The sky was red, like a summer sunset. The snow had stopped falling even though the road was still covered in it. Sylvia listened to the sound of a robin perching from the branch of a tree as she stared out across the skyline. She was sitting on her motorcycle that was parked on the edge of the mountain road that came from the woods. The strong glaze of the sun blinded her as she stare it straight on but she soon turned her attention below her in the distance. What lay below her that stretched for miles were the towering buildings of the city, Avalon, resting on the coast of the ocean to its left.
“You have to be down there.” She spoke to herself.
Sylvia turned her attention to the sheath of her sword. She placed her hand on a symbol of a small bird holding a lantern by its legs, at the end of the sheath. She tapped the inside of the lantern, which was blue and the sheath and the sword disappeared to the naked eye.
“That should avoid me unneeded attention.” She said to herself, still feeling the weight of the sword on her back.
With that, she started up her motorcycle once more and headed down the mountain road towards the city.
Within an hour, she found herself driving through the brightly lit streets of the city.
Avalon was known for its nightlife; clubs, bars, late night theatres and restaurant were open every night for people to pick from. Some market stalls and shops were open till late also, even some shops never closed. No matter what it was there was something for everyone going on all night long. Of course this meant that life in the city was never quiet. Cars would fill the streets, music blaring loudly out of there windows. People of all ages would walk around the streets till at least midnight. It might have been only seven o’clock but Sylvia could tell that there were prostitutes already roaming the streets.
Sylvia stopped at a red light at a crossroads and looked around at all the people as she waited.
She could smell the scent of humans, werewolves and vampires off the hundreds of people that moved around her.
“There’s no way I’m going to find that guy by simply just hunting him down by smell.” She thought to herself, “It might be better as well to check around on foot too.”
Sylvia turned left as soon as the light went green and followed the street down, taking her next right.
She drove for a few minutes until she came to a public parking next to a park.
Once she parked, Sylvia got off and took off her helmet. She then chained it to the underneath of the motorcycle, hiding it from view.
The area was quiet around her; the park had only a few couples walking through it, some sitting down.
“Nothing here it seems.” She thought to herself as she left the parking area, heading towards the main street.
She looked around at the neon lights on each of the buildings, nothing particular stood out to herself as she thought to herself of what to do.
“I doubt I’m going to get any leads this early in the night.” She told herself just before she heard her stomach growl, “Might as well eat while I kill time, been almost a day since I last ate.”
With that, Sylvia searched the busy streets of Avalon, as she waited for it to get later.
Eventually, she found a hotdog stand and brought one covered in onions.
She walked around as she ate it, one or two people she passed quickly moved away from her as they smelled the onions.
“Some vampires... I still can’t believe there’s some afraid of onions.” She thought to herself as she finished her hotdog.
The hours soon passed by, the clock tower in the centre of the city stuck ten, ringing its bells as it did.
The streets started to come less dense in people and cars, making it easier for Sylvia to search for any leads.
Sylvia soon stopped at a crossroad. She stared up at the crescent moon in the now cloudy night sky.
It was just then that Sylvia caught a scent of both vampire and werewolf.
She turned to her left, facing in the direction of the scent.
She made her way down the street across from her, becoming brisk in her walking as the scent got stronger.
The street soon started to become quiet as it was heading away from the main section of the city.
Sylvia could still get the smell of werewolves, but the scent of vampires was stronger and she could guess why.
On the path ahead of her were two men talking, leaning against a small old theatre, which was already closed for the night.
One of the men notices Sylvia walking towards them and he stood out in front of her way.
“Hey sexy. What’s a hot young girl like you doing all by your lonesome?” the man called out to her.
“Get out of my way...” Sylvia asked him as she slowed down.
Even though she could have just easily have walked to his side and continued, Sylvia was too stubborn to do it. She would never let anyone push her around, even when she was younger and she was definitely not going to let that stop now.
“Hey. I’m only trying to be nice to ya.” The man said coyly making the other one laugh.
Sylvia ignored the man as she walked towards him, pushing him to her side as she continued down the road.
