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A GUST OF BRISK MIDNIGHT breeze brushed over my collarbones and sent a shiver down my spine. I shuddered as I forced the crooked zipper of my winter jacket all the way up and shoved my hands in my pockets. The spring that year had brought in a cold front unlike one we hadn't seen in decades.
My heart thudded so loud in my chest that I could hardly hear the faint hum of the famous New York City traffic. I curled my sweaty hands into fists and shoved them into my pockets. Most humans didn't dare go out after nightfall, not in a hundred years. Ever since the Great Takeover they knew what kind of fates awaited them in the dark, we all knew.
But unfortunately life didn't stop after nightfall, and neither did my mother's need for medicine. She had run out of her meds for one of her complicated medical conditions days ago and she couldn't handle it anymore. The effects of not having them were horrible, I couldn't stand to watch her suffer like that any longer. Which is what brought me to Docs Pharmacy at midnight.
"Doc? You there?" I half whispered tapping my fists lightly against the metal door of the pharmacy. I glanced over my shoulder nervously. Even speaking outside at night was dangerous. Everyone knew the vampires had supersonic hearing, it's what made them good predators.
And our inability to listen to the city curfew was what made us good prey.
There was a rustling behind the door. It cracked open just a bit and doc peeked his head out. He offered a warm and silent smile before pulling his head back inside and sticking his arm through. He clutched the white paper bag in his hand and I graciously pulled it from him without uttering a single thank you. The door carefully closed and I heard the twelve locks he had slide into their places.
It hurt not being able to say thank you, or to ask him how his wife was doing, but that came with the territory. The pharmacy usually wasn't even open this late, but he was a friend of the family and agreed. He said he was already going to be awake because of the broadcast of the summoning anyway, and he knew that my mom was having a hard time.
I pulled the paper bag close and flinched at the sound of it rustling. Any sound was too much sound.
As quickly as I had come, I turned around and made my way back up the vacant street. The dim yellow light from the streetlamps was the only thing that lit the way and the stars were my only companion.
The city at night was a completely different world. Even the beat up sidewalks and old apartment buildings seemed to twist and turn differently in the faded light.
I held my breath as I walked. I hoped that there wasn't anyone else with the same idea as me. I prayed I wouldn't pass another terrified human trying to sneak in an errand. I couldn't risk someone else blowing my cover- not tonight.
Maybe all the vamps are busy, it's a big night for their kind. I thought. I almost scared myself with how spitefully I lingered on the words. My mother had always raised me to be compassionate and kind. Even now she always preached that we shouldn't hate the vampires just because they basically rule the city. But as hard as I tried I couldn't do it. I couldn't give them a pass. I probably got it from my father's side. As hard as I tried I couldn't keep him out of my mind. Every second of every day there was a piece of him with me, unfortunately it was usually his anger. I was sweet like my mom, but I had an angry streak like my dad. I was a walking contradiction, and it had definitely spoiled its share of opportunities for me. Relationships were almost impossible because I could never find someone that could handle both.
There was a loud noise behind me as a trashcan clashed loudly against the cement that pulled me from my thoughts. I flinched, mentally kicking myself for how long I had let myself go on autopilot. I knew better than that, but unfortunately getting lost in my thoughts was another thing I had gotten from dear old dad after he had passed away.
I hope to god that it was just another fucking stray.
I told myself that it was and picked up my pace, but my heart wasn't so easily convinced. I could barely function with it beating so thunderously inside of my chest.
Behind me there was another crash, closer now as another metal can bit the dust.
Stupid kids. It's probably some immature teenagers trying to get themselves killed.
I thought it, but that time I didn't even believe it. In this age even immature teenagers knew better than to be out after dark. Sure there was still some danger during the day with the few vamps that had day powers, but most came out at night. And the majority of them didn't give a fuck about humans.
I picked up the pace and tried my hardest not to think about every horrific death story I had heard on the news. I focused on putting one foot in front of the other and clutched the medicine tightly.
Mom needs this, and she's going to get it. There isn't a thing in the world that's going to stop me. I pep talked myself as I turned another corner.
A window shattered behind me and I yelped. I knew I shouldn't have, and that it was basically signing my own death certificate. I even threw my hands up to my lips as it was coming out to try to catch it, but it was no use. It came out, and I knew that was the beginning of the end.
A loud hoop filled the air filled by a series of hair-raising cackles. If I didn't know better I would have thought I was being chased by a hoard of circus clowns.
But I did know better, and the only clown on the streets that night was me.
I instantly threw my pace into overdrive and broke out into an all-out run. I didn't care how stupid I looked trying to run with my heavy coat clutching the paper pharmacy bag. I had to make it home. My mother needed her medicine.
"Look boys, we got ourselves a runner!" A man cackled hysterically. He was laughing so hard that he was almost intelligible.
I knew in an instant who was trailing me- members of Invicta. I knew I was in deep shit, but I at that moment I realized I was in it deeper than I had ever imagined. Invicta was a notorious magical drug smuggling vampire gang that nearly ran the city right alongside the governors. Aside from their violence and killings they also were the largest sellers of ice. Ice was a mystical drug that was passed around the supernatural community. Not only did it make them insanely strong and incredibly fast, it's high made them cackle like hyenas.
And from the sounds of it this guy was as high as a kite. A series of cackles joined in on the non-existent joke.
