"I need to find one in particular."
"Who's that?"
"Picked up his name on the web after some intense people searching from his dead brother's coach, to his dead brother, and eventually to him. He goes by Yuri Nikov."
"Oh... I know Yuri. We go way back. His brother's dead?"
"He is. Do you? Where's his haunt?"
Tristram looked directly at Tset, "Don't do it man, Yuri's not a bitch like Suckerpunch McBleed outside."
Tset laughed, "Neither am I. Trust me. I'll handle shit. I've gotta get something off my chest to him, anyway, I just want to talk."
Tristram sighed, "I cave. But I get your shit if you die, so write down your address for me again. I got more silver in the back."
Hunted Vampire: First Act
Good-Bye, Ricky
Tset packed several mags of silver, his Commando safely tucked underneath his coat, both .45s on his ribs, his sawed-off a little bit less-than-well-concealed, but loaded with specially made splinter rounds - long silver barbs stuffed into a 12 gauge casing.
Tset, honestly, was nervous. Tristram said that Yuri was not a vampire to be toyed with.
He found it - Yuri's abode. A huge cathedral on the outskirts, the place looked dilapidated, but the doors swung on well-oiled hinges.
Tset swallowed and stepped into the sunlit arena.
"Vaammpiiiiire!" He called, loudly, his voice echoing through the great halls.
A shadow, just quick, but Tset had it fully framed. Yuri was above him.
"Yes?" The voice boomed from all over.
'Shit.' "I've come with a message, I just want to talk." Tset stalked forward, carefully, alert. One pistol gripped in both hands, nose down.
"Is that what all the silver is about, mortal?"
"Well, I don't know if your plan matches mine. Only an idiot walks into a vampire's den naked." Tset was watching the roof, watching its roccoco shadows.
"Maybe, maybe not. And it's a haunt. This is my haunt."
Tset had gotten it right earlier, "Very well. Fact stands, I need to talk with you. Come down." Tset slid the pistol away with a prayer.
The vampire came up, slipping out from behind a statue on the lower floor, "That would end me up in the basement." His smile was wicked.
Tset huffed, a cocky grin on his face. "I got you. You're in control. Okay." He crossed his arms.
The vampire laughed at this, laughed hard, his face was slightly flushed and his eyes blood red, his hair disheveled. "Answer me this, meat, can you help this ghoul with his foulest pondery?" Yuri was on the edge.
"Maybe that's just what I came here to do."
"Oh yes, make a guess, get it wrong, and I'll take a bite." The vampire was relishing the idea - biting and eating and chewing and his prey guessing and guessing and guessing and screaming until his life gave out. This intruder had no bloodsmell to him, and his inner fire was dark. A mere peon. What could he offer?
"Well, you're wrapped up by one individual, two..." Tset was beginning a speech of riddles, the vampire hanging for a mere second, then angering, his face darkening, not what Tset wanted.
"One, a mystery..." The vampire began approaching, Tset reached under his coat and scratched his back - actually more the grip to his Commando, "The other, lost..."
The vampire slowed, looking amusedly quizzical as Tset continued. Tset could feel the dead chill on it it was so close, but it seemed he'd gotten its attention with his idiotic platitude.
"The first, a slayer..."
"And?" The vampire asked, his fangs extending, this peon was a stupid peon. Packing heat, definitely, but slow. Like all prey.
Tset, on the other hand, was now becoming annoyed at the expression worn by these vampires: like he was food. He realized just how cathartic it would be to put a bullet in the back of this thing's throat.
Tset finished quick, he couldn't be forced to kill Yuri, not yet, he needed to exact his revenge first, "Well, of course, lost, is your brother." Yuri stopped. How had it known?
"The second, the slayer. You slew, but not the right one, you destroyed a life, two, but neither of them right."
The vampire angered, "If you know, TELL ME!" The last two words carried a powerful echo through the cathedral.
Tset was unmoved, "It's complicated, but I can bring you the orchestrator."
"Explain, simply."
"Someone trapped your brother, putting him in a ring with a slayer, dooming him to death. He was in a silver cage, there was no hope for him, only false hope."
