Kiri- Chapter 1 Part 1

Chapter 1

Something was hunting her. It was easy to track something that tracked you when it made that much noise. Usually hunters cultivated the silent movements of their prey, but this one moved arrogantly, as if it did not care whether or not it was overheard. She thought of it as a creature, because those who hunted vampires became a special kind of beast, neither human nor undead. It also learned the habits of its prey, and this followed too closely, too intently, as if it were still an amateur. Kiri was not the vampire to practice on. She held no animosity, nor any love for her fellow vampires, so she was silently wishing the lesson she was about to give on some other stalker. Kiri was bored, however as she usually was this time of year, and decided to play its little game. She walked the street and calmly turned into an alley at the first opportunity. It did not matter what it was, especially this late at night that hunted her, she was prepared for just about anything.

The sword she wore beneath the long duster was strapped reassuringly at her thigh as well as cuffed at her waist. She released the snap holding the blade to her thigh and then unsnapped the cuff directly beneath the hilt. Unleashing the sword into her hands, she now felt ready to battle with any of a million possible enemies. Be it human or not, mortal or immortal, she was prepared to send it back to the hell it had risen from in the first place. She continued into the alley, slowing slightly as her eyes took in her surroundings.

As ambush places went, this one rated high. No one hid in the shadows waiting for her, but the one who tracked her would not be so lucky. She leapt from the ground, onto the fire escape of the second building on the right, directly beneath her would be the dumpster. Looking into it out of morbid curiosity, she noticed that it had been emptied within the last few days, because it was yet to overflowing. The alley was dark, damp and fairly typical of horror movie designs for scenes where people get attacked by vampires. The irony did not escape her, nor did it move her to humor.

Her hunter paused at the mouth of the alley. He, she sniffed, and over the odors from the dumpster beneath her, and the three more in the alley besides, she could tell it was a he from his aftershave. Her eyes took in the sight of him. Strong, long legs ate up the area between them. Tall of body, lean of frame, he stood at just six foot, maybe give or take a half inch, she was in a bad position to be positive. His hair was a dark blond, and his face had the look of being chiseled from granite. Blue eyes, cold like ice, searched the alley for her, but seemed to come up empty.

The alley dead ended, not with a fence, or dumpster, but an actual building. He knew she was still inside the confines. His steps slowed and his eyes searched the fire escapes, the window ledges and the shadows behind the dumpsters. He paced the alley, once, twice, still not coming up with her hiding spot, he lost all patience.

"Come out you vicious beast. I know you're in here. Come get me, so I can run a stake through your goddamned heart." He did not have to shout, and he knew it. The sound of his voice was low, mellow and the baritone would have been sexy if he were not trying to kill her in his taunt. She was tempted to swing down, if for no other reason that to see what he would do.

She held her position, but could not resist the sarcasm that came to the tip of her tongue. "You know, if that's how you ask all the girls to come meet you, no wonder you're wandering in dark alleys this late at night." She smiled to herself, amused at her own sense of humor, because Lord knew no one else seemed to be most times.

This was one of those times. He did not find her answer funny, in fact, he grew almost enraged. She could hear his pulse quicken, feel the adrenaline pump through his veins, and was warmed when his temperature rose a few degrees. His answer, however surprised her more that her own amusement. "If I ask nicely, would you let me send you to hell where you belong?" His voice was almost calm, but definitely was reassured.

The question prompted her to honestly reply, "It would be far more likely than if you called me a beast." She watched his lips, thin but beautifully shaped, lift at one side into a half-smirk, half-smile. That time she had amused him as much as herself. She watched him begin his movements again. He paused when she asked her own question, "So, who sent you?"

He did not pause before answering, "A righteous God." He waited to see the shadows flinch from using the name of something holy. When nothing moved, and no answer came, he shifted his eyes to the tops of the buildings. She glanced herself, but noticed that they were by far too high to hold this conversation at a reasonable level. She did not move from her position, but her jacket fluttered in the breeze. He looked at the lump on the fire escape, but then, nothing. He really needed a keeper. Anyone else in her position would have leapt on him and put him out of his misery by now. Martyrs, however, have a way of being remembered, and she did not know whether he hunted alone or as part of a pack.

"So how many have you killed?" She paused when he looked confused by her question. "Vampires? Or are you an inherent psychopath that preys on anyone walking about this late at night?" He paused and considered her words. She watched her jacket continue to flutter in the breeze, but he ignored the movement and continued to pace up and down the alley looking for her, but seeming to loose his patience the longer he took to find her.

