The Legacy

Copyright © 2012 by Kymberlee Elliott. This work is protected under the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act of 1988. All rights are reserved; any infringement of this copyright can be punishable by law. Infrigements include any unauthorised selling, broadcasting, copying, duplication or distribution of the work.

Chapter One

Now You See Me

I should have left hours ago, but the book I was reading was too interesting to put down and now day had turned to dusk, which in turn had passed to night. The darkness was absolute with no street lights to provide even pockets of light. I gripped my coat and cursed at the thin material. It had been a warm day and I had dressed for it, but the night was cold and the fog that hovered around my ankles soaked my stupid pumps. Flipping my collar up I tucked my chin down to warm my nose.

Striding down the street I kept my eyes down, but my ears strained to catch any noise that could indicate that I was not alone. I had gone three blocks in blessed silence and was starting to relax when I heard it. There were whimpers and what to me sounded like a fist striking unprotected flesh. I carried on walking, but the sound of more whimpers made me grit my teeth and turn back. I slid my mobile phone out of my pocket and gripped it tightly as I took a tentative step towards the sound. It was of course coming from a wide alleyway inbetween to disused and boarded up buildings.

I moved out of the sight of the mouth of the alleyway and imagined the voices of an irritated audience if this was a film. They would be screaming at how stupid I was being and how I should walk away, after all hadn’t I said the same thing the few times I had watched horror films? Unfortunately this was not a film and it sounded like someone was getting a pretty bad beating. I had crossed the road now and was edging towards the alleyway trying to keep my motions small and the noise down. With my back flat against the building I peered round the corner and had to clamp my mouth shut against a laugh at how ridiculous I was being. The laugh died away when I managed to see what was going on.

A woman was on the floor her hands over her head as a man kicked her. My stomach lurched when I realised she was half naked, her shirt hanging in tatters around her chest. The fury at the familiar situation made me irrational. Taking a deep breath I stepped around the corner and whistled.

‘What the hell is going on here?’ The man stilled and looked up. My voice had sounded firm, but I was shaking like a leaf when his gaze finally met mine. I stared at him in horror as I took in the crimson shade of his eyes and his pale skin. I knew if he opened his mouth there would be fangs there. In the last week I had seen more people pretending to be vampires and wondered if there was a convention, unfortnately if the two rivlets of blood showing starkly against the womans pale throat were anything to go by this man was more than a little delusional. Nobody moved for a minute, but then the woman looked at me. I had expected terror in her eyes, but she looked calm and actually a little pissed that I had interupted. Jesus is this some kind of sick role play? I stepped back and mumbled an apology, but the man was fixated on me now. I stepped back and saw them, his fangs looked real and in the midst of one of the worst moments of my life I wondered where he went to get them done.

The woman stood and I was shocked to see her skin was pale and clear, not a mark in site. My gaze then flicked to the mans steel toe boots and my frown grew. The woman should be black and blue after the beating I saw; the few minutes it took for me to ponder this had radically changed the situation. The man was back to the woman and it seemed she was holding her own. The moonlight caught the glint of a knife and I decided this was too creepy for me and turned to leave, but then the man caught the woman with a brutal right hook and she flew off her feet in to the wall before slumping to the ground.

I was moving before I realised it and shouted as the man moved towards the unconscious woman.

‘Hey Drac, where did you get your teeth from? They look real, but everyone knows vampires don’t exist or at least everyone with the mental age of over five years.’ He snarled at me and I realised the teeth may actually be real. Had he filed them? I shivered, but kept my wits about me and as his attention turned fully to me I worked my magic. Gradually bit by bit I hid the woman from the man’s perception and created a projection of her limping down the alley. I purposefully glanced at the projection over his shoulder and he glanced with me. He snarled when he saw her and stalked her. The projection wouldn’t stand up to touch so I had a finite amount of time. Running to where the woman still lay unconscious I gripped her arms and hauled her up. She looked slight, but she weighed more than I had been expecting and I staggered before I could centre the additional weight.