The killers

The next night I got paired with Luke, a nice-ish guy. He seemed to be harmless enough. I befriended him kind of and we worked well together. One night we got paired and we were walking along looking for our new victim that Brian had given us to hunt that night. We spotted Maurice in an alley with some new guy we’d not met before. He was showing him how to kill the vampire he had captured. He was doing it slowly and laughing at the man’s pain as he snapped off each finger in turn and then the toes and all the time he was ‘coaching’ the newbie.
“I enjoy killing my victims slowly “he was telling the newbie
“But the most fun I had a while back was killing a female………a human female and her screams of agony were almost erotic.” He went into complete details of how he had killed Martha. I was raging and the newbie was gagging listening to him. I was trying to go and kill Maurice but Luke was holding me back and whispering in my ear to wait that my time will come.” I looked at him in wonder even though I was still pulling away from him.
“Ssssssshhhhh trust me Bastien his days are numbered.” I backed away then trusting my friend. We ran off then and went to catch our own victim.
“Sean” I heard Luke call out and I was staring at him when Sean walked out from where he was hiding.
“We’ve a hit out on your head.”
“Oh ya, how valuable am I now?” he said smirking at Luke who was smirking back. I looked from Sean to Luke and wondered what I was missing.
“Follow us” they both said and they took off running up the hills far away from the town. When we had gone about 20 miles they slowed down and Sean shimmied up a tree and Luke put his finger up to his lips. So I held silent even though I was wondering why we had come all the way out here and why were we talking with our victim and even more why was Luke so friendly with him. I had many questions in my head but I held my tongue until Sean jumped down from the tree.
“It’s cool, no one followed us.” He said.
“Great ok let’s get this started then.” Luke said.
“Is he savvy?” said Sean.
“Yes, we can trust him otherwise he wouldn’t be here bro.”
“Bro?” I exclaimed.
“You Luke and I are brothers.” Said Sean.
“Huh?”
“Luke and me are brothers” Sean said again.
“Ya I got that but I mean are ye really brothers or bro’s as in friends like brothers.” I asked.
“Ya real brothers.” Said Luke.
“Ok, we’ve established we’re brothers” said Sean in an impatient voice. So what’s the plan Luke?”
“Well anyone on your side or our side that want to band together need to hide out together and we’ll build our own army.” Said Luke.
“That’s a great plan bro, but how do we get everyone together?”
“Well I was thinking that whenever one of us get a kill if the ‘victim’ wants to defect from either side then the defectors can be transferred to a secluded location and be apparently removed, all traces gone. And in time when we have a sizeable army we will strike both camps and take out both Brian and Ronan in a dual strike.”
“Well we gonna have to take out Lucy and Maurice too. And she is up to something too. She’s been taking a lot of private phone calls lately and smiling and stuff and we know she don’t take kindly to us guys making a pass at her.”
“Ya Maurice is up to something too. He’s smiling way too much lately and usually the only time he smiles is when he’s causing pain!” I replied.
“Ya, I noticed that too!” said Luke.
“Ok, I’m totally cool with that plan you guys and you can count on me to stay quiet.” I said.
“I know we can trust you cause if we couldn’t you wouldn’t be here right now.” Sean said.
“So Sean you gonna get away from us or are we gonna ‘kill’ someone else instead of you?”
“Already taken care of bro.” Luke said.
“We’ll just tell Brian that Michael Hughes got in the way and Sean got away.” He’ll be happy with that. That way Sean can get home and put the plan in action. Can’t act suspiciously either.”
“Don’t worry I’m in mourning still from my girl that Brian had killed a few years back, I’m not one for conversation as you know, so you needn’t worry. I don’t trust anyone here except you Luke and now Sean and he ain’t even here. But you can count on my help in any way possible!”
“Thanks we’re all bro’s now. Even though Luke had the same mother as me.” he said looking at me and suddenly he looked down like he’d said too much and I looked at them hoping they’d give me an explanation but they both seemed to shut down so I didn’t pry further. They looked at me then with respect in their eyes that I hadn’t demanded to know further explanation. But then I wouldn’t like them prying into my past either even if they are now my friends. I’ll never share information about Lottie; I don’t ever want her life to be threatened. I’ll never forget the fear and hatred I had when I thought she was gone. I doubt she’d ever look at me again anyway but I couldn’t bear the thought of her being dead. Alive I can just about cope and get through my day and look forward to the day when I’m finally free so I can go and see if she’s ok. I hate not knowing and I hate the look I saw in her eyes when I told her I had to leave that I was sick of her. It killed me to do that, but it’s better than Brian forcing me to kill her if she followed me, I would definitely get myself killed if that happened. At least now I feel with Sean and Luke’s help there could be a light at then of the Brian tunnel so to speak.
