The Hour of the Wolf

The Hotel Monolith is quiet during these hours. Even in the city that never sleeps, the dark hour of four in the morning brings a surreal calm. Like a body holding it's breath before the plunge into dawn. The cleaning service has not yet begun, and the residents have not all stopped. as I travel, I can hear the soft moans and sighs coming from one room. She is a congresswoman, I believe, in town to discuss the decline or morality in the country. Apparently, she was exploring the decline first hand, as were her young intern and one of Raina's people. I remember his cries from the night we first hired him. He tasted of fear, panic, and lust. Those things are good for one in his position. I must remember to have Raina reward him adequately.

            I travel through the hallway, and a familiar voice can be heard. My uncle Nikolas has been more fond of mortals than I have, in many ways and many forms of undress. I'm only glad my grandsire isn't here this evening. One those two go at it, it nearly breaches the Masquerade. Nikolas was with his Ghouls this evening, last Raina told me. We're both cult leaders, he and I, but where he dresses it up as a 'business venture' I have no illusions as to what we do.

            We control.

            I leave his room for now, maybe in a little while I'll come back and see if he's free. I continue my circuit through the winding halls of the Monolith. The sweet silence of night is almost tangible. I enjoy these moments. I move on to another floor, seemingly at random. My Sire, Genevieve, once caught me doing this, my constitutionals. I tried to explain, I'm a people-watcher at heart. She hasn't had a pulse in her body for almost two centuries but for the pulse of society. Society has always been identified by what is deemed at the time as appropriate behavior. I have never been one for appropriate behavior. We understand this about each other, and have stopped judging each other...mostly.

            The silent reverie of my walk was disturbed by a high pitch shriek. I moved to the side of the hallway, nearest to the windows. A young girl, using a pillow for some semblance of modesty, rushed out of the door.

            "Get out of here, you stupid slag!" Cried a very belligerent voice from the room. I watched as the door slammed shut as she approached. She said nothing, but her gaze said everything. She was not one of Raina's. I quickly grabbed my phone and punched a few buttons on the sensitive glass. It almost amazes me that this is the future, when as a child the telegraph was just being invented. I wasn't worried of the girl seeing me, from here she would see nothing but  a mass of shadows in the corner. I informed Raina of her presence, and inquired about the man in room 3729.
            To her credit, my faithful Raina had an answer in less than a minute. Diego Harper, British Pop Star. I looked to the young woman, obviously a groupie. I told Raina to send someone to her. She would know what to do. The young woman wandered aimlessly in the hall, hovering around the door. She had a young, firm body. I could almost smell her musk in the air. I moved quietly out of the shadows and approached her. She felt me before she saw me, I have never hidden what I am. She didn't run. Even panicked, this doe had strength.

            I have uses for such strength.

            "Do not be afraid, young one." I said, a gentle smile over her eyes. She stared at me then, the arm clutching the pillow falling limply to her side. Yes, she was lovely in an innocent way.

            "A-are you hotel security?" She whispered.

            "Of a sort," I replied, my voice barely louder than hers. I saw her pale skin wash in goose bumps. Her body was gripped in flight or fight, she knew she was in the presence of a predatory creature. Her musk strengthened. "Has this man harmed you?"

            She shook her head once, then stopped and started nodding. "I thought I wanted it at first, but I changed my mind. I have a boyfriend you see. He's up in Schaghticoke, thinking I came down here for a swim meet." She looked down, and I think for the first time she fully realized she was naked. Tears welled up as she realized the implications of her evening. Lust is a powerful thing, as are the other Vices. We are all bound to our Vices. Teenagers and Celebrities more so, and for different reasons. She did not come to me for comfort, she was traumatized but not completely out of her wits. This one would be alright.

            The elevator opened. Raina Jefferies was as lovely as the day I found her in the darkest street corner twenty years ago. She barely aged a day, with my Vitae coursing through her veins. My faith looks down upon interacting with mortals as equals, but as the Carthians are wont to remind me, we need to bridge the gap to survive in these new days. Raina was dressed in a long, slender black dress, each flick of the dress revealed a bit of her high heel shoes, also black. Her hair, cut in pageboy style. She was a woman of sharp angles and sharper intellect.

            "My dear," I said to the young girl. "This is Raina, she will make sure you're taken care of while we handle this."

            Raina placed her hands around the girls shoulders and immediately turned back towards the elevator. The young girl spoke again, finding strength in her voice as she stepped away from me. "W-what will y-you do?" she said, looking back.
           

            I shrugged, "I'll speak to him." I nodded, to Raina who nodded back. The girl would be given food, a place to sleep, and some money to keep her silence. As for Diego Harper...

            I turned on my heels and faced the door. I knocked very loudly.

            "What!?" Shouted Harper, his British strong in his voice.

            "Compliments of the Hotel service," I said.

            That got his attention, he swung the door open. Diego Harper was a wiry man, he had wholesome good looks that made him accessible to a broader base. He had sheep-thick black hair on his head, stubbling on his chin and lightly on his chest, stomach, arms and legs. He shaved everywhere else.

            He was drunk, that was clear in his eyes. He made no attempts to look outside for the girl. He felt it though, the strangeness that marks all vampires. He blinked, and any signs of threat washed from him. ''Yes?" he asked, assessing the danger.

