The Greater Darkness: A Dark YA Urban Fantasy Book With Vampires

Chapter 19

The hunger was starting to get bad, but Geoffrey was worried about what would happen if he went outside to find someone to feed on. He should have moved, should have changed apartments right after or right before the hit. It would have at least reduced the chance that whoever was after him would stumble into someone in his neighborhood who might recognize him.

The thought had crossed the vampire's mind at one point, but he'd dismissed it as overreacting. Honestly though, it might have been because he'd become so used to his little apartment. It was the only home he remembered ever having known. These walls were the closest thing he had to a refuge, but now they were closing in a little more each day.

Geoffrey struggled with the hunger for another couple of hours before deciding that he could probably slip outside, find someone, feed, and be back inside in less than a couple of hours. It was a risk, but it should be a minimal one, and it would buy him another couple of weeks. If he did that, he could make it until the next time Venice stopped by. She'd be able to advise him on whether or not to move. It seemed impossible that anyone could have tracked him back to this neighborhood, or any other. There were millions of people just in Manhattan, which made him smaller than a needle in a haystack, but Venice would know for sure what he was up against.

His decision made, Geoffrey exited the apartment and headed in a random direction. Once again the vampire couldn't shake the feeling of being watched, but he chalked it up to being nothing more than nerves. Nobody he passed seemed to be taking any kind of special notice of him.

An hour of haphazard searching didn't provide any likely prospects, and Geoffrey was becoming more and more uneasy the longer he was outside, so he finally decided to swing by an area close to Melody's where he knew a large number of prostitutes gathered. It increased his chances of being recognized, but he should be in and out in a couple of minutes, so it still seemed like an acceptable risk.

Geoffrey was in the process of cutting through an alley when two figures stepped out of the shadows in front of him. Mental alarms started going off immediately. It had become almost second nature now to skim off the surface thoughts of those around him, and these guys were extremely uneasy. Uneasy, but giving off a definite sense of being ready for a confrontation. Geoffrey reached deeper, trying to establish why they were so uneasy, and then found a fragment of a thought in one of them. They knew they were up against a vampire.

Geoffrey's questing thoughts brushed up against a solid surface and he threw himself to the side as a bolt of fire streaked past him, near enough for the heat to make his clothes smoke.

Rolling to his feet, Geoffrey furiously beat against the mental wall separating him from the other vampire's thoughts. Sensing that the two humans were in striking distance, Geoffrey ran past them, slashing twice with the katana that he didn't remember drawing. The pair went down in a spray of blood, and Geoffrey ducked behind a dumpster as another ball of fire nearly clipped him.

Frantic efforts to worm probes into the pyromancer's mind were meeting with almost no success, but the sudden increase in the air temperature around Geoffrey was enough to tell him it was time to move. He was overmatched. He couldn't break the other vampire's mental shield and it was only a matter of time before the other guy lit him up and the fight would be all over.

Acting on little more than instinct, Geoffrey suddenly realized he was once again fighting defensively. Instead of running away as he left the cover of the dumpster, he ran towards the other vampire, launching a mental attack that consisted of nothing more than a crude blow of pure force.

Geoffrey's clothes had just started to heat up when the mental hammer hit the other vampire. Rather than failing as he'd half feared it would, the attack destroyed the other vampire's concentration sufficiently to save Geoffrey from bursting into flames.