The Greater Darkness

by Eldon Murphy

  Wiping away the traces of something that could have almost been tears, Geoffrey strengthened the contact enough for him to begin to affect Melody's dreams. Within moments, he was able to pipe his thoughts directly into her mind. She wouldn't have the ability to focus her thoughts enough to respond to him, but he was reasonably confident that she'd be able to remember what he was about to tell her once she woke up.

  Melody, it's Geoffrey. I know I shouldn't be here, but I felt like I had to tell you the truth. You think that I'm good, that whatever I've done is outweighed by the good I've tried to do, but it isn't true. I've killed people. Some of them were murderers themselves, sometimes it was in defense of myself or others. I guess I don't feel as bad about those times as maybe I should, but I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they had done terrible things.

  Regret and sadness tried to well up out of his center, but he was just too exhausted for the feelings to gain a real foothold.

  Others were innocent. A little while ago I killed a girl about your age. I didn't want to, her only sin was being born to parents who were involved with the wrong people, but if I didn't, there was a chance that you and your mom would have been killed to punish me. I wasn't ever going to tell you about that, but the backpack Anna gave you is just like the one that my latest victim was wearing when I killed her.

  The tears were back now despite the exhaustion, ripping at the remnants of Geoffrey's soul, and he almost couldn't go on.

  I've been having nightmares where your face replaces hers. I'm beyond redemption, but I wanted you to know. I've never lied to you, but I didn't want to conceal something like this from you. That would be another kind of lie. You need to know what I'm really like before you try to turn me into one of your heroes.

  The vampire disengaged his probes and headed back into the rain, having been very careful to ensure that none of Melody's emotions or thoughts had been able to flow back up the link to him.

  Chapter 16

  The nightmares hadn't left completely, but they were less intense. It was less often Melody's face that looked back at him as she was pushed off of the platform, and when it was her she seemed somehow less condemning.

  As a result, Geoffrey had been sleeping slightly better. He was still slower than he should be, but training with Venice was going much better, and that wasn't just because he was getting more sleep.

  The vampire mentally shied away from examining the changes that were happening to his relationship with Venice. Actually that wasn't quite true. He'd examined them; he just wasn't comfortable with the direction they were going. He was sure that it was a bad thing, but it felt very much like he was starting to care for Venice.

  The other thing that Geoffrey had been avoiding thinking about was the fact that he'd fulfilled his promise to Venice and fed. Even having just fed from Venice, it was hard to avoid taking too much. Afterwards he'd thought about trying to engineer some constructs in the poor girl's mind, but it had seemed like doing so would just mock what he'd taken from her. She deserved more than a few mental tricks that might or might not work, and if he couldn't really help her it seemed a sad thing to salve his conscience like that.

  Geoffrey finished stretching on the blue mats as Venice came out of the dressing room. "I stretched out before leaving home, love, so I'm ready to go whenever you are."

  "I think I'm pretty much there, too."

  Venice nodded, but Geoffrey snagged her arm before she could turn away. "Thanks for this. Not just teaching me, but for helping, for being understanding."

  "I told you, love. We used to be close. You've forgotten, but I haven't."

  The moment could have grown awkward, but Venice smiled and turned back to her duffle bag.

  After putting on some minimal padding and face protection, the pair squared off without weapons and Geoffrey was surprised to find that for the first time he seemed to be faster than Venice. He'd managed to press the lithe vampire on more than one occasion, due mostly to his superior reach, but today Venice was on the defensive from the start.

  Geoffrey's right fist flicked out again and again, and if Venice was able to dodge or block most of the jabs, there were still a significant percentage of them getting through. The pretty face behind the headgear was getting more and more frustrated as Venice proved unable to close to a range where she could punish Geoffrey with the body blows that were her usual response to his attempts to stand back and wear her down.

