About a week after the Chupacabra hunt and the run-in with the creature’s fang-faced owner, Gabriel was beginning to wonder if he caught some kind of serious bug from the ordeal that he just couldn’t shake. For the seventh day running, he was running late to the office, and this time it was for a meeting he’d personally scheduled.
Even the triple shot of espresso he’d forced down couldn’t help him stay alert at the wheel, and he’d very nearly driven over a curb more than once on the short drive to the office from his apartment. His eyes were burning, and the damned sunglasses weren’t doing anything to help him see through the glare of the sun in his windshield. It was a miracle he even managed to stumble into the damn building in one piece.
“Christ it’s hot out there,” he cursed, tossing his sunglasses on his desk near the front door and dropping into a heap in his seat. “Did I miss anything good?” He asked no one in particular, rubbing at his aching eyes with the back of his hand.
“You gone to the doctor yet?” Chuck asked, eyeing him critically from his spot at the small folding table.
Gabriel would have glared at him if he wasn’t so busy rubbing his eyes and then glaring at the empty coffee cup on his desk instead, “coffee. I need coffee, not a doctor,” he grumbled, grabbing his cup and holding it up, “Danny. Coffee me.” He gave the cup a few good impatient shakes for good measure.
Danny rolled his eyes, taking his cup, “I don't think coffee is helping, maybe Chuck’s right and you should see a doctor.” He poured what was left from the pot into his cup, “you're not getting any better, I'd almost say you were getting worse.”
“It’s been a rough week,” Gabriel took the mug back and managed to take one large gulp without making a face. Everything just tasted off lately. Even coffee wasn’t as good as it used to be, “and I don’t have insurance. I’m not going to that dingy clinic with the five hour waiting list, thanks.”
“You're gonna see a doctor one way or another, not gonna have you droppin’ dead on me ‘cause you wouldn't see a professional.” Chuck stated firmly, glaring at him, “gonna start thinkin’ you got some kind of infection.”
“Where are Louise and Lee?” Gabriel sidestepped Chuck’s fatherly bitching, “we have a meeting today. They’re supposed to be here.”
“They were. At nine. Four hours ago, Gabe.” Danny replied, walking back over the coffee maker to replace the pot on its burner, “they couldn’t wait around all day.”
Gabriel glared right back at chuck, “why did you let them just walk out without calling me?”
“We tried calling you, eight times, did you check your phone?” So Danny grew a bit of a backbone, about time, but Gabe didn't like being talked back to even on a good day.
“Where are they then, huh?” Gabriel demanded, “and why stop at eight? I could’ve had something important to talk about today. Like those headless vamp corpses out by the train depot.” Lucky for them there were at least a couple of cops smart enough to figure out why those bodies had elongated claws and silver crosses burning into their chest cavities. Lucky they had Chuck on speed dial too. Always nice to have a few clients in high places.
“Someone else is killing vamps? Good, I mean, not necessarily for our paycheck, but less vamps, right?” Danny said with a shrug.
Chuck cleared his throat, stubbing out his cigar in the dirty ashtray on his desk, “not that simple, kid,” he shook his head, “that’s a lot in one go. Hunters, like us, don’t have a reason to leave those things out in the open for people to find. That was a message. Sure, it could mean a couple of monster killing divas rolled into town looking to put on a show, but I doubt it. No, something much bigger is happening. It’s not gonna be pretty when it’s over, either.”
“So, what, there's some big bad out there that's going to eat us?”
It was at that moment that the door opened and Lee walked in, “there’s something out there killing vampires that isn't us,” he looked at each of them, “and you already knew that.”
Gabriel looked over at Lee, faintly amused, “you looked like you were prepared for a dramatic entrance. Yeah, that’s what the meeting was supposed to be about.”
“Which you didn't come to, have you thought about going to the doctor?” Lee asked, sitting beside Chuck at the table.
“For what?” Gabriel’s mood immediately soured again, “sleeping late? I’m just tired, give me a freaking break.” It felt like they were all ganging up on him now, “where’s Louise? She finally take Todd home or something?” That they would be so lucky.
