Nosphorus: Part I - Act 4
Niki awoke in the darkness. Logan was gone. He always left in order to be with his wife when she woke up. To preserve the illusion that they had a happy marriage. Niki shook her head and shivered. He had left the window open.
She stood, wrapping the sheet around her naked form, and moved to the window, sliding it closed. Looking down the nine stories to the waking city below made her feel almost godlike. The tiny creatures who scurried around below had no idea what lurked behind every shadow — what hungered for their very blood at night. What had most likely fed on that blood only hours ago.
And she was their protector. Supposed protector. Theoretical protector. She let the joke fill her until she laughed. What was a ‘supposed’ god? What was a ‘theoretical’ god? To be able to protect and still to ignore them. To know their enemies, even when they didn’t, and still to do nothing. That was a special kind of evil. Just as she was a special kind of Slayer.
The phone rang and she jerked out of her contemplations. The window frame resolved itself around her view of the world and she was back in her apartment – just a girl. The phone rang again. As she picked it up, she knew Addison had be right – at least in part. A Slayer without a Watcher could be a dangerous thing.
“Yeah?” She asked as the receiver pressed against her ear. Her drifting eyes found focus and recognition as the voice on the other end spoke. “Yes. A- alright. Thanks.” Her eyes searched the room with some worry as the voice continued in an unusually calm tone. “Why can’t you just come to the apartment?” She waited as the voice on the other end was silent. Finally it repeated the meeting place and she sighed. “Alright, I’ll meet you there in an hour. Oh – and Addison, I owe you one.” The receiver found the telephone base with a click.
Showered and dressed, Niki opened the door and nearly jumped out of her skin as Pearce smiled back at her. “Dammit Pearce! Get lost!”
The vampire kept his slightly lewd grin. “Where am I suppose to go? I haven’t been invited into your fortress and it’s morning out there — so the hallway’s my humble home now.”
Niki glanced at her watch. “It’s only quarter to six: The sun isn’t up yet. Get lost.” She started down the hallway only to have the vampire follow her. She glanced back with irritation. “Stop following me! You’re creeping me out!”
“Then why don’t you just stake me?” Pearce smiled as she zigzagged down the hallway, heading for the elevator. He tracked her almost comically. “I’ll tell you why:” he caught her by the arm and turned her roughly to face him as they reached the elevator. “Because I’m adorable!”
Her uppercut was so unexpected that it sent him flying backwards off his feet. He landed on his back, immediately raising himself on his elbows to massage his jaw. “Ow!”
“Get lost,” she said dangerously. She hit the key to bring the elevator to her floor, but never took her glaring eyes from the vampire.
Pearce slowly got to his feet, still rubbing his jaw. “For the record, if I didn’t have better things to do, I would totally go Smile-Time Parade on your ass.”
“We had a truce,” Niki said angrily, “but you’ve proved useless. I don’t want you hanging around being worse than useless – so piss off or I will dust you.”
Pearce brushed his KISS shirt free of dirt from the floor in a dramatic manner. “Useless eh? We’ll see how useless I am when you find I’m the only one between you and total biological catastrophe. When the Vamp Who Ate New York comes knocking on your door with his entire smorgasbord backing him up, we’ll see how useless I am.” The vamp turned and stormed to the stairs at the other end of the hallway. “Useless!” he muttered incredulously.
Niki shook her head with exasperation and stepped into the elevator. There were three people in it. One got off on the ninth floor after she had gotten on, the other two waited for her to press G and then the doors closed. Quite the characters in this building, she thought: A Slayer; a crazed, impotent vampire; an Irishman in an Armani suit and muttonchops; and some chick with absolutely no concept of ‘lather, rinse, repeat.’
