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sparkindarknessStill on the eternal quest to close story arcs. As ever, previous instalments can be found through my ever growing memories section.
It was long past dark when Ian reached the creature’s lair. It took Ian a further two hours to fully encircle the building and be sure he had identified every possible route in and out as well as become suitably familiar with the surroundings. It was a dilapidated building. Once it had contained several shops on it’s ground floor and two storeys of flats above. The shops had slowly gone out of business and become places for squatters and vandals to occupy and destroy, slowly but surely ensuring that the people in the flats were driven out as well. Except for the truly desperate. A ruin waiting redevelopment that will never come - it’s far cheaper simply to let them rot into ruin than actually do anything about it. It was one of those many places where the urban jungle seemed less and less of a metaphor and more an accurate description. The police didn’t come down here. No tourist area was within range, no-one with money had even heard of the place. Out of sight and out of mind, the people scratched what living they could, regardless of government or authority or policy or law, here was the rule of the strong and the lives of the desperate. Who didn’t need vampires to make life even harder.
His vigil had revealed three different vampires. But little else. He was about to enter the building to get a good idea of the building’s floor plan and strength and possible weaknesses of the inhabitants when something glittered out of the corner of his eye. He crouched down, looking towards the shine. There, a patch of darkness stood incredibly still in the shadows, the dim light of the moon seemed to collect on an earring, the patch of light that had given the shape away. He crept slowly closer, confident that this creature was no vampire.
Then he saw her and cursed. He moved, a quick, unstoppable movement to come up right behind the shape. One hand clasped quickly over the stalker’s mouth, another secured both arms in a hard lock. He didn’t wait to explain himself, but moved as quickly and quietly away from the building as he could, dragging the stalker with him.
He unceremoniously dumped Lakshmi in an alley suitably far enough away to be safe. He turned to do a quick survey of every corner, peering into every shadow to be certain if they were alone before turning back to the glaring woman. Her face had been blackened with face paint so dark it made her eyes unnaturally white. Her clothes were even darker, pure, unrelieved black. She had a black bag at her side with ominous bulges in it. Inwardly, Ian sighed.
“You’ve come to hunt vampires.” It wasn’t a question, Ian knew very well why she was here.
“Yes.” Her eyes gleamed with anger. “Don’t try and stop me. It’s alright for you, you hunt them. I thought it would be enough for me to just help you kill as many as possible. But it isn’t. It just isn’t. I need more than just to hear about your victories.”
Ian kept his silence, allowing it to ask the questions for him. “I know it sounds terrible, but I need to kill them! I can’t just pretend it doesn't bother me anymore! I hate them! I really really hate them. I want them to die, I want to be the one that kills them, I want to see them die! I NEED IT!”
“Perhaps you should speak to Father Michaels.” Ian suggested it, but in his heart he knew how futile that was.
“I’ve tried. But I can't forgive them. I can never forgive them. I don’t even want to forgive them, don't even want to try. I want revenge - no, I don’t even care about that or anything close to justice. I. Want. Them. Dead.” She bit off each word with venomous hate he had never heard from her, not even when he had first rescued her from the carnage the vampires had made of her family.
“If you hutn them, one day they will kill you.” Ian said that with a cold certainty. One day they would kill him.
“I don’t care.” Leaden and final. With that, Ian knew. It was the same answer he’d given, all those years ago. He had meant it as well. Still did.
“Ok.” Lakshmi looked up in shock. “I understand. More than anyone, I think.” She nodded uncertainly.
“But not tonight.” She opened her mouth, anger flaring again. He held up a hand to silence her. “No! I see no reason to give these vampires another victim. You know nothing about hunting them or fighting them. You will die, uselessly, without having killed even one vampire. You are a liability.” She lowered her head then, sullen and angry. “You need teaching, even as I was taught. Without that training you are a walking meal for the first vampire you meet. And another victim I have to mourn.”
She looked up, unsure at the sudden grief in his voice. She’d never heard him display any actual emotion. He’;d faked it before, but she’d never heard any real emotion in his voice. She ventured a tentative question. “Wh- who taught you?”
“Someone long dead.” His voice cut off any questioning on the subject. “Wait here. I will come to collect you an hour after first light and the lesson will begin.” He turned and left, leaving her suddenly very alone.
Ian looked back at the House and waited, There was no time for any real scouting, and he was reluctant to wait for another day. Not only was their a risk of more victims the next night but he wasn't sure how badly Lakshmi had compromised herself in her inept spying. He couldn't run the risk that one of these vampires possessed some ability to track her. Still, these vampires seemed to be very young. It had been surprisingly easy for Kieran to find out where they laired. If they were older he would never have found them. They had only the most basic security measures, and they only applied to people who actually managed to gain access to the house.
