Storymania - Haven by Tyler Moretz

Haven (3)
Tyler Moretz

"No," said Martin. It's just not good for you, or for me either." At this point the man threw a strong fist at Martin. He caught the man hard around the wrist, forcing his first two fingers across the man's palm and pushed his hand back until it touched his arm. The action sounded with a loud crack. Martin expected the man to make some sound of pain, but he did not. There issued only a muffled grunt, and sudden fire behind the man's eyes. Before the man made another move, Martin leapt upon him using his right leg to sweep the man's legs from the ground. While the stranger lay there dazed, Martin took the opportunity to take his nourishment from the man. As the first spray of blood gushed into Martin's mouth he became aware of the man beating fiercely on his back. He realized that it was not such a fair fight after all, but it was beyond his power to change that now.

* * * * * * *

Stephanie stood over the mutilated body at her feet and wondered what to do about it. As a vampire her kills required only a small wound to the neck that could be covered with a lick when the meal was over. This, though, was altogether different. She slumped down to the street and began to sob violently. Normally, she would have been concerned about the rivulets of blood that now flowed down her cheeks, but she had decided already that monsters like herself deserved to be hideous. By this time, though, most of her hair had grown back, and her skin was almost completely healed.
She heard something to her right. It was a swift disturbance of air that would have been almost imperceptible to a human. She could smell the sweet scent of familiar perfume and shampoo. This would have been Sarah. Sarah was the only vampire in Haven that still bothered to groom herself in this fashion. It was only occasionally that vampires had reason to wash since they did not sweat, but old habits die hard. "How could you screw up like this after twelve hundred years?" Sarah's voice was not taunting, but she sounded genuinely sympathetic. "You had power that the rest of us could only dream of, and you threw it away in an attempt to gain more."
"I will recover from this mistake. I will not be lowered by this." Stephanie knew that she was lying to Sarah, and herself when she said this.
"I don't remember you crying in the streets before this."
"What would you propose that I do?" Her voice was wracked with more heaving sobs.
"I would suggest that you get to work on bringing yourself back to you former glory." Sarah only stared down at the person who was once, long ago, her friend.
"You are suggesting that I kill my own kind. How could you even think such a thing?" Stephanie was outraged. There were laws against this in the Society.
"They are not your kind anymore. Besides, Vannon does it, and some believe that even Jenny does it."
"She does not." Stephanie did not know how to react to this suggestion of vampire murder.
"Go into the night Stephanie. Decide for yourself if you would rather return to your former state of grace, or spend the rest of your life eating the flesh of humans." Sarah gave Stephanie a stern look and walked away into the darkness.

* * * * * * * *

Jim crouched low on the building ledge. He had been there since sunset . . . watching. Someone in this city had trespassed into his lair, and he intended to find out who it was.
To a magician the presence of magic appeared as a glowing aura around whatever it was that had been enchanted. Other magicians looked to have a dim aura of light around them. Whoever it was that had been in Jim's lair should have been ablaze with the light of sorcery. No one had yet been seen that fit that description.
"Looking for someone?" a voice behind him asked. He turned to see Vannon standing there like a statue. The man's face seemed to scream Vampire to anyone that laid eyes on him.
"It is none of your concern. I would be most appreciative if you left." Jim gave him a curt smile and turned back to the street.
"You won't find him down there. He is an adept at invisibility."
"Who are you talking about?" Jim once again turned to the man that could have easily passed for Dracula himself. Dark wisps of hair encircled his face. He stood at least six feet, eight inches tall. His nose was hawkish and his skin was a Balkan olive color.
"Mobius, of course. He was the one that angered you." Vannon looked at him with dark obsidian eyes and smiled.
"And how do you know this?" Jim was angry at the fact that Vannon knew things that he, a much older, smarter vampire, did not.
"Angelique spotted Mobius in the street last night. She said that he was most certainly our man. So I figured that I would take a look into things and see what was stirring in the weeds, if you will." The man gave Jim an impish smile. "I could hear your thoughts all the way from the old hall. So, I assume that this person that broke your spells could only be Mobius. But, of course, this is only speculation." Vannon bowed to Jim and left him alone on the rooftop to stare at the street in vain once again.

