Standing Before Monsters (Vorans and Vampires) (45 page)

The young one leaped from the six story building as the kasha cast hooks with long lines of thin, lightweight but strong rope that was more like wire. Unlike the elder vampires who made it to the roof of the next building that was across four lanes of road and thirty feet higher in a single running leap, the young man had to land catching the wall. His feet found purchase on the ledge of a window before propelling up the remaining twenty five feet.

Shedu had never truly watched the leaping skills of vampires. He had hunted and chased them, but watching these three the kasha noted that they seemed to defy gravity. It wasn’t just the strength of their legs and speed, but the elder two appeared to alter their weight or something similar to make up for the extra height.

Three lines were thrown and the kasha released the ropes letting gravity take them towards the far building. Taking running jumps, they leaped across the divide catching the still swinging ropes higher than if they had simply swung from the building. Feet stopped their momentum against the walls before they scaled the building with the lines.

By the time the three kasha were coming over the ledge, the vampires had already tracked across the roof and found the next leaping point. This was a lower building that they could all make it across to in easy jumps for their respective kind, so Shedu and his team quickly coiled their lines as they walked across the roof before stowing the hooks again.

The vampires were already on the next roof waiting by the time he had his gear put away. It was vexing seeing the ease with which the creatures moved about the city. Only the tallest skyscrapers would be a challenge they wouldn’t be able to just leap, the kasha thought.

He noticed the vampires looking to the east and realized that for them the sun was more of a liability. While they wouldn’t burst into flames like in the movies just from sunlight, their skin was more sensitive to the rays. Depending on their strength, they might also grow lethargic and be of less use.

The team leader of the vampires pointed towards the horizon and stated, “We have to give up the chase for now. By the time we retrace our steps to the car and drive home the sun will be up. We won’t be much good to you then.”

Shedu nodded wondering if his team should continue any longer. They had the same walk back to the CR-V and couldn’t just leap off of a building to the street whenever they wanted to, but the reaper’s trail might grow cold. “We might as well call it also. We can start here tomorrow, Derek, together or separately.

The vampire put out his hand to shake the kasha’s hand. Shedu shook his head and chuckled, “I can’t while my claws are out. They might scratch and pull away some of your spirit, though admittedly we were told they pull away evil, so you might be safe.”

Withdrawing his hand casually, Derek brushed at his windblown hair instead. “No sense pressing my luck. Santa gives me coal every once in awhile too.”

The girl beside him laughed, “You’re only bad with me and I make up for Santa.”

Nodding the man replied to the attractive, blue eyed, blonde, “Well, you do give better gifts.”

The third vampire mimed being sick and received a joking slap on the arm from Sophia.

Shedu listened to them realizing how human they still seemed. “We will descend for a jog back to the car, if you want to join us.”

Derek shook his head. “We can make better time across the roofs.”

Giving a wave, the vampires moved at twice the speed they had running with the kasha following the trail and leaped onto the next building effortlessly.

“They seem very... normal,” Lamassu said slowly.

“I am glad that we didn’t waste time fighting spirits that are doing good,” Shedu replied with a nod to the girl.

Sniffing disdainfully, Alad replied, “They seem alright, but I still don’t trust them.”

Lam smiled and said spreading her hands in a gesture that inferred it was alright, “I doubt they trust you either, Alad. I mean we don’t. Why should they?”

Groaning at the girl in annoyance, the tiger man ignored her. “So we walk back to the car now?”

Shedu nodded. “There isn’t much darkness left. We will return this evening and try to follow his trail.”

“I think I heard that there might be rain today,” Lam stated as the three chose to take the stairs down from the seven story building. The leap was doable for the kasha, but it would still hurt; so Shedu chose to use the rooftop entry and the stairs beyond the door.

“Then we will be back to looking for the reapers again, but starting in this direction,” their leader replied not willing to give up the secret of their race for the sake of a trail.

The scream that woke Lena where she lay on Geni’s floor with her pillow nearly woke the whole floor. It was early and the drapes blocked out most of the light of the morning sun. Moving quickly to her friend’s side shushing her gently and repeating in a hushed tone, “It’s alright, Geni, you’re safe.” She slowly managed to get the shaking girl to breathe slower, but her shaking wouldn’t go away as quickly.

