Chapter 14: Shadows Dance in the Forest

  I dismissed a notification about hitting level ten in Motorcycle Riding as I held the throttle wide open. All I could hear was the buzzing scooter engine beneath me while Lyra and I flew down the highway, wind whistling past my helmet and buffeting me around. Why the system decides to inform me of skill upgrades when I am busy is a mystery to me. It could be that it just doesn't care. Or it could be that it wants to annoy me.

  Jean was in the city somewhere. Lyra knew a few of his businesses and we were heading toward one of them. I had to find him and extract what he actually knew, but in the same thought… my sire would have more information than he did.

  She couldn't truly be behind who sealed my coffin. We spent so long prowling the coastlines and for any ships we could get our hands on. She was always at my side, too. Well, I was at her side up until we stopped in Encinar and found werewolves attacking the citizens. The two of us, and some of our crew, sent the wolves feeling back into the forest from which we never saw them again. It was one of those moments where we just needed a place to stay for a while.

  We weren’t supposed to stay very long. A few days and then back out to sea as we headed north, but I had other ideas. It sounds silly coming from me with how I talk about mortals, but happy mortals make for happy and well fed vampires. Well fed vampires means happy mortals, because then they do not have to worry about being stalked by vampires. It wasn’t much, really. Just slaking mine and Isabella’s thirst on a nightly basis. Between our crew and the few mortals in Encinar, we had enough walking blood sacks to make us both well fed and happy for decades.

  Others soon got word of our success and came to see for themselves. While it was a full breach of vampire etiquette to do what we were doing, it worked out in the end. Modern Encinar was built off those early days. Those dark days where Isabella and I had to look over our shoulder on a nightly basis.

  Even so, I’d do the same thing again if given the chance. Not that I would. That’s just my luck.

  My sire told me to vary the engine speed for the first hundred or so miles, but she never truly explained why beyond ‘just do what I say, fledgling’. It was one of those few times where I went against her orders. Something I rarely ever did because she was usually right about most things, and I was wrong, but this was different.

  I had to uncover the truth of what went on last week. Doubtful that anyone would even care what happened to me two hundred years ago. Well, I cared. It's only been a week and Amelia is dead… Turned into a tree.

  I weaved between a pair of cars, as Dinner called them. Why not self-propelled wagons or automobiles? Why cars? Cars were for trains, not the road. Other areas had far, far more cars than Encinar back in the day. Like Nassau and Britain, and France, and, well, most major cities were filled with these things. They looked nothing like the beasts I weaved past, however.

  Gone were the thin wagon wheels and the fancy bodywork. Now they were more broad and fat with wide tires. Some even hummed away, looking like shapely bubbles driving down the road at sixty-five miles an hour.

  I was maxed out, throttle pinned to the stop as I flew down the highway at nearly ninety miles an hour. Even still. Another motorcycle came close enough that the buzzing engine resonated over mine. I expected to see Isabella pulling up alongside me as I went around one slow moving car, not… a man riding a metallic green motorcycle with green accent lighting. It buzzed far too loudly for my taste and sounded different to Isabella’s bike.

  He patted the top of his helmet a few times and then motioned behind him. I didn't understand his gesture. I tossed a hand out to indicate my confusion. The man shook his head, turned off all of his lights, including his headlights, dropped down a gear and zoomed off in a crescendo of noise.

  I couldn't glance back at Lyra to ask what he meant and we couldn't communicate through our minds like Isabella. So I kept the throttle pinned and realized far, far too late what the gesture meant.

  A minute or so later, as I weaved around another pair of cars, cutting a bit close between them because the driver attempted to speed up, a strange series of flashing lights filled my mirrors. Red and blue like the police from the club. Only this time they had a solid red light facing me as well.

  Cars were quickly pulling to the right, clearing the far left lane I was riding in as a loud mechanical wail filled my ears, followed by a series of rapid beeps, and then it went back to the wailing.

