Pyractomena Borealis Part V

"Mr. Maxwell, how kind of you to accept our invitation." the vampire said, 
smiling pleasantly. 

Tony let go of me like I was suddenly red-hot. I wasn't expecting it and 
barely managed to save myself from falling over with an undignified little 
stumble that turned into an even bigger undignified stumble because the 
room must have drunk too much beer since it was tilted at a pretty strange 
angle. The only thing that saved me from even more embarrassment was 
Wufei catching me and holding me up like good ol' Tony had been doing. I 
gave myself a minute until my head quit trying to come apart at the seams 
before I finally looked up to take another good look at the situation. The 
vampire was still smiling politely at me, his expression betraying absolutely 
nothing. Tony and Angelo were now standing on either side of him in 
classic bodyguard poses. They were both trying to cross their arms, but their 
own muscles were getting in the way. Kind of sad. Angelo was openly 
smirking at me, his little pointy teeth hanging half out of his mouth. Well 
gee, it was nice to know that someone was having a good time. I glared at 
him and refused to be embarrassed; it's a fact of life that the only way 
someone can embarrass you is if you feel ashamed, and as Heero is fond of 
telling everyone, I have no shame.

"Nice invitation." I muttered at the vampire, now that I was composed 
enough to actually talk. He raised one of his bright yellow eyebrows at me. 
He wasn't used to sarcasm, I guess. I pointedly, if gently, ran my hand 
through my bangs, which were stiff with dried blood that flaked off onto my 
fingers, then raised my eyebrow right back at him just in case he hadn't 
gotten the hint. "Normally, people call or send a card."

The vampire twitched, or at least I think he did. The change in expression 
happened so quickly that I could have been imagining it. "I must apologize 
for that." he said. "I gave strict orders that you were not to be harmed, but it 
seems that my servant became a little over zealous."

"Just a little." I heard Wufei mutter.

The vampire continued on smoothly like he hadn't even heard Wu. "His 
insubordination will be dealt with, have no doubt on that. He is already 
most apologetic for his mistake. If you like, you may ask him yourself."

It seemed he was expecting an answer, so I gave him what he wanted. There 
didn't seem to be a need to piss him off. Playing along sounded like a good 
idea until I could figure out what the hell was going on. "Where is he?"

"Right behind you."

I automatically looked back, my free hand (the one that wasn't hanging onto 
Wufei's shoulders for dear life) reaching for the gun that I didn't have any 
more. There wasn't anything behind us, though, just the big chest. I glanced 
quickly back at the vampire. He hadn't moved at all, and he just kept 
smiling that same smile, which brought me back to the chest. The big, huge 
almost, wooden chest that had iron strapping on it and looked like it could 
withstand a fall off of the top of the Eiffel Tower. The chest that was 
definitely big enough to put a person in, if you broke some bones so they 
could bend appropriately to fit into it. It seemed really familiar.

I turned back to the vampire again. He was smiling more now, so that the 
tips of his fangs were peeping out, looking kind of like a little kid that was 
showing off his favorite toy. But what kind of toys would vampires have? I 
suddenly realized where I'd seen something like that chest before. 

A while back, Heero and I had spent a couple weeks at a boarding school in 
England. The history class I was in had gone on a museum trip, and I'd 
gotten bored with what we were looking with and wandered off to check out 
some of the other parts of the museum. I'd ended up in the medieval section, 
right in the middle of a room full of torture devices. There'd been one, a big 
chest with iron strapping on it, that had spikes all on the inside of it, like it 
was a miniature, portable iron maiden. Oh shit.

The vampire must have seen my eyes get a little wider, because his smile 
broadened. "If you like," he said, "I can release my hold on him and allow 
him to scream. Or if you don't believe me, you may open the chest and look 
for yourself."

"Thank you for the offer," I said quickly, "but I'm ok. I believe you." I was 
pissed with the vampire that threw me against the wall, by grace of the fact 
that I'm not terribly fond of people that make me bleed, but I wasn't that 
pissed. I would never be that pissed. Yeah, if I had the chance, I'd shoot the 
vampire on the principle of the thing, but that was different. Dead was dead. 
It was clean. Not torture.

And suddenly, I was very impressed. All it took was a threatening piece of 
furniture and a relatively friendly question, and I was mentally chasing my 
own tail. Why bother with blood and ungraceful nastiness when you had 
your audience's imagination working for you? This new vampire was good. 
Very good. I'd thought that I'd had the score after I'd tangled with Kalin, but 
it was very obvious that he'd been small fry--very stupid, unsubtle small fry. 
I was playing with the big boys now.

"Alright." I said. "I give. I'm impressed. Now, who are you and what the 
hell do you want?"

Angelo started turning a nice shade of boiled lobster red and took a step 
forward, but he stopped the instant the vampire raised his hand. The 
vampire suddenly lost all expression like someone had just flipped the smile 
switch off. "Mr. Maxwell, I have been very, almost overly polite up until 
this point because I am interested in keeping relations open and friendly at 
this time. Do not expect my courtesy to extend into the future if you are 
rude to me. That would be a mistake on your part, and probably your last."

