The two vampires raced across the rooftops, their shadows barely noticed by the many pedestrians filtering along the streets below. They moved with supernatural, inhuman agility. The gaps between the buildings meant nothing to them as they leapt from rooftop to rooftop. It was an elegant dance, where a foot placed wrong could send them tumbling to the street below. But neither of them came even close to such a mistake for both were too experienced at navigating the darkened skyline of the city at night.
They were heading south following the street as it curved gently in one long sweep like a bend in a river carrying them down towards the sea. The city was never truly quiet but tonight of all nights it felt deeply and vibrantly alive as the clock crept closer to midnight. A new year was dawning and the mortal men and women of this city wanted to celebrate it. William found it difficult to summon up the excitement for yet another year. It would be just another in the near two hundred he had spent as a vampire.
They came to a stop at the edge of a park, perching atop one of the buildings that looked out over the great green space. It wasn’t their final destination but William wanted to see it; it was one of the few green spaces in the city that felt big enough to actually mean something. Klaus, his companion, came and crouched next to him. His eyes scanned the park for a moment before turning back to him.
“Is this why you brought me here?” He asked with a raised eyebrow. “To look at a park I have seen a hundred times before?” He still spoke with a hint of a German accent, a remnant of his heritage from across the continent. William gave a small snort of laughter, a strange sound to hear this high up.
“No.” He answered truthfully. “I just like the view from up here. It’s relaxing.”
“I don’t see why.” Klaus responded. “All I can see and smell is prey.”
William looked across at his companion. Klaus’ eyes had become fixed on a couple slowly meandering their way through the park, hands linked and swaying in the night air. They were laughing and flirting and oblivious to the predators staring at them from out of the darkness.
“No hunting tonight.” William said, the words both statement and instruction. He said them with authority, making it clear to Klaus that he would not tolerate any disobedience.
Klaus made a noise of annoyance at the senior vampire. Not a serious one, just something like a cat when it is displeased by something. William ignored it. On any other day he might have felt the need to assert his authority over the younger vampire, but soon enough it wouldn’t matter.
“Fine.” Klaus hissed. “Then where are we going?” William rose from his crouch and took a moment to stretch the cramps out from his legs. Two hundred years old was barely a fifth of the age that he might expect to reach as a creature of the night but already he was feeling as if he had lived 800.
“This way.” He said and launched himself into the night once again.
They were in the financial district now with great skyscrapers of steel and glass looming up above them. William had grown up in a world that had been changing rapidly but never had he thought that buildings of this scale would be possible. The ingenuity of humans continued to surprise him, in fact he was only getting more surprised the further he got from his time as one of them. It was harder to move around unseen here where there might always be an unsuspecting human to glance out of a window and see them flitting across the rooftops. But William wasn’t too worried. They were vampires and their home as in the night. Both of them had spent years finding ways to hide in cities like these; it was a necessary skill for a vampire to survive in the modern age. They could pull the darkness tight around them and wear it like a cloak.
William led them to the heart of the financial district where the tallest of the skyscrapers, the most prominent displays of human hubris were. He had already chosen his destination for the evening and he made straight for it. When they reached it the clocks showed only half an hour to midnight. It was a cuboid of steel and glass rising taller than any other building around it. That was important, he did not want to be overlooked. He didn’t even pause before throwing himself against the building and beginning to climb.
It was hard going as the wind grabbed at them with unceasing hands, threatening to tear them away from their fragile hold and spin them into the void below. The two vampires held on and continued their ascent, hardened nails digging into steel and concrete and powerful muscles holding them taught. Occasionally William would shoot a glance back down the building, just to check that Klaus was still following. Each time the younger vampire was still there with a grimace on his face almost as hard as the building upon which they climbed.
After what seemed like many hours of climbing but could not have been more than ten or fifteen minutes, their climb came to an end and William pulled himself up onto the roof of the skyscraper. This was a place that few people, vampire or otherwise ever set foot in. Even the humans that built it rarely ventured up to appreciate it.
The city was spread out below him like a tableau, an interconnected web of streets that seemed to go on endlessly. A million tiny dots moved about far below him mirroring the innumerable stars hanging in the sky above him. They moved about the web like blood cells along arteries, pumping life into the city. Down there it must have been a cacophony of noise down there but up here it was peaceful. Only the occasional sound reached their ears atop the skyscraper, like the sharp blast of a horn or an outbreak of laughter.
