fangednconfused (fangednconfused) wrote in birthrightrpg, @ 2021-02-05 23:56:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | derek mitchell, npc |
Let the Right One In
Who: Derek/NPC Lee (Written By Em)
What: Mistaken Identity?
Where: Searchlight
When: Present
Ratings/Warnings: Language, Violence, Injury, Blood
It was just past 10 PM and most of Searchlight had packed it in for the night. Derek was taking a solitary walk, whistling something to himself completely out of tune. It must have come from somewhere deeply subconscious, because he couldn’t have named the song with a gun to his head. A cloud of smoke released into the air from the corner of his mouth. He had emptied a cigarette of its tobacco and replaced it with some Blueberry Headband.
The temp was in the mid 50s, a clear night. He was wearing a t-shirt with Tupac’s face emblazoned across it, skinny jeans, slightly battered Vans slip-ons. The vampire was thinking about nothing in particular, and he liked it that way. Especially as of late.
Word had gotten out on the hunter's network about the plethora of creatures that were hiding in and around the Las Vegas area, that was what drew Lee in, he hadn't had a good hunt in quite a while and part of him was itching for a kill!
After driving night and day he had ended up driving into the small town of Searchlight just after dark, always a good time to be on the lookout. Sitting in his car, he watched as a few people left stores and went on their way, probably home or to the city, they didn't look like much of anything and nothing threw up red flags.
That was until he saw the guy walking down the street. While he couldn't really see his features from where he was parked a hundred or so yards away he did look suspicious and he could feel the hairs on his neck stand up. For the moment he’d keep watching him, maybe he was just some down and out nobody but Lee highly doubted it.
There was a plastic shopping bag slung over Derek’s forearm, and as he reached up to relight the repurposed cigarette, the cheap plastic broke. Plastic takeout pints fell to the sidewalk and popped open, spilling pig’s blood out onto the cement. “Shit,” the vampire murmured, the smoke moving between his lips.
The tall man stooped down, knees popping out of the holes in his jeans and assessed the damage. There wasn’t much salvaging it unless he wanted to get on his hands and knees and try slurping the blood off the sidewalk, and he wasn’t that hungry.
There was no mistaking what fell out of that shopping bag on to the ground, a blind man could see that they were the same bags used in blood donation centers and the fact the man had them meant one of two things, he was a vampire or he was taking 'dinner' to one.
Lee's guess was the former rather than the later but he'd tail for a bit longer, just to make sure. He still bore the scars from his last encounter with a vampire, he was lucky to still be alive after that! "2211 hours. Target appears to be a male in his mid twenties or early thirties. Brunette of thin build. Torn jeans and T-shirt. Has bag of blood packs. Will continue to track before confrontation." He said into his phone, recording the time and details for later.
Oh, well. He still had some left in the fridge at home, and he could swing back by the butcher tomorrow. Derek extinguished his cigarette and straightened. The trailer was waiting for him, though he wasn’t quite ready to go home yet. He was still processing the dinner with Brianna the evening before. The sting of rejection was still present, even if they were still friends.
Lee was keeping on the suspected vampire, it wasn't like this was a large town and he had a pretty good view of the surrounding buildings, mainly trailer type houses with few actual businesses in this section. Hopefully the target lived in one of those and he wouldn't have to move from where he was parked to keep visual.
He couldn't hear the conversation, but it didn't really matter to Lee, he just wanted to see what house the target entered and he'd then get his kit out and follow.
Derek reached 450 Lincoln, digging out his keys and letting himself into the small trailer. He flipped up the lightswitch and dropped the key ring into a ceramic dish shaped like a pair of praying hands, a relic that had belonged to Ronnie’s mother. He opened the fridge and was relieved to see he had two pints of blood left. Hungrily, he popped one open and stuck it in the microwave.
As the plastic container revolved inside, he crossed over to the living room and switched on the TV.
He watched the man enter the home and waited for a minute or two, getting his kit from where it was stashed in the footwell of the passenger’s front seat - a nondescript duffle that often went unnoticed by others as he carried it around, not knowing what was actually inside it.
He pulled the St Christopher’s medallion out from where it hung around his neck, kissing it for good luck before driving his car out and parking it just a short distance from the residence the target had entered. Parking it he got out, the duffle held in one hand behind him as he knocked on the door, already going through the ‘I must’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere’ routine in his head.