* * * * * * * *

The darkness of the night clung to Vannon like the dark embrace of a lover. His entire body was robed in shadows and the shreds of the night that followed him. His feet made no noise as he walked, and he moved at speeds that appeared as a shadowy blur to anyone that looked in his direction. An evil smile donned his face with the knowledge that every other vampire in Haven feared him in one way or another, and none would challenge his using his powers in the sight of humans. Even Jim had not stood up to him when he had invaded the man's privacy and his thoughts.
Suddenly, the man stopped short in front of a shop that had closed hours earlier. He had picked up an interesting thought. It was a thought that the person thinking it had tried to keep hidden. He concentrated upon this shrouded idea that held something wicked in its core. It began to clear in his head, and as it jelled there, he saw the extent of its hideousness. It was a thought that held death in its horrible grip. His death.
The man looked all around him, not seeing anyone. He was scared that he might be in danger for the first time in centuries. This thought did not carry the signature of a human on it, nor was it a vampire. He had never encountered anything quite like it. The first thoughts that entered his mind were of Mobius, but he quickly dismissed them. As vampires grew older, their thoughts became more solid and congealed, but this was more chaotic than any mind he had ever read. It seemed that this hidden assailant thought of nothing but killing him.
Vannon turned circles in the empty street looking for the thing that had come to kill him. There was no sign of anything there that could have hidden a creature as terrible as the one that he now looked for, until from the top of the store that he had stopped beside dove a humanoid figure. It hands pushed hard on his shoulders throwing him to the ground. In a terrifying moment he realized what this thing was.
Stephanie smiled down at him with a terrible new power in her eyes. "Hello." Her voice carried a smugness that she usually kept hidden. "I think that we both know what happens now." The man's thoughts came flooding out of him giving her the proof that she needed to punish the man by his own laws. There were thoughts of fledglings and nurslings, even his own, being torn apart by his hands. Their blood drained by Vannon in an act of retribution for their seemingly hidden comments that they had made at the great vampire's expense.
"Don't." This word was his last as Stephanie put an inhumanly strong hand over his mouth and tore into his throat.

* * * * * * * *

Martin lay in his lair pondering this mew situation that had arisen in Haven. He had heard a few legends of Mobius in his early days as a fledgling, but he had never believed them. Whenever he would ask Sarah, she would only say, "Perhaps you should listen to what more credible vampires have to say." He had always taken this as confirmation that these stories were false. Perhaps she meant that he should have learned more about this creature in case he ever encountered him. He now wished that he would have understood that when he was young.
He chided himself for the thoughts that he had been thinking as of late. He knew that he was a prime target for the beginning of Mobius's killing spree, and he was, in a strange way, looking forward to it. He did not have the heart or the courage to kill himself, and this seemed to be the way out that he had been looking for. However, there was still that small human side of him that cried out against thoughts such as these. No matter what his life might be called by those who truly lived, it was still life. It should not be given up willingly with no cause at all except to feed the fires of evil. He did not know how to feel about the disaster that his body told him was going to occur shortly.
The refuse that surrounded him was beginning to sicken him. He climbed out of the dumpster, and walked off into the night. The streets were silent but for the slight rushing sound of electricity. He let his legs lead him where they wanted to go, and he ended up at the old hall. Quite to his surprise it was crawling with vampires. He could see Sarah standing out front talking to Angelique. They must have been looking for him. There was no other reason that the two of them would have been having a conversation. He ran quickly to meet them. "What was happened?" he asked both of them.
"Vannon is dead, and there have been five reports of Mobius in the city." Sarah smiled as she told Martin this. He shook his head, amused by her absolute wickedness. His face became stern once more when he saw Angelique scowling at him. She was not as amused as he was.
"Are there any suspects in his death?" Martin asked.
"No one really cares," Angelique said in a surprisingly frivolous manner.
"I have a pretty good idea who did it." When Sarah said this, Martin and Angelique both turned to her expecting answers. She gave them both a cocked eyebrow letting them realize what they should have already known. She could not tell them this information. Neither of them had the ability to conceal this information under the inspection of a master vampire. The two let their heads sink in the knowledge that they would not be aware of this knowledge for some time.
A few moments later the crowds of vampires began to pour into the old hall. Sarah, Martin, and Angelique moved along with them. Sarah was wearing a devil's smile as she entered the old hall with a lightness in her step that Martin had never before seen. He laughed out loud at the change that his master had put in his mind.
When all of the members of the Society had seated themselves, one of the older vampires called Vancour took the stage with a rather grim expression pervading his normally cheerful visage. He word long dark robes, in mourning for his lost companion.
"A great loss has come upon us, and we do not know what to do about it." His voice was grave and sad.
"Yeah, we don't know who to congratulate," an unidentified vampire called out from the back of the crowd.
"I know that many of you did not find favor with Vannon, but our laws have been broken."
"How many times did he break the same law?" The shout came from another unidentified fledgling.
"That is not the issue here. We must find his murderer."
"You have found her." Every head in the building turned to the back of the room where Stephanie stood in the doorway to the great chamber. "I killed Vannon." Her voice held no regret or shame. Sarah noticed that she had regained what the others did not know that she had lost. Her dark, lustrous hair had grown back, and her skin once again held that preternatural glow.
"Then you will be punished. You know our laws." Vancour's face had suddenly gone hard with anger.
"I am no longer subject to your laws." Stephanie began to walk slowly down the aisle between the rows of vampires. All of the vampires leaned and tilted away from this frightening creature. She moved confidently toward the stage that Vancour occupied and looked him in the face. Martin could feel her mind open up to let him know just what she had become. Vancour put a hand to his chest and gasped.
"This is more than I deserve," Sarah whispered to Martin and Angelique.
"You are not one of us." Vancour's eyes narrowed and he leaned forward, until his nose almost touched Stephanie's. "You have no place here." Stephanie smiled up at him, but Sarah could feel the pain that this sent through her old friend.
"I only came to bring warning," she said turning to the other vampires in the hall. "I am watching all of you, and the evildoers will be used to feed this new creature in Haven." With this she moved out of the old hall to leave the vampires to their whispers and fear. Among these whispers a slight ecstatic giggle could be heard coming from Sarah.

