"What class do you think they are?" Lucius glanced at Reia, his voice slightly worried.
"By the looks of it, they're all probably Middle Class. Some of them might have abilities, so be careful," he answered, putting his arm up with his palm turned upwards towards Lucius. The vampire quickly understood, taking out his knife and slicing Reia's palm. "Protecting the humans is our main priority," he said, the blood dripping from his hand swirling around in the air, going towards the humans which retreated away in the dark corner of the alley. The blood formed a wall, shielding the humans from the dangerous vampires that were out for their blood.
"Are you sure you can keep up the blood shield and still fight?" Lucius asked, his voice filled with worry for his friend.
Reia only smiled and nodded his head in return, already looking a little out of it. Neither Lucius nor Cyrus were able to say anything else to him, since the vampires rushed towards them, all of their eyes having The Biter's spiral in them.
"Shit! They're fast," Cyrus laughed as he grabbed one of the vampires that dashed towards him by the head, smashing it into the brick wall on his left side, the vampire sliding down and not moving anymore. "Too bad I'm faster," he added, a smug grin spreading across his face.
Just as he said that, another vampire jumped on him, aiming his fangs towards his neck and not giving Cyrus enough time to react. He stumbled backwards, trying to fight off the vampire that attacked him -without much success. Then, a quick blade swiftly cut the vampire's throat from behind, making him let go of Cyrus and drop to the ground. "Too bad you're also dumber," Lucius rolled his eyes, shaking the blood of his knife. "Concentrate, you big idiot," he added, turning around and fighting off a vampire.
Reia continuously dodged the attacks of two vampires, moving almost as fast as Lucius, and landing a few hits. He didn't want to use his ability unless it was absolutely necessary, since he also had to maintain the shield protecting the humans. If he overworked himself then the shield might disappear and he might faint in the middle of the fight. So, instead of relying on his ability, he fought with the vampires using his agility and speed.
One of the vampires managed to scratch Reia's face and push him backwards against the wall of the building, quickly dashing towards him. Reia managed to stop him by grabbing both of his shoulders and trying to push him backwards, but he was getting exhausted from having to keep up the shield, so he didn't manage to shake the vampire off. Giving up on pushing him away, Reia moved his hands from his shoulders, grabbing the vampire from the top and bottom of his head, twisting his head with all the force he could muster up, a loud crack indicating that he managed to break their neck, the vampire's body falling limply to the ground, their neck at an awkward angle.
Reia was breathing hard, feeling his power slowly leave his body, but he refused to collapse. The second vampire he was fighting suddenly rushed in his direction with uncanny speed, grabbing Reia by the neck and smashing his back on the wall, slightly lifting him up from the ground. He put his hands on the vampire's arm, trying to break free from his grasp, but it was of no use. Reia felt his lungs beginning to burn from the lack of oxygen and the blood shield protecting the humans began flickering and moving, barely keeping its shape as the rest of the malicious vampires banged their fists on it.
Just as Reia's vision began getting obscured by black dots and his body almost completely gave up, a loud voice was heard from besides the vampire choking him. "Get the fuck away from him, you ugly bitch!" Cyrus yelled, running head-first into the vampire's ribs, making him fly sideways and fall to the ground, finally freeing Reia from his grasp. He gasped for air and began coughing as he looked at Cyrus -who was on top of the vampire and continuously punching him in the face until he completely stopped struggling underneath him.
"Are you ok?" Lucius asked him, appearing next to him out of nowhere.
Finally catching his breath, Reia wiped away the blood from the cut on his cheek, the wound instantly healing. "I'm fine. I can't keep up the shield for much longer though," he answered, looking at all the vampires trying to get to the humans.
All three of them rushed towards those vampires, trying to get them away from the blood shield, but, something suddenly wrapped around their legs, immobilizing them in their place. Vines twirled up their legs, not breaking no matter how hard they pulled. The vines wrapped all the way up to their torsos, tying Cyrus's and Reia's hands.
One of the vampires they were fighting was surrounded by vines which seemed to obey his orders. Reia's eyes moved towards a big plant from behind the vampire. The vines were coming from there.
