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Chapter 6
The next night was humid. Full moon. Perfect for the hunt. After doing a final check of his gear (not that anything was out of order), the Renegade stepped to the vampire's cell and opened the door, bringing the lasers down, and his plasmacaster up and ready. He made a show of not even glancing at her while it trained directly on her heart, the three-point targeting steady. Not because it was necessary, of course. But simply to make a point. If she wavered or disobeyed he would not even need to focus to end her.
"Out."
Eva glared at her captor. The seemingly insurmountable advantages the creature had stung. But it was the arrogance and easy contempt that really made her blood boil. She was just an animal in a cage to this alien. If she saw a leash she'd lose it and claw his heart out, lasers or no.
The Renegade had in fact considered a physical tether, but dismissed it as too impractical. He needed the freedom of movement to leap across rooftops and scale the human structures in his path. The parasite was more agile than a human but she would never keep up. And the thought of being chained to her, even if he was in control was too repulsive.
The hunter instead turned back to technology for a solution. The vampire had already been tagged with a tracker. There was little danger of her escaping to where he could not follow, or indeed doing so before he destroyed her. The only thing that remained was finding a way to steer her from a distance. The solution had come to him during his own quest to feed. On previous outings, he had spotted a human shop that sold raw meat. For extended hunts, a warrior was expected to find larger storehouses or processing centers of meat so that their intake might not be noticed by the humans. The Renegade had heard of a hunter of a different clan that had been tracked and ultimately dishonored because he had been too careless with his feeding.
But the Renegade did not plan to be on this planet long enough for the humans to notice his feeding. And luck was with the yautja, for on the night he decided to acquire his sustenance, the shop had a late delivery. He could steal the meat right from the open truck and leave no evidence of breaking into the shop itself. As the Renegade cautiously approached the truck he stopped and was momentarily puzzled by what appeared to be a human talking to himself.
Further inspection revealed a small device in his right ear. And when the Renegade scanned it with his mask, he discovered it emitted a short-wave radio signal. A communicator of some kind. But it was merely a relay, not the source. The true communication device was in a pocket in the human's clothing. Still a primitive design overall, but it was noticeably more advanced than the portable technology civilian humans employed the last time the Renegade had hunted. This was why despite the softness of their flesh and the backward, self-destructive tendencies most of them displayed; the humans were some of the most prized and most carefully regulated prey. Yes, they appeared laughably frail. But their intelligence and cunning could rival that of yautja themselves. If they were given a boost by having advanced technology to study… well, there would no longer be a meaningful gap between predator and prey. And if the prey suddenly developed comparable physical strength, agelessness and parasitic tendencies… that alternative was unthinkable.
As the human went inside to finalize the delivery, the Renegade jumped down and quickly leaped into the truck. He selected the largest cut of meat he could find and had scaled the building with his prize well before the human returned. He was about to leave altogether when the idea for the earpiece entered his head. As he returned to the edge of the roof the human entered the truck to begin unloading. Though he felt the truck shift with added weight, he never felt the blow that rendered him unconscious.
"A Nokia with a Bluetooth? All for me? Metalface, you shouldn't have!" Eva asked mockingly as the alien thrust the devices in her hands. Or rather, the hideously long fleshy claws that were still growing into her hands. The alien's lasers had instantly cauterized the stumps. With nothing else to use, she'd had to basically gnaw the wounds open in order to start the regeneration. Just one more thing she needed to pay this extraterrestrial asshole back for. When no reply came she continued.
"I hope you sprung for the unlimited evenings and weekends plan. I'm not really up to texting at the moment," She raised the cell phone awkwardly, the digits barely strong enough to keep from dropping it. Why would he give this to her? He had to know what it was for. Was he expecting her to call for backup?
"The small device is for your ear," the mechanical voice came at last. "It transmits to and from the larger device which transmits to and from my helmet. A pause. "Only my helmet."
So that was the plan. Looking at the back of the phone it was clear the alien had stripped it and clumsily reattached the back cover, only as an afterthought. "My own private hotline to a murderous ET," she purred. "How exciting."
"You will place the small device in your ear. You will place the large device in a fold of your clothing. Through them I will communicate with you from a distance. If you lose either, or do not respond, I will kill you."