* * * * * * * *

Jenny awoke after the sun had set, and the sky was just turning from pink to an inky blue. She crawled out of the sewer grate and looked around for food. The streets were empty. Likely. It had been two weeks since Stephanie's speech at the old hall, and it seemed that even the humans were being wary of her. She could not believe that Stephanie had come forward with her new power. It was not at all like her to terrify all of the other vampires so much. It seemed that none of the Society's laws were currently being broken. The increasing fear of Stephanie did not comfort Jenny at all. Since she was now the big issue among the fledglings, it seemed that everyone had forgotten about Mobius.
Jenny walked slowly through the streets with no particular destination in mind. This was a change for her. Her body raged telling her that she should hunt, but she had better things to do than to spend her time tailing humans. She felt as if every nerve in her body were on fire. There was a feeling of tension in the air that a vampire such as herself should have noticed, but she had other things on her mind.
There was a figure in the shadows ahead of her, and she stopped short. She crouched low and studied this figure. Obviously a man. Tall, thin, shaven bald. Jim. She stood back up and relaxed. This man held nothing that she feared in his power. He was a magician, and a good one, but he was not Mobius. She did not plan to approach the man, but when he saw her, he began to move in her direction. "Hello," he said flashing a sharp-toothed smile. "Why aren't you hunting?"
"I do have other interests in life besides food, you know." Her tone was harsh. She did not like this man.
"Really?" he asked with what sounded like genuine surprise. Jenny wanted to kill him, but whatever she was, she was not a criminal.
"Look, I really have better things to do than to be insulted by you." She began to walk away from him.
"Wait!" he cried out. She turned her head and cast a questioning look over her shoulder. "I really do need to talk to you." She turned back his way and sat cross-legged in front of him.
"Then sit, and talk." He was surprised that she accepted his offer this easily. He sat down in front of her and told her of the incident with his spells being disarmed, and how he suspected Mobius. "Interesting," she said when he was finished. "Why did you feel that you needed to tell me that?"
"Because I know how scared you are of Mobius. I thought that maybe you would stay with me tonight. you know, just in case." She noticed that Jim was looking at her in a way that no one had in a long time. One part of her wanted to leap and kill him, but the other part was the one that moved her hand to her head and made sure that her hair was not too mussed up. She suddenly sickened herself.
"And they say that death kills the sex drive." She thought that he was being a little presumptuous.
"Give me a break, huh."
"What makes you think that I am so frightened of Mobius?"
"Because with the amount of blood that you take, you gain power faster that any other of our kind in Haven. You know that this makes you a prime target for Mobius."
"And why are you so scared?" she asked him, already knowing the answer.
"He is someone that is not bother by my magic. He made it a special point to show me that. I can't protect myself from him." Jenny could hear the fear in Jim's voice. He had relied on his magical crutch for too long, and now that it was worthless, he did not know what to do. Jenny pitied him in a way, but she had better ways to spend her time than working with this hopeless, frightened night dweller.
"I don't think that I can help you." She gave him a look that expressed her pity for him, and it absolutely shocked him. He had never known that Jenny had real emotions. She had always seemed like just a heartless killing machine to him.
"Well, thank you for your time." Jim stood up and bowed to this woman that he now saw in a whole new light. "Just do me one favor."
"What's that?" she asked with suspicion creeping back into her voice.
"Just be careful." He gave her another smile and disappeared into the maze of streets.
Jenny sat there for another hour thinking about what he had said to her. It was somewhat comforting to know that other vampires were just as frightened as she was. She was also glad that Mobius was still on the surface of everyone's' worries.

* * * * * * * *

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