Ruthless Passion

by Noah Harris

  “I hope that you’re right, Duncan. I’ve always believed that people were their own worst enemy, but I also believed that they were able to see past their petty differences. I guess I lost sight of who I was and maybe having you come into my life has been the one shining example that I can hold onto. You told me of your own struggles between good and evil and I guess that is another thing that we have in common.” He didn’t want to look back at the jubilant faces inside the room. He was tempted, and I could tell that he wanted to, but he didn’t need the constant reminder that his words had made this company come alive again.

  “It’s interesting that you would say that about humans. When I was changed, I really didn’t feel anything towards them other than they were a food supply. We both are starting to see that we can be better and not be so destructive. We don’t have to feed on their misery, and we can actually do something to help. We thought that we were lost causes, but I believe that we were hurting only ourselves by hurting others.” I could still taste the last human that I had sunk my teeth into. It was a reminder of times that had nothing to offer. My hand in history could be felt, even today and that was something that I would have to live with.

  “I know that you’re trying to help, Duncan, but I’m not sure that anybody can. In my wolf form, I can practically do anything, but being human is like taking a step back in the evolutionary scale. I think I try to make up for that by becoming something that people fear. You must know that most people will not take that bounty, especially when they find out that it’s against me. There are also going to be those desperate ones that won’t care and try anyway without success. I have to tell you that what you’re wearing right now is driving me crazy.” That was the last thing that I saw coming, but I suppose he had no problems voicing his desires.

  “I wish that you wouldn’t talk like that. It’s bad enough that I have to be here by your side, but for you to constantly tease me like this is only going to be counterproductive.” His eyes told me that he would love to take me somewhere and give me something more to think about other than the assassin that was coming for him.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t help myself. I’ve been fighting the need to say something all day. I’ve just about had enough of playing with kid gloves. We’re taking it at face value from those that sired us that we are not supposed to be together. We don’t know anything for sure. There’s never been any recollection of a vampire or werewolf in history. I’m not naïve to think that we don’t have others out there, but neither one of us has found them. Believe me; I’m consciously aware that we are most likely risking losing our minds, but I’m not sure that I can hold this back any longer.” He ran his hand down my arm, and I felt an unmistakable sensation that was slowly slinking down my left leg.

  “Don’t start something that you can’t finish, Derek. We’ve already promised each other that we would try to keep things civil and not go off half-cocked. Don’t you think that I feel the same way that you do? It pains me to the quick that I can’t touch you. I don’t think that the kind of oral sex that we have been inflicting on each other is going to be enough. We have been deluding ourselves, but this type of thing needs to be handled very carefully. You may be ready to take the kid gloves off, but I think that I might be a little bit stronger for the both of us.” I could say that, but deep down his lingering glances and the feel of his fingers caressing my arm were certainly making me rethink my position.

  “I don’t know how you’re able to say that with a straight face, Duncan. I want you and I think that you would love for me to start at the top with my hot tongue and move it down slowly over your body with sensuous movements that will drive you out of your mind. You can’t stand there and tell me that feeling my cock in your mouth the other night is not something that you want to try again. You can’t stand there and be this indignant and make me believe that you can handle the heat that is burning out of control. Maybe I’m feeling even more, because of the fact that my wolf is slowly making its way to the surface.” I could smell that animal musk. It had only gotten stronger from the moment that he had awakened this morning.

  “You’re right, and it’s the wolf talking for you. Don’t give it that kind of power, especially when you have come this far to look at things with a more human eye.” His finger lingered on my lips. It was lucky that nobody was in the vicinity to see this display of affection. I stuck out my tongue, and he slipped his finger inside and then back out like it was an imitation of what it would be like to go down on him again.

  “I don’t care if it is the wolf talking for me or not. All I know is that I have to get you out of those clothes and into the warm tight recesses of my ass. I want you to take me from behind, treat me like a bad little animal while spanking me and calling me every name in the book. I can see it in your eyes that I am slowly getting to you.”

  I turned my head slowly and found his lips waiting. They were soft and inviting and the warm glow of the blood running through his veins was almost too much to resist. I leaned in slowly and then I heard what sounded like a gun getting ready to go off. My ears perked up, and we both straightened our bodies and knew that something was coming. The bullet left the chamber and was sailing across the expanse between one building and the other. So I turned, and I saw the actual projectile was getting closer, and I sensed that this was only the beginning.

  Chapter 17

  It wasn’t just one bullet and whoever had fired the shot had decided to up the ante by firing simultaneous rounds. They were following the same direct trajectory. I pushed him away from me and saw his body go flying over the top of a couple of desks, before crashing into the wall with such force that the actual plaster cracked underneath his weight. I barely was able to turn to the side, as that one bullet caught the underside of my suit jacket and went right through to the other side.