Addison glanced at his watch. It was six thirty. Niki had said an hour —forty five minutes ago— but she would be fashionably late, as usual. He knew there was no way she had changed that much. He glanced at his coffee. This place wasn’t overly unbearable. New York early in the morning was quite peaceful. It was cool outside, though this place was comfortably warm. Still, he didn’t remove his black sweater. The collar rose up to cradle his chin as the coffee slid down his throat. He yawned despite himself. He hated travel. Jet lag was always—
The Watcher closed his eyes and frowned. A brief flash of something disturbed his thoughts. A dark shape... a washroom stall. He opened his eyes. Where had that come from? He hadn’t used the washroom in the airport. He’d gone straight for the taxi. He shook his head. It must be the jet lag. It always—
He frowned again and pressed his hands to his temples. A crowd of people... fangs in flesh. What the hell was going on?
“Sir?”
The Watcher looked up with a start. The waitress was holding the coffee pot suggestively above his mug. Addison looked down into his mug and saw that it was empty. He looked over at the door to the café to the sound of coffee being poured. He frowned. Niki strolled in, looking critically at the small, homey café.
As the waitress walked away, the Watcher glanced down at his watch. It was five to seven. He blinked. Ridiculous. Absolutely preposterous.
The Nosphorus watched the two as they drank coffee in the small establishment. They were discussing him. He knew that. He knew that she knew that she was his target. Did she know he was watching? Did he know of her beloved Watcher? What he was? Who he served?
Soon —when enough had been infected, when enough served him and those like him— he would overcome her with sheer numbers. Her life, death and struggle would become meaningless as the Plague spread around the world... almost biblically, making way for the New Reign. In the New Reign, the Nosphorus would be the foot soldiers. Likely the servant class, once the impure were dispatched, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was doing what had been ordered. The Man would be there too, in the New Reign. He was a servant of Those Who Would Come After. The Man was his guardian — his distant advisor. The Man had been so distant, in fact, that he retained his mythic proportions even to his Plague-carrying servants. Now there were many. Perhaps enough.
“Oh, Knicks,” Addison sighed, resolving to use her pet name. “What have you gotten us into?”
“It’s not exactly like I blundered into this,” she defended. “This was coming, apparently, whether you or I were here or not.”
“But it is after you,” the Watcher raised an eyebrow.
Niki forced a grin onto her face and said through clenched teeth, “It’s standing right outside the window.”
Addison tensed, his eyes immediately dropping to his coffee mug. Her surreptitiously tossed a glance out the window to see a tall man in a black Armani suit standing outside, staring at them quite intently. He wasn’t even trying to conceal his austere interest. The sight sent a chill down Addison’s spine. He turned back and shared the Slayer’s false smile. “He knows you know he’s there,” he said through a forced laugh.
Niki let the smile drop off her face. “Then there’s really no reason to keep pretending, is there?” She turned fully to face the figure on the other side of the glass. You, she mouthed, then made a stabbing gesture with a fork. The figure didn’t even blink. He continued staring as if he couldn’t tell they could see him.
“That’s it,” Niki said with irritation, “this guy’s done.” She stood and reached inside her black jacket for the stake she knew she would find there.
“Wait,” Addison cautioned. “I’ve been researching this Plague business. Anyone he’s infected is subject to his command, or the command of any other carrier. Don’t get bitten.”
“Good advise for any vampire hunt,” Niki said sarcastically. “Really, I think I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure?” her Watcher said harshly. “He’d only be so open about observing you if he knew he could challenge you physically. Perhaps he has more... minions than you think.”
Niki looked away from the window to those in the small café. The waitress who had served them glanced up for an instant from her note pad at the other end of the room. Niki looked from one customer to another, suspicion growing. How many were infected? How many were enemies in hiding? No, she chided herself. You’re just being paranoid. Yet when she glanced back to the window, her heart skipped a beat.
Pressing against the glass, all down the length of the café’s windows, pressing at the door, were random people from the street. Bicycle couriers, road workers, pedestrians, commuters... And a small boy in a yellow raincoat. The eyes of all were white and lifeless.
Niki turned back to the waitress. She was walking slowly towards their table, her eyes white and her pupils mere specks. All over the café, customers were rising from their seats, turning and moving towards them.
Niki’s heart pounded. “Oh... Shit.”
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