Intempesta Nox - Dead of the Night

The night was quiet.  Dark.  The sort of night that is made for love, dreams, and the darkest of beings to creep silently into the shadows.  Watching as the humans smiled, laughed.  Envied them their peace.

Envied them their life.

Nika licked his lips, the blood turning them black in the moonlight.  A girl lay at his feet, just another victim to his thirst, forgotten the moment she slid from his fingers.   He pulled a starched, white cloth from his pocket and cleaned both his hands and face.  The street lamps flickered across face as he slipped away, highlighting the shadows around his eyes and on his cheeks.  Made his trench coat flutter as he walked, adding mystery, promising death.  Made him more than he was.  And yet, still told the truth.

Nika was Vampyr; a creature that lived off the blood of others.

He turned the corner, heading for the Guild District searching for a particular scent.  Would this be the Right Time?  Would the boy be out tonight?  That's how he thought of the carpenter's son, The Boy, his next acolyte. 

He chose them carefully, often before they reached the age of reason.  Small, beautiful cherubs whose innocence and laughter captured his eye.  This one had hair as black as his own, but with skin bronzed by the sun and eyes the colour of deep emeralds.

His pulse increased at the thought of turning The Boy.  It had been 15 years since Nika had chosen him.  There was no point in turning children, no matter how their screams of terror delighted him, or how much Nika enjoyed watching their innocence blacken before his eyes.  They remained children forever, in body and in mind.  He'd had to kill several of them before he realized his mistake.  Best to leave children as snacks between meals and wait for them to grow.

Nika stopped in the middle of the cobblestone street as the scent he was searching for wafted through the air.  Like a blood hound he followed it, the smell growing stronger with each passing minute.  He followed the scent into a tavern that assaulted him with conflicting smells of unwashed bodies, stale food and ale spilled on the floor and other fluids not so noticeable to a human nose.  If it wasn't for The Boy, he would have left.  But he had come all this way, it must be time. 

Nika spotted him sitting near the fire with a tavern maid flirting outrageously at his side.  The Boy smiled, enjoying the attention but not particularly responding in kind.  He looked tired.  He had dark circles around his eyes, and his shoulders hunched forward.  Nika could smell blood on his hands, The Boy's blood.  All this he noticed in seconds. 

"Can I help you, sir?"  The tavern's owner stood nervously in front of him, shifting from foot to foot, wiping his hands over and over again on his towel. 

Nika grinned.  It was not a nice smile.  The man blanched and backed away. 

"I require a room for the evening."

"Ye…s….Yes, sir."  The man scurried off to do his bidding.

Nika returned his attention to The Boy. 

The common room was full of men of all ages of varying social status.