Fan Fiction ❯ The Vampire Hunter ❯ Chapter 8

Chapter VIII

Gabrielle looked around the well-used room they'd relocated to. It was basically a game room and lounge rolled into one. Velvet-covered couches mixed in with felt-covered pool tables and Gabrielle was reminded once again why she spent so little time with the others.

However, that wasn't the problem she was trying to solve at the moment. She had a couple dozen naked vampires to deal with. They needed clothing. She could also see that those who had survived the fighting needed to feed in order to replenish their lost blood. Several of them were eying Clark, but Gabrielle decided, as long as they only looked, it wasn't a problem. The first one that touched would be her dinner.

Gabrielle thought about having Clark go on a shopping run for the clothing, but then Clark would know where they were and that wasn't a good idea. It wasn't that she didn't trust Clark, but Clark herself had requested the blindfold.

And there were things Clark would probably be able to figure out, that Gabrielle didn't want the woman to know just yet, if Clark learned of their location. In the heat of the moment of defending her trust in Clark's honor, Gabrielle had been willing to let Clark know anything she wanted. But now that she'd thought about it, Gabrielle wanted more time before she let that secret come to light. The fact that none of Gabrielle's fellow vampires had ever put two and two together didn't faze her in the least. She knew Clark would most likely see it in an instant.

The real problem Gabrielle was facing was that she didn't trust anyone, other than Clark, out of her sight at the moment. After a good day's sleep, and a few liters of blood, the others would probably be less likely to seek revenge for Blake's and the others' deaths, and Gabrielle herself would be in a much better position to answer those threats, if they came. But if she let them leave now, anger and resentment might drive some of them to temporarily band together against her and attempt to kill her again before the night was through. Emotions were running high and, before Gabrielle decided whether they would be allowed to go their separate ways or not, everyone needed a chance to calm down.

But they were running out of time. They had maybe five hours, until the sun rose over the horizon. In that amount of time, she not only needed to get everybody clothed and fed, but she also had to allow enough time for all of them to make it to their various lairs, if she chose to let them go.

Looking around at the semi-patiently waiting vampires, Gabrielle knew she'd already decided to let them live. They didn't deserve to die. They'd been following Blake, just as they would hopefully follow her now. She couldn't fault them for that. And the next generation of vampires born from the current ranks of servants would only know her as their leader, so loyalty would be less divided.

The servants. What was the saying? Kill two victims with one bite?

Gabrielle looked around for one of the cell phones that were always lying around. She found one on a coffee table and picked it up. She cleared her throat to get everyone's attention.

"I'm going to pass this phone around. I want each of you to call one of your servants and have them bring you a set of clothes to change into. Tell them to wait for you three blocks North of here. We'll take the tunnels and meet up with them in two hours. You can feed from them and then hunt, if you need to, before going home."

She made eye contact with several people and knew none of them had missed her deliberate omission of their current location's name. Only Ninth Order vampires and higher knew the location of the Gathering Place and now everyone present knew she'd at least kept that secret, even if she had partnered up with a Hunter.

Gabrielle handed the phone off to the person closest to her and it slowly made its way around the group as each vampire called his or her most trusted servant to bring them a new set of clothing.

Gabrielle listened to each conversation to make sure no one called for reinforcements or planned an ambush. She was pretty sure everyone just wanted to eat and go home and sleep for the next week, but several of Blake's most serious supporters were still alive and she had no doubts that they could cause her some real trouble, if they wanted to.

Finally, everyone's servants had been summoned and it was time they went to meet them. Gabrielle caught Clark's eyes and she slowly walked towards the tall woman. With each step, her previous reason for wanting to talk to Clark faded and was replaced with simply wanting to touch her.

Clark could feel her heart rate pick up, as she watched Gabrielle's naked form cross the room for her. She stayed where she was, leaning up against the wall by the door to the stairs, and didn't move a muscle, while her eyes tracked the pale white body coming towards her.

For a moment, Clark felt a sense of acute inferiority. Gabrielle was a vampire with untold power. She was thousands of years old. What could Gabrielle possibly see in her? Clark was only five years past the quarter century mark and she had spent the last decade of her life hunting Gabrielle's kind. What the hell had she been thinking, teaming up with the Queen of the Vampires?

