Chapter 9
It had taken longer than he would have thought, but all the same Chase found what he was looking to find. It was a very old text, written by a Catholic priest in either the fourteenth or fifteenth century. He had read the book, many, many years ago, shortly after acquiring it, but it had been so long he could only remember parts of it.
What he did remember though, was that the book was focused mainly on the priest's encounters with the supernatural. The book was not written particularly well, as it tended to jump from one subject to the next seemingly without rhyme or reason, but it did contain much useful, and more importantly, iaccurate/i information for anyone attempting to rid their village of "ungodly pests".
This included vampires, and though he had to practically reread the entirety of the very long book to find the right passage-for the priest would mention vampires in one section, skip to something else, then continue about them in another-he did find the passage he had only barely remembered, the sentence that might save him the trouble of killing his ever annoying fanboy. Basically, it read:
"…if the Nosferatu dost still live, and his unfortunate victim hast not yet tasted the blood of Man; he shall be freed if thee put to rest the Vampire…"
As far as he knew, Spicer had only drunk animal blood so far, as he should still be human enough that human blood would make him sick. If he could find and kill the creature that bit Jack, the spell would break, so to speak, and he would return to being human.
If he hurried, this could be all over before it caused any trouble. But he hesitated.
He knew his motives would be questioned for such an act; though not intentionally any sort of mercy, he was essentially saving Spicer's life. He did not like Jack, plain and simple. To be fair, Spicer never really did anything to earn his hatred; he was annoying, but so was Wuya. It really just came down to the fact Chase rarely liked people to start with.
However, his emotions on the matter aside, this would be a lot more convenient. Spicer's situation aside, he would need to get rid of the Upir as well. Though it did not directly affect him to let it run about; if it was deteriorated enough to make accidental vampires it was a threat to everyone, Xiaolin, Heylin, or civilian.
As it had taken him most of the day find and read through that book, Chase found he had another problem. There is a reason vampires are killed during daylight hours. Not just because the morning sun will burn them, but because it weakens them as well. They cannot shape-shift during the day. Cannot turn into smoke and vanish.
As old as it may be, the Upir, if it has any self preservation instincts left at all, will not likely just stand there and let him kill it when it could simply turn into a bat and fly away. Unless he wanted to wait until morning, by which time it would probably be too late, he was going to need the Golden Orb.
Satisfied by the plan he now had, he left a message for his warriors and vanished.
O8o8o8o8o8o8o8o8o8O
For the Xiaolin Dragons, it had been a very long and disturbing day. For starters, they had essentially trapped themselves in a kitchen with three deadly immortals who all hated their guts.
It was Wuya who made the first move, and Raimundo nearly had his face kicked in. Omi and Clay found themselves distracted by Hannibal which left Jack and Kimiko. Jack, who looked completely silly at the moment, and who under normal circumstances would be less threating than a kitten, was currently fighting like a feral hungry tiger.
His movements were sloppy and predictable but there was so much force behind them she found herself having to dodge more than she blocked for fear of a broken limb. The word 'vampire' had gone through her mind a few million times by that point after he had tried to bite her.
Oddly, despite their current situation, she was over her fear. She knew what she was fighting now, he wasn't the monster in the dark anymore, he was just another enemy. An enemy who apparently wanted to eat her, she summoned fire to her right hand and Jack reeled back. Despite being faster he was just as clumsy and landed on his butt with an 'oomph!'.
She smirked and the look he gave her was so unJack-like that she had to remind herself who this was. His hat had fallen off, and though the curtains over the kitchen widows were closed tight a ray of sunlight still peeked in.
Instead of sparkling, as certain media might suggest, when Jack moved to get up the ray hit his face and he burned. Screaming his usual scream, he jumped backwards looking frantically for his hat and she used that distraction against him. It was then she realized just how angry she was.
Kimiko being angry at Jack was nothing knew, but this was not mere annoyance, this was pure rage. For the last twelve hours she'd been terrified because of him! Stupid, irritating, but harmless Jack! Afraid of him! Not cool! If she was being completely honest to herself, she was more mad at her own weaknesses then Jack, but lets face it, he's fun to take your anger out on.
