Ravenport: Luna's Awakening

by Alistair Jones

  Sakura shifts her head very, very slightly to look a little more naturally at Scarlet. “Trying to survive. That’s literally it. I didn’t come here with a scheme, or a plan, or anything like that. In fact, I’m unaffiliated right now.”

  Scarlet’s grip loosens. Slightly. “You were disavowed?”

  Scarlet drops Sakura to the ground roughly and spins her around to grab her cuffed hands. Painfully twisting Sakura’s right hand to get a better look at it, a stylized red eye appears on the back of Scarlet’s hand. From her palm radiates a red light that seemingly burns into Sakura’s skin. The commander focuses this glow for a few seconds on the back of Sakura’s hand before halting it, producing no symbol.

  “If you don’t mind my interjection…” Miguel starts, turning in his seat to face Scarlet. Scarlet sheathes her blade and turns towards Miguel, crossing her arms. “I didn’t ask you to speak handsome. But what is it?”

  “She...did help us fight Scar. We wouldn’t be here if she didn’t help us out. I know I wouldn’t.”

  Scarlet considers this before turning towards Luna. “Is that true sweetheart?”

  Luna’s tail wags slowly as she nods in agreement.

  Scarlet snorts as she lets Sakura get up off of the wall, taking a few steps back from her. The younger vampire turns around with a small breath of relief. She’s immediately met with the stiff force of the back of Scarlet’s hand, hitting her hard enough that Sakura has to stagger a step off to the side.

  “That’s fer being an ass. Sit down.” Scarlet says, moving back to her seat and propping her leather boots up. Scarlet speaks sternly.

  “Since nobody thought to clue you the two of you in, let me give you the orders of the day around here. You don’t break the code. And the code I’m speakin' of is the Nightwalker’s code. There are four rules, so pay attention.” Scarlet downs the rest of her drink and slides the glass off to the side.

  “Rule one: Do not kill other Nightwalkers. Rule two: Do not break the secrecy of the Nightwalkers. Don’t do a goddamn thing that’ll make it so that humans know of us. Rule three: What happens in the underground, stays in the underground and lastly, rule four: Respect the Duskguard. An’ do you know what happens to people who break the rules?”

  Luna and Miguel shake their heads, but Sakura politely has her attention elsewhere. Scarlet answers the question for them.

  “Depends on the severity, but for what you all did? Death. But being put in jail ain’t much fun either. So...let me ask you, what am I supposed to do with you three? A pup without an idea, a man without a family and a former assassin. I should just end all three of ya. It’d be easy. And by the time I’m done, nobody would be the wiser. Just two dead bodies and a pile of ash.”

  An uncomfortable silence passes before Scarlet speaks again.

  “But...you guys brought me a guy who has been under the radar for quite some time. While I wish you hadn’t gone about blasting holes in two damn buildings and coming close to alerting the humans about what the hell was ACTUALLY going on, you still managed to take out an extremely dangerous son of a bitch.”

  Miguel leans forward a little bit. “Where is he? Is he dead?”

  Scarlet mouth tilts into a wry grin. “He’ll wish he was before long. We’ve got him tucked away behind lock and key. The Vyers family may have other heads, but you put a stop to his operations, however clumsy-like. He was shipping in some rather dangerous drugs into the city.”

  Luna raises her hand. Scarlet smiles and points towards Luna, allowing her to speak. “Was it Rust?”

  “Indeed it was. It’s a drug produced by the Prophets of Dracula, meant to dull the senses of a human and make them more susceptible to suggestion. It’s incredibly addictive, so once someone gets hooked on the stuff, they get yanked into god knows where and given the Rite.”

  Luna raises her hand again. “Rite?”

  “Rite of Undeath. It’s how you are turned into a vampire. It’s not the most pleasant thing to describe, but if anyone’s ever talking about the rite, that’s probably the one they mean.”

  Sakura spits out a small bit of blood onto the floor, running a tongue over her teeth to make sure they were all present and accounted for. “So what now?”

  Scarlet pours herself another drink as she looks up towards Jaune and Alex. Both of them give a small nod of approval. “Well, like I said. I should be killing you. But you also did me a huge favor. So I’ll give you an option...I can still kill you because I still do have that authority...or I could put you to work. For me.”

  Luna raises her hand to speak. “...Doing what exactly?”

  Scarlet finishes pouring, corking the bottle up. “Well, the Duskguard is what keeps the peace in the underground. We’ve got a whole bunch of Werewolves, Vampires, Mages, Ghouls and others that’s all got to work together down here. We’re all we’ve got. Nobody upstairs is gonna bail us out of something happens. They’ll just kill us without question. But, when you got this mix of anger, ego, and self-entitlement, things can get out of hand. The Duskguard keeps everyone in line. Makes it, so we all get along fairly and squarely. Any questions?”

