Veridian Shores

Chapter 16 - Blood Roads

Capper's senses blazed as he drank in the human blood, letting the invigorating liquid rush through his fangs and down his throat, driving fresh wells of energy through his veins. The young woman twitched feebly in his grip, unable to draw in the breath for a scream as he drained her life away drop by drop.

Jerking his head away, he sent the human spinning with a careless flick of his wrist straight into Gliss's waiting arms. Her eyes locked with his for a moment, alight with the single oil-black daub of a pupil, boring straight down into his bones. Then her attention shifted back to her next meal and she slid her long, gleaming fangs into the wounds he'd left behind. Her eyes closed excess blood trickled down from the corners of her mouth as she took her fill.

At first he hadn't been sure about bringing Gliss with them, but eventually his desire to gain the Elders' acceptance of his new companion forced his hand. Together with Beel and a detachment of guards they'd been sent on a hunt - but not just any hunt.

The Elders of Clan Glaive needed to feed, and with the pressures of the uncertain times upon them they didn't have the time, or inclination to venture into the city themselves. Accordingly, once Capper and his companions had had their fill, they needed to bring back the finest human specimen possible to sate the Elders' hunger.

No small task.

But Breen was right. If Gliss was part of a successful expedition of this kind, it would definitely gain her favour among the Elders, not to mention garnering respect up and down the clan hierarchy.

So far, however, they were only in the preliminary stages of the hunt. The guards and the Elder-Bloods needed to feed too, so before bringing home their prize, their hunting party set out to drink its fill.

Despite her origins, Gliss clearly knew how to hunt. Their targets were alone, their paths shrouded in shadows. The pair had picked up this unfortunate human in one of the crowded dockyard markets that clogged up the shoreline in their hundreds. A simple matter of separating her from her group in the throng with a few well-placed bodies was all it had taken, and her fate was sealed.

Sometimes Capper marvelled at how easily the humans accepted the disappearances of their own. Perhaps not on a small scale, but the governing bodies (if you could call them that) never stirred into life to investigate those that vanished into the night. He supposed that plenty of people went missing without the help of the vampire clans.

Gliss finished off their prey and the woman's body was quickly disposed of into the waters of the shoreline, leaving no sign that any altercation had occurred. He watched as she dragged her sleeve across her mouth, wiping away the last of the blood. The slightest hint of enticing crimson remained on her lips, however, and he couldn't help but stare.

With the feeding finished for the time being, the other members of the hunting party materialised from the shadows. Beel emerged first, bolt-thrower concealed beneath the long coat he wore, closely followed by Finbarr's huge frame - it struck Capper that despite the other guard's size he was quite adept at going unseen. Three more guards soon joined them at the dockside.

"Good hunting tonight," Beel commented with a lopsided grin.

"The taste here," Gliss said. "It's rich."

Capper smiled dangerously. "Fat living will do that. You get used to it." Then he motioned to the guards with a flick of his hand. "Let's keep moving; don't want to keep the Elders waiting."

Needing no further bidding, the group set off through the teeming dockside district, effortlessly sliding back into the ebb and flow of the citizens of Veridian Shores. With Gliss striding confidently by his side Capper led the hunting party on, his senses blazing with heightened awareness as he searched for the perfect specimen to bring back to the Elders. He could smell the blood of every individual that washed by them, each slightly different, enticing or repulsing in their own way. Young, vital men and women pulsed with life; older individuals mellowed like fine wines. A single breath was enough to tell him whether a human was ill, dying, or in the peak of their health. Every physical and internal imperfection was laid bare by a single scent.