Night Eternal Ch. 05

"Well Victor, it would seem that someone is threatening Remington's position and he sent me to request aid. I believe that he has detailed it more in the sealed letter I gave you."

"Yes, let us see what it says." He read the letter for several seconds as his face contorted. Then he pulled out some paper and wrote a return note and sealed it. "Take this back to Remington and tell him he will have my support!"

"Thank you Victor. I will be off then. I want to get this to him by sunrise. By your leave." I said as I rose.

"Good luck. I wish I had one like you working for me!"

I headed out of the club and was on my way to my car, when I heard a noise coming from down the street. I heightened my senses and saw where the noise had come from. Five men, no five Vampires were heading my way. In the middle of them was the Australian from earlier.

"Oi mate! I don't like when people ignore me. 'Specially when I'm tryin to tell em something for de own good. You just got to be a drongo, eh mate? Now mind tellin us what you had to yabber wit Victor 'bout? Cause me and da boys here got a bet going that Remington sent ya!!"

What!? How could they know about that, unless... "I think you should keep your nose out of other people's business! This has nothing to do with you!"

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong mate! See I got vested interest in seeing your boss kark it! Cause see, I think you do work for Remington, and I'm afraid that is bad news for you!"

I saw the change in their auras a moment before they started drawing their weapons. They were about fifteen feet away from me at that point. I burned up a massive amount of my blood to boost my strength and my reaction time. I made two quick steps and leapt the remaining ten feet in one swift move, as their first shots ripped though the spot I had been standing in moments before.

They had not expected me to be so quick I think. I was hoping none of them were gifted with the quickening. It is a whole other level of speed than what I was using. Thankfully, all of these guys were fairly weak blooded. Most Vampires today are very young. They create others while they are still young. The more ancient ones like Chris and Remington, take on less and less new children. Because of his age and years as a Vampire, Chris's blood is very potent. Since he was my sire, my blood has kept a good bit of his strength.

These five, however, were much weaker. Their blood like most modern Vampires is thinned and diluted. It doesn't carry as much power. The main difference is that I can use multiple gifts and augmentations at once, empowering my arsenal and giving me choices. These guys can probably only manifest one gift at a time, giving me a distinct advantage over them.

The Aussie had a very surprised look on his face because I was suddenly right beside him. I reached out and sunk my claws into his shoulders. Before he could make a noise I had jumped again, back flipping over him with both my claws firmly griping his shoulders. When I landed on the other side, I used my momentum to toss him down the street.

By this time his friends had realized I was now in-between them. I was moving to the first guy on my left before the Aussie had hit the ground some twenty feet away. I rolled on the ground past him, slicing at his leg as I went by. When I got to the other side of him, I did a hand spring out of the roll, sending both of my feet to the chin of the last guy on the left. That sent him flying back into the wall with a sickening smack.

I landed on the wall in a crouch and took the moment for gravity to catch up with me to survey the situation. Apparently my one fear in this was realized. I had looked up just in time to see the smallest of the five guy's foot aiming for my head as he flew through the air in a side kick. He had the quickening gift. I tried to jump out of the way but it was too late. Luckily for me this guy was fast but not that strong. I rolled with his kick and used the momentum to spin myself upright before landing. The guy must have thought the kick was enough to take me down because he failed to see my foot as it kicked him in the chin in the middle of my spin.

One thing about a Vampire is that we are very tough and can instantly heal from most wounds. The only two normal things that we can't heal easily from are fire and sunlight. However, claws have a supernatural nature and also cause wounds that are difficult to heal. My one real advantage was that they could not heal from the damage my claws were inflicting.

I landed on my feet and made a quick survey of the situation. The guy I bounced off the wall was slowly getting up. The Aussie was still down, but he was moving. The guy I had rolled past was holding his leg, but turning around to face me with a sword. The fast guy I had just kicked was landing on the ground with a thud, but he would be up very quickly. The only guy I had not touched had about three bullets heading my way and was starting to move laterally down the street to try and flank me.

The one guy I really had to worry about at the moment was Speedy. If I allowed him, he could beat my speed, taking away my main advantage on these punks. So I decided to take him out first. I made a rolling dodge toward Speedy to get out of the way of the bullets heading my way. As I came out of my roll I drove my right clawed hand at Speedy's chest. He just rolled out of the way just in time, sending my hand half into the street. Oh well another pot hole can't be too out of place.

