Chapter 4

Little vampire, little vampire,

Is this a stake I see before me?

To plunge into thee's unbeating heart,

And end ones curses-id life?

Arthur didn't know what to make of the rhyme in a literature sense, but did he truly care? That rhyme was Ivan death sentence upon him...

… and he didn't feel much like dying.

Matthew had listened to the rhyme and felt fear and dread surge through him again. He felt fear for himself. Who on God's green earth was this man? He felt dread though for Arthur considering that Ivan had done nothing but stare at him since he arrived.

Matthew didn't need three guesses to know that this new arrival was the one who had hurt Arthur and made it necessary for him to break into his apartment only a few days before.

Arthur was being hunted.

"It is lucky I came across you, da? I thought you would be curled up in gutter or drain somewhere, dying a slow, painful death." Ivan emphasised 'slow' and 'painful' with child like glee in his eyes. Arthur stared hard at him to show he wasn't intimidated.

Ivan suddenly made a charge at Arthur. Arthur had expected nothing less, but it still wasn't a fight he wanted at that time. When he fought Ivan, he liked to pick the time and place. That way he could orchestrate it to his benefit. Ivan was simply too strong. Out of all the vampires and creatures that preferred the night that he had met, all of them feared Ivan's name. His reputation had preceded him.

Despite expecting the charge, Arthur wasn't fast enough to get out of the way. Normally he would have been, but with Matthew stood behind him if he had moved, Matthew would have been face to face with his sworn enemy.

Ivan had never thought twice about who he killed, good or bad. Killing was killing for him, and he enjoyed his job immensely. He had such a blood lust that he had been known to make vampires cringe.

Ivan lifted Arthur off the ground as though he weighed nothing before sending him crashing into a building wall before dropping to the ground. Arthur rolled off his front and onto his back, only to find Ivan approaching him. With no time to get up, Arthur scurried backwards away from the Russian the best he could, hoping to put enough distance between them so he could get back to his feet without head butting Ivan's stomach.

Ivan reached into one of his pockets. Arthur watched with dread as Ivan made to chuck holy water over him. Much to his shock though, Matthew had anticipated this and stood in between him and the holy water. To the Canadian, it was just water, but to Arthur it was a world of agony, shrieks and burns.

Matthew felt the cold water hit his face and soak his hair. He blinked as some of the droplets of water remained captured in his dark eyelashes. He rose his hands to wipe away the excess of the water.

Ivan made a charge against Matthew with plans on holding him as a hostage. No one stood in front of a vampire to defend them without some motive or attachment. Arthur in turn anticipated Ivan's actions and, leaping up from the floor, snatched Matthew by the clothes on his back and threw him behind him. Ivan grabbed Arthur by the throat and hauled him against the wall hard. Arthur's feet were no longer in contact with the ground and both his hands were gripping Ivan's arm, trying to take some pressure off his throat. Matthew watched horrified as Ivan reached for his gun with the silver bullets in it. Without thinking, Matthew launched himself at Ivan, only to be thrown off with a swift blow to the ribs. He fell to the ground in agony, his eyes meeting Arthur's in terror.

Arthur ground his teeth as his eyes met Ivan's. Ivan smiled his insane smile as he reached for his gun again. "Don't worry Arthur. I'm going to dispose of your … 'interest' too." He raised the gun and placed the barrel against Arthur's temple. "Say goodbye to your miserable, blood sucking life."

Matthew closed his eyes tightly, trying to convince himself that what was happening was a dream gone wrong. Arthur's expression was one of defiance but as Ivan made to pull the trigger, he thought it was all over.

The sound of a shot gun going off filled the ally.

Arthur fell back to the ground as the shot had thrown Ivan off him. Blinking his eyes in surprise that it wasn't him who had been shot, he looked up to see Ludwig stood at the entrance of the ally, a sawn off shotgun in his hands.

Matthew had opened his eyes again in curiosity. He didn't think that the gun Ivan had would make that kind of noise. It was a hand gun after all. His immediate relief when he saw Arthur alive though was obvious to Ludwig, who still held the Canadian in the realm of trouble maker.

Ivan groaned where he was sprawled on the ground. The shot wouldn't keep him down much longer. Arthur knew this and stood up, using the wall to aid him with one hand and massaging his throat with the other.

Ludwig sprinted past them, the gun once more safely tucked away under his black coat. Arthur grabbed Matthew's hand with intentions of dragging him behind him as he ran. However, as soon as Arthur's cool hand made contact with Matthew's warmer one, Arthur hissed in pain and quickly withdrew his hand to his chest. Matthew stood stunned. What had just happened? He stared at Arthur, not sure what to say as he watched the vampires wide, shocked eyes.

"Holy water." The vampire breathed.

