Vampire, Hunter

by Maria Arnt

  Seth took a right turn ahead of them, and when his stalker reached the corner, he put his back to it. Tanya fought the urge to duck; her concealment was adequate as long as she held still and she wanted to get a look at his face. Almost as if he were answering her request, he glanced back down the alley.

  Tanya froze. “Detective Shiro?” It can’t be...

  Shiro turned, hand on his holster. “Who’s there?”

  Tanya stepped into the light, surprised he hadn’t announced himself as Chicago PD.

  “Tanya, is that you?” He seemed to relax.

  “Yeah. What are you doing here?” She stopped a few feet from him, the light behind her so he couldn’t get a good look at her face and notice the difference.

  Shiro glanced around the corner Seth had gone down and blew out a breath as if he’d been holding it. “Thank god I caught you alone. We need to talk.”

  28

  “Okay... why didn’t you just call me?” Tanya crossed her arms and scowled at Shiro.

  “I needed to make sure he wasn’t around.” He jerked his head back towards the turn Seth had taken. “Listen, Tanya, I’ve been doing some digging on ‘Dr. Walker’ and you’ve gotta come with me back to the station, or somewhere—somewhere safe. I know you told Bradley he was clean but I think he’s not. I don’t know what his game is, but it can’t be good.” He continued to rattle on about clues and papers, without letting Tanya get a word in edgewise.

  Finally, she grabbed his shoulder to make him stop. “Shiro, what are you trying to say?” She had a sinking feeling in her gut that she knew the answer, though.

  “Dr. Seth Walker is a vampire, I’m sure of it,” he said firmly.

  Well shit. What could she say? Yes, and so am I, in fact, I just got done sucking the lifeblood out of some poor unsuspecting teenager! “Um, Shiro, who else have you shared this... suspicion with?”

  “Just Bradley, but I don’t think he buys it yet. But we gotta get you out. Vampire or not, he’s dangerous, Tanya.” He fumbled for her hand in the dark, as if to lead her away immediately, and she backed out of his reach.

  “Is that so?” Seth’s voice, amused, came from behind Tanya.

  Tanya had just enough time to realize that Seth had gone around the block, and to wonder why he had been so stupid as to show himself, before Shiro pulled his pistol from the holster and leveled it at Seth.

  There was no time to think. No time to shout, “Shiro, no!”

  Only just enough time to step into the space between Seth and Shiro’s pistol.

  The noise was incredible. Tanya had fired a gun before, her dad had taught her as soon as she decided to hunt vampires. Only later did she discover they were mostly useless in that endeavor. But she had always worn protection for her ears, and she hadn’t been blessed with superior hearing yet.

  It was so loud that at first, she didn’t notice the burning in her shoulder. Instead, she felt as though someone had shoved her, although not very hard.

  But as soon as the explosion shrank to a ringing in her ears, the reality of what had happened struck her full force.

  “Tanya, oh god!” Shiro shoved the gun back in his holster as Tanya doubled over in pain. He reached out for her, but Seth got there first, helping her to sit on the cold, wet gravel.

  “She moved so fast, I—I didn’t see!” Shiro stuttered.

  Seth ignored him, pulling open Tanya’s coat to examine the wound. He turned her so he could see her back and cursed.

  “Tatiana, listen to my voice,” he said, and the force of his command cut through her pain.

  Somehow, she managed to look him in the eye.

  “The bullet is still in your shoulder,” he explained calmly. “I need to remove it before the wound closes up. Do not scream, and do not fight me.”

  She nodded and then threw her head back as his finger delved into the gushing wound. Her breath hissed through her teeth, but Seth’s command held her otherwise motionless and silent.

  “I don’t understand,” she heard Shiro say distantly. “It’s a .45, it should have gone clean through her.... I’ll call an ambulance,” he scrambled for his cell phone.

  “Don’t,” Seth growled. At last, he pulled his fingers from Tanya’s flesh and pocketed the bullet.

