He hoped he hadn't walked all this way for nothing. The street was dark and wet by the heavy rain that just had stopped, allies was covered in filth and trash, which the rats really enjoyed. The smell really made him feel sick, but he ignored it as much as he could. It was complete darkness outside; the only thing that made it able to see was the small lamps on the sides of the street and the moon that was half visible on the sky. His long coat was lifted by the weak wind and the small chains on it hitted each other, made a calming sound. He sighed as he turned, no people was in sight, only the sound of rats and crows made him feel that he wasn't alone. He looked up, saw the sign he was looking for, smiled. The bar was open. As he was hoping for.
He slowly opened the wooden door; it laid off a sound alike a screaming cat when moving. Just as usual. Inside the bar desk stood on the same place, the small tables spread around in the room, the broken, bad looking, grey couch stood on the right spot in front of the TV. Also the usual drunks were there. The bartender, Chris Daily stood behind the desk and cleaned out some glasses. But he shined up when he saw the pale face of Darren by the door post.
"Darren! That wasn't yesterday!" he said in his usual grin as he stood there with open arms. Darren nodded a bit in a small smirk as he walked over to the desk, leaning over it.
"Sure was. Hey Chris." His tone sounded as his usual voice, but he was very tired, so it was hard to keep it like that. Mr. Daily still smirked at him while putting the glasses away on the shelf. He wore a filthy apron with no shirt under it and a pair of grey jeans. His hair was in stripes over his forehead and stood out in every way. Darren guessed that he'd just been with one of those whores he likes so much… it was playing loud music in the bar, drunk people danced around and laughed. Darren never really liked that kind of behaviour but he enjoyed to see it again. He snapped out of his thoughts as Mr. Daily placed down two strong beers and a bottle of whisky in front of him.
"It's on me." he said, still grinning. Darren smiled, took up one of the beer bottles and opened it with his nail. He took a deep sip of the cool drink, smiling big time, sighing happily.
"Sure have missed this place… and your beers." He said while finishing the whole bottle in just some second. Mr. Daily laughed.
"I can see that your drinking hasn't changed from last time you were here!" he still laughed while saying it. Darren chuckled, snatched the second bottle open.
"Well, Germany had a lot of bars too… so I've practiced." The smirk on his lips widened a bit while taking a sip, a deep one. The bottle was already half empty.
"Although Germany doesn't have these good beers…"
Mr. Daily smiled wider at him and putted up two beer cans on the desk too. He already knows well how much Darren can take before he passes out, and that's way more than 4 beers! Darren finished the bottle kinda fast and burped a bit before he took a pause to catch his breath.
"So, tell me now, what have you been doing for these months? I started to think that you'd started to go to another bar or something…" Mr. Daily said as he leaned closer to Darren over the desk.
"I would never go to another bar! I love this place!" he smiled while talking.
"But I've been and visiting some old friends in Germany…" he finished while opening one of the cans. He really didn't like to lie, especially not to a close friend, but he really didn't had any choice… he had to. He couldn't really tell that he's been on a task in Germany for to kill an ogre who had been stealing and killing for fun… (Darren does almost everything for money.) So since a part of the world's population doesn't know anything about the other human creatures that lurks around he couldn't say it. Mr. Daily is one of them, he has no idea about that it exists ogres, dragons, werewolves… vampires. Darren is a vampire… against his will. He got turned into a vampire when he was around eighteen or so, by his uncle. It's weird; his uncle was a vampire hunter, but also a vampire. But now when he thinks about it, it's a perfect plan… he had always hated Darren's family… so if he turned all of them into vampires he would have a good reason to kill them. He hadn't really thought about it in this way before but, now it felt a bit clearer. But then, the reason to why he got the job as a killer for hire was because he knows that his uncle still is out there somewhere… and he will get his revenge for killing his parents. If not, his uncle, Voltaire, will start to look for him too… since he survived when his parents didn't.
