The Hunt 27

The Hunt 27

River sat in the kitchen the following evening and browsed the cookery book, which had one day appeared out of thin air in the house, when the door to the sunless rooms (that is what he called Andreji’s rooms at times) was opened. Demyan came out and, seeing light streaming out of the gap of the kitchen door, walked up to it. “Good evening,” he greeted the young man as he pushed the door open.

River looked up and smiled meekly. “Good evening.” The two of them had not really gotten in touch so far and during their short, single exchange the day before, River had not shown much politeness. He was not sure how to treat Demyan – a person even older than Andreji who had recently gone through a very tough time. According to his status, River would probably have to treat him with the highest respect in another context or would not have dared to approach him at all, yet Andreji clearly expected the three of them to get along just as the two of them had before. Furthermore, he had hinted that his Master was an easy going person.

“Can you cook?” River asked the man who had taken the seat opposite him in lack of a better topic.

Dark eyes looked at him surprised. Amusement spread over Demyan’s face. He shook his head. “Why should I?”

River shrugged and defended himself by replying, “He can.” He pointed upwards.

The surprise returned in Demyan’s face. “Andreji? Are you sure we are talking about the same person?”

“He did it for me several times.”

Demyan leaned back leisurely and chuckled, shaking his head in wonderment.

“I suppose you are going to stay with us for a while?” River changed the subject.

“Yes.”

“But surely you are not going to remain in the smithy? I mean, it’s not exactly comfortable there… The bed is hard, there is no wardrobe…”

Demyan smiled benignly. “I have had worse accommodations; I do not mind.”

“No, he is right,” Andreji said, standing in the door frame, arms folded. “I have some material stored from the renovation. The second half of the attic is unused. I will prepare it for you.”

“That is unnecessary, honestly.”

“No opposition. My house, my guest, my decision,” Andreji fended him off calmly.

His Master shook his head, smirking. “Fine. Then let me help you at least.”

“What did you think?” Andreji smiled meaningfully and turned to go back upstairs.



“Preparing” the second half of the attic for inhabitation meant more than a bit of renovation. Except for a quarter of the expanse that had already been covered by planks and held the building material, the room had no floor so that they had to balance on the wooden joists. The ceiling lining that diverted the storeys carried the straw that lay on it to insulate the ground floor, but it would not hold a man, Andreji warned. Hence, the first thing they did was removing the straw that was old and inhabited by rats and insects, replacing it with new straw and then laying a wooden floor.

Since River refused to handle the old, vermin contaminated insulation material (something that granted him a disapproving glance from Andreji and some chuckling from Demyan), he fetched the new bales of straw out of the back of the shed and handed the to Demyan through a door in the gable. However, he was also forced to dump the rotten contents of the buckets Demyan gave him in return in a far corner of the estate.

An hour before sunrise, he sat on the already finished part of the floor and drank some water, watching the two elder men. “How long, do you think, will it take?”

Andreji looked up at him, then eyed the room. “Perhaps three days more.”



The next morning, close to midday, when River had just crawled out of Andreji’s bed and was doing some exercise, his mobile phone rang. “Yap?”

“Hey, it’s Eriko! I’m a bit in a hurry. I just wanted to tell you that we have gotten a date for our wedding very quickly. Could you come by next weekend?”

“Next weekend already? That’s very quick!” River exclaimed in surprise.

“Yes, otherwise we would have to wait until next year. Another wedding was cancelled, you see? So, can you come?”

“Uh,” River hesitated, “I don’t know for sure, but I’ll try. I’ll call you back tonight if that’s alright with you.”

“You must come!” Eriko insisted. “What about taking your boyfriend along? I’d love to get to know him!” The excitement about the upcoming event was eminent in the young woman’s energetic voice.

“I’m not sure. What about your parents?”

Eriko laughed. “I didn’t say make out with him during my wedding. Just take him along as a friend. Your choice what kind of friend.”

“Fine. I’ll ask him. I’m not sure if he’s got time.”



River managed to talk Andreji into turning up at the wedding party in the evening for an hour. In fact, the man gave in quickly, after he was ascertained that he was not going to be part of a big “coming out”. He said he was too old for such things.