There was a grunt from behind him and he turned to see Klaus lifting himself up onto the roof. The vampire continued to voice his annoyance with a series of grunts and growls as he brushed himself down. Once he had finished he looked up at the sky and for a moment William could see the young man he had once known back when he had first turned him. All the wonder and promise that a new vampire possesses.
“Now can you tell me why you brought me up here?” Klaus asked, his head tilted to the side. For a moment, William was silent. Even after all the thought he had put into this moment, he couldn’t find the words to start. The silence went on for a few moments, long enough for it to become awkward.
“You broke the covenant.” He said finally. There was little he could have done to dress it up. The mixture of emotions on Klaus’ face at the reveal was difficult to process. There was surprise first and foremost, but there was also rage, concern, and perhaps even a little sadness beneath it all.
“What do you….” Klaus began to say but William cut him off.
“Please don’t try to deny it.” William begged. “I’ve seen the bodies, I’ve seen the aftermath. I know it was you.”
There was a moment where William thought he might continue the denial but then his face changed to a sneer.
“It was necessary.” He seethed, surprise at the accusation giving way to rage as the dominant emotion in his face.
“Necessary?!” William said, nostrils flaring. “It wasn’t feeding, that would be necessary. It was slaughter!”
“We should be astride this world as its rulers! Not slinking around in the dark like rats.”
“That is not what the Covenant says.”
“The Covenant is wrong!”
“The Covenant has kept our people from extinction for more than two thousand years. We might be superior to one human, maybe even a hundred humans, but even if you gathered every blood drinker in the world the humans in this city alone would still outnumber us by a hundred to one. I will not have you start a war that we could not possibly win!”
“Is that why you called me up here? So you could lecture me about the covenant?”
“No.” William said. “You have already been lectured enough about the covenant and still you chose to break it. I see now that I could do nothing to make you see how important it is.”
“Then what?” Klaus shouted, throwing his arms out wide. “Why have you dragged me all the way up here?!”
William felt a lump in his throat as he spoke the next few words.
“You broke the Covenant.” He replied, forcing his voice to remain neutral as if it wasn’t like pressing a knife into his heart to speak. “There is only one punishment.”
Realisation dawned on Klaus’ face, spreading across his features like a wave across a pond. His mouth formed a snarl, long and sharpened canines bared towards William.
“Of course, I should have known sooner. But do you really think you are capable of killing me?”
“I believe I can.” William answered. “I wouldn’t have brought you here otherwise.” He paused for a moment. “But you could make it easier for both of us.” He reached into his pocket and brought out a small glass vial. Within the vial glimmered a small shard of silver about the length of his finger. Even through the glass, William’s skin prickled at the presence of the metal.
“Take it.” William said, holding it out toward Klaus. “Take it and plunge it into your heart. Accept your punishment. Do it for me.”
Klaus didn’t move. He stared at the sliver of silver glinting in the moonlight. Slowly, his hands curled into fists.
“I didn’t think you a coward, William.” He said, spitting out his name with all the venom he seemed able to muster. “ But alas in the time we were apart you appear to have become one.”
William shook his head.
“The only coward here is you. Or do you consider it brave to massacre a crowd of humans?”
“I am brave enough to realise the truth. And I will not die for that.”
“I have hoped you might recognise that your punishment is just.” William said sadly.
“I am sorry to disappoint you. It seems to have made a habit of it.”
“I have never been disappointed in you. I am only sad.”
There was a moment where the two vampires stared at each other across the rooftop. There was no sound except the echoes of the city coming up from below and the whistling of the wind. William had come prepared to fight but a small part of him had held out a secret hope that Klaus might see reason and accept his fate. But William had known Klaus too long to expect it. He had seen him grow into a powerful and confident vampire. He was as close to family as a vampire could get. He would not simply surrender his life. William would have to take it.
A gust of wind blew across the rooftop, tugging at their clothes and hair. It was almost as if the wind was trying to hold them back from what they both knew had to happen. As thw wind died and the air settled, the two vampires moved.