Gabrielle came to a stop a foot in front of the tall Vampire Hunter. The look on Clark's face had stopped her from making physical contact with the woman. Then Clark's expression cleared and she shook her head slightly, as if to clear away some unwanted thoughts. Gabrielle tilted her head in question.

Clark shook her head again, but at Gabrielle this time.

"What's up?"

Gabrielle decided to let it go. Whatever Clark had been thinking about was her own business. If she chose not to share it with Gabrielle, then so be it.

"It's time to go and meet with the servants. There's a tunnel entrance from this room that will take us where we need to go. I'm going to start getting everyone moving and then Shiri and the others can keep an eye on everyone, while we incinerate the meeting room. We'll have to be quick. The fire suppression system will come on as soon as it detects any smoke. Once we're done, we can join the others in the tunnels. You'll need to be blindfolded again, before we exit onto the street."

"I'm not going to be blind, while we're in the middle of a group of hostile vamps," Clark declared.

Gabrielle sighed soundlessly. Clark had a valid argument. Maybe her secret would be coming out sooner than she'd hoped. Then another idea hit her.

"We could wait for the others to leave first, before you joined us on the surface. I've already decided to let them go, so once they meet up with their servants and get clothed, there's no reason for me to continue watching them. The sun will be up in a couple hours and they'll be forced to return to their lairs. Richard can retrieve your car and then drive you home. He can take a cab back to David's from there."

Clark thought it over. It would work. However, Gabrielle had neglected to mention where she would be staying for the day and that bothered Clark.

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"I know you don't have a permanent lair. Where are you going to go when the sun comes up?"

"I'll find someplace."

"You could stay with me." The words were out of her mouth before Clark really had a chance to think about them and Gabrielle knew it.

"I think you need.. time.. to think about everything. You still have almost three weeks before your leave of absence is over. You've never taken a vacation. Why don't you just go and get away for a while, get some space to think."

Clark frowned.

"How do you know I've never taken a vacation?"

Gabrielle caught the guilty look before it could appear on her face and grinned instead.

"Is there some reason you think I wouldn't know certain details about Dana Clark, Vampire Hunter extraordinaire?"

Clark smiled in return, but there was something off about Gabrielle's behavior. She shook her head again. A lot had happened in the last twenty-four hours. Maybe she did need a vacation to sort through a few things. Her personal life had certainly gotten a little complicated lately.

"Ready to get a move on?"

Gabrielle nodded and turned to find Shiri and Michelle to get everyone headed into the escape tunnels. As soon as that was settled, Gabrielle rejoined Clark in the stairwell. They headed up and Gabrielle made a sweep of the room to make sure there was nothing important that needed to be saved from the coming flames. Once she was satisfied, she turned to Clark and gave her the signal to begin.

Clark unhooked the miniature flame-thrower from her belt and set the nozzle to wide dispersal. She started in the far corner, diagonally across from the door, and began sweeping the liquid fire over the contents of the room. The burning fuel would give off less smoke and delay the response of the sprinkler system. The gasoline also wouldn't mix with the water and so would take longer to put out. All useful remnants of the vampires' blood would be destroyed by then.

Clark finished sweeping the room and she and Gabrielle stood at the doorway and watched the blaze consume the interior. Finally, the sprinklers went off and they took that as their cue to leave.

It was only a few minutes before Clark and Gabrielle caught up with the others in the tunnels. Shiri and Michelle were doing a good job of coordinating the exodus, but it was going slowly. Those who had injuries like David's had to be extra careful in how they moved or they were sure to lose a body part or two. Though it wouldn't be life threatening, it was still a hindrance and one they all wanted to avoid.

It took them nearly an hour to get to the right exit. Michelle and Shiri stood on either side of the ladder that led out of the tunnel and onto the street. The first vampire up the ladder pushed up the concrete slab with ease and moved it aside to make room for those behind him. Michelle and Shiri helped the injured up the ladder one by one, while the vampire at the top pulled them all the way up to the surface. Finally, only Gabrielle and Clark remained.

"I'll be back in a few minutes. I just need to make sure they all leave."

