"Eternal Nights"

There was dried blood in the corner of my mouth. The body of an eighteen-year-old girl lay amongst the blood red sheets of the bed. Her long auburn hair lay in a mass of waves around her pale face. Jagged white bone glistened from the wound on her neck. I sat staring out the fogged window gazing down on the city of Lost Angels, ignoring the girl and still enjoying the pleasure of her blood warming my veins. I have no feelings over what I did to her, no vampire would. As the blood filled my body with a sense of satisfaction my skin began to gain its human tone.

My name is Shiva; well it’s not my real name. My real name will not be spoken in my presence; it brings back to many horrifying memories. The nickname Shiva was given to me because of my looks, Shiva was one of the ice maidens and I looked like her apparently. I have long silver gray hair that is professionally cut half way down the length of my back. Also I have stone cold pale blue eyes. Shiva was seen as a naked goddess who could control the power of ice. When other people, generally vampires though see my without any clothes on they say I am well built like her and also God was generous about the chest he gave me. Other people also say I have a cold attitude towards life; I have a cold heart. Anyone would have a cold heart if they had lived through what I had suffered.

Los Angeles is a place where people come to hide, and that was exactly why I was here. The man I am hiding from, if a man is what you call him. Is my father Diablo, I loved my father when I had been a young child but that was over a hundred years ago. And that was also before he made me what I am, a monster. I walk the shadows, as God does not wish to see me.

Diablo treated me cruelly from the moment I told him I was to be engaged. I didn’t realize that my father had been damned when I told him. He killed my husband and rapped me on our wedding night. I thought he would leave me there to die but he didn’t. He took my life and soul, oh yes that is certain. He abused me for eighty years not caring what would happen to me and I finally found a way to escape him. When I was walked the new age streets I had to learn about the new world around me, It had changed so much since the last time I walked them. I had been hidden from change and made to stay in the shadows. He knows where I am though, he always has. It is because he made me what I am, one of the damned. Eight years ago I was surprised to find out that Diablo had become the new ‘Master Vampire’. Its true that there are master vampires that control up to three cities at a time but to be ‘The’ master vampire meant that you could control what all the other master vampires do. The way to become a master vampire though was to kill the present master; Diablo must be a hell of a lot stronger than I could remember if he had killed a master.

My eyes focused on the small peace of parchment paper that lay against the windowsill. Diablo had sent it to me; he was summoning me to the ritual of the shadows. When I read the letter my fingers had traced over the scripted writing. The letter only explained how I was to go to him with an escort. The escort was due here within the night.

I admit that I am scared of my father now he has enough power to destroy me but its what he might do to my physically that worries me. When I was younger I was to scared to stop him but I wasn’t going let him do it again to me now. I closed my eyes trying to block out the memories of sex and pain. I opened my eyes as a tinged red tear ran down my cheek and I looked out the window at the night sky, the streetlights make it so hard to make out the stars but if I looked hard enough I could see them faintly. It was the last thing I remember seeing before I drifted into sleep.

As I walked through the sun drenched gardens my long pale fingers brushed the petals of magenta flowers. The colours of the flowers seemed so harsh against my pale skin. I was wearing a long white dress that dragged on the floor behind me and I must have looked like a ghost. I came to a low archway made from ivy vines that had criss-crossed together I walked under the low archway to a clearing and saw the beauty of a young slender woman with long sandy blond coloured hair that circled over her shoulders and dress. She was singing to herself and it reminded me of the birds at dawn. The woman turned slowly in a graceful movement and I found myself staring into the pale blue of my mother’s eyes. She smiled at me with her soft pink lips.

“Hello Dinaer” her voice was the softest of whispers and hearing my name made a shudder run through my body.

I forced a smile at her as her voice became serious and had the edge of sadness

“He will try and kill you, you know that don’t you?”

I looked down sadly she was talking about Diablo and I had know all along that he didn’t plan to let me live.

I knew that I was dreaming, recently I had been dreaming about my mother. She would usually just sit in the gardens singing or watching the ripples of water over the lake, which was through another archway, and I could hear the running water.

“Yes,” the words were choked in my throat “Yes, I do”

She smiled at me again she was so beautiful. As she moved towards me she moved so smoothly that it seemed like she was floating. She ran her hand over my face and I shut my eyes trying not to cry. Diablo had killed my mother and I still missed her, I dreamed of the day that God would forgive me of my sins and I could be reunited with her again. Her cold lips pressed softly against mine, a gentle brush of lips. But she stepped away from me eyes wide in fear

“Your not welcome here” she hissed as her skin began to crumpled and burst into flames. I looked down at my white dress it had turned as black as coal. I let out a cry of pain as my own body began to burn in the morning light.

