Tale of a Vampire Assassin

Chapter 19

I threw my lighter into the barrel of Mason Faye's remains.  I kept reminding myself that the world was rid of one confused assassin but it wasn't helping.  My heart had stopped beating when I was finished killing Mason but I was still crying.  The world was missing one of its most beautiful creatures and it was all my fault.

I kept hearing Mason's scream as I ripped his throat out with my fangs.  Then each limb as he fought me back as to not behead him.  When I finally did, it was as if he had understood why I had to kill him and just before the glow of eternity left his eyes, he mouthed the words thank you to me.

As the smell of burning vampire lifted to the rafters of the warehouse I dug in my pocket for my cell phone.  I dialed York once I had it in my hand and pressed it to my ear.

"Moon," York greeted me.

"Tell Ian it's done," I said, holding back tears.  As the words left my lips I dug the flask from my belt and emptied the whole thing once the rim of the thing touched my lips.  "Tell the team to pick up Faye's bike at the filler station and bring it back to HQ."

"Good job, Shot.  Ian will be proud."

"I know," I said with a melancholy sigh and hung up.

I went back to my bike and tied Mason's helmet to the back of my bike.  The entire ride back to head quarters was spent in tears.  New York City was as dark and depressing as ever.  I parked my bike in the underground garage and went to the elevator, sat down in the corner of it and cried.  It was empty when I got on and no one boarded after that.  I stayed inside the elevator in the exact same spot, mourning over Mason's death, for hours until someone came in and carried me to my office.  I was too sad to care or even notice who it was.

They brought me into my office, pulled back the covers on the pull-out, tucked me beneath them, then crawled in beside me and pulled me tight against their chest.  Their arms were wrapped around me like a saftey blanket.  I rolled over and pressed my face into their chest and they let me cry as they stroked my hair.

An all too familiar voice soothed me but I ignored the connection and let them sing me to sleep with hundred year old lullaby's.

I woke up in the middle of the night crying and screaming.  It was thundering and lightening outside and it shook the building.  It wasn't any kind of escape from my horrible night terrors of Mason's screaming.

"Shh!  Shh!  It's okay, Andy.  Everything's all right.  It's over.  It's all over.  Shh," I recognised Mark's voice and looked up into his eyes.

"Have you ever . . .?"  He knew what I meant.  He gazed back into my eyes, softly.  He pittied me.  I felt pathetic.  I didn't want to but I couldn't help it.

"Only once," he said as he stroked my cheek.  It was comforting.  It helped me feel a bit more at ease.  "I had to defend myself."

"Would you tell me?  Please?"

Marcus sat up and pulled me up with him.  He pulled my cheek to his chest and kept his arms around me.  My eyes were still watering but I had stopped sobbing.

"It was back in the 1800s.  I was living in Germany with Evangeline.  We'd become something of lovers in our time spent together but we had never claimed each other as mates.  She knew that we'd both find someone better later in our lives.

"One day Ivangaline told me that she had to leave me for a while but she promised she would come back for me.  In her absence I had claimed a mate.  I never thought I could love someone so much after I lost my wife, Andy but Nora was just so much like her.  Of course, I loved her for everything she was but I saw those similarities and I just couldn't help myself!"

Mark took a deep breath and I listened as the air pushed out and expanded his long dead lungs.  I heard his breath hitch and I knew the story was turning.

"I didn't know Nora was hunting on mine and Evangeline's territory.  She was killing our humans and I had had to stop her!  I begged her to stop one night after we had made love but she refused to listen.  I caught her in the middle of draining my favorite human and I didn't think.  I grabbed her by the skalp of her black hair and ripped her into the falling rain of a thunder storm, just like this one.

"I still remember how her scream choked off after I tore her throat out," Marcus sighed.  Tears flooded his voice and I felt him hide his face in my hair.  He massaged the base of my scalp with the tips of his fingers.  It felt good and I found myself drifting off to sleep.