Blood Rider

Going to Town wasn’t something Lee often inflicted on herself. When she hunted, if she thought her Handler wouldn’t notice, she didn’t do so within the Human Quarter, but rather the less secure and populated sub-quarters and unclaimed territory. Thus avoiding her Handler’s attention as well as the attention of the Hunt Guard and human gang leaders. It was disorientating because Town was a different world altogether. Segmented from the rest of the city and in many ways the rest of the world, it was like walking into a different time.

-A different and smelly world.-

A human world. More like a ghetto than they like to think.

Lee wrinkled her nose and wished she didn’t have vampire enhanced senses and knew exactly why the packs avoided the place. The assault a werewolf would get, while very informative, was likely disgusting enough to cause spontaneous projectile vomiting. It was simply a matter of confined quarters and lack of sanitation. Although those two factors combined was no simple problem. University City and the Vampire Quarter had the means and influence to have electricity when needed, maintain a larger sewer system and even running water. Town had patches of such benefits, but by no means consistent. The poor managed well enough with water pumps and chamber pots, but the difference was profound in comparison. Not to mention humans bred quickly and there were too many of them behind the stockade walls. Overcrowding likely led to more problems within the walls than those that dared to live outside of them. The thing was the Clan and the Council had no intentions of sharing their knowledge or assisting in improving Town, unless Townies accepted their conditions.

Lee rather liked the lack of electricity. Dimly lit alleyways and even well-travelled roads only had night lanterns, which made the areas of light quite a bit less than what one saw in University City proper. Not only did this make a little privacy easier, but the humans seemed to have the belief that numbers alone made them safer, and thus more courageous humans out at night. In fact, all sorts of humans at night. The bustle of Town drew in merchants from the entire district, shopkeepers and affluent people situated themselves in Town more than the outlying, more restrictive, Colonies.

It was only natural that crowds drew in thieves of all sorts and whores aplenty. Although no one referred to women who sold themselves for money whores in Town, it was far too common a practice to have the derogatory term applied to it. If a woman traded her body for some sort of gain, then she was a practical, if just for pleasure then she was lusty. If it was for an occupation, on the streets or lower end lodgings, she was a doxy, for higher end brothels, an escort. There were degrees to respectability for women, but in the end, it came to what they got from what men wanted.

-Times change so quickly.-

So very profound, Charlie. It comes down to basic needs really. And when you take away most frivolities, like equality for all and humanitarian rights, what remains are fundamental desires and how they are fulfilled. They mirror our kind when they are at their most brutal. Makes their desires rawer, but also cruder. Satisfying lust is well and good, but at least we know how to satisfy it properly.

-That we do,- Charlie replied, and with the thought briefly gave her a flash memory of Jak.

Lee stood patiently at the gates; knowing she could vault over them well enough and the concrete wall had been built more to secure themselves from humans when the city was free territory for all. Now, it might offer a sort of false sense of security. Yet, unfortunately, when she came, officially, she had to obey the rules.

She sighed and waited as her eyes scanned over century’s worth of graffiti on the wall. Her stance relaxed, feet held in a wide stance and hands behind her back, not near her sword. And waited more. If she waited much longer she would need to feed. Jak was rather an annoying restriction on her feeding habits. He would have to get over it because there was no way she was completing the link, born vampire or not. But for sex, she didn’t think she could resist him. It was like his vampire pheromones and hers were like a super drug which couldn’t be denied. Or she didn’t want to deny it. Like her vampire nature craved contact with one of her own. She had to admit feeling the strength of his aura connect with hers on such an intimate level, with the desire and bloodlust raising everything to a fever pitch it was damned irresistible. It felt so right.

After their ‘meeting’ he had a little chat with her. More like dictated to her about how things were going to be. Now that part, she could’ve done without.

-Yeah. Macho man wants a pretty toy to play with. No biting others, except food. Deny the Council. Move to the Vampire Quarter, move with him. And then all that babble about soul-mates and breeding. Gads.-

Don’t I know it. He will soon see how well that works for him. He had been adamant and passionate. It had given her a thrill to see such intensity in his desire for her. But what he said about you...

