Ravenport: Luna's Awakening

by Alistair Jones

  Styles eyes go wide as he sees this, pointing towards the back seat. “What..is that...is that a dead body?” The officer’s hands go to his handheld radio, threatening to speak into it. Miguel talks first.

  “It’s an Android. You know, like the ones for advertisements and stuff? It slid into the backseat during the crash. Check it out if you want.”

  Styles frowns again, reaching over to pat Miguel’s legs. The officer stops as soon as he reaches Miguel’s pockets, giving them a proper squeeze. Finding Miguel’s cell phone, he pulls it out of his pocket and inspects it. Despite all the action earlier, it looked quite pristine.

  “And here I thought you had a broken cell phone. Hands behind your back, jackass.” Miguel sighs as he does just that and before long, a shiny pair of handcuffs go over his wrists. Satisfied with his police work, Styles turns back to the car and peers inside of it. Luna lays as still as she possibly can as the officer looks in, knowing the head was on and the likely freak out if he figured out what she was. Styles opens the car door and reaches down carefully to pull back the hoodie, inspecting Luna’s hair and her ears with a probing finger.

  “Fur? Lifelike too. Fancy stuff you got here.” Styles says, reaching over to force Luna turn over. Miguel speaks up again quickly.

  “Y-yeah. It’s a newer model, you know. Expensive? But it’s broken so don’t move it.”

  Styles spends another moment looking at the werewolf before closing the door a mere inch or two away from Luna’s head, causing her wince subtly. Styles grows increasingly apprehensive as he moves up to the front and pops the trunk latch underneath the driver’s wheel. He steps around to the back and lifts the trunk door, shining his light down inside.

  “And let’s see what we have inside of door number two here…”

  He double takes as he sees Sakura curled up against a tire, asleep. Styles reaches over in earnest, grabbing the vampire by the shoulder and shaking her vigorously to wake her up. Sakura yawns slowly as her eyes open, looking back up towards the officer.

  “Ma’am! Ma’am! Are you hurt!?”

  Sakura looks at the officer and smiles wide, her fangs jutting out from her lips.

  “Oh, I’m feeling much better now.”

  Just before Styles could figure out what that meant, Sakura rips him violently into the trunk. The whole car bustles and shakes with struggle, with the officer calling for help several times before the jostling stops..and the man going silent. Luna snaps herself back up and opens the car door, spilling out onto the snow. Miguel leans up from the car and walks carefully, stepping over Luna and peeks in at what was going on.

  Luna pulls herself up and opens the trunk up to see Sakura’s fangs buried deep into the policeman’s neck, drinking from him. Styles looked unresponsive, a new bruise forming on the side of his forehead. Her eyes shift over towards her concerned friends and the vampire finally relents, rolling her eyes.

  “What!? I told you I was hungry! You think I’mma just look free food in the face and not sink my teeth into him?”

  If it were at all anatomically possible, the color would drain from Luna’s face at the look of shock at just how much blood is flowing from the officer. Miguel looks similarly alarmed but sighs at her.

  “Just...get the keys off of him and do your thing. Don’t kill him though.”

  Sakura checks Styles’ waist and grabs his keyring, unclasping it and tossing it towards Miguel who utterly fails to catch it. Miguel’s eyebrows raise as he steps from around the frame, his arms still bound behind his back.

  “Really?”

  Sakura chortles as she leans back into her meal, continuing to drain him without saying a word. Luna scoops up the keys out of the snow and walks around Miguel, showing the keyring.

  “Which one is it?”

  Miguel looks between the dozen or so keys and tilts his head towards the odd-looking stick tool. “That one. Shove it in the hole on the side and it’ll pop open.”

  Luna reaches around, taking the tool and working with it as told. It takes a little bit of searching in the dim light of the night, but she frees him, Miguel pulling his arms back around in front of himself.

  Luna smiles as she’s successful, moving around to the side of the car and eager to not watch Sakura feed. Her stomach grumbles most distressingly.

  Miguel pats his pockets a few times and snorts in aggravation. “God, what I wouldn’t give for some smokes right now.”

