Weeeeee! Chapter 10! It's been a while since I've posted...sorry about that. I've been crazy busy these past few weeks and I'm sad because I'm catching up with myself! I just ended chapter 12 and I havent been able to have time to start chapter 13 and I'm having a bit of writer's block right now so just FYI, in a couple weeks, the breaks between chapters are going to start getting realllllyyyyy long. *sadface*
But anywho, thankyou for all of your reviews! Enjoy! [alt3]
And by the way, I dont know if any of you reconize the chapter titles, but most of them are either song titles or lyrics to metal songs...oh...wait only four or so. Most of them are from Slipknots very first EP Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. Its amazing. I actually got the title of the story from the song Science Fiction from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I just thought it was a cool line...um...yeah. but anywho, FORWARD HO!!!!
Amelia sat alone in her room. She watched her feet dangling off the edge of her bed, swinging them back and forth. She could hear her aunt and uncle talking to D downstairs. She flopped back onto her bed with an exasperated sigh.
"Fuck my life." She muttered, staring at the ceiling above her.
The doorknob turned. She jumped up, startled, relaxing when she saw that it was D who was standing in the door way.
"Oh…hi," She lay back down on the bed. "What's up?"
"The ceiling." A hoarse voice said.
"Very funny," Amelia retorted. "At least you have a working sense of humor."
"Your guardians were kind enough to allow me to stay here until I can return." D said.
"What?" Amelia gasped "I mean, that's fine and everything, but why?"
"It'll be easier if I'm going to watch over you."
"I thought you said that I was on my own."
"You are for the most part, but I believe you might be in danger."
D's hand disappeared inside his coat which he never took off and produced a newspaper. It landed on her bed with a smack. Amelia sat up and picked the paper off of her bed.
"Mysterious killer threatens collage campus…" Amelia read the headline aloud. The article went on to describe a series of murders at the University of Wisconsin. Each victim had no external wounds except for two small puncture wounds at the base of the neck. The bodies were also completely drained of blood. The victims, all female, were also all enrolled at the university and were either from the freshman or sophomore class. The killer wasn't caught for the fingerprints left behind were unreadable on the forensic lab's software. The article was a week old.
"What does this have to do with me?" Amelia asked. "This isn't even local news."
"Do you know what the killer is?" D asked ominously.
"Are you telling me it's a vampire?" Amelia asked, no surprise showing on her pretty face. She was getting better at handling things.
"Yes." D said. "That much should be obvious. Funny thing is, I believe it's one particular vampire I visited two days ago. His name is Marcus Valentine. He's undercover as a teacher at the university; night school obviously. He claimed to be righteous and that he only drunk donated blood from the hospital blood bank but he just didn't seem right."
"How do you know that it's this particular vampire?" Amelia asked. "I mean, there must be loads of them roaming all over."
"No." D shook his head, long black hair swirling in his face. "Their numbers are actually quite few. Nearly all of them are in hiding – driven out of the human world during the industrial revolution. Valentine's the only one I know about…plus, I believe he has ties to you."
"What do you mean by ties?"
"While visiting with him, I asked if he knew anything about you, about your father. He was rather hesitant in his answer. I've been tracking more recent cases and since last week there's been identical murders to the University killings in every town from Madison to Chicago."
"Do you think he's my biological father?" Amelia's eyes were wide in their sockets. Her mouth hung open in incredulous disbelief.
"Either that or a very close friend...and he's on his way here."
Amelia fell silent for a moment. She was in deep thought. "What are we going to do?" She asked gravely.
"We have to find him before he kills more innocents. He's already out of control...plus, I think he owes us an explanation."
It was a snowy December night in Chicago, Illinios. Valentine watched a group of collage girls from his table; pretending to occupy himself with the menu. One of the girls; a brunette with long curly hair, looked over her shoulder at him. Meeting his dark red eyes, she turned back to her friends. He heard them giggle. Valentine smiled to himself. Suddenly, a strong scent invaded his nostrils. The unbearable scent was followed by a fire - a strong burning sensation that started in his nose and spread throughout his whole nasal cavity and sineses. His mouth went dry and he felt his tounge swell. Growling quietly to himself, he noticed that the group of girls had ordered a basket of garlic bread. he layed down the unappetizing menu and rose from his seat, shielding his mouth and nose from the toxic fumes of the garlic.
There were too many of them anyway. He thought in frustration.
