kidblink83
Cadet
Author’s note: I revised the end of the story when someone pointed out something that coincided with a nagging feeling I already had myself. I found that I like the reworked ending a lot more now, and I hope you do, too! 
)
Title: King and Whistler
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Abby Whistler and Hannibal King have had a long history with one another. He was her first failure. She was his knight in shining armor. Where does their relationship go once life as they know it changes?
Disclaimer: Most of the characters I used aren’t mine. Don’t sue me, etc.
Hannibal King scanned the crowded bar. This wasn’t the usual type of place he liked to hang out with its shiny lights and loud music and its sl**ty looking women. Okay, maybe the sl**ty thing was his usual m.o. But the techno music and dancing? Definitely not. He was much more comfortable at the pub down the road from his college apartment just sitting back with some of his friends and letting the women come to him.
This dance party, club s*** wasn’t his style. “However, there’s only so much alone time on a Friday night that you could take before going insane and showing up at a place like this,” he said to the man sitting next him. The man just glared at him and shook his head. “Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”
The loud, booming music rattled the beer sitting in front of him, and he unconsciously reached out to steady it while scanning the bar. That was when he caught sight of her. She was walking away from where he was sitting and kept looking over her shoulder in search of someone.
He gave her a quick once over. Long wavy hair. Great butt. Legs that went on forever. Devilish smile even though it didn‘t seem to be genuine. Confident swagger. Not paying attention to one guy staring her way. Definitely looked like a challenge.
In one word: Perfect.
He always told his friends he had special radar for pretty brunettes. Put him in a bar and he’d have one eating out of his hands within minutes. However, this one surpassed any he had ever seen in his life. Immediately, she had promoted herself past the point of one-night conquest. If he was the type of guy to believe in love at first sight, he had a feeling this might be it.
“Good thing I’m not,” he muttered while finishing off his current beer and signaling the bartender for another. While he waited, he turned back to look at her.
Her confidence was faltering as she seemed to be realizing that whoever she was looking for wasn’t there. That was when he saw a flash of something in her gaze. It broke the obvious spell she had put over his eyes, considering he didn’t notice one important detail about her.
“Damnit,” he hissed to himself, grabbing the beer the bartender slid his way. She was young. Too young. What the hell was a kid doing in a bar on the wrong side of town?
Running a hand through his head while trying to think up what he was going to do now, he looked down at his clothes. She wasn’t even old enough to appreciate the awesomeness that was the Flock of Seagulls tour shirt he had managed to pick up a few years back. It was his no-fail chick pick-up shirt, and it would be a complete waste on her.
“And why the hell are you so concerned with how you cool you look to her?” he asked himself even as he began to stand. He had a reason to be out that night, and impressing underage girls was not it. There were sorrows he was supposed to be drinking away before he picked up a random girl to help drown out whatever was left once the alcohol wore off. He could practically kill Sheila, the blonde he had been seeing on and off all term, when she told him she had decided that he wasn’t man enough for her.
“What the f*** does that even mean?” he said out loud while still keeping his eyes on the young brunette. She was still searching for someone. Only now it was starting to border on frantic.
He pushed his way slowly through the crowd. “Someone needs to watch out for the kid. She‘ll probably get something slipped in her Shirley Temple and end up dead in a ditch or whatever else young girls get warned about if you don‘t go over and talk to her.” he thought, trying to reassure himself. As he pushed a drunken pair of girls out of his way, he rolled his eyes and muttered, “Yeah, King. You just keep telling yourself that and maybe in the morning you won’t feel like a complete pedophile.”
He was about ten yards from her when a thin hand grabbed him by his completely awesome shirt and pushed him up against the wall. “Um, hi,” he said, staring down at the willowy, pale woman in front of him. She was rather attractive in an I-haven’t-eaten-in-ten-years-because-I’ve-been-too-busy-working-my-charms-on-lonely-men-like-you kind of way, and she seemed rather fixated on his neck. “How can I help you?”
“You look tasty,” she said with a sly grin.
“You know I get that a lot. Now if you excuse me.” He tried to push past her and found himself being slammed up against the wall yet again. “Wow. You’re pretty burly.”
She didn’t respond to the comment. He swore to himself. That one always seemed to get the psychotic ones to leave him alone. Instead, this strange woman reached out with a fingernail and ran it along his jaw line. “Do you want to go party somewhere we can be alone?”
He felt himself start to say yes before he realized what he was about to do. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.” He looked around the woman’s shoulder and felt slightly relieved to see the brunette still standing in the place he last saw her. “Plus, there’s a lady I need to see about a horse.”
The woman ran her finger down along his neck seductively. “I’m sure that can wait.” She dug her finger in slightly, hard enough to draw a small trickle of blood.
“What the f***?” King yelled, grabbing his neck.
“I got excited,” she whispered into his ear before stepping back. “Sorry.”
Again, she gave him that sly grin that screamed she knew something that he didn’t. He turned his head back in time to get a good look at her teeth. “Jesus. I think you need to go to the dentist and see someone about those chompers, lady.”
“You amuse me. No one’s amused me in one hundred years,” she said, sneering. “Now let’s cut the bulls*** opening lines and get this thing started.”
King would have responded with another put off if his eyes hadn’t locked with the brunette’s at that exact second. She stared at him for a few moments, and he couldn’t help but send his most inviting smile her way. Later he would chalk it up to instinct. There was no way he would have chosen to give her that kind of look when he knew that she was as good as jailbait to him.
He saw the corner of her mouth turn up in what probably would have been a smile. Probably if her face hadn’t gone completely pale as the strange woman currently straddling his body against the wall hadn’t turned to figure out where he was looking. He could see the brunette’s focus shift from him to the woman, and her whole body froze.
He wasn’t sure if it was fear or determination that lit up the brunette’s eyes. Maybe it was a little bit of both. All he was sure of was he blinked, and she was gone.
King realized his mistake almost immediately. “That girl can obviously take care of herself, no matter how far she is from her cradle,” he decided, turning his attention back to the not-so-bad-looking woman currently throwing herself at him. At least this one wouldn’t be much of a challenge. He figured that a challenge wasn’t really what he had been looking for.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~
Abigail Whistler cursed. Where the hell were Enderton and Smith? They were supposed to be watching her back here. It was her first mission in the field as a Night Stalker. Or at least as a potential Night Stalker who might one day be allowed to play with the big boys if she played her cards right and didn‘t die or let anyone else die on her watch.
She knew that she could easily do what the team was asking her to, but she thought the Night Stalkers would have watched her more closer this first time, considering they weren’t as sure of her abilities as she was.
They were supposed to meet her at the front of the bar. That was half her challenge. Figuring out how to get her fifteen-year-old self into a bar she couldn’t legally step foot in for another six years. Prove to them her young age wasn’t a problem. Then all the Night Stalkers asked her to do was kill one measly vampire without anyone being the wiser. Not that hard considering she’d seen what she would be asked to do on a daily basis if the Night Stalkers accepted her as one of their own.
Again, she scanned the bar, coming up empty. There were no other Night Stalkers present. “s***,” she muttered. “Looks like it’s up to you, Whistler.”
She reached towards her back and grabbed the silver stake she had strapped to it earlier. It was the only weapon she thought she could smuggle into such a crowded bar. As her insecurity began to surface, she wondered what she wouldn’t do to have her crossbow in her hand. It had always been her favorite since she was ten, and her father taught her how to use it.
She shook the memories of her father out of her head. She didn’t have time to go down that road. Not right now. That man she had locked eyes with needed help right now. If she didn’t come to his aid, he probably would only live another two minutes, three tops.
He seemed so cocky when he flashed her that smile from across the room. She was half tempted to pretend like she hadn’t seen him or the vampire company he was currently keeping. It would be interesting to see if his charm could get him out of this one all by his lonesome. Plus, Smith had told her that it was the cocky ones that you didn’t waste your time saving.
Damnit. When had she started taking advice from Smith? The woman was as unfeeling as a person could be, and she was a complete man hater. Enderton had told her that’s what the job would do to you. Not the man hater part, but the cold, unfeeling part. Abby was ninety percent sure that he was just trying to intimidate her.
She pushed through the crowd so that she was walking parallel to the woman vampire and the man she was about to save. Enderton said the first thing to killing a vampire is to make sure you know what it’s capable of. Never engage without understanding who you were fighting. And the man knew what he was talking about. He had been a Night Stalker for over five years. That was legendary in this city.
The pair slipped into one of the back rooms. Abby waited a few seconds before pushing the door open and entering the unknown.
It was an empty stock room. No intrusive lights. Plenty of corners to hide in. Definite air of eeriness. “Great,” she muttered, looking around. “Where the hell did they go?”
She started making her way systematically past each row. Two human couples and one questionable threesome later, she spied the man she had been searching for in the next row. She ducked down behind a wooden box and tried to figure out what was happening. It seemed the woman was still trying to get the man to agree to the tryst. That meant Abby still had time to save him.
A sound at the end of the row made her pause before charging in with her lone silver stake waving. They weren’t alone.
“Gregor,” the women hissed. “What do you want?”
“Why do you insist on doing this in such public places?”
She turned her attention away from the man who was already half under her spell. “Why do you insist on interrupting me all the time?”
“Frost wants to see you.”
“I’ll get to him in my own, sweet time. This one amuses me.” Abby swore as the woman turned her attention back to the man. For a moment there, she thought she would be able to sneak in and pull him out without anyone noticing. He was just lying there on the ground, not saying a word, not moving. It suddenly hit her that he might already be a lost cause.
Trying to focus, she turned her attention away from the man and back to the two vampires. They had finished their bickering, and the man was walking away.