"Uhm, do you see a 'fold of my clothing' anywhere?" Eva retorted. "This getup didn't have a lot of pockets, even before you cut me up and dragged me across town in barbed wire."
The alien moved off around the cell. A moment later he returned with a large red jacket which he unceremoniously shoved at her. Unable to grip it with her hook fingers the garment fell to the floor along with the phone and headset. Eva swore, as furious with her helplessness as with the cause of it, standing unmoved in front of her.
"Wear the red clothing. It has… pockets," the voice paused, almost mockingly as it used the new word. "It will also hide your torn clothing and deflect questioning from nearby humans. Place the large device in a pocket and the small device in your ear."
"Wait, humans?" Eva asked, her frustration with the stilted orders momentarily forgotten. "You're gonna let me just walk down the street?"
"You will take me to Samuel's lair. You will walk on the ground. You may encounter humans. You are not to draw their attention, even discourage it if necessary. I will follow, unseen from above. If you deviate from my orders I will kill you."
"Yeah I got that part," Eva snorted. "But after I show you to Samuel's you let me go."
"Yes."
"Right. Like when you said you'd capture Blade," Eva smirked. "Why should I trust you?"
"You have no choice."
Eva glared at him. A pointless exercise. The metal mask might've been intimidating in design but it revealed nothing. Fuck. She hated being this helpless, this weak. She'd never been this powerless, not since being human. But she'd crawled out of that hellhole that had been her mortal life long ago and she swore she'd never get that pathetic again. No. She wasn't the weakling she'd been. Not now, not ever again. It wasn't her fangs that made her strong. She'd sharpened her mind, long before she'd sharpened her canines. And it was the former that would put her on top.
"There's always a choice, my alien friend," she intoned sweetly as if a voice from her past was accompanying her words. "I could make you kill me before I lead you anywhere. I might even resign myself to be eaten alive by my disgraceful undead progeny in the next cell. The suffering might just be worth denying you an easy prize."
Her voice turned to ice. "If you really want to study vampires, hell, study humans, because that's where we all really come from, listen up. Because this lesson is more important than whatever biology stats your little bug's feeding you. And the lesson is this: never take us for granted. Yes, some of us are weak, pitiful, not even worth killing."
"But some of us are strong, even if we can't scale rooftops or rip someone's head off with our bare hands. And all of us have limits. All of us have breaking points. Push us beyond those points and you might not be happy you did. Because some of us are crazy enough to burn, just to ruin your day." She moved in closer until she was practically boring into the lenses where she assumed the creature's eyes were. She was actually staring down a creature that towered over her and could turn her head to a fine red mist without so much as raising a finger.
"Some of us will gladly get torn to pieces, if it means we get the opportunity to… just give you the finger," she finished with a raised claw one-fingered salute.
The alien said nothing for several moments. Eva remained poised, like a snake about to strike. Though the longer she held, the sillier she felt as the almost righteous anger of her little speech faded, she resolved to not move until she got a reaction from the creature, any reaction. If it turned out to be violent… well, the strength of her convictions would be tested. The reaction finally came, though not as a blade to the gut or the vaporization of her head but as a mere question.
"What do you want?"
She let out a breath she didn't even know she'd been holding. The tension eased, both out of her body and out of the room, though a subtle sense told her something had changed.
"I don't trust you. You made a deal before and as soon as you were able to, you broke it. You're here for something, something I can help you get. Maybe you can do it without me, but seeing as how you went through all this trouble to set up these cages and keep me locked up, I'd say it's a good fucking bet you either can't, or it would take too long."
"So you don't kill me, even though you can, and even though you want to. Oh yes, I can tell you want to," she smirked. "With all the shit I've been causing for you, you're just dying to kill me. You're burning to do it. You're a killer. You may be from another galaxy or whatever, but you're a killer. That same need is there. I can tell. Takes one to know one, after all."
"And there's more to it than that. Optical camouflage, lasers, skulls for trophies…. You hunt people, don't you? And you're not keen on them knowing about it. The demons who make trophies of man," she muttered. The alien stirred with what could've been surprise.
"How do you know this?" it asked.