Speedy made a spinning move and was back on his feet. He looked pissed. He stared into my eyes, furious as he jolted towards me. What an idiot! As soon as I made eye-contact I said one word, "SLEEP!" He was right in the middle of his swing when he collapsed in my arms. I drove my arm through his ribcage and out his back. His eyes opened briefly as his mistake became evident.

All this use of power was draining me quickly. So my next move, after throwing Speedy to the ground was to take out the guy that thought he could outflank me. I ran around behind him as he shot wildly missing completely. After I got up behind him, my left hand went to his throat sending one clawed finger under his chin and through his mouth impaling his tongue from underneath, stifling his scream. Then I sank my teeth into his neck and began to drink. Vampire blood is so much more potent than human blood. The feeling of ecstasy was quite pronounced in the middle of battle and only made my adrenaline pump even harder.

As I had him secured, I used my free right hand to grab the gun away from him and unloaded it into his friends. My current hyper senses made me a dead shot because my anticipatory senses were heightened. I hit every single one of them at least twice before they were able to find cover. As they were healing their bullet wounds, I finished off their friend. He must have been a very weak Vampire, because draining him barely replenished a third of what I had used already in this fight.

I let the guy drop to the ground along with his spent Glock. Then I ran toward the guy I had booted with my handspring. He met me with a swing of his knife. I spun past the blade and jammed my right claw into his right shoulder, spinning around behind him and raking both claws across his back. He fell down on one knee from the shock. I spun around again in front of him and tore his throat out. He fell, face first to the ground making a neat puddle. I marveled at how efficient I had become at killing someone. Six months ago and I would have scoffed at the sight of blood. Now I was admiring my handiwork.

There were just two left. Both already severely wounded. I wanted the Aussie for last, so I leapt in the air after his last flunky. The poor bastard barely had time to raise his sword. It didn't matter, though. He drove his sword through my waist as I came down. The pain was not as bad as I would have thought for being impaled. Perhaps it was my anger at these punks for trying to kill me that numbed me. However, both of my claws sunk deep into his chest. I used a pump of strength to rip his chest wide open. He fell to the ground in a lump.

I turned. I released all of my enhancements including my claws. I pulled the sword out of my gut and threw it to the side. I slowly walked to where the Aussie was leaning against a parked car. I healed my injuries as I walked towards him. He fired three shots at me, of which only two hit. I just kept walking healing the wounds as he frantically reloaded.

I had put the fear of God in this guy. His aura was swirling with the fear of what he knew was coming. He had thought I was some weak punk sent by Remington. I had been in worst situations than his little ambush before. It was a mistake he knew he would regret for however much life he had left. He was whimpering by the time I got to him.

"You ruined a perfectly good coat! Do you know how much Armani costs?" I asked. He finally slapped in the new clip he had been fumbling with. Tried to aim it at me and I slapped the gun out of his hand as he got a shot off. "I should kill you, but that would be too kind!" I reached into my inner coat pocket and pulled out a stake and thrust it through his chest straight into his heart. He went limp. I picked him up and threw him over my shoulder.

I noticed that people were beginning to show up on the street. I threw up a cloak around us and left for my car. I could see down the street a crowd was forming as I threw the Aussie in my trunk. Three hours later and I was pulling back into town.

I pulled into the Hall with about an hour and a half to spare before sunrise. I got out threw up a cloak as I got my guest out of the trunk. I didn't want to cause a scene. I walked in and headed straight for Remington's office. I kept the cloak up until I was behind closed doors.

"Ah! Coby my boy, good timing! I expect my message has been delivered!"

"Yes my Archon! And I have brought you a gift!"

"Oh and I so love gifts! Do tell!"

"This guy not only didn't like me meeting with Victor, he seems to have it in for you. He said he would like to see you dead. I think you were right to send me. If they had realized how powerful I am they would have sent more men." Remington's radiant presence, had the Aussie cowering and in tears.

"Thank you Coby, you may leave him with Me." he smiled at me. I gave him a small bow, then handed him the return letter and turned to leave. "And Coby... You have my permission! I am anxious to see this boy that holds your affection."

"Thank you Archon! I don't think you'll be disappointed." I said with a chuckle. I'm sure I was rather red faced.

Next:

Ryan and Coby Forever

___________________________