The Malavide waited; he looked much like a normal man, and he had the same
heritage, but there nearly all similarities ended. The Malavide could disguise
itself well, and the rumors about them, the myth and that silly name that humans
called them - all that was nonsense.
Some of the myths, though - some of them were right on the target, frighteningly
so.
The Malavide dismissed that thought. His colleagues, what few of them were
left, disdained him for thinking too much. But it was not that he thought too
much, it was what he thought about - that was what bothered them, that was
what had them avoiding him for these past years.
The Malavide's name was Thonos, and he had been alive for nearly three
thousand years. He had prowled the streets of Greece, and loved women who
bore him children, and then lost them all. That was one thing Thonos did not
like to think about - but when he felt his resolve weakening, all he had to do
was summon the images of his children, laughing and playing with their mother,
sweet Idriates - picture them then, and then picture them afterwards. When he
saw them, even in his minds eye his will to fight was constantly renewed.
The Malavide's jaw clenched; to all intents and purposes he was a normal
appearing man, just under six feet with a slim build that moved with what
seemed to be more grace, perhaps, than normal.
Right at the moment he was sitting still, sipping at a small porcelain cup of
coffee. That myth about his kind not being able to eat; that was one of the ones
that was poppycock. One of the things that kept him going, year after year, was
the simple ability to eat food. It was his single greatest pleasure since he had
given sex up.
Thonos had a shock of black hair, a square jaw and dark eyes that noticed
everything. He was dressed for the moment in what he considered golf clothes;
khaki pants, collared slipover shirt, soft fleece jacket. He sipped the coffee,
and he waited, and waited, and finally he saw his prey.
It was strange, Thonos thought with the usual despair hanging over him - it was
strange that females among the Malavide were unknown - he had never even
heard rumors of a female Malavide, much less seen one. But agents of the
enemy were just as apt to be female as male.
Either one, Thonos did not care - it was not his to question, and he had seen the
work of the enemy first hand, knew of their evil from long dealings with them.
As far as he knew, he was the oldest of the Malavide - he was so old he had
long since forgotten exactly when or where he was born.
And right now, none of that mattered. He stayed exactly the same from one
moment to the next. He had been waiting for over an hour for this woman to
arrive, but no person watching him would be able to tell from his appearance
that his quarry had finally appeared.
He was, for all intents and purposes a simple man sitting drinking coffee at an
outdoor café. But if you could see a difference you might notice that he seemed
suddenly even more intense, that his eyes took on a new feral longing.
The honey haired woman across the street, getting out of her cab - she was the
focus of his attention; she was the one he had been hunting now, hunting for the
past three days.
All of the Malavide were patient, but Thonos had taken that to a new art. He
had watched the woman carefully, to see whom she associated with, to see if
there were others in her circle he could take. That was a myth also, that his
kind could feed on anyone. Only a few people had the proper aura, and only
those few would ever become victims.
Sometimes there were others, clustered in a group, and sometimes there were
not. This time there was not, and he had decided that enough was enough - he
would take the woman tonight.
With a small sigh he stood and glided across the road. None of the other
patrons saw him, and the waitress forgot he had ever been there less than a
minute after she cleared the table.
None of the people in the cars saw him either, and though it was a busy night he
moved smoothly across the road, missing cars by inches or feet but never
having to slow or stray from his path. The doorman opened the door for him
without really seeing him, and held it open for two women coming out.
Thonos smiled to himself - he did not have to disguise himself as such, but it
was such an easy precaution, and one he had learned the hard way to take. He
had actually been questioned one time in one of the murders, and that
questioning had come to close. He had not taken the proper precautions, in
disguise or choice of prey - the man he had killed that time had lived in the
same apartment building as Thonos. Since then, he let no image of himself
remain in people's minds when he was hunting.
Thonos slipped up the stairs, almost wishing this one would put up a fight -
fearsome enough the creatures he fought were those same type which had
slaughtered his family - but few of them stood even a small chance in hand to
hand combat against one of the Malavide. They had other ways of killing the
Malavide, and occasionally they were too effective.
