Chapter Thirty – To Die

Being swarmed by so many Hydra was not such a bad way to die. His mind supplied images of his body being torn apart and the great pain that would be involved, but his logical mind had cut in with the knowledge that the Hydra would not do such a thing until he was dead, if they did it at all. They would feed first and with so many he would probably only be conscious for a few seconds. It could have been much worse.

But as the knowledge settled in him, the instinctive recognition of his own death as the hands reached him, the world tilted and whirled and there was black and his head span and the roaring silence beat at his ears.

Then the tilt was righted and he was falling backwards and he felt the cold sensation of cement under his back, the black he had seen becoming the jacket of a person standing above him, the roaring silence turning to an echo of the battle in a large room, the sharp sounds of voices and gunshots.

He was leaning up on his elbows on the ground in a vacant area of the warehouse enclosed with crates, the shadows of the battle he had been in visible through a gap behind his apparent saviour. That saviour was looking down at him with Assiah’s face, but it was not Assiah. The clothes, the expression, the eyes were all different. He didn’t stand like Assiah did and he was grinning unnervingly, sharp teeth fully exposed. His hair was also cut shorter, to just above his shoulders.

“Fai?” Dai didn’t realise he had said it aloud until the Hydra laughed and nodded, seeming delighted that he had been recognised. There was something very strange about his eyes, something Dai couldn’t put his finger on. Whatever it was, Dai didn’t like it.

“Oh how lovely! I do love to be known. So much time has passed. I would have thought my dear son and brother would have forgotten me by now.” Luthen and Assiah. Fai didn’t look as though he believed what he had said, his grin had turned feral. “So you’re the one they’ve been fighting over, hm?” Fai was standing unerringly close, bending down over Dai, only inches away, so quickly that Dai flinched and instinctively shrank back as if he could disappear into the cement. “You’re pretty,” he said, “but not that pretty. Hmmm… I wonder what it is.” He had Dai’s wrist in a tight grip before Dai saw him begin to move. Dai felt his heart rate pick up, felt it throbbing through his body in instinctive fear.

Fai’s grip was tight, to the point that a slight movement would snap Dai’s wrist. The rest of Dai’s body had tensed up, his legs automatically shifting into flight position, ready to flee at the slightest opening. Dai had been afraid often in his life, but it had been years since he had resorted to pure instinct, he felt as though he was drowning and only his instincts, his natural reactions could do anything about it. His mind was scrabbling for even the lightest, most insignificant thought, no help with the situation at all. Usually he was analysing his options at this point, words coming to his tongue to help him escape even as his body prepared to fight or retreat. But this feeling in his body was pure animal, survival instinct, the prey’s need to escape. And with Fai holding his arm and standing so close to him, he had not a hope in hell.

“You smell very good right now.” Fai told him, inhaling slowly, his eyes shining slightly red in the dim. “Good enough to eat.” Another hard flash of fear thrust through Dai’s body, his breathing increasing. “And why shouldn’t I?” He continued, seeming to be enjoying himself. “My brother brought this little treat to me, why shouldn’t I indulge?”

“Where did all the Hydra come from?” Fai blinked slowly. Dai was surprised he’d managed to form actual words, let alone a coherent question. It had obviously been on his mind since they arrived at the warehouse, so it had probably been forced out by his subconscious in an attempt at self-preservation. Or, at least, delaying the inevitable.

“The ‘Hydra’, as you call them, are mine of course.” His expression had turned away from Dai, the grin seeming less threatening and more speculative and amused. “I turn humans at a good rate these days, picking them off the streets whenever I choose.” Dai was still terrified, but he managed to feel horror crawling up inside him as he realised that all the disappearances in the city were not a human crime spree but a Hydra rampage. “You know, the previous head of your Department held me in that Cage before my brother.” Dai blinked in surprise at this and Fai nodded and grinned again. “Oh yes. I was a lab rat for your employers once. The experiments they did were to find our weaknesses, to learn how we worked, our limitations. At the time I was weak from a long sleep with no blood and they took advantage of it to keep me there. Their mistake was to feed me regularly, even with a small amount of blood… but I digress. One of the more interesting experiments was to make more of our kind using me as a base. In this I became extremely talented, for all their tests and tries. I escaped during that time; they foolishly decided to give me a human to turn naturally, rather than in their test tubes.” His grin widened, his eyes faraway in remembrance. Then he looked directly at Dai again. “I have a very good success rate you know, I lose only one in every five that I turn. Most of us turn only one in hundreds successfully.” The horror rose again, thicker this time with the realisation that for the hundreds of Hydra Fai had created, many more had died needlessly. “It takes knowledge of all the factors involved to do it properly and sires no longer teach their children how to do it for fear of increasing our population, the fools.”

“With good reason.” Dai and Fai both turned at the new voice to see Assiah, closely followed by Luthen, approaching from the direction of the battle. “You see what is happening already, little brother? These hunters are killing your children. And that is exactly why we do not increase our population, we are content with the human’s ignorance. It is easier to live that way.”

