Chapter 1 The return of the Executioner

The room was now silent. The pounding heat of last night subsided into sheer nothingness. My hunger is satiated and she now means nothing to me. The darkness is welcoming like it always is and nothing moves in its still embrace. Her cool hands lay on my bare chest as still as stone empty of all warmth, and life. She lay dead on the black sheets next to me. Her wrists open to the world and to the never ending darkness this room can generate.

A loud knocking echo'd through the walls as someone stood at my front door. I simply moved her cold hands to her side as I dressed in a simple pair of black pants and a black dress shirt as I left the hollow room that once again has seen another soul cast from its body to feed my needs.

There were two of them at the door. They say they're NYPD detectives. One named Thomas Troy and the other Afia Brown bored me with such talk of abductions and me being seen with the last missing girl...who ironically is lying dead not twenty feet away from two of the city's finest.

"Do you mind if we have a look around?" Detective Brown asked already looking carefully around my living room while her partner took a slow step towards my bedroom. I simply sipped my drink and said "Yes I would mind, Detective."

"Something to hide Mr. Vyle?" asked Detective Troy. I sighed deeply before answering.

"Detective Troy inside that bedroom you'll find the latest missing girl who I believed was an Ashley." I simply called from over my shoulder as I sat and sipped a bit of coffee from a mug on the kitchen counter. Detective Brown immediately drew her firearm and pointed the barrel directly at my chest as her partner did the same before opening the door to that God forsaken bedroom and gazed at the lifeless corpse lying on the satin black bedspread.

"Afia!!! She's in here!" he called out to his partner but to no avail. Afia Brown stood stock still with the barrel of her pistol aimed directly at me. Her brown eyes slid in and out of focus as my eyes bore deeper into her than any other glaze she's ever met before. I whispered gently to her as I stood and walked toward her.

"Holster the gun Afia and sleep." Before my sentence was finished the standard sidearm was securely in its shoulder-holster and Detective Brown collapsed into a deep slumber on the carpet.

"What the fuck are yo-?" Detective Troy started to say as he witness the hypnotism that just took place. I closed the distance between us in less time than an Olympic runner and grabbed the gun from the shocked detective. He immediately tried to attack with his left which I anticipated and avioded easliy by ducking under the oncoming blow and ended up behind the officer. I then grabbed the left arm and wrap my free hand under the officer's chin forcing the shoulder and head apart before rearing back and sinking fanged canines deeply into the soft flesh at the base of the neck. The warmth of blood flowed into me as flittering images of memories past filled my vision. Images of a woman, kids, and police crossed my sight as the blood filled me with every passing second.

"Damnit Malkavius you dont have to kill them!"

I released my victim at that. The voice was young atleast thats how it sounded at first. Underneath the voice of a twenty-one year old hispanic lied six-hundred years of power and strength. The voice belonged to my brother.

"Dariden" I let Detective Troy's unconious body collapse from my grip with a thud against the floor.

"These are your humans?" I spat through a mouthful of blood. He mearly shrugged and stood on the balcony where he'd apparently arrived at before saying:

"Yes brother, I wanted to see what you'd do if our secret were to become...public." he grinned. Its been over a century since I've seen Dariden. He left to go back to Spain about one-hundred fifteen years ago. It feels like yesterday me and our older sisters Kael and Shatayja watched him walk away from us to join with those old bats in Europe. He betrayed us to join them, the only other coven as strong as we were. To be honest I hated him for it. He was my brother, he discovered me alone and cold three-hundred years ago and took me to Shatayja, Kael and our father Vyle. He said I had a heart of an animal and blood of fire and the world should know my name my real name not the one my masters gave me. He convinced Father Vyle to offer me immortality and run in the darkness until the Sun itself dies and the heavens burn from its blaze, and after two-hundred years of running and fighting side by side he decides to leave us for the enemy. It took everything I had not to rip his head off here and now but I couldn't...as much as I hate him I couldn't kill him. He's my brother after all.

"Why are you here Dariden?"

"What? no 'hello?' No 'how you been for the last 120 years?"

"Why are you here Dariden?" I asked again, letting my anger pool into it this time.

"Sheesh, anyway we have to gather the others." he said dryly

"Dude I doubt Kael's gunna throw you a welcome back party bro"

"Malkavius-"

"Malkam" I corrected him curtly

"Malkam...the Old One's are on the move..." he said darkly. I studied his deep crimson eyes allowing the information to seep in.

"Surely you gotta be-"

"War is coming to this city and our small but eager nation will be wiped out of existence if we dont do something now." he finished. Impossible, I thought. if the Old Ones were on the move Kael would've felt it months ago. However, Dariden has spent the last century with them in Rome and would know more about the Old Ones than myself or Kael.

"Shit" I whispered to nobody in particular. "Follow me, Dariden."

"Where to,little brother?" he quirred crossing his arms and leaning on the balcony railing.

"We're going to see our big sister" I said. I siftly sprinted toward the balcony and past Dariden's lean figure as I planted one foot onto the balcony railing and rocketed off into the cool night sky high above the still heart that is Central Park in the concrete beast of Manhattan. A soft flapping of leather carried on the wind as Dariden rocketed up towards me as I climbed up into the lowest cloud cover.