"Let me clue you in on another fun fact about humans," she replied with a laugh. "From one creature of legend to another: people talk. Humans for the most part may be ignorant of how the world really is but they have stories. Fiction about ghosts and goblins and vampires… and about invisible demons who stalk people during heat waves and skin them alive, or burn them with their magic. It's all make-believe. But sometimes… they're true." She grinned, exposing fangs.
"But you say these accounts are not believed," the alien said.
"Usually they're not," Eva shrugged. "God knows we've got enough bullshit being fed to the masses. Who's going to pay attention to another urban legend? Vampires certainly didn't. At least not until our own people started reporting them. Until one of the most ruthless and sadistic warlords in our world vanished without a trace while his hideout was riddled with flayed bodies and piles of ash. Blade was in the area but even he doesn't get off on the raw muscle look. So, was it anyone you know?"
Her captor didn't respond but Eva didn't need him to. "I thought so. Of course there's never any evidence. But then, that's the point isn't it? No evidence, no witnesses. Which means that even if we didn't have this charming relationship, you'd dust my ass the minute my use ended wouldn't you?"
"Yes."
Eva was momentarily thrown by the stark confession, but she recovered quickly. "Of course. It's only natural. We conceal ourselves from the humans as well. See how we're really not that different?
The creature bristled at this but Eva continued. "Anyway while this has been an interesting heart-to-heart, let's get back to the problem at hand. You're going to kill me anyway, so what incentive do I have to help you?"
"A painless death, instead of being eaten alive by your undead,"
"Not good enough," she admonished. "And in this case, no longer applicable. Have you considered that I might play along only until we're out in the street, at which point I'd make a run for it? Unless you plan to drag the revenant with you, you would be forced to kill me quick, before I give away your secret."
"Yet you reveal this plan to me."
"Yeah and that's the point. I can't trust you, and now you can't trust me," Eva grinned. "Another lesson for you, Metalface: don't bring in deception unless you're ready to deal with it."
The Renegade stood very still for a long time watching this vampire, this infected human, this loathsome creature as her translated words ricocheted in his mind. The mechanical translation was hollow but the tone of her voice, her posture, and several other micro factors the mask picked up and displayed in stark clarity filled that void with something more.
Astonishingly this creature had ceased to be prey. He had heard of other hunters being halted or even defeated by those they stalked. These champions, prey no more earned a measure of respect and in some cases, their lives. The Renegade had never encountered this himself until now. But letting this creature live was unthinkable. And despite her claims there was no implied agreement and understanding between them. She was… an enemy. And for all his fierceness and clashes with his own kind, he'd never truly had one of those either. It was… unsettling.
A different game would have to be played. One of deceptions and manipulations of a different sort from what he'd done before. More disturbingly, one that skirted the edge of honor… and crossed it.
"We are similar," he intoned. "I was wrong."
Eva's jaw dropped. "Come again?"
"You are not prey. You are hunter."
"Damn straight," she said with a wolfish grin. "Nice to see you're warming up to me. That doesn't answer my question though."
"You are hunter," The Renegade continued, ignoring her. "But more importantly, you are enemy."
"Is there a reason you're stating the obvious, Metalface?"
"Help me, and I will offer you an honorable duel."
"Really?" Eva snorted. "And what would be honorable? You impale me with those pig stickers on your wrist? Shoot me with your little razor net again?"
"Hand to hand. No weapons, no tricks. A true warrior's battle." And with that the Renegade unhooked first the air hose and then the power cables to his mask. One side, and then the other, moving slowly, reverently. The mask darkened and for a moment he was blind. His deliberate movements meant she had to know he was vulnerable. Would she strike? He paused for a moment fingers tightening on his mask. No attack came. Part of him was disappointed. Slowly he lowered the mask and stared at her naturally for the first time, unaided by his mask's filters, mandibles clicking.
Eva's eyes were as wide as they got as she watched the alien monster remove his mask. From the first hissing hose it was clear what he was doing. It also clued her into the fact that he was on pressurized air or at least some kind of filtration system. Useful knowledge for later. When the mask was unhooked and his fingers grasped the front of it with exaggerated slowness she barely restrained herself from scoffing at the obvious baited opening. Yet strangely she still didn't believe he would actually remove the mask. It clearly had some nifty visual enhancements in addition to the translating and breathing functions she'd already seen but she suspected there was also a psychological or cultural significance behind the mask. Masks obscured facial features; they were barriers between the world and who the wearer really was. Revealing himself to her wasn't just putting him at a physical disadvantage. The act itself had deeper mental connotations. Despite everything her curiosity had never been higher.