The vampire gasped, he looked blue, somehow. "What? Trapped? Dishonored by pests? By cattle?"
Tset nodded. "And I've got a grudge with the guy who did it, but I can't get at him without hurting a friend."
"Ah, so I'm to be a tool for you?"
"N-"
"A tool for a human. For a cattle. For food. Never." The vampire looked blue still, but haughty, drawing himself up.
Tset's plan was failing, he grew frustrated, dumping his plan, angrily shouting, not caring the direction things took, "Well, fuck you then! Asshole. Who the fuck else took the time to walk out here and tell you who your brother's true killer was? You think Tyler did it? Your brother probably laughed and scorned your ignorance. Tyler doesn't have a fighting bone in his g'damn body!"
Tset made to leave, grumbling venom.
"Wait and be silent." There was a pause, and Tset's eyebrows went up to show impatience. "Arrange a meeting. If you are not double-crossing me, I won't draw your blood."
Tset was still put off, and felt like yelling that there wouldn't be any chance of him drawing blood unless Tset decided it or he got his hands on a red Crayola.
Instead he stated, "Tonight, I'm bringing a car by. Get in. No claws, no teeth, no silver. I'll take you to the guy and give him to you."
"Fool."
"What now?"
"I'm going to take the information from you."
"Alright, give me a damn second then, you officious prick."
Tset yanked off his coat, unstrapped his .45s, his carbine, his shotgun, dropping it all to the ground. He took a minute to unbutton his shirt, but soon that fell away, all in frustrated jerks.
He cracked his knuckles, silver-ringed, then stretched his neck, kicking his long be-denimmed, booted legs and stretching those, too. "You want to fuck with me? Fine. Do it. I've killed two of you demons and a third isn't gonna be much different."
"In hand to hand?" The vampire laughed.
"Yes, jackass."
The vampire stopped laughing, glowering instead. Then he rushed.
Two minutes later, Tset had Yuri in a headlock and was pounding his face in with vicious, bone-cracking blows.
He dropped Yuri, and kicked him with his non-silver boots. "You done yet? Huh?" Tset drove his heel down. "Huh?"
Yuri crawled on the ground like an insect. What had happened? He drew blood, he did not smell it.
His breath caught, was this the thing from the parking lot? He hadn't made out that demon, it was shadowed.
'The sunglasses.' His demon eyes were hidden from Yuri.
'The devious bastard!'
Yuri jumped up, blurring and rushing in on Tset. He fell back when Tset grabbed his face and drove it against his knee, his other leg came up from nowhere and smashed Yuri in the neck while the two remained airborne.
Tset finished by stomping him the lower back painfully to assist the assumption of a prone, defenseless, position.
Yuri could feel himself coming undone. He was bleeding from his non-silver wounds. Things were going to get bad for him if he didn't get a handle on it.
"Fine!" He shouted, six feet off the ground as Tset prepared a pile-driver, "Fine! I'll go to your little meeting!"
"Good." Tset did a surprising thing and let Yuri down easily, "Freshen up, I'll be by at 10PM to pick your ass up. It's a long drive, and any funny business will be met with more of the same." Tset spoke evenly despite his heaving chest.
Yuri noticed Tset had claw mark
s in triplicate across his abdomen, and that they bled little, quietly shrinking as the other dressed, strapped his gear together, and left.
At 12AM Tset showed up at The Pit in a black and white Crown Vic with no roof rack, but a mesh screen. There was another passenger in the back seat, but he did not leave the vehicle.
Tset got out, walking for the double doors. "Sorry Tset," Don said, "Tyler said no entry."
"Hi, Don. Sorry. Don't give a shit. I'm here to settle a score with someone. Don't make me break your hand."
Don laughed, "Well, in that case, gotta let a man through. But, er, Ricky, he told me to let him know if you came back. Is that fine with you?"
"Yeah, but, give me five, then radio him, don't say you're late. I wanna see this guy shit his pants for what he did."
"Wha'd'e do?"
"I'll tell you. Five minutes, alright?"
"'Ight."
Tset went inside. The fights were just getting started and no one was drunk enough, collectively, to start the hooting and stupidity, but there were cheers and jeers as a couple of lightweight punks exchanged slaps.
