Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE

 

                The sun had already set, leaving the bay shimmering with the reflecting lights from the pier. Shadows and fog settled around the flashing lighthouses and shrouded them in a blind darkness. The carousel on the pier shone brightly with yellow lights and carved and painted wooden horses. Laughter and chiming tunes emanated through the air around it. I could see it easily through the cracks between the planks above me whenever I looked up. Every child had a smile on their face. Few on the upper deck waved at parents below with cameras at the ready.

                And then all of San Francisco went dark. Cries of surprise and fear waved through the city. The children called for their parents while people scrambled blindly for flashlights and rushed to their cars.

                I took this time as an opportunity, before the others arrived. I scaled my way up the beams under the pier. I peered over the thick platform and hopped easily over the railing that bordered it. Many people were moving slowly with their arms stretched outward, fumbling over feet and planks. I could have any I wanted, as many as I wanted. As a few people passed blindly I adjusted my vision and readied myself to strike.

 

                All humans had been evacuated from the area with the help of compulsion used by a few pixies and an elf or two. They began using their magic to light, decorate, and conceal the area before others of Faery arrived to what was yet to be one of the many social gatherings.

I was attending the gathering with orders from the queen. My target’s name was known as Jethkin Roz, a pixie. I had a picture of him in my back pocket. It was a paparazzi-type shot and I had scribbled the name on the back in red. I didn’t know why he was sentenced to die, but it wasn’t my job to know why. It was my job to kill him discreetly and leave it at that. Many people call me heartless for what I do but I never gave them a second glance.

I leaned against the pier’s wooden railing with my arm crossed over my chest. I planned my attack as I watched the social committee lace the area in magic with just a slight wave of the hand. I watched the opposite end of the pier closely as the people of Faery poured through the front and only entrance, patiently awaiting the arrival of Mr. Roz.

I looked averagely human compared to these people. They wore clothes of spider’s silk and sparkling jewelry of frozen morning’s dew carved into the shapes of various precious stones. I, however, wore a white tee shirt, black skinny jeans held up by slim black suspenders, and a pair of simple horseback riding boots. My long burgundy hair flowed straight to just below my shoulder blades and was streaked naturally in a deep red, the color of freshly spilled blood. It covered my wings; the tattoo that I had gotten as a tribute to the people of Faery, being that everyone else had the gift of flight. The only accessory I wore was an elastic band around my wrist for when the time came that I needed to fight, not that I ever gave my victim a chance to even think about defending themselves.

Many people arrived: pixies, fairies, hobs, elves, ogres, gypsies, trolls, kelpies, doppelgangers, and even humans that possessed the Sight, but there was no sign of Roz. I looked over to a group of tiny fairies who threw pieces of meat for the mermaids swimming and singing in the water at the end of the pier. When I looked up I saw Jethkin Roz arrive.

Roz was tall and not bad looking with his nicely proportioned body. He had dangerously spiked blue hair and black eyes. His green tinted skin glimmered like reflective scales in the yellow light from the many lanterns scattered high and low across the pier. His large clear blue dragonfly wings lay flat against his bare back. He wore blue lightweight leggings made of the traditional spider silk, as it looked. This seemed simple enough to go with plan A: seduction.

I straightened myself, smoothed out my clothes and hair, and walked gracefully over to him. I’d placed that look in my eyes that made irresistible. One good thing about being a vampire: compulsion.

As I neared him I let my fingers trace up his arm. I walked around him from behind and led my hand from his shoulder, across his shoulder blades and down his other arm before taking his hand.

“My name’s Karyn,” I said sweetly using a fake name.

“I am Jethkin,” he lifted my hand to his lips, “Pleased to meet you.”

Reviews

[Vanity]

I like the idea of the story.
Perhaps this is too short for a chapter, and you need a little work on sentence structure.
Nice job, I'll keep reading.