GFD In the Shadows - 1. Chapter 1 Jason.

As the sun set over Lake Michigan and the sky looked as if it was on fire with all its different colours, just as the last rays of the sun disappeared into the lake, the security shutter that covered the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over Lake Michigan started to retract back into the walls. Jason had bought Cana Island back in the 1800’s, as it offered the best views, plus it only had one road in and out from the island itself.

As Jason’s eyes slowly started to open he looked about his room while his swimmer’s toned body started to loosen up after his day’s sleep.

His electric blue eyes settled on the view from out of his window.

Lake Michigan was like a mirror, the sky was still filled with different shades of reds, oranges, yellows and purples that were being reflected onto the mirror-like surface.

Jason sat up and leant against the headboard of his ornately styled king-size bed and enjoyed the view that was in front of him.

A light knock came from his bedroom door and, not taking his eyes off the window, he calmly said, “Come in,” while getting up from his bed. He walked across to his private bathroom and started the water for a shower. As he walked back into the main room, standing there were Sparrow and Thunder, looking worse for wear. Jason just looked at them both and then strode into his massive walk-in closet to choose what he was going to wear. While he was choosing a top, he asked, “So what happened to you both then? I thought Soren had it so you guys would win every time.” He knew that the pair could clearly hear him in the other room.

Sparrow walked in, followed by Thunder, and they sat down on the leather couch. Sparrow spoke. ”We got our asses handed to us last night.”

Jason paused for a minute and then carried on looking for a T-shirt. Then he asked, “Did Soren know you would get beaten?”

”No, it was just some new blood that looked like he could not fight his way out of a wet paper bag. Plus, Soren always puts us in fights that we can win. The new blood last night… there was something different about him. I knew I could take him, and he looked a right push over as well. Then something changed, almost as if a switch had been flicked. He got good all of a sudden; I mean real good. He was blocking all my attacks.”

Jason looked over at Sparrow and asked him to explain what he meant. So Sparrow explained the whole fight, how he was able to easily attack and the new blood could not block any of Sparrow’s hits.

“Then it just changed; it was like he had learnt all my moves and how to defend against them or something. Then Soren put Thunder in with him and he was beaten by this new blood.

It was strange the way he moved, as if Thunder was just hitting a piece of cloth… until he learnt Thunder’s weak points and then used them to defeat him.

Jason just looked over at Thunder, who was still holding his arm in place, and agreed with everything that Sparrow said. “This new blood just seemed to learn that style of fighting, and then at the right moment, he attacked.”

Jason thought about it and said, “OK, I will look into this.” Then he grabbed a T-shirt and jeans and walked into the bathroom for his shower. As the hot water cascaded over his body, he thought about everything that they had just told him. This new blood must be found to see what he can actually do.

He turned off the shower, wrapped himself in a towel, and walked back into the main room. When he got to his desk, he pushed a button on the intercom. A moment later, a young female voice answered. "Hello Jason. What can I do for you?"

“I need a car, and can you get in touch with the Wolf twins and tell them I have a job for them? I’ll be at the tavern in about two hours.”

The female voice replied, "Is there is anything else?”

Jason said, “No, thank you,” and hung up. He turned around and said, “Sparrow, are you still here?”

Sparrow replied, “Yeah.”

As he walked out of the closet, Jason walked over and said, “I need what you were wearing last night during the fight. I am going to get the Wolf twins to find him so I can have a word with him.

“OK, I will grab my clothes,” and he walked off toward his room.

Thunder walked out of the closet and just smiled at Jason, who smiled back and said, “Don’t worry; we will get to the bottom of this.” And he walked over and placed a hand on Thunder’s shoulder. The pair of them left the room.

As Jason was driving into the city, he was wondering if the elders would have heard anything about this. He decided to give Romero & Julian a call and invite them out to the house for dinner. As Jason pulled into the car park behind the tavern, he got out and walked into the alleyway that separates the two buildings. However, before he made it all the way through, he saw some movement out of the corner of his eye. He had an idea who it was and slowed down. Sitting down on a small raised brick wall, he looked around and said, “Hello, Comicality.”

"It’s been a long time, my old friend.” The shadows reformed and standing there was Comicality, just a few feet from Jason.

“How are you keeping?”

Comicality replied, “It’s going well. It has been a while; how are the fighting arenas going?

Jason replied, “Yeah, they are going well. I am looking at getting the complete fighting ownership for the Ice Zone and North America. what will be an extremely profitable business opportunities .”

