The Vampire & the Rebel (Completed)

Part 1: Chapter 28

A bunch of computer language gibberish ran across the screen in front of my eyes as the system loaded up. I was spending yet another day in the archives looking for the identity of that demon bloodsucker that had killed Melissa.

Every morning, I had hope, but by the time I finished up to go participate in training my hopes were dashed again.

It was taking even longer than it had the previous time, because the council leeches had added a lot of new vampires to the system since the last heist. I hoped they were only adding data and not that that many new vampires had been created in the last half century, a horrible thought.

The leech had been right about one thing that I certainly did not want more vampires in the world. Forget less additional vampires, less total vampires was definitely the way to go.

I pushed aside my impatience as I waited for the login screen to load. Wyatt had set me up with a username and password and Henry had shown me how to get into the system myself, so I had basically free reign.

The entry fields came up and I typed in my username, LHuman and my password, allhailmyMistress and hit enter. I certainly not been given a choice as to what they were and I did not know who had picked them, but it was obvious that someone was still trying to get under my skin. It might have been her, or it might have been her faithful toadies enthusiastically helping her.

Either way, I did not complain. I had bigger concerns than her frivolous games.

And as much as she apparently adored annoying me, she mostly left me alone besides. As she said, I likely fared better under her physically than I would have under another vampire, except for the defenses holding me inside her home, but that was a problem for later.

The computer finished loading and I moved back to where I had left off alphabetically.

As a boy, I had not wanted to sit and learn to read when I could have been out learning to hunt and fight, but I had to admit that it was useful now. Rusty at first, as I had read through entry after entry the memories of lessons when my mother could make time had began to come back. I silently thanked my parents for forcing the issue, for doing everything in their power to ensure my survival.

I clicked on my first entry of the day, a female leech named Grace. She had that slightly sadistic expression I saw so commonly on the faces of leeches in my experience. I quickly scanned through her entry and discovered that she was only a little older than I was currently.

As a new vampire, I would be able to take her out relatively easily if I tried.

The next entry was a male leech named Max Grant. Most vampires seemed to go by a single name as if one name was enough to cover their grandiose egos, but there were exceptions. I had noticed many of the older ones also had recorded aliases.

I studied Grant's face, as wrong as the rest of them. He was not my quarry. I read through his file, he was another leech sired during the human suppression wars.

With a groan I moved onto the next, Graves.

Fitting name for an undead monstrosity. I went into the entry, half expecting that Graves would be Melissa's murder, but I was immediately disappointed to see a feminine face looking back at me instead of the picture burned into my brain.

My frustration was mounting. I scanned the entry and quickly moved onto the next.

At the light crack of the door opening, I paused and listened. The footsteps grew louder, easily heard over the soft electronic hum.

"I was looking for you."

My roommate's voice echoed in the cave like room. I turned in my chair and looked at him expectantly.