-That as a born vampire you cannot hear your rider like we do. And so that you’re fragmented. Or worse saying outright that you’re crazy and created me, in order to handle the trauma of whatever happened in the blankness. I thought it a little condescending how he suggested he would help you in this, or protect you. As though we were some delusional and frail woman.-

I must be crazy. I mean, I always feared I was. All I know is, as it seems I’m a born vampire, you and I, are unique. I think even you must know this. You stopped me from killing myself. You were there for me when I needed you. Perhaps we are disconnected because of whatever happened to me. If that is the case, then perhaps it is a benefit.

-So funny, Sunshine. Now you think it is good. Now, when they think I’m a figment of your fractured mind. Even so, I don’t see myself as a distorted reflection of you. We should talk to Justina. That witch knows the ins and outs of a soul, even one such as ours. Plus, as you said, witches know possession and so she may be able to help us with how this is being done on such a scale.-

And so funny that now you want to discover our nature. I might remind where my curiosity ended us up at. This role reversal thing we are doing is odd.

-I want us to be strong.-

That ain’t gonna happen soon.

A Home Guardian, the official defenders of the Human Quarter, finally granted her entrance. Likely the wait was sending a message by a runner to confirm her wrist tat status. Inside the walls there waited her escort. He wore a heavy knit cotton shirt, vest and a winter cloak jacket. He looked cold, with flush cheeks and a hunched in posture from the wind. Most importantly he wore a yellow scarf, which meant he was with the Talon Gang. A very predominate gang in Town. And their Don was precisely who she wanted to see. She gave him a short bow as he did the same.

“I’m your escort, Liam. Where do you wish to go, vamp?” he asked, knowing full well she was going to see his Don.

“I go to Darwin,” she replied. Liam frowned slightly at her informal use of his Don’s name. She had earned the right, long ago, when the Don was not a Don. People changed so quickly and every time she was submerged in them, she felt static and still. Things were never the same on her return. It looked the same, but the young had already become the old, so quickly.

He had little choice but to step up beside her as she walked away from him. Her eyes scanned the streets. The main line of shops ran from the gate into their main street. Dispersed among them several pubs and clubs. There were women in corners, walking the street to entice men for the pleasures they could offer. These were too poor to work in the men’s clubs or in a Pleasure House. These women she would likely never see again, their lives were hard and many starved or were killed long before they died a peaceful death of old age. They stared at her, fearing her on sight, with her glittering pale green eyes, ivory skin and movements that just seemed off for a human; too quick, to graceful or at times too very still. And perhaps the most obvious, she was hardly bundled up for winter in her leather breeches and tailored cotton shirt. She could make herself appear human, but that was not what she was here for.

Liam took a winding trail through Talon territory. She saw many a youth strutting around proud to wear his yellow scarf as though it meant something. It meant something, just stupid things like dying young in a gang war for a man that used them as fodder to increase his power, influence and wealth. If they were out at night, it was likely to make some sort of ‘statement’ to another gang or to hit the pubs and pleasure houses. They were just children, most ranging from twelve to eighteen, but in their world they were adults.

Town covered an area that had once been mostly businesses and industrial areas on the southeastern sector of the old city. The residential areas destroyed and used for material. Even so, the leftovers of that old civilization remained. The streets were still wide in most places, wider than what was needed for foot or horse traffic. That made for space for market stalls lining some areas. Some old buildings remained, looking odd amongst the newer stone and mortar ones. Sometimes she got sort of flashbacks of what it once looked like. Like part of her remembered what it had.

The Don she wished to see owned all the pleasure houses and many of the pubs, so it was not surprising he was in a pleasure house. It looked like any other two storey building, but the entire lane, of close fitted houses, was composed of these similar structures. Escorts walked the streets enticing people, who were gentlemen mostly. Or they languished on verandas in fashionable but functional fur coats.

Liam stopped at the door. “I will wait for you here.”

“Right,” she said walking in the door and into the lounge where patrons chose their escorts. The escorts strolled the room, talking to gentlemen, offering drinks ‘on the house’ and even some petting or kissing. Human women were often more curvy, more voluptuous and Lee could envy that looking over the escorts. Clothing draped to enhance certain areas of appeal. They look lush and soft and delicious. It was easy enough to beat down the desire to feed since she had been well fed already, but the temptation was there. Their mannerisms were perfect as well; both seductive and well educated. Most escorts worked toward a regular patron, to be the mistress to a man of means.

The Matron at the door looked Lee down and up, assessing as only a Matron can be. “What are you looking for, love. Any of my beauties appeal to you?”