“Hey you stupid bitch!” the man said as he grabbed her right arm and pulled her back.
As he pulled her back, Sylvia twirled with the momentum, taking her gun out and pointing it straight at his head. The two men stood there in shock.
“Now I’m a bitch am I?” Sylvia asked him, “Well let me tell you how the night would go if I went along with ye. It would start with a few drinks, then heading back to your place...if ye have one and then ye would try to drink the blood from me.”
Sylvia pushed the gun in harder towards the guy’s forehead before continuing, “Now been the person that I am, I would get pissed off at that and have to painfully rip out your insides and strangle ye both with them.”
Watching the vampires slowly start to sweat, Sylvia’s ears shivered as she heard a scream coming from down a side alley, further down the street at the other side, where the smell of werewolves was coming from.
“Sorry, but it looks like I can’t play with ye tonight.” She said to the men as she took the gun away from the man’s forehead before hitting across the face with it.
She ran off in the direction of the scream leaving the men in a state of shock.
Getting to the other side, Sylvia stopped at an alleyway as she saw a young woman thrown up against the wall by two tough guys.
“Please stop, just take my handbag and let me go please!” the woman cried out as one of the men had her caught by the arms, squeezing them tightly.
The moment Sylvia saw blood pouring down the arm of the woman; she raised her gun and pointed it at the man, “Hey!”
The woman and the men turned to look at her and when they did she pulled the trigger and shot the man holding the woman right between the eyes.
The woman screamed as she heard the bang and watched the man fall to the ground dead.
The other man looked in shock at the body of the dead man before his anger started to build up.
Sylvia started to walk down towards them, putting her gun away.
“Hey! Hey!” she shouted at the woman, who was too afraid to move, “You better get out of here.”
The woman looked at her speechless.
“Now I said!” Sylvia shouted at her and the woman finally ran a past her.
“You don’t know what you’ve got yourself into bitch.” The man said as he looked at her coming towards him.
“Why is everyone calling me a bitch lately?” Sylvia responded with a smirk, “I know what you are, werewolf.”
The man’s head tilted and without another delay he attacked her, swinging his fist towards her.
Sylvia blocked it and kicked the outside of the man‘s left leg, making him fall on one knee.
Holding onto his swinging fist, she pulled the man towards her and as he fell, she kneed him straight into the face, breaking his nose.
She left go of his arm straight away as he reacted, getting to his feet and jumping back, but didn’t give him any time as she moved in on him and came in from below with an elbow to the chin. She combined it with a spinning elbow straight into the centre of the man’s chest.
The man staggered backwards, coughing and trying to catch his breath.
“Had enough yet?” Sylvia asked him, just before she realised that there was a scent of a vampire and another werewolf coming off him, the exact same as the man she was after.
“You...You were talking to that man weren’t you.” She asked him then.
The man coughed once more before he answered, “So this is what this tonic does when you drink it.”
Sylvia’s eyes narrowed as she looked confused at him.
“You wouldn’t be so confident if you didn’t drink that.” The man continued.
“What are you talking about?” Sylvia said, looking more puzzled as she listened.
The man clinched his fists tightly, “There’s no way I’m going to let myself be beaten by a human. Even if it means I have to run.”
The man turned quickly and ran down further into the alley.
“Hey! Wait!” Sylvia shouted at him but once she saw that words wouldn’t have affect she chased after him.
The man knocked trash and anything he could get his hands on as he ran to try and slow Sylvia down but it didn’t stop her one bit. Coming to a metal fence, the man jumped onto it and started to climb over.
He landed on the ground at the other side even before Sylvia reached the fence but it didn’t help him one bit as he was unaware that Sylvia was as agile as a cat. She jumped up on a bin and jumping off it to the wall on her left, she wall-kicked off it and landed on top of the fence before jumping off and landing right in front of the guy.
The man tried to avoid her but was too late as Sylvia caught him and threw him against the wall.
