The Darkest Storm

         Marcus, Louie, and Jessica watched the development of the dark clouds with interest as their fledglings slept.
         Jessica licked her sharp eye teeth. "Looks like we might be able to hunt early tonight. Good. I'm peculiarly hungry this night."
         Louie clucked his tongue in approval.
         Marcus was not so easily swayed. "The darkness is good, but the sun still hides behind those clouds. In my 1000 years' experience, I've seen storms like this dissipate as fast as they have formed."
         Louie's eyes darted between the two vampires. He had learned several years ago that no voice was better than speaking. They would try to sway him to one side or the other in their frequent arguments.
         Jessica knew how to sway Marcus on her own. She tried to look defeated and disappointed. "I guess I will deal with the shortness of the nights."
         Marcus thought carefully. It had been a long time since they had ample time to hunt. He took Jessica's chin in his hand. "Wake the others. They must learn to take advantage of such opportunities."
         Jessica responded by hugging Marcus about the neck before trotting off to the other rooms with Louie following.
         Marcus went to his room. He still dressed in velvet and slept in a coffin in days when his fledglings had chosen to wear whatever suited them and slept where they pleased; from where they happened to flop, to hanging from the rafters like common bats. He felt he was losing touch with the modern world. "This will be a night to remember," he told himself. "I will celebrate this birthday like no other."
         Marcus moved to the dresser to apply generous amounts of sunscreen and flesh colored makeup to his ivory skin. He thought of his advanced age and how his pigment had vanished while Louie still had a peach-like pallor. He thought of Jessica as needing a female among them, a common street hooker that he had turned into a respectable lady who wore corsets and velvet dresses because she knew it pleased him.
          It was the fledglings that Louie and Jessica created after them that distressed Marcus. Brooding gothic Marie, who fed on teenagers to release them from their pitiful lives and babies to keep her youth. She had tattered her wings to non-flight and kept silent as her maker Louie. Then there was the one who called himself Damian after Jessica changed him, who rode that noisy motorcycle, dyed his hair outrageous colors, always had some new tattoo or piercing, and was fascinated by swords and knives, preferring to mutilate his victims to their last throes of life. This is what his fledglings expected him to welcome in and call family.
         Marcus stretched his own wings, clawed on the end like a gargoyle which he latched together at his neck making them look like nothing more than a pale grey cape to the average onlooker. He checked the sky through the window and smiled. The darkness deepened quickly as he watched it. He smiled evilly. He decided to make a grand entrance. He leapt from the window, opening his wings enough to glide him down to the front door. He opened it with force, knocking it off the hinges. "Tonight, we take advantage of this storm blotting out our enemy sun. Be warned that breaks in the clouds will come. I hope you have prepared yourselves. This will be a night different from any you have experienced."
         Louie and Marie gave Marcus a nod as they whisked past him into the waiting limousine. It roared to life, and they sped away to play their games with the cities' elite.
         Damian looked to Jessica. "Do you ride with me tonight or prefer to kiss the ass of the master?"
         Marcus did not show his contempt. "I do not understand why you insist on vehicles, especially that bike that offers you no protection from the sun."
         Damian spit at their feet before jumping to the black phantom bike and speeding away.
         Jessica cocked her head. "Shall we depart?"
         Marcus took Jessica's hand and gave her fingers a slight nip before taking her waist and lifting to the sky. Jessica spread her wings as she playfully wriggled out of his grip.
         A short second of flight and they were passing over Damian's speeding motorcycle. The loud thunder behind them startled Jessica as Marcus pushed against her and twirled them out of the way of the lightning flash. The lightning struck the motorcycle dead on, exploding it in a ball of fire. Jessica started to descend but Marcus took hold of her waist. He had to raise his voice to be heard over the increasing winds and hard rain that had begun. "There is nothing you can do. The gods seem to be against us this night."
         The hard rain and now hail was starting forced them to fly lower and slower. They dodged several lightning strikes before deciding to take to the ground. They ran faster than humans, but the lightning still struck close, and the hail was getting larger, pelting them to where they used their wings for shelter from it.
         They came upon the black limousine, crashed in a ravine. Marcus could see Louie seated in the crevice, looking at the body of Marie writhing in pain where it was impaled on the tree. Marcus went to him, but he pointed toward the road. The earthquake type crack seemed to have swallowed the limo out of nowhere. Marcus tried to help Louie up, but he pushed Marcus away. Louie got up on his own and went to Marie. He ripped her from the tree, and she turned to dust in his arms. Louie screamed, diving and throwing himself on a broken limb. His ashes mixed with Marie's on the increasing winds.
         If they were near water, Jessica would have classified what they were experiencing as a hurricane. They were now entering the outskirts of the city, being surrounded by small farms and subdivisions.
          "We should start our hunt here and return to the house quickly," said Jessica.
          A sound like a freight train drowned out her instructions. A tornado was ripping up trees, fencing and livestock and gaining on them fast.
         Marcus held Jessica tight in his arms as he entered an abandoned warehouse. He pulled down stone debris to block the door.
         Jessica was panicking on the verge of madness. "What is happening?"
         Marcus gave an eerie laugh that even scared Jessica. "Legend tells of the darkest storm. The night when all who hunts will be destroyed."
         Jessica's mouth fell open wide. "Is there no escape?"
         Marcus turned his back to her, picking up a dowel and breaking it off into a sharp stake. "Only the one who called up the storm will survive."
         Jessica's eyes grew large. "Who? Who would have the power to call up such a thing?" Jessica was almost afraid of the answer.
         Marcus turned quickly, impaling Jessica on the stake through her stomach. "Only a vampire born of true blood on the eve of his thousandth year."
         Jessica fell to her knees blood welling and spilling out of her mouth. Marcus bent, kiss her gently as he tasted her blood. He jerked the stake up into her heart and she disintegrated into dust.
         As the storm outside became nothing more than a gentle rainfall, Marcus moved to a dark corner of the warehouse. He had already prepared there for his purpose. He climbed into the deep hole, pulling out the support that held back the dirt and debris that would cover his final resting place. He would not rise again, the eve of his thousandth year being his last to walk the earth.



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