Chapter Text
As the flame filled sunset blazed it's orange, pink and red hues across the darkening sky and slowly sank into the horizon, thunderous rumbles continued to sound off long after the last few rays of light had become consumed by the shadows of deepest night. A lone soldier crept as hastily as he dared across the wild tundra, convinced something was following him and forgetting about possible tripwires and land mines, he just wanted to get as much distance between himself and his unseen stalker as he could. His eyes were wide, gun clutched tightly to his chest and a limp in his walk from a shrapnel wound he'd suffered hours ago. A stray grenade had rolled too close to his unit and now they were scattered all around the place, if he could just locate someone, he'd feel better.
A twig snapped and he stilled himself, moving nothing but his eyes as he tried to see in the darkness what might be out there. Friend? Enemy? Wild animal?
Something suddenly moved to his right, so swiftly that he felt a breeze brush his cheek but his eyes darted around to locate nothing. His garbled screams fell short of being heard by his fellow soldiers, all of them quite out of range by now. His gun still clutched tightly in his hands, the soldier relaxed and slipped into a catatonic state as the vampire's fangs pierced his throat.
"Nice night for it," a calm, English accented voice came from the tree line.
The vampire lifted his gaze, still suckling upon his victim's throat and he pulled away to lick his bright red, bloodied lips with an equally colored tongue.
"Too damned hot if you ask me," he grumbled in response, eyes keen and smile wicked.
"Ah, but I did not ask you, Blake," the voice responded.
Blake's eyes darted, trying to locate the source.
"You interrupted my meal, Blaylock," Blake growled, for that voice could never be mistaken by anyone who'd heard it before, John Blaylock, the most notoriously badass vampire around, with an agenda all of his own. He answered to nobody.
A flash in the treetops drew Blake's attention, then he felt a powerful force strike a blow to his chest and he was quickly on his back, Blaylock's booted foot now pressing down firmly upon his sternum.
"Y-You wouldn't crush an old friend just for having a bite, would ya John?" Blake pleaded with the stronger vampire.
"We were never friends, Blake. Biting soldiers during a war?" John shook his head, "have you no shame?"
"You call it a war," Blake shrugged haplessly, "I call it an all you can eat buffet! Just take a look around you, John! Wounded, maimed and dying humans everywhere! It's a feast fit for a- "
"Scavenger," John growled at him, pressing down harder with his boot.
"Ung!" Blake grabbed at his foot, trying to lift it off to ease some of the pressure.
"It's pricks like you who give us vampires a bad name," John scolded him, "have you any shred of decency at all?"
"It's killing humans for their intoxicating blood that gives vampires a bad name," Blake corrected him with a smirk, "you can smell it all around, can't you John?"
Indeed he could, it was a heady aroma that drew out his fangs with wanton desire to drink all that he could devour and yet he would still be unsatisfied to some degree.
"That is of little consequence," John chose not to humor Blake, "the fact of the matter is, you're going to get us found out! War wounds don't drain a man completely of his blood, what the hell are you playing at?"
"Relax, I got it all figured out!" Blake squirmed uncomfortably, "I just dump them into the nearest river, by the time they're found, nobody's gonna be wondering where all his blood went!"
John snarled silently down at the weaker vampire.
"I should crush you," John growled.
"But you're not going to," Blake sighed knowingly, "so just take your boot off my chest so that I can get uuaacck!"
The sickening sound of bones crackling and a blood filled sack bursting under his boot came as a sweet relief for John, he had been tracking this guy for several nights and had finally caught up to him.
"Traitorous!" Blake gagged and coughed, his eyes rolling, "Eve will hear of this!"
John leaned down and traced Blake's sagging jaw with his sharp fingernail, leaving a thin, crimson line in it's wake.
"Eve was the one who sent me," John whispered, reveling in the look of betrayal and horror upon Blake's face as he stood up and smashed his face in with his other boot.
It was lights out for Blake, he might have recovered enough to be able to drag himself into a nice, dark place for the day but it was too close to dawn by now for that to be a possibility.
John made his way quickly back into town, a hasty retreat into his hotel room to kick back and enjoy listening to some of his favorite vinyl records from an era long forgotten by many in this day and age. He took two bottles out of his collection, biting the cork out of one and spitting it into the dustbin nearby, slaking his perpetual thirst with the bloodwyne contained within the glass bottle he now held to his lips. The company who made this stuff was very secretive about their methods of keeping the harvested blood fresh and edible, but John asked them no questions and so they told him no lies. He sat down in his armchair and closed his eyes, listening to the familiar crackling sounds amidst the music of his favorite LP and allowing himself to doze off for just a short while, it had been a long, grueling night and he just wanted to relax now. He'd been lying about Eve, of course, John hated that scum sucking cunt more than anything.
Eve was like a spoiled, rich queen, surrounding herself with as many other vampires as she could in order to feel safe enough to bully everyone else. She was rumored to be the strongest and most ancient vampire who had ever existed and all other vampires flocked to be at her beck and call, like some huge religious following or massive cult. Eve expected all vampires to adhere to her rule, but there were some who didn't and these scattered splinter cells were labeled as rogues among vampires. Eve liked to think that they didn't exist, or that they were so few in number that none of them posed any actual threat to her. John had to believe that they were out there, he refused to give in to the suspicion that he was the only vampire in existence with both a mind and a will of his own. How depressing would that be?
He gulped down a second bottle of bloodwyne, half asleep yet awake enough to be able to drain the bottle dry.
No, he thought hazily to himself, there are others like me.
There had to be, it seemed insane to believe otherwise and yet there they were, flocking to Eve in ever increasing numbers to swear their loyalty to her. Nobody could stand up to her, she was far too protected by her slow witted minions who, despite lacking high intelligence, were brutal grunts that could crush Eve's opposers with very little effort at all. John wasn't looking to go up against such a powerful foe, he simply wanted to be left alone and have his little slice of nostalgia wherever he chose to relocate it every few hundred years or so but Eve was leaving him no choice. John wasn't exactly an unknown among vampires and he'd certainly made his presence known wherever he went.
Eve had become intrigued by John and was by now completely obsessed with the elusive vampire, determined to somehow convince John to become her right hand man and sit by her side to rule over all of vampire-kind. Still not John's cup of tea, but Eve was a bitch and as such, she simply had to have her own way and nothing else would satisfy her.
That left John with two choices and neither one of them suited him, either join the dead eyed masses and do what he was told or be hunted down like an animal and torn apart by his own brethren. He was getting tired of running, they always caught up to him, they always found him and he kept having to relocate himself and his precious little belongings he always kept with him from when he was mortal. Something had to be done about Eve, John was being forced into a corner and there was only one way to get out of it and that was to turn around and fight back, but he could not do it alone.
His eyes opened, blood red and fangs extended from his upper jaw in anger. He would have to seek out others like himself and form an uprising, join together the various splinter cells scattered around the world into one mass army of his own and hope that it was enough to bring Eve and her followers down.