Donovan paced the office, his hands clasped behind his back. He was getting tired of waiting for the hunters but if they had information on Gabriel he would wait, besides, Lee sounded very disturbed by something and he would like to know what.
The passing glow of headlights through the front window signaled their arrival. The sound of frantic footsteps on the pavement soon followed.
“We’re going to see Donovan?” Louise asked from behind the front door, loud enough even for a normal human to have heard.
Donovan scowled, the woman didn't sound right, in fact, she sounded as though someone were in her mind, “Lee, keep her out there and come inside.” He ordered calmly, was curious if Louise would stay outside or force her way in.
“Pardon?” Lee called out, clearly overwhelmed and confused, “I can’t just leave her out here. She needs help.”
“I’m fine. Donovan, is that you?” Louise called out, and the doorknob began to shake.
“Louise, enough!” Lee shouted.
Donovan chuckled softly, letting his hands fall to his sides, “Louise, my dear, why don't you have a seat and let Lee come in and speak with me.”
“Why can’t I come in?” Louise asked, sounding as sweet as he’d ever heard. In their short encounters together, it was quite out of character.
“Louise, please,” Lee urged, and the door began to open. “I’ll just talk to Donovan inside, then you can come in, and we’ll all talk. Okay?”
“Okay,” Louise replied slowly, as if she had trouble with the concept. Again, quite out of character.
Lee breathed a sigh of relief, “okay,” he managed to slip into the building and close the door behind him without any difficulty. He did not look good.
“Before she began exhibiting this strange behavior did she speak with anyone? Was she alone with anyone?” He asked, moving to stand in a darkened corner. Louise was going to be difficult to deal with, it would be easier if he could just kill her but that was out of the question.
Lee let his head fall back against the door, “I don’t know. Maybe. No.” He closed his eyes, “she started acting nuts after we had this client--almost a client. This guy. He tried to hire us to stake you. We told him we weren’t interested, and that’s pretty much it. Then she got it in her head that she had to see you and Gabe. I don’t know why, she just did.” He opened his eyes, looking directly at Donovan, “what’s happened to her?”
“This almost client was a vampire and he has exerted his will upon her. What did this man look like?” It didn't surprise him that someone wanted to kill him but he was pleased that Lee and the other hunters turned down the job.
Lee cursed under his breath. Tonight seemed to be one filled with unexpected behavior. “He looked like Bela Lugosi. Just without the cape and a little less hair wax. He was shorter, too. Maybe about as tall as Danny.” He slumped against the door, “can you fix this?” It was several questions in one.
Braedon. So the little worm was starting to crawl out of his hiding place, “yes, I can fix this,” he looked toward the door, “Louise, my dear, you can come in now.” He was stronger than Braedon, there was nothing for any of them to worry about.
The moment Lee reluctantly stepped away from the door to allow Louise passage, she launched herself towards Donovan, shrieking as she held a stake aloft. No finesse, this one, her honeyed voice turning to crushed glass.
Donovan sighed and grasped her wrist, pulling her close and trapping her hands behind her, “Louise, that was a very nice try but you might try to be a little more discreet next time.” He grasped her wrists with one hand, trapping her chin with the other, “Louise, my dear girl,” he forced her to look into his eyes, “I want you to forget this silly little idea of killing me, it really is hazardous to your health and I don't want to harm a hair on your pretty little head.” He pressed himself into her mind, willing her to obey him, “Braedon is a fool and you will never again do anything that little Dracula impersonator tells you again.” That would protect her from any further tampering, at least from Braedon.
She slackened in his grasp. It was a peculiar feeling using his power like this on a perfectly serviceable meal and not outright killing her. Gabriel certainly deserved to lose at least something for all the trouble he’d put Donovan through, but the desire simply wasn’t there to kill one of his friends.
“Louise?” Lee asked, hesitantly approaching them. His hunter’s instincts made him look at both of them like a potential threat.
Donovan gently placed her in a chair, “she’ll be fine and will wake up in a moment, my commands are just finishing their work and she will be free and protected from Braedon’s influence.”
“I don’t understand. I had the same conversation with him and I didn’t try to kill you,” Lee said, clearly anxious.
“You are protected for the rest of your life from any outside influence, barring my own, because of what I did to you. My blood offers you a certain amount of protection from many things.” Donovan took a seat, crossing his legs and watching Lee intently. He wouldn’t hurt them physically, but that didn’t mean he was under any obligation to pretend anymore. The agreement with Gabriel to keep Lee in the dark on his temporary servitude to Donovan was null and void after this little fiasco. The memories should come back fairly quickly now and Donovan wanted to watch the show.
It started, as shattered illusions often did, with confusion. Lee looked as if he were watching the events of that night unfold in front of him, and confusion slowly dawned into horror, bringing him to his knees. “It’s my fault,” Lee whispered.
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“Hmm? What was that? What exactly is your fault because I can assure you, what happened in my home that night between Gabriel and I would have happened with or without you.”
Lee looked back at Donovan, too broken to show any signs of anger, “I gave him to you on a silver platter.”
“This is true, you did, and I thank you for it. However, you do know that you wouldn't have done that if I hadn't made you do it.” Why would he be nice and assure him like this? Gabriel was rubbing off on him.
It was then that Louise began to stir from her position where Donovan had laid her down, “fuck, feels like I bashed my head against a brick wall,” she cursed, dragging a hand over her face to pull her hair from her eyes. “What happened?” She sat up with no small amount of effort, hardly seeming to register Lee’s frazzled state.
“Your mind was tampered with by the vampire that attempted to hire you to kill me. I fixed the problem but I'm afraid you're going to have a bit of a headache for a time.” Donovan explained, keeping his eyes on Lee, curious what was going to happen with him.