  Tanya opened her eyes and pulled in a deep draught of the cold night air. Shiro was standing above them, and she watched his face as she felt her shoulder knitting itself back together, the sensation like barbed wire crawling under her skin. His expression reflected the horror of seeing the wound close in seconds.

  “No...” Shiro breathed.

  “Shiro, listen,” Tanya croaked, her throat burning, “it’s okay, listen, I can explain, “ she insisted, but he started to back away, shaking his head.

  Seth stood, wiping Tanya’s blood off his hands with a handkerchief. “She’s right,” he said confidently, and put a hand on Shiro’s shoulder. “There is a very simple explanation.”

  The young detective tore his gaze away from Tanya to look him in the eyes. He seemed to find something curious there, and a quizzical frown barely formed before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed.

  There was a long pause, interrupted only by the sounds of the city around them. The pain in Tanya’s shoulder ground down to a burning ache, and she managed to catch her breath before moving to stand.

  “Are you alright?” Seth helped her up, and he seemed oddly out of breath.

  “Considering I just got shot? Yeah. But son of a bitch, that hurt.” She fingered the newly-grown skin gently and looked down at Shiro. “That’s a neat trick. How long until he wakes up?”

  When he didn’t answer for several moments, she turned to look at Seth. He was still breathing hard, and watched her with a careful, guarded expression. “Tatiana, he’s not going to wake up,” he said slowly.

  Tanya glanced down at the crumpled figure, back to Seth, and then down again. She darted forward, turning him over. “What did you do?” Shiro’s eyes were still open, and she could hear no trace of a heartbeat. “What did you do?!” she turned back to demand.

  Seth swallowed. “I took his ka.”

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Hot tears spilled down her cheeks. “He was my friend!” She sat hard on the gravel, pulling the body into her lap possessively.

  “He was, at best, your ally,” he retorted sharply. “That changed the moment he knew the truth.”

  “You don’t know that! You can’t know that! You had no right!” she sobbed.

  “I had every right!” he shouted. “He was a threat to the both of us, and a thorn in my side these last three months! I should have killed him when he first came sniffing around, digging where he wasn’t wanted like a stray dog!”

  “You’re a monster!” she screamed through her tears. How could she have ever thought differently? How could she have let herself be fooled into thinking that she liked him, maybe even felt something for him? He was everything she hated, everything she had devoted her life to killing. “You sick bastard!” She pulled Shiro’s body tightly against her so she didn’t have to see his open eyes, staring at her. Demanding why she hadn’t saved him. Just like Jake.

  Seth let out an exasperated sigh and held out a hand. “Come away from there.” He sounded like an annoyed parent scolding a toddler.

  “No! Don’t touch me!” She pulled away from his outstretched fingers.

  “Tatiana Cooper, put down the body and come away,” he growled.

  The force of his command was crushing. She’d never tried to fight it before and now found it impossible. Her arms pushed Shiro away. Her legs gathered beneath her, and she stood. Pulled like a marionette, she took three jerky steps toward him, resisting all the way.

  Anger blazed in his eyes at her defiance. “Why must you always make things so difficult?”

  “Because. I. Hate. You,” she ground out through clenched teeth. It was too much, fighting his control after being shot and losing Shiro. Before her legs took one more traitorous step, the worl
d spun about her, and she fell into darkness.

  29

  Seth stared into the fireplace in his study and contemplated the inferno raging within him. A day’s rest had done nothing to calm him. He was surprised he had been able to sleep, but the strain and exhaustion had temporarily outweighed his ire.

  Now he sifted through the sands of his memory, trying to remember the last time he had been this angry. His very earliest recollections, the all-consuming rage at finding himself trapped in this form, made his current anger seem a minor annoyance in comparison. But surely, at some point in the five thousand years since, he had been angrier than this.

  He couldn’t remember.

  Most of the disappointments in his long life had been of two kinds: either they were tragedies over which he had no control, or there was someone responsible who could be killed.

