Beyond Death

Preface: Adrian

A/N: This chapter has been re-written since the original release in 2015 so please consider this when surveying the comments. Thanks and enjoy! 

PREFACE: ADRIAN

London, September 1887:

The clouds hung oppressively low in the bleak London sky; so large and threatening that even the drunkards had staggered away to some kind of shelter. No one dared venture outside when the frigid night air was so thick and easy to pierce. Above where I stood the heavens were brooding and storming, swirling as though with rage. It felt like a single breath would turn into a hurricane and haul us away into the hell above. The wooden deck beneath us groaned. The passing wind forced a foul odour to pass beneath my nose, drawing my attention back to the scene at my feet. At my side, Amadeus shuffled uncomfortably as the coppery scent reached him, too. It sure is a foul smell, no matter how many times you meet with a corpse.

"It definitely doesn't smell like roses," I mused in response to his unusually dull, lifeless tone. 

His eyes met with mine, the green washed a shade of blue against the moonlight. He had grown so accustom to me hearing his thoughts that it no longer bothered him. We had been partners in combat for so long, I hardly needed to pay the thoughts heed to know how he would react. It was an awful sight to behold, no matter how many dead you had seen--limbs spewed in an unrecognisable splay; dark, coagulating blood staining the wood of the deck. The smell was repugnant, as any dead body tended to be, but holding an intensity in it's scent that had brewed for many days.

This will be shit to clean up.

A sigh fell from his lips as he ran a hand through his golden hair. I could hear him trying to mentally will the image of the woman from his mind as he turned away towards the water, sloshing against the barnacle covered pillars below. Surely, it would be horrendous to clean but it was a necessity, lest a human found it and caused a scene. We had enough to worry about without Victoria raging about another one of her people dead. If we were to convince her of our ability to coincide with humans, a mutilated corpse was surely not the best way to do so.

"Call Lucien," I ordered, addressing his thought. "He can organise having it cleaned. We will search the perimeter--see what we can find. It is our responsibility to deal with anyone who goes against the decree of the High Court."

Amadeus nodded, still staring over the water glowing with the moons rippled form. He slid his hands back into the pockets of his coat and fled in the opposite direction to me. It was an arrangement we had perfected over the years--seperate, scour and then come back together. Kill or apprehend whatever we meet along the way. Amadeus' exceptional hunting abilities and keen nose meant that he would usually find anything well before I did, but we continued our coordination nonetheless. Not all important information held a scent.

Snaking through the wooden shipping containers and the sleeping homeless brought nothing to my attention. No incriminating voices bombarded my mind, simply sitting dormant as distant whispers that moulded into a light thrum. I was alone in my part of the dock, the humming in my skull interrupted only by the pounding waves below. I began to believe our search was fruitless until a resounding cry assured me that the perpetrator--the criminal--was in our midst. His fear slammed into me, as loud as though he was right beside me as he cried for mercy and tried to breathe against the steely fingers pushing against his windpipe. Amadeus was promptly by my side and we followed the ferocious shriek towards the end of the dock.

A substantial wooden container concealed Lucien's form, holding the floundering youth by his throat as he clawed at his hands and hissed between his teeth. My friend was but a silhouette against the moonlight, unmoving and graceful as always, staring at him with his cold, angular eyes. His thoughts betrayed his normal calm persona as he fought to try and not rip out the young boy's throat in an instant.