I woke up screaming and saw movement in the room, I ran forward with a burst of speed crashing into someone. The window shatter and it took me a few moments to try and understand what was happening. I took a deep breath and stepped to the window ledge, my eyes were a mass of blue flames. Vampires can never hid when they are angry their eyes give it away. My eyes darted across the street rapidly to see where the person had landed. I stepped out the window, which was actually on the third floor, but the distance didn’t effect me. Gliding smoothly to the ground I landed softly on my heels and looked down angrily at the crumpled body on the floor.

I took a step forward and found myself kicking a male figure in the chest with such force that it sent him crashing into a brick wall across the road some of the bricks crumbled at the force landing on his back. Vampires also gain incredible strength when they turn, also over aspects such as speed and hearing improve as well. I stood as still as stone and waited to see if the male figure would move. If he were a mortal then I would have just shatter most of his rib cage so he wouldn’t have been able to move.

A gang of rowdy teenagers who had been yelling in the streets at innocent bystanders, and making an embarrassment to society had fallen silent; they had all turned to watch the show. The law hadn’t actually declared vampires real creatures yet; they were still trying to blame the effects of vampirism on the use of drugs. But some people like the teenagers standing in the street understood that it didn’t matter if we were on drugs or not, you don’t mess with us.

The male moved his body in a cat like manner. He rolled himself up from the rubble on the floor with his back to me, foolish mistake I thought to myself but stayed still. No mortal could act like he was acting so I declared him a vampire in my mind. Then I felt power rippling from him like his own personal ocean, he had just proved to me that he was a vampire in a way that no normal person can detect.

Steven turned around slowly his green eyes where glowing faintly but you wouldn’t have detected it unless you had vampire eyesight. He ran his hand over his mouth and watched as the crimson blood ran down his fingers

“Pleasant greeting, its good to see you as well.” His voice was still as melodious as I had remembered it and it felt like silk rolling over my skin.

“What were you doing in my room?” I hissed between clenched teeth.

He cocked his head to one side am watched me bemused, he reminded me of a parrot trying to understand what the mirror does.

He was handsome that was why he had been made a vampire. Steven was wearing tight leather jeans that left nothing for the imagination. His lavender shirt was made from the finest silk with a high collar framing the ice white of his skin. His hair had been neatly gelled back. His hair was more golden than blond and it matched his eyes in a peculiar way. His eyes were unnerving. They were a mass of green flex that was it. Just hundreds of different green colours that had been combined together. He never had those eyes when he had been a mortal but when he went through the change; the colour seemed to bleed away from his iris to cover the rest of his eyes. He knew full well that I still loved him; he also knew what his appearance did to me. Fortunately for me I had seen what was under his clothing and I wanted to see again.

A slow smile spread across his face, as he was suddenly standing behind me. Vampires move to fast for the mortal brain to see sometimes and we move so silently that we can create the impression that we just happened to appear. I didn’t like it when vampires moved that fast and I was betting Steven knew that.

He waved the piece of parchment paper that had been on the windowsill.

“That’s mine,” I growled. I was still pissed that he had let himself into my room. Unfortunately vampires don’t need and invite to get into someone else’s house like the myth explains. Its true that some of the facts like holy water and sunlight does burn us but some of the information that people have acquired were just fictions from a demented irony.

“I know” He looked around the alley and then back to me. My eyes must still have been glowing fiery blue flames as he began to laugh at me.

“What’s so funny?”

“You, you have such a temper for a woman”

“Strange I though the same about you”

“That’s odd do you like to share you bed with women then?”

“I see that you are still the bastard you always used to be”

“Dinaer, such language”

“Piss off, and if you call me that again I’ll rip your throat out”

He sighed shaking his head “Now that we have insulted each other as much as possible in the space of a minute should we go?”

“Go?” I asked raising an eyebrow. He motioned to the paper in his hand

“I’m your escort” He looked back at the teenagers in the street sitting on a stolen truck and frowned, he was becoming irritated by some of their pathetic comets.

“Where are you taking me?”

He looked back at me slightly surprised that I had spoken. His eyes scanned down my body and he looked back at my face smiling.

“Your father has clothes for you their, jeans and t-shirt just don’t seem right for the occasion.”

I looked down at what I was wearing white t-shirt and black jeans, and then decided to ignore the comment.

“Where are you planning to take me?” I repeated

“The cars down here” he said pointing over his shoulder as he turned and started down the street. Was he so stupid? I thought to myself, I could easily run in the opposite direction. It probably wouldn’t do much good though. I could understand that Steven was trying to ignore the question; he didn’t want me to know where we were going.

My mothers voice seemed to float through the air but I was the only one who could hear it

“He will try and kill you,” she whispered sadly

“I know,” I whispered, as I followed silently behind him.