“Where were we, lover?” the woman said.
Before Abby could move an inch, the fangs were out and in his neck. “s***,” she muttered and ran out of her hiding place. Not knowing what else to do, Abby kicked the woman vampire hard in the chest and sent her flying through the air. There was a loud crash as her body hit the shelf at the end of the row.
Abby leaned down and smiled at the man. He was smiling at her. That was a definite good sign. Maybe she wasn‘t too late. “Hi. I’m--” A gunshot cut her off. She looked down at her abdomen. “--bleeding.”
“That’s what happens when you play with the meat,” the woman vampire said, standing up, gun in hand. “Now, who the hell are you?”
Abby didn’t have time to react before a fist was colliding with where the bullet had entered her body. A swift kick slammed her down against the concrete floor. She could taste the blood pooling in her mouth from where she had unintentionally bit the side of her mouth. A hand grabbed the back of her hair and lifted her to her feet.
“Are they sending children after us now?” she said with a laugh. “Pathetic.”
She gave Abby a quick head butt and dropped her to the floor. Baring her fangs, she moved in for the kill. She only made it two inches before being flung away. “There’s more of you?” she hissed.
“There’s always more out there willing to kill your kind,” the man who had thrown her sneered.
The woman behind him kneeled down next to Abby and felt for a pulse. “She’s alive, Enderton. Completely stupid but alive.”
Enderton threw a swift kick to the vampire’s head and then swept her feet out from under her. The impact of the floor jarred her, and he seized the moment to shove a stake into her chest. He waited a moment, but nothing happened.
“You missed,” she hissed at him before standing up with a slight swagger.
“I wasn’t aiming for the heart,” he responded as she began to wince in pain. “That slight tingle you have at the back of your head is the first effect of the liquefied silver that’s begun coursing through your bloodstream.”
The woman screamed in pain and collapsed in a heap. Enderton turned to the woman fighting by his side. “We need to get out of here now, Smith.”
Smith grabbed Abby, flipped her over her shoulder, and began to walk down the row. Enderton gave one last look to the half-bitten and semi-conscious man lying on the floor and shook his head. “I’m sorry we couldn’t get to you in time,” he whispered.
By the time they made it back into the main bar, Abby was regaining her senses. “What the f*** were you doing in there, Whistler? That was Danica Talos you were taking on,” Enderton yelled.
“No way,” Abby said, stopping in her tracks. Talos wasn’t the type of vampire you wanted to see on your first assignment, let alone take her on in a solo fight.
Smith rammed her to keep her moving. “Keep moving if you don’t want to end up dead.” Pushing Abby further forward, she turned her attention back to Enderton. “What the hell were you babbling about to Talos? We don’t have liquefied silver in our toy chest, John.”
“I know. There was just enough solid silver in that stake to make her queasy for a few minutes so we could make it out of there alive. It should fool her for long enough.” There was a loud scream that rang through the whole bar. “Or maybe not even that long. Run.”
Danica Talos raced out of the storeroom to see the three figures disappearing out the door. Letting out another scream, she turned on heel and went back to where King was laying on the floor.
“f***. You’re already half gone.” Sighing, she hefted him up to his feet. “The last man who amused me lasted two months. I wonder how long you’ll survive.”
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
FIVE YEARS LATER
Hannibal King could see the gun sitting on the table next to him. For the first time in five years, Danica had forgotten to tie him down. The chains on the headboard hung down, unused. If he could just reach the gun, he could finally get what he wanted the most.
Release.
He was too weak to move more than two fingers. Seems Danica had been particularly hungry and annoyed with him this morning. Usually she only took enough blood to knock him out for a few hours during daytime. She liked to keep him as lucid as possible during the night. Turns out that five years running, he was still amusing her. With what, he wasn’t sure.
He hadn’t had enough energy to talk in over two years. At least, he hadn’t felt the need to talk in two years. The capability was still there, but there was no longer purpose. Sometimes he found himself unable to remember what he had found so funny for all those years before now. He could vaguely remember having a dry wit and an always present sense of humor. People liked that. At any rate he thought people had liked that about him. It was hard to remember.
He couldn’t really come up with any reason why he was still around. The only possible answer lay in the fact that Danica was the biggest b**** in the world and just liked to give herself a constant reminder that she was better than all the other vampires. That she was better than him. Stronger. Tougher. Faster. It was like she felt obligated to make sure he had nothing to live for while stringing him along, barely alive.
Ever since Frost died, the vampires had been going through humans like they were bread. There was no one to set down rules or to make an ultimate endgame type of goal. It was a gigantic, murderous free-for-all. Every vampire was amazed that Danica had the self control to keep him, this pathetic human, alive.
His gaze shifted back to the gun on the table. Why was it just sitting there? Couldn’t it be nice just this once and jump into his hand? He found himself wondering why no one had ever invited a jumping gun. It would have been the best invention ever.
Trying again, he discovered that he could move all his fingers on his right hand and his wrist, too, this time. His strength was coming back. He felt his head shift as he trained his eyes on the door. There were sounds coming from down the hall.
It was now or never.
He summoned up all his strength and threw himself at the gun. His body just kind of rolled off the bed and onto the floor in a lump. “Ow. That was stupid,” he thought to himself, staring down at the floor.
Danica laughed at the site of her favorite pet lying facedown on the floor. “What were you trying to do, King?” she asked, strolling into the room and over to his side. Her eyes settled on the end table. “Were you actually trying to get to the gun? Don’t tell me you were going to kill yourself. How pathetic.”
The anger bubbled up inside him. It was a surprise. He didn’t know he was capable of anger anymore, having maxed out on it within the first three months of her feasting. It gave him a pulsing energy. “Wasn’t… going… to kill… me…” He managed to spit out.
“You can talk,” she said, sneering. “Well, isn’t that a surprise? So, tell me, chatterbox. What were you going to do with it if you weren‘t intending to end your measly, pathetic excuse for a life?”
“Shoot you… in the head.” He managed to turn the corners of his mouth up in a smile. Maybe he wasn’t as weak as he always thought. He might just get out of this yet. Laughing, Danica picked him up by the hair and threw him on the bed. His body pulsed with pain. Maybe not.
“If you weren’t such a filthy human, I might be persuaded to have my way with you. But we can’t have the mingling of the species. More freaks like Blade might pop up for all we know.”
King stiffened slightly at the mention of Blade. Danica hardly mentioned the vampire hunter named Blade. However, other vampires she invited into her private rooms weren’t so selective on what or who they talked about, so King had picked up quite a bit of information over the years. He had heard that the Daywalker was mostly a myth. No one had really seen him. He liked to think that was because no one who saw Blade ever lived to tell the tale. “You have to believe in something, right?” he thought, laughing to himself at the complete irrationality of his thoughts.
It was silly things like that that made him think he might actually stand another hour of this torture.
“I have a surprise for you, pet,” Danica whispered in his ear.
King tensed. He had forgotten she was still there. His small spike of hope was squashed as she sunk her teeth into the still sore wound on his chest from where she had bitten him the day before. She liked to spread out the pain all over his body. Five years and he’d never been bitten in the same place twice.
At least, not until now.
After a few seconds, she pulled back and licked the blood off her lips. “I’ve decided that you haven’t quite been suffering enough. Your blood is starting to taste a little weak. I really like the taste of you better when you’re suffering.” She snapped her fingers, and the door to her bedroom opened up. “This is Steinger. He’s going to give you a little brand for me. I’ve decided that I’m going to make you a Familiar, pet.”
The bulky vampire pulled out his tattoo needle and grabbed King’s arm to begin the process. King didn’t even have the energy to scream as the needle entered his skin for the first time without any pain killer and with his mental defenses completely exhausted.
Danica grabbed Steinger’s shoulder and flung him away from the prostrate King. “No, no, no. I don’t want it there.”
Steinger stood up from where he had landed and walked back to where his victim lay. “But that’s where we mark all the Familiars.”
“Not my Familiar.” Smiling at King, she grabbed the sheet he had become entangled in when he fell off the bed earlier and ripped it clear off. He lay naked in front of her eyes for the one thousand, nine hundred and thirty-eighth day in a row. He knew. He had kept count. There wasn’t really much else to do.
Danica leaned over and scrapped his chest with her fingernails. She made a bloody trail down his body until her hand rested six inches below his belly button. “Put it there.”
She stood back and watched in awe as Steinger branded her favorite pet.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Abigail Whistler was pissed off. Instead of going out to dinner with the man she had come to love more than any other, she was stuck hunting vampires instead. At least she was hunting with that very same man, the only one she trusted to watch her back. But all-in-all, floating ash and burning bones did not set the relaxed tone that she desired.
“Hey, Abby, you ready to go?” Enderton called as he entered the room. He grabbed his favorite weapon, the Lucky 7s with the silver filled hollow tips, off the table and fixed it in his holster.
“Why do we have to go out tonight? You promised me that we could get some pizza together tonight. You know, the whole normal thing we never get to do?”
“Sorry. I totally forgot, kid.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “How many times do I have to tell you? You lost the right to call me kid when I beat you in that shooting match two years ago.”
“It has yet to be determined if you cheated or not.” Enderton smiled and pulled her close to him. “I’ll drive. There’s something I want to talk to you about on the way downtown.”
“Sounds important,” Abby said. “I’ll gear up and meet you down in the garage.”
Five minutes later, Abby slid into the passenger seat while Enderton revved up the massive truck they had stolen the previous week. Pulling out of the driveway of their current hideout, he flipped on the radio, and loud rock music filled up the silence in the car. She smiled. The pounding noise was what Enderton claimed kept the edge in him. Over the years, it had begun to do the same for her. She only wished there was a way to take it into battle with her. It might raise her killing rate.
