The Tale of Two Killers, page 3
Chapter IV
Is There a Difference Between Obsession and Curiosity?
The first training days were always the longest, and by the time the day’s end came around, each of the trainees were sore and exhausted. Before relieving them for the night, Hamilton reminded them that in combat, there was never any time to be sore and whine about being tired. When the boys were gone, Hamilton crossed the campus back to his room for a shower. He stood beneath the water, letting his slight yet lean body rinse away the sweat he’d picked up during the day.
Running his fingers through his lathered blond tresses, Hamilton closed his eyes to not get any soap in them. In the darkness he saw a spec of color, the outline of a person…and he knew exactly who it was. It wasn’t a person at all, it was a vampire…he was a vampire, and Hamilton just couldn’t get the immortal out of his mind. Ever since hallucinating the vampire in his bedroom the night before, Hamilton couldn’t seem to shake him.
With his eyes still closed, he let the vampire linger in his mind a moment longer before getting out of the shower. He dried off and got dressed into black high-waisted jeans, a white tucked in blouse, and a long sleeved, red open sweater. As he sat in front of the television tying his hair into a ponytail, Hamilton knew very well what he was considering doing was a stupid thing. If he went through with this, there was no telling if it’d all turn sour, and he’d have to defend himself, but this vampire, whoever he was, he was eating at Hamilton’s thoughts, so much that during teaching his students to wield the chain and sickle, he’d come so close to taking his own head clean off.
The key to that vampire was the one who’d taken commands from him: Dominick von Kraige. If Hamilton could find out anything about him, his next stop would be the other. Honestly, Hamilton didn’t know what was going to come out of him meeting face to face with this immortal, but if there was a chance a form of contact would erase him from the slayer’s thoughts, Hamilton was going to take it.
After lacing up a pair of black boots, Hamilton was gone.
He drove into the city to the Council library where information on a great number of vampires was held. If he could locate Dominick’s name in their documentation, he’d be able to find out the name of his creator. It was typical for the Public to have many records on the vampires that lived within the country. Such information was merely for tracking purposes. Regardless of vampires and slayers being natural enemies, it was highly restricted that immortals be hunted simply for being immortals. Only when a crime against human life was committed would the Public step in to track and end said offender.
Hamilton dwelled on how kind that vampire had been when he entered the picture. Never had Hamilton ever experienced anything other than combat and death when contact with a vampire was made. When he was younger, he’d been raised by his teacher the way no slayer ever had before him. In the Public, most slayers originated from families torn apart by immortals. Every slayer Hamilton knew besides himself and another had been wronged in some manner by vampires, and that usually, if not always, involved losing a loved one to death. His own past instructor had apparently lost his entire family, wife and children, to a hungry pack of vampires, but Hamilton, he didn’t know what it was to lose someone with familial ties.
He’d been alone from the very beginning.
Not that he wasn’t aware that vampires could be spiteful, dangerous creatures, but he never had reason to take vengeance against them. He’d been raised into this life, brought to take down any and every immortal to ever cross his path, and, just like a stoic, lifeless being, he performed these killings nearly every night without even the slightest thought.
That vampire from the night before, his gentle nature and kindness had been able to strike a moment of hesitation in Hamilton. With his devastatingly charming looks and soothing tone, Hamilton hadn’t once put a thought into breaking stance and going for the kill he’d intended with the other. A piece of him could still feel the caress of the vampire’s fingers after handing back his scarf.
“In your world, Hamilton, I do not exist.”
What did that mean? Why had he recognized him off the bat?
Hamilton knew his name was well-known in the immortal world for obvious reasons, but his face was usually a mystery. The only vampires that ever saw his face long enough to remember his likeness, were those whose lives ended shortly after.
***
Parked outside of the Council Library, Hamilton sat back behind the steering wheel and glimpsed himself in the rear-view mirror. “What in the Queen’s name am I doing?” he said. “This is so foolish.” But even with the self-questioning, nothing stopped Hamilton from entering the library and into the hidden chambers that lay within it.
