Forbidden Fangs

Chapter 9

“Okay, start talking.” Kylie said as Logan locked them inside one of the rooms he'd booked at the local Traveler's Inn. The desk clerk had been a little leery of them, a man and a woman showing up in the wee hours of the morning with no luggage to speak of. But they had booked two rooms, and so the sharp-nosed fellow really had no complaints to make.

“Alright,” Logan took a deep breath and paced across the clean carpet to sit on the bed. He had left his coveralls in the car, having removed them to reveal a rumpled grey business suit. Kylie could see the bulge of his weapon when he leaned back and looked at the ceiling. “I'm not quite sure where to start.”

“Start at the beginning,” Kylie said.

“That's a little… difficult.” Logan said, his eyes gazing beyond the stucco ceiling.

“How can that be difficult?” Kylie demanded, still standing with her arms crossed and her back to the door.

“Because the beginning was about fifteen hundred years ago. During the middle ages.”

“I know when the middle ages were,” Kylie said sharply. She sighed and then sat down on the bed next to Logan. “Sorry. What happened back then?”

“To the best of our knowledge, sometime around 550 AD the vampires visited Earth in their first-ever fleet of spaceworthy ships. Most of Europe was in chaos back then, and they found it easy to abduct thousands of people. They kept them alive and flew them back to their homeworld, a planet called Wythiria. According to our records, those poor souls became the seedling for a self-sustaining blood factory. I can only assume that it failed somehow, and that's why they've returned. I've been preparing for this my whole life; the Protectorate has been preparing for this for centuries. But I really hoped it wouldn't happen in my lifetime.” His knuckles were white as he gripped the bedspread. “We have to find that vampire, Kylie. Find him before he finds us, and before he leaves our planet. If he returns home he'll likely bring the full force of Wythiria down on our heads.”

“Can't he just, I don't know, call home?” Kylie asked. “Why does he need to fly all the way back?”

“I considered that,” Logan nodded, “but if he could call home, he wouldn't have any need to come after you. He could have just sent a message and waited in orbit or met them halfway. The fact that he hunted you down makes me think he feels the need to eliminate the witness. Sorry about your boyfriend, by the way.”

“He wasn't my…” Kylie trailed off as tears welled in her eyes at the memory of Erik. She hadn't known him well, but he'd been so kind, and so handsome. She caught her breath, refusing to let the tears spill, and looked determinedly at Logan. “I'm going to need a bit more information. What's the Protectorate, and how do you and they know so much?”

“The Protectorate, or the Earth Protectorate, was born during the abductions of the middle ages.” Logan stood up and paced back and forth, energy lacing his strides as he told the story. “Originally it was mostly a bunch of knights and mercenaries who banded together with a few assassins and alchemists. They were the only ones who knew what was going on, and they fought a shadow war against the vampires to keep our world safe. People weren't ready to understand aliens back then, so they came up with the vampire legends. The stories served two purposes; to make the Wythirians into an enemy we could understand, and to cast doubt on any who might actually believe in them. They took the vampires' power away, and fought them to the point where the Wythirians were forced to leave. Granted, they got what they came for… but we gave them a reason not to come back. That's why I'm so certain something's gone wrong with their blood supply. I can't think of any other reason for them to return.”

“So where's the rest of this… Protectorate?” Kylie asked. “Shouldn't you have a few partners, and shouldn't we be in a safehouse or something?”

“Over the years, the Protectorate's size has dwindled. Some of the families who made it up died off, others simply fell away from the cause. I'm the only slayer for several hundred square miles, maybe more. When our satellite detected a Wythirian presence in the atmosphere, we started tracking the ship and I was sent here, since I was closest. If I really need it I could call others to come help, but they'd take some time to arrive. And we should be fine. After all, it's only one vampire.”

“Hold on,” Kylie stood up and stopped him with a hand on his chest. “Did you say you have a satellite?”

“Not me, personally.” Logan shrugged. “Not even us, really. But he do have access to a few. We've got some of the best hack-computer engineers in the world working for us. We managed to find a way to use the existing arrays to scan Earth's immediate vicinity for signs of Wythirian craft. It would have been impossible, but among the knowledge and artifacts passed down from the old days we found a sample of their fuel. Earth's equipment is more than capable of detecting the Wythirian spacecraft, they just don't know what they're looking for. Only the Protectorate knows.” He took the hand she'd placed on his chest between both of his larger, rougher palms. “Last I heard from our North American headquarters, we were sure it's just one small ship, capable of carrying one vampire. I'll leave it up to you, Kylie. If you want we can call for backup and hole up in this hotel until help arrives. But I think we can take this bloodsucker down, together.” His eyes shone, as determined as a charging bull.

“Why don't you just tell people?” Kylie burst out. The question had grown inside her as he spoke, and she could not help but let it out. “I mean, you have proof. All this knowledge, and artifacts, and the fuel… why not organize Earth's defences against these…” she almost whispered the word, “aliens.”

“It's not that simple,” Logan said, and nodded at the bed. They sat down again, still holding hands. Kylie liked the rough feel of his worn skin, and the steady but gentle way he held her. She could feel herself truly calming down for the first time since she first heard the vibrations in the woods. “For one thing, the council of elders thinks the world still isn't ready. It'd be pretty easy to falsely disprove most of our evidence, and they think most people couldn't handle the idea of vampires in spaceships.”

“What do you think?” Kylie asked, gazing into his eyes.

“Well… you seem to be handling it pretty well, despite the traumatic way you were introduced to the Wythirians. I guess I have a little more faith in the people of this world than the elders. But, they’ve seen a lot more than me. That's why we have the council.”

“I want us to go after Luchaver together,” Kylie said suddenly. “We don't need to call the others.” She met Logan smile for smile, her heart pounding in her ears.