Blood Moon [a Twilight Saga FanFiction]

The Tracker

I TOOK A DETOUR TO HUNT ON THE WAY BACK, so it took me a day longer than usual to return. Once I had drained enough to fill, I returned to the asylum but knew the moment as I was in the town, that something was wrong.
     Even in the middle of a cloudy day, the streets were empty, utterly void of life, and that worried me. I saw the familiar face of a shop keeper pacing in front of his store as I walked passed.
     'Mr Houser!' I called and ran up to him, his precious human heart as always, jumped when he saw me, his testosterone building. 'Where is everyone?'
     'Elizabeth,' he sighed. He took a few breaths to calm himself down, 'the town is in mourning. Two families were murdered in cold blood yesterday. They say it wasn't murder and that it was gas but, I'm not so sure about that.'
     'Why not?'
     'They looked too pale for gas if you ask me.'
     'Have you seen gas victims before, Mr Houser?' I asked him.
     'Not since the war, ma'am. It was the Morris' and the O'Connells if you wanted to check it out yourself, but I don't recommend it to such a pretty lady.'
     Morris' and the O'Connells. I knew the families. Ever since I had taken women and children as my only patients, young Lily Morris had been in my care three times.
    I was walking towards the houses when I caught the familiar scent. It was faded. It had been at least a day since James had been to these houses... The other scent was unfamiliar to me, but Mary had said that he wouldn't be alone. Perhaps they had feasted on a family each... why would they hunt before visiting Igor?
     Realisation settled with fear in my chest. They feasted because they expected a fight. I knew Igor could handle himself in a fight, and I kept reminding myself of that as I turned and ran my fastest speed towards the asylum.
     It was when I was almost there that I could hear the fighting. There wasn't any talking happening, but they were outside and breaking a fair bit of the asylum's surroundings.
     I heard the tear-crack that was made when a vampires limb was torn off, following by a pained scream.
     As they finally came into my view, a red-haired woman ran screaming towards Igor, with James' head still in his hands. She knocked him away, over her head and into the asylum, breaking the wall and door in the process.
     The woman picked up James' head that Igor had dropped and put it on his neck, trying to help him heal.
     I looked up to Igor in time to see him break the neck and kill one of his clients whose room had been broken open, and who had begun watching the brawl.
     I ran up to him, and as I ran past them, the woman looked up to me and stood in between James and us.
     'How was Mississippi?' Igor asked me as he threw the body away.
     'Interesting, I'll tell you about it later,' I told him. 'Need a hand?'
     'I can handle this.'
     I chuckled but stood back as he lunged for Victoria and fought her. It was fascinating to see how her talent for evasiveness worked in her favour, but only for her survival. No matter what sort of moves Igor threw her way, he was never able to get his arms around her for long enough to do some damage.
     Their fighting was undoubtedly fascinating to watch. So much so that they weren't the only ones who didn't notice James heal enough to be able to stand and grin at me.
     'I wasn't aware you had a friend, Igor,' James said, making the three of us turn to him. 'And that friend to be Elizabeth.'
     'James,' I said and nodded a small greeting to him.
     'Don't even think about it, James,' Igor growled. 'She's not fighting.'
     'I wonder why,' James said menacingly.
     'I don't like fighting,' I answered.
     James grinned again. He began running towards me. I had only taken one step back when Igor got his arms around James and threw him into Victoria. Then the three of them got back into fighting.
     It certainly was fascinating watching Igor fight the two of them. How he moved, how he positioned himself in ways that would benefit him in the attack. I couldn't help but smile. Watching him use their weaknesses of each other against them, but thanks to Victoria's evasive talents, he was never able to get her, only James.
     At one point, Igor had James in yet another headlock, but instead of going for Igor, Victoria turned her sights on me.
     I had never fought before. I wasn't lying when I said that I didn't like fighting, but I had known enough pasts, met enough people who had been through battles to know how to protect myself. So when she got closer to tried to get low to be able to knock her feet from under her, but she jumped over. I was able to turn and get my arm up quick enough to be able to block her attacks, but I felt the force as she kicked me away from her and the asylum.