  Luna holds a hand over her stomach as her ears lower against her head. “I’m still starving...I hope we find something soon.”

  Sakura bursts from the trunk just then, looking completely rejuvenated. She takes a deep breath of the cold winter air and exhales, leaning over to lean on the car along with the others. She takes out a napkin from a pocket and dabs it over her mouth, rubbing away the excess blood on her lips.

  “So...nnth..so tasty. What if I were to tell you that I can solve that problem right now?”

  Miguel looks over towards her incredulously. “Friggen...how would you do that?”

  Sakura produces one expertly plain black wallet with a wink. “So...officer guy had a wallet on him. And it’s got some money in it.”

  Luna facepalms. “Jeez Sakura, you can’t just go stealing money from police officers! That’s like...well is there such thing as super stealing or something?”

  Sakura waves the werewolf off dismissively. “Details, shmee-tails. Look. You are hungry. And I don’t know much about your type, but I’m sure you get angry when you get hungry. And nobody likes angry werewolves. I bet Mr. Morales is hungry too. We’re not going to go into a fight without getting something to eat. Fighting on an empty stomach is a defeat waiting to happen. And I’m willing to bet that, just as a hunch, you two didn’t really get the chance to pack a twenty in your purses. So...convenient dinner solution for me becomes convenient dinner solution for everyone.”

  Miguel begrudgingly slumps his shoulders, shaking his head. “I don’t like it but... I guess. Fine. Just make sure you give back the rest of his wallet. Got it? We’re taking just enough to get out of this spot.”

  Sakura glances at Miguel, peering closely at him. Miguel returns her gaze with a glare, looking between the wallet and the vampire. After a few moments of tense negotiation, Sakura rolls her eyes and reaches inside of her pocket, pulling out no less than three credit cards and shoving them back in the wallet. She pulls out two twenty dollar bills and slides them over towards Miguel.

  “Here. Forty bucks. Everything is back where it needs to be.”

  Miguel takes it and shoves it into his pocket. “How’s your...dinner guest?”

  “Oh, you know. Quiet. The real shy type. He’ll be good to go in like...oh...a few days. He was very generous but, I remembered what you said about my diet. I AM going to need a second meal before we go in tonight. If I have to pull any tricks like I did yesterday, I’m going to run out of juice pretty quick.”

  Miguel snorts. “Fine. But we’re taking him with us. Nobody will find him out here. Dump him off in town so he can be taken care of.”

  Luna looks over towards the city of Ravenport in the distance. She’d never been out this far from town before. In fact, she’d never left town. It felt strange to be so far away, yet still close enough to make out every skyscraper that made up Ravenport’s skyline, even the Astro Spark tower. The city is a veritable hive of activity even at this hour, with the skyway traffic flying high over the top of the skyscrapers.

  “So how are we going to get back to town?” Luna says, looking over towards the other two. Miguel shrugs sheepishly.

  “Walking I guess?”

  Sakura turns towards the empty police cruiser and beams happily. “And look at that, my dinner date brought us a ride! He’s so considerate, isn’t he?”

  Luna practically withers, shaking her head profusely. “No-no-no-no! No! That is a stupid, stupid, stupid idea! What if someone catches us or worse, sees me and-”

  Miguel leans up off of the car and shrugs. “I mean..
.we’re already criminals at this point. It’s not like we’re doing this because we want to.”

  Sakura pouts. “Well, I want to!”

  “Well, some of us want to. We’ll ditch it when we get into town and leave slumber man in there. Besides,” Miguel gloomily shuffles towards the car, jamming his hands into his pockets. “I’m tired of being cold.”

  Chapter 16

  The Silvernote Jazz Club

  The ride went as planned. It was a clear night, though the still air was a little chilly for most people’s tastes. The moon three-quarters full in the sky, but dim enough for the full brilliance of the stars to be visible. Not many people were out on a Sunday evening, and the GPS tracking that the cruiser had was disabled while they rode back into the city. As planned, the police officer was crammed into the back seat with Luna for the journey, fast asleep from being fed upon earlier.

