Sophia Richard's Story

Vanessa rummaged through the closet of her bedroom and pulled another dress out to give it a look over before tossing it onto the back of a chair with the rest. Truthfully, she probably should have just told Bowen that fancy restaurants weren't really her niche, but with Saturday here and Bowen due to be arriving shortly it was a bit late to cancel out on him now.

She had already made arrangements with the sitter for the night too. No, she just needed to find something to wear that was semi-formal enough for a classier level of establishment than the sort she typically frequented. She didn't think she actually owned a pair of pants that weren't denim, but fortunately she had a wide array of tops and dresses.

Meanwhile Sophia was watching the whole process from a chair next to Vanessa's dresser where she was trying on her mother's jewelry.

"What do you think?" Vanessa asked Sophia. "The olive, or the blue?"

She held up the two dresses and Sophia pointed to the olive one. It was an elegant enough dress that fell to mid thigh, with lace filigree sleeves.

"That one," Sophia said. "I like the leaves. They look like a forest."

"Leaves?" Vanessa asked as she turned the dress around to get a look at it. "Where do you see leaves?"

"Right there," Sophia said as she pointed at the dress. "On the arm."

"Huh. I never noticed, it kind of does look like it, doesn't it," Vanessa answered. The filigree lace had an almost floral pattern to it.

Once she was changed she turned around to let Sophia critique it. "How do I look?" she asked.

Sophia covered her mouth in a giggle. "You look like a Laaaady."

"Not exactly what I was going for... but I'll take it," Vanessa answered. "I don't know what I was thinking when I said yes to this."

"Why are you going then?" Sophia asked.

Vanessa offered a wry smile. "Because Bowen has been very helpful, and your mother doesn't want to stand him up."

"What does that mean?" Sophia asked as she tried on a necklace with an emerald set pendant.

"What does what mean?" Vanessa replied while brushing her hair out. "Standing someone up? It's when you don't show up for a date, and leave the other person hanging. And be careful with that one. It belonged to my mother."

"I will," Sophia promised.

A car would roll up out front and its engine would shut off. A few minutes later and there would be a knock at the door. Outside stood Bowen in a fine black wool suit. His apparel; the coat and the trousers he wore had a handsome and very distinctive crosshatch pattern with a slender, modern fit and complemented his build perfectly. Under the coat he wore a dark blue cloth button down and a black silk tie.

His shoes had a lite shine and looked like they had been broken in but were not worn. His hair, dark and unruly was not a mess but neither was it slicked back. Just the hint of expensive cologne, shaving jell, deodorant, and soap clung to him. In his left hand were the keys to the car parked behind him and in his right was a single small sunflower.

He was not late nor was he more than five minutes early. He stood, patiently waiting at the door for an answer.

Vanessa cracked the door open, but once she saw that it was Bowen outside she opened it to let him in. She'd been a bit on edge since Bastion got out of the hospital, half expecting him to show up here and stir up trouble, but she hadn't seen nor heard from him.

"Hey, come on in, my sitter should be here any minute, she called to let me know she was running late," Vanessa said.

She moved aside to let Bowen in, and Sophia appeared in the far side of the room, hugging the frame of the doorway to keep her balance. She was currently hobbling around in a pair of Vanessa's heels that where far too large for a child, and she had a bunch of Vanessa's necklaces on.

She waved shyly to Bowen.

"Sophia, go put my shoes back before you trip and get hurt," Vanessa said.

Bowen chuckled softly as he saw Vanessa and crouched down to hand her the sun flower. "This flower is for you Ms. Sophia.", he would say with a smile and offer his hand to help her out of the heels. After that he stood and turned to Vanessa. "There is no rush. The restaurant will hold my table unless I cancel it."

His eyes glanced down her curves and back up again before he spoke. "You look beautiful tonight. The dress does well to match the color of your eyes." He would glance back down at Sophia. "Like an Iverian princess. Am I right Ms. Sophia?"

Sophia giggled and nodded as she hugged the flower to her chest. She was shy, but she seemed to like Bowen well enough.

