The Bloody Masquerade

“I think I am getting close.” Diana said as she trailed after me like a shadow.

I was currently patrolling after the last two nights of thumb twiddling since Diana’s appearance. I didn’t like being still when I had no idea where any of Ilda’s scouts or assassins are. It was unnerving for me and I needed to be out in the city, seeking them out, to make myself feel a little more comfortable. Alexis thankfully realised this and told me to go while he watched over Eugene in the early hours of the night. I was currently heading back slowly after I had found nothing bar the normal handful of immortals.

“How soon then?” I asked.

“Maybe tonight.” She replied. “She is a slippery one and seems to be able to hide herself well but I am beginning to sense something. I should be able to hunt her now.”

“It is worrying, isn’t it?” I muttered to myself.

Diana was silent but I could feel her eyes fixated on my back. She understood what I meant. Throughout my sixty years of life, I had never had a problem of sensing anyone of the Old World. It was only when Diana had mentioned there was a witch watching me from the shadow, that I knew anything about it.

“Yes.” She finally said softly. “It is very worrying.”

“Do you think she is old?” I asked in attempt to try and understand why I hadn’t sensed this scout before. Age is something that gives the creatures of the Old World strength, not weakness.

“Not from what I have seen. She appears young.” Diana said.

“Then how is it I am not able to sense her?” I said, biting my thumb hard in frustration and mild panic.

“I don’t know but I will try and get an answer to that before I kill her.” Diana said in an attempt to soothe me.

“Please do. If there are more witches like her, I need to know. I can’t wonder around completely blind.”

“I know.” Diana agreed before she jogged to walk beside me. “We will get to the bottom of this. I don’t think grandmother can be saved now but we must keep her body from being used as a puppet. Someone is pulling the strings and I want to know who.”

“There is a chance that the scout might not know anything.”

“With her ability to hide from you, I would think she would know something. Witches like her would be well known among the Families.”

I grumbled to myself having already guessed that. A witch like her would be useful for the Old World and capable of approaching even the most aware and powerful of the immortals. Whether she was hired or doing it out of duty to her Family, the fact she was simply watching and apparently not acting in any way, this witch would know something about Ilda.

“Here I will take my leave. I can feel something not too far.” Diana said when we turned to head down my road. She flashed me her small tight smile and held out her hand for me to shake. “Wish me luck.”

I gently squeezed her hand in response. “If you need any help, just call for myself or Alexis.”

“Just get the boy out of here once I have taken down this scout.” Diana said roughly. “I will send you word once it is safe to leave and no eyes are watching you. Be ready for it.”

I smiled and nodded my head to which she then turned and melted away into the darkness, beginning a fight that was no doubt going to be fought for hours. This scout was going to be a challenge, even for Diana. Rolling up the sleeves of my jacket, I strode back to my home. As soon as I had climbed the stairs and slipped inside, I quickly surveyed my home, checking it was safe.

Eugene was once again asleep although I was surprised to find him snoring softly on my bed and in the middle of a mass pile of paper. I slowly sieved through it, noting that all were to do with his lessons. There were bits on history, maths and English, even Latin, a language still favoured by the Witches. I watched him sleep for a moment, confused by his obvious enjoyment in learning but hatred towards anything about survival in the Old World. He still couldn’t sense myself and Alexis and I doubted he was trying. I would need to speak to him about it soon, but not now. Once we were somewhere safe.

After I had covered him in a blanket and switched off the light, I trundled back into the main body of my tiny apartment. Alexis was asleep, obviously sending no danger and had nodded off, so I silently made my way passed him and sat in my usual place by the window. I opened it and stuck my head out, letting my sense flourish before deciding there was nothing interesting outside in the last few minutes of being indoors.

Forcing myself to relax, I leaned against the windowpane and watched the night sky. As I stared, I wondered to myself what daylight looked like. I vaguely remembered it as a child. I could recall playing and learning in the sun when I was at training grounds. It looked strangely beautiful in my mind. Everything was bright and soft, glowing in the sunlight. But I could only live in the darkness now and never return to the day or to understand why. That day I couldn’t move was a memory painted into my mind. It terrified me and my Family. Thankfully we worked out that it was just when the sun was strong that I became weak. It was still unknown however why it happened.

My mind suddenly became strangely alert. A strange thumping began to echo in my ears, slow and gentle. I didn’t find it annoying, if anything I found it soothing. And as I listened to the slow beat, my focus slowly became foggy and my body became restless. I rubbed my arms, glancing about outside then inside, in an attempt to shake the foggy sensation. However, when my eyes caught hold of Alexis, sprawled out and sleeping quite happily on the sofa, I stiffened.

