Donnie’s Docks have a smell about them. It is not the smell that is coming from Val when he beamed the headlights all over the front walls of the institution that looks to be more deserted than the last time Val was here. Fred felt the heightened approach of keeping his head on a swivel, looking through the course with his red colored eyes peering through every course of sensibility that could mean out of the question for him.
“How many years have you been a hunter?” Val says. He steered the wheel of the car towards the destination where he parked the car and turned the car off.
“I was doing it for more than six years.”
“Did you have a tally how many you killed?” Val’s tone was even when he didn’t make eye contact with him, grabbing the sword on the floor behind Fred’s bucket seat. After he grabbed the sword he pulled the gun out of his holster and placed a sixth bullet into the safety chamber. He closed the port hinge on the gun and setting the hammer back down at the ready. He put the gun into the holster.
“One fifty six is how many I killed.”
Val raised a smile upon his face.
“I’m surprised no one killed you at the bar yet.” Val opened the car door and jumped out, clocking the heels of his boots on the tarmac. Val knows he is being watched. He can feel the optics of the stationed cameras that are pointing at him.
Fred opened the snub nosed .38 and saw that all the primers of the bullets are unbroken. He closed the gun and placed it into his jacket pocket, knowing that he might need something bigger soon. He kept on thinking about her and nothing else. Just her when he followed Val over the tarmac.
The tarmac area is filled with various forklifts that are sitting out in the elements with three of them pushed at the edge of the tarmac with their guts ripped out. They are probably partings for the other forklifts that are sitting here. The chains upon many bars are channeled through many wheels when Fred wondered what it is, keeping his attention on the deck of everything. He sees the post setting of basket stations that are sitting desolate with the thick tarps blowing in the wind. Fred measured that this is a fishing wharf where at this point right now they are probably fishing out tuna.
Fred remembered when he was a child hanging out at a dock where his mother would come and get her fisheries a little cheaper on wholesale rather than a store that costs a little more. There was to be a man there that always gave him a nibble of Big League chew from a pouch with a scruff hitter on the wrapping of it gave his scowl that could bite the head off of anyone looking at it long enough. Fred had nightmares about that hitter – that is before he witnessed his first vampire that was standing outside his bedroom window, not knowing enough about the bloodsuckers when he knew later that one of the residences that were living in the apartment complex was marked for the feeding of one of them.
Fred looked at the vampire that is below in the silhouette of darkness, standing from the window a little when all he can remember are the eyes of red glow pointing through the darkness like vestal swords that are going to slice him in two. He never forgot about that and either when he saw worse in the rest of his days leading up to this moment right now.
Val walked slowly in his steps when something yelled from one of the open windows from the dock.
“Val. Long time and no see at all.” A tall man prospected his gaze at the two people that are upon the tarmac below him. Val is faster than human when he raised his head up, sighting the tall one and giving him a cordial wave when Val smiled his fanged grin.
“You seem to be slowing down these days. How in the hell have you been?”
Donnie left the window, closing it behind him when Val gazed at Fred and then motioned his head towards the double doors that are close to where Val is standing. Fred followed after when they stood in front of the double doors with Val’s hand on the hilt of the blade.
“I can smell it.” Val cocked his head to the side, moving his hand over the door and turning the knob.
The door is locked on the other side.
“Damn. I knew it. I have to wait for Donny to come down and open it.” Val snuffed the smell into his lungs again.
“There is too much of it.” Val spoke to himself when Fred kept his hand on the gun that is inside his pocket. He wanted a quick draw on it.
Val turned his attention outwards, towards the fencing perimeter that held signs and rust. He scanned the fencing with slow speed, spotting a possum on the ground bumbling along in the brush that is too thick for him to see through it. The birds in the crotches of trees are nestled into their tight spaces with no sound but the quiet sleep that they admire. Val can see nothing out of the ordinary when a bolt rattled back behind the door with Donny opening it, poking his scarred face from around the thickness of the door when he walked out with some leather made apron tied around his neck. There is a leather band around his neck and leather sleeves down both of his arms.