No one knew he was here right now, and he wanted to keep it that way. Moving down the shadowy stone halls, he followed arrow plaques on the walls that directed to the Record Chamber. When he heard voices coming from around a corner up ahead, he dipped into a small room for combat uniforms. He waited behind the door, lips pursed as if it would help quiet his breathing. Once the footsteps crossed and were long gone, Hamilton hurried out of the room and down the twists and turns that made up the underground workings of this place.
Finally, Hamilton reached the record room and listened inside before entering. He shut the door quietly in his wake and looked about. Tall bookshelves were lined like domino about the room, all stacked with books, folders and drawers holding extra documents. He turned on the ceiling lights and inspected the shelves, looking for the alphabetical arrangements. Dominick von Kraige. He would be in the K’s.
Hamilton searched the many shelves for the designated section. There were tons of vampires on file in the ‘K’ department, and when Hamilton spotted ‘Kraige’, he slipped the file from its placement. “Ah-ha,” he whispered, “There you are.”
Opening the file, Hamilton was faced with a blurry black and white photograph of the vampire. Dominick looked the same as he had the night before, thick dark hair, young handsomeness, and the cocky glint in his eyes seemed to express itself without him even noticing. Within the file, Hamilton learned of Dominick’s heritage, homeland, where he resided now, and even the fact that he was the leader of a coven just out of the city. This vampire was a bit of an authority figure to his kind, but Hamilton wasn’t interested in that. What he’d truly been in search of was the inscription of his creator’s name, but no name was written down anywhere.
“Bollocks!” Hamilton swore. “Who are you?”
Returning Dominick’s file to where it belonged, Hamilton sighed, and turned his back to leave. How on earth was he going to find out anything about this vampire if his total existence was a mystery? Maybe that’s the way it should stay, he considered, but he still couldn’t get the need to know out of his system. What made him so special that his existence was kept from anyone’s knowledge?
After leaving the underground passageways and the library all together, Hamilton stood outside the building, contemplating what he’d do next. Something in his gut was telling him to leave all of this behind and just go back home, but another part told him to push forward, and it wasn’t hard to guess which one would win him over in the end.
Giving a polite smile to a family that crossed his path, Hamilton headed back to his car and dropped into the driver’s side. He started the engine and waited behind the steering wheel for a moment, trying relentlessly to talk himself out of what he planned to do next. He was going to Dominick’s coven.
“You’re an idiot, Hamilton,” he said, “A complete and utter idiot.”
With Dominick’s address in his mind, Hamilton drove towards it, out of the city and to a more rural part of the area. There were green pastures for several kilometers, and once ten to fifteen minutes passed, he pulled up in front of a palace-like mansion that looked as though it’d been built in the 1400s. Clearly it was modernized by the lights glowing from the windows. There was a driveway that led into an iron gate securing the grounds, a call button beside a keypad and a screen to show a visual of potential visitors.
Though it was cold and snowy on this night, and Hamilton should very much reconsider the actions he was taking, he rolled down the window of his car and pushed the call button on the keypad. The screen flickered on and the grainy image of a white-haired girl with dark skin popped up. She glared at Hamilton through the security camera. “Who the hell are you?” she spoke through a microphone, her accent heavily French.
Hamilton at least thought it wise not to introduce himself by name, and replied with, “I’m here to see Dominick.”
She peered closer at him, a tasteful smirk coming to her lips then. “You’re very pretty,” she admitted. “Dominick’s always got good taste in his preferences. But, alas, name or no entry.”
“Haven,” he said, using his middle name only, “My name is Haven.”
The girl seemed to ponder on the name before pushing a button and giving Hamilton access to the grounds. He continued up the drive and parked in front of the door. Before getting out of the car, he unstrapped his stake holster and left it under the passenger seat. There was no doubt that if he was discovered with it, every vampire in the mansion would come down on his head. On this night, he wanted to keep the peace.