"I picked it out," Sophia told Bowen proudly.

"Getting fashion advice from my six year old daughter," Vanessa remarked with amusement.

She rummaged through the cupboards before locating a small vase that she filled with water from the tap. "Here, why don't you put the flower in here?" Vanessa said. "And don't forget to put my shoes back."

"I won't," Sophia said as she climbed up onto one of the chairs so she could put the flower in the vase that Vanessa had set on the kitchen table.

With that seen to, she gathered the shoes up and ran off to put them back in Vanessa's room.

"Well she seems to like you," Vanessa said. "She doesn't usually trust male strangers so quickly. Her father wasn't the best role model," she explained. "Do you have any children of your own?" she inquired.

'None that I know about.', he thought with a frown. He was fairly confident he didn't have any kids but the proposition still bothered him. A moment passed. He recovered and smiled. "No kids of my own but I have always had a soft spot for them."

He leaned against a nearby counter. "Kids are the best judges of character that I know.", he said without looking at her but then turned to look at her. A few questions rolled around in his head but he thought better to not ask them now. He also didn't feel comfortable enough to reveal the fact that he was certain that he could not have kids himself. "I hope your hungry."

Vanessa suspected she had asked an awkward question as Bowen faltered and missed a beat before offering his response, and she decided it best not to push the matter as he changed the subject.

"Believe me, I'm famished," Vanessa answered with a wry smile.

She hadn't eaten anything since lunch, and like many of her kind, her metabolism ran hot.

"I think I hear the babysitter pulling in," she said as she headed back for the front door. She shifted the curtains to the side to check that it was the sitters car before she opened the door to meet the babysitter on the front stoop.

"Hey, thanks again for staying late tonight," Vanessa said as she moved aside so that the babysitter could come in. "She's had her dinner already," she added. "And if you need anything, just give me a call. There's some leftovers in the fridge also, help yourself."

The pair exchanged a few more quick words before Vanessa looked to Bowen.

"Shall we?" she asked.

"Wait!" Sophia said as she ran into the room and grabbed Vanessa's hand before she could leave.

She let go of her mother's hand and started fiddling with the clasp of her grandmother's necklace, until she finally had to turn the chain around so she could see what she was doing. Once she had it off she handed it to Vanessa.

"You should wear that one," Sophia said.

"I should, should I?" Vanessa asked.

"Mhm," Sophia said emphatically.

"Alright then," Vanessa answered as she put on the necklace, making sure that the emerald set pendant wasn't crooked. "There we go, how does that look?"

"Good," Sophia said affirmatively with a nod of her head for emphasis.

"Good. Now go on, and don't give the babysitter too much trouble," she told Sophia.

"Iverian princess indeed.", Bowen would comment when he saw the pendant. He would offer Sophia a wink and a smile before they stepped out the door. He closed it behind them and walked with her to his car, a black coupe with the lines and body style of a muscle car. He opened the door and offered her a hand to get in before closing the door and leisurely walking leisurely around the front of the car. He got int the driver's seat and shut his door.

"Does her dad see her often?", he said as he started the car without knowing who her father was or the exact situation. The engine let loose a deep rumble which would let her and anyone else that was listening know that this car didn't just look like old Aslund muscle, it most certainly had the power to back up the look.

He didn't put his seat belt on before he depressed the clutch and shifted the car into first gear before pulling away slowly. Smooth acceleration, a turn, and a few shifts later and they were cruising down a busier street on their way out of Lupaix and Vargeras.

Vanessa had Sophia's hand in her own and she had removed her coat to drape it over her daughters shoulders as the pair ran through the rain. They had been halfway back from the corner store when the overcast skies had opened up in a torrential downpour. The storm had come on quickly and the pair where thoroughly drenched by the time they made it back to the house.

The lights where on and the door was open, which might have sent Vanessa to the nearest neighbor to call the police if not for the police vehicles already parked out front. Instead she made her way up the front stoop to find the police rummaging through cupboards and drawers in the kitchen and adjacent living area.

