Club Vampyr
Chapter 23
A/N - This is the final chapter. There is an epilogue, which is already finished, but I might decide to rewrite it. It doesn't really convey the strong emotions I wanted it to. Thank you to everyone who have read and supported this story from the beginning, as well as those of you who picked it up with every new update. It took me years to finish it, as you might be aware, as I started it in the Spring of 2005.
I will be releasing a new CotN story called Dreams within the next month. A short summary can be found in my profile.
"Hello?" Kerry called out, walking through the deserted back rooms to Club Vampyr. The area was dark, the door to each room open so that the entire place was a corridor of glass walls with the impression of no privacy between each. It felt like the opening of a horror movie, with each empty room yawning before and after her, the contents fully visible to the eye. The cushions and comfortable furniture in each station were lumps and shadows, making Kerry nervous about what may or may not be hidden in plain sight. She could tell just by the slight variations of each space that no two rooms were exactly the same, but that only made her nervousness more palpable. If someone was there, waiting, she wouldn't be able to see the attack coming until it was right on top of her.
Not that she really expected to be attacked just yet; the real danger lied through the next set of doors directly in front of her. "Is anyone here?" she called out again. "I'm lost."
This was stupid, Kerry thought, taking a fortifying breath as she pushed into the main room of the club. "Hello? Michael?" she said, shielding her eyes with a hand against the onslaught of bright overhead lights. The large dance floor and bar didn't look quite as classically gothic while lit up as it did with full ambiance. The onyx floor was already beginning to scuff, and she could see the fake bulbs of the candles. It was just a room. "This is stupid," she muttered to herself, turning back around to exit through the door she was still holding open with her free hand.
"Hold on there," a voice called out from the interior of the club. Kerry jumped, audibly gasping and turning back around in what seemed like slow-motion with a frightened look on her face. Her fear wasn't all acting, and for a moment she felt like she was back in the bad horror movie and the evil vampire had just caught her. The unfortunate thing was, that scenario was reality and not something in front of any cameras besides the security ones Michel was monitoring. As Kerry's heartbeat pounded her fright, a man stepped out from one of the booths in the middle of the room, smiling harmlessly with his hands held by his side, palms facing her. "If you're looking for Michael, it might be best if you let him find you. I'm a friend of his, and I know he wouldn't want you wandering around on your own. Why don't you sit down and I'll get you something to drink?"
"I don't know," Kerry said uncertainly. "I am kind of thirsty," she said, following Michel's boss across the club as he headed for the bar. "But he said we have to leave soon, and then we got separated, and THEN I got lost, so I'm not really sure he'll be happy to see me sitting around having a drink." Kerry hesitated as though wondering if she should say something. "He'd like to be home by sunup, you see."
"Ah," Andrew said sagely. "I do understand that." He dug around behind the bar, bringing out stored bottles of liquor. "We have tequila, rum, vodka, ouzo, and almost every cocktail mixture you can think of." He pointed, shaking his finger at her as if trying to remember something about her character. "I think I know what you want. I'll get it while you tell the friendly bartender why if Michel's so concerned, then why did he allow you out of his sight?"
"Is this your way of asking how I got lost," Kerry asked with a laugh at herself, gratefully accepting the Pepsi he handed to her. She was incredibly unnerved that out of all the sodas kept behind the bar, he chose the one she would have picked for herself. It made the fact he was stalking her seem that much more real. "I don't have the greatest sense of direction, but I guess he didn't notice because he told me he had something to do and asked me to meet him in the garage."
"And you ended up here?" Andrew asked, watching her closely as she took a drink of the pop.
"Mmmm," Kerry agreed as she swallowed. "That's good, thank you. I followed what I thought to be familiar landmarks in the hallways, but I guess they were familiar because they ended up here and not because they led to the garage. It's kind of amazing that I turned up somewhere I recognized, actually. Those hallways are like one large, multifloored maze."
"Humans always get lost at first."
Kerry had to tighten her grasp on the glass to keep from following through with the 'humans? So you're a vampire?' trail of conversation. To ask questions like that was so ingrained into her personality, that to not take the lead was an exercise in resistance. You're a natural, Michel had told her that one night years ago when they had fooled the well meaning cop. Over time, those words had become a source of shame as she thought that deceit was most definitely a trait inherited from her mother, and yet every once and a while the idea brought a wave of accomplishment to her each time she lied and did it well. This was not like any of those times. She was frightened, and just the fact that she knew he was aware of how scared she was seemed to elevate her fear. It was a self perpetuating cycle.
