The Empty World | The Empty World Sequence [complete | rewriting]

"Twenty-six" (Draft 2)

"Yeah, I love you, Boss," River said with a hint of a telepathic laugh.

Morpheus went slowly down to the main hall. The palace was far from quiet. As they had every Halloween guests were there in terrific numbers, and the concert hadn't quite started. Morpheus saw Zulekha and her brother Christian leave the house dressed up in black.

Julien came down, he had on a fishnet shirt, and usually he wore tailored jackets on stage. "Ready? C'mon," he said quickly. It seemed that it was easy for Julien to do things fast. Morpheus thought he remembered Joy once saying that when Julien first got the blood he would move about in a blur without even knowing it.

Julien ran to the garage and pulled his Ford Vampyre out. The passenger door lifted and Morpheus ducked in. They sped down the concrete drive to the gate, Julien tapping at the keys of the onboard computer. "Thing better know where the stadium is cuz I don't" he said as they sped out the gate.

"Stadiums like that are always on maps, all tourist type sights are."

The car beeped in a series. "Got it," Julien said. Morpheus glanced at the speedometer. And then he looked to his side at the blur of scenery. The inertia didn't effect him so much, but he knew 130 mph wasn't a very safe speed.

"You can drive this fast all the time?"

The car made a different sounding beep. Julien glanced up through the windscreen and made a right turn. It looked so easy for him, he hardly even touched the wheel. "Well, Joy could never do this, but I'm really good at it," he said. "I had them put racing tires on it, their rated for speeds over 100 mph. Had it past 200 going from New Orleans to New York in a day once."

"You don't worry that you'll hit something? If the car hits at this speed you'll probably be caught in an explosion if you're not decapitated first."

"I'm not afraid of dying, just pain. And I've got so much of your blood in me by now I doubt I'll ever be burnt again."

The car made an entirely different beep and Julien made a left turn.

When they got through security they found the backstage area crowded with people who all seemed to have passes, or know somebody. Moira yelled at them, said Toni was already on stage.

By the time Julien had to go on stage for Velvet's set more guests had arrived. Julien went on stage with Amadeo, Shade and Joy, and the music started, but before a song was over others had run onto the stage and were dancing. The audience was going mad. Morpheus came onto the stage from the ramp at the back and stood at Julien's side.

It was all too easy for Julien, he hardly touched the keys, just stood and thought about the sounds playing in the right sequence. Most of it was programmed to begin with. But everyone had always known they had only made Julien a member of the group so they would have a good excuse to make him come on the tour.

Angel came on stage from behind, and she led by the hand, Andrew. They were both dressed up in sexy black clothing, everything tightly fitted and scantily cut. And it became obvious shortly that Andrew was no longer Human.

Julien left his keys and hugged them both. Morpheus took over playing.

"What happened" Julien asked.

"Your sister gave me a heart attack," Andrew smiled, "she never told me she was a Vampyre."

"And you just turned him?"