MULDER THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
Round Two, Part Three

However, Mulder was one of those who truly believed their own intuition, and right now, there was something unbalanced about Skinner that bothered him so much.

"Something bad happened to you?"

Skinner blinked. His face was strangely naked and open for a moment, Mulder could read the confusion, fear, and anger there. It closed off so suddenly.

"Why do you think so?"

"Considering Scully and I had an interesting night," Mulder tried to withheld his smile. Considering how vivid the images floating through his head of Alex Krycek pounding into him were at the moment, //ah, and what a wondrous feeling!// *interesting* would be an understatement. "I wonder if..." He stopped, then lost his almost smile when his eyes finally caught on Skinner's grim face.

"It's a feeling I had," he said softly, feeling the need to explain.

"Nothing *interesting* happened, Agent Mulder," Skinner said darkly.

Mulder stared at him. He swore he saw something like 'pain' reflected for a very short moment on the man's eyes.

"I didn't mean to pry," Mulder whispered, suddenly feeling guilty and a bit alarmed. Despite what happened, his experience last night was more euphoric than just plain *interesting* that he felt like sharing to the world. It was obvious nothing in a similar manner had happened to Skinner. He wondered if it was personal enough he should not pursue it much further.

"Can you do me a favour, Mulder?" Skinner sighed. He looked tired and defeated.

"Yes?"

"Help me, okay?"

Mulder didn't even hesitate to nod. "Tell me and I'll do my best, Sir."

Skinner squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. "No, no, that's not what I mean. What I'm saying is that… be serious in this, okay? Being a Slayer, I mean…"

The man paused, seemingly difficult to find his words. Then he continued flatly but quivered with some hidden emotion. "I didn't ask to be a Watcher," he stopped again. "And though later on I found it exciting, it's… taking so much from me."

Mulder widened his eyes. Suddenly it was like looking at a new Skinner.

"Too much sacrifice," Skinner said softly, releasing a hint of sorrow. "Sometimes it was so unbearable."

Despite his confusion, a wave of sympathy flooded Mulder's senses. At the same time, embarrassment filled in. He admitted that he hadn't been serious about the whole thing.

//Has something terrible happened to him because of me?//

"I'm sorry, Sir," he said sincerely. "I will."

Skinner's eyes bore into his for a long moment. "Do you trust me, Mulder?"

Somehow, Mulder couldn't answer. Yes, his instinct told him to trust the man, but…

"I'll try," Mulder said, truthfully. "It wasn't you, though. It's more complicated than that."

//No//, he thought. //Telling him about Alex at the moment isn't wise at all//.

Seemingly able to read his mind, Skinner nodded. "Trusting each other doesn't mean to share everything, you know. You have something you want to keep it to yourself, it's fine for me. As well as vice versa."

The last statement came out trembled, Mulder realized that the man was actually not reading his mind, but more talking about himself. He wondered if he should start to make a discreet inquiry regarding the man in front of him.

"I understand."

Was it gratitude reflected in Skinner's eyes?

"Good," Skinner said. "I'm still trying to snatch you from Kersh and be my direct subordinates. I suppose you can wait for the result at the end of the day."

*********************

Scully was waiting for him when he stepped out of Skinner's office.

"Despite my logic, I got the feeling that we are going to track this *vampire* scenario path," she said in a dejected tone.

"That should be interesting," Mulder smiled. "Why the long face?"

"Do you have any idea what it would look like in my record?"

Mulder grinned. "You should see mine."

Scully studied him thoughtfully. "You look high spirited, today."

Mulder bit his lip. Telling her that he had finally gotten laid seemed to underscore the whole thing. Last night memories were suddenly too colourful, spectacular, and multidimensional to be described in words. He wondered why only one night could really make such a difference.

"I suppose I had a religious enlightment, sister," he finally laughed, choosing the easiest way out. "Didn't know that you're one of the tribe."

Scully raised one of her eyebrow. "What tribe are you talking about? The full Kinsey scale or half scale?"