"What is this?" she demanded. "What's going on?"

Sophia meanwhile hung back on the stoop, shivering and uncertain what to make of the situation, these people, or her mother's abrupt anger.

The man slowly rose and turned down the TV in the room, groaning as his body creaked. It had been a very long time since his last feeding, and the effects were showing. His skin was ashen and his eyes were more red than gold now, even with the contacts in. He needed to feed, and soon. Especially since he knew VINDEX would be after him for Chloe soon. He had to be ready.

The room they were staying in right now no longer had tenants living in it other than Alek and Sophia. The small apartment looked as though it should have been condemned ages ago, with the paint peeling from the walls, half the light switches not working and the strong scent of mildew and recreational drugs hanging heavily in the air. There was a huge crimson stain the carpet not two feet where Sophia was sitting.

He crossed over to the room where he had the girl chained up, bending down so that he could look her in the eyes. Looking down at the mark he had carved into the girl's right shoulder, it seemed to have stopped bleeding by now.

"Hello little one." He said quietly. Sophia a cloth in her mouth that he knew would not do any good should she transform, but people were less likely to come running if they heard a werewolf howl than a child screaming. "Do you know why I did this?" He pointed to the symbol on her right shoulder.

Sophia shied away from the man as she huddled against the wall. When he spoke to her, she shook her head largely out of fear of what he might do if she didn't answer him.

She was afraid, she was hungry, and the mark in her shoulder felt like it was on fire but the cloth he had used to gag her kept her from expressing any of it.

Her body posture and avoidance of eye contact spoke of her fear of the man though.

The man smirked slightly his eyes glowing in the darkness. "This, my dear.. Is a mark of a sinner. Did you know you are a sinner?" He asked quietly, not waiting for her to respond before adding, "You are a child of the darkness. A blot against society. You are a werewolf. And that mark marks you as one."

He slowly pulled back his jacket and his shirt to reveal a scar on his skin on his own right shoulder. "I too am a child of darkness. But I wasn't always. I use to be human, a child of the light." He said sitting down in front of her. "But.. I was too weak to end the darkness that threatened the human existence, and my Lord removed me from his grace. My weakness is my sin." He said quietly. "I am shunned from his light, but.. I can spare others from this darkness." He said quietly.

He slowly leaned forward to pull the cloth gag from her mouth, stopping just before he tugged. "If you scream, I will give you a reason to scream." He warned, though he seemed gentle about it. He would wait a second before pulling the gag from her mouth, ready to spring should she start to shout.

She wiped at the back of her eyes with one arm, which where red and puffy from crying.

"I want to go home," Sophia whimpered. "I won't do it again."

The girl seemed under some illusion that this was punishment for having shapeshifted at school, something her mother had told her not to do time and time again.

Never in public.

The warning filled her head as she huddled there away from Alek.

"I promise I won't do it again."

The man placed a finger over her lips gently and a finger over his, shushing the child. "You cannot promise something you cannot keep." His voice was tender, almost loving. Like a pastor speaking to a lost soul who wondered their way into his church. "This is your very nature, your very fiber of being. You child were born to sin.. And yet, you are so naive, it almost resembles innocence.." He said.

"The children of darkness can have feelings and emotions, understanding, and knowledge of the world just like the children of the light.. But there is one desire that neither werewolf, nor vampire, nor the undead or any dark being in this world can deny having or run from for long.. And that is the desire to harm, and kill that of which they are not. To turn what they can to the suffering they must endure because they themselves have been shunned from the light. We do not have a choice. It will happen to all of us sooner or later. Vampires feed on the humans, sustaining their lust for immortality.. The undead feed off the flesh of the Lord's creation wishing for their salvation in death. Werewolves loose control with rage and hatred when they shift and attack the innocent. And you were born to do this, child."

"So when you promise that you won't do it again.. I know very well that this not so." He slowly stood up.

He then smiled a gentle smile. "Are you thirsty? Hungry? I can get you something."

Tears threatened to spring forth again and Sophia pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them tightly as she shook her head. Truthfully she was both, but she was afraid to take either from the man.

