There she was, walking down the sidewalk, dimly illuminated by streetlights. The girl from the club. The girl with the pretty face and eyes far to weary for her body. A child of the streets, this one, in dirty jeans and black tank top, thin arms glowing in the darkness. Jervaise stepped up beside her, matching her stride perfectly. The girl looked up at her, eyes wide, unfocused. Jervaise smiled at her.

"No fear, little one." She said quietly, stopping in her tracks. The girl did likewise.

"No fear." The girl repeated dreamily. "No pain...."

Jervaise smiled again, this time preditorily. "No pain." She affirmed, then wrapped her arms around the young woman, pulling her in close and feeling the girl's bones through her skin as she did so. She brought one hand up and tilted the girl's head to the side, revealing the slender column of the her throat. She made her death quick, and as she'd promised, painless. Carrying her to an ally, and laying her down gently, Jervaise felt a strange tingling spread through her body, pervading her limbs and affecting her mind. Ah...she should have been more careful. She looked at the insides of the dead girl's arms, noted the track marks. That was the reason for her dreamy voice and unfocused eyes. Jervaise wavered slightly on her feet, but managed to complete her disguising of the kill, removing the girl's pants, taking the pitiful amount of money out of them. Rape and robbery. No one would look past that. She walked unsteadily out of the ally, concentrated on placing one foot in front of the other on her way to her home. Somewhere in the distance, she heard the sound of laughter, and a child crying. 'Someone help that child!' she thought. 'Stop laughing and help her!'

"Mommy!" A little girl called out of the darkness.

"Adara!" She cried. "Oh Adara. I want to help you. But you're dead Adara. You're dead and gone!"

She stumbled into the entryway of her home. Heard water running somewhere, unbearably loud. "Ah!" She cried, grasping her head and falling to the floor.

"Jervaise. Jervaise!" She felt arms lifting her, and through a daze saw Nicki's face.

"Nicki." She said weakly. "Adara was calling for me Nicki!"

"Oh, Jervaise. I told you to be careful. Stay away from the heroin addicts. They're no good for you." He sighed and picked her up. "Come on." He brought her to the bedroom. A woman with golden curls was lying on the bed, her breath coming in gasps. "She's still alive, good. Drink from her." He laid Jervaise next to the woman, Jervaise reached for her weakly. "Hurry now, before her heart gives out." He turned and left the room.

She was aware that Nicki had come back some time later, had taken the body of the woman away. She could here the rumble of the furnace far below as it consumed the woman's remains. She could also feel the untainted blood flowing through her, trying to combat the drug, but it wasn't enough. The girl must have injected near fatal amounts. Adara was there again, calling to her.

"Mommy help me. It hurts Mommy."

"I'm sorry, Adara dear. But you're dead. Mommy can't help you."

Untitled 2/?

Sun was slanting through the closed blinds, making a pattern on the floor. Nicki stood by the window, peeking between the slats at the street below, watching the traffic out on the street with false interest. Jervaise was seated at the piano, slim fingers resting lightly on the keys, her long blond hair tumbling over her shoulders. She took a deep breath of the dry, hot air, watching as dust motes drifted in the slivers of light. Nothing stirred in the room, which smelt of sun-baked wood and dust, like an attic in summertime. The only sounds were those of the traffic below and the old building settling on it's foundations with mournful groans.

"I dreamt of Adara." She said, words ringing in the vastness of the room.

"It was the heroin." Nicki sighed, moving away from the window and lighting a cigarette. He exhaled slowly, smoke curling lazily up to the ceiling.

"She was calling for me." She pressed a few keys on the piano. The tones stretched out, hanging impossibly in the stale air.

"She's dead." Nicki gave her a sharp look, his blue eyes piercing her own.

"She was our daughter." Jervaise whispered. "Doesn't that mean anything?"

"Past is past. We can't bring her back." A few angry strides and he was at her side, hands resting on the top of the piano. "Leave it be."

"I don't have your strength Nicki! I don't......"

He'd left the room.

She slammed her hands down on the piano, then felt foolish at the childish outburst. Standing, she looked around the room, looked at the sheet covered furniture, the cobwebs on the chandelier overhead, saw her own reflection in the dirt streaked mirrors. All the remains of a fine ballroom. All ghosts of the past. She closed her eyes, letting the hot room around her disappear, conjuring up images of the past. There was laughter here, people in gay costumes. The woman in their opulent dresses, grandiose hairstyles, pearls and diamonds at their throats. Men in frock coats, knee breaches, and stockings. Music, dancing. She could see Nicki in the corner, his blond hair pulled back with a black ribbon, strands of it slipping lose to frame his face. She saw herself in the mirror, hair piled high on her head, skin powdered down to create a false pallor. How human she looked, how alive.....she opened her eyes. Before her was her real reflection, one of a dirty saint in an abandoned room. She wanted to fling all the sheets off the furniture, wanted to create that ballroom again, wanted to recreate that past. Wanted the impossible. Somewhere in the still house, she thought she heard a child weeping.

