus sat down. Even leaning forward, he was an imposing figure amongst us all. Taking a deep breath, he spoke as softly as a nephilim could, trying to quiet his normally booming voice. As the words fell out of his mouth, they all jolted back, shocked at the sound of his voice. “We have a guaranteed way back, and Anthony and I have been in other time loops, other worlds and successfully got home. If you had seen the devastation of the future—your future—you would not hesitate to help us. We will help you, God knows I’ve lived through this age once before. If you will agree and swear upon your lives to abide by my conditions, then we can help each other. You, none of you would last long in our time, the 21st Century, without guidance.”
“The 21st Century...” Eliza caressed the words like a lover. She swayed slightly then walked over to Marcus. “I want to trust you. But how? Look at how we live here! Once we had fine lodgings, but the locals took too much interest in us. And we were forced to move, to live here like rats.”
“Eliza, we keep our word. As Rebecca said, we risked a lot to come here, that’s not to be taken lightly. I don’t want to be here anymore than you. Tell us where Orion is, and tell us how you came to be stuck in this time loop.”
William remained standing, looking at us, his eyes narrowed and mouth fixed. He took a deep breath. He seemed resigned to the fact that we were here, his face stern and taking off his coat he huffed and went and sat next to Claude.
William told their story. “I tell you, we were vampires when this happened. And friends, we were all born in this age and knew each other before we were made into these damned creatu
res. We had just left a ball. It was unusual as this tiny city is so small that the balls are usually paltry affairs. It was being held by a count, and we had managed to obtain tickets.” He shrugged. “We were not actually invited. We were not happy as such in our current condition, but we were living well. Hunting in this city is easy and the slums and vast crime provide ample...food.”
Pausing here he looked at Claude, and I noted that Rebecca picked at her lips whilst Eliza ground her teeth. Claude, seeing me notice this, stood up quickly and lightly as if to distract me, continuing where William left off. “We decided that night, even though we didn’t live down here in the poorer area, that we would take a detour. A wander around the streets. It was a beautiful night, the air actually smelt quite fresh, if you can believe that, and for once the fog of the city that haunts us daily, had lifted. Where you saw us, outside the teashop, we were laughing and talking and we saw a figure up ahead.”
Here William took over, and Claude sat back down as William stood to recount their tale. “There was nothing odd about the figure. It was a woman in a cloak although she didn’t look finely dressed and she seemed alone, which is unheard of. Especially at night. I noticed that she had light auburn hair that hung freely inside her hood, falling to her shoulders. My instinct was, this was a witch, but normally I wouldn’t be afraid of such a woman.” He looked at his companions. “We had come across them, once, twice before. The witches had said that they knew what we were, and had threatened to out us, so we...drank them. But this one stood watching as still as stone, her dark eyes drilling into us like she was trying to steal our souls. We all stopped and watched, and then the next step forward that we took, she threw up her hand and a bright flash flew from it, we were disoriented and afterwards we knew we were there, but not there...something odd had happened.”
Rebecca, leaving her lips alone for a second, got up, the words spilling forth. “She held something in her hand, a wand, something shiny. A crystal; who knows... We believe it is the same witch that took Orion from us. We were hoping that he could help us, could stop this torment of the time loop. But we don’t know anything about her, except what she looks like.” She stopped talking abruptly, her eyes cast to the ground and panted harshly, slumped on the other bed next to Rebecca, who wrapped her arm around her.
I’d expected these people to be nasty, unfeeling, and defiantly uncooperative. But they were lost, trapped and alone in this nightmare. That had been me some years previously.
A gentle smile broke over my face and I quietly got up and walked over to them. To Eliza, Rebecca, and then the men. Putting my hands on the women’s arms, I whispered, “But now we’re here.” Gesturing my hand towards Marcus, I continued, “And she won’t know about that. We can find her. Marcus, do you know something about this witch? You lived here before.”
Sitting back with a wide grin spread across his face he said, “I do. I used to...court her.”
Lost
Rachel
“Nicolas, what do mean they’re lost? When was the last time you spoke to Anthony?”
“Yesterday. I phoned him and Marcus. Orion went missing, and I asked them to look for him. We’ve been trying to find them ever since.”
“I don’t believe this. Where could they be?” Pacing around, my mind raced as I tried to think where they’d gone.
Nathaniel came sauntering in with a few of his friends and a half-formed smile on his frozen face. Shaking his head, he sat down in the living room in Acacius’s small home.
“Seriously? You couldn’t find him? Something’s wrong here. Where did Orion live? They must’ve gone back to his home or headed that way?” I asked.
“Somewhere near Abbey Green, Rachel,” Nicolas reported meekly. He looked rough. Clearly, he had neither fed nor slept and had been trying his best to console the other two demon children, who were at present being kept amused by Acacius and his nephilim friends. No easy feat. The children turned out to be feral with no respect for anything except for their own blood lust.
“And when did you speak to him? I mean what time?”
