• It’s a warm evening the stars are all out. Over the years they’ve lost their luster and quite a few of them have died. I should know I’ve seen it happen.

    I look good I know I do. I’m clad in black tight pants and top, my knee-length boots hardly make a sound as I walk the back streets and alleys of California.
    For my age I look like a fresh 20 year old, mysterious violet eyes and long black hair, but then again I’ve looked like this for centuries.
    My name is Anushká and I’m a vampire, of the oldest, an ancient one.

    All the stories you have read, the folklore, and the movies you’ve seen do not even come close to the reality of my kind. We have unsurpassable strength, I could hit a home run and you will find the ball in a different state. We can hear as well as bats. I’m faster than sound but that comes from centuries of practise and accumulated strength there is only one who is stronger than I, Rakir, but I will speak about him later. We have the special ability to mind walk and communicate telepathically. We heal very quickly but we are subject to fatalities as well, mutilation and extreme loss of blood will cause the body to disintegrate in flames. The sun however doesn’t have the adverse effect you are lead to believe, but the eyes must at all times be protected from those UV rays.

    But enough about that, I was born in the beginning, everyone lived free. Sunuk and I were destined for each other and we were bound in a binding, a ceremony that resembled a wedding…

    Sunuk was a high pagan priest; my sister, Kyisha, and I were second in rank as priestesses. This is where it starts. One evening just like this, a ceremony brought upon this earth the plague… Vampires. Rakir was born of something unholy summoned from the depths of hell; clearly we are all damned to suffer an eternity; in what is today known as Egypt. With the awakening we were all turned. Nothing would ever be the same again. We would live forever, experience things no mortal would or could ever experience.
    Alas those days are gone, Sunuk my lover was killed in the storming of the Bastille, those French had no idea what they saw and many spoke of evil how close to the truth they were they will never know. My beautiful sister was killed, died in my arms by the hand of someone who claimed he loved her … he didn’t very live long after that.
    Rakir left us a year after the transition to spread his evil and never saw him since, only heard of his whereabouts, strangely enough seeing as the world isn’t as big as it seems and I have seen every inch of it.

    Back to the present, with all this reminiscing, you would swear I’m going soft. There is some serious business at hand; a rogue newling is turning everyone he sees, like a kid in a candy store, causing a stir in the underworld and on the verge of revealing our age old and well kept secret.

    3:00 Walking down Central Boulevard scanning the area, I can feel a bunch of newlings openly devouring their prey. The neighbourhood is sound asleep, dreaming peacefully, unaware of the nightmare happening in the dark of the night.
    I’m getting close. I can read their fickle mind, so typical newling. There are four of them they don’t sense me but they will see me soon.
    I jump onto the closest rooftop, three storeys high. I’m sprinting now a blur jumping from roof to roof. Right above them now. Three females sucked dry mutilated and discarded a few feet away. Evidently they find the situation funny; they won’t be laughing for long.
    Seemingly from nowhere I drop into the conversation, they are clearly startled by the intrusion
    “Good evening gentlemen.” I greet them.
    “Hey sweet cheeks, howya doin’?” the boldest one leers at me, a bold one he is.
    “Hey!” the other three chorus.
    Staring straight at them I burn them with my eyes, imprinting in their minds that tonight would be their last here on earth.
    This baffles and angers them tremendously. Only now do they realise that I am one of them.
    Eyes wide the leader scowls, “B***h, who the ******** are you?”
    “Me?” I strut around them, circling them then stop to stare directly at the bolder one of the lot, “I am Anushká the ancient one, but you wouldn’t know that now would you newling?” I look at him patronisingly.
    He doesn’t like this. He takes a swing at my chest with a switchblade, but I’m faster. In one swift move I dodge his futile attempt, pull out my knife from under my left pant leg, decapitate him and stab his friend in the heart and I still manage to clean my blade before they burst into flames.
    The other two, more sensible but no safer than their friends were, decide to make a run for it.
    I set off after them grabbing a meter pole lying in the gutter. Approaching the slower of the two, swipe him off his feet, breaking both legs. He screams out in pain and as he lies on the ground flailing hopelessly I crush his skull. Leaving the pole behind and him to sizzle his way to hell.
    I’m running now, faster than the wind. I caught up quickly, he’s wearing out I keep my distance; we made it as far as the highway. Good, no one is likely to hear his screams. He stops to rest no sooner am I on top of him and break his arms and legs. Falls to the ground moaning.
    “Who made you?” I ask calmly.
    “F**k you b***h!”
    “Tell me who made you and I will make it quick.”
    I kneel down to look him in the eye. He spits in my face. His stubbornness infuriates me and I begin to pull off his fingers. His screams evoke no emotion, my heart died when Sunuk and Kyisha died.
    “Tell me or I will start with your toes.”
    He’s bleeding.
    “Killer, Mike ‘Killer’ Davis.” Those were his last words.
    I sheath my knife and walk away as the flames behind me simmer down.

