Lucian Draven's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Lucian Draven had not fed in three nights, and the venue was empty. He stood at the edge of the stage, boots on cracked concrete, and stared at the rows of folding chairs. Twelve people. His death metal band, Torture Ritual, had sold twelve tickets. He wanted this band to swallow the world. Instead, the crowd had drained away like blood from a wound. He knew where they had gone. They had gone across the circuit to see Axel Graves. Lucian pulled up a photo on a fan's abandoned phone. Axel grinned back at him, skull paint smeared across his face, a metal shirt stretched over his chest. Every metal fan in the region packed Axel's shows. Lucian felt the hunger twist in his gut, and beneath it, something older and hotter. Rage. If he could not draw the crowd, he would remove the man who stole it. "You're going to kill him," Luna Nightshade said. It was not a question. She leaned in the doorway, blonde hair spilling over a leather jacket cut like Lucian's own. Fake vampire teeth clicked when she smiled. She had followed his band across three cities, dressing like him, worshiping him. Tonight her worship had a use. "He trusts a pretty face," Lucian said. "Bring him to me." Luna's eyes shone. She wanted to please him more than she wanted to breathe. "Where?" "The empty house past the tree line. I already checked it. No one for miles." She went. Two hours later she returned with Axel, half drunk, one arm slung around her shoulders. Lucian waited inside the old manor, in the dark of the front hall. Axel stumbled through the door and squinted. "This the after party?" "For one of us," Lucian said, and stepped from the shadow. Axel saw the teeth. Real ones. He turned to run. Luna blocked the door, still smiling, and Axel understood too late what she was. Lucian moved fast. He caught Axel by the throat and drank. The hunger of three nights emptied itself. Axel's boots scraped the floor, then stopped. Lucian let the body drop. He felt strong again, clear, alive with stolen blood. The rival was gone. The problem was solved. Then Luna held up her phone. The screen glowed in the dark hall. "I filmed it," she whispered. "For us. So we'd always have this night." Lucian went cold. The video showed his face, his teeth, Axel's last seconds. Everything. "Give me the phone, Luna." She stepped back, clutching it to her chest. "You need me now," she said, and she was right. "You'll never leave me behind." Outside, headlights swept the windows. Axel's bandmates had come looking for their frontman. Fists pounded the door. Lucian stood over a corpse, holding no phone, with a witness who now owned him.