Sylvie

Picking up the tiny whisper like it was spoken normally, Amber smiled and giggled at her newfound powers. “Amazing.  Everything that the other wards say is true.  I heard you clear as a bell.”  Amber tied up her shiny hair into a bun and dismissed the incident. “I know it wasn’t a kiss of passion, Master.”  She laughed, “True, I would have liked you to ask…however, I know why you did it.  I forgive you, Alan.  Don’t worry about it.”  Amber winked one of her green-tinted hazel eyes. “Let’s keep going for now.  Show me everything.”

Excited that he was finally being taken seriously, Alan paused and scratched his shaggy brown hair. “There’s a few more things where I saw with those diamond eyes….”  Alan rubbed his chin, “..at least I think they are eyes.”

Amber poked her new master and laughed, “Are all vampires this flighty?  You lost focus.”  She chuckled, “Vivienne used to do the same thing, but Faye usually kept her on track.”

“Who?” Alan inquired, before it came to him. “Ah..”  His hands began shaking, “The Raven.  I..I don’t know how you…” He pointed a nervous finger at Amber, “...you can speak so casually about her.”

“I lived with her?”  Amber volunteered. “She has a manor, a huge one, just on the outskirts of Petersburg.”  She started scrolling through other news footage on her phone. “Yeah, We were in charge of helping wards that lost their masters get back into their lives.  When Sylvie decided to move, the three of us blood bunnies…Um…”  Amber made Alan another drink. “...Veronica, Jessica and myself…We asked Sylvie if we could go with her.”

“Any reason why?  Sounds like you had it made in the manor.”  Alan queried.

“The place is so old and to be honest, at night it can be a bit spooky.  Even if there aren’t gargoyles all over the place.  It’s like a twenty-first-century version of a dark dungeon castle.”  Amber laughed and slid the blood concoction to Alan. “Okay, so we don’t have to wait on the television to reveal what you know, show me these other places where you’ve seen the eyes.”

“Right.”  Alan laughed and reached for Amber’s phone. “If you don’t mind.”  Pleased when Amber offered her mobile to him, Alan then punched up one of the other videos. “Alright, the college student that died from playing a video game too long.”  He started playing the footage and handed Amber the phone. “Obviously the body had been removed, and the reporter was interviewing others onsite…but…”  Alan hesitated as the camera panned back to show the entire room.  “What do you see, Amber?”

Shock and disbelief crossed over Amber's features as she spotted the anomalies immediately. “Holy Hannah! Is this real?  There are like ten students being interviewed with half having those eyes.”  Amber shivered as an icy chill went down her spine. “This is disturbing, Master.”  Grabbing a red-colored beer from the cooler, Amber began to down the bitter liquid in the effort to calm her nerves. “Is the last one the same thing?  The strange eyes?”

Alan nodded, “The others are even more bothersome and disturbing, I think I have even heard a voice that some of these people claim to have.”  He chuckled, “Perhaps I should admit myself to a mental hospital.”

“Distracting yourself again, Master Alan.”  Amber smiled widely and handed him her phone again. “What else do we have going on?”

“On it.”  Alan winked and felt his mood improving. “Anyone told you that being near you lifts the spirits?” He tapped on her phone a little longer. “I bet you didn’t know that you are my first ward in a long while.  Something about you makes discussing this easier.  I admit having you present is making the tasks ahead a little less daunting.  I find myself hoping that you don’t ask to be released.”  He handed Amber the phone. “That one is with a grandmother of three.”

Flicking the button to start the video, Amber witnessed an elderly woman in her sixties carrying her three dead grandchildren outside where the police had surrounded her home. ‘They are all safe now!  I did them a favor!  You’ll see, you’ll all see!  I saved their souls from the diamond demons!’  The old lady placed the three bodies on the porch. ‘Yes, I did it.  This isn’t a confession, it is a revelation!’ 

 Amber watched as the lady then drew a pistol and began firing it into the crowd of officers, laughing while she did so. “She’s trying to die as well. Oh man.”  Amber half-muttered.

Patting Amber’s hand lightly, Alan did his best to console the new ward. “Yes, the police killed her.  If you want to advance it a few seconds, you will see the important part, Amber.”

“No need for me to advance it, Alan.  I have seen lots of things as a vampire blood bunny.”  She tilted the phone to watch the rest of the video.  “How the?...”  Amber wondered as the police and elder woman exchanged gunfire, riddling her with bullets from head to toe.  Her aim took down four officers before her pistol ran dry of ammunition. “She’s just standing…..”  Then Amber heard a hollow and dead voice, barely audible from the video.

‘Fragile creatures, the lot of you.  Your physical form is weak beyond measure.  Blood flows too easily from your bodies, no wonder they feed so well.  Pathetic, the bunch of you.  Myself and the rest of us will show you the meaning of fear and madness, all while you watch.’

It was then Amber who saw the twin diamonds light up from inside the old lady’s eye sockets. “If I am seeing this correctly, that thing is inside the woman?”  As if the creature heard Amber’s question, she watched a few foggy clouds lift from the woman and the children.  “There were four of them?”  Amber asked as the video showed the grandmother falling over dead.

Without saying a word, Alan simply nodded.  “It would appear that is the case, but if you look..not one officer registered that something was wrong.  They just go up and tape off the scene like a normal crime.”  He picked up his refreshed drink and took a healthy swig from the straw. “What got another level of my attention was the speech.  It literally almost gave up vampires to the general public.”

“How many more cases are there, Alan?”  Amber tilted her head as she inquired. “I mean you are just going to repeat the whole thing again..what… tomorrow night at the meeting?”

Rubbing his temples as though he had a headache, Alan nodded to his new ward. “Yeah, that was the plan.  I had also hoped to have some things ‘fixed’...”  He held up his hands and used air quotes, “...by your mistress.  I couldn’t have foreseen that she would make a vampire after two hundred and seventy years or so.”  He shrugged. “If you look at it from my point of view, I took the lead on finding the veil breaks and tasked a local vampire to assist.  That looks like a good leader to me.”  He shrugged and pulled up another newsreel and handed the phone back to Amber.