The Camarilla

Chapter 8

My apartment, midnight. I floated over Nat as he set up his equipment for the hunt. Rexy was fed and, in her cage, clawing to get out and see what the heck was going on. To be honest, I couldn't even tell you. From above, I could only see a bottle of water, some holy symbols from various religions, some garlic, some ribbon, and a gun. I was suddenly feeling very afraid of Nat and what he could do.

"Ok. I think I have everything I need for this. Just to be clear, he is weak to silver, right?"

I grab the file and flip through, "Yep, though I don't see any silver here other than that cross."

"Ah, see, that's what old-school vampire hunters used, however, this is 2019, so I have silver bullets and a gun!"

I chuckle a bit, "Yeah well, that may be his weakness, but this super healing could pose a problem. We don't know how powerful it is."

"No matter. Tomorrow, you should scout out the place after work, then once I'm done with my shift, we get in and off him." Nat makes a neck-slit gesture to emphasize his point.

"Sounds good." I stopped floating and bounced on the bed. "Oh Nat? Before you head out, can you grab a packet from the fridge for me real fast?"

"A packet of—Oh." Nat opened the fridge and could see the packets of blood. "Why am I not surprised?" He takes one and hands it to me. I give him my trademark toothy smile as he sighs.

"Hey, Harley? Can I ask you some things before I go?" Nat sits down on a beanbag.

I puncture the blood bag and start to sip on it. "Sure thing dude, as long as you don't use the information against me."

"Yeah, alright. So... It's about your strengths and weaknesses. I feel like we should know what you can bring to the table. You know, bring out the strengths and try and minimize the weaknesses. Better to be aware of ourselves so we don't need to fear the results."

I choke a bit on my drink and take a deep breath in. I know this question would come, but he had a point. I'm going to have to tell him. I drink about half of the packet before speaking, "Well... Alright. But if you use my weaknesses against me, I swear, I will turn you and then kill you." An empty threat, I knew, but Nat looked genuinely threatened. I smile sweetly, "Great! Now get comfy, this takes a bit to explain.

"First my strengths. I have your typical vampiric traits, with my unique power being able to sulk into the shadows and become one with them, as you saw during our fight. However, this power isn't without its trade-off, which I found to be the taste for human blood. A small price to pay but it doesn't hinder me too much."

"Ok then, we can use that," I interrupted.

"I'm not finished." I pause to stare him down. "You see, I have an uncommon trait among vampires: I have more than one unique power and weakness. That's right, my precious Nat boy, I can do something else.

"My second power is controlling minions. If I turn someone and force feed them some of my blood, they become my minion and have to obey all my commands. If I want them to do my chores, I can make them do that. If I want them to kill my opponent, they have to follow through. They can't deny any order and have to follow me as their master. At the end of it all, they belong to me."

"Wow... That's dark... How did you figure that out?"

I cringe for a second, "I had an... interesting relationship with one of your ancestors. She wanted to know what vampire blood tasted like and well... Things snowballed from there. I killed her after the fact but kept the knowledge, knowing it would be useful one day."

"God damn."

"I know."

"Well ok, uh... Weakness! What's the weakness?"

"Oooh, it's a romantic one, but impractical. If I'm in a coffin and a rose is placed on the lid, I can't get out."

There was a long pause before Nat asks, "That's it?"

"Yep."

"Seems pretty impractical."

"That's what I said but that's the weakness."

"Ok...?" Nat gets up, "Well, it seems you have mostly strengths and no weaknesses that would harm us in battle, so we should be good. We'll be in and out." Nat gathers up his things and puts them in a box Mattia gave us. "Oh, and if we're ever separated and reunite, we use the code word 'Silver Knight'."

"Ya know, I meant to ask you what that meant."

"It's a code word vamp hunters use, it helps identify us."

"So glad to know." I smile slyly.

Nat raised an eyebrow but shrugged, "Whatever. You know the address. See you tomorrow." He waves me goodbye and leaves.

I was left alone in my room, with Rexy having drifted to sleep after calming down. I only shrugged and finished my packet, before flopping into the bed, staring at the ceiling.

"A real hunt," I muttered, "Finally, something exciting for once." I soon drifted off to sleep, as the hours ticked away towards the big event.