I shrugged non-commitally. Pissing the vampire off more didn't seem like a 
good idea, but at the same time, apologizing didn't seem too smart either. 
Something that I didn't quite understand was happening. The vampire was 
annoyed at me, yeah, but he and Angelo and Tony were watching me with 
an intensity that had nothing to do with anger. I had a funny feeling that I 
was in some kind of dominance contest and I was being tested. Failure 
didn't sound like a good option. I'd been avoiding looking the vampire in the 
eye up until now, mostly because I still wasn't totally sure about the 
immunity thing...looking the guy in the eye would probably at least put me 
on something close to equal footing. So I took a deep breath, braced myself, 
and looked him right in the eye. 

They were just eyes. Thank you God. Nice eyes, yeah, a real sharp, bright 
blue, but there was no power in them that I could feel. It was all good.

If the vampire was surprised, he didn't show it. Instead, he just sat back after 
a moment, and looked away. I knew that he was trying to stare down Wufei 
now. Good luck to him. "My name," he said after another pause, "is 
Johannes. I was the Master of Berlin, but I have left my home city on the 
behest of those higher than me, to come here."

"That's nice." I said.

Johannes raised his eyebrows, but didn't comment. I decided not to push 
him too much further unless he gave me a good reason to. "Six months ago, 
a Master named Kalin was sent here." he said.

When he didn't continue, I nodded. It was obviously audience participation 
time.

"You killed him." Johannes said. It was a statement, not a question.

I didn't see any reason to deny it. "Yeah."

Johannes folded his hands neatly in front of him on the desk. His fingers 
were very slender and white, the skin perfect. "Kalin was a weak fool." he 
said. "No one cares that you killed him. I certainly don't. However, I have 
been sent here to complete the job that he so thoroughly botched."

I shrugged.

"Let's not beat around the bush, Mr. Maxwell. I want the Master of Tokyo."

I shrugged again. "That's nice." I said.

Johannes looked annoyed. "Don't be coy, Mr. Maxwell."

"You want to kill the Master of Tokyo. That's fine. That's great." I said, 
spreading my hands and letting a bit of my bewilderment show for effect. 
"What do you want me to do about it?"

Johannes leaned forward. "I want to know where he is."

I opened my mouth to say something, but Wufei beat me to the punch. 
"What makes you think that we know?" he said.

"It is well known that Kalin was sent here for. You killed him. It is a logical 
conclusion that you must be working for the Master of Tokyo."

"Woah, there, big guy." I said quickly, grabbing the conversation right back 
from Wufei. "I think your logic needs a little work."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. The thing is, I don't work for vampires." I smiled. "I kill them. So 
there's no way I could be associating with this Master of Tokyo guy, 
because if he's a vampire, it would be my obligation to..." I let my smile get 
bigger, "...cap his ass."

Johannes smiled politely. "You have a way with words, Mr. Maxwell."

I grinned at him. "Thanks, I try."

"It's a pity that I don't believe you."

"Yeah it is." I shrugged, "Because what I'm saying is true. I don't work for 
vampires."

Johannes stood--wait, stood wasn't the word for it--seemed to just flow out 
of his chair. It was too graceful to describe it any other way. "That is a pity 
as well then, Mr. Maxwell." He walked slowly toward Wufei and I. We 
stood our ground. Barely. I could feel tension singing through Wufei's 
muscles; he really wanted to get the hell out of there, but then again, so did 
I. There was no way for us to escape, though. He stopped in front of us, 
leaning in so close that his nose was almost touching mine, and his eyes 
were boring into me. I might be immune to their power, but the sheer force 
of personality behind them was pretty damn intimidating. "It would be a 
mistake not to work together on this, you see." he said very quietly. His 
breath smelled like peppermint, but there was the dull, earthy undertone of 
old blood lurking underneath the sweetness. 

"Really." I said, as nonchalantly as possible considering the fact that there 
was a vampire literally in my face.

"The fact that the Master of Tokyo is a threat to both humans and vampires 
is immaterial at this time, Mr. Maxwell, though it is something that you 
should keep in mind. You have a larger threat facing you instead."

"Which is...?" I asked.

"Me." Johannes said, very pleasantly. "And you'll notice that while I am not 
as large of a threat as the Master of Tokyo, he is not here. I am."

Before I had a chance to say anything else, all the hair on my arms suddenly 
stood on end as a wave of cool, electric energy rushed over me. My eyes 
widened. My initial impression had told me that Johannes shouldn't have 
this much power. I had a sinking suspicion that I was wrong.

"How old am I, Mr. Maxwell?"

More energy crashed into me. I was surprised that my braid wasn't standing 
straight out from my body. "Shit..." I whispered. 

"How old am I?" he asked again.

"You're eight hundred years old." I said, "Maybe older."

