44. Darius - The Hunt
Chapter forty-four
Darius - The Hunt
The bell has not tolled yet, but Bloodhaven Cove already feels buried alive.
Fog presses low against the streets as Fred hurries home carrying a toolbox under one arm and a hammer in his coat pocket. Every window of the clinic is now reinforced with nailed boards to keep infected patients from breaking out like Tom did. And maybe keep things out.
Not exactly how he imagined his retirement going. “Should’ve bought a condo in Florida,” he mutters to Silas before he leaves.
The streets are nearly empty now as he hurries home. Lights glow faintly behind curtained windows. Doors are locked. The earlier curfew changed everything. Even the air feels frightened.
Fred adjusts the silver chain around his neck and walks faster through the streets. The bell tower looms faintly through the mist ahead.
One hour until full sunset. One hour until the island holds its breath again for another night.
As he hurries down the street, a sound echoes somewhere behind him.
A footstep.
Fred stops walking and slowly turns. There’s nothing. Only fog drifting between buildings.
He resumes walking faster. But there’s another sound. Closer this time. And he hears a low inhale.
Fred’s pulse spikes.
“Hello?”
Silence. Suddenly a shape moves across the low rooftop overhead. Too fast. His blood turns cold instantly.
“Oh God.”
The thing lands behind him hard enough to crack the pavement. Fred spins quickly, and stumbles backward in horror.
It’s a creature, a man with fangs and crazy eyes. His hair is awry and black veins spread wildly beneath gray skin. His eyes are completely dark, mouth slick with blood.
“I’m Rufus,” the vampire rasps, “and I’m very hungry. You’re going to help me with that.” His voice sounds broken and starving.
Fred backs away immediately.
“Rufus…”
Rufus twitches violently and his fangs descend fully.
Fred turns and runs.
“Help!” he screams, dropping his supplies.
The fog swallows him instantly as he tears down the street towards home. Rufus is too fast, follows him with impossible speed, toying with him like a cat with a mouse.
“Your blood smells good,” he taunts and trips Fred.
Fred hits the ground and Rufus laughs.
As he steps forward, Fred kicks at him hard and Rufus slams against the bakery door.
“No more playing, human,” he snarls as he advances on Fred now for the kill.
Fred shoves frantically against him. The silver chain around Fred’s throat burns against Rufus’s hand the second the infected vampire grabs him.
Smoke rises instantly from Rufus’s flesh and he screams. He rears back for an instant. Then lunges again anyway. He’s too far gone now to care.
Fred sees the fangs descending toward his throat and is sure this is it.
But suddenly Rufus vanishes. Ripped backward violently. The impact shakes the street.
Darius slams Rufus through the side of a parked truck hard enough to cave the door inward. Rufus snarls wildly, barely recognizable now.
Darius stands between him and Fred with terrifying calm.
Dark coat moving slightly in the wind. Eyes black and ancient and angry.
“Rufus,” he says quietly. The infected vampire twitches violently. For one terrible second, recognition flickers. Darius’s expression tightens almost imperceptibly.
“You broke protocol.”
Rufus snarls again.
“Forget your precious protocol. I would never take those orders … Are you hunting me?”
Darius stands looking at Rufus. Suddenly Rufus’ voice changes as he frantically continues, “He calls so loudly. I can hear him inside my skull…”
“Rufus, you attacked a human; you were going to kill him.”
“I’m starving! He’s only a human. Disposable.”
“You attacked Hazel.”
“What, that crazy old woman? Her blood didn’t taste that good, lucky for her.”
“You endangered the island. You endangered all of us.”
Rufus screams suddenly and lunges. Fast, savage and completely feral.
Darius intercepts him effortlessly. The violence is horrifyingly graceful. Ancient predator against broken predator.
Rufus tears at him wildly while Darius restrains him with brutal precision, slamming him hard into the pavement.
Fred stares frozen from the ground nearby. Seeing too much.
Rufus snarls upward at Darius, black blood running from his mouth.
“You are nothing. You will lose,” he whispers suddenly in a different voice. Darius looks down at him with two centuries of exhaustion in his eyes.
He realizes Rufus is beyond saving. Rufus is one of his people who attended ceremonies, loved music and dancing, and brought sarcasm to every meeting. That Rufus is gone. Lost.
“I’m sorry,” he says quietly.
Then he draws the long silver blade from beneath his coat.
Fred gasps weakly.
Darius moves once. The sword moves clean, fast and terrible, beheading Rufus. The blade flashes silver through the fog. And Rufus’s head rolls silently onto the wet pavement.
The street goes still. Only the fog moves now.
Darius stands motionless over the body for several seconds, blood dripping slowly from the silver blade.
No triumph. No satisfaction. Only burden.
Fred stares at him in horror. Darius looks ancient suddenly, a vampire of power, ruthless because he needs to be. Fred knows Darius is on the council and has seen the civilized man around town for decades. But never like this. What is he? What was that thing that attacked him?
Darius turns toward Fred slowly.
And the monster disappears behind calm eyes once more. He kneels carefully in front of the trembling man.
“Fred.”
Fred can barely breathe. Darius’s voice softens as he stares into Fred’s eyes.
“Fred, you were attacked by an animal. It caused no serious injury.”
Fred’s eyes lose focus slightly as he listens to Darius and looks in his eyes.
“You survived.”
The glamour settles over him gently.
“Go home. Lock your doors. Sleep.”
Fred blinks slowly., confusion replacing terror. Then he nods weakly, stands and stumbles toward his house without another word.
“I was attacked by an animal,” he repeats.
The bell starts to toll.
“Go now, quickly.”
Darius watches him disappear. Then looks back toward Rufus’s body lying in the fog. One of his people. Gone.
Darius stands alone now in the fog holding the bloody sword. And realizes, stage three came too quickly. Far too quickly. The Hunger is accelerating.
He lights the body and head on fire so that tomorrow only ashes will remain here.