After driving half of an hour in silence, he reached over to the radio and turned the music off. “We’re almost there.”
“Good. Let’s get this done and go home. I can still smell the potential pizza aromas.”
Abby watched as Enderton’s smile slowly died down into a complete scowl. She had a feeling there was either a strict lecture or a serious conversation in her future. He only got quiet if there was something really important he felt he had to bring up with her.
As they neared the office building that was rumored to house a nest of vampires, he pulled the truck over onto the curb in front of the building swiftly. “We’re getting out here.”
“Ah ah, sir.” She gave him a mock salute and slid out of the car. “So, what did you want to talk to me about, Enderton?”
“It’s about Smith.”
“Yeah. I was wondering why she didn’t come with us on this one. You know the other guys have labeled us the Deadly Threesome. Seems we‘ve set a record for most kills in one night. We‘re the envy of all the Night Stalkers.”
That brought the smile back to Enderton’s face for a moment. “Smith is going to join up with us later. She went to the other Night Stalker cell in the area to get reinforcements. We’re going to need them if we want to successfully take this nest out.”
“Why is this place so important? It doesn‘t look so damn special,” Abby asked, playing absentmindedly with her crossbow, as they entered the building in question. There were still a few kinks to be worked out of it. It had been a birthday gift from her father this past year, an update of her old model. She hadn’t seen Whistler since she asked him to get her an in with the Night Stalkers. He hadn’t been happy with her decision to live this life, but he pointed her in Enderton’s direction, saying that this was the most skilled cell. Even though she hadn’t seen him in years, he sent her a present every year. “Bow’s still rusty,” she muttered.
Enderton ignored her fiddling. “Danica Talos is rumored to be there. You and I are taking out a heavy hitter tonight, Abby.”
The name made her blood run cold. She had run into Talos and her brother, Asher, numerous times over her years with the Night Stalkers. Every time she seemed to be missing the edge she needed to kill them. Abby laced an arrow into her bow and aimed at the endless hallway in front of him. “Is this a test, Enderton?”
“Maybe,” he said, sweeping his gaze around the area they were entering.
“Hey, I have an idea,” she said, not wanting to ask him how this might or might not be a test. “Let’s not talk about Talos right not. Sore spot. Let’s get back to your topic of choice. What did you need to tell me about Smith? Is something wrong with her? Did she let another poor cocky son of a b**** die just to make herself happy? ‘Cause I told her to stop doing that. I swear, I did.”
“No, it’s nothing like that. Smith and I, we’re getting married in the morning.”
For the first time in history, her bow slipped right from her fingers and clattered to the floor. She stared at the leader of her Night Stalker cell in awe. There was no time for romance or any sort of love in the life they lead. He had to be kidding her about this marriage thing. It wasn‘t a feasible option.
“I know what you’re thinking, Whistler. Smith is a complete man hater. She eats men like me for breakfast.” He sighed. “We’re in love, though, crazy as that sounds. I don’t know when or how it happened, but it happened. We’re both leaving the cell as of sunrise. I wanted to tell you personally because I need you to keep the rest of the gang going.”
“You’re leaving me?” Abby spit out, picking up her bow. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. This man was her rock, and he was trying to tell her he wasn’t going to be around anymore.
“Not just you. I’m leaving everyone. Sommerfield. Dex. Those two twins who just started working for me. God. What were their names?”
“Aidan and Conal.”
Enderton winked at her. “See? You’re perfect for the job. I’ve been training you to take over for years, kid. You’re the only one I trust to keep the group alive.”
Abby nodded and was about to tell him that as much as it hurt her, she was going to accept his right to leave the fight behind. After all, that was what he wanted to hear from her, no matter if it was a lie or not. However, a whizzing noise careened past her ear and ended in a thump past her. Obviously they hadn’t been as stealthy as normal entering the facility. “I think they know we’re here, boss,” she called behind her with a slight amusement in her voice.
“I think so, too.”
At the sound of his strained tone, she looked back at him. There was a silver stake cutting clean through Enderton’s left leg. “Ironic, isn’t it?” he said with a faint smile. “I’ve been staked.” She saw the pain suddenly come across his face as he began to sway.
She threw her bow over her shoulder and ran to his side, sliding her arm under his in support. She felt his full weight bearing down on her and shifted to accommodate. “Guess tonight won’t be as momentous as you thought. We need to get you back to base before you bleed out.”
He surprised her when he pushed her away with as much force as he could muster. “I can still walk, Whistler. And we’re going to do this. Smith is on her way. She’ll make sure I get out of her just fine. I’m going to head towards the exit. It should only take me a minute or two. I want you to go ahead and get Talos. You’ve been itching for her head for five years now. It‘s time.”
Abby hesitated. She knew that he was putting up a brave front. The pain would probably cause him to pass out within ten minutes. It would take him at least that long to make it to the door, no matter what he said. Then there was the small fact that he wouldn’t even make it two minutes if she left him alone to fend off any stray vampires. But then they both knew that.
On the other hand, she also knew how much both of them wanted to wipe Danica Talos off this earth. There was a history between the three Night Stalkers, her, Enderton, and Smith, and Talos. She knew how much Enderton wanted to leave his gang with a bang instead of a fizzle. He wouldn’t want everyone to remember that he hobbled out of his last battle with the Night Stalkers. Plus, he was tough, and Smith was on her way.
There was really only one choice.
Handing him a gun, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “That’s fully loaded. It should last you for at least half an hour. Now I guess we’ll finally see just how good you’ve made me, Enderton.”
With one last look, she was around the corner and out of his sight. She hadn’t made it ten feet when there was a series of gunshots ringing out behind her. The shots lasted for thirty seconds, and then the air was silent. She paused for a moment and debated turning back. She wanted to believe that meant Enderton had killed whoever attacked him or Smith had showed up, but she knew that only a fool would think that. There was no way she could go back.
Shoving the pain of the probable lose of the one man in her life she loved, she fired a couple arrows at a few random vampires and made her way to the stairs. If she knew Danica Talos, and she did, the vampire wouldn’t settle for anything less than the top floor.
Approximately forty flights later, she paused for a minute to catch her breath. She would need it if she was going to do what Enderton asked of her. And there was no way she was going to let herself fail this last request of his.
There was a noise to her right, and she ducked down in the stairwell. Danica Talos’s voice echoed down the hall. “You stay put, pet. I don’t know what I would do if you ever wandered off. You’re all I have.” Her evil laugh followed her as she walked right past Abby, who was holding her breath as best she could, and entered the elevator next to the stairwell.
When she figured the coast was as clear as it would ever be, she stood up and began her way down the hallway. There were two vampires guarding the doorway Danica had exited from. “This must be important,” Abby whispered to herself. She strung a single arrow in her bow and stomped her foot loudly so the vampires looked over at her. Smiling, she let the arrow loose. It pierced one heart and then the next.
“Two in one. I’m getting good. I’ll have to tell--” Her voice dropped out as she realized she was going to say Enderton. Taking a moment, she internalized the pain, trying her best to use it as she tried to bring down whoever was inside that room. “If you’re Talos’s heart, it’s time for me to shove a stake through you,” she hissed pushing the door open.
Her heart stopped as her eyes came to rest on the naked man lying on the bed. This couldn’t be what Danica Talos was referring to. This was just a man. And not a very healthy looking one. There were scars and cuts all over his body, and he looked positively gaunt. If she couldn’t see his chest moving up and down, she would have thought he was dead.
He was just a man. Nothing special. Then she caught sight of his tattoo. Scratch that. A newly made Familiar. Pathetic.
She pulled a stake out of her belt and positioned it over the man’s heart. “You deserve to die, scum.”
The man surprised her by opening his eyes. “I knew you’d come for me, my little underage hottie,” he whispered with a smile of recognition. He figured the pain from being tattooed had both caused his head to clear and made him begin to hallucinate. There was no way the last human he had seen in five years was hovering above him with a weapon in hand.
It wasn’t the words that caused Abby to drop the stake. Truth be told, he wasn’t really making any sense. It was the smile on his face. She had seen that smile years before on the first man she ever failed to save in the field. It was something she would never forget.
“How the hell are you alive?” she asked, still regarding him warily.
“My grandma always said that I had a strong constitution. Never really understood that until now. Help me up please.”
“You’re a Familiar,” she said, picking up the stake and positioning it once more by his heart. “I have no idea what I’m doing talking with you when you should be dying.”
“I’m not a Familiar.”
“You’ve got the brand.”
“Look closer, my sassy savior. It’s newly acquired.”
Abby decided to take his word on it. She really didn’t want to be taking a closer look at that tattoo. That would just give him further ammunition to verbally sling her way. “So, explain to me how you’ve survived for five years without dying or being turned.”
His eyes flashed with something she could only guess was appreciation. “Be still my heart. I think she remembers me, too.”
She rolled her eyes. “I have a mission to fulfill. I don’t have time to be joking around with you. And I really don’t have time to be carting you all over this place.” Standing up off where she kneeled on the bed, she made her way to the door.
The sound of his weak voice made her stop in her tracks. “Wait.” She turned around to look at him. “If you take me with you, Danica will suffer more than she would if you killed her.”
“Then you’ve never seen me kill.”
King managed to turn his head to face where she stood. “No, I can’t say that I have.”
The underlying meaning in that statement hung between them. Abby swore as she realized that she couldn’t give up the chance to fix the first mistake she ever made as a Night Stalker. “You better not slow me down.”
King practically wept when she walked over to the bed and hoisted him up, sliding her arm underneath his shoulder. “You’re going to have to help me as much as you can on this one. You have at least twenty pounds and six inches on me.”
