My Precious Nightmare

Chapter 29: Fight Club

For once, Aster didn't challenge the older vampire. It didn't take his ten years of people reading experience in the fast track business world to see the percolating darkness that hadn't been there before making the shorter man's eyes glow even in the excess light of the room.

Aster Morianton was the opposite of stupid, after all. Not even his pride could rob him of that. He could see that something had changed in the vampire, maybe even unhinged, since the girls had left. And despite the irritating, but harmless, bouncy ball harassment in the kitchen, Aster was still hyper aware of the fact that this person could kill him before he could even begin to put up a fight. The only reason he had been able to harm him before was because he had been sniping him from a helicopter.

There was still Lane to worry about as well.

So, he led the man to his personal gym on the ground floor.

Still, it was irritating when Husani was unimpressed by Aster's black belts in five different martial arts.

"Vampires don't have the weak points that humans do. A man you can punch in the gut or the kidney and he'll be down. With a vampire, all those organs have become elastic and tough so it's like punching a bag of bones and water. Not to mention with the hyper healing in play, the body isn't as quick to respond with pain, since it's unnecessary."

Husani had approached him then, and Aster actually had to force himself not to flinch or fall into an attack position. They hadn't turned on the light the gym, having eyes that would do better without it, but Aster had begun to reconsider that choice as the darkness only gave the glow of the other's eyes more character and detail.

Aster could see hatred boiling there. Pure, cold, malicious hatred.

It hadn't been there before. Irritation, yes, but not hatred.

"Show me your fighting stance."

Aster did so, loathing how dry his mouth had become.

"Keep this up and you won't have to see the ball," said Husani, bright eyes bouncing from point to point on Aster's body. "Yes. Balance is still the same. But strength—widen your stance. It will feel strange, but you can trust your body to hold it now, and you're going to need the extra leverage. Now, the only weak points on a vampire's body are the eyes and throat. Don't even bother with a knee to the crotch, the sexual organs are all but atrophied on most, but the throat gains enough nerve endings to more than make up for that. There are a lot of sensors there. Having all your targets up high is another reason for the widened stance. The eyes have also gained more nerves, becoming more sensitive. Hit the eyes and throat, swipe out their feet, then go for the heart. That's the most basic strategy I can teach you for today."

Aster smirked, confident it betrayed none of his apprehension. "So, your balls are shriveled up? That sucks."

The red eyes came back to his face. Every muscle in Aster's body tensed.

"Let's begin."

Aster had prepared himself for pain—for a bit of the hatred burning in the other's gaze to find an outlet on his still healing self. But to his surprise, the older vampire was almost gentle in his teachings. The strength he used against Aster was carefully measured and controlled to be just enough to stop, but not enough to harm. Even when Aster made a snide remark and ended up on his back, the bright red eyes boring holes into his prostrate figure, Husani only held out a hand and helped him to his feet.

It wasn't till the first morning light peeked through the curtains and Aster's thirst became mind numbing that it clicked.

Husani didn't hate him. He hated what he was.

That same hatred was also directed at Husani himself. He loathed what they had become with a passion deep enough to spike his bloodlust so much his eyes nearly shone like stars in the dark exercise room.

Lane replaced Husani with a cooler of blood bags. Aster dove into it, burning with shame when he couldn't even control his desperate pants. As the plastic once more broke beneath his fangs, he couldn't help but think that at least Husani and he had one thing in common.

"It's been crazy busy tonight," said Lane, squatted down next to the cooler. "Five more people have died, this time around a morgue in the basement of a hospital. They got video footage of people who were supposed to be corpses sprinting out in the nude. There's also a rumor on the internet that the hospital has had a lot of cases of patients who were brought in with low blood volume and nurses being attacked."

Aster inhaled the last bit of the blood and tossed the empty bag. "How many?" He reached for another and remembered the velvet soft feel of Sky's wrist. The plastic felt like metal against his gums in comparison.

"An exact number wasn't included in the rumor, but there's speculation of everything between half a dozen to almost fifty." He brought out the tablet he had been keeping in a small side satchel as he moved the cooler. "I got a new clip I think you might find funny, at least."

He tapped it on and turned the screen to face Aster. A clean cut newsman, a bit pale and dark eyed, read off insistence after insistence from the fire department to the world class experts that there was simply no such thing as vampires and it would be impossible for vampires to have done any of these things. A disease or a madman or even a collective prank, but not vampires.

Lane was right. It was funny. Hilarious, even.

"So..." Lane tapped the screen, and for the first time Aster picked up excitement in his brother.

"So what?" he asked.

"What are we going to do about it?"

That was also funny. "I am not Batman, nor am I ever going to be Batman."

Lane grinned. "Oh, come on. You're even a vampire now, it's too good. And if we don't do anything, there's no saying if there's even going to be any humans left in San Diego."

"Then we'll give what we know to the police and they can do something." He tossed aside the now empty blood bag and took a moment to decide if he should have another. His blood thirst still murmured, but he couldn't take any more of that damn plastic.

"They're not going to believe it until it's probably too late," said Lane.

"That's their issue."

Lane rolled his eyes so hard, his head went along with it.

"You're badass routine doesn't work on me, bro. Did you tell Husani about any of this?"

Aster closed the cooler. "Nope."

"Seriously?"

Aster stretched hard to the left. His back gave a satisfying pop. "Ugh, I'm beat. Check up on security for me, will you? I'm heading to bed."

"What about Sky?"

This made Aster stop. "What about her?"

"She's out there in all this. She's even in the kind of neighborhood where the attacks have been happening."

Aster started to turn to stare at his brother, then stopped, irritated with himself for reacting at all. Sky Martinez was nothing. Not only that, but she was one in three million. What were the chances the dozen or so newborn vampires in this city would find her out of the lot?

"If you were worried, why did you let her go?" he asked instead.

"Well I couldn't very well stop her." Something like pain passed over Lane's face before he did away with it just as a good business man should. "She's terrified of us."

The memory of Sky in front of a window filled with red sunlight, hand on her hip, shoulders thrown back in triumph, rose to Aster's mind. She had looked fearless, then. Reckless.

"That's how it goes," he said.

He only half heard himself.