The Greater Darkness

Chapter 24

Venice paced back and forth, seemingly unwilling to believe that Geoffry was telling her. “How can that be possible? How could centuries pass without anyone figuring this out?”

Geoffry shook his head in exhaustion, and tried not to move. It was hard to hold still, but he didn't want to break any of his wounds open. Once he'd realized why the woman had seemed so unfamiliar, he'd known there was going to be far too little time for rest and healing.

The last time he'd seen her, she'd been dressed in an expensive dress suit and scared out of her mind by the rabid dogs attacking them. That bit of information was critical, but it still didn't give Geoffry anything even approaching real answers as to what was going on.

“I don't know for sure why this is happening now, but I think this isn't the first time. This all fits too well with the legends and the outbreak of rabies for it to permit any other explanation.”

The slender vampire momentarily looked like she was going to argue with him some more, but then she closed her eyes and seemed to deflate slightly. “Then the legends are true. The human ones about people changing under the light of the full moon into beasts, and the tales passed from vampire to vampire about something that preys upon vampires like we prey upon humans.”

Geoffry slumped a little and nodded. “I'm sure that the myths have all changed somewhat over the centuries. There are probably aspects of the legends which are misleading, or blatantly incorrect, just like the legends about vampires, but the core of truth is there. What we would call werewolves do indeed exist, and the mechanism that seems to transfer the disease is what we've previously called rabies. There's already a mountain of evidence indicating that animals exposed to rabies are predisposed to respond very aggressively to vampires.”

Venice sighed, and collapsed onto Geoffry's bed. “Ok, run me through what we know about the werewolf again, and then I'll take it to Imastious. He'll probably want to talk to you later, but for now I'll have to be the point gal.”

Of course. Unless he happens to stop by and want to talk to me before he contacts you. He doesn't trust you with the location of his home any more than he trusts me. You sometimes like to overstate the confidence he has in you.

Geoffry kept his thoughts to himself and just nodded. “We've essentially gone over all the points, the things worth mentioning are that once she'd changed she was bigger, faster, and stronger than me. Also, she seemed to absorb my probes almost like a black hole sucking energy from me.”

Venice stood as if to go, and then cocked her head slightly to the side. “I know you, and the fact that you don't like to put forth anything that you're not sure of, but if you have any suspicions now would be the time to share them too.”

Geoffry looked down uncomfortably. “I'm not sure, like I said something about her was playing havoc with my mental abilities, but it almost seemed as though what I brushed up against wasn't quite sane. That and it seemed somehow as though the mind I touched was too full. Maybe like there were too many memories in it, that or possibly multiple personalities.”

It turned out that Imastious did visit Venice first, but as soon as the beautiful vampire had finished relaying Geoffry's story, the Elder had brought her straight to Geoffry's so that he could hear the tale related again.

Geoffry had noticed Imastious' dead eyes looking at him with what appeared to be a touch of uneasiness on several occasions while the story was told, but he'd been unable to pin down a reason why the older, more powerful vampire would possibly be worried about anything relating to someone so obviously at his mercy.

Mostly I was just glad that he didn't accuse me to lying outright, or decide that I'd somehow made a mistake in the way the conflict was handled. I suppose his vaunted information sources probably had already told him about the fight, so I probably should have known that he'd have corroborating evidence.
I didn't expect Imastious to want to see the site of the battle. Always before he's had enough external information that a trip like that, at least one with me, would have been redundant.

Geoffry looked at the long furrows in the brick before him, and shuddered. She was so fast, I still can't believe that I lived through the attack.

Imastious finished examining the damaged walls and then turned and pointed out claw marks on the pavement. “You didn't notice these last night?”

The younger vampire shook his head, suddenly nervous about being overheard by someone who would carry the tale to the police stationed nearby. “No, everything was happening so quickly. It would help explain how she was able to change direction so suddenly though.”

I'll just have to hope that Imastious blanks their minds. He wouldn't want to be associated with someone suspected of murder, so it's probably safe to assume he will.

The Elder nodded, and then turned and walked away, apparently expecting Venice and Geoffry to follow.

