A/N: Ok – I’m posting this a tester . . . I took the original story down off here a while ago cuz I wasn’t happy with the way it was going – I decided to re-write it, but I thought I’d find out what everyone thought of it first . . . This is fantasy darlings so please don’t flame over the unreal-ness of it all . . .

Chapter One:

It was clear night; it was also a quiet night. There was always something bad going on when there was no vampires out, it was a fact. Jeff and me had been out since sundown and we hadn’t seen hide nor hair of one of the evil little…

“Watch where that train of thought’s goin’ Aimes, you happen to be in the presence of a vamp.” I hated it when he read my mind; just because he could didn’t mean he had to… constantly! The smarmy little shit only smirked as I glared at him; sometimes I wished I had staked him when I had the chance…

“Anyway, moving away from that issue, I’m right aren’t I? It’s too quiet, there has to be something big happenin and we’re not in the loop!” Maybe we were never in the loop to start with but you know…

“Exactly we were never in the loop to start with…and to refer to your previous statement, you’re wrong.” Ok so now I was confused. We hadn’t seen one vampire all night and it’s NOT too quiet? Jeff rolled his eyes at me and pointed over my shoulder.

As I turned, I saw why I was wrong. There were at least six vamps heading our way with what looked to be two very drunk girls. Obviously, they hadn’t seen us yet. Jeff and me moved back into the shadows in silence and each drew our weapons. Jeff had his twelve-inch, engraved silver blade…how he kept that in his boot and didn’t loose a foot... I had my two Desert Eagle .44s out and ready. It wasn’t that I didn’t like hand to hand or the more traditional weapons its just that there’s a certain cleanness to using a gun; especially one of my Eagles.

Looking up I saw that the group was only a few feet away, they were either really careless that night or they were really low on the power scale not to have smelt us. I looked at Jeff and he whispered in my mind, it was so confusing when he did that, but it had it’s advantages, like not getting caught out for talking to loud on a stake-out. No pun intended.

“You take the one between the girls and the three on the left. I’ve got the three on the right.”

I nodded and we both stepped out in front of the oncoming gaggle, our weapons behind our backs. The two girls smiled at us, they were definitely smashed! Jeff counted three in my head and moved off in a blur of speed. I raised my guns and got the one between the girls and two of the others first time. The last one however must have seen it coming and had dodged my fire. Ok. Holstering my guns, I jumped just as he rushed me. I turned in the air and pulled a silver throwing knife out of my belt. The vamp turned to try again and I took my chance, launching the blade, I watched as it buried itself in his heart.

I stood and watched him burn up. Watching them go had always fascinated me, the fire starts out bright white from where they’ve been hit and then turns red as it burns them and black as it consumes them. It is one of the most hypnotising things in the world. I collected my knife and re-sheathed it. Jeff was already done. I could smell the burnt flesh.

When I turned back to face him the two girls were gone. They’d either run or Jeff had scared them off. Either way they were gone. Jeff smiled and walked up to me.

“See. I said you were wrong.” I rolled my eyes and elbowed him lightly as we both turned to walk back towards the flat. Sunrise wasn’t far off; I could always feel the way the sun was creeping towards us. I couldn’t believe we’d been out all night and only run into one group of vamps, either they were avoiding us or there really was something going on down there. Both could be true.

The low growling came seconds before we saw it. The large black form moved out of one of the side streets and stared at us. It was as if someone had fed a panther steroids. Of course, that could not be true due to the fact that Panthers had died out a hundred years ago…

It was about as big as a fully-grown were-wolf. Its head would have come up to about my shoulder and I was six-foot! The creature was black all over except for a large white brand on its left shoulder blade and it’s burning red eyes. The large claws on each paw clicked as it moved forward slightly, scenting the air. There was going to be trouble soon.

I was just about to reach for my guns when Jeff moved forward slightly. From what I could see, he was about to go into full vamp mode. Seeing a true master vampire in it’s most demonic of forms is always amazing; and it’s always so much easier to appreciate it at a time like that, when they’re not gearing up to kill you.

His already pale skin was white and glowing in the moonlight and his normally shoulder length blonde hair was down almost to his waist and had turned a bright platinum blonde colour. I was stood to the side so I could see that his fangs had elongated as well and his eyes were solid black. It had been a long time since I had seen Jeff fully demonic and so I was totally unprepared for when his power burst from him. Although it was directed at the beast in front of him, I caught the backwash and it staggered me into the wall.