Derek turned his head toward the door at the knock, wondering if it was Ronnie looking for something he had forgotten in the move. The microwave dinged to a stop as he crossed the trailer to the front door. Nonchalantly, he opened it, not recognizing the person standing there on the stoop. The vampire raised an eyebrow.
“Can I help you?”
“Uh.. hi.” Lee smiled, hands still behind his back. “I don’t suppose you’ve got a map or something? I took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up here and my phone decided to die on me.” He could just get the faint smell of warmed blood that wafted out from inside the residence, confirming his suspicions. Without trying to make it obvious a hand slipped down through the open zip until his fingers curled around the crucifix that sat on top.
“Um, I don’t have a paper map but if you tell me where you’re going, maybe I can give you directions.” Derek pulled out his phone, opening up the Maps app, his gaze falling away from the other man to look at the screen. “Oh, you know what else, the truck stop has maps, too. If you wanna follow me there, I can show you. It’s super close.”
“I was heading south.” He said, then the vampire suggested following him to the truck stop and he couldn’t help but grin, oh that was perfect! Away from the house and into the darkness that seemed to surround everywhere in this town. “Oh you would? That’d be swell.” Lee’s fingers slipped away from the wood and back out of the bag.
Derek nodded and slid his phone back into his hip pocket. “Yeah, no worries, dude. Let me just grab my keys.” The vampire turned around and walked over to the little console table with the praying hands and plucked up his Viva Las Vegas keyring.
The vampire turning around was an even better opportunity and Lee took it, pulling out the cross as he stormed into the house, kicking the door behind him as he recited a Latin prayer. At least his devout faith came in handy when hunting vampires even if it didn’t for most other foul, heathen creatures. He was still chanting as he closed in on the vampire, trying to get it back against a wall or in a corner without a window which could be used as a means of escape.
He spun on his foot at the sound of the chanting. “What the fuck?” His eyes fell onto the cross and Derek stepped back slowly, eyes narrowing as the reality of what was happening set in. He mentally kicked himself for thinking that he was safe from the apparent influx of hunters just because he didn’t feed on humans.
“Put that down and get out of my house,” Derek told the hunter carefully. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You can’t hurt me, you evil spawn of Satan!” Lee yelled, still wielding the cross in front of him as he advanced before returning to his chanting. He was in such a rush when the opportunity presented itself (and probably more than a bit rusty) that he had forgotten to take the knife out of his bag beforehand and dropped the bag on the floor before reaching in to grab the large blade that had taken the head of quite a few creatures over the years. “You deserve to go back to the pits of hell where you belong!”
“Spawn of Satan?” Derek repeated incredulously, his hands up, palms facing outward. “I mean, my dad’s an asshole but he’s not that bad.” If this was indeed a hunter, he was a batshit crazy one, which could work for the vampire’s favor or completely against it. Then his eyes caught the blade. A surge of anger rushed through him.
“This is not fucking happening today.” With supernaturally gifted speed, Derek grabbed the ceramic tray and whipped it at the other man’s head.
Lee’s eyes couldn’t see the vampire as it moved with the unnatural speed that they were known for, a blink later and although he tried to move out of the way of the object flying towards him, he was just a fraction too late, the tray hitting and breaking at the side of his head rather than the forehead.
Pain instantly bloomed inside of Lee’s head but he ignored it and the thin ribbons of blood that were now moving down his temple from the shattered ceramics, his hand still gripped around the blade although he had discarded the cross as he moved towards the vampire. He wanted to get it cornered before he started swinging the blade, knowing full well that in their current positions that the vampire could easily just get past him with that speed and he wouldn’t be able to see it but he tried it anyway.
The sight and smell of blood hit Derek. He could almost taste it. He hadn’t had human blood in his mouth in nearly half a year, and his fangs appeared automatically in full view of the hunter. The vampire circled away toward the center of the room, casting his gaze for potential weapons.
“I don’t kill people,” he spoke in the hopes that his words would distract the bleeding man. “I drink animal blood. I don’t hurt anyone. You need to leave now.” Derek’s words were reasonable, but inside, he was raging. He had been having a shitty week, gotten rejected by the girl he really liked, and now a fucking hunter was in his home, his friend’s home, swinging a blade at him.
“I’m giving you this chance now. Leave.”
He didn’t believe a word of it, a vampire not harming humans was as believable to him as the moon landing. “You’re a vampire. You’re evil incarnate and you all deserve the same fate!” Lee replied, taking another swing towards the vampire with the blade, his mouth stuck in a sneer as he missed but tried again. In his mind he was repeating the prayer over and over again, that would protect him from this creature.