“What was that thing?!” the girl cried with tears streaming down her cheeks. Lena could tell that she was seeing the dark horror of the vampire, and wasn’t sure how she could ease her friend’s mind. To
lie to her was the logical guess, but she hated to do it.

“It was just a bad dream. You were just having a bad dream. You drank a lot and have exams coming, so I’m sure whatever it was probably is a metaphor for the stress you’re under. I know I am still stressed,” Lena said trying to figure out what to say. Thinking about how she wanted to become an actress, the girl realized that she could treat it like an
improv class.

Geni’s green eyes looked at her friend and shook her head looking dead serious. Those eyes were haunted by what she had seen. “It wasn’t a dream,” she affirmed as Geni’s hand touched her bandaged neck. “I can see your bandage too, Lena.”

“No, when we passed that gap between the buildings and I threw up, I must have woken up a dog. I think it was a pitbull. He tore my neck pretty good. That’ll teach me to go out drinking on a fake ID.”

Shaking her head vehemently until the pain from her wound made the girl stop, Geni stated, “I wasn’t as drunk as you. I saw him. He dropped from above me, so I turned to look when I heard the thump of his boots. His eyes were black and he smelled like dirt and blood.”

The girl shook her body in repulsion as she seemed to smell the reaper again. Her shoulder wound hurt her with the motion forcing her to stop and she pointed to Lena. “You know what it was. It had to be a vampire!”

Looking at her friend like she was crazy, the dark haired actress tried her best to make Geni believe her words, “That’s impossible! Vampires don’t really exist. They’re just in movies.”

“Everything has a starting place, even fantasy and horror movies. What if peoples’ dreams and nightmares are real? I know what I saw and he should have been impossible. Those black eyes froze me. I couldn’t move and he bit me!” Her hand went to the bandage again as her memory reinforced what was under the wrap. “You know what I’ll find under here? Fang bites. He sucked on me and I felt my life draining away, but I couldn’t move or fight back.”

Lena started to get up shaking her head. “That’s not what I saw.”

“There was a flash of light and fire. I couldn’t move, but I saw you bleeding and you made me drink your blood.”

“I got blood on you when I went to check on you before I passed out. If Logan didn’t live so close, we might have both bled to death. I managed to call Nick before I passed out and he sent Logan, since he used to be a doctor. Actually I guess he still is a doctor, since he got a new job at a clinic. You know we should go down there sometime to see him,” Lena said trying to draw the girl off topic.

Geni stood up and rested her hands on her friend’s shoulders. “Lena, I am telling you that I wasn’t that drunk. I know what I saw.”

Surprising her friend, she ripped the bandage off of Lena in a quick move that surprised even the voran. The girl had been subtle, but the pain as the tape ripped free of her skin was much less so.

“Ow! What are you doing?”

It was Geni’s turn to be surprised. The wound looked nearly healed. “What? That’s impossible, unless...” the blonde haired girl’s mind was quickly moving along with her scenario. “Oh my god, you couldn’t heal that fast unless you were turned into a vampire!”

“Gah, come on!” Lena complained and walked over to the drapes yanking them open. Sunlight streamed inside making her squint with the quick change of lighting and the brunette mimed sunning herself and fanning the rays to her. “If I were a vampire, could I stand in the sunlight? No!

“So come on, it was just a bad dream, Geni.”

Looking less convinced, Geni walked into the bathroom ripping off her bandage. Teeth marks including the deep bites of the reaper’s fangs were noticeable in the mirror. They weren’t as healed looking as Lena’s, but they looked less fresh than would have been believed for the several hours between the attack and now.

“Lena, there is no way that this was made by a dog.”

Spreading her hands, the dark haired girl suggested, “Well, we’re obviously not vampires, so why don’t we go over to Nick’s? He and Logan picked us up and bandaged us, so he’d know as much as anyone.

