Dark Redemption chapter 45: Things Base and Vial

Beneath the gleaming skyscrapers and picturesque facade of the City of Redemption lies another city; a community of dark and ancient magic populated by creatures of the night. Dark Redemption is a shared-world novel based on an online role-playing game by James Crowther.

Aoi Kurayami, a powerful vampiress, has entered into a partnership with Faerie Lord Melchior Aesermann. She also runs the Club Cyba-Netsu, a popular cyber-cafe frequented by many denizens of the night. Some of them are even human...

Kurayami turned the slim vial of liquid over and over in her fingers, allowing the light to play in the lavender colored solution inside. "I will have you know that I do not do business with your kind," she said.

The person seated across from her desk leaned back with an insinuating smile. He clearly suffered under the delusion he was in control of this situation. Seymour, the club bouncer who had brought this visitor to Kurayami's attention, glared down at him, radiating silent intimidation, with no apparent effect. "Is that so, Mistress Kurayami?" the visitor purred with insulting politeness. "I was given to understand you had no problems dealing with the Fae." He gave a glance over at the other table where Claude sat mutely in front of a computer terminal.

"Him?" Kurayami said. "He is a gift from Lord Melchior. He is pretty to look at and adequate in bed. He also has other uses." Claude was one of Melchior's people, what he called the 'Silicon Fae': faerie with a special affinity for technology. Claude tilted his head slightly, revealing the cable running from his computer to an input jack in his skull, just behind his perfectly-formed ear. Yes, Kurayami found Claude to be very useful. He made her system run 65% faster.

"But you misunderstand me," Kurayami continued. "It is not your species I object to, but your occupation." She tossed the vial back at her visitor. "I was referring to drug dealers."

"Please. I have no desire to cut into your profits. Indeed, I am more than happy to offer a percentage for your patronage."

"I run a legal establishment. I permit no drugs" She smiled, just enough to show her teeth. "Besides, they leave an unpleasant taste in the blood." It was time this fool realized his position.

"But surely, Mistress Kurayami, a powerful vampire lord like you is not afraid of mortal law."

Now the fool was becoming tiresome. The blatant play on her vanity suggested a lack of respect for her intelligence as well as for her power. "It pleases the police that they not look too closely at my affairs and it pleases me that I never give them a reason to wish to. The first rule of control is to never give others a reason to challenge your control. Surely you know that."

Kurayami rose from her desk and walked around it to her visitor. Seymour stepped back to give her room, recognizing the quiet menace in her mood. The visitor seemed not to realize his danger; or perhaps he didn't care. He was clearly either very confident, or an idiot. It was time to end this game.

She leaned over the visitor, cradling his jaw tenderly in her fingers and bringing her lips close to the side of his neck. "I know what you are thinking," she whispered. "You are thinking that I will not dare bite you. You are thinking that your blood protects you; that the raw magic of your faerie nature would destroy me as surely as sunlight would; and that even if I were powerful enough to survive drinking of you, that the magic in your blood would bind me to you and make me yours. For that reason you think you have nothing to fear..." She felt the muscles in his throat tense in anticipation as her teeth hovered so tantalizingly close.

"You are mistaken!"

Her fingers abruptly closed upon his trachea and she wrenched his head to meet her gaze. Her nails dug into the flesh of his neck and her eyes transfixed his like a pin holding a butterfly. "You will tell me," she hissed, "what manner of drug do you sell?"

"It - it's not a drug!" the person stammered. "It's Essence of the Fae, distilled from faerie blood!"

"Poison!"

"No! Not poison! It enraptures mortals, true, but their blood transforms the essence and makes it safe for your kindred!"

Kurayami knotted her brow and kindled twins sparks of malice in her eyes. In a moment or two, the fae would realize that he could simply turn into a moonbeam or a cloud of thistledown or something equally poetic and escape her grasp, but for now she held him fast by her will. Beings of fancy rather than substance, the Fae were immune to most physical attack, but not to domination by the will. Kurayami possessed will in abundant quantity.

For a moment their gazes held. Then, she released her grasp and the visitor fell to the floor with an ungraceful thud. "Do something to him, Seymour," she said. "I care not what."

Seymour bent over to pick up the visitor, but the fae dissolved into a rainbow of mist and disappeared, leaving only the small purple vial.

He reached for the vial, but before he could take it, Kurayami crushed it beneath the toe of her shoe. The vial's lavender contents seeped into her carpeted floor.

"Claude, darling. Be a dear and clean that up. This way, Seymour." Kurayami strode out of her office, followed by her faithful shadow.

She felt a need for more pleasant company.

Next:  Fume Fume Fume