"Behind him-" he tried to tell the other two, but the vines wrapped around his body reached his mouth, making him unable to talk.
However, both Cyrus and Lucius seemed to understand what he was trying to say. "My pockets!" Cyrus shouted at Lucius -who was the only one who's hands weren't tied yet.
The vampire struggled to reach Cyrus's pockets, managing to take out one of his bombs. As the vines continued to move up his body, slowly restricting his movements, Lucius pulled the safety pin with his teeth and threw the bomb towards the vampire and the plant behind him just as the vines completely covered him.
A loud bang came shortly after, blowing away all the vampires that were trying to get to the humans. The vines around them slowly withered away, the three of them breaking free. Once their vision was no longer restricted by the plants, they noticed the shield thankfully remained in place and that there were only two vampires left, and they both seemed pretty wounded. Reia was extremely pale and barely standing anymore, focusing all his energy on protecting the humans, so Cyrus and Lucius headed towards the two remaining vampires, easily killing them.
When there were no more enemies left, Reia let the shield disappear, stumbling on his feet and almost collapsing, but Cyrus caught him before he could hit the ground.
"Fucking dumbass overworked himself again," Cyrus mumbled under his breath, picking up Reia bridal style in his arms with almost no effort.
The humans slowly mustered up the courage to approach them, all looking pale and fearful. "You... You actually saved us," one of them said, almost not believing it.
"Yeah, no shit Sherlock," Cyrus rolled his eyes.
"Is there any place where we could lay him down for a bit?" Lucius asked the humans, referring to Reia.
The humans nodded, leading the three vampires to one of the abandoned buildings, entering a pretty decent apartament where Cyrus laid Reia down on the bed.
"What happened to him?" the human that seemed to be the leader of the group asked Cyrus, nervously eyeing Reia.
"Idiot overworked himself just to protect you," the vampire answered, turning back around to check on his friend's condition.
The humans all furrowed their eyebrows in worry. "Is there anything we can do to help?" the leader asked, looking at Lucius now.
"Not really. We need to get him to a hospital so he can drink some blood," he answered.
The human stepped forward, lifting his sleeve up and revealing his blueish veins. "We've all got blood, don't we? He can drink a little bit from all of us," he confidently stated, all the other humans nodding in agreement and also lifting their sleeves up, ready to help Reia recover.
Cyrus turned his head, looking at them with disbelief and Lucius was also taken aback. "Are you sure?" Lucius asked the human.
"You saved us," the leader simply answered, walking towards the bed on which Reia was laying, putting his bare arm up to his mouth. The vampire slightly parted his lips, revealing his sharp fangs. The human prickled his own skin on his teeth, letting his blood enter Reia's mouth.
All the humans did the same thing, giving him their own blood, and Reia slowly regained his conscience, no longer looking like he was on the verge of dying.
"We'll tell you everything that happened here," the human's leader said now that all three of the vampires could listen to his words. "A few weeks ago, a vampire came to our city, claiming that he was a doctor and that he had healing abilities and could help us if we ever needed help. Of course, that was complete bullshit. But we trusted him, because, even though we were a human city, we never had anything against vampires and we always welcomed them with open arms. He opened an office, and a few humans went to him, seeking medical help. When they came back, they were the picture of health. They were strong, full of energy and telling us to also go to the vampire doctor. More and more humans went to him and they were all the same. However, after almost the entire city had visited the doctor, things went downhill. He wasn't healing them -he was turning them into vampires and controlling their minds to convince more of us to go to him. One day, he left the city with most of the vampires following him, leaving behind some of his minions, which went completely feral. They started killing the remaining humans under their leader's control. Only a few of us managed to survive. But then, you three came and killed the remaining vampires and saved us," the human explained.
Reia, Cyrus and Lucius contemplated his words in silence, all three of them having a bad feeling in their guts.
"So he really is building an army which he has full control over," Lucius whispered under his breath.
"We have to stop that fucker before he manages to get more vampires under his control," Cyrus said, clenching his fists.
Reia only closed his eyes, resting his head against the bed frame and sighing, feeling a lump form in his throat.
To be continued...
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