Vampire Agent (English Version)

Chapter 3

Widow

I turned into the underground parking garage of a high-rise building and we got out. I sighed and squared my shoulders. We had had to drive for three and a half hours to get from my apartment, on the other side of New York, to the headquarters of these weirdos. Without a single break and with one or the other traffic jam - they didn't take off in New York, even at night.
Now we had to walk another five minutes to get to the entrance. Max showed us the way. I knew where to enter this building, but followed it anyway. If it made him feel a little manly again, then please do.
"So we go in there now, talk to your boss, get it explained to us that it was a stupid and risky idea to promote me here and with any luck we can convince him that I'm super useful and my death would be a total waste of skill, good looks and intelligence, and that I can be a huge help if I want to?", I inquired. A certain amount of self-belief is very healthy. I possessed perhaps a bit too much of it.
"Not quite, but sort of," Jenny confirmed.
"That the idea of bringing you here was stupid and risky is something no one needs to tell us anymore," Max held a door open for us to enter.
"Come on in. The best thing you can do is just walk through, take the stairs, and break your neck on the way. At least then you'll keep your mouth shut, because I'm afraid that's going to be the biggest problem. If you do decide to take the elevator, which I'm afraid you will, you'd better not do anything you'll regret later."
"I came with you, I guess that's all there is to regret," I muttered, going inside and locating the elevator, which I then headed for. Jenny and Max followed. We got in and went down.
When we stopped, Jenny again admonished me to do only what she would tell me to do.
With a snort I gave a sarcastic "Sure." whereupon she looked at me admonishingly again. We left the elevator and a huge hall opened up in front of us with desks and PCs. At almost every computer sat an agent in a suit.
Some looked up as I walked by.
One muttered, "Have we sunk so low now that we're hiring mass murderers?"
I guess my reputation preceded me. Funny that I hadn't had a confrontation with them yet, as well known as I seemed to be here. A few of the agents made themselves small, others gave me angry, hateful, or disgusted looks, nothing new for me. Just before we reached the door on the other side, however, an agent called out, "Hey Jenny, I didn't think you'd bring a vampire in here on us."
Jennifer and Max stopped.
I did as they did and turned my gaze, unimpressed, to the man who had stood up.
"What about you get back to your work and leave this to us? It's none of your business, after all." said Max, looking back over his shoulder.
"First I want to know why the vampire is here!" the man hissed, pointing his finger at me.
"Rude," I snorted, turning my attention to my fingernails. Since they weren't my employees, I didn't have to deal with that shit either.
"I'd like to know that, too," another voice behind us interjected.
"That's exactly why we wanted to see you," Jennifer explained, turning around.
Max did, too. After a few moments of consideration, I turned to face the man as well.
It was a middle-aged man, he had brown hair streaked with a few gray strands and light blue eyes. He was also wearing a dark blue suit, a white shirt and a red tie. Terrible choice. This suit cut was long out of fashion and I knew my stuff, my tailor lectured me about it for hours while he took measurements for my clothes.
"Here I am," the man said.
"We were going to sort this out right there in your office," Max said, putting a lot of emphasis on the word "office."
"Why not right now, right here?" he wanted to know.
"Because..." but Max couldn't seem to think of anything to answer. So I took over that part.
"...Because I scare your so-called employees," I said, as the smell of adrenaline had risen sharply since I had entered this room.
"You think my people are scared?", The man raised his eyebrows and stopped. I took one demonstrative look around the office hall. Yes, there was about to be a traffic jam in the restroom if they all got their scared poop out of the way.
"For the most part, I'd say."
"And why do you think they're scared?", He crossed his arms expectantly.
"Sorry, was that a rhetorical question or do I really have to answer it now?", I asked and tilted my head a little. When no one answered, I had to laugh briefly.
"Do you want the short form or should I explain my analysis of human behavior towards a potential threat in a short lecture?", I then asked the counter-question, with which they should actually have their answer. For people who had no idea how our instincts work, there was no point in going big and explaining myself.
"The short form will do, thank you.", Said the man and waited again for my answer. I knew that this was Jonas Duman, the boss of DAM, I had seen press pictures and had also already turned down the one or other order with his name on it.
"Ah.", I nodded and put my hands in my trouser pockets, turning my gaze briefly to the floor, "Well I suppose that's because they haven't met a vampire yet who has disproved their stereotypes, and so they believe all the tales. In other words, they fear that I'm one of those cartoon killers.", If he wanted to expose me, he had to come up with something more. I eyed his reaction carefully. He nodded with a feigned smile. He definitely was up to something.
Suspiciously, I narrowed my eyes.
"But he has his instincts under control," Jenny quickly objected. "I checked that myself."
"More like established it," I corrected her, growling. By now all eyes were on us.
"I'd like to check it myself," Jonas then objected, pulling out a gun he'd been wearing under his suit on a leather holster.
"Knew it.", I grumbled and rolled my eyes as he loaded the pistol, took the safety off and pointed it at me.
"My instincts respond to the blood of others, genius," I said with amusement, shaking my head. As if he'd never heard of us vampires.
"I know. But I also want to know if you can control your rage.", without warning the man fired twice. Two shots rang out, two bullets hit me. I gritted my teeth. He had been right, blazing rage pierced me. How dare he shoot me in front of all these...! I took a breath and clenched my teeth. The rage, however, was also triggered by my instincts, because with adrenaline it was easier to kill without perceiving pain. So in the end, it was all about controlling my instincts after all.
"Very amazing. The vampires I've encountered so far have usually attacked me," the man explained.
"Now comes a little glimpse into his dark past," I growled to myself, rolling my eyes and closing them to ignore the diminishing pain, "God how I hate this act."
"I'm a vampire hunter, or rather I was," he put the gun away again.
"Didn't I tell you?", I growled softly.
Now he pulled out a knife. "And now let's see how your blood thirst is."
"Good idea, here I would have an all you can eat buffet right away, so why not?", I said sarcastically, opening my eyes again and glaring at him angrily.
"I'm sure that if that happens, there will only be one dead person," he rolled up his left sleeve and opened his hand, "Let's hope there's something behind that big mouth."
Slowly, he cut his palm. The cut was not deep, I noticed, however, it immediately began to bleed. The tantalizing smell of his blood crawl into my nose and I almost tasted it on my tongue. This time I had to do more than pull myself together. After the little round on the tanning bed, my body was still weakened and was now screaming all the more for a decent meal. I clenched my jaws as hard as I could and felt my lengthening canines digging into my gums. Spellbound, I stared at his raised hand.
I watched the blood slowly run down his arm and drip onto the floor. I swallowed several times to get rid of the coppery taste, but I persevered and didn't give in to my instinct, even though there wasn't much left. I tasted my own blood as I bit the inside of my lip now.
I felt a hand on my forearm and tore myself away.
"Do you know why you're not supposed to touch cats when they're tense?", I hissed at Jennifer, who took a step back, startled.

