Chapter 1

The darkness was a cruel and abusive place to hide. You never know what lingered in the darkness. You never know just what was waiting for you there. The light was just as cruel. The light revealed everything to you that you never wanted to see, that you never wanted to know. Both the darkness and the light are hateful and malicious places to linger within, but if you're not in one, then you're in the other. If you choose to exist in neither, then you are non-existent yourself. Perhaps that is the way I see it, but then again, I choose to live the thrill of not knowing, I choose to live my life through the excitement of not knowing, or not seeing, yet fighting everything that you don’t see. Perhaps that is how I choose to live, but if you are not with me in the darkness, you are against me in the light.

"Where is she?!"

The yells and demands of the man from the shadows of the alley were sharp and cold, like icicles that fall from the open abyss that is the sky above. Blood splattered across the walls of the two buildings, three bodies lying on the cold, filthy ground between them, waiting for the harsh reality of the gates of Hell to open to them. Three dead—one alive, but not for long. The man who has spoken held within his voice venom and hate, and he shoved the last surviving victim against the wall of the building, scarlet streams flowing down half of his face, pieces of the stone having ruptured his skull and broken off. The alley was nothing but a crimson mess, and though the assailant was screaming and yelling, his victim—his last victim—was motionless, eyes blank, and body limp as the man held him up by his collar. No life. No more. The assailant, having been irritated and angered already, disposed of the body disrespectfully, tossing it like a doll towards where the other three laid. He glared angrily at them, having accomplished nothing in these senseless killings.

"You really are uncontrollable, aren't you?"

A woman's voice spoke from behind the murderer, and he turned abruptly to see an older woman standing there, grinning rather mischievously, her long blond hair straightened and pulled back in a long ponytail, her eyes—cold, dark, vicious—were boring into him with black pools, his similar to hers. Her outfit, a lovely and elegant red dress that hugged and complimented her curves and mature body, and she walked from the depths of the alley, stepping over the decaying corpses, and approached the man with a cunning, clever smile. However, the warmth was not returned, and he merely glared at her, as if she had wronged him severely.

"What do you want, Slut? I don't have time for this!" the man spat at her, but she only continued to smile darkly, as if his words had no effect on her. He had always spoken harsh to her in that way, and of course, had grown used to it.

"Of course you don't have time. You never have time. Always searching, always looking, yet accomplishing nothing. Why do you try so hard when you don't even have a clue as to where you will go?" the woman asked of him bluntly, and he only glared at her, his own black eyes cold and harsh, his pale skin only shown to be more clammy and perhaps even dead-like under the light of the moon.

"Because if I'm not searching, I'm not trying. What do you want, anyway?" he asked of her callously.

"I have come to deliver a message to you from Her," the woman told of him, and he only continued to glare while she spoke of the message given to her, though in a completely different and stronger female voice, as if someone was speaking through her. "'Ynve, you need to return to the mansion as soon as possible. It is quite urgent.' "

The man only glared, having had enough of this woman's abilities. Yet, he could never deny a request to meet with Her. So, despite his aggravation with this blond woman, he turned on his heel, and sped from the alley, leaving behind the gruesome mess to be picked up on by the idiotic authority figures of this wasteful city.

---

"What do you want?!" the man had spoken brute-fully towards the person he had come to meet at the large and well-fully accomplished mansion. The woman that had sent the message for him, the woman that had summoned him, smiled at him darkly—the same smile the blond girl had given him—from the end of the dining table in the feast hall, having enjoyed her masterfully crafted dinner, only to summon him. He stood at the other end of the table from her, though casting murderous glares towards her faceless companions that sat with her. She dabbed her red lips with a napkin, and then stood up from her chair, positioning herself into a majestic posture, as her shadows watched her and looked from her to the man that stood before them, angry, annoyed, and craving to slit this woman's throat, wanting to watch all that blood to flow from within.