“I will not leave here until your head is removed!”
Derek could hear the blade sing in the air as it whipped toward him. He managed to get the couch between him and the hunter, kneeling down and grabbing it from the underside. With his strength, it lifted easily and he upended it toward the other man. As it fell forward, he jumped over the recliner and came around to his opponent’s side and grabbed the arm that was swinging the blade.
He bent it back behind the man’s body, but his hands slipped and the blade cut open the palm of the vampire’s hand.
The couch flying at him took Lee by surprise but it was by some miracle that he managed to get out of the way as it crashed to the ground behind him. It was in that moment of distraction as his gaze had wandered from the vampire to the couch that the vampire had come around to his side and he found his arm getting twisted behind his back.
He hissed slightly at the pain although again tried his best to fight through it like any good hunter would do as his free hand reached back behind him, making a grab for the dark mop of hair and pulling as hard as he could.
Derek grunted in pain as he felt several dozen strands of hair rip from his scalp, but he managed to get the blade loose and threw it across the room. With his right hand, he leveled a punch to the hunter’s midsection, blood smearing against both of them from the vampire’s hand and the other man’s cut. More than anything, he wanted to sink his teeth into that throat and drink until it was all gone.
The clang of the blade landing far out of reach registered in Lee’s mind but he knew he wouldn’t be able to get it again, not while engaged in hand to hand with the vampire. There was loud huff as the punch knocked some of the air out of his lungs but he was made of tougher stuff and with his hand once again grabbing at the hair he pulled the vampire’s head towards his own before throwing his head back in an attempted headbutt, hoping this would be enough to get rid of the grip still around his arm so they could fight face to face.
“Fuck,” Derek sputtered as the hunter’s head made contact, and he could feel blood rush from his nose. He managed to catch himself from falling backward. “I am going to bite the fucking shit out of you,” the vampire swore, pissed off and forgetting all about not wanting to hurt a human as he swiped quickly at his face with his sleeve.
Derek grabbed the man’s head firmly between both his hands and brought it downward at the same time as he pushed his knee upward.
In that moment when the vampire stumbled Lee had managed to turn around to fight his foe face to face, his shoulder and arm throbbed from where it had been held behind his back but he shook it off and raised it and the other arm in a boxer’s stance.
But he wasn’t quick enough to fight back as the hands gripped his head and he saw the knee coming towards them before everything went dark.
Derek watched the hunter go limp and fall to the carpeted floor, giving him a nudge with his shoe to make sure the guy was really out. He could hear the slower heartbeat, the breathing going shallow. He spotted the hunter’s abandoned bag and rifled through it, finding a few zip ties. The wheels in his head began to turn. After a few moments, he had the man’s hands and feet tied and as he knelt over him, the smell and sight of human blood nearly overwhelmed him.
The vampire stared at the pulse point on the unconscious man’s neck, his fangs still visible. Instead, he reached into the man’s pocket and found his keys. It took less than ten minutes to get the trunk of the hunter’s car cleared out and placed him inside, locking him in. He drove past the Searchlight town limits into the desert, the headlights guiding the way, radio on loud to muffle the sound in case the dude woke up.
He didn’t know how long he was out for, it could’ve been two minutes or two hours. His head pounded and his arms and legs were at weird angles, it took a moment to realise that he was hogtied and was in a car trunk, was this his own car? Lee tried to move but it only caused more pain in both his head and his limbs, the restraints weren’t tight enough to cut off the circulation to his hands and feet but they were tight enough that no matter how much he moved his hands he couldn’t loosen them.
He could also hear the radio blaring, so even if he called out no one could hear him anyway, it looked like he’d just have to lie there and keep hoping that he could work loose the restraints somehow.
Satisfied he had driven far enough, Derek pulled over to the shoulder and cut the engine, the sudden silence almost deafening. He got out of the car, leaving the driver’s side door open, the vehicle emitting a ringing sound in protest. He popped open the trunk, careful to step back in case the hunter was awake and wanted to try his luck. “Morning, sunshine,” the vampire quipped, seeing him squirming, his eyes open, the slightest glimmer of fear in them.
His own face was crusted with dried blood. He had changed out of his dirty t-shirt and into a sweatshirt, the hood drawn up. He stared at the hunter for a moment before speaking again. “What’s your name?”
Lee’s eyes had grown used to the darkness so when the boot opened and the light inside turned on he was momentarily blinded, blinking as he heard the voice of the vampire before making out the shape standing in front of him. He spat in the direction of its face when asked what his name was. “Why would I tell you?”