“Bastien, Brian wants me to mind you tonight and teach you how to kill our enemy he reckons you’re going soft hanging out with lukie. We gotta take out one of the big knobs and Brian reckons you little girls can’t do it on ye’re own.” Maurice said in his meanest voice taunting me. I ignored him and said in a nonchalant voice
“Ya really, who……Ronan?” and laughed at him into his face. He didn’t appreciate my tone and let me know in his sneering voice
“Better! His daughter, the lovely Lucy!” He replied licking his lips, I shrugged like I didn’t care, but really it sent shivers down my back. Then I thought why the fuck should I care she means nothing to me and then I remembered what Sean and Luke had said about the two of them and I thought I could make some useful observations without being too clever about it and so I said
“Ya, whatever! Let’s go so! I don’t care who I kill once I get to kill some vampire.” We headed out to hunt and I thought here is my chance to quiz him about Martha and why he killed her. Brian had not put us together the past few years since that night, like he was afraid I might kill Maurice or something. Why would I, Martha was an ex, but I guess if it was Lottie then that would have been a totally different scene. I’d have killed Maurice and Brian and anyone else involved in her death and nothing or no-one would have stopped me either. But even though I felt sorry for Martha and that she shouldn’t have died I didn’t feel so bad, I know that sounds awful but I didn’t love her as such. I didn’t know what love was until I met Lottie. Anyway am wandering again. God why is she in my mind so much. I’ve been gone for a few years now you’d imagine that by now the affections would have started wearing off.
“Why did you do it Maurice, I thought we were friends at the start?”
“It was a job mate, it’s nothing personal Bastien.”
“But you knew she was my girlfriend so why did you knife me in the back so to speak.”
“She was prying and looking for you Bastien and Brian was getting pissed off with her nosing around. And he ordered me to shut her up. To be honest I forgot she was human when I stuck into her.”
“But she could have been warned off or if you had to kill her why didn’t you just break her neck and be done with it? Why was she covered in bruises and cuts? She died in pain!”
“Well as I said I forgot she was human and when I went in first, she seemed so pale and it looked as if she were expecting me. She seemed nervous too like she had a secret to hide, so when I tried to get it out of her what the secret was she refused to tell me even though I threatened her with death. She would not tell me what the secret was. She was quite admirable really not even crying out too loudly when I hit her or smashed her off a wall. She pissed me off too when she wouldn’t tell me that I could torture her but she’d never tell, especially not scum like me. And whoever had stolen her precious Bastien obviously hadn’t the balls to come and kill her in person; he had sent his bloody lacky a mean fucker. She crashed into a lot of the furniture after that, I know I’m mean but I ain’t nobody’s fucking lacky so I slammed her off the bed posts and broke it with her head and still she got up cut and bruised and bleeding and in obvious agony, but she still wouldn’t cry out loudly or scream and she was the quietest kill ever, she fell over a table and cut her leg on it and the smell of her blood drove me crazy. I bit her then and the screams took over my brain and I drained her. When she was dead I actually felt sorry for her all of sudden and felt bad for doing it, like some monster had taken over me doing the crime and then when she was dead the real me was guilty as hell. I put her on the bed and she kinda reminded me of my sister from my human life who was always falling and getting cuts and bruises so I kissed her mouth and tidied her hair for her and her clothes and laid her out on the bed like I would have done to my sister. But then when I did that and as she was dead I kinda felt like I should put some flowers in her hands. She kinda reminded me of sleeping beauty then. That was my sister’s favourite story; I used to read it to her all the time.” He looked at me then trying to read my face. I was curling my fists down by my side trying very hard not to go and rip his head off his shoulders. I could tell by the way he was talking that he was telling a story to me but in fact he was relishing the details, he loved that he had caused her so much pain. I was also incredibly impressed of her not crying out in pain trying to protect Vera. I was really impressed with that, she really was a lot stronger than what I had given her credit for.
“Do you always do what you are told? I asked him. He stared at me incredulously, like he couldn’t understand why I didn’t try to beat the shit outta him. He kind of staggered a little bit and then shook himself and stood up, pulling his shoulders squarely and thrusting out his chest almost proudly.
“Yes!” but there was no emotion in it.
“Why?”
“I wanna live, and I gotta a cushy number going on here now. I worked my ass off to get where I am today.”
“I bet you did” I mumbled.
“What’s that supposed to mean B?”
“Nothing, was just wondering how many friends you stepped on to get here?” I replied.
“Fuck you Bastien; you don’t know shit about me!”
“Ya, well you know nothing about me either.”
“Oh yes I do, I also know I killed the wrong girlfriend!” he sneered at me now. His hands shoved deep in his coat pockets like he was cold or something. Quick as a flash I had him pinned against the dark alleyway wall we were waiting in.
“Explain yourself now Maurice or you die where you stand!”