“Shut up. You always were a fool, just like the others.” Fai spat, unconsciously tightening his grip on Dai’s wrist. Dai muffled his scream slightly as he felt and heard a bone snap, his head spinning with the sudden pain, which crashed over him like a heavy, dizzying wave. Then the pressure was gone and he was able to fold himself around the injured limb, his eyes slightly hazy and half-blind with unconsciousness threatening.

It took a moment for him to realise that he was no longer on the ground, that he was suspended by Fai’s arm around his throat and that the Hydra was hissing things at the pair across from them. He couldn’t understand the words, the pain was taking most of his concentration and the rest was on trying to stay conscious.

Then more blinding pain. He felt his throat burn so he knew he was screaming, but the sharpness, the encompassing agony made him deaf, blind and unfeeling to everything except the great and raw hurt of his shoulder.

Then he saw the ceiling and darkness creeping in, his vision almost gone, and with the last of his conscious moments he saw Luthen and Assiah looking grimly down on him and watched them exchange glances.

--

The blonde vampire moved quietly through the alley. He patted down his pockets searching for the weapon he had tucked away, more for reassurance than with the intent to use it. He was being followed, tracked. He could feel that his pursuers were getting closer and he had not been a vampire long enough to be completely familiar with his new abilities. Fighting with them would be dangerous at this point, he needed to hide somewhere and avoid them until he was sure he could escape if something went wrong. He didn’t want to hurt them, but they were following him and wouldn’t leave him alone unless he faced them. Perhaps if he fought them back once, they would retreat and he would have enough time to get out of the city.

This seeming the best course of action, the vampire continued on his way, senses alert for those tracking him. He dodged around the corner, hoping to double back in a different direction and perhaps lose his followers. The city in this area was very quiet, eerie, the moonlight gleaming on the black streets, the many scents of the city filling the air. The blonde vampire concentrated on being quick and silent, his footsteps making no sound as he moved.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Someone stood before him. Familiar brown eyes seeming to glint with embers, familiar sleek dark hair, familiar smile.

In the moment that he was distracted, Dai cut off his head.

Assiah approached slowly, watching Dai wipe off his blade and stare down at their most recent prey. The boy absentmindedly flexed his newly-healed wrist and quickly and easily sheathed his sword. He pulled a communicator from one of his belt pockets and slipped it into his ear.

“Sorted?” Came Lilith’s voice and Dai responded in the affirmative.

“Their numbers are getting thin. Maybe Fai is taking a break.” Dai said with a snort, kicking the Hydra’s blonde head until it was against its body.

Fai had escaped during the commotion when Dai had almost died; with Dai bleeding out all over the warehouse no one paid the Hydra any notice and he was gone before anyone had enough sense to remember him. On the other hand, he would have died if the others had chased Fai; it had been a close thing as it was, though with the Department’s influence he had the best medical treatment possible and quicker than it might have been otherwise. His wrist had caused more problems than the gash in his shoulder really; it had been re-broken three times before it healed properly. Only now was he able to use it again, some months after it had been initially injured. Hunting in the background with a cast had made Silver and Sven cackle for weeks, but he’d been adamant that he had to work. He’d have gone crazy otherwise.

The only reason he had been allowed to work with an injury was because of Assiah and Luthen. Since the battle against Fai and his many, many children, the pair had shown up every night intending to help the team hunt Hydra. Or rather, as Luthen would say, to help Dai hunt Hydra. At first they had come every night together, but with the amount they fought it had become impossible to get any work done, so now they had what Sven called ‘shared custody’. Luthen had Monday through to Wednesday and Assiah had Thursday to Saturday, with Sunday being his day away from the both of them. It worked surprisingly well. But being stalked by two dangerous blood-sucking puppies was not exactly Dai’s idea of a good life, hence the day to himself.

However, with Assiah and Luthen now working with the Department to hunt the Hydra, it wouldn’t be long before they found Fai again. Hopefully before he went back to building his armies of Hydra.

“Yeah, maybe Fai is taking a break and maybe Kei will be abducted by aliens.” Came Lilith’s sarcastic reply, then a muffled voice. “Shut up, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You watch too much Sci-Fi.” More muffled words, then an argument began and Dai turned the volume of his communicator down.

“Uh, I’m just going to deal with the bodies.” Dai said carefully.

“Right, you do that while I kill Kei in the background with a shoe.”

It was a strange life, Dai mused. Filled with vampires and violence, blood and sorrow, but also with fulfilment and camaraderie, with comfort and security. Sometimes it all seemed like some kind of dream he would one day wake up from and sometimes it was the most real anything in his life had ever been. There was a kind of contentment with his routine, with those he spent his nights with, with the little things he shared with his comrades. There was a small quiet certainty that some things in life with Department 3 would never change. And that thought, oddly enough, was comforting.