"Whatever it was, it left my imagination running wild. Whoah! Scully the *womanizer*."

Scully stopped and slowly looked around.

"Relax, nobody's around." Mulder winked at her.

"For your information, I'm not out yet," she snorted. "Though I wonder why I should care about that. What about you?"

"I haven't decided whether I'm fully gay or still bi."

"Why was that?"

"It's my mood," Mulder grinned cheekily. "Sometimes I go crazy for red-head chicks, no pun intended, other times is exclusively for dark-hair studs. I do recall that I was crazy for a German-Shepherd one time. So I'm not sure if I'm into guy or girl or dog."

Scully rolled her eyes. "Pervert."

"I know," Mulder said fleetingly. "And a lot of people seemed to think so. That's why I don't particularly pay any attention whether I'm still in the closet or the cupboard or whatever."

Scully sighed. She wondered whether her new partner was actually good for her mental health. "So, what's the plan?"

"I'm still curious about the profiles of the dead victims. They had too much in common for being a random prey for vampire's feedings. Can you try to start from there? I need to know what common features all of these young men had and the possibility of their linkage to one another."

"What about you?"

"I'll start with the missing persons."

"Let's see, I'll meddle with the preys and you meddle with… what? Possible new vampires?"

Mulder mocked a surprise gesture. "Scully, you read my mind! Will you marry me?"

"Seriously, Mulder. This case is beginning to humiliate my intelligence."

"Oh go on, sister. It doesn't hurt to start from there. I'm sure you'll find something interesting that can challenge your academic upbringing later on."

Scully didn't react for a while, her face seemingly lost in her own thought.

"What's on your mind?"

She shrugged then looked at him in a sidelong gaze. "Just an idea. Weird maybe, but I'll try to perform some DNA analysis on those victims."

Mulder nodded, face serious this time. "That's great. I'll be waiting for the result."

Scully smiled. "Don't call me 'sister', okay?"

********************

No mortals could handle an annoyed Alex Krycek. He was bitchy in the worst possible way, and murderous. It's a good thing that the one who distracted him from his 'Mulder-gazing' was his demonic Watcher-Mentor-Father figure Frohike.

"I can see that you're extremely fond of the Slayer, but I'm afraid I need your assistance at the moment," Frohike said to him, amused.

"What do you need?"

"There's a certain young vampire called Keiron wrecking some havoc. I believe he did some terrible things to your Slayer's Watcher."

"Skinner?" Krycek raised his eyebrows. "What did he do?"

"Never mind about that. What I need from you is to retrieve some interesting things that Keiron acquired from the poor Watcher. Of course the stupid young vampire doesn't know anything about their importance, and I wasn't sure whether he's already destroyed the whole thing. But I was pretty concern it might go to Spender's hand."

Krycek frowned. "Don't you want me to do something with this Keiron?"

"No. Not at the moment. Despite his shallowness, the vampire seemed to be a favorite to Spender. Now isn't the right time to challenge the man so openly."

"If it was just acquiring 'interesting things', why don't you do it yourself?"

Frohike gave him a smile that made his face looked strange. "You've got that *look*, Alex Krycek. I hate to remind you that falling in love isn't a good idea at the moment. No, I won't do it myself, because this is *your* job. Remember?"

Embarrassed and uneasy, Alex Krycek glanced toward the building where his... //my what?//...*lover*... worked.

"I hate to leave him alone." He opted to be honest.

"Oh dear," Frohike shook his head exasperatedly. "Go on. Your slayer isn't that helpless. Make your errand as quick as possible, then come back to him if you must."

Alex Krycek nodded reluctantly.

*************************

Mulder didn't know exactly why he felt such a strong pull to enter this dim cafeteria. It was empty, and the man behind the counter whom also functioned as the cook, waiter, and cleaning boy looked bored to death. However, it gave him a feeling of refuge after all of those exhausting trips. He had spent the whole day walking around tracking info about some suspicious missing person cases, which eventually landed him here. All the time, he had been secretly wishing that Alex Krycek would pop up, and surprised with how disappointed he was when he didn't.

