The Nightrunners

            About the same time Elliot’s brain finally made the connection with his words, it likewise connected the taste of the blood from his lip to the contents of the metal cup. Blood. He felt nauseous. His throat tightened like a constrictor, saliva flooded his mouth and his stomach churned. He didn’t want this. Not in him. Where had the blood come from? What if it was infected with something? The man saw the look in his eye and knew what was coming. He stepped back out of the way and signaled for someone to release his hands. Elliot felt metal between his wrists and then the rope was slashed and he fell forwards, hands to the ground as he heaved again and again, blood pouring on to the ground, mixed with the baked beans of his breakfast. He gagged and dry-heaved until there was none left and a bottle was offered before him. He checked to see what was in it this time before drinking. Water. He swallowed and swallowed and then threw up again, satisfied to see swirls of thicker pink in the clear. He managed to drink some more against his resisting throat, and then sagged sideways.

            He pulled his legs up to his chest and tried to stop his shaking. His breath came in ragged gasps and his body was wracked with shivers. Too much. It was all just too much to take in. He whimpered and then felt the tears hot in his eyes, burning with salt until they brimmed and coursed down his cheeks. He felt himself being lifted, carried somewhere and set down again. No one spoke, and for that he was thankful. They touched him as little as possible, and then left him alone.

            Eventually, Elliot managed to get his breathing under control. He looked around the room he’d been left in, full of rolled-up carpets and stacks of paintings leant against the walls. His mouth tasted of bile and acid with still a strong taint of iron. He reached for the door handle but found it locked. He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth and shouted furiously, kicking at the lock. To his surprise, the frame shattered and the whole thing fell outwards, leaving him to storm over it and into the room beyond.

            His pulse was racing and he could hear it thundering in his ears. He saw a wooden throne at the end of the chamber and his vision tunneled in on the figure stated upon it. He charged forwards—not really sure what he intended to do once he got there. Something moved at him from his peripheral vision and his arm instinctively swung out. He heard a heavy grunt and a crash moments later, but he wasn’t sure from what. At any rate, he didn’t pay it any heed. He was already at the throne and his hands reached out for the man’s throat. The room shifted around him and the throne seemed to move further back so that his grasping fingers fell short.

            The man’s legs swung up and caught him in the chest, hurling him back and to the floor. Elliot grunted and tried to rise, but immediately felt a knee pressing down across his larynx.

            He gurgled and looked up at his opponent, their eyes locking. It was the Indian again. His face looked pained, but serene and he spoke quietly.

            ‘Be still little one. My name is Aker, and I’m not going to hurt you. No one here will.’

            Elliot felt the knee across his throat lift slightly, allowing him to breathe, but the limb remained firmly pinning him in place.

            ‘What did you do to me?’ he snarled.

            Aker’s expression didn’t change. ‘We didn’t bite you kiddo. As far as I can tell, you’re an illegal fledgling, so by all rights I ought to kill you. It’s the law.’

            Elliot’s eyes bugged.

            ‘But I’m not going to. Now, I’m going to let go, so sit up and behave yourself.’ Aker lifted his knee slowly, and then moved clear of the boy. He returned to his throne and slouched into the frame.

            Elliot sat up, rubbing his esophagus, and looked about. Another man was pulling himself from the wreckage of what had been a dresser across the room. He looked up at Aker again. ‘So I’m a vampire.’ Something in his tone made the seated man look down at him with raised eyebrows.

            He snorted. ‘What, just like that? You’re ready to accept it at face value?’

            Elliot shrugged. It explained things, didn’t it? His strengthening body, his heightened senses, and the bouts of clouded vision that came over him. If that was it, then maybe being a vampire wasn’t like the horror movies said it was.

            ‘Forget what you think you know about Vampires, because it’s rubbish.’ Aker waved his hand to the man behind Elliot and he left through a set of doors, closing them behind him. ‘Dracula, Nosferatu, all of it’s tripe. We’re not a super race, we’re not demons or devils. We’re an accident. An Aberration. We’re just infected.’

