Of Gods and Vampires

The day I died was the best day of my life. A peculiar statement in itself but nevertheless, true. I was walking down a well lit street to the well lit parking garage to retrieve my sensible safe vehicle when the mugger struck. One minute I was walking considering dinner for the night and the next a knife sliced my throat open and left me bleeding to death on the sidewalk. I can recall holding my throat in some feeble attempt to stop the spilling of my life's blood out into the night, desperately tying to scream only to hear a mewling wet gurgle issue from my mouth. And finally I can recall my dark angel, the man who scooped me up and drained what was left of my life and my blood from my body. And then I knew no more.

But that day issued forth the rest of my undead life. Undead. Such a word was known by most humans and with it came thoughts of satanic cults, deals with the devil, and soulless creatures who drain mortals left and right. Pfft. Puhh-leeeaze! Every Bram Stoker induced, erotic, wildly dark belief of vampires and the undead is greatly over exaggerated and off point. First of all, we do not drink human blood - eww! We are not soul-less, we simply possess a different kind of soul. We do not transform into bats and we do not explode in sunlight.

We do however, hunt. And yes we drink blood, but only a very particular type of blood. Demon blood. Ok, confused yet? Here's the skinny. Vampires, as we are most commonly known, are a race of humans who have been controlled by a virus. The underlying virus however, can only take hold and transform a person who's bloodline contains that of the original demi-gods. Now, the demi-gods in themselves were a strange lot. Four immensely powerful immortals who withdrew from this earth back in the days of the druids and the ancient Celts. The four demi-gods sired countless half-mortal children with countless women. These are the bloodlines that flow still through humanity. We project an 'aura' of sorts that other vampires can pick up on, I luckily enough had been under watch and when my mortal life was ending I was bitten to preserve my demi-god bloodline. Debate still rages over whether the demi-gods themselves were nothing more than powerful demons, but that is neither here nor there.

Vampires exist solely to control the balance of power and prevent demons from having free reign in human territory. Demons are not incapable of entering humanity's world and they do so frequently and NOT as cloven hooved beasts running around raping women. Although they do from time to time sire half demon offspring, but so long as their offspring abstain from causing chaos we ignore them. Demons enjoy chaos, death, and destruction and do their best to nurture these elements in the human world, always attempting to bring about an ultimate anarchy and chaotic state. The witch trials and other notable human tirades into the morbid and chaotic can be linked to several demons subtly manipulating humans in power.

Vampires do live basically forever. We can die, but its very difficult. We gain power and can heal ourselves in two ways. First, through demon blood. Demon blood is rich with power and healing properties, drinking a pint a year is enough to sustain our immortal lives, however when wounded we must drink deeply to regain strength and health quickly. Demon blood is powerful and we partake of necessity and to increase our own power. Secondly, ironically enough, sex is the other means for healing and gaining power. At the moment of the climax of our partners the boundaries protecting the life force are dropped enough that we can soak in the life force of another into our beings to replenish. Hence the reason an orgasm has often been referred to as the "little death" by humanity. Often our kind will bring a partner repeatedly to climax in order to skim off some of their life force to replenish. It makes our kind highly sought after partners to say the least. Its dangerous, however, as if we loose control we can suck a human, or even another vampire dry of life force killing them, even another undead.

And now I serve in the vampire race, fighting demons to preserve the fabric of reality, and though I am the youngest of my kind, I have quickly become nearly the most powerful... my name is Eve.

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Eve sat tensed staring down below at the mass of Friday night party goers entering and exiting the bars and clubs. So far golden auras on all of them. No hints of red or black, no blue or green. Just the brilliant gold glows of the human souls that danced, and laughed, and lived oblivious to the hunters in their midst. She sighed and raked her hand over the slicked back hair she restrained with her usual leather tie back. Her fangs ached, hidden back in her gum line they throbbed dully, denied the pleasure of draining a demon for weeks now. Unlike her brethren, Eve solely drew her energy and power from demon blood, she couldn't bring herself to suck the life force from a partner during sex so casually as the rest of them did. As such she fed frequently and without qualms, sating herself on demon blood every chance she got, growing stronger each time and more powerful than almost any in her race. So the elders would often send her alone to hunt the most dangerous of targets and the strongest classes of demons. She had never failed yet.

