Now
The Volcano
"That dirty, old, misogynistic…" mumbled Mona as she threw the dart in her hand at a dartboard on the wall, "Argh!"
"Who's dirty, old and misogynistic?" asked Lucy, playing a game of solitaire on a billiard table in the game room.
"Old guts and bullshit. Priest, that's who."
"Well, he is old, and occasionally dirt. But misogynistic?"
"Maybe that was too strong a word. When we first met he had all these pet names for me; dollface, cupcake…"
"He also looks at your chest when he thinks you're not looking, mine too."
"Cupcake, that's what he called me right before he jumped out the chopper. Where the hell does he get off?"
"Well, he thought he was trying to save us. Of course, if he'd waited three more minutes for the weather to improve, we would have all been able to make it to the coast. Without anybody having to jump anywhere… Quite foolish, really."
"I'm going to shoot him next time I see him."
"Hmm. Could it be that you're worried about him?"
"Of course I am, I've spent pulled his ass out of the fire so many times that I lost count. It's not going to be for nothing."
"Well, if it's any solace, he's in Basin City. Last time we were there he was miserable. I'm sure he's having a bad time over there, right now."
Basin City, Nevada
"Well, I'm not sure you've changed." Said Erika with a smug smirk, tightening her robe around her and walking into the kitchen of her apartment, "But you have learned quite a few, amazing tricks."
"Why, thank you. You were a lovely audience." Said Priest as he sat on the edge of Erika's bed, putting a shirt on.
"Would you like some blood?"
"Sure."
"Any preferences?"
"I like Fish, but any will do."
"Fish? What I have is human blood. I meant what type. I have A, AB and O."
"Human?"
"Synthetic."
"Oh. AB is fine."
Erika opened her fridge and reached to get a bag of frozen blood. She emptied the bag into a container and placed it in the microwave to heat up.
"This place doesn't look like a home." Remarked Priest, looking around the apartment, it was plush, at least by Sin City standards, but devoid of any personal touches.
"It's not. It belongs to the coven, one of their children has strayed, so I have to stay in this place and keep an eye out for her. She does this all the time; usually it's a week until she's brought back to New York. So I shouldn't be here longer than a few days."
The microwave pinged, Erika opened it and took the pot out, then poured the bubbling blood into two glasses.
"Defrosted blood can be less then savory, but I find it best to add a splash of cognac. Anyway, what about you? You're leaving today?"
"That was the plan." Said Priest as he took the glass and drank from it.
"You said you were about to join some people?"
"The rest of my crew, yes."
"What does you crew get up to?"
"Oh, this and that."
"And would this and that be anything legal?"
"Well, I am a Priest."
"Hmm. We should do it."
"Again? Okay, sure, just give me a few more minutes."
"I meant the ritual." Said Erika, putting her glass down, and raising a kitchen knife.
"Oh, maybe not yet." Said Priest as he placed his empty glass on the counter.
"There's no point in putting it off."
"Maybe there is." Said Priest, "This crew that I'm catching up with, what if I don't?"
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying… Why don't we go somewhere? Or if you like, we can stay here, wait for your child of the coven to turn up then go somewhere, New York, LA; wherever you like."
"Are you saying you want to give us another chance?"
"Yeah."
Erika looked at incredulously for a moment.
"That's a warped sense of humor you've developed, husband."
"Well I'm not joking."
Erika sighed and looked away, then smiled, and got very close to Priest.
"Judas… That's very sweet of you, you were right when you said that you had changed. You did, for the better. And every minute since we got home last night was great… But nothing has really changed. We're just wrong for each other."
"I know that you think… that you were not important to me, that I didn't love you. But I did…"
"You had a hilarious way of showing it."
"Well, I know it's not an excuse, but my mother was murdered by a genocidal nutjob and my father was that genocidal nutjob. For a long time, my life was to do whatever my father wanted; murder, pillage… Then there came a day that what he wanted was for me to want you, and … It was different, a far cry from everything else I was made to do. All of a sudden, there were things I'd rather do and things I didn't. You stirred up a different kind of passion… I couldn't bear it."
"First of all, that made no sense to me. And second, it would just end in tears. Too much water under the bridge. Too many issues."
Priest hung his head.
"Are you sure about that?"
"I'm certain."
"Well, as long as you're certain."
"Do we each cut off our own finger, or does one of us do both?" asked Priest as he placed his palm down on the kitchen sink.
"I'll cut yours off and you cut mine off. I'll go first." Erika said as she picked up a knife.
"We can still be friends, you know."
"With benefits?"
"Sure," said Erika with a chuckle as she lightly pressed the edge of the blade to the base of Priest's ring finger, "why not."
Before Erika could apply anymore pressure, Priest's fingers wrapped tightly around her wrist.
"Ow! What the fuck are you doing? Take you hand off me!" Erika demanded in shock.
"You said you that I was really alive." Said Priest.
"What are you on about?"
"Last night at Kadie's, the first thing you said when you saw me was 'You really are alive'." Said Priest as he tightened his fingers, forcing her to relinquish the knife.
"You're hurting me, you bastard!"
"Not, 'Oh lord, you're alive', but 'You really are alive'. As if someone had told you that I didn't die along with all the other vampires of my breed. So who told you? Tell me or I'll-"
"You haven't changed," said Erika hatefully, "Not. One. Bit."
The window above Erika's bed shattered, sending shards of glass flying inward. Priest loosened his grip as he turned to look, allowing Erika to retreat into a tiny nook in the adjacent wall.
