Nightwalker Chapter 6

Night had set in, and with it, the fog came too. Grey tendrils seemingly rose from the rivers that criss-crossed the city and spread out like a bed of serpents being called to action. Oblivious to this was Reggie, who was lying down on the roof of a parking complex. With his hands behind his head as he hummed to himself, He stared at the stars above, trying not to think of where Lev could be or how he was faring. I don’t know how I’m going to talk my way out of this if I find him again, he thought to himself.

“There the hell you are, you sunova!” a man exclaimed as he stormed over to Reggie, who sat up and clambered to his feet. “You’re freaking lucky you’re so good at your job or else I’d throw your sorry ass off of this roof, I swear on my mother!” The man added as he stopped in front of Reggie and poked him aggressively in the chest.

Reggie looked at the man in confusion. “Huh, you said to meet up here.” He responded.

The man exhaled and rubbed at his face in anger. “Most people would park their freaking car up here and stand by it, not park somewhere else, walk up here, walk over to the edge of the freaking building, and lie down in silence like they’re having a god damn picnic!” the man growled as he dropped a large duffel bag at Reggie’s feet. “The products in there, you’ll get paid for this WHEN I get word you manage to deliver it.” The man said as he turned and walked off.

“Ugh, alright, thanks, Charlie!” Reggie called out as he watched the man named Charlie leave.

Charlie stopped and began to turn, but instead waved his hand behind him in disgust and kept walking. “The hell is wrong with you, no names, you cornball!” he shouted before disappearing into his car and driving off.

Reggie shrugged and grabbed the handles of the duffel bag, wheezing as he lugged it up onto his shoulder. “Man, there’s enough in here to pacify a small town.” He muttered as he ambled his way towards the elevator in the centre of the building.

Reggie stepped out of the old, beaten-up elevator onto the fifth floor of the parking garage. As he walked through the almost full parking lot, he looked around anxiously, feeling like he was being watched.

“Oh man.” He muttered under his breath as he spotted his van in the distance and walked faster. Reggie sighed as he stopped in front of the rear doors of his van and dropped the bag on the ground to get his keys from his jacket pocket.

Reggie opened up the doors with one hand while reaching down for the duffel bag with the other. He lugged it up into the back of the van and exhaled. As he reached for one of the doors, he froze as he noticed something move inside his van, and he exclaimed, "Holy crap!" as he fell backwards and threw his hands up over his face. The figure inside moved towards him, and a head appeared under the light of the parking complex

"L-Lev?" Reggie stammered in equal parts, confusion and relief. "H-how did you find me?" he asked before adding desperately "N-not that I was trying to ditch you or anything, but I uh got called on urgent business and, and they took longer than usual and I-i"

Lev hopped out of the van and held out his hand to help Reggie up. "Yeah, it's alright, I think I can get the gist of it," Lev muttered.

"Damn dude, you look like crap, what happened?" Reggie exclaimed as he saw Lev in the lighting of the parking lot. His friend's clothing was torn in multiple places from top to bottom, like he had been fighting a lawnmower. Further to that, almost any patch of visible skin on Lev was covered in scratches and dried blood.

"You should see the other thing," Lev replied, which, given his fried nerves and need for a painkiller or three, was the best attempt at humour he could muster.

The pair were sitting in the front of Reggie's van and having just finished bringing his friend up to speed on what had happened since they saw each other last, Lev sighed and pointed out the front window, "Fortunate then, that you are parked right across from the next port of call on this odyssey, isn't it?" Reggie looked over at the bright neon-covered building that was unmistakably 'the diamond palace'

"Huh, that's convenient....You don't think the mafia guys I'm running....stuff, for are vampires, do you?" Reggie asked shortly, followed by a gulp.

"I think they are probably in there right now, having a grand old time," Lev answered as he willed his aching body to move and got out of the van, plodding over to the railing of the parking lot to get a better look at the building.

"So what's the plan then?" Reggie asked as he hopped out and hurried over to Lev

“You can do whatever you got yourself mixed up in, I guess I’m going to scope out this ‘diamond palace’ place,” Lev said as he leaned over the rail to see what was going on in the alleyway between the two buildings.

Reggie paused for a moment before shaking his head. “Screw it, that can wait.” He answered. “I got plenty of time to deliver that,” Reggie added as he ran back to his van to find painkillers for his friend.

“Holy crap, what is this?” Reggie exclaimed from inside the van as he found the 'vora carrion' sitting on his van bed and ran a hand along its old leather bindings. “This thing looks, feels, and…. smells satanic.” He added, stopping for a second to smell the book.

“The blue slip of paper is on the page of interest to my current situation,” Lev said as he wandered back to the van and graciously accepted the bottle of painkillers Reggie was holding out of the driver's door for him.

Reggie thumbed the book open to the pages with a blue slip of paper wedged between, and his eyes instantly widened in trepidatious excitement, “Look at all this! This is like finding out Santa is real after all!" he exclaimed in ecstasy.

“Shh, be quiet for a second.” Lev muttered as he looked over in the direction of the 'diamond palace’

Reggie pursed his lips and put the book down to follow Lev over to the edge. “What is it?” he whispered.