She grabbed the man’s throat and started to squeeze tightly as the man tried to free himself, “That man, the one that had the scent of the werewolf and vampire, where is he?”
Sylvia loosened her grip a bit so the man could speak, “I...I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He told her. Sylvia’s patience was growing thin. She punched the man into the stomach and threw him to the ground. Sylvia took out her sword, which became visible as it left its sheath, and sat on the man who was stretched out on the cold concrete ground. She dug her sword straight through the man’s left hand, into the concrete. The man screamed in pain as he saw the blood splash from his hand.
“Don’t mess around with me!” Sylvia told him, her voice becoming more frustrated, “I know you’re a werewolf and that you can pick up scents, so you know who I’m talking about. Where is he!?”
“I don’t know!” the man said who was now terrified and Sylvia could see it in his brown eyes.
She pushed the sword down further, the wave part of the sword going through making the cut wider; making the man scream once again, “Stop lying to me!!”
“I don’t know honest, honest!!” the man cried out, “He wanted to know where our boss was.”
“Boss?” Sylvia asked, gripping the blade firmly in case the man refused to answer.
The man looked in horror at Sylvia gripping the sword, “The boss of most werewolves in this city.”
Sylvia stopped to think before realising what she should try to find out, “Where is this...boss?”
The man knew he had no choice but to answer, “His den is at the ‘Silver Tiger’, a club for werewolves.”
“Where is the club?” Sylvia asked but her attention soon turned to the sound of something up ahead.
“Hey!” a voice shouted out from the end of the alley.
Sylvia raised her head to quickly see a person in the dark shoot an arrow straight at her. She reacted quickly, pulling her sword out of the man’s arm to block the arrow.
The force of it almost pushed the sword against her head.
Sylvia lowered her blade to see a woman stand at the end of the alley. She couldn’t see her clearly however due to it being so dark, but see could soon see the glint of something slivery pointing right at her. Sylvia raised her sword once more to block another incoming arrow. “Don’t you dare touch him!” the voice shouted once again.
“What the hell.” Sylvia muttered, forgetting about the man she was on.
The man, realising his opportune chance, pushed Sylvia off him wit his uninjured hand, making her fall flat on the ground.
The man stood up quickly, his eyes glinting with excitement “Never take your eyes off a wolf!”
Before he could even take a step towards Sylvia, the man cried out as he was struck with an arrow straight into the back.
He turned to the silhouette of the woman who hit him and left out the roar of a wolf before spurting out blood as Sylvia thrust her sword straight through his chest.
“You should follow your own advice.” She told him, watching him fall to his knees. She got up from the ground and took out her blade, letting the man fall onto his pool of blood. There was an air of silence as she cleaned her sword while she watched the man to make sure he wasn’t breathing.
“Aren’t you going to continue shooting at me?” Sylvia asked the woman as she stared at the man’s dead body, eventually looking at the shadowy figure.
The figure stood there briefly before preparing to shoot once more; Sylvia raised her blade. “Kira, wait!” a man’s voice called out from behind the woman.
Sylvia could see another figure appear, walking a past the woman who had the arrow prepared still and showed no signs of lowering it.
The man walked towards Sylvia, “Don’t worry, if you lower your sword we won’t use force.”
Sylvia stared at the figure and smirked, “It’s hard to trust a shadow, and the fact that your friend tried to kill me.”
The man stopped walking, “That’s true. I suppose there’s no way is there?”
“There is, if I can talk to you as I can see you clearly.” Sylvia told him, “Maybe I should light this place up. If I may...”
Sylvia slowly raised her sword up into the air in front of her. The man stuck his hand in front of the woman behind him, who he knew was just about to release her arrow.
Sylvia closed her eyes, “Mico!”
The moment she spoke that word, her sword glowed white and shined, lighting up all around her.
The man and woman were blinded by the light and this gave a chance for Sylvia to see them when she opened her eyes.
She took in there appearance, the man was slightly taller then her, he had a black topcoat on him that was tied up, covering everything down to his knees. She could only see that he wore beige combats and brown runners. His eyes were a dark blue and his hair was black and wavy which fell down to his neck, hovering just above the gray scarf wrapped around his neck.
