Resurgence

17

I woke up on the floor of a platform. My hands are bound behind my back and my head isn’t on the floor but an actual chopping block. The smell of dried blood fills my nose and I’m close to throwing up bile. I no longer feel my soft curls at my back. I can’t even see it on the sides of my head. They shaved my freaking head. Mina’s hair was shorn off as well and so was Brendan’s and Marijorie’s hair. The latter seemed to be distressed about that.

“Damnit.” Brendan sighed. “What now?”

“I don’t know.” I remark. I see Amadeus from the corner of my eye.

“Today, we finally get justice for the coup twenty years ago that was led by Lady Wilhemina Draculesi which resulted in the death of the true heirs to our King.” Amadeus glared at her, kicking her in the nose. “And those who aided her in her attempt to disthrone me.”

“Wait, true heirs?” Brendan asked Mina.

“I was an illegitimate child. Everything I did was for the kingdom. My family was going to bring it down and I thought it was the only way to save it.” Mina spoke quietly. “I’m sorry that it has come to this.”

I notice a few familiar faces in the crowd. Kyra. Lexi. Zander. Jackson. Heather. I try to hide my smile as they instantly shoot down Amadeus and the other vampires. Jackson and Kyra jump up on the platform and get behind us, cutting off the bindings.

“Jackson! Kyra!” I exclaimed excitedly. “I’m so glad to see you.” I see Amadeus and a few other vampires getting up.

“Here, catch!” Kyra gives me back my beloved guns. Jackson hands the others their own weapons back.

“Time to kick some vampire ass.” I smile. “No offense.”

Mina waves me off. We start to shoot at Amadeus’s friends and I notice the crowd has turned on the guards. One guard shouts as he is being torn to pieces by the angry mob.

“This isn’t over!” Amadeus hacks out blood and he transforms into that man bat form.

“Not yet, anyway.” I shoot him with a wormwood bullet. He gasps in pain but then starts laughing like a maniac. What the hell is going on?

“Well, thanks to the blushing lady that was in Aurelia’s garden, I’ve become immune to everything that vampires were weak to. Sunlight, rowan, vervain and everything else!” He exclaimed, raising his arms.

“Oh, shit.” I remark as he lets out a horrific screech. We cover our ears and it’s obvious that Kyra and Jackson are the worst affected as blood is coming out of their noses. Mina slightly levitated and let out a shrill screech which made Amadeus fly into the castle wall. 

“You can do that?” Kyra asked, lifting her hands from her ears.

“Yeah, be ready to hit him with everything.” Mina raised her hand, throwing an ice spike at him.

“That won’t be a problem.” Kyra charges a fireball spell on her hands. Jackson extends out tentacles from his back and turns his arms into the ones from his third form. Brendan removes the safety of his gun and Marijorie gets in a fight position with his sword. I prepare the Strings as he starts to fly back towards us. Kyra throws fireballs and Brendan shoots him while Mina throws ice spikes. He falls down, kneeling and bloody.

“You think that’s going to be enough?” Amadeus shouts at us.

Jackson proceeded to grab him and rip his limbs off. Amadeus shouts in pain before sending what seems like ice blasts in our direction. We manage to dodge them but one hits me in the boot. It feel like someone pressed ice on my leg.

“Oh, hell!” I shout, hitting the ground. I noticed Mina had grown bat wings and the ends of her arms were pitch black with sharp nails. She was fighting Amadeus who had somewhat regrown his limbs.

The crowds had moved on to terrorizing Amadeus’ army. Mina got thrown back into the wall.

“You will not defeat me!” He shouted, almost growling that out.

“Damn, did I really sound like that?” Jackson looks back at us.

“Uh, yes.” Kyra says as she’s shooting Amadeus with all her might.

“Ugh, sorry y’all.” His gun clicks. “Damn it, I’m out of ammunition!”

He shouts something and we all fall from the platform, hitting the ground or towers. I narrowly avoid getting a wooden support beam falling on me. Amadeus throws an ice spike at me which results in it getting lodged on my sleeve.

“I got you now,Erika!” He shouted. I grab my gun and point it at him, pulling the trigger. I realize it’s jammed. He lets out a crazy laugh.

“It’s too late for you, any last words?” He gets slammed into the ground by Jackson in his third form.

“Go!” He shouted. Kyra and Heather joined him in fighting off Amadeus. We ran to the exit where we had to avoid running into corpses or what was left of them. We entered the palace where there were vampire handmaidens and thralls fighting peasants and other people.

“Ugh!” I quickly whip my head around to see Brendan getting attacked by a werewolf thrall. My first reaction is to shoot at the thrall dead but my gun is jammed. Marijorie rams his silver sword through the werewolf’s head.

“Thank you.” I told him. He nodded as I checked on Brendan. There was a scratch mark on his shoulder to his chest.

“Shit, we need to get out of here.” I told him. We continued running down the hall. There has to be an exit somewhere. The house started to shake violently and I saw white and black ghost-looking things escaping the dead bodies.

“What’s happening?” I shouted. Both Marijorie and Brendan looked confused.

“I don’t know.” Brendan spoke.

“Shit, there’s no way.” Marijorie’s face turned pale.

“What?” I asked him.

“He’s absorbing the blood from the corpses to heal himself!”