Crimson Claws & Fangs ch.08

    Mike awakens to find himself human once more and lying on a red couch in a small room with a table nearby. Sitting at the table is a grey skinned man Mike vaguely recognizes from some Order book, he can’t place the name or species but he knows it’s a vampire. Mike shakes his head as he sits up remembering everything he, or rather the demon he became did the night before. Mike vomits thinking about it.

    The vampire sitting at the table says smugly, “He just ruined the new carpet I had placed in here.” Through a red veil like curtain to the room two female Moroii vampires enter, dressed like night club strippers. One says to the grey skinned vampire, “Would you care to just my lord Count Fontaine. We were ever so lonely.”

     Count Fontaine turns to Mike as he stands, “Would you care to join me…”, “Hmm, it seems I have yet to learn your name.” Mike stands uneasy to his feet and says, “My name is Mike, Mike King.” As they walk out of the room Mike is bombarded by the sights and sounds of a nightclub, whose music had been somehow shielded by the cloth separating the smaller room from the rest of the club. Mike looks down from the upper walkway where the VIP rooms are located to the dance floor and bar below to see that everyone is dressed in Goth attire.

    Count Fontaine looks like and chuckles, “Vamp wannabes make for an excellent cover for real vampires, and there is no shortage of blood donors amongst the blood fetishists. The pondering in the back of Mike’s mind recalls the name “Count Fontaine” and seeing a World War II photo of him, which looked almost exactly like the man before him. Mike says, “I remember the name Count Fontaine, a vampire the Order of the Knights of the Golden Cross encountered in World War II, but the same book said he was slain back then as well.”

   Count Fontaine thinks, “Now who is this man to know such a thing,” before saying, “Yes, I am him. That order did not slay me. I was defeated by…another monster. However twenty years ago I was freed from the hellish confinement that monster placed me in by an ancient reptilian vampire named Danagan. The ones in charge of him also appointed me to watch over the Las Angelus branch of the Vampire Society. Mike thinks, “Las Angelus, well at least I know where I am.”

    Count Fontaine leads Mike to a door that leads to an outside balcony, they are much further up in a skyscraper than Mike had thought given the goth nightclub inside, “an exclusive high rise goth night club” thinks Mike as Count Fontaine offers him a seat at the balcony table. Fontaine himself sits down in a large lavish chair with his two Moroii girls sitting on either side of him fawning over him. Count Fontaine offers Mike a glass of blood, Mike politely refuses.

   “Of course.” Says Fontaine, “My mistake, you are a Toori-Ma after all.”
Mike asks, “What is a Toori-Ma, and why wouldn’t one accept human blood?” Count Fontaine looks confused for a second but figures his guest must be testing him, “The Toori-Ma of course are a breed of vampires that originated in Japan, somewhat related to the Aku-Ma. Invincible humans by day, and monstrous demons by night. Creatures that feed on the blood of dark hearted humans.” Fontaine leans forward with his chin on his hands with a broad smile, “Now how wouldn’t you know all that? Toori-Ma after all are born that way, they can’t turn others.”
    Mike says, “I’m guessing from all that you thought I was testing you, well I wasn’t. I wasn’t born a Toori-Ma, I was cursed by a giant werewolf like monster that called its self Rhuen. Mike is surprised as the two Moroii girls gasp and look at Fontaine as his face becomes stern and his voice serious, “Rhuen, well I guess that bastard would be able to do something like that. You see the monster I mentioned that actually defeated me during the Second World War was in fact none other than Rhuen. It seems we have a common enemy.”

     “Well Mike, how would you like to work for me as an enforcer? I have work I suspect you wouldn’t find very objectionable. Keeping an eye on the human donors and the vampires feeding on them. To make sure the vampires don’t kill or overfeed on any of the donors, and most certainly don’t start to stalk any of the donors. And in return I will help you to get your revenge on that monster Rhuen.”

   Mike thinks, “I don’t know how to kill Rhuen, but the records back in the Vatican do list a way to kill a NeunToter as this Count Fontaine seems to be. So long as I kill this vampire later it shouldn’t be a problem to learn any secrets it might have about how to kill something like Rhuen, and I would only be killing vampires stalking and killing humans & humans who are in line to become vampires. Not to mention I would get a perfect opportunity to see how the Vampire Society really works.” “I’ll do it.” Says Mike to Count Fontaine’s approval.

     Inside down at the bar by the dance floor two figures stand, spying on the conversation between Mike and Count Fontaine via a telepathic spying ability. One is a man in a long black trench coat with a long black pony tail. This pale blue eyed man is none other than Rhuen himself, and beside him is a teenage boy looking much like Rhuen, only with shoulder length hair and wearing a shorter black leather coat. This second figure is none other than Rhuen’s son Rish who thanks to their kind’s somewhat unfair life cycle is nearly fully grown despite his young age. Rish is making to clear sign that he is there with his father as he is busy flirting with a Goth chick nearby. Rhuen sends a mental message to his offspring, “This shall be your test, you are to return to this bar each night and keep an eye on Fontaine and Mike King.” Rish responds back with his mind, “Return here, with these delicious imported beers, supple human women, and all I have to do is watch a pair of blood suckers? No problem.”