After several minutes he finally stopped and looked defeated. "I have killed seven vampires. Eight as soon as you come out from hiding. The others weren't nearly the cowards you are. They all fell to death without my having to play hide and seek."

She knew that he baited her on purpose. Any hothead would go running to meet him in the center of the alley now, but she had lived entirely too long to be caught by such a trick as that. She watched him carefully, picking out the fact that he favored his right hand, that his movements were slightly jerky, as if he felt fear on top of his anger at her. She heard his heart beat, the deep thud that assured her he would claim to be human. She could also read the righteous indignation at having to hunt vampires, like one had killed someone close to him. She chuckled at his disbelief that his calling her a coward did not make her sally forth. He spun on his toes like a dancer, and she knew he was trying to pinpoint her position by sound.

The way that the sound reverberated off all the hard surfaces in the alley reassured her that his task was nigh to impossible. "You know you would have better luck finding a needle in a haystack. I've been at this since before you, well let's just say for a long time." She hated that cliché, before you were born. She had been alive before Christ, so technically, she had been at this since before the Greeks defeated the Trojans.

He did not seem real impressed however, and she watched as he flexed his fingers around the object in his hand, a wooden stake. How old fashioned, and lacking in originality. It worked however, unlike the silver bullets and the Cross of Christ. Muttering the Lord's Prayer did not provoke anything but make her want to cross herself as any good Catholic would. But most people judged vampires on Bram Stoker and popular cinema. How little they knew made them easy food for vampires, and it made them easy road kill for vampyr. The difference was not distinguishable by humans, but was night and day to the immortal.

He stopped circling entirely, coming to look directly into her eyes, as if some inspiration had finally given her location away. She smiled, unwinding her legs from the top of the fire escape grating, and swinging on her arms, still holding her sword to land a few feet from him. She now did the circling, as he made to use the stake in his right hand.

"You actually think I'm going to let you stick me with that thing when I hold this?" The motion to bring the sword to rest at his pulse point at his neck was blurred, it was so quick. His eyes grew large, as if he had not thought to ever be in this position. She knew then that the other vampires had been young. They had been powerless in comparison to her, and he had no idea what he was getting himself into when he agreed to go after her. She motioned with her head in a short nod toward his hand, "Drop it," and the tinkle of the soft wood hitting the concrete met her ears.

"Not going to drain all of my blood before you kill me?" His taunt made her frown. She knew he did not realize the significance of his words, but she did.

"Who did they kill that you got to watch?"

"What do you care?"

She smirked at his answer. "Let's try an easy one, who do you work for?" She knew someone had given him a bad tip, the tip to follow and try to exterminate her. She also knew that there was no way she could force him without furthering her bad reputation with him.

"Carrington said you would kill me before I would ever have the chance to talk to you. I just wanted to kill you to shut him up. I guess both he and I were wrong." He then swallowed and bravely faced her, waiting for the sword to slide across his throat and end the conversation.

She rested the sword tip on his shoulder, then slid it up as she stepped forward, close enough that she could bite him, but she only smelled his neck and whispered, "Until we meet again." She then turned and swept into the night on the outside of the alley. Stunned, he followed but a moment after her, and picked up the stake on his way, hoping to throw it for the kill. Instead at the mouth of the alley he found nothing.

She hid behind a newspaper machine across the street from the alley that they had held their conversation. She knew who Carrington was, and she wondered if her hunter knew who Carrington was, or if he was led by leading strings. If he had gotten close enough to Carrington for a conversation to take place, then she knew that there was a motive, a reason to his hunts. Carrington probably held some one dear to him, someone he would die to protect.

She watched come to the mouth of the alley, seen the astonishment on his face at the empty street. She could have gone home, he could have never tracked her there, but she had decided to follow him, see where he would go. She was looking for Carrington, and apparently he was afraid she was getting close. Satisfaction surged through her, Carrington should be scared; she was a far better killer than the man he had sent to kill her. She would ensure that the job was done, and she would lay to rest all the hundreds of underground vampyr that he had recruited or changed throughout the last decade. She would kill him and send the rest to hell with him.

Her hunter, seeing no alternative but to leave the alley, turned left and followed the road staying to the street-side of the sidewalk. Perhaps he was not entirely stupid. She watched his eyes dart around, looking for movement, and when finding none, continued on as if the alley incident had never happened.