  Geoffrey began to relax as the fight continued in a rapid exchange of blows and counters that required no conscious thought on his part. Gradually Geoffrey realized that his blocks were being executed as soon as Venice began her strikes. It was almost as if she was telegraphing everything, but he couldn't point to anything having changed on her side.

  Venice launched a punch towards Geoffrey's face, but he inexplicably knew it was nothing more than a feint and he brought his right foot up and lashed out to the side, catching Venice in the ribs as she charged in.

  The blow picked the smaller vampire up and knocked her to the ground several feet back from where she'd started. Geoffrey ran over, worried that he'd hurt her.

  Venice stripped off her head gear, obviously mad until she saw the concern on Geoffrey's face. "I'm more or less okay. You probably broke some of my bloody ribs, but it's nothing that shouldn't heal in a couple of days."

  Geoffrey sighed in relief and then watched as Venice's eyes momentarily became distant.

  "You sneaky jerk. At first I just thought you'd finally started to speed up to where you used to be, but I just realized that you were using your abilities to predict my actions."

  Geoffrey rolled away from a weak punch as he considered Venice's words and realized that she was right. "I didn't mean to…"

  Venice shrugged and then grimaced and grabbed her side. "It's okay; I should have realized that this was bound to happen sooner or later." The younger vampire waved Geoffrey off again. "I'll be fine, but we'll have to wait for a bit. It will be a day or two before I'll be up for a full-scale practice again."

  The rest of the training session consisted of Geoffrey performing a wide variety of techniques while Venice watched and critiqued his form.

  When the beautiful blonde finally allowed Geoffrey to collapse to the floor, tired and sweaty, he found he was exhausted enough that he couldn't seem to achieve his usual level of self-condemnation. At least he hoped that was the cause. The alternative was that he was getting to the point where what he'd done didn't bother him anymore.

  Even as tired as he was, Geoffrey managed to beat Venice to the lobby after showering and changing. It was more proof of how badly he'd hurt her. Until those ribs healed she would be moving more slowly than normal.

  When Venice finally came out of the locker room she flashed Geoffrey a smile that had only the smallest shadow of pain attached to it. "So, oh chivalrous one, you decided to wait and make sure that the damsel you beat up wasn't going to need help getting dressed, huh?"

  Geoffrey blushed, but managed to shrug. "It seemed like the thing to do at the time."

  Venice paused, and for a second looked as if she would apologize for making Geoffrey feel uncomfortable. "Listen, I told you a while ago that things are starting to get a little hairy out there, but there's been a development that nobody was expecting. A vampire named Slasher was found dead a couple of days ago."

  Once she was satisfied that she had Geoffrey's full attention, Venice continued. "We've kept you pretty much isolated from the rest of vampire society, but it probably won't be any surprise that vampires are killed on a pretty regular basis. One or two a month isn't that uncommon if a given Elder is making some kind of subtle power play. Venice hugged herself as if chilled. "What was different about this was that he wasn't just killed, he was torn apart."

  Geoffrey's stomach rebelled at the image Venice's statement conjured up. When he'd killed the three kids who had been about to rape Melody there had been an obscene amount of blood spilled. If someone was really ripped to shreds bloo
d would be splattered everywhere, almost like some kind of grotesque paint.

  "I don't know what could have done something like that. Slasher wasn't a neophyte. He was stronger than either of us, and his primary ability was telekinesis. Some people are claiming that one of the masters like DeRys, or maybe Bajuel, used their telekinetic abilities to do him in. More worrying is the fact that there's another group, mostly made up of telekinetics who are in a pretty good position to know what's legitimately possible with mind power, who think that something else is responsible--that something he was hunting reversed roles on him and made him the prey."

  **

  In light of Venice's warning, and the fact that she was obviously worried about the implications of Slasher's death, it would have probably been prudent for Geoffrey to remain inside as much as possible. Instead he found himself walking the streets once again as he tried to make sense of all the thoughts screaming for attention inside his head.