“I’ll do my best, but I haven’t moved this many muscles in five years.”
Grabbing the sheet off the bed, she draped it around his waist. “I still don’t trust you.”
“Smart girl,” he said. He really didn’t have the energy to crack any more jokes or even say one more word. All his concentration was going to have to be placed on putting one foot in front of another. And letting some of the control hang on this mysterious stranger who seemed to have a track record for trying to save his life. He didn’t like giving up control to anyone. But with her, it didn’t seem such a hard thing to do.
“We had better hurry. Something tells me that Talos is going to know immediately you’re gone. It seems like you‘re very important to her. I haven‘t quite figured that one out yet. You don‘t look like anything special.”
They hobbled down the hall and paused at the stairwell door. They both peered over the side and stared at the forty-two flights of stairs below them. “You’re never going to make it down there,” Abby said, stating what they were both thinking.
“No.” They shifted their focus from the stairs to the locked elevator and back to the stairs. “We are so screwed,” he said softly.
He was surprised to see a wicked smile tease her lips. “I don’t think so.” Reaching off, she pulled the sheet off his hips as she walked them over to the elevator.
“I understand the direness of the situation, but I don’t think it’s the right time for a quickie, my newly found love.”
She rolled her eyes for the fiftieth time and shoved him close to the wall. “That tattoo gives you certain privileges, Mr. Familiar.”
His tattoo was scanned by the panel on the wall, and the doors slid open. “Looks like Danica didn’t have time to red flag me. Thank god for small favors.”
Abby looked over at him. “You still believe in God?”
They hobbled into the car and watched the doors slide shut. “Modesty please,” King said as they started moving. When she gave him a weird look at his random comment, he motioned down with his eyes. “The sheet.”
“Oh god,” she muttered, realizing she had never put the sheet back in place. She hurried to secure it over his hips.
“Now you believe in God,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows at her uncomfortableness.
Abby decided she was too embarrassed to carry on the conversation and get more information on this man who could potentially be a trap the vampires left for her to find. Plus, every second more they spoke, she was afraid he was going to condemn her for the mistakes she made that had almost branded him a slave for life. It was fairly obvious that this man hadn’t had much left in him when she found him fifteen minutes ago. In the back of her mind, she couldn’t help but wonder if that was all her fault.
The doors slid open, and they stared out into the not-so empty lobby. “Well, I guess I could have hoped that no one would be down here a little harder,” King said.
Abby snuck him out of the elevator car and over to the side. “You stay right here. I’ll take care of them.” King just stared in awe as she clicked her shoes and two pointed stakes popped out. She winked at him before throwing herself headfirst into the fray.
For the first thirty seconds, the vampires really had no idea what was going on. Ten dustings without anyone having a clue why. Then, King winced as he saw the vampires recognize the threat and start to fight against it. Luckily, this girl seemed to have learned something over the five years since he first saw her. She could now take a punch and keep on fighting.
He watched her take out another dozen vampires with a dancer’s-like grace. It was so breathtaking he figured tickets could be sold just to watch her. However, he could tell she was getting tired as she fired some projectile out of the device on her wrist and a vampire turned to ash.
King watched from his position out of the line of fire as a vampire lifted her up four feet by her throat. He could see her legs flailing helplessly through the air as she gasped for breath, and he decided that it was time to come out of hiding. As good as she was turning out to be, it didn’t look like she could finish this on her own.
By the time he got to his feet, he realized his mistake. Her legs hadn’t been carelessly flailing around. She had been trying to stake the vampire with her boot. There were a lot of things she had obviously calculated, but it was clear the one thing she didn’t calculate was the fact that she was in close proximity to the vampire when he turned to ash. Her throat was immediately clogged, and her vision clouded and then turned black. The last vampire left standing chose that moment to go on the offensive.
King’s heart stopped as he realized there was no way for this amazing woman to realize she was about to be killed. Wincing, he pushed the pain out of his head for the hundredth time that day. The ash in the air clogged in his throat as he got closer to where the vampire was taunting Abby. He pushed onward.
“Little girl, what are you doing here?” the vampire chided.
Abby didn’t respond, trying to rely on her other senses to tell her where the voice was coming from. Her eyes were beginning to clear, and she could make out a vague blob to her left. Focusing on it, she ran her hand along the floor to find a weapon, anything, to throw at the sneering vampire. Her hand connected with something, and she lobbed it as far as she could. It hit its blurry target with a metallic clang. A statue.
“That wasn’t me,” said a harsh voice in her left ear. Blinking a few more times, her eyes cleared in time for her to see the fiendish grin of a vampire about to feast. She crawled away backwards from the vampire as quickly as she could, trying to put as much distance as possible between her and that pair of fangs. Within seconds, her back hit a wall.
She stared as the vampire stalked closer to her. This was it. This was how it was all going to end. In the back of her mind, she couldn’t help thinking if she hadn’t decided to help that stupid man, she would already be halfway back to base by now.
A blur flashed through her field of vision, and she was shocked to see the man she had just decided was going to be the death of her now saving her life. He straddled the vampire and started punching him in the face.
Abby quickly pulled her wits back together and took a stake out of her pocket. Pushing the still weak man off of his victim, she rammed the stake through his heart. Panting, she turned her attention away from the pile of dust below her to where her companion lay prostrate on the ground. “You seem to be regaining your strength.”
“I can’t feel my legs,” he mumbled as she picked her bow up from the ground where it had fallen. “I think I’m going into anaphylactic shock or some other kind of medical mumbo jumbo that means I need to get the hell out of here.”
Sighing, she walked over and pulled him up to his feet. “You just exhausted your last bit of strength. Here’s some happy news, though. Do you see that car?” She pointed to the truck still parked in front of the building. “We only have to get that far, and we’ll be home free.” She started to move but felt him hesitate. Or at least she thought it was hesitation. She couldn‘t really tell considering he really didn‘t have an energy to hesitate. “You suddenly don’t want to come with me?”
He looked down at her. “You still don‘t believe me, do you? In spite of everything I just did for you, you think this might be a trap.”
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “But I do know that if there’s a minimal chance that you’re telling the truth, I can’t leave you behind. And, as much as I hate to admit, you did save my ass back there. So, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt for now. Don’t screw me over.” She felt him give up his resistance, and they began walking through the front lobby again.
“I don’t even know your name,” he admitted.
Before Abby could answer, shots starting raining down on them from a balcony above. She shoved King hard to the side and reached behind her for her bow. Two arrows later, ash replaced the gunshots in raining down upon them. She smiled at him and leaned down, offering a hand to help him up. “Abigail Whistler.”
“Well, my little hellion, I do believe you are the most beautiful woman I have ever met.” Grasping her hand, he flashed her that smile that she remembered so well. “You can call me King.”
She laughed and yanked him to his feet. “No way am I calling you king. That’s ridiculous.”
He looked at her soberly. “Hannibal King. It’s my name. And there’s no need to joke about it. I’ve already gotten plenty of teasing in my life. I was emotionally scared as a child in elementary school. Damn Bobby Jenkins.”
“Sorry,” she said, trying not to laugh again.
The light mood was slightly thrown off by a horrendous scream through the building. They both turned to stare at what was going on behind them. There was more screaming and banging going on somewhere in the floors above them.
King turned back to Abby and gave her a wink, his face sliding back into a grin. “I remember that scream from five years ago. I hadn’t heard it since. You really pissed her off that night.”
“It wasn’t me. It was Enderton,” she said curtly. This was not a topic she wanted to be going over with him at this exact moment.
He really wanted to ask her who the hell this Enderton character was but figured that might be a story to tackle at another time. He shook his head as they began to hustle in the form of a really bad stagger towards the ever-closer exit. When had he started connecting the future with this woman? He had never thought of the future in his life, especially during the past five years of being stuck in vampire sucking limbo.
Now, all of the sudden, he was willing to put things off to a later time. He felt like he could afford to put things off. He didn’t know where that came from. Plus, to be honest, he didn’t even know if this girl wanted anything more to do with him once they were out of this horrendous building.
Pushing thoughts of a future with Ms. Abigail Whistler out of his head, he tried to focus on keeping his feet moving. That little hero move he pulled earlier had really taken it out of him. It had been one hundred percent worth it and he would do it again in a second, but still, his knees and back now hurt like a b****.
“Wow,” Abby heard King say all the sudden.
“What?”
He looked like he had just had an epiphany. “The pain. I thought I had gotten immune to it. It’s starting to come back now.” He cocked his head to the side. “Kinda tingly.”
“I think you’re delirious.”
“You might be right, little lady.” Something else suddenly occurred to King. “How old are you anyway, Abigail Whistler?”
She looked at him suspiciously. “I’m twenty. Why?”
“Just checking before I asked you out on a date.”
“You must be delirious,” she said as she pushed the glass door open. King gasped as he took his first breath of fresh air in five years.
“Is that a no? Because if it is, you might as well take me back in there. I won’t be able to live without you anymore, my dear Abigail.”
“Tell you what, King. I’ll go on a date with you.” She was happy to see him give her that smile again. As much as his cheery humor hid it, she wasn‘t sure he would make it for more than twenty-four hours once they got out of the building. Keeping him talking was the only way she could be sure he had a chance. “I’ll go on a date with you but only when all the vampires are gone.”
She expected that comment to sober him up completely. Instead the smile stayed put on his face. He leaned in and whispered, “Guess I better get to work then.”
