Midnight Shadow

Chapter 18 - Memories and Blood

I knew the can. I had been here in Memphis in the early 1900's when Memphis was home to the largest brewery in the south-eastern United States. This ancient can had been the brand of beverage made at the brewery. The massive building was still there about a half a mile from my apartment downtown. This was their plan. They wanted me.

Fear and rage coursed through me. If it was me they wanted, then they were fools. Because they were about to get all of me they could possibly dream. I flew through the city at top speed, not caring about witnesses or cameras or anything seeing me at all. My rage pushing me faster than I had ever run before. It took only a few minutes to reach the the enormous abandoned building overlooking the Mississippi river. I took the thirty foot high chain link fence with a hop and crept around the back of the building, trying to find a quiet way in. The stench of the coven dwelling here was over powering. Humans couldn't tell what it was. It probably just smelling like decay and garbage. But I knew. And soon they would know that I was there too. I let my sense range out into the edifice searching for the Hill's and Mia.

It didn't take long to find them, or a way in. There was a window about twenty-five feet up the back side of the building that had been unboarded. It was an open invitation. An invitation to die. I never hesitated and leapt quietly through the opening. The stench was even more potent inside the crumbling brewery. I snuck down a flight of stairs to the ground floor looking for the source of the smell assaulting me. Masonry and ornamental iron were all that remained of the lobby and were covered in fifty years with of graffiti and disrepair. The lobby had a huge spiral stair case lining the walls all the way up the open air to the 4th floor. There was still no sign of movement but I could hear them now. The snarls and snaps of young vampires fighting with each other echoing quietly through the concrete rooms.

They were close. I would see them before they saw me. It was always that way. But it wouldn't take long. And this was a large coven from the sounds of it. It wouldn't be a rescue mission. Many would die tonight. I simply hoped I was in time to spare the Hill's. The shudder of fear spasmed through me as I crept up the stairs to the fourth floor of the maze like brewery.

As I reached the top step a moment later, my worst fears became reality.

"Welcome... Ash" a sinister voice came from behind me. I froze sensing the closeness of the presence. There was another one behind me. I could feel the power radiating from him. He was the leader.

"Please forgive me, I'm being very rude of course" the disembodied voice swirled around me again, this time from my right, a little further away. I turned my head slowly to see it and gasped.

"No!" the harsh hissed escaped me.

"Yes, little brother. It is me." The vampire looked me in the eye.

"Cal?" I whispered, unable to believe what I was seeing. It had been five thousand years since I'd seen him at the palace that night. The night we were sent to right the wrong that had occurred.  I had searched for him, knowing he couldn't die. Yet here he was. Cold. Aggressive. Changed.

"Ashyr, it has been far too long" he whispered to me, momentarily loosing the venomous hiss that colored his previous comments. "I have searched for you, for a very long time". I could feel the overwhelming joy pulsing out from him. It was true, he had searched for as long as we had been alive.

"Cal? What happened to you?" It was impossible. How could he be here? Why did he look that way? Like a shadow at midnight. Like a.... vampire.

"It's a very long story brother. Very long indeed" he breathed. "You look well, I am gratified that you have taken to your.... responsibilities so well".

"Cal. What happened to you" I repeated, I had to focus. This was wrong, all wrong. How was it possible? How was my brother, my only link to my human life, a vampire?