Lee flashed her a bit of fang and she backed up a few paces. “Your beauties appeal to me in a way they wouldn’t like to satisfy. Which is a pity, because your girls look delicious. I can see well why your patrons cannot resist their lustful charms.”

She smiled proudly, getting over what anxiety she had heard about Lee’s kind quickly. It was, of course, illegal for Lee to nudge a human’s mind. Hard to prove, but best to play nice. The Matron was not cowering in fear, so it didn’t look necessary anyway. “For the proper amount of money, dark one, I’m sure one of our more specifically classed escorts would be pleased to serve you.”

Lee’s eyes widened slightly. She doubted having vampires in Town was a regular occurrence, but who knew the deals Darwin had on the go. It might just be a matter of profit overcoming fear. Pity as well. In other circumstances, she might very well have given in to such on offer. She would be quite willing to pay for a donor of her choice, rather than having to take the ones permitted her by the Council.

“Another time. I’m here for Darwin.”

“Ah, yes, of course. Perhaps you can play when you are finished work. He is on the third floor, in the office.”

She bowed slightly. “Thank you, madam.”

She skirted the socializing crowd, lest one of the men assume she was some sort of exotic, dressed as a sword fighter, and set his cap for her. Then up the crimson red stairs, down the hall full of lustful music and up the wood steps to the third floor, aka, the attic. She walked in and smiled at Darwin; his feet on the table, leaning back smoking a cigar. He had changed over the years. Years passed so fast for her; she forgot how they marked others. Still, he retained his ruggedly handsome face, aged to be considered distinguished, with some gray highlights in his black hair. She didn’t know what history his blood held in it since it was so mixed, but Darwin had a darker complexion, black hair, a great deal of chest hair and could grow a beard in days.

“My friend, those things kill you,” she said softly, as she stepped in further.

He mumbled something about silent vampires and sat up straight. “Darling, I wouldn’t have to resort to the slow death of smoking, if you would but drain me dry to die with such exquisite pleasure.”

Lee smiled slowly. She remembered the one time she had made love to this man soon after she began to work for the University City. He had not been a Don at the time; he had been a thug on the rise. So ambitious. So motivated. Like a force of nature. She had wanted to know what drove him and to experience that vibrant energy humans have to achieve goals so quickly. Not so long ago for her as it was for him.

She expected, in his maturity, like most, he was more interested in securing what he had obtained. Perhaps he was even trying to pass his hard-earned experience and enterprise along to his four sons. Such things never worked as parents believed. You couldn’t pass on what you hard earned through pain and hardship like some shiny bauble to amuse a youngster.

Lee sat down and crossed her legs.

“I imagine you are here for business, rather than to reminisce?”

“Reminiscing on anything takes quite a bit of time these days. It is business. It is assistance from the Don I need.”

“Oh, and what sort of assistance does a Council bred vampire need?”

“Apparently plenty,” she said dryly. “In this case, we are dealing with vampire rogue situation.”

“Ah, well. I imagine you can handle that. Someone from the Council dropped off a memo. And certainly, that is in the realm of the Vampire Quarter.”

“Is it? Do vampires, unbonded, starved vampires hunt their own? No. They hunt humans. In the sub-quarters mostly, but likely here as well. It is not as though your wall will stop them.”

“Culling of the herd,” he said flippantly, with an amused smile.

She flashed him a little fang. “You shouldn’t be so glib. You’re less than cattle to some of my kind.” She licked her lips and watched him shiver. It was part excitement and part fear. She could feel his essence tremor through her aura.

He could be nonchalant around her, but he remembered as well when she had fought by his side. Ripped out throats with little concern over damage to herself, as she healed so very fast on the blood of her prey. He had been just as vicious, just cleaner and somehow disturbed at her disregard for the lives lost at her hands. Not that he ever had any such regrets. But he had a sense of mortality. The potential of his demise and the knowledge of what he had crushed in another. He saw in her the beast and the predator. A man that was, by all means, considered a predator amongst his own kind. He had not been comfortable with the idea he was prey. Or worse food.

-Or, even more likely, it is cause you’re a woman. Not a whore and not a mother. Rather hard for him to place in his little male-dominated, blustering testosterone, world.-

She sighed. And when he handed her a smoke she lit it up and took a long drag.

“This situation is bad, Darwin. We need to have humans aware of the situation. I know how much power you have amassed and how much influence that gives you.”

