To Kiss a Killer

To Kiss a Killer

Chapter 11: The Vampire

In a daze of blurred complexion I tried to focus my sight, but the only thing I could make out was the discoloration of stone walls. The area surrounding me wasn’t any I could remember, let alone placing myself in to rest the day away. It was dark in the vicinity, chalky echoes of my breathing reverberating off the walls to hum in my ears.

I was lying in a corner dressed in nothing but a rag to cover my privates, and a tattered cloak to bring covering to the top half of my body. When I tried to move, I told my brain to build strength in my heavy body to stand. Once I had myself up, I looked over my hands and feet, taking notice to my right ankle being chained to a shackle. I was on the verge of panic, worrying deeply if I’d been captured in my sleep and dragged to a Slayer Public’s ward. If that was the case then my life was close to ending and the hunt for Demiesius would be that much easier for the humans. If I died, his life would likely already be over.

I took a step forward, dropping to my knees to yank my ankle from the shackle, but nothing was possible, because though I couldn’t feel it somehow, my skin was burning from the silver making up the chain. I was trapped, wedged in an unknown room without help, without a source to call upon. Even if I called out in plea to see my criminal’s face, my voice wouldn’t be able to reach passed the iron bars guarding thick, locked, compact metal door.

I moved to a distance as far as the chain would take me and almost slipped in a puddle of water formed from a dripping in the center of the vast gloomy stone room. Catching my balance I looked down into the rippling water, but when I tried to make out my face… the intense blur was not mine.

My eyes shot open from my dream state to the welcoming of the moonlight shining through my bedroom door. I haven’t had a dream in over five hundred years; my days of sleep were always clouded with darkness as my body took in the rest. This was the first time in an extensive amount of time that an image has crossed my mind… It was strange, but still I could think nothing of it. The face in my dream was undefined and faded from color and shadowed by the dimness of the water on the ground.

Moving out of bed after pushing the sheets off me, I washed up with a quick shower and dressed myself in a pair of black jeans, boots, and black button up shirt. Taming my hair, I tried my hardest to get rid of the bugging dangle in front of my forehead, but still proved cutting it did nothing… like it never did ever since I was turned. It would simply grow back seconds later, just as long, and just as bothersome.

Time to go see Ciel.

“Oh, good-evening,” Demiesius said when I took the first step out of the sweet. He stood before me in a navy business suit and his hair held back in a midway tail. His smile troubled me; not only has he become somewhat different since the past few nights, but as of late when he officially entered my personal life, he’d turned himself into a problem for my love life.

Not trying to come off as concerned, I said, “Good-evening; did you need to talk to me about something?”

Demiesius clasped his hands together, “Why, yes, I did indeed. Come,” he motioned for me to go back into my sweet, and I took a seat on the couch while he remained standing. His dominance over me made me naturally cautious when it came to questioning him, but what with his sudden involvement in my time… I feared there were many things to worry about.

He faced me after looking over a glass figurine of a cartoon vampire and set it back down. “I wish something of you, Dominick,” he said, something that vexed my nerves. “This… task, as the slayers call it, will not be difficult in the least. All I merely wish of you is to travel to the slayer’s residents and obtain the items that belonged to Hamilton. You can do that for me, can’t you?”

Without means to question him, I nodded, “Yes, sir; I can, but I’ll have to ask of assistance from Nate. Will that be alright?”

“As long as you get it done; I’d like to have my things before the next sunrise.”

I nodded that I understood and he left my room, waiting long seconds before grasping the handle of a vase beside the table lamp and chucking it against the wall, the glass shattering. Is he trying to ruin my relationship with Ciel on purpose, or is he having fun with this? If he’s actually after something he deems critical, I’d be more than happy to oblige in helping him in any way I possibly can, but when he adds the possible destruction of my love life, I feel things just may be going a little too far. How on earth am I supposed to just show up at Ciel’s house and take the box Julius has hidden filled with Hamilton’s old belongings. There’s no way in hell Ciel will be willing to hand over his idol’s old possessions… especially if Julius or Georg is still there.

However, I do want to see Ciel tonight and there was no way I could perhaps turn my back on my maker’s request.

Unsettled with the decision to go through with Demiesius’ wish, I grabbed my black coat from the rack in the hall closet, and the keys to my black 2010 Toyota Supra I rarely used. When I had everything, I headed down the hall to the room Nate was staying in for the time being and knocked on his door. “Yo, Nate,” I said, “Mind helping me out for a bit?”