“No, they're putting the finishing touches on a surprise.” It was obvious that Lee was hiding something and Gabe didn't like it.
“Surprise?” He asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously, “what are they planning, Lee?”
He glanced at Chuck and Danny before sighing, there was no way out of this, “we’re going to capture a vamp and question it.”
“What? Are you insane?” Gabriel asked, “why? Why are you doing that?” He was on the verge of babbling now, never mind the fact that Gabriel was their damn leader and they were supposed to run batshit crazy ideas by him beforehand.
“Because of you! Because of what that vamp said! Gabe, there's something very wrong going on.” Lee was shouting, for the first time ever, Gabriel had never heard him so incensed before.
This was beyond exasperating, but Gabriel was a little shaken by Lee’s reaction, “I don’t want you risking your lives like that. Todd can do whatever the hell he wants as far as I’m concerned, but you should’ve told me.” He was speaking more softly now, “if I’m the reason both of you get killed, I want to know about it.” He stopped just short of saying something sappy you’d read in a Hallmark card, but for Gabriel this was about as close as he could get. For what it was worth, these people were the only family he had. The only friends. He didn’t want to lose them.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“I’ll go to the doctor,” Gabriel finally relented, taking another gulp of coffee.
“If they can’t figure it out I’m going to go with what we were planning. Deal?”
“Yeah, fine,” Gabriel agreed, “maybe I have the flu. Or just a stomach bug. Don’t do anything stupid until then, though. Please.”
Lee nodded, picking up his phone and texting Louise, “alright, done, but go to the doctor, now.”
“Right this minute?” Gabriel asked, a little taken aback, looking over at Chuck and Danny to see what they had to say. “We’ve got a lot of work to catch up on,” Gabriel insisted, “can’t it wait until--I don’t know, Friday?” That gave him at least four days to at least put it off. He hated doctors. Hated clinics even more.
“No, if you don’t want us to catch a vamp, you’ll go right now. You’re not getting any better.” Lee pointed to the door, “in fact, I’m going to take you myself.”
“Is that really necessary?” Gabriel asked, grabbing his sunglasses and shoving them back on his face. It was getting too bright in here.
“Yes, because I know you and you won’t go if you can get out of it,” he motioned to the door, “we’ll take my car.”
“We’ll cover everything here,” Chuck stated, finally speaking up, “just take care of him, Lee.”
“I’m not a kid,” Gabriel grumbled, standing up and nearly knocking his chair over as he stalked towards the door, “next time one of you gets food poisoning, I’m calling an exorcist.”
“You’ll change your tune when you see we were right.” Lee even went so far as to open the passenger door for him once they got to the car outside.
They drove in silence, Lee focusing on the road and Gabe refusing to talk because he knew better, he knew this was just a passing thing, there wasn’t anything terribly wrong with him, he was fine.
----------------------------------------
“You gonna play nice, or am I gonna have to play dentist?” Todd inquired in as polite a tone as he could manage, which really wasn’t very nice by a normal person’s standards, but much better than it could be if he were mad.
Louise sighed heavily before she felt her phone buzzing in her pocket. She wasn’t expecting a call. She pulled her phone out, looking down and seeing a text from Lee, “shit. Todd!” It wasn’t like they could just let it go now that they had it. At least Gabe was going to the doctor, finally.
“Huh? What’s that?” Todd stopped just short of ungagging their captive bloodsucker.
“Lee promised Gabe we wouldn’t do this. He convinced him to go to the doctor.” She eyed the vamp, they would have to keep him, after all, if it was something supernatural that the doctor couldn’t find then they’d have to do this anyway.
“Shoot,” Todd managed not to curse, settling on a far more mild epithet than he’d have liked, “and I just got my kit set up how I wanted it.” His eyes darted towards a long table nearby with a tool belt displayed neatly alongside several nasty looking pairs of pliers and oddly shaped knives.
