The day I died was the best day of my life. A peculiar statement in itself but nevertheless, true. I was walking down a well lit street to the well lit parking garage to retrieve my sensible safe vehicle when the mugger struck. One minute I was walking considering dinner for the night and the next a knife sliced my throat open and left me bleeding to death on the sidewalk. I can recall holding my throat in some feeble attempt to stop the spilling of my life's blood out into the night, desperately tying to scream only to hear a mewling wet gurgle issue from my mouth. And finally I can recall my dark angel, the man who scooped me up and drained what was left of my life and my blood from my body. And then I knew no more.
But that day issued forth the rest of my undead life. Undead. Such a word was known by most humans and with it came thoughts of satanic cults, deals with the devil, and soulless creatures who drain mortals left and right. Pfft. Puhh-leeeaze! Every Bram Stoker induced, erotic, wildly dark belief of vampires and the undead is greatly over exaggerated and off point. First of all, we do not drink human blood - eww! We are not soul-less, we simply possess a different kind of soul. We do not transform into bats and we do not explode in sunlight.
We do however, hunt. And yes we drink blood, but only a very particular type of blood. Demon blood. Ok, confused yet? Here's the skinny. Vampires, as we are most commonly known, are a race of humans who have been controlled by a virus. The underlying virus however, can only take hold and transform a person who's bloodline contains that of the original demi-gods. Now, the demi-gods in themselves were a strange lot. Four immensely powerful immortals who withdrew from this earth back in the days of the druids and the ancient Celts. The four demi-gods sired countless half-mortal children with countless women. These are the bloodlines that flow still through humanity. We project an 'aura' of sorts that other vampires can pick up on, I luckily enough had been under watch and when my mortal life was ending I was bitten to preserve my demi-god bloodline. Debate still rages over whether the demi-gods themselves were nothing more than powerful demons, but that is neither here nor there.
Vampires exist solely to control the balance of power and prevent demons from having free reign in human territory. Demons are not incapable of entering humanity's world and they do so frequently and NOT as cloven hooved beasts running around raping women. Although they do from time to time sire half demon offspring, but so long as their offspring abstain from causing chaos we ignore them. Demons enjoy chaos, death, and destruction and do their best to nurture these elements in the human world, always attempting to bring about an ultimate anarchy and chaotic state. The witch trials and other notable human tirades into the morbid and chaotic can be linked to several demons subtly manipulating humans in power.
Vampires do live basically forever. We can die, but its very difficult. We gain power and can heal ourselves in two ways. First, through demon blood. Demon blood is rich with power and healing properties, drinking a pint a year is enough to sustain our immortal lives, however when wounded we must drink deeply to regain strength and health quickly. Demon blood is powerful and we partake of necessity and to increase our own power. Secondly, ironically enough, sex is the other means for healing and gaining power. At the moment of the climax of our partners the boundaries protecting the life force are dropped enough that we can soak in the life force of another into our beings to replenish. Hence the reason an orgasm has often been referred to as the "little death" by humanity. Often our kind will bring a partner repeatedly to climax in order to skim off some of their life force to replenish. It makes our kind highly sought after partners to say the least. Its dangerous, however, as if we loose control we can suck a human, or even another vampire dry of life force killing them, even another undead.
And now I serve in the vampire race, fighting demons to preserve the fabric of reality, and though I am the youngest of my kind, I have quickly become nearly the most powerful... my name is Eve.
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Eve sat tensed staring down below at the mass of Friday night party goers entering and exiting the bars and clubs. So far golden auras on all of them. No hints of red or black, no blue or green. Just the brilliant gold glows of the human souls that danced, and laughed, and lived oblivious to the hunters in their midst. She sighed and raked her hand over the slicked back hair she restrained with her usual leather tie back. Her fangs ached, hidden back in her gum line they throbbed dully, denied the pleasure of draining a demon for weeks now. Unlike her brethren, Eve solely drew her energy and power from demon blood, she couldn't bring herself to suck the life force from a partner during sex so casually as the rest of them did. As such she fed frequently and without qualms, sating herself on demon blood every chance she got, growing stronger each time and more powerful than almost any in her race. So the elders would often send her alone to hunt the most dangerous of targets and the strongest classes of demons. She had never failed yet.