Johannes smiled; I could feel it. "When the printing press made its first 
bible[1], I was there, Mr. Maxwell. I was the first to touch the pages."

"You must not have been a vampire, then." I said.

"In that, you are correct," he said, "I was still a good Christian man. I am no 
longer bound by that, however."

For just a moment, I thought that there was a flicker of sadness in Johannes' 
eyes before I managed to regain my mental feet. "What do you want?" I 
asked quietly.

"I already told you, Mr. Maxwell. I want the Master of Tokyo."

"I'd give him to you if I could, but I've never even met the guy. You should 
believe me." I said. 

Johannes stepped back, and I could suddenly breathe a lot more easily. "If 
you do not know where he is now, you will, very soon." The vampire turned 
and walked back to his desk, where he sat down between Tony and Angelo 
again. "You have one week."

"What?" Wufei asked, very sharply. I was busy fighting off an attack of the 
heebie-jeebies, which was why he beat me to the punch.

"You have one week to provide me with the location of the Master of 
Tokyo, or I will kill you and you friends, as well as level the school that you 
are currently attending." Johannes smiled pleasantly, as if he were inviting 
me out for a game of bingo instead of threatening to kill me and a lot of 
other people.

I tried to play it cool, even though I was on the verge of a panic attack. This 
guy wasn't Kalin; I could tell that he wasn't stupid. I could also tell that he 
didn't believe in making idle threats. The enemy was back, and he was at 
least as smart as me and a hell of a lot older. We were screwed. "Don't you 
think that's kind of...overkill? I mean, threatening to kill off me and the guys 
is one thing, but going after civilians is considered to be very uncool these 
days."

"I think, Mr. Maxwell, that you are hardly one to preach about overkill."

Ouch. He had me there.

Johannes continued, "All in all, I prefer to think of it as ample motivation. I 
will complete the mission that I have been set here for. Failure is not an 
option for me in this matter, and thus, failure will not be an option for you."

Great. And now he was beginning to sound like Heero. I was starting to feel 
very worried. "Can we go now?" I asked. The street doesn't raise morons; I 
knew that I was outclassed and I needed to beat a strategic retreat until I had 
a chance to regroup.

"Yes, you may leave." Johannes said, leaning back in his chair. Wufei 
started backing us up toward the door; neither of us wanted to leave our 
backs vulnerable to the ghoul squad. "Oh, and Mr. Maxwell?"

We kept backing away as nonchalantly as possible. "Yeah?" I said. 

"If you attempt to harm or destroy me, I will kill you and your friends, and I 
will level your school."

"That's nice." The walls suddenly felt like they were getting very close. 
Damnit, now was not the time for an attack of claustrophobia.

"Just so that we know where we stand." Wufei stopped; we'd reached the 
door. Johannes just continued to smile at us. "Angelo, please, show them 
the door."

Wufei was still attempting to open the door. For some weird reason, he 
seemed to be having a problem with it. Angelo started walking toward us, 
and I decided that I'd had enough intimidation for one day. "Did it ever 
occur to you, Johannes, that even though it's a bad idea for me to piss you 
off, it wouldn't be smart of you to piss me off? People that get on my case 
don't have a good survival record."

Johannes leaned forward. "Really. That's nice to know."

The coppery scent of fresh blood wafted by me. I knew where it was 
coming from...I knew it, but I didn't want to look. God, I didn't want to 
look.

I looked anyway.

There was blood seeping out of the bottom of the chest, creeping slowly 
across the floor and soaking into the carpet like some kind of blob monster 
from an old B horror movie. There was a soft sound, just at the edge of my 
hearing...oh god, it was a sound of pain, someone whimpering because they 
didn't have a voice left to scream with. There was a loud thump, and I 
jerked and almost lost my grip on Wufei's shoulders. I jerked my gaze 
toward the source of the sound--Johannes' desk. The vampire hadn't moved 
at all--he might as well have been a statue--but Tony was on his knees, his 
hands clenched into fists, a look of need so intense that is was almost pain 
on his face. Slowly, he began to crawl toward the spreading puddle of blood 
on his hands and knees, like he was some kind of animal. Johannes and 
Angelo didn't make any move to stop him; hell, Angelo looked like he was 
about ready to follow suit. I couldn't look away, no matter how much I 
wanted to, as Tony crawled closer and closer to the blood, and the 
whimpering sounded more loudly in my ears with each passing moment. 

Tony reached out on huge, shaking hand, and dipped his fingers in the 
blood, bringing them toward his mouth like he was going to suck them off...

There was a loud crash as Wufei yanked the door open, and he jerked me 
through. The whimpering turned into screaming as soon as we crossed the 
threshold out into the hall, and there was more screaming, except it was a 
sound that no human throat could hope to produce, and laughter.

Wufei and I booked it for the door at the opposite end of the basement as 
fast as we could. We didn't stop running until we were back at the school.




[1]The Gutenberg Bible, which was the first bible to be made using the first 
printing press. It was completed on or around August 15, 1456 in the town 
of Mainz, Germany.