  The trio ditch the car in an alleyway between a few cheap apartment buildings and leave the officer there, making sure the car was visible from the street if anybody came near. Sakura and Luna scamper up to the roof of one of those apartments, using the safest looking fire escape they could find and wait for Miguel, who had went off to find food. It took the better part of a half hour but he returned with a large bag of fast food tucked underneath his arm.

  Luna and Sakura had spread out the blanket they had taken from the first car and were sitting on it, the snow sitting thickly on the roof. Luna’s tail wags as Miguel approaches, the man taking a seat between the girls.

  “Oh my god that all smells so good...what took you so long?” Luna sits up a little bit, the cacophony of delicious smells making her mouth water in anticipation.

  “The only thing that I could find that was open was Burger Dude. I hate that damn place, but it was either that or take a hike. You know how hard it is to find a place that’s open past midnight around here?”

  Luna rolls her eyes at him. “...Thier motto is really dumb, but they make some really good burgers. I wish I worked there instead of Bub’s.”

  Sakura, who is laying on her back, turns her head over towards Luna. “What’s their motto?”

  “Welcome to Burger Dude, home of the burgers dude, can I take your burger, dude?” Luna says, mimicking the weasley voice of a teenage boy.

  Sakura snorts. “Hah! Nice.”

  Miguel reaches into the bag and fishes out two chicken sandwiches, a large cup of fries and a drink and pushes them to Luna. He takes out a much smaller burger combo for himself. “Alright. So, what’s the plan? Where is Scar?”

  Sakura lazily rolls over onto her rear and crosses her legs. “Ever heard of the Silvernote Jazz Club?

  Miguel shakes his head, unwrapping his burger. Luna’s nose instantly picks up on the presence of barbecue on his sandwich. “Not off the top of my head, no.”

  “The club is new, but the building is pretty old. You know the Scratch? It’s like on the corner of that neighborhood near the downtown area. It’s part club and part card casino. Scar owns it. It’s a real classy place. Fancy clothes, food, all of that.”

  “Just like the Golden Aces. Of course, he’d just reopen the same place again. How did I not figure that out?” Miguel says, grumbling the whole way through chewing his food.

  Luna tears into the chicken sandwiches in record time and just like she’d remembered, the food at Burger Dude was pretty good. She attempts to take a drink from the soda Miguel had brought but when she wraps her lips around the straw and sucks at it, the liquid...doesn’t go anywhere. Did the straw not work? She peers at it oddly.

  Sakura and Miguel pay her no mind.

  “Tell me some building details,” Miguel says, more interested in learning than eating at the moment.

  “I only visited the place once but it’s a pretty large building. It’s got two floors. The bottom floor has a stage for the performers, some card dealing tables and a kitchen for food. Upstairs is balcony seating and a few private rooms. Scar’s office is up there. There’s also a door that takes you to the roof.” Sakura says.

  “Alright...sounds simple enough. What’re we gonna do?” Miguel questions, taking a sip of his drink.

  “Well, we’re going for Scar, right? We need to draw him into the open or else we won’t have room to work. He’s also got guards. So we’ll need a distraction. Let Luna and me in first. We’ll go through the back door in the kitchen, take out the guys in there and then blow the lights to the club.”

  Miguel smiles craftily. “Blackout huh? That’s pretty good. What should I do?”

  “Head for the roof.” Sakura continues. “We’ll force him up and then we can jump him as soon as we get up there. Between the three of us, we should be able to take him out.”

  Luna tries, again and again, to pull her soda through the straw, but eventually, she gives up. She snatches the straw out of the cup and tosses it angrily aside. Sakura peers at her inquisitively. “Problem over there?”

  Luna frowns. “Straws don’t work.”

  Sakura grins. “Have you tried turning off and on again?”

  “Ha-hah.” Luna chides sarcastically, biting into her sandwich once again.

  “Can we focus here?” Miguel interjects. “You mentioned before that those…‘abilities’ you have with your hands. Sanguine Arts, right? Does Scar have any? I’m assuming he does.”

  Sakura nods. “Well for starters, he has a shield he uses to catch bullets. He’s also got these little shadow tendrils he uses.”

  “Like the ones he used to stab you?” Miguel conjectures. Sakura holds a hand over her heart for a moment and nods.

