The Greater Darkness

Chapter 23

The exhaustion Geoffry had felt before at Melody's had impossibly grown even worse in the last twenty-four hours. I didn't really have a chance to kill Gothic in a fair fight before. As tired as I am now, there's no hope even if I did somehow find him. Although least if I can find him there is a chance he'll just kill me instead of searching my mind like Imastious will.

Geoffry was tempted to stay out and watch for Gothic despite the rising sun, but the light was starting to hurt his eyes. Gothic isn't going to move about during the day.

I suppose there isn't any thing left to do but to return home and prepare to try and sell myself dearly enough that Imastious will have to kill me instead of breaking me to see what little tidbits I've managed to keep to myself.

The trip back home should have been filled with despair, but Geoffry found that he was curiously calm. Not that I'm fine with how things turned out, but I'll do what has to be done to try and protect Melody. Maybe this is what that priest was talking about all along. Maybe death isn't that bad, even for one like me, doomed to go straight to hell, if such a place really exists.

When Geoffry finally arrived back home, Venice was waiting for him. “I was starting to wonder if you'd made a run for it.”

Geoffry shrugged, being very careful to keep his hands free. “I thought about it a couple of times, but I didn't figure I'd be able to get away with it.”

Venice pretended to pout. “What, you didn't decide to stay because you love me?”

The exhaustion was still nipping at Geoffry, making him irritable and unwilling to play along tonight. “So, is this it? Imastious decided to just have you clip me rather than seeing to it himself?”

Shaking her head, Venice pointed to the bed. “Sit down love, I'm not here to take you out, although based on the way your swaying, it wouldn't be much of a challenge tonight.”

“Why should I trust you? We both know if you've been instructed to take me down it's entirely possible this is how you'd play it.”

Judging by the fire in the slender vampire's eyes, it looked as though Venice was starting to get angry, but she flashed Geoffry another smile and slid out of her stylish jacket. The black halter top obviously left nowhere to conceal a weapon. “Look, nothing up my sleeves. All of my hardware is in my purse, so sit down and shut up while I tell you about the latest set of developments.”

There isn't anything to say that she couldn't use her powers to call her weapons to her, but I think she's telling the truth. Maybe I'm just too tired to care.

Geoffry stumbled over to the bed and collapsed into a more or less sitting posture. “Sorry if I'm a bit testy tonight. Having people deliver ultimatums and threatening to kill me tends to bring that out.”

Venice shrugged, “I understand. It would tend to do the same to me, but you have to believe after all we've shared that I'm on your side as much as I can be.”

Geoffry bit back a biting response and settled for looking at the blond expectantly.

“Ok, essentially you're off the hook. It turns out something extremely nasty got a hold of Gothic already. He was found a few hours ago, literally torn to shreds. Imastious's confident no information was passed on to Eculdes.”

Tension that Geoffry hadn't even realized he'd been carrying drained from him, and his mind blanked for a moment as he realized that he wasn't about to die. When he finally came back he found Venice had continued talking.

“....like the old man is furious, but he probably isn't going to do anything about it. He figures his people essentially stumbled into something that was vitally important to one of the other Elders, and that the master in question personally took Gothic down to ensure that the proper message was passed along.”

Venice looked at Geoffry and cocked her head to the side. “You going to be ok there, love?”

Geoffry was finding it was all he could do right now to keep his eyes open, but he strung together a response. “Yeah, I'll be ok. I'm just exhausted, it's been a rough week.”

The giggle Geoffry received in response somehow seemed entirely appropriate. “Now that's an understatement if I've ever heard one.”

Scooting over to the bed, Venice sprawled out suggestively. “Imastious wants to see us tonight, but we have plenty of time still. Now that we have everything else out of the way, do you feel like doing a little celebrating?”

The slender vampire watched Geoffry tense up and then sighed, “I hadn't offered for a long time, I thought maybe things had changed.”

Geoffry shook his head. “If events had occurred slightly differently with Gothic you would have killed me tonight. How can you expect me to just put that from my mind so quickly?”

