Dark Matters

A/N: Thanks to Margit for putting up with my mistakes ;)

Chapter Two: The Street to Success

Vladislav thought about how this city might have looked like before it had been destroyed. There must have been over a million people or more that used to live here. Still there were plenty left, but just to think about that mass of people walking around in one spot. What an ideal feeding ground for his kind. Not to think that humans always found so many nice little diversions that sometimes were actually quite entertaining.

Keeping to the shadows and just watching, Dracula learnt a lot on his way to the Golden City, as people called it. For reasons still unknown to him it was as much dreaded as admired by the inhabitants of Los Angeles. It was like the closer he got to the centre of the city the cleaner it became. The change in life quality was remarkable. The next time he needed to feed he could afford to be selective.

Unfortunately the Count had taken none of his riches with him. Gold made everything easier in the world of man, but he had not expected to find a place where society was still intact. The vampire realised very soon that he needed some sort of currency, for otherwise he would call for too much attention. Even if he killed every single being in this city step by step, their blood would not cleanse the poison from his system. Furthermore - they might catch him.

Without fresh blood, his healing process was almost non-existing and even with it took hours for a single cut to close. He wondered if his archenemy Van Helsing was still around and if - where he was right now. Maybe he had done his final duty, maybe somebody else had killed him and deprived him of his revenge. Maybe it was for the better. He was in no shape to face his old adversary.

Dracula soon began to think about more urgent matters. He needed a fresh suit, something that set him above the low-lives of this city. The vampire also needed a resting place, where he was able to sleep during the day, since his resistance against the rays of the sun was gone as well. He was deep in thoughts as he approached a more public street, where a few lights shone from a great house.

Vladislav only looked up as he heard a thin voice beside him. "Would you care for some company?", said the voice of a frightened female.

He stopped and looked at her. Although part of him wanted to bathe in her blood, another part of him felt a bit sorry for her. She was a miserable creature. The girl held her robes open and her naked skin beneath was immediately covered with goose bumps. Her rip bones peeked out and she had dried blood on her slip, which was the only other piece of clothing she had. Not to speak of the bruises and scars. Her nipples had human tooth marks around them and one was still swollen. Her nose had been broken at least once and an eyebrow was parted by a small scar.

"Not at the moment", he said with heavy accent and the girl covered herself with a disappointed look. Dracula let his gaze sway about the place. There were a dozen of other girls, some older, some younger; but most of them looked like being over used. A man stepped outside the front door with a satisfied smile on his lips. He buttoned his coat and left the porch, clapping one of the girls very harshly on her backside.

Laughing he went on until he noticed the Count. "Ah, my friend", he said, "I can recommend the house. The girls might not be the prettiest, but the price is cheap and you can do about anything you can imagine with them." He had a nasty smile. "Just say, that Robert Britchett recommended the place, that'll give me a girl for free."

'What a remarkably evil nature', Dracula thought, 'but no class'.

"I might do that, but I just arrived and I'm right now more concerned about finding a quiet place to rest", he replied.

"Oh - I know plenty of places, depending on how much weight your purse has", Robert stepped closer and was suggesting with a wave of his arm to move along.

The vampire followed of course and said with a sinister smile: "Let's say - I shall see how much I like to spend."

"A clever man always watches his money", the other man said. Dracula had a watchful eye on him. He was unfortunately much shorter and way too fat for his clothing to fit. No doubt he would find sooner or later a more fitting wardrobe for him. The colours were much too bright for his taste, he preferred black. Meanwhile, Robert kept on explaining about the advantages and disadvantages of certain "hotels"

"This, my friend," said Vladislav's guide pointing to a long dark road "is the "Street to Success" - as I like to call it. A dangerous passage, ruled by the Nightcrawlers, who make a fortune on toll's. If you want to go to the Golden City, it'll cost you a lot, only the servants of Lace have free passage."

"Lace? Who is he?", Dracula asked curious, but he already had an idea.

"Boy, no doubt you are new, if haven't heard of Lace, the great magician. He owns this city and most of his inhabitants. You see the great enlightened skyscraper? That's were he lives, comforted by all the glories of the 20th Century. I could tell you stories…", Britchett began, but then stopped as he realised the vampire was heading directly towards the passage. "Oh no, bad idea, they kill everyone that enters unasked."

"How are people supposed to get past them?" Vladislav began to feel annoyed. Did he really have to pay his way through like a mortal? He did not think so.

"The inn at the corner - do you see it? That's were you find someone to guide you through", Robert explained and changed direction.

Although the little weasel might have held more useful information in store, Dracula grasped him, after a careful look around, and drew him into the shadows of an abandoned building. He drank a bit more before he broke his neck and went on to take his moneybag. It was rather filled, but he had no idea whether the content was worth anything. There were a lot of papers with fifties on them and hard coins and four pink plastic chips that were labelled "20" in the middle and "Casino Infernale" on the outer ring.