  “Yeah. They can stretch and move. He doesn’t use them unless he has to. But beyond that, I don’t know of too much else he can do with them.”

  “Are all of his guards Vampires like you?” Luna asks.

  “Hmmm...most of them, but not all of them. There’s a few humans in the know there, but the few vampires he has are kids. Baby vampires, hardly any tougher than a human.”

  Luna finishes her food rather quickly, rolling her trash up together and placing it back in the Burger Dude bag. Realizing something, she turns up to look at Sakura. “Don’t you still need to eat?”

  The vampire grins. “Oh, I’ll take care of that when we get to the kitchen.”

  Miguel takes one last sip of his drink before standing up, rubbing his hands over a napkin. “We should get going. I’ve been waiting a long time for this. It all ends here, tonight. We’ve got a plan together. So let’s follow it through. And make it through this in one piece. Agreed? Don’t go being a hero. And Luna…?”

  The werewolf stands and turns to face Miguel directly. “Yeah.”

  “I’m mostly talking about you.”

  The trip over towards the Silvernote Jazz Club was thankfully easy. The night helped them to remain concealed, and even better, most of the buildings were close enough together that they could leap between them. When the trio arrived at the Silvernote it was a little past 2 a.m. and judging by the lack of cars, recently closed for the night. The building sat on a street corner almost to itself; it’s nearest neighbors looked worn from vacancy. The old signage reminded Luna of the 1940’s detective movies and the front wall had the remnants of advertisements of years long past. There were no windows on the first floor, and the only visible entrance were two cushioned doors from the front. The glow of a few grey neon lights spills into the snowy streets.

  Luna, Miguel, and Sakura stop on an alleyway facing the Jazz Club, with the latter two looking around for any pedestrians. A lone man jogs by, clad in sweat jeans and a sweater. His head hangs down, clearly focused on his exercise. Miguel looks up towards the second floor, finding a large window indicative of an office. The blinds were shut, but there was a shadow of a person against it. The figure leans forward and back a few times before getting up and vanishing from sight.

  Once the coast was clear, they quickly sprint across the street and into the alley in the back of the Silvernote. Outside of a dumpster near the back door, the
alleyway looked empty. Sakura jerks her thumb towards a drainage pipe that looked quite sturdy that lead to the roof of the Jazz club. Giving her a thumbs up, Miguel begins his climb while Luna and Sakura wait at the back door, both of them pressed to the wall just outside of it. Sakura presses a finger to her lips before leaning over and knocking at the back door. The sounds on the inside of the kitchen sounded as if there was at least one person there, likely cleaning up.

  As soon as Sakura knocked, a sigh is heard through the door, and the shuffling of footsteps draw nearer. The voice is muffled but still audible. “Oh my god Vanille, did you forget your keys again?”

  The heavy metal door opens, revealing a woman in her late twenties, wearing a casual chef attire. She looks confused as the door contained no one.

  “...Vanille?”

  Sakura strikes quickly, spinning around the door frame and grabbing the chef by the shoulder. Just before the woman could yell, Sakura clasps a hand over her mouth and presses her against the wall. The vampire stares into the woman’s eyes, and after a few seconds, the woman goes limp, her eyes closing as if she were asleep. Sakura slowly looks inside of the door before shutting it just so.

  As soon as the door was closed, Luna rushes over to Sakura looking concerned. Her voice is a whisper but heightened in tone. “Hey! We can’t go about knocking her out, she might freeze out here!”

  Sakura turns quickly, her fangs prominently displayed in her mouth, but a sudden scent catches her off guard. She sniffs at the chef’s neck and a smile forms on the vampire’s lips. “Don’t worry about it, she’s a font, she’s used to it. I’ll knock her out for two minutes and then she can toddle on home without knowing a thing. Do me a solid and watch the door for me.”

  Sakura leans into the woman’s neck and sticks her fangs in, prompting Luna to turn away squeamishly and look towards the door. It took a moment or two before Sakura withdrew, holding the woman up and again staring intensely into her eyes. The leans in close towards the chef’s ear and whispers to her.