Everything after that was a bit of a blur. There was more fighting and they next thing she knew they were getting pasted. If it wasn't for Dojo hearing their scuffle from outside there was a very real possibility that they would have been leaving with more than a few bruises, if at all.
It was luck that had them flying away, and yet she didn't feel lucky. It was usually Jack who ended up flying away defeated, and it rubbed salt in the wounds to be on the flip side. Kimiko wasn't the only one who felt it.
"That was...weird." Rai finally admitted.
"I think that's an understatement Rai." said Clay.
"What could they have done to Jack Spicer! I do not like what they have done to him!"
"I don't know..."
It was then that it occurred to Kimiko that the others, being as they were not the ones who fought him, didn't get as close of a look as she did. Though it seemed obvious to her, they needed filling in. Still, she felt akward saying it, if just because admitting something aloud means you believe it, and such a surreal event as the one that was happening now can be very hard to swallow.
She took a deep breath before she spoke. "Omi, guys, I-I think Jack's become a vampire..."
They, as expected, stared at her, not so much in disbelief, but more with the kind of surprise one feels when you realize you didn't think of that idea first, and yet it seems so obvious now.
"A Vampire? Seriously?"
"Think about it Rai: burns in the sun, sharp fangs, super strength, and..." A morbid thought occurred to her, and it showed on her expression.
"What?"
"...Remember those recent killings? The victims drained of blood?"
Clay caught on. "Ya don't think Spicer coulda-"
"I don't know, it doesn't sound like him but you saw how he was back there! He hasn't acted that weird, well, weird for him since the green monkey army."
"True but, sigh, dang, what a coincidence right?"
"What do you mean Raimundo?" asked Omi.
"Well, he already looked the part, but now he is one? How does that work out?" The threw his hands up in exasperation, shaking his head.
"Ugh, I know, it's like bad fanfiction." She crossed her arms, glaring over the city.
"Kimiko, what is 'fanfiction'?"
"It's...ugh, I'll tell you later, right now we need to figure out a plan."
"Do ya think there could be somethin' in the scrolls about this?" Clay asked.
"It's worth a shot." Said Rai.
O8o8o8o8o8o8o8o8o8O
Fifteen hundred years ago, just after he had locked Wuya in her puzzle box, Grand Master Dashi found that he had a new problem, hiding the Shen-gong-wu. China was not the only place in the world that had monsters, and often times he had to face one just to clear a place to hide the magical objects.
Though the various people of those various place often looked upon those acts as heroic, to Dashi they were merely him keeping the forces of evil away from the 'wu. Depending on the circumstance, he would either lock them away or destroy them completely, but sometimes, he left the monsters as they were.
To the Grand Master, the balance on Yin and Yang was important, because you can never really destroy evil, only keep it form growing. It was one of the reasons he had not killed Wuya, he could have, but that would have thrown things too out of balance. No, the world, in it's own odd way, needed her as much as it needed Xiaolin warriors.
So he didn't get rid of all the monsters, no, that would only throw the universe into chaos, just sort of trimmed them down a little to keep them form growing out of control.
It so happened that the Russian village he had planned on hiding one of the 'wu in had a particularly nasty parasite problem. The town was overrun with vampires, and he found himself faced with a conundrum. As much as he hated to see people dying, killing all of them would, in reality, only make way for some thing worse.
Besides, killing vampires was a tricky business, especially young, well-fed ones. But one morning, as the sun rose high, he got an idea that would solve his problem. The Golden Orb.
He would find the vampires lair, as they tended to live in packs when created by each other, and simply activate the orb. It would kill off the majority with out killing them all. Even better, he could simply leave the orb there afterwards; they certainly wouldn't use it, and no one would want to get near the remaining vampires to retrieve it.
Of course, after Dashi left with less vampires eating them, the village grew. As the village grew, it began hunting out those remaining blood-suckers. They just so happened to miss one; one who had been hiding until some children came to retrieve to Golden Orb.
A/N: Meh, not my best chapter, and it took forever to put together too. I'm running out of ideas here, but hopefully there will only be two chapters left so I think I can make it. Geez I am a lazy writer. Also, I have been thinking about adding character death; what do you think?