Com just stood there and said nothing. Jason smiled. “So did you enjoy the fights last night? I heard your boy made two of my best fighters look like clowns.

Comicality, you need to warn your boy about hiding his extra a bit better from people like that. If Soren suspects anything, he will start sniffing around and it would not be good for him. That guy is bad news.” Jason stood up and turned and headed for the far end of the alley and said over his shoulder, “Don’t leave it for so long next time,” and walked out into the semi-busy Chicago night street and into the speak easy.

About 30 minutes later, two black haired line-backer-built teenagers, wearing jeans and T-shirts, walked into the bar and looked about. Jason got their attention and waved them over to the table he was sitting at. The three of them sat down.

Jason explained to the twins what had happened in Soren’s arena on the edge of town and that he needed this new blood found. He handed them the backpack with Sparrow’s clothes from last night’s fight in side and the five thousand dollars fee. Ben and John just nodded their heads, smiled, and headed out of the bar, disappearing into the busy Chicago nightlife. Jason smiled, as he knew the twins would get the information that he needed.

Jason finished his drink of blood, paid his bill and then headed out of the bar. He walked back though the alleyway to the car park where he had parked his car.

As he got halfway across the car park, he felt like he was being watched, so he slowed his pace and scanned the area.

That is when he found them; there were two young boys watching him from somewhere in the car park. As he scanned their minds, he saw that they had run away from an abusive home and had been on the street for a short time. They were watching him, waiting to see if he was a going to be a threat to them, or just someone getting his car. That made Jason smile a bit; he felt sorry for them, as they reminded him of when he was still human and trying to survive before the mafia recruited him and his little brother. He carried on walking over to where he parked his car and he sat down on the car bonnet.

He pulled out his mobile phone to called Sarah, who runs a safe house for runaway children that Jason had set up back in the 1940s.

After a couple of rings, Sarah answered the phone with her normal cheery voice.

"Hello Jason, how can I help you on this nice night?" Jason told Sarah that she may have two late arrivals and told her what he knew so far. Sarah agreed and said that there would be two beds waiting for them, wished him good luck, and hung up the phone.

Jason sat on his car bonnet for a minute and looked over where the kids were hidden.

He stood up and walked across the car park to where the two boys were hiding behind some dumpsters in the darker part of the car park. He took a seat on a car bonnet right in front of the dumpster and heard the kids quietly talking. Then Jason cleared his throat and spoke loud enough for them to hear him.

He calmly said, “Don’t be scared. I can help you both by taking you somewhere where you can be safe and get three meals a day and a warm bed to sleep in, and no one will do anything that you don’t want them to.”

One of the kids stepped warily out from behind the dumpster. Jason looked at the boy; he looked about 14 and had sandy brown hair with big brown eyes. He also had a blackened right eye that looked to be a couple of days old. He just looked at Jason. “What do you want in return?” the boy asked in a tough tone. “No one just offers two kids a warm bed and food unless they are after something in return.”

Jason smiled, raised his hand and said, “Nothing, a good friend of mine runs a safe house for runaway youth and I have already spoken with her. She has two beds waiting for you, if you would like them.

The other kid came out from behind the dumpster and said, “You don't want nothing from us at all?” with a questioning look on his face. Jason looked at the younger boy; he was about 11 and looked timid. He had black hair and green eyes.

Jason said, “Nope, nothing at all. If you don't want to know, then I will leave you gentlemen to it,” and with that, he stood up from the car bonnet and started to walk back across the car park, towards his car.

He could hear the rapid discussion going on between the two boys behind him and he slowed his pace.

Jason then stopped and turned around and said, “Look, I’ll make a deal with you. We can go to the safe house my friend runs, as it looks like you both haven’t slept in a couple of days. I know how hard it is trying to survive on the streets, as I have been there. If you do not like it, then you do not have to stay. Deal?

Another rapid conversation began, with the boys looking over at Jason every now and then. Then the older of the boys said, “OK, but the first sign of anything fishy and we are out of there. Deal!” and he stuck out his hand.

Jason smiled to himself. With that, he walked back over to where the two boys stood and shook the older boy’s hand. “OK, come on then.”

The two boys collected their bags from behind the dumpster, and the three of them walked over to where Jason had parked his car. He opened the back door for them to get in.