He had no intentions of entering their lair. As the first pink light of dawn graced the eastern skyline, Ian was already moving. Reaching into his bag he pulled out several bottles. He carefully poured the right amount of accelerants through broken and ill-boarded doorways on the ground floor. The chemicals had been mixed according to the formulas his old mentor had given him, perfect to create a fast burning and effective fire, just the right amount. Amateurs always used too much accelerant, causing a massive flare up which used all the oxygen within the enclosed space, causing most of the accelerant would be burnt off before the fire was smothered.
He then lit the matches and applied them to the pools. Soon merry fires flickered in various places on the ground floor. He patrolled them in the ever lightening dawn, making sure each one was roaring, aiding the slow ones with quick squirts from his pressurised bottles at appropriate points, encouraging them to expand and cover more area. Finally satisfied at the inferno on the ground floor he stepped back.
He looked for a window on the upper stories that wasn’t appropriately boarded up. He had a choice of three, the poor quality chip board they had used hadn't been treated to survive the weather. He took a firework from his bag. Useful things. The bright light and explosion upset many supernaturals who had senses beyond human. They also resembled fire enough to panic vampires. At very least, when thrown in through a window they were enough to wake up even the most deep sleeping vampires. So they could smell the burning and hear the flames.
He stood looking at the flames and listening to the screams of panic. He could hear the cries as the vampires ran from one room to another searching for a way out. A way to escape the flames.
There wasn’t one. Ian allowed himself a grim, humourless smile as one threw itself from an upstairs window to try and reach safety, It may have worked, the fall was certainly not enough to inconvenience a vampire. The rising sun, however, was more than enough to kill the creature before it reached shelter.
Only when he was sure none of the Undead were left did he finally turn away from the flames. The building would probably be allowed to burn out. No-one wanted the shell anymore and the fire brigade had no wish to enter this neighbourhood, If the fire spread? Well, no-one with any influence or power would actually mourn the destruction. It shouldn’t spread, though, or Ian would have thought twice before using this tactic. The ground around it was bare concrete and soil, supposedly for a garden and car park in more prosperous times. Both had long since fallen into disuse.
He found Lakshmi a little later than he had planned. He thouhghty she had begun to worry judging by the relieved look she gave him.
“Are they..?”
He nodded sharply, avoiding her gaze. Any triumph he might have felt had long since been dimmed by the memory of the victims he had drilled into his mind from Kieran. He would grieve for them later when he returned to Father Michaels to report their spirits as avenged. He would mourn later, for now there was a task to attend to.
He gestured for Lakshmi to follow and walked off into the dawn.
It was long past dark when Ian reached the creature’s lair. It took Ian a further two hours to fully encircle the building and be sure he had identified every possible route in and out as well as become suitably familiar with the surroundings. It was a dilapidated building. Once it had contained several shops on it’s ground floor and two storeys of flats above. The shops had slowly gone out of business and become places for squatters and vandals to occupy and destroy, slowly but surely ensuring that the people in the flats were driven out as well. Except for the truly desperate. A ruin waiting redevelopment that will never come - it’s far cheaper simply to let them rot into ruin than actually do anything about it. It was one of those many places where the urban jungle seemed less and less of a metaphor and more an accurate description. The police didn’t come down here. No tourist area was within range, no-one with money had even heard of the place. Out of sight and out of mind, the people scratched what living they could, regardless of government or authority or policy or law, here was the rule of the strong and the lives of the desperate. Who didn’t need vampires to make life even harder.
His vigil had revealed three different vampires. But little else. He was about to enter the building to get a good idea of the building’s floor plan and strength and possible weaknesses of the inhabitants when something glittered out of the corner of his eye. He crouched down, looking towards the shine. There, a patch of darkness stood incredibly still in the shadows, the dim light of the moon seemed to collect on an earring, the patch of light that had given the shape away. He crept slowly closer, confident that this creature was no vampire.
Then he saw her and cursed. He moved, a quick, unstoppable movement to come up right behind the shape. One hand clasped quickly over the stalker’s mouth, another secured both arms in a hard lock. He didn’t wait to explain himself, but moved as quickly and quietly away from the building as he could, dragging the stalker with him.
He unceremoniously dumped Lakshmi in an alley suitably far enough away to be safe. He turned to do a quick survey of every corner, peering into every shadow to be certain if they were alone before turning back to the glaring woman. Her face had been blackened with face paint so dark it made her eyes unnaturally white. Her clothes were even darker, pure, unrelieved black. She had a black bag at her side with ominous bulges in it. Inwardly, Ian sighed.
“You’ve come to hunt vampires.” It wasn’t a question, Ian knew very well why she was here.
“Yes.” Her eyes gleamed with anger. “Don’t try and stop me. It’s alright for you, you hunt them. I thought it would be enough for me to just help you kill as many as possible. But it isn’t. It just isn’t. I need more than just to hear about your victories.”
