Fallen
Part 5
He unlocks a door that was previously in shadow at the far end of the vault, and pushes it open. As I walk into the room, I can’t help but gasp. The room is exquisite, simply furnished but dripping with class. A portrait on the wall is probably worth more than I’ll earn in a lifetime, and the furniture looks like he bought it yesterday, yet it must be original seventeenth century.
“Sit down, Toby, what’s your poison?” he asks, opening up a cabinet stocked with everything I’ve ever heard of, and trust me, I’m a connoisseur.
“I’m on duty,” I try feebly.
“I won’t tell if you don’t?” he replies.
“I’ll have bourbon, thanks.”
He hands me a drink and gestures for me to sit down on the sofa. He sits beside me, at the other end, and turns to look at me.
“The library of Gil’Hamnan is the biggest occult library in the world. It contains many volumes of forbidden text, covering all manner of demon realms, and creatures that humans have chosen not to believe in for centuries. The Vatican have been searching for some of these books for hundreds of years, they figure that if they can find the books, they can learn how to destroy us all,” he smiles and sips his drink.
“And how can it help this investigation?” I ask, suddenly feeling like a real hick.
“Oh, there are books of counter-spells to break most magic, such as that used by a Vodun priest, but it would require someone who really understands it to perform the rituals.”
“What aren’t you telling me?” I ask.
He moves a little closer, “What aren’t you asking me, Toby?” he croons softly, “I’m answering all of your questions!”
“I just get the feeling that you’re taking me for a ride here, playing me for a fool?”
His hand, which is now stretched out along the back of the sofa, strokes very softly across my shoulder, and down my arm.
“I’d never insult you by taking you for a fool, Toby, I know you too well for that.”
“Oh yeah,” I decide to throw caution to the wind and ask, “How do you know me and my work so well?”
“I’ve followed your career since you left prison, and became a mercenary. When you’re Master of the city, it pays to know what you’re up against.”
I almost feel irritated, but then I get a little jolt of flattery to go with it. I’m also surprised to hear him admit that he’s not just a Master vampire, but Master of the city, which makes him very powerful indeed.
“I also know that you gave up killing vampires for money after you found a family in a basement in Queens. What happened, Toby? Did you finally see them as people not monsters?”
“No, but I did recognize that even monsters were once victims.”
“Hmm, how’d you feel about that; about the fact that one of my kind turned children into vampires?”
I grit my teeth, and he knows that he’s pushing my buttons. “I’d like to find the vampire who did it.”
“What would you do if you ever found him, Toby?”
“Cut his fucking head off.”
Keller throws back his head and laughs. “You see, *that* is why I trust you. A lesser man would have lied, being here in this place, with me, but not you?”
“You’d have known if I lied, please don’t bullshit me!” I’m feeling angry, “You already know everything about me, and you know my feelings about the kind of creature who turns babies into monsters.”
“Is that what you think I am, Toby,” he asks softly, “A monster?”
My idiot gene kicks in and I turn to look at him, “Yes.”
Right now he can tear out my throat, kick me out, or spellbind me, but I’m so pissed at him, that I just don’t care. I won’t lie and tell him that just because the government made vampires legal in some states I think they’ve gone cuddly.
He reaches up and touches my face, I try not to back away and show any fear.
“I’m sorry you have such a poor opinion of me, Toby. I hope that we can begin to see each other in a better light by working together on this problem.” He gives me that streetwise, cocksure grin, “We all got our demons; some of us were born with them, some of us had them thrust upon us, and some of us just embrace them when we find them.”
I suddenly feel almost guilty for being so fucking rude. After all, it’s not his fault I’m feeling like an ineffectual idiot over this, and he seems to be being so damned up front when I ask him the right questions?
“Do you know where this library is?” I ask at last.
“Yes.”
“Can you take me there?”
He thinks for a moment. “Are you sure you’re prepared for what you find there?” he replies with an enigmatic smile.
“What, you mean books? Sure, I learned to read in first grade.”
He laughs and lets his hand linger on my arm, fingers softly stroking circles on my skin.
