Bruce Hickman

He had nearly closed the gap on their mother but she was a very elusive woman, always staying one step ahead of her son. She managed to keep out of his grasp for this long but how much longer could she run? Where would she go? Could she hide when she has used them all up? Only time will tell and then the reign of terror will begin.

"Come Anecetus, we can"t stay here. It is getting much to dangerous. Your son is getting closer and closer by the minute" said Angel.

"I realize that but we must stop for a minute. You must remember that I am not a young woman and you are an angel of the heavens. You don"t need to rest but my body can handle only so much for being over twelve million years old, even though you would never know it by looking at me" replied Anecetus.

Yes, I know and the only reason you even lived this long is because of that spell of yours."

"That is true but your G.o.d has seen the kindness to grant me everlasting life and beauty. He only asked in return that when the time is right I give my spell book to the chosen one of my sons and that day is fast approaching."

"Which is why the only truly evil of yours is so hard pressed to get that spell book from you so that he can recreate the world in his likeness."

"Recreate the world but I have no spells of that magnitude in this spell book. All but one on my spells are harmless. It has only done minor damage because of my carelessness in their casting."

"This is true but you are not a Vampiric. You do not have the power to cast the spell that Nightwing is after; therefore the spell will not reveal itself to you. It will only be revealed to the one who is strong enough to cast the spell and contain the might forces that will be let loose upon the world if that spell is cast. The Vampiric who touches that book will bring forth the spell of creation."

"Traveler, where are you. I need you now; most of all and you disappear on me. What kind of game is this anyway?"

"This is the only game you will ever need to remember if you want to stay alive in the fight against your brother," and at that moment right before Hawks eyes the Traveler materialize out of thin air.

"How on G.o.d"s green earth did you ever manage that one? One minute you were here and the next you were gone. Now you come out of nowhere, right before my eyes. How can this be?"

"It"s a simple trick, really laddy, just close your eyes and concentrate. Think of being insubstantial. Let your body fall apart, let it dissolve. That"s it, can you feel it, the weightlessness?"

"Yes, I can feel it."

"Good. Now open your eyes, what do you see?"

"Well, I see you and all that is around you, just like before."

"Good, now fly through me."

"I can"t fly through you, that"s impossible."

"Just do as I say, now fly through me."

"OK. Here goes nothing." As Hawk began to move forward he noticed that every beat of his wings was like no other. He moved with surprising speed and agility unlike that in his substantial form. He approached the Traveler faster and faster thinking he was at any moment going to impact with him, but to his amazement, he pa.s.sed right through him as though he wasn"t even there.

"I don"t understand what"s going on here."

"Look at your hand laddy."

"I can"t. It, it"s not there."

"Oh, it"s there; you just can"t see it because you are insubstantial. Can you feel the wind pa.s.sing through you?"

"Yes. It"s as though I weren"t even here."

"You aren"t really there but you aren"t really gone either. You"re in between two forms, one of the body and one of the mind. In this state you will be able to catch up to your brother in a matter of days, rather than weeks. You must not remain in this form for too long or you will become too weak to return to your normal state. You must still feed, for that there is cure, yet but fear not your day will come when human blood will you require no more."

Traveler and Hawk began to gather the weapons he would need for the fight against Nightwing. Among them were crossbows, blessed arrows with hollow shafts for holy water to slow down Nightwing. There was also a sword of silver forged by heavenly angels and a shield of blessed pinewood to defend against Nightwing"s attacks. They were weak at best but it was all they could do for now. So Hawk went east in search of his brother once again in hopes that he would find him before it was too late.

While Hawk went east, the Traveler went south to seek the help of friends from the old days. They were mortals who had been given the gift of immortality and flight for their kind deeds and help in the battles against those who would seek to rule or destroy the planet for their own gains. Among them were Soltaker, Jessabelle and Logun, all of which have certain skills that will be needed in the final battle against the dreaded Nightwing. Soltaker was a blacksmith, Jessabelle was a bow maker, and Logun was a weapons specialist. All of which the Traveler felt would come in handy in future confrontations with Nightwing.

"Jessabelle, how is that bow coming along?" Asked the Traveler and she responded

"It still needs a little work but it will be the finest weapon that I have ever made. It will require the strength of a Vampiric to pull it back so it should have enough power to penetrate even Nightwing"s tough hide."

"Good, but will it be ready in time?" He asked.

