The Story

The Characters

VI: Introduction to Destruction

The doorbell rang about half-past-nine that night. Darce McLellan shut off the television and got up from the couch. His face immediately brightened when he opened the door and saw Urara without her jacket standing in the hallway. She looked up at him and gave him a small smile.

"Urara! Come in!" Darce stood back to let her through. She made for the couch before she collapsed, her legs were shaking so badly. Darce shut the door and went to sit down next to her. He turned to look at her silently for a minute before speaking.

"Did you want something, Urara?" he asked. Urara turned to him.

"Um, I wanted to... ask you something," she mumbled. Her hands were wringing the hem of her skirt tightly. Darce put his hands over hers to stop her.

"C'mon, Urara. Nothing can be that bad," he coaxed softly. Urara swallowed nervously.

"All right." She took a deep breath. Then she suddenly blurted, "Darce, are you a vampire?"

Darce sat back heavily, a stunned look appearing across his face. Urara hid her face in her hands, ashamed of herself for asking such a question. Then, "How long have you known?"

Urara's head snapped up. Darce was looking at her with such a serious expression. She found her voice. "Kheyman knew this morning, when he met you. Then he told me. But I told him it couldn't be true! You can't be a vampire!"

"But I am." Darce's eyebrows furrowed, and he kneaded his forehead with his knuckles. "I should have known. I've heard rumors that Kheyman Maharet was a vampire hunter, but I never thought one of our own kind would hunt us down--"

"So you are a vampire then," she said quietly, looking up at him. Darce sighed.

"Yes. I'm sorry, Urara..." His voice trailed off. Urara had unbuttoned the collar of her blouse and pulled it down over her shoulder, baring her throat as she brushed her hair back. "Urara, do you know what you're doing?"

"Yes I do. I want you to make me a vampire," she said firmly. She shut her eyes tightly as Darce bent toward her. She felt his lips against her throat. Urara waited for the prick of his fangs, but it did not come. What did come was a roar that erupted from Darce just as horrible as you could imagine. Urara's eyes flew open. Darce reared back, clawing at the point of a stake that had lodged itself through his shoulder. Behind him Kheyman and Pluto both leaped into the room through the open window, Kheyman armed with a belt of metal stakes wrapped around his right thigh. Kheyman jumped onto Darce's back as he snarled, "Pluto, get Urara out of here!"

"You promised me you wouldn't hurt him!" Urara screamed at Kheyman.

"Just do as I say!" he roared right back as he concentrated on shoving another stake through Darce's other shoulder as the vampire flailed about like a bucking bronco. Urara broke free of Pluto's grip and threw herself forward to seize Kheyman's shoulders and, since he was already unbalanced, managed to pull him off Darce. In that split second Darce was on his feet and running for the window, throwing himself through the window. Kheyman whirled on Urara.

"I'll deal with you later, girl!" he snarled at her. Then he ran for the window and leapt out after Darce. Urara raced to the window and stuck her head out in time to see Kheyman darting across the next roof after the vampire. Pluto suddenly tugged at her wrist, yanking her away.

"C'mon! I know where they're headed," Pluto told her as he pulled her to the door. Urara followed him out of the building down through the streets for nearly ten blocks until they reached a textile mill. Urara skidded to a stop just as an airborne shipping crate zoomed over her head. Kheyman slammed into Darce and both of them crashed into the outside wall of the factory. Urara screamed as Darce roared and clawed at Kheyman with his inch-long nails. Kheyman's right fist came up under Darce's chin in a hook that nearly took his head off. The half-blood jumped back, pulling back his metal arm again for a second attack.

"Kheyman, stop!!" Urara threw herself at him, grabbing hold his right arm, the cold metal against her skin making her gasp. Kheyman shook her off with an angry snarl and started after Darce again. But Urara ran at him again, this time jumping onto his back and wrapping her arms around his throat, trying to catch his windpipe in the crook of her elbow.

"Get off, girl!" Kheyman barked, reaching behind him and grabbing the back of her shirt. Urara gasped as he hauled her off his back and threw her to the side. She hit the pavement hard on her side and skidded several feet from the force with which he threw her. Kheyman turned to her as she groaned in pain, too winded to move. "Don't mess with me again, girl," he snarled, moving toward her, the blades sliding out across the backs of his fingers. Her eyes widened with terror as he approached her, the street lamp's light gleaming across the razor-sharp edges.

"You will not touch her!!"

Kheyman buckled as Darce plowed into him from behind, leaping onto his back, his hands with his claw-like nails latched around his throat. Kheyman jerked hard, nearly throwing Darce off of him, but Darce held fast, his nails digging into the Hunter's skin. Kheyman backed up into a wall of the building, crushing the vampire between him and the steel wall. He moved away and Darce slumped to the ground.

