Going away.

Not like I've updated this any time recently, but this Jay sandbox is officially closed. I've moved my blogging to a new place mentioned at the end of this post. I may open a new sandbox, but for now, no more stories.

http://kung-f00l.blogspot.com/

Not a vampire? Are you crazy?

Tears still running down her cheeks, her boyfriend left behind in the crowds, Jenny walked through the still bustling streets of Bangkok. Unbeknownst to her, a dark creature followed her. He smelled her tears and smiled. Easy pickings.

"Excuse me," the smiling monster tapped Jenny's shoulder. She jumped as she turned around. All she saw was a young, smiling Thai man. "You look lost... oh. Excuse me, are you alright?"

"I'm just..." Jenny sniffed and wiped away her tears. "I'm fine. I'm just looking for my hotel." Jenny smiled, hiding her sadness. "I think I'm a little lost."

"What hotel?" the monster smiled.

"Oh, um... the Sukhumvit Hotel?" Jenny smiled at the monster. "Did I pronounce that right?" The monster laughed.

"Yes! Your pronunciation is very good," he smiled and Jenny laughed, her tears fading. "Your hotel is close by. Would you like me to show you?"

"Yes, please. If it's not too much trouble!" Jenny glanced to the side.

"Oh, no trouble! No trouble at all!" the monster laughed and politely gestured in the right direction. Jenny smiled gratefully and they walked a ways.

"You're sure you don't mind?" Jenny asked.

"It's really no trouble," the monster assured her. "Just down this way." He gestured down an alleyway.

"Down there?" Jenny asked. She glanced at the monster nervously.

"The fastest way to your hotel is down this alley and then three blocks to the left," the monster assured her.

"But... is it safe?" Jenny asked.

"It is totally safe," the monster assured her with a smile. He led Jenny half way through the alley before turning to her.

"What?" Jenny asked looking into his glowing white eyes before gasping with realization.

"Totally safe. For me anyway," the monster looked Jenny up and down hungrily. Jenny began to whimper.

"Please don't hurt me," she whispered.

"No pain," the monster smiled as he pulled Jenny's head to one side, fangs extending. "For me anyway." Lips twitching the monster reached for Jenny's inviting neck. He tried to bite in but found himself just short of her neck. He pulled harder and found he couldn't move. A hand was holding his hair and lips appeared at his ear.

"She asked nicely," the second monster growled in an almost friendly voice. Then the second monster hurled the first into the wall behind him.

"Please don't hurt me," Jenny begged again her eyes shut tight.

"Don't worry, he won't hurt you now," came a much friendlier voice. Jenny opened her eyes to find a young white man, American by the clothes, standing in a heroic pose.

"What?" Jenny blinked.

"I won't let him hurt you, don't worry," the second monster smiled at Jenny.

"Where did he go?" Jenny slowly backed away from the strange new man looking for the monster she'd just seen.

"Oh, he's right over..." the second monster turned to point at his fallen foe to find no one there. "Oh, gottsverdammten vampire. Where'd that bugger go?"

"Oh god," Jenny backed into the wall, shaking.

"It'll be ok," the young man said, standing in front of Jenny, looking around attentively. He glanced over his shoulder and smiled. "I'm Jay, by the way." Which was, of course, the moment the monster took to strike. The monster darted out of the darkness, snarling, claws reaching for this upstart.

Jay caught him by the throat without looking. While the monster struggled, Jay's head slowly turned. When the monster caught Jay's eyes they were glowing red and his fangs were extended.

"Bad move, brother," Jay winked at the monster before turning once again and hurling the hideous creature down the alleyway. He started to follow, but stopped when Jenny clutched at his arm.

"What did you call him?" Jenny asked, shaking still.

"Oh, a god damned vampire," Jay replied. "That was German, sorry."

"He's not a vampire," Jenny said quietly. Jay blinked.

"Not a vampire? Are you crazy?" Jay stared at Jenny, mouth agape. "What about the eyes? And the claws? And the scary?"

"There's no such thing as vampires!" Jenny insisted, backing away from Jay slightly.

"Oh, come on! How much more proof could you possibly need?" Jay complained.

"There's no such thing as vampires!" Jenny insisted more confidently.

"He disappeared again!" Jay gestured to where the monster no longer lay.

"That's because he ran off," a new voice came from the darkness. Jenny and Jay both turned to find a serious looking man walking towards them.

"You've got to be joking!" Jay grumbled as K walked up.