Lee removed his glasses, polishing them with the bottom hem of his shirt in a clear attempt to maintain a level tone, “I almost killed him tonight.”
Louise looked back at Lee, seeming to just now realize he was in the room, “almost killed who?” She looked back at Donovan then, “huh? Someone messed with my head? When?”
Donovan’s eyes narrowed angrily, “you what?!” He ignored Louise’s question, more focused on what Lee was saying.
“He snapped. Killed someone. I pulled out my stake when we found him,” he put his glasses back on and looked back at Donovan, fearless, empty, “Louise stopped me and he ran out. Kill me if you want. I don’t care anymore.”
Louise glared at both of them, “climb down off the cross, Lee, you wouldn’t have gone through with it. As for you—“ she pointed at Donovan, then paused, “—well, I can’t tell you what to do, but you should have looked after Gabe. You fucked up.”
Donovan raised an eyebrow, “oh, no, Lee, I’m not going to kill you. You still have plenty of use. As far as what happened with Gabriel, he refused to kill and he was consumed by the hunger. I had thought he was past this when he took the man outside however I was sorely mistaken. Apparently someone contacted him and it interrupted his meal. There is still a chance I can save him, that requires him to be alive, of course.”
“So what, you’re blaming Lee for calling him? I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware we had to plan ahead for this sort of shit.” Louise was just warming up.
“Louise,” Lee said, a little weary, “maybe you can wait until later to lecture a thousand year old vampire—at least until we find Gabe again?”
“I mentioned no names, on the contrary, I was enjoying watching Lee think about everything he actually is responsible for. I don’t blame him for calling, after all, it’s not as though a phone allows you to know what’s going on on the other end.” Donovan’s voice remained calm and his gaze stayed on Lee.
“What do you want from me?” Lee asked, “you got what you wanted. I feel awful. I failed Gabe, you’re not planning to kill me. What do you want?” He didn’t break into childish tears or a hysterical fit. He simply sat there. Defeated.
Donovan sighed, once they broke they weren’t as much fun, “entertainment and for you to accept that some things are inevitable. If you think about it, I did you a favor. After all, you’re safer now than you ever have been. Perhaps I should have you tell me, ‘thank you’, but no, that would be empty. You humans, you just can’t accept things, can you? Must you always agonize over every, little, thing? I will say that the journey to becoming a broken human is an interesting one but once you’re there you’re practically useless.”
“Just like the journey to being an asshole,” Louise snapped, climbing to her feet and walking over to Lee to stand beside him, “Lee’s not broken, he’s got a fucking soul. So just leave him alone. Or would you rather just hang around playing sick games while Gabe’s out there running around, getting closer and closer to a group of hunters who would kill him?”
“Unless they are extremely talented they will be hard pressed to kill him, you are correct however, we should be going. Do you know what direction he went?” She had quite the mouth on her and he wanted nothing more right now than to rip her tongue out. He would not, of course, no, he had to think of Gabriel after all, “if you don’t know then we will be starting from step one.”
“What’s step one?” Lee prompted, taking Louise’s hand she offered to him and climbing to his feet.
Donovan sighed, “I will have to follow the blood and that will take more time and energy than I desire to spend. Especially when it will require even more to attempt to repair the damage. Although the breaking of his mind has severed our connection we are still bound by blood and there are certain things I can do that will allow me to follow that blood.”
“So you really can save him, then? Bring him back?” Louise asked. More accurately demanded, really. Rude girl.
“What should we do?” Lee asked, giving Louise a long suffering look. Broken, maybe, but not entirely useless it seemed.
“Did you see which way he went or not?” He was getting tired of these humans.
“Out the door,” Louise told him, “obviously. By the time we’d managed to follow he had already disappeared. Chances are the way he’s acting he’s probably going to go wherever there’s more people. Tonight’s bingo night at the rec hall.”
“The two of you go there,” he reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial of red liquid, “this is my blood and in theory will draw his attention if he’s there. Once he comes after you, run, and bring him here.” As he spoke he began clearing off one of the desks, “I will see what I can do about finding him another way.”
Lee ushered Louise out of the room once he took the vial from Donovan, moving quickly. Perhaps to stop her from opening her mouth again, because she certainly looked like she had a few more things to say. They wouldn’t likely be worth hearing and he had no desire to have his patience pushed any further. He looked down at the desk, not looking forward to performing this particular task, he had wanted to avoid it completely, hopefully he would be at the bingo hall and he wouldn’t have to finish this.
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He hadn’t sought out the bright lights of the rec hall, despite the hundred or so easy meals that were likely frequenting it that night. Gabriel’s instincts led him into the dark where he could safely rest without disturbance. Losing control over himself had taken a lot out of him, and the ravenous monster running the show was exhausted. He was fortunate there were a dozen or so homeless people hiding in the defunct bus station he’d stumbled into. The nightcap was just what he needed.
There was no such thing as ‘too much’ to a creature that knew nothing but instinct. There was only hunger and an animalistic pleasure in rending flesh. Too simple to comprehend the concept of ‘delight’, painting his claws red with sticky globs of muscle and tissue nevertheless came very close. Sated, the thing that used to call himself Gabriel curled up on a discarded and badly-mangled parka to rest by the glare of a flickering flashlight darkened with streams of blood cooking on the bulb. It died out long before anyone discovered him. Long before a small, almost non-existent part of Gabriel’s shattered psyche woke in his mind and fell back to sleep in abject horror that he could do nothing but stare at the blackness of eyelids he couldn’t even open.