As he drove them across town to Sarah, the tension in the car could be cut with a knife. Jason just smiled to himself. In a short while, he turned onto a side road with tall Victorian townhouses lining both sides and parked in front of a large three-story townhouse that looked as if it was a hotel back in the 40’s. It was right on the corner of two streets. He told them that they were here, and got out of the car and opened the back door for the two boys to get out. They looked around while Jason closed the door behind them and gently pushed them in the direction of the townhouse that towered in front of them.

As they walked up the four steps, Jason took a key from his pocket to unlock the solid wood double doors. Stepping to the side, he invited them into the entrance hall. As he closed the door behind them, he walked into the lobby and called out for Sarah.

She was sat in her office just off to the right of the entrance hall, doing some last minute paper work. Jason led the boys into the office. As the three of them came into the room, Sarah got up from behind her ordinary wooden desk, and walked around to greet them.

She looked at the two scruffy boys standing there and then at Jason, then back at the two boys, and then smiled and introduced herself to them both. Jason could sense that they were still unsure about it.

Sarah then said, “We'll take care of them.” She walked back over to her desk and pushed a button on her intercom. A few minutes, an older, rounded, cheery woman walked into the office.

Sarah greeted Mary and introduced her to the two boys. Mary was in her 40's and was always smiling. She just gave of a warm fuzzy feeling and even Jason could feel it when Mary was about. She looked at the two boys, then at Sarah and Jason. Finally, she said, “Well who do we have here?” smiling at the boys who were watching what everyone was doing. Jason noticed that Jake had stood slightly in front of James, shielding him when Mary came into the office.

Jason said, “This is Jake, pointing to the older boy, and this is James; they are brothers.”

Mary walked up to the boys and stuck out her hand to shake their hands and said, “It nice to meet the both of you.”

Jason looked at them both and then said, “So what do you think?”

The boys looked at each other and then at Jason, Sarah and Mary and said, “It’s ok.”

Jason smiled and said, “Well, as I promised, there are two beds waiting for you.”

Then Sarah piped in, “There is even some of Mary’s chocolate fudge cake left, if you would like a peace.” A loud rumble came from little James’ stomach and he turned bright red. Mary and the others laughed. Sarah then said, “Why don't you go with Mary and grab a shower and something to eat and she will show you where your room is, where you can sleep.”

James looked at Sarah and said, “Our room?”

“Yes. We have 60 rooms here. When Jason called me earlier tonight and said that you two may be coming, I had Mary sort out a room for you, as I didn’t think that you wanted to sleep in the dorm with the other boys.”

Jason piped in, “If you don't like it here, then just tell Sarah and she will not stop you both from leaving.”

Jake and James looked at each them and then at Mary, who held out her hand and just smiled. The two boys followed her out of the room.

Sarah looked at Jason and said, “They will be safe now.” Jason nodded his head, smiled, got up from his chair, and headed out of the office toward the entrance. When he reached the main entrance, he turned to Sarah and said, "If there is anything that they need, or this place needs, give me a call. Ok?”

Sarah told him that everything was ok, thanked him and showed him out, then closed the double door behind him.

Jason smiled to himself, looked about the street and remembered back to when this was a blood bank. What had been set up and run by the vampire mafia back in the 40’s.

He and his brother with other young-looking vampires was given the job search the city for any runaway children and to bring them back here on the promise of a warm bed and hot food, but it was really for any vampire with deep pockets could come here and feed without worrying about being exposed.

He was glad it was being used for good now, and headed back down the steps.

He got to his car and started the drive back north.

Once out of the city and heading towards Cana Island, it would take about two hours.

While he was driving, his phone rang. Jason looked at the number; it was Tim. He smiled and answered the phone. “Hello Tim, how are you keeping?”

Tim explained what had just happened to them and how they needed sanctuary until his home was rebuilt.

Jason reassured Tim that he would have someone come and pick them up within the next couple of hours and said good-bye.

After he hung up the phone, he pushed the speed dial button for Jade, his private assistant.

Jade answered the phone and Jason explained what had just happened to Tim’s home and that he needed someone to go and pick up the four of them and bring them back here ASAP. Jade told him that she would ring Dominick, as he is in the city hunting tonight.

Jason said, “Thank you, and have the guest house by the bridge prepared for their arrival as well.”

Jade agreed and said, “We also need some sheep’s blood, as Tim is going to want a cup of tea when he gets here” Jade just laughed and said, “That man has some weird tastes,” and then hung up the phone. He leant back in his driving seat and sighed, then chose some light music on his car stereo system as he joined the traffic heading north along Lake Michigan.