"I see…" Mr. Daily said in a weak grin. He sipped on a small glass of whisky now and then as he cleaned out some more glasses and yelled a bit at a drunk who had happened to crush a window when falling. Darren slowly drank from the beer can as he looked around in the bar, through the bottles and over the people who danced around and laughed out loud. The beer was soon gone again. He sighed in a smile with closed eyes. A crack was heard. Mr. Daily looked weird at him. No wonder since Darren had crushed the can against his forehead when it was empty. So now it was completely flat. And not a scratch was visible on his forehead. It was as pale as ever. If not more. Although he started to get a bit pink around his cheeks, he started to get a little drunk. Darren had luck, he wasn't that kind of guy who gets mad or complete random when he's drunk. He only gets some colour in his face and sometimes gazes off a bit in his own world. Else he's all the same. He opened the last beer can; soon he had drunk up it all.
"New record!" Mr. Daily said in his huge grin as he apparently had taken time on his drinking.
"20.3 seconds!" Darren burped again, and then crushed the can against his forehead just as the first one. Not a mark on his forehead now either. He smiled a bit as he looked at the left over's of the cans.
"Hey, wanna see a small trick?" he looked up at Mr. Daily, who had finished all the glasses and now just stood there and drank his whisky.
"Sure. What'd you got?" he asked and placed himself close to him. Darren smirked and picked the 'cans' (what were cans) up and placed one of them between his fingers. He aimed for the trash can on the other side of the desk, then snapped the 'can' away, it was thrown far too high than needed to hit the trash can, but then he just threw the other one against the first, they collided and the first one fell down, landed in the trashes, while the other one hitted the wall above, but then it ended up with to also land in the trashes. Mr. Daily laughed a bit.
"If cleaning was that fun all the time I would be the cleanest person in the world!" he said while laughing. Darren started to laugh too, in his normal low voice.
Suddenly they heard a loud crash and an even louder laugh coming from the billiard table. There stood a crowd around the table, with one of the guys laying all blacked out on the table. But the laugh was coming mostly from one guy… he was brown haired with his fringe covering his right eye, and gelled up on his head so it looked like horns, or… ears. He dressed usual. T-shirt, jeans, sneakers and a pair of gloves. He also wore kinda much makeup around his eyes. Completely black. He also had a piercing in his left eyebrow. He held in a beer bottle and was all red of his cheeks. He was completely drunk.
"Sigh… guys like that are so annoying…" Darren mumbled, looking away from the crowd again.
"Yeah… that guy is a pain in the ass… he's been here for almost as long time as you were gone…" Mr. Daily said after him, starring irritating at the other guy.
"Although, he's a paying customer. Can't argue with that…"
Darren sighed deeply as the guy cracked another loud laugh that echoed through his ears. He started to get really irritated, that's why he held up some whisky in a glass and held all of it in so he wouldn't feel so tense. He sighed deeply as he looked down in the desk a bit.
"God that felt good…" he mumbled as he leaned back on the chair. Mr. Daily smiled a bit, but even he was irritated at the guy. He who can stand almost any human. (Or woman.)
"I think his name is James… he's not from here… that much I know." Mr. Daily said while leaning back on his chair as he counted the night's money. Darren nodded a bit as he looked at the guy named James in the corner of his eye.
* * *
Even for being as drunk as James am right now he could feel the pale man's eyes fall on him all the time. He stopped laughing, looked a bit back at him. He really was pale… not only in his face but everywhere. His contrast black hair covered half of his eyes and lied nicely down over his head and almost reached his shoulders. He had a short sleeved long black coat with long chains and bands with spikes. He had a white filthy shirt under it, he must have tried to hide it, but he could easily tell where the blood stains had been clearly visible a while ago. His pants were black leather that looked like they'd been sewed on from shorts to long ones. He else had usual military boots, a pair of long black leather gloves with the same type of spikes as the belts on the coat. But what really catched his attention was the silver cross around his neck. As the creature he was, he couldn't stand silver… no matter the shape. His shape or the silver object's. It didn't matter, it still made him feel sick, so he made sure to keep his distance from the pale, black covered man. Being a werewolf doesn't really give him the best time of a life but oh well. He can't do anything about it. He's been cursed, and that's that!
