Vampire Rule N°34: There is a time for hard work and a time for revelry, but even eternity isn't enough if you drown yourself in excess.
… … … … …
Rupert Thorne was dead.
Now that put a smile on John's face, even as he ignored Reginald's very loud and expletive celebration at the demise of the man who brought them no small amount of problems in these already troubled nights.
More than that, the criminally inclined investor and political contributor was killed while both John Harker and Alucard had alibis.
One was seen leaving his personal car with his close friend and assistant Reginald Cousins, and his socially inept bodyguard Larissa Diaz, then entering one of his solicitors' offices to settle a small legal problem.
A solicitor who happened to be a rather charming lady with O- blood, a healthy diet and well-used gym membership.
Whose office just happened to have roof access from which you could sneak off undetected, but the woman would have to be left in quite a stupor to ignore something like that, the kind that came after some extreme pleasure, minor blood loss and perhaps a one word commend to sleep.
Nothing too invasive, just enough for a pleasant three hour nap.
The other was caught by a quick-thinking passerbye on his Wayne-Phone's camera, during a busy night where he took down three of the largest gang operations in the East End, of which only one was affiliated with Thorne.
"Sparing Deadshot really was a good idea," He grinned, his eyes a pleasant blue while he enjoyed some medical-blood packaged into juiceboxes.
A benefit of his work fixing the community, the young and healthy were encouraged to donate blood, and now that people actually felt safe and relatively content, they were more than happy to contribute.
Not as good as getting it straight from the tap, but it was better than nothing, and ghoul or not, he wasn't about to exsanguinate Larissa because he felt peckish.
There was already too much of that going in the bedroom, he was starting to worry about her health.
Speaking of Larissa, she was the only one of the three in a foul mood despite the good news.
Seeing a now superhuman poisoner and martial artist frowning with such a murderous expression would have intimidated most people, but he knew that sanity was overrated, and thus John could only find her adorable.
"Tsk," She looked away, as if sensing the 'disrespect' from her vampiric boss, "I still think we should get rid of him, or people will think trying to kill you is fine, so long as they do you a favour later on."
It was a sound reasoning, but one she only used to justify her desire to put her fellow assassin six feet under, preferably in a slow and painful manner.
The way she disregarded his orders to patrol his core territory in Brideshead and remain on stand-by to put out any fire, rushing by his side and all but forcing him to drink her blood until she almost fainted, spitting out insults and curses so harsh he could almost feel a bunch of slippers being thrown to punish her potty mouth.
It made him appreciate his kinda-reformed assassin on a whole new level.
Bubbles, however, was a true brother, and just laughed his ass off at his insane boss who literally got shot by military-grade weaponry over pussy, like a true man.
He stopped laughing when Copperhead looked at him though.
Losing his crackhead status translated into a newly acquired sense of self-preservation, and a righteous fear of crazy women who could and would inject him with enough toxins to make the freaking scarecrow raise an eyebrow.
But that's fine, nobody's perfect.
"That would be a problem," He conceded, mollifying his current most combat-able asset, "But it should be offset by the credibility gained after scaring a top-killer so thoroughly he ended up killing his own client for essentially setting him up to fail."
It was all in the game, the amount of respect lost from such mercy was less than what he gained making Floyd not only fail his contract, but murder a client.
It had to be considered, a hired-gun had to be reliable, so making him sacrifice that was a powerful move for all parties involved.
Deadshot's reputation and Thorne's own status would thus fuel his own mythos.
Something that would compound with each appearance, each attack against Gotham's underbelly, each day he leveraged his growing influence over the media to force the police to acknowledge his existence, and therefore admit their inability to stop him.
With time, and a couple major moves, Alucard would officially be known as one scary monster.
A beast worthy of Gotham.
But that was future John's concern, once he consolidated after the end of the war against Rupert Thorne, permanently neutralized his now destabilized and already fragmenting outfit, started working on the economic side of things, and more importantly…
Celebrate the death of the man who caused his death.
It felt so long ago, when a clueless and frail John Harker walked these streets so aimlessly, the streets he now claimed as his own domain.
A domain he built up from a drug-infested slum into a safe, united community with growing wealth, plentiful opportunities and a bright future.
Brick by brick.
Uplifting criminals into honest workers, systemic victims into protectors, drug addicts into respected leaders of the community, self-sabotaging waitresses into prosperous business owners, expandable cartel enforcers into immortal bodyguards…
All in a matter of months, as he himself grew from an arrogant whelp led-around by some interface, into a vampire aware of his own power.
Yesterday Brideshead became his.
Tonight, the East End was conquered.
Tomorrow it shall be all of Gotham, the whole nation, perhaps even the world.
Because one day, he would become a true No-Life King.
And it all started with one very bad day.
'Now there are truly no witnesses, Thorne.'
. . .
Yo! It's Hamtaro!
First! I hope you enjoyed the bonus chapter? This is a little treat, and a way for me to anounce our update schedule, updates every Saturday from now on. (Yes, including this one.)
Happy? Well ye better come and join me on Discord, I kind of don't know how many readers we actually have since there is insentive to motivate authors by making them think they have huge followings, seeing how many people are there helps Hammy get a more accurate estimation, and makes it easier for you to insult me if I ever end up doing something stupid.
Link right here:
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