-Stroke the ego first. Always a smooth move with a human male.-

“I came to tell you these are not vampires spawned by any of my kind. It may appear to be an internal territorial conflict being fought in neutral territory, but it is not.”

“It does indeed appear that way. A fight over feeding grounds. With bodies left in the open to mark their claim on other vampires.”

It wasn’t a good thing the Town humans were looking at the situation in terms of a vampire conflict. It might firm their alliance with the Council. Lee should be pleased by that fact, but she had no desire to see the Council gain more than its fair share of power. She worked for the Council but didn’t believe in their cause. Sometimes she worked to undermine them, simply to keep the balance Quarter City had. “The spawn were created a different way, by a wizard. As such, an unpredictable threat. Their demon is inside them, it rolled them mind and body, and it has nothing but need and hunger.”

He leaned forward, his expression a little more serious, more dangerous. An expression he used likely when planning an attack on a gang. “What is it you need from me, Lee?”

“I need you to protect your own, for one. This horde of spawn are mindless, Darwin.” She chuckled darkly. “Only the strongest survive. Is that not so?”

“I always protect my own.”

“And this man who makes and controls these demons, we need to find who he is targeting among the humans. He must be finding a way to lure them. These people walk away from their lives, they were not homeless before. And they are now insane from the blood feasting. Your people should be able to help us locate these missing people and what they have in common.”

“I’ll do what I can and inform you as soon as I have something,” Darwin said. “I don’t like anyone messing with my territory, be it rogue vamps or a spellcaster.”

Pure born humans had no more fondness for the Changed than the other races. It helped them keep the peace to hate those obviously different from them, but she knew from her studies, when that hadn’t been the case they had hated their own, manufacturing differences if they needed to.

“That is what I like about you, Darwin. So much like a vampire you are. But without all the fun appetites.” She finished the smoke and butted it out. “I would like to scout Town, free of hassles, to see if I can catch a hint of wizard power or a nest within the walls. It is an obvious place to hide, amongst those blind to his power and where there are plenty of humans to take.”

“The night is young, Lee. You have yet to taste the appetizers I have here.”

She raised one eyebrow. “Oh? And you offer one of your escorts as food?”

“You need to feed. I’ve been working a deal to have donor escorts. Let me show you just a taste of what I have. Wait here.” He left the room and she stared after him.

I never thought he would sell his own to ours.

-And why not? He makes ties to Clan and Council with such a pleasure house.-

He once told me only a fool does business with the Clans. Said it was asking for trouble. He was right.

-Yet to have vampires legally feed within a brothel saves them hunting in the streets.-

Perhaps. A very rational idea, but not one a Town Don would be comfortable with. He would kill any vamp that hunts in Town. He says the mind tricks we use and the drugs we release to make our victim compliant, doesn’t change the fact we have taken what was never offered.

-So he is being realistic and telling them what is offered must be paid for.-

Still.

-Still you are wary. He isn’t the man we knew before. But he’s not a young man any longer.-

Also true. I suppose then I should be honored he is offering me a donor within Town. It’s a considerate thing for a human to do. And he knew I was coming, since I had made my report to my Handler, so one of his gang would meet me. To deny a gift he prepared would be an insult.

When Darwin returned he came with a young woman, barely eighteen. He knew Lee had no taste for children. She was beautiful from her lean figure, to her pale blue eyes and so very rare blond hair. She looked like she must have had a few drinks of wine already, since she gave Lee a wavering smile and her eyes were a little glazed. Wine through the blood was better than wine alone, even more intoxicating. Gave a vampire a bit of a flush and swagger, but didn’t make them drunk in the way prey was. “She’s stunning,” Lee murmured. “But I need to have a clear head.”

Darwin smiled. “Just a taste then,” he said, and reached around the girl’s waist, loosed her gown. He peeled the gown back until it slid down her body and pooled at her feet.

Lee stood up without even aware she had, but moved no closer. The girl stepped right up to her. “How can I please you?” she asked, her voice husky and offering far more than a sip of her blood. Instantly she had thoughts of what pleasure Lee could give her, rather servicing any needs Lee had. She ran a hand down the girl’s waist and rounded hip. Her other hand danced over her breasts, fascinated by their reaction to her touch.