  Lyra tugged the sleeve on my right shoulder, indicating for me to pull over as well. I did. But the police car merged in behind me! I glanced over my shoulder at the vehicle and realized it was a bad idea. Spots filled my vision for a few moments as I attempted to figure out what in the devil I did wrong.

  I was just riding like how the other motorcyclist was, how my sire did, it seemed normal!

  Lyra once again tugged on my shoulder as a metallic voice flowed out from behind me, “Pull over, Driver!”

  I groaned internally and followed the policeman’s directions to get in the far right lane and stay there. The man drove behind me like a cowboy herding me toward the nearest forested exit. Only when I came to a stop on the off-ramp’s dirt shoulder did the lights go out. Cars whizzed past above us, reminding me that everyone I weaved around had now passed me. A fairly bright spotlight illuminated the ground around us. I frowned underneath the helmet as I was simply following what others did.

  The policeman strode toward us with one hand on his exposed pistol and the other frantically waving about something, rotating his hand around a few times. I didn't understand the gesture as it was foreign to me. Kind of looked like he was rotating a key.

  Lyra patted my shoulder and pointed to the scooter’s key, making me look like a fool for not seeing that I should have turned it off, but why? Didn't it need to cool down?

  As I turned the machine off, the policeman reached for the key and yanked it out of the ignition! He pulled it back far faster than I could grab it, because I was so stunned by his action it took a moment to process it. He touched my machine. It could be a normal interaction with the police, but his glaring hazel eyes said otherwise.

  The man stepped back, holding the key to his side as he asked, “Who’s your buddy?”

  I motioned to the elf behind me. “Her? She’s my apprentice.”

  “No, the green motorcycle. Who is he?”

  “I don't know, blood sack,” I replied and tossed a hand toward the highway. “Why don't you go chase him down and find out for yourself? Leave me alone.”

  The man fumed, cheeks flaring as he took a deep breath, heart rapidly pounding in his chest. Lyra frantically waved for my attention and shook her head. I frowned at her.

  “Off the bike,” the policeman said sternly.

  “What?” I blinked a few times at his preposterous request! He wanted me to get off my bike?

  Why?!

  Patrolmen back in my day never made us get off our horses if it was a cordial encounter. Then again, this blood sack was anything but cordial. He had a chip on his shoulder from the moment he walked up.

  “Off. The. Bike,” he tried to order. And completely failed at it. The words slipped through my ears and failed to take hold.

  “No!” I shook my head as I pulled my gloves off, handing them to Lyra. “Do you know who I am?”

  Lyra was already complying by climbing off the bike and unclasping her helmet. I didn't know what she was planning or why the man wanted me off the bike when he had my key. I wasn’t going anywhere.

  “Someone breaking the law. Get off the bike right now.” He pointed to the ground in front of him and put a foot down as if he were trying to be my father!

  I growled quietly. It'd be fairly easy to yank him into the shadows and snap his neck. He had no idea just who he was talking to! Though, there was an obvious reason for that and it made me grind my teeth together just thinking about what Jean had said about Isabella. He was wrong. He had to be.

  My fingers drummed against the jacket’s zipper as I contemplated lifting my visor and staring into the policeman’s eyes. He was already staring at me and wouldn’t expect my voice. Lyra was busy pulling her wallet from her jacket to show the man her identification card. If the way Caleb reacted to her embrace was any indication then that meant the policeman might react the same way. And I couldn’t have that.

  My pale fledgling looked weary as she held the helmet in the crook of her arm and worked to open her large and flat wallet with the other hand. The silent elf couldn't really speak from what she told me. Her voice never fully worked and that made her a prime target for vampires to approach the redhead with a business opportunity. And her beauty would distract most men, and some women like me. I wanted to spend time with her and get to know the magma haired elf, but she’ll soon leave me to go back to what she was doing.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Lyra was also teaching me the unique way she communicated. It still seemed like frantic waving of hands to me more than a language, but I was learning a few things over the last two nights.

