Carpathian 06 - Dark Fire

Darius moved to the fireplace, reached out, and touched the large silver cross there.
    "You seem to have all the supplies for bagging yourself a vampire."
    Wallace was horrified. He glanced toward the door, suddenly aware of the deep silence in the house.
    Darius glided closer. "What is it precisely you wished to learn about me, Mr. Wallace? Now is your opportunity."
    Wallace jerked out the syringe filled with the toxin and plunged it deep within Darius's arm. He jumped back, grinning in triumph.
    "Ah, yes, the poison you worked so hard to develop," Darius said softly, his voice as beautiful and unconcerned as always. "It is so difficult to know what really works unless you have the chance to test it.
    Let us observe the results together." The soulless eyes met Wallace's. "You do fancy yourself a scientist, do you not, Mr. Wallace?"
    Wallace nodded slowly, staring at the one he thought was a vampire. Darius slowly rolled up the sleeve of his silk shirt, exposing the roped muscles of his arm. He stared at his skin, causing red flames to flicker Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    and dance, and Wallace nearly screamed when golden dots of liquid poison began to ooze from the Darius's pores and run in a stream down his skin to drip onto the floor.
    "Interesting, is it not?" Darius inquired in a menacing purr. "You should have known more about an enemy you wished to challenge, Mr. Wallace. It is a poor business to hunt without sufficient knowledge of your prey."
    "Where is the woman now?"
    Darius's eyebrows shot up. "Are you really so arrogant that you think I would allow your ridiculous assassins to take from me what is mine? I suspect you are more interested in the whereabouts of your soldiers."
    Wallace sighed and ran a hand through his shock of gray hair, leaving it standing on end. "And where are they?"
    "What was left of them can be claimed from the local morgue," Darius answered, unconcerned.
    "I suppose my other men are also destroyed," Wallace ventured.
    Darius sent his mind seeking throughout the house, then smiled in satisfaction. "I must admit, they seem to have been in very poor health. You should choose your companions more carefully, Mr. Wallace."
    Wallace's faded eyes flashed with sudden malice. "I see that you yourself have not gone unscathed. You are bleeding."
    The white teeth gleamed again. "It is nothing, a mere scratch. My body will heal without difficulty, but thank you for your concern."
    Wallace hissed between his teeth. "You mean to kill me."
    The glowing red eyes poured over him like molten lava. "With great pleasure, Mr. Wallace. I protect my own. I allowed you to go free after the last threat you made to my family, but you insist on asking for release from your miserable life. I can do no other than oblige you."
    "I will go back to Europe, leave you alone."
    Darius shook his head slowly. "You had her touched by your filthy servants. You intended to rape her, torture her. Not because you thought her vampire but because it would bring you pleasure. You wanted me here, Mr. Wallace, and now you have the very thing you wished for."
    Wallace glanced at his young companion, the one he had chosen to groom as his protégé because he had found the same deviant nature in the young man as was in himself.
    Darius had easily picked thoughts of starring in a snuff film with Tempest out of the younger man's head, knew he didn't believe in vampires but was attracted to the violence and sexual rush the vampire-hunting society promised to provide. His black eyes bored into the young man while he contemplated the evil that existed in both his world and the human world. He released the young man from the thrall. Instantly the youth launched himself at Darius, seemingly too dense to understand that Darius had been controlling him.
    Darius stood so still that he seemed to be a part of the room, of the earth itself, silent, watchful, Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    unmovable. At the last second, just as the man was about to lay hands on him, Darius shimmered into vapor, dissolved, and reappeared behind the young man.
    "Daniel, behind you!" Wallace warned.
    Daniel tried to drag the gun from out of his waistband as he turned. Even as he caught sight of the intruder, the vampire's face rippled, contorted, and lengthened into a long muzzle. Teeth burst forth, razor-sharp, jaws rushing forward to bore straight into Daniel's chest,