     I felt impossibly winded as I rolled off the tree, but heard the advance so was quick to get up and try to defend myself.
     I could understand why Victoria had decided to go for me instead of Igor. Behind her, as I fought back, I saw that James had gotten out of Igor's grip and the men were fighting again.
     While defending myself, I pulled Igor's training days from his past. The first years of his immortal life. How they explained to each newborn the differences of their bodies, how they could use those differences to their advantage to overpower any enemy. I used those days and the things he was taught and did teach, to teach myself how to appropriately fight.
     And soon I was overpowering Victoria.
     I got my hands on her head, behind me, and threw her over me, towards the men where she stood quickly, grabbed James and began pulling him away. He turned to leave with her.
     'Let them go,' I said to Igor before he chased after them. Even if I was a distance away from him, I could hear the deep growling. 'Don't let your rage consume you, Igor. You're better than that.' He finally calmed down, his body relaxed, growling ceased. 'Where's Mary?'
     That seemed to pull his attention, he looked back at me as I approached him, and I saw his fallen face. Sadness... something had happened?
     Before I reached him, he ran passed me inside the damaged asylum. I followed him to Mary's room, though before we reached there, I knew. I could hear the screams now that I was actually paying attention. I could hear her racing heartbeat. I had never witnessed the changed of another before, but I could remember it. Remember the searing, burning agony, how I could feel my racing heart in every inch of my supposed ashen body. She was changing, Igor had bitten her. And from guess, she didn't have must longer left.
    'I'm not to be in her future, Miss Elizabeth,' he said quietly, standing over her. 'She never sees me with her in her future, and I will support that. As much as I do not wish, too.'
     I nodded and finally approached him. I had already gotten his past from the running behind him. Mary seemed to really look forward to her future, she would smile at every prospect of it, even if it didn't contain Igor.
     'She'll be okay,' I assured him.
     Mary's scream bounced off the walls around us. It hurt me to hear, so I could only imagine how it affected Igor. I was grateful he let me drag him away. We walked through the asylum back to his desk. I looked around towards the clients, all terrified now that the vampiric battle had seemingly ended.
     'What are you going to do with all of these humans?'
     'Nothing,' Igor stated and walked passed me.
     'Excuse me?'
     'They've always known about what I am, Miss Elizabeth. Witnessing a fight doesn't change that.'
     'Igor, the Volturi-'
     'This is an asylum, Miss Elizabeth,' Igor reminded me with a low chuckle. 'Whether word gets out or not, no one will believe them because they're in here.'
     He had a point. Though, I still worried about him. Would I always? He was my first real friend in this immortal world.
     I approached him again, and this time he looked at me with his dark eyes. He hadn't hunted since before Mary had begun seeing their arrival. He had only spared himself one of his clients every few days to ensure he was strong enough as leaving her unprotected was too risky.
     'You need to hunt,' I commented as Mary screamed reached us from her cell.
      'I can't leave her alone like this,' Igor told me.
     'She hasn't seen you in her future, Igor,' I reminded him. 'If you're so set on being there for her then stay, but you will change the future she sees for herself. You need to be strong. Stronger than what you are feasting off mad blood.'
     'You're encouraging me to go kill innocent humans?' He raised a brow at me.
     I laughed and shook my head.
     'I'd rather you come and hunt with me, but it's your diet. You need your strength whether you choose to stay with Miss Brandon or not.'
     'What if James and Victoria come back? They could kill her, she's left defenceless.'
     'I don't think they will,' I assured him. 'They've never purposely gone out of their way to kill another vampire unless they stand between James and a meal. They won't come back. You saved her, and you can look after yourself now.'
     Igor looked at me as he thought about his choice, and I let him. I knew he cared deeply for Mary, he even considered her a daughter, almost. He had been proud of her progress with her visions. Proud of who she was as a human.
     'Alright, I'll go hunting,' he said, then smiled down at me. 'Your way.'
     'Are you sure?' I asked him, surprised.
     'Might as well give it a try.'
     'Okay, then. Let's go.'