The Angel of Death

Chapter 4

1745, Boston, USA

            Today I had been given nothing to do; no vampires to kill and no young men to drag to their deaths. Thomas and I are walking down the street, hunting. In a city, even a city as well controlled as this one, we must be careful while hunting to only take those who will not be missed, or at least not by many. So as much as the clearly well to do young lady exiting a nearby shop makes my mouth water, I leave her alone. She would be more trouble than she is worth. Thomas and I keep walking until we reach the seedier part of town. Here we are sure to find a couple of women who will be happy to follow us. Sure enough we come across a young woman in a revealing dress who calls out to us, obviously hoping to make a little money. She is not especially pretty, but she is willing and warm blooded so we walk over to her and begin to talk business. 

           "You two interested? I can do you both, but you both have to pay." She says. I can hear Thomas's heart beat speed up. I wrap my arm around his waist and lean into him.

           "I suppose we can share." I whisper in his ear. I feel him shudder, he turns to smile at me. The girl shows no reaction to our display of affection, nor do any of the other vagrants milling about. I suspect that they simply cannot be bothered to care enough to do something about it. I hand the girl a few bills, I can always retrieve them later, and she leads us away. Thomas and I hold hands as we walk, there is no one around to make problems for us. After a few minutes we find a quiet alley. I take the girl in my arms and kiss her, she is unenthusiastic so I decide to speed up the process. As I signal Thomas to move in I hear foot steps. I lift my head to see a cloaked man standing at the end of the alley. He is holding a gun. I toss the girl to the side and step forward. "Leave. Or I will make your death much more painful than it needs to be." I say, loud enough for him to hear. He does not move. I hear footsteps behind me, I turn and see that Thomas has run. I growl. Coward. I run at the cloaked man, ready to tear his limbs off. Suddenly I feel a horrible pain in my chest. I fall back and land on the ground, blood pours from my chest. I have been shot... but... it's not healing. I see the girl get up and follow the cloaked man out of the alley. As I lay there bleeding I think of Thomas running, I know he is not coming back. I think of Eleanor, will she miss me? It is in this moment of dying that I see clearly, there are so many of us, she may miss me for a day or two but she will replace me. I am nothing to her.

                                                                                         .....

       I wake up to find myself in a dingy, dirty shack. I sit up, it is rather painful, but I manage. I see that my wound has been cleaned and appears to have healed normally. At that moment the door to the shack opens and a man enters. He is not the man who shot me, but he is also wearing a hooded cloak. He pulls the hood off revealing thick brown hair and red rimmed brown eyes. 

        "Who are you?" I ask, my voice hoarse. I cough and the man hands me a glass of water.

        "My name is John McCallister. I found you in an alley, you were shot with a gold bullet. The work of a hunter. I removed the bullet, after that you seem to have healed up alright." He says in an American accent. I drain the glass and hand it back to him.

          "Thank you for saving my life. What is a hunter? I assume you don't mean a man that kills deer." He shakes his head.

           "Some humans are perfectly aware of our existence.  And some of them hunt us down, like the one that shot you. They know our weaknesses and how to exploit them." He sits down on a small stool opposite the table where I am sitting. I can't help but notice that he is quite attractive, he has a kind face but there is an edge of danger to it. And he did save my life.