The mask came down. And though she was a hardened predator herself, shrinking back proved inevitable. She hadn't expected to find him cute and fluffy after all she'd seen him do. But the visage staring back at her was truly nightmarish. Sunken yellow eyes glared at her from beneath heavy brows that appeared to bristle with spikes. More black spikes dotted the wide forehead, tan and grey with darker splotches, growing darker and bonier as they extended into ridges before finally terminating on the sides at the "hairline", if you could call it that, where the dreadlock-like extensions began. The maw however unnerved her most. Four wicked looking mandibles jutted out over a surprisingly small inner mouth, though even that was ringed with razor sharp teeth. The mandibles clicked against each other then slowly expanded. And then with no warning they flew wide open as the creature roared.
She immediately jerked back and away from him. Though she would hate herself for giving ground and cringing like that once the roar subsided, she had no choice. The terror it evoked was primal. The mandibles extended farther out from his face than should've been biologically possible and even the inner mouth that had looked too small seemed wide and gaping. For a split second she thought he would fall on her and devourer her with that terrible maw and truly believed there was nothing she could do about it. As for the roar itself it felt like it reached into her very soul and simply shredded it. Once the shock died down cynicism and anger would return, at herself for flinching and at this alien, for a great many things. But one thing she was sure of now, intimidation was surely not one of the intended effects of that mask. Soulless as it looked, it had nothing on the creature's true face.
"Well," she said, shaken but proud her voice remained steady. "You're certainly one ugly…. son of a bitch."
A moment passed when both were silent.
"Rrrryyou hunterrr," it suddenly spoke. Eva didn't even bother to hide her surprise. All of their communication thus far had been mechanically assisted. But now the alien was speaking to her directly. And for all the clicks and snarls she understood him. And that nod that just accompanied it had seemed… almost respectful. Ludicrous.
"Rrrrhelp me hunt,"
"Help you what?" her confusion and disbelief mounted. She didn't like this new turn. As if the creature's terrifying countenance wasn't enough.
Instead of replying, the alien moved took a step back and placed his mask on a nearby crate. He turned back and raised his right arm. Wicked-looking blades shot out of his gauntlet. Eva tensed. But violence was not the beast's intent. Instead to her utter shock he casually scraped one point across his left wrist, below the other gauntlet. A bright fluorescent green liquid started welling up. And though the color and circumstance were utterly alien and bizarre to her, it was not in her body's nature to ignore that which it craved most.
"Rrrrhelp me. And rrrrewarrrds arrre yourrrs," he extended his exposed wrist towards her.
A part of her expected a trap. Warring instincts, to feed, to fight, to flee raged within her. But ultimately she was barely aware of closing the gap as she took two quick strides, seized his arm and brought the blood up to her mouth in once swift motion.
The Renegade watched as the vampire struggled with a decision that was really not much of one at all. Without his mask he could not pick up the subtle micro changes in her facial expression or internal heat emissions. But given how addicted their kind was to blood he hadn't anticipated much hesitation at all. His own emotions were roiling. What he had done, what he was doing still was utterly unthinkable. It repulsed him on levels he hadn't even been aware of. But he could not deny that another part of him was fascinated. Fascinated with scuffing the line, fascinated with this game of manipulation, and in a twisted way yes, even fascinated with his opponent.
His kind were hunters. Very advanced technologically but ultimately a simple people, governed by honor and traditions spanning millennia. There were no webs of deceit, no layers of trickery among his people. Even Bad Bloods running outside the code of the hunt were simple brutes, sadistic and little else. But to inhabit a level of society where concealing your very existence was commonplace and where you baited, lured and trapped your prey without so much as a blade… this was a different sport. A different jungle to hunt. One the Renegade realized his people were poorly suited for. And one he was looking forward to mastering.