While he was at it, he began to search the corpse. Dracula was disgusted at how low he had sunk, but then he had sworn to do anything to gain back his powers. He found nothing besides a ring on his left pinkie, which looked rather unusual, so he decided to dump it in the next wooden barrel filled with rainwater. He had passed a lot of these since he left Misery.

He stuffed the body in to a large metal container and went back to the passage. The vampire gazed at the Inn, but a sudden sensation of superiority caught him and he marched straight forward.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Christian Bale was the head of the Nightcrawlers. One could say he was a servant of Lace, but he preferred to see himself as an independent worker. His only duty to the magician was to let all the men - unfortunately including also all the women - that worked for him pass unharmed. With all the other travellers he could do as he wished. A convenient arrangement, he thought.

Living between the Golden City and Merry Ville had his advantages. His men, being a rough lot, could satisfy their lusts in the three whorehouses and live out their aggression on the poor souls that walked through here uninvited. He had Lake for his comfort. She was his consort in bed and business. Not that the Crawlers knew about the last part. The pretty woman had traces of witch blood in her veins and her occasional hunches and dreams, had proved to be useful more than once.

The pimp who had caught her had never realised what a pearl he had in his hands. It was his luck that she had enchanted him in a way, for never before he had wasted words on a woman, leave alone a prostitute. As he had realised that he was spending anyway a lot of money on her and that he liked her voice and her insights on the streets, he had bought her. Growing closer, she had told him about her secret lore.

Most of his men were asleep. This night the city was quieter than usual. Christian estimated it to be the result of a large fight between men of Lace and the Masked One that had taken place not long ago. Inside the Mad Hatter's teahouse, there where still traces left of the less powerful employees. Some of them had literally been splashed across the walls. Of course Lace's men had won, but had they really beaten the others as easily as the mage had announced the next day?

The Masked One would not get so many hands, if they felt that his struggle with Lace was that hopeless. Lake was right, the Nightcrawlers offered him all he needed. It put him out of point blank. After all the most powerful man in this city had more than one gang roaming the city, not to mention the guards who made it impossible to leave.

With everything being so calm, Christian was surprised to hear footsteps coming up the main street. It was most unbelievable that anyone was so stupid as to try walking through his territory. He grabbed his equipment and stepped out of his house and onto the street. He had not heard wrong, the steps came closer.

The leader of the Nightcrawlers pulled out his infrared glasses. Strangely enough he saw nothing but a very faint heat signature. He checked if they were broken; but found nothing was amiss. Christian considered to alert his men, but then he felt Lake's hand on his. "Go inside", she said, almost in trance.

"Are you out of your mind?", he yelled and grabbed the walkie-talkie to wake his fighters who rested nearby. "Ouch!"

Lake's nails pressed painfully against his wrist. For the first time he really noticed her. She stared with wide-open eyes towards the curve where the intruder had appeared. Something was wrong with the dude, part of him wanted to go over and set things straight, the other part wanted to bring his consort back into the house.

The stranger came closer, still showing no sign of fear, although they were much easier to picture in the faint light coming from the candle behind their front window. Lake pierced through his skin and he decided to shove her back into the house, but as much as he tried, he could not get her fingers off his arm. "Lake!" he yelled at her, but although the walls were between her and the streets, her gaze followed the path of the stranger.

Christian had enough, he hit his woman with the back of his hand directly in the face. That broke the spell, and she was sitting on the floor her nose bleeding. "What the hell got into you?" he scoffed and looked at the blood on his arm. He raised the walkie-talkie and addressed his men.

"You can't kill what is not alive."

He turned and looked at her. She looked absolutely sane. Thinking about the strange reading on his infrared device, he was suddenly not so sure what to think.

"Chief, what is going on?" came a slightly scrambled voice from the radio.

"Hold on a second", he spoke to the device.

"He can't be un-dead, I've seen them, nothing about him …", he stopped as she saw her shaking her head.

"Nobody here has seen something like it - I don't pretend to know what this person truly is, but you better leave it to your master!"

Chris sighed, he hated it, when she called Lace his master, but since part of her was still bitter that he was her master, she always brought this up. Nonetheless her insights had always been valuable, so he always looked over it.

"Gartner", he addressed his man over the radio. "Take Juggs and follow the man who is passing through our territory; but be careful, he must not notice that he is being followed. Report to me later!"

"Okay", his second-in-command replied with a small sign of confusion, but then again he was not here to think, but to obey orders.

"Better?", Christian said and offered Lake a hand. She nodded and with a faint smile she knuckled up to him.