Demons and Angels Pt. 01

Daniel felt the hunger eating at his dark soul. It was the same hunger that had pounded inside of him for almost a thousand years. Never-ending hunger. Because unlike the weak humans that shoved and pushed all around him to the pounding rhythm of the music, hunger could not kill him. Starvation brought only pain; it could not gift him with the blessed release of death. Few things truly could.

But it was not just the hunger that ate at his soul, if he still possessed such a thing. It was loneliness. He tried to remember a time when he last had companionship. Companionship, not friendship and certainly not the unattainable love that he felt for his wife many lifetimes ago. No, just simple companionship. Someone intelligent to converse with.

This modern world was becoming increasingly insipid and shallow. He watched as all around, half-dressed women gyrated and pulsed to pounding beats that would once have been a cry to war. He scanned the thoughts of those closest to him. His face contorted into a scowl of disgust. All these lowly creatures thought of was their physical appearance, material gain and copulation.

Certainly he could offer the vipers ample rewards in all three. Despite his ancient heart that hungered for a meaningful conversation, his physical appearance remained as pleasing as it had a millennia ago. That time when he would have and did trade his soul for vengeance. As for money, it was easy enough to collect silver, gold, land and all other means of exchange...when you had unlimited power and immortality. As for copulation, sex, that had become a favored means of filling the gapping void that must have once been his soul.

Daniel shook his dark head in disgust. This night like all the others he was not going to find what he sought. He knew that it was an elusive gift, more rare than a four-leaf clover, more precious to him than the Holy Grail to the Mother Church. He sought the impossible. A mate. A true mate. Someone that might see into the black hole of his heart but rather than be afraid would feel true compassion. Someone who could knit these tattered threads of humanity back together. It was a precious gift that had eluded him over the centuries. A gift that always eluded his kind. For who would wish to give their life to save one of his kind...a vampire.

***

Rahab walked the neon lighted streets of Hollywood. Women, and others, called out to her. Ran to offer her hugs. She spoke with each of them. Asking about their health, their children and as they knew she would, did they need anything. In each face, she saw her baby sister's. The familiar heaviness settled around her heart, just as it always did when she thought about the loss.

Twenty years, had it really been twenty years? It felt like only yesterday when she and her parents had stood next to the packed car, laughing and crying with the blonde beauty. She was going to be a star. In Hollywood. Everyone in their small Texas town had always said that was where someone as beautiful as Mindy belonged. So now that she was eighteen and had graduated high school she was off for those neon lights.

Rahab swiped the moisture from her eyes with the back of her hand. She had a job to do this night as she did all others. She was here to care for the needy, the forgotten, the lost...without questions. Because she would not allow one lost soul to slip through the cracks the way that her beloved sister had. It was more than a job for her...it was a mission.

Her heart stopped when she saw little Jodi talking to the tall, dark stranger. Rahab cared for everyone that came into her life, regardless of their past, or present. But Jodi was special. In the two decades since Rahab had identified her baby sister's body at the morgue, beaten, raped and strangled by a serial killer, no one had touched her heart the way Jodi did. The girl reminded her of Mindy in almost everyway from her blonde curls to her smiling eyes.

Rahab excused herself from the older transgender lady of the night as she called them. She walked towards the alley where Jodi was conversing with the man. Rahab could not see his face, maybe that was what bothered her? The fact that she did not know this man.

Over the years, she had gotten to know as many of the Johns, customers as she did her ladies. Sometimes their stories were as sad or sadder even than her girls. Lonely men mostly, some married even. Having forsaken marriage and even love in order to fulfill her mission she could not understand how that was possible. Those saddened her the most...to be alone and married. It seemed oxymoronic.

As she approached them, she plastered a smile onto her face. She did not want to give Jodi or the man any cause for alarm. She studied him in particular. He was tall, broad shouldered, perhaps not quite as old as her forty-three, but in that ball park probably. He had a baring about him. Military perhaps? Trained and tutored killer for certain. She could feel the blood upon his hands. Stains upon his soul. But there was something more there. An emptiness that she knew personally. A loneliness that called to her.

Rahab had never questioned her gift. For as long as she could remember she could see into the souls of man. The good, the bad and in her time upon these dirty streets with pain and sorrow on as many of squares as there were names, foot and hand prints...the ugly. Hollywood could be a very ugly place. Even when you were as beautiful as Mindy and Jodi.

"Rahab," the young girl called out to her in welcome.