  Three more bullets traveled that same route, embedding itself into the very spot on the desk behind me that the other one had previously made a home. I saw the glint of the rifle, and I knew that this was not over by a long shot. This time, it wasn’t a rifle, but more of a weapon that could fire like that of a machine. The windows exploded, and people ran for cover, only to be gunned down in a hail of bullets.

  Five people lay strewn on the floor with me standing there moving an inch at a time to avoid any kind of penetration. “Duncan, get the fuck down and stop being some sort of martyr.” I heard his words, but I had my own way of dealing with things. I found myself moving at a speed that could not be seen by the naked eye. Those bullets flew past me like I was part of the matrix.

  I saw the shooter and in his eyes was a man that had seen his fair share of death and violence. He was no stranger to taking somebody’s life, and this was a professional that knew how to do his business with the least amount of chances taken. Those first three shots were meant to kill Derek where he stood. When that didn’t work, he took a more direct form of action. The trail of bullets that scattered across the sky and drove into any unsuspecting body in its wake was almost beautiful in its own way.

  Protecting my face by shielding my eyes with my hands over the top of them I jumped through the shards of glass to the building with the shooter in it, and I landed on the floor below the one that the shooter was on. I climbed back up on the ledge and leaped the remaining few feet until I was standing right in front of the gunmen crouched like some kind of hidden tiger.

  “I see that conventional methods are not going to work. By the way, if any of those bullets had made contact with you, it would have burned like that of the sun inside your body. It may not have killed you, but it would have immobilized you.” He pressed something in his hand that I thought was a trigger. I was reaching for it when I felt like I wasn’t quite myself. “I just used a remote trigger to fire one of those bullets into your shoulder.” He had stubble for hair on his head and on his face. He looked a little bit too smug, and the way that I was teetering on the edge of that ledge was a good indication that he had done what he had inten
ded to do “I know exactly what you are. I’ve been tracking you for the last couple of days. I thought that what I saw in that blood bank was a mirage, but I’m not one to dwell on things.”

  I tried to speak, but nothing came out of my mouth. I lost my balance and fell into the building at his feet. I felt powerless and unable to fight back, as he looked down at me with disdain.

  “It’s nothing personal, but you are in the way. I admire that you want to help him to change his ways, but I don’t have any such delusions. You might think that it’s all about the money, and I suppose in some small part it is. For me, it’s the challenge. To catch him unaware in a building that was fortified was too delicious to pass up. It’s even better when I think about what the two of you are and how humanity is better off that you never see the light of day again. I believe that I’m doing humanity a favor, but it also gives me a bit of a thrill to know that I was the one that finally put down monsters like you.”

  I was clawing at his pant leg, and I could feel the fire burning throughout my body like a raging inferno. My skin was hot to touch, and I thought that I could perceive a bit of a glow like it was happening from the inside out. I actually believed for a second that my heart was beating quicker, but I didn’t have a heartbeat to begin with.

  “You think that you have all the power, but there’s always going to be someone that is going to take that away from you. Your friend Hiroko is my next target. You would think that there would be respect amongst those in our profession, but trust me there’s not. We would step over our own mother. It’s all about necessity, and that is what made me a great soldier. I have no conscience and believe me it’s not something that I have tried to covet. I don’t want that emotional entanglement.” He could’ve easily left me there to die slowly, but he had this innate need to rub salt into the wound.

  I tried to crawl away, but he kept knocking me back down to reality. He brought his army boot into my face, and those powers that I took for granted were no longer there. I took the full brunt and actually tasted my own blood. This was something that I wasn’t quite expecting and having that mortal feeling of life and death was not something that I had ever taken into consideration.

  “You may think that you are immortal, but everybody that bleeds dies eventually. You have just lived longer than others, but you’ve never had the likes of me hunting you down before. I find it ironic that somebody like you could be taken out, so easily by someone like me. Do you suppose that you might have missed a step or lost that edge that you had when you were first made?” It sounded like he knew who I was, but there was no way that he could. He couldn’t be more than 30 or late thirties at the very most.

  Every time that I tried to get up, he would knock me back down. I had no idea what Derek was doing, but the blue tooth in this man's ear told me that he was not alone. That meant that Derek was fending for himself. I had gone after the shooter not realizing that it was a ploy to get me alone. He expected me to attack, and I had fallen into the trap without even realizing what kind of mistake I was making.

  “You’re probably asking yourself why, but I think that I’ve already covered that. This is all about business, but there comes a personal pleasure for me. I’ve seen the look in a man’s eyes when their life is about to be extinguished. You are different, and you’ve lived many lives. Seeing your life drain will be the ultimate pleasure.” I didn’t feel like I was dying, but I was powerless to do anything in my own defense.