“Come in.” He instructed Val and then looked at Fred.
“You too, come in.”
Val and Fred enter the masked front of Donnie’s Docks.
When they got inside, they see the many lockers that are in the foyer area. Val looked at Fred square in the eyes when the tall figure came into the light with the scar showing in blunt force upon his face.
“I have her in my office right now. I don’t know how much she has left. I believe it is already too late.” Donnie veered over Val’s shoulder when he narrowed his eyes a little.
“Who is this?” Donnie asked with a little resentment.
“This is Fred, our noble banner man of the Wild Clover. He is being protected by the nine as of now. That is all I have to say.” Val turned his head to Fred and then turned back.
“Fred, this is Donnie Bernstein. He has been working with us for quite some time.” Donnie didn’t move when Fred admired the tall stance of the man when Donnie stood straight. He stood under the light when Val started to walk from the door onward.
“Coming?” Val didn’t stop when Fred pondered on with Donnie in the rear.
“What do you think happen? Did you see anything?” Val asked.
“No. All I know is that I saw her on the ground just outside the fence. If I left her there then the cops will ask questions.”
“Did you see any tire tracks leaving the place?”
“No. Not even the sound of an engine.” Donnie shook his head. They walked through the confines of the Docks with the many hooks over the slabs and the sound of something banging in the distance. It is the sound of something on the water that is banging up against a dock somewhere when over the course is the sound of footsteps.
“Did anyone call you after you got off the phone with The Accountant?”
“No and if I did wound it matter to what will happen next?” Donnie stopped in his tracks when Val stopped as well. Fred stopped last when he thought more of having better than the .38 that is in his pocket.
“I just want to know that this won’t lead into a trap is what I know.” Val lolled his head down when he stared at the deck.
“If she was bitten by a pure blood then this will get simple. Meaning we will have to kill her.” Val eyed Fred before walking again. A chain link banged against each other when they met the end of the dock and opened the door to Donnie’s office. The only light that is on in the room is the lamp light that is upon the desk. The glass portraits hung on the wall, identifying that Donnie Bernstein got his official certification license to run this entire operation many years back. The glass cabinet held artifacts that he bought on the internet when he was too bored at home to do anything else that is sitting at the corner of the room with the light from the desk glaring the sexton that is on the top shelf behind the glass. The books of Maritime Laws are on the bottom shelf of the desk when they clocked the linoleum that is beneath their feet when across from them on the couch lay a beauty with blood all over the front of her dark colored shirt.
Her eyes are closed and she is breathing heavily, sleuthing the notion that the infection is already starting to set in.
“Jesus Christ. Someone went to town on her.” Val’s jaw became unhinged.
“We might still be able to use that local on her but I’m afraid it will kill her.” Val clocked his boot towards the edge of the couch when outside droplets of rain started pelting the windows. One of the windows in Donnie’s office is cracked on the corner when someone had the use of duct taping that as well.
“There is a lot of moisture in this room which is unfavorable for her. It could lead to an infection on her neck more easily.” Val knelt down and rolled her head over to the side with his long fingers doing the job. He sees the punctures when he closed his eyes, already knowing the mark when he got up on his feet again.
“She was bitten by a pure blood. It is probably listening to us right now.” Val raised his one arm in swift stride and flashed a knife from the hidden throws inside of his duster sleeve, glinting the knife off from the lamplight that is behind him.
“Wait, what is it you are doing?” Fred came over him like an eagle, wanting to grab the knife out of his hand.
“We have to do it for her sake and for ours. If we keep her alive then it would be a danger to us all.” Val clenched his teeth together. The light casts an eerie shadow upon the wall when Val raised the knife over the body of the woman on the cold couch. Donnie stood behind all of this with his hands crossed and his mind at the point of getting this over with before the morning comes. He had to clean up this mess after it is all over.