"Where's my mom," she finally whimpered between sniffles.

Alek walked back over to the television to catch the news report. He saw the report of the missing girl and of him and he grinned, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and lighting one. "I do believe we will be finding her soon, little one. Soon." He said, taking a draft of the toxic stick and blowing out the smoke.

He would need to feed. He turned to the girl and walked over to her. "I need to leave for a bit." He placed the gag back into her mouth and released a sigh. He walked back to the counter and pulled out a syringe and a vial of a chemical concoction he had created. "The report says you're around 40 pounds.. Well, let's hope for your sake, they're right.." He said, placing the needle into the cork and carefully withdrawing a specific amount of the liquid from it.

Afterward, he went back to Sophia, bending down to gaze at her for a moment. He seemed to not be doing anything but staring, but the wheels in his head were spinning. The game was on now.

He stabbed her in the side of her shoulder with the syringe. It was potent stuff, and the girl would most likely feel the effects within a few moments, if she hadn't already. "Sleep well.." He whispered.

Once she was asleep, he shifted into a mist-like form and disappeared through the window crack.

The man stood below the window of the apartment complex, his golden hues glowing in the shadows cast off the building. He grinned and simply disappeared, forming into mist and rising to the window that he needed to enter. Mist fell from the window seal and slowly formed to the shape of a man, becoming solid after a moment. He pulled the knife and went to work.

Alek backed away from the weeping Sophia with a sigh. He had carved another symbol into her right shoulder, right under the first one. He had pulled the gag from her after he had finished, under the assumption she remembered his warning before. He walked over to the counter and began to wipe the blade off, his golden eyes glowing as he stared at the child. "You know what that one stands for..?" He asked.

Sophia lay there on the floor, her body shaking with her light sobbing as she buried her dirty face in her arms. She didn't speak, and she just hoped he would leave again like he had days past. The first symbol had scabbed over already, but the new one was still dripping blood from the fresh cuts.

The vampire smirked at the silent child. "That symbol stands for false witness." He said quietly. "Our lord has demanded that we shall not bare false witness. You've tried lying to me the other day, making a promise you could not keep.. You remember? Have you ever lied to your mother? To your friends?" Alek asked. His mood was sour, as it always was when he gave in and fed.

"I'm not a liar," she sniffled between her sobs.

"And with that, you've lied again. Little white lies, things that you don't think will hurt a single soul is part of what makes you a child of the darkness." He said stabbing the knife into the counter.

He walked over to the child and knelt in front of her. "How many members are in your pack?"

"I don't know," she whimpered.

"Ah come on, you can at least guess.." He said. "Rough estimate."

She sat up and pulled her knees up to her chest, watching him through dirty strands of hair.

"I said I don't know."

She was afraid of him, afraid of how he had stabbed the knife into the counter. Afraid he would cut her again if she didn't tell him what he wanted to know.

The man chuckled darkly and looked down at the floor. He shook his head lightly. "Well.. There's your mother.. Your father? Your pack leader.. Unless your father is the pack leader.. Tell me who you do know."

"My dad's going to kill you," she whispered as she hugged her knees tighter to her chest trying to shrink away from him.

"Oh I doubt that, my child. I truly doubt that." He turned away from Sophia and walked to the TV, turning it back on to watch.

Room 204 grew cold as the werewolves made their way into the hotel and climbed the stairs to the second floor. The bathroom light flickered and then there was a whisper so quite that Sophia would wonder if it was in her own head. "Your mommy and daddy are coming. Close your eyes now little one. Don't peek.", said the female voice in her ear.

---

As they walked up the stairs Bowen spoke. "Léon you have the door. Wait for the flash. Rush in and as long as Sophia is clear fill this fucker full of lead. Who's in first?", Bowen asked.

"I can." Snow said, "I'll draw his attention. Vanessa should come in after me to grab Sophia."

They came to the door quietly. Léon took one side and Bowen the other. He tapped Snow on the left shoulder and tugged him lightly so he stood beside him on their side of the door with everyone else behind him. He gave Snow the thumbs up and a questioning glance and did the same with each person behind him.

