Eventide - Chapter One

Nicola Claire — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Seek The Light

I was covered in vampire dust and bone-weary; I didn’t need any more trouble tonight. But the human male who stepped out of the shadows, once the Rogue had met the Final Death, had trouble written all over his rigid body.

He wore well-worn jeans, an ancient-looking ACDC t-shirt, and workers boots; the type with steel-toed caps. Well-used by the looks of them. Anger and hatred burned in his eyes. His fists were bunched, but his arms were held loosely at his sides. He was ready for battle.

This wasn’t the first Norm to confront me this evening, but I sure as hell hoped it would be the last.

The past few days had been chaotic and harrowing. The fallout from Evernight had been far worse than we’d feared. The perpetual storms Apep — Lord of Chaos, God of the Underworld — had brought with him had been bad enough. Roofs had leaked. Storm drains had overflowed. Houses had flooded. But added to that were the earthquakes his snake form had caused.

Entire buildings had crumbled, and some of those still standing had been deemed unsafe and marked for controlled destruction. Landslides had swallowed whole suburbs. Giant cracks had appeared on the sides of houses. Sinkholes had made some roads impassable.

Death and destruction were everywhere.

I could live with all of that. My heart ached for those affected, of course, but I could live with the fallout of an Old God throwing a tantrum. What was harder to live with, however, were the lies he and his demoness had spread.

We’d learned a lot about what Apep could do over the past few months. We’d studied his various titles and what they all meant. Opponent of Truth was a new one to add to the list. Knowledge, however, helped but didn’t completely prepare you for what an ancient and powerful god could do when hellbent on causing chaos and destruction.

His eternal war with Ra had spilled over into our realm and with it lies, chaos, and death abounded.

The reason why this Norm before me was ready to throw down and kick some ass was caused by Apep’s meddling in our realm and the insidious nature of the Old Gods.

I’d killed a Norm at Sky City, you see? He’d been under the control of Apep’s right-hand woman, Ammit, at the time and I’d used her darklight to kill him. It was a them-or-us type of situation and the Norms present at the time had all been drones to the demoness.

Unfortunately, our opposition was clever, conniving and manipulative as well as being Dark, deadly, and evil personified. Ammit, Devourer of the Dead, dropped her control of the drones — all of them — at the precise moment I flung her master’s darklight back at the Sky City security guard she had been controlling.

I’d ended up with a bunch of human witnesses to a shocking and brutal attack performed by yours truly on Norm-owned land.

It did not go over well and now we faced the potential for a Norm/Paranormal War unlike any we had waged in the past.

I looked at the man before me and let out a silent sigh. From what I could tell, he was alone. Not that I lowered my guard any. He was armed, I noted. I could see the bulge of a weapon under his ACDC shirt. He was righteously angry as well.

And he knew, as a Nosferatin, I would be reluctant to do him harm.

If he just thought about that for a second, we might have been able to avoid any bloodshed. But no one ever said Norms were thoughtful creatures. Not when the world had gone batshit crazy in any case.

“Please don’t do this,” I said softly.

“You didn’t give Steven Harris a stay of execution. Why should I do the same for you?” Steven Harris was the name of the Sky City security guard.

“Because he was under the influence of a demon at the time and about to kill me,” I offered. “I’m not. I’m one of the good guys.”

Explaining what had happened never helped, but I still tried each and every time it came down to this.

“What a load of bollocks. You just killed another guy! You’re a serial killer.”

Okay, so that was a new one. He knew damn well that the vampire — the one whose dust still covered me from head to toe — had not been human and had been about to suck the blood of an innocent girl; taking her life. The girl, of course, had run the moment I distracted the Rogue, so she wasn’t here to sing my praises to this guy.

“You’re a murderer,” the man said. “Murderers like you need to be put down.”

He drew his weapon in a surprisingly deft move. Swift, smooth, perfect. I could have spun. I could have flashed out of the way. But for a second, I stilled as I had sensed silver.

Fey Silver.

Now, in the past, I might have missed that. Unless, of course, I laid eyes on the silver and felt the resultant call. But as I was linked inexorably to Faerie now — through my new role as Queen of Ljósálfar — and had all sorts of extra Fey magic to call upon, I knew the moment he revealed his gun that it was loaded with silver bullets.

Fey Silver bullets.

How the hell had he got his hands on that?

His finger moved to the trigger.

My wings snapped out and a blue-white light flooded the alley we were in.

He jerked. The gun went off. And the silver bullet flew through the barrel and out into the night where it could do all kinds of nasty things to unsuspecting people.

Fey power swelled within me, then surged out and captured the bullet in mid-air. It felt like a piece of me had come home, but I knew that was Ljósálfar talking. I could feel it through Georgia’s open portal. I could sense it recognising the silver in the bullet and welcoming it home.

I floated a few feet off the dirty concrete, the bullet resting in my palm. Slowly, I lowered myself to the ground. My wings were reluctant to retract, but I was getting better at overriding their wishes.

The blue-white light snuffed out as my body absorbed the feathery appendages. The world seemed Darker and less inviting with that ethereal glow banished. But my connection to Álfheimr was still strong.