            I smiled, showing full teeth. This man was a predator, and the only way to deal with predators was to prove yourself their better. "I represent the hotel, we wanted to give you something on behalf of owner. May I come in?"

            Everything in his eyes said "No", but this one did not have the strength to enforce it. He nodded stiffly and let me in. The room was a mess, a ramshackle. The cleaning staff would spit tacks this morning. On the floor, scattered about, were the tattered remains of what looked like female clothing, up to and including ripped undergarments. His own clothes were thrown about.

            He walked in next to me as I sat at the hotel rooms desk. I took the small tray that the mint had been placed on and cleared it of the white powder that had been put on it. Inside my coat pocket was a small vial of red powder.

            "What is that?" he said, curiosity taking over his fear, though it either didn't bother him to be naked with another man or it hadn't occurred to him that he was still naked.

            "Special concoction of mine," I said. I twisted open the vial and poured it out on to the tray. "I call it a bloodline."

            Harper leaned in close, and I could smell the fear and nervousness on him. "What's it do?"

            I cut the powder into a line using one of the door keycards, "Why don't you give it a try?"
            Diego Harper, idol of the month to the mortals, made his species proud when he took an already rolled up dollar bill and used it to suck up the contents. I smiled, the moron.

            "Wow," he said. Bloodline had an initial kick to it, like someone breaching the outer walls of your castle.  He thoughtlessly placed his arms at his side, and soon the other effects began to kick in.

            "Wow," he said. It was slower this time. He began to rub his biceps slowly, deliberately, followed by his chest and abdomen. He became, in short order, painfully excited. I've always been told that Lust has always been my preferred Vice, watching someone ingest cocaine laced with my own blood, I can't seem to disagree with them. I took in all of him at a glance. His eyes were pie plates, dilated to where basic green became endless black. His extremity was almost the shade of a tomato as the blood boiled through him.

            "Yes," I said, enjoying the view. "It is quite something. Lie down on your stomach."

            He did, parts of him painfully resting on the mattress. I reached to the shadows through the power of my blood, that magic that sustains me and my kind. I tapped that magic and touched the shadows, making them move and sway shifting towards the head of his bed. He did not realize the shadows were upon him until they were already gliding down his upturned comforter. He gasped in surprise, falling backwards into me. My arms wrapped around him, their strength enhanced by the Blood. In his fear I felt him tense, but also yield. His reflexes were struggling with themselves. To run or to let it happen. My fangs extended and as his naked buttocks rest against me, so did other things. Despite the banality of the scene, I couldn't help but smile.

            There are many in the Carthian Movement who will say that humans and Vampires should co-exist. They believe that Vampires were once Mortals and should remember their roots. I do not believe this. My faith believes that Vampires and Humans are not the same, that while we may have come from them, we are not them now nor should we be. Neither the twain shall meet on equal terms. They are not our equals, they are our food. Their world stopped being ours the moment we felt the Embrace.

            Twenty minutes later, and I grew bored. I licked the punctures wounds on his neck, his skin salty sweet with perspiration. The fang marks healed almost instantly. The other bruises and bleeding in various other places, well, there are some places a Mekhet just won't lick. I left Mr. Harper passed out on the bed. He was alive, but the Bloodline-Hangover would be severe for a mortal and the iron-deficiency would not help it. His memory would be hazy, and the line between what was real and fantasy blurred, but he'd know that something would happen. With a bit of luck, it would teach him a lesson.

            If not, I'll just snap his neck.

            I sauntered off and headed back to my own rooms. I wanted to visit Nikolas, but Mr. Harper's lesson had put me behind my schedule. The monolith is built like a spire, with top three floors being the penthouses, in which the Prince of New York resides-yay me- and the social elite of the Kindred-my family- also reside. Above that is the ballroom, all glass walls and black marble, with a full view of the City from it's Midtown location. The top floor is my room, it shares similar features with the ballroom, in that the walls are dark tinted glass. My rooms, including a solid wall place to sleep during the day, and my altar. My altar is simple, an uneven marble slab. There was nothing on it, simple and darker than the already. All that lay on it was an athame of jagged obsidian glass.

            My family, for the most part, are Acolytes in the Circle of the Crone. With roots as deep and ancient since before the fall of Rome, The Acolytes have always been united in their individuality. Each one prayed to their own God or god or gods in whatever way they saw fit. My Grandsire, Ramiel, was of a sect that believed that most of the Circles teachings were metaphors with which we draw power from. I may agree with him in certain aspects, but his beliefs are not mine.

            I knelt before the altar, taking the obsidian dagger in my hands. I could feel the coming of the day, I would need to seek shelter or revert back to the corpse-form most of us become. It wouldn't take long for the sun to find me here.

            "Lo Io Erebus," I intoned. "Continue to grant me the strength to protect my House, continue to help me see them through the dark places they may find themselves. Grant me the strength to overcome any obstacles that stand in my path, to surmount any trials that befall me. Thank you for the gifts given me by the Embrace, thank you for Life Beyond Death. May I serve in your name now until my Final Descent." I slashed my wrist and poured the blood onto the altar, the dark stone drinking in the Vitae that kept me strong and my body alive despite it's death.

            My nightly service over, I looked out into the pre-dawn gloom over the City. I smiled, because I knew that this City was mine.