"He was trying to mug you, Jay here scared him, and he ran off," K said calmly to Jenny. Almost hypnotically. Jenny nodded absently.

"He was trying to mug me," the frightened girl agreed. "He ran off." K sighed at the girl.

"Your boyfriend is back there," K nodded back out of the alley. Jenny nodded and ran out of the alley.

"God dammit, K," Jay growled. Then he blinked, confused. "You didn't even use magic! How did you do that?"

"People believe what they want to believe," K shrugged. "Talk in a spooky voice and people will believe they're being hypnotized or whatever." K gave Jay a strange look. "Why were you so big on her thinking he was a vampire anyway?" Jay put on his innocent face. K parried with his annoyed face.

"Uh... well... you know... I just wanted her to believe," Jay looked down, embarrassed.

"Yeah, I got that part," K rolled his eyes. "It was the why part I didn't get." Jay sighed.

"I've just been thinking that if people started to believe then..." Jay paused.

"It would be easier for you to admit who you are to girls?" K guessed.

"Yeah," Jay admitted.

"I kinda figured," K gave his friend a sympathetic smile.

"Hey, what'd you do to that guy anyway?" Jay suddenly asked glancing around. K suddenly grinned.

"Remember how I told you about that shadow fire I was working on that gave off no light and transported the person on fire into the shadow realm?" K wiggled his eyebrows.

"Holy shit, that worked?" Jay laughed. "Freakin' awesome!"

"I knew you'd forgive me," K smirked. "I didn't know you'd be so quick about it."

"What are you... Dammit!" Jay groaned. K laughed and the two friends wandered off into the Bangkok night.

A lovely conversation.

J: LET IT RAIN!!!!
K: Rain. You are aware it's sunny out.
J: Let it rain down on me?
J: 4 Strings?
J: I like to keep my pimp hand strong.
K: Four what?
J: lol
J: Follow! All my love it's you that I dream of, all my love since that day! Dancing with you in the summer rain!
J: *dance dance REVOLUTION!*
J: *has issues* :)
K: You don't really need to tell me that. I'm well aware of your mental state, or lack thereof.
J: *loves tacos*
K: And, as per usual, you bounce back quickly.
J: We're going out tonight, you in?
K: Not tonight, no. I have work to finish and a date later.
J: Ok.
K: Keep asking though. One of these days free time will be mine again.
J: No problem.
J: Make this girl write me back and tell me she likes me. DO IT! DO IT NOW!
K: What girl?
J: The one I mailed last night.
K: Yes, that narrows it down nicely. I definitely know what you're talking about now.
J: I showed you her profile yesterday assmuppet.
K: Oh, that one. That actually does help narrow it down.
J: The financial one. 32. Real pretty.
K: If I knew where she lived, I'd have a gun to her head making her like you already. That's how I roll.
J: Now that's friendship.
K: heh...
J: I'm listening to Pretty Women as we speak.
J: ROFL
J: LOLLERSKATES
K: You're sure full of energy today. And caps.
J: I'm just excited about the girl.
K: Oh good. Not like that's ever gone wrong in the past.
J: Shut it!
J: Monkey steals the peach!
K: No, my testicles are staying right where they are, thank you very much.
J: Dude, check out these hot remixes.
K: Techno?
J: Hot, kickin' techno. Two remixes of the same song.
K: Right.
K: The first one is awesome.
K: So's the second one. Two remixes of the same song that are awesome? This must create a rift in space-time or something.
J: I know!
K: I must say, I prefer the first one though. I like the use of the strings.
J: I like the use of boobs.
K: There's a boob remix?
J: I wish.
J: I want time to play with Sandy.
K: We all want that. Seems like you're the only one who has any potential to get that anyway.
J: Let me rephrase! I want play time AGAIN with Sandy.
K: Oh. Well, that's different.
K: Shall we add the addendum "right now"?
J: I thought I explained this whole thing to you.
J: Might as well add right now since it doesn't have a chance in hell of happening.
K: Right now? Or ever?
J: Unfortunately ever. "I got a little crazy", her words.
K: Sometimes... ok, frequently, I really wish I could punch the stupid out of the women you try to date.
J: It was the most fun I've had in a long time.
K: I hear you.
J: But she got all weirded out and was all like "I don't know if we can be friends" and what not.
K: Girls. Can't live with 'em, and if you bury too many in the basement, eventually people notice.
J: LOL.
J: So yeah, it's either be friends with no play, or not be friends with no play.
K: Given your shitty options, go with option A.
J: She's ignoring me anyway. Which she does.
K: So I've noticed.
J: She usually talks to me again. But doing fun stuff with her was like a ... horribly addictive drug.
J: You know the holocaust?
K: Total opposite?
J: Exactly.
K: I grok you, loud and clear.
J: Her skin is like liquid satin.
K: And now we've entered into the realm of STOP TELLING ME THESE THINGS.
J: heh...
J: I'm giving you book ideas.
K: I don't do bodice rippers.
J: You could. I have faith in you.
K: You are aware I can set you on fire from here, right?
J: Yes, but then I would get significantly less work done.
K: You're working? You're spending a lot of time IMing me here.
J: Spoke the pot to the kettle.
K: Have you heard my typing slow when you were composing your replies?
J: Oh, shut up you multitasking master.
K: Back to work with you!

