Damned Hybrid Queen [Book #3 of the Damned Series; Completed]

I save a girl.

     The high of adventure began to wear off, the curiosity of foreign land taking its place. I explored the vibrant foliage, the path I walk on comprised of dark brown decaying leaves. The trees around me are a bright green, the sun shining through the leaves casting a soft green hue and shadow patterns covered all. Small plants, shrubs, and grasses lined the path. There's a slight breeze I can't feel but can hear as it whispers throughout the wood, and see the shadows from the dancing leaves playing on the ground. The air is cool and pleasant. This moment, right now, is one I wish to never forget. All is peaceful and calm, the only noise is my own footsteps, the wind, and the slight rustle of small animals in the wood. This feeling and the sight all around me, cannot be encased in simple words alone.

     I emerged onto a city. It's a clash of medieval and modern, tall buildings, concrete. However, the roads are dirt and there are no cars, just on foot and horses. I smiled, then laid eyes on a small mansion. The sun was pretty far across the sky, meaning I'd walked for quite some time. My spirits fell as I saw the gallows and a flogging post in the center of town, the markets surrounding the area. I sighed, pulling up the neck of my shirt to double as a mask. I pulled a beanie on, hiding my orange hair.

     I traveled through the small city in the shadows, hiding from the citizens. I heard a commotion. I watched as two male guards dragged a young woman to the gallows. She hissed, bearing her fangs and crimson eyes. They ignored her, dragging her forward. She looked like she wanted to fight, but she also looked like she'd been tortured. Her clothes were torn and bloodstained, some bruises not fully healed. She looks weak, but she still fights as much as she can. Her arms were bound behind her, and she was dragged until she was standing on one of the wooden crates. I ditched my bag, grabbing my simple silver dagger in a simple sheath. I may be able to save her yet.

     I ran out as they put a hood over her head. A small crowd had gathered, murmuring. The rope was tied and the box kicked. I jumped up, cutting both the guards and the rope choking the life from the girl. I grabbed her, using my vampiric mode to run to the edge of town, grabbing my bag as I ran back into the wood.

     About a mile or two later I went human again and collapsed, dropping the girl as I tumbled away. I gasped in pain, the venom burning through me. I recovered semi-quickly, half-limping over to cut the girl's ropes. I pulled the bag from over her head. I didn't yet move the mask or beanie, still covering my face with the exception of my pale eyes. I have two sets of gloves. One set is a pair of simple black leather gloves, but the other is a pair of fingerless gloves that lace up to almost my elbow. Both pairs are made of leather just as flexible as my boots. The fingerless pair are archery gloves, made of black leather and black laces, the left hand just fingerless, but the right one has full fingers except the pinky, which remain fingerless. They protect my wrists as well as my fingers so they are less likely to get hurt. Currently, I have the plain black ones on. I leaned against a tree, looking at her as she recovered.

     She has messy blonde hair, dark roots, silver eyes, pale lips, ivory skin, and a light spread of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Neither of us said a thing, I'm sure she's still recovering, rubbing her now bruised neck.

     Sure, hanging doesn't kill us, but that rope is laced with vampiric acid. As we suffocate, our skin rubs and after we've suffocated and died a few times, the acid makes it through our veins, making us die slowly and painfully, suffocating all the time. It takes about a minutes to days, depending on the acid potency, but at the rate she was struggling, it'd probably take mere minutes. If it were to take too long in the guards' or higher ups' opinion, vampiric blades are used to cut major arteries, and they bleed out on top of everything else. It's quite painful.

     I simply smiled beneath my mask looking down at the girl who's either my age or older. We just looked at each other, making the conversation slowly more and more awkward and somewhat tense. Ah well...eventually one of us will break the silence.