The Five Cursed Witches: Volume 2 - Crimson, the Witch of Night

Chapter 72 The result of revenge

Crimson

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The sounds came from right below me. I looked down the side of the roof and into the alley between the house I was on and the next. What I saw made all other thoughts disappear as nothing else had managed to do. My stomach turned and my blood boiled.

A hooded figure, bent over a human.

I had seen that type of scene too many times to mistake it, but I felt vastly different about it compared to usually. I was angry, as always, but it was a different type of anger. It wasn't anger directed aimlessly towards all vampires. Instead it was very much directed only to the one down there and the fact that it gave all vampires a bad name. That it made all the work that Lamech, Alair, Stuart, Olivier and the rest had put in over the years to make the prejudices disappear all the more difficult.

I leapt from the roof without a second thought and landed smoothly and silently behind him. I grabbed hold of the vampire's neck and tore it from the human, made it crash into the wall.

The vampire got into a crunching position, saw me, and I could see as it prepared to run. But I had no plans on letting it. It only got one step before I hurled it into a wall again.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going?" I snarled at it.

The vampire only answered with a growl and tried to make a run for it again, but I was faster. I pinned it towards the wall with a hand in a tight grip around its throat. The scent that came off it, made me want to puke. It was a mixture of mold, cigarettes, and alcohol. It was a scent I recognized though I hadn't taken notice of it before. But the vampire in front of me was the one that had turned Aideen. I just knew it.

"You're a fucking bastard that doesn't deserve to be a vampire," I hissed and then the scream of a man came from behind me.

"It burns!"

I turned around and saw with horror that the eyes of the young man the vampire had drunk from were red. I knew what that meant. The young man would be overcome by pain for a couple of hours, maybe a day, and when the pain ended, he would open up his eyes to his new life as a vampire.

A sickening realization hit me and slammed the vampire's head into the wall again. He was the one responsible for the vampires that had attacked the coven. He had turned several humans and then left them alone to be consumed by thirst.

"Why?" I shouted at him as my nails pierced his skin and blood came out. "Do you get some sick pleasure out of it? Do you enjoy turning them and then watching them fall into madness? Why would you do this?"

The vampire opened his mouth and coughed up blood.

"It's because of you," he said in a low hiss. "You witches deserve everything that is coming for you."

My anger peaked. I was angry at the vampire before me that used innocent people for some twisted revenge. Angry at my coven because I knew they acted in a way that caused resentment. And angry at myself for never having bothered to ask questions before.

I let my anger out on the vampire and took hold of his head with my free hand. As I squeezed my nails further in, I ripped his head from his body. Then I threw both head and body aside and took out a lighter that I never left the apartment without. As I lit the vampire on fire, he burnt faster than any vampire I had ever burnt before. He had to have been covered in alcohol.

Then I turned back to the young man that was on the ground whimpering in pain. I bent down by him and placed my hands on his shoulders.

"It's going to be alright," I told him in a soft voice. "It won't last. You just have to endure for a bit. It will be better soon."

"It hurts!" he screamed and took hold of me.

"I know. But... It'll pass. I promise it'll pass."

"Kill me!" he screamed. "Make it stop! Anything! Just make it stop!"

I felt myself shaking and at a loss for what to do. This wasn't something that I knew anything about. I had no idea what could help him. But I did know someone that knew.

I brought my phone out and dialed Saida's number.

"Are you alright? You left so suddenly," Saida answered with worry.

"Do you have the number I called from while I was gone? Can you send it to me?" I asked without giving any answers.

"I do. Is something wrong? Are you in trouble?"

"I'm not," I said and looked at the man that moaned in pain and trembled. "But someone else is and I need to contact the vampires. They can help."

"Alright. I'll send it. You need anything else?"

"No. Thank you, Saida."

I hung up and returned all of my attention to the young man.

"You'll be fine," I told him. "I'll get some people here that can help."

"It hurts! Everything hurts. Like fire," he whimpered and his hold turned so hard that it felt like it could break bones.

"I know. But it'll pass. I promise. You just have to stay strong until then."

My phone sounded. I had gotten the number and I quickly typed out a message to send. Young man being turned by the same vampire as Aideen, and the location. After I had sent it, it took about one minute before I got an answer, but it felt impossibly long as the man squirmed and moaned in pain before me.

On my way, was all the message said.

I breathed out a sigh of relief.

"They are on their way. They'll be here soon. I... I have to leave you," I told him because there was no way that I could face Lamech right then and there. But the man still held onto me.

"Don't! It hurts! You need to stop it!" he screamed at me.

"I can't. But some that can will come soon. Just stay here and they'll find you."

The pain seemed to intensify as he gasped and screamed and let go of my arm to grab his chest. I quickly took it as my chance to jump between the buildings and to the roof again. I didn't leave though. I reasoned that I needed to make sure that Lamech actually came and found the man, which was true. But a bigger truth was that I wanted to see Lamech again, even if it was just from a distance.