Outside of the Italian Restraunt that he promised himself to never return to, Marcus Valentine looked up at the tiny flakes falling from the clouds; which reflected the city lights and made the sky appear a dim orange color, making the night brighter. This made Valentine sad. He remembered a time long ago when streets were unlighted, save for the light spilling from tavern windows and the night was black as pitch; black to the humans at least. The dawn of the industrial revolution lit the sky with civilization's bright lights and the term night suddenly lost its former meaning. People roamed the streets without fear and vampires, without the protection of darkness to hide them from their prey, vanished. Valentine squinted. The brightness hurt his eyes. The pitch black night humans saw was bright as day to a vampire's eyes and the city lights made the once comfortable dark too bright for them to stand. He exhaled, remembering that it had been at least two hours since he last remembered to breathe. He watched the thin wisps of condensation exit his mouth in a white vapor. A chilling sensation slowly crept over him. Suddenly, the professor whirled around to face the dark corridor to his right. He saw nothing but he could have sworn that only seconds before he had heard soft footsteps.
"Valentine." A low, smooth voice came from the street corner at the end of the building. While the voice held no emotion, the vampire's name was hurled at him like a stake made of ice. He instantly recognizing the voice's owner and was immediately filled with a fear that was embedded in the hearts of all creatures living and undead; the fear of self-preservation.
"D." Valentine returned the emotionless greeting with just as much enthusiasm. Any trace of fear that the vampire harbored was not shown in his words or his expression.
The vampire hunter stepped out from the shadows, but Valentine sensed another presence hidden behind the building. D did not reply to Valentine's greeting with words. Instead, he tossed a newspaper at the vampire. The stack of papers landed with a thud at Valentine's feet.
"What's this?" He asked curiously.
"Read it." D commanded.
Valentine looked down at the newspaper. There on the front page, the title Mysterious Killer Threatens Collage Campus was written in bold block letters. Valentine smirked.
He looked up at the Damphir before him from underneath his long eyelashes.
"And what does this have to do with me?" He asked, innocent as the question might have been, the vampire's voice was the farthest thing from it.
"Only drink blood from the Blood Bank, huh?" D said. His cold voice seemed to freeze the air. "I should have seen right through you from the start."
Remembering the Damphir's occupation and the origin of his vampire blood, Valentine took a step back from his formidable foe.
"I won't kill you…at least not until I can get some answers." D said. It was impossible to tell what he was feeling. He was a true master of self-control.
"What sort of answers?"The tables had indeed turned for the vampire. The hunter had now become the hunted and the undead collage professor was now a slave to D's unsettling aurora. It was truly a pitiful sight.
"Why don't you ask me?" The female voice caught Valentine off guard. Surprise surfaced on the vampire's composed face for a brief moment. Amelia stepped out of the corridor and stood at D's side. Her arms were folded across her chest and her feet were spread apart in a wide stance as she waited. Her green eyes flashed crimson. At the sight of her, the vampire's composure crumbled.
"A-Amelia?!" The expression that surfaced on his face was truly odd. While surprise was the dominant feature on his white face, another emotion made itself present. The expression he wore was one akin to how a father might react to the sudden appearance of his long-lost daughter. "I…how did you…?"
"During our last meeting, when I asked you for any information regarding her, you seemed rather hasty in answering. Believe me, it didn't take long to put two and two together. I just needed to tell her first…and wait for another reason to come after you. I'm disappointed to have found that it is truly impossible to stop a vampire's hunger for fresh human blood. Up until now I thought I had found hope…" Contrary to D's words, his face held no sign of disappointment or anger.
Valentine was speechless. He took another tentative step away from the two Damphirs. Amelia took a step forward. She would have gone right up into his face if D hadn't put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "Why did you kill mother?" She growled. Her whole frame shook with anger.
"I didn't kill her." The vampire said. By now he had regained some composure and his voice was relatively calm, yet that didn't stop him from taking another step away from his angry half-blood daughter. "She died giving birth to you. If anything, it was you who killed her."
"Fucking bastard, it was your fault for knocking her up!" Amelia snarled, leaping at him. Her eyes glowed crimson. Valentine's hand flashed out, backhanding his daughter on the cheek. The force of this slap sent the young Damphir flying across the sidewalk. She crashed into the brick wall of the building behind her and D, sliding to the ground with a groan. Luckily, the movement was so quick the human pedestrians around them didnt notice the commotion. D watched this extraordinary display of child abuse passively. The only time he moved was to step out of the way of Amelia's flying body when her vampire-father hurled her in his direction.
"What language!" Her father scoffed. "Did your guardians not teach you any manners? And what of you D? Why do you stand idly by while your fellow Damphir dies? Are you not of the same breed; the filthy, half-blood bastard-spawn that dilutes our pure blood and puts the noble race of the vampire to shame? Such a pity is your unnatural race. You're destined to a fate worse than humans."
"Such hate you harbor for the human race." D said coolly. "Why then did you bed one?"