Stevens pace slowed as we approached the group of teens. Two of the larger males in the group stood in Stevens’s path. There was a glint of steel as Steven stopped; I stepped up beside him to watch the show. Just great I thought to myself, I have only been back into the vampire world for five minutes and I was already going to see a slaughter. They couldn’t have been more than eighteen years old but the obviously worked out, they were huge.

“Give us your money or you die,” said the biggest one he must have been about 6ft3, he looked like he could have been a bouncer if he had a little more class and not had killer and dead Dave tattooed over his arms. His hair was crew cut and he was wearing camouflaged jeans and tank top that was stretched so far over him that it looked like it might snap. I noticed that he had a lot of scars and a crocked nose; it must have been broken in some point of his life. I had a feeling that he mugged people a lot, and they thought back.

Steven smiled shaking his head trying not to laugh

“You really think you can take me?”

The other guy sniggered. The only conclusion I could gain from this guys looks is that some one had hit him in the face multiple times with a shovel, when he had been born. His face was a mess, crocked nose; lips to large for his face one of them were swollen. He was missing several teeth and he had a black and blue eyes. Someone had hit him pretty hard. The only good thing about him was his hair. It was curtain cut and his hair covered over the black eyes if he wanted it too. He saw me studying him and decided that he wanted the black eye covered.

“I’m sure if your little bitch here can throw you through a window then we can do a lot of damage to that pretty face of yours.”

Steven took a menacing step towards them, and the knife was withdrawn from a wrist holster that I hadn’t even notice.

I looked at his shoulder and there was a large tattoo of a silver sword with kill engraved into the hilt. That didn’t surprise me much. The other people who had been sitting in the truck jumped down and stood around use trapping us within a circle

“Ok so there’s fourteen of you an two of us. I can see how this is a little one sided so I’ll just give you my wallet to avoid the hassle.”

Steven didn’t seem bothered at all by how many of them there were but he put his hand into his back pocket and the teenagers began to snigger again. He held a black snakeskin wallet out for the larger guy to take. His hand moved quickly and grasped hold of he wallet but Steven moved faster. He had the mans wrist in his hand and flung him one handed into the van. There was a large bang as he hit the van and fell to the floor unconscious and then there was silence in the street. They all stood staring wide eyes at what Steven had done.

“Jesus help us, he’s one of those things” cried out one of the girl as she stepped away from the group. The girl looked at me pleading for help, tears began to run down her face when I snarled at her flashing fangs. She was pretty; I couldn’t understand why she was with these people. Her blond hair barley touched her shoulders and she had ocean blue eyes. She was well built and tall enough to be a model, about 5ft9 I guessed. Why is everyone taller than me? I thought to myself, as I am only 5ft2. I didn’t feel sadness over what was going to happen to her but I did pity her. The other guy, who had blocked Stevens’s path, hadn’t been distracted though and he threw himself forward, and a flash of silver blade went towards Stevens face. Steven caught his arm and jerked it back in a rapid movement. There was a loud crack as the guy let out a shriek of pain. He clasped he joint of his arm in his hand like it would stop the bleeding. I saw what had caused the cracking sound; jagged bone was sticking out of his flesh. A pool of blood was running down his arm and onto the floor. The others stepped back from Steven as he picked up his wallet, which he had dropped on the floor and returned to his back pocket.

Steven looked down at the floor and smiled, I knew what he was planning to do. When he looked up his green eyes were glowing fiercely the scent of blood had excited him, his fangs had fully retracted.

“This should be fun,” He laughed as he jumped towards one of the girls. The girl screamed as Steven sunk his fangs into her throat. She tried to push Steven from her but it would have been like trying to push the wall of a house over. I took this as my chance and I turned and ran, my heels were silent as I ran and I knew it would only be seconds before Steven had finished killing them all and found me. I could still here the screams of the teenagers trying to escape the horrifying fate that awaited them. I looked back behind me, as I turned through a different alley. I carried on running I knew it would be hard to get away from Steven, as he was one of the fastest vampires. That was probably the reason Diablo had sent him in case I did try to escape. There was a sudden sharp blow to the back of my head as I fell to the floor painfully. My vision was blurred and I was too weak to move, the blow had knocked everything out of me. I saw movement from the corner of my eyes as I was rolled over onto my back. Steven had knelt down beside me and shook his head disapprovingly. There was blood on his hand but he was kind enough to wipe it on his shirtsleeve, staining it. He sighed as his hands circled over me lifting me of the floor with ease; vampires could lift limos if they tried. He started walking back in the direction that I had run. I looked up at him as my eyes began to feel heavy. He looked down into my eyes and watched me as everything around me went black.