Tset walked down to a door set near the cage, going through, this was the office section of The Pit. Little hallways, bad lighting, lots of doors. Tset knew his destination.
When he got to Ricky's door he could just hear the walkie-talkie inside the office announcing his arrival. Tset tore the doorknob out and the door calmly swung open.
There was LockJaw, glaring at him, Ricky stood behind, with a loaded pistol, fiddling with it. He was sweaty, twitching and nervous.
LockJaw had a new jaw in. It was nastier-looking than his last one. "Nice to see you've been to the dentist, dipshit." There was no humor in the greeting.
LockJaw advanced, backing Tset out of Ricky's office. Tset allowed it.
LockJaw shook his head, and gargled, "No seeing Ricky. You, me, we fight now."
"No can do, meathead. I don't fight."
LockJaw pounded a fist into his palm, "You fight now, though." The pistons in his jaw clenched.
Tset had his .45 in hand and he emptied six hot rounds, throwing LockJaw against the jamb. The casings clattered and clinked and rolled away.
He stepped back into Ricky's office, carefully avoiding the ground, two-legged heap. "I don't know if you heard, but your idiot's dead."
Tset looked up and their eyes met for a moment.
Ricky shot Tset then.
Tset didn't react. The .22 round didn't even dint his cohesive body armor.
"I'm here to escort you off the premises. Easy or hard, Sicky Ricky?"
Ricky cocked the gun for another shot, ignoring the extreme proximity. The sweat was wicking off him.
"Hard." Tset said, putting Ricky in a harsh hold, twisting the gunhand up around his head, brutally jamming the barrel into Ricky's skull, bruising him, smashing his face against the corner of a filing cabinet, scoring his cheek through to the teeth.
Tset had a hand on Ricky's throat, partially closing his windpipe, otherwise, when Ricky's hand broke, Ricky would have screamed.
Tset shot Ricky's ear off with the .22. The ear hit the ceiling fan and then the wall.
"Now, Ricky," Tset said with undisguised disgust, "Come along peacefully, or I'll fuck up the rest of your face."
Ricky tried nodding. Tset got the picture, pulling his .45 again, turning Ricky around and gripping the inflated hand just hard enough to make Ricky yelp.
"Do that one again, and I'll pistol whip you." Ricky bit his lip and gritted his teeth in between croaking breaths.
Tset started Ricky down the hall, the muzzle of the .45 pressing between two lower vertebrae.
"Just what the fuck are you doing?"
It was Tyler.
"Whatever the fuck I feel like. I'll explain later."
"No, Tset, you can't kill Ricky."
"I'm not gonna. I fucked him up, and that's understandable. But I'm not murdering anyone."
"LockJaw here?"
Tset was turning the corner down the hall, he called back, "Self defense. Motherfucker had rabies."
Outside, the car was waiting, now pulled around into a secluded lot.
Ricky got nervous, "Who's in that car?"
Tset gave in and sighed, before drawing his pistol and smashing Ricky's mouth with its heavy butte.
Ricky, now on the ground, bucked when Tset's heel slammed solidly into his lower abdomen and rolled when he took another kick to his back.
When he'd slid to a stop, Tset pulled him standing by the collar and forced him along.
They made it to the car soon after, Ricky barely breathing around the cracked ribs.
Tset opened the door, "Yuri. I'd like you to meet Ricky, the executor of your brother's untimely fate.
"Ricky, this is Yuri. He knows everything, I told him on the way over."
Ricky's eyes widened, and the next morning there wasn't enough left of him to fill a Spam can.
A Reunion, A Reckoning
Tset went back inside. "Where's Ricky?" Was Tyler's first question.
"What, you guys hook up or something?"
Tyler clenched his jaw.
"Relax, I didn't kill him. God damn are you up tight."
"What did you do with him?"
"I stuffed him in a cruiser with a vampire he owed one." Tset was digging in his shirt pocket for a cigarette.
Tyler blanched, "You what?"
"I took Ricky, by his broken hand, which I had broken to make a convenient handle, and put him into a car with the brother of the vampire he had me fight all that time ago, the one I killed."