“You’d need to trust me,” he says, “You’d have to be blindfolded on the journey. The fewer people who know where the library is, the safer the information inside it remains.”
I really don’t like the sound of this.
“I’m a cop, you saying I’m not trustworthy?”
He leans in close, until he’s inches from my face, “Toby, the Pope doesn’t know the location of the library of Gil’Hamnan. So you see, not telling you isn’t a slur on your spotless character, it’s just a safeguard for you as much as us.”
How can you argue with that?
“Okay, whatever it takes,” I say draining my glass. He shoots me a mischievous grin, and I find myself grinning back. “You know what the fuck I mean!” I insist.
“Hey, there’s no law against a vampire using his imagination, now is there?” he leans back on the sofa and spreads his arms across the back. “Don’t suppose you’d be interested in handcuffs too?”
Now I laugh out loud. “No I fucking wouldn’t! If I find myself at the Central library after all of this, and this is one of your twisted little bondage fetishes, I’m going to kick your ass!”
He pretends to shiver at the thought, and then laughs until he hurts himself.
I suddenly realize that in these few minutes, I’ve gone from fearing and loathing this creature, to finding this man funny, and yeah, I admit it, sexy. Maybe it’s vampire magic, or maybe, just maybe, I’m finally breaking through my prejudice, just a little?
I look at him, and he’s closed his eyes, as though he’s deep in thought. When he opens them again, his eyes are the brightest blue I’ve ever seen. Slowly, they fade to normal.
“Bonnie’s having my car brought around. Finish your drink, and we’ll get moving.”
“Now?” I say surprised. I guess I’m way too used to city bureaucrats who take six weeks to order paperclips.
“Sure. Why, Toby, were you thinking of spending our time together in some other way tonight?” he leers slightly.
“No!” I know my cheeks flush, “How did you…you know, how do you know Bonnie’s getting the car?”
“We have a telepathic link. She carries my marks, so I can place thoughts in her mind.”
I know I wrinkle my nose at that idea, and he just smiles.
“I can only do it if she wants me to, she can block me out. I have no ‘power’ over her; it’s a symbiotic relationship.” He can see that I’m not convinced. “It’s a closer bond than sex or marriage. Having Bonnie there is like having a permanent link to my humanity. A good human servant can stop you falling away into the abyss, Toby,” he’s suddenly serious. “She prevents me from giving in to the monster in here.”
“How long has she been with you?” I ask.
He sighs, “Oh, a long time.”
“Can’t be that long in vampire terms, she’s what, thirty five?”
A smile spreads across his face, “You have to stop taking things at face value in my world,” he takes my empty glass from my hand, and places it down on an exquisite mahogany table. “Come on, it’s time.”
He stands and moves effortlessly across the room to a drawer, from which he pulls a black silk scarf. He runs it through his fingers, as though he’s remembering something about its past use. He turns to me and dangles it from his fingers.
“May I?”
I have to admit, I’m still a little unsure about all of this, but I’m getting nowhere without his help. Since this could be the last thing I ever do, I find myself cursing the fact that I didn’t call my mom and my kids this morning, just to say ‘Hi’ and ‘I love you’.
“You have to learn to trust me, Toby, it’s the only way we’ll get through this,” he remarks.
“Yeah, well, I’m not big on the whole trust thing,” I reply but fail to add aloud the words ‘especially when it comes to vampires’.
“Hey,” he’s flashing one of those smiles again, “Look at it from my point of view, you’re the one they call ‘The Executioner’.”
“I’m flattered that you should find me so scary,” I smile, “But I’m also the one who’ll be wearing the blindfold.”
He moves silently behind me, and drapes the silk scarf over my shoulder, before running his hand down my chest to retrieve it. My breath catches in my throat, and I try not to shiver as he slips the blindfold around my eyes.
“You gotta trust me here, Toby. It’s just you and me. If we fuck up, it’s going to be our dicks swinging in the wind together, so we gotta learn to rely on each other,” he whispers in my ear.
Dicks.
Wind.
Right.