Moldy drywall, but once again, it’d have to do. Dani and Jared stowed their meager belongings in the room they secured at a little inn. It wasn’t in the greatest shape, but it belonged to the only room key that they managed to find behind the picked over front desk.
At least this time we didn’t have to lockpick our way in, Dani thought as Jared closed the door behind them and locked it, stowing the key in his pocket.
“Let’s go,” Jared said. A man of few words, just like always. But something was different with him lately. The words he did say had changed, and it concerned Dani.
Regardless of how she worried, she nodded and they started walking, sticking to the edge of the building before dashing across the street. Ducking into an alley, Dani was once again grateful for the increased stamina that seemed to come with being a vampire.
Jared stopped just ahead of Dani and stopped, waving a hand for her to move up against the wall. They both had hidden in the shadow of a dumpster just in time for a woman to round the corner. Jared nodded at Dani, a silent way of saying that this one was hers.
She nodded back and just after the woman passed by their location, Dani jumped on her back, wrapping an arm around the woman’s windpipe. The woman struggled and tried to grab at Dani’s arm and head. Dani was grateful that she was wearing a thicker long-sleeved hoodie or else those nails on the woman’s scrambling hands would’ve done some damage.
Before too long, the woman became more limp, and Dani released her chokehold just as the lady’s eyes drifted closed. Biting before the woman could regain consciousness, Dani drank deeply and listened to the pulse.
Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump. She pulled back. She could’ve had more, but she was too frightened of possibly killing someone. So, she’d take enough to be sated but no more.
She didn’t always knock out people before feeding, but not doing it almost always led to more struggle than it needed to. Releasing the woman’s neck, Dani hooked her arms under the woman’s pits and dragged her over to the alley wall. The least she could do was make sure that the woman didn’t wake up face down on the pavement. Sitting her up and balancing her, Dani stepped back.
“Come on, I’ll take you back to the room,” Jared muttered. He began walking toward the mouth of the alley, not turning around to see if Dani followed or not. She stared at the woman she’d just fed on for a moment longer, then jogged to catch up to Jared.
It didn’t take long to get back to the room, simply backtracking the way they had come. “I don’t understand,” she blurted. “Why am I supposed to stay here while you hunt? I mean, you always come along on mine, why can’t I be there for yours?”
Jared was quiet, his hand on the handle of the door. “You wouldn’t like what you’d see. It’s better that you stay here.” Without another word, he closed the door, leaving Dani in the dim room by herself.
Wouldn’t like what I’d see? What the hell does that mean? We’d agreed that we needed to feed as ethically as possible, what is he doing that I wouldn’t like? Her mind spun, wandering into darker and darker avenues, worrying that Jared was possibly hurting people on purpose for some reason that she couldn’t decipher.
She opened her notebook, writing down a brief description of the woman that she had fed on. This record was her way of keeping track, of making sure that whoever she fed on would not become one on the ever-growing list of missing persons that the news would talk about.
I wouldn’t like what I’d see? Jared, what are you doing? What have you done?
Outside the hotel, Jared snuck back toward the entrance of the nearest alley. His dark grey jacket blended into the shadows, helping to conceal him.
“Are you ready?” the Inquisitor asked inside Jared’s mind.
I am, he thought back in reply.
“Then let us begin. You know what you are doing, who you are looking for?”
Yes. I’ll continue to look for my brothers and sisters who Nikola turned. We must know whether or not they are worthy of being vampires or not.
“Indeed. This is a trial. We must determine whether they deserve the gift they’ve been given.”
Jared kept his ears open, listening for what wasn’t there – missing heartbeats, the way to find vampires among the living. He knew he’d have to feed too, but not before he completed what the Inquisitor had asked of him. There was one close by, else he wouldn’t have entered Jared’s mind.
Thump-thump, thump-thump… Thump-thump.
Found you.
He stepped onto the street and started following a man in a puffy navy jacket – a hidden vampire amongst all these living humans. The man turned down an alley, and Jared followed.
He must be on the hunt. Perfect, he’ll already be concealed from view. Jared crept closer and closer, belying his large muscular frame with how silent he was.
The man had stopped and was peering around a corner. Jared grabbed him by the shoulder and slammed him flat against the wall, the impact causing him to lose his breath with a grunt. Grabbing both man’s hands and holding them fast behind the man’s back, Jared murmured low, “I know what you are. But are you worthy of it?”
“This man is a failure. He’s undisciplined, emotional,” the Inquisitor declared. Indeed, the man was sobbing as Jared held him.
“Not again!” the man gasped out.
“So, you were taken by surprise with Nikola too, I see,” Jared whispered. “Too bad this is how it ends for you. But don’t worry; you’ll reincarnate and may try again in the next life.”
“Reincarnate? What are you—”
And Jared snapped his neck, severing the spinal column internally and silencing the man. But he wasn’t done. The man could come back today from a severed head alone. But he couldn’t come back if he were also burned. Jared took out a small vial on his keys; oil. Not much, but enough to get the fire started.
He drizzled the oil over the man’s head, his hair trying to soak it in. Grabbing his lighter, he put the flame to the edge of the oil. It caught and soon, the man’s head was an unrecognizable burnt mass. Now, he’s dead.