Pluto crouched beside Urara, holding her shoulders as she tried to sit up, gasping in pain from her grazed side. "Darce!!" she screamed, seeing her boyfriend motionless against the ground. Blood seeped from a wound beneath his hair and ran down the side of his face. He stirred when Urara screamed his name again. His eyes opened to Kheyman's foot against his chest, the Hunter glaring down at him, a stake in his left hand and the blades of his right hand unsheathed.

"I really don't want to have to kill you," he growled. Darce glared up at him.

"Then why?" he snapped at him. Kheyman's eyes narrowed.

"Vampires don't belong in the world of the living," he told him, pressing harder with his foot upon his chest. Darce groaned as a rib cracked beneath Kheyman's heel. "They don't belong among innocents."

"Then why are you here?" Darce spat. Kheyman growled low in his throat and dug his heel harder into his chest. The vampire could barely breath under Kheyman's weight.

"I'm not like you," he growled.

"No. You're not like us. You're worse," Darce groaned. "You destroy the happiness and love inside a young woman because you know neither of these things! You've never felt the warmth of another's heart or have known the happiness from the knowledge that someone loves you, have you, Hunter? Have you!" He was shouting now. "We vampires have consciences and feelings as well as humans, just like humans in fact! But you, Hunter, you have neither! And that makes you even more inhuman than vampires!! You comfort yourself by saying you have human blood in your veins, but it makes no difference!"

Kheyman glared down at Darce, but he pressed on. "It's not the blood you have running through your veins that makes you human, it's your heart and your ability to feel things! That's what it boils down to and you know it, Hunter!!"

"Darce," Urara whispered. Pluto's eyes narrowed.

"What the hell do you know?" Kheyman snarled. Darce smirked.

"That's right. What do I know? You're the half-breed. You tell me."

But that was the last thing he said. Without an answer, Kheyman staked the vampire and that was the end of that. Urara screamed and, shoving Pluto away, she threw herself at Kheyman.

"You killed him, you bastard! You've destroyed him and I'll never see him again!! Why, damn you!?! Why!!"

"Be quiet, girl!" Kheyman snarled at her.

Urara slapped him hard across the face with all the strength she could muster. "The hell I will, you son of a bitch!"

Kheyman grabbed her wrist hard in his right hand, making her cry out. His eyes were cold with fury. "Be quiet or I'll break your arm, I swear it."

It took all of Urara's self-control to keep silent, all the while she was raging inside at her boyfriend's murderer. Kheyman turned to Pluto, who had just approached them.

"Take care of him," he told Pluto, jabbing his thumb over at Darce's body. Urara stifled a sob, and he tightened his grip on her wrist.

"Got it, Kheyman. What are you gonna do?" Pluto asked.

"I'm taking Urara back."

"The hell you are," Urara muttered. Kheyman looked down at her.

"What was that?" he asked, twisting her arm. Urara avoided his eyes angrily, shutting her mouth. "I thought so."

"Go see if there's a bounty on him too while you're at it. We could use the money." This last sentence he added while looking at Urara. She scowled at him with an intense urge to give him the finger and see how he liked that. "Come on," Kheyman said to her, starting to pull her along.

Urara resisted. Kheyman turned all the way around to face her, twisting her arm again. "Now, we can do this easy or hard. Your choice, girl."

Urara stood stock still, giving him the evil eye. "Fine then," Kheyman said, and he grabbed her around the back of the knees and lifted her over his shoulder, Urara kicking him smartly in the ribs. "Bitch," he added as an afterthought.

"Asshole," Urara snapped.

Kheyman carried her all the way back his flat like that, Urara now and then squirming and calling him a bastard. He stalked up the stairs and threw open the door, storming inside and slamming it shut behind him. He set Urara down rather roughly, and she stumbled backward and landed hard on her backside on the living room carpet. Kheyman turned away from her. She opened her mouth to scream at him once more.

"Why did you do that! Why!!" she screamed angrily. "I know you're supposed to kill vampires. That's your job. But why Darce? Why!!"

Kheyman turned to her suddenly, and she nearly gasped. His eyes, his face. They were almost... remorseful. He looked down at her, his hands slightly lifted, as though he wanted to grip her shoulders but thought better of it. His eyes softened. "I'm sorry, Urara."

Urara just sat there, mouth slightly open. Hard-assed Kheyman was sorry? She didn't have time to delve into it now. Kheyman had gone into the kitchen to a broom cupboard to the right of the front door and had taken a black duffel from it.

"I have to leave for a short time. I want you to stay here, understand? Don't leave this flat." Kheyman went to a tall black oak cabinet in the corner of the living room and opened it, extracting from it several silver stakes. He slammed the door. "But if you must go out, don't tell anyone, I mean anyone, where you're staying, and take at least one stake with you. There are more than enough. There are a few backpacks in the cupboard over there; take your pick if you need it. While you're in here, arm yourself. There are shotguns and stakes and a silver-edged sword in the armoire. I suggest the shotguns. The sword's a little too light for my liking."

Urara had just stood up when he paused in front of her and looked at her for a second. "Pluto will stay here with you."

With that, Kheyman left the flat without another word. And Urara wept finally.

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