Her eyes then turned to the woman, a young woman, smaller the Sylvia She wore a long sleeved, maroon coloured, leather jacket and a white top with outlines of dark blue stars in the top left section of it. She wore royal blue coloured jeans, with a white belt, that were tucked into knee-high brown boots. Her eyes were green, with had a burning passion behind them. Her hair was straight and brown, dropping to her shoulders.
In her hands she held a bow; from just looking at it you could see it was made of metal. The limbs of the bow were silver while the tip of each one was shaped in the design of angel wings, painted white. A golden string attached each of the wings together. The arrow, that was prepared to be fired, was unusual, it was gold, but the head was a shining silver. Sylvia wondered where the arrows were coming from as she notice that that was the only arrow the girl had, there was no quiver, nothing.
“There, that’s better now.” Sylvia said to them, still holding out the sword towards them.
The two were in shock at what Sylvia had done with her blade, but it was clear the man was more shocked then the girl as his eyes widen, “The nightingale sword, Lucinia.”
Sylvia’s own eyes widen in surprise when the man called the sword by its name, “How do you know about this sword?”
The man’s eyes averted to hers, “Are you...Sylvia?”
Sylvia took a step back, almost as if she was scared of the man, “How the hell do you know my name?!”
“So it is you.” The man said before signalling with his hand to the girl behind him, “Lower your bow...she’s not our enemy.”
The girl looked at him in with eyes filled with anger, “No way! She can drop her sword first before I even think of that!”
“Kira! Do it now!” the man told her with more conviction this time as he looked at her.
The girl hesitated at first but finally lowered her bow. Sylvia watched her do it and notice that when she did, the arrow simply vanished into thick air, like magic.
“These aren’t ordinary people on front of me.” Sylvia thought to herself.
The man returned his eyes to Sylvia’s, “Forgive us, we don’t intend on fighting people who don’t fight back at us.” The man took a step forward, “My name’s Lucas Casher, but please call me Lucas. And this girl here is Kira Silverlake.”
Sylvia looked at him before her eyes moved to Kira, who looked like she was looking away in disgust.
“Your name...is Sylvia Maria Craneheart, right?” Lucas asked Sylvia.
Her heart almost skipped a beat, “How do you know me?!” she demanded.
Lucas stared up at the night sky that was now filled with rain clouds, which started to drop sprinkles of rain, “I’ve seen pictures of you, from your parents.”
Sylvia’s face almost when white in shock, a nerve in the back of her neck tingled as she heard this.
A mist started to drizzle down from the sky as the three stood there in the alleyway.
“We should talk somewhere else.” Lucas suggested, “Sylvia, please follow us.”
Kira’s eyes quickly found them self staring at Lucas but before she could say anything Lucas responded to her, “No arguing Kira, ok?”
Kira muttered to herself and without saying another word, she pushed a button on the connecting part of the limbs of the bow. The string looked like it was being sucked in as it disappeared into the back of the limbs through a tiny gap in them. The limbs then joined together and started to shrink into towards the shelf of the bow until the whole thing became a simple metal box that she clipped onto her belt.
“Handy.” Sylvia said thinking to herself out loud before she stopped the sword from lighting by saying the same word once more and then put her sword back into its sheath. The moment the sword was back in fully it hid itself from the naked eye once again.
Lucas kneeled down next to the dead man and, taking out what appeared to be a bottle of alcohol, he threw it all over the man.
Sylvia watched him, “What are you doing?”
“He can’t stay here dead.” Lucas answered her as he emptied the bottle and put it away before taking out a box of matches and lighting one up, “Burn him to hide anything that happened here. Cremate it.” He then threw the lit match on the man and watched as the whole body caught fire.
“Watch yourself.” Lucas said as he began to walk out of the alley with Kira, following next to him. Sylvia looked at the body which burned through the light drizzle that has falling down on the city. Not having anything else to go by, she followed them, leaving the body burn away into dust.