She was close to giving up on her evening and leaving her perch on the ledge of the building when she noticed a man step from one of the bars and into the street. His aura was silver shot with crimson. Unlike any she'd yet seen and hinting at power beyond all the demons she'd ever taken down. This one was old, and immensely powerful. He paused and tilted his head, looked straight at her and grinned. His eyes were a haunting, luminous blue, set into a face of smooth bronzed skin and finished with slightly feathered raven black locks. His smile was all sarcasm and wit, a natural predator unafraid of anything and at ease wherever he went. His mortal façade was that of a powerfully built six foot something man with a casual grace and a predators charisma. He was dangerous.

A hiss escaped Eve and she thrust forward her fangs, letting them pitch out like a saber tooth cats. Eyeing him she let him know what he was dealing with, that she was trouble with a capital T. The demon gave a short bark of laughter and turned his back on her. Eve bristled with impotent fury. She stepped from the ledge of the building, falling five stories to land gracefully on her feet in the alley below. She stalked after the demon with blood on her mind.

After two blocks Eve realized the demon was toying with her, pausing whenever she fell behind and waiting for her, then setting off again. When he finally turned into an alley she nearly sprinted to get to him before he was in too public a place for her to move again. She almost collided with him where he stood in the dark alley, a twisted smile on his face. Eve thrust her fangs forward hissing softly as she prepared for a battle, her fingers twitching as she worked the long daggers out of her sleeves. Her eyes flashed with anticipation and she thrust a blade at him, unperturbed as he moved out of the path of her blade. He was very fast.

"Not tonight my beauty, but soon." The demon smiled at her again then with a flick of his wrist cut a hole in the fabric of dimensions and retreated into it.

Eve's next lunge was far too late and in her rage she felt the energy coursing through her and she let out an inhuman howl of anguish burying a dagger into the side of the building. The shockwave of her power rippled outward like an EMP pulse, shattering windows for blocks. She growled low and feral in her throat as she stalked off to return home, unsated.

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The elders were prattling on about responsibility and duty and protecting humans without involving them in the age old battle for their safety as Eve doodled on her notebook pretending to feign some interest and failing miserably. They were angry about the shock wave she had released outside of battle and furious about the hasty cover up that had to be staged to ensure the humans remained complacent. They were also disturbed by the shock wave in and of itself as no vampire had the power to release a wave of energy like she had done unknowingly tonight; power waves, telekinetics, and several other powers were known to exist only in the demon race. The elders were concerned about Eve. The demon was another matter all together however.

It had been agreed that a demon who could rip a dimensional portal and had a silver aura shot with crimson was of the highest order in the demon realm. This demon was big trouble, the worst any of them had ever encountered and could possibly be impossible to slay or drain. The fact that it had merely smiled in the face of the most successful demon hunter the vampire race had did not bode well for any of them. The elders decided it was too risky to go after this demon and had issued a warning that they were all to avoid him, to try to clean up after him as much as possible and prevent any half breeds from being born in his wake. At the moment this was the best they could hope for until the ancient texts had been searched for a weapon or means to deal with the high demon. Finally, blissfully, the bitchfest that had been the meeting of the counsel was over and Eve rapidly escaped to her rooms.

The vampire community had two main covens. Each coven ruled over a hemisphere, east or west, and readily aided the other whenever possible. They all worked together to ensure their numbers remained strong and the demons remained in check. Eve lived in the communal house of the east hemisphere cove, the House of Black. Ever vampire in the coven carried the surname "Black" no matter who or what they had been in their mortal lives. The elders resided deep underground in the Black household, not to avoid the sun, but rather to practice their arts and research new ones without interference or risk of discovery. The House of Black was an old sprawling Victorian style mansion on the outskirts of New Orleans. The epicenter of the coven's power and politics the House of Black was enormous and capable of housing two hundred vampires in separate rooms and twice as many if they were inclined to share rooms.

