Dawn of Vengeance

Chapter 34 - Only Fair

Jake's POV:

Jake was watching with a mixture of both fear and rage from his position on the side of one of the prison's towers as the squadron of Saints ran into battle with Stark's horde of Strigoi. He was screaming for them to run away before they got too close to the prison and were herded like heads of cattle to the slaughter, but his voice was completely snuffed out by the overlapping gunshots that rang through the night. But something that worried him even more was the fact that they'd brought Eve along with them to the front lines of what they knew was going to be a savage fight.

Just beyond the wall of Saints Jake could make out his childhood friend on the ground near the water beside another figure that he couldn't quite make out. Jake had been screaming for someone to help her when the Strigoi were attacking her slab of ice that she'd formed in order to try and help the Saints that were battling the vampires in the water. He was all to relieved to see them finally help her after one had come so close to biting her that for an instant Jake feared that it had bitten her, and all the while Stark stood beside him watching as the Saints fired upon the Strigoi with a cold silence.

"Look at them." He said narrowing his eyes as several of the Strigoi began to ash before the real fighting even began. "No honor whatsoever."

"What did you expect?" Jake snapped making the vampire's eyes dart to him. "Did you think they'd just show up and try to take you're horde on with swords and knives?"

Stark stared at Jake for a long while, his horde being eradicated by the nonstop firing of the Saints who were all picking their shots disabling the Strigois with clean shots to the head. Some of them were even exploding into ash when a bullet got lucky enough to sever their spinal cords. If they could keep this up than they just might have a chance, Jake thought to himself as he watched on with hope in his heart.

"Hope is for fools." Stark said standing to his full height and turning to his wife Scarlet. "Preparation will always grind hope beneath its heel. Let the rest out."

"The rest?!" Jake asked as Scarlet smiled and began to levitate from the prison walls and head toward the fighting. "What do you mean the rest?"

"Jacob," Stark said with disbelief. "Don't tell me you think that those are all the Strigoi I have? Oh no, that horde down there is the product of one, just one Strigoi being unleashed upon this place while it was being toured. I still have another hundred at least underground. Now watch."

Scarlet was nearly above the fighting when her hands light up like bright green flares distracting the Saints for but a moment, but a moment was enough. As soon as the line of Saints ceased their fire the Strigoi launched themselves among their ranks just as two separate hordes emerged from the sides of the path and threw themselves into the fray. Jake looked on with horror as he saw the Saints play right into the strengths of these twisted vampires by drawing their swords and dropping their Slayers. They were going to be slaughtered!

"And just as i promised." Stark said looking on with a prideful look. "The Saints have been broken."

Jake's eyes darted to the now surrounded Saint Shields as they tried hacking and slashing at the relentless Strigoi who were folding on them like a tidal wave. Stark was right, if they fought like this they had no chance. The only advantage they had was keeping them back with their Slayers and that had failed with the introduction of these two new groups of Strigoi. Jake tried to pull the chains that fastened him to the wall free but like the other times he was having no such luck with it. The only thing he could do was watch as his brothers and sisters in arms were slaughtered by these creatures.

That's when he heard it. At first Jake thought he was hearing things but when it kept up he knew it was real. He heard the howl of a werewolf, not that terrible scream of one of Starks rabid 'Wargs' but a natural reverberating howl. Stark noticed it too and so too did the Strigoi for a good portion of them ran off in pursuit of the howling. Jake let out a sigh of relief when he looked back down at the Saints and found that the numbers had greatly shifted; now it looked like there were about the same amount of Saint Shields as there were vampires.