At that moment, several things happened. Abigail pulled away to look up at him and all of a sudden remembered what it was about him that intrigued her five years earlier. Dex’s voice began screaming from somewhere down the street to her left that Smith had gone done and they needed to get out of there now. And Hannibal King gave her one last smile and a wink before passing out cold.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
)Title: King and Whistler
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Abby Whistler and Hannibal King have had a long history with one another. He was her first failure. She was his knight in shining armor. Where does their relationship go once life as they know it changes?
Disclaimer: Most of the characters I used aren’t mine. Don’t sue me, etc.
Hannibal King scanned the crowded bar. This wasn’t the usual type of place he liked to hang out with its shiny lights and loud music and its sl**ty looking women. Okay, maybe the sl**ty thing was his usual m.o. But the techno music and dancing? Definitely not. He was much more comfortable at the pub down the road from his college apartment just sitting back with some of his friends and letting the women come to him.
This dance party, club s*** wasn’t his style. “However, there’s only so much alone time on a Friday night that you could take before going insane and showing up at a place like this,” he said to the man sitting next him. The man just glared at him and shook his head. “Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”
The loud, booming music rattled the beer sitting in front of him, and he unconsciously reached out to steady it while scanning the bar. That was when he caught sight of her. She was walking away from where he was sitting and kept looking over her shoulder in search of someone.
He gave her a quick once over. Long wavy hair. Great butt. Legs that went on forever. Devilish smile even though it didn‘t seem to be genuine. Confident swagger. Not paying attention to one guy staring her way. Definitely looked like a challenge.
In one word: Perfect.
He always told his friends he had special radar for pretty brunettes. Put him in a bar and he’d have one eating out of his hands within minutes. However, this one surpassed any he had ever seen in his life. Immediately, she had promoted herself past the point of one-night conquest. If he was the type of guy to believe in love at first sight, he had a feeling this might be it.
“Good thing I’m not,” he muttered while finishing off his current beer and signaling the bartender for another. While he waited, he turned back to look at her.
Her confidence was faltering as she seemed to be realizing that whoever she was looking for wasn’t there. That was when he saw a flash of something in her gaze. It broke the obvious spell she had put over his eyes, considering he didn’t notice one important detail about her.
“Damnit,” he hissed to himself, grabbing the beer the bartender slid his way. She was young. Too young. What the hell was a kid doing in a bar on the wrong side of town?
Running a hand through his head while trying to think up what he was going to do now, he looked down at his clothes. She wasn’t even old enough to appreciate the awesomeness that was the Flock of Seagulls tour shirt he had managed to pick up a few years back. It was his no-fail chick pick-up shirt, and it would be a complete waste on her.
“And why the hell are you so concerned with how you cool you look to her?” he asked himself even as he began to stand. He had a reason to be out that night, and impressing underage girls was not it. There were sorrows he was supposed to be drinking away before he picked up a random girl to help drown out whatever was left once the alcohol wore off. He could practically kill Sheila, the blonde he had been seeing on and off all term, when she told him she had decided that he wasn’t man enough for her.
“What the f*** does that even mean?” he said out loud while still keeping his eyes on the young brunette. She was still searching for someone. Only now it was starting to border on frantic.
He pushed his way slowly through the crowd. “Someone needs to watch out for the kid. She‘ll probably get something slipped in her Shirley Temple and end up dead in a ditch or whatever else young girls get warned about if you don‘t go over and talk to her.” he thought, trying to reassure himself. As he pushed a drunken pair of girls out of his way, he rolled his eyes and muttered, “Yeah, King. You just keep telling yourself that and maybe in the morning you won’t feel like a complete pedophile.”
He was about ten yards from her when a thin hand grabbed him by his completely awesome shirt and pushed him up against the wall. “Um, hi,” he said, staring down at the willowy, pale woman in front of him. She was rather attractive in an I-haven’t-eaten-in-ten-years-because-I’ve-been-too-busy-working-my-charms-on-lonely-men-like-you kind of way, and she seemed rather fixated on his neck. “How can I help you?”
“You look tasty,” she said with a sly grin.
“You know I get that a lot. Now if you excuse me.” He tried to push past her and found himself being slammed up against the wall yet again. “Wow. You’re pretty burly.”
She didn’t respond to the comment. He swore to himself. That one always seemed to get the psychotic ones to leave him alone. Instead, this strange woman reached out with a fingernail and ran it along his jaw line. “Do you want to go party somewhere we can be alone?”
He felt himself start to say yes before he realized what he was about to do. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.” He looked around the woman’s shoulder and felt slightly relieved to see the brunette still standing in the place he last saw her. “Plus, there’s a lady I need to see about a horse.”
The woman ran her finger down along his neck seductively. “I’m sure that can wait.” She dug her finger in slightly, hard enough to draw a small trickle of blood.
“What the f***?” King yelled, grabbing his neck.
“I got excited,” she whispered into his ear before stepping back. “Sorry.”
Again, she gave him that sly grin that screamed she knew something that he didn’t. He turned his head back in time to get a good look at her teeth. “Jesus. I think you need to go to the dentist and see someone about those chompers, lady.”
“You amuse me. No one’s amused me in one hundred years,” she said, sneering. “Now let’s cut the bulls*** opening lines and get this thing started.”
King would have responded with another put off if his eyes hadn’t locked with the brunette’s at that exact second. She stared at him for a few moments, and he couldn’t help but send his most inviting smile her way. Later he would chalk it up to instinct. There was no way he would have chosen to give her that kind of look when he knew that she was as good as jailbait to him.
He saw the corner of her mouth turn up in what probably would have been a smile. Probably if her face hadn’t gone completely pale as the strange woman currently straddling his body against the wall hadn’t turned to figure out where he was looking. He could see the brunette’s focus shift from him to the woman, and her whole body froze.
He wasn’t sure if it was fear or determination that lit up the brunette’s eyes. Maybe it was a little bit of both. All he was sure of was he blinked, and she was gone.
King realized his mistake almost immediately. “That girl can obviously take care of herself, no matter how far she is from her cradle,” he decided, turning his attention back to the not-so-bad-looking woman currently throwing herself at him. At least this one wouldn’t be much of a challenge. He figured that a challenge wasn’t really what he had been looking for.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~
Abigail Whistler cursed. Where the hell were Enderton and Smith? They were supposed to be watching her back here. It was her first mission in the field as a Night Stalker. Or at least as a potential Night Stalker who might one day be allowed to play with the big boys if she played her cards right and didn‘t die or let anyone else die on her watch.
She knew that she could easily do what the team was asking her to, but she thought the Night Stalkers would have watched her more closer this first time, considering they weren’t as sure of her abilities as she was.
They were supposed to meet her at the front of the bar. That was half her challenge. Figuring out how to get her fifteen-year-old self into a bar she couldn’t legally step foot in for another six years. Prove to them her young age wasn’t a problem. Then all the Night Stalkers asked her to do was kill one measly vampire without anyone being the wiser. Not that hard considering she’d seen what she would be asked to do on a daily basis if the Night Stalkers accepted her as one of their own.
Again, she scanned the bar, coming up empty. There were no other Night Stalkers present. “s***,” she muttered. “Looks like it’s up to you, Whistler.”
She reached towards her back and grabbed the silver stake she had strapped to it earlier. It was the only weapon she thought she could smuggle into such a crowded bar. As her insecurity began to surface, she wondered what she wouldn’t do to have her crossbow in her hand. It had always been her favorite since she was ten, and her father taught her how to use it.
She shook the memories of her father out of her head. She didn’t have time to go down that road. Not right now. That man she had locked eyes with needed help right now. If she didn’t come to his aid, he probably would only live another two minutes, three tops.
He seemed so cocky when he flashed her that smile from across the room. She was half tempted to pretend like she hadn’t seen him or the vampire company he was currently keeping. It would be interesting to see if his charm could get him out of this one all by his lonesome. Plus, Smith had told her that it was the cocky ones that you didn’t waste your time saving.
Damnit. When had she started taking advice from Smith? The woman was as unfeeling as a person could be, and she was a complete man hater. Enderton had told her that’s what the job would do to you. Not the man hater part, but the cold, unfeeling part. Abby was ninety percent sure that he was just trying to intimidate her.
She pushed through the crowd so that she was walking parallel to the woman vampire and the man she was about to save. Enderton said the first thing to killing a vampire is to make sure you know what it’s capable of. Never engage without understanding who you were fighting. And the man knew what he was talking about. He had been a Night Stalker for over five years. That was legendary in this city.
The pair slipped into one of the back rooms. Abby waited a few seconds before pushing the door open and entering the unknown.
It was an empty stock room. No intrusive lights. Plenty of corners to hide in. Definite air of eeriness. “Great,” she muttered, looking around. “Where the hell did they go?”
She started making her way systematically past each row. Two human couples and one questionable threesome later, she spied the man she had been searching for in the next row. She ducked down behind a wooden box and tried to figure out what was happening. It seemed the woman was still trying to get the man to agree to the tryst. That meant Abby still had time to save him.
A sound at the end of the row made her pause before charging in with her lone silver stake waving. They weren’t alone.
“Gregor,” the women hissed. “What do you want?”
“Why do you insist on doing this in such public places?”
She turned her attention away from the man who was already half under her spell. “Why do you insist on interrupting me all the time?”
“Frost wants to see you.”
“I’ll get to him in my own, sweet time. This one amuses me.” Abby swore as the woman turned her attention back to the man. For a moment there, she thought she would be able to sneak in and pull him out without anyone noticing. He was just lying there on the ground, not saying a word, not moving. It suddenly hit her that he might already be a lost cause.
Trying to focus, she turned her attention away from the man and back to the two vampires. They had finished their bickering, and the man was walking away.
“Where were we, lover?” the woman said.