  He could not control Tatiana, beyond his ghastly puppeteering. He did not want to control her, not really. He would have much preferred that she simply comply of her own volition. Nor could he kill the person responsible—the thought alone was enough to cool his anger.

  Seth had waited so very long for Tatiana to appear. The impatience of the millennia had compounded, feeding his frustration that now, when she was finally here, she was not at all what he expected. His eyes lifted to the painting of Nephthys on the mantle, silently begging for understanding.

  Restless, he stood and poured another two fingers of whiskey into his glass. He gulped it down and poured another before returning to his chair by the fire. The drink did little to alter his mood, as it took an enormous amount of alcohol to affect any vampire. But it was an old habit, from another time, another life it seemed, and it comforted him. The dark liquid shone like amber in the crystal tumbler, almost hypnotic.

  If he were brutally honest with himself, it was partly his fault as well. He should have dealt with Detective Shiro before he became a problem. He should not have allowed Tatiana to be involved. He should not have pulled the ka directly from him, a feat he could only accomplish when very angry and which left him with a piercing headache, not unlike a migraine. As a result, he had said some rather unfortunate things to Tatiana.

  Dragging a hand down his face, he wondered if the damage he had done was irreparable. She had been warming to him, slowly. It was torture, waiting for her to fall in love with him, but it was certainly better than the alternative.

  Now, he had to face the very real possibility that she never would be his, not fully. It would be just like her to spitefully withhold her heart for the rest of eternity. After thousands of years of waiting, over two decades of protecting her from the shadows, and all the time and money he had invested in making sure everything was perfect for her, all of it was lost over such a simple ridiculous thing. The life of one human was nothing in the grander scheme of things. Why can’t she see that?

  He stood, restless, as his grip on his temper faltered once more. In a fit of rage, he hurled the tumbler, still half-full of whiskey, into the fire. The crystal shattered, and the fire roared as it consumed the alcohol.

  To hell with this, he decided. If Tatiana was going to hate him, so be it. There was still work to be done, and it could not wait for her to sulk in her room until she nearly starved to death. Again. And Beatrice would be no help in this, he knew. She would take Tanya’s side, and only encourage her.

  He stormed out of his study and up the stairs. This will not be pretty, but I am done with being a gentleman.

  Tanya sniffed, and Beatrice quickly produced another kleenex from the box. Tanya blew her nose, and then added the wadded tissue to the overflowing trash can. She had finished telling her about the events of the night before and was just about cried out. Beatrice, for her part, had simply listened, pale-faced and sympathetic.

  “I don’t know what to tell you,” she said sadly. “I’m afraid Master Seth has every reason to believe he was entitled to that man’s life, but he’s not.” She spoke quietly, as if afraid they would be overheard.

  There was a loud bang on the door, and Tanya nearly jumped out of her skin. She hadn’t expected him to bother her so soon, she’d only been awake about an hour. In the past, he’d waited two or three before hesitantly intruding on her privacy.

  Since there was no point in answering him, she didn’t. She gave a terrified Beatrice a dark look and turned her back to the door. Beatrice was frozen, except for her eyes, which looked from her to the door and back repeatedly.

  After a few minutes, the knock was repeated. She had to suppress a vicious laugh—he knew they were in there, and knew she heard it the first time. What exactly did he think a second try was going to get him?

  “Tatiana, open the door this instant,” he growled through the door.

  What? Arm not working? she taunted silently. It wasn’t like the door was locked, although she had jammed her vanity chair up under the knob again once Beatrice had come in, mostly for her own peace of mind. She knew he wouldn’t open the door without her permission. He had some kind of twisted code of conduct, where killing innocent people and turning her into a vampire against her will was perfectly okay, but entering a lady’s bedroom without permission was absolute taboo. She rolled her eyes just thinking about it.