Valentine's expression changed; flashing to one of sarrow then back to anger. "I didn't always harbor such hatred." He said veminately. "I was quite curious about humans in my earlier years, so I became a student of the human sciences. I always had wondered how they lived with themselves, their sickness, and their disease. It didn't take long for me to understand. Their medicinal methods are rather simple. I began to understand the human body quite well and began to think up cures of my own. It was amusing to me, to think up medicines and watch them be tested, always successfully, and to watch the humans come up with medicines of their own, and watch those tests fail. Her mother was a student of mine. I was stupid and wasn't long before I fell in love. She loved me too, even after I told her what I was. After she died during childbirth, I realized that no matter how hard they tried, the human race could never escape death and disease. They are all weak, sickly creatures while we, the vampires, remain forever in everlasting health. I stayed at this collage because of the Sacred Ancestor. He bid me to stay to monitor the humans and to bring information of their world to his majesty. But none of that matters now. The Great Destruction is coming. In a matter of days we may have our rightful reign." Valentine chuckled at the end of his speech. His sneering face represented that of a demon.
"Your control over humanity will only be temporary." D said. "In the end, the strong will of humanity will override your rule and your race will fall into extinction."
Valentine laughed at this. "And how does an immortal become extinct?" He sneered.
"Immortality is a relative term." D said. For a moment, murderous anger showed on his gorgeous face. "Though your lives extend for forever-"
"There are ways you can be killed." Amelia interrupted, stepping out from behind D. The wooden stake she flung from her hand traveled faster than the human eye could follow, yet not fast enough for it was deflected easily by the vampire's superhuman reflexes. Suddenly, Valentine's face contorted with pain. He dropped to his knees. A silver long sword pierced his chest, running through his heart and protruding out his back. While he deflected the stake, Valentine left himself wide open. D took this chance to hurl his sword with a speed surpassing what even most pure-blooded vampires could reach, nailing Valentine in the heart.
As the crimson light drained from his eyes, Valentine beckoned to Amelia. She came to his side and knelt by him. "I'm sorry." She whispered. All signs of her anger at him were gone, replaced by sadness. Salty tears, something vampires could never produce, fell from her eyes, landing on her dying father's pale cheeks. "I didn't want to do this…but it…it had to be done…forgive me…"
"I was stupid to have loved your mother..." Her father growled as the stolen blood from hundreds of humans drained from him. Spasms shook his form as he lay dying. "You...you and everyone you love...will...feel the wrath...of the Nobility..." The red light left the vampire's eyes leaving their exposed orbs black and empty. Salty tears, something a vampire was incapable of producing, tickled down Amelia's cheeks, falling on her dead father's already-crumbling form. Emotion overtook her and she was soon shaking with heavy sobs.
"He would have killed you anyway." D said without compassion or sympathy. "They're all the same, Amelia. Just because you share his blood doesn't mean he deserves your pity and tears."
"You don't know anything!" Amelia screamed, whirling around to face her emotionless companion. "You just tell yourself that bullshit because it makes killing them easier! How can you be so cold-hearted? Huh? You selfish, cruel, bastard! I know what your problem is. Just because you hate your life, you go about killing a whole race because your father made you miserable. You're miserable, so you go and make the world miserable with you! I thought that you might help me! I thought that maybe for the first time in my life, someone understood me and could sympathize, but no! God, I might even have loved you…but that doesn't mean shit to you does it? You don't care about anything, or anyone but yourself! I've had enough of this shit, and I've had enough of you too!" By this time, Amelia's face was just inches from D's. Angry tears poured from her eyes as she yelled at him and beat at his chest. "Just stay away from me! Do you hear? Stay a-fucking-way! But that won't be a fucking problem for you at all, will it? Because you just don't fucking care!"
D looked down at the emotional wreck of a girl that cried against his chest. He grabbed her shoulders with his hands and pushed her away from him gently. Though his face appeared blank, a deep sorrow filled his dark eyes. Amelia knew that she hit a sensitive spot, if that was even possible.
"Is that what you think?" He asked softly.
A wave of misery washed over her as Amelia realized what she had said. She opened her mouth to apologize but the Hunter in black had already turned away and was walking back to the parking lot where the re-stolen black speed bike awaited him. Fresh tears made his tall silhouette a blur as she watched him go.
Yup...D likes that motorcycle. Poor guy that owned it though. I can just imagine him walking out of his appartment or something. "WTF?! It's gone again!" heeheehee! For lack of anything else, I just decided that he stole it again last minute. Sorry if some parts of this were corny or anything. I had originally had the scene take place at the University but then I realized that it would make more sense for her to be in danger if her father came to Chicago so I had to completely change the scene. Heehee random allergy attacks to garlic! that part made me laugh....UGH! Why is this story becoming so sad?!?!?! I originally thought of it because I thought it would be funny to see D riding on a cyborg horse in the middle of Chicago....and I thought he needed company. But the cyborg horse stayed at home....oh fiddle sticks.