Darkness Is Rising

by C. M. Sipes

  She heard a loud scream in the distance, followed by a few more filled with panic. The voices screamed in a strange language that she did not recognize. She paid it no mind at the moment and took off, heading toward the screams of terror. She ran fast, halting when she reached a small campsite filled with animal skin tents and screaming men, women, and children.

  More screams of terror echoed through the night and she began to understand their language. The words “night demon” were yelled across the encampment as she watched a blur run from one point of the camp to another. She raced after the figure, reaching the vampire just in time to see her grab a young woman and rip her throat out. Such a sight repulsed the human in her, but the vampire inside lusted to taste the blood that flowed freely.

  The woman, or “night demon,” had dark hair the color of the night. Her eyes shown the deepest blood-red she could imagine, deeper than the color of hers or Marcella’s, and her skin was tan in color. Blood covered the majority of her body and mouth, and even more began to coat her skin as she greedily drank from the woman she had killed.

  Vittoria urged herself to speak to her, but no sound came out. All she was able to do was stare in horror and fascination at the display in front of her.

  Nearby, a woman shouted a battle cry, attracting both of their attentions. Their eyes zeroed in on the woman, and they raced at her together, stopping just in front of her and glancing down at the weapon in her hand.

  “I am not afraid of you, demon,” the woman said in her native tongue.

  Vittoria looked at her newfound companion, watching her facial expressions closely.

  The night demon smiled. “No? Why is that?”

  “Because the gods do not fear you.”

  “Ah,” the vampire replied with a grin, her blood-red eyes glittering in the moonlight. “They really should though. As should you.” She walked closer to the young woman, who Vittoria noticed had begun to shake.

  The weapon wavered in her hand, finally dropping to the ground. Her eyes were locked with the vampire’s as the night demon circled her like a lion waiting to pounce. She paused, leaning in close to the woman’s neck and inhaling deeply, a low growl escaping her lips.

  “You reek of fear, girl,” the vampire said with a light laugh, brushing aside the girl’s dark hair to expose the vein that throbbed below the surface. “However, I smell strength in you, as well as determination and ambition.”

  “I am not afraid,” the girl said through clenched teeth. The vampire let out a hearty laugh as she circled back in front of her.

  Vittoria began to wonder why this vampire chose to toy with this girl if she was just going to kill her in the end. She watched her movements closely, noticing the way her muscles rippled beneath the skin, as she smelled the air once more.

  “You are terrified. Do not lie to me, child,” the vampire said sternly.

  “Why do you toy with me so? You are just going to kill me like you killed everyone else. Why? Is your thirst never quenched?” asked the girl, her voice shaking with rage.

  “No. It is not. I constantly hunger for blood, fearing that if I do not drink it I will go insane. However, I fear I am already mad,” the vampire replied before laughing once more. “I do believe you will suffice, though.”

  “For what? Your next meal?” the girl asked as she took a step closer to the vampire, their noses only inches apart.

  “No, as my heir. My successor, the next vampire,” the vampire said softly as she looked at the girl. “You have potential, and I am the only one of my kind. I could turn you, make you into what I am, teach you everything that I know, and you’ll never die.”

  “Why would I want to be made into a monster?” the girl asked.

  Vittoria could tell that her interest was piqued though, considering it was not as if she had another option. She walked closer, examining them both while the vampire thought of an answer. She looked at the girl; her skin and her hair were a dark brown, as were her eyes. She was of a small build, but fit and muscular—no doubt from living as a nomad for her entire life.

  “Because, you either accept my offer of immortality or I will rip your throat out. Either way, I gain something,” the vampire replied with a grin.

  “What is your name?” the girl asked, her voice shaking from fear. Vittoria could smell it radiating off of her in waves. Her senses had become heightened suddenly, and she could hear the girl’s erratic heartbeat, and smell her blood and sweat.

