Nocturnal, BK 1 of Lightwalkers (completed)

VI - Sin

Sin

Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

I stepped inside and resisted the urge to brush the water off my coat. The interior was ultra modern, with marble everything. The security guard glanced up at my entrance and kept a steady gaze on me as I crossed the floor to the little intercom beside the elevators. Guess I didn't look like the normal clientèle.

Punching the code in, I waited for it to ring. Even this late at night, I knew she'd be up.

"Yes?" Samera's voice sounded annoyed.

"It's Sin, let me up."

"Thank the fucking Gods," she breathed. A buzz came through over the speaker and the elevator door opened. "3402," were her final words before in the intercom died.

I thought about what it would take to get Samera to curse as the elevator shot me up to the 34th floor. She wasn't a religious woman, none of those bound to us usually were, but I could easily count on one hand the number times I'd heard her curse in all my years, and well, none of those situations were exactly pretty.

Stepping out of the elevator I found that I had three doors to choose from: 3401, 2 and 3. That made things easier. I knocked on the door across from the elevator. It didn't take long for her to open it.

Samera pulled the door wide, drowning her lean figure in the florescent lights of the hall. She was still dressed in her 90's punk-ish style I noticed; old ripped blue jeans and black tank top, but her usual black biker boots were missing. Seeing her for the first time in fifty years made my dead heart beat again. I couldn't help it. I was always happy to see her.

"Don't just stand there, get in here." She looked tired; dark circles ringed her eyes and there was a heaviness to her voice that I hadn't noticed over the intercom. Nervousness aside, now I was worried.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked as she shut the door behind me. The suite was mostly dark, with a few lit candles scattered about the main room. I stepped further into the room, looking around to see if we were alone. I couldn't smell any humans.

"Nickolas is awake."

I stopped in my tracks to turn back to her. Staring at her, I tried to form a cohesive thought.

"Awake? How long?"

She nodded. "I sent the message as soon as I could, but it's been about a week." Samera stepped past me, heading towards the glass wall that over-looked the city.

My mind kicked into overdrive, thinking of questions left and right. Nickolas was my sire, my creator. It had been his will alone that kept me walking this earth hundreds of years after I should have been dead. I released the breath I'd been holding. I'd feared that he had slipped into a final sleep.

He'd gone to coffin a century and a half ago, and hadn't risen since. If you're going to sleep that long, there were preparations; things to do, others to tell. He'd done none of those and had simply neglected to raise the next night. Needless to say, the sudden slumber had disturbed a great number of our kind.

"Where is he? Is he here?" I asked, looking around again.

"Nick's out walking," she said. "He's trying to get used to the 'new' world. Quite a bit changes in a hundred and fifty years. Especially in these times."

"Does the Court know? Any others besides us?"

She turned back to me, shaking her head. "No, you're the first we've contacted. And even that's only because Nick insisted he see you. He's afraid of something."