Chereads / The One Above All / Chapter 19 - Lessons

Chapter 19 - Lessons

Upon waking up the next night, I felt totally refreshed and relaxed. Erin was still asleep when I woke up but was up soon after. She did not want to waste any time as she jumped up before walking over to get changed. Without thinking about me in the room, she tossed her dress down on the ground and slid her other one on. It was the same exact design just in a slightly darker color.

"You can let yourself out." Erin said without turning to look at me. It surprised me hearing the absence of emotion in her voice. After grabbing my shirt and pants, I walked out of her room towards the bar. I needed a small pick-me-up if I was to get into training after the night before. The bartender already had my drink coming down by the time I sat down. This drink was slightly different but I was not sure exactly how.

"It has a plant extract we use to help strengthen the body first thing in the night. Figured you could use it after last night." The barhand said rubbing a glass with a towel. As I drank, my body felt energized and ready for battle. The instant I was finished drinking, I made my way over to the arsenal. Odesza was waiting around as usual. We did not waste any time getting into the lesson of the night.

The lesson took an hour from start to finish. It was just some fine tuning forms during attacks to draw out the maximum power. I was not nearly as tired as usual when we finished. In fact, I felt as though I could get through another lesson with minimal difficulty but that was certainly not going to happen.

After a quick dip in the baths, I was on about my business of the night. Diach mentioned he wanted to talk about something out in the city and to come meet him as soon as possible. Since I was fully aware of the directions, it took much less time to get there then before. Within the next two hours, I was waiting around in our hotel. Diach had yet to be seen which made me think. Diach was many things but late was not one of them.

After waiting around for a half hour, I decided to go look for him. As the Moonwalker hotel was cleared out, I did not know any of their other strongholds in the city. But as I walked around from street to street, I caught a scent of one a few blocks away. He was walking the same direction as I so I was staying a safe distance away. With no wind at all blowing, my scent was not being carried down to him. The city was on a small slope but it was enough to keep scents from being carried one way. The buildings were the safest place to avoid being noticed as I followed.

The Moonwalker took me around and around before he seemed to have any actual destination. Hours passed before the wolf stopped walking in big circles. With how we were moving, if I had been on the ground, he would have long smelled me. After turning down an alley, the Moonwalker lifted a sewer top from the ground before jumping into the hole.

'What a strange thing to do. Why go into the sewer?' I thought to myself jumping down to the hole. There was an unusual light as I peered into the opening. Usually the sewers in cities were pitch black but this one was not. Before I could jump in to investigate, Diach stopped me.

"This is what I wanted you for. The Moonwalkers seem to have set up another base already. As the sewers are a place that day and night cannot be differentiated, we are weak in them. But we can overcome that disadvantage with some creativity." Diach said reaching into his blazer pocket. He pulled out a small luminescent sphere. It looked like a mini moon but not quite as bright.

"What is that?" I asked looking at the object. I could feel power surging from the sphere. It felt like a small bioluminescent moon. It had the same effect as the full moon did on my body.

"This is something our engineers have come up with to combat the light. It will not work in the direct sunlight but it protects us in the shade and areas with little sunlight/moonlight. We call it 'The Nightwatch'." Diach said holding the object out in front of him. The little orb felt like I was having a hunger quenched I did not even know I had. More so now, I wanted to jump in the hole and find the Moonwalker but Diach stopped me.

"As great as you feel now, you still are not ready to fight a stronghold worth of Moonwalkers. There could be three mutts in there or three thousand and we would never know. We have to do some recon before we just dilly dally into the hole. Let's just wait and see how many different animals come and go from that hole for the night." Diach said looking through the opening. We backed away to the building across the street to watch the opening. Only four different Moonwalkers came from the hole but about twenty went into it.

Morning was approaching but so far we had learned nothing. This mission would have to wait until the next night. Our room was reserved as it always seemed to be when we came to the hotel at the end of the night. We needed to talk about a solidified plan if we were to overturn a base by ourselves. If I had my weapon, this would be a lot easier.

