And If I'm on fire, You'll be made of Ashes, too.

Brayden has people who work for him. He could have easily paid someone to do this job for him, but this was one he wanted to do himself. The first time he saw her he felt something break inside of him. Most people would say it was his heart, but he didn’t think he had one of those. Those were human emotions, and he was beyond it. He had been for the past 200 years or so. Her big blue eyes were what brought him in. He usually avoided the ones who looked sick. They could do nothing for him but cost him more money. He didn’t have time for that. It wasn’t his job to nurse humans back to health. But he couldn’t take his eyes or mind off of this girl.

He brought her in. She was addicted to pills. Her addiction made her thin and sickly looking. She looked like she hadn’t had a good meal or good night’s sleep in years. She was quiet at first, hesitant. But it didn’t stop him coming up with a nickname for her, Kitten. She reminded him of a washed up kitten,sick and desperate for a kind word. He didn’t know much about her. She didn’t speak much those first weeks. He gave her time and safe space to get those drugs out of her system. She insisted that she would work in his brothel to earn her keep. He wanted her to wait until she was better until she was able to hold down a meal without throwing it up. Once she was finally ready, he didn’t stop her from working.

The first night they spent together was when she started to finally talk. She told him of her ex who was a piece of shit at best. He was the one who got her hooked on drugs, just to abuse her emotionally. She had managed to run away and told him how he was looking for her. Brayden had said he would protect her and he would do just that. His first plan was to get rid of this piece of shit Galen once and for all.

It had been nearly 3 months since Kat left. She had escaped while Galen was off dealing with business out of the city. He should have brought her with him, but he had thought at the time she was going to behave. She had been warmer to him those few weeks leading up to his trip. He thought they were finally building some trust. He should have known she was trying to trick him. At first he had expected her to come back when the drugs wore off and she started itching for her next fix. But she must have stole some money from him to take care of herself for a bit.  He had people looking out for her. But others in the organization weren’t happy with him using the resources to find his girlfriend. He was waiting for a call to come in from the private detective he had hired to track her down. But as it got later, he started to get worried.

What if she had overdosed? He felt like she was always trying to use that against him. She knew he couldn’t go on without her. That little bitch was doing this just to hurt him. He pulled out his phone and quickly dialed her number. Like every call he made since he came back it went straight to voicemail. “Kat, baby where are you? You have to be hurting right now. Let me come take care of you. Please baby.” Galen murmured after her greeting finished. He paused for a minute. He knew she wasn’t going to answer him and that made him angry. He hit the desk in front of him before speaking again. “God damn it Kat. Come home! You’re being fucking stupid. Why do you want to hurt me like this? After all I’ve done for you. Fuck! Just call me back.”

He hit end on the phone and slammed it down. When he did find her again he wasn’t going to ever let her out of his sight again. Even if that meant he had to hire a person to guard her when he wasn’t around. He put his head in his hands and took a deep breath. That was when he heard rustling in the living room. Could it be Kat had finally come home? He rushed out of his office, with each step he felt the anger leave his body. Of course he would punish her for leaving him, later. But for now he was just glad she was back. He turned the corner expecting to see her standing there waiting for him with a look of defeat in her eyes. But instead saw a strange man poking through his wet bar.

It wasn’t hard for Brayden to get into the house. He had received all the information he needed from some sources and Kat. He was actually disappointed with the lack of security the Triad boss had. He heard the man on the phone when he quietly entered the living room. He knew he was calling Kat, but she wouldn’t answer. He had that phone destroyed after Kat had told him their history.  He decided to help himself to the drink while the man had his little melt down in the office.  He was looking through the wine selection when footsteps alerted him to  Galen coming into the living room. Brayden turned around and smiled at him. “Is this all you have? Your bar is kind of empty. All I see is cheap vodka and even cheaper wine.”

Brayden shook his head and turned back to the bar. He found a bottle of red that didn’t look too bad. He uncorked it easily and poured himself a glass. The shuffling behind him told him that Galen was going for a gun. Kat had said he was obsessed with the weapons. Braden turned around and slowly sipped his wine as he watched the man come back to the living room with a gun pointed straight at him.  “You can’t kill me. I mean you can try but honestly it’s just going to make me mad and I’ll have to kill you quicker than I planned. Plus you would miss the best part.”

Galen was surprised to see some man standing at his bar complaining about his taste in alcohol. Who did this asshole think he was? He watched as the man picked a bottle and proceeded to pour himself a glass. He went back to his office to his gun case. He pulled out one of his favorite handguns and made sure it was loaded before returning to the man in the living room. He wanted to scream when he saw the man just casually drinking the wine as if this was a normal occurrence for him. He took aim, in one shot this could be over, and he could forget about this strange man and go back to looking for Kat. But the man kept speaking ignoring the gun pointed at him.

 Galen tilted his head when he mentioned the best part.  “Whatever you say old man. you’re one broken hip away from your death and you think a bullet to the brain won’t stop you. Who sent you here? Was it the Irish, the Italians? What’s the best part? Why shouldn’t I kill you now?”