I listened as close as I could just like my dad taught me and tried to decipher how many there were by the location of the echoes and the pitch.
There's got to be six- wait no, seven.
This was new territory for me. When my dad was alive I had no reason to go on these escapades. No reason to be out late at night by myself but over the past few years since he'd died it seemed like I'd found myself in these situations more and more often. First it was the vampire in the supermarket with day powers trying to attack me in the bread aisle. Then it was the alleyway vamp that pounced on me at sunset. I didn't even want to think about the vampire perv who'd been tapping on my window trying to oblige me to open my window and invite him in.
What the hell is with the sudden interest in little ol' me? I thought as I gasped for air and took a sharp left. My apartment building came into view at the end of the street and a wave of relief swept over me. I was almost there, only feet away from safety. As quickly as a sliver of hope was given to me, it was all taken when my foot snagged a piece of lifted concrete in the sidewalk that hadn't been fixed and I was sent spiraling to the ground. The paper bag flew from my hands up into the air and before it could hit the ground a bony man with a dirty blonde mullet dashed to it with vamp speed and caught it midair. He wore a jean jacket with the sleeves ripped off for a makeshift vest and black leather pants.
Invicta.
I scrambled to flip over on my back and realized that I was surrounded by a circle of five guys that looked almost identical. They each had wide crooked smiled plastered across their stained red lips. By the look of it I would have gladly guessed that I wasn't the only person they'd caught with their guard down that night.
I didn't say a word. I didn't beg for mercy or try to explain myself because I knew that was what they wanted. They didn't just want to feed off of my blood, they wanted to feed off of the high of having power over me. The high of being the ones in charge of whether I lived or died. I refused to give them any more satisfaction than them seeing me already on the ground gave. I held my tongue and looked up at them with a fire in my eyes. I was sure all the words that I didn't say came spewing out at them in the form of the nastiest look I'd ever had the pleasure of giving someone. They knew in my mind I was screaming fuck you at the top of my lungs. But even if they weren't hopped up on ice they wouldn't have cared.
My eyes flitted over to the one that clutched my mother's meds in his hands. He didn't know it but he held her life in his hands too. I didn't dare let him catch on or god knows he would have chucked the bag all the way to central park and I would have never seen it again.
"Well boys, it looks like we found ourselves a midnight snack." He said. His drawl was southern and made me question what he was even doing on the outskirts of New York City anyway.
He smirked. "And lucky for us this one actually looks like one too."
My stomach churned and I spit at the ground in disgust which made him let out a howl like I'd just told him the funniest joke he'd ever hear. He threw his head back and let his voice be carried off by the wind and drowned out by the distant sounds of traffic. He didn't care who heard, the only people out in traffic at this time were supernaturals who didn't have to worry about being on the bottom of the food chain anyway.
"Wait a minute boss," A wiry kid said from the circle. "Isn't that her?"
The man turned and squinted his eyes at me before a look of recognition swept across his face.
"Well I'll be. It is her. You, little lady, have a lot of dangerous people looking for you." He smirked. "Which just means more fun for me." His devilish grin revealed his pearly white fangs hiding behind his upper lip.
I looked at him confused. I wanted to ask him what the hell that meant, and why it was so important. It couldn't hurt, I'd probably have been dead soon, but I was immediately cut off by a high-pitched hissing sound that came from above us. I looked just in time to see a smoke bomb be launched from one of the windows of my apartment building that towered next to us. As quickly as the first came a second came from a window down the hall, and even a third sailed out from the top floor. All three sailed to the ground with a thick tail of smoke trailing closely behind. The dark green gas quickly seeped out and engulfed the gang sending them into a fit of combined cackling and coughing. They all dropped to their knees, including the boss man that was holding my mother's medication hostage.
I saw my opportunity to bolt and I took it. I jumped to my feet and dashed to the paper bag swiping it before the Invicta members even knew what was going on. As they all choked and gasped around me I thanked my lucky stars that the tarragon bombs where only toxic to vampires. It looked like it hurt- a lot.
With the pharmacy bag in hand I made my break and slid into the door to my building. I quickly bolted up the stairs to make it to the third floor. I passed Mrs. Camino on the first floor with her door wide open.
"Thank you so much Mrs. Camino." I panted as I passed her door.
"It's not problem mija." She replied still sitting at her window and watching the vamps writhe from the pain of her smoke bomb. The sixty-year-old still found just as much pleasure fighting back then as she did decades ago in her time in the resistance. I wasn't surprised she had come to my aid, but I was grateful, and that was all that mattered.
I pushed past her door and made my way up to the third floor before slipping into our apartment. I slid all of the deadbolts into their place and finally let myself feel relieved.
"Mom, what did I tell you about being that close to the window?" I muttered. I tried to act upset but I was actually impressed that she'd gotten into her wheelchair and had placed herself in front of the window to gaze. I was even more impressed that the smoke bomb she had tossed actually made its way to us down there.
I peered down out the window. Below in the streets the vamps were still recovering.
“Those things were potent. How much tarragon where in them?”
“A hell of a lot by the looks of them.” She wheezed but smiled. Her tired eyes said it all, so I let it be.
"Well I got your meds, I got here in one piece, and the summoning hasn't started yet. So I have those going for me." I smiled. My response seemed to comfort her as I seen her loosen her tight grip on the arm rests.
"Let the summoning begin." She smiled at her own twisted joke.