“I’m not saying let him go, I’m just saying let’s give them a little bit to go to the doctor before questioning.” She would never hear the end of it if Todd didn’t get to do something to the vampire.
“Alright,” he relented, “I guess a little patience won’t kill it,” his grin was just a little too big, “we can save that part for later.”
“Good,” she swung a folding chair around and sat on it, the back of the chair facing the vamp, “well, we have some time to kill, it wouldn't hurt to ask a few questions.”
Todd tore the gag off of the vamp and pulled up a chair beside her, flopping down into it so hard she almost thought the legs would cave in.
“Alright little man, you heard the woman,” he gave the vampire a patronising pat on the cheek, pulling back before it could snap at his fingers.
“We need some information, pretty simple stuff,” she leaned against the back of the chair, crossing her arms along the metal, “I’ve got this friend, he's been acting a little off lately, but here's the kicker, just the other day he was hunting down one of your kind when the vamp he was after said some things to him, things that might give us an idea what's wrong with him. We just need some of your, unique, insight to figure it out.”
“Isn’t that lovely,” he drawled, throwing his head back to look at the ceiling, “you interrupt my dinner, drag me to this little rat den of yours, don’t even offer refreshments, promise in no uncertain terms to torture and kill me, but somehow I’m—and forgive me if I’m misinterpreting this—supposed to help you?”
“Depending on what you tell us, we might be persuaded to let you go, to run off into the sunset, as long as you leave the city.” Louise knew Todd wouldn't be happy about it but if he could give them information, tell them what was wrong with Gabe, it would be worth it. This one wasn’t so hard to catch, other hunters would be on his tail again sooner or later anyway.
“I suppose that’s your best offer?” The vampire inquired dryly, straightening back up in his seat, tensing up just a little when Todd sprinkled just a few more drops of holy water on his rope bindings to keep them saturated. “Fine. What did the big bad vampire say to your little friend? Hm?”
“That he has some kind of condition.”
He remained silent for several seconds, his bored expression unreadable, and Louise had to put a hand on Todd’s shoulder to keep him from treating the vampire to another holy water bath.
“I suppose it makes sense you would know each other,” the vampire finally spoke, pointedly looking away from Todd and his threatening flask, “hunters always seem to come in packs these days. How is he feeling, by the way? Sleeping late? Keeping odd hours? Skipping Sunday mass?”
She scowled at him, “he never goes to church anyway, what does that have to do with anything?” The rest was too true for her to acknowledge and it left a heavy feeling in her gut to hear it.
He didn’t laugh, or chuckle, or even smirk, but the cold amusement in the monster’s eyes was enough to give a normal person nightmares for weeks, “you do this sort of thing for a living, and you honestly need me to spell it out for you? Here’s a bit of advice, little girl, invest in turtlenecks. Sooner or later he’ll figure out what’s happening to him long before you do.”
“What's happening to him? How? Answer or I'll let Todd pour holy water on you.” She got to her feet, shoving the chair away so she could pace the length of the room. She froze mid-step, “Gabe would never…”
“Gabe? Is that his name? How quaint. Or ironic, if you like. You know, most of us don’t think we’re going to kill. There’s always that deep sense of hope, that fight to do the right thing, to starve or be staked.” Still, no smile, but each word he seemed to speak grew more and more vicious, “if I were you, I’d use that holy water on your friend.”
“But, there's no way he could be infected, he was when he was a kid but it doesn't just come back like that.” They had cured people before by killing off whoever infected them and it never did this, “how do you even know what's wrong? How can you know just from seeing him?” It had to be a lie.
He tilted his head back, examining a spot on the ceiling intently, “who’s to say it doesn’t? Ask your friend. Maybe he’s out necking in his off hours, maybe he wanted to try something new. Either way, I smelled it on him. The scent of death. It’s intoxicating.” He took a deep breath, closing his eyes for emphasis.
“I have to call Lee,” she was panicking a little, if what this monster said was true they had a big problem.