The Court of Blood and Night

Silence is the virtue of saints I have never claimed to be a saint.

Eloise

There was one thing about dreams that never sat right, the fact that they could paralyze you, binding you with imaginary ropes and chains. It was something El had always wondered about and as she dreamed stuck in the world of her mind's choosing,it was something she detested.

There was blood in this world, pints and pints of blood splattered over the floors like some horrible attempt at an art painting gone wrong. While there were no bodies she knew that this much blood could only have come from multiple individual, callously gutted and drained.

" There are things in this world El. Big bad wolves. Are you ready to face them El" a whispering voice asked, she didn't answer. This was not a game she wanted to play and if anyone wanted to speak to her then they'd be doing it to her face. There was sharp jarring laughter and then she woke. Her eyes flew wide open her iris's dilated, her breathing shallow and uneven. She rolled over and punched out the alarm clock by her bed, she didn't need the clock telling her she was late. She was damn aware of how late she was, sitting up she ran a palm over her face with a soft sigh, the communicator on her table beeped with incoming messages, work was calling and she had no time for unsettling dreams and time wasting nonsense.

She rose stripping off her clothes where she stood and strode naked to the bathroom. She turned on the shower and stood under it's spray of water, shuddering when it dropped onto her skin cold

" Stupid heater" she cursed, it was likely not the things fault. Manufacturers were far and few between and no matter how much political cronies said it the world hadn't really evolved much. Over half a millenia after the Decay. In the year 3024 when the world should have been ahead in scientific advancements and by those promises we should have been living on Mars and conquering the other planets. Yet here we were having been brought low to unreliable water heaters.

She walked out of the shower and pulled clothes out of her drawer and put them on. She walked towards her desk and picked her comm, the screen came on as she touched it a message from Dave highlighted at the top the read.

Come to the Updrift. We have a problem.

Sighing with regret, she picked her keys,leather jacket and ID tag and walked out the door. Nodding to Miss Porter the owner of the building where she was the only human who lives in a building of Others, she jogged down the stairs shrugging on her jacket. She reached the bus station, her bike was at the motor shop and she hadn't gotten time to get it back, she loved that bike, she'd saved for over a year to get it. In a world where one was always on a wait-list for electronic she'd had to wait six extra months. Climbing into the bus she pressed her ID tag against the sensor and found a seat, she pulled her communicator and browsed her mail. There were two emails from her boss at the practice one letting her know she would have to take the certified test in a few days and another asking her to submit her financial aid form. The drive to the Updrift took less than twenty minutes but in that time, a light rain had dotted the streets, the bus came into the station and she stood and urged herself off,jogging outbof the rain and into a shade, she stood straighter and opened her senses reaching out trying to sense Dave once she caught him she hurried off in his direction. The building that he supposedly was in was a run down slab but that was to be expected, the Updrift was one of the worst parts of Macadamia, she entered the building her nose wrinkling at the smell of decay

" Shit that's strong how are you hanging" she called out finding Dave in second. He stood in front of the dead, his nose wrinkled as well and she felt sorry for him, she wasn't a werewolf and the smell was horrible.

" I'm trying not to puke over evidence" he grimaced and she huffed, at 6"2, she stood over a feet and a half over Dave, but what he lacked in height he made up for in bulk of muscle that seemed to go on forever. Dave was handsome if you were into the pale hair blue eyes kind of thing but he was her coworker and she didn't screw where she ate

" What have we got" she asked bending to survey the body

" Male, dead about forty-eight hours by the smell" he muttered and she grinned accurate werewolf nostrils

" I can't tell without autopsy to confirm it but he seems to have been –drained" Dave answered hesitantly

" Drained huh" she murmured and opened her senses a little bit as a level 2 psyche she was a bit stronger than most. She opened herself to the thing around her breathing deeply so the memories didn't overwhelm her. Their victim had come in here to seek shelter from one of the abrupt rain showers, he'd leaned against the wall pulled a cigarette and lit it up, puffing the smoke for about twenty minutes before he froze at some sound only he could hear. He straightened and looked around calling out then he seemed to stiffen. And all of a sudden the memories disintegrated before her eyes. Eloise opened her eyes

" You see anything" Dave asked curiously

"Not who did it, whatever it was, was fast as a blur" She turned his head to the side and sighed

" Did you see that" she asked and he frowned

" what the fuck is that"

" I don't know, but whatever it is this can't be good news" she answered, rising

" When is the team coming"

" In thirty minutes"

" Well then we get to test your theory"

" Did you smell cigarettes,drugs" she asked and he nodded

" Cigarettes yeah. No drugs though, could have had a little alcohol"

" Well have to wait for the forensic, wherever the hell they are" she grouched.