Eve sat at her desk and logged onto her laptop to surf the world wide web for awhile. The internet, while catering to humans for the most part, was a wonderful source of information if one knew where to look. Eve logged onto her favorite demon reference site and began to search through the aura characterizations.

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"Do you think she'll go after him again?" Gabriel looked at the eldest vampire in the Black house as he spoke.

"Eve is an anomaly, Gabriel." Sireen smiled at his fellow elder vampire. "You knew it when you drained her and made her one of us in truth. She is and always has been unpredictable and without parallel among our race. If ever there was a vampire that could tear down the very Gates themselves and destroy the demons for good, it is her." He paused for a moment. "But at the same time, she could easily destroy us all in the wrong hands."

Gabriel nodded absently. "She is dedicated to our cause though."

"She is dedicated to the hunt, Gabriel. Nothing more. She lives to drain blood from demons, that blood lust could easily be turned against our own."

Gabriel brooded silently as he considered the vampires he had created that night twenty years ago. Watching her being killed by that human had been hard, it was always hard when they died, and bringing her back had been equally difficult. She was not like any previous inductee he had bitten, her blood was more potent and she was stronger than any other vampire, too strong for one so young. The elders all suspected and feared that she was closer to a demi-god herself than she was to a vampire.

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Eve signed off her laptop and flopped back onto her bed. She brooded over the complete lack of information available on the internet about demons with silver and crimson auras, no reference to any metallic auras at all. Being unable to find information on the demon one was hunting made the hunt more difficult but more fulfilling as well. This demon obviously was old enough and strong enough to keep anyone from gaining information on him. Eve sighed; his blood would be pure bliss if he was that strong. She rolled over onto her side and wrapped herself around a pillow to sleep until evening.

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The order for the evening was to stake out a rave happening downtown. Raves were notorious for demons, that many humans along with drugs and alcohol spelled disaster in any language. This rave was no exception. Eve spotted her first demon almost immediately. The lesser demon's orange aura stuck out like a catholic school girl at a goth convention. Eve dropped in behind the demon and followed him as he lured a young girl out into the alley. Lesser demons were not too bright and rarely noticed her kind until it was far too late. Eve reached around from behind the demon and yanked him back into an alcove off the alley, wrenching his neck to the side she plunged her fangs into his neck. The demon screamed, its unholy sound echoing off the walls drowned out by the music playing at the rave, and thrashed as she sucked his blood back through his veins and into her fangs. Eve didn't stop until every drop of blood had been pulled from the demon's body, she dropped the lifeless form and watched it turn to dust and blow away. Her fingers were shaking and her head was spinning as the blood coursed through her body, strengthening and empowering her. The rush was hardly anything compared to a higher level of demon, but even lesser demon blood was acceptable when there was no better hunting to be had.

Eve stalked through the crowds, riding out the high of the demon blood, feeling the music thump and course through her like her pounding heart. She closed her eyes and danced like a drug addict who had just had a fix. The display was part real pleasure and part ploy, her erratic euphoric motions attracting demons as well as drunk human males. Eve danced up against another lesser demon and casually maneuvered him behind a column where she tore out his throat and sucked him dry before he hit the floor. She returned to the dance floor and continued the hunt, feeling the swell of euphoric power crashing through her brain. Lesser demons may not be as powerful but drain enough of them and you still got a power high.

Eve felt him before she saw him and stopped dead on the dance floor. Her heart skipped a beat as she caught sight of the silver and crimson aura dancing around a man who looked like pure sin. Eve met the eyes of the demon, his laughing mockery reflected in the brilliant blue eyes of his human glamour. Eve walked toward the demon following him as he left the rave and began to stroll down the empty streets of the warehouse district heading toward the waterside. She paced him following at the same distance and keeping him in eyesight at all times, she knew her daggers would do little to hurt the demon but could slow down the human form he was in long enough for her to get her fangs into an artery. Eve turned a corner and found herself looking at a long expanse of dirty beach at the edge of the docks and there was no sign of the demon, he was gone. She cursed her stupidity knowing that the demon could cut dimensional portals and had probably vanished while she had been taking her time stalking him.