    Back home at my townhouse in Beverly Hills the clock reads 5:42 time for a quick snack and bed. I am a picky eater and I have my connections so I have a stash from the blood bank in my fridge. A good rest is needed; there is much to be done.

    21:00 Time to get done. George is always so reliable; he works for me, my private eye. McFarland and Son©, his father’s firm and my former employee, was killed, doing a job for me, ironically. He just sent me the feedback on the information I requested on this “Killer” guy.

    I’m wearing my black tights, my boots, a chain mail skirt and a black corset from the renaissance. My hair is slick back in a ponytail and my shades. A typical village girl on her way to a club.

    Time to go; I’m flying through the streets of California on my black Ducati to ‘Killaz Joint’, Mike’s club.
    Park the bike and stroll towards the club.
    The bouncers won’t stop me, they won’t even know about the 9” blade in my boot or the dagger in my bosom.
    I was right, I usually am, they were too interested in all the curves in the right places. The music is pumping through the club but it doesn’t bother me I’m scanning. I walk over to the darkest corner booth. He sees me and smiles he knows what I am but not who I am.
    “Ladies will you please excuse us, Mr. Davis and I have business to discuss.”
    The looks I get are all but pleasant ones but unbeknownst to them I just saved their lives from what Mike had in mind for them.

    “Now …”
    Mike shoo's them away and they leave reluctantly.

    “Have a seat, make yourself comfortable.”
    “What gives you the impression that I’m not comfortable? Or are you trying to make up for your own insecurities?”
    “Why would I be uncomfortable with such a beautiful woman in my midst?”
    He’s very smooth, but I’ve been around long enough to know all the lines.
    “Beautiful, yes but very dangerous.”
    He is intrigued.
    “As I was saying, we need to talk.”
    “About?”
    “About your disrespect and carelessness.”
    “Mm?”
    I am irritated by his mock ignorance.
    “You know what I’m talking about, but I do guarantee you we will sort out this misunderstanding.”
    I leave him hanging, stroll out of the club and wait for his next move.

    1:00 I watch him leave the club in his Jeep. I sweep over his mind, without him sensing me, to find out where he’s headed.
    I speed ahead towards Malibu beach. There are a bunch of 12 teenagers in huddled together, waiting for Mike. I hide my bike behind a lifeguard post. Stroll over to them only to see their faces fall at the news that the meeting is rescheduled.
    15 minutes later Mike pulls up with a convoy that would put a rock star to shame.
    I’m sitting on the beach facing the water waiting for the confrontation.
    Puzzled, he walks over to me, stops and towers over me.
    “You again, where are my people?”
    “Wow! You must be quite an influential man if you own people?” I don’t regard his presence.
    He doesn’t like my sarcasm either.
    “Listen, don’t f**k with me it’s not a good idea and you seem like a pretty smart lady!”
    Profane language seems to be a norm in the vocabulary of this generation.
    “Well Mike I did mention earlier that we would sort out this mess. Don’t threaten me because you have no idea how dangerous I am. But then again we haven’t formally met I am Anushká the ancient one and I have come to put a stop to your reckless behaviour.”
    “Just how do you intend to stop me? There are 8 of us and 1 of you.”
    “I’ll show you how.”

    He makes a move to bend down, I jump over him, no sooner are his goons coming after me. I pull out the dagger and place it between one’s eyes; unsheathe my knife and cut off another’s head. Retrieving my dagger I get another in the heart and split another’s skull. One tries to ram me but I break his neck in the process. Wielding both knifes I slit the last two’s throats simultaneously. Leaving a blaze in my wake I walk over to claim my prize.

    Furious with my actions and 7 of his men dead, Mike comes after me.
    “I’m very impressed but not impressed enough to let you live b***h!”
    I've been called that thrice in two days. I am not impressed; I’m going to make his death slow.

    I jump up and fly kick towards his head but he grabs my foot and I fall knocking my head on the ground. Still holding my foot he swings me around and let’s go. I crash back to the earth with a tremendous thud. Before I can move he rushes up to me with my dagger; which must have fallen in the struggle, he plants it in my chest lodging the dagger in my sternum.
    The pain expands through my entire body but I managed to hold onto my blade and stab him in the neck. Spurting blood all over he drops next to me and burns to a crisp.

    All I can see are the stars. The sky is clear it’s so beautiful; I can almost see their faces, Sunuk, Kyisha. At least I get to see one beautiful thing before I die. I hear hell doesn’t have many things of beauty …
    I can’t bear the pain anymore I’m blacking out, there’s a figure walking over...

    I’m moving. I’m lying on the backseat of one of the jeeps.

    “We’re almost home don’t worry.” Someone is mind talking to me.

    I black out again.

    I’m lying in my bed. I look at the clock on the bedside it’s 20:53.
    I hear a bustle in the kitchen I try to move but it still hurts a bit.
    Rounding the corner with a tray and breakfast was Rakir. I thought I would never see him again. The irony, my creator saved me, a damned one.

    It was just us the last of the ancient ones, together prowling the nights...
    END