We Could Not Meet

AN: Alright, loves, here's another chapter. This one is all from Azrael's POV, because he's got business to attend to. Don't worry, if you want me to, I'll give you a chapter that goes more into detail about Lucas' life.

Sorry that the chapters are short and I'm not updating terribly often. It's hard to sit down and write any more now. I just don't have time. Writing is my passion, but it has to take a back seat to my school and work. I'm not even doing any of my other hobbies right now. It's hard, but I have to do well in school. I have scholarships to keep up.

Now, to the reviewer:
Rayne: Thanks for being my only reviewer on the last chapter. The information about Azrael was a HUGE help. I never thought about looking it up on Wikipedia. Also, I hated writing in this style at first, it's a big adjustment from the third person I'm so used to using. But, I have to get used to doing other styles, and you're right, it just seems to work for this one.

To all of you who read but didn't review, please review, even if it's negative. It's nice to know people read it and have opinions about it. Also, please read my other stories (and review them). ^_^ Much love to all who read.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Azrael’s POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Victor was living with me for a short time, which I was not sure if I liked or not. The younger man held no attraction for me; otherwise, the temptation would have been destroyed. But, being a mere twenty years old, he did get rather frustrating at times. He wanted to learn, a wonderful attribute to have at times, but not when he insisted on learning everything right then. He did not understand the idea that wisdom comes with age.

It took me two days, but I finally obtained the name of the female vampire who had changed him, and so I left him in my home with some books to read while I went to find her. She was a familiar vampire to me; we had had problems in the past. She was young, only a century old and very bold. One of the few vampires I truly worried may challenge my rule in the near future. It would be time to end it, once and for all. Her punishment would be severe, if not death.

I would not put it past her to use Victor as a spy in my house, so I was careful never to give out any sort of damaging information. Particularly, I kept my relationship a secret—Olivia would not hesitate to use Lucas to her advantage. Now, though, I was stalking the night, looking for some prey to use. It did not take me terribly long to find someone and to kill the random female. After drinking a small amount from her, I made sure to slit her throat, drinking more from the blood that spilled from the wound. Those pesky forensic scientists were getting too intelligent for vampires. They had begun to notice that there was not enough blood spilled for when we slit throats after feeding fully. In accordance, I changed my methods.

No longer hungry, I decided it was time to track Olivia. I would watch her moves for a few days before confronting her. It was always best to know your opponent. I needed to see how far her reach went, how many new vampires she had made, and of course where she was living. If I had to, I would methodically relieve her of her vampiric followers, though that would be a last resort. The search would take a day or two, at least. The first place to start with Olivia was always clubs, so that was where I headed.

Some clubs were better known for their vampire customers, and those were the one I avoided for the time being. Unlike me, Olivia fed from a different person each night, killing them each time. It was an unwise move in my mind, seeing as the mortals were certain to notice after a time. I only spent an hour or so at each of the clubs I visited, and she was not in a single one of them. The sky was already lightening as I headed for my apartment. I slipped inside it, ignoring Victor on my couch. Instead, I went to the only East facing window in my home and stared out of it. I watched until the rays of the sun started hitting buildings; after I closed the blinds, I motioned for Victor to head to bed before heading for my own bed, locking the door behind me as I had become accustomed to. Better safe than sorry when you had the ‘child’ of an enemy living with you.

The next evening, I decided to look elsewhere for Olivia. I had given a specific cell phone number to each of the owners of the clubs, informing them to let me know when she came in. Everyone know who Olivia was, and they knew what I would do if they crossed me, so they would give me the calls. Even in the bars that were unaware of vampires, I was fairly well known; I made sure of that when I rose to power in the city.

That night, I had decided to search some of the vampiric hang outs. It was less likely for her to be there, she was too immature for many of the vampires in the town, but since I had yet to receive calls from the owners, so I headed for the first one. It was a deserted church and depending on what the others were in the mood for, it could serve as a building for a rave, a place to take shelter when the sun came out for the younger vampire who squandered his or her money, or a place to feed. Occasionally, there were meetings of the older vampires, only three were my ‘confidants’, so to speak.

My eyes ran over the darkened building, searching for signs of life- or lack thereof. A bit of motion through a crack in the boarded up windows caught my attention and I headed towards the entrance we had made in the bottom floor. The police rarely visited the place, but just in case, we did not want it to be obvious that people were gathering there. I slipped in, eyes immediately adjusting to the dark surroundings. The place was familiar, one of the first places I had visited when I moved into the city.

It did not take long to reach the upper levels where most of the vampires gathered. There were a few there, and I was careful to stick to the shadows, fading into the black fairly well when I let my hair hang in my face, only a small sliver of my pale skin showing. I listened intently, seeing Olivia in the front of a group of five others. She was ranting about my rule—why they would have a problem, I did not know, seeing as I did not interfere much with their daily—nightly—lives. I only restricted the ability to create new vampires, and that was in effect throughout the United States. Even I had to get permission before creating a vampire.

I decided I had seen enough and after memorizing each of their faces, I knew the names of three, but not all five of them, so I would just have to deal with the memory of the face. I would have to be careful in any dealings with those particular vampires. I left the building soon after, heading out to feed. I needed to eat because it was Tuesday night and I would be slipping into the library in a few hours.

Finding a meal that night was not difficult. I simply went out and bought alcohol. Then, I found a homeless man, offering him the drink. I sat near him, trying not to inhale too deeply as I waited for him to pass out. It did not take long and once he was out, I took my meal. I left him with a few dollars—enough to buy some food, and the rest of the alcohol.

After getting a quick, relaxing shower at my apartment, and checking on Victor, I headed out towards the library. That day, I had neglected to wear my fairly typical all black attire; instead, I settled for a maroon turtle neck, blue jeans, and of course my signature trench coat to help protect me from the sun. I have always been a creature of habit, but since I had already broken one habit that day, I decided to break another. I knew many different forms of combat, mainly because it was easy to get bored when living as long as I have. Of course, there is only so much that can be learned from books, but I could at least look up a few basic moves. I decided on karate, pulling out a book about it before retreating to our typical chair.

Much to my annoyance, someone already occupied it, so I had to stalk off to another corner, reassuring myself that the teenager would have to leave eventually to go to school, and I could get the chair back. After I settled in an uncomfortable chair, I set about to reading my book, studying each of the basic moves in great detail, acting them out in my mind. It would seem just a bit weird for some random man to be trying to various karate moves in the middle of a library. At some point, I must have nodded off, because I jolted into awareness at an elderly librarian shaking my shoulder. The boy had left, so I thanked her for waking me and slipped over to my old seat, going back to my reading as I waited for the school day to end so that I could see my lover.