“How do you know that it was a pure blood?” Fred looked at the marks upon her neck. They are very deep indeed.
“I know for a fact is because they are only known to mark their victims on the back of their necks.” Val paid attention to him before rolling her head over and casting a glance to the back of her neck. The neck is clotted but there is a mark there. Upon thickness of skin over her brain stem is the sigil of two cross that is bound together on the cross-points that make an image of two “T’s”. They are joined together. The sigil is a bloody mess on delicate skin. Fred could imagine that there is so much blood.
“I know the sigil.” Val nodded his head.
“It is Luka: The Child Princess.” Val licked his fangs.
“Luka: The Child Princess. Who is that?” Fred glanced at Val. Val didn’t make any eye contact. Val only looked down with his dark nostalgia running through him.
“Luka is a girl who was raped then killed by a sick vampire. The suspect was found upon persecution and quartered. His head went to Lithuania and the rest of him went to the four corners of Greenland. He was a nasty sort in Greenland. Other vampires were glad that he is dead.” Val smiled at this, brushing his hand upon his chin. He felt the oil of the gun through the holster, thinking more with his mind rushing this thought in with what he knows.
“Luka never sought the justice that was served though for his other crimes. She was not the center of what was done to her. She was killed and reborn a sicken disease in her mind. She doesn’t believe in her being what she is. She does have a power of talking people in submission though the cause of whittling down the mind. She loves doing that but she truly is an evil soul if that.” Val shook his head, moving her back upon the couch with her beautiful face gleaming towards the ceiling.
“I remember hearing about her at another bar. It’s not the bar that you work at but another bar that is long from here. I was sitting at the farthest table when a man came in. There was a scar upon his cheek when I can smell the dead upon him, being a vampire who had a satchel wrapped upon his shoulder. He had long white hair with a scar down his cheek when he sauntered to the bar and ordered a drink. He waited when a drink came to him before talking to the rest at the bar. He went about sailing five of the seven seas with this satchel upon his shoulder when another man asked him about the countryside in a place named, ‘Nostadum’. The man didn’t know where this ‘Nostadum’ is when he drunk in silence for a brief spell.”
Val stopped when he pointed at Fred.
“Do you still have that bag in your pocket?”
Fred unwrapped it from the depth of it and showed it in the dim light.
“Good. Give it to me. This might help her but I’m afraid it will be too late.” Val clutched the bag in his hand. He grabbed the syringe that is capped and the curative bottle from the bag and uncapped the syringe. He poked the syringe in the curative bottle and pulled the plunger back, filling the syringe with three milliliters of white foamy substance that is in the glass. He pulled the needle out of the curative bottle.
“Hold her. She is going to thrash.” Val instructed when Fred did so, leaning down with his back popping.
Val thrapped her forearm to reveal the vein that is there. He plugged the syringe in the vein when the woman opened her eyes and sighed a great hurt of breath. Her movements started to become convulsed when Val kept his own weight upon her.
“If she has the strength then I want you to get out of here.” Val didn’t make eye contact when the expression upon his face is a blank slate.
Fred did what he is told, waiting for something beyond his control when her thrashing wilted down towards a mild bobbing to the head, to a gentle sigh before she started to breath like she was asleep.
“Okay. She is marked but I think it is too late for her. I’ll give her the course but it is her consideration if she wants to be a murderer or not.” Val brought up his hand from her shoulder when he sighed.
“What is in that bottle?” Fred asked him.
“It’s a compound of garlic and vinegar. The effect of vinegar is supposed to heighten the garlic when infused.” Val turned his head, seeing Donnie standing in the threshold of the door.
“Do you have a nip of Bourbon somewhere? Probably in that fridge you have next to the office?”
“Yeah,”
“Good, can you give me some? I need a drink.” Val moved his thoughts back to the woman that is breathing regularly on the couch that is blood soaked.