He then turned back to Léon who was on the other side of the door before taking up the flash bang, pulling the pin, but holding the spoon. He stuck three fingers up slightly above his head. One went down and Léon clenched his jaw as his eyes shifted to a yellow hue. The second finger went down and Léon shifted his weight and pivoted. The third finger dropped and he sent his foot at the door to push it in.

As the door caved in Bowen tossed in the flash bang, pulled his pistol, and averted his eyes. Léon pulled back around his side of the door. Crack, Boom. The room filled with light and a deafening crack.

Alek grinned as he heard the door crash open. He closed his eyes and jumped from his chair in the attempts to make it behind the counter. After the initial deafening sound, he remained silent, reaching into his coat to pull out both pistols. The floors were old and vibrated with every step. He would wait until he felt them moving into the room.

He had expected this to come eventually.

As soon as the flash went off, Snow rushed into the room with his gun raised. He immediately spotted Sophia at the far end of a counter-top to his left. He could smell the vampire behind it, closer to them, and he turned on the spot to aim the weapon straight at his hiding spot to give Vanessa cover to run through and grab Sophia.

Vanessa moved in after Snow, her eyes locked onto Sophia. She moved swiftly, trusting in Snow and the others to engage Alek. Her only goal was to reach Sophia. The door leading to the bathroom was her destination.

Sophia was disoriented by the flash bang, but Vanessa had her in arm as she threw her shoulder into the door to knock it open.

Once inside she set Sophia down, crouched over her as she tried to get the chains loose.

"Stay down," she told her daughter. "Whatever happens, stay down."

Bastien was next, moving into the room and circling around the counter that Snow was aiming at, to try and get a bead on Alek with his shotgun while Vanessa disappeared into the bathroom.

The counter acted only as concealment for the storm of bullets that would soon be descending on Alek. Bowen and Léon came in quick on Snow, Vanessa, and Bastien's heels and the moment Sophia was clear the bullets started to fly. Léon was the first to squeeze the trigger and send rounds to the base of the counter. Snow too opened fire, aiming for where he believed Alek to be hiding. He couldn't pinpoint the vampire's exact location by smell alone, but there wasn't a whole lot of counter to cover considering the number of firearms in the room.

The man felt the floors shift with Snow entered the room and prepared to act. However, the first bullet fired caused him to move faster than he anticipated, as it hit his right shoulder. Hissing in pain, he scrambled up taking two more bullets in the ribs, ducking low so he could still use some cover of the counter. He made a run for the window, and firing blindly to the side as he sped past. If he made it to the window, he would jump through it.

Alek would be met with Bastien blocking his path as the werewolf came around the end of the counter, his shotgun pointed at Alek's chest.

His eyes where a swirl of amber as he pulled the trigger, aiming for center mass.

Meanwhile, in the bathroom Vanessa had given up on the chains for the time being as gunfire erupted in the other room. She instead shielded Sophia as they both lay there on the floor, and she kept her hands pressed to her daughters ears as she waited for the inevitable silence that would mean an end to the fight.

Alek bared his teeth at Bastien and and skidded to the left slightly, but not enough. The gun shot grazed his right side and Alek growled in pain, but didn't slow down. He lowered his shoulder down, grabbing Bastien into a bear hug around his waist at full speed, pushing the man through the window, falling through with him. Both men would free fall from the second floor.

Bowen had emptied his weapon and charged Alek as he lunged at the window. Bastien hitting him with the shotgun put him off balance and delayed him just enough to allow him to hook the killer's collar and go out the window with them. He dropped his pistol as he fell and was forced to release Alek. He tucked and rolled through landing, pivoted, and while rising he drew out a thirteen inch khukuri that had been sitting laterally at his belt and across his back in a brown case.

Alek was already starting to rise but would be met with the slash of a high grade carbon steel and silvered blade that could easily be classified as a short sword or a long knife and that had enough weight to hack through a limb with a strong swing.