Let's go to Paris!

"'Let's go to Paris!' you said. 'It'll be fun and educational!' you said. 'Nothing could possibly go wrong!' you said. 'The Parisan Catacombs Midnight Tours are totally safe!' you said. Yet, for all your annoying optimism, here we are, lost in the Catacombs, surrounded by zombies who are apparently retarded, with no food for either of us. What part of this was a good idea again?"

Jay sighed and gave K an unhappy look. They'd been wandering around the Catacombs for hours trying to find some rhyme or reason to the place as well as a way out. Not only that, but they'd been pushing zombies out of the way for hours. The zombies weren't the eating people kind of zombies, but seemed all to be merely wandering around aimlessly, which meant constantly in the way in K's eyes.

Paris, despite K's grumbling, had actually started out as a good choice for a holiday. The flight was startlingly easy to get onto and off of. The hotel was easy to find and had excellent service. The food made even K sigh happily, and Jay had found easy and safe meals quickly since landing. Up until taking the tour of the Catacombs, everything had been going well.

When Jay had noticed that a door that should have been locked was actually slightly ajar, he had dragged K off saying that it would be fun to poke around in the area the tours left out. K had protested, but swiftly gave in to Jay's curiosity. It was only ten minutes before the trouble started.

"So, I don't know if you've noticed this," K started with his 'not amused' voice. Jay grimaced.

"Noticed what?" Jay replied sweetly.

"We're stuck in an illusory trap," K replied with an exasperated sigh.

"What makes you say that?" Jay asked, frowning. Everything smelled normal and looked normal.

"Well, you see that door we passed back there?" K pointed behind them.

"Yeah, it's.... What the?" Jay's jaw dropped.

"Yes, lo and behold that there is no passageway behind us," K rolled his eyes. Jay ran back to where the passageway was and found nothing but solid rock.

"What the hell?" Jay asked.

"Like I said, we're in an illusion trap," K replied. "And an annoying one at that, since if I use magic while we're in the trap, it's guaranteed to have odd side effects."

"Why the odd side effects?" Jay asked.

"Simple. Whoever set up this trap was trying to be annoying, not so much dangerous. As such, he's set up some curses that are designed to have spells behave rather randomly," K scratched at his head annoyedly.

"So if we tried to poof on out of here?" Jay suggested.

"We'd probably either end up deeper in the catacombs with party hats on our heads or gravity would switch and we'd have to start walking around on the ceilings," K replied with a sigh.

"I guess we'd better start trying to just find our way out then," Jay offered. K shook his head. "No? Why not?"

"Like I said, this spell is annoying. It'll probably have normal signs and when we turn a corner like this one we..." K looked forward.

"What?" Jay demanded and turned the corner to see what K was staring at. Attached to the celing of the tunnel they were in was a large neon sign with several arrows pointing in different direction with the word "EXIT" flashing red.

"See what I mean?" K glanced at Jay who sighed.

"Wait, what if I tried to walk the shadows?" Jay asked, starting to step into the shadow realm without waiting for K's reply.

"No, don't-" K's unheard reply came too late. Suddenly, rather than the dark, dank, and somewhat ominous Catacombs, Jay and K stood in the brightly lit, cheerfully decorated Catacombs, with beautiful flowers everywhere and tasteful window treatmens adorning every grave. There were even small shadow acrobats performing on the walls now.

"Oh... oops," Jay grinned sheepishly at his friend who dropped his head into his hands.

"Let's just keep going," K eventually said. "That stupid sign might actually be pointing us in the right direction."

"It points in like six directions," Jay pointed out helpfully.

"Shut up," K replied and the two friends walked off in one of the many exit directions in silence.

