Anything For Rachel

Chapter Thirty Nine.

"And you came up with this?" Calvin said in a deadpan, obviously as tired as I was of hearing Patrick go on about how clever he was.

"Not exactly." Patrick shrugged. "I wasn't sure where to go from there, and then I noticed the change in Pedro. He wasn't the man I'd been in love with anymore. He didn't even care about how weak you were or about advancing himself anymore. I suspect that came from Rachel as well because Pedro was not like this before he met her. Rachel ruined yet another plan." He said annoyed. "I was down on my luck until I met my friend here." He pointed to Demetri. "He was in Castrum looking for information on Calvin, so I watched him, and one night in one of my dining halls I overheard him and a few of his friends discussing their suspicion that Rachel was not only alive, but that she'd had a baby. Now they planned to hunt them both down and kill them, but I thought what a waste that would be." He and Demetri laughed. "I confirmed to him their suspicions, but I also came up with this new idea. It was good for both of us, you see. Demetri wins because Calvin and Rachel both suffer when we steal away their only child, we force them to watch as we completely destroy their reign and the people's affections towards them, then we let them know before we kill them just what we plan to use their pretty little daughter. Then for me, I get the satisfaction of knowing in just a few years I'll finally have the queen we need to rule these people and to take our rightful place in vampire and human history alike."

Octavia frowned deeply, her eyes glistening with unwept tears. "I can't believe you could do this, Patrick." She muttered quietly. "I thought we were your friends."

Pedro straightened up beside her. "All Patrick cares about is himself." He snapped. "That couldn't be any more clear than it is right now."

"You still have a flair for the dramatic." Patrick sighed. "Too bad you couldn't keep your backbone to go with it."

Pedro whooshed passed me, taking Patrick and Demetri by surprise. Everyone around me broke into action when we saw that the men were, for the slightest of seconds, distracted.

Four of the men broke out of the line to run to Patrick's side, while Cromley and Renard jumped out at the furthest side of the line of men, instantly grappling on the floor. It was obvious more of the men in here were better fighters by the way my quick eyesight could see how one second it would look like Cromley had the upper hand, then the other guy would be on top of him pulling at his head instead. Calvin was across the room, easily plowing through the men that were trying to protect Patrick.

I glanced to my side and saw Lexton and Octavia looking out at the chaos with wide frightened eyes. When I turned back to look forward again I just barely had enough time to notice the man running at me with his full speed. I hardly had time, but I whooshed out of the way, causing him to pass me slightly, then I gritted my teeth as I shoved my fist forward right between his shoulder blades, wrapped my hand around something squishy, and yanked it back out. I glanced at the black heart in my hand for only a millisecond before throwing it to the other side of the room. The man turned almost slowly to look at me, his eyes looking a little astonished that I'd just done that, then they went blank as Octavia's hands wrapped around his neck. She snapped it, and threw the head over in the opposite direction from where I'd thrown the heart.

We moved forward slightly, staying away from the biggest concentration of men where Cromley and Renard were and we moved into a triangle formation, me at the head, flanked by Octavia and Lexton as three more men narrowed their eyes our way and broke free from their group.

I glanced to the side to see Calvin rush away from where Pedro and Demetri were fighting, over to wear Cromley was about to lose his battle against the biggest guy in the room. Calvin helped Cromley end the man, then he glanced at me, just in time for me to run forward towards the first man coming for me. I dropped to the floor, sliding forward slightly like I'd seen Calvin do earlier, and I swung my legs under the first man's legs. He tumbled forward, not expecting to be tripped, and as he started to fall on top of me, I shot my hands out right, grab both sides of his head like Renard had taught me, and I snapped quickly to the right, hearing the loud snap and tear sound of the skin at his neck and shoulders as it separated. I kicked forward, my feet meeting with his gut as his headless body continued it's decent onto me, and I kicked his body back over my head to Octavia where she grabbed him from the air and began dismantling.