Matthew mentally slapped himself. He had wiped the excess of the water from his face with his hands. After seeing Arthur's reaction to touching his now dry hand, he was glad he was the one to get covered in the water and not Arthur. He didn't want to think about the cries of agony Arthur would have given if the water had made contact with him.

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING? RUN!" Shouted Ludwig to them just before he disappeared around the far corner.

Ivan was in the process of sitting back up with intentions of reaching for his gun with the silver bullets. Arthur knew from history that Ivan was not mortal like Matthew was. If he had been, he would have done away with him centuries ago (simply through old age). Since he couldn't though, there was only one thing to do at that time.

Run.

Arthur started running after Ludwig, making sure every ten or fifteen seconds to check that Matthew was behind him.

Several shots rung out behind them. Matthew felt two go past him and a third grazing his arm. He could feel his blood start to pool around the wound and run down his arm. He comforted himself though in the knowledge that it could have been much worse.

Ivan, now stood, watched them go, his eyes shining with a light of mental instability. He would let them go this time. He liked hunting them. What would he do with himself when he had finally done away with them? Also, he now knew the lead vampire's soft spot.

Yes, he would let the little rabbits go this time.

He would be holding all the cards next time.

They won't be so lucky.

...

Arthur began to wonder if Ludwig would ever stop running. Not that he was having a problem keeping up with him; it was Matthew who was having the trouble. A long day at work does exhaust people. Also, he didn't have the additional strength granted to vampires.

Arthur was on the verge of throwing Matthew across his shoulders (taking care to miss where the holy water had hit the Canadian) when Ludwig turned into the entrance of an underground car park. The whole place was dimly lit and damp.

Deep inside, Ludwig stopped, secretly relieved that Arthur still had the ability to run after him. When he had first seen Arthur pinned against the wall, he didn't quite know what to expect. However, the Canadian was behind Arthur. This displeased his greatly. It was the Canadian's fault that they had had another run in with Ivan. If it hadn't been for him, they would have been out of London by now and Ivan would have been off their scent for a few days.

So much for how he wanted things to work out.

He would take it up with Arthur later.

"Who was that guy?" Matthew asked Arthur before looking back over his shoulder to check they hadn't been followed.

"That was Ivan." Arthur told him. "And he's made it his life passion to give us hell."

"He's doing his job." Ludwig reminded.

" You what my son? He's a right proper naughty, moody geezer!" Arthur eyes flashed with anger as his mind thought back to his latest encounter with the Russian.

"What?" Matthew asked. Against popular belief, he hadn't been in England that long and he didn't understand that sort of lingo yet.

"Oh. Sorry. Slipped into cockney there." Arthur flashed him a smile in apology.

"Still. He thinks it's his job." Ludwig broke in to stop a conversational tangent developing. It would be his luck to have both the Canadian and Englishman talking about chips in newspapers before long. Not very productive. "It is his job. He never ages."

"Just like us." Arthur commented dryly, a bitter undertone to his voice.

"He seemed to know you personally Arthur, like you go way back." Matthew said curiously. Ludwig looked up at Arthur with that comment.

"We've had many run ins over the years." Arthur dismissed the statement. Matthew knew there was something more to it, but decided to leave it alone. What Arthur said wasn't a lie; it just wasn't the whole truth, and now that his safety depended on the two vampires he wasn't about to go and fall out with them.

Ivan now knew him as a sympathiser (and an interest of Arthur's that Ivan had correctly denoted as blossoming love). If that didn't slap target across the Canadian's forehead, nothing would, though both were still oblivious that Ivan had reached that conclusion as they themselves hadn't reached it yet. Arthur knew lust when he saw it, but he was yet to understand what he felt or realise that the two of them had chemistry.

"What am I going to do?" Matthew asked. He was about to continue, but he was frightened of making Arthur think he regretted helping him.

Arthur looked at Ludwig. Ludwig's face dropped.

"Nein."

"Why not?"

"It's our home."

"I own it."

"He'll be among our kind."

"He'll be safe."

"Not with that perverted Frenchman around."

"Could say the same about your brother."

"You'll be sorry."

"Don't see how I will be."

Matthew watched the two quickly fight it out. Was Ludwig really as cold as he looked and acted?

Arthur ended the bickering by waving his hands in front of him and making a noise a bit like a angry bee. Matthew couldn't help but smile. He could tell that this was how they usually acted around one another.

Arthur turned to him, a delighted and reassuring smile on his face.

"Want to meet the family?"

A/N: Yes everybody, Ivan is back! Actually I don't think he went anywhere. ^o^ He's too well loved for that despite his … *cough* … tendencies. ^_^ And holy shit! First time for everything! I wrote a little poem. Granted, terrible poem with some word coinage thrown in, but I wasn't going for the 'now lets dissect this and see if Ivan has put any hidden meanings in it'. It was more … everyone, it's now the time to shit bricks.

I have the most colourful vocabulary. Thanks Arthur! ^o^