Before Abby could move an inch, the fangs were out and in his neck. “s***,” she muttered and ran out of her hiding place. Not knowing what else to do, Abby kicked the woman vampire hard in the chest and sent her flying through the air. There was a loud crash as her body hit the shelf at the end of the row.
Abby leaned down and smiled at the man. He was smiling at her. That was a definite good sign. Maybe she wasn‘t too late. “Hi. I’m--” A gunshot cut her off. She looked down at her abdomen. “--bleeding.”
“That’s what happens when you play with the meat,” the woman vampire said, standing up, gun in hand. “Now, who the hell are you?”
Abby didn’t have time to react before a fist was colliding with where the bullet had entered her body. A swift kick slammed her down against the concrete floor. She could taste the blood pooling in her mouth from where she had unintentionally bit the side of her mouth. A hand grabbed the back of her hair and lifted her to her feet.
“Are they sending children after us now?” she said with a laugh. “Pathetic.”
She gave Abby a quick head butt and dropped her to the floor. Baring her fangs, she moved in for the kill. She only made it two inches before being flung away. “There’s more of you?” she hissed.
“There’s always more out there willing to kill your kind,” the man who had thrown her sneered.
The woman behind him kneeled down next to Abby and felt for a pulse. “She’s alive, Enderton. Completely stupid but alive.”
Enderton threw a swift kick to the vampire’s head and then swept her feet out from under her. The impact of the floor jarred her, and he seized the moment to shove a stake into her chest. He waited a moment, but nothing happened.
“You missed,” she hissed at him before standing up with a slight swagger.
“I wasn’t aiming for the heart,” he responded as she began to wince in pain. “That slight tingle you have at the back of your head is the first effect of the liquefied silver that’s begun coursing through your bloodstream.”
The woman screamed in pain and collapsed in a heap. Enderton turned to the woman fighting by his side. “We need to get out of here now, Smith.”
Smith grabbed Abby, flipped her over her shoulder, and began to walk down the row. Enderton gave one last look to the half-bitten and semi-conscious man lying on the floor and shook his head. “I’m sorry we couldn’t get to you in time,” he whispered.
By the time they made it back into the main bar, Abby was regaining her senses. “What the f*** were you doing in there, Whistler? That was Danica Talos you were taking on,” Enderton yelled.
“No way,” Abby said, stopping in her tracks. Talos wasn’t the type of vampire you wanted to see on your first assignment, let alone take her on in a solo fight.
Smith rammed her to keep her moving. “Keep moving if you don’t want to end up dead.” Pushing Abby further forward, she turned her attention back to Enderton. “What the hell were you babbling about to Talos? We don’t have liquefied silver in our toy chest, John.”
“I know. There was just enough solid silver in that stake to make her queasy for a few minutes so we could make it out of there alive. It should fool her for long enough.” There was a loud scream that rang through the whole bar. “Or maybe not even that long. Run.”
Danica Talos raced out of the storeroom to see the three figures disappearing out the door. Letting out another scream, she turned on heel and went back to where King was laying on the floor.
“f***. You’re already half gone.” Sighing, she hefted him up to his feet. “The last man who amused me lasted two months. I wonder how long you’ll survive.”
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
FIVE YEARS LATER
Hannibal King could see the gun sitting on the table next to him. For the first time in five years, Danica had forgotten to tie him down. The chains on the headboard hung down, unused. If he could just reach the gun, he could finally get what he wanted the most.
Release.
He was too weak to move more than two fingers. Seems Danica had been particularly hungry and annoyed with him this morning. Usually she only took enough blood to knock him out for a few hours during daytime. She liked to keep him as lucid as possible during the night. Turns out that five years running, he was still amusing her. With what, he wasn’t sure.
He hadn’t had enough energy to talk in over two years. At least, he hadn’t felt the need to talk in two years. The capability was still there, but there was no longer purpose. Sometimes he found himself unable to remember what he had found so funny for all those years before now. He could vaguely remember having a dry wit and an always present sense of humor. People liked that. At any rate he thought people had liked that about him. It was hard to remember.
He couldn’t really come up with any reason why he was still around. The only possible answer lay in the fact that Danica was the biggest b**** in the world and just liked to give herself a constant reminder that she was better than all the other vampires. That she was better than him. Stronger. Tougher. Faster. It was like she felt obligated to make sure he had nothing to live for while stringing him along, barely alive.
Ever since Frost died, the vampires had been going through humans like they were bread. There was no one to set down rules or to make an ultimate endgame type of goal. It was a gigantic, murderous free-for-all. Every vampire was amazed that Danica had the self control to keep him, this pathetic human, alive.
His gaze shifted back to the gun on the table. Why was it just sitting there? Couldn’t it be nice just this once and jump into his hand? He found himself wondering why no one had ever invited a jumping gun. It would have been the best invention ever.
Trying again, he discovered that he could move all his fingers on his right hand and his wrist, too, this time. His strength was coming back. He felt his head shift as he trained his eyes on the door. There were sounds coming from down the hall.
It was now or never.
He summoned up all his strength and threw himself at the gun. His body just kind of rolled off the bed and onto the floor in a lump. “Ow. That was stupid,” he thought to himself, staring down at the floor.
Danica laughed at the site of her favorite pet lying facedown on the floor. “What were you trying to do, King?” she asked, strolling into the room and over to his side. Her eyes settled on the end table. “Were you actually trying to get to the gun? Don’t tell me you were going to kill yourself. How pathetic.”
The anger bubbled up inside him. It was a surprise. He didn’t know he was capable of anger anymore, having maxed out on it within the first three months of her feasting. It gave him a pulsing energy. “Wasn’t… going… to kill… me…” He managed to spit out.
“You can talk,” she said, sneering. “Well, isn’t that a surprise? So, tell me, chatterbox. What were you going to do with it if you weren‘t intending to end your measly, pathetic excuse for a life?”
“Shoot you… in the head.” He managed to turn the corners of his mouth up in a smile. Maybe he wasn’t as weak as he always thought. He might just get out of this yet. Laughing, Danica picked him up by the hair and threw him on the bed. His body pulsed with pain. Maybe not.
“If you weren’t such a filthy human, I might be persuaded to have my way with you. But we can’t have the mingling of the species. More freaks like Blade might pop up for all we know.”
King stiffened slightly at the mention of Blade. Danica hardly mentioned the vampire hunter named Blade. However, other vampires she invited into her private rooms weren’t so selective on what or who they talked about, so King had picked up quite a bit of information over the years. He had heard that the Daywalker was mostly a myth. No one had really seen him. He liked to think that was because no one who saw Blade ever lived to tell the tale. “You have to believe in something, right?” he thought, laughing to himself at the complete irrationality of his thoughts.
It was silly things like that that made him think he might actually stand another hour of this torture.
“I have a surprise for you, pet,” Danica whispered in his ear.
King tensed. He had forgotten she was still there. His small spike of hope was squashed as she sunk her teeth into the still sore wound on his chest from where she had bitten him the day before. She liked to spread out the pain all over his body. Five years and he’d never been bitten in the same place twice.
At least, not until now.
After a few seconds, she pulled back and licked the blood off her lips. “I’ve decided that you haven’t quite been suffering enough. Your blood is starting to taste a little weak. I really like the taste of you better when you’re suffering.” She snapped her fingers, and the door to her bedroom opened up. “This is Steinger. He’s going to give you a little brand for me. I’ve decided that I’m going to make you a Familiar, pet.”
The bulky vampire pulled out his tattoo needle and grabbed King’s arm to begin the process. King didn’t even have the energy to scream as the needle entered his skin for the first time without any pain killer and with his mental defenses completely exhausted.
Danica grabbed Steinger’s shoulder and flung him away from the prostrate King. “No, no, no. I don’t want it there.”
Steinger stood up from where he had landed and walked back to where his victim lay. “But that’s where we mark all the Familiars.”
“Not my Familiar.” Smiling at King, she grabbed the sheet he had become entangled in when he fell off the bed earlier and ripped it clear off. He lay naked in front of her eyes for the one thousand, nine hundred and thirty-eighth day in a row. He knew. He had kept count. There wasn’t really much else to do.
Danica leaned over and scrapped his chest with her fingernails. She made a bloody trail down his body until her hand rested six inches below his belly button. “Put it there.”
She stood back and watched in awe as Steinger branded her favorite pet.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Abigail Whistler was pissed off. Instead of going out to dinner with the man she had come to love more than any other, she was stuck hunting vampires instead. At least she was hunting with that very same man, the only one she trusted to watch her back. But all-in-all, floating ash and burning bones did not set the relaxed tone that she desired.
“Hey, Abby, you ready to go?” Enderton called as he entered the room. He grabbed his favorite weapon, the Lucky 7s with the silver filled hollow tips, off the table and fixed it in his holster.
“Why do we have to go out tonight? You promised me that we could get some pizza together tonight. You know, the whole normal thing we never get to do?”
“Sorry. I totally forgot, kid.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “How many times do I have to tell you? You lost the right to call me kid when I beat you in that shooting match two years ago.”
“It has yet to be determined if you cheated or not.” Enderton smiled and pulled her close to him. “I’ll drive. There’s something I want to talk to you about on the way downtown.”
“Sounds important,” Abby said. “I’ll gear up and meet you down in the garage.”
Five minutes later, Abby slid into the passenger seat while Enderton revved up the massive truck they had stolen the previous week. Pulling out of the driveway of their current hideout, he flipped on the radio, and loud rock music filled up the silence in the car. She smiled. The pounding noise was what Enderton claimed kept the edge in him. Over the years, it had begun to do the same for her. She only wished there was a way to take it into battle with her. It might raise her killing rate.
