Tale of a Vampire Assassin

Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

"Don't cross me vamp. There's only one thing keeping me from dropping you from the force. And that is the simple fact that I know that that trigger finger of yours is a gift from God, himself. No one shoots like you, Andy." My boss, Maxwell King, has these annual arguments with me about once a month. Sometimes I wonder if they're marked down on the calender he keeps on his desk like an old school teacher. He refuses to resort to computers when it comes to scheduling. I think he's crazy.

"I'm sorry, Max. I can be better. No more hosting on sight, I promise." I put on the best strait face I can just before Max shutters. Hosting is when a vampire drinks directly from the source. However it has to be offered by someone free of will -- meaning they haven't been be-spelled -- or you will be punished. When a vampire takes blood from an unwilling host they are driven mad and they are drawn to the closest vampire whose duty is to execute the criminal vampire immediately. Max hates it when I use this term as it makes him shiver. I can't help but smile in turn. I'm a vampire and I think his discomfort is a little amusing. I can't help myself. I'm a sick person sometimes, I know. You don't have to tell me.

I've explained these things to Max and he understands them better than most humans do, which is quite surprising to me.

"It's fine Andy. I'm just . . ." Max sighs at a loss for words. He does this a lot when he gets nervous or when he's talking to me, which generally tend to happen at about the same time. I can't help wondering if he's taken by me, meaning he likes me. "I just don't like my employees walking around loopy on vampire venom."

I smile at this though I try to hide it. This isn't supposed to be funny but seeing how nervous my boss is around me makes this hilarious. Most human women would use their boss's attraction to try and get a promotion. I however am uninterested in any promotion as I love what I do and don't really want Max's attention. Although it's a bit funny how he tries to hide how he's blushing by clearing his throat. I can see the red tint flushing his face. I'm no fool. And my sight is excellent. 

"You know I've told them that a simple nick in the palm will make me better but they insist on knowing what what a bite feels like. And where an offer when needed is so rare I have to take as much as I can without hurting them." I pause here to fold my hands on my knee. I can tell that Max is getting edgy. He hasn't had his morning coffee, yet. Our machine is broken. "You know I never draw from the same person twice in a row and venom isn't addictive so you don't have to worry about any junkies. Besides even if one of them beg me to draw from them and I took from them within the previous month, I refuse them."

I can feel myself starting to get heated and I take a slow deep breath to steady myself. Usually I don't get this worked up over these confrontations between Max and I. But he's on edge from the caffeine withdraw and with his heart beating heavily at the same time, I'm having trouble focusing. I'm feeding off of his energy that is surrounding me in his smallish office. This is normal for any vampire; to feed off others energy. Usually it's intentional but some vampires do this on purpose if they are feeling drained. It's perfectly normal.

"I know." Max crosses the room to look out his office window. He's trying to hide his edgy self from me, but that's impossible. The door to his office is closed, leaving his energy no escape. I can sense him everywhere. I feel his withdraw and translate it into my own. I hear his frantic heartbeat and mine mimics his. I smell his warm blood boiling just beneath his easily penetrated skin. I can taste his every emotion in the air, his very soul on my tongue. It's driving me crazy. If I don't get out of here soon I'll be worked into a frenzy and that's not good for either of us.

This is not my fault as this is always the case. He has only made this worse. He started with not sending a lackey to the nearest coffee shop to get him through the wringer, which is causing his body to go through caffeine withdraw. His heart is beating through the roof and he chose to lock his compromised self in an enclosed space with a young vampire. This is all his fault. He's only making it worse by standing in the sunlight like he is. It's warming his blood and making him smell fantastic. I want to attack him now and sink my fangs in. I'm almost to the point where I'll do anything to taste his blood.

I try not to think about the way his warm, velvety smooth blood would taste on my lips at this very moment. I try shoving away the thought of his ecstatic acceptance of my fangs. I do everything I can not to imagine Max offering me his blood and begging me to just sink my fangs in. But I can't help myself. Every bit of my control is lost when he pushes his shirt sleeves up and he begins to sweat. To any human this would be nothing but to a vampire this slight skin exposure in the warming rays to the sun is deadly. And that's when it happens. I feel the slow slide of my fangs and I'm standing at Max's shoulder, whispering in his ear.

"I can help calm you down," I say in a low purr. At this point my head is screaming at the rest of me to sit down but I can no longer control my own body. It's driven by the cruel monster of animal instinct. My hands glide up Max's shoulders and my nails slightly drag as they glide back down his back and lift away at his waist. I don't want this. I simply want to be free but Max wants something else and I feel his energy change the moment I touch his shoulders.

For a moment he lets himself listen to me and then he closes his eyes tightly, shoves the window open, and unbuttons the first few buttons at the top of his shirt.

"Here," he says as he exposes his neck to me. I'm instantly confused.

"I'm offering it to you." Now that he's turned to face me I can show him how lost I am with his reprieve.

"I didn't realize what I was doing. I'm sorry, Andy. I didn't mean to make you act like that. Take some. It won't be soured by apology, I promise." Max makes it a point to never exactly say what he's thinking. He's one of those bosses that say, 'I'm letting you go,' as apposed to just saying,'Look, you're fired.'

I stammer for a moment, confused by what he means until it hits me. His energy still hasn't changed. "I can't draw from you knowing it's a guilt donation. I'd rather do it knowing I'm helping take the edge off your caffeine withdraw."

"Fine, whatever you have to do, Andy."

I walk forward and tilt my head as necessary. It's a habit that I grab his shoulder and cup his cheek in my hand. Humans tend to think this is a sex thing, actually it's to keep them calm. Where we sink our fangs in is a very life-threatening spot. If they were to flinch at just the right moment their blood would be spilled and we would be sent into a frenzy. We'd go blood crazy and go into a killing spree drinking anyone we could get our hands on until the closest vampire got wind of us and killed us.

When my fangs pierce his skin and there's the exchange of venom and blood. Max relaxes and I feel the edge of his caffeine withdraw crawl away. Once I've tasted his blood I close the wound with my saliva. That also keeps him from infection which would lead to his death. Again most humans take this as sexual. I don't know what it is with them and sex. They're like turkeys.

I leave after that, knowing full and well that I've almost been fired and I take my walk of shame -- lips still dripping with Max's still warm, fresh blood -- strait to the shooting range. I have to blow off steam. I grab the loudest most powerful gun on hand and begin to punish every target in the room with my low yet intense anger. When I'm finally finished the entire range is steaming from the heat of my bullets.

I'm done and I'm ready to go home when someone brings me a file from the top gear-head. It's a file on a soon to be dead man. In less than a week he's going to kill the Prime Minister of Dubai by draining him of his blood. This has been premeditated and the perpetrator must be executed in the most effective way possible. Reading the man's file for more detail it finally hits me that he's a vampire. I have to kill one of my own kind.