“I didn’t kill Lottie! Brian would kill me if he knew!” he said with a smirk. I felt my heart lurch at the thoughts of him trying to hurt Lottie.
“What about Lottie” I demanded fiercely, trying to push down the terror I felt when he talked about Lottie.
“Lottie is Brian’s kid, but he don’t know she’s his yet!” he said mysteriously.
“What a load of shite.” I blurted into his face.
“It’s all true, she’s from Dublin ya!” I didn’t need to answer my face gave him his answer.
“So I killed Martha so Brian would get off your case” I said nothing for a few minutes and I thought about what he could possibly be up to. Was this another trick?”
“Why you being so nice to me Maurice, what you looking for?”
“Nothing man, I swear, let’s put it this way, I’ve been where you are now. Brian has gotten too big for his boots, he needs taking down a peg or two and what he don’t know about won’t kill him.”
“Oh and you’re the one who’d gonna be taking him down is it?”
“Ya, something like that!” he said.
“Here’s Lucy! So we snuck up behind her and convinced her to come into the alley with us. I got a shock when a second female entered the alleyway. I nearly fell over when I smelled Lottie’s presence, my beloved. I began to panic. She can’t see me like this. Why was she even here anyway? Was she working with the McBride’s’, was she following me or was she just an innocent passer-by? Did she hate me now? I loved her so much, it killed me not to rush up to her and crush her in my arms. I took an unnecessary breath. In my head I asked her to forgive me. I knew she’d hear me she’d have her barrier up instinctively. She looked so beautiful as I tried to stare at her without anyone noticing. I had to get her out of here. Maurice had taken too much notice of her for my liking. Then she’d be safe. He doesn’t know who she is. He hasn’t called her by name. Good that makes me happier, how can I distract him? She doesn’t know I’m here or else she’s a dam good actress. Maurice was taking to my Lottie like a fly to cotton candy. He was talking to my love like she was a piece of meat and asked me what I thought of her, I replied that she looked like trouble. I knew she recognised my voice then and I saw her stilted reaction. Good girl Lottie but sorry I have to get her out now so I stared at Maurice and he was unable to look away as I knew he wouldn’t. I pointed at Lottie and dam Lucy to get away. Lottie would think I was helping her and Lucy but in fact I knew Lottie wouldn’t leave without Lucy. I had to get her away from me because she distracted me too much and I didn’t want Lucy to realise it or Lottie would be imprisoned as bait for me. That could not happen. They would lie about me and change her feelings about me further. I heard and saw the girls run away and go into a flat window. I knew exactly the floor and window. I would not seek her out she’d know I was there but maybe I can protect her and let myself know she is safe. I took my stare off Maurice who became rapidly pissed off at the sudden disappearance of the girls and quizzed me about it but I was unable to tell him what had happened. They had just disappeared. It’s like I was under a spell.
“Ah man, Brian’s gonna kill us, we were supposed to take out Lucy McBride tonight.”
“Ya, maybe, what if we didn’t find her, what if she got away!”
“Are you daft or dumb Bastien, Shane and Alec knew we were chasing her and gaining on her too? They stopped chasing her wee bit back but are still in the neighbourhood. We’d better go find Lucy then, cause if she gets away she’ll tell her daddy and then we’ll be noted for, Brian won’t give a dam, he’s not loyal.”
“Shit Brian’s coming what the hell got him shifted off his throne?” He’s like the mafia sits down and dictates, kills are timed precisely. It’s all to do with power here. Reminds me of the warring clans of legends in Ireland, you’d hear about them in school, Fionn McCuil and lord Fitzgerald fighting for power, heads roll here too. Just vampires ones though. All the battles take place in the dead of night. Lucy is the daughter of the opposing clan leader and it would be like finding the magical pot of gold at the end of a rainbow to capture her and kill her. Me and Maurice would be hailed as heroes even if a price would be put out on our own heads. I kept my thoughts on Lucy and how dismayed I was that she got away especially as I was so delighted at how pretty she was, why would anyone want to kill such a beauty, surely someone as fair as her could be saved. I earned a belt to the back of the head for that thought from Brian.
“So she escaped you, how…… you little fools?” he queried in a creepy voice that sent shivers down my spine but really I wasn’t scared to die. I deserved it” and it would be freedom. Brian glared at me and went to hit me again. I stood and stared at him. Then realised what I was doing and looked away. Brian glared at me and said
“Do that again and I’ll make you suffer slowly!” I looked away from him not doubting him for a second.
“Maurice tell me what happened, how is it that our lover boy here fancied the bitch, one he was supposed to be trying to slay!”
“Well Brian we had her cornered and this other girl appeared outta nowhere and wasn’t scared of us or nothing. Her emotions went a few octaves higher like she recognised us or something and then the next thing I remember was Bastien looking at me and they were gone. Bastien doesnt’ remember nothing either.