wl_fanfiction | Casefiles of a Vampire 1: 4/10? (Reply)

A/N: Can has story tag for this, pretty please?

4

The thing about driving is, when you do it late at night, when the Witching Hour is at its peak, people are most susceptible to the Whispers. I’d only found out about them recently myself, but it turns out that those little sounds, kind of like whispers but you can never really hear words? Those are the low level vibrations of people’s thoughts. No one knows why some are able to be heard or not, or even why they’re there, but they get to you, if you let them.

Especially when you’re driving from midnight to 3, but it’s only after 3 that the night goes truly silent, even the Whispers. When everything’s asleep except for your nightmares. That’s when we, when they, and when he walks. The curly-haired man with the dark, dark eyes who turned my life into hell for four years and by my own hand. Once upon a time.

I felt his eyes searching for me in the dark, felt the prickle, and cast about desperately for another topic of thought. As always, my mind fell on Ryan. Though not, as one might have expected, on the thought of his mortality. Instead, kind of like swerving on a road and over-compensating, I thought back to when we first met.

The dark, searching eyes faded away, and I felt my face crease in a small, growing smile.

When we had been younger, when we’d first met, I knew he was going to be in my life for a very long time… hell, since the moment I first laid eyes on him, waiting tables under Richard’s hawklike gaze.

At the time I’d been working for the NCP Fuzz, walking a beat when someone had run into the street and told me there was a bar fight going on in the Admiral’s Arms, Richard’s place.

I was through the door in a shot, but stopped more like a bullet into a wall. The smoke in the place made me gag at first, my untrained lungs spasming at the invading fog, my eyes watering to see past it. The stuff seemed happy to hover at face level, just for me, but as I bent down, I found the source of my summons.

Two guys had pinned what looked like a walking hat rack to their table, and were happily pouring beers down his throat, laughing as the poor guy fought not to drown. “Like that? Like that, yeh little bastard? Didn’t think so! So now you’ll think twice about bringing us warm beers!” The larger of the two men snarled, even as his friend glanced behind them to see me standing there fuming, and tapped his shoulder. “What?!” he turned and paled when he saw me. “Hullo officer… uh, just having a good time… with the boy… right boy?” he snarled down at the coat hanger of a guy, who gagged wetly.

“Don’t answer son,” I snapped, my voice a tad deeper, I’ll admit it. “Let him go and get out, or it’s a trip to the pen for the both of you!” I snarled, poking them in the chest with my baton.

They shifted around me and hustled out of the bar with sulky glares, leaving me feeling about 15 feet tall and made of bricks before they all came crashing down on my head. I would have toppled over if the coat rack hadn’t thrown out a hand to keep me upright. “You okay, sir?” he coughed, blinking beer out of his eyes.

“Yeah,” I nodded, “Though I should be asking you that.”

He grimaced, looking down at his clothes and ran a hand through his soaked hair, flicking his hand and spraying suds. “I’ll be fine, but boy, what a heck of a first day.”

“Me too, just started yesterday,” I laughed, and he glanced over at me and grinned cheekily. I stuck out my hand. “Colin Mochrie.”

He looked around trying to find something to wipe it off on, but finding nothing, he shrugged. I took his hand and shook it anyway. He grinned. “Ryan Stiles. Listen, I know it’s just part of the job but thanks for saving my skin.”

“As beer soaked as it is,” I snorted. “And you’re right, it’s just a job.”

We rose and I picked up his fallen tray for him as he gathered the spilled glasses. “Thank god none of them broke, sorry folks, or Richard would have had my head. Damn, you’d have thought that, in an Englishman’s pub, they’d know that some of the beer is served warm,” he spat.

“Well, the blue collar isn’t much for broadening horizons,” I grinned. He laughed outright, the first time I’d ever heard him truly laugh. At the time, I couldn’t figure out why that sound made me flush from head to toe with warmth. At the time, it was just some curious thing that fell by the wayside.

I followed the tall, tall man - 6’6”! - through the crowd of rowdy labor men, nodding respectfully, and found out that Ryan was indeed as new as he’d said. However, when heckled, he would merely smile and nod, his eyes to the ground. Once he offloaded his tray and disappeared up to the room he rented from Richard, I glanced at the clock on the far wall.

“Almost time to knock off, Mochrie?” Richard asked, taking the tray of glasses and pushing it into the kitchen through the wall slot.