            Infected? Elliot’s ears perked up. Was there a cure then?

            As if reading his thoughts, Aker’s next words crushed his hopes. ‘It’s a parasitic virus that binds to our cells and alters our DNA. If there are medical miracles, we’re the medically damned. Don’t get your hopes up for a cure either. The only cure is death.’

            Maybe it was as bad as the movies said. ‘So what do I do?’

            Aker laughed. ‘Whatever you want to do. You can choose to live the way you used to Elliot, or you can enter into the Vampire community.’

            ‘How do you know my name?’ He tried to remember if he’d said it before.

            ‘Duat.’ He extended his hand down to the boy. ‘Duat is what we call it—everything. The Underworld, the Realm of Undeath. This… disease. Every Vampire is linked through the parasite, through the web. When you…’ he chuckled, ‘kissed me earlier, you connected to the web. And when you did, you broadcast all your thoughts to everyone in the room.’

            Elliot took his hand and felt the shock run through him again. The fog rose up around him and the lines sprang out from underneath him. Aker seemed coated in a fine mist of glistening dew, but his voice was still clear.

            ‘You’ll need to learn how to control it, so that you don’t do this every time you touch another of our kind.’ He pulled his hand away. ‘While you’re in Duat, you can see every other Vampire who is connected, but they can all see you.’

            Elliot sank to the floor again. ‘Why do I feel like you’re telling me this so you can turn me loose, guilt-free?’

            ‘Because I am.’

            ‘But… Where am I supposed… Can’t I stay here?’

            Aker inclined his head. Not a nod, but not a denial either. ‘This is my clan, my family. You are not a member of it. Every one of them is one of my children, I made them. I watched them and chose them.’ He looked piteously on the boy and sighed. ‘You can come with us tonight. I’ll give you that chance to prove yourself.’

            ‘What do you want me to do? Because I’ll do it! Just don’t leave me on the streets like this—‘

            The whole throne seemed to sink and shunt forwards so that their faces were almost level, and inches apart. ‘Don’t be so eager to make promises. Not everyone is as welcoming and forgiving as I am.’ The room warped again and the throne shifted back to its place. ‘For tonight, you just have to do is keep up with us. That’s all.’

            ‘Where are you going?’

            ‘Wherever the wind takes us tonight. We’re the Nightrunners.’

            There was a knock on the double doors and they parted. A young woman poked her head through and then stepped in fully. ‘The sun is setting.’

            Aker rose and straightened his shirt, passing Elliot. He motioned for the boy to follow him and then joined the woman, passing through the door into the next room. Elliot took a moment to gather himself before running after them.

            Justin, Alyssa and Byron crouched around the corner of the hall, watching the sun streak the wall in orange glory. They waited until they couldn’t make out any difference between the shadow and the light from the open door, before finally moving into the corridor.

            Byron slammed the door shut and shouted for Shelly. The smaller man came through holding Elliot’s discarded shirt from his brief stay. He took a seat in the living room and lit a cigarette, blowing the smoke out in front of him. The shirt was folded across his lap and his hands danced through the smoke, touching the fabric every now and then. He dragged the image out of the smoke, but it kept rupturing and fading. His fingers danced faster, working on a smaller picture.

            ‘What’s wrong with it?’ Justin asked over his shoulder. ‘Why’s it doing that?’

            ‘He’s moving. Fast. I can’t get a picture of where because it keeps changing. He’s still in the city though. Downtown somewhere.’ He paused. ‘On the rooftops I think.’

            Byron looked at the twins. ‘Cassandra wanted us to keep him here, so bring him back. Try not to scare him if you can but… Do what you need to do.’

            They nodded and ran out the door, pelting their way down the darkening evening streets, heading in the general downtown direction.

            Byron looked at the rest of the household that had assembled in the living room. ‘Alright everybody, they’re going to need some help. Spread out and find him.’

            Elliot was surprised by how many of them there were. All waiting in the room he’d been tied up in. His sick had been cleared away, as had the chair and rope. There were at least two dozen of them. They looked to Aker as he came in with the woman, and Elliot in tow.

