Chapter One:

The Night Watch

Seattle, Washington

The rules were simple.

First, don't ask questions. The answers you'd find would be far worse than what was looked for. Second, don't leave the compound unless ordered otherwise. Orders were to be followed without flaw or hesitation unless you wanted to meet your maker- not the holy heavenly one. Third, yet most important of all, never hunt outside of the designated areas. And for the love of God, don't leave any witnesses.

I mean come on, was it really so hard to follow those three little rules? According to the echoing screams and angry orange flames bouncing off the side of an apartment building two blocks over, apparently so.

From my perch above an abandoned office tower on the west side of downtown, I watched for a moment as the bright light from the flames danced along the side of the building ahead of me. It was almost as if the untamed flame were following its own unique dance to the tragic song of fear and pain from the screaming humans below. How devastatingly poetic.

I let slip a slight growl of irritation, trying to savor my last moments of peace and solitude atop the empty building. The crime at hand would make for a long and dreadful night. From the moment I descended into the streets below, I would be consumed in handling such chaos until the perpetrator was properly dealt with and the scene cleared of evidence. It could take hours, perhaps even until sunrise depending on the severity of the crime.

Wonderful.

It was my job to enforce the rules and keep my "siblings" in line. If they could even be considered as such. I did my best not to see them as anything more than strangers I was merely accountable for. It was best this way, emotional attachments only making the job more difficult. Emotions would get you killed in such a brutal world as this one. It was best to turn them off completely.

So, I did.

I saw to ensuring that all commands from our leader were obeyed when he was unable to do so himself. Which was very often now, especially as our numbers began to grow outstandingly over the course of the last few weeks. However recently, I felt as if I were an underpaid babysitter to a handful of bratty, snot-nosed rugrats rather than in a position of respect and authority.

I glanced at the broken watch on my wrist, having salvaged it from a recent hunt. The glass casing that protected the delicate hands underneath having cracked in various places after I had grabbed the original owner's wrist not so gently. But it still worked, if only barely. It was the best I could find and made do with it until I came upon another that would fit my small wrist.

It was half-past eleven. I assumed I had fifteen minutes to spare before the general public took notice of the commotion and alerted the city authorities. Plenty of time to clear the scene and fix whatever chaos the morons had managed to stir up.

Of course, only after working in a quick snack first. I felt I deserved at least a little something for the annoyance it would cause me later.

I had chosen this particular building not just for the ability it gave me to keep a close watch on the underlings in my supervision, but because of the practical buffet it provided within the dirty alleyway between itself and one of the rowdiest nightclubs on this side of the city. It was a place no sane person would ever dare enter, knowing better than to set foot in the dark and closed-off space, save for those who thrived within it.

Just as one sorry old man did tonight. I had seen him once before, spotting him one night as he crouched behind a dumpster outside a popular restaurant on the touristy side of town. I had been making my rounds through the city, making sure the group I had taken to hunt were staying out of the public eye when I spotted him. I knew he had nothing but cruel intentions, with the way he ogled the passing women and children on the sidewalk, his scruffy and unkempt beard doing little to hid the sickening grin on his blistered lips.

The look would have been missed by a human if they spared only a moment's glimpse in his direction. But not by me.

It sent a thrill up my spine to have spotted him there, as the only thing having saved him weeks ago was the abundance of tourists surrounding him. Now he hunched over once again behind an overflowing dumpster, waiting for some poor soul to come stumbling out the backdoor of the club and into his waiting, clammy hands. Only this time, he would be falling into my unforgiving ones.

And as if on cue, stumbling out ungracefully from behind the club's heavy metal doors, appeared a young woman. Wearing tall stiletto heels that made her feet wobble like those of a newborn lamb, she attempted to make her way towards the brightly lit street ahead of her, arms out like a bird as if to provide herself balance.

She didn't make it far, the man stepping out from his place among the shadows to block her path with his heavy-set body. She nearly walked straight into him, her sight blinded behind the veil of her drunkenness, had he not grabbed her by the shoulders in a tight grip. Her frightened, pained gasp echoed off the cold brick walls of the alley.

I chose that moment to make my appearance.

In a single leap, I fell to the ground, landing a mere inch behind the elephantine man. He reeked of alcohol and body odor so terribly that even a human of the weakest sense of smell could have smelt him from several yards away. I paid it no mind, the smell drowned out completely by another so great it caused something inside of me to snap in the most delicious of ways.

Blood.

In only a second's time, faster than either human could see or react, I had the man pinned against the brick wall by nothing more than my hand around his throat. His stubby legs helplessly dangling inches above the ground as I held him there. It took him not a moment later to react to the event, eyes wide in shock and sudden fear.