They charged each other, agile footsteps making little sound as the distance between them closed in a matter of moments. They met in the middle and the two of them became a swirling tempest of blows and counter blows. William swept a kick low, trying to knock Klaus’s legs out from under him but the younger vampire leapt over it and aimed his own kick at William’s head as soon as he landed. William’s arm shot up to block it and only managed it just in time. He felt his bones groan under the impact that would have shattered the arm of a human. Pushing through the pain, William twisted and tried to grab a hold of the outstretched leg yet Klaus now managed to dance out of reach. William immediately pursued him across the rooftop and launched into a flurry of punches as he came within range. Klaus slipped into a boxers stance and began to dip and duck to avoid the blows.
“You should have sent someone else.” Klaus growled as he avoided William’s latest punch. “Someone who could actually beat me.”
“It had to be me.” William said, letting the truth he had known since the moment he had discovered Klaus’ breach of the contract spill out of his mouth. “It was I who turned you, who brought you into this world of nightwalkers. You are my responsibility.”
Klaus laughed; a terrible sound like broken glass.
“What you really mean is that I’m your mistake and you have to clean it up. Like a child at the whims of the Vampire Lords.”
A flash of rage stabbed through William, hot and sharp and unexpected. It burned his insides and hurt worse than any injury Klaus could have dealt him.
He was angry. Angry at Klaus for his foolishness, for his hubris, for thinking himself superior to the rest of his kind and thinking that he alone could see the truth. William had seen many of his kin tear themselves apart with their own arrogance, he had even had to participate in a few of their executions himself but he had never had seen it in a vampire that he himself had sired. Maybe Klaus was right that he was William’s mistake. That only made it more important that William was the one to correct it.
Fueled by this newly uncovered rage, William launched into a fresh wave of attacks. Attacks that were faster and stronger than before. He swiped at Klaus with hardened nails, nails that were strong enough to tear the throats out of any animal alive. The younger vampire was clearly not expecting the vigour of these attacks and he was caught off guard. He tried to step back and put some distance between them so that he could recover but all it did was send him off balance so that William could slip between his guard and land a punch directly against his jaw.
He felt the tremor rumble through his arm, the impact straining muscle and bone. The punch had enough force behind it that if he’d thrown it against a human then their jaw would have been entirely shattered, if not removed entirely. It would have been like a sledgehammer smashing rock. But Klaus was a vampire and he was made of sterner stuff.
Still, the impact was enough to take him off his feet and send him flying across the roof of the skyscraper. There was a crunch of gravel and bone as he impacted and rolled. Yet with cat-like reflexes, Klaus was able to twist in the air and plant his feet. He only just managed to bring himself to a stop before he plunged off the side and into the abyss below. An inch or two more and he would have fallen.
The two vampires took a pause now, their eyes locked on each other and both breathing heavily. Klaus pushed himself to a standing position and drew the back of his hand across his mouth. It came away with a smear of red on it.
“Maybe you’ve got a bit more fight in you than I thought.” Klaus growled.
“You aren’t the only one capable of killing.”
The flare of rage had burned out in William’s chest and now the sadness was rushing back in like a fast moving tide. He looked at Klaus, at the dribble of blood now leaking from the corner of his mouth, and was filled with a desire to get this over with. He planted his feet firmly and waited for the younger vampire to make his next move. Klaus bared his sharpened teeth one more time as a snarl full of animalistic rage drew from his mouth. He lunged forward and the fight continued.
They fell to the floor, arms locked around each other as they struggled. Each hissed and growled as they fought for control. Wit and cleverness had been forgotten now as the shadow of animal desperation fell over them. It was all about which of them was stronger. One moment William was on top trying to slam Klaus’ head into the concrete, the next Klaus had managed to slip through and was trying to wrap his hands around the neck of the elder vampire. William might have been the older and more experienced of the two but Klaus was strong, incredibly so. Some of the Vampires even older than William talked fondly of times in the distant ages of blood drinker kin when their kind had been strong enough to lift entire mountains. He had always thought it was just their time addled memories misremembering some myth but the strength in Klaus’ arms as they struggled made him wonder if they had been true after all.