“You know Richard, miraculously, it is,” I grinned, sweeping off my hat and setting my baton on the bar. I sat and waited with Richard while Ryan changed. “So what’s this kid’s story?” I asked as I cupped the pint he sat in front of me. You could stand a match in the head, it was so thick. Richard always did have the best beer.

“Well, I’d tell you, but it’s his story now, isn’t it,” he smiled at me with his strange shark-like eyes and quiet, kind smile. “All I can tell you is he’s got a wicked sense of humor that you only see when he isn’t all shy like.”

“He’s shy?” I asked, my eyebrows rising to my receding hairline. It was already beginning to turn white and thinning up top, and I was only 32.

“You didn’t notice?” Richard raised his eyebrows too, drawing another pint for a customer. “He must like you.”

I flushed. “That’s a strange reaction, since my uniform makes young fellows such as him dislike me.”

“You’re a young fellow too, Mochrie, despite how you were raised, and besides, this guy is smarter than he looks.”

“You guys talking about me?” Ryan asked, sidling up next to me in a dry waiter’s uniform and pulling a tray out of the shelf to be filled with drinks.

“Yeah, I was telling Officer Mochrie here that I should fire you for bein’ such a louse,” Richard drawled, eyes twinkling merrily as he filled a table’s orders and put them on Ryan’s tray.

“Aw, why you gotta be a dick, Boss?” Ryan asked, grinning nervously at his own daring.

I laughed, patting his back. “Don’t worry Ry, he’s just pulling your leg.”

“I certainly hope so,” Ryan said smartly, flushing slightly. “Hey, thanks again for rescuing my tail for me, Officer.”

“Meh, call me Colin, I’m off duty,” I shrugged, raising my pint and taking a swallow. Ahhh, nice and bitter.

“Okay, Colin it is,” Ryan beamed at me.

Having that smile and those twinkling gray-greens directed at me made me blush and duck my head, taking a larger swallow of beer than I’d meant to. Thankfully Ryan was already off with his tray passing out the drinks so he didn’t see me choking on the beer.

Richard was watching me from across the bar, a knowing smirk on his face.

I didn’t know what it meant at the time, that smirk, but now, I suppose he knew exactly what was happening even back then.

The bastard.

I pulled into the small parking space underneath the massive willow tree that guarded the entrance to Jeff’s home and walked down the flight of stone steps into the unknown mausoleum, cracking my knuckles before I opened the iron gate and shut it, going down yet more steps to the solid ironwood door and knocked.

The door opened on well-oiled hinges, and I was treated with a vision of a woman with bright blonde hair, dark brown eyes and a lithe figure covered in a creamy gauze-like, horribly and wonderfully inadequate dress. “Hello Angela, lovely as always,” I smiled down at her, and she ducked her head in pleasure at me. But she wasn’t the one who had opened the door for me. I noticed a familiar face in that mountain of stone colored flesh with beautiful, iridescent patches of scales. “I know you, don’t I?”

“I threw you into a wall once upon a time,” It murmured, shutting the door with ease.

I recognized that voice instantly. That voice, I had no problem with. It was absolutely beautiful, rich, gravelly and smooth, sounding like two boulders dipped in chocolate being rubbed together. He’d been a favorite of the old King vampire, and what a real piece of work she’d been. “Good heavens, what the hell are you doing here?” I took a step back as it grinned.

“Now Mr. Mochrie, you must be polite to our guests, even if there is some history between the two of you. He is here as part of Ambassador Dia’s entourage,” Angela said reproachfully, laying a hand on my arm.

“Who’s Ambassador Dia?” I asked, not quite taking my eyes off of the living mountain, who was still grinning at me, arms crossed and hips cocked, more like a saucy teenage flapper than a 13 foot tall ogre who could crush me like a tin trash can.

“The representative sent on behalf of the Queen of Deep Winter.”

I blinked down at her. “Weren’t they the ones who were on Maxine’s side when we first met?”

“Indeed.”

“When young Master Jeff set us free and allowed us to return to our homeland, our Queen realized that feelings may have been strained by our last encounter. She sent us in good faith so make sure that all was well,” the mountain rumbled.

I gave him the fish eye and nodded hesitantly. “Okay… I guess that’s a good thing. Well, in that case, welcome back, hope it’s been well with you?”