After a few minutes, the brightly lit section of the Catacombs led into normal tunnels again, and when looking back, Jay could find no sign of the lighted section ever having existed. The tunnels, back to their dank and dark status, twisted and turned without apparant reason. Occasionally a sign would be visible and lit, but it never seemed to indicate an exit.

"Hey," Jay spoke after what seemed like a long time.

"What?" K asked.

"Why don't we ask for directions?" Jay suggested.

"And who do you propose we..." K's sarcastic reply trailed off as he noticed Jay eye a corpse meaningfully.

"You know... That's not half bad..." K admitted. "I don't think this curse is triggered by necromancy. It's worth a shot."

"Ha! Score one for Jay!" Jay grinned and marked one point in the air.

"Yeah, we'll see about that," K replied, much less optimistically. After concentrating for a moment, the corpse shuddered, then sat up to regard K and Jay.

"Bonjour," said the corpse.

"Yeah, hi," K replied brusquely. "Do you know the way out of here?"

"Excusez-moi?" the corpse replied. K stared at the reanimated body.

"You don't speak English do you?" K groaned.

"Vous ne parlez pas français?" the corpse replied.

"Dammit, don't you speak French?" K demanded of Jay.

"What? No. I never learned French," Jay replied defensively.

"But you know like every other language we come across," K pointed out as if that would help.

"I'm multi-lingual, yes, but I still don't know French," Jay grumbled.

"J'ai besoin d'une cigarette," the corpse commented helpfully.

"Wait, don't you know some magical spell that lets you understand any spoken language?" Jay reminded K helpfully.

"Given how well magic has worked so far, how well do you think that spell would work?" K gave Jay a baleful look. "For all we know I'd cast that, and then I'd only hear Portugese for the rest of the night."

"Oh," Jay said. "Good point."

"Excusez-moi, je dois aller," the corpse said suddenly. It stood up and began to walk away.

"Oh, that can't be good," Jay groaned. K just sighed the sigh of someone who expected things to get worse.

As soon as the first corpse wandered off, more began to stand up and begin to walk around. Try as they might, neither Jay nor K could find a single zombie that spoke English, or any other language that either man was familiar with. Within minutes, there were hundreds of zombies walking around.

"Ok, no more magic, we're just looking for a way out of here," K commanded. "We're bound to find our way out soon, and these zombies will probably wear off just like that light spell."

Many hours of pushing zombies out of the way later, to which the zombies invariably replied with "excusez-moi", Jay and K were at their wit's end. And K began to complain more vocally to Jay.

"Come on, can't you keep a vaguely positive attitude about this?" Jay looked at K reproachfully.

"A positive attitude about wandering around in freaking catacombs filled with zombies where your abilities and my magic count for nothing with no idea where we're going, how we're going to get out, or how we'll get food? You want me to have a positive attitude about that?" K glowered at his friend.

"Well... When you put it that way," Jay grimaced.

"For fuck's sake," K groaned before yelling, "LET US OUT OF HERE!"

With K's yell still echoing through the tunnels, both friends turned a corner and stopped in awe.

"Am I dreaming, or is that the entrance we used to get in here?" Jay asked of K. With a single glance behind them, both men noticed that the zombies were nowhere to be seen

"You ain't dreaming," K said excitedly. "Let's blow this popsicle stand." The two ran to the unlocked door and walked through.

"Please stay with the tour group," their tour leader said to them, beckoning them to join him. After sharing a confused glance, the two rejoined their tour group as if no more than a minute of time had passed.

"The hell?" Jay asked quietly of K.

"Don't ask," K replied.

"But-" Jay protested.

"No," was K's only reply. "I never thought I'd ever say this, but all I want to do is to get out of here and go eat some snails."

"That's just weird."

Inhuman kindness

Jay had never seen such destruction and chaos as the earthquake he had just survived wrought. The young vampire was probably in shock from the horrors around him. As luck would have it he was also stuck. The building he had been in had collapsed completely during the earthquake just as the sun was rising. Jay now huddled under a collapsed wall that gave him full view of the street beyond. He had considered escaping into the shadows, but one glance found the realm of the shadows to be just as dangerous and chaotic as the real world. Jay opted to simply continue to hide under the collapsed wall and wait until sundown.

Though many people ran through the streets looking for loved ones, many more less noble people moved about, looting what they could, stealing from the dead. Jay's lip curled but he kept to his hiding place. Few people were looking under his wall anyway, so he kept his disgust to himself and merely watched while waiting for dark. Hours passed and eventually the sun hovered high in the sky. Jay had to squint to see anything.

