Enter the Hunter
#8 of My Dark Lover
High above the bustling city, above the roaring cars, the crowded masses, atop the highest sky scrapers, a battle between monster and monster hunter was coming to violent end. A man, a human man, rarely seen in the world anymore, stood over a broken and bleeding canine. The canine snarled at him, baring large vampiric fangs at his nemeses.
"You can't kill us all Slayer," he snarled at the man, clocked in a deep brown overcoat and matching brimmed hat, a perfectly white feather sticking out of the right side. He wore matching pants and heavy, steel toed boots, black as the night, save for the steel incased toe which shown like silver stars. He reached into his pocket a tossed a small metal object onto the vampire. Instantly the snarling canine became a whimpering puppy, he begged pathetically for his life but his cries for mercy fell on deaf ears. In a single, lightening fast motion the man lifted his hand and brought it down on the vampire's throat. When he withdrew his hand a single, thin, silver blade extended six inches from his flattened palm. With a motion of his wrist the blade retreated into the confines of his sleeve. As the vampire dissolved into ash and bone, the hunter sneered at him.
"Sorry, all out of mercy." With a whirl and whoosh of his coat he spun on his heels and walked toward the edge of the roof. Without so much as a look down the 50 stories he walked off the edge and plummeted toward the earth. At the last possible second he reached out with a steel clad fist and latched onto the side of the building, slowing his momentum with an ear splitting screech, the steel clawed glove sending out showers of sparks as it tore down the side of the building. When his feet touched the ground, he pried his hand from the building and walked into the shadows of the night, leaving a thirty foot gash in the side of the building.
Hours later the door to an old, rundown, dark apartment swung open and the hunter strode in. The apartment was tiny, only one room, with only a bed. The light was out, and alls the better, because the walls were rotting, the carpet was a mess, and what used to be the kitchen was almost literally falling apart. The room had been a drug lab not too long ago, and still bore the stink of noxious chemicals. On the bed sat a brown bat, completely naked as the day she was born.
"I take it you killed him?" She inquired in a seductive feminine voice. The hunter gave a half nod and removed his hat, his long jet black hair cascading down his shoulders. "Did he tell you anything?" she asked again, this time the hunter shook his head and slid his coat off. Both his hat and coat hung from a coat rack, the only other piece of furniture in the room. With his black shirt, pants, and shoes still on he walked over to the bed and laid down on it. Despite the fact she was completely naked, and made no attempt to cover herself, he hardly gave her second glance, to which she huffed rather hurtfully.
"Dietrich....what's the point of having a woman in your bed if you don't use her?" She ask in an irritated voice. Dietrich only rolled onto his side, facing the wall away from her. "D, damn you, you're always like this after a hunt, talk to me damn it."
"Why should I, Mari?," he answered in a cold, deep voice. "What can I tell you, you don't already know?" She huffed and flushed a deep scarlet, turning her back to him and crossing her arms in front of her. He said nothing and focused on trying to sleep, though sleep did not come without a fight, like always. And like always his dreams were haunted by the faces and the screams of the ones he fought and killed, as well as the innocents he failed to. The face of one woman in particular haunted his dreams, a single mother who had been seduced by a vampire. He remembered how good it felt watching that monster die, slowly.
As he tossed and turned in his troubled slumber, Mari lay there with him, trying her best to give him comfort, her arms around his shoulders. Despite his coldness, his emotionless attitude she had prayed that maybe there was something between them, though she doubted it.
When the sun rose Mari awoke to find Dietrich already awake, he was staring out the window with his cell to his ear.
"Yeah, uh huh, sure, understood sir." He flipped the phone shut and placed it in his coat. "We have a new job, pack your things." Mari rolled out of bed and dressed herself in similar attire as Dietrich, then looked up at him.
"And Just where are we going?"
"Japan."
Dietrich stood on the roof of a school, looking down at his target. Not a vampire from the look of her, but she reeked of undeath, he could smell it all the way from his lofty perch. She was a dragon, blue scales and long white hair, she wore a typical girls uniform with a white blouse and pleated skirt. Her hair was shoulder length and her eyes were greener then the sea. Although she hid them well, to Dietrich's sharp eyes the two small puncture holes may have been craters on the moon. There was no doubt she had come into contact with one, though not even Dietrich could guess the circumstances. He did know that she would lead him to his true target soon enough. He whirled on his heel and dropped off the school with a whoosh of his coat, his steel soled boots hitting the dirt with a loud thud. He strode toward Mari with a grin on his face, a very rare occurrence. When Mari saw this she was in a state of shock.
"Dietrich, I have not seen you smile since we cleansed that Coven in Saltsburg." She said with an amused smile on her muzzle.
"It is a good day," he replied, "Our time grows close....be ready, we move at nightfall." She placed her hand on her heart and bowed. They both walked off the wait for the day to ebb on, and for their little friend to lead them to their true prey.
The day dragged on with Alex's eyes glued to the clock, Delilah was coming over again after school to study and she had to let Paul know that he was going to have to wait tonight. It had also been a long time since she had had Delilah over, the last time resulting in some of the best sex of her life, and she was exited to see what might happen tonight. When the bell did ring she let out a sigh and stood, waiting for Delilah at the door before heading home together. They strolled down the street, arm in arm, giggling to one another of this boy and that girl and all the other usual gossip. Alex had to admit it was nice to be normal again, even if she really wasn't.
