Larsen tried not to laugh very loudly.
“Did you know that their fangs are retractable?” He pointed. “They're like a cat's nails. They can hide them. You wouldn’t notice them until they are sunk in your neck”.
“Oh, I'm sorry…”
But Larsen didn’t seem angry but fun. His smile was warm and contagious. He looked like a friendly boy of no more than twenty. Ali watched him more closely under the light now. His hair was black but straight and he had gray eyes. With his black gabardine jacket full of zippers, jeans and sneakers, he didn’t look like someone who went hunting for vampires.
“You look more like an indie rock star than a vampire hunter...” Ali commented.
“What did you expect? The guy from the movie Blade? Let's get away from here as soon as we can. Come on...” suggested helping Ali to stand up.
“Hey, tell me one thing: how did you find me? What were you doing down there?” Ali wanted to know. Walking calmly with the breeze on her face, she began to think more clearly.
“I´ve already told you: I was following those vampires” Larsen answered nonchalantly. “I was watching them like every night. I can’t attack them if they haven’t done anything to justify it... So I watch them carefully and I wait for them to do it” the boy finished his explanation with a big smile.
“Then you should have let them attack me...”
“Of course not...” he laughed. “You don’t use pearls as a hook”.
“What do you mean?”
“That you are too beautiful to let you die for just a couple of those miserable creatures”.
“Wow, thanks... It's good that this happened to me before having children and get fat because otherwise nobody would have helped me” Ali answered with irony.
“Probably you wouldn’t have fit through the ventilation system” added Larsen, funny. “Can I ask what you were doing there?”
“I was walking with a friend and suddenly I was kidnapped by vampires... You know, the usual stuff...”
Ali shrugged her shoulders as if it were something normal. Referring to Kaliel as a friend was also inappropriate. Larsen laughed again. They had reached the center of the city and the light of the bars and stores that remained open at night spilled over them with intensity.
“Do you think your friend would be very angry if we go for a drink?” Larsen proposed. Under the lamp of the path, Ali saw her face crossed by soft freckles. That made him look innocent and sweet. It was impossible to refuse.
“Let him worry a little” she agreed finally.
Both entered a very well lit bar that was across the street. Larsen walked over to the counter and came back with two cold beers. Ali had chosen a table in the corner, next to the window.
“What was it you tried to do with your hands towards the door?” The boy asked.
Ali didn’t know what to say. She felt pretty foolish for trying and she knew how absurd that would sound.
“Exactly what you did seconds later...”
“You mean this?”
Larsen crouched on the table and covered his hand of possible spectators as he made a small flame emerge from the other.
“How do you do it?” Ali was fascinated. He could do it too but he could control it at will. Maybe he could teach her.
“You just have to believe you can”.
“You make it sound easy”.
“It's actually easy” said Larsen. “Have you done it before?”
“Yes...”
The memory of those episodes made her panic.
“Well, the power is already in you then. You just have to let it out. It's you who blocks it...”
“How do you know these things?”
“Well, that's what I do” Larsen leaned back in his seat and let his gaze get lost beyond the end of the street. “I've been like this all my life. I don’t remember how it started...”
“And why do you hunt vampires? Have they done something to you?” Larsen seemed like a very interesting character. It was like the Redentto but more relaxed and funny. If he belonged to a group, she definitely preferred to belong to that group.
“Well...” Larsen tilted his lips in a thoughtful grimace. “I can’t stand that they are more attractive than me...” he laughed.
Ali did it too. His smile was so radiant and contagious that it felt like she was having a great time even though she almost gets murdered minutes ago.
“Let's say it's a family profession” he said at last.
“Oh...” Larsen seemed to know a lot. “And tell me... Do you know anything about the Gladius Dei?”
“A lot. What do you want to know?” He said quite naturally.
Impossible. Mikah flatly refused to provide her with that information. The Redentto feared them and their mere mention made them tremble. But Larsen acted as if they were just one more sect. This was her opportunity. Maybe Larsen could help her. Maybe she wouldn’t go back to the cathedral after that night.
“How to find them?”
“Wow... Wait... Specifically, what or who do you want to find?”
“Listen, I don’t know who they are, I've never seen them, but I think they kidnapped my father. It is a long story…”
“Well... The Gladius Dei has eyes, if you understand me, everywhere” Ali remembered Patrick's warning: get away from the All-Seeing Eye. “But if they were to have someone kidnapped I would consider looking for they in France because there they have something like a secret meeting base... The Altar is the place most feared by the creatures of the night. It is said that under a mansion of one of the main ones a hidden dungeon is hidden where they interrogate and torture the dark spirits...”
“France! I can’t believe it! Where is that mansion?” Ali was so anxious that she got up from her seat and rested her palms on the table.
“I don’t know. No one who has seen it has returned to tell it. It is no more reliable than a legend... But, why do you think they would want your father?”
“I have no idea…”
Ali looked down and sat down again. All she knew was that her father was a former priest and that perhaps he was also a former member of Gladius Dei: a deserter. Maybe they had been chasing him since before she was born and they had finally found him. That would make sense if she considered Patrick's letter. Again, finding that man, was her best option.