After driving half of an hour in silence, he reached over to the radio and turned the music off. “We’re almost there.”
“Good. Let’s get this done and go home. I can still smell the potential pizza aromas.”
Abby watched as Enderton’s smile slowly died down into a complete scowl. She had a feeling there was either a strict lecture or a serious conversation in her future. He only got quiet if there was something really important he felt he had to bring up with her.
As they neared the office building that was rumored to house a nest of vampires, he pulled the truck over onto the curb in front of the building swiftly. “We’re getting out here.”
“Ah ah, sir.” She gave him a mock salute and slid out of the car. “So, what did you want to talk to me about, Enderton?”
“It’s about Smith.”
“Yeah. I was wondering why she didn’t come with us on this one. You know the other guys have labeled us the Deadly Threesome. Seems we‘ve set a record for most kills in one night. We‘re the envy of all the Night Stalkers.”
That brought the smile back to Enderton’s face for a moment. “Smith is going to join up with us later. She went to the other Night Stalker cell in the area to get reinforcements. We’re going to need them if we want to successfully take this nest out.”
“Why is this place so important? It doesn‘t look so damn special,” Abby asked, playing absentmindedly with her crossbow, as they entered the building in question. There were still a few kinks to be worked out of it. It had been a birthday gift from her father this past year, an update of her old model. She hadn’t seen Whistler since she asked him to get her an in with the Night Stalkers. He hadn’t been happy with her decision to live this life, but he pointed her in Enderton’s direction, saying that this was the most skilled cell. Even though she hadn’t seen him in years, he sent her a present every year. “Bow’s still rusty,” she muttered.
Enderton ignored her fiddling. “Danica Talos is rumored to be there. You and I are taking out a heavy hitter tonight, Abby.”
The name made her blood run cold. She had run into Talos and her brother, Asher, numerous times over her years with the Night Stalkers. Every time she seemed to be missing the edge she needed to kill them. Abby laced an arrow into her bow and aimed at the endless hallway in front of him. “Is this a test, Enderton?”
“Maybe,” he said, sweeping his gaze around the area they were entering.
“Hey, I have an idea,” she said, not wanting to ask him how this might or might not be a test. “Let’s not talk about Talos right not. Sore spot. Let’s get back to your topic of choice. What did you need to tell me about Smith? Is something wrong with her? Did she let another poor cocky son of a b**** die just to make herself happy? ‘Cause I told her to stop doing that. I swear, I did.”
“No, it’s nothing like that. Smith and I, we’re getting married in the morning.”
For the first time in history, her bow slipped right from her fingers and clattered to the floor. She stared at the leader of her Night Stalker cell in awe. There was no time for romance or any sort of love in the life they lead. He had to be kidding her about this marriage thing. It wasn‘t a feasible option.
“I know what you’re thinking, Whistler. Smith is a complete man hater. She eats men like me for breakfast.” He sighed. “We’re in love, though, crazy as that sounds. I don’t know when or how it happened, but it happened. We’re both leaving the cell as of sunrise. I wanted to tell you personally because I need you to keep the rest of the gang going.”
“You’re leaving me?” Abby spit out, picking up her bow. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. This man was her rock, and he was trying to tell her he wasn’t going to be around anymore.
“Not just you. I’m leaving everyone. Sommerfield. Dex. Those two twins who just started working for me. God. What were their names?”
“Aidan and Conal.”
Enderton winked at her. “See? You’re perfect for the job. I’ve been training you to take over for years, kid. You’re the only one I trust to keep the group alive.”
Abby nodded and was about to tell him that as much as it hurt her, she was going to accept his right to leave the fight behind. After all, that was what he wanted to hear from her, no matter if it was a lie or not. However, a whizzing noise careened past her ear and ended in a thump past her. Obviously they hadn’t been as stealthy as normal entering the facility. “I think they know we’re here, boss,” she called behind her with a slight amusement in her voice.
“I think so, too.”
At the sound of his strained tone, she looked back at him. There was a silver stake cutting clean through Enderton’s left leg. “Ironic, isn’t it?” he said with a faint smile. “I’ve been staked.” She saw the pain suddenly come across his face as he began to sway.
She threw her bow over her shoulder and ran to his side, sliding her arm under his in support. She felt his full weight bearing down on her and shifted to accommodate. “Guess tonight won’t be as momentous as you thought. We need to get you back to base before you bleed out.”
He surprised her when he pushed her away with as much force as he could muster. “I can still walk, Whistler. And we’re going to do this. Smith is on her way. She’ll make sure I get out of her just fine. I’m going to head towards the exit. It should only take me a minute or two. I want you to go ahead and get Talos. You’ve been itching for her head for five years now. It‘s time.”
Abby hesitated. She knew that he was putting up a brave front. The pain would probably cause him to pass out within ten minutes. It would take him at least that long to make it to the door, no matter what he said. Then there was the small fact that he wouldn’t even make it two minutes if she left him alone to fend off any stray vampires. But then they both knew that.
On the other hand, she also knew how much both of them wanted to wipe Danica Talos off this earth. There was a history between the three Night Stalkers, her, Enderton, and Smith, and Talos. She knew how much Enderton wanted to leave his gang with a bang instead of a fizzle. He wouldn’t want everyone to remember that he hobbled out of his last battle with the Night Stalkers. Plus, he was tough, and Smith was on her way.
There was really only one choice.
Handing him a gun, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “That’s fully loaded. It should last you for at least half an hour. Now I guess we’ll finally see just how good you’ve made me, Enderton.”
With one last look, she was around the corner and out of his sight. She hadn’t made it ten feet when there was a series of gunshots ringing out behind her. The shots lasted for thirty seconds, and then the air was silent. She paused for a moment and debated turning back. She wanted to believe that meant Enderton had killed whoever attacked him or Smith had showed up, but she knew that only a fool would think that. There was no way she could go back.
Shoving the pain of the probable lose of the one man in her life she loved, she fired a couple arrows at a few random vampires and made her way to the stairs. If she knew Danica Talos, and she did, the vampire wouldn’t settle for anything less than the top floor.
Approximately forty flights later, she paused for a minute to catch her breath. She would need it if she was going to do what Enderton asked of her. And there was no way she was going to let herself fail this last request of his.
There was a noise to her right, and she ducked down in the stairwell. Danica Talos’s voice echoed down the hall. “You stay put, pet. I don’t know what I would do if you ever wandered off. You’re all I have.” Her evil laugh followed her as she walked right past Abby, who was holding her breath as best she could, and entered the elevator next to the stairwell.
When she figured the coast was as clear as it would ever be, she stood up and began her way down the hallway. There were two vampires guarding the doorway Danica had exited from. “This must be important,” Abby whispered to herself. She strung a single arrow in her bow and stomped her foot loudly so the vampires looked over at her. Smiling, she let the arrow loose. It pierced one heart and then the next.
“Two in one. I’m getting good. I’ll have to tell--” Her voice dropped out as she realized she was going to say Enderton. Taking a moment, she internalized the pain, trying her best to use it as she tried to bring down whoever was inside that room. “If you’re Talos’s heart, it’s time for me to shove a stake through you,” she hissed pushing the door open.
Her heart stopped as her eyes came to rest on the naked man lying on the bed. This couldn’t be what Danica Talos was referring to. This was just a man. And not a very healthy looking one. There were scars and cuts all over his body, and he looked positively gaunt. If she couldn’t see his chest moving up and down, she would have thought he was dead.
He was just a man. Nothing special. Then she caught sight of his tattoo. Scratch that. A newly made Familiar. Pathetic.
She pulled a stake out of her belt and positioned it over the man’s heart. “You deserve to die, scum.”
The man surprised her by opening his eyes. “I knew you’d come for me, my little underage hottie,” he whispered with a smile of recognition. He figured the pain from being tattooed had both caused his head to clear and made him begin to hallucinate. There was no way the last human he had seen in five years was hovering above him with a weapon in hand.
It wasn’t the words that caused Abby to drop the stake. Truth be told, he wasn’t really making any sense. It was the smile on his face. She had seen that smile years before on the first man she ever failed to save in the field. It was something she would never forget.
“How the hell are you alive?” she asked, still regarding him warily.
“My grandma always said that I had a strong constitution. Never really understood that until now. Help me up please.”
“You’re a Familiar,” she said, picking up the stake and positioning it once more by his heart. “I have no idea what I’m doing talking with you when you should be dying.”
“I’m not a Familiar.”
“You’ve got the brand.”
“Look closer, my sassy savior. It’s newly acquired.”
Abby decided to take his word on it. She really didn’t want to be taking a closer look at that tattoo. That would just give him further ammunition to verbally sling her way. “So, explain to me how you’ve survived for five years without dying or being turned.”
His eyes flashed with something she could only guess was appreciation. “Be still my heart. I think she remembers me, too.”
She rolled her eyes. “I have a mission to fulfill. I don’t have time to be joking around with you. And I really don’t have time to be carting you all over this place.” Standing up off where she kneeled on the bed, she made her way to the door.
The sound of his weak voice made her stop in her tracks. “Wait.” She turned around to look at him. “If you take me with you, Danica will suffer more than she would if you killed her.”
“Then you’ve never seen me kill.”
King managed to turn his head to face where she stood. “No, I can’t say that I have.”
The underlying meaning in that statement hung between them. Abby swore as she realized that she couldn’t give up the chance to fix the first mistake she ever made as a Night Stalker. “You better not slow me down.”
King practically wept when she walked over to the bed and hoisted him up, sliding her arm underneath his shoulder. “You’re going to have to help me as much as you can on this one. You have at least twenty pounds and six inches on me.”
“I’ll do my best, but I haven’t moved this many muscles in five years.”