The desired effect was had though. The black creature disappeared from sight. For how long though was a mystery – eventually they always found us out…

I watched as Jeff changed back. It was like magic. Maybe it was, I don’t know. His hair became shorter and darker again, alabaster skin lost its ethereal glow, fangs became small and almost unnoticeable, eyes returned to dark blue and his power receded; drawn back into that chamber inside him. Before either of us could say anything, another voice spoke up.

“Now that wasn’t much of a stand-off; you leak a little power and it runs away, honestly, how rude!” Riley was floating exactly where the large cat-thing had just been. She was around 5’7 with long blonde hair and grey eyes. She was dressed in a floor-length black skirt and a flowing white top with black embroidery on it. Her skin was as pale as Jeff’s in vampire form, which of course just made everything else, stand out even more.

Oh and she’s dead. Not a vampire though, or a zombie. Thank god! The smell of a zombie was unbearable. She was our resident ghost. Resident as in she followed us. She’d been a gypsy in life and then Jeff’s very first taste of human blood back in the nineteenth century. Needless to say it was a messy death. Which is why she follows us, she vowed with her last breath that she would haunt the rest of his days on the Earth. Truth be told she’s a bit of a drama queen; and now I had to deal with her and Jeff and still be sane when we got back to the apartment. Oh yay!

We were almost back to my building when another group of vampires came at us. It was amazing…we hadn’t seen any all night and then we run into two groups in less than half an hour. One of my knives was already buried in the heart of one of them when I drew one of my Eagles and took out two more. Jeff beheaded four in a row, moving quicker than my eyes could follow. The last vamp was already on his way towards me, I couldn’t get a clear shot.

His first punch got me across the right side of my face and sent me staggering backwards. He was only a fledgling, a punch like that from a master could have broken my neck. I managed to duck his next punch and sweep his legs out from under him. As he landed, I drove another of my knives deep into his heart and stepped back to watch him burn.

Jeff had finished his off and picked up my first knife for me by the time I’d finished watching my kill burn. I crouched and grabbed my knife and the Eagle I’d dropped earlier, Jeff tossed me my other knife and we started back towards the building, Riley floating by our side.

“You two work really well together you know. Jeff’s never fought that well with anyone else. You both just have this perfect trust that the other is capable. It’s amazing to watch you work.” He’d probably fought better on his own at points during his long and illustrious life but I was not going to argue with Riley. I had a killer headache so I did not want to make it any worse.

Jeff grinned at me and shook his head. I don’t know why he always found what I was thinking so funny. It was then that I spotted my building. It’s a twelve-storey apartment block and it’s all mine. It was left to me in my parent’s will. I had taken the top floor and modified it so it was just one big apartment instead of four. The rest of the rooms in the block were storage and training rooms. It was very handy owning your own complex.

As we neared the front of my building, I could see a small figure stood outside. I didn’t need any psychic powers or vampire magic to know who it was. He worried more than anyone else I knew; although most of the people in my life were either dead or not quite human. Ah well.

The small figure was of course my brother, Daniel, Dan for short, two years my junior. He was about a foot shorter than I was but we shared a lot of the same facial features: the same pale skin, bright green eyes, small noses, high cheekbones, inky black hair, what could I say, we’d had good-looking parents. We looked so much alike we had often been mistaken for twins, the only differences being the height and the glasses that sat on the bridge of his nose and not on mine.

As we reached him he looked up and smiled at me and I felt his warm presence in my mind. Did I mention that my brother is a powerful psychic? I may not have gotten that particular ability but I always had known when someone was in my head; it was like something rubbing against the inside of my skull. Dan had always felt like a warm blanket to me, something I could wrap myself in and feel safe; whereas Jeff, well Jeff had always felt like silk, cool and smooth.

As Dan’s arm slid through mine the feeling solidified, and I knew that I was home for tonight. My brother and me were closer than most siblings were; staring death in the face side by side before either of our tenth birthdays had done that. Years spent with only each other for company had meant that home was where ever the other was; for so long it had been the case, that one of us was all the other had. The incorporation of other people into our lives had not changed that one little bit and it never would.

“Good night?”

“Two groups and a very strange cat thing.” He chuckled quietly at my reference to the creature we had earlier encountered. The small talk continued all the way up to the top floor of the building, Jeff contributing where he saw fit and generally acting as he always did, as my shadow. Only this shadow could kill you in the blink of an eye.

Tbc?

A/N: well then? Should I continue or scrap it completely? Anyone out there that read the original and preferred it? Let me know in a review, or an email, check my profile for my addy . . . anyway – feedback welcomed . . .

Emerald Raven

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