The man turned towards her and her breathe caught in her throat. Beautiful. It was not a word for such masculine pulchritude but there was no other sufficient. There was something ancient, other worldly about him. Although death and violence hung like a second skin from his features so too did chivalry. The man was a warrior, stained with the blood of many, tormented beyond all measure by the things that he had done just to survive. Rahab cocked her head and almost sniffed the air as if to be certain. Then in the end she made her pronouncement, 'But not a killer,' she thought.

***

'Not a killer?' Daniel laughed as the woman approached. How dare she? Did she not know who...what...he was? Would always be.

He turned from the younger, more beautiful woman to study the new arrival. His face contorted. Her face was bare of the artifice favored by modern women and especially these types of creatures who had been his favorite prey over the years. He was after all doing them a favor. Cutting short a life of pain, degradation and most likely addiction. But this one was different. Not only did she not use paints to hide her plainness but her lush curves were decidedly out of place among these emaciated peers. He frowned as he studied her more carefully.

"Hello Jodi, I was just making the rounds. Checking on everyone," he clear blue eyes, perhaps the only thing that was truly remarkable about her, scanned him from head to toe and back again. Their gazes met and where others would look away, she stared into the depths of his dark soul. "I don't believe I know you. I'm Rahab," she said as she extended a hand. Her grip was surprisingly strong for a woman. "Are you a visitor to Hollywood or just moved here?" she inquired.

His frown deepened. She clearly did not belong. Yet she acted as if she owned these vile streets. He watched the silent interplay between the women. The young ones eyes pleaded with her to leave them to their business. But it was clear from her protective stance placing herself between him and the girl that she had no intention of honoring that plea. And honestly, he did not want her too. Suddenly his interest in the younger woman's pain and suffering had been diverted by the new arrival.

"Jodi, I need your help tonight," she smiled as she physically turned the woman away from him. The young one opened her mouth perhaps to protest but before she could his new interest pulled a handful of green papers from the pockets of those too tight and uncomfortable looking pants called jeans. Women did not belong in such garments. It was indecent. He wished for the long dresses of centuries past. Even the ones with necklines way too low for decency would be better than these things that hugged a woman's curves, revealing far more than they covered.

Still the younger woman meant to protest. He could see it in her eyes. Why was she so eager to go with one such as he? Could she not see his darkness, even as her friend did? Did he not stink of death and pain? Or perhaps the bright lights here did strange things to his features? Making him appear as he once had. It certainly seemed that even the mature one did not recognize him fully for what he was. A killer.

She pulled more of the green papers from her pocket until the younger woman could not look away. She turned to him and studied him again for a long moment before smiling. "Jodi, listen to me. Please!" He could hear the hurt, fear and pain dripping from every word, "Take this. Take it all. Give Gary his portion. Then I want you to go to this place. Tell the sisters there that I sent you. They will take you in, care for you and see that you are safe."

The younger woman started to shake her head but the elder would not be dissuaded. "Please, Jodi. Please," she begged as he noticed tears gathering in those eyes. Perhaps she was coming to see him for what he truly was after all?

The tug of war continued for a couple more moments as the women conversed in shushed whispers. He leaned casually against the dirty brick building. He studied the older woman as she pleaded. Beyond the plainness of her physical appearance he could not deny the passion with which she sought to protect her young charge.

But there was something else too. What was it? He wondered as the young one opened the large bag at her side and stuffed the green notes that he knew was currency in this land into it. She turned to him and shrugged, "Sorry, pal, but I'm sure a looker like you won't have any trouble finding someone else. Your type never does."

He bowed low as was more ancient custom, ones still most natural to him. "Perhaps another time." He smiled as she scurried off like one of rats among the stinky refuse of this place. Its belly full taking to its hiding place.

He turned his attention to the other woman. Honestly, it was she who had held his attention these last moments anyway. There were so many things about her that did not make sense. "Listen, I am sure you are a decent guy and all. But Jodi is special to me. Like she said, I'm sure you can find someone else."

"Oh, but I already have," he said, letting his eyes travel up and down her curves once more.

The woman laughed. She had the effrontery to actually laugh at him. He thought for a moment that she would not stop, the merry tinkle echoed so loudly in the corridor. She actually bent at the waist and wrapped an arm about herself for a long moment. Finally she righted herself and met his gaze once more.