They managed to get the room ready by Friday. They built another trapdoor between the smithy and the new room. All they were left with was painting and furnishing.

On the night from Friday to Saturday, Andreji and River went to London.



The wedding itself was held in a small church in the late Saturday afternoon. In fact, the day had been chosen with poor luck. It was dominated by typical November weather – rain and strong wind. There were about fifty wedding guests that hurriedly moved to a nearby restaurant that had been reserved for the wedding feast and the subsequent celebration. They ate plenty, drank as much, and the room was filled with laughter and chatter.

River just went along, exchanged a few words with people here and there and enjoyed the event. Only in the early evening did he manage to congratulate the couple. Eriko beamed. “Where did you leave your Andreji? You promised to bring him along!”

“He’ll come by later.”

She fixed her gaze on him and quirked an eyebrow. “I’ll hold you to your word,” she threatened jestingly. Then she was dragged away by her bridesmaid.

Slowly, the room was filling with additional guests that had not been invited to the wedding ceremony but now joined the feast. Across the room, River saw Ray watching him grimly. The blond turned around and joined a group of people he knew from sight. Surely the guy would not pick another fight amongst all these people.

Two hours later, after some dancing, Eriko stopped at the table that River stood at. She sank down into one of the chairs, fanning air into her face. “So, where is he?” she enquired again.

River shrugged, his eyes scanning the room. “I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”

“He’s not one of your fakes, is he? ‘The French lover’ - just like you pretended you had a girlfriend two years older than you when you were in sixth grade?” Eriko teased him.

River sat down beside her. “She was one year and ten months older than me. Perhaps I overrated the event, but we did kiss. And he’s not French.”

Eriko raised her hands in defence. “Fine.” She smiled cheekily.

“There he is.” River had spotted Andreji making his way through the crowd. Tall, dressed in a well cut black suit and a dark blue shirt that brought out his pale, slender face with the high cheekbones and the keen eyes, he turned many heads. In contrast to his usual, closed up demeanour, Andreji greeted the gazes with a flirtatious smile. River was reminded of their first meeting. He could not help it; there was a fuzzy feeling in his stomach at the sight of the other man.

He stood up to greet him. “Hey”, he said lamely, a smile grazing his lips.

“Hey,” Andreji copied him. His gaze wandered over to Eriko. “The lucky bride? Congratulations,” he stepped forward and held out his hand.

The newly married took it gladly. “I was just trying to figure out whether you were merely a product of River’s wild imagination.”

“And at what conclusion do you arrive?”

“Well,” the young woman eyed the elder man cheekily. “You look real. I can only assume that River kept his good looking friend away from me on purpose until I got married, that little rascal.” She winked.

“Shall I get us something to drink?” River interrupted the flirt.

“A juice would be nice, yes,” Eriko replied.

River looked at Andreji.

“You know my taste.” He took River’s place and crossed his long legs.

When River returned with the drinks, he stopped at some distance and watched Andreji conversing politely with his cousin. His gaze was attracted by the lines that showed up left and right of his lover’s mouth when he smiled. River could feel his heartbeat. His vampire Master sat amongst his family and friends, chatting and evidently enjoying himself. And River wanted this. He wanted to share more with Andreji.

The elder man’s face turned and their eyes locked. River went up to the table and handed Eriko an orange juice, whereas he sat down a steaming cup of tea on the table for Andreji.

His cousin chuckled surprised. “Are you sure that’s the right drink for a wedding guest?”

“I need to drive,” Andreji defended River’s choice.

“So,” River said while he pulled up a third chair, “when are you going to go on Honeymoon, and where?”

Eriko laughed at her bridesmaid who was doing some wild acrobatics on the dance floor. “Well, Hayashi couldn’t get leave this quickly, so we’re planning to go in February. We’re still not set on where.” Her husband was motioning for her to come over to him. She glanced at them, shrugged, and hurried off.

