Dominant Species by Guy Pettengell

chuckling, stood. His voice hissed out across the auditorium.
    ‘My apologies, oh great one, I did not see you there.’
    He threw in a mock bow sending hushed laughter rustling around the auditorium, which was quickly silenced by Karick’s steely gaze.
    ‘Always the comedian, eh Zidtool , perhaps you would like to discuss your sense of humour with me, in private, afterwards?
    A lopsided smile flickered across Zidtool’s face.
    ‘Well?’ asked Karick, reasonably, but everyone picked up the steely coldness beneath.
    Zidtool lowered his head.
    ‘Apologies again, my Lord, that won’t be necessary.’
    Content, Karick finally nodded. Around him the vampires, as one, silently sat down.
    Although the microphones no longer worked, Karick’s voice rang through the auditorium, loud and clearly.
    ‘Consider this Council in session.’
     
     
    Jake knew that moving around Brooklyn, or the City of New York, was dangerous at the best of times. Fear of discovery and attack from vampires, as well as the other clans, not to mention the things that were supposed to live further out, was always a threat. Also the things they knew as half-lings, neither man nor vampire, were often left to roam around on their own, or even left abandoned, seeking food. But moving around at night meant even greater danger. In the early days they had walked the streets in small, armed groups, but after various attacks and near misses with the vampires, they had realised that they needed a safer way to avoid unwanted detection if they were to survive.
                  It had been Lano’s father that had provided the solution - the abandoned railway tracks, stations and unused lines that lay beneath the City in an underground network labyrinth of tunnels. Lano’s father had been a history teacher, with an insatiable appetite for anything transport related. Having discovered the hidden, underworld of New York City as a young boy he had spent much of his life uncovering, researching and documenting the hidden rail network buried deep beneath the streets of the City. Now over the years the resistance had broken through walls, sealed others and made enough rough connections between both the abandoned, as well as the previously widely used network, to be able to travel around, if not in total safety, at least in greater safety than walking around above ground amongst creatures that could see in the dark and that had an unnaturally good sense of smell.
    Entrances and exits to each of the routes were always well hidden and guarded by the ever present watchmen. Once inside the tunnels, they would be provided relatively good protection from prying eyes. However, this still did not imbue any real feeling of comfort in those that had to take the route and pathways though the darkness, where the reality of the rats, lack of light and strange and sudden noises all conspired to keep them feeling anything but safe and secure.
    It was now in such a position that Jake found himself, on a dark and wet night near the Brooklyn Queen’s Expressway, amongst the sound of footsteps that could be heard echoing quietly all around. Inside, moving slowly, the small party shuffled along disused tracks in almost total darkness, their only light coming from the four oil lamps that swung rhythmically in the hands of the two watchmen that led the way and the two that followed behind.
    Max walked at the front beside a burly watchman with a large walrus moustache. Jake, wanting to keep as much distance between himself and his younger brother, had chosen to walk at the very back. Even though they walked slowly the four lanterns only managed to spread a small amount of illumination, and so they still stumbled on the uneven ground and old railway sleepers and other unseen debris that cluttered the path beneath their feet.
    With eyes darting left and right, they moved forward in a single line, treading carefully and ever wary. Suddenly the lead watchmen signalled for the group to