  Frowning at the policeman in front of me, I unclasped my helmet and pulled it off. My hair went wild, and so I gave it a shake and a quick fluff. This seemed to put the blood sack at ease, as he relaxed just a bit and looked mildly confused. Perhaps he expected me to be some young bimbo looking to find a date. Nay! I was not some young bimbo, but a proper old lady of ancient etiquette.

  As I unzipped my jacket and dangled the helmet on my handlebars, his hand never left the pistol. I reached in for my wallet just inside the fold of my jacket, holding it open with the other hand. Which proved to be a grave mistake.

  “Freeze!” the policeman shouted as he drew his weapon.

  I paused only because I was confused again. There was a brief moment where I didn't understand his sudden attitude change. Right up until it dawned on me and I closed my eyes with a heavy, frustrated, sigh. “No, I am not going to draw my weapon!” I snapped back, glaring at him. “All I am doing is going for my wallet. I will use two fingers so you can see.”

  Something changed in the blood sack’s eyes. I couldn't be sure what it was. It went from him being bored to him being very, very angry. No matter what I said would change his mind, because he aimed his pistol right in my face.

  I half-expected to see the bullet coming toward me, not the blood sack yelling for me to put my hands in the air. Lyra was already holding hers up, having grabbed her helmet so it didn't fall.

  With the policeman staring right into my eyes there was only one option to do. I slowly removed my hands from my jacket, followed his words, locked eyes with him and ordered, “You are going to lower your weapon.” My heart thumped as it sent the required blood into my voice. That made it very alluring for a mortal to hear. Shadows danced across his face for a moment.

  He blinked a few times, clamped his eyes shut and backed away from me, holding a hand to his forehead. A strange, strange reaction. One that I watched with curiosity, because I had never seen a mortal act like that to my voice! The poor policeman groaned, placing both hands to his forehead as he shook it from side to side.

  “Get… get out of my head!” he yelled. I cocked my head as even more shadows slowly approached the man from the edge where the light met the forest.

  Lyra frantically waved a hand across her neck and shook her head, eyes wide. The gesture to stop was clear.

  I didn't say anything, so how could I stop them? The shadows were moving toward the man of their own free will, lashing out for his shadow’s skull. He spun in place as he tried to avoid them. They stalked ever closer as he backed toward his patrol car and flailed a hand in my direction.

  “Stop,” he pleaded. “Whatever you're doing… stop!”

  I glanced at Lyra and tossed my hands out. “I swear I am not doing anything! I already released my hold over his mind.”

  The tendrils lashed around the man’s shadow. He held his neck as if he were being choked by something unseen and completely incapable of grasping it with his fingers. Inky black tendrils crept up from the ground, swirling around his leg as he fell to one knee. Lyra looked between the mortal and I as she frantically waved for me to stop when I wasn't doing anything.

  There had to be someone else with similar powers manipulating the void. However, as my slightly blurry gaze tracked along the road’s edge and the forest, I could not see any signs of a third party. It was as if my singular command had caused the shadows to act the way they did. It was, again, not my intention. For I had only intended he lower the weapon. The shadows never responded to my call like that before.

  Now, Lyra and I watched, and heard the groaning gasps of a man being choked by something we couldn't stop. He inhaled with short breaths and nothing was going through as his face turned a strange pale shade.

  I finally put the kickstand down and climbed off the scooter, walking toward the man. Using my blood once more, I focused on trying to control the shadows around him much in the way I tried to fight Jean. I attempted to get them to stop by way of wrapping my own tendrils around the rogue ones, but it was useless without finding who was controlling them. And the mortal would be long dead before I could find them, because I wasn’t wearing my glasses and couldn’t see very well. So I took them from my pocket and looked around again, but again. I saw nothing.

  The policeman fell to the ground, holding the invisible tendril around his neck as his mouth opened for any air. He groaned, his other hand reaching out toward me for help. I gave it to him. I wrapped my hand around his, knelt next to him, and bit deep into his wrist.