Tyler was appalled, "You are sick."
Tset got the stick to his lips, "Whatever. You know who gave the vampire your address?"
"What do you mean?
"Okay, you bashed me in the head with a tire iron for killing Jessica, later you find out that the killer was someone else, yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Good, the person who gave that address to the killer was Ricky. He sold you out instead of me. He wanted the vampire to kill you, probably. Didn't anticipate poor Jess falling into its snare."
Tyler fell back, hard, "Holy shit..." Tears welled in his eyes. Tset was just getting his smoke started.
Tset watched him for a time, while the grief built, "It's fine, man. Ricky's toast. Literally, butter-slathered and everything."
Then Tyler stood forward, his face red and wet, and made to run. Tset held him with one hand, not moving. "That motherfucking vampire killed her! It was him! He came for me 'cause Ricky said and then he killed HER! WHY NOT ME?"
Tyler broke down. He sobbed and slid down against a wall.
Tset sat down next to him, offering him a flask of whisky he kept in the pocket of his dress pants. "Drink this. It might not make you feel better, but it'll get you drunk."
Tyler raised the flask and lowered it shortly, empty.
"Any better?"
Tyler shook his head hard.
"Drunk?"
He shrugged, then broke down once more, "Man... my life is shit. All my fighters, they don't fight, they avoid me because I'm such a god damned wreck. I took you out with a frigging tire iron, Jess's dead... you know she was-"
"I knew, I could tell. It's pathetic, man. But my vendetta isn't over. I don't know if Yuri thinks he's clean, but if he does, he missed the boat by about... the Atlantic." Tset exhaled smoke, thinking cruel thoughts.
Tyler hugged Tset then, sniffling onto his body armor, "I'm so sorry dude... you're my last friend in the world."
"Hey." It was Don. "Remember me, dude."
Tyler looked up, "Both you guys. Let's go out for drinks, man, I need some company and some conversation, no more lonely nights, lonely sleepless nights."
Tset looked to Don, "You can handle the lonely bit, Don. I've got work to do."
Don eyed him, "Er, actually, we can go do that, the drinks, Tset, but, the fuck is happening in your car? It sounds like Ricky on helium being sodded to death by a Cuisinart."
&
nbsp; "Ricky is simply stating his case to a past acquaintance of ours. It'll probably go on for a few more hours, but, until then, who's driving? Drinks are on me and let's ditch this hole." He helped Tyler up, they left for a pub crawl.
By dawn they were all smashed. Tset put away ten shots to their one, but he wasn't feeling it like Tyler was. Tyler was "Dddrrruuuuunnnk!" As he'd explained to several passersby as they stumbled into the early morning light.
That night, though, they'd talked: Tset, Tyler and Don, and gotten to know each other. As much as Tset knew of himself he was quiet a lot, but they all, in the course of the night, became true friends, not drawn together by fate, hate and bloodshed, but just pals.
Don was going to move back to his hometown in Denmark, settle down and have some kids, living out the rest of his life owning his dad's contracting company. Tyler was going to get out of the circuit, take all his cash and his and Jessie's savings, move to the Bahamas, and spend his life with some beautiful Island woman, blessing Jess every day of his existence for her short-lived angelic presence in his life.
Tset stayed quiet.
"What are you going to do, Tset?" Don had asked, around his cigar.
"I'm going to do what I can to brighten the world a bit, take the blight out."
Don chuckled, "Aw, a nice hitman with a heart."
Tset ran a hand through his hair, leaning back and relaxing, "Bullshit. You see what I did to Ricky?"
"Nice fits, though, don't you think?" Tyler asked.
"Shut the fuck up."
They all laughed.
"No, apparently there's more of these vampires around." Tset was rubbing at his knuckles as if to remove a stain.
"Really? How many?"
"I don't know, a couple hundred maybe?" Tset looked up at them both.
"... fuck." Said Tyler and Don in unison.
"Right, but I got the skills and the equipment. See these?" He held up his rings.
"Wow, Tset's bagging more women than we thought." Don and Tyler exchanged high-fives at Tyler's quip.
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