Geoffry suppressed questions about where they were headed, and followed Venice to Imastious' private car. The trio soon arrived at what looked to be one of the more exclusive condominiums in the city.

The doorman tried to refuse Imastious entrance, only to assume a blank, compliant expression as Imastious gestured him away. Will I ever have such easy power? Do I really want it?

Inside the elevator Imastious spoke again. “The Elder known as Byington owned the three top floors of this building. He used the top and bottom-most floors as a buffer and lived in the middle floor.”

Owned? Did Imastious take over the floors? From everything Venice has told me Elders almost never come face to face, there's too much chance that one of them will try to assassinate the other. We can't be going to meet him can we?

Venice volunteered information for the first time all evening. “It was primarily Byington's assets that we've been protecting for the last couple of weeks.”

An ally then? Venice indicated Imastious was using the other Elder as a foil, bolstering him so other vampires would be forced to expend more resources to destroy him, but maybe there is more to that relationship than I was led to believe. That or maybe Imastious had compromised his organization enough that he figured that he could easily eliminate Byington at any point. Once you know where someone lives, there's always a way to get inside and take them out.

The elevator came to a stop, and Geoffry looked forward as the doors slowly opened, only to feel his breath catch as the sheer scope of the destruction he was seeing registered.

Imastious exited the elevator seemingly unconcerned by his surroundings. “Byington apparently felt more than a little threatened, it looks as though he'd gathered at least four of his more powerful subordinates here to serve as a personal bodyguard. They are all dead, as is he.”

Just from what you can see in this room, there are probably pieces of them scattered throughout the floor. How did he figure out how many people were here originally?
What would make an Elder bring his people inside his home? I can't imagine any situation in which Imastious would trust either of us with the location of where he lives.

“I have of course formed my own opinion of what happened here, but the two of you will examine the evidence and share your thoughts with me.”

Geoffry waded through the wreckage of what had once been an opulently-furnished dwelling, and did his very best not to become sick. I've killed people before, but to tear them to pieces like this is just wrong.

When the trio met at the elevator again, Venice was the first to speak up. “The remains all seem to be from Byington's vampires, so either none of the attackers were killed or they were carried out by their comrades.”

Imastious nodded, “You are of course omitting the fact that there are claw marks on the wall which closely match the ones from the scene of Geoffry's most recent conflict simply because it is so obvious it needs no mention.”

It looked for a second as though Venice was on the cusp of delivering the kind of scathing retort that she sometimes inflicted on Geoffry when he was exceptionally slow picking up on one of the finer points of unarmed combat, but she quickly regained her self control, and Imastious turned to Geoffry.

“What did you notice?”

Geoffry couldn't escape the feeling that the test being presented to him was more important that it appeared on the surface, and he found himself taking a deep breath before answering. “Based on the general level of destruction throughout the apartment, it appears that there were one or more very powerful telekinetic's involved here.”

A cruel smile made its way onto Imastious' face. “Byington was a pyromancer, his chief lieutenants were all mentalists, there may have been one or two telekinetics here, but none of his people were particularly powerful in that regard.”

Confusion suddenly filled Geoffry as he mentally reviewed the destruction he'd just looked at. “Master there was limited evidence of fire in the apartment, but nothing on the scale one would expect from an Elder who was fighting for his life.”

Imastious nodded, apparently satisfied at last. “Geoffry has I think unwittingly stumbled upon the key observation regarding this conflict. The claw marks would tend to support his story of what we will call werewolves for lack of a better term. Venice is correct that no attackers can be found, either in their bestial forms, or in the human shape that Geoffry reported his opponent returning to once dead. I think not because the dead were carried away, but because none of the attackers were mortally injured.”

Geoffry's mind was spinning at a frantic pace. He arrived at the idea Imastious was headed to a split second before the older vampire verbalized it.

“The reason none of the attackers were killed was not just that they exhibited strength and speed equal to or in excess of what is common among our kind, but also because the defender's abilities apparently were unable to work against their attackers.”

Imastious' eyes turned to Geoffry, and although they still looked inhuman and cold, there was now also a trace of something that in another person Geoffry would have called fear.

Chapter 25