(For the non-cat connoisseurs among my readership, cats that are focused on a source of stress or danger tend to lose their composure when you touch them, because they're usually terrified of being touched when they're highly stressed ;3)

"Calm down", she then whispered and raised her hands. I took another deep breath and continued to try to relax. However, it didn't work as long as the smell of fresh blood continued to hang in the air. Thank God I had enough self-control by now, so I didn't move and instead raised my gaze to the eyes of the company leader. A few minutes passed in which we simply stared into each other's eyes.
"All right, I've convinced myself," he now pulled out a handkerchief and wiped off the blood on his arm, "He may stay. For now."
I heard Jennifer breathe a sigh of relief; she must have been holding it.
"Johnsen, show him to a vacant room," Mr. Duman now ordered the agent, who was still standing behind his desk with drops of sweat on his forehead.
"If I may, I would-" but Jenny was interrupted.
"No Jennifer. I still want to talk to you. You'll come with me to the office. Max you too.", the man left the room. With an apologetic look in my direction, Jenny followed him. Max joined them, with an extremely arrogant posture. As he passed, he also gave me a look, but his was dripping with hatred. I moved my foot forward just a few millimeters and he stumbled.
I couldn't help but twitch the corner of my mouth. And as Max was about to lunge at me, his sister grabbed him by the arm and impatiently pulled him along.
Then I turned my attention to this Johnsen.
I could hear the agent's gulping all the way over here, as well as the pulsing of his blood. My stomach rebelled and I was convinced that leaving me alone with this man was just another part of a rehearsal. I licked my lips and waited for the agent to step forward.
"Th-this way," his voice shook, and he quickly walked through one of the doors that was next to the entrance we had come through earlier.
I followed the agent silently. We walked down the hallway and then through another door. The path was very simple and I had memorized it with ease. We then stopped in front of a door, he opened.
"Th-there." he said and briskly disappeared again. I sighed. This was the kind of company I was used to, as I mentioned. I entered the room and turned on the light. The room had no windows, of course; we were much too far underground for that. In the right corner was a metal bed with an accompanying nightstand.
There was also a small dresser right next to the door. I checked all the drawers, of course they were empty. Then I took off my cloak, hung it over a bedpost and closed the door. I threw the gloves on the dresser and dropped onto the bed. I left my shoes on for good.
Thin mattress, no slatted frame, just a metal grid under the bed. Very uncomfortable, but I had slept in worse conditions. I should know better and fight the now emerging fatigue.
Strange surroundings, strange people, nobody I could trust... Everything spoke against closing my eyes here even for a second. And yet, I was only half lying on the bed, after the exhausting last four hours and the sleepless afternoon, I had fallen asleep within ten minutes.