Darkness was never a thing that Ninian Ellis Cole had ever feared. He didn’t see the point in putting needless worry into what he thought was inevitable. If you were going to die - then you would die no matter the time of day – evil lurked just as easily in the light of day as it did in the empty night. No, darkness wasn’t something to be feared – people, on the other hand, …they were something else. He didn’t exactly fear them, but he knew that in their hearts all humans were selfish by nature. It didn’t matter if they were good and decent, nor did it matter if they were kind and innocent – if given the choice of allowing someone else to have their heart’s desire or having their own heart’s desire – it didn’t take a genius to work out what would happen.
Ninian had become ever more accustomed to the idea that he could control people simply by giving them what they wanted from him. It had started with the little old lady who had lived next to him. All she had wanted was someone to talk to, a friend, family – so that is what he gave her. In the mornings he would smile at her and greet her as if she were his own grandmother, she always smiled back and eventually asked him in for tea. Over the years he became her constant companion, they would lunch together, go to movies – he even spent nights just talking with her and looking through old family pictures. She saw him as the grandson she had never been given, so it came as no surprise to anyone around her that she would leave him everything when she passed. Her friends believed that he was a good and kind boy who looked after her, even as she became steadily sicker and sicker. She had no family, no one other than him…so, yes, it made sense that he would be her sole beneficiary.
Over the years Ninian had become known as the sweet boy who looked after those around him. He never sought to take from them, nor did he ever even think about harming them. He was beloved by the neighborhood, so it came as a shock when one day he up and left.
For Ninian, the small town had become boring. They saw him as some sort of shining golden angel, and while he enjoyed what that gave him – he had found that he wanted a new challenge. Something inside of him yearned for more than being a local sweetheart.
That is how he came to Harper Rock. In this city, he had the chance to shine more brightly than he had ever shone in his provincial life.
He had been here three months, and already the people around him were trying to look after him. They whispered about how he should be in before dark, and how such a sweet boy should leave and go somewhere safer. Over and over they would shove news articles at him, they tried to protect him as best they could, his neighbor two doors down had even given him a gun and ammo. But, no matter what they said to him he still stayed, and they became ever more watchful when they saw him.
It had taken him barely any time to set himself up in a decent flat, and he had even gotten himself a job at a local bakery. He had easily slipped back into the role of local darling. He smiled at everyone he met, greeted them enthusiastically, joined in on local events. Everyone in the small local community found themselves at ease with him. Still, all that he had done was move his provincial life to a city. He needed to get out.
Up until this point he had listened to those around him and had remained indoors before nightfall – he had not sought out a nightlife. That, he had decided, was going to change.
At around 6 pm he had had a wonderfully relaxing bath filled with cinnamon-scented bubble bath. During the bath he had washed his hair with strawberry and cream shampoo and conditioner, he had then gone on to wash his body in cinnamon soap – basically, he had become a walking, talking, bakery. After his bath, he had hunted for his nicest pair of black jeans, his emerald green shirt, and his black doc martens. He dressed relatively quickly, gave his hair a once-over to make sure that it was artfully styled to look as if he had just rolled out of bed, and then he was grabbing his keys and heading out.
He really didn’t have anywhere in mind, all he knew was that he had to get out of the country bumkin lifestyle had he been living. It took him barely any time to reach the local station, the trip itself was uneventful…but then he was in the main city and looking very much like a tourist with wide eyes and open mouth as he gazed at the towering buildings…
Who was she kidding? She always felt cold. It was if no matter how long she was this, a vampire, she would never get used to it. She would never get used to the fact that her heart did not beat, that her blood did not rush through her veins. That anxiety and paranoia and fear and love and desire and surprise did nothing to quicken her system but did everything to set off every supernatural alarm bell that she had been ‘gifted’. How could she be called a shadow when she cast no shadow of her own? And yet she could summon other shadows to her, could sink into them as if into a bog of dark and comfortable quicksand. And instead of a shadow she had lethal sharp energy, uncontrollable and sometimes fatal to others – sharp spikes that came out of nowhere, that struck whatever it was she felt threatened by, and disappeared again.
Hell, it didn’t even strike only when she felt threatened. It could be due only to heightened emotions and her new supernatural body just couldn’t handle it. It wasn’t made for the kind of anxiety that plagued the slight, timid Australian girl.
How had she even ended up here, in god-knows-where Canada in a city full of ******* vampires and creatures she’d only ever read about in myth? For school, sure, but why here? Why, of all places in the world, here? Was it fate? Was she meant to be here? Surely not.
And despite everything, she was alone. She’d made friends at university but they all started to fall away once she said she couldn’t hang out during the day anymore. They fell away anyway, their parents dragging them away or they all left of their own accord. The city was quieter than it was when she’d first moved here. The good people were leaving, and the strange people were arriving in droves. Who could ignore the rumour that vampires were real and they hung out in a single city in Canada? Twilight fans came out of the woodwork. Hayley wanted to shake them.
This was nothing like Twilight.
Sure, Hayley’s sire and ‘sibling’ had helped her, in the beginning, but that was as far as it went. She barely saw them. She lived on her own. She had business acquaintances but that was all they ever were. She was far too shy to ask for anything else. And, despite the city being full of them, she’d met barely any other vampires. How was one supposed to get by? How was one supposed to inculcate themselves into someone else’s group of friends? She’d never learned that ability.
Haylee stepped out of the warehouse she’d had converted into a halfway house. Despite her timidity, when it came to issues that she was passionate about, she could convince anyone of anything. The bank had given her a loan; there were plenty of women in this city who needed somewhere safe to go. The halfway house provided hot showers and second-hand clothes. There were charity drives every other week asking for toiletries and sanitary products. These were given out for free. There was a soup kitchen, and beds to sleep in. It got the women off the street and kept them safe from the ravages of the weather – of men, and of vampires.
Haylee stuck her hands into the pockets of her black jacket, her hair loose and wild around her shoulders. Her skin was unnaturally pale and her lips a start pinkish red—she’d not painted them that way. It just happened. Her large, round eyes were lined with subtle hints of liner and blush, but she’d done so only so that she wouldn’t look half dead. Her converse sneakers made no sound as they hit the pavement. In a messenger bag slung over her shoulder she had pamphlets; she was about to tour the city to hunt down the homeless women, to inform them of the place they could go to for shelter.
It didn’t take her long to find someone in dire need of help; a woman was prone on the sidewalk being abused by a man. What he was shouting about Haylee didn’t know. It was a busy city street, with people on their way home from work, hurrying, many of them not wanting to be out after dark while others sauntered along, happy to be amongst the nightlife. No one was doing anything. Even when the man kicked at the woman and spat on her!
Haylee stepped forward.
”Hey! Stop!” she called out, pushing herself between the man and his victim. Of course, then, she became his victim. She’d known it would happen, of course. But she hadn’t thought before she acted. He came at her with a snarl and a clenched fist; Haylee threw up her arm in self-defence and was meant with a grunt and a surprised groan, the sound of something solid sluicing through flesh. Haylee’s mouth hung open as she watched; blood bloomed upon the man’s shirt; another grunt and a judder of his body and he was collapsing to the ground.
Now, people stopped to watch. Now, they were interested. What the **** was wrong with humanity?!
sentient shadow activated – invisible as a shadow path casts no shadow