She smiled politely in response to his answer, taking another drink. "If you could direct me towards the garage, I'll do my best to make it there this time." Kerry gave him her most charming and vacant look, trying to impress the idea that she wasn't too intelligent on her companion.
"I'll take you there. I doubt you'd be able to find it on your own."
"You must have a hero complex," Kerry joked, referring to the fact he had saved her about twelve hours earlier. She then paused, frozen in her tracks. Andrew looked at her in slow motion and Kerry's heart betrayed her. She mentally cursed herself, realizing that everything that happened after this was all her fault. Apparently she didn't have to pretend to be a total incompetent idiot. She was one. Get in and get out, Michel had told her, and as Andrew's eyes narrowed in suspicion, Kerry realized that would be impossible.
He grabbed her arm in a motion which was quicker than the human eye, fingers bruising through the black leather jacket Michel had loaned her so she could convincingly act like someone trying to leave the building. Kerry winced, trying to pull herself from his grasp. She had never realized how gentle Michel had always been with her, even in the grips of fury. When Michel grabbed her arm, it never burned as though his strong fingers were biting through flesh and severing the limb. Kerry looked into the face of her captor, her stomach going cold at the compassionless fury over his features. Andrew flung her sideways against the bar and her back smacked sharply into the artistic ridge along the top. Kerry stumbled into one of the stools, grabbing it for support so she wouldn't fall to the floor. "So, you know," he said coldly, standing before her and stopping her escape.
"Know what?" Kerry asked, attempting to play dumb. Thudthudthud went her heart, escalating as she lied.
"You're a horrible liar," he told her, giving voice to her thoughts. He didn't move towards her, and yet she had never felt more threatened in her life. "Did you tell him?"
"Tell who what?" she questioned frantically, her fingers digging into the top of the bar to hide her nerves. Her elbows were locked behind her and chest sticking out, though she didn't consciously mean the position as a possible distraction. Not that her breasts would distract someone bent on killing her anyway, though she liked to think that if she tried the trick on Michel, it would work. She lost her nerve for playing ignorant, and continued, "Michael that I saw you during the day? No. How could I when I didn't know I wasn't supposed to?"
"You seem like a smart girl," he told her. "I don't understand why you insist on lying to me."
Kerry was horrified by the parallels to what Michel had said to her earlier. "I'm not." Kerry insisted, yelping as he kicked a stool at her leg, advancing rapidly so he barreled bodily into her and grabbed her hair, forcing her backwards across the bar so she was bent at an awkward and submissive angle as he hovered over her. Kerry thought she might throw up, her heart was beating so rapidly. She couldn't understand why he didn't believe her. There was nothing wrong with the logistics of the lie.
"Does he know I have the ring?" Andrew hissed, his breath tepid against her skin.
"No. No! I don't know," she begged as he pulled her head all the way back, her skull flush against the bar top and her back screaming as it bent at a painful angle. Kerry panted against the pain and terror.
"Good," he told her, suddenly releasing her and stepping back so Kerry fumbled for purchase for a second before sliding to the floor. "That's interesting," he mused, turning slightly away from her and facing the back door. "I almost expected him to come running in here like a white knight."
Kerry grimaced, curling up into a protective ball on the floor. "You're overestimating him," she said quietly. "He doesn't care about anything but himself."
Andrew feigned shock. "But I thought you loved him," he mocked.
"Yeah, well I learned very quickly that I also hate him," she responded. "Look, I won't tell him about your daylight adventures. I probably will never see him again anyway."
"Why?" Andrew asked shrewdly. "Because he's sending you away to 'protect' you from me? I must tell you, I expected him to throw you to the wolves on that one."
"No," Kerry said with bravado, even as she lost confidence. How did he know about Michel sending her out of the country? "Because he was only dating me to get information out of me and I mistook it for actual emotions."
Andrew laughed as though she had said something incredibly amusing. "Emotions? Michael?"
Kerry smiled bitterly. "Exactly what I found out. Keep that bastard away from me, and I'll completely forget about the ring."
Andrew laughed again. "That will be easy, my dear," he told her, grabbing her throat and lifting her up to her feet and then a few inches beyond. Kerry struggled against him, but her attempts at kicking were futile. He was cutting off her oxygen. "All problems will be gone once you're dead."
As Kerry struggled to breathe, her fingernails raked bloody gouges over Andrew's hand. She realized Michel was going to get his death in the club after all. It would look even better for his cause if the murderer was the owner himself. He was probably getting this all on tape as she had the life strangled out of her.