“Good work, Jared. He wasn’t worthy of the gift.”
Still, Jared stood over the man, just staring at what he had done. Just how many of these vampires are unworthy, he wondered.
“Too many,” was the Inquisitor’s reply. “I don’t like these deaths any more than you do, Jared. But without embracing all of the gift, they couldn’t unlock their full potential anyway. Now, you should go feed. There are others to find.”
❖ 🩸 ❖
Hours later, Dani was sitting on the edge of the old bed, full of restless worry. She wanted to go out there, find Jared, figure out what the hell he had meant. But at the same time, she didn’t want to know. She feared she already did.
No, he wouldn’t just kill people. Even if he has killed someone, I’m sure it was an accident. He’s rough around the edges, but he’s a good man. But if he has, then why hasn’t he told me?
The lock in the door clicked, making Dani jump where she sat. Jared walked in, a paper bag in hand. “Figured it was about time for dinner. Does burgers sound okay?”
You’ve been gone for hours and you’re asking if burgers are okay? What the hell and where have you been? But Dani was too afraid to ask these questions aloud, so she simply nodded in answer to his question.
They sat on the end of the bed – there was no table in the nearly bare room – and Jared got out the napkins, setting them out before putting the fries atop it, keeping the food away from the grimy blanket. He handed her a wrapped burger, and she opened it, using the wrapper as a makeshift plate.
They ate quietly, the silence growing in intensity, at least for Dani. She couldn’t stand it anymore, and the question spilled from her lips before she could stop it. “Are you sticking to the rules that we made together, after we met at Pike Place?”
In the past, she would’ve expected him to bristle, look away, or become defensive. Instead, he answered calmly, “I’m doing what keeps us safe.”
No… Shit! “That’s not what I asked, Jared.” Dani’s hands started to shake and she clenched them tight. I have to be brave; I have to stand firm.
“The rules were about survival,” he said with a tone of finality, as if there were no debate about it.
Dani’s heart was being crushed, an awful pressure like when one’s under too-deep water. “You promised,” she pressed. “Controlled feeding, no excess.”
He studied her. She didn’t even know what she was getting mad at, he was thinking. He glanced at the notebook left on the center of the bed, then back at her, studying. “You’re still counting.” As if she was clinging to arithmetic in a world of hierarchy.
The words landed like a slap across her face. Of course I’m counting! We have to make sure that we aren’t responsible for missing persons or murders.
“Counting doesn’t make it clean.” Again, he spoke with conclusion, as if quietly declaring a doctrine. It didn’t sound like the Jared she thought she knew.
Dani stood, but the floor felt like it was shifting under her feet. Her voice quavered, “We decided this together.”
“We decided what we understood at the time,” he said as he took another bite of his burger, unbothered by the conversation at all.
“Are you still following the rules?” She felt in her heart that she already knew the answer and dreaded what he would say.
After finishing his bite, he paused to look up at her. “I’m following something stricter.”
That wasn’t what she had expected. “Stricter how?”
He paused the burger on the way to his mouth. Then, he said, “Necessary.”
What the hell is he talking about? “Are you… are you killing more than we agreed to?” They’d agreed to no killing, though she knew that accidents happened. She was still haunted by the young man she’d come across after Nikola’s trance had worn off. She had no idea whether she had left him alive, she was so desperate for blood at the time and ran away as soon as she realized what she was doing.
Calmly, he set his burger down on the wrapper. “You think the world is kept safe by restraint alone?” He looked down and grabbed a handful of fries, eating them before he picked up his burger once more. “You don’t see what I see,” he concluded as he took a bite of his food.
Dani’s breath caught and she froze. Her head automatically dipped in a small nod as if she were conceding something. She held her hands together in the pouch of her hoodie, hiding the white knuckled fists. She looked away, her heart breaking into pieces.
When did we stop seeing the same things? Why didn’t you show me? Why don’t you trust me?
She looked back up at him, quietly urging, “Then help me see. I want to understand. You don’t have to carry this by yourself; we’ve always figured it out together.” Her voice was careful. She wasn’t trying to challenge him, she just wanted to be let back in. “Just tell me yes or no,” she nearly begged.
He finished his burger, wiping his mouth with a napkin as he chewed. Once he swallowed, he looked up at her from where he sat. “I won’t let chaos touch you.” He gathered up his trash and tossed it in the small garbage pile in the corner of the room. It was as if he had shut down the conversation with that movement.
That wasn’t an answer, but she realized, her appetite gone, that he thought it was.
He gathered her notebook and food, handing it to her. Without explanation, he simply got under the covers and soon was fast asleep.
He must’ve been so tired to fall asleep that fast, she thought as she finished her meal. As Dani was putting her trash away, she heard him beginning to mumble in his sleep. She listened, trying to decipher his words.
Reverently, he said, “… Inquisitor… trial… steward…”
Dani had no idea what he was talking about, but the word inquisitor had grabbed her attention. Who was the Inquisitor that he spoke of? Was he talking about himself, or someone else?
She pulled a battered chair from the corner of the room, placing it beside the bed. Sitting, she crossed her arms on the dirty covers. She laid her had on her arms, looking at Jared in concern. Her own exhaustion soon caught up with her, and before long she was sleeping, dreaming that things had gone differently.