“If we take our books for the exams, maybe we can even con Charlotte into helping us study instead of driving each other nuts with our different classes. Maybe even Sami will be up to it if her anemia isn’t making her too tired. That girl is pretty smart for a fifteen year old.”

Geni smiled and said, “Maybe we’re just dumb for twenty year olds?”

They both laughed until their heads hurt. Hangovers were already beginning to manifest; which disappointed Lena, since she had thought a transfusion of Nick’s blood would have canceled the previous night’s drinking. Since the blonde was willing to go to Nick’s instead of driving Lena nuts trying to lie to her about it, the brunette said, “Well, dress in something studious and let’s head over there. Maybe it will seem less like studying if we do it there instead of in the dorms.”

Hurrying to her room to change, and glad that she had showered the night before, Lena drew out her cell phone from her shorts to quick warn Nick that they were coming and of Geni’s certainty that they had been attacked by a vampire.

He could hear arguing before the girls pushed the unlocked door open. Lena waved at Nick looking harried to say the least. “Hey, Nick.”

Geni was worked up and said to her friend’s back, “I keep telling you that it wasn’t a
pitbull or some other dog that attacked us. I saw him.”

Plopping next to her mentor, Lena said, “She won’t let up. Geni says that she was attacked by a vampire. I keep telling her that I must have disturbed a big dog when I threw up in the alley.”

“Nick, it was a weird looking man. I keep telling her.”

Nodding the voran asked, “Tell me what you remember happening. You can fast forward over the underage drinking that I’m not supposed to know about.”

Geni’s eyes widened slightly and her face paled. She forgot that Nick was a grown up and essentially shouldn’t be told of their escapade before the attack. Too full of energy despite her ordeal the night before, and perhaps slightly hyped up from the voran blood that had saved her life and probably prevented her from turning into a vampire as well; Geni couldn’t sit down and instead paced as the girl quickly related what happened.

“Those black eyes of his seemed to... what do they call it when vampire eyes mesmerize a human?” the blonde asked shaking her hands as she tried to remember a detail that Geni had really never paid attention to when boyfriends had made her watch those movies. Horror movies were usually just an excuse to make out most of the time anyway.

“Glamour,” Nicola said leading Sami and Charlotte into the living room after hearing the girls arguing.

It was still early, but Sami looked ready to go to sleep very soon, Nick thought.

“Yes, he glamoured me and I couldn’t move. He just came from out of nowhere, probably from the roof and just dropped down from the noise his boots made hitting the sidewalk. His teeth sank into my neck,” the girl stated pulling off her bandage again revealing the bite marks. “I’m telling you it was a vampire.”

“But they don’t really exist, I told her,” Lena added nodding and gesturing with her hand palm up towards the girl.

“They do exist!” Geni argued as the blonde haired girl looked exasperated with Lena’s continuing refusal to believe her. “He had black eyes, vampire fangs, long nails on his fingers, and was white as a ghost. He was super fast and strong too. I saw him run so fast at Lena that he seemed to just be in front of her in a blink of an eye.”

“You passed out,” Lena said wondering when the others would help her out in making her friend stop regurgitating her fantasy even if it was real.

“I know what I saw and what I saw was a scary vampire,” Geni finished with a stomp of her foot.

“A reaper vampire actually,” Nick replied calmly.

“A what?” Geni asked as Lena’s jaw dropped.

“He was a reaper vampire. Most regular vampires when they are overcome with the need to feed have white eyes with black pupils in the center. We heard there was another kind called a reaper. It kills other vampires and eats them just like they eat humans.”

Geni’s face looked confused. On one hand, Nick was agreeing with her, but on the other hand he was saying that vampires were real.

“What do you mean ‘we heard’, Nick? Are you saying you and other people know about vampires?” she asked suddenly looking for a chair to sit down.

As she took a cushioned chair beside the couch, he thought that she was suddenly wary of him as well. “Geni, there has been a war going on that most humans don’t even know exists. Movies and books show that some people have discovered them at one time or another, though most probably believe that they were simply dreamed up by people in the past.

“They blame various diseases and conditions caused by diseases for the rumors. Now if I told you that I believed in vampires because I’ve seen them and even know of them, what would you say? What would you do?”