Until Death Do Us Part

Conner sat in a dimly lit corner of the small run down hotel room, the old faded seventies floral papered walls casting shadows across his rugged features. He inhaled deeply off his cigarette and for a moment the sensation of warm favoured smoke rolling down into his lungs was all he cared about, all else ceased for that briefest of time. He placed the cigarette in the grimy, glass ashtray upon the table beside him and exhaled two streams of thick smoke from his nostrils.

The wooden chair made noisy creaking as his weight shifted back and he pulled a worn photograph from his coat pocket. He stared down at it for a long time lost in a better place. His fingers ran slowly over the creases and torn edges that had with time. It was the last good picture he had left and he knew he should have it framed and safe from the damage it would be forced to endure on his person, but he couldn’t, he needed it close.

            He returned the picture and glanced over at the two naked women in bed, their slender, tanned bodies still sleek with the sweat of love making. He chided himself with a shake of his head, no he would not try and fool himself, what they had done had not been ‘love making’ it had been sex, plain and simple. An act of lustful desires with a hidden purpose on both sides, yet he would not deny the pleasure he had taken from it.

            He closed his eyes and flashes of their eager bodies against his ran rampant through his mind; their exploring hands caressing not only the hardness of his body but the voluptuous curves of each others. He could still feel their hungry mouths upon him, silken lips tasting every forbidden place trying to find more.

Meaningless sex was about the only pleasure he knew anymore. The thought reminded him of a deep grievous memory and the real reason he was here now in this room, waiting, because of a girl just like one of them.

            Conner watched their slow breathing and knew it would be hours before either would wake. The drug he had added to their last drink would ensure that much. He couldn’t have them waking up before tonight’s exploit was done, he wanted no harm to come to them if it could be avoided. This wasn’t their fault, they were only pones in a sick and dark game.

He knew who they were and what they worked for and they had known exactly who he had been. He was the reason they had been in that dive bar to begin with. Girls of their caliber didn’t go to places like that without instruction. It was why they had come so easily to him flashing him their seductive smiles with batting eyelashes and playful touches that promised of sinful delights. They had thought they had him baited but it was really he who had beguiled them into this room.

            He pulled the colt .45 from the holster at his side and popped the chamber open pulling out one of his hand crafted bullets. He ran a rough finger over the smooth surface of the soft hawthorn wood tip. He uses hawthorn because it was pliable and upon impact it broke apart allowing the potent herb, Vervain to be released into the blood stream. A shot to the heart was fatal, anywhere else just wounded and slowed the vile creatures he hunted.

He slid the bullet back into the chamber and flicked it closed reaching for his cigarette again the gun resting ready on his lap. How long would he have to wait he wondered as he took a long slow drag, not much longer he was sure. They were never patient despite their existence, and neither was he.

His eyes lingered back to the stunning display of exposed flesh upon the hotel bed. He had seen the scars, and the scarlet rims around their eyes, they were damphyr’s, used for daylight tasks and to feed upon when other pray was in short supply. Bonded dutiful to whoever had compelled them. The thought made him sick to his stomach and he gripped the revolver tighter, he could save them tonight… he would save them.

The sound of footsteps outside in the hallway was dulled only slightly by the paper thin walls of the hotel and drew his attention from the girls back to the door and its tarnished handle and hinges. He threaded a silencer onto the barrel of his gun and pointed it at the door his heart pounding faster as anticipation grew.

The footsteps stop and a dark shadow loomed between the small space between the door and floorboards. Suddenly the door burst in, splintering off the wooden frame like it was paper and crashing to the floor.

“You’re a dead man Conner!” A deep voice bellowed and a bulky, dark skinned man with long, black hair stepped into the room. His eyes seethed with an unnatural glow and the muscles in his face twitched in rage as two long fangs protruded from his upper jaw.

The man stopped and looked down at the two girls passed out on the bed. “Useless bitches where is he!” He hissed.

“Right here ugly.” Conner pulled the trigger and the bullet slammed into the big man’s chest just missing his heart by a fingers width.

The vampire stumbled back growling like a feral beast, the wound hissed and blistered as the Vervain burned from within. The dark skinned man glared at him with pained hatred. “You’re going to pay for that human!”

Conner let two more shots free and they tore into his chest before the vampire had a chance to use its unpredictable speed and strength against him. The creature crashed into the back wall and slumped to the floor its face twisting in violent agony.

Conner stood over the thrashing vampire. “Who sent you?”

“Fuck you!” The man hissed bitterly as he clawed at the three bullet holes trying to tear out the segmented pieces and powdered herb and it seared his insides.

“Tell me who sent you and where they are hiding and I will end your miserable suffering.”

“I’m not telling you shit Conner!” He grimaced as he plucked a wooden chip out.

“You’ll tear your whole chest cavity out before you get them all and then I’ll just put three more back in you.”

“You might as well just kill me because I’ll tell you nothing.”

Conner’s smiled coldly. “I think you will.” He fired twice more the bullets blew through the vampire’s knees and the side of his revolver smashed against its jaw silencing the howls of anguish that erupted from it. “Let’s try this again. Who sent you?”

The vampire’s eyes burned with a deep, bitter resentment. “You fucking know who!”

The words hit him harder then he cared to admit even though he had suspected them as much. “Where is she?”

The man smiled up at him weakly. “I can hear your heart pounding, you scared?” he chuckled. “You should be, but don’t you worry; she’ll find you when she is ready too.”

Conner fired the last bullet into the vampire’s heart and watched its eyes nearly bulge from his head before they closed forever. He stood back and watched dutiful as the body quickly began to shrivel and flake away into chips and dust until nothing was left but a pile of broken black ash.

He moved over to the bed and rolled both girls onto their backs. He lifted the redhead’s eye lids and was glad to see the thin scarlet rim that surrounded the pupil was gone. He lifted the blondes and cursed, the rim remained meaning the vampire he had just killed hadn’t been the one to compel her.

He quickly replaced the bullets in his revolver in case he needed them. He had learned the hard way once before of not staying prepared. The empty casings he pocketed and would refill later.

Conner looked down at the girls. He couldn’t leave them here, the one would go back to her master and if they didn’t kill her for failing she just be back out doing their bidding. The other when she woke would be scared and confused and likely get herself locked up in a mental hospital if she tried to tell anyone or worse. Neither deserved such a fate.