“When my father disappeared someone burned down the house and I found a Gladius Dei badge among my father's things” Ali said briefly. “Days before he had received a letter from France warning him...”
Larsen narrowed his eyes.
“Do you still have the letter?”
“Sure... It´s in my room in...” Ali thought about going for it and then she realized: “Oh, God! What time is it?”
“Half past one...”
“For Gods sake! We had to take that damned mirror and..!” Ali jumped up.
“Come on, I'll go with you”.
Ali was already out by the time Larsen finished saying it. She walked briskly towards the place where she had separated from Kaliel.
“What about the letter? Could I see it?” Larsen asked. It wasn’t hard for him to keep up with Ali.
“Sure. How do I find you?” Ali stopped right in front of the place where they had captured her.
“There's an esoteric bookstore in front of the Starbucks downtown, it's called The Eye of the Witch... Ask for me there; everyone knows me”.
“Ok I’ll do it”.
Larsen remained silent for a moment. He still smiled.
“Don’t forget, okay?... Okay, I will not delay you anymore. Find your friend. Goodbye Ali...”
“Goodbye, Lars”.
Larsen turned to leave but then regretted it. The boy turned with a doubtful but determined expression on his purpose and kissed Ali on the lips.
“Sorry. I wanted to make sure you were real...” he said and this time he left.
Ali stood for a moment in white as she watched Larsen walk away across the street. That k
iss had taken her by surprise so much that by the time she fell into what was happening he had already released her. Her mind took a couple of seconds to process it. His lips were warm and soft, and his skin smelled like the garden of blue vervains in the backyard of her house.
Larsen turned one last time before the darkness of the corner swallowed his smile definitively. Now that she was alone, Ali realized that she was in the wrong place. Surely, Kaliel had gone after her and, even more surely, had found the vampires in the house. He could smell them. Just imagining it made her skin crawl. She would have to go back to that place...
15
Forgotten by God
That's where the trail ended. Beyond that ruined and stinking building there was no sign of those bloodsuckers. It was evident that they were hiding in the abandoned house; they were not very smart to hide themselves. Kaliel entered through one of the broken windows that opened onto the backyard. He could feel it: a large, electrifying presence that attracted him like a magnet and, at the same time, put him on guard. Baaltazhar was nearby. That meant one thing: he was in the right place. However, it wasn’t time to take care of the demon. First he had to rescue Ali.
Kaliel wondered what he was doing in those filthy corridors where this vampire´s pestilence came from. He had just left his main objective behind to go after the girl who had given him a good slap. But at that moment, while Ali was doing her tantrums something inside him couldn’t stop justifying her: she doesn’t know what she is doing. He could see the confusion in her eyes and, to tell the truth, he felt that way too. Everything about Ali confused him: the way he seemed to know everything about her and nothing at the same time and, above all, the influence she exerted on him. Definitely, although she looked like any girl, she wasn’t. She had something special. And that something awoke in him a variety of mixed feelings of which, the strongest, was fear. Fear gripped him all the time, in every step that Ali took, in every shadow that stalked her, in every mouth that named her and she did nothing but throw herself headlong at every danger that crossed her way. Ali was a magnet for disaster. Out there, too many spirits wanted her to think she was normal. Kaliel could only keep her as close as possible, at least, until he discovered why, and now that he had been taken away by beings capable of such cruelties, his hatred for Baaltazhar was nothing compared to the fear that squeezed his chest.
“Tell me where you have it, damn bastard...” Kaliel roared in the ear of the fat vampire who was looking out the window. The very inept man hadn’t even heard him arrive. Placing a knife in his throat was as easy as it was useless. Kaliel knew that you can’t annihilate a vampire like a human but at that moment he wanted to slice him into a thousand pieces.
“What thing? I don’t know what you're talking about...” The vampire's voice trembled. Then, with a sudden movement he managed to get away from Kaliel.
“Don’t make me waste my time: if you prefer I can get rid of you and find her myself” Kaliel offered, preparing his knife as if it were a dart. He took care that his pose was relaxed so that the vampire would understand that his aim was excellent and it would be easy for Kaliel to reach him.
“I don’t know...” hesitated the vampire but his eyes betrayed him as he looked towards a door on his right side.
“Fool!” Kaliel shouted and in less than a second he finished with him: he pierced his inert heart with Uriel's dagger and sent him straight to hell. He wasn’t Mikah. He didn’t give second chances. The vampires had already had a lot of time to regret and they hadn’t. Now that the pact had been broken he could exterminate them at will and without soteriological protocols.
The thick oak door fell with the first blow. It was a trap: there was nothing there. Kaliel ran from one room to another, knocking down all the doors and all his alternatives. Ali was nowhere to be found and he had already killed the only one who could give him that information. Had she managed to escape on her own? Back in the first room confirmed his suspicions: there was no window through which to sneak. However, she had been there. Very close to the door he found two of her hair: long and black as night.
“Why am I not surprised to find Kaliel the meddler playing for the side from which he was expelled?” A voice whispered behind him. He knew it: Darry Darvill.