“Just a taste then,” she said, pulling her into an embrace and kissing her neck until she arched her neck for her. As her teeth peaked and her mouth filled with narcotic and numbing saliva Lee lightly traced the area with her tongue, letting the drug do its work. She sank her teeth right into her pulse, heard her gasp, and drank deeply.

She expected the jolt of alcohol in the blood, but not the sluggish texture and flow. When she tasted the too sweet essence of it she jerked back and pushed the girl away. She fell with an expression so dulled by the drugs in her to be startled, more befuddled. Lee reeled for a moment, feeling flush and dizzy.

-Poisoned! But with what?-

She felt Charlie surge within her, an instant and intense reaction to the threat to them. Always when Charlie was aroused in her mind, Lee couldn’t battle her instincts.

Her eyes locked on Darwin but wavered slightly. She knew then, from his expression; his trapped, strained expression. This hadn’t been what some called a jacked up donor, used to get us high on the drugs in the human’s blood, causing interesting effects on sensitive vampiric senses. Everything seemed slow and Lee knew it must be tranquilizers. She took a step to Darwin and he didn’t move. Just waited. Waited for her to fall.

“You think you can drug me with one taste of your jacked up whore, Darwin?” Lee took another step closer, already feeling her heart race, her body running hard to shake of the effects.

“Listen to me, Lee. There isn’t much time.”

She traced up to him, grabbed him by the neck, lifting him into the air walked him hard into the wall and held him there in a moment of pure rage. He gasped out something inaudible. “Do you think I’m a fledgling to be so befuddled by such a trick?”

She tossed him to the ground and heard something crack as she did, then launched onto him, pinning him to the ground. She kissed him aggressively, pushing some of her jacked up drugs into his system.

-Tit for tat, and all that.-

When she pulled back his eyes were already glazed. “I should kill you for this, human. Maybe I’ll take a little taste of you and remind you not to play with people such as me. Always remember for my kind, hospitality rights are never to be violated. Never.”

She leaned forward. “Before I do I would like to know why. Give me one damned good reason.”

“Don’t bite me,” he whispered.

She leaned in a little further until her lips were right by his ear. “No?” she breathed.

“Don’t, Lee,” he said, his words carefully formed through the haze of narcotics. “It’s wha... what they want. Poison.”

Lee stilled, alert and focused. Feeling his racing heart beat against her palm. She didn’t make any movement. She licked his neck lightly with the tip of her tongue, as though she were prepping him for a bite, thinking on what he said and what it could mean. “Oh?” she murmured.

“Here. Here,” he said. And then he breathed out, “Have my son… my William.”

She jerked upward but not in time. She felt claws rip into her sides as she was pulled upward. Her reaction time was slow, her awareness of her environment dimmed and yet that was no excuse for being unaware of another’s presence in the room. When she fell to her knees, gasping from the pain of the ragged wound in her side, she saw why. The girl kicked Lee back and then jumped on her stomach, her knees slamming into her, enough to knock the air out of her lungs. The girl grinned, showing her elongated teeth, right before she bit into Lee’s shoulder.

-Spawn!-

Lee grabbed her on the sides of the head and yanked her back, feeling the burning rip of her teeth as she did. Then she wrenched her neck and twisted until she felt the snap. She tossed her off as she gurgled, but was limp until the rider could fix the damage. She pulled Sunshine free and with one sweep decapitated her. She had little time to gloat over it though as three more crowded into the room, tracing around her and slashing out with long thin daggers. They were spawn as well, their mouths gaping with bared teeth and their eyes bleeding red. She defended herself best she could as she was battered with the sense of their hunger. A hunger that raised her own.

Her concentration was shot and she couldn’t even swamp them with her aura, just bunt them back a bit. She didn’t like the fact they were more in control. It was easy to beat down a raving beast. Bleeding out from several wounds she used Sunshine like a cleaver; severing and chopping them back, as she retreated to the window. When two more traced up the stairs she cursed and threw herself out, shattering thick paned glass and landing hard on her side.

Spitting out blood she glared at the few people not already moving as fast as they could away from her. She started to trace, but instead just lurched a few steps forward and fell to her knees. Her head spinning she fell forward on her hands and vomited blood.

“Girly.”

Lee looked up and saw Dayton staring down at her, his dark blue eyes almost black. His aura curled outward swamping human minds, with a blunt touch.

He helped her to her feet and studied her. “You’re so recalled.”

Before she could protest he tossed her over his shoulder and traced.