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Report to ModeratorsI sat in the driver's seat of a car the Vatican had designed to outrun anything we might be chasing, and leaned my forehead against the cool glass of the driver's end window. Waiting for some Hunter that had been recommended for this mission. Mmm hmm. That had gone over well. I loathed working with people in general, but now I had to work with one of the Vatican's dogs? Well, at least I had been thinking just that until they had told me exactly who it was that I'd be working with. That had made my whole week. And making my whole week is not an easy thing to accomplish.
Joscelin came around the corner, a stark contrast to the red bricked complex we were watching. The only memories I had of the guy was ordering my science lackies to tie him to the operating table. While he was just a distant memory revisited for me, I was pretty sure I was the subject of some horrific nightmare material for him. But he hadn't changed a bit, not counting the transformations and experiments I had run on him. His hair was still as blonde as ever and those eyes of his sparkled like arctic glaciers, deep and cold. For others, they would be piercing. For me, they reminded me of those photographs in the National Geographic magazines of the North Pole.
Aren't I just poetic?
Every other detail about him just seemed to fall into place. For the most part it was easy to spot where most of his arsenal was; I specialize in defense, I'd better know where someone's packin'. Even if I hadn't stuck around to keep tabs on him after giving him immortality or informed about the details of his training, I wasn't terribly surprised when I noticed he was a gun kind of guy. It seems that many chosen by the Vatican are kind of trigger happy.
Makes me wonder what all has been going on since I last dropped by.
But on to the good stuff.
He spotted the car with relative ease and made his way over nonchalantly, hands slipped deep into the pockets of his trench coat to appear as if he were just on a stroll. Or heading to a drug deal. Either way, no one would bother him because either way, both activites were fairly normal here. Let's hear it for deviating from the every day.
I pressed the unlock button on my door, not having to look at it, and gave him a bored look of greeting when he pulled on the handle and let himself in. The kind of look that your kid will give you when you've made them follow you around in all of the boring parts of the store and they want to get on to the toy section. He slid in, made sure all of that leather came in with him, and shut the door, sharing my glance. I slipped him the folder with the big red CLASSIFIED stamp on it and started the car. And that was that.
At least for the next hour and a half.
Because I was pretty sure that I was not on his buddy list. I wasn't sure exactly how he felt in regards to me sitting less than two feet away from him, but I had a distinct feeling that it wasn't anything particularily friendly. He definately smelled of caution. Then again, not many people like me anyways. I'm just that kind of guy.
And then again, Hunters were suspicious by nature. It was beaten into them to be paranoid. Yeah. I think that came out right.
As I drove, I wondered briefly if I got any brownie points in his book for giving him immortality. Sure, vampires were immortal anyways, but they had their weaknesses...depending on what vampire hunter novel series you're reading this week. Silver, garlic, sunlight, need for blood...Joscelin didn't have allergies to any of it. I couldn't cure him of having his ocassional Dracula moments, but I had given him every possible strength and advantage in the book. He could suffer, he could bleed out...and boy, could he suffer, but no, he couldn't die. I wasn't a childhood prodigy in alchemy for nothing, you know.
And then I wondered briefly, as I stopped for a red light, if I truly gave a shit about what he thought of me. I was a scientist, an alchemist. I saw everyone and everything as something to be studied and examined to further my own causes. I may have to pay for my sins one day, but I don't have to appologize for them.
G-ddamnit, I love free will.
An hour and a half later we were on the other side of Rome with Chinese take-out scattered all over the vehicle and the windows rolled all the way down. We had spoken off and on, made a few off-hand comments about the weather and the mission in general, but it hadn't been much more than that. Yes. Joscelin brought up the weather.
Shocking.
Tracking vampires wasn't really hard in anyone's book, really. It can just be pretty tedious shit is all. I mean, they're everywhere. And don't think for a second that they don't exist in Rome just 'cuz it's got all of these cathedrals around here. Nope. They actually seem to thrive around religious paraphenalia. I'm not sure why, I've never picked up an accurate book on them, only browsed some Wikipedia articles, so I don't know. And I'd ask Lestat over here -insert sidelong glance here- but I doubt he'd talk about it. Fuck, I doubt he'd even know. According to my sources - and they're never wrong, mind you - he's just recently found out.
I could have some serious fun with that.
But I didn't. Because as curious as I am to see how strong he has become, I'm just not in the mood for bloodshed this evening. I know. So much bullshit you could moo, right?
Anyways.
Our victim tonight was like the posterchild of one of the classic stories of a mortal taken against their will at a legally questionable age by a vampire, and then beginning to do the same to others in his sense of warped justice. A newspaper article from earlier this morning called him tragic and beautiful, misunderstood and dark. I called him a pedophile. Because not only is it a sin, it's a felony. And guess who's job it is to keep track?
We pulled up to one of the buildings, that, according to specs, he was supposed to be currently residing in. It was a fairly tall one, entirely of glass, and nearly every room was lit. One of the southern districts' more expensive places to rest your head and get busted by police. It had a wonderful reputation among the elite and had a polar opposite for those who actually knew what took place there. Which was pretty much everyone except the elite. For folks with enough money for their own private armies and intelligence units, they sure do know shit about fuck. It's pretty astounding.
Joscelin reached over and grabbed one of the files even though we both knew his memory was perfect and he didn't need to look at any of the details over again. Maybe he was doing it for my benefit. Maybe he really didn't know that just yet. Again, I wondered if I cared.
He handed me one of the pictures and took another bite of the eggroll that he hadn't finished earlier. I accepted it like it had been sealed off as a possible source for a future outbreak of the bubonic plague and looked it over. For his benefit. I guess we were both used to working with retards that when we worked with someone of our calibur, we didn't know how to respond. It was different, to say the least.
"How many victims?" he said; our first topic of a monosylabled conversation since the 'weather'. I gave him a fairly sharp look...I mean, we REALLY didn't need to go over the details. This was the only thing we ever did, our lives revolved around these kinds of things. But he kept on. "He hasn't taken any more, correct?"
I couldn't believe it. We were playing dumb with each other!
I had to remind myself to breathe.
"Not according to specs, and if you're gonna start doubting them now, then we've got a slight problem," I humored him, sipping on my coke. It was out and there was nothing left but ice, but since I was an asshole and he was being a condescending prick without realizing it, I was going to be annoying. It made that 'nail on chalkboard' sound, the rest of the moisture coming up through the straw and he winced a few times.
The hunter gave me a look from underneathe his mussed bangs. "Yes, yes we do..." he said, eyeing my cup as though it were a potential target. "It's not contaminated with alcohol, is it?"
I snorted, spinning the straw around my tongue. "No officer," I pretended to lie. He glared.
Great. Stuck with someone who doesn't appreciate my sense of humor.
This was going to be a long night.
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In the Car - Chapter 1
In the Car
by .sepher.shel.zahav.
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Libraries: Drabbles, Blurbs, Free Writes, Humor, One Shots, Original Fiction
Published on Jan 27, 2008 10:01 pm / 1 Chapter(s) / 0 Review(s)
Updated on Jan 27, 2008 10:01 pm
[Tiphereth gets paired with the Vatican's top Vampire Hunter for a mission, and it happens to be the very Hunter he cured.]
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