There were a few aftershocks here and there, nothing quite as frightening or dangerous as the first earthquake. There were some scary noises that Jay couldn't identify, but he assumed they were animals either dying or escaping from humans somehow. Only one noise filled Jay with a sense of dread: the scream of a young woman.

Jay crawled as close as he dared to the deadly sunlight and looked up the street in horror as a young woman scrambled desperately away from three men with dark grins on their faces. It was clear what they had in mind; it was also clear that the woman could not get away. She tried to scramble up onto a fallen wall, but it crumbled and she fell ten feet to the ground. She curled in pain, but still tried to back away, to try to find somewhere to hide. The wall that she had tried to seek refuge on now became her prison. The woman had nowhere else to go.

Jay shook with rage as he watched the three men close of any avenue of escape and close in on the woman. She screamed for help, but could not escape. There was nowhere for her to go. Then, as Jay watched in horror, more men appeared, some armed with knives and clubs, all apparently interested in the same thing. Jay closed his eyes and clenched his fists. Unable to do anything, Jay cursed his vampiric status and tried desperately to block the coming sounds from his ears. What he heard shocked him and he couldn't help but look up.

Standing between the mob of men, two of whom had been knocked down, and the young woman was a man of average height who was rather on the thin side. He had shoulder length blond hair, a rarity here, and was dressed only in soft leathers. Jay's sharp eyes and nose quickly identified that this man was actually an elf. As Jay's eyes widened, the elf calmly dusted off his shirt and simply stood between the men and their prize. The woman cowered behind the elf, too shocked and frightened to realize that the newcomer was here to help her.

Shouting something in a language Jay did not know, one of the largest men charged at the slight elf. The elf stopped the man with a casually placed kick, then struck the man perhaps three times. The big man crumbled and tried to crawl away from the elf. After some exchanged words, the group of men sent forth the men armed with clubs to deal with interloper.

Jay cringed, but watched in amazement as the elf fought. At first he ducked, and dodged, never giving ground while still never letting the clubs hit him. After one of the men tried to move behind the elf, he snatched away that man's club, accepting a strike to his shoulder, and struck the man whose club he had stolen hard enough to knock the man out cold. Now similarly armed, the elf swung back and forth, almost delicately knocking the other men's weapons out of their hands.

Suddenly the elf twitched left and stuck out his club catching the thrown dagger that was aimed for him. As he pulled the knife out of the club the now three men fighting him stepped back nervously. The elf glanced at the knife, maintaining his casual expression, then threw it over his shoulder far into the rubble. The amorous group backed away again to talk.

Jay inspected the sun and found that it had hardly moved. The fight, which had seemed to take forever, had hardly taken minutes. Jay growled in frustration and looked at the elf who, still without changing expression, stood calmly facing the men in front of him. The elf glanced at Jay for a moment, blinked once, then looked away without other response. Jay frowned, but could think of nothing else to do but wait and hope for the best.

The men with the dark intent came to a consensus somewhat later, and each man armed with a knife advanced on the elf. Still armed with his club, the elf took two steps forward before stopping again. Jay guessed that he was giving himself more room to battle these better armed men. The men with the knives advanced slowly, while the men behind them spread out both to trap the elf as well as to collect rocks.

The men with the knives advanced just outside of the elf's reach and began to slash towards the elf. When the elf didn't respond, the moved in closer, trying to cut the elf. Now the he faded and moved avoiding the knives relatively easily. Jay marveled at the creatures speed just long enough to forget about the other men. When the men with knives suddenly backed off, a barrage of thrown rocks was launched at the elf, who mostly dodged the attacks while knocking a couple of the rocks aside with his club. Only one rock hit the elf in the arm, but the elf grimaced when he was struck. Still, he caught that rock before it hit the ground and tossed it aside as well.

The group shared a dark laugh as the men with the knives once again moved towards the elf. A few rocks flew, and though the elf avoided or deflected them with his club, he was hard pressed to avoid all the rocks and knife attacks and came away from that skirmish with a knife wound to the arm holding the club. When Jay saw the wound, he pounded the ground in frustration growling dangerously loudly.

When the men backed off to plan another attack, the elf looked at Jay a second time with an appraising expression. He glanced at the woman behind him and then back at Jay with a question in his eyes.

"Yes, I want to help her," Jay growled. The elf blinked at Jay, looked skyward for a moment, then returned his attention to the small mob of men with evil intent. Jay blinked in confusion then rolled his eyes, muttering something disparraging about elves.

