Forbidden Fangs

Chapter 7

Luchaver re-materialized on the roof of the building, just a few steps shy of his invisible ship. He lifted the cloak with a simple command through his neural connection and ducked inside as the door melted open. Sealed back within his metal vessel, the vampire reclined in his chair and breathed deeply. The wound on his shoulder throbbed; the slayer's steel had been strong. Again, the so-called elite minds of Wythiria had underestimated the human population of Earth. They'd expected that the seeds of legend they had sewn before departing the ocean bound world would make their memory fade into oblivion. Clearly, some of the humans still remembered, and had sufficient technology to detect the arrival of a Wythirian spacecraft. What else would explain the slayer's presence in Kylie's apartment?

The ship vibrated as it lifted off from the roof and powered through the night sky, sailing low over the buildings of the town of Wallgrave. Luchaver piloted it using only his mind; his hands were occupied applying a bandage to his wound. It would heal quickly - it was not deep, and Wythirians boasted recovery far superior to that of humans - but dressing it settled some of the fire coursing through his veins. He had not been expecting a fight any more than he'd been expecting the female to resist his compulsion. The minds of humans were thought to be weak and defenseless, always vulnerable to vampiric neural technology. All experiments performed on the livestock kept on Wythiria had shown one hundred percent success. Perhaps there was something different about the minds of earthlings. Perhaps developing in freedom rather than captivity had made a difference in the function of their brains.

But the compulsion had worked on the young male Luchaver had consumed. The vampire frowned deeply as he finished applying the bandage to his shoulder and assumed the ship's manual controls. He gained altitude as his vessel left the town behind and flew out over the tall trees of the forest. The moon and stars looked down on him from the inky night. On the long journey to Earth, he'd felt surprisingly at home floating through the vast darkness. He almost felt as though he would be able to navigate his way back to Wythiria based on his memories of the stars, although he knew that was impossible. A part of him longed to embark on the return voyage, to once again seclude himself in space before bringing the glorious news to his people. But another part of him knew he must stay long enough to kill Kylie. The network of vampire slayers was still discredited; that much had been made clear when the slayer failed to fire his weapon. But a normal, everyday human swearing witness to a vampiric attack… that might be enough to give the earthlings warning, and so she needed to die. Even so, a final, hidden part of Luchaver wanted to keep her alive, at least long enough to taste her. Long enough to talk, perhaps, and hear her voice. She was not at all like the livestock humans farmed by the Wythirians.

Luchaver steered his vessel towards a gap in the trees and touched down in a tiny clearing nestled against the nape of a large hill. He switched off the main power systems, leaving only enough energy flowing through the conduits to fuel the ship's cloaking system. He activated a small panel beneath the heat shield and the translucent glass became black and opaque, casting the interior into nearly total darkness. Luchaver could still see, his powerful dark eyes showing him the outline of his bandaged shoulder. His lower lip curled into a silent snarl. Before he dealt with Kylie, he would kill the slayer who had interrupted him. The human had been well armed and skilled, and such proficiency had taken the vampire by surprise. It would not be so the second time they met.

As the sun rose, its brilliance kept out by the opaque windscreen, the vampire could not help but reflect on the weakness inherent in his race. A mortal allergy to the light provided by the stars, a genetic defect which even their most brilliant scientific minds could not dream up a means to correct. Many of the weaker Wythirians who gave themselves over to worry theorized that their weakness would one day be the downfall of their race. But they were prudent. On Wythiria, they lived beneath the ground, in vast caverns, and only ventured above in times of need, and at night.

When they colonized Earth, it would most likely be from the skies. Earth's lone moon would make an ideal base of operations to begin from. They would fly down in their great ships and capture earthlings by the thousands. With the power of this fresh, untainted blood source, they would surely see new advancements in technology. Their scientists would be incensed, and well rewarded. Earth would give them the strength they needed to go out and conquer other worlds. For surely some of the planets visited by Wythiria's other explorers would be able to support life. Perhaps they would find a new food source, even better than the humans of Earth. Perhaps there would not be a need to kill or capture them all. Perhaps…

Luchaver blinked his obsidian eyes. He had been thinking about the woman again. Kylie. He wanted to taste her, and not just her blood… her lips, her skin, her everything. He heaved a sigh and settled back in his reclined chair, fixing his mind deliberately elsewhere. He would sleep through the day, safe within the woods, and the next night he would fulfill his duty.