Grabbing the sheet off the bed, she draped it around his waist. “I still don’t trust you.”
“Smart girl,” he said. He really didn’t have the energy to crack any more jokes or even say one more word. All his concentration was going to have to be placed on putting one foot in front of another. And letting some of the control hang on this mysterious stranger who seemed to have a track record for trying to save his life. He didn’t like giving up control to anyone. But with her, it didn’t seem such a hard thing to do.
“We had better hurry. Something tells me that Talos is going to know immediately you’re gone. It seems like you‘re very important to her. I haven‘t quite figured that one out yet. You don‘t look like anything special.”
They hobbled down the hall and paused at the stairwell door. They both peered over the side and stared at the forty-two flights of stairs below them. “You’re never going to make it down there,” Abby said, stating what they were both thinking.
“No.” They shifted their focus from the stairs to the locked elevator and back to the stairs. “We are so screwed,” he said softly.
He was surprised to see a wicked smile tease her lips. “I don’t think so.” Reaching off, she pulled the sheet off his hips as she walked them over to the elevator.
“I understand the direness of the situation, but I don’t think it’s the right time for a quickie, my newly found love.”
She rolled her eyes for the fiftieth time and shoved him close to the wall. “That tattoo gives you certain privileges, Mr. Familiar.”
His tattoo was scanned by the panel on the wall, and the doors slid open. “Looks like Danica didn’t have time to red flag me. Thank god for small favors.”
Abby looked over at him. “You still believe in God?”
They hobbled into the car and watched the doors slide shut. “Modesty please,” King said as they started moving. When she gave him a weird look at his random comment, he motioned down with his eyes. “The sheet.”
“Oh god,” she muttered, realizing she had never put the sheet back in place. She hurried to secure it over his hips.
“Now you believe in God,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows at her uncomfortableness.
Abby decided she was too embarrassed to carry on the conversation and get more information on this man who could potentially be a trap the vampires left for her to find. Plus, every second more they spoke, she was afraid he was going to condemn her for the mistakes she made that had almost branded him a slave for life. It was fairly obvious that this man hadn’t had much left in him when she found him fifteen minutes ago. In the back of her mind, she couldn’t help but wonder if that was all her fault.
The doors slid open, and they stared out into the not-so empty lobby. “Well, I guess I could have hoped that no one would be down here a little harder,” King said.
Abby snuck him out of the elevator car and over to the side. “You stay right here. I’ll take care of them.” King just stared in awe as she clicked her shoes and two pointed stakes popped out. She winked at him before throwing herself headfirst into the fray.
For the first thirty seconds, the vampires really had no idea what was going on. Ten dustings without anyone having a clue why. Then, King winced as he saw the vampires recognize the threat and start to fight against it. Luckily, this girl seemed to have learned something over the five years since he first saw her. She could now take a punch and keep on fighting.
He watched her take out another dozen vampires with a dancer’s-like grace. It was so breathtaking he figured tickets could be sold just to watch her. However, he could tell she was getting tired as she fired some projectile out of the device on her wrist and a vampire turned to ash.
King watched from his position out of the line of fire as a vampire lifted her up four feet by her throat. He could see her legs flailing helplessly through the air as she gasped for breath, and he decided that it was time to come out of hiding. As good as she was turning out to be, it didn’t look like she could finish this on her own.
By the time he got to his feet, he realized his mistake. Her legs hadn’t been carelessly flailing around. She had been trying to stake the vampire with her boot. There were a lot of things she had obviously calculated, but it was clear the one thing she didn’t calculate was the fact that she was in close proximity to the vampire when he turned to ash. Her throat was immediately clogged, and her vision clouded and then turned black. The last vampire left standing chose that moment to go on the offensive.
King’s heart stopped as he realized there was no way for this amazing woman to realize she was about to be killed. Wincing, he pushed the pain out of his head for the hundredth time that day. The ash in the air clogged in his throat as he got closer to where the vampire was taunting Abby. He pushed onward.
“Little girl, what are you doing here?” the vampire chided.
Abby didn’t respond, trying to rely on her other senses to tell her where the voice was coming from. Her eyes were beginning to clear, and she could make out a vague blob to her left. Focusing on it, she ran her hand along the floor to find a weapon, anything, to throw at the sneering vampire. Her hand connected with something, and she lobbed it as far as she could. It hit its blurry target with a metallic clang. A statue.
“That wasn’t me,” said a harsh voice in her left ear. Blinking a few more times, her eyes cleared in time for her to see the fiendish grin of a vampire about to feast. She crawled away backwards from the vampire as quickly as she could, trying to put as much distance as possible between her and that pair of fangs. Within seconds, her back hit a wall.
She stared as the vampire stalked closer to her. This was it. This was how it was all going to end. In the back of her mind, she couldn’t help thinking if she hadn’t decided to help that stupid man, she would already be halfway back to base by now.
A blur flashed through her field of vision, and she was shocked to see the man she had just decided was going to be the death of her now saving her life. He straddled the vampire and started punching him in the face.
Abby quickly pulled her wits back together and took a stake out of her pocket. Pushing the still weak man off of his victim, she rammed the stake through his heart. Panting, she turned her attention away from the pile of dust below her to where her companion lay prostrate on the ground. “You seem to be regaining your strength.”
“I can’t feel my legs,” he mumbled as she picked her bow up from the ground where it had fallen. “I think I’m going into anaphylactic shock or some other kind of medical mumbo jumbo that means I need to get the hell out of here.”
Sighing, she walked over and pulled him up to his feet. “You just exhausted your last bit of strength. Here’s some happy news, though. Do you see that car?” She pointed to the truck still parked in front of the building. “We only have to get that far, and we’ll be home free.” She started to move but felt him hesitate. Or at least she thought it was hesitation. She couldn‘t really tell considering he really didn‘t have an energy to hesitate. “You suddenly don’t want to come with me?”
He looked down at her. “You still don‘t believe me, do you? In spite of everything I just did for you, you think this might be a trap.”
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “But I do know that if there’s a minimal chance that you’re telling the truth, I can’t leave you behind. And, as much as I hate to admit, you did save my ass back there. So, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt for now. Don’t screw me over.” She felt him give up his resistance, and they began walking through the front lobby again.
“I don’t even know your name,” he admitted.
Before Abby could answer, shots starting raining down on them from a balcony above. She shoved King hard to the side and reached behind her for her bow. Two arrows later, ash replaced the gunshots in raining down upon them. She smiled at him and leaned down, offering a hand to help him up. “Abigail Whistler.”
“Well, my little hellion, I do believe you are the most beautiful woman I have ever met.” Grasping her hand, he flashed her that smile that she remembered so well. “You can call me King.”
She laughed and yanked him to his feet. “No way am I calling you king. That’s ridiculous.”
He looked at her soberly. “Hannibal King. It’s my name. And there’s no need to joke about it. I’ve already gotten plenty of teasing in my life. I was emotionally scared as a child in elementary school. Damn Bobby Jenkins.”
“Sorry,” she said, trying not to laugh again.
The light mood was slightly thrown off by a horrendous scream through the building. They both turned to stare at what was going on behind them. There was more screaming and banging going on somewhere in the floors above them.
King turned back to Abby and gave her a wink, his face sliding back into a grin. “I remember that scream from five years ago. I hadn’t heard it since. You really pissed her off that night.”
“It wasn’t me. It was Enderton,” she said curtly. This was not a topic she wanted to be going over with him at this exact moment.
He really wanted to ask her who the hell this Enderton character was but figured that might be a story to tackle at another time. He shook his head as they began to hustle in the form of a really bad stagger towards the ever-closer exit. When had he started connecting the future with this woman? He had never thought of the future in his life, especially during the past five years of being stuck in vampire sucking limbo.
Now, all of the sudden, he was willing to put things off to a later time. He felt like he could afford to put things off. He didn’t know where that came from. Plus, to be honest, he didn’t even know if this girl wanted anything more to do with him once they were out of this horrendous building.
Pushing thoughts of a future with Ms. Abigail Whistler out of his head, he tried to focus on keeping his feet moving. That little hero move he pulled earlier had really taken it out of him. It had been one hundred percent worth it and he would do it again in a second, but still, his knees and back now hurt like a b****.
“Wow,” Abby heard King say all the sudden.
“What?”
He looked like he had just had an epiphany. “The pain. I thought I had gotten immune to it. It’s starting to come back now.” He cocked his head to the side. “Kinda tingly.”
“I think you’re delirious.”
“You might be right, little lady.” Something else suddenly occurred to King. “How old are you anyway, Abigail Whistler?”
She looked at him suspiciously. “I’m twenty. Why?”
“Just checking before I asked you out on a date.”
“You must be delirious,” she said as she pushed the glass door open. King gasped as he took his first breath of fresh air in five years.
“Is that a no? Because if it is, you might as well take me back in there. I won’t be able to live without you anymore, my dear Abigail.”
“Tell you what, King. I’ll go on a date with you.” She was happy to see him give her that smile again. As much as his cheery humor hid it, she wasn‘t sure he would make it for more than twenty-four hours once they got out of the building. Keeping him talking was the only way she could be sure he had a chance. “I’ll go on a date with you but only when all the vampires are gone.”
She expected that comment to sober him up completely. Instead the smile stayed put on his face. He leaned in and whispered, “Guess I better get to work then.”
At that moment, several things happened. Abigail pulled away to look up at him and all of a sudden remembered what it was about him that intrigued her five years earlier. Dex’s voice began screaming from somewhere down the street to her left that Smith had gone done and they needed to get out of there now. And Hannibal King gave her one last smile and a wink before passing out cold.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
