The Cabbie and the Cop – 27

Vergil frowned. “How do you know about him, if it is the same person?”

“Calaul, or ‘executioner’ in English, is one of my kind. He has plied his trade quite actively for hundreds of years. He’s a born vampire, not a made one, and was trained almost from birth to despise humans. Ergo he feels no guilt in killing them. He was always an assassin and loves his work, but in these modern times he discovered he could make a more money by hiring himself out to the highest bidder as a hit man.”

“Then I should be safe,” Vergil commented with a small smile. “I’m not human.”

“This isn’t funny, Vergil. He’s tenacious. He won’t stop looking until he finds you and then he’ll kill you, human or not.”

Vergil nodded. “I understand. Why do you know about him, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“I could just say I’ve heard rumors and you’d probably accept that. The truth is I had a run-in with him a long while back. He was after a friend of mine, a man who had helped me when I needed to reappear as someone new. You know how that goes I suspect.”

“Definitely. It’s a pain, but necessary.”

“Exactly. Anyway my friend had done something to upset a rival and that man hired Calaul to kill him. I wasn’t about to let that happen and I told Calaul so. We came to an agreement of sorts. He’d cede to my wishes in exchange for certain favors, both monetary and physical. The physical part lasted for two years before he tired of me.”

Vergil stared at him, his amethyst eyes darkening with emotion. “So you know what it is to be forced into servitude.”

With a tightening of his mouth, Simeon nodded. “I do. Like you, I wouldn’t recommend it. Be that as it may, I can tell you what he looks like which may give you an edge.”

“Now why do you think I need an edge? I was just planning on lying low until he gets bored looking for me.”

Simeon snorted. “You’ve already implied you have no intention of doing that. Even if you hadn’t, I don’t see you as someone who would cower in fear, hoping he’ll give up eventually, which as I’ve told you he wouldn’t.”

“Then I have to find him first and put him out of his misery.”

“A lot of people have tried—unsuccessfully.”

“A lot of people haven’t had you in their corner to help. Between the two of us we might be successful.”

“Vergil…” Simeon sighed. “Calaul is a force unto himself, strong, with many of the abilities that come with a vampire of his age.”

“No one is invincible. We just have to find his weak spot.”

“And if he doesn’t have one? Don’t you think people have tried before?”

Vergil chuckled. “We are not ‘people’, at least in terms of being human.”

“I… suppose you have a point there.”

“We also have another advantage. He doesn’t know what I am.”