"I don't think I'm going anywhere," Clark replied with a smirk.

"Not unless you can lift a half-ton piece of cement," Gabrielle bantered back.

"Nope, they didn't cover that in my training."

"I'll be right back," Gabrielle said over her shoulder, as she climbed up the ladder.

The fresh air felt nice, after being in the cramped tunnel, and she was immediately handed a black silk blouse and a pair of black jeans. She quickly put them on and saw that almost everyone else had changed into their new clothes, too.

Many vampires were also feeding from their servants. Those that weren't, offered their servant's blood to those that needed more than what their slaves could provide. The sun would be up in an hour and there wouldn't be time to do any hunting before then. Gabrielle thought the timing couldn't have been more perfect.

"You should hurry. The sun will rise very soon. Until the Gathering Place can be used again, I suggest we meet at the Arena. Now, everyone go. You don't have much time," Gabrielle told them, and looked up at the lightening sky to punctuate her statement.

Though no human eye could see a change in the darkness, all the vampires could make out the aurora of the sun's rays being refracted by the earth's atmosphere. Another half hour and they would find the light nearly unbearable.

The servants helped their Masters and Mistresses to various cars parked along the deserted street, the lack of people a condition the servants themselves had seen to, in order to keep their owners safe from unwanted observers.

Before Michelle and Shiri could leave with Samantha, Gabrielle stopped them.

"Hey, would you mind taking David home with you? I need to ask Richard for a favor. If that's alright with you, David?"

David nodded. He was in pain and just wanted to go to sleep and heal. Though his skin had reknit itself so that his guts weren't trying to fall out of his body, he hadn't gotten all the blood he'd really wanted to repair his intestinal walls as quickly as he'd hoped. They shifted inside his abdomen every time he moved.

The group said their good-byes and then Gabrielle was alone with Richard. She chose her words carefully to give the right impression. She didn't want Richard to think too hard about where Clark's car had been left, though she doubted he would think it out of the ordinary, if he thought about it at all.

"I need you to do something for me. We abandoned Clark's car a few blocks from here. There's going to be fire trucks and police in the area, but they should be on the other side of the building." Gabrielle handed over the keys she'd received from Shiri. "I want you to go pick up her car and meet us back here."

"Alright. It shouldn't take me more than a few minutes."

"See you soon, then."

Richard headed off down the street at a jog and Gabrielle walked to the edge of the hole in the street. She stepped off into nothingness and landed lightly on the tunnel's floor below.

"Ready to rejoin the world?" Gabrielle asked.

Clark stood up from where she'd been sitting with her back against the wall, watching the exit.

"Yeah, let's go."

Gabrielle tore off her left sleeve and motioned for Clark to turn around. Clark smirked and then obeyed. Gabrielle delicately placed the makeshift silk blindfold over Clark's eyes and tied it off at the back of Clark's head. Then she turned Clark around and jerked her fingers toward Clark's eyes. Clark made no reaction.

Gabrielle led Clark to the ladder and then steadied her, while Clark climbed into the early morning air. When they were both standing on the street, Gabrielle picked up the concrete slab and put it back into place.

Now it looked like every other normal sidewalk, with its square pattern of lines in concrete, that no one ever thought twice about. Because the lines were usually just scores in the surface to help ease the natural contracting and expanding of the material, no one had ever bothered to notice that some of the lines were real breaks in that surface. And it was likely, especially in a city like New York, that no one ever would.

Gabrielle heard a car and cocked her head to listen. It was Clark's. She'd recognize that sound anywhere. After a minute, the car came into view and then pulled up at the curb. Gabrielle helped Clark into the passenger seat.

"Richard, she's not supposed to know where she is. Drive away from here, but don't take a direct route." Gabrielle addressed Clark by putting her hand on the woman's shoulder. "After about twenty minutes, you can take the blindfold off. You should probably go to David's, that way Richard here won't have to catch a cab from your place."

It would also keep him from knowing where Clark lived. Gabrielle realized that was information she didn't want the others to have easy access to.

"I'll find you tonight," Gabrielle whispered into Clark's ear and then closed the door.

She watched as Richard drove down the street and then turned onto another road at the next light.