"I believe so but you may want to check on Soltaker, make sure he isn"t trying to cut any corners. He seems to think this is some kind of compet.i.tion to see who can finish their weapons first. If that"s the case, than he may not be working up to spec on this project." She responded.

"I"m not to worried about that, for you see I took a few precautions of my own. I told him that if I found anything wrong with the weapons he produced, I would personally gut him." He replied.

He walked in to the tavern, bold and willing to prove his worth to any who doubted him. The atmosphere was thick with tension. He felt his body being probed by unseen eyes looking for a weakness, if need be. He walked over to the bar and sat down on an empty stool as the barkeeper approached and asked, "What can I get ya?"

The stranger replied, "I"m looking for a man like me, tall, dark skinned a lot of att.i.tude, the kind you can"t miss."

"Oh yeah. He was in here. Strangest thing though, all he wanted was the two worst men here." The bar keep replied.

"What for?" The man asked.

"He wouldn"t say, just left with them and I ain"t seen "em since." He replied.

"I know why" the stranger said as he smiled a wide toothy grin, bearing two large canines. He then ripped out the bar keeps throat, finding pleasure in the terror of the other patrons. "Now I"m going to ask you this once. I am looking for a Vampiric like me and all I want to know is where he went" the Vampiric stated.

One patron was brave enough to speak up and said "He was here but he left about two days ago, headed east. Said he was looking for a man named Nightwing. Said he planned on killing him or something like that." The comment made by the poor scrag seemed to enrage the Vampiric. "Fools, I am Nightwing" and with that he proceeded to rip apart every patron in a matter of a few minutes. They died with painful speed and accuracy of a Vampirics blood l.u.s.t. No one made it out alive. Nightwing flew of into the night headed east after his brother to show him once and for all that he is the stronger, and he will triumph over him.

"Well, it looks like our plan worked. It"s just so bad so many had to die" Hawk said.

"Don"t let it bother you laddy. They were destined to die anyway. After all, society had given them the death penalty. Look at it this way, they all knew what might happen to them when they agreed to this in the first place" Dracos replied.

"I know but still, they didn"t deserve to die at the hands of my brothers" blood l.u.s.t. They deserved better than that" Hawk responded.

"True, but now they have paid their debt to society in full. They will bring harm to no others ever again. Now come let us go and do what must be done" Dracos told him.

Nightwing soared off in search of his brother, who so sought to destroy him. After many hours of travel he seemed to become distracted with the thought that he was being followed. He couldn"t find any evidence of foul play or see any one behind him. He was sure that he would sense his brother if he were that close and so he traveled on eastward.

"You know traveling in between dimensional planes of reality is one way of keeping from being caught by Nightwing" Hawk said as they were following Nightwing.

"I must agree, for if we were to confront Nightwing now, you would surely be killed" Dracos replied.

Angel and Anecetus had bedded down for the night in an old abandoned warehouse on the waterfront district of the old part of a small town, known to many as Verbatim, a town of crime and miscreants. The town was once a booming trading town but when the crime syndicates moved in and took over, taxing all ships that came into the docks the town startled to go down hill. Many of the ships Captains refused to do their trading, not willing to pay the high taxes of the crime bosses. They choose, instead, to take their business down river a short distance to the town of Bellisc. They started trading there because there were no taxes or crime lords to contend with. Many of the ships captains set up a transport route to Verbatim so that they could still trade with the small town. When the crime lords found out, they hired bandits to attack the transports and steal the goods.

The ships captains were determined to get their goods to the town and so the one with the resources and contacts set up a safe trade route to the small town. It was that for many years they were able to do their trading, in secret, but once again the syndicates found out and soon were able to stop the trade routes completely. After a time, the town just withered up and died. That"s when the ruffians and miscreants moved in, took over and made the town a refuge for murderers, thieves and bandits hiding from the law.

Early the next morning, Angel and Anecetus set out on their way again, trying to get as far away from Nightwing as they possibly could. Only being able to travel in the daylight hours and hiding at night, they were unable to cover more that twenty or thirty miles a day. With Nightwing"s need to hide his appearance during the day, it gave them the advantage that they normally wouldn"t have had. With the cover of darkness, Nightwing could soar through the air without worry of being spotted by anyone on the ground and could cover almost twice as much ground as they could on foot or horseback. Even the few miles a day that they could manage was more than enough to keep ahead of Nightwing, thanks to his brother who was hindering him from conducting a hard target search of the area.