  He'd really needed to get out. Running would have left him weaponless, so he compromised and went out fully armed even though it limited him to a walk. It wasn't as good as a run, but it was better than nothing.

  The sidewalks and streets were already dirty again, and Geoffrey soon found himself spending as much time watching the sidewalk for gum, and other less-desirable things as he did observing his surroundings. It wasn't until he'd been walking for half an hour that the vampire realized that he'd been wandering the same general area for quite a while, and that it was an area of the city that he recognized. His mind spun for a second as he tried to remember when he'd last been there.

  A wave of uneasiness washed through Geoffrey as he realized that he was very nearly to the hospital, less than a block from where he'd been attacked by the teenager weeks before. He instinctively knew he needed to get out of the area so he turned up his collar and changed directions, hoping he'd be able to go unnoticed for the few minutes it would take him to make it somewhere less dangerous.

  Geoffrey made it a block before three sloppily-dressed teenagers, whose pants seemed ready to finish their downward slide past their boxers, detached themselves from a wall and moved as if to intercept him. The vampire turned his head with the intention of retreating back to a more public area, only to see the teenager who'd attacked him approaching from behind with two other men.

  Geoffrey backed up to a wall to avoid another pile of garbage and ensure that nobody could circle around behind him while he tried to prepare himself for what was about to come.

  "You've got my gun, dog." The rest of the toughs all laughed, but Geoffrey hardly noticed as he concentrated on sending out tendrils of thought to brush the surface of each man's mind.

  This group wasn't going to back down. He could sense a desire for pain and suffering coming off of them, and it was strong enough that even his death might not satisfy them. A couple were uneasy at his failure to respond to their barbs, but most seemed to be taking it as a sign of weakness.

  As Geoffrey established the intent of the gang members, a variety of improvised weapons from knives to chains appeared in every hand.

  A single concern that he'd regret what he was about to do spidered across the calm that enveloped Geoffrey, but then the first ganger prepared to strike, and conscious thought fled.

  Able as he was to read the thoughts of each attacker, Geoffrey started countering their actions before any of them physically moved.

  The first attacker ran into Geoffrey's heel as he launched a back thrust kick even more powerful than the blow that had fractured Venice's ribs. Geoffrey then stepped inside the chain that came sweeping towards him and threw another attacker into two of his fellows.

  The next two attackers tried to spread out and trap Geoffrey between them, but he had his katana drawn, and it licked out in short, brutal arcs that left bloody corpses at his feet.

  By the time the last two gang members made it back to their feet, Geoffrey was already upon them, crushing the throat of one with a snap kick, and trapping the knife-wielding hand of the second just long enough to pull him in close and spin him around.

  When the teen that had started it all tried to escape Geoffrey's hold by stomping down on the vampire's instep, Geoffrey simply slid the foot out of the way and broke his opponent's neck.

  Not waiting for witnesses to call the police, Geoffrey cleaned his weapon on one of the fallen, and disappeared into the night.

  Chapter 17

  Geoffrey couldn't shake the feeling he was being watched. The vampire had doubled back several times in an effort to catch whatever was following him, but hadn't been successful in finding anyone.

  It was possible that he was just being paranoid because of last week's ambush, but he still took a degree of comfort in the fact that he hadn't gone anywhere that would have given anything important away. Even if someone was stalking him, it hadn't gained them anything yet.

  Still, the feeling was out of the ordinary, and he was finding that anything outside of the norm practically made his skin crawl. Venice hadn't come by yet to tell him her ribs were healed enough to resume training either, so his mind kept trying to link the two events. If Venice hadn't finally contacted him earlier in the day and told him to meet her, his paranoia probably would have made it to record levels.

  Geoffrey finally arrived at the designated meeting point in Central Park, arranged his trench coat, and sat down to wait. Venice arrived a few moments later.

  The gorgeous vampire looked around to ensure they were alone, and then sat down next to Geoffrey, leaning into him slightly. "It is good to see you, love. I was half afraid you wouldn't get the note."