"Ynve, I had the pleasure of reading the Worldly Newspaper this morning, only to discover there was a massive killing spree last week in London. The culprit was never caught, left behind no evidence, no fingerprints, and is highly 'suspected to be involved in or a copycat of previous murders in Tokyo, San Diego, New York, and Belgium.' Would you have anything to do with any of these murders?" the woman asked of him, throwing her long, curly black hair behind her shoulders, revealing the elegance of her black dress, and she stared at the man—cold, hard, dark, with the same black eyes—with a glare of expectancy and trying to read his dishonesty. He knew that she had this ability, so instead of blithely lying to her, he decided to find another way of not admitting the truth.

"Courtney, what would you do if I was involved in those murders?" he asked of her, using the very name that would allow him to go on the offensive. At the use of that name, he immediately saw a change in her posture, a change in her tone. She became tense, hardened, enraged, and in one nanosecond, she went from graceful queen to infuriated demon.

"DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME THAT! YOU KNOW WHAT TO CALL ME!" at the heightened tone in her voice and the anger that rose up, her shadows murmured and billowed, as if a wind had crossed over them. They started growing darker, and the man grinned, having realized that he had obtained what he had wanted. Despite the constant criticism he received of not being able to control himself, there seemed to be no such thing as control when it came to this woman's emotions.

"Fine. Mistress. What would you do if I was involved in those murders? What could possibly happen?" he asked of her coldly, having realized that she would be more focused on controlling herself than trying to control him. She calmed herself down—sipping from her wine—and then spoke to him in a manner similar to as if nothing had happened.

"Luna has been keeping a close eye on you while you go out searching. She informs me that you are working on no clue, no evidence, and no information. Do you realize how reckless that is? You could easily give yourself out! We can't afford one of Them finding out about you," the woman told him composedly, her body suddenly tensing and her eyes darkening.

"None of them will find me. Like you had read in the paper, I leave behind no evidence, no fingerprints—"

"That is because you have none! You're not human, remember!?" she snapped at him, and once again the shadows billowed due to her annoyance.

"Doesn't matter. They have technology that can detect us, that can find us. They haven't found me yet. Do you think they honestly could if I keep hopping around from place to place?"

"Well, that's all about to change. I have an assignment for you, and this will help you in controlling your powers."

"I'm not doing it."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm not doing it. I have things I need to do. You know who I'm looking for, Mistress, so don't pull some shit of an assignment on me," he told her quickly. She raised her eyebrows—perfectly waxed eyebrows—at him, and then she leaned over the table, glaring at him menacingly.

"You will do as I say. This assignment will help you, and it could possibly aid you in finding her. You are working on no information, and this might help you," she told him commandingly. At the words she had spoken, his interest was peaked, and he smiled at what she had to say.

Instead of even speaking to the man, she instead gestured towards the table in front of him, and his black eyes narrowed in suspicion, but they fell on the manila folder on the ledge of it, his interest suddenly skyrocketing when he at once recognized the name on the tab of the folder. His black eyes suddenly filled with climaxed flames of excitement, ambition, exhilaration, and realization.

"Where did you get this?" he asked of the woman with stimulation in his voice. The woman merely grinned as she regained her posture in front of the table, her black eyes boring into his, her fingernails—black as well—gently caressing the side of her face as she answered him in a rather toying manner.

"A source had received this information long ago, but we didn't know what it meant until just a week ago. You would be quite familiar with it, and I can assure you that you might have some pleasure on this assignment. Luna will accompany you on this mission," she informed him.

"I don't need a babysitter, I'll do just fine on my own," he argued with her, but she returned a dark glare in his direction.

"This assignment will have multiple groups of them involved, as they are searching for the exact same thing that you are. Their objective, though, is to protect her from you. Be wise, Ynve. Luna is only going with you for backup, nothing else," she informed him, and he only remained silent when he picked up the folder, reading the two words that existed on the tab. Just those two words alone extinguished a powerful and roaring sensation through the man, and he opened his mouth to let out a laugh that echoed through the mansion, filling the night sky with terror and shaking the very core of the darkness with the haunting evil that existed within it.