I’ve finished answering all of the motivational questions but two. They’re pretty damn pivotal, but I think the story needs to simmer more in my head before I can answer them. Once they’re answered, I’ll work them into the story as I work… here it comes… “Two Vampires” into a larger story, which has the working title of Adam’s Name.

So, without further ado, let’s watch the Hunter lose control in a Toronto subway:

The nausea passed, and the hunter slowly opened his eyes. The tile breathed more gently now. Control seemed just over the horizon, and he struggled not to force its return. If he did, he feared it might abandon him forever. The hunter did the only thing that was left to him – he prayed. If he pledged himself, cleansed himself, through his devotion, the Almighty would grant him control.

Two pair of leather boots stepped into his field of vision. One pair had four-inch soles. The other was a plain black pair of work boots. The hunter slowly raised his eyes to look the club-goers in the face, and his blood-drinking prey glared down on him.

For a terrible moment, he met their gazes, and felt kinship. For one horrifying instant, he wanted their curse. Tears began to wash down his face.

Megan patted the hunter on his head. She walked out of the subway station, hand in hand with Nicholas.

6,443 / 114,389 (5.6%)

Here, Megan gets Nicholas to write down more from his past. Yet again, Nicholas is a bit cranky.

“More to be told? What power in the universe, beside me at the beginning of all of this, told you that the Mother would not be pleased at my mediocre attempt to recount my beginnings?” His voice reached a shout, and he decided that the journal would serve best embedded in the glass of the hotel’s television.

“Despite their petulance, your words wound me, Nicholas. You know as well as I that the source of my sight is a mystery to the both of us.” She tightened her grip, and pain began to jump down his back. “I suppose that you need a reminder that I am not, nor have I ever been, compelled to share frivolous revelations with you or anyone else.” Two vertebrae cracked, and Nicholas knew that several discs were crushed.

3,648 / 114,389 (3.2%)

In tracking down Megan and Nicholas, the Hunter runs into a bit more than he can handle.

Even after dark, this one would not pass for human. Its skin was dried and torn from many years of existence. Its teeth, most prominently its fangs, had grown to lengths that prevented both speech and closing its mouth. A leathery, translucent skin joined the bottom of its arms to the sides of its body. They appeared to be ribbed, and reminded the hunter of the first night that he’d seen the pretentious redheaded one. The caretaker’s eyes were all pupil, seemingly black. It snarled at him, a frightening and unsettling sound, but the hunter stood firm. He would not become prey, even to one as old as this.
The beast became silent for a moment. It was sizing him up and deciding his worth. If it saw him as a threat, it would attack, and the hunter would most likely perish in the service of the Almighty. If it did not, the insult would sting, but the hunter would be free to resume tracking his prey.

2,911 / 114,389 (2.5%)

Here, we get to see Megan, Nicholas’ creator, speak prophecy. I can’t resist the prophecy, especially when it involves desecrating a corpse.

Once more, Megan increased the speed of her whispering. She began to slur the nonsense syllables together, and her fingertips broke through the lenses of the corpse’s eyes. The watery jelly flowed up and over the nails of Megan’s fingers. She stopped, suddenly, and her brow un-furrowed. Her eyes focused on Nicholas, and she brought two fingers to her mouth. She licked them clean with a cat-like tongue.

There is a hunter that’s attempting to kill both Nicholas, our cranky friend, and Megan, whom you have not met. Here’s a bit that I love about the Hunter…

In his mind, he is always marching. For ever and ever, one foot in front of the other to the beat of his heart, for ever and ever, amen. In his mind, the march turned any distracting emotion into useful kinetic energy. The motion, propelled by anger, frustration, rage, anguish, loss, sadness, loneliness, all focused his actions into an everlasting and eternal prayer to the Almighty, his Lord and Savior, amen.