The door swung open to his eager and more than willing smile, “Hell, yeah; I’m board as hell, let’s go.”

I dropped in the driver side of the Supra and gripped the steering wheel, taking what time I needed to think things through. How was I going to approach the house? What if Julius was home? What if Georg reacted to my presence with violence? But most of all, what would Ciel think of me when he figures out I stole the Hamilton box? It would only be a matter of time after I took it that they would find out. If Demiesius was gritty to have it, it was likely Julius would turn the world upside down to find it again.

What was so special about it? I still hadn’t a clue.

“Something wrong, buddy-ol-pal?” I heard Nate when he settled in the passenger seat. “You look a little down?”

I gave life to the purring engine, “Nothing really; I just can’t get passed the new Demiesius. He’s become different from what he used to be. He used to be so caught up with work and the Association that he barely had time to check in with me. The last assignment I handled was a little over month ago, but he’s not making me go through with this one… with killing Ciel… you know, the slayer I pulled from the fire.”

Nate awed, “How’s that coming alone, anyways? I’ve been needing to ask you about this taboo relationship you’ve formed with a slayer. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

I nodded pulling out of the garage at the backside of the Association building and turned onto the main quiet road. “It’s going on a lot better than I expected. We may have our differences every now and again, but I think I’m finally piecing him together. He only really gets upset with me when someone else… like you for instance, positions themselves either with me in any given manner, or maybe someone that I know personally but he doesn’t. Like that night you got wasted at V-Nish and ran into me when I was on the phone outside. Well, I was talking to Ciel on the phone, and he heard you in the background when you were said you were drunk. He suspected I was going to sleep with you; same thing with Demiesius. I know it’s likely they’ll never get along, but even if they both end up not accepting each other in the world… I have a feeling it’ll make my correlation with them both more complex than it has to be.”

I breathed out, “I don’t know, but Ciel is a real complicated, yet understanding, person. I wouldn’t blame him for anything since being in the Public has restricted him from having an actual life. He’s not too sure how to handle most things in our growing relationship, and even if he does piss me off, or I piss him off, I sit well knowing I’ll be able to work it out for both of us.” I let out another breath, this one under more distress. “Sometimes I wonder, though, if I’ll be able to really handle what we have. I’m not ashamed to say I love him, because I do, and there’s no hiding it anymore. I just worry about our future; what’ll become of us in the next year… ten years.”

Thinking about it wasn’t something I wanted to hassle my mind with, but the thought was something that crossed every vampire’s mind that fell in love with a human. Watching them age, as they grow old… and like everyone else… eventually die. I don’t know what I’d do if that were to be our love’s fate. I couldn’t sit back and watch as his skin began to wrinkle… his voice begin to change, and all together, his life fade away. That was one thing I know for a fact I wouldn’t be able to go through with.

Ciel is everything… would always be everything to me… he couldn’t die on me; not now, and not in fifty years. He was mine, and I wouldn’t let anything take him from me… not even time.

Nate said, “You really feel this much for this human?”

It took me a while to answer him, but only for my will the force the wretched notion of Ciel slowly dying as the years went on aside. “Yeah,” I almost cracked, “I do.”

The rest of the ride was silence until I turned onto Ciel’s street. I pulled the car to a stop and double checked to make sure Julius’ car wasn’t there. I remembered Ciel telling me that Julius left around a certain time, and I was grateful that I picked the perfect chance to go through with Demiesius’ will. I drove the car up in front of Ciel’s house and killed the hum of the engine. I glanced toward Nate who looked more than ready, “You go for Georg,” I said first, “But whatever you do, do NOT kill him. I don’t what to see any bit wounds, no bruises… no nothing. All I want from you is to seize him by his mind, and restrain him in the living room. If you doing anything more I swear… okay?”

He nodded with a knowing smile; one that told me he hoped Georg would put up a fight. “Alright, I’ve got Ciel. When I’m done, I want you to make Georg sleep. That’s it.”

Agreeing to everything after I felt I had to explain myself twice more, Nate and I climbed out of the Supra and started up the driveway to the front door. All the while I couldn’t help but suspect we were being watched, but when nothing seemed out of order, I raised my fist to the door, cursed myself to doing this to Ciel, and knocked.

Several seconds passed before the knob jiggled and Georg opened the door. He was dressed down in his pajama pants, without a shirt, and his dark hair flopped to one side. I guessed he’d been lying down before from the look of sleep in his eyes.