"Listen, sugar, I think you are mistaken. I am no lady of evening. I just sort of take care of them, help out where I can. Get girls like Jodi off the street when I can. So afraid you are out of luck with me." She waved her hand about, "But there are plenty others for you to choose from. So have fun. And be safe. You do have condoms, right? Always use condoms." She reached into another of those pockets and pulled out square foil packets.

He reached across the divide and placed his hand over hers. "I am sorry you misunderstood. I have no interest in...that." He tried to smile but found it almost painful. Those facial muscles were tight from disuse. "I merely sought companionship. Coffee, I believe is the custom. And to talk with you."

***

Rahab looked down at his hand covering hers. Her whole body was alive as if electrical current raced through every cell. She had never felt like this. Never. Well past even the forty-year old virgin jokes. His words began to register and she colored with embarrassment. Of course, a man like this had no interest in her...in that way. Why would he?

She had always been the smart one. Mindy was the pretty one. She had been almost finished with her first year in law school when her sister went missing. It had not mattered. She had come along with her parents to this place to find her. But even after they went back to Texas, broken hearted at the news of what their beloved baby girl had become, done to earn her living in this place, she had stayed.

She had transferred to law school here. Her days filled with classes. Her nights spent on these streets seeking any word of her baby sister. She had won the trust of these jaded women. She had gotten information from them that the police had not. And when that fateful day came when they finally found the body of her little sister, she was in too deep. If she could no longer save Mindy, there were others she might. Others like Jodi.

If along the way, she had forsaken love, marriage and family in her single-minded pursuit of her mission, what of it? How many of her friends were on their second, sometimes even third, husband by now? No, love was an illusion. A pipe dream for the weak, she promised herself as she shook her head. "Sorry, I have court tomorrow. I need to get home to bed now that I am done here. I am sorry if I spoiled your evening, but like I said I have been trying to get Jodi off these streets for weeks."

She was not about to tell him that she had practically cleared out her inheritance from her parents to pay the girl off. Bribe her as it were. She smiled, but she knew her folks would think it was money well spent.

She turned to leave, "Good luck finding what you seek." She wanted to put as much distance as she could between her and this man. He was sending off pain like waves of a tsunami. It threatened to pull her down until she too drowned in his pain and hunger. She had made a career of defending the innocent. Her gifts helped her to see beyond the facts to the heart of the matter. She considered her earlier assessment.

This man was dangerous. Perhaps the most dangerous that she had ever met. Death. Violence. Pain. Loneliness. Isolation. All of them were written into his heart. But so too was honor. She knew somehow that she was safe from all of that...with him.

But that did not make her want to stay. No, her best bet was to run from this place. Get as far from him as possible. Now that Jodi was safe perhaps she would even stay away from this painful reminder of the past for awhile. But she doubted that. There were always more Jodi's...more Mindy's.

Despair...whether hers or his drug her down. "I need to be going," she croaked as she turned to run.

***

"No," he cried out as his hand encircled her upper arm. It had been centuries, many lifetimes since he had met one such as she. The purity of her heart shone so brightly that for a moment it dispelled the darkness even in his soul. He did not want to surrender that back to the darkness. Not just yet anyway.

He softened his touch, knowing that he could not, would not force this one to will. Even if he could...and he was not totally certain that he could this time. This one was special. He felt it. He just knew it somehow.

"Please. I am Daniel," he said as he held out his hand. "I'm new in Hollywood. I do not know anyone and I just want some company. Someone to talk to," he half lied, half pleaded.

He could see the indecision upon the woman's face. He tried those stiff facial muscles once more. He hoped that he managed at least a half hearted smile this time. "One cup of coffee and few moments of friendly conversation. Please that is all I ask."

He waited. And waited. He feared deep in the darkness that always threatened to consume him that this woman would turn him away, run away was more likely. Take what tiny flickering light of hope remained in his darkness and run as far and fast as she could from him. And some tiny noble part of him that remained hoped that was exactly what she did.

He did not deserve hope. His soul was much too dark for even a tiny flicker of her light. But he did not care...he wanted...no, he needed it anyway. So he held out his hand and awaited her pronouncement of his fate. Light or eternal darkness, somehow Daniel knew that this woman held the final judgement in her hands and heart.

Nonetheless, hope soared to life when she finally placed her hand in his. She nodded her head and smiled. "One cup of coffee. That is it."

He nodded as he led her out of the alley and down the brightly lite streets of this city of dreams. This city of angels was filled with demons and he was chief among them. But for this tiniest of moments he would forget that and be the man he had once been...eons ago.