She was close to giving up on her evening and leaving her perch on the ledge of the building when she noticed a man step from one of the bars and into the street. His aura was silver shot with crimson. Unlike any she'd yet seen and hinting at power beyond all the demons she'd ever taken down. This one was old, and immensely powerful. He paused and tilted his head, looked straight at her and grinned. His eyes were a haunting, luminous blue, set into a face of smooth bronzed skin and finished with slightly feathered raven black locks. His smile was all sarcasm and wit, a natural predator unafraid of anything and at ease wherever he went. His mortal façade was that of a powerfully built six foot something man with a casual grace and a predators charisma. He was dangerous.
A hiss escaped Eve and she thrust forward her fangs, letting them pitch out like a saber tooth cats. Eyeing him she let him know what he was dealing with, that she was trouble with a capital T. The demon gave a short bark of laughter and turned his back on her. Eve bristled with impotent fury. She stepped from the ledge of the building, falling five stories to land gracefully on her feet in the alley below. She stalked after the demon with blood on her mind.
After two blocks Eve realized the demon was toying with her, pausing whenever she fell behind and waiting for her, then setting off again. When he finally turned into an alley she nearly sprinted to get to him before he was in too public a place for her to move again. She almost collided with him where he stood in the dark alley, a twisted smile on his face. Eve thrust her fangs forward hissing softly as she prepared for a battle, her fingers twitching as she worked the long daggers out of her sleeves. Her eyes flashed with anticipation and she thrust a blade at him, unperturbed as he moved out of the path of her blade. He was very fast.
"Not tonight my beauty, but soon." The demon smiled at her again then with a flick of his wrist cut a hole in the fabric of dimensions and retreated into it.
Eve's next lunge was far too late and in her rage she felt the energy coursing through her and she let out an inhuman howl of anguish burying a dagger into the side of the building. The shockwave of her power rippled outward like an EMP pulse, shattering windows for blocks. She growled low and feral in her throat as she stalked off to return home, unsated.
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The elders were prattling on about responsibility and duty and protecting humans without involving them in the age old battle for their safety as Eve doodled on her notebook pretending to feign some interest and failing miserably. They were angry about the shock wave she had released outside of battle and furious about the hasty cover up that had to be staged to ensure the humans remained complacent. They were also disturbed by the shock wave in and of itself as no vampire had the power to release a wave of energy like she had done unknowingly tonight; power waves, telekinetics, and several other powers were known to exist only in the demon race. The elders were concerned about Eve. The demon was another matter all together however.
It had been agreed that a demon who could rip a dimensional portal and had a silver aura shot with crimson was of the highest order in the demon realm. This demon was big trouble, the worst any of them had ever encountered and could possibly be impossible to slay or drain. The fact that it had merely smiled in the face of the most successful demon hunter the vampire race had did not bode well for any of them. The elders decided it was too risky to go after this demon and had issued a warning that they were all to avoid him, to try to clean up after him as much as possible and prevent any half breeds from being born in his wake. At the moment this was the best they could hope for until the ancient texts had been searched for a weapon or means to deal with the high demon. Finally, blissfully, the bitchfest that had been the meeting of the counsel was over and Eve rapidly escaped to her rooms.
The vampire community had two main covens. Each coven ruled over a hemisphere, east or west, and readily aided the other whenever possible. They all worked together to ensure their numbers remained strong and the demons remained in check. Eve lived in the communal house of the east hemisphere cove, the House of Black. Ever vampire in the coven carried the surname "Black" no matter who or what they had been in their mortal lives. The elders resided deep underground in the Black household, not to avoid the sun, but rather to practice their arts and research new ones without interference or risk of discovery. The House of Black was an old sprawling Victorian style mansion on the outskirts of New Orleans. The epicenter of the coven's power and politics the House of Black was enormous and capable of housing two hundred vampires in separate rooms and twice as many if they were inclined to share rooms.
Eve sat at her desk and logged onto her laptop to surf the world wide web for awhile. The internet, while catering to humans for the most part, was a wonderful source of information if one knew where to look. Eve logged onto her favorite demon reference site and began to search through the aura characterizations.
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"Do you think she'll go after him again?" Gabriel looked at the eldest vampire in the Black house as he spoke.
"Eve is an anomaly, Gabriel." Sireen smiled at his fellow elder vampire. "You knew it when you drained her and made her one of us in truth. She is and always has been unpredictable and without parallel among our race. If ever there was a vampire that could tear down the very Gates themselves and destroy the demons for good, it is her." He paused for a moment. "But at the same time, she could easily destroy us all in the wrong hands."
Gabriel nodded absently. "She is dedicated to our cause though."
"She is dedicated to the hunt, Gabriel. Nothing more. She lives to drain blood from demons, that blood lust could easily be turned against our own."
