Dawn is Breaking 2

CHAPTER 2



The sound of laughter carried throughout the silent, empty city. Dawn sat on the safest part she could find of the crumbling wall surrounding the only patch of fresh green grass in the whole of the city, it wasn’t much, located at the rear of the Cathedral; but it was enough to satisfy the children. As she sat Dawn watched over the kids playing while the rest of the adults went hunting, for vampires and food. Some of the adults had found a nest of Malkavian vampires hiding in the forest just behind the church. They don’t come out much, at all for that matter, but they were there; which was a big enough reason for Garrick to kill them.

Malkavian’s were bad news, so insane that other vampire’s don’t even like to be near them unless it is absolutely necessary. The big problem about having them for neighbours is that aside from knowing that they are insane the tribe didn’t know anything more about them, what they were capable of. Garrick was taking them in unprepared and ready to die.

While Dawn sat there thinking, she heard a scream, immediately she jumped from the broken wall and turned towards the sound. She took a sigh of relief as she saw a few of the younger kids pounce on her niece Rose, making her fall to the ground, all the other kids saw and came running over to jump on her; Rose was laughing, a wonderful sound to Dawn, and tickling the children. Laughter was a luxury they didn’t have often anymore. Parents’ always anxious and worried, children living in fear, pushing all hope away.

Satisfied Dawn went to sit back up on the wall, it was a beautiful day, the sun shining brightly, Dawn had to laugh, catching the joy that the children were spreading; it was a good day today she thought. That happy thought didn’t stay for long though, everyone else was out in the forest; a dangerous place for anyone, even during the day time. They had lost many good fighters in those woods.

Just as Dawn was ready to hoist herself onto the wall a big gust of wind blew through, as it did her eyes wandered towards a hill cliff some hundred metres behind the cathedral. She saw a figure standing on the edge of the cliff, the figure was covered from head to foot in black, or so it seemed from her distance. Odd she thought; all that clothing on such a hot day?

For some reason Dawn felt compelled to get closer to the figure on the hill, one part of her pushing her forward, another advising that she stay, even retreat inside. But that part was small compared to the desire to find out who the figure was.

She completely forgot about watching the kids, Rose, all of them; as she walked almost mindlessly up that cliff. There was small hidden path that led right up to the top, Dawn had never been up there and didn’t even know about this path yet she followed it as though she travelled it every day.

The time it took to climb the hill should have taken longer than what it did although Dawn didn’t notice anything, the sound of laughter from the children was lost to her, she couldn’t hear anything but the loud pounding of her heart in her ears.

One second Dawn was walking the path the next she was at the top, making her way to the figure on the edge. The person hadn’t moved an inch she realised. She kept walking closer, once she was directly behind the person she put her hand out to touch them on the shoulder, but before her skin even touched the black leather jacket, a sword was just touching the skin on her neck, she hadn’t even seen the sword, how could I miss that? She thought confused. Glancing down at it Dawn saw that it was very thin and long, the polished silver blade reflecting the sun.

She felt as though her heart had stopped in fright, her eyes wide in fear, sweat starting to roll down her face. Her eyes followed along the blade to the hilt, up the arm of the figure until she found the persons eyes hidden under the shadow of a wide brimmed hat. As she did the hairs on the back of her neck pricked up and a violent shiver ran down her spin, the eyes were a bright yellow, like a cat; in her mind Dawn saw the image of a lion attacking a deer, the eyes full of power, hate and hunger. A vampire! She should have listened to the other part of her telling her to run into the church. Recognition must have shown on her face because suddenly the sword was removed but she found herself standing dangerously on the edge of the cliff, her feet right on the angle, a strong hand was the only thing keeping her from falling. Dawn didn’t find time to scream but she couldn’t breathe, whether from holding her breath or the suddenness had taken the breath right out of her she didn’t know. Her whole body was tense and as her mind caught up to the situation she grabbed onto the figure holding her up by the front of her shirt and gasped, trying not to look down; fear was plain on her face, the blood drained out of it from the fright.

Just as soon as she was hanging off a cliff the figure let go and pulled her back up off the edge. For some reason Dawn felt disappointed and upset that they had let go, but once she was free to stand on solid ground she took in this strange person. Dawn tried to avoid the eyes this time and examined his face; a man he most certainly was. He had a long, sharp nose, thin red lips and a high chin, his big hat cast a shadow across his face but she knew that his skin would be pale with almost a blue tinge to it. Looking at the rest of the man Dawn saw broad shoulders, pronounced by his small waist. He was dressed in all black just as she thought; he wore what seemed to be a thick leather one-piece suit, and gloves, she didn’t notice while he was holding and feeling her but the large, strong hands were covered in leather gloves, the only colour on him was his yellow eyes.

She didn’t know if she could speak, the sight of this vampire gave her weird feelings, feelings that for some reason felt good, but she wanted to know who it was. Dawn finally took a deep breath, calming her pounding heart and the sudden butterflies in her stomach.

“Who...” It came out in a whisper, although she knew he could have heard her she tried again, louder, “Who are you?”

Nothing, the man hadn’t moved a muscle since he pulled her back, she didn’t want to look in his eyes again but she could feel his gaze upon her, bearing into her like a knife cutting away each layer of her skin, looking into her very soul.

Again Dawn felt compelled to meet his piercing lion’s gaze, she did so slowly, trying to prepare herself for the feelings that she knew would come, good and bad feelings. Nothing could prepare anyone for looking into those eyes; the image of the lion came back along with the violent tremble down her spin. This time she found that she couldn’t remove her eyes from his, she stared openly, unable to blink, unable to breath.

Almost as quickly as the sword to her throat the strange vampire had his lips on her neck, the feelings that overcame her were indescribable. Dawn felt pleasure and pain, happiness and fear within her. She was waiting for the sharp, searing pain of fangs piercing her skin and feeling of blood being sucked from her body, but it never came. Soon she realised that the vampire was not sucking blood but her skin, his fangs were pressing into her neck but not hard enough to pierce it. It was an odd sensation; Dawn had images of kissing the vampire, willingly letting him bite her and rip her clothes off touching her bare skin. While these images went though her mind Dawn unconsciously wrapped her hands around the vampire’s neck, pressing his head closer to her, as she did this she heard him snarl violently and release her, pushing her away. In an instant the fantasies stopped, Dawn put a hand to her neck; she wasn’t sure what he had done but there was no blood. She felt frightened all of a sudden, and disappointed that he had stopped. She looked at him and saw that he was breathing heavily although there was no need for him to breathe at all. The vampire put a gloved hand to his mouth, he looked surprised and confused at her; she just looked scared, not knowing what had just transpired. For a time it seemed as though the world stood still, not a sound could be heard but for their heavy breathing, after what seemed like hours of staring at each other the vampire turned to leave.

“Wait!” Dawn called, she had taken a step forward before she realised she didn’t know why she said that. Seeing him leave made her feel sad, not complete if he left her, a strange feeling.

He kept his back to her but finally the vampire spoke, “My name is Ariel.” With the shiny silver sword in one hand the vampire left.

Dawn just stood staring at the retreating vampire. “Ariel” She whispered to herself. If he heard he didn’t show it, as he walked slowly down the hill Dawn thought she saw something drip down the blade of the sword he carried, blood maybe? Her thoughts were too confused to make any sense of anything, the fright of the sword and hanging off the edge of a cliff soon caught up to her and she fainted, whispering his name again as she fell to the ground.