Nightwing"s failure to take precautions during the day would alert his brother to his presence and possibly give away his position-allowing Hawk to close in on him faster. The more time he had to spend fighting Hawk kept him from hunting his mother, allowing her to get even farther away. It would lessen the chances of him capturing her and getting the spell he needed to control all the Vampirics.

The Traveler and Hawk were close to Nightwing. After many days of inter planar travel, they had hoped to catch and confront him by the next moons eve. Their plans were interrupted when they ran into a Vampiric who was bent on stopping them from completing their mission and would by any means possible.

"Hawk, I challenge you to caltamara in the name of the mighty Nightwing" came a cry from behind. Hawk and the Traveler stopped in flight and turned to see a brash young Vampiric holding the traditional scimitar weapons used for caltamara, battle to the death.

"You do not want to do that young one. You do not know what you are getting into" replied Hawk.

"I know what I"m getting into. I have studied caltamara since the day of my rebirth as a Vampiric. I may not be the best but I am good enough to defeat you any day" he replied.

Hawk asked, "What is your name?"

"I am known as Davidion of the Dales, a mighty warrior for good and a victor of the just. That is why I must stop you from this evil that you wish to bring upon Nightwing and our beloved mother." Davidion stated boldly.

"Well then, if you are truly a warrior for the good of mankind than it would be a pity to have to kill you, for we seek the same thing, only to help and protect mankind and our mother" replied Hawk.

Davidion cried out in response "No! Lies, they are all lies! You are trying to trick me into helping you destroy our mother. It is Nightwing who wishes to protect out mother, not you. You only seek to destroy her so that you have the power of the Vampiric spell for you own evil intentions."

A stunned Hawk replied, "No, you have been fooled by Nightwing. I mean our mother no harm and I have no desire for the Vampiric spell. It is Nightwing who seeks out the book for his own evil needs and desires, not I and to prove it to you, I will not fight you in caltamara."

Davidion became enraged at this and charged at Hawk with both of the scimitars thrust forward in an attempt to impale him, to end his evil rein of terror. Hawk merely stayed his ground and made no move to defend himself from the attack. Davidion grew closer and had a look of confusion in his eyes. Hawk knew that one of two things could happen at this point. The young Davidion would hold firm in his convictions and impale Hawk with the enchanted scimitars, possibly killing him or his doubt would get the best of him and he would halt his attack.

Fortunately for Hawk, it was the latter of the two that ended up being true. Hawk"s refusal to fight him and lack of action to defend himself only seemed to prove to Davidion that Hawk was telling the truth. Or at least part of the truth, about Nightwing and his intentions, for at the last second Davidion veered from his course and halted his attack on Hawk. Davidion hovered in the air for a minute trying to figure out what to do next.

"Hawk, why do you not defend yourself from my attack?" A confused Davidion asks and Hawk replies, "It is simple my friend. If it were I who were your enemy than I would have cause to defend myself from your attack." This only seemed to confuse Davidion even more.

"Well my friend, it will appear that you have a few things to figure out and this would be a good time to find a place far away from here and Nightwing. Once he finds out that I am still alive he will undoubtedly come looking for you and then you will die." With that note, Hawk and the Traveler flew off in search of Nightwing trying to make up for precious lost time, time that they needed to find Nightwing and hopefully stop him from completing the mission he was so h.e.l.l bent on.

Logun and Soltaker flew all night in hopes of catching up with Jessabelle before sunrise even though they knew there chances were slim at best. With a little luck and skill, they could at least find her by midday and that would be satisfactory.

"Logun, do you think that our sister may be just playing games with us?" Soltaker questioned.

"That may very well be indeed little brother, but if that is the case that I will personally take pleasure in kicking her little a.s.s" Logun responded.

"Well if you think you can, than go right ahead but don"t say I didn"t warn you" called out a voice from above.

"Jessabelle, what are you doing up there and where have you been?" Logun asked angrily.

"I have been following you two for about an hour now and quite frankly, you two discuss some of the stupidest things. I mean, who in their right mind talks about retiring from a job. They"ve never had only to go fishing. We don"t even eat fish. At least you two don"t, it would kill you. You know as well as I do you require human blood to survive. Why would you want to eat fish anyway?" Jessabelle asked in confused tones.

"Look, everybody"s allowed to have dreams, even Vampirics" Soltaker replied and with that they flew off, headed south in search of those that would help them to either fight Nightwing or aid in the escape and hiding of Anecetus and Angel.