  Geoffrey nodded absently, wondering if Venice had really been a party to the decision on where to meet, or if Imastious had just dictated to her the same way he called all of the shots with Geoffrey.

  "How are your ribs?"

  Venice shrugged. "They've been fine for a few days now, but Imastious had a number of chores that he wanted taken care of, so I've been too busy of late to stop by and let you know that you could try and beat me senseless again."

  Geoffrey was on the verge of apologizing again for hurting Venice, but he knew that it would only goad her into giving him a worse time, so he remained silent.

  "Six men were killed or seriously injured last week, the same night as we trained. Descriptions of the one who did it to them had him using some kind of curved sword, and wearing a black trench coat."

  Realizing that Geoffrey wasn't going to respond, Venice shrugged. "Suit yourself, but Imastious has hundreds of years of practice at reading people; if I know about your little tussle, he'll know about it too. You may want to have a response prepared for when he asks why you're getting involved in fights that make you higher profile, and consequently less useful to him."

  Geoffrey opened his mouth to respond but a chill ran up and down his spine as a voice interrupted him.

  "Indeed, Imastious does know about the altercation, and I very much would like to know the reason for the conflict."

  Venice rapidly stood, pulling Geoffrey to his feet with her.

  "Master, I'm sorry, we didn't know you were there."

  Imastious waved away the apology. "I'm waiting."

  Geoffrey felt light, probing touches against his mental defenses and fought down panic at the thought of another confrontation with the older, more powerful vampire.

  "Sir, I wasn't looking for a fight. One of them had attacked me days before. I dealt with him, but hadn't realized that I'd wandered back into the area. Once I realized where I was I tried to leave, but they jumped me before I could get out of the neighborhood."

  Imastious stared at Geoffrey with cold, dead eyes for several seconds, and then nodded. "You are fortunate that the accounts of the few witnesses back up your story. I'm satisfied that you are telling the truth, and that discipline will not be required."

  Geoffrey clamped down on the sigh of relief that tried to escape him.

  "Still, in the future you will report all such encounters t
o me or Venice immediately. You are insufficiently skilled at this point to determine when these types of attacks are the result of happenstance, and when they represent an attack by a vampire Elder attempting to weaken my base of power."

  Venice took a breath, and for a second Geoffrey thought she was going to apologize to Imastious for not having already conveyed those instructions to Geoffrey, but Imastious' gaze had already turned to her, preempting speech.

  "And you, my daughter, you should be mindful of where your true loyalties lie. I know that you have some infatuation with Geoffrey, but if you ever let that lead you to crossing me in the slightest, we'll undergo another session similar to the one after the high rise incident, and I don't think you want that."

  Venice's breath caught for a moment, and she shook her head violently. Imastious smiled for the first time that night. "On the other hand, even allowing for the exaggerations to which witnesses are prone, it appears that you have done an excellent job returning our Geoffrey to a state of readiness, so if your feelings lead to superior performance, they are not entirely unacceptable."

  Imastious gazed off in the distance for several seconds before looking back at the pair and handing Geoffrey a packet of papers. "Your next assignment is in there. Although you shouldn't face any of our kind, this target is of much greater importance than your previous two, so don't be surprised if you find him guarded by some humans."

  Geoffrey had noticed that all of Imastious' words came out in such a manner as to leave the hearer with the impression that the older vampire despised whatever he was talking about, but the emphasis placed on the last word conveyed a special brand of disgust.

  It had become apparent to Geoffrey that Imastious viewed his underlings as nothing more than slightly useful tools. It only followed that he'd view humans as nothing more than perpetual nuisances to be dealt with whenever or however he pleased.

  Just before he turned to vanish into the night Imastious looked once more at Venice. "The nature of this assignment is such that you should probably be involved in the planning of it. Although Geoffrey's capabilities are steadily improving, it bears remembering that he is still far from what he once was. Failure this time could be significant for all of us."