  I tried to reach down deep, but the fire burning throughout me was telling me to stay down. It was almost enough to make me succumb, but something of the vampire inside didn’t want that to happen. It said that I was not done. It did not want me to give this man the satisfaction of killing something like me. He was right, and I had lived a long time, and there was that small part that finally wanted to rest in peace. Fortunately, it was only a tiny part, and the rest of me was gearing up for the fight of its life.

  “You are a stubborn one, but I don’t think that Derek is going to survive without you. My people have already made it into the building and even though there were casualties, I consider it a small price to pay. Those security guards knew exactly what they were getting themselves into, regardless of the meager salary that they make. They knew deep down that eventually something was going to happen that they couldn’t contain. They probably didn’t think that my team would be their ultimate downfall. It's a shame because most of them have seen action in the field of battle. Being killed like that with no way to defend oneself has to be demoralizing.”

  He continually kicked me, and I could feel those steel toed boots cracking one bone at a time. Two of my ribs had become chicklets. He had somehow found my Achilles’ heel or maybe that, so called kryptonite that brought down Superman. I was a superpower, but this feeling of being only human was not something that I thought that I would ever feel again. I remembered that he was human himself, but he had the kind of deadly training that went a long way to making you think that you were outnumbered and overwhelmed.

  “I won’t let you do this…I won’t let this be the end.” I was saying all of this through clenched teeth. The pain was insurmountable for most, but I wasn’t like most people. I could draw that pain into my body and feed off it. It was a little like going back in time. I saw the killer in me about to reawaken in a different way. “I think that you have no idea what you’re doing. I will kill you, and I will make you suffer.” For him, it was an idle threat, but for me it was gospel.

  “You can’t even move. I’m surprised that you’re able to talk. I guess I’ve played with my food for long enough.” He walked back to his bag of goodies and picked out a long blade. He swung it around, but I could tell that he didn’t have the expertise to wield such a weapon of beauty and destruction. When he turned to face me with the blade gleaming with evil intentions, he got the surprise of his life.

  “I warned you, but you didn’t take heed.” I was standing and to him, it might have looked like an impossible task. I was barely standing, and I was showing a strength that I really didn’t feel. “Make sure that you make the kill, because you are only going to get that one shot.” I saw the grin of satisfaction on his face begin to fade. He was worried, and I was going to capitalize on that.

  Chapter 18

  “I suppose, I should’ve realized that I wasn’t dealing with an ordinary man. I thought I did my research, but it appears that I’ve underestimated you. That is on me. I won’t make that mistake again. I doubt that you are the only one that I’m going to see. I’m sure that there are others like you. I just need to find them.” I had always thought that there were more of my kind, but in the years that I had lived, there was no sign of any such thing. A glimmer of hope from Derek and the fact that he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing was definitely an eye-opening moment.

  “You don’t know me. I’m telling you that your best bet is to leave and never look back. Think of this, as a warning. I wouldn’t usually give one, but I see something of myself in your eyes. This is not personal for you and it’s only business. I don’t want you to do anything that you’re going to regret. I’m trying to be nice, but believe me, my patience is wearing thinner by the minute.” Showing him that I was serious, my eyes glowed red, and my fangs appeared with the bloodthirsty contortion of my face.

  I saw him swallow, but he did not let go of the blade. In fact, I think that his grasp had gotten even tighter. “You can’t be allowed to live. Something like you is a blight on humanity and must be excised quickly and efficiently.” For a guy that had no previous knowledge of my existence, he was certainly willing to stand up and not back down from a fight. This came from his obvious training in the military and the discipline that he had burned into his psyche from those men that thought that they could turn him into a killer.

  “I’m only going to tell you this one more time. I’m trying to turn the other cheek, but you’re making it awfully difficult for me to do that. You not only came after me, but you came after Derek and f
or that, I can never forget. Bring your blade, but I wouldn’t expect the results to go favorably for you.” The only weapons that I had were my long claws. My speed had been diminished, but I had been taught by some of the best how to defend myself in any situation.

  “If I have to die here today, then I will do it with a smile on my face. I’ve always believed that eventually something would be better than me, but I had no idea that it was going to be of a supernatural origin.” I was doing my best to keep him talking; so that I had more time to recuperate from what he had plunged into my veins. My body was already working overtime to expel that substance through my sweat glands. I was feeling a little bit of my strength coming back. There was no way that I was going to be at 100% by the time that he decided to strike.

  “I was thinking that you were talking just to hear yourself speak, but now I’m beginning to realize that you had a method to your madness. You think that by distracting me that you’re going to have enough time to mount some kind of defense. I commend you for making the effort, but this is an inevitable moment in your life. You think that I don’t take any pleasure in this, but that’s not exactly right. As warriors, I believe that we can both agree that the hunt and the kill are almost, as important as each other.” I’d been in my fair share of battles in the years leading up to this moment, but I had never felt, so weak and powerless in my life.