  His warm lifeblood flowed into me as the kiss flowed back into him. This was one of those times where I didn't enjoy the meal. It wasn't a mutual exchange so much as it was a mercy. Drinking deep from a dying mortal is always unsettling, because they were struggling to stay alive at the same time you were draining the very thing they needed to survive. This made the blood taste different, too. More gamey than normal, but some vampires liked it like that. I remembered one vampire told me how she usually drank from mortals she fought.

  I didn't. At least not from mortals. Their lifeblood could not compare to a vampire’s blood and soul. By consuming a vampire’s very essence I could and did gain more powers ‘back in my day’.

  Lyra tugged on my jacket, smacking my shoulder with a fist. I refused to let go and allow the man to succumb to the shadows before I could drain him. However, the fiery elf did something I never thought the fledgling would do. Her knee came around and struck me square in the face with enough force to make me see white. I involuntarily let go as I fell backwards onto my backside with a body shaking thump.

  The fledgling pointed down the way to a queer shadow standing at the base of the embankment. It was vaguely human shaped with moonlit silver eyes looking right at us. Only once I put my glasses on again did I see the vampire in its true dark form.

  I drew my boomcannon, cocking the hammer in the same movement, and let a bullet fly without saying a word. My arm shook as the weapon echoed with a thunderous clap. Lyra recoiled, shrieking as she covered her eyes from the massive ball of flame.

  Fledglings.

  “Keep an eye on the mortal and give him blood if he needs it,” I said to the fledgling. I focused on the hostile vampire, noting where they were standing and any place I could appear.

  Lyra cocked her head at that, but there wasn't any time to chitchat. I stepped into the policeman’s shadow and disappeared from sight.

  *** ***

  The other vampire fled through the forest. I followed with my gun drawn. My quarry was fast. I didn't know who they were because they kept themselves wreathed in a layer of darkness not even I could control, but that wasn't for the lack of ability. It was just that when you control shadows they only listen to you. Shadows are creatures with a master of one. My shadow listened to me, that other vampire’s shadow listened to them. That's how it worked and not even I could change that even though I surpassed my sire in abilities.

  Neither of us really used our powers beyond the initial opening stages where we both teleported some distance into the trees. First them, then me as I gave chase. I swung my pistol around and fired off another shot.

  They retaliated with a burst from some form of long gun, shattering the silence with an echoing crack, as I ducked behind a smaller tree. Bark flew past me in chunks when another burst tore into the tree, thumping against the wood and piercing it in a shower of tiny stakes. I leapt through the shadows to another tree, hoping my target didn't see where I went.

  Seeing a vampire wreathed in the void was hard enough in a city, but in a forest? Nigh impossible! All I could do to track them was listen and focus all my energy into my eyes and ears, hoping for a small sliver of movement as they betrayed themselves.

  It felt like being back in the Caribbean and hunting down rogue spellcasters with my Brown Bess. I could lean against a tree and stay as still as a shadow, lying in wait for the other vampire to get complacent and make a move. They always did.

  Only… as I pressed myself to my new cover, and half-peered out, the other vampire didn't make a move. I waited and listened for any signs that they were there. Time ground on. Had I a beating heart it would be thumping like the scooter’s engine at full throttle. My hands ached in phantom pain as I flexed my fingers against the revolver’s grip.

  My assailant and the policeman’s attacker were nowhere to be seen. Just trees and shrubs as far as I could see, but the forest was eerily quiet. It could be because of me, but it could be another reason and that's because the forest knew two undead creatures were nearby.

  Hungry? a voice familiar asked in my head.

  Just a bit…

  Perhaps you’d like a bite?

  The bushes rustled behind me. I wheeled around, bringing the pistol to bear on my new target. However, I couldn't pull the trigger on the vampire. Her shadows slowly receded, giving her an eerily familiar look that made me gasp softly. My eyes widened upon seeing bright pink hair glowing in the moonlight penetrating through the canopy.

  Isabella loomed before me like a wraith having come from the darkness. She was dressed for the slide much how she taught me to dress; leather jacket and pants with heavy boots. Slung over her shoulder was a magazine fed rifle similar to the modern ones I saw in the gun store.