Eva drank deeply of the alien fluid. The creature's skin was warm, far warmer than a human and a bit clammy though not as slimy as she'd expected. It wouldn't have mattered if it was falling off however. After all she had endured; blood! And so rich a specimen. The part of her that still saw the world as a human had been wary of the color. But the vampire body she now possessed all but sang at its vitality. It was clear the creature breathed oxygen. Hemoglobin was in abundance. Perhaps a higher concentration even, with maybe a hint more nitrogen. But ultimately the chemistry didn't interest her. The kick did. It was strong. She kept drinking, tightened her grip. When her fangs finally nicked skin, he pushed her back. She didn't even mind.
"Oh Metalface, I gotta tell you I was wrong about you too," she squeaked. "I thought you were just an alien dirtbag. But you're the primo stuff."
"This," she said pointing to his wrist. Then seeming to find this hilarious she broke out in hysterical laughter. "No wait, this!" she pointed to a small drip of green on her chin as she tried to speak past the heckling.
"This is the shit! I mean, fuck I'll take you to my mother's if I can get another hit of-"
The rest was cut off as she tripped and unceremoniously landed on her ass back in her cell. Her rising inebriation should've set off alarm bells but the haze drowned them out in a pleasant buzzing. She giggled, burped and giggled again. Her head spun. She was laughing uncontrollably now. The high was incredible. Seconds seem to stretch into hours of pleasure.
She no longer felt the cell walls, her tattered dress, her mangled hands. She just felt bliss. No wait, she could feel her hands. A sort of itching and scraping in her hands actually. She looked down and saw her hands were shifting, healing. The freakish claws shrank, softened and became her own flawless digits. She squealed in delight, waving and twirling them madly, like a child who just couldn't keep still. She felt other cuts she hadn't even been aware of similarly closing.
This was good. So good. Better than the cloned stuff. Better than any human she'd ever had. Too good in fact. Too strong.
She choked, spitting some out. Bright green blood dripped down her chin as she tried to get up.
"What the fu-" she slurred. "What is this? What did you…"
She fell back. The buzzing became less pleasant, more droning and insistent. Like a swarm of insects. Her lightheadedness seemed to reverse polarity almost instantly and her head felt like it was collapsing in on itself. Her body, healing to perfection moments ago now screamed at her in overload. More blood spurted down her chin. Her ears popped with a wet bang. Fluid now started seeping from her nose as her body was wracked with convulsions. Tentatively she put a finger to it. It came away bloody, a sickening mix of green and her own red. Her eyes tinted that same color and with utter horror she realized the same fluid was spurting from them as well as her ears. She screamed then full bodied, not caring who heard or how she looked, just a hoarse cry that seemed to ululate forever until she finally collapsed in a bloody heap.
The Renegade watched her reactions from pleasure to pain to oblivion. He had observed the euphoric reactions of vampires feeding. Understanding what they fed on specifically had enabled him to make a reasonable guess as to what his own fluid might do to them. He hadn't expected it to be quite so extreme however. He also hadn't counted on the accelerated healing. Still he admitted to himself that the visceral nature of it was of some satisfaction for his troubles and the ultimate result was indisputable.
He bent down and picked up the discarded phone and jacket and placed them on the crate. Next he reconnected his mask and breathed a small unacknowledged sigh of relief when the world was once again sharply filtered through its systems. The loss of blood, combined with the lighter atmosphere were starting to make him woozy. But he was not so easily incapacitated. He was also no fool. He quickly strode over to the science module. Feeding this creature was one thing, but he certainly had no wish to become like it. He wasn't sure if the virus could cross species but he had no intention of finding out for himself. He didn't even wince as he stuck two probes in the cut. He ran every single scan he could think of. After a long pause the machine finally beeped. Results began scrolling across his HUD.
Nothing…wait. There it was. The tinniest nick, a handful of molecules and they had almost gone undetected even by advanced yautja technology. The module was already cooking up antibodies. The Renegade wasted no time injecting them. Fire shot up his arm and he resisted roaring at the pain. He ran the scans twice after that but all foreign bodies were purged. He was clean. Satisfied he removed the probes and ordered up an adrenal and some sealant. A painful injection and patch later, he stepped away. The next stage of his new plan would start very soon.