Down below, Lev saw the cause of the sound he had heard a moment ago; sitting by a side door to the 'diamond palace' were a couple of women who were smoking, judging by their attire or lack thereof, they worked inside. Gathered around them was a group of four men who sounded to be rather drunk and were making not-so-subtle passes at the women. Reggie sucked his teeth in annoyance, "gotta hate people that can't handle their alcohol or know when to stop. Do we get down there to help the ladies out?" he asked.

Lev tensed as he saw one of the men grab the arm of one of the women and try to bring her with him. "Shit!" Lev exclaimed, "No way we get down there in time," he said as he looked around for an external ladder to make for a quicker descent.

Before the situation could grow any more dire, the side door of the diamond palace was flung open, and a lone man came out. The drunk man who had a hold of the woman let go of her, but when he and his group saw this new arrival seemed to be alone, they began to circle him.

"Uh oh," Reggie muttered as he watched on. Two of the drunk men rushed what Lev and Reggie assumed was a bouncer; the bouncer sidestepped the pair and grabbed one of them by the head, and although they couldn't hear it, the visual was sound enough for the snapping of the man's neck. "Holy shit." Lev gasped as he watched the man fall to the ground, his chest flat on the pavement, his face looking up at the sky.

The remaining three drunkards quickly scattered in terror, but the bouncer whistled three times loud enough that even Lev and Reggie could hear. "Oh no... We gotta go!" Lev muttered in dread as he recognised the sound.

As the pair backed away from the rail, Lev's heart almost stopped as the bouncer looked up and directly at him, a smile on his face. Reggie, on the other hand, was looking in open-mouthed horror at three figures that were bounding across the diamond palace's roof towards where the bouncer and the fleeing men were to be found.

"A-are those?" Reggie stammered as the pair hurried into the van.

"Uh-huh," Lev exclaimed as he slammed the makeshift lock down on his passenger door.

"What do we do?" Reggie asked as he put the keys in the ignition. "Lay low up here, or hit the bricks and get out of here?"

A stressed Lev rubbed one hand over his jaw as he weighed up their options. "I swear he looked up at us, but does that mean he's gonna send them up here for us..."

"I suggest you stay put," a voice calmly spoke from the back of the van, which made Reggie throw his door open and throw himself from the van in terror.

"Aw hell, dude!" Reggie wailed as he sat with his back against a car parked three spots over, making a cross sign with his fingers.

Lev slowly turned and saw the person from the library kneeling with one hand on the vora carrion. "Uh, how about now?" he asked as he looked out at Reggie.

"Call your friend back in, the mongrels will be busy with those corpses for a while yet," the person answered.

Reggie sat bolt upright in the driver's seat, his eyes staring forward as he suddenly found himself not so ecstatic at the reality of vampires. "W-w-whats your n-name, sir or m-madam?" he asked his newest passenger without turning his head.

"Ulaq," the stoic figure said bluntly.

Reggie turned his head slightly and gulped, "Uh, e-excuse me?"

"My name is Ulaq. I was, a long time ago, from Tuva." Ulaq further answered.

Lev looked at Ulaq and asked gingerly, "A-are you a vampire?"

Ulaq smirked slightly at the question, revealing the slightest hint of a fang poking from under his lip. "Correct," he answered. Reggie whimpered and hunched his shoulders up to cover his neck as best he could.

"I'm not here to harm either of you, quite the opposite. As you can attest, Lev." Ulaq said as he looked at Lev with a cold stare.

"Y-yes, how did you know I was there and that those things would come after me?" Lev responded.

"I've been keeping an eye on you for some time now. The woman you're after is quite the big deal in the vampire world," Ulaq answered, which only gave Lev more questions than answers.

Reggie, having calmed himself a modicum after being told of his safety, relaxed into his seat and let out a long sigh. Lev looked at his friend, then back at Ulaq. "Ok, so, if Jessica is a big deal and you've been watching over me, then you work for her or something?" he asked, to which Ulaq shook his head.

"No? Th-then what?" a perplexed Lev asked.

Ulaq sighed before he answered, "I seek to put her down... Her and those she has fallen in with." Lev's eyes widened, and he tensed in anger.

"You can't be serious! What kind of sick joke is this!"

Ulaq shook his head, "She is not a human anymore, you're better off thinking of the woman you knew... As being dead. Because the reality is that she died ten years ago and was turned into something worse than death."

Seeing Lev was currently battling too many conflicting emotions to continue the conversation, Reggie cleared his throat, "So, you're like a vampire that hunts vampires?" he asked.

"Not really, my entire tribe was wiped out by a vampire, and I was the only one unlucky enough to be turned into... This. My original goal was to wipe out the sect of vampires responsible for the deaths of my tribe." Ulaq explained.

Reggie raised an eyebrow, "B-but something has changed?" he asked, still scared of drawing Ulaq's ire.

"Yes, something has changed," Ulaq replied bluntly.

"And whatever that is, has you wanting to kill my fiancé?" came Lev's pointed response.

"She is no longer you're fiancé, your fiancé is dead and gone," a calm Ulaq answered back. "I have something I must do before sunrise. I will meet you at your former home tomorrow night, I can give you a more thorough explanation then. I'll watch your exit to ensure the mongrels do not follow, now go," he added before exiting the back of the van.

Reggie slumped over the wheel and exclaimed, "Well, damn."