Fear was the smell coming from the woman, her cries of terror filling echoing across the street. Her red satin dress was torn, blood streaming down her long legs. The blood left a trail down the dark street that the three creatures followed, one licking the cobblestone to collect the sweet nectar it craved. The woman was doomed; her suitor lay dead in the street bled dry by the creatures. The monsters had tasted the weakness of the city, they had come from the darkness to terrorize its people and now they had her in their sights.
She came to a stone wall, cutting off the alleyway, leaving her stranded in the dark tunnel of the alleyway. She cried as she crumbled to the floor, gasping at the cold air. What could she do now? They were almost upon her; she could hear their steps, feel their hunger. She closed her eyes tightly clasping her hands together, praying for help, for someone to intervene.
“Come now child, do not fear us; we are merely here to release you from your shell.” The middle creature spoke, masked in the darkness, his two companions sniggering behind him.
“Leave me alone, please. I didn’t do anything to anyone.” The woman looked out at her pursuers unable to see anything in the dark.
“We are not here to judge you, we are just hungry.” The last statement was growled and she closed her eyes tight once again as they rushed forward.
The creature roared in rage above her and she felt cool liquid fall onto her bare shoulders. She risked a glance up to see a glint of silver as the lead creature fell back from her clutching at the bolt protruding from his chest. The other two creatures roared up toward the roof tops before grabbing onto brick and pulling themselves up.
Darius Redmont had lived through darkness, he had seen his father and mother turned against him and had been forced to end their pitiful existence. He had been stripped of love, stripped of compassion and filled instead with hatred and anger. The darkness had changed him, but it had done the opposite of what it had set out to do, instead of making him weak it had made him stronger than ever before, it had changed him into the monster that other monsters check their spawn’s closet for.
The crossbow was reloaded, another silver tipped bolt shot straight down toward one of the vampires who leapt out of the way. The Redmont dropped the crossbow and leapt out over the alley, his bare feet began to extend mid fall, claws elongating from finger nails as thick grey fur sprouted from his almost naked body. One hand caught one of the vampires and dragged it down the wall to the ground. Clawed feet smashed the cobblestone breaking pieces off and throwing shrapnel in all directions.
The last vampire landed behind him, he could feel its indecision. As it pondered its move he sunk claws into the vampire whose life he held literally in his hands and removed the head from its body. The body fell motionless to the side and he turned his wolf-like head to the final creature. It hisses baring its fangs, its human like façade breaking down as claws grow from its hand. Its small change wasn’t as dramatic as Darius’s but to a normal person it would have surely put them in a fit of terror. It lunges at him and Darius catches the creature avoiding its claws simply by holding it out of range.
He was stronger than it, and he could see the realization come across its face right before he smashes it into the wall shattering stone and mortar. Claws sink into the vampires’ throat holding it still as the other hand pummels hit after hit into its skull. The skull crunches after ten blows and Darius releases the body to fall to the ground.
The woman still sits on the ground, pertified, Darius’s form not helping assuage her fears. He slowly transforms back into his human body, the woman watching the whole time. “Did they bite you?”
She nods slowly, showing the fang marks in her upper thigh. Blood had already stopped coming from the wound and dark circles surrounded them.
Darius leaned down and pulled the bolt from the corpse, making sure to avoid the silver tip that would burn him. He stands over the woman with it, her bright blue eyes staring up into his own grey eyes. Without warning he drives the bolt into her skull before she could react, those bright eyes dimming and slipping down to look at the ground.
The Redmont shakes his head he couldn’t have saved her and he had only known a select few to be able to become the creatures of the night and survive the darkness that comes with it. He leaves the body where they were, the morning sunlight would burn them away. Ascending the wall back to the roof he collects his crossbow and stalks across the roofs.
He had missed the battle that had befallen Grand City, and while the battle was still young in their minds the people of the city were weak. This was the fourth group of creatures wishing ill upon the innocent he had dispatched in a week. Darius Redmont was never much for grandeur or fame but killing the creatures of the night was something he was always ready for.
He perches on a gargoyle above the streets, the body of the dead man who had been the suitor of the woman had been found. He watched from the darkness above, then out over the city. The monsters would continue to crawl out of the night, but they would find that the night had a protector, a man who had embraced the darkness and turned it into something more. They would try to instill fear in the people, but to at least one man, fear was not an option.
Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 9:28 pm