The men with the knives approached again, and this time the barrage of rocks did not come until the elf was very involved in the battle with the armed men. More rocks hit their mark, one glancing off the elf's forehead, though he looked no worse the wear. Two more knife wounds had joined the first, however, further angering Jay. He scrambled forward an inch or two more as the sky darkened. The men backed away, knowing that the wounds would take their toll on this dangerous opponent.

Then it hit Jay: the sky was darkening? Jay stuck his head out of his hiding place to find thick, rolling, black clouds blotting out the sun. It was slightly painful even with this cloud cover for Jay to step out from cover, but he endured that pain.

When Jay attacked the group of men from behind, they didn't know he was coming. Initially Jay was so fast in knocking out his opponents and pulling them away, that the other men did not notice his arrival. When they did notice him, Jay did not hold back from his savage attacks. Jay knew that he could not reveal that he was a vampire, and had to hold back his true strength, but Jay fought like a berserker, relying on anger and savagery to frighten his opponents.

Though the mob quickly turned it's focus to Jay, the young vampire had already broken legs, arms, and jaws as he tore through the crowd of men as quickly as he dared. The instant the men were distracted, the elf exploded into action attacking the men with a grim resolve, though he never tarried far from the young woman's side. Jay was struck several times, even hit by clubs, but never did he slow his attack. He fought his way to the elf, then stood shoulder to shoulder with the elf facing the much smaller group of men.

In the face of two deadly opponents, the mob quickly dispersed. Most men simply fled, though a few stayed to help the injured escape. In five minutes time, the only ones who remained were Jay, the elf, and the woman. Jay sat down heavily, breathing a sigh of relief. The elf calmly pulled bandages out of a pouch and began to calmly bind his wounds.

Jay looked up at the elf as he worked, but said nothing. He glanced at the woman, who was still huddled in fear, then back at the elf. The elf almost smiled at Jay before looking meaningfully up at the sky. The black clouds were beginning to thin out. Jay gave the elf a disparraging look before returning to his previous hiding place.

As the sun broke through the clouds, the elf walked over to the young woman and crouched beside her. When she did not reply, the elf gently touched her arm for a moment. After a long pause, the woman dared to peek over her crossed arms. The elf cocked his head to the side slightly, but did nothing else and said nothing. It took almost a minute, but eventually the woman slowly pulled her arms down and seemed to realize that she was safe. She brushed away her tears and looked away from the elf, embarrassed.

The elf stood, drawing the woman's eyes. He smiled and offered her his hand. The woman tentatively took his hand and, with his help, rose to her feet. Other than smile, the elf did nothing. Eventually the woman smiled back, and slowly led her protector away.

Jay smiled as they left, but had a momentary thought, wondering if it would always be like this, the vampire saving the day and the other guy getting the girl. Jay laughed and dismissed that despressing thought. Of course he'd get the girl someday!

Whadayamean I have two?

"Two vampires cannot sire a single vampire. That is ridiculous. It is impossible," the pale skinned man insisted. Dressed all in fine whites and a white cape to boot, the man practically glowed in the dark.

"You question me on what is possible?" Axe spoke with a very convincing sneer on his lips. Jay grimaced. They were in an apparently abandoned part of town, but with the way things were going, Jay wondered if they'd get loud enough to call attention.

"Though I would not be so bold as to question you, I do have to admit that my pale friend here does have a point," the average looking man spoke meekly. This man dressed so that he would not stick out of a crowd. Jay thought that somewhat wiser than the pale man's approach.

"And why would you know anything of this? How could you possibly know who sired this sad little creature?" The pale man spoke again.

"You vampires don't know who it is that speaks to you," Axe's eyes glittered with something dangerous. "Let me show you..."

"Rasputin," Axe looked into the pale vampires eyes and the eyes widened.

"Gabriel," Axe looked at the meek man and he cowered away.

"How could you know that? How dare you look into my mind!" Rasputin stepped closer to Axe, incensed. One glare from the ancient dragon silenced the arrogant vampire.

"I know that one or both of you was involved in Jay's turning, I will have the truth," Axe growled. "The treaty has been broken by one of you."

"Treaty?" Rasputin laughed haughtily. "What treaty?"

"You don't know about the treaty?" Gabriel looked stunned. Rasputin affixed him with a withering glare.

"I know of the hunt. I know of the glorious taste of blood and the ecstasy of draining the life from another. I know of the power!" Rasputin roared into the night. "I know nothing of any treaty."

"The treaty with the dragon elders? Know you nothing?" Gabriel ran his hands through his shaggy hair in frustration.