Nate moved passed me in a flash, overlapping his mindset by forcing his own thoughts upon him. Georg lost his footing and almost crumbled to the ground. Nate grasped his limp body by his arm and lugged him back inside, dragged him into the living room area and setting him on the couch. It was odd seeing someone like Nate, since he was a bit smaller than Georg, overpower someone, but that’s one of the perks about being a vampire; size never mattered.

There was a rustle that came from upstairs when I closed the front door. “Who’s at the door?” Ciel’s voice came, intended for his now passed out brother.

Doing this to him pounded at me in knowing it was wrong, but there was no turning back…not like I had a choice.

I headed for the stairwell and started up. I caught Ciel’s gaze when he rounded the archway to the top floor downing, dressed in his night shorts and a loose shirt. “Dom, what are you-?”

I clutched his mindset before he could finish. He wouldn’t remember a thing once he woke up. I grabbed hold of him before he could tumble down the stairs and brought his light body in my arms, cradling his loose figure. “I’m sorry,” I said aloud although he couldn’t hear me.

I carried him to the room I suspected to be his, a lot less boyish than to one that seemed to belong to Georg, and set his body under his bedding covers. When I had him down, I stepped back, looking over his unaware sleeping face. “I’m sorry,” I said again before moving out of the room.

Going through each other room on the second floor, I stepped beside one that was the only one closed and locked, only reachable with a key. I gripped the golden knob with force and turned until the bolt snapped. Letting the knob fall from my hand, I pushed opened the door and went inside. It was the neatest, most plain room in the house; nothing but a bed and a dresser that seemed unused. Recalling the bed, I knelt and sure enough there was a chest-like structure hidden underneath it.

I worked the chest from under the bed and sat it on top of it. When curiosity struck me, I broke the additional lock with a thrust of my fingers and tossed it. I flipped the top open and inside laid several items. There were more than a few dated folders that went all the way back to 1955 to 1973.

There was a dusty black and white picture of Hamilton in his youth, standing alongside another boy younger than he. He looked younger than his current age of early thirties, blonde hair, nicely bone structured face, and faded eyes. I turned it over in my hands and read the back: Hamilton H. Hamilton & Julius Dalton. There was another much smaller box placed inside, but not wanting to waste anymore time that I might have, I let it be and gathered the chest in my arms.

I carted the chest out of the room; stopping by Ciel’s to see that he was still sleeping peacefully in his warm bed. I wanted to wake him up and explain what I was doing, to tell him I loved him before taking off with something that seemed of great value to his family.

I wish it’d be just that easy to negotiate with him about what was going on, but he’d hold me back, and I was bound to fulfill Demiesius’ request weather I liked it or not. I didn’t want to have to use force on Ciel, so leaving him completely unaware was my best option.

After setting the chest on my shoulder, I headed down the stairs and found Nate in the living room craving a bite from Georg. “Please tell me you didn’t feed…?”

Nate’s eyes were filled with hunger, but his stomach was still empty. “Do you have any idea of how stupid I’m not?” he joked, “Why would I go against your orders? You may not be my maker, but I know enough not to neglect your commands.” He stood from the couch, Georg finding a awkward comfortable position on the cushions as he slept. “I’m ready when you are. The faster we go, the faster I can eat.”

By the time we made it back to the Association building Nate left my side to go enlighten his fangs while I went inside to face my maker.

Demiesius was up in his office as usual with another vampire at his side, his Trojo replacement named Earl Deans. He waved Earl out of the room as I carried in the massive chest and set it on top of Demiesius’ desk.

He looked over the chest in some sort of awe I didn’t understand and flipped it open. “At last,” he said, and then wailed, “At last!” He turned to me, bringing me in to a tight lung bursting embrace. “Thank you so much, Dominick; you don’t know how much this… thank you so much. If there is anything at all I can get for you, something to feed on, perhaps? Anything your heart desires.”

I knew what my heart desired, what I wanted more than anything at the moment. It was to not feel so guilty for likely corrupting Ciel’s daily life. When Julius finds his bedroom broken into and the boys passed out, he’s sure to know vampire was written on over the scandal, and in that moment, Ciel would resent me more than he ever had. I was almost sure a spark of hate could ignite inside his small body, but the hate would be so gigantic that even my heart would skip a beat in regret. Apologizing a head of time was something I considered, but without his phone, getting a hold of him on my own was risky.

If there is anyway Ciel could find it in himself to forgive me when he realizes what I’ve done, I held optimism in knowing his hatred would be true. Though, I clenched to my faith in his heart tighter. He’d forgive me. He’d forgive me.