• Night fall in the city and the sounds of the waking world had long since dimmed and dulled to silent whispers of themselves. A streetlamp buzzed and flickered by a street, distorting the appearance of the road and giving the sense of a strange sort of tug-of-war between the shadows and the light. A boy stood beside the street, his face partially hidden in the shadows cast by the covered bus stop; he stared across, seeming to be watching as the streetlamps cast shapes upon the walls. Mailboxes and other posts solidly stood upon the buildings and the boy turned his gaze upwards, up at navy cloud that coated the sky and the stubborn light of a full moon trying to shine its way down upon the city. The boy was silent, simply staring before turning his attention down; in his hand, he held a pocket watch, a beautiful antique thing with dust covering one side and cracks over the clock face. Still it worked and told him it was almost midnight; a sigh escaped him and he placed the watch into the pocket of the trench coat he was wearing. He stepped out of darkness into the light, revealing clear blue eyes behind glasses and the face of a child or angel framed with strands of wavy blonde hair while the rest was in a loose sort of ponytail. He turned his attention to the street itself, looking and down it as if searching for something.

    Finally something appeared, twin headlights making their way closer from farther down the street where the lights no longer shone and darkness ruled. The headlights, he soon saw, belong to a bus, an old transit bus with the tattered remains of some advertisement still stuck to the side; it's number still shone albeit dimly on the front of the bus "108".

    A smile, or rather more of a smirk, came to his face and the boy stepped back as the bus pulled up and stopped; the doors opened with a creak and the driver, a teenage girl with hair like wildfire and an unhappy frown, glanced at him.

    He spoke first, "Marta."

    "Well Come on, we don't have all night," the girl Marta said as the boy climbed aboard, his hand ghosting over the box where once passengers had put in their fares; his eyes looked in and he saw two others waiting inside, a boy with untidy black hair who seemed to be half asleep and a third male, his face hidden by the wide brim of his hat and a sword resting against his shoulder.

    The doors closed and the blue-eyed one sat beside the boy with the sword, "Hello Abraham."

    No reply but he expected no less; he turned the one with the sleepy look on his face, raising an eyebrow, "You seem rather out of it, Louie."

    "I barely made it to the meeting place, I got chased all around the city," said the other and he yawned, rubbing his eyes as the bus started up again, "So where were you, Alexei?"

    "I got lost enjoying the sights of out fair city at night," mused the boy, smiling at his companion.

    A snort came from the driver's seat, "Your sense of aesthetics almost made us lose, you know that don't you?"

    "I apologize," Alexei said raising his hands in defense, "Do with me as you will later. For now though…you've located it?"

    Louie nodded, "Yes, Marta's driving us there now. We just needed to find you since…well…"

    "So you can drive a bus now, darling Marta?" said the blonde boy, amusement in his voice as he spoke to the driver. How did you get this…abomination to work though?"

    "I hotwired it of course; now shut up, I need to drive." He pulled back and silence fell over the group until finally they reached their destination. The bus was stopped, Marta being careful in parking it before opening the door, letting in a burst of cold air; Louie shivered but Alexei simply got to his feet, as did the man with the hat Abraham. They approached the exit and Alexei stepped out carefully, staring forward at where they were and nowhere else. A tall tower of an unfinished building stood before them, metal guarders shimmering in streetlights; a serious sort of expression, crossed his face as the others joined him and he walked forward, leading them in. Before them, lying on the ground in the center of the foundation, was an orb, a beautiful blue ball seeming to be winking at them; a gasp escaped Louie only to be silenced by Marta and Alexei stepped forward alone, reaching out to grab it. His hand was inches away, seconds from grasping it when someone else appeared and his glance was turned upwards, his companions stepping back. A boy stood across from him, smirking, watching.

    "Alexei," he spoke, his voice like honey.

    "Camael," Alexei responded, returning the smirk with a smile of his own.

    "You're late, old friend." The words were laced with poison and Alexei stoop up straight, staring back at the boy, "What can I say; somehow the beauty of a city drenched in night seems so much more amusing than seeing you ever again…old friend."

    Camael frowned and Abraham stepped forward but Alexei held up a hand, "No need, he cannot harm me after all. No need to interfere, Abraham."

    "Oh I can't?" Camael inquired, amused, "And when exactly did you of all people start associating with his kind?"

    "Abraham needed assistance in another matter and I was glad to give it to him; he choose to participate as our teammate on his own," replied the blonde, his eyes suddenly turning dark, "We needed an extra after all after what you did to Vladimir…"

    A laugh left the other, a cruel, coarse laugh that sent shivers through even Marta. But not Alexei; Camael continued to laugh before looking back to him with another smirk, "As I will do to the rest of you and your friends, and your kind as well…after I retrieve the orb of course."

    Attention was drawn back to the shining orb and a short pause came before Alexei spoke again, steeping forward only for Camael to do the same, "I will not allow that you know, Camael. I will be the one to take it as my kind has done every time this Night Game has been played, for millennia upon millennia, time upon time."

    "Well," responded Camael and he stopped, crimson eyes glowing in the darkness, "That will be changed tonight."

    The clouds started to part and moonlight shone through, illuminating the construction site; Louie, Marta and Abraham all glanced around them to see more eyes, more figures crouching above on the guarders and standing against the walls of buildings that surrounded the site. Alexei just barely acknowledged them before chuckling, "Same old Camael, using your charms to convince others to join you. The teams are supposed to be only four people, my dear friend."

    "They are; these are simply the other teams, the representatives of the other clans who are all sick of your kind and your rules," Camael said, "They're here to help me defeat you once and for all before fighting amongst themselves for who will take the orb and the right to rule."

    "With you ever the winner." Before the words had left his lips, Camael had advanced and attack, a black bladed sword close to Alexei's neck; for his part the blonde had not flinched, holding a sword of his own, Abraham's actually, and was blocking the attack. A cry of war was heard and fighting broke out; Abraham along with Marta and Louie started fighting off enemies left and right, leaving the orb unattended. Still Alexei and Camael stood, sword to sword, and the latter laughed. He pushed Alexei back, the moonlight covering them and giving them both the look of angels, turning Alexei's blue eyes gold; Camael spoke in a whisper, "Death to the vampyr king Alexei von Schwarznacht."

    "I am not so easy to kill, little demon," purred the blonde and his sword dislodged. The two struck again, prepared to die, prepared to kill, all for the glory of their own clans and the right to rule the city for another hundred years under the full moon's watch.