Venice shrugged. “That's part and parcel of who we are, you told me so yourself a hundred times before you lost your memory. Any relationship between vampires is pursued under the tacit understanding that whatever your feelings for the other person may develop into, you're still always running risks. You may find something out about them, they may find out something about you, or some Elder's pursuit of power may come between you both. You have to go into things knowing that you may eventually have to cut them down to protect yourself. You get used to it. Eventually it's all part of the spice that keeps things interesting.”

Geoffry shook his head as pictures of Melody flashed through his mind. “I'm just too exhausted to think this through tonight.”

Venice rolled off of the bed and gathered up her jacket and purse. “Whatever, just remember I'm not going to keep offering indefinitely. What we had was good, and I know you're developing feelings for me, but sooner or later I'll stop waiting and get on with my life.”

Imastious motioned Geoffry and Venice over to chairs set before him. “Venice has some inkling of why you were both called here, but even she doesn't fully understand the ramifications of what's happening.”

Turning dead eyes on Geoffry, the ancient vampire continued. “There has been a statistically significant jump in vampire deaths this last month.”

At Geoffry's blank look a dry, mocking chuckle escaped Imastious. “I won't bore you with all of the painful details of how one arrives at the determination that something is statistically significant, but suffice it to say that based on the marked increase in deaths among our kind this month, there's a ninety-six percent chance that there's some kind of change to the existing power balance.”

Venice seemed to be understanding, and at a nod from Imastious she tried to help explain. “A few vampires get killed every month, typically because they get involved in something they shouldn't, or because one of the Elders figures out who they work for, and eliminates them to weaken a particular rival.”

Geoffry nodded as he started to get an idea where things were headed. Venice bestowed a smile on him and continued. “The fact that we had so many extra vampires killed this month probably means a large number of Elders are starting to make major power plays, meaning that things could get nasty out there before all is said and done.”

Imastious nodded impatiently. “It could also mean that there is some kind of new power out making its presence known, but there hasn't been the kind of influx of new vampires into the city that would be required if a master from another city were trying to move his base of operations here.”

Pacing now, Imastious continued. “From everything Venice has reported, the various meeting places of our kind are starting to be characterized by a nervousness and tension that tells me a significant number of the Elders weren't expecting this sudden spat of murders. Obviously the ones who were prepared for these events are trying to blend in, to convey a sense of nervousness to all but their most trusted lieutenants, so we can't divine who is responsible that way.”

An unpleasant thought crossed Geoffry's mind, as Imastious had paused.

“Master, is it possible that the jump in deaths is somehow linked to the outbreak of rabies?”

Imastious' face went blank for a moment. “I'd forgotten about the disease. An interesting hypothesis, the rabid animals do seek us out, but you yourself had no problem dispatching two rabid beasts. While the outbreak represents a very real danger, it would take large numbers of infected animals to account for the death of even some of the weaker of our kind. The humans seem to have the outbreak under control.”

Shaking his head, Imastious resumed pacing. “No, that seems unlikely. We must proceed under the assumption that this is driven by an attempt to upset the current balance of power, and do what we can to capitalized on the situation.”

The rest of the meeting had dragged on well past the time when Imastious would usually have dismissed them. By the end, Geoffry was wondering if the up tick in deaths had the older vampire more worried than he was letting on.

I don't suppose it really matters, I've got my orders, and for once it involves protecting humans instead of killing them.

Imastious had indicated that there was one particular Elder that had been hit hardest in the recent violence. He's apparently hoping to use this guy as a foil for the big guys to wear themselves out against. It's my job to ease some of the pressure. We'll start small and stop a bank robbery.

Once Imastious was able to point Geoffry towards the gang responsible for conducting the robbery, it had been a simple matter for the younger vampire to use his mentalist abilities to find out exactly when the robbery was to go down. All of which led to Geoffry finding himself standing in line in front of a teller as six hooded figures burst into the bank yelling and waving guns.

Extending his thoughts as far as they would go, Geoffry began his assault.

The closest pair never even realized they were under attack before the bitter edge of Geoffry's blade had beheaded the first and pierced the second through the heart.

