FicWad

Opening the door, a man in his late forties, with a look of a man in his late fifties, peered tiredly out into the night. A knock had drawn his attention, but no one seemed to be waiting outside. With a scowl he turned to head back inside. This happened more often than he cared to think about. As Chief of Police, local kids would dare friends to knock on his door and run; it had almost become a hazing ritual for gangs.

“Damn kids!” he grumbled.
“Not quite,” a smooth, velvety voice corrected him.

Turning sharply at the sound he knew well, the man almost choked at the sight of William Beckett standing in the doorway, leaning forward with his arms across the frame; he almost seemed as if he had been draped across it.

“B… Beckett?” the man stammered. “But… the papers said you were dead.”
“I am, but not in the way you mean,” the vampire replied casually, leaning towards him menacingly before turning a deep angry frown on the frightened man.
“How is that possible? Your house burnt down… at dawn! Everyone was ash.”
“Clearly not,” Beckett sighed. “Now, we have much to discuss.”
“No, Beckett, we’ve got nothing to discuss. You’ve fallen, your Coven’s gone, you have no power in this town now.”

Beckett cocked his head to one side at the words. Did the humans really think they had nothing to fear from him any more? If that’s what they truly thought, they couldn’t have been further from the truth if they tried. He was William Beckett, the cruellest and most evil vampire leader of all the Covens, and he would take some time to remind these people just how evil. Perhaps he had spent too long concentrating on the hunters? They had destroyed every hunter group in town bar one and that one group had become the biggest thorn in his side he had ever known, thwarting all his plans for expansion and destroying the bulk of his Coven. He would make them pay, certainly, but for now, the humans needed a lesson.

“Where are your manners? Why does everyone suddenly think they can stop calling me Master?” he added with the briefest of glances in Mike’s direction.
“I don’t bow to you any more, Beckett. Like I said, your power’s gone.”
“Really? You seemed pretty shaken when you saw me,” Beckett taunted.
“You gave me quite a scare, that’s all,” he replied dryly.
“Not half as big as the scare I’m going to give you if you don’t invite me in,” Beckett replied baring his fangs menacingly.
“Oh! Yeah!” the man laughed nervously as he stepped back a few feet and pointing a finger at Beckett. “You need to be invited in, yeah, I forgot that. So if I don’t invite you in, I’m safe here.”

Beckett narrowed his eyes, staring darkly at the man, before a smirk finally played across his lips.

“You think you’re safe?”

Beckett laughed softly and shook his head slowly. In a very successful attempt to intimidate, Beckett crossed the threshold in a slow fluid movement. Staggering back, the Chief of Police almost tripped as his fear affected his coordination. Falling back against the wall, he looked up at the tall slender vampire.

“H… how… I… I never invited you!”
“Oh, but you did,” Beckett grinned as he leaned over his victim, placing his hand on the wall. “Two years ago, when I got you this job, you told me that I should come around for dinner. Invitations don’t expire.”
“I… I didn’t mean it! It’s just something you say!”
“Well,” Beckett grinned as he forcefully held the man against the wall with minimal effort. “You said come for dinner, and here I am, and I’m hungry!”
“No!” he screamed. “I’ll do anything you want, I’ll… Master Beckett, anything! Please!”
“Too late.”

Grabbing a handful of hair, Beckett pulled his head to one side and sank his fangs into the man’s neck. Only seconds later, he pulled away, spitting the blood from his mouth and throwing the man to the floor.

“You’re welcome to him, if you want, if not, kill him! I need something sweeter, younger.”

Brendon looked on disdainfully as Mike dropped hungrily to his knees and drained the man, grimacing at the flavour, but enjoying his first real meal since his self-healing. Standing up, Mike wiped the last of the blood from around his mouth.

“I was hungry! Okay?” he cried, feeling the need to defend his actions. “I lost a lot of blood and I had to heal myself, you know! I needed that!”

Brendon shrugged his indifference. He didn’t dislike Mike, he simply had no real opinion of him at all. Up until this point in time, he had largely ignored him. He was a senior vampire, who, until now only seemed interested in pleasing Beckett and killing – but mostly killing. He seemed to really enjoy it, even if he didn’t drink the blood. He didn’t just kill for food or sport or even fun. He seemed to like to kill indiscriminately; someone was likely to die at his hands merely for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. While Brendon didn’t disapprove of Mike’s actions, he was never impressed with his methods. There was very little flair, little thought or effort put into it, merely killing for killing sake. It seemed pointless to go to all that effort and not do it well.

“So what now, William?” Brendon asked with a degree of uncertainty. “We’re certainly not going to get what we came for.”
“No,” Beckett agreed, “we’re getting so much more.”
“I don’t understand,” Brendon frowned.
“Well, it would seem that we need a new Chief of Police. Congratulations, Brendon, I’m sure you’ll do well in the role.”
“You say this like it’s automatic,” Mike began in a hectoring tone. “Me as Mayor, him as Police Chief, but what makes you think that anyone else – and by that I mean anyone who matters – will just accept it?”

