Vampire Smile (On hold)

Chapter Twenty-four

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Chapter Twenty-four

“G-gabriel…”

He looks at me briefly before turning and walking away.

“Wait!” I panic when he disappears from my sight. “Sarah, can you please…”

“Let me, miss.” She helps me ease out of Claudia’s limp form. I stare down at her pale face guiltily before scurrying out of the brick house.

I catch Luke following his coven master towards the center of the clearing. Several houses together with the mansion are still burning, but the fighting has fortunately stopped. To my horror, some of the sprawled bodies on the ground that I have seen when we’ve arrived are already dead. Gabriel’s humans are lining them up on one side with loud cries of grief. His vampires are rushing back and forth the mansion and the well with full buckets of water to try putting out the fire.

The village is nearly, if not totally, destroyed.

I see nine humans, five men and four women, kneeling with bound wrists in front of the flaming, large house. Their faces are blank and their eyes are fully black. I don’t think they’re aware that they have been captured. I don’t even think they’re aware of anything at all.

Gabriel’s furious strides stop abruptly a few feet away from the prisoners. Luke marches on until his towering form faces the human at the beginning of the line.

“Who sent you?”

I have never thought that I would hear Luke speaking in a cold voice. When I look at him, I can’t see my dearest friend anywhere in that angry-as-ice face. I stand near Gabriel who doesn’t even turn his head at my presence.

The human gazes up at Luke vacantly. His expression is nothing but deadpan.

“I will ask you one last time. Who sent you?”

The man opens his mouth and I brace myself for the truth. He slowly exhales a long breath, further igniting my anticipation.

“The woman in the prophecy should die.”

I can hear wood crackling when the fire consumes what remains of the windows and doors. I can hear the owls’ hoots, crickets’ chirps and the gentle rustles of the trees’ leaves as the wind blows them into a soundless cadence. I can count the beats of my heart as it continues to pound nervously against my ribcage. If I just don’t think that it’s impossible, I swear I can even hear my blood flowing swiftly through my veins.

That’s how silent the village has turned after the human’s statement.

Luke turns to face his coven master; his red eyes are still terrifyingly inexpressive. I notice that the vampires and humans have stopped whatever they’ve been doing and are slowly gathering in a circle around us.

Gabriel gives Luke a wordless nod.

“No!” I scream loudly just in time when Luke rapidly and easily snaps the man’s neck. A gasp escapes from the human’s mouth before he slumps dead on the ground.

I watch in horror and with shaky breath as Luke brusquely advances towards the second human, this time a woman. The prisoners haven’t even spared their killed companion a glance. They remain staring blankly straight ahead.

“Who sent you?”

My eyes well with tears when Luke asks the woman the same question in the same tone of voice. I roam my gaze around and see both classes of Gabriel’s minions staring furiously at the prisoners. Even his humans have tightened their holds around their swords and daggers. I realize that members of their families may be included on that pile of the dead and that they share the vampires’ hatred for the captives, though they know that they’re of the same race. My teary eyes cease on their coven master who’s standing rigidly with crossed arms in front of his chest.