  Vittoria’s fangs descended and she wanted nothing more than to destroy this girl, devour her and submerge herself in her blood. Flashes of memories danced in front of her. Bodies lay dead and bloodless across the earth. She spun quickly, looking down at the ground. She was covered in blood. The red sticky liquid dripped from her mouth and hands and she felt the gnawing in her stomach become stronger. Pure hunger encased her. She had already slaughtered so many and fed, but her thirst was not quenched.

  Vittoria was so hungry, but she forced herself to shake it off. She knew she was not experiencing her own memories, but those of the vampires before her. Her blood memories were becoming hers—vividly. She tightly shut her eyes and forced herself to calm down, discarding the memories for a moment. She opened them and focused on the scene in front of her, pushing the hunger down as best as she could.

  The vampire smiled before responding. “My name is Lilith. But your people call me the ‘night demon.’”

  Lilith. She knew that name from scrolls that she had read. This vampire had to be extremely old. How she had gone so long without a successor was beyond her, and she made a mental note to ask Marcella when she awoke.

  “Lilith,” the girl stated. “My name is Anatu.”

  “Well, Anatu, do you accept my offer?” asked Lilith, drawing close enough to share the same air with the girl.

  “Yes.”

  Lilith grinned, her red eyes dancing with amusement. “Tell me, pretty thing, where did your fearlessness go? I thought you would decline my offer.”

  “I am not afraid of you—”

  “Your smell—”

  “I know, it says differently. But I do not fear you, Lilith. I fear death.”

  “You will have to die to become what I am.”

  “But I will live again,” Anatu stated firmly.

  Lilith eyed her for a moment. “Yes. You will indeed live again.”

  “Then do it.”

  Lilith’s eyes brightened and in a flash her mouth was attached to Anatu’s neck. Her fangs pierced the flesh, and Vittoria felt blood well up in her mouth even though she still stood away from them. Anatu whimpered at the contact, her knees becoming weak, allowing Lilith to hold her and drink.

  Anatu’s heartbeat was nearly gone, and Vittoria feared that Lilith would not stop. She pulled back suddenly, a roar ripping from her mouth and echoing throughout the night. She raised her wrist to her lips and sunk her fangs into her flesh, forcing blood to the surface before pressing it to Anatu’s mouth.

  Anatu began to drink the blood that was offered to her, and Vittoria felt herself grow tired, her own knees growing weak as she fell to the ground.

  “Stop,” Lilith and Vittoria commanded in tandem as Lilith removed her wrist from the girl’s mouth.

  “Tomorrow evening you will rise as a creature of the night, and we will hunt together,” Lilith whispered as the girl began to whimper in pain.

  Her screams tore through the night and Vittoria felt her head begin to grow fuzzy. Her thoughts became muddled and her vision blurred, as if she was swimming through mud while running out of air.

  Dark spots appeared before her eyes as Anatu’s screams echoed in the background.

  She suddenly saw Lilith’s blood-red eyes flash before her in the dark.

  “Darkness will rise,” whispered Lilith.

  Then everything went black.

  * * *

  “Vittoria. Vittoria, wake up,” a voice said firmly somewhere from above. Her mind was still heavy with sleep as she began to open her eyes.<
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  “Marcella,” Vittoria whispered as she groggily sat up in her coffin, her eyes finally adjusting to her surroundings.

  Marcella knelt next to her, a hand placed on Vittoria’s arm in worry. Vittoria looked at her maker, taking in her fearful expression.

  “Why do you look at me so?” she asked.

  “You began growling just after the sun had set,” Marcella began. “I assume that you were experiencing a memory. I wish to know which.”

  She licked her lips, feeling her fangs against her tongue as she recalled the memory she had witnessed. Hunger began to gnaw at her stomach, and she looked at Marcella pleadingly.

  “Come, we will find you blood. But then you must tell me what you saw,” Marcella said firmly, helping her from the coffin. She exited the carriage quickly, telling the driver to wait where they had stopped until they returned.