I looked at the now entirely too spooked Norm before me. His jeans were wet and the distinctive smell of urine met my nose.

“Where did you get this?” I asked, holding up the bullet.

His mouth gaped open, but I didn’t think anyone was home.

I snapped my fingers in front of his face and he whimpered.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” I said.

“You’re no Nosferatin,” he whispered, his body trembling.

“The silver bullet,” I said, ignoring his statement. “How did you come by it?”

He swallowed but said nothing.

“This is dangerous to have,” I told him, still holding the bullet up for his inspection.

Surprisingly — or not — he was more interested in me than the silver.

“This is made of Fey Silver,” I told him.

He nodded, his wide eyes target-locked on me; waiting for the attack that wasn’t coming, I thought.

“Fey Silver is dangerous,” I pressed. “Very dangerous.”

“It kills paranormals,” he croaked.

“It controls all those who do not possess Fey magic,” I corrected. “Does the bullet make you want to kill paranormals?” I asked.

“I only wanted to kill you.”

I thought about that. Fey Silver is hard to get. You’d have to have access to Faerie to get some and even then, you’d have to know who to ask and have something they wanted in return. This human had not stumbled upon it; he’d been given it for a reason, I was sure.

“Did you acquire the silver in bullet form?” I asked.

He nodded his head, his bottom lip quivering.

“Where?”

“A guy’s selling them at Sky City,” he finally admitted.

“Human?”

“Of course.” As if he’d never consider purchasing a thing from a paranormal.

I snorted at that thought. Most Norms didn’t even know Sensations or The Plaza Hotel were vampire-owned and run businesses. They frequented there often enough. Interactions with paranormals were a given.

But that only meant whoever it was selling Fey Silver bullets at Sky City could be a paranormal duping the Norms.

“Did the human selling the bullets tell you where they had got them from?” I asked.

The man shook his head, sweat flying off his face as he did it. He looked pale. His eyes were too big; his mouth too slack. He was petrified of me.

“The wings,” he whispered. “What are you?”

There were things the Norms didn’t know nor did they need to. Keeping secrets was familiar to me. I didn’t get hung up on it anymore. I had enough guilt for other reasons. Keeping the Norms ignorant of certain aspects of life was for their good as well as mine.

But as the world fell further and further into Apep’s chaos, I was tiring of the little white lies. Was I as bad as the Old God by not always being truthful with the humans I tried to protect?

Were the lies protecting them or making them ignorant?

This was one human among millions in the city. Confessing my sins to him would have little impact. But lying to him — as I had done time again with others just like him in the past — felt like one more lead weight weighing me down.

“Give me your gun,” I instructed.

He handed it over without any fanfare. He really was discombobulated. I emptied the gun of its bullets and handed the weapon back.

“Did you have spares?” I asked.

He shook his head, clutching the now useless weapon in white-knuckled fingers.

I pocketed the bullets and looked the human in the eyes.

“I am a Nosferatin,” I said. “Hunter born. I bring the Final Death to rogue vampires about to take innocent lives. I am the Sanguis Vitam Cupitor. The Blood Life Seeker. I seek out the Dark in vampires and hold it dear. I am the Prohibitum Bibere. The Forbidden Drink. I call the Darkness toward me for final judgment. I am the Lux Lucis Tribuo. The Giver of Light. I balance the Dark in our world with my Light. I am the Prophesied of the Iunctio Council. One of twelve who rule and control all paranormals in the world. I am the Queen of Ljósálfar. My Light is their Light and their Light is mine. I am Kindred to the Champion of the Iunctio.”

I watched the stunned male before me, waiting for him to say something. He was silent.

“It’s also thought that I might be a little divine,” I threw in there for good measure. I shrugged. “I haven’t determined that one way or the other yet, but I have been Gods-Touched, so there’s a chance it’s right. Although, I’m sure Seth and Osiris were being metaphorical when they called me their little sister. Nut’s not my mother. And I haven’t even met Geb yet.”

“Fuck me,” the guy murmured.

I smiled. “Do you want me to write that all down for you?”

“Nah, that’s okay,” he said, frantically shaking his head.

I nodded in understanding. “Stay away from Fey Silver,” I warned. “You can never tell if what you’re thinking is your thought or the silver’s.”

“Fey Silver thinks?”

“Oh, yeah. And you do not want to be inside its head.” I twirled a finger in tiny circles by my temple in the universal sign for crazy.

“We good?” I asked.

“Not in a million years,” the guy muttered.

“It’s a Dark and dangerous world out there, human,” I told him. “We need to search for the Light or we’ll all be consumed by the shadows.”

“Giver of Light,” the man said. At least one of my titles had stuck.

I lifted my hand and let a little of my Light out — not enough to blast him with euphoric bliss, but enough to make my point. The alley glowed a beautiful soft white. I held tight to my Fey Light; the wings had scared him.

He smiled serenely. Nosferatin Light can do that if wielded expertly. I was — after all this time — quite an expert.

“Take care,” I said. “Seek the Light.”

I turned and exited the alley. Behind me, I heard the human quietly but with conviction repeat my words to himself.

“Seek the Light,” he said.

Smiling softly, I walked out into the night.

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Eventide - Chapter One