Beckett spun around, seizing Mike by the throat as he turned and pressing him hard up against the wall. As he did, Brendon’s brow furrowed as he tried to see Beckett’s plan in its entirety.

“Listen to me, Michael,” Beckett growled as he squeezed harder. “I grow tired of your assumption that you can address me however you wish. You are subordinate to me and, yes, to Brendon too. You are useful, Michael, but you’re not indispensible. Step out of line once more with either of us and I will finish what that whelp started and rip your throat out and eat it! Do you understand me?”
“Yes… Master William… I’m sorry.”

Brendon smirked as Mike was thrown to the floor alongside his meal and turned to Beckett.

“You’re placing us in high offices so that we can effectively run the town, almost make our own laws.”
“Not almost, we will make our own laws.”
“How?” Brendon turned a quizzical expression to his master.
“I see myself as the Chief Judge and as such, I intend to call a state of emergency. I will say that he vampire hunters have caused a frenzy amongst the vampire community who have threatened a spate of revenge killings. After all, they’re only trying to protect their own kind. Humans must be restricted, contained… for their own good.”
“They’ll hate it!” Brendon grinned. “They’ll hate them!”
“Better still, they’ll deliver them to us. That’s you job, you’ll put a price on their heads.”
“And me?” Mike asked.
“You will keep everyone in line. There’s no room for dissenters in our administration,” Beckett grinned; it all seemed so very possible.

*

“Hey?” Patrick’s voice barely rose above a whisper as he pushed open the door to Andy’s room.
“Trick? Come in,” Andy replied as he closed his book and set it on the bedside cabinet.
“You’re looking a lot better today,” Patrick offered a vague smile. “Are you?”

Pushing himself into a sitting position on the bed, Andy was surprised to feel Patrick helping with the pillows to make him more comfortable.

“Can you keep your speed to normal, please?” Andy’s brow creased.

Patrick exhaled noisily before turning away. Flopping down in a chair a few feet from the bed, he dropped his elbow into the table and sunk his chin and cheek into his cupped hand.

“What’s the matter, Patrick?” Andy asked gravely.
“I’ve changed, you know I’ve changed, it wasn’t my fault. Can’t anyone accept that?”
“We did, Patrick, that’s why you’re not locked up any more.”

Turning in the chair, Patrick was already shaking his head.

“Now, see, you say that, but it just isn’t true is it? Joe keeps telling me to stop reading his mind, you’re telling me to keep to a human speed. I’m not human any more, Andy, I’m not!”

Turning back, Patrick slumped forward resting his head on crossed arms, sighing noisily again.

“I’m actually with Joe on the mind reading thing, but I just said that because I still feel dizzy and it made me feel worse.”

Patrick rose and stared apologetically at Andy.

“The mind reading thing was an accident,” he admitted.
“I thought you said that there was something inherent in the change that made you accept what you are?”
“I do, I actually do,” Patrick admitted with almost an air of indifference.
“Then why so jumpy?”
“The change didn’t prepare me for how you guys would feel about it and perhaps more significantly, how I would feel about what you think.”
“Go on,” Andy encouraged.
“I can’t! Don’t you understand? I keep thinking back to how we were when Pete returned and it’s not the same!”
“It’s not the same situation, Trick,” Andy offered.
“But why should that matter? I’m still a vampire, I mean how do you really know you can trust me?”
“Do you think I’d let you in here if I didn’t?” Andy smiled in reply.
“Do you think you could stop me if you tried?” Patrick asked darkly.
“What are you saying, Patrick? That we can’t trust you?”
“You can, but I don’t know how you do.”
“Well,” Andy smiled broadly as his obviously distressed friend. “You’re going to have to trust us, aren’t you?”
Patrick laughed and nodded. “I guess. And… I’m sorry… for, you know, hitting you.”
“I know,” Andy nodded. “Come here.”
“Why?” Patrick asked and wandered over.
“Here,” Andy gestured with his arms opened wide. “Hug.”
“N…no,” Patrick shook his head nervously. “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
“Won’t then!” Patrick grew agitated at the suggestion.
“Okay, okay!” Andy offered a calming gesture with his hands. “How’s Pete?” he asked trying to change the subject. “He must be doing backflips now that Beckett’s dead.”
Patrick lowered his eyes briefly. “He’s been acting really weird. Really moody and silent.”
“How did you notice?” Andy frowned in disbelief. “Isn’t he always like that?”

Patrick allowed himself a short laugh at the comment. Andy was right, since being turned, Pete could never have been described as the bubbly type, but somehow, this was different. He couldn’t quite put his finger on why, but he knew it to be true.

“I’ll keep an eye on him,” he offered. “You get some rest.”