My Dark Responsibility

Winston’s words echoed through my consciousness. None of this new breed had seen anything of my strength or wrath. There’s a strange comfort that develops with ignorance and underestimating your enemies. Winston’s visit was an olive branch of sorts. He still held out hope that I would return and work with him…for him. I felt that he still had mostly affection for me, but the threat was also thinly veiled. My blood would be shed as a last resort. He would try.

I left Ngozi in Louis’ care. I had a message of my own to send. As I headed downtown I knew they would find me. Winston, like Malcolm before him, embraced the organizational principles used by lion prides. The women did the hunting. For practical purposes it was always easier for them to bring company back to the coven. Even those women who were invariably driven into a state of frenzied hysteria by their thirst would take victims back to the coven.

When I got out of the second taxi, in the heart of St. James, there was misty rain blowing in from the Gulf of Paria. It was a little after midnight, but this stretch of bars, nightclubs and strip clubs is referred to by locals and visitors alike as the city that never sleeps.

St. James is unpretentious which is why all sections of society feel comfortable having a drink and looking for illicit distractions here after hours. It is popular amongst soucouyants looking for a late night bite. Members of my coven were cautioned to stay away from downtown tonight. I needed time to work.

I could feel their eyes on me and when I was certain of their intent I walked down a dark alley. The rain was coming down in sheets now and I was grateful for the additional cover for what was to follow. I looked up at the closed windows of the residences over some of the businesses, we weren’t being watched. They were close enough for me to smell their perfume now. I stopped with my back still turned and the one closest to me spoke.

“Looking for some company?” She asked seductively.

“I am.” I said evenly turning to face them. I recognized the faces instantly they belonged to Winston. There revealing clothes clung to their wet skin and I felt a stirring deep within, mixed with my blood lust. There was a flash of lightening and a moment of recognition followed like thunder. The smile on the face of the one closest to me disappeared and her jaw slackened.

“I know you…you are-” The sharpened reinforced steel opened her neck and she reached for her throat with both hands, still trying to say my name. The other two moved with blinding speed, approaching from opposite sides. They were outmatched from the start. The beginnings of a crazed scream left their lips, before their heads left their bodies and then I fed. I fed on their bodies in the crazed frenzy that my thirst has always demanded. Their blood tasted like the blood of mortals, like those that they fed on…it was intoxicating. I lost sense of time and when I looked up I saw other figures staring calmly from the entrance to the alley. They were to calm, or perhaps they were frozen by fear. But I knew better, they were from Winston’s coven. I bared my fangs as the downpour washed the blood from my hands.

“Go!” I said. “And tell him this is my answer!”