Two men came in through the shattered window, having rappelled in off the side of the building, they were decked in black armor from top to bottom, and wielded sophisticated looking rifles.
Before either of the two men could take another step, Priest picked up the knife off the sink and hurled it toward one the assailants. It lodged till the handle in the center of his head, he tumbled backwards and fell back through the window, ripping the blinds off and allowing sunlight into the dark apartment.
Before his partner fell to his death, the second man managed to get away from the window and onto to the floor, he took aim and fired at Priest as he charged for cover behind the kitchen island. Priest noticed that it didn't sound or smell like normal gunfire, bur rather sounded like a nail gun. All the shots missed him, save for one that struck him in the back of his hand. In the second it took him to look at it, he felt an excruciating electrical current rent through him. Through pain, he pried the electric dart out of his flesh with his teeth and spat it onto the floor.
Explosives darts detonated outside the apartment, blowing the door to bits and clearing the way for a team of gunmen outside.
Feeling himself increasingly surrounded, Priest grew desperate. He jumped up and charged the first man to come in. The gunman by the bed hesitated, fearing to hit his comrade. Priest sank his teeth into the large gunman's neck, tearing out a chunk of flesh and prying his gun out of his hands, he then pushed him out the door, using his large body as a shield against the rest of the team, and pulled the pin off a grenade that hung off of his bulletproof vest.
The second gunman took fire. Priest raised his gun just in time to catch the darts on the stock, and then aimed it at the gunman and fired a burst of electrical darts that struck the gunman in the chest. He fell to the ground with a painful yelp and shook in a violent spasm.
It all took a little more than two seconds. Priest sprang to shelter at the fridge's side. He looked down at Erika who shrunk in the corner and shot her a fiery stare.
The grenade exploded in the corridor outside with a bright light. It was a stun grenade, not incendiary. It was apparent that this armed unit was sent to capture him and bring him back alive.
"Severed fingers or not, this marriage is over." Priest muttered as he walked out the door. He aimed the gun at the stunned bodies in his path and sprayed them with electric as he head to the staircase, piecing everything in his mind.
They didn't make their move earlier because they were hoping Erika would get him to divulge where he was heading, or better yet offer to take her with him. He was on the verge of asking her to do so when Erika's remark from last night got back to him and made him suspicious.
The answer to how the league knew where to send Erika there or since how long was the answer he didn't have, and felt he could live without finding out.
The gun clicked empty, so he let it go, he ran the last few steps and jumped onto the railing. He looked down the spiraling staircase. Erika's apartment was on the ninth floor, but he'd managed to land right from much greater heights.
As Priest prepared to step off the railing, one of the gunmen he'd left in his wake managed through his blinding pain to raise his gun and squeeze. Perhaps that particular dart in him was defective, or perhaps his finger was already on the trigger and him squeezing was just the result of his pain. In the end, a single dark struck Priest's ankle and he lost his balance, and then plummeted all the way down.
Priest painfully opened his eyes, oblivious to how much time had passed. The electric dart in his leg wasn't causing him any pain, apparently damaged by the fall. He sat up and looked at his legs to see the awful thing that had become of them; one was severally broken, he couldn't possibly get up. Desperately, he tried crawling away to the building's basement. He could hear more men on their way, and he was in no condition to fight.
It was futile, they were soon upon him. One of them kicked him in the face as he tried to stand up, and the rest joined in, kicking him repeatedly as he wriggled on the ground.
"Stop it!" cried Erika who'd come running down the staircase.
"You're hurting him!"
"That was the idea." Said a man in a suit as he grabbed her by the shoulders, restraining her, "Stop messing around!"
"He's had enough!"
"No, he hasn't." said the agent as he tried to pull Erika away. She whipped her head to the back, hitting him in the cheek and loosening his grip on her.
Erika went to pull the other men off of her battered husband, but then she heard a click from behind. She turned around to see the agent aiming a machine pistol at her.
"This gun has state-of-the-art UV-rounds. You know what will happen if I pull trigger."
"His legs are broken. What more can he do?"
One of the men fell to the ground, screaming and kicking as Priest gnawed into his ankle, tearing blood vessels and tendons apart, then taking a knife out of the fallen gunman's holster and plunging it into another's foot.
"That." Said the agent, "I told you not to get cocky, now let him have it. All of it. Pour it in!"
The gunmen opened fire, spraying Priest's torso full of electric darts.
"No!"
One of the gunmen turned around to strike Erika across the face with his rifle, the shooting soon came to an end after that.
The agent looked down at Priest and Erika, both of whom had lost consciousness, and the two wounded gunmen, groaning in agony.
"What were you thinking?"
"We're sorry, sir." Said one of the gunmen, "It's just… He's the one who killed Mazzucchelli and Finnerty. We saw it on the security footage, it was him!"
"That's not how we operate and you know it. You will all face disciplinary action for this "
"Reload, sir?" asked another gunman.
"No. Get Ruthven to provide medical attention to Pope and Archer."
The Agent handed one of the agents a thick, sealed envelope.
"Carry Mrs. Priest upstairs. Put her money somewhere she can find it. As for Mr. Priest, the rest of you chop his hands and feet off, then cover him up and prep him for transport."
"Really?"
"Try not to enjoy yourself too much." Said the agent with a smirk as he walked away.
"Hurry up, the director wants him in Gotham today."
BTW, Erika is the blond vampire from Underworld. Hope that was both unexpected and to your liking.
Next Chapter
When it becomes clear that Priest has been captured, the minutemen and their superiors decide what to do. There will be deliberation, a vote, a secret brought to light. And in the end, the minutemen's fate will be decided.
R&R.