I heard the woman behind me stifle a scream, and saw the sheer terror in her eyes as she finally processed the events that had happened in less than a moment's time. Nothing sobered a person up quicker than having the shit scared out of them. With a nod of my head to the street to the right of us she scurried out of the alleyway as fast as her clumsy feet could carry her. Once she was gone and there were no witnesses left, I turned my attention back to the man in front of me.

"Oh my... what do we have here?" I said in sheer excitement, my voice low as I grinned, always finding delight in their realization that the being who had captured them was far from a defenseless mortal girl. If the effortless ability to lift and pin them up was enough of an indication of my unnatural strength, the burning, bright red eyes staring right at them was what always stole the show.

I knew parents always told their children not to play with their food, but where was the fun in that?

He began to panic almost instantly, his beady eyes blown wide in terror as he began to squirm yet to no avail in my hand's hold. Gibberish was all that he could manage to get out of his mouth, all ability to form a coherent word lost. I tutted at him, lifting a finger to my smirking lips.

"Shh… now, now dear. What's got your panties all in a twist, hmm?" I asked sweetly, smiling wide in my enjoyment of causing such panic, the display of my teeth causing his terror to escalate instantly at the confirmation that indeed I was not human. He wailed in desperation once again, his hands clawing at my pale hand in a hopeless attempt to loosen my grip. I only tightened it in response.

He choked on his own saliva, his airways moments from collapsing under the tremendous pressure of my hand. Only once his face turned the shade of a ripened tomato did I speak again, moving even closer. Never ceasing eye contact.

"I don't appreciate it when puny bastards such as you take advantage of such helpless creatures like that poor girl," I said, reaching my face upwards towards his own, the heat of his suffocating flesh radiating onto my own like an oven, the blood's aroma only growing as a result. My mouth pooled with venom.

With the quickest of movement by my other hand, I gripped tightly on the gray hair that remained on his balding head, yanking his head to the side as to expose his pudgy neck. Maintaining the closeness I had held before, I leaned into his ear, standing on my tiptoes to do so. He gasped for breaths, face now purple as his time left ticked away into the seconds.

"Go rot in hell," I whispered, before gripping his throat so tightly the bones of his neck and spine gave the most satisfying crack under the pressure. Whatever breath had trapped itself in his now dead lungs escaped in a wheeze through his clenched teeth. Dropping his body from its height above me I finally went in, tearing into the skin where the shoulder and neck met, greedily draining him dry.

Once finished I let his worthless body sag to the ground in a thud, wiping my face of any remnants of the meal. Checking his pockets for anything of value that would serve me any purpose, whether it be money or a credit card, I spared a moment to take in the sight as I stood. I scoffed, rolling my eyes in distaste at the now colorless face of such a pathetic man before lifting his body over my shoulder and tossing it into the dumpster behind me. I let the rusting metal lid drop over the bin in a loud clang.

No one spared a second thought for the bodies found in places such as this one. They were assumed to be drunkards, druggies, or gang members who had simply met their match at the bottom of another bottle or syringe. No need to file a report. It made for little effort having to be put into the disposal, which for my tightly scheduled job, was simply a bonus.

After adjusting my jacket and checking my clothes for any stains from my quick meal, I scaled my way back up the brick wall of the office building. According to the lagging watch, I had just under ten minutes to spare to get to the scene of where I was sure something just short of a massacre had occurred. Jumping across three rooftops and down to the abandoned lot where the commotion was, I barely managed to contain my rage as I assessed the scene.

It looked as though the idiots had tried to catch a meal by grabbing and throwing a small car off the road and into the lot, the fire seen earlier coming from the explosion of the engine upon impact with the crumbling wall of an old building. However, looking closer I saw that such a scene as this was not done out of a desire to feed, but to cause chaos.

For a sadistic thrill. Something that was not tolerated whatsoever.

I marched over to the prime suspect of such a thing, one of the newest additions to the coven and the least experienced on the scene, a scrawny blond kid named Jack.

He stood with two others over a pile of mangled limbs soaked in the wasted blood, laughing along with what one of the others must have said. I decided I would deal with the others later as I gripped the youngest boy by the shoulder, throwing him over my own which sent him crashing into the car. A dent that dwarfed the small boy in size appeared on the side of the vehicle at the force of impact. I made my way over to him slowly, the sheer look of rage on my face and the growl that emitted from my chest an explanation enough as to why I threw him, his eyes wild in fear as I approached him.

There was complete silence as the others watched from behind, their laughter dying instantly in their throats as the realization of the event at hand washed over them. The only sound heard was the crackling of the engine's fire and the distant noise of the bustling city around us.

