Devil Inside

Food And Entertainment.

“The blood movement, is that what you were talking about when you told me about those vampires who see humans purely as food and entertainment?” Elsa was thinking back to the conversation she’d had with Marcus while Kate had lain sedated on their sofa.

“It is,” Marcus confirmed, “They create new vampires and introduce them to savage feeding habits immediately, teach them that it’s the only way to do things. It makes them much harder to rehabilitate.”

“They also go after those vampires we have helped and try to bring them back on side,” Gray added, “By force if necessary.”

“That’s what you mean by problems then,” Elsa didn’t like the sound of Vincent and his friends one bit.

“Exactly,” said Marcus. He pulled out three more photographs and placed them alongside that of Vincent. The first was a tall, lean man with silver hair. He must have been in his fifties when he was turned but, like all vampires, had that oddly youthful look of perfection to him. His eyes were a piercing, icy blue and very few lines marred his distinguished features; he was handsome but his face was cruel.

“This is Elliot Holt, he’s at a similar level to Vincent we think as he gets around a bit. Both he and Vincent seem to move from place to place setting up groups to do their bidding then moving onto their next target. These two are lower level.” He pointed to a girl of about fifteen who had a real street urchin look about her. A cigarette hung out of her mouth, her scruffy hoody swamped her petite frame and she looked like she thought the world owed her something. Her face and hair belied the picture of a street hardened ruffian, her fair skin was like polished marble with a dusting of freckles, her green eyes glowed and her flaming red hair hung in perfect waves around her shoulders. She was a vampire masquerading as a teenage tear away.

“Maggie Stuart,” said Marcus, “Turned by Vincent twenty years ago, when he says jump, she asks how high.”

Finally he pointed to the fourth picture, “And this is Robert Armitage, he’s pretty new, to being a vampire and to us. We only know he’s linked because we’ve seen him with Maggie.” Robert was not as obvious a vampire to Elsa as the other three. For starters he had heavily pockmarked skin that must have been that way before he was turned and his mousy coloured hair was thin and straggly. It was difficult to pin point his age but Elsa suspected that whilst Maggie was trying to pull off the street kid look, Robert had probably actually been one at some point, his teeth were visible and they didn’t look like they’d had regular care from anything like a qualified dentist. Elsa couldn’t help but wonder if his fangs matched his teeth or if they would be the pristine white fangs of any other vampire.

She indicated to the other pictures on the left of the screen, “Who are they?” she asked.

“We don’t know yet,” Gray said, “We’re working on finding out.”

“And are they all here? In this country?”

“Yes,” Gray almost growled and a look of disgust contorted his features, “They’re spreading like a disease.”

Elsa would have flushed if she could, Gray was talking about vampires as if they were germs to be eradicated; she was a vampire and she didn’t like the feeling that these people on the screen were ‘her kind’, or that anyone might ever refer to her that way.

Gray quickly realised he might have offended her, “I’m sorry Elsa,” he said gruffly, “I didn’t mean that to sound the way it did, not all vampires are like them I know. I just meant that type of vampire –“

Elsa stopped him, “It’s ok Gray, I know what you meant,” she shook off her discomfort and looked back at the screen, “What happens next?” she asked, “What is Haven going to do about them?”