Thonos had seen the numbers of the Malavide slip to steeply in the last few
centuries, and the more technology gained ground the harder it was to bring
new recruits in to the war. He had never been a good recruiter, but he had
known them, the old and the new, and had kept track as most of them died over
the last centuries. The greatest number of which had died just in the last
hundred years or so.
Thonos knew what others did not - that they had all but lost the long, long war.
There were some pockets left – at least, that’s what Thonos had told himself,
but he was really only aware of one other small group of Malavide; all the
other little pockets, here and there about the world could well be gone, killed
off by their prey.
Thonos spent most of his time now watching the natural beauty of nature,
seeing museums, listening to music - and wishing that there were some way he
could kill himself. As he slipped up the stairs, his dark hair gleaming in the
lights of the huge apartment complex (if anyone had been able to notice, which
they weren't) he thought that perhaps tonight would be the night. He had
encountered prey before that had almost been good enough to end him. His kind
was not invulnerable, after all, nor were they immortal.
Harder to kill, yes, and quicker to heal – and they did not age or get sick at all.
They were better, faster and stronger than any normal man with a wealth of
tricks they could use to attack or to flee, tricks they could use such as the
ability to go unnoticed when standing right in front of someone, tricks such as
not being able to cast a shadow or appear in a mirror - tricks that almost all of
the Malavide did now without conscious thought. That one had made it to the
legends, but twisted like almost all the truths about the Malavide was the
mirror trick – making yourself invisible and making your reflection invisible
were two different things, but invisibility was only used when stalking or
killing. It took to much power otherwise.
Thonos glided up the stairs; upon the wall there was heavy golden wallpaper
with various scenes of trees and flowers on them, and the heavy red carpet had
twisting gold vine designs which accented the walls.
The sconces were actually gas in this building; it was a place of money, which
was not always the case with Thonos' victims. He found his prey in all walks
of life, bums and working Joes and ho's and, like this one, rich bitches.
He was waiting for her when she got off the elevator; he was right behind her
when she shut the door to her apartment. He flowed into her senses like the
faintest scent of cinnamon upon the air, like the scent of lilacs on the gentlest of
breezes, a scent so light that the woman's subconscious barely noticed it.
The woman was suddenly tired; she did not see the handsome man right behind
her, smiling benignly as she went to the couch; as she stretched out upon it for
just a short nap.
Thonos stared down at the woman, the muted light in his dark eyes suddenly
growing more intense, until his eyes glowed in the dim room; he could feel his
canines now, could feel them at their most. He stared about quickly, but there
was no one else in the apartment. With his heightened senses, he would have
been able to tell, if not by the smell of them then by the sound of their breathing.
Thonos fell to his knees beside his victim, who was stretched out on the couch.
Her half open eyes regarded him, and deep in them there was the glint of
awareness, the frightened light of terror.
He pulled her hair away from her throat, and all she did as he sank his fangs
into her throat and began drawing her life's energy away from her was moan
softly. The blood of the woman carried her life-force; like a tree’s branches
withering away in the wintertime the woman faded and her body turned gray
and cold. Unlike the tree, there would be no renewal in springtime, no renewal
ever again.
Thonos thrummed with her energy; he heard the door open, and hastily slipped
backwards - there had been little blood spilt, there never was with Thonos. He
was very careful. He just wished the transference of blood was not necessary
for the transference of the life force, but there was no other way around it. His
kind had been researching it for thousands of years, and they had discovered
nothing at all new in all that time. They were as they had always been.
Thonos slipped through the open window. He would not even go near the man
entering the doorway - he did not have to now, he could do almost anything he
wished. The window in the guest bedroom opened easily, and Thonos slipped
out the window calmly. He looked at the street ten floors below where he
stood, and just as calmly stepped off the ledge.
The wind tore at his coat, and he smiled as he fell.
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| The Malavide CHAPTER ONE |