This was the place the boy named Jackson Adams was last seen before his disappearance three years ago. His family had given him up, thinking he might be dead already, and for sometime, Mulder had started to doubt himself whether this was one lead he needed to follow. If only that a friend of his didn't reveal his puzzlement of encountering the boy sometime ago in Mixers, he probably would have abandoned it.

Of course Jackson Adams was probably still alive somewhere. He was a promiscuous gay man, his parents were conservative and a bit abusive, enough reasons to 'disappear'. Yet, no word about him being in the streets, or even the higher prostitution circle, death seemed to be the most logical explanation for the young man's fate. That, until his friend encountered him in Mixers, claiming to be the last person being seen with Marcus Wyatt the night he was murdered.

Mulder knew that he jumped into conclusions too fast, but since when did he abandoned his intuition?

But then again, he already knew that he would come empty handed.

"That's a long time ago, and I wasn't present at the time. How should I remember who picked him up before his disappearance then?" The bartender gave him a suspicious glare. "And didn't the police take a report, already?"

Mulder slumped disappointedly, and out of politeness he seldom had, he spent some ten dollars buying a drink.

He had decided to go back to his office, when suddenly a man sat beside him and openly gave him an unreadable stare.

"Something you need, Sir?" Mulder asked warily, while at the same time his instinct flared.

//Danger//.

The man, old and wrinkled, smiled. He slowly took up a cigarette and put it between his greyish lips.

"I can see that you've been busy," he said.

Mulder felt his senses exploding with something he could not fathom. But he knew what it was. Without hesitation, he took out his cross necklace from under his shirt.

The man stared at it and laughed softly. "It won't work on me."

Mulder warily rummaged in his pocket, and felt the tip of his stake. He clutched at it, while glancing sideway at the indifferent bartender.

"I don't think it's wise to do anything at the moment," the man smiled at him, following his line of gaze. "I meant no harm."

Mulder could hear the unspoken word 'yet'. "Who are you?"

"What's in a name?" The man whom undoubtly was a vampire looked at him with a hint of amusement. "You'll know when the time is right."

Warily, Mulder hesitated between moving out of this perimeter at once or satisfy his curiosity. As if it was an equal competition of choices. He kept his seat.

"I suspect you're not here to get a drink," he said, trying to calm himself.

"Curiosity," the man shrugged then lit his cigarette. "Sentimental."

Mulder saw something that wasn't malice nor hostile in the old vampire's eyes. It puzzled him.

"Do you like what you see?" He asked straightforwardly.

The vampire looked startled for a moment, but then grinned widely, showing his fangs at the corner of his mouth.

"That's a loaded question from my point of view, but yes. I like it very much."

"What do you want from me?"

The vampire didn't stop smiling. "You're the profiler. Can't you guess?"

"What I'm guessing at the moment is pretty degrading," Mulder slowly unclenched his clutch at the stake, but kept his hand inside his pocket.

"I don't blame your confidence," the vampire shrugged. "It is true at some point, but I actually just want to talk."

"Talk?" Mulder looked at him incredulously.

"Yes. I've been feeding, and carnal desire has pretty lost its charm on me, though I admit that you're very tempting. So, none of such basic needs are what I have in mind."

"What kind of talk are you actually expecting from me?"

"Anything."

Mulder snorted, "Has the world gone mad?"

"Do you think demons exist?"

//What the hell...?// "Yes," Mulder answered quickly. "Why do vampires exist?"

The man looked genuinely thoughtful. "I don't really know. Why do you think they do?"

Mulder almost laughed. This was probably the most interesting chat he had ever encountered. He felt himself relax a little. "You don't know?"

"Should I?" the vampire looked at him. "Do you even know why humans exist?"

Mulder sighed, "Good point." He watched the vampire's eyes, and suddenly realized that the man was looking at him fondly. A vampire was fond of a Slayer. How funny. And he was...*old*. He had never encountered anyone this old being brought over. "How old are you?"