"Oh, we should fear the dragons now? This fool of a dragon thinks I had something to do with this... Jay's creation!" Rasputin was going to use a much less kind word to name Jay, but a mere blink from Axe put a stop to that. Rasputin growled in frustration.

"Powerful he may be, but correct he is not," Rasputin insisted. "I had nothing to do with Jay's turning."

"Deny it all you like," Axe said coldly. "You cannot lie to me."

"Um... in all fairness, I look a lot more like Gabriel than I do like Rasputin," Jay pointed out helpfully. Axe smiled at the young vampire.

"You will find that looks can be very deceiving," the ancient dragon pointed out to the young vampire.

"That's all well and good, but then how could both of these guys be involved in my turning and me not remember either of them?" Jay scratched at his head peering at both vampires in turn.

"Because of something they are both trying so very hard not to think about," when Axe grinned at the guilty pair his teeth appeared far too sharp to be human. Even as vampires, the pair seemed unsettled at the sight of those teeth.

"The blood orgy," Gabriel admitted.

"The who what?" Jay demanded, sounding very shocked. Gabriel rolled his eyes.

"The only way that you could have been turned as you were without your knowledge or ours is if it happened at that disastrous blood orgy that Rasputin threw," Gabriel explained with a dark look at Rasputin. The pale vampired was unimpressed.

"That blood orgy, as you so indelicately describe it, was a masterpiece," Rasputin replied haughtily. "It was one of the first times vampires were able to congregate together without ill effects."

"How could that be possible?" Axe demanded. "All know vampires cannot stand to be in the presence of another vampire for any length of time. Look at the three of you!" Axe did have a point, since Jay, Rasputin, and Gabriel were all awash with nervous twitches and often took involuntary steps away from one another.

"It is possible for one simple reason," Rasputin sneered. "I threw a normal human party of excess first, inviting the young and inexperienced and placed access to all manner of enjoyments at their fingertips. The vampires were invited in later to sup upon the blood of those intoxicated youths."

"You fool," Axe growled at Rasputin, his teeth once again a frightening array of razor sharp fangs. Rasputin held his ground in the face of the old dragon's wrath.

"You have no right to tell me not to have such a party," the pale man's smug face did not twitch, even when Axe took a step forward.

"According to the treaty, he is right, even if he was totally unaware of the treaty," Gabriel pointed out.

"So in this... orgy, you got young men and women all manners of intoxicated, mesmerized them, and then drunk of them freely," Axe stated what was not directly said. "And, because of their state, you vampires were calmed enough to stand each other's company and take part in this horrible debauchery?"

"Indeed," Rasputin sneered.

"What you said is true," Gabriel nodded. "It is possible that one or both of us fed upon Jay.

"How many of your unwitting victims survived the night intact?" Axe snarled. Somehow Rasputin grew more bold in the face of the dragon's anger.

"Oh, at least two or three made it out alive," Rasputin taunted. "It was such a wild night, it's hard to remember every detail. And there you have it. Jay must have been one of the young men at this party, and through sheer luck, must have been turned by a vampire who knew no better."

"That would explain why one day I was a normal man, and then after some hazy days, I was suddenly set on fire by sunlight," Jay grumbled. "Thanks a lot, whichever one of you two at fault for this."

"If I had a part in this, I appologize," Gabriel bowed to Jay.

"I guess it's not..." Jay started to speak but silenced when Axe suddenly took a step towards Gabriel.

"Very good, oh ancient one," Axe contratulated Gabriel. "Very good indeed."

"What are you talking about?" Gabriel asked, stepping back a step from the dangerous dragon.

"You know of what I speak," Axe gloated.

"I don't," Jay pointed out. He glanced at Rasputin. "Hell, I don't even think this arrogant idiot knows what you are talking about." Though he received a glare for his efforts, Jay blithely ignored the pale vampire. Axe smiled at Jay.

"This vampire you see, the so-called Gabriel, is more than he seems," Axe explained. Gabriel started to protest, but silenced at Axe's glare. "Gabriel was a vampire, and he may have even been at the distastefully named blood orgy, but what you see before you is no longer Gabriel. Another vampire, a much older vampire, has taken his identity."

"That doesn't sound possible," Gabriel, or apparently not Gabriel, insisited. Axe's eye's glowed for a moment.

"Of course it is possible, Roderick," Axe said triumphantly. "You almost had me fooled."