            ‘Let’s head downtown tonight. I need to speak with Erebus briefly.’ He touched the arm of the girl beside him, nodded towards Elliot, and whispered so only she could here. ‘Keep and eye out for him tonight. Fill him in on a few things if he makes it to the bar—but if he falls behind, leave him. He’ll have to pull his own weight.’

            She nodded and moved away from him, hovering near Elliot, but not close enough to be taken notice of.

            Aker turned his eyes to the man that stood by his shoulder. ‘What is it Thomas?’

            Thomas cleared his throat. He happened to be the man Elliot had flung through the dresser earlier. ‘Is he with us then?’

            Aker reached up and stroked his hair. He pulled his head close to his mouth and kissed his cheek while whispering. ‘Don’t worry love; he won’t be able to keep up. He’s still a fledgling.’ He released the young man and whistled, the signal to move out and the poured down the hall, past the ‘Hellcome’ sign and out into the street, running together like a pack.

            Elliot followed them, at first keeping pace easily, but despite his daily exercise, they quickly started to pull away. He ran faster and almost missed the sudden turn they took down an alley. Some of them were talking ahead and laughing, but he couldn’t hear what about, and then they weren’t running, they were leaping through the air. The ground took on the hollow beat of wooden planks and rose up in a ramp. The others were leaping from the edge, hurtling through the air to a low rooftop.

            He fought the impulse to close his eyes, so as not to trip and when the ramp ended, flung himself clumsily forwards. His feet made the edge of the building and an arm reached out, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him forwards. He looked at the girl in surprise, but she didn’t give him time to pause. He started running again immediately, trying to catch up with the group. He willed his legs to take him faster and slowly closed the gap with her. He calls his thanks as they pulled level, and she nodded once in acknowledgement. Ahead, the others were doing tricks, flipping of building sides and swinging around television antennae. They reached a pointed roof and the pack began to fling themselves over it, some flipping, some running part way up and then catching the rim, before hauling themselves up and hurtling over feet first. Elliot gulped and ran up the tiled surface and ground to a halt at the edge, waving his arms to keep his balance and not fall.

            He watched dumbfounded as the others launched through the open space past the roof. When they hit the wall of the next building—at least eight feet away—they launched back again, going lower and repeating the action off of the building he stood on. The girl who had helped him before, this time offered no such assistance. She leapt with the rest. It was three rebounds before they reached the roof level below and carried on running across the terraced surface.

            ‘No way in hell am I doing that!’ But apparently, they didn’t notice or care that he had fallen behind. He cursed. ‘Right. Aker said keep up. He didn’t say I had to follow them.’

            He turned and ran along the edge of the building until he reached the next one and leapt the more modest gap of a few feet to the next rooftop. He almost slipped on the gravel, but kept running, turning so that he was following along the same direction as Aker’s pack. He jumped onto the broad ledge, leaving the gavel below and built his momentum, eyeing up the next, larger gap ahead. He leapt awkwardly, yelling with the effort of the vault, and rolled across the tiles on the other side. He sprang up right away and run to the edge, looking for the others.

            They were ahead by a good deal, but still heading the same direction. Far more elegant and skillful, they were swinging and rebounding off of every possible surface, moving with breath-taking speed. He could make out Aker in the lead, obstacles seeming to bend out of the way before him.

            The more gaps he crossed, the more confidant he became, taking larger and larger leaps. Through a gap in the buildings, he saw the others leap over a ledge and drop off to the street level and his eyes moved to his own path ahead. He was reaching the end of the block with more than just an alley ahead. It looked like a full street. He hunched his shoulders, bending his head and strained his legs. He felt a new burst of energy run through his limbs and the ground raced past underneath him. With no way down, there was nothing for it. He reached the end and threw his weight up and out, legs still running, arms flailing as he sailed over the street and lampposts. He felt his stomach rising in his throat and then gravity started to pull him down. He had the distinct feeling of his organs being left behind as he started to fall—the kind that comes over you when an elevator moves faster than you expect.

