Not so Dead and Gone
@gravemagicks
Beau pressed the heel of his palm against the scar on his throat with a grimace. The damn thing throbbed as though it had a life of its own, and he knew he was getting close to his latest mark. And, if he was lucky, closer to the vengeance he so desired.
Vengeance. Revenge. It wasn’t a thing he’d ever imagined himself pursuing. The man he’d once been wasn’t vengeful. Not until--
He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth to stave off the tears he could feel burning behind his eyelids, his hand drifting to close around the watch in his pocket. Percival’s pocketwatch. The one he’d charmed to correspond to his two-way mirror. The glass was cracked, and the hands no longer moved around the watch face. It hadn’t worked since President Picquery had returned it to him.
“Percy would have wanted you to have it back,” she’d told him.
Beau couldn’t bring himself to try to fix it.
His current companions--though he couldn’t really call them good company--didn’t get why he carried the broken watch with him everywhere, checking it every so often as though it might start ticking away again if he just looked at it often enough. They thought he’d gone off the rails. They didn’t care, though, as long as he pulled his weight. They didn’t understand. It was his anchor.
It wasn’t only vengeance he sought--it was closure.
It had been two years since he’d lost the man he loved--lost him to a foe Beau couldn’t even remember. Percival was gone, and Beau had no memory of what had happened. All he’d been left with was the imprint of a vampire’s fangs in his flesh and a hole in his heart where once there had been love.
Two years of hunting, searching for answers, and he was no closer to them than when he’d started.
His latest lead had brought him to a little town in the West German Rhineland, where he’d met up with a group of vampire hunters he’d worked with periodically since leaving MACUSA. They’d heard the same stories he had regarding the area. Tales of a vicious killer slaughtering people and livestock, savaging them and leaving them drained of blood. The townsfolk didn’t seem all that concerned, though. They simply continued on with their lives as though it wasn’t obvious there was a vampire residing in the fortress across the field from the edge of town. Those he’s spoken with even seemed...grateful to the creature.
Beau suspected they were in the vampire’s thrall.
His companions weren’t willing to investigate the fortress at night, saying it was better to go in during the daylight, when their prey was weaker. Beau, however, wasn’t about to wait.