The Darkest Storm

The Darkest Storm          Entry #714172





Marcus, Jeremy and Amanda watched the development of the dark clouds with interest as their fledglings slept.



Amanda licked her sharp eye teeth. "Looks like we might be able to hunt early tonight. Good. I'm peculiarly hungry this night."



Jeremy 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 formed."



Jeremy's eyes darted between the other 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.



Amanda knew how to sometimes sway Marcus on her own. She tried to look defeated and disappointed. "I guess I will deal with the shortness of the nights. It has been a long time since we had ample time to hunt. "



Marcus nodded. "Wake the others. They must learn to take advantage of such opportunities."



Amanda responded by hugging Marcus' neck before trotting off to the other rooms with Jeremy 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." He moved to the dresser to apply generous amounts of sunscreen and flesh colored makeup to his ivory skin. Being of his advanced age, his pigment had vanished. Jeremy was not much younger, but still had a gray pallor. Amanda was not much younger than that. He had thought of needing a female among them, and turned a common street hooker into a respectable lady. He knew she wore corsets and velvet dresses because she knew it pleased him.



It was the fledglings that Jeremy and Amanda had created that distressed him. Brooding gothic Marie, who saw feeding on teenagers a releasing of them from their pitiful lives and fed on babies to supposedly keep her youth. The punk Lynn who dyed his hair outrageous colors and was fascinated by swords and knives, preferring to mutilate his victims within their last throes of life. The one who called himself Damian after Amanda changed him who always came back to the house with some new piercing or tattoo. Finally there was Kelly, Jeremy's equally silent companion and always seemed to be somewhere lost in her own world and had tattered her wings to non-flight.



He stretched his own wings, clawed on the end like a gargoyle which he latched together at his neck, making his wings 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 its 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."



Jeremy and Kelly gave Marcus a nod as they whisked past him to the waiting limousine. It roared to life and they sped away to play their games with the cities elite.



Damian looked to Amanda. "Do you ride with me tonight or prefer to kiss the ass of the master?"



Marcus did not show his contempt.



Amanda sighed. "I do not understand why you insist on vehicles, especially that motorcycle of yours that offers you no protection from the sun."



Damian spit at their feet before jumping to the black phantom bike and speeding away.



Marie and Lynn came up to Marcus. She cocked her head. "Shall we depart?"



Marcus took Amanda's hand and gave her fingers a slight nip before taking her waist and lifting to the sky. Amanda spread her wings as she playfully wriggled out of his grip. Marie and Lynn's cackling laughter could be heard coming up from behind.



A short second of flight and they were passing over Damian's speeding motorcycle. The loud thunder behind them startled Lynn and Marie. Marcus pushed against Amanda and twirled them out of the way of the lightening flash. The bolt struck the motorcycle dead on, exploding it in a ball of fire.



Amanda 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's nothing you can do. The gods seem to be against us this night."



The heavy rain and now hail that was starting forced them to fly lower and slower. They dodged several lightening strikes, before deciding to take to the ground. They ran faster than humans, but the lightening still struck close and the hail was getting larger, pelting them to where they used their wings for shelter from it.





 

Amanda saw the black limousine, crashed in a ravine. Jeremy sat in the ravine, looking at the body of Kelly writhing in pain where it was impaled on a tree. When Marcus came to him, he pointed toward the road. Marie, Lynn and Amanda were inspecting the earthquake type crack. When Marcus tried to help Jeremy up, he pushed him away. Jeremy got up on his own, rising up to where Kelly was. He ripped her from the tree, and she turned to dust in his arms. Jeremy screamed, diving and throwing himself on a broken limb. His ashes mixed with Kelly's on the increasing winds.



If they were near the water, Amanda 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." The sound similar to a freight train drowned out her instructions. A tornado was ripping up trees, fencing and livestock and gaining on them fast.



In a panic, Marie and Lynn took to the sky. Marcus had to hold Amanda from following suit. "It is useless. They are done for with the winds and the debris."



Marcus had Amanda tight in his arms as he entered an abandon warehouse. The two fledglings were overtaken by the tornado just as Marcus pulled down stone debris to block the door.



Amanda was panicking, on the verge of madness. "What is happening?"



Marcus gave an eerie laugh that even scared Amanda. "Legend tells of the darkest storm. The night when all who hunts will be destroyed."



Amanda'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."



Amanda's eyes grew large. "Who... who would have the power....to call up such a thing?' Amanda was almost afraid of the answer.



Marcus turned quickly, impaling Amanda on the stake through her stomach. "Only a vampire, born of true blood, on the eve of his thousandth year."



Amanda fell to her knees, blood welling and spilling out of her mouth. Marcus bent, kissing 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 already had made preparations there. 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.