He approached the front door then, and it was immediately opened by a pair of blond-haired, petite and fair-skinned twins. They were boys and looked no older than twenty-one, with golden eyes and their fangs on full display. They licked hungrily in Hamilton’s direction and welcomed him inside. “You’re a pretty one,” the twin on his left breathed into Hamilton’s ear as he stepped through the door.
The twins hooked Hamilton’s arms behind his back and led him further into the old classic house. He laid his eyes on countless other vampires as he was taken down hallway after hallway. There had to be more than two or three dozen in the whole place, some dressed in regular clothing, while most took more towards the Gothic appearance. They all stared as Hamilton passed, not seeming surprised that a human was there for their leader.
Descending a flight of steps to a basement area, Hamilton was thrust through the doorway. This place was anything but what an ordinary basement appeared to be. It was decorated with expensive furnishings, antique sets making up a parlor room with an attached sleeping area. It was much like a single, large studio apartment.
Seated on a black and gray sofa was Dominick dressed in black slacks and a dark cotton button down, and between his long legs on the floor was a slender, naked human boy with a head of brunette hair, hands pleasing himself as Dominick dragged a hand down the center of the boy’s bare chest. The vampire’s mouth was pressed to the boy’s neck, blood spilling into his mouth as he fed.
Hamilton’s whole body stiffened at the sight of a human willingly and pleasurably giving up his own blood for the sake and hunger of an immortal. He was shoved then, stumbling and fell to his knees on the Persian rug.
“Lord Dominick,” the twins said together, “You have an unannounced visitor. Seconds, we’ll assume?”
Without taking his attention from the boy in his grasp, Dominick waved toward the armchair across from him and the twins commanded Hamilton to it and left the room. An uncomfortable knot formed in Hamilton’s throat as the vampire continued with his meal, trying to focus on anything in the room other than the sounds coming from the human boy, and the fact that being fed on was a sexual stimulation for him. Hamilton’s face flushed with each eager and voluminous moan that sounded through the room, the catches in the human boy’s breath, and he pursed his lips together with a hand over his eyes the moment Dominick’s whispered voice said, “Cum for me.”
At the sound of the boy’s shaking and lamenting climax, Hamilton waited to hear him get up and leave next before looking toward Dominick again.
The vampire sat back comfortably on the sofa now, clearing the blood on his lips with a simple run of his tongue. He looked so full of himself, cocky, as if it were a right for him to carry himself the way he did. After running a hand back through the dark locks of his wavy hair, he crossed his arms over his half-bared chest due to the few buttons closing the black material. “You must have some huge balls to come walking into my coven like this, Hamilton,” was Dominick’s response to seeing the slayer. “What the fuck do you want?”
Hamilton sat with his hands pressed between his knees, and when he opened his mouth to speak, Dominick cut him off. “Choose your words wisely or you won’t be leaving this house with your life intact.” the vampire said.
“I wanted…” Hamilton started over again, “I came to ask of the vampire who accompanied you the other night.”
Dominick snarled at the slayer—the territorial annoyance bright in his narrowed eyes. “You think I’m just going to let you get your murderous hands on my father? I will take back my first comment. You’re just a bloody idiot.”
“I called myself such,” Hamilton admitted, “But I don’t plan to harm him. My only wish is to—.”
“My father doesn’t do humans, Hamilton. He doesn’t feed from them, nor does he like to fuck them, so there is no reason for you to try and become his number one fan. You have no business with him for anything.”
Hamilton furrowed his brow, “You’re sure he wouldn’t even share a few words with me?”
Dominick growled and it rumbled deep in his throat. “No,” he claimed.
“I want to hear the words from his mouth.”