The thing bowed, but of course, it being so tall it didn’t look like he bowed more like a mountain sent an avalanche towards me but stopped halfway. “It has been a change, Master Mochrie.”

I raised an eyebrow before sighing. “No master stuff, please… what is your name?”

“Why?”

“So I know what it is when I talk to you,” I blinked.

It smiled. “Hwee.”

Hwee? This terrifying behemoth’s name was Hwee? Whatever. “Nice to meet you, now if you’ll excuse me, I need to speak with Jeff. Where is he?”

Angela gave me directions and I left with a last glance at Hwee, who kept watching me. It was vaguely irritating and definitely unnerving as hell.

In the grand hall, the usual amount of vampires stood chatting quietly with what looked like the rest of Ambassador Dia’s entourage. The fairies were brightly colored and richly dressed in classic designs as well as the latest fashions, and a vague aura floated about them. It must have been the glamour that they were so known for back in their heyday. A few vampires looked my way but quickly dropped their gaze when I turned to look back at them. The fairies continued to watch me curiously as the chattering died down just a little.

I tipped my hat to the visitors. I guess I’d done the right thing since they bowed back to me, pleased, and I continued on my way down to Jeff’s private meeting rooms.

I had to stop though, because of a large, very intimidating fairy between me and the door. “Uh… hi…” He didn’t answer, just continued to stand between me and the door. “I’d like to see Jeff, is he in there?”

“He’s speaking with the Ambassador,” he muttered. What a sour puss, but then I figured I’d be rather sour, too, if I was the color of pink roses and had curly, and very pink hair down to my ass. “I’ll announce you.”

“Oh you don’t have to, I’ll wait,” I sighed, looking around for a chair but finding none, I settled for leaning against the wall. And I could not stand the silence. “So… you’re a fairy.” He gave me a look. “Of course you are… is there a specific name, for what kind of fairy you are?”

“Sidhe.”

“Sidhe… neat… I’ve only met a few before now, read about ‘em, you, in books though but… never one so… pink.” That earned me a look that should have melted me into my boots. I’d have opened my mouth again to save some face, though I would doubtlessly have only dug myself into a bigger hole, when the door opened to reveal a gorgeous, slim woman with wavy, deep green hair and the palest skin that was green if you looked close enough, with eyes that were the pale pink of water lilies.

“Oh um, you must be Ambassador Dia?” I swept off my hat and offered my hand, flushing down at her.

She smiled quietly, though it didn’t reach her eyes and she took my hand daintily. “And you must be the White Ghost we’ve heard so much about.” She looked me up and down. “From what Hwee spoke of you, I would expect you to have a little more…” She searched for the words.

“Hair?” I offered, fingering my hat, smiling and flushing at the look Jeff was giving me. He rolled his eyes and I fought not to laugh.

She did, however, surprising all of us with the bright, clear sound. “I was going to say ‘arrogance’, but that would have been rude. However, you have a valid point. I’ve never seen a vampire like yourself.”

“I have the virtue of being unique, I suppose,” I shrugged, smiling awkwardly. I was never comfortable about talking about myself.

She smiled like she was in on a good joke. “I’ll let you in on a little something, though. We’ve been around for many thousands of years. We’ve seen a multitude of interesting things, especially in the court of the Deep Dark Cold. But it’s you… you who impressed Hwee.”

The words sounded like high praise, but I didn’t quite understand why. “Um, all I did was get thrown into a wall by… it?”

“He,” she corrected, smiling. “He spoke of your glamour, Mr. Mochrie, and I’m beginning to understand what he meant.”

I frowned. “I don’t have any glamour, that’s a fairy thing, isn’t it?”

“Not always. You have something about you that has tamed every hardened leader in this city. Mr. Carey is a mob boss for his humans, and you don’t get that way out of the kindness of your heart. Yet he treats you as someone worth smiling and laughing with. Master Jeff has a long, hard history and has seen a great deal of tragedy in it’s many forms, and yet,” she looked me up and down, “He laughs with you. True laughter. You seem to strip away his jaded exterior without crippling him. You’ve made the King wolf of Chicago call you Brother and mean it.” She nodded, smiling even as my ears turned red. “What is that if not a kind of glamour?”

“It’s just being polite, honestly,” I tried to laugh this all off, but she gave me a look telling me not to kid myself.