  “Is he not aware?” Vittoria asked as Marcella returned to her.

  “We refer to them as ‘thralls.’ It is whenever we use our power over humans to make them our slaves,” Marcella explained. “You will be able to do this with animals and humans, bend them to your will and cause them to do your bidding. They make excellent resources.”

  Vittoria nodded in understanding before Marcella smelled the air, nodding west for her to follow. They took off quickly, racing across the landscape, weaving in between the trees before approaching a village. They stood high up on a hill, covered by the darkness as they looked down on the flickering torches.

  “A very small village,” Marcella muttered.

  Vittoria focused on the area, her eyes scanning over it quickly, making out each individual figure she could see.

  “There,” she said, pointing off to the side. “There are two together, separated from the others.”

  Marcella smiled. “Very good, Vittoria. You are picking up on the hunt quickly, considering this will only be your second kill.”

  “It does not feel so,” Vittoria replied quietly. She could feel Marcella’s eyes on her face, surely looking for any expression.

  “You do seem rather troubled, but focused. Grounded,” Marcella commented. “Come, let us eat so we can then speak of what you saw.”

  She took off down the slope, easily gliding through the thicket as she descended. Vittoria followed close behind, their figures blurring as they quickly approached the two targets. They stopped and hid behind some foliage. Vittoria crouched low to the ground, peering through the brush and examining the figures.

  One was male, the other female.

  “Lovers,” she stated simply to Marcella.

  Marcella nodded in agreement. “Well, at least they will die together.”

  Vittoria felt herself grin slightly. The action caught her off guard. She had only been immortal for a night, and yet she felt as if she was centuries old.

  Lilith’s memories danced in front of her. Blood everywhere, flowing freely from the piles of corpses she left in her wake. She looked down at her hands, viewing the stains that tainted them. They began to shake as a low growl rumbled in her chest.

  “Vittoria,” Marcella said gently, reaching out and touching her shoulder, shaking her from the memories. “Feed,” she commanded gently.

  A twig snapped in front of them and Vittoria’s head whipped back to the figures. The two lovers had become heated, their hands roaming over each other. She could hear their increased heartbeats and the blood that coursed frantically throughout their bodies.

  Another growl rumbled in her chest. She pushed through the brush and quickly ran at the girl, knocking her from her lover and holding her in her arms. The girl attempted to scream, but Vittoria’s fangs had already pierced her neck, blood rushing into her mouth.

  Vittoria drank greedily, the images of Lilith’s kills flashing behind her closed eyes. She craved more blood, even as she drank the warm liquid from the girl.

  She was still so hungry.

  Red eyes flashed behind her eyelids once more, forcing her to open her own. She growled as the girl’s heartbeat slowed. She needed to stop, she knew the risk, but she continued on. Her heartbeat stilled and Vittoria suddenly found herself flying through the air before hitting the ground and sliding through the dirt.

  “That was enough, Vittoria,” Marcella growled out harshly.

  She sat up and looked at her maker. Marcella’s eyes glowed with fear and anger, blood smearing her face and mouth—standing ready to pounce if needed.

  “I am sorry,” Vittoria replied softly, looking down at her own bloodstained hands. “There was so much blood.”

  Marcella was next to her in a moment, sitting down beside her in the dirt. “What did you see?”

  “Lilith,” Vittoria said simply, her eyes meeting Marcella’s.

  Her eyes widened in surprise. “You started at the beginning?”

  Vittoria nodded. “It seems so. She said that she was the only vampire. Until she created Anatu.”

  “Lilith is the first of us all. At least we assume so through the memories. None of the other memories we experience predate her.”

  “I saw her drinking from a young man…and then her slaughter of an entire village. She ripped the throat out of a woman before speaking to Anatu. There was so much blood, and she was so hungry. She was never satiated.”

  “That is what happens when you drink past the point of death,” Marcella explained. “If Lilith was truly the First, then there was no way she could have known to stop drinking. Anatu though, she was purer than Lilith, and she realized that drinking past the point of death made one experience the bloodlust.”