Geoffry's thoughts hammered away at the remaining four, confusing them and slowing their responses as he disarmed the next closest opponent. Shattered elbow. I decided before this all happened that you hadn't done anything quite worthy of death yet.

Sensing that the remaining robbers were shaking off the effects of his mental assault, Geoffry dived and rolled as shots went cracking over his head. His movement had put the leader of the group between him and the other two, and he ruthlessly forced the gang member to serve as a shield while he used his captured handgun to down the farthest enemy. A quick push sent Geoffry's captive into the remaining opponent. The two of them were easy pickings as they went down in a tangle of limbs.

People were still screaming and dropping to the ground as Geoffry calmly pocketed the empty gun, sheathed his weapon, and then walked out of the bank.

The police response to the bank was faster than Geoffry expected, but he made it safely into the subways as he heard the first sirens, and once there he knew that he'd be able to lose himself in the tunnels.

The feeling that he was being watched had returned again, but Geoffry wasn't headed anywhere important, so he simply ignored it. Imastious wasn't kidding when he implied that things were going to get nasty out here.

Most of the covert warfare between the vampire Elders had remained below the threshold of awareness of the general populace, but people were becoming increasingly nervous when faced with a sudden increase in drive-by shootings, robberies and violence in general. Venice and Imastious had limited their communications to instructions regarding who he was to kill or protect, so Geoffry had been forced to turn to the human media in an effort to stay abreast of the war. Not that it does me much good, I don't know enough about the various players to even be able to separate out which incidents are a result of some kind of vampire directive, and which ones are just two-bit crooks trying to take advantage of the rising tide of violence. Even so, I can tell that things are starting to get bad out here. The mayor is supposedly talking about imposing a curfew and asking the Governor to send in the National Guard in an effort to take some of the pressure off of the police before a riot develops.

Sometime in the last two weeks Geoffry had lost track of how many missions he'd run. He'd quickly realized that high profile actions like he'd taken at the bank would eventually get him killed or arrested, so he'd stretched his creativity in an effort to influence events in a much more subtle manner. One set of bodyguards had been mentally prepped over the course of a couple hours, so that when the assassin assigned to kill a prominent businessman finally showed up, they were ready and waiting, unconsciously in a state of high alert. The assassin had only managed to get off a single, poorly-aimed shot before being mowed down.

A second bank robbery had been foiled when conditioning that Geoffry had spent an entire exhausting night on had prompted two of the robbers to cut down their companions in the early stages of the holdup.

And so it goes, the humans bear the brunt of the vampire's conflict.

Geoffry continued to hold out some hope he'd get a chance to help take out some of the vampires responsible for the ongoing conflict, but so far Imastious hadn't obliged him. At least he hasn't been assigning me to kill innocents lately. Those kinds of missions seem to be going to Venice, who has no problem completing them almost as soon as they're assigned. Does that mean Imastious is worried about pushing me too far right now, or just that he doesn't currently have the spare time to punish me suitably if I don't complete the missions quickly enough? They do all seem to be pretty time sensitive.

This is the first night in ages that I haven't had some kind of mission to execute or set up for later execution. I wonder if that means the conflict is starting to die out. Maybe it just means Imastious is coming to the end of his intelligence, and he's running out of targets that he can positively confirm as belonging to a specific rival. When he finally does run out will he just start eliminating people on the basis that if they don't belong to him he's better off if they aren't in play any longer?
Regardless, it's nice to have a night free. I should probably be inside trying to recuperate, but something seemed to pull me outside tonight.

The night had started out very pleasant, well-lit as it was by a full moon, with plenty of other people out and about on the streets, but as it had gotten closer to midnight, pedestrian traffic had gradually diminished until there wasn't anyone else in sight. I guess all things considered I can't blame them for wanting to be safe at home. Never know when some crazy will decide to perform another drive by.

Geoffry suddenly noticed the lights across the street fading in and out. Too localized to be a brown out. What could cause that?

The vampire felt a chill run down his spine, but he felt oddly compelled to investigate the alley. I'll just get a little closer and do a quick mental sweep. I'll stay far enough back to be safe from whatever might be there.