“But of course,” she gave me a little bow, letting me win the argument even though we both knew she was just letting me win. “However, I believe you’re a truly good man. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must speak with my people.” She nodded to Jeff and myself before leaving, the pink soldier trailing after her.

“Now that’s an interesting lady,” I said as we watched her go.

“She is,” Jeff nodded, making it sound like I had no idea. I probably didn’t. It was usually the case anyway, so I just grinned and followed him into his office. “What can I do for you, dear friend?”

“Well, actually I was wondering if you could help me with a case,” I said, setting my hat down and sitting in front of his immense black teak desk, looking over at the painting of himself and the plump blonde woman with the child on her knee.

“Well, it’s been a while since we were last on a case together, our excursion to Germany notwithstanding,” he said, sitting behind his desk and propping his feet up on the black lacquer.

I stiffened at the mention of Germany but ignored it. “Well, I have no idea if you’d be any help or not since it’s not your culture, but an account from someone who was around for part of that civilization would help.” he waived me on, looking faintly amused. “I need to know if you’ve ever met or heard of anyone meeting a Valkyrie.”

He arched an eyebrow, amusement gone. Apparently whatever he’d been expecting me to ask, this wasn’t it. “Valkyries? Norse Valkyries?”

“Yup.”

“They were part of the Viking’s mythology… I thought that’s all they were,” he frowned at his desk, thinking. “Has someone met one?”

“Yup, he’s definitely met one.”

“Your client has met a live Valkyrie? How is it that he still lives?”

“She’s… interested in him from a… romantic perspective, lets say, and wants to give him time… I guess…”

“Ah…” he blinked. “Oh dear… but wait a minute, from what I remember of the stories told of the Vikings, their gods and goddesses were all destroyed in Ragnarok. The doomsday that killed mortal and immortal alike save for one man and one woman…”

I frowned, nodding. “I remember reading about that, but apparently it’s not the case if they still have Brunhilda riding about hunting down a husband.”

“Brunhilda?” he asked, raising his eyebrows at me. “My, my, now there was a little pistol if you ever met one.”

“You knew Brunhilda?”

“Well… perhaps not the one that was a Valkyrie… but she could have very well been the woman they modeled Brunhilda after.”

“Was she married to a Merovingian king?”

“Yes, how did you know?”

“I read.”

“Ah,” he sighed, running a hand through his hair, fluffing it more than it already was, like he wanted to spite me, though I knew he did it out of habit. “Well, I have no clues for you, Colin, other than if this woman really is the Brunhilda of the Valkyries, then you’d best stay out of this one, because she could very well kill you.”

“Self preservation is speaking to me in very loud tones, it’s true,” I nodded, rising and looking at the painting over the fake fireplace, once again struck by how familiar the woman looked and peeved I couldn’t place her. “But it’s a job, and I have standards to work by… so if I can just convince Brunhilda, leader of the Valkyrie’s who shouldn’t be alive that this man she’s after isn’t the one for her, then maybe it will be the easiest case I’ve ever had.”

“Or it could be the case where you awaken the wrath of the long dormant Norse Gods to wage war on humanity because you helped a man scorn the wrong woman,” Jeff pointed out mildly.

I chuckled, throwing him a fierce grin which he returned, mildly of course. “Sounds like a nice, well-rounded case to me.”

“Of course!” he nodded, rising to embrace me. “All of this case business aside, will you be attending my party?”

I groaned. “I don’t think I’ll be able to, what with this case business…”

“Don’t lie Mochrie, you’re terrible at it,” he grinned.

I pulled back. “I’m a very good liar, thanks much!” I said indignantly.

“True, but I know you too well.” He pulled me close again. “You just don’t like to come to my parties.”

I hung my head. Caught. “It isn’t that I don’t like you, I just don’t like everyone staring at me. It’s unnerving when the monsters think you’re scary.”

He tilted my chin up, face serious. “It’s better they fear and respect you. Anything else is too dangerous for you and those you love.”

“Speaking from experience?” I quipped, but he didn’t laugh.

“Yes.”

I regarded him for a moment then nodded. He pressed lips to mine, and I accepted the kiss readily. After all, he was my first…

When we parted, I made my way for the door when he spoke up. “You will be attending?”

I sighed. “Yeah, I suppose I will be… what would be a good costume?”

“One with a mask,” he smiled, showing his teeth.

I chuckled and nodded before pulling on my hat and leaving.