The Darkness 8: The Hive

April 1^st 3:30PM

Me and my pack met at our local park to wait for the hybrid pack. While C.D., Marie, and Ray played ball; me, Cee, Audio and Ciara sat on the table and look out across the field. Half way across the park the vampires sat at their own table under the trees. There were few times our groups as a whole were close to each other and it was mostly when we convened in the park.  It made me think of how thing would be had the feud between vampires and werewolves had not started.

It started Native American tribes that were plagued by night monsters. Many of them got together and decided they needed to fight back and protect themselves. With that decision, the mystic shaman from four of the biggest tribes came together and used the the power of nature magic to turn warriors of every tribe into animal shapeshifters. Bats, wolves, alligators, and scorpions respective to their village. This worked perfectly and for a while kept the creatures away, but soon the more monster came and some more powerful than before. In an effort to fight back, the villages tried to give birth to natural born shapeshifters, assuming they would be more powerful. The shifting warriors conceived in their animal forms. This failed; the impregnated women were forced by labor to shift to their animal forms and gave birth to non-shifting animals. These children were left to animal in the wild to raise and the villages went back to their issues. The next born of the shifting warriors were born full human with no ability to shift. Two years had gone by and they were still plagued by attacks from the more powerful night monsters and the villages were barely getting by. One night, on the night of a blue moon, the first born full animals and their younger full human siblings were drawn together. The contact between them caused a mystic change. The first born animals were changed to their human forms and the second born humans shifted to vampire and werewolf forms. The vampires had near super human speed, enhanced senses, the ability to entrance, and became ageless when they were in their vampire form but needed blood to sustain their vampire form and would burst into flames if they came into contact with the sunlight. The werewolves had enhanced strength, senses, and the ability to shift from wolf to werewolf form. They also both found they could pass their vampire and werewolf powers through intentional bite. The once animals were now stuck in human form but retained mystical powers and became the new shamans. No one knew what happened to the animals that didn’t have younger siblings to come into contact with nor the alligators or scorpion shifters. Working together they all were able to ward off the monsters and keep their villages safe. They spread out to other tribes and offered to help, thus starting new packs and a hive. Everything worked fine for a short time then it wasn’t long before tensions rose between the two groups. Werewolves were envious of the vampires’ agelessness and these vampires envied the werewolves’ ability to change without vulnerability to the sun. Vampires took the upper hand by enslaving the weaker werewolves with their entrancing; successfully weakening the packs and causing a lot of werewolves to stay in their wolf forms. Eventually the werewolves found even with their numbers dwindled they could easily overpower the vampire and began fighting back. This all almost lead to a civil war between the vampires and werewolves but was prevented by the new shamans. No one is sure of what happened after but it’s said a shaman was sent to every tribe that had werewolf and vampire guardians to prevent the fighting and it’s lasted till today.

We now sat in front of both our allies and rival group. Much like wolf packs, the vampire hives have ranks; beta, elite, and alpha. Beta vampires are the basic vampires of the hive, sent to handle simple work and tasks, and they were heavy in numbers. Elites are more powerful, able to entrance strong willed people and even some beasts, and there were few of Elites. Alpha was the strongest and always a female. What set the alpha vampire apart from the rest of her hive was her power to turn a beta into an elite by bite and the hive naturally followed her. The alpha vampire in our town was Gina. She was short Arabic and Mexican girl only a year younger than me, with brown hair and lively eyes. We were once friends but it wasn’t until I had become a werewolf and our rivalry had begun did I truly notice her. We crossed paths and immediately knew each other for rival alphas. She had her elite vampires watch me; Samuel, Michael, Claudia, Haley, and Javier. I only knew because my nephew C.K., C.D.’s older brother, was one of the elites sent to watch me but warned me instead. This angered me so much, I wanted rip Gina apart in broad daylight but I remembered we had to co-exist. Gina wasn’t regular; there was always something strange about her. Beta vampires followed her without question or a second look. She had more power than she seemed, even in her human form. It turned out her hive had been around our town for longer than any wolf pack had. They met every night in the same secret location that was unknown to us. When Marina joined the hive it caused some type of change with the other vampires and both her and C.K. refused to tell us why. Black Eagle said he had no way to say either, he and Gina didn’t get along at all. I was able to count a total of 20 vampires. 1 alpha, 6 elites, and 13 beta. Despite the rivalry between us, they did their job well and kept humans away and normally, there were no problems between us.

The wind blew a cold breeze past us, I lifted my head to a familiar scent. I looked toward the vampires and seen Marina walking towards the group. As soon as Gina noticed Marina was there the whole group re-positioned and the Elites stood next to Marina. “You think that’s weird?” I asked Audio. “What? He responded cluelessly. “Look at the vampires, all the Elites moved to stand next to Marina.” I answered, bringing it to his attention. Cee, Audio, and Ciara turned their head and inspected the group. “Oh yeah.” Cee said. Audio shrugged at my questions and Ciara said “I don’t know. Didn’t you say Axel would be here?” I nodded but my eyes stayed on Marina. I waited for her look at me but then I caught that Gina was glaring at me. We locked eyes on each other. It was an intense moment then she looked away and I looked at my nephew C.K. “Yeah, he’ll be here soon.” I answered and looked back at the queen vampire. Her and all the Elites leered at me while Marina pretended to not know what was going on. I smiled and bared my fangs at them; inviting them to act on their feelings and get ripped apart. Next to me, Cee, Audio, and Ciara clawed at the table. Samuel and Javier separated from the group and began walking toward us. "What is this? They are coming to us." Ciara said with surprise. "Alright guys, put your claws away." I told them. Ciara looked at me questioningly while Cee and Audio did as I said. By this time Ray, C.D., and Marie had turned there attention to the approaching vampires. We were all dead still as they came closer; there was no telling why they were walking to us. Our gaze was locked on them until they came to a halt. A breeze brought the scent of an ally, I turned my head to our right to see Axel and his pack had made it. When I looked back at the approaching vampires then had stopped and stared at Axel's pack, then turned went back with the rest of their hive. "What was all that about?" Axel asked as he shook my hand. "I don't know, bruh," I answered "but I'll find out."