Hostel – Dangerous Prey
Paxton makes a more or less dirty escape
Of course a little trip to Europe had to end in shit. Of course. Paxton didn't know why he thought things would've turned out different. His mom was going to mock him for the rest of his life, not that his dad would be much more sympathetic to his situation.
But they just didn't get it!
Josh, his sweet, nice best friend, wanted to have a wild European experience, and Paxton couldn't possibly let him go alone! So they went, with Paxton's parents doing a very good job at the airport of not snorting at him and too seriously telling him, and Josh, to take care. They even had the gall, his friend told him with a smile later, to ask Josh to look after Paxton.
Him! Needing looking after! He loved Josh, don't get him wrong, but, seriously. Josh, protecting HIM? No way.
Then they were in freaking Slovakia because– Well, Paxton wasn't too sure why he agreed to the scheme, but Josh and their buddy Óli had agreed to follow the sleazy Alexei's advice and next thing he knew, Paxton was on a train to Slovakia and tying not to murder a creepy Dutch man.
No one could tell, but he could. The man was a danger to all around him, and Paxton was going to make sure he stayed the hell away from his friends.
They had fun, though, at the hostel, and with the suspicious girls they met. They all had sex one night, though Paxton never once allowed either his girl or Josh's to leave his sight, no matter how odd or perverted he seemed. By next morning, Paxton knew it was probably time to get the fuck away from Slovakia when Óli had disappeared and they couldn't find him.
The duo couldn't leave that day, though, because they'd lost the train and the next one would be early in the next morning. Josh was anxious as hell to leave, and Paxton could hardly blame him, but he tried his best to assure him that everything was going to be alright, he would make sure of it.
Paxton and Josh stuck together the entire day, walking around and trying to ignore the oddness of Óli's disappearance. The city was kind of a hole, though it did kind of help Paxton in using his superior sense of smell around to find a clue as to where their friend might've gone off to.
All Paxton got was a number of people who smelled an awful lot like the Dutch man on the train. It didn't bode well.
Everything came to a head at night. Josh and Paxton, at the latter's cool insistence, had remained at the hostel, and a few men came in the middle of the night and drugged them. Or, in Paxton's case, attempted to. His best friend was down for the count, but he was up and about, and knocking one of their assailants teeth out.
They definitely weren't expecting such forceful resistance, and tried to restrain him. For a moment, Paxton fought back, but then he just allowed himself to be drugged again, and he closed his eyes and evened out his breathing and pretended that they'd been successful.
He allowed his senses to soar, and he knew his friend and him were carted down the stairs and into a car. He made sure his friend was breathing and all, and allowed a cool assuredness to wash over him.
Alright. Time to see where the trail of blood ended.
It was an old fucking factory. The men roughly pulled Josh off the car and did the same to Paxton, who opened his eyes abruptly, startling the men, and about a minute later, they were all on the floor, and unless they were anywhere close to what he was, they were not getting the fuck up.
Damnit, Josh was down and they were in the middle of fucking nowhere. Now what?
With care, he put his friend back in the car and, after filching the car keys from one of the men, he locked it and stuffed the keys in his pocket.
Now, about that trail...
There was a long corridor with several doors well apart from one another, and Paxton's senses almost went on overdrive with the stench of blood and rotting flesh.
He found the place. Awesome.
One by one, Paxton entered the rooms and within moments he was out again, though with each room, his hands and clothes got wetter and wetter with blood. Thankfully, he had enough experience not to allow anyone's screams to travel for long, because oh, did he love having the element of surprise on his side.
"Well, well" – a woman who smelled nothing like the factory or any of the people Paxton slaughtered, said softly as he walked all the way back to the car. She was flanked by about a dozen well armed men – "What do we have here?"
"Not another lamb" – Paxton replied calmly, even as the men drew their weapons and pointed them at him. The woman chuckled coldly.
"No, that you are not. What are you, then, if not a lamb?"
Paxton opened a grin that would make his parents oh, so proud of him, and he showed his hands innocently, like blood wasn't literally caking them.
"I am a mere peacekeeper, ma'am. I'm sure you can appreciate the sentiment"
"There is something... Familiar about you"
"You may know my mother. She has told me of a place like this, once, a long time ago" – the young man's eyes shone unnaturally and the men shifted in place, fear stinking up the air.
"A peacekeeper" – she said softly – "Yes, I do believe I... May know who she is. The only person ever to escape us"
"First, not only" – Paxton corrected lazily.
"I'm afraid we cannot allow you, or your friend to leave"
"No, you're going to step aside and give us this lovely car, which I'm going to drive to our hostel, and then to the train station. You can pick it up there later" – she smiled.
"You have to be that woman's child, she had the same cheek"
"It's not cheek when it's exactly what I'm going to do, and you're going to let me"
"Why will I?"
"Because of two things" – he stepped forward, and again ignored the way the men looked at him – "One, I have just killed a bunch of your clients and their unfortunate prey, and I could easily do the same to you and your little guards"
"And the second?" – she questioned calmly as Paxton stopped some feet away from her.
"You know how my mother escaped from a place like this, once. Don't think my exit will be nearly as graceful as hers no doubt was"
"Are you going to offer the same as she did?"
"I'll do you one better" – like lighting, his hand was around her throat and for once, she showed some emotion as her eyes widened – "You will not come after me, or my friends. You will not even consider taking someone even remotely related to me in any fashion. In fact, if you find a connection between a potential prey and myself, you will let me know about it and I will give you the okay or not to go after them. And finally, yes, I will pay for the use of the car and your little employees. How do you feel about, say, ten murderers, rapists, what have you?"
"Twenty" – she negotiated, his hand tight around her frail neck.
"You do have guts, just like mom said. But no, ten. Take it or it's your neck. Literally"
"Ten, plus a personal one for me" – Paxton hummed and nodded, releasing her. She shuddered but after a few moments, looked just fine, even with the bruised and bloodied neck – "Are you at all interested in a position with us? Your mother refused us quite... Enthusiastically"
"I'm still in college, so no, not right now. But maybe after I graduate" – he smirked – "Do I have your word on this? Yours, and your little club's?"
"You do"
"Cool. I'm sure you can find my email or phone number, so let me know who you want, though it would be awesome if they were here in Europe while I'm still around, or back in the US"
"We'll be in touch"
"Don't forget, car's gonna be at train station in a few hours for the picking" – he waved them goodbye, and unlocked the car.
Josh was still in the backseat, dead to the world, but not literally.
Paxton drove calmly to the hostel, having memorized the way easily enough, though he stopped at a small house a few blocks away from there.
Alexei needed to be thanked for his tourism guidance, after all, just like his two female friends.