  Scarlet leans back in her seat as Miguel speaks up first. “How much does it pay?”

  Scarlet shrugs with a smirk. “Are you really in the position to be asking that? But regardless, it does pay well. It’s a dangerous job. Some days you’ll be out solving mysteries and cases, other days you might just be on a protection job. It’s variable.”

  Luna chimes in next. “Where will we live? Scar blew up our last home.”

  “Once we get the paperwork sorted, I’ve got a spare house in the valley. It’s an old one, but it’ll suit the three of you just fine. Clean it up good, and it’s yours.” Scarlet says, sipping her drink.

  Sakura looks up towards Scarlet with shame in her eyes. “Uh...so...what about me..a vampire family? You know how hard it is to function as a vampire without one.”

  To that, Scarlet sets her drink down. She sneers to herself unhappily, narrowing her eyes towards Sakura. “...I’ll brand you as apart of mine, if only for brevity’s sake. And literally nothin' else. But I’m warning you right now. One step out of line, one toe out of the shoe, one foot off of the board, I’m going to run you through myself. No pleading. No begging. My family on the line, my rules, you got that? You’ll lead the life of a good and honest person here. No scoundrels in my family, or my work.”

  Sakura nods enthusiastically.

  With that, Scarlet turns towards all three of them equally. “So what do you all say?”

  Luna rubs her eyes a little bit, her tail inadvertently showing her answer by wagging profusely. “Yes! This sounds..this sounds great to me. I was so worried for so long about so much and..now...it all worked out for the best.”

  Sakura nods with a shrug. “It’s cool. I’m in.”

  Miguel looks between Luna and Sakura with a chuckle. “Ain’t this a mess? I just can’t help but to be a cop, can I? Damned if I do, damned if I don’t. Sure. Why not? It’ll be fun.”

  Scarlet smiles warmly towards the three of them. “Are you sure, handsome? If you say yes, these two will be your family for the rest of your life.”

  Miguel bites his lip as he considers quietly for a moment, looking back towards Scarlet with a genuinely happy expression. “...I could live with that.”

  Epilogue

  S.O.S.

  Later on in the night, Vanille arrives in the back of the Silvernote Jazz club, the well-dressed vampire looking a little worse for wear. Her hair is out of place and slightly tangled and dirt stains marr her fine clothing. Taking one last moment to pull an errant leaf out of her hair, she walks up to the back door and raps her knuckles upon it, letting out a sigh of relief. She waits for a second before raising a brow towards the shut door and the lack of activity behind it.

  “Hello? Melanie? You in there? It’s Vanille. Open up?”

  The older woman places her ear on the door to listen through it, expecting activity. Dead silence greets h
er. The vampire frowns at the response. Very unusual for this time of night to be this quiet. Granted, the whole neighborhood felt deader than it usually did, but by this time, she should have seen or heard something going on. Scar almost always kept someone here after hours. Reaching into her pocket, Vanille draws out her keys and opens the door, stepping into the checkerboard kitchen. The place looked pretty clean, if not dark. But the lights in the main room were left on, casting a large beam of light through the kitchen doors. Vanille strides towards them confidently, rolling her eyes.

  “Gentlemen, you know better than to leave the house lights on this late, you don’t want people to walk in and-”

  Vanille parts the doors into the main room, and her cold heart sinks. The ceiling had a massive, messy hole punched into it, with multiple bits of wires hanging loosely from it. Several piles of ash and a few dead bodies were also strewn about haphazardly, the corpses having some severe cuts into them and the ash pushed out from the point of impact. The very center of the room beneath the hole in the ceiling had a crater into the soft carpeting, with bits of cloth, blood, and fur strewn around it.

  Vanille gasps and immediately runs to the crater, looking between it and the various states of the corpses. “What...what the hell happened!? Scar? SCAR!?” She waits a moment after her call, the vampire growing concerned. Did something happen to him too? She sprints off in a hurry, bypassing any of the multitude of broken furniture to run straight upstairs. She rounds the corner into the hallway that leads to Scar’s office, moving around his meticulously well-kept office to dig into one of the drawers.

