Show Them All You're Not the Ordinary Type

William's POV

“You let them escape?” I demanded furiously. All thoughts about anger being for newborns rushing out of my head. I had finally extracted the story behind Michael and Brendon’s lateness from Michael, who seemed to be getting some kind of high from Brendon’s quiet manner, and was unusually (and irritatingly) perky.

“The police let them escape.” Brendon pointed out with a touch of his usual scornful pedanticness, “We tried to stop them.” he gestured to his disarrayed outfit, “And got hurt in the process.”

“So my six best vampires and, therefore, six of the strongest vampires in the city, were no match for a baby vampire and three humans?” I asked scathingly.

“Apparently not sir.” Brendon murmured. Michael merely scowled. I sighed heavily and lapsed into thoughts which were increasingly despairing. Silence fell. The room, spacious and airy as it was, began to feel stifling and oppressive. Neither Michael nor Brendon dared to speak (they had long since learnt that it was better not to interrupt my thoughts) and so they sat through a long, uncomfortable silence, avoiding eye contact with each other and myself.

Brendon abruptly shifted, involuntarily. Sunrise. As a relatively young vampire, Brendon was more in tune with the movements of the sun; he became weary quickly in the morning as it rose, and restless as it set at night marking the beginning of our nightly reign over the dark. As the sun rose Brendon, and the other younger vampires, became agitated. The heavy drapes at every window blocked out all light creating a permanent night inside our mansion. Outside the sunlight would burn him more keenly but the sun wouldn‘t reach him inside. Nevertheless he became anxious, it was an instinctive reaction and one he couldn’t control. His enhanced mind control abilities seemed to make this instinctive reaction worse.

It was odd though. Recently Brendon had been reacting less and less to the sun. Perhaps the night’s events had taken a toll on him causing him to revert to the strong reaction that had previously been the norm. They had certainly taken a toll on me and I was considerably older than Brendon. Ten dandies dead at the hands of The Hunters. And it had all started so simply. A small routine fight, putting the punks and the Vampires From The Hood back into their places. They had been fighting more and more of late and it was time to step in, to remind them who ran this city.

And then the hunters came. They had fought but then they were captured, arrested by the police and taken at my bidding to the police station. How delightful it had been to see the shock on Peter’s face as it finally dawned on him the extent to which I control this city. The police, the priest both mine and countless others in positions of power also did what I dictated.

I thought that would be the end of it and I was almost sorrowful - to have killed so many of my clan, it infuriated me but it also gave me a strange excitement. To have an opponent, a challenge is something I have wished for, for many years now. I could destroy Peter and his friends in an instant but I had let them play, watched as they destroyed my Dandies. I was testing them of course, interested in how they fought. I never dreamed they would achieve what they did. No matter, next time they would not be so lucky. Next time I wouldn’t be playing. Peter and his friends lived tonight because I wished it. So I ordered their arrest to give me time to contemplate my next move.

But I had underestimated Peter and his friends for the second time They had escaped, not only eluding the police but my higher Dandies too. It looked like my wish for a challenge had been granted. It was of course clear that I would be the winner, but I would enjoy the game. I could let them think they were winning, watch them think they had a chance of killing me. And then kill them for daring to strike at my clan.

Brendon shuddered. His head was beginning to droop and he looked exhausted. There was no sense in forcing him to stay awake; it would only make him weaker and less effective if we were required to fight. And since there were now only seven of us I needed every one of us to be ‘fighting fit’.

“We will talk about this in the evening.” I said, breaking the silence and startling Brendon. “Dismissed.” I added so here would be no confusion. Michael got up and left the room instantly. I expected Brendon to do the same, but he stood slowly, in obvious discomfort. The scratches on his cheeks were still only half-healed which was strange; there should be no trace of them by now.

“Brendon?” I asked. I made a conscious effort to force my voice to be soft and unthreatening. The sort of tone that implied he could ignore me if he so chose. He exercised this choice and began walking towards the door in a manner more reminiscent of a zombie than a vampire.

“Bren?” I tried. Informality was something that didn’t come naturally to me and wasn’t really appropriate anyway and so I had never called any of them by a nickname. It felt wrong to say ‘Bren’ but it made him turn and gaze at me with an expression of vague curiosity and so at least it had worked. He didn’t speak, but waited for me to break the short silence.

“Are you okay?” Concern was so hard to convincingly pull off. My only real concern was that in the state he was in he would manage to get himself killed and I would have to spend valuable time training a new third in command. I needed that time to seek out new vampires and build my clan back up. Brendon really had chosen a most inconvenient time to have a breakdown. He continued staring at me as though trying to decide whether or not to answer me with a lie. His face was blank although there was some kind of disturbance in his eyes which suggested of an internal struggle.

“I’m fine William.” he replied eventually completely tonelessly and left the room. He was lying, we both knew that. The only question was what would I do about it. What would I do about him?

The sunlight doesn’t affect me the way it affected the younger vampires. I could stay awake for near a full day and feel no ill effects. I moved slowly and noiselessly from the meeting room into one of the many sitting rooms. It was equally as opulent and luxurious as the rest of the mansion but for some reason this reason this room was my favourite. I sat down in a armchair and closed my eyes blocking out the room.

I am always most at peace when I am on my own; I am the only person I can trust and although I can never truly let my guard down, I am considerably more relaxed when I am away from others, even my own dandies. With my eyes closed the world was comfortingly dark and the knowledge that the other dandies were fast asleep - I could sense this easily - was equally comforting and I let my thoughts run freely in an attempt to find an answer to my clan’s sudden and unforeseen decrease in numbers. It was going to be a long day...