            He crashed onto the corrugated tin roof on the other side, the metal denting under him, and tried not to fall face-first. He skid to the edge and cast a glance down between the building he was on and the next. Nothing. Then, up ahead, he saw them again. Leaping from wall to wall, using windowsills as launching points. They were rising up now, coming back to roof level.

            If he kept going, he realized he might actually be able to catch them up again. He took the next leap, and then over the slanted roof, and he saw them again atop a building. He’d managed to close they gap as he kept straight while they moved higher.

            After his last success, he took the next leap with more ease, and then the next and the next. He wasn’t closing the gap now that they were on the same level, but at least they weren’t pulling ahead either anymore. Streets shot by beneath him, and lighted windows were a blur as he raced past apartment buildings. He wondered briefly what anyone would think if the looked out to see the group blazing over the buildings. He saw them drop down again between two buildings and strained. He’d come this far; he was resolute that he wouldn’t lose them.

            He leapt the last street, rolling on the gravel roof and running to look down the next edge. They were nowhere to be seen. He moved back to the edge where he’d seen them go down. Two stories below, they were gathered in the alley, waiting for something. But how could he get down? The alley ended in a wire fence, but just on the other side, a lamppost lit the intersecting back-ways. He ran to the corner and leapt, catching the metal post with his arms and feet and started to slide, his sneakers squeaking with the friction. The fence was rushing up towards him, and he saw he’d be trapped on the other side. He dug his heels in until he slowed and then pushed off with all his strength, turning in the air so that he slammed into a metal fire escape and managed to grab the edge with his hands. He hit it with a clang and the group below started, looking either way down the street as he grappled to find footing on the ladder.

            Elliot was about to call out when the metal frame groaned and then the ladder slid out beneath him. The fixtures gave and it slid against its counterpart, hurtling towards the ground. It locked off again at the bottom with a crash of metal and he was flung down by the momentum, hitting the street hard on his back.

            The group burst out laughing at the boy who seemed to have been deposited in their midst. The girl who had helped him before, offered her hand and helped him stand, groaning and wincing as he did so. He gasped for breath, the wind having been knocked out of him in the fall. And sagged against the wall. Aker peered at him through the dim light and smiled wryly.

            ‘Get a drink, enjoy yourselves.’ He told them. ‘This will take a while with Erebus.’

            The girl offered her arm to Elliot and he took it gratefully, clutching his side as they walked out of the alley onto the busy street. Looking around, he saw other groups moving together, though theirs was clearly the largest. He let himself be guided towards a nightclub, where people were already lined up to get in. Leading them, Aker bypassed the line and moved straight to the bouncer. Not a word passed between them. The bouncer simply inclined his head and moved aside, opening the door for them, and their whole group traipsed inside, the members of the line grumbling with impatience.

            As he passed the burly man, the bouncer looked down at Elliot and raised an eyebrow at him. But the girl who still held his arm slipped her arm around his waist and nodded to the man, placating him. As they moved down a flight of stairs, and the music suddenly blasted into his ears, she leant in so he could hear her speak.

            ‘Stick close to me. We’re staying out here to start with.’

            He nodded that he’d heard her, and she smiled.

            ‘My name’s Amelia by the way.’

            ‘I’m Elliot.’ He shouted back.

            ‘I know.’

            He silently cursed his stupidity. Of course she did. Aker had said, hadn’t he? His whole mind had been broadcast to everyone in the room when they’d kissed.

            She guided him through the dancers to the bar where they took seats. Somehow they’d lost the rest of the group in the press of people, and he hadn’t had long enough to look at any of their faces to be confident that he could pick them out in a crowd. Aker too seemed to have vanished.

            Amelia waited for the bartender to come to them, and when it looked like he might miss them, she slipped her shoulder out of her shirt casually and blew sweetly at him. Elliot thought he caught a glimpse of something red and mist-like in her breath, but it was gone too fast to see and could have just as easily been the light. But the bartender made a sudden bee-line for them, leaning across flirtatiously to ask her what she wanted.