He betrayed her, she realized, about to pass out. Her sight went splotchy, and black began to edge into dominance as a loud crack echoed through the club and drops of warm liquid sprayed across her face. Andrew let go of her, and she managed to regain her footing, leaning heavily against a stool as she watched and tried to breath. Nothing more than the smallest puffs of air wanted to move into her lungs, and she could feel the burn of asphyxiation down to her toes..
"It seems I was mistaken about you," Andrew sneered, moving away from Kerry to reveal Michel standing in the center of the club with a gun pointed at them. Andrew's hand was clutching his bloody shoulder, and Kerry realized that Michel had not taken a killing shot because it risked hitting her.
Kerry tumbled to her knees, almost passing out as she gasped to catch her breath. She crawled away from Andrew as quietly as she could, still unable to really breathe. He let her go without outwardly noticing, but Kerry had no misconceptions about his ability to grab her again within seconds. She choked down air, her throat rebelling in agony at the abuse.
"You ok, Kerry?" Michel asked, not taking his eyes or gun off his boss.
Kerry nodded once, unable to speak, and the motion sent her neck into agony.
"Did you really believe I wouldn't back her up?" Michel taunted, circling around towards her with easy, slow steps. "I'm surprised you didn't figure it out. I'm the one Kerry's been protecting."
With that, the power rushed out of Kerry's body so quickly she pitched forward to the floor, coughing and gasping at the sudden nausea from the sensation of having her soul ripped through her abused throat. The sensation was one of great, gasping loss and violation, and she whimpered and curled into a ball. The coldness of the floor didn't register, and she could barely look at Michel to see if the restoration of powers had any effect on him.
Michel still stood, looking the same at yet strangely different. He appeared taller, more confident, but what really alarmed Kerry was how Andrew now reacted. Gone was the sneer and the cocky grin, leaving a look that probably equated to the vampire equivalent of a scared little boy.
"So that's what you've been planning. They sent you to kill me," Andrew mused, looking defeated, and Kerry had a moment of clarity where she wondered if she was on the right side. She hadn't questioned it, seeing her relation to Michel as enough basis for loyalty. Michel was, after all, fighting against innovation and progress. Her sympathy was cut short by Andrew making one last ditch effort at surviving by lunging at her, moving so Kerry blocked Michel's aim with the gun.
Michel tackled Andrew mid-air, both of them tumbling over the bar with a sharp crash of breaking bottles. The smell of alcohol permeated the air, sweet, sticky, and sickening.
Kerry stumbled to her feet, listening to the sound of fighting, slightly surprised that when it came right down to it vampires fought the same as human males. She had almost expected a showdown of mental prowess, like something off of Queen of the Damned instead of DragonBall Z.
Pinpricks of heat stung sharply on her face, and Kerry smacked at her skin, attempting to get the burning sensation off. She stared in confusion as her fingers scalded, the last of Andrew's blood boiling away. Kerry looked frantically around for windows or opened doors, not finding any. "Michel!" She warned, her voice croaking as she tried to raise it. She looked up, finding the window on the ceiling, the still dark sky beyond falsified by the tinted glass. "Skylight!"
With a hiss the entire bar combusted into a roar of flames. Kerry reeled backwards in shock and then frantically tried to push forward to get to Michel, but the fire was incredibly hot and she was just human. The flames were an impenetrable sheet before her. "Michel!" she screamed, though no sound emerged from her lips. Her hand came up to cover her lips in a moment of panic, where she simply looked into the fire and saw his death. Oh God, she realized, she'd never stop the flames and get him to safety on time.
Kerry raced towards the door to the back rooms, remembering seeing a fire extinguisher hanging behind the door. She burst through at a run, knocking bodily into Nathaniel.
"Oh good," he said, grabbing her arm and pulling her further down the hall. "Michael made it sound like it would be more difficult to rescue you."
Kerry shook her head, tears streaming down her face from the smoke and terror. She wretched her wrist away from Nathaniel and scurried into a corner of the hallway, wrestling with the bolted extinguisher. It didn't want to come off the wall, no matter how hard she pulled or shook it. Her attempts were frantic and violent, causing Nathaniel to frown in confusion as he watched her, thinking she was looking for a weapon.