Slowly, Klaus’s fingers were creeping closer to the bare flesh of William’s neck. It was beginning to feel inevitable that they would close around it and choke the air from his body. William tried to throw a punch but even as it crashed against Klaus’ shoulder, it seemingly had little effect. The pressure didn’t lift. If anything it only grew stronger as long, pale fingers closed around William’s neck.
The elder vampire tried not to panic as his oxygen supply was cut off. Humans had tales about vampires that called them undead, that they didn’t need to breathe or eat or sleep, but that was a strange misheard tale. They perhaps needed less oxygen than their daywalking prey but they still needed it. It still fed their bodies in much the same way it did a mortal one. Still there was an involuntary rising sense of alarm that built in his chest. It was like the pressure against a dam and he knew that soon it would become too much for him to hold back.
He tried peeling Klaus’ fingers away but the grip he held was as hard as iron and just as cold. The angle was all wrong and even as he tried to wrench himself free he just couldn’t pull the fingers away, they were too determined to stay in place.
A strange, wicked smile had begun to spread across Klaus’ face and there was a wild look in eyes. It was as if choking the life from William had become the only thing important to him in this world. It was all he did care about, all he had cared about and all he would care about. Another few moments of struggle finally brought the realisation that the strength of his own arms alone would not be enough to free himself. Klaus’ focus on William’s neck was now so great – so all encompassing – that he failed to notice the elder vampire brace his feet against his chest.
The darkness was closing in now, the edges of his vision beginning to fade. His world was shrinking and shrinking until it was filled with Klaus’ face alone, his fangs bared like a predator waiting for the moment to feed. William knew he was moments from blacking out. Yet even as the last of his oxygen was used up, a thought floated to the front of his mind. If he had known it would all end up like this would he do it all again? If he were given the option to go back and choose again whether to turn or not turn Klaus? Would he let it happen knowing it would come to the two of them fighting tooth and nail to end the other’s life? Yes, he probably would. That was the truthful answer. He would do it all again. It would be painful but that was sometimes how the story ends.
But his story could not end today
With all the strength he could muster, William kicked up and out. The force that a vampire could exert normally was massive and that amount only grew when the vampire was under the influence of the kind of adrenaline surge that comes with brushing up so close to death.
The look on Klaus’s face changed rapidly in the space of a few moments. The wild eyed focus shifted first to surprise, the confusion and finally fear as he was lifted into the air. The younger vampire went up and over William’s head… and into empty space.
The two vampires had not noticed that in their struggle that they had slowly been getting closer and closer to the edge of the flat roof of the skyscraper. In fact, all the time that Klaus had been choking him, William’s head had been less than a metre from the edge. It meant that with his kick sending up there was no chance for him to catch himself, no chance for him to find purchase. There was only the empty abyss. He gave one last shout of raw, primal fear, then disappeared over the side .
With his throat now freed from the iron grip of Klaus’ fingers, air came rushing back into his lungs. He took great gulps of it, coughing and spluttering as he did so. It took a few moments of just lying there taking breath after breath, before his mind was able to reassert itself over his body. Still feeling deprived of oxygen, he managed to crawl to the edge of the building and peer over. Below, the city still stretched out. It seemed no different than it had only a few minutes before. The lights sparkled and the tiny people still moved about in their parties. There was no sign of the vampire.
He descended the building much faster than he had ascended. He took it like a mountain climber rappelling down the side of a cliff. Letting go of the building to fall and then slowing himself by dragging his iron-hard nails down the concrete until he’d bled enough speed for him to do it again. A final leap out brought him to the roof of a two storey building overlooking a street filled with partygoers and nighttime revelers. His mind was awash with thoughts. What if Klaus had found a way to catch himself? What if he was waiting for him in the shadows, ready to pounce? What if he had taken the opportunity to run? In a city this large there were a million hiding places for a vampire, William could search for the rest of his days and he still might not track him down. Klaus had never been the type to hide but there was a first time for everything and maybe this off all times was the time to start.
He needn’t have worried, however. He heard it before he saw it. There were screams and shouts of people that echoed through the night. They cut through the sounds of revelry as sharply as a knife. William sprinted quickly across the rooftops along the road until Klaus came into sight, or at least what remained of him.