Alex had had a chance encounter with a strange and dark creature one night about three months ago. She had been sleeping soundly in her bed when a dark shadow with bloody red eyes crept out of the corner of her room. It was very weak, sounding as though near death. It had begged for sustenance in the form of her living blood, and for some reason, on she still did not understand why, she had allowed it to do so. She could remember the sharp pain of it's fangs as they slid through her iron hard scales like butter, and then the unbelievable pleasure that came with its feeding. At that point in her life it was the most intense and powerful thing she had ever felt. The feeling was only to be outdone when it, or rather he, had turned out to be the most beautiful man she had ever seen. She took him as her lover the night fallowing, or maybe allowed him to take her, and had been his body and soul since.
The thing that startled her more was that he had been there, in her home the day fallowing. She was sure she had dreamed it all but there he was, sitting drinking a glass of blood in her dinning room. She had made a fool of herself that morning, though he thought it very amusing and had opened what remained of his shattered heart to her. He had taken the form of a student her age so as to blend in with her at school, though that plan proved tragic when several gang members tried to take her from him by force and were murdered brutally before her eyes. She had fled in terror from him, and he from her, leaving for many weeks before returning to her waiting arms.
Paul had started living with Alex roughly a month ago, at least as a student. That passed mouth had been the best of her life. She was able to fall asleep in his arms every night, on the weekends when her parents were out it meant none stop lovemaking between the two of them. Alex had proved to be a near insatiable lover on more then one occasion, often times going for four or more hours on end. At times like that Paul praised whatever deity was up there that he was not human or there would be no way he could satisfy her.
What pleased them both the most about their relationship was how in love they really were. It was more then just sex to them, sure there were nights and days where neither slept. But there were also the weeks at a time they would go without, not needing it. They would spend a quite evening home alone with each other, knowing that it was all they really needed to be happy.
The two giggling girls strolled into the house, Delilah heading for the living room and Alex heading for the attic to let Paul know they had company. When she found him in the dimly lit room he looked agitated and unnerved about something. She gave him a quizzical look and as Paul looked back he put on a mask of excitement and happiness so perfect that Alex found herself wondering if what she had seen on his face mere seconds ago was real or if she had imagined it. Paul embraced her in a warm, or really rather cold, hug and kissed her lips, admittedly half heartedly.
"Ok big guy, spill, what's wrong?" She asked in an almost motherly tone.
"My dear what ever do you mean?" He replied feigning innocents.
"You know what I mean, there is something on your mind and I want to know what." Her tone was matter of factual, her arms crossed in front of her chest. Paul continued to act as though there were nothing wrong and the two went back and fourth in this matter for a full 10 minutes before Alex gave up, saying, "Delilah is over, she's downstairs in the living room." Paul nodded and gave her a smile, gesturing to an empty cabinet
"I need to refill my stock tonight, so I will need all my time to prepare, you two go and have some fun tonight." Alex gave a huff and returned to her friend downstairs.
"I don't see any signs of a vampire here," came Mari's voice from the shadows of a cherry tree around the corner from Alex's home. "I mean, there are no bats or wolves, no familiars of any kind, no mist, none of the tell tail signs of a vampire." Her face was contorted in frustration, partly because there was no real evidence a vampire lived in the quaint domicile but mostly because she had been standing there with Dietrich all day and wanted to go shopping.
"Oh he's here, I can smell it, he's definitely in there," Came Dietrich's low, cold voice. "And from the feel of it, he is pretty powerful too, and old." The sun had just set behind the horizon and the street lamps were winking on. "Wont be long now," he said in a voice so low his companion, gifted in hearing as she was, could not hear him clearly. He pulled an ivory pipe from the depths of his coat, along with tobacco leaves and a match book. He placed the leaves in the pipe and tapped it down with his finger. He then tore a match and struck it on the rough surface on the back of the book. A flame burst to life, only to be snuffed out moments later as Dietrich ignited the leaves and sucked in the smoke from the mouth peace of the pipe. After waving out the match, he tossed it away.
Content with his pipe he leaned heavily against a cement retaining wall and continued to watch the house for movement. The girls he had seen enter earlier had left a short while ago, yammering about some movie that had just come out. They wouldn't be a problem, even if they got back before his prey left for the night. Dietrich's eyes caught fire as the second story window opened and a dark figure leapt out, using the roof tops to traverse the city. Dietrich gave a wide grin and turned around, holding the pipe with his right hand as he walked.
"Come Mari, we are done here." A confused looking Mari followed behind him. She just didn't get it, why had Dietrich waited all this time just to see his target leave? Why not engage him now and be done with it so they could move on to a new target. She never could understand this man's mind, he was so meticulous and precise about all his movements, never moving forward before he was sure he knew where he was, what he was after, and how is target acted. He would spend days learning everything about his prey before taking it down. She supposed it had served him well but she was more of the "Guns ablaze," approach. But, seeing as he was master here and she just a pupil she would have to go along with his plans, however boring they may be.
So with a heavy sigh and much mumbling she fallowed after Dietrich, offering several suggestions on what they should do for dinner, Dietrich said nothing, there was only one thing on his mind at the moment, and that was that he was right.
"All too easy."