Out of anger, Dominick stood rapidly from his seat, the movement so fast that Hamilton found threat in it. He flipped backwards off the armchair, standing ready for anything behind it. “Just because he spared your life the last time doesn’t mean he’ll do it again,” Dominick warned. “If he finds out some infamous slayer is trying to get close to him for a kill, he’ll tear you inside out, and I will happily watch him dispose of you.”
“I don’t believe you,” Hamilton countered. “I don’t think he’s as vicious as you make him out to be.”
“Oh, yeah?” Dominick grinned. “Then I’ll take you to him and you can discover him for yourself.”
Chapter V
An Introduction to the Vampire
Dominick hadn’t been very kind when escorting Hamilton back through the manor. He’d shoved the human up the stairs and through the halls, all the while being watched intently by the other vampires inhabiting the large home. Hamilton thought he was going to be led outside into the cold, but instead, Dominick turned him to a stairwell leading to the upper levels of the manor. Hamilton caught himself when he tripped on the top step of the third floor, and Dominick closed a tight grasp around is arm, directing him down a hallway that stopped at a lofty set of double doors.
Throwing the doors open without even touching them, Dominick pushed Hamilton inside. The room was much like the fancy studio in the basement but this one looked more like a home with a business office attached to it. Dominick’s creator was standing across the room with another woman, and when Hamilton laid eyes on the man, the breathlessness that had filled him before returned.
The vampire was dressed in dark trousers and a black blouse with white ironed cuffs. His mane of hair was down and swooped out of his face, and his posture changed when his eyes met Hamilton’s. He uncrossed his arms and seemed to loosen up, drifting from his conversation with the woman before him. With a wave of his hand, he said, “Leave us,” and the woman immediately exited the room.
When the room doors were closed, Dominick said, “Father, this slayer thinks it was a good idea to invade my home.”
“Dominick,” the vampire spoke, his voice settled and cool, “You leave us as well.”
“But, father!”
“Now.”
Without further command, Dominick glared warningly at Hamilton and got directly in his face. He steamed with anger, and said, “If I sense even the slightest disturbance in him, I will return faster than you can count your blessings and tear you from this fucking world!” Then Dominick left the room as well, the doors closing themselves behind him.
The moment Hamilton found himself completely alone with this vampire, everything he thought to say before flew out of his mind. His mouth dried and his thoughts went blank.
Seeing this, the vampire gestured to the sitting area, and said, “Please, take a seat. Make yourself at home.”
Hamilton resisted at first but then found a spot on the sofa across from a lit fireplace. The crackling firewood evened out the room’s silence, but it did not break the obvious strain filling the air.
Strolling across the room in an unruffled stride, the vampire looked back at the slayer and said, “Would you like a drink? It is not often that I get mortal visitors, but I like to keep human necessities if ever the occasion comes around.”
Hamilton much liked the manner in which the vampire spoke. There were no traces of animosity in his tone, nor did he sound distressed by the unannounced coming of a human, and not just any human, but a slayer wielding a prevalent title. “A water,” Hamilton spoke up finally, trying not to sound as anxious as he was. “A water would be nice.”
The vampire stepped into a small kitchen area in the room and took two glasses from a tall cabinet. After filling one with water from a pitcher, he grabbed something else from the fridge. It was a sack of blood that looked as if it’d come from a hospital. When he sliced it open, he poured the thick red contents into his own glass, walked the drinks into the sitting area and handed Hamilton the water.
Accepting the beverage, Hamilton stared at the immortal’s drink, but before he could muster a comment on behalf of it, the vampire said, “Don’t worry yourself. It is donated blood.”
Swigging back a bit of his water, Hamilton asked, “Your son, he says you don’t feed from humans. Where do you get the blood?”
Taking a seat of his own in a black and red antique barrel armchair, the vampire met Hamilton’s nervous eyes. “Now, I am sure you did not risk your life invading this territory to ask such tedious questions. What is it, Hamilton, that you came looking for? Answers to questions even you are unsure of? Or, perhaps you came looking for my head.”
