Tainted Blood (11 page)

The man dropped his tray trying to catch Brian, as he bounced into him, but unfortunately he too had been surprised by the event. He did help Brian up from off the ground as he tried to get back up.

“Are you alright? The waiter asked, a smile on his face. The man’s fake fangs were poking out of the side of his mouth. Brian wanted to yell at him to take the stupid things out of his mouth, but his nose actually hurt too much to really be bothered to do it. Besides, he felt embarrassed by the fact that everyone sitting outside was looking at him like he was an imbecile. After all, who crashed into an open door and then fells down, almost taking someone else with them?

“I'm fine,” he quickly answered the guy, while he rubbed his nose in an attempt to make the pain and stars go away.

“You guys...” the waiter started chuckling at him. “Don't you ever learn?”

Brian stared at him in confusion. What 'guys' was he talking about? Then it occurred to him that the guy made it sound as if this happened on a regular basis. Before Brian could say anything, the guy said, “Wait here, I’ll let him know you're here.” Then he was gone.

This was not turning out in any way, shape, or form how Brian had been expecting. He walked up to the door and opened it, then reached out with a hand to find the barrier. It was still there. Solid in every way, except that apparently humans could pass through it unimpeded. How was he going to get in this place? If the barrier covered the entire building, then there was no way he was ever going to stealthily enter the place. This was not looking good at all. It caused all types of problems he hadn't anticipated.

The waiter reappeared at the doorway. He smiled as he looked at Brian’s hand that was up in the air pushing against the barrier. “Well, at least you're not throwing yourself against it. The last one made quite a mess, and Angie actually threw up cleaning the mess up that he made. Wasn't pretty.” he said. “Come on, the boss will see you.”

Brian hesitated as the barrier disappeared and his hand pushed into the building. The need to turn and run away flashed through him. Jason knew he was there, and was most likely prepared for him, not to mention what would happen if he went in. Would the barrier come right back up? If it did, would it keep him in as effectively as it was keeping him out?

It had all the markings of a bad idea. Yet, what choices did he have? If he was going to save Heather he needed to go in there, and he needed to go now. He had no choice, good or bad he was committed. He was not going to lose her.

The room was a dark, even for his eyes. It took him a second to make out all the figures milling about. He was surprised how many people were in the place. There were also a lot more people that seemed to be Goth or vampire wannabes filling the inside, unlike the people that were outside the place. He also noticed a large amount of young teenage girls standing around, especially in one place in particular. Brian knew the face as soon as he saw it.

Jason seemed to be the center of the teen activity. The waiter motioned for Brian to follow him, but before he did, Brian reached back to the doorway and felt for the barrier. It was there again, and just as solid as before. He wasn't going out that way unless someone let him out.

He only had two hopes now. Either he'd kill Jason, and hope the barrier would die with him, or negotiate his and Heather's way out. A hope that may actually have a chance, if he could convince Jason he wasn't his enemy.

Jason was wearing a leather coat, and had his hair slicked to the side. Brian was sure that he normally had blonde hair, but it looked as if he had dyed it to be darker, not quite dirty blonde, but not brown either. He looked more like a yuppie than a vampire. Jason waved his hand for Brian to slide in to the seat across from him, a long horse-shoe shaped booth. Jason sat on one end and Brain now sat on the other.

“Leave us.” Jason barked, and the litter of teenage girls booed and whined, but surprisingly they left for another part of the room.

Brian watched as they stood clustered together, looking time from time at the two of them sitting there.

“Fans?” Brian decided to break the ice, rather than just sit and have the man stare at him.

“Ever since Twilight and all its assorted clones,” the man spoke dismissively, “we can't get rid of them.”

“How do they even know you're a vampire?” Brian asked, actually curious.

“I told them.” Jason picked up a mug and took a drink. “They are tiresome, but they do have their uses. Now, let's get down to business. You are here to kill me, but the last I checked, I still have your girlfriend, so what could you possibly want?”

“I want Heather, of course.” Brian said irritably. “Just hand her over and I'll be out of your life.”

“Then we shall live happily ever after?” Jason smiled at him. “Please, the company doesn't just give up. You're only one of their many failed attempts.”

“No, I don't work for the company, Jason. They were just trying to force me to do their dirty work. I told them no.”

“You expect me to believe that?” Jason looked into Brian's eyes very intently. He wasn't sure, but it almost felt like the guy was trying to move things around inside his head. There was the distinct impression of tumblers spinning inside there, but before Brain could say anything Jason snorted and slammed his coffee back onto the table. ”You are just like me! What did they offer you, to kill one of your own?”

“Nothing, and yes I'm a vampire like you, I just want my girlfriend.”

Jason sat there and stared at him for what seemed like hours. Brian matched him stare for stare. He felt that if he were to turn away for a moment, that it would have been a sign of weakness, and something bad would happen next.

“I'm sorry, but I don't believe you.” Jason said finally, and then turned his eyes away to look into his coffee.

“So what, that’s it?” Brian asked as he stood up. “I'm just supposed to say 'too bad', and leave, forgetting Heather for the rest of my life, so you can feel safe?”

Jason shook his head. “No, as I don't think that it would keep you at bay very long. Sooner or later you will just find some other toy, and then what am I going to do? Kidnap that one as well?”

“Then what? If you're not going to give her to me?”

Jason shrugged. “I'll just have to dispose of you and her, at least that will serve me until the next idiots they send.”

“Then why take her, or for that matter, let me in here?” Brian shouted.

“Isn't it obvious?” Jason shrugged again. “To get you down here where you would be trapped.”

Brian noticed for the first time that the room had gone quiet. He looked up and saw the entire cafe had armed themselves with clubs and knives and were slowly moving in his direction.