Exhaling slightly to relax, Geoffry cast his thoughts free of his physical being, and probed the darkness, only to real back in alarm as he brushed up against a mind that was alien and harsh. The vampire tried to pull his probes back, but something pulled at them, exerting a strange force that made it difficult to break contact.

As Geoffry finally succeeded in severing the tendrils of thought, a shambling figure came out of the darkness and sprang at him. Geoffry had a brief second to register he was fighting a familiar-looking woman, clad in rags, before she reached him and carried the both of them to the ground.

Geoffry rolled with the force of the impact, placing a foot in the woman's stomach and kicking her free so her momentum carried her by as he came back to his feet and turn to face her again.

The intermittent light from nearby shops revealed that the figure Geoffry had expected to see had been replaced by something bigger. The creature facing Geoffry now was more than seven feet tall, and underneath a thick coat of fur looked to have muscles that made a professional bodybuilder seem small and effeminate.

Geoffry just had time to draw his katana before the beast charged him with jerky motions that were deceptively quick. The vampire somehow knew that allowing the beast to close with him would be a deadly mistake, so he sprang away at the last second, earning a wicked set of slashes across his chest.

The arms are longer proportionally than a human's. Plus it's taller than me. The reach advantage my katana would normally give me is essentially nullified.

The gashes in Geoffry's chest immediately began to bleed, but he forced away what little pain made it past the surging adrenaline in his system, and prepared for the next rush as the creature spun around and charged again.

The vampire once again waited until his opponent was almost on him, and then feinted to the right before wiping his weapon through a short, vicious arc that intersected with a clawed hand which would have torn his head off had he continued the feint.

The blow would have easily sheered completely through the torso of a large man, but strangely very nearly didn't cut through the creature's arm. The impact almost wrenched the katana from Geoffry's hands.

Palms smarting from the force of the strike, Geoffry tried to move to the left to avoid the creature, but he'd lost too much momentum as a result of the blow, and was only partially successful.

The creature clipped him with a shoulder as it went past, sending Geoffry sprawling as it howled in rage and pain from trying to spin around without using it's missing right paw.

Whether due to his wound, the efforts of the past two weeks, or some special property of the creature Geoffry found his strength quickly fading away. He had to finish the fight quickly before some exhaustion-induced mistake allowed the creature to close with him.

Taking a step back to give himself more room to react, Geoffry bumped up against the outside wall of a building and cursed the distraction that had prevented him from realizing the creature had been maneuvering him.

The creature was approaching again, but it was moving more slowly now, seeming to have decided its previous tactics hadn't been effective.

Geoffry watched the three-inch claws on the beast's left hand as they slowly circled back and forth. As the creature reached the outer limit's of the vampire's reach, he brought his katana around in a slash designed to deprive it of it's remaining hand.

The blow from the bloody stump was completely unexpected, and launched Geoffry to the side with bone breaking force.

Before the vampire had even landed, the beast, charged. Acting on instinct, Geoffry placed the handle of his weapon against the building at his back, and guided its tip towards where he thought the beast's heart would sit.

The walls protected Geoffry from the deadly claws that otherwise would have beheaded him, but suffered incredible damage as four deep grooves were torn through the brick.

As the point of his weapon entered the creature, Geoffry tried to drop out of the way to avoid being crushed. Once again the right angle of the walls at his back helped protect him as the creature's broad shoulders impacted the unyielding masonry before the rest of it's bulk could crush the vampire.

Even after colliding with the walls though, the creature's momentum was sufficient to severely bruise Geoffry. More importantly, the force was sufficient to driving the tip of his sword through it's unyielding flesh.

Geoffry momentarily blacked out from the force of the impact. When the vampire regained his senses, he found not the creature he expected, but the woman who'd initially attacked him.

She somehow changed forms. Why is she so familiar? I've seen her before, but she was different-I think it's the clothes.

Realizing that it was only a matter of time before police were summoned to investigate the fight, Geoffry pulled himself to his feet. The first sirens were already approaching, but Geoffry disappeared effortlessly into the pools of shadows created by the interplay of streetlights and neon signs. Even limited to no more than a slow hobble, it should be a small matter to avoid being detained.

Chapter 24