Vivienne

Drake and the rest of the band were in the upstairs rooms, connected by makeshift doors that they’d torn from the walls to make the suites into one room.  Using the band's charm with music, Drake’s troupe started a huge party with the fans that had fallen in love with them.  They provided all the alcohol and drugs that the fans needed to relax and open up to the night stalkers all around.  Sex provided the easiest avenue for the vampires to feed upon their fans.  Knowing that during the act, blood is forced faster and faster in the frenzy, the feeders waited for the pinnacle before biting into their victims.  Callous and hateful at times, the troupe members let the precious life liquid spray crimson on the walls and floor as they punctured as many holes as possible with their vile fangs.  Once drained of their precious fluid, the vampires didn’t grant the mercy of turning their food into ash, but rather let them rot in a stack of putrid bodies in one of the bathrooms.

Drake looked the part of the standard rock and roll lead singer.  Long stringy hair, a near magical voice,and tattoos of various devils and symbols trailing down his arms.  Sitting bare chested so that all of his piercings were visible, wearing only a set of black tight leather pants and holding a bottle of rum mixed with blood, the leader barely listened to his progeny.  “Dude, Drake this is boring as fuck.”  One of his younger vampires walked up and sat beside him. “I want to hunt.  I am tired of being walled up in this shithole that I can tear apart on a whim.” The vampire reached through the drywall and snapped the beam behind it. “See? Hunters should hunt, don’t you think?”

Casting an uncaring glance over, Drake responded. “Ken never returned.  Why do you think that is my friend?”  Drake’s tone was dry yet inquisitive to the younger vampire. “There has been a sunrise and he didn’t have anywhere but here to come back to.  He was as controlled and under my command as you are.  I gave him permission to stay within a few blocks of the hotel and yet he’s not here.”

“Ken was prone to being a bit liberal with his instruction.  I only want to feed on the beach a bit and come back up here in the blessed dark.”

“No, and quit asking.  Perhaps one of the guests in the hotel or a fan could use a bit of personal attention from a member of the band.  Drain one of them, and eat them all you like.  Just leave me enough bodies to make the cover of the burning building convincing."

“Fine.  I don’t have much of a choice, do I?  Fuck’n poser.”  The younger vampire flitted off into the distance.  Waiting a few seconds, Drake finally heard the sounds of a woman a few rooms over screaming and begging for her life as the youngling tore into its dinner like the leader had taught it.  “Music to my ears.”  Looking over at the twin bodies of the two owners of the hotel, the vile singer spoke to the corpses. “You, see?  I told you it didn’t matter if I kept the music or screaming down.  No one is going to be left to report this.  You two worry too much.  I think you both are much happier in your present state.”  Laughing maniacally, the elder vampire licked his lips clear of the blood he’d drained from them both, leaving the two ashen and gray, discarded among the rubble. 

The lead vampire knew that the spectacle within this hotel would draw attention to the one he’d been sent to find.  A cold dead shiver went down his spine thinking about the idea of meeting the horror that he knew as the “Raven”.  That shiver turned into a nervous twitch in Drake’s hands, forcing him to take another sip from the bottle to calm his nerves.  Letting himself feel the effects of the rum, Drake desperately tried to remove the nightmare of meeting the powerful creature.  Meeting her only one other time, the one thing he recalled with clarity were her eyes.  A crystalline ice blue gaze that drove fear deeper than the reaper itself could produce, flashed continuously from his memory. 

He’d only met the vampiress one other time before, hundreds of years prior when the troupes all gathered to discuss how to proceed in the future, setting up the rules for “the veil.”  The name of the illusion was ingenious and right under humanity's nose.  Human’s had become too aware of what they considered supernatural and had begun to turn the tide in their favor to eliminate vampires from the world.  Knowing that vampires needed to pull away from cities, the leaders decided that “the veil” would start after two generations had passed.  Once memories faded to history, vampires would move back and not over hunt, not draw undue attention to themselves, destroy any evidence of vampirism or make it look like an accident.  History proved that there were always challenges to the illusion, such as the Spanish Flu, bird flu and a myriad of other illnesses, all in response to humanity learning about vampirism in small pockets.  

Drake once again turned to face the two corpses, “I am amazed at how simple it is to fool you.  All I had to do was flash my smile and wink.  You let me into your hotel.”  He laughed at another silly thought, “Your kind even created a game around us based on a masquerade, if you only knew how close you really were.”  He tossed the bottle of blood-rum at the corpses and waited for the inevitable. “I have cast the dice, let’s see what you do now.  Crazy bitch.”

Drake wasn’t exactly excited to meet this “Raven” again, given that the first meeting resulted in all of the oldest vampires other than herself, getting killed.  The troupes had just resolved to enact the “veil” and come up with the various penalties for breaking it.  Trying to shake off the memory of how quickly she destroyed vampires hundreds of years older than him, he cupped his hand over his temples and recalled her opinion on the matter.  That opinion left blood on the walls, pooling on the floor and various left over bits of every near ancient vampire there was.  The carnage lasted only a few minutes at best.  He had watched as the Raven handled three and four vampires at a time, along with every thrall that had the courage to defend their master.  Drake recalled her visage of fangs dripping with pieces of flesh still embedded and blood dripping slowly from her lips, when she spoke to the remaining members.  “This is what you get for trying to decide my fate.  This council has no power over me and I will decide for myself if I wish to participate in your veil.”  Two things happened in that moment, Drake became the leader of the Flying Cannibals and they all learned what fear truly was.