“Those things can't kill a vampire.” Brian bluffed, as he really had no idea what could.

“You're right,” Jason said, as he stood up, “but it sure can incapacitate him after being hit over the head a million times.” He smiled and spread his arms apart. “What can I say? We'll take care of the dirty work after you’ve been beaten unconscious.

This is about to get ugly...
Brian couldn't help but think,
I knew this was a bad idea.

He never was very squeamish about killing. Not if he had the right incentive.

Of course, he didn't like killing for no reason. As he'd said before, he was no monster, he liked to think of himself as a modern equivalent for a vampire. He didn't hunt and kill like vampires of myth. He was civilized and so he drank blood that was willingly harvested by blood banks. That ideal served him well throughout Brian’s young life, and with only a few exceptions, like in recent times when he was defending Heather from the men in black, he had adhered to these principles with great success.

Still, he had little qualms killing if he needed to.

This, however did very little to ease his conscience as he smashed one man's skull while snapping another man's arm in two. Once the crowd of controlled people's master said to attack, the entire cafe of employees and clients leaped at him with abandon. These were no mindless automatons that would move around like stupid zombies. No, this group moved with the speed and thought of living people intent on killing him. It took all of Brian’s speed and strength to avoid clubs swinging by his head and then steal what many of the people were trying to stab him with.

He would have liked to have avoided bloodshed if he could, but the cramped space made it near impossible to use his speed to any great advantage. The only good news was that there were fewer people trying to hurt him, now that he realized he had no choice in the matter. Well that wasn't entirely true. He did have one other choice, but that would most likely lead to his as well as Heathers death. No, he was just being realistic. These people were not that different from the agents he had killed six months before, the only difference was perhaps the agent weren’t suggested by a blood thirsty vampire.

Three more went down in the time he had finished those thoughts, at least two of them were not mortally wounded. If he could keep this up then things really might not be that bad. He would just need to get his hands on that cowardly vampire, force him to take him to Heather, and then get the hell out of the place. Oh, and he forgot one other detail, he still had to kill the jerk.

If everything the guy did wasn’t bad enough, now he had to add all the deaths he was causing to list.
Yeah, at this point, Jenn didn't even have to ask me to kill this guy. I'm going to do it just because he's really starting to piss me off!

“You're doing well so far.” He heard the jerk say. “In fact a little too good, I think I'm going to have to even the odds.”

Brian looked up to see what Jason intended on doing now. The barrel of a very large gun was pointing at him when he did. The flash from its barrel was all the warning he had as Jason began firing indiscriminately into the crowed that was attacking Brian.

The first few bullets missed him thanks to Brain's speed. Two of Jason’s minions were not so lucky as Brian watched them collapse to the ground still reaching for him. It had to end now, he realized. Sooner or later the guy was going to get lucky and hit Brian, then what?
I have to take the fight to him.
A third round whizzed by Brian’s face, leaving a trail along his cheek as as it did.

It's now or never.

With all the speed and power he could muster, Brian dashed right through the crowed of minions that were in his way. All those that stood in his path flew from him when he impacted into them. He thought he heard the crunching of bones from more than one of them as they were tossed away by his enhanced strength.

Brian grabbed the barrel of the weapon and ripped the gun from Jason’s hand. The man looked wholly stunned as he did so, and Brian was equally surprised at how easy the gun came from Jason’s hand. He would have expected an older vampire to have greater strength than he had. All the shows he'd ever seen made a big deal of age.

Perhaps this was one instance that myth did not reflect true life.

“How the hell--” Jason began to shout, just as a pain ripped through Brian’s chest, somewhere near his heart. A quick glance down to his chest showed the point of what looked like a knife protruding from inside of him. Jason's shock turned to a smile from surprise as he also saw the blade tip sticking out.

“Well, isn't that something?” Jason laughed as Brian turned to see who had stabbed him.

His eyes fell on one of the young teen girls who had been hanging around Jason when he had arrived. Brian wasn't sure what he was going to do. He knew he should hit her and knock her away from him, but somehow he couldn't. It just didn't seem right to him. Stars exploded inside his head as a table leg crashed across his skull. Another one of Jason's minions took advantage of his stunned reaction. Before Brian’s sight could clear, several more blows crashed down on him. He could feel the cold touch of metal stinging through his body as either the same girl or others were now stabbing him in the back as he crashed down to the floor. Through the haze that now filled his sight, he could see blood covering the floor underneath him.

My blood
he thought. It looked as if he were about to find out if he were immortal.

A part of him wondered, if he did die, would he come back like a traditional vampire? Or would he just be dead?

“Hit him some more.” he could still hear Jason’s voice above the ringing in his head and ears. “The damned boy won't go down. Someone's been eating their spinach.”

Then Jason was next to him. He knew it was Jason, because he could smell him. Jason's blood, his heartbeat, all of it was different from the rest of the crowd and yet somehow the same. He never really noticed before that he could hear people's hearts or smell their blood so acutely that he bet he could hazard a guess on what blood type they were.

Maybe it was the fact that he was damn near unconscious that allowed him to notice, or perhaps it was the blood loss that was starting to drive his hunger. He wasn't sure which one it was, all he really knew was that he was hungry, and they all smelled wonderful.

The smell of so many humans in close proximity was overwhelming. The beat of their hearts drowned out the impact of their clubs to such a degree that he was not even entirely aware at the moment as why or if they were still beating on him. A part of himself was screaming inside his head, but he wasn't sure why any part of himself would want to restrain from such a lovely, wide selection for harvest. It really didn't matter, and it wasn't like he was going to listen to it. In the end, he decided his choice by the rarity of the flavor.