  Rummaging through the contents of the drawer, which mostly consisted of office supplies and a few decorative cases, Vanille fishes up a small, old, rolled up piece of parchment paper. She unfurls it fully; the fancy, cursive text on it reading ‘In case of trouble.' Pulling off her fancy white gloves to get to her bare skin, she raises her thumb up to her mouth and bites down on it with her canines. A small, rapidly growing dot of blood fills her thumbpad, which she turns down on the parchment and smears across the text. The text slowly shifts to a glowing number, the mark on the back of her hand burning with recognition. Taking up Scar’s telephone, she dials the number, a nervous expression settling in on her features. She’s never had to do this before.

  Almost immediately, the phone is answered, and a smooth, masculine voice picks up. “Vanille White. Tell me of your distress.”

  Vanille’s hand drifts over the picture frame of Scar with his arm draped over an empty space. She holds onto it fondly before speaking, her voice quaking with nervousness. “Mister Alucard?”

  “I prefer Master Alucard.”

  Vanille quickly corrects herself. “M-master Alucard. Of course. My apologies. I cannot find Scar. The boys are all dead, and the club is trashed. I was out, and when I came back and nobody's here anymore. I don’t know what happened!”

  Alucard’s voice quiets for a moment as he contemplates the statement, a deep breath being drawn before speaking again. “Probably the same ones who destroyed the recent shipments of Rust. Very well. Have you been compromised?”

  “No. Nobody knows I’m here and I don’t think anyone has been here. I didn’t see any cops.”

  “Excellent. Here is what I am going to do.” Alucard says, clearing his throat. “In an hour I will have one of my right hands come by and pick up any incriminating evidence. Anything not vital will be burned. In that time I will call the head of the Vyers family and inform them one of their arms has gone dark and the city will require a replacement. The Prophets take care of their own. Lastly, I want you to return to your resting place and wait to receive further instructions. Do I make myself clear?”

  Vanille reaches inside of the picture frame she was holding, pulling the tabs open and removing the picture. She slides it gently into her pocket, her voice sounding more confident now. “Yes sir.”

  “Excellent. Do not call this number again unless instructed to do so.” Alucard replies, his smooth tone containing an authoritative sharpness to it.

  Before Vanille could think of anything to say, Alucard hangs up abruptly, prompting her to put the phone back down. With a deep inhale and a heavy exhale, the visibly relaxes, reaching forward to grab a rose from the vase on Scar’s desk. She smells it passionately and walks out of the room, her thoughts growing calmer from the time on the phone. Alucard said it himself. The Prophets take care of their own. Things would be fine. A replacement would be sent soon, and things will go back to normal. Vanille heads downstairs and looks out over the ruined ballroom, the vampire moving closer to inspect the crater that was left.

  She stoops down to look at it and notes that no ashes were left here, oddly enough. She narrows her eyes to a glare upon noticing brown fur in the crater. She picks up a few strands of it and stares at it for a moment, intrigued by it. A quick sniff confirms it’s origins: werewolf hair. What was a werewolf doing here of all places? And what a peculiar shade of brown too. It seemed familiar. Where was it from?

  A bolt of anger strikes Vanille’s spine as she recalls the last werewolf she’d seen. Her fur was like this. This was HER fur! Vanille stands up and seethes at the few strands of tan fur resting in her hands. This was her fault! She did this! How did she do this? She was not this strong before and certainly did not have the strength to take down Scar. She could barely do anything to her, how did she even stand a chance against Scar!? The strands of fur catch fire inside of Vanille’s hand, each

  one curling and twisting up in stress.

  In a flash, the strands turn into ash and blow out of her palm, leaving the fire there, smoldering. Vanille grits her teeth and clenches her hand shut, smothering the flames. The bitch would pay soon enough for harming him, but for now, it would be best for her to follow the instructions given to her. There would be time for revenge later. Vanille curtly turns away from the crater and calmly strides away, though her her hands are balled into tight fists. The longer she had to wait, the more time she could scheme after all.

  If you’ve made it back here, either you finished the book (go you!) or you are just peeking around. In either case, thank you for buying (and presumably reading) my book! This was a labour of love and it is my intention to craft something that is worthy of your time and money. If you are looking for ways to get further immersed in Ravenport, I have some social media you can check out via links just below this.

  Inkpunch on Facebook - Inkpunch Twitter - Inkpunch Blog

  If you wish to further support me and my work, please consider donating to me on Patreon. By doing so, you’ll get access to the official Inkpunch Discord Server, not to mention a whole suite of other goodies at your disposal. Also, If you enjoyed the book and know of others who might as well, be sure to share it with them. I would be wholly grateful for any further support I receive, no matter how large or small.

  The book’s fantastic cover is made by Dogbomber. If you wish to see more of his art, please check out his Twitter page!