The pale one glared at him, with those ice blue eyes of his. He gladly returned the glare with a teasing face instead of glaring back. That's how James does: he doesn't glare with no reason, and he's trying to hide his inner darkness as well. If he loses his temper he might be able to lose his control completely too. It would feel a bit embarrassing to shape shift into a wolf in the middle of a bar. Especially when all the others are human. Although, he couldn't shake the feeling off from him that this man is a bit… different than the others there. Maybe it was the pale skin, the clothing or those sharp, cold eyes but something with him wasn't right. The man stood up, finished a glass of whisky, and slammed the glass kinda hard down on the desk. He didn't take his eyes away from James during the whole time. He pulled up some money and laid it down on the desk, which the bartender gladly took.
"I think I've got enough for one night… see you later, Chris…" he said in a bit harsh voice, but James didn't know if he noticed how he sounded or not. The bartender nodded against him, he turned against the door. The long coat lifted up from the quick movements of the man's. He opened the door, which gave out that screaming sound again, still he didn't take his sight away from him. James still had the smirk playing on his lips, while this one looked all tense and cold as stone as he stepped out of the bar.
"See yah Darren…" the bartender said right before the door closed.
"Darren huh…?" James thought, still with the smirk. He sat down on a lonely chair in the corner with the bottle between his fingers. He couldn't get the picture of the man Darren glaring at him out of his head. No matter how much he tried. He chuckled mentally, smiling a bit wide.
"He was probably drunk or something…" he thought while finishing the bottle, paid and left the bar. When the door closed behind him, he felt the moon's light landing on him. He looked up, it wasn't full, but half… enough for him to start to feel a bit dizzy. And not because of the alcohol he's just been drinking, but because of him being a werewolf. He blinked, on the side of the moon a tower was, it looked like a church. But on the top of it… he saw something… no, someone standing there, on the point of the tower. His sight was much better than both humans and wolves together so he could clearly see him… a man in a long coat, with ice blue eyes, glaring down on him.
"Darren…" he apparently said out loud, without noticing it. The man on the tower point smirked wide, vanishing into shadows. James blinked, saw the man stand on the roof in front of him. He looked into Darren's eyes, even if he didn't want to, those cold and sharp, blue eyes could make anyone freeze.
"You're a werewolf aren't you?" Darren's deeply dark voice really went deep inside James's ears, he nodded a bit, looking away.
"Yeah… so what?" he replied shortly, while putting his hands in his pockets. Darren suddenly chuckled.
"No wonder I didn't like you…" he said lowly with a smirk playing on his lips. James blinked, looked up at the pale one. He starred wide eyed. Darren smirked wide, his teeth were visible. Fangs…
"Vampire…" James's voice was low, deep and harsh. Darren nodded a bit.
"Bingo…" the vampire moved down from the house roof.
"I really hope you're not from town as Chris said… else both of us will never get a moment of sleep now…"
James sighed deeply. Vampires and werewolves have forever been mortal enemies. To have just one of each in the same town can turn out in complete disaster. Vampires can't die, and werewolves are too stubborn to give up… so the whole city could easily be destroyed.
"True… and I'm living in Hastings… although, for now I'm working around here… so you'll have to deal with it for a while…" James said after a moment of silence. Darren gave him a death glare, growling.
"Well, don't blame me if you wake up with a bite mark on your neck sometime…" he said and vanished. James sighed deeply as he looked up in the sky, on the moon again.
"Great… a vampire of every freaking creature that exist on the world!" he thought pissed, slammed his fist into the house wall, it cracked, even though it was made out of stone. He hoped that his job here could be finished quick… so he could get way from there.
He sighed, slowly started to walk away from the alley, against his hotel. He needed to get away his headache from the alcohol… or the vampire's appearance.