"The way I see it; we have two options: jump into the hole and hope for the best, or recon their base for a few nights before we make a move. I know what I would do but I will let you make the decision this time. If we come into trouble, you should be able to handle yourself. What is it going to be?" Diach asked taking his vest off before his shirt and pants.

"We will have to take some surveillance before going down there. It is the only logical choice. Even though I am pretty confident in my skills, I would rather not take a few thousand Moonwalkers in a fight. That might cause some problems." I said to Diach. He seemed to agree. After getting in the shower and washing my face, we both laid down in our beds to sleep.

Upon waking up, I was feeling extremely drained compared to usual. With how I was feeling, recon on the Moonwalker hideout was going to be a no-go. I could not even work up the motivation to get out of bed.

"Ah, you must have had the base pick-me-up last night." Diach said looking at me lying in the bed. Without turning my head, I watched him move around the room.

"Lucky guess." I said tiredly. Diach laughed at this before going back to doing what he was before.

"It was not a guess. I could have told you, that elixir is great for that night but unless you can get a substantial feed the same night, it makes you feel like this. All the vampires in the base know it. That is why none of them ever take it." Diach said tying his tie. As I looked up and contemplated what in my life lead me to this point, it dawned on me I needed to feed if I was going to feel better. But to feed, I needed to get out of bed. As I groaned and rose from the bed, Diach left the room.

He was already on his way to the base as I looked both ways down the hall. For a moment, I forgot we were in a vampire hotel and there were few humans, none of which were on our floor. Without tying my tie or even tucking my shirt in, I left the room to go to the elevator. I did not have the energy to jump to the ground from this high up in my current state. It was safer to just take the elevator to the ground floor. Every beep of the floors passing made me feel worse and worse.

Luckily the hotel was in the middle of downtown and there were bars all around. Plenty of drunk humans would be out by that time. It was dark and well past 9pm. The regulars and drunks would certainly have had their fill by then. It was almost time for the usual late night crowd to file in. A plump man got up to pay his bill.

I followed him out as he walked to his car. The man drove an older car and judging by how he carried himself, I could tell he was unhappy with his life. That was probably why he was drinking so early in the night. Just before the man got in the car, I ran a claw across his neck to nick him. He grabbed his neck and quickly turned around. For his hefty side, he was surprisingly agile. The instant before he saw me, I ducked to avoid his gaze but the man saw me when he looked down. It was too late by then and I had already grabbed him, pulled his shirt out of the way, and bit into his neck.

A woman screamed nearby when she saw the man's body go limp but the police would take at least eleven minutes to get here from their headquarters. Eleven minutes was long time in the face of a vampire, especially a hungry one. The man's blood was sweet with the taste of liquor. Judging by the blood alcohol level of this man, he was a frequent heavy drinker.

The screaming woman turned to run away but I was not going to let her. People had started pouring out of the buildings by then so killing her would send a message. With a quick snap of the neck, her body dropped to the ground. The people watching gasped in shock seeing me snap her neck so easily.

"If anyone else wants to give it a go, I will be more than happy to oblige." I called to all of them. I was met with silence at the threat. The police were well on their way by then but I was not in a rush to see them again. I jumped back on the rooftops to go meet Diach at the Moonwalker hideout. Without turning to look, he greeted me.

"How many have come and gone?" I asked him with one foot on the edge looking down at the hole. Diach was playing with something in his hands but it was too dark to see. It smelled like him so I could not place what it was.

"The same four have come and twenty-two others have gone. It would seem there are at least fifty of them in there. This could prove to be a very fun experience." Diach said licking his lips. He was just as ready to get in the base as I was. But fifty was a lot of Moonwalkers to handle at once. I had to calm him down so he did not jump the gun.

"We have to keep watching. At least for a little while longer." I told the vampire. He knew it was the best strategy but something was eating at him to get in there.