Suddenly the beating grew louder in my ears, almost deafening me, and my body rapidly became hot. My teeth began to ache as my throat dried horribly, alarming me deep inside. I knew what was happening. I knew I should’ve taken precautions now that I had people near me, especially Alexis, but I was already losing it and no longer had control. I was instinctively focused now on his heart beat, on the sound of his blood. The need to bite was growing insanely strong. That’s what Alexis did to me when I was like this. It grew so quickly and suddenly I didn’t have time to alert him or grab the nearest lemon to bite.

Before I knew it, I was walking across the room. It was a strange sensation, as if my mind knew what it was doing but couldn’t control my body. Every cell in my body was focused on Alexis and this horrible need to latch my teeth into him. Smoothly, I straddled him and let my eyes wander about his exposed neck. His heartbeat grew louder slowly while the heat of his body beneath me intensified the fogginess of my mind and the aching of my fangs.

Slowly and trying not to wake him, I leaned forward and placed my hands on either side of his head, holding myself above him. For a moment, I stared at his throat, letting my tongue wet my lower lip before beginning to lower my mouth. In that moment however, Alexis woke.

He stared up at me at first, his expression a mix between confusion and shock. But he didn’t move. In fact he remained perfectly still, staring at me wide eyed behind his glasses. I knew I had thrown him. Any man suddenly waking to find a woman leaning over him, breathing heavily and with a lustful expression unashamedly plastered on her face, wouldn’t quite know what to do. Seeing that he wasn’t going to stop me, I lowered my face in an attempt to bite him, wanting to get rid of this lustful hot feeling from inside me. At seeing my fangs, realisation slammed into Alexis and instantly he threw himself into action.

Just as my fangs scraped his neck, his large hand grabbed hold of my arm and he threw me off of him and into the wall opposite. I hit it hard and slid to the floor. For a moment I lay there dazed until the urge powered my body and forced me to move. I stood, panting hard and baring my fangs, with my eyes fixated on Alexis as the uncontrollable yearning took hold firmly.

I had to bite him. I just had to.

I darted at him but in this state of insane craving, my reflexes and fighting mind were not at their best at all. I simply lashed out to grab him, not bothering about defending myself, and completely left myself open. He grabbed my hooked hand and tugged me hard so a whirled around. Without letting me have a chance to recover, his hand was covering my eyes while his arm slunk around my waist, fastening me to him.

As I wriggled and tried to pry myself free, Eugene came darting out of the bedroom, having been woken by the fight.

“Eugene! Get a lemon!” Alexis shouted surprisingly savagely.

Instantly, Eugene leapt into action, shacking away his surprise, and darted to the cupboards. I however was still trying to break free from the prison of Alexis’s arms. In a wild attempt, I pushed myself backwards hard, forcing him to lose his balance. We landed hard on the floor but his arm and hand remained in place. His grip tightened while he buried his face in the crook of my neck in an attempt to keep my head still. I couldn’t work out what he was trying to do until something was shoved in my mouth.

Instantly I bit down hard, pressing the lemon tightly into my mouth. Slowly, the lusting faded and my concentration returned, leaving me shaking slightly and burning from embarrassment as my Matter and sanity flooded me. I held Alexs’s hand in place when he tried to move it, not wanting Eugene to see that I was on the brink of tears.

For a while the three of us remained still. I remained pressed against Alexis’s chest while Eugene stood in front of us, watching with wide eyes. Alexis nuzzled me and let the pad of his thumb stroke my arm slowly, trying to comfort me. He knew I hated him seeing me like this. After he first witnessed me like it, I flipped out and wanted him away from me. I eventually calmed down when he said he would keep quiet about it and help me control it, although I was always nervous around him after my first attack

“Has vampire Augusta gone now?” Eugene asked quietly.

I nodded my head slowly and took Alexis’s hand away which he curled around my waist, linking it with his other hand. “She’s gone now.” I replied, looking down at the now blue lemon and feeling my now blunt canines.

I had no idea why it happened but every month since I was seventeen years old, I got this uncontrollable urge to bite something. When I bit someone, I didn’t suck their blood, instead I injected something into them. They always they became sick so I avoided contact with civilisation around this time and only bit citrus fruits, which strangely take the ‘venom’, as I call it. Eugene named this mindless side of me ‘vampire Augusta’ five years ago, because of the fangs and need to bite, which seems to be intensified whenever I was around Alexis.

In all honesty though, I didn’t know what this urge was. Or what I was, for that matter. I had the traits of both vampire and witch yet I was neither. I was stuck in-between. A hybrid. A freak of nature. A twisted immortal.

And I knew for sure though that I was the only one of my kind.