Disclaimer: You already know, extremely sorry for the slow updating too many exams!
Control
Chapter 24: Mr Rook and Crumb
Sophie's P.O.V
A proposition? What in the world both natural and supernatural did this man want? Hal seemed to recognise the man; maybe he was one of those who had moved Alex's body from the club where Cutler had had her killed.
"The Old Ones are gone, except for a few, yourselves and little Hettie." He explained Hettie was alive? That can't be possible we watched as they were blown up in the explosion at the warehouse, she couldn't have lived after that. He was either lying or Hettie had truly escaped, but if she had escaped why hadn't she come to find us? The only other Old Ones in the world, we could help her to be like us.
"Hettie is dust; she was caught up in the explosion in a warehouse." I replied a small smirk appeared on his face. He knew more than about it than we did.
"That was a terrible mess to clear up, as was the club fiasco started by I believe one of your protégés." He replied looking over at Hal. "But Miss Hettie survived and has returned to Bolivia."
I felt somewhat relieved to hear she was indeed very much alive and safe; she could be threatening when she liked to be, but she had recently taken to living the rest of her undead life in sunny Bolivia where the rest of the Old Ones had been up until recently.
"As for Mr Cutler, I'm sure you know he is dead." He continued, of course we knew he was dead, Annie had staked him when he tried to kill Eve, if he had succeeded then Mr Snow would have killed him and that would have been a worse death for him. "As I was going to say, the vampires have no leader, it is utter chaos. Here is my proposition, Lord Hal you lead the vampires and I supply you with blood. It never turns out well when vampires deny themselves blood."
"You do not want to see a world in which I lead the vampires." Hal replied coldly staring at the flask of blood that Rook had placed on the table. I could smell it, it was so strong…I wanted to take the flask and drink to feel it run down my throat, to taste it again. I curled my fingers into my palms trying to give myself distraction, turn my attention completely on the pain emanating from my hands.
After a couple of minutes of Mr Rook understood, or at least seemed like her understood that neither Hal nor I would take up the task of leading the vampires, Hettie had also refused him. He left, but left us with the flask of blood.
"What are we going to do with that?" I asked in a whisper as Hal studied the flask, he looked up at me before taking the flask into his hands.
"I don't know." He replied, suddenly Alex appeared Hal quickly stashed the blood away in his jacket, that wouldn't be the last time I saw that blood. She was talking very fast about this and that; it was very hard to keep up with it all.
"Are you two alright?" she asked looking between the both of us…maybe she could tell…if she could it would mean stakes for both of us. We both nodded, just as soon as Alex had appeared the manager and Tom came out of the room that she had held the interview in.
"It's rather hot in here." She stated fluttering her eyes at Hal, she had just joined the thousands maybe even millions of women that had 'fallen' for Hal and entered a dangerous game of continuous flirting with him. "Have you any experience in the hotel business?"
"Well I've stayed in the Savoy before." Hal replied there was no doubt in my mind that no matter what credentials Hal had she would hire him anyway. For Tom and I it was a different story we had to impress her more than just what we looked like.
"Welcome aboard." She congratulated happily handing Hal sheets of paper, turning to Tom and I with much less of the sweet smile she had put on her face for Hal. "The two of you are also hired, but I'll be watching you closely."
"Seems someone has he hots for Hal." Alex giggled as we watched her return to her work, at least we all had jobs keeping Honolulu Heights would be a lot easier as well as bringing in the groceries and necessities, including new marigolds for Hal's cleaning.
"Let's go home."
Hal's P.O.V
Tom and Alex had gone out to find where Alex's body was being kept; Sophie was occupied cleaning up the kitchen. I felt the need rise up, knowing that I had blood stashed upstairs made me want to tear up the stairs rip open the bedroom door and consume the whole flask. But I couldn't, they trusted me…trusted us to be clean off the blood, I couldn't let Tom down again, I couldn't drag Leo's memory through the mud once more. I had to resist it, resist every urge to drink it, to cave in again. I needed to clear my head; I grabbed the keys out of the bowl with my jacket.
"Hal?" Sophie called from the kitchen; I didn't respond and walked out the door and down the street the pounding of my feet against the pavement used to create a calming effect, but now all it was, was a noise in the background of my mind filled with endless possibilities of what would happen to me, to Sophie, to Tom and Alex, to everyone if I drank again. I didn't see him before our shoulders collided.
"Watch where you're going!" he shouted I lost it. I could feel my fangs protrude and my eyes were that tell-tale black, before I knew what was happening the man had seen my true face and began to run. He couldn't be left with the knowledge of what he'd just witness, or at least persuade him it wasn't what he saw. I ran after him calling for him to stop, but he didn't he ran straight into the path of a car and was knocked down once he was unconscious it was easy to move him and take him back to the BnB.
By the time I had arrived back at Honolulu Heights Sophie had gone most likely trying to find me, or maybe to meet Tom and Alex. It would be easier this way if no one knew, I had to turn him to make sure he survived, to make sure no one out of the supernatural world knew about our life here. After turning him I tied him up in the basement, where Tom would go during a full moon, I had to explain to him before letting him go. He woke up a while after I turned him, just as Cutler had all that time ago in the small prison cell…but this man wasn't anything like Cutler and nor would he ever be anything like what he was or what he had meant to me.
"You're awake, good." I stated dragging a chair to the middle of the small room. The man was disorientated as he should be; his eyes darted around the room until ultimately resting on me. Fear set in those eyes like the countless others I had tormented over five hundred years, his feet tried to find purchase on the ground but he could not bring himself to a standing position given that his hand was handcuffed to a pipe. "What is your name?"
"Crumb, Ian Crumb." He replied his voice wavered slightly a tell-tale sign that he was utterly scared of me, of what I could do to him he was about to find out the gravity of his situation. "Is this the part where you bum me?"
"What? No, Ian I have no intention of bumming you." I replied pinching the bridge of my nose, this one I knew was going to test my patience. The quicker this was over the quicker I could return to some normality. The normal speech of what exactly had happened and what he was to do with his new found immortality or he would end up a pile of dust, with him intermittently complaining about the thirst.
"Hal?" Sophie had arrived back and with the sounds of it so had Alex and Tom, just great now I'd have to keep him down here until the next opportunity to smuggle him out of this damn place. I made sure he would be quiet and couldn't escape before quietly making my way upstairs to look as though I hadn't come up from the basement.
"Did you find anything?" I asked coming into the main living area through the kitchen, hopefully they would have believed I hadn't heard them when they first came in and had been in the house while they were away, well while Sophie was out looking for me. She looked concerned however she didn't make it known maybe she had yet to tell the others of my sudden aggravated departure from the house.
"No." Alex huffed as she flopped down onto the couch joined shortly by Tom; they explained that the body had been moved. More than likely given back to Alex's family, however she really wanted to discover her unfinished business and move on, this government sector was giving her trouble with that. Sophie motioned for me to join her back in the kitchen.
"Are you alright?" she asked out of all of them she was the only one I could tell about Crumb down in the basement, but I decided against it she didn't need anything more to worry about. I only needed to worry about the problem I had caused.
"I am perfectly alright, no need to worry." I replied holding her closer to me, although she could probably see me losing my control over everything, the flask of blood upstairs came to mind once again but this time I shook the thought out of my mind. "Everything is fine."
Author's Notes:
Hi! Sorry for the slow updating I've been in the middle of exams so I didn't have much time to properly write anything for a while. Very sorry to keep you all waiting, the next update will come sometime after the 10th as I will be away from my computer for six days. Hope you enjoy this new chapter and thank you for the continuous support and for being patient with me. =D
