Matrix
I could feel the heartbeat of my victim begin to slow as he lay dying in my arms. The venom welled in my mouth as his blood flowed smoothly down my throat, soothing the aching burn. All too soon I heard his heart stop and his arms grew limp. I pulled away from his corpse, the scent of blood hanging heavy in the air. The weakness the man displayed took any thrill the kill may have had away. Such ignorance humans possess! The man had never seen me coming, even though I had tried to make my approach obvious. With a last pitying glance at the frail human’s body, I walked on out of the alleyway.
The cool moonlight poured over my skin as I left behind the shadows of my previous location, allowing my already superior sight to double. There were very few humans left on the streets at this hour, but their blood called to me nonetheless. For once, I ignored the urge to feed and walked steadily on. I enjoyed the look of appall in the eyes of humans as I passed, clearly they’d never seen someone like me out so late. I imagined how I must look to them; long, thick auburn hair hanging in spiral around my face, green eyes and pale skin gleaming in the moonlight, hands swaying ever so slightly as I made my way down the sidewalk. I stifled a chuckle. To them I probably looked surreal, like a goddess. But no matter what the ignorant humans thought, I had business to attend to.
The thought of my nearly-forgotten task would have sent my heart pounding, if it still beat. Heartbeat or not, the idea still sent a shiver of excitement through me. I picked up my pace and tried to look casual the last 2 blocks of my journey. At last, I reached my destination and crossed the street after the briefest of hesitations.
A long, winding drive met me as I stepped onto the opposite side of the road. I paused for a moment and took the time to take in the sight of the house just up the drive. It was clearly not your typical house, certainly not what you’d expect to find just a block outside of the city. The house was painted with rich colors that suited each other perfectly, giving the house an almost Victorian look. The doors were slightly disproportionate to the rest of the house, but somehow it looked normal. There were no windows in the upper floors of the house and the ones on the ground floor were still surprisingly small for such a large house. The hedges and plants around the entrances were neatly trimmed, not a leaf out of place. I smiled to myself and ran up to the entrance, coming to a stop at the front door in less than 10 seconds; not a hair out of place.
Before I could even lay a finger of the wrought-iron knocker the door swung open to reveal a devilishly handsome, dark haired man.
“Well if it isn’t Aubrey.”
His blue eyes glinted in the moonlight as he smirked at me.
“Cutting it a little close aren’t you?”
I glanced behind me to see the first rays of dawn breaking over the horizon. I hadn’t realized how long it had taken me to get back. The thought of being caught late, and by him no less, annoyed me. I scowled in his general direction.
“Shut up Aiden.”
He simply grinned at me and pulled me inside. The door slammed behind us and I felt a new pair of arms replace Aiden’s. The slight smell of leather and soap washed over me as cool lips pressed firmly against mine. I felt his arms tighten around my waist and after a long moment he broke away. I leaned my head against his chest and smiled to myself in the dim lighting.
“Hello Carson.”
He chuckled and rested his head on top of mine, which he could do with ease seeing as he was only a few inches taller than me.
“Welcome home Aubrey.”
We stood there for a moment, completely immersed with simply being with each other again. I would have stayed there forever if Aiden hadn’t interrupted.
“If you two lovers are finished here, we have business to attend to.”
His voice came from somewhere down the main hall. Lucky for him, otherwise I would have done something incredibly unlady-like that would have involved an awful lot of blood to fix. Carson sighed and let go of my waist, content with placing an arm around my shoulder as we walked into the living room.
The lush smell of satin and velvet met my nose as we entered the room, reminding me of the only sense of home I’d ever had. The lighting was dimmer still here, but to us it made no difference. I made out the distinct figures of our three other coven members seated on the couch. One of them jumped up and walked over to me with vampyric speed.
“Aubrey!”
Her arms squeezed against my neck as she pulled me into unwilling hug. I wobbled slightly in response to the strength of her assault.
“Hey Paige.”
She pulled back and smiled a little too happily at me, blond curls swaying as she did so. Pleased with herself, she returned to her seat of the couch next to her mate, Luke. Luke, however, paid little attention to me and engrossed himself in playing with a loose lock of Paige’s hair. Probably still sore at me for choosing Carson over him.
I rubbed the back of my neck and stood uncomfortably for a moment before Carson pulled me over to the loveseat. He pulled me into his lap and kissed my neck lightly, despite the disapproving glare he earned from Luke in doing so. Aiden chuckled and sat down on the floor in front of Noelle’s feet.
I looked at the two for a moment. If you didn’t know any better you’d assume Noelle and Aiden are a matched pair, seeing how much time they spent together and how close they were, it would only be a natural assumption. However, they are in fact twins. Noelle’s dark hair and blue eyes matched Aiden’s; in truth the only difference between the two are their genders. They are the only vampires among the six of us that were even remotely related.
The tingling on the back of my neck broke me out of my slight reverie. I looked up to see the eyes of four, excitement starved vampires trained on my face. I smiled slyly and let them sweat for a moment, figuratively of course. Paige shifted in her seat and Noelle flipped so that her legs were resting on the spine of the couch and her head hanging by Aiden’s. I could tell by the looks they were giving me that the suspense was killing them; they were dying to know what Riley had summoned me into town for.
Riley is our….guardian you could say. He’s the one of the last surviving member of the Matrix, an organization dedicated solely to hunting down vampires and supernaturals who have long outlived their welcome among the mortals. It could almost be considered an assassin agency, if you really wanted to get technical about it. After the fall of Matrix the members scattered to form small reincarnates of its original headquarters. Riley is one of those vampires. So now he shares all of his knowledge with us and we carry on the job of hunting down those who are a threat to our secret existence.
I glanced at their tortured faces once more and twirl a lock of my hair around in my fingers. Carson tightened his grip on my waist and I sighed. Game over, time to spill the blood…or beans I suppose. I nestled back against Carson’s chest and began my story.
“Headquarters have changed again, we’re underground now. Riley says the humans at the last location started to get used to our compelling...which also means we can’t hunt here anymore. The mortality rate of the city is a little too high to be normal so we should hunt in the next town over.”
I took my time in telling them the minor details of my meeting with our guardian, trying to save the best for last. Unfortunately, stalling only lasts so long before a roomful of 2000 year old immortals figure you out.
“Oh for god’s sake Aubrey just tell us who the hell is getting the assignment this month would you!?”
I smirked. I had a feeling Paige would be the first to lose her cool. I chuckled and tilted my head back to look up at Carson.
“Should I tell them?”
He grinned at me.
“I suppose so…I’m dying to know as well.”
An indescribable emotion flitted through me as he spoke. God his voice was perfect. Hell, all of him was perfect; his perfect brown eyes, blonde hair, muscular build...I smiled to both myself and him.
“All right, I suppose if you all want to know.”