“Let me continue that story.” Val started in here he left off. He looked like a man that is turning on the light in the room of his thoughts again.
“The man at the bar though continued to look around like being there, waiting for someone. The talks went on while I sat in the front of the bar, nourishing myself in secret. The guy answered with some hesitation on questions and some with not as he kept that satchel close by. What was in that satchel? I thought when a person I know came through the door with some jitters about him. He leaned down and told me that there is a fire at one of our houses that was two miles away from the bar. I got up with haste and left the bar as I got on my horse and rode on Gossamer’s Wings.”
“Wait a minute?” Fred raised his hand over the woman that is upon the couch.
“Your horse?”
“This was a very long time ago. It was a time before the invention of the combustible engine, mind you. I rode through the lamp light of town before meeting darkness with the moonlight upon me and my friend’s back. By the time I climbed through the ruts and the wagon busts of the road and saw the plantation that is housed by our kind. The place was engulfed in flames as I brought my pistol from its holster. The friend that was with me followed along with his own gun at the ready.”
“Off the letter, what happened to your friend?”
Val sucked in his lower lip, not thinking about his friend when he knew about him, about his betrayal in a short time later. His friend is named Larry Sordum, who will later take a gamble and later find out it is a wrong cause for Val’s blade to pierce through his torso. He will die talking about a game of Liar’s Dice when he drifted off into nothingness. Val will witness this. Val will see the end of him with the blade pierced through his heart.
“He is not around anymore. The place is on fire when we went up the gorge to investigate. By the time we got up to the front of the door we saw that the roof is about to collapse on the house. I sat there on the saddle with my run raised, hearing the sound of the door fly open when I turned towards that direction. What came out of there are vampires by the dozen. Some of them were completely on fire, trying to find solace in dropping into a lake of water somewhere. The others were scathed though, patting the fire off from their cuffs when I asked one of them on who did it.
“The one that I asked to was Baker Wallace when He told me that a human did it for some money. The human I found later was being paid off by one of the other nearest houses that didn’t like the others in their territory. The human did the job without poise and went along the way. I found fortune of tracking down this human when I came across a place that is a run-down shack in a marsh. My eyes were clear at those times when I found nothing there but a lot of artifacts that no American could manufacture in their western tastes. I knew by the smell that I would find who lived there, probably being the man who torched the place, probably not.
“I didn’t meet the guy three years later when I came back to the bar. The guy was still sitting at the same stool when I got back. My friend was with me when he asked why I was looking at the guy at the bar and I told him about something about the guy’s hair that struck with me. I got up and walked to the bar, sitting next to the guy when the guy looked at me out of the corner of his eyes before drinking his drink in silence. He is the one that spoke first.”
“What did he say?” Fred asked him when the woman’s breathing became more and more shallow.
“He told me that it is the best whiskey that he has ever tasted. The last time he had some whiskey is when he was in Ireland with five other Scots, pitching some darts upon the wall. They were talking about some tales of long since past when I accosted one of them about finding a woman on his list. I notion to ask how was the weather up in Scotland when the man started to snicker, shaking his head from side to side. ‘It’s always dark up here.’ The man added in when he eyed at the glasses behind the bar. We talk for a while when I got a stench that was in his satchel, noticing that there is some blood dripping upon the floor from the bag. I continued to look at the man when I asked him.
“’Are those heads in that bag?’ He replied, ‘Yup’ and he asked for another pint of whiskey. ‘I know what you are but you better watch out for Luka. She has the form of a child but she is wiser than what you know.’ I asked him and he gave me the information before he shoved off. That was the last time I ever saw of that man. This is the first time I see her mark upon sight.”
Fred glanced at Val some more when Donnie left the scene halfway in the little story that Val was pitching. He shook his head while he continued to ponder at the device that is in his pocket when he waited just enough to get out of earshot with them both. By the time he rounded the corner he took the phone out of his pocket and speed dialed the number.
Fantasy
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