Slayer [vampire+vampire hunter]

Slayer 9

I bit my lip as I watched Xavier sleep fretfully, scrutinizing his features so closely it was as if I were studying his face instead. His fingers twitched in mine, restless, and he let out a fleeting gasp when I withdrew my hand from his. I pressed my fingertips to my lips, then to his forehead, before I followed Seraph out Xavier's room.

He stopped at the end of the hall, far from Xavier, but seemed to reconsider, withdrawing further out to the small living room. I trailed in quietly, wondering what had caused Xavier to retreat into such a state. I knew he hated being weak and vulnerable, loathed being needy and helpless. He wanted to be strong and powerful, undefeatable, invincible, to be able to protect the ones he cared about like he hadn't been able to with his sister.

Ser sighed heavily, sinking into an armchair and propping his feet up in the matching ottoman. I perched on one of the arms of the squashy sofa beside his. "So what's wrong with him?"

"You know what happened with Carmen?" Ser replied, answering my question with one of his own.

I nodded. "His parents traded her for the power, but she was unhappy. When Xavier tried to take her back, it caused a war, and everyone else died."

"Well, that's most of it," Ser said slowly. "But he didn't tell you about the aftermath."

"Aftermath?" I repeated.

"It was absolutely terrible. After the previous lord died, no one really cared how Xavier held prior claim. It was literally a bloodbath of war and fighting among the vampire race to get ultimate power, and an awful time to be a human as well because of how our kind had gotten greedy and reckless, feeding in blatant view even. Xavier had been furious, and he'd killed like a monster to obtain control. There was nothing he wouldn't do to become our leader."

I shivered at the thought of Xavier, raw and powerful, fresh from his awful loss, unleashed upon the world-even if it were the vampire world. I could barely imagine what horrors he would cause, but my mind rejected them, raising clear, heartfelt images of his kindnesses towards me in protest. He wasn't bad...right? "Why had he done that? Did he really want to be Lord of the Vampires?"

With a shrug, Ser said, "I'm not sure. I wasn't there, you see. He created me afterwards his rise to power, saving me from what would've been a fatal disease. I'd only been twenty-one, not even at the apex of my capability of life. This was...sixty years or so ago, and I've followed him ever since. He wants to be a good, kind person, but especially since he's a vampire, he finds it very difficult. Most vampires don't think about it, but he seems to have clung to the more humane side of him, even if he's Lord. I think the loss of Carmen permanently changed him."

"Carmen caused him to act so badly?" I asked.

"Well, not really... He felt he owed it to her to keep their race in control and to make sure her...sacrifice hadn't gone to waste."

"Oh..." I said softly, my chest clenching at the thought of his pain. It must have been terrible.

Before, I would've absolutely delighted in the idea of vampire wars. If the "scum" decided to start killing each other, that'd make life much easier for me and the rest of the slayers. But I was no longer obsessed with ridding the world of vampires. I could never kill Xavier, even if he let me. He was strong, incredibly so, to be able to hold on to the title after clawing his way to the top. I couldn't even begin to imagine how many others he had had to battle.

"Each of the challenge battles had to be to the death. That was the custom," Ser whispered.

To the death.

He must've killed millions of others. No wonder he'd never wanted me to know. I'd killed an exceptionally high number of vampires, but I was only seventeen. He was more than one hundred years old, and in a full out war, there would be more than enough opportunities to upscale me and Cai, who was eighteen, put together. And it was our duty to kill. We were slayers.

And for vampires to kill their own kind, it was serious. It's not easy to kill someone like you-someone as fast as you, as strong as you, as deadly as you. Xavier had to be incredible.

That explained why some of his guests, coming to deliver information, had such frightened eyes when they looked at him. They were terrified because they knew what he could do-that he could kill them in less than a second, faster than he could react. He'd have to be able to do that to claim the power he had now. I no longer believed that "Lord of the Vampires" held more than enough power than he deserved. He was worthy of it, maybe even of something more. He was a legend.

What had I been thinking when I'd fallen for him? No matter how unconscious it had been, there was clearly something wrong with me. He was not only a vampire, but the most powerful one in existence.

The already too wide, too deep gap between us yawned even larger.

~*~

He stirred slightly, and I startled into attentiveness in the chair Ser had placed beside the bed. "Xavier?" I murmured.

"Alexis..." he sighed, his eyes still closed.

"Are you all right?" I asked in concern.

Slowly, he opened his eyes, focusing on my face, sighing my name again. He reached for my hand, which I let him take into his. "Amazing..." he said softly, his gaze fixed on our interlocked fingers.

I tightened my grip around his. "What's so amazing?"

"That you didn't flinch away from me," he said wonderingly.

"Why would I do that?" I asked, not comprehending.

"Because you know what I'm like now," he said, loosening his grasp as if expecting me to tug away as I remembered.

"Don't be an idiot," I scolded him, making as if to hit him, but ducking in to touch my lips to his forehead without thinking. Then, realizing how daring that had been, I pulled out his now-relaxed hold, flushing with embarrassment.

"Aw, Alexis, don't," he pleaded, and I cringed away from his touch on my elbow, my face still hot from mortification. "It's all right, really," he said persuasively. I glanced at him, quickly averted my face.

He scrambled up into a sitting position, reaching out towards me. "Alexis!"

"Sorry, sorry," I mumbled, starting to back away.

He caught my wrists, and I gasped as his fingers locked around me, refusing to release his grip and let me go. "Alexis, look at me."

It was hard to ignore him when his voice was so passionate, so intense. I slowly looked up into his blazing grey eyes, which scorched my own. I managed to whisper his name, my voice abnormally meek and submissive. "Xavier..."

And then his lips burned into mine and the world dissolved around me.