Any sense of medocrity or averageness melted away from Roderick as he let go his glamour, revealing the twisted and evil creature behind the illusion. The creature looked goulish, teeth distended, sunken eyes burning with horrible strength. A palpable aura of evil sprung up around the creature named Roderick and he backed away from Axe slowly.

"Roderick here is a very old vampire," Axe said grimly. "He may be older than I. And, unless I miss my guess, he is the self same vampire who is responsible for some of the most horrific testing in the name of science that our world has ever known."

Roderick hissed, but didn't respond otherwise.

"You have been hunted for a long time," Axe bowed to the ghoulish vampire. "It is an honor that I might finally destroy someone as long hunted and hated as you." Roderick suddenly grinned.

"You think that you, just you, stand a chance against me Thirax?" the creatures rasped out. Horrible laughter was what followed. "You are old, and, unlike you, I have only grown stronger as I have aged." With that Roderick surged forward, quickly even for a vampire, and slammed his arms into Axe. The ancient dragon blocked the strike, and though the ground beneath him crumbled, Axe looked none the worse the wear.

"A pity," Axe grinned, those horrible teeth peeked out again. "I expected more from you." Then Axe swung his arm in a circular motion, smashing down atop Roderick. The goulish looking vampire cracked and broke in multiple places, his desicated old body unable to take the sheer power of Thirax' mighty blow. The ancient dragon reared back and kicked Roderick's body and the ancient creature exploded into a hundred pieces of petrified flesh and bone.

"Hmm..." Axe glanced around at his handiwork with a frown.

"That was... Amazing!" Jay gasped. Even Rasputin's cold mask of a face had cracked with a bit of wonder.

"It's not over," Axe informed Jay, reaching over and picking up Roderick's head.

"What do you mean?" Jay asked. Axe tossed him Roderick's head.

"See something wrong?" Axe half smiled with a sigh of frustration. Jay frowned at the head for a moment before realization spread across his face.

"This isn't Roderick's head! It's the head of a statue!" Jay realized. With a quick glance around Jay realized that all the broken pieces of Roderick were nothing more than a shattered statue.

"Exactly," Axe nodded.

Rasputin laughed.

"I rather figured the old man would have something up his sleeve," Rasputin sneered at Axe. The ancient dragon frowned, then snarled, grabbed Rasputin and smashed him up against a wall.

"You know who he really was," Axe growled.

"I did," Rasputin replied, unconcerned.

"At your blood orgy, you knew what he planned to do," Axe accused.

"Guilty," Rasputin smiled.

"I should kill you for what you allowed to happen," Axe growled.

"But you can't because the treaty does not allow it," Rasputin sneered a triumphant grin. Axe glowered, but slowly lowered Rasputin to the ground and stepped away from him.

"Wait, you do know about the treaty?" Jay asked.

"I may play the fool well, but I am no fool," Rasputin grinned evilly at Jay.

"You mean, you knew what Roderick was going to do? Create me and abandon me to see what would happen?" Jay gasped.

"I did," Rasputin laughed mockingly.

"Damn you!" Jay swore and lunged forward only to be caught by Axe.

"Stop, Jay. You cannot fight him," Axe told him sadly. "I know that you would like nothing more than to take your revenge upon him, but he would kill you."

"Goodbye, young fool. We shall meet again," Rasputin mocked Jay one final time before floating up into the dark of the night and disappearing.

"Damn him!" Jay snarled and smashed his hands into the wall, cracking it in places. "Why did you stop me, Thirax? Why?" The ancient dragon sighed.

"How long have I known you Jay?" he asked.

"Uh..." Jay blinked, his anger distracted. "Two days?"

"In two days I have come to be fond of you," Axe admitted. "You are a good man, or vampire, you are honest, kind, and you think of more than yourself. I find those traits to be rare among your kind. If I let you fight Rasputin he almost certainly would have killed you. I'd rather that didn't happen."

"You honor me," Jay bowed his head.

"I merely speak the truth," the ancient dragon waved his hand to dismiss the issue. "Come now, my young friend. We have an ancient evil to expunge."

"I don't know how useful I'll be in this hunt," Jay said.

"I think you'll be more useful than you think," Thirax promised with a pointy-toothed grin.

Ficlets

There's an upside and a downside here. The upside is that this site, Ficlets.com, is a great place to write very short stories, ideas or scenes really, that is fascinating and totally addictive. The downside is that I am far more likely to be writing there, since there's a lot more variety and inspiration to be found on the site. Doesn't mean I've forgotten Jay! Just means he may not see quite as much love as normal. Which, admittedly, isn't much to begin with, but a man can only write so much!