River again looked at his Master. He wanted to touch the man. Yes – perhaps it was this feeling of wanting to openly claim his lover. Being out in the open with him made River more aware of his own feelings for the man. God, he looked good. Not to speak of the calm manner in which he sat here and watched the crowd. “You said something about driving – do you mean to go back to France tonight?” River enquired instead of giving in to his urge.

Andreji nodded minutely. “The less time we spend in London the better.”

“Do you think they have found him by now, the leader, I mean?”

“I know they have. I did some information gathering before I came here. It seems, however, that he has not yet unveiled that Demyan is still alive and responsible for his short time stay behind bars.”

“What’ll happen if people find out?” River wondered.

Andreji blew carefully into his tea cup and took a sip. “Hard to tell. Incarcerating Demyan was not in itself a crime. He is the leader; it is up to him to choose a punishment in case someone acts against the rules – which Demyan did. Nonetheless, he spoke out the death sentence, yet sabotaged its execution himself. Furthermore, he did things, pretending Demyan was dead, that he had no right to do if he was alive. Such as treating me like his fledgling. In a way, he has set our community’s order in disarray. Whether the others will act upon this, I cannot say.”

“If they don’t, are we going to be safe in France in the long run?” River worried.

“In any case, you will be safe with me. Do not agonise over such matters.” Andreji said this with perfect confidence, boredom even.

River eyed him. “Where do you take that certainty from?”

His Master merely threw a side glance at him, a strange gleam in his sharp eyes.

“After all,” River continued in order to provoke an answer, “you did not dare stand up against him the past fifty years.”

“So he probably thinks, now.”

“And what’s the truth?” River remained insistent.

Andreji looked at him wearily and sighed. “Where’s the sense in fighting when you have nothing to gain from it?”

“What did you gain from finally standing up to him when you did?”

“My freedom. The freedom to treat my fledgling the way I deem right.”

“So, in the end, you did it for me?” Something warm touched River deep inside.

Andreji’s calculating stare did not encourage this notion. “I did it for me. So I could save face. Perhaps I subconsciously sensed it was time to start on a new path.”

“I see.”

River also saw Ray emerging from the crowd. The guy stepped up to Andreji and greeted him curtly.

Andreji returned the salutation in similar fashion.

Ray let his gaze shuttle between the tall man and River. “Last time we met you thought he was a traitor,” he said bluntly.

Andreji raised an eyebrow unconcernedly and sipped at his tea. “Last time we met was over a year ago, and I most certainly never said anything like that.”

“You advised me not to let him take care of a vampire mission,” Ray insisted.

“An advice you paid no heed to.”

“You also said who ever managed to come out of the job alive was sure to be a traitor.”

Andreji smirked. “Yet another warning you ignored.”

“I did not ignore it. You seem to do, or why would you be spending your time with him?” He pointed rudely at River.

River was intrigued to see how Andreji managed to worm himself out of this.

He laughed, then stared at Ray darkly, almost menacingly. “You did ignore my warning. What I was trying to get across to you is that none of them had a chance to make it out of a vampire lair alive on their own. That you had no idea what you were sending them into because none of them has any idea what kind of creatures vampires truly are. I have been telling you that for years. There is a reason why I do not deal with them. Still, you were once again too full of yourself. Three of your people died; the fourth I managed to get out through special connections of mine, because he had asked me to apprentice him and in contrast to you I feel responsible for the youngsters I take under my wings. Is that explanation enough for you?”

Ray stared at him lividly. “Are you insinuating that I am responsible for the death of my people?”

“I am sure you understood me,” Andreji replied calmly.

The hothead in front of him was an inch from exploding, River could tell. Andreji held the hunter’s gaze. The muscles under the man’s right eye twitched. He pressed his lips tightly together and stormed off.

“Speaking of why I do things,” Andreji murmured while he kept his eyes focused on the retreating form, “that I did for you.”

“Sure,” River snorted. He could not say he was sorry for Ray. In the end, Andreji had said the truth. “And you did not enjoy it the least bit.”

“That is hardly the question. He is a fool; I have known that since we have first met. He is a useful fool, however, so I would not have criticised him this openly had I not been forced to defend you.”