  “Did Anatu experience it?” Vittoria asked, her eyes looking up to the night sky.

  “Yes, she met the same fate as Lilith in that regard, as she had no other way of knowing. But when Anatu created her successor, she made sure to instruct her to not drink past the point of death,” Marcella explained. “It is strange that you experienced Lilith’s memories first. That has never happened to my knowledge. Usually you begin with the memories of your maker.”

  “There is something else,” Vittoria began, “before I awoke, I saw Lilith’s red eyes and her voice whispered to me, ‘darkness will rise.’ What do you make of that?”

  Marcella was silent for a moment. “No one knows what happened to Lilith, and I believe even Anatu was unaware of what happened to her. No one knows whether she expired or still lives, hiding somewhere throughout this land. I do not know what this means, or why you heard it, as I never had. However, for now, we should just forget it. If she speaks to you again, then we shall have reason for concern.”

  Vittoria nodded in agreement.

  “You must not drink past the point of death. Do you understand?” Marcella asked, her eyes searching Vittoria’s face.

  Vittoria nodded once more, but she was unable to ignore the foreboding feeling that crept up her spine.

  Chapter II

  Seattle, Washington, USA

  Present Day

  It was dark. Colored lights flickered in tandem with the beat coming from the speakers. The room pulsed with each vibration as the sea of people jumped in time with the music. Vittoria glanced around the room, scanning each person as she walked the upper level of the nightclub. She tucked a loose strand of blonde hair behind her ear and fixed her ponytail as she gracefully moved toward the stairs. A new song blasted from the speakers, causing a roar of cheers among the patrons of the club. Vittoria could hear the click of her heels on the floor over the music, as well as the subtle creak of her leather pants.

  She grinned to herself as she watched the humans dance, so blissfully unaware of the things that lurked in the night…so innocent and naïve to the outside world and all its dangers.

  Vittoria continued her descent down the stairs, briefly adjusting her loose tank top and jacket before moving toward the bar. She glanced to her right; smirking to herself as she saw the brunette she had been watching throughout the evening follow her with her eyes. Vittoria stopped at the bar and ordered a drink. She focus
ed her hearing to just the brunette’s heartbeat, blocking out all of the music and noise except for that one single sound. The woman’s heart began to beat faster and louder, and Vittoria could hear her shoes hit the floor as she walked—as well as the blood rushing through her veins.

  “Would you care for a drink?” Vittoria asked as the woman stopped just behind her, loud enough for her to hear over the music.

  “How did you know I was coming to talk to you?” she asked, coming to stand next to Vittoria, a grin adorning her face. She nodded at her offer, placing her drink order with the bartender.

  Vittoria laughed. “I saw you watching me. Subtlety is not your thing, is it?”

  “What can I say, I liked what I saw.”

  Vittoria grinned. “Clearly.”

  “My name is Ashley,” she said with a smile.

  She was pretty. Dark brown eyes with long black eyelashes; her hair was dark brown and straight, hanging just below her shoulders. Vittoria’s eyes flickered to her lips briefly, admiring her deep shade of red lip-gloss before meeting her eyes once more.

  “Vittoria,” she replied with a smirk.

  “It’s a pleasure.” She winked before accepting the drink that Vittoria handed to her.

  Vittoria eyed the gesture, thinking how humans were too trusting, in a world where she could have easily slipped a drug into her glass.

  She sipped her drink, eyeing Ashley as she took a swig from her own.

  “So, as lame as this is going to sound, what brings a girl like you here? You’re gorgeous, I’m sure you wouldn’t need to go to a club just to get laid,” Ashley commented, a light laugh making its way past her lips.

  “I live nearby and I frequent here a lot. I like the atmosphere, and the music isn’t half bad either,” Vittoria replied smoothly with a grin. “I do believe that an even better question is—what brings a girl like you here?”