“I’m afraid this isn’t gang related, and I answer to no one but myself.” Brayden answered before taking another sip of his wine. He walked away from the bar to sit on one of the chairs nearby. He had time to finish his glass of wine before he took care of him. It was strange being in a place his Kitten use to call home. Especially since there was nothing of her there. No pictures, no objects that showed that this man had someone else living with him. No wonder she had ran away, it must have been a prison to her. He still hadn’t decided how to take care of him yet. On one hand he wanted him to suffer. He wanted to pump Galen full of drugs and go through the overdose here alone, with no one here to comfort him. Just like he had tried to force Kat to do.  He also wanted to make him bleed out slowly and watch as the life left his eyes. He wanted some justice for Kat. She deserved it after all Galen did to her. He wanted to return to Kat knowing that the man that had hurt and abused her for years was gone.

“I found your missing toy,Kat. Although you didn’t take good care of her to begin with.” Brayden sat his glass down and focused his full attention on the man standing front of him with a gun pointed straight at him. “I fixed her, well as much as I could. You really did a number on her. She won’t be returning to you however, she’ll be staying with me.”

Galen dropped his gun when he heard Kat’s name and rushed to the man. Didn’t he know who he was messing with. He grabbed the man by the collar, and did the first thing he could think of. He punched the man straight in his smiling face. He kept punching, letting out all of his anger and frustration with each punch. He was surprised the older man was still conscious.  This wasn’t the first time Brayden had been beaten and it probably wasn’t the last time. Usually it was because someone found him in bed with their partner. He allowed the man a few more punches, after all this would probably be the last thing he did. He grabbed the man's wrist and threw him down on the ground with ease.

Brayden could feel that his lip was cut and a steady trickle of blood was running down his face from his eyebrow. He brushed the blood out of his eyes with a handkerchief from his pocket and tossed it aside. On a human these would have been serious injuries. But thanks to the vampire blood pumping through his veins, the cuts were already starting to heal on their own. The man was on the floor, probably confused at how he ended up there. Brayden brought his foot back and kicked him a couple of times in the stomach.

“You got blood on my shirt.” Brayden said as he looked down at the specks of red blood on the crisp white shirt. He took off his suit jacket and laid it on a nearby chair. The last thing he needed to do was to ruin one of his favorite suits before he was done. It was getting harder to find a dry cleaner who wouldn’t complain about blood stains.

“You’re a piece of shit Galen. Did you really think you would get away with everything you did to Kat?” Brayden bent down and grabbed the collar of Galen’s shirt and pulled him off the ground. “I’m your reckoning.”

Brayden smiled at him, and started pulling Galen towards the back of the house, where Kat had told him the bedroom was. He had decided what the man's punishment was going to be.

Galen tried to fight the man as he dragged through his house. He was impressed with the man’s strength. He had judged him to be older and weak. But he was able to drag him like he was nothing more than a sack of potatoes. Galen was beginning to suspect there was something not human about this man. He was almost healed from, his punches. The only thing that remained from where he had punched him was dried blood. When they reached the bedroom, Brayden picked him up like he was nothing and threw him down into a chair. Galen watched as the man went to the closet and pulled out a few of his own ties.  Brayden tied the man’s wrists to the arms of the chair. He grabbed a handful of Galen’s hair and forced him to look up at him. “Fighting me will make me make sure it is even more painful.”

He bent down to tie the man’s ankles to the legs of the chair. He sat down on the bed and smiled at Galen. “Kat doesn’t know I’m here, doing this. In fact I’m not going to tell her what I did. She will find out when they print it in the newspaper. I doubt anyone will mourn for you. They’ll paint your death as a overdose by a gangster who got in too deep.” Brayden pulled out a syringe from his pocket and held it up for Galen to see. He took the lid off the needle. He pushed the plunger until a little bit of the liquid made it through the needle. “This is a cocktail of a few different drugs. I’m not completely sure what’s in it but I know it will kill you,” Brayden chuckled. “First it’s going to paralyze you. You won’t be able to move but you’ll feel everything the drugs have to offer you. I’ve been told it’s very painful, which is perfect for a piece of shit like you. After a few hours it will kill you, and you will die alone.” Braden stood up from the bed and walked over to him. He got down to look him in the eyes. “While you’re dying I want you to think about how you left Kat alone to suffer the same thing, and then had the audacity to come home and lecture her about it. I want you to think how you took that poor girl and abused her. She has nightmares about you.”

Galen was to afraid to speak. He stomach sank when Brayden mentioned Kat. He never thought of their relationship as abusive. They were just a wild couple in his book. He never forced Kat to take the drugs, he offered them and she took them of her own free will. He watched as the man grabbed his arm and pushed the needle into his vein. He tried to move and shake it loose. But that just made Brayden gripped his arm tighter to the point that Galen thought it would break. He watched as the liquid plunged into his arm. He started to feel the effects. First his arm lost all feeling. He couldn’t feel the needle or Brayden’s cold grip.

“You won’t be able to talk soon. So any last words?” Brayden asked as he pulled the needle from his arm.

“F-fuck y-y-you.” Galen managed to get out before he felt the paralyzing agent move throughout his body.

“How unoriginal.” Brayden clicked his tongue. He waited a few minutes before he untied the man’s arms and ankles. He picked him up out of the chair and carried him into the bathroom. Now Brayden had to make it look like an overdose and get rid of any evidence showing he was ever here. He placed the Galen’s paralyzed body in the shower and propped him up against the wall. He retrieved the needle from the bedroom and wiped it clean of his fingerprints before placing it in Galen’s lifeless hand. He winked at him before turning on the cold water of the shower. He stood outside of the shower, grinning at Galen.

“How does it feel to know that eventually everyone will forget you? Even Kat. You’ll be nothing more than a vague memory of a bad dream.”