  They both jumped again when the doorknob turned and was pulled against the chair. She couldn’t believe he’d actually tried it! She turned and watched the door, trying to plan her next move. Beatrice pulled her legs up tight, curling into a fetal position.

  Seth tried it again, rattling the handle against the fragile wood. “What is the meaning of this?”

  Before Tanya could come up with a witty response, or even decide if she was going to speak to him, he wrenched the door open, breaking the chair.

  “Hey!” She stood, and then froze. The look in his eyes was pure murder, and he was not bothering to mask his power either. Her room quickly filled with the buzz of it, heady and irritating at the same time. She eyed the broken chair, and glanced to the quaking form of Beatrice, debating if it would be dangerously stupid to cross him right now.

  She settled for a challenge, stepping in front of Beatrice to block her from his view. “What do you want?”

  “You’re late for training. Come downstairs and work with me.” It wasn’t a command, but it was certainly an order.

  “I’d rather die,” she spat.

  “That is, quite literally, not an option.” He seemed inordinately pleased with this. “But perhaps I could offer you the chance to kill me instead.”

  Tanya rolled her eyes. “I’m not falling for that again. There’s no way I could beat you, much less kill you, in a fair fight. I’m not in the mood to get you off on one of your power trips.”

  Beatrice gasped behind her, drawing their attention.

  “Beatrice, go back to your room,” Seth ordered calmly.

  “You don’t have to do what he says,” Tanya reminded her.

  Beatrice slowly uncurled her limbs, standing as close to the wall as she could. “I think...” she breathed, “that maybe I should, though.” She sidled uneasily towards the door, and Seth moved just enough to let her past.

  “Coward!” Tanya called after her.

  Once the door at the other end of the hall had closed, Seth pulled something from his pocket and tossed it to Tanya.

  She snatched it from the air without thinking, courtesy of her enhanced reflexes. It was a key ring with a small metal fob on it. It was heavy and cold, but it quickly warmed in her hand. “What is this?”

  “The key to the weapon lockers. Spar with me, and I’ll show you how to use it,” he promised.

  She closed her hand around the keyring. “No.”

  Her dash for the door was easily blocked by Seth, who caught her arm up behind her back.

  “To escape from this hold,” he recited calmly, “You’ll need to duck back under my arm.”

  Tanya lashed out with an elbow to his face, but missed. Growling in frustration, she followed his instructions and easily slipped out of his g
rasp. She had made it out onto the balcony, but Seth moved to block her way to the staircase.

  Eying the drop to the living room, she judged it was about ten feet. She’d made it just fine before.... She grabbed the railing and vaulted over, but Seth caught her around the waist before she could drop.

  “Let me go!” She thrashed, trying to free herself from his vise-like grip.

  He hauled her back over the railing and deposited her on the floor. “No. You won’t learn unless you do exactly as I tell you. The sooner you start listening, the sooner you can kill Johnny the Fox.”

  Tanya almost shouted go fuck yourself before the words he had spoken sunk in. This wasn’t just more of his control-freak bullshit, he was actually still trying to train her. She let her head fall back onto the balcony and stared at the recessed lights above her. Why the hell not? What else am I going to do?

  “Alright. You’re on. But I’m not pulling any punches,” she warned.

  He snorted delicately. “Have you ever?”

  She expected him to offer her a hand to get up, but instead he just stepped over her and made his way downstairs. It was just as well, she wouldn’t have taken it anyway. Tanya studied the metal key ring in her hand. It didn’t look like a key, it was shaped more like a tiny flashlight, but with a piece of darker metal instead of a lens. It was just shy of two inches long, and remarkably heavy for something so small.

  If her augmented memory served her right, there were no keyholes on the locked cabinet doors. They were flush with the wall like all the others, so where would you put a key? There was no way she could figure this out on her own, she realized, and resigned to jump through Seth’s hoops one more time. Pocketing the keyring, she reluctantly made her way downstairs, pausing to glare at Beatrice’s closed door. Some friend.