Derek dodged the projectile saliva easily. “When I was 21 years old, a vampire trapped me in a hotel room before she turned me. I had never been abducted before, obviously. And I didn’t get the same kind of warnings or tips that girls my age did.” He opened the trunk more fully, the only light available from the moon above and the small amount inside the car. “But somehow, I guess, instinct took over. I tried to humanize myself to her. I told her my name, about my family. That kind of stuff. To get her to see me as a person, and not just prey.”
He looked up at the sky, the smattering of stars. “It did the opposite. It only got her more excited. The more I talked, the more she hurt me.” The vampire reached into the pouch of his hoodie and pulled out the blade that the hunter had wielded at him, and held it up for him to see. “Which kind of predator do you think I am?”
Again, Lee didn’t believe the story. Vampires were vampires, vile creatures who prayed on humans and they’d say anything to save their own pathetic lives including one of ‘I didn’t want to be like this’. “You’re a vampire, you’re all the same and you all deserve to die!” The only good vampire was a dead one as his mentor had once told him over a few too many at some biker bar in the middle of nowhere.
“Okay.”
Derek nodded to himself, then moved to toss the blade into the passenger seat of the car. He came back around to the trunk. “Maybe you’re right,” he answered with a shrug. “Because every part of me right now is screaming to drink your blood until there’s nothing left, then bury you here where no one will ever find you.” He leaned forward, and with impressive strength hauled the man out of the trunk and tossed him down on the desert ground. The vampire hovered over him.
“But I think instead what I’ll do is just...leave you here.” Derek looked up at the sky. It was still hours before sun up. “Think of it as a personal test to see just how resourceful you are.” The vampire turned and walked back toward the vehicle, then paused and looked at the man over his shoulder. “Oh, yeah, and if I ever see you in Searchlight again, draining you will be the last thing I do to you.”
There was fear in Lee’s eyes at that moment, getting left out in the middle of nowhere still bound in the unforgiving zip cuffs he’d be as good as dead unless he could find some broken bottle or something to cut through the plastic.
Landing on the dirt with a loud thud it took him a moment to sit up the best he could and watch the vampire walk back towards his car. “I’m not the only one in town, we will hunt each and every one of you down as well as those you hold dear.” He spat, seeing if that would get a response from the heartless creature.
Derek froze. He had been planning to drive back home, ditch the car, and call someone to pick up the hunter. Either AAA or the police, he hadn’t decided yet. But those words made him stop in his tracks. Something inside him went cold. He turned around and walked back toward the hunter, and knelt down beside him.
He lifted the man’s head up by his hair, exposing his neck. “That would be a mistake,” he said quietly.
Lee looked the creature in the eyes, a sneer across his lips again “Go on then. Kill me. My death won’t go unnoticed.” Other hunters would realise his disappearance and come looking for him, or that was what he had led himself to believe, that all hunters were like a band of brothers and sisters that always looked out for each other.
“Who exactly is going to notice, Lee?” The vampire pulled out the man’s ID. He had gotten it from the same pocket where his keys had been. “You’d be surprised how easily people disappear here. You just...become a part of the backdrop. If it isn’t vultures, then it’s whatever’s beneath the earth.” He knew this from experience after seeing how many bodies Veronica had buried in the desert.
“I guess you were right. We’re all the same.” He leaned down and sank his teeth into the hunter’s neck.
He screamed as the fangs pierced his skin and he tried to fight against the much stronger foe, his increased heart rate just speeding up his demise as the blood flowed from his jugular into the vampire’s mouth. The screams stopped, his eyelids sliding shut for the last time as his body got weaker. The Lord would be waiting for him on the other side.
Derek pulled away, his mouth wet, the fresh liquid mingling with his own dried blood that was still on his face. He looked down at Lee’s lifeless body. “Fuck.” He got to his feet slowly, pulling the hood off of his head. Louder still, he practically yelled it. “Fuck!” He hadn’t wanted to kill him. Maybe there was a better solution and he was too stupid to think about it.
The vampire began to pace, his shoes kicking up dust. He’d have to bury the body. He’d have to work quickly before the sun came up. Figure out a place to dump the car. His mind was racing, and yet his mind kept going back to how good it felt. Familiar. And he hated it.
With trembling hands, he pulled out his phone. He scrolled through the names in his contacts list, staring blankly at them until they began to blur. Who would he call? What would he say? He put the device away. He needed to do this alone.