Eve's breath caught in her chest as the swift arms snaked around her, yanking her head up and immobile and catching her body in an effective and painful hold. She could smell the deep smoky musty scent of brimstone and amber, a demon's perfume. Her breaths came ragged as she was held at his mercy and she waited for death to claim her a second time.

"So fearless you are." The demon breathed against her ear.

"Stuff it demon, spare me your rhetoric and get it over with." Eve spat out her words with false bravo.

"So much hate and defiance." He purred against her neck and lightly ran his tongue over her skin. "You would mind your tone after a few hundred years as my slave."

"I'd kill myself first." Eve held off the tremors threatening to break her resolve.

"No, you would beg me to keep you, beg me to allow you to be with me. You would do whatever I asked of you and be grateful for it. Vampire. You barely know what you are and you act as though you could rule the world. You know nothing and were you any other vampire I would have killed you already." He paused and smelled her hair. "But you have the air of destiny Eve Black and you are not to die by my hands nor by your own."

The demon turned her carefully in his grasp and pulled her tight against his human body, keeping a controlling and painfully crushing hold on her allowing her no recourse but to stand staring up into his blue eyes. He smiled, causing his eyes to crinkle at the edges and lighting the handsome human face up with mirth and dark humor. Eve shuddered and looked away. The demon twisted her arms back and grasped both wrists in one hand, threatening to snap the bones in her arm as he held her still. With his free hand he gripped her chin and turned her face back to his, and lowered his mouth onto hers. Eve stiffened instantly, appalled and disgusted into stillness as the demon kissed her, he forced her mouth open to his and slid his tongue into her mouth. She squirmed and struggled against him despite his grip on her arms and thrust back against his tongue with her own trying to force him from her mouth. She gasped and nearly retched when he finally released her mouth and smiled mockingly down at her.

"Such spirit." He laughed as she spit on his face. "Perhaps I know another way to subdue you."

The demon kissed her again and Eve struggled even as his fingernails bit into her chin, holding her jaw and forcing her mouth open again. The demon then purposely and slowly ran his tongue over her sharp incisors and drew his own blood. He let a single drop slide into her mouth before stepping back and releasing her.

Eve crumpled to the ground, a harsh groan came from her mouth and she clutched herself as her body began to convulse. The blood coursed into her system like a straight shot of heroin or some other uncut street drug. The intoxicating waves of power that began to hit her left her breathless and gasping, her body bucked and shook as her senses went overboard dumping her into a fit. One drop and her body was reacting like she had overdosed on something and had begun to die in a fit of rapture and euphoric bliss. Eve looked at the demon as he smiled over her, watching her body shake, sweat, and jerk.

"Monster." She whispered harshly.

"Feel free to call me Joven." The demon grinned and stepped back into a hole in the dimensions.

Eve laid on the ground and waited for the pleasurable pain to stop, her body was twitching, ever muscle on end, filled with energy and power. She felt herself crying as another wave of nauseating power wracked her body and sent her into convulsions again. Blissfully she blacked out on the pavement.

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"I've never seen anything like this Gabriel." Sireen looked at his protégé. "She is in what resembles a coma that humans enter when great trauma has occurred, but our kind are not known to enter these states."

"I don't understand it either Sireen." Gabriel looked down at the stricken vampire before them. "The men who found her said she was alone and unconscious, they didn't see her leave the rave but saw her take down a couple of lesser demons earlier in the night. If it hadn't been for them looking for her, who knows what could have happened to her."

Sireen nodded. "For the moment all we can do is wait and see if her body can fight off whatever has put her into this state. You do feel it as well, do you not Gabriel?"