“I don’t play for any side, phenomenon. I only fight for my purposes”.
Darry laughed softly.
“Then I must believe that your new purpose is to be this girl's toy? And I thought you couldn’t fall any lower!”
“Think whatever you want! You have an eternity to meditate in the Averno!” Kaliel exclaimed as he jumped towards Darry wielding his dagger.
To the vampire's good fortune, a hand stopped him. It was Jason, the ex-convict with the tattooed head who had sold his soul to Darry to take revenge on those who had put him in prison. While Jason held him, Darry walked peacefully to the room where Ali had been.
“Sir, I had left her here, with Trevor...” Jason informed.
“I told you not to underestimate her, Jay. As for Trevor, it seems to be history...” Darry deduced, glancing at Kaliel and the dagger he held aloft.
Jason understood at once and didn’t fail to give Kaliel a kick that threw him on the ground. Even Darry seemed surprised.
“You're dwindling Kaliel ...” warned him as he headed back to the window. “You have great powers but staying in the middle will only make you like its inhabitants: a human. The doors of my brotherhood will always be open for you if you want. You will recover your power and you will have even more. You will be a prince within us...”
“Fuck you!” Kaliel interrupted him still from the floor. Anger burned in his eyes.
Darry cheered, shaking his head.
“Such a pity, Kaliel. Think of it this way:” Darry smiled with malice “if you keep this carnal in a few years you’ll die and anyway you’ll end up with us. Well Jason, don’t you ever bother me again if you don’t have the girl...” he said to the other vampire and then disappeared in a swirl of shadows.
Thanks to Darry, now Kaliel was sure that Ali had managed to escape. In that case, she couldn’t be far away and Darry could find her sooner. He had to get rid of the other bloodsucker and go for her as soon as possible.
“I must warn you that my category is superior to that of my partner” boasted Jason. “Getting rid of me won’t be easy for you and my companions are out there receiving orders from Darry to go out and hunt her down. If you want to arrive on time, I recommend you to flee right away... I know that it isn’t very honorable but it doesn’t matter! Your name has fallen to the bottom of a manure pit, rejected!”
“I’ll destroy you with one hand and with the other I’ll be opening the door to leave, idiot”.
Kaliel was quick to lash out at Jason. He wouldn’t use the dagger: only his hands. The first thing he did was to take his head and try to turn it 180 °. But it didn’t work. The vampire turned with him and managed to take him by the arms to throw him through the air.
“Too predictable!” reproached the vampire pretending disappointment.
Kaliel hit a wall. The mirror that he still carried on his back finished shattering and he untied the scarf with which he held it. He didn’t feel any pain but something prevented him from drawing all his strength and that had never happened before.
“Have you been drinking demon blood?” Kaliel deduced. “That's cheating…”
“Not at all, my dear friend, I am committed to an exclusively human diet” Jason smiled. “Strengthens my muscles, don’t you think so?”
“We'll see…”
Kaliel attacked him again and Jason returned his fists one after the other with the same result. His palms didn’t burn him, his invocations didn’t affect him. He didn’t even look tired but Kaliel did. Finally, he decided to resort to the dagger.
“I'm tired of playing with you!” Kaliel bellowed as he stabbed him in the center of the chest.
Jason swerved his course with just a swipe of his talons and the dagger flew up i
nto the ceiling.
“I hate these pathetic relics of the last century!” He complained ironically. “Why don’t you try to give me holy water?”
After that, he knocked Kaliel down with a blow to his head and fell on him on the ground.
“I can smell your girl: she hasn’t gone far” Jason muttered. He held Kaliel by the neck, pinning him to the cold damp ground. In his other hand, the light of a known spell was beginning to be conjured. “You’ll be immobile here until I bring her and you can see what I plan to do with her... Lord Darry doesn’t allow us to drink her blood but it isn’t her blood that interests me. Oh! And neither do you! You're not stupid, no... That angelic face... Those lips so fleshy, exploding in blood and a body so fragile that it seems to dance like a flower in the breeze...” he said in a mocking tone.
“Shut up! I hope you remember her well because I'm going to tear your eyes out!” Kaliel yelled as he writhed uselessly to free himself. What was happening? Each time he had less strength.
Jason laughed out loud.
“I like that...” he said dragging the words as if he could taste them. “I will do all the things you just dare to imagine... Maybe you can’t even do that!” He laughed. “I'll help you: I'll let her crawl on this same floor while I remove all her clothes one by one. Yes... I'll let you see her naked breasts and if you behave well I'll let you touch them...”
“Close your beak, you filthy beast!”
“Then...” continued the vampire. He was enjoying deeply tormenting Kaliel. “I will lick every pure inch of her skin and force her in all the ways I know until she gets tired of screaming and blood her virginity torn all over the floor...”
Kaliel felt a lacerating emptiness opening in his stomach. He didn’t think there could be such a despicable person as Baaltazhar until that bloodsucker crossed the line. But for some reason, the fury wasn’t on his part that night. His strength had abandoned him. The best thing would be to resort to cunning.
“I don’t care what you do with her but first I have to meet a deal...” he muttered as best he could while the vampire crushed his throat.
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