The attic was a strange place. Cluttered, filled with everything imaginable. It had a strange set-like feel to it. No, maybe not the set. Maybe the props department in an old abandoned theater. There were mannequins here, which looked insect-like in the dim light, somehow unreal and menacing. He stubbed out his cigarette and lit another. "I don't know....do the undead suffer nervous breakdowns?" He laughed, expelling the smoke into the already saturated air. He hung his head. "I don't know."

"She said she heard Adara?"

Nicki snorted. "Yeah. She's been dead what....two hundred years?" He flipped his bangs out of his eyes. "Two hundred years."

"A long time." Gayler agreed, rubbing at his neck absently.

"So what do I do about it?"

"I don't know. Let her be. I'm sure she'll get over it."

"Sure?" Nicki raised an eyebrow.

"Well, relatively." He leaned back in his chair. "Let's get out of here Nicki. You've been cooped up to long. I'll take you this great little club. Jervaise's scene, not yours I know, but I'm sure you'll find someone to your liking." Gayler grinned. Nicki sighed resignedly, stubbing out his cigarette and standing up. His friend did likewise, and the two exited the smoky room, pounding down the rickety stairs and into the dark night.

Untitled 3/?

Bare feet slapped on the dusty wood floor, still warm from the heat of the day. Night had fallen and all the old windows had been thrown open, sending a myriad of breezes through the ancient building. The grand old structure groaned with age. Jervaise groaned with pain. The pain remembrance brought, like a clawing at her heart, like a savage gnawing at the empty place her soul once filled. The faint echo of a child's crying had haunted her day, her repeated searches proving futile. The source of the heart wrenching sound seemed to sense her approach and flee, only to begin its wails of anguish several minutes later in another part of the building. She wandered alone in the building, hands clutching at her hair, wishing she could make the miserable sound stop. "Who are you?" She cried, not for the first time. "What do you want?" Jervaise collapsed against the wall, lacking the strength or will to stand any longer. Footprints glowed in the dust on the floor. Bitter tears crept through the cracks between her fingers as her hands covered her face. A million times she had wept for her lost child, a million times imagined the terror the girl must have felt lying alone in the dark, dying while her parents reveled yards away. Jervaise knew that it was then, while still possessing a mortal guise, that she had lost her soul. Lost it for failing to love and cherish the tiny piece of her own flesh and blood, who'd passed alone in the night with no one to comfort her. "I'm sorry Adara. I didn't know." She whispered. "Forgive me?"

"Forgive you?" The voice was a child's voice, but the wrath behind it had festered for centuries. "Forgive you?" She laughed. "You danced while I died two rooms away. You want forgiveness?"

Jervaise's head jerked upwards. "Adara?" The girl before her had long curling blond hair and blue eyes that were narrowed to slits. Her little girl mouth was twisted in a sneer. Jervaise's face contorted as if she'd been slapped. "Dear Lord." She gasped.

----

Gayler's club was wearing on Nicki's nerves quickly. The music was too loud for his liking and people pressed to closely to him. His friend was over at a corner table whispering into the ear of a lovely redhead. She threw her head back in what he assumed was laughter- he couldn't hear at this distance- revealing the ivory column of her throat. Gayler's eyes flitted briefly over the crowd then locked on his own. Come join us. Gayler's voice whispered through his mind. This one's got a friend. We'll make it a double date. Nicki caught a mental flash of fangs glinting as Gayler laughed silently at his joke. Nicki sighed.

Oh all right, if it will make you happy.

Wonderful! The disembodied voice in his head was gleeful. Wait outside. We'll be along in a moment.

Nicki forced his way out of the club, grateful to be out on the street with the cool evening air blowing around him. Shortly, his friend joined him, a girl literally hanging on each arm. The redhead giggled loudly and her friend, a blond, plodded along beside Gayler head bowed, seemingly intent on watching her feet. They're drunk. He commented with a note of disgust.

Gayler laughed aloud. "Delightful, aren't they? Here, this one's for you." He disentangled himself from the blond and shoved her forward a few paces. The girl stumbled and fell into Nicki, grasping his shoulders for support. She looked up into his face and Nicki almost sent her sprawling onto the pavement. Nicki's reaction caused his friend to erupt in another bout of laughter. You have to admit, the resemblance is uncanny.

It was. There was no denying the fact that this girl could have been his wife's twin. "Is this some sort of sick game?" He hissed.

"Shhh. Don't upset them. Honestly it wasn't. I didn't know what she looked like until after you'd agreed to this. An interesting twist, don't you agree?" Nicki didn't reply. "Shall we go?" The redheaded girl leaned over and whispered something in Gayler's ear. He cracked a sly grin. "No worries m'dear. Come with my friend Nicki here. We'll take good care of you. Right?"

"Yeah, sure." He murmured. The evening was fast losing it's appeal. The blond looked over at him with wide blue eyes. "Let's just get this over with."

End chapter Three