Jack cowered against the silver frame of the car, curling into himself as I stopped before him, the shadow of my silhouette shading his face from the flames behind me. He refused a glance up, his eyes shut tight as he lifted his hands to shield his face in mock surrender.

"Please... Please!" he said, stammering as he tried to find his voice. I narrowed my eyes, reigning in my anger as I prepared to listen to whatever sorry excuse he came up with this time.

"I swear, it wasn't my fault this time! I only followed Tom over here when we heard the commotion, we can prove it! You can go check the docks, we disposed of two bodies by the old loading annex! I swear it, there'd be no mistake by the scents that it was us who left them! I learned my lesson last time," he said, his pleas racked with sobs from tears that would never shed.

I considered his plea and accusation for a moment, studying his face hard for the slightest sign of deception in his features. The last rule he broke had left a severe impact on him, judging by his current state, the fearful tremors racking through his chest a clear sign that he did not want to endure the repercussions again. I scowled at him, before turning around to look at the remaining two.

Tom, the auburn-haired boy he had vouched for, was standing the closest to us. Almost as if he wanted to reach out to his friend to help him, yet he knew far better than to interfere. His wide and shock-filled red eyes didn't look to me, rather they were glued on his friend on the ground. His eyes confirmed Jack's claim, his wide eyes a bright red that accompanied a recent feed. Behind him stood the remaining suspect, Noah.

Noah had been a part of the coven for months, being brought in not long after our creator had begun to mold me into fitting the role I now played. He knew the rules, and he followed them well. Yet the evidence left him as the only possible culprit. I growled in irritation as I came to the confirmation in my mind, the fact that he indeed was the guilty party.

"You mean to tell me that Noah, an educated vampire, who knows better, " I stilled my gaze on the accused party before looking back at Jack, my voice low and full of anger, "did such a thing as this?"

His swallowing of what venom had pooled in his mouth at the intensity of his fear was the only sound he made, eyes wavering as he brought them to look at me. They were bright red, just as Tom's were. He nodded in hesitation, the fear of what would come from the crime rippling through his lanky body.

In less than a second, I had turned and pinned Noah against the ground, his throat in my hand as my foot ground into his chest. He looked at me wide eyed in surprise, as if he had been completely confident that he wouldn't be blamed, before showing his anger a moment later at the younger boy ratting him out. He roared in his frustration, though he knew better than to fight me off. Instead, he remained still, save for flailing his arms and legs in his rage like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum.

He turned his face to the side to glare at Jack, who sat still in his place by the car, finding it to be the safest place far out of my rage's way. Tom had moved to a defensive crouch beside his friend in case Noah charged at them.

"You nosy little shit! I knew I should have kicked your ass to the curb when you and your pal Tommy boy came snooping! And then you turn around and blame me? Do my threats mean nothing to you boy?" He roared, venom spewing from his mouth as he yelled. I simply pulled his head up from the ground with my hand before throwing it back down into the pavement to silence him, cracks creeping up his face and into the concrete at the force of the impact. He stilled again, shakily closing his mouth and turning his head back to me. His face restrained as he knew better than to show even the slightest sign of emotion towards me.

"I am severely disappointed in you, of all the survivors of your batch I had expected far more from you," I said, my voice so low that only with our heightened senses was it possible to hear, before continuing.

"And after all the mercy you were spared in the beginning... I would expect nothing but gratitude and respect from you. After all I did to keep you from being disposed of," I said, the calm I managed to portray in my voice beginning to startle even myself. It was only because of my position at the time of his creation had I been able to convince our leader that he was valuable, did he live past the first waking hours of his new life.

Rarely did I use my position to pull strings or show any kind of favoritism. But when I saw that there was potential to mold him into a valuable asset to our coven, I made a great effort to sway our leader to spare him.

I didn't appreciate being proved wrong.

He gulped, turning his eyes to something behind me, desiring to look anywhere but at my now black ones. He knew what would come from this. I spared him once. I wouldn't do it again.

I stood, walking around him towards the pile of lifeless bodies. I took in the sight, letting it fuel my rage further. Though there wasn't single body left completely intact, nearly every limb torn from its socket, I could tell there were four individuals murdered here. Their smells each unique, yet I didn't need to take in the underlying notes of the blood pooling at my feet to tell me they were related. The wedding rings on the male and female adults hands.. The severed, small hand of a child clutching a blood-soaked teddy bear... The disfigured head of a middle schooler was all I needed to see to tell the story.

A family.

"I hope you learned a very important lesson here tonight, Noah," I said, no longer bothering to hide the anger and sheer disappointment in my voice before turning back over my shoulder to look at him where he lay, still frozen in his state of submission on the dirty pavement.

"No one goes against me and survives it."