  My sire’s glowing silver eyes held no joy as they locked with mine. Her lips curled down in a frown, eyebrows furrowed at something only she knew. It wasn't the revolver aimed at her face. No. She could just knock it aside because I couldn't pull the trigger even if I wanted to. It was something deeper.

  What’s on your mind, fledgling? You seem troubled.

  Jean’s words flowed back to me, ‘You’re being manipulated by your sire.’

  Pity…

  How?

  How was the question for her to answer. I had her dead to rights. She had answers. I had to know them.

  Then speak your question. Let me hear it.

  “Sire… did you kill…” My next words caught in my throat. I couldn't utter them. There had to be another reason for her presence out in the forest. Maybe she was wanting to help me track down the culprit and had noticed the scooter. My revolver trembled in my hand as I held a finger against the trigger wanting to squeeze it. But something prevented me from doing so. Even if all it’d do was stun the woman.

  Both Jean and David mentioned she was working against me, but I couldn't see it! She gave me my phone, my scooter, and starting money. She warned me about Caleb wanting to make a fool of me, but what if he didn't want to make a fool of me? Perhaps, maybe he was trying to show the world that I existed when they forgot about me.

  “Did… did y-you kill Amelia?” I asked.

  “Lower the weapon, fledgling,” she said softly. I didn't want to lower it. The situation didn't feel right to me. It didn't feel right that she showed up in the forest. And yet, I felt safe now that she was here. She knew everything about the world and could protect me.

  Put the weapon down. There ain’t a need for it.

  The weapon lowered on its own as I stared unblinking into her eyes.

  “Hm…” my sire began as she removed a glove and held her hand out, pulling the jacket sleeve back. Her juicy wrist was now exposed to the world. Just begging me to take it. “I see the spell wasn’t as strong as I thought.”

  “What?” I cocked my head.

  “I do apologize, Lady C, but this ain’t somethin’ I wanted to do so soon after waking you from torpor.”

  The revolver trembled in my hands as I listened even though I wanted to ignore her words. I was lost in her beautiful gaze. I longed for her to give me a hug and tell me that the world would be fine without me. That nobody would care if I slept the centuries away or walked into the sun, but the world was not fine. The world needed me just as much as Lyra needed me. I could not walk into the sun, I could not sleep the centuries away. I had to keep going for them. Lyra, Amelia, my sire, and Caleb.

  They would be devastated if I became ash.

  “You’ve forced my hand with your antics the last few nights. And you’ve come too close to the truth.”

  I gasped involuntarily. “So it’s true?! You killed Amelia!”

  “Listen to my words, fledgling; Forget you know that. Instead, know that this hurts me more than it will you.” Her tone was off as she spoke, not her usual bravado and happiness, but a frozen and calculating one. It sounded almost overbearing in my head as the words repeated themselves like an echo. “I am truly sorry. You will remember me here in this forest, yes, but you will also remember that we were chasing another vampire and they've since eluded us.”

  “They have?” I asked, blinking a few times as I nodded to her words.

  “Yes. Do you remember me yelling for you to slow down because you're acting like a freshly turned fledgling?” My sire cocked her head. Her eyes never left mine while we conversed. The memories slowly came back to me as I listened to her soothing words. “I came off the highway for a short break and…”

  I remembered how, as I initially began to chase down the other vampire, my sire pulled off on the exit, yelling at me to wait. That running off into the forest after my quarry was a foolish thing to do, but I didn't listen to her. I didn't listen and now I'd been shot a few times because of it. My body itched and needed proper sustenance now.

  I needed blood to drink and heal, and she provided me with it. As gently as I could, I took hold of her wrist and pulled it close, biting down.

  She smiled as she ran her other hand through my hair and whispered softly in my ear, “Just look at you. You're so messy, Cassandra. Whatever am I going to do with you? You nearly killed that poor police officer because he insulted you!”

  I closed my eyes and listened to her words while I drank as much as I wanted. As much as she would allow.