He had landed on a car parked on the street below. The impact had buckled both the roof of the vehicle and the body of the vampire. There were bones jutting out at angles they shouldn’t be and the slow, almost too vibrantly red blood of a nightstalker was spilling slowly over the metal and onto the concrete below. He must have made quite the sound when he landed for a small crowd had gathered and were staring in shock and horror at the sight in front of them. William felt a stab of rage at the way they gawked and oggled. One of the women took one look at the broken body and immediately vomited. She didn’t even have the courtesy to turn around. At least have some respect for the dead, he thought. William dropped the last few feet to the ground in a single jump and strode out onto the street. As he walked, his fingers curled into fists as he readied himself for what he had to do
Even after all that trauma, Klaus was not yet dead. His breathing was wet and laboured, blood gurgling in his lungs but somehow he was still alive. He even made an effort to rise but it was an effort doomed to failure. His body was broken and lost to him.
William continued to be amazed at the resilience of his kind. They could take so much punishment and still life could not be crushed out of them. He wondered if he could just leave him here to bleed out the way he had left his victims. There was some justice in that. But he knew he couldn’t. Such was the resilience of their kind that there was chance, even if only small, that he could recover. He would be totally unbound by the Covenant then and William would only feel even greater guilt at unleashing that monster out into the world.
He had to end this.
A few voices made noises of alarm as he stepped from the small crowd and clambered up onto the twisted wreck of metal and vampire body so he was standing over Klaus’ shattered form. William reached into his pocket and withdrew the glass vial from where it was waiting. Klaus tried to say something but the words were lost among a hacking cough and a splatter of blood that coloured his lips. Knowing Klaus it was probably a final insult, one last jab at William before this was over. He had never been the kind to beg for mercy.
William uncorked the bottle and carefully removed the fragment, holding it between thumb and forefinger. A thin trail of smoke drifted up from where his skin touched the silver. He grimaced slightly at the pain but it was nothing serious, nothing he didn’t deserve.
“I really am sorry.” He said, choking on his words. A final apology. Klaus didn’t even try to say anything now. All his words were exhausted. He just glared at William with a fiery fury, his gaze boring into him.
Knowing that waiting even a moment longer might find his will faltering, William moved. With a swift flash of his hand, he plunged the silver into Klaus’ chest right where his heart would be. Klaus’ eyes went wide and for a moment there was fear and pain flush in them. Then the light behind them died and the eternal slumber claimed him. What tension was left in his body vanished like smoke and the vampire that William had known for a hundred years was gone.
William reached down and gently closed his friend’s eyes.
“Goodbye.” He whispered to no-one but the air.
By now he could already hear the sirens of an approaching ambulance. Obviously some human bystander had called them, thinking that they were doing the right thing. It was almost ironic that they were unknowingly trying to help a creature that would have happily seen their entire way of life torn to shreds. Had Klaus had his way, their friends and family would have killed or turned into cattle, to be fed from by Vampire Lords who couldn’t care in the slightest if they lived or died.
He leapt down from the ruined remains of the car and began to walk away. He did not want to be here when the paramedics arrived and started asking their questions.
“Hey!” One of the bystanders said, moving in front of him to block his path. “Did you know this…” He began to say. William didn’t hesitate. In a flash of movement he drove the palm of his hand into the man’s stomach and he went sprawling with such ferocity that it brought down a number of the others who were standing too close, knocking them over like bowling pins. When the man came to a stop he could do nothing but clutch his stomach and roll around on the floor, a groan of pain parting his lips. Several of his ribs would be shattered but as far as William was concerned he should count himself lucky. Even as much as he had wanted the death to make him feel better, the vampire had still had enough sense to pull his punch a little, otherwise there would be two dead bodies on this road tonight.
No-one else tried to stop him after that. They parted like the sea and let him slip away into the night.
He disappeared into the closest alleyway and as soon as he was out of immediate sight, he scrambled up the wall and onto the rooftops. Up here, away from the crowds of humans, back in the solitary of the world above the streets, the lump in his throat finally won and he allowed himself a single sob.
He looked down one last time at the broken body of the vampire he had once considered a brother. He breathed once, then turned away and began to run.
His nose twitched. There was the smell of blood on the breeze.
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