            ‘Erotica,’ she said, letting it slip across her teeth seductively. She looked to Elliot.

            ‘Uhh,’ He stammered a moment, and then blurted out, ‘I’ll have a Wellesley.’

            The bartender didn’t even look at him, and his eyes kept darting back to Amelia as he made their drinks. She meanwhile deftly slipped her hand into the pocket of the man standing beside her, pulled out his wallet, flipped it open, removed a twenty dollar bill, and then slipped it back into his pocket, all in a matter of seconds without him noticing.

            When their drinks arrived, she told the barman to keep the change and then pointedly turned away from him. As if breaking a spell, he returned to his hectic duties of serving the crowd clamoring for their poison.

            Elliot used a finger to flick the two chili slices off the rim of his glass before taking a sip. He let it flood down his throat, soothing the thirst he’d developed from his run. But his stomach craved something more. He could feel the alcohol settling, but lacking.

            She looked at him curiously, and then asked. ‘So what’s it like being a Daywalker?’

            ‘A what?’

            ‘A Daywalker. You were walking around in broad daylight earlier when you found our home.’ She leaned towards him expectantly. ‘What’s it like?’

            ‘You mean you can’t be in the sun?’ Apparently some parts of the vampire myth were true.

            ‘No silly.’ She giggled as if the notion of it was ridiculous. ‘Only some of us. We call them Daywalkers. Mostly they’re from a select few clans.’

            ‘Oh. Um… it’s sunny. I guess?’ He thought back to that morning when he’d made his escape. Justin had told him not to go out in the sun… and when he’d thrown open the door, he hadn’t been followed either. Could they have been… were they vampires too? Had one of them made him one? ‘When did you see it last?’ He asked, meaning the sun.

            She shrugged. ‘Fifty years, give or take a few.’

            His jaw dropped. And then he closed it again. He sat quietly and fingered his glass. ‘We don’t age then, do we?’

            She looked at him curiously. ‘Gosh, you really don’t know anything do you? Who made you? What kind of an idiot doesn’t explain this stuff to their fledgling?’

            ‘I don’t know wh—’

            But he was cut short as she pressed her fingers to his lips, realizing what he was about to say. She looked around surreptitiously to make sure they hadn’t been overheard. She picked up her drink and stood. ‘Grab your drink and follow me.’

            He did and she led him through the dancers, deftly avoiding contact with any of them. He didn’t have as much luck and lost a good portion of his drink to being sloshed around. They reached a glass door where a second bouncer stood blocking access. He looked them both over and then at her hand clasping his, before letting them slip into the VIP area.

            It was quieter here, the glass walls sound-proofed to mute out the music, allowing a calmer ambience. She selected a seat in a far corner with as few people around as possible.

            She sat stiffly at first and the cussed under her breath. ‘What the hell is Aker playing at?’ She looked at him, then around the room again. ‘You really don’t know who made you? God, are you even registered?’

            Elliot clearly had no idea what she was talking about.

            ‘Fucksticks.’ She shifted in agitation and hissed under her breath, ‘I’m not a fucking babysitter. He said “fill you in” not give you a whole bloody education.’ Then she looked at him. ‘Ok, Elliot, because no one else seems to have, I’m going to tell you how our world works—your new world.’ She downed her drink and took a deep breath. ‘Usually, when someone wants to make a fledgling, they have to apply to our government for permission, and then the fledgling is registered with the authorities for preliminary monitoring, to make sure they adjust well. Unregistered fledglings are illegal and bear a death-warrant. So that’s why I’m bugging-the-freak-out right now. If I’m seen with you and don’t report you or kill you myself, I’m punishable by law.’

            Elliot swallowed and sank lower into his seat. Aker had called him an illegal fledgling. ‘I’ll leave then. I don’t want to get you in trouble.’

            He stood to go, but she caught his pocket and pulled him back into his seat forcibly. ‘No. Aker wanted me to tell you this stuff, so stay. Anyway, you won’t make it another day if you go now.’