Woo! I've finally managed to gain inspiration for a story!
Anyway...there is a RP by the same title, but in reality, the RP is based on the story. :3 It just gives me an excuse to use my posts as "prompts" for the chapters and such. ^^
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Chapter 1: Dark Dawn
~*~*~*The thunder reverberated throughout the small valley. Rain pelted the ground below, almost as if Heaven was shedding angry tears. Raven stood in the shadows, feeling the coldness seep into his bones. If there was one perk to his damned life, it was that he could not get sick the mortal way. The blond smiled, the thought giving him sadistic amusement.
After a moment or two of waiting, Raven made his move. He silently detached himself from the shadows and sprinted toward the heart of the valley. His steps were soundless. He moved as though he was a shadow, virtually undetectable. The technology on security may have improved in the last century, but infrared and cameras were no match for a shadow of the living.
The building he came across (after about five minutes) looked more like a factory than some scientific laboratory. No smoke rose from the chimneys; judging by the state of the outside, it seemed to have been abandoned many years ago. Raven smiled again, knowing full well that the exterior was nothing like the interior. He looked around the perimeter of the factory, finally finding what he was looking for: a ventilation shaft.
Less security in the vents, of course, so it’s perfect for spying. Raven thought to himself, viridian eyes sparkling with excitement. He carefully removed the cover and crawled into the small shaft. The blond slowly made his way to the next opening. He looked through the small openings and listened. All Raven heard were the humming of the machines in far off rooms. Some of the staff were walking through the white corridors. Others were busy working on their reports or experiments.
After a few moments, the blond moved on. He came to multiple branches, but always chose the rightmost path. Eventually Raven found a vent that opened into a dimly lit room. Slowly, cautiously he made his way toward that opening. Raven peered through the tiny slits and knew he had come to the right place.
A deep voice spoke quietly in the dark. It was a man’s voice and he appeared to be speaking in German. Raven frowned, narrowing his eyes, trying to catch what the man was saying. He caught none of the conversation, despite his advanced hearing.
Well, of course not. You haven’t fed since this morning, Raven. He scolded himself. The click of a phone going back into its home suggested that the conversation was over. Raven watched the man draped in shadow call his secretary over his intercom. He spoke in quick French and cut the reply off.
The steel door opened and the lab director, Drew, entered the dim office. Raven remembered him, since he was the third (and final) scientist to experiment on the blond. His eyes narrowed slightly and he stretched his hearing as far as it would go.
“Recall the Trackers. It’s obvious that they cannot find that damned Fallen,” the boss was saying. Drew stuttered and asked a question in his native tongue, which was Canadian French. The blond could practically feel the amused smirk on the boss’s face.
“Rhea and Fenrir should do the trick,” he replied to the director. Raven froze as he heard those words. With those two on his trail, the blond was as good as dead if they caught him.
Drew stuttered out another phrase and ran out of the room. His boss laughed, as if the fear was a funny thing to the man. Raven slowly crawled backward until he reached his starting point. He replaced the covering exactly as he found it and ran from the valley at top speed.
Rhea and Fenrir…the deadliest Shadow and Tracker pair ever created by Gaia… Raven’s thoughts danced around in circles over what he had heard. Those two had blood on the mind and would take great pleasure in torturing him to break his spirit. Raven shuddered and tried to think of a location in the States for him to hide for a while. California? Florida? Washington? Where?!
Alaska. The blond stopped at the nearest airport and shivered at that thought. Vampires and werewolves hated the cold, but Rhea and Fenrir had a phobia of it. The cold froze the blood of vampires, weakening them severely. Werewolves got sick easily in the cold and most died.
Do I really have a choice on the matter? Raven thought sullenly. He would be at a disadvantage, but so would his pursuers. It was his only option.
The blond dug into his pocket and looked at the names on it. Most of them were crossed out, mainly because they had either been captured or were dead. Only eight had not been crossed off. Five of them were the recent runaways, but the other three were humans. All three of the humans happened to be working for the federal government, but were only called to work on cases involving the supernatural. Not only that, but they seemed to have unusual abilities.
I know I’m not the only one those two are looking for. I hate to admit it, but I need help, and these guys are the only ones who can. Raven grunted and went inside the airport to purchase a ticket to DC, which happened to be where six of the seven were. He had no idea where the other one was, but he could not worry about that. The blond had a feeling that he would find the last one at some point or another.
It took quite a while for the plane to finally land in DC. He was not in the least surprised, considering that he had taken a plane from Iowa. The pale youth exited both plane and building, only to stop at the entrance. Raven looked up at the stars and glanced at his watch. It was a little past two in the morning. He rolled his eyes and wandered aimlessly through the semi-deserted streets of Washington. The blond had a feeling he would run into someone eventually.
For now, I’d better find some sap to feed off of before I confront anyone. Things may not go as peacefully as I’d want them to. Raven thought with a frown. He took off through the first alley he came to and found exactly the right prey. The woman before him wore a white lab coat and was sitting on the ground, her back braced against the brick wall. She had a forlorn expression on her face and her blonde hair was in disarray.
Silently, the pale youth walked toward her. They talked for a moment or two, though the woman was suspicious of him. Once she had relaxed did Raven make his move. It was a swift death and the blond took care to get rid of the evidence of his feed. He made it seem as though she had been stabbed multiple times, perhaps by a wandering gang, and placed her body in a garbage bin. Raven shuddered, knowing that her soul would most likely be displeased with how he had disposed of her body. He moved gracefully out of the alley without a backward glance.
Raven scratched the back of his head and sighed. Abruptly, a hand grabbed the blond’s arm and pulled him into the alleyway over from the dead scientist’s. He was slammed against a wall and a switchblade was up against his throat. Raven found himself looking into cold, coal black eyes. He took a moment to look over the man who held him, but he could not see much. The man had a mullet and it was a chocolate brown color. Though lean, the brunet had obvious muscles and it would not take much for him to snap Raven’s back like a twig.
“You better start talking,
vampire. Who are you and what are you doing here?” he said, his voice sounding like two stones rubbing against each other. Raven just had a bored look on his face, but on the inside he was calculating everything around him.
“Easy enough. My name is Raven and I’m here to find some help,” Raven replied. The blond kept his tone neutral and the man grunted out what seemed to be a chuckle.
“Ah. So, you’re the infamous Fallen 59X Gaia has been searching for. If you need help, a psychiatrist isn’t that far from here,” he let go of Raven and put his blade away, “I’m Justice.”
“Feral 159F, the only experiment to use light waves as his shield and sword,” the blond absently said aloud. Justice grunted in affirmation and leaned against the alley wall. He eyed Raven warily, but he was not hostile anymore, which was a plus.
“Not bad. Who are you looking for and why?” Justice questioned. Raven relaxed against the wall he had previously held against and threw the brunet the list that had been in the blond’s pocket. He looked through the names and gave a low whistle.
“It’s serious, but I cannot disclose why right now. I need to find the others on there,” Raven said seriously, his viridian eyes hard. Justice glanced at him and grunted. He straightened himself and nodded.
“Well. How serious are we talking?” the brunet asked as he walked out of the alley. Raven followed him, easily keeping up with the bigger man’s ground-eating pace.
“Titan serious,” the pale youth replied. Justice glanced down at the blond in surprise.
“Guess I have no choice but to help you out, then,” came the grunt. Raven smiled humorlessly, silently agreeing with the werewolf.