"What's on fir—" Nathaniel started to ask, breaking off with realization and opening the door to the club in order to look. Heat and smoke poured through the opening, and hetook a step back with horror in his eyes. "It's too late," he told Kerry gently, trying to pry her away from the fire extinguisher. She hit him ferociously, turning to dash back into the club. "Kerry!" he yelled, trying a different tactic as he lunged after her. "The whole thing is on fire! He's gone."
He pulled on her again and she followed this time, his words leaving a stunned, hollow expression on her face. The sprinklers went off suddenly, soaking them both through and making the floor slippery to run on. Nathaniel pressed on, his fingers firmly around her wrist. Kerry stumbled after him, not seeing where they were going. Her hair was dripping into her eyes, but all she saw was the sudden whoosh of flames as the bar caught fire. All she could see was the blood on her fingers boiling and leaving angry red marks from the heat. She didn't notice the feel of the cold water against the burned flesh of her cheek or the way her breath couldn't quite get through her crushed throat.
By the time Nathaniel burst through an emergency exit behind the club, smoke was already thick on the air and fire trucks were surrounding the building.
The sun was gaining ground in the sky as Kerry lifted her wet, tearstained face and stared at the traitorous daylight. She was impervious to the cold: the only thing she could feel was the sensation of fire still against her flesh, and she thought of what it would be like to go back and be consumed by it like he was. Her eyes dried and she felt numb, not hearing the wail of fire trucks as they quickly responded to the scene.
It was too late.
She didn't notice Nathaniel buckling her into the car and starting the now-familiar drive home. She blinked back into reality for a moment with a flare of hope, finding herself in a car seat and Nathaniel behind the wheel. "I couldn't get close to the bar to look," she whispered, her voice not able to speak anything louder. "Maybe he wasn't there. Maybe the alcohol was ignited by a drop of blood."
Kerry missed the pitying look Nathaniel shot her.
"Maybe he," her voice broke and she abandoned her attempt to speak. She realized the futility of hoping he had made it out alive, but she couldn't stop herself.
"You should be in bed," Nathaniel suggested, helping her out of the car.
"Yo! Yo! Holdup! You're Kerry, ain't ya?" A wheezing man with glasses and a hunched back asked, dragging a messenger bag off his shoulder. A more succinct term for him would be nerd. "Yeah Yeah. I was told to give this to ya. You're late." He shoved a package into her hands. "I ain't never seen that boy willing to part with so much dosh. Especially for a normal girl like you."
"Normal?" she echoed hollowly.
"Yeah. A daywalker. Ya know. He must really love ya, like die for ya love ya. I gotta write some Buffy fanfiction about this shit."
"You do that," Nathaniel said coldly, navigating Kerry towards the front door of the apartment building. He was surprised to find her expression hadn't changed, even at the comment that Michel loved her, and the badly phrased choice of words. Her hands were clasped tightly over the parcel and she was physically shaking. He didn't think it was from the cold. "Kerry?"
She didn't speak as Nathaniel led her into the building and back up to her apartment. He used his own key to let them in, guiding her towards the couch. Nathaniel helped Kerry off with her high heels, and tried to remove her leather jacket as well, but she smacked his hand away and pulled it tightly around her despite the fact it was damp with water from the sprinklers. "Do you want to go to bed?" he asked kindly, allowing her to keep the jacket on.
Kerry snapped out of her stupor for a moment. "What?" she croaked with her ruined voice.
"Do you want to go to bed?"
Kerry shook her head.
"Ok. I'll be next door."
She nodded, but he wasn't sure she heard him. Nathaniel's heart broke for her, but he was certain that once she managed to get over the shock, she'd be better.
Kerry didn't hear him close the door as he left. She stared at the envelope, turning it over and over in her hands. Finally, she opened the seal and dumped the contents on her lap.
Carefully, Kerry picked up the small card and stared at the horrible driver's license picture she was so familiar with. Her eyes gazed at the name on her new identification, and she dropped it as if burned.
Carolyn Bryne, she thought hysterically, grabbing her arms with the opposite hand and digging into the delicate flesh with her fingers. She couldn't feel the physical sting over the pain in her heart and mind. Tears trailed down her cheeks and she furiously pushed the papers off her lap.
Kerry wept great, wracking sobs, her whole body shaking. "Michel," she whispered. "No. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. No. Nonono." She hyperventilated, unable to breathe in her panic, and then howled in anguish, her voice rising as she bawled. Her throat resisted, then something broke and her screams became silent.
Nathaniel found her hours later still sitting on the couch, utterly broken.
©RelenaFanel.April26.2008