It took him some time to answer. "Some five hundred years or so. I don't really count."

Five hundred years.

"What did you find?" Mulder asked, a little bit apprehensive. Five hundred years of lifetime seemed to be rather difficult to grasp. He was also dumbfounded to see this vampire gave out such a personal information to him so easily.

"What do you mean?"

"Five centuries of living. Surely you *found* something interesting or you'll prefer to die out of boredom."

The vampire smiled again. "That's thoughtful. Yes, I should have found something interesting. But, no. Not that I can recall."

"So you just exist?" For some reason, Mulder thought that such a thing sounded sad.

The vampire didn't answer.

"Tell me," Mulder felt himself growing bold. "Do you know anything about the Brotherhood?"

The vampire cocked his head to one side. "Why do you want to know?"

"Aw, geez. Stop answering my question with a question."

"I'm curious with what you think about that."

"I don't know anything about it! That's why I'm asking you, since you're the one who wants to just… *talk*."

"Tell me," the vampire pulled his cigarette out of his mouth. "Why do you think such a thing exists among the vampires? Surely you have known that vampires tend to be… *territorial*. They aren't really as sociable as humans."

"It's not a collective effort, I'm sure," Mulder answered. "A particular vampire must have initiated it. Just like a mafia or organized crime, this seems to be a non-democratic organization and centered into only one or two key figures. All the more reasonable considering vampires aren't exactly 'democratic' to one or another."

"Why do you think this vampire wants to start a thing like that?"

Mulder looked at him. He felt like he was being tested. He decided that it was probably a good idea to see how this kind of conversation continue.

"Boredom. Disappointment," Mulder answered thoughtfully. "Probably envy."

The man looked at him strangely. "Envy?"

"Yes, maybe. Based on centuries of data, vampire lifestyle could be a bit... shallow and ordinarily hedonistic. No purpose, really. I imagine that this vampire must have missed his humanity enough that he was envious with human life, once he experienced being a vampire and disatisfied by it. So he did what human nature always did, forming a group, a clan, a… a… a nation. A nation with a government. Yes, that's it."

The vampire didn't say anything, merely looking at Mulder with rapture in his eyes.

In the meantime, Mulder started to warm up on his own ideas. "I suppose he did well and diligently, considering how aggressive this Brotherhood was lately. They seemed desperate to... 'recruit' followers and it got bigger too fast."

"Do you think so?"

"Yes," Mulder nodded. "I think he secretly wants to be a human again. And because he couldn't turn back into a human, he wanted to replace the human with his clan. A vampire living in a human system."

"Prospering, conquering. Having a real *civilization*," the man whispered. His eyes looked glazed. "I love your insight, Slayer."

"I wonder what he'll do next," Mulder said. "After tasting it, I mean?"

The vampire was silent for a long time, Mulder became uneasy. He thought that it was time for him to go before things turned bad. He didn't feel necessary to kill this vampire yet, but being buddy-buddy with him was extremely unwise.

Suddenly the old man looked up, and caught Mulder with the most intense stare he had ever seen. He shuddered.

"I think," the vampire said in a deep tone. "This vampire is now looking for an heir to inherit the greatness he's going to make."

Somehow, Mulder felt the hair at the back of his neck rise. He stood up warily. Still, the eyes didn't release him.

"And I think," the vampire said again. "He was probably thinking that this heir might be the right one to be his one and only true bride to share all those power as long as time move on."

"Tell me your name," Mulder said quickly. "And I won't kill you once we step outside this place."

"A soulmate for the lonely heart," the vampire whispered. Then he laughed softly. "I'm scaring you, Mulder. I think I should go, now."

"I don't think it's wise for us to meet again," Mulder said.

The vampire only smiled. He walked toward the door, opened it, and turned half his body toward Mulder.

"By the way, my name is Spender."

By the time Mulder reached the door, he had disappeared.

*************

Beth's next!