“It was late, around 11:30, I think. Near to midnight anyway. I’m sorry, Rachel, I can’t understand why this has happened. All they had to do was collect the boy and bring him here.”
“Someone else was involved,” Nathaniel added. “We looked around Abbey Green and there’s definitely an odd feeling there, always has been. In one spot where you walk, you get an icy chill run right through you, near the tea shop. That is the oldest building in the city, and apparently the most haunted.” He smirked.
I had no fear of Nathaniel now. After I’d killed Lucius, the crazed demon, single handily and drank his blood, Nathaniel really didn’t faze me. He was no longer stronger than me. And I was no longer scared.
“Good, then I say a few of us go there tonight near midnight, and wait and see who or what shows up.”
Damien had been sitting quietly in the corner listening to our conversations, our responses, and I looked over to him for his support. I didn’t know why I trusted him so much. I had met him briefly months ago and straight away felt an attachment to him. And now, after we’d been through so much, this feeling had grown. Instinctively, I was aware that he was more than a mere vampire. And he knew more about these children, and it puzzled me that he hadn’t spoken.
His smile appeared wide and glowing, and a calm washed over me, being there in his presence.
Once Anthony and I had been lovers and tight. So much had happened since then, but I cared for him as friends do, nothing more. And I cared for Marcus, my mighty warrior friend, always complicated and drama prone.
We had hours to kill before midnight, so Damien and I headed off in search of dinner and left Nathaniel to his devices, arranging to meet up by the old Sycamore tree at 11:30.
I’d never eaten with Damien before, and used this chance to find out more about him. His instincts were sharper than I gave credit.
“I’m the same as you, Rachel. Part vampire, part demon. I know you were abducted by a demon. I know you drank his blood before killing him. I also know that you sliced off his head, because the energy that spewed out of him, poured into you. I know because I sensed it. I recognised a change in you, mainly because that happened to me. We’re more powerful now, though we’re still mainly vampire. You have noticed your senses have refined. And you feel stronger than before.”
“Yes, yes to all of that.” I spoke with relief. His words were more comforting than he knew, knowing that I wasn’t alone and that the man who I want to be with, is the same as me.
“I didn’t want to say anything back there in Acacius’s house, but...these children, they worry me. They are so wild, they lack any sense of morality, as terrible as this sounds, I’m not sure it’s a good thing that they live. But then again, I’m not sure they could easily be killed. I think Acacius has the same reservations, though I haven’t asked him, but judging by his reactions, his body language. I thought you should know,” he whispered shaking his head.
“Surely there’s something we can do? We’ll have to discuss this with the others once this situation is sorted. The children seem to respond to you?” I asked.
“For now, they see me as more powerful, but I’m not sure I am. When they grow more I doubt any of us could match their...abilities.” He sighed. “You’re right, we’ll do as Emidius said, and pull together a council of sorts. We could at least seek her guidance, her help. But now...” He stopped talking, distracted by someone in the park.
I could smell the human, too. A dirty, musty smell there beyond the tree line. A man, late fifties I’d guess, wandered through, muttering to himself. We stopped our conversation and edged closer. The human’s words were critical, grudging as he spoke to himself about someone he believed had wronged him. Before Damien could say anything, I slipped out quickly and walked near the man. As he saw me, I could hear his heart beat speed up, his adrenalin pumping so fast that I could sense it like I felt the wind.
His an
gry face changed into a sinister smile, sneering at me. I pretended not to notice him and allowed him to believe he had the element of surprise. Striding as fast as his plump legs could, he stood in front of me. I fooled him by smiling, he replied by snorting loudly, his eyes cold, his face contorted in anger. I smiled again this time, making sure that he noticed my fangs. As he took a step back in shock, he was met by Damien who had crept up behind him.
“There are bigger predators than you out here tonight.” Damien laughed mockingly at him.
I grabbed the human’s hand as he watched and sank my teeth into his wrist. Damien behind him tilted the man’s head and bit his neck. In minutes we had almost drained him. He was, as they always are, paralysed by our venom but conscious. Damien whispered words of warning to him; we are now connected by his blood and would know instantly if he ever went to harm another, regardless of who or what. And we would not be as forgiving next time. The human’s face turned white with fear, slowly nodding, then I added. “We demand that you do some good in your life. You must now help others from this point on. Failure to do this will result in something far worse than our draining your blood. We are watching you.”
Nodding his head slightly, as he was still partly under the influence of our bite, we left him and made our way back to Damien’s flat.
Damien chuckled, “So, you’re going to build an army of do-gooders, huh? No, I like that, demanding that your victims do something useful in life.”
“It just came to me, I thought I might as well. That was one bad human!”
As we came to the exit of the park, Damien stopped and pulled me around facing him. I felt locked looking into his eyes, I couldn’t look away. He pulled me into his arms, and as he did my mouth went dry, pulse racing. I gulped, his lips touched mine, soft and warm, I wanted to stay there, in his kiss forever.