Ian kept his silence, allowing it to ask the questions for him. “I know it sounds terrible, but I need to kill them! I can’t just pretend it doesn't bother me anymore! I hate them! I really really hate them. I want them to die, I want to be the one that kills them, I want to see them die! I NEED IT!”
“Perhaps you should speak to Father Michaels.” Ian suggested it, but in his heart he knew how futile that was.
“I’ve tried. But I can't forgive them. I can never forgive them. I don’t even want to forgive them, don't even want to try. I want revenge - no, I don’t even care about that or anything close to justice. I. Want. Them. Dead.” She bit off each word with venomous hate he had never heard from her, not even when he had first rescued her from the carnage the vampires had made of her family.
“If you hutn them, one day they will kill you.” Ian said that with a cold certainty. One day they would kill him.
“I don’t care.” Leaden and final. With that, Ian knew. It was the same answer he’d given, all those years ago. He had meant it as well. Still did.
“Ok.” Lakshmi looked up in shock. “I understand. More than anyone, I think.” She nodded uncertainly.
“But not tonight.” She opened her mouth, anger flaring again. He held up a hand to silence her. “No! I see no reason to give these vampires another victim. You know nothing about hunting them or fighting them. You will die, uselessly, without having killed even one vampire. You are a liability.” She lowered her head then, sullen and angry. “You need teaching, even as I was taught. Without that training you are a walking meal for the first vampire you meet. And another victim I have to mourn.”
She looked up, unsure at the sudden grief in his voice. She’d never heard him display any actual emotion. He’;d faked it before, but she’d never heard any real emotion in his voice. She ventured a tentative question. “Wh- who taught you?”
“Someone long dead.” His voice cut off any questioning on the subject. “Wait here. I will come to collect you an hour after first light and the lesson will begin.” He turned and left, leaving her suddenly very alone.
Ian looked back at the House and waited, There was no time for any real scouting, and he was reluctant to wait for another day. Not only was their a risk of more victims the next night but he wasn't sure how badly Lakshmi had compromised herself in her inept spying. He couldn't run the risk that one of these vampires possessed some ability to track her. Still, these vampires seemed to be very young. It had been surprisingly easy for Kieran to find out where they laired. If they were older he would never have found them. They had only the most basic security measures, and they only applied to people who actually managed to gain access to the house.
He had no intentions of entering their lair. As the first pink light of dawn graced the eastern skyline, Ian was already moving. Reaching into his bag he pulled out several bottles. He carefully poured the right amount of accelerants through broken and ill-boarded doorways on the ground floor. The chemicals had been mixed according to the formulas his old mentor had given him, perfect to create a fast burning and effective fire, just the right amount. Amateurs always used too much accelerant, causing a massive flare up which used all the oxygen within the enclosed space, causing most of the accelerant would be burnt off before the fire was smothered.
He then lit the matches and applied them to the pools. Soon merry fires flickered in various places on the ground floor. He patrolled them in the ever lightening dawn, making sure each one was roaring, aiding the slow ones with quick squirts from his pressurised bottles at appropriate points, encouraging them to expand and cover more area. Finally satisfied at the inferno on the ground floor he stepped back.
He looked for a window on the upper stories that wasn’t appropriately boarded up. He had a choice of three, the poor quality chip board they had used hadn't been treated to survive the weather. He took a firework from his bag. Useful things. The bright light and explosion upset many supernaturals who had senses beyond human. They also resembled fire enough to panic vampires. At very least, when thrown in through a window they were enough to wake up even the most deep sleeping vampires. So they could smell the burning and hear the flames.
He stood looking at the flames and listening to the screams of panic. He could hear the cries as the vampires ran from one room to another searching for a way out. A way to escape the flames.
There wasn’t one. Ian allowed himself a grim, humourless smile as one threw itself from an upstairs window to try and reach safety, It may have worked, the fall was certainly not enough to inconvenience a vampire. The rising sun, however, was more than enough to kill the creature before it reached shelter.
Only when he was sure none of the Undead were left did he finally turn away from the flames. The building would probably be allowed to burn out. No-one wanted the shell anymore and the fire brigade had no wish to enter this neighbourhood, If the fire spread? Well, no-one with any influence or power would actually mourn the destruction. It shouldn’t spread, though, or Ian would have thought twice before using this tactic. The ground around it was bare concrete and soil, supposedly for a garden and car park in more prosperous times. Both had long since fallen into disuse.
He found Lakshmi a little later than he had planned. He thouhghty she had begun to worry judging by the relieved look she gave him.
“Are they..?”
He nodded sharply, avoiding her gaze. Any triumph he might have felt had long since been dimmed by the memory of the victims he had drilled into his mind from Kieran. He would grieve for them later when he returned to Father Michaels to report their spirits as avenged. He would mourn later, for now there was a task to attend to.
He gestured for Lakshmi to follow and walked off into the dawn.