Cavaliere del Giardino Overture

May (Chapter 13)

A Year earlier.

The Vampire village was built on a steep hillside with shops and restaurants, houses and apartments all piled up on top of each other with a series of interlocking alleyways and a single narrow street zigzagging all the way down to the horseshoe bay below. There were lights everywhere. The holiday season was drawing to a close, but the place was still crowded with people determined to enjoy what the summer had to offer right to the end.

April and May sat in the alleyway, April wearing her mask, her blue dreads pulled in a tight ponytail as May stood on the dead vampire on the ground. "He had Snad on him and shade," he said drinking from the fallen vampire as he stood up slowly. April stared at him, her mask shining in the light. "Get yourself a drink," He said watching her lean down and take a loud crunchy bite into him, drinking noisily.

She stood up licking her lips and fixing her mask. "Do your thing," She said as May touched the bite wound healing it completely before taking a step back once he heard a footstep. "Get behind me," April heard May say as he grabbed the yellow pole from the wall.

A woman stood at the entrance to the alleyway. Her hair flowed down her back like black ink of a tilted piece of parchment. Her eyes were fox-like and had an icy greyish green hue like the first sprouts of plants in the snow. Hair so black against skin so white isn't expected in these parts. The shock and the contrast only serve to make her all the more ghostly, all the more haunting. When she turns to look her eyes are pale like the lightest of blue petals in the strongest of sunlight. And so she is prized and reviled in equal portion, sought and rejected, admired and distrusted.

May watched her walk down the alley touching the walls and stopping at the two. "You two are the ones living by my castle?" She asked. "You two have been making such loud noises at night," She had a pale face, button nose, full red lips, her eyes shifted colors so often the two didn't know what the true color was. "You both killed my capo?" She asked tilting her head. "Strange," She said watching the vampire May healed stand and walk down the alleyway leaving. "His eyes were green, You and I are one in the same, except," the Woman touched a rock next to her watching it suddenly spout legs and become a beetle. "You give life to the dead, I give life to all." She said before smiling. "Do you two have a home?" May was silent as April shook her head. "Then I give life to you two, follow me," She started walking at the twins followed behind her.

The door to a castle was opened by a blindfolded vampire. "This is Caprix, he's my underboss," She said walking up the stairs and past a bug encased in Amber. April stopped staring at it. The bug was an executioner, an arachnid. White and brown with 8 eyes following the 4 up the stairs. "Ah, that's Prip. Prip is a compulsive bug serial killer. A unique individual who was kept locked for several years in the dark deep Arachnid Dungeons, driving her partially insane. She managed to escape the dungeons by eating her own cellmate and the guards who rushed in to stop her. She was caught by our lead hitman October and brought here." She tapped the amber. "Yo, Prip," She continued up as Caprix opened the doors once again to an office. Dark, with just the light from the windows shining in.

Two lava spitting beetles stood by her desk. "These," She pets them. "Are lava spitters. feral beetles living in the high-temperature zones of the World. Most of them inhabit the proximities of volcanoes and tectonic breaches, living in groups and small colonies, sometimes around a feral queen. They're not aggressive but also don't like to be bothered by civilized bugs, which makes them almost impossible to tame and hard to share space with. Lava Spitters feed on rocks and metals to generate the lava in their bodies but also tropical fruits, local vegetation and fire mushrooms for sustenance. They can expel lava from their bodies as a defensive mechanism, but also as a way to mold the landscape around them, slowly creating caves and tunnels with the solidified magma. Interesting and dangerous bugs." She kissed the two before Caprix pulled chairs up for the twins. "Wonderful Caprix, you're free to stay for this conversation."

"Yes ma'am," Caprix nodded staying by the door.

"You may take your mask off you know," The woman said before smiling. April pulled it off and set it in her lap. "Ah, twins!" She grinned. "A pleasure, What are you two's name?"

"May,"

"April."

"Splendid, Tell me, do you know who I am?"

May shook his head as April nodded. "Madam Dracula, leader of the vampire mafia the bloodlust or as you call it, Le Sete di Sangue, I know who you are but not what you want," April replied crossing her arms.

"My my, Someone did her research," She smiled. "Well, good I can drop my sweet facade, I want to give you two a job," She said before watching the two get poured wine then blood. "I'll run you two through a test, take a drink from the blood or the wine," She said. "It'll be important later,"

The two looked at it watching it swirl around in the cup. The sunlight makes rainbow diamonds that dance upon the canvas that is the wall. As Earth turns they stretch and fade to the silent applause of eyes. The wine was a gold-colored Moselle, very soft and rich and beautiful. The two reached for the wine as Dracula smiled. "Caprix," She said as the boss and underboss took the blood. "Putting the wants of others make you both perfect candidates for something," She said as April put her mask back on.

A week passed.

The floor of the old house swirled like driftwood on the beach with the same softness new wood never has. The varnish that trapped its moisture must have been gone two decades previously, maybe more, just tiny fragments remaining here and there. The surface is so pale as to feel like a ghostly echo of the lustrous wood it once was, freshly felled with the fragrance of the forest. Caprix lead them up the stairs to a large open room, he pushed the door open and smiled. Inside were two vampires and an ant.

December was an average height black vampire, his hair was long and light blue, he was sitting next to a small Darker-skinned ant with purple hair pulled in a ponytail, in his own seat was a tall muscular tick, red dreads, black and white skin he wiped his mouth looking at the three as December nudged March. October stood to let Caprix have his seat as he nodded to it. "That will not be necessary. I don't plan on being here long," June stood behind April, having gotten in by smuggling drugs from the desert into the city. "Welcome old Le Castle Vania, I've come to tell you all the good news," He grinned. "You'll be moved soon, You're each going to casino district."

"The fucking desert!?" December laughed. "Good prank, Caprix, now who are these clowns?"

"Your replacements,"

"Our what!?" December growled. "On who's order are we leaving?"

"Dracula's," Caprix said motioning the three inside. The three took a seat as Caprix smiled.

"We can't be the casino team, November, Jan, and Sep is casino team,"

"They died," Caprix answered. "A terrible accident, A giant stepped on them." The ant gasped, December gagged, but October just nodded. "Say hi to your new replacements, this is May, he will take you spot October," The two simply nodded to eachother. "This is April, she will take your team, December,"

"My hitmen will not simply follow anyone!"

October slapped the back of his head. "Quiet."

"Lastly June will take yours March," March nodded. "The boss wants you three out by next Friday," Caprix said. "Until then you 6 get along."

Two weeks later and April died.

three weeks passed and July joined the gang.