Incompatible Means (Completed)

Chapter 21

The next day I awoke a few hours before sunset. The previous night I was too mentally exhausted to do any work and had decided on a fitful sleep instead. I stayed in bed upon waking to look over some information Hugo had sent me. There was one guard he had red flagged, it seemed the guard had a few deposits into his account that were "smoke" like the money that had appeared in mine for the retainer. It was the first real lead I have had since starting, I studied the guard's picture but I couldn't recall ever talking to him or seeing him around. Maybe vaguely I recalled him from the interview but a lot of the guards all looked the same. Some PI I was turning out to be, without Hugo I wouldn't have known, I was almost positive this guy was the one who tried to kill me, it would be easy enough for Marko to use one of the house guards for this purpose, probably telling him it was to save Roderick from me. I just needed to figure out how to link Marko with the money and I would have my proof.

I could probably show Tex and talk to him about it since none of the other vampires would be up for a while, Tex would probably be more helpful than Silas anyways considering Silas didn't want to acknowledge what Marko was doing. But I was in desperate need of a shower, so I went into the bathroom first. I hadn't seen Tex since I woke up but I was sure he was outside my door as usual. What a boring job he got stuck with babysitting me.

I was rinsing my hair out when I felt the air shift in the bathroom. Moving the curtain to the side I exposed a waiting guard with a wicked looking hunting knife in his hand. Before I could ask him what in the hell he thought he was doing I saw his face; it was the same face I was just looking at on my laptop. Before my mind could completely wrap around what was happening he lunged with the knife. I lost my footing a little and slipped back so instead of plunging the knife into me it sliced deeply onto my side. It was the opposite side from the bullet graze but much deeper than the previous wound. Quickly I wrapped the shower curtain around his wrist and twisted, the knife fell to the bottom of the tub where the water still running from the shower mixed with the blood oozing from my side. Once again slipping in the slick tub, they really should put some of those rough decals to prevent the sliding, I wasn't able to move out of the way of the guards punch and it hit me square in the face. Though he was human and the punch didn't hurt that bad I heard the pop of cartilage, soon after blood was streaming down my nose and pouring into my mouth. I hated the taste of blood, it made my stomach turn.

I tried to twist harder on the curtain to turn his arm around and give myself more leverage but the water had made it slick and prevented any real usable traction. It didn't matter anyway because the guard ripped the curtain off its rings and punched me in the side where he had already cut me, pushing more blood from the wound and causing me to gag in pain. That gave him enough time to pull out another blade, attempting to stab me once again. I punched his wrist, then quickly grabbed the balled up curtain resting on the side of the tub. I kicked out at his hip which twisted him around and flung him towards the counter with his back now facing me. Taking advantage of the new position I jumped on his back, wrapping the curtain around his neck twice before pulling back. The guard grabbed at the curtain then flung both of us into the wall, knocking the breath out of me. His movements became jerky as I deprived him of oxygen.

"Who hired you?" I demanded while jerking on the curtain.

"Fuck you," he spits out surprisingly strong considering the plastic noose.

"Was it Marko?"

He tried to laugh but curtain made it more of a cough, "You will soon be dead you stupid bitch."

With that he carried me to the sinks, slamming me back against the mirror. I felt it break, shards piercing my exposed back and butt. Then he took the other knife I had foolishly forgotten about and swung down, planting it into the muscle of my thigh. While still hanging onto his back I tried to wrap the curtain once more around his neck, since twice wasn't even enough to subdue him but I must have somehow caught his chin trying to jerk the curtain around because I heard a sickening crack. He dropped to the floor with me still attached to his back and him on top of me, embedding glass shards deeper into my flesh. The realization of what I had just done sunk into me, I tried frantically to get away from the prone figure on the floor. More glass dug into my palms and legs as I scurried away, finally reaching the wall. I had just killed a human. Hot tears streamed down my face as my breath became ragged, I was a monster. The fact that he had been trying to kill me didn't matter, I had sworn never to harm a human even if it meant I would die. Because that is what it meant to be a vampire to sacrifice the life of humans to sustain their own. But here I had done the same thing, killed a man so that I would be able to live. It wasn't the same context at all, but none of that seemed to matter as fear and desperation consumed me.