I could feel all of my senses sharpening as energy rushed through my body. New strength poured into my limbs and I straightened up. Jamie was already starting to look better as his head cleared.
I could tell that evening was approaching by the light filtering into the room. That meant that Julia and Chris would probably be here soon, providing they were ok. We had agreed beforehand that if someone was captured, we would give it 24 hours. If they were not back by then we would rescue them.
Plus if I knew Julia she would probably come early anyway. She was far too impatient to wait that long. Chris would probably just give in and follow her.
With the fresh blood surging through me a part of me didn’t want them to come. The monster wanted all of the humans for herself.
I turned without a second thought and strode up to the steel door. I kicked it so hard that it flew off of its hinges and crushed the man standing guard behind it. I snapped the neck of the second guard before he even had time to raise his gun.
I was already running along the corridor by the time Jamie reached the doorway and saw what I had done. I heard his gasp of horror as I rounded the corner.
A small part of my mind told me I should wait for him to catch up but I was too focused on blood and revenge to listen to it.
Another guy rounded the corner but I slammed him into the wall roughly, and I heard the crunch of his shoulder as he screamed. But I kept going. He was not one I was interested in.
More came running when they heard the noise but I took them down quickly. Most of them were just knocked out. They were still not the ones I was looking for.
I stopped when I heard a small whimper in the room next to me. I inhaled deeply, now there was a scent that I recognized. I kicked the door in and rounded the corner. Clarkson stood against the far wall, his hand shook as he pointed my own knife at me.
A sadistic grin spread across my face as I prowled towards him. He opened his mouth to shout but in a flash I had him pinned to the wall. One of my hands holding his one with the knife and the other covering his mouth.
I hissed in his ear “you dare to use my own knife against me?” he tried to shake his head until I slammed him into the wall again. “Don’t try to deny it. You already have.”
I removed the knife from his hand and then I gently ran it across his cheek, making him moan in pain. ”remember?”
He attempted to say something so I removed my hand to let him speak,
“I’m sorry!” his voice was desperate and panicked.
“You don’t really mean that at all.”
“I do! I really-“
“What’s your first name Clarkson?”
“P-Peter.” He could barely get the word out through his shaking, I grew tired of playing with him.
“Well then, Peter Clarkson… I’m going to kill you now.”
He barely had a chance to let out a terrified whimper before my fangs sunk viciously into his neck, severing most of his vital veins and arteries. The hot blood flowed into my mouth and he let out a strangled gurgle. I noticed with some disappointment that even though it tasted amazing, it was still nowhere near as good as Jamie’s.
When I heard more people approaching I let his lifeless body slump to the ground. I just needed to find Sam and then I could leave…
It only took me a couple of minutes to fight my way through to the main room where I was sure Sam was. Sure enough, I glimpsed him before I was confronted by a wave of furious and scared people.
As soon as I spotted his face, my vision went red as I was consumed by rage. An angry snarl ripped from my lips as I violently ripped through anyone who got in my way.
Somehow I ended up in the middle of the crowd so I jumped into the air, catching a woman in the face with my foot as I went up, and snapping her neck. I flipped over and knocked out another person as I came down. I twisted in midair to avoid an arrow that was shot from somewhere and jumped to avoid another, letting it hit the person behind me. She let out a cry and fell to the ground and I heard Sam frantically ordering them to stop firing.
I pulled the arrow from her shoulder splattering the surrounding people with her blood, and shoved it into the person behind me. At the same time I ducked to avoid a knife aimed at me.
While I was near the ground I grabbed a man’s leg and pulled it quickly so that he fell. I then swung him around and used him to knock away all of the people surrounding me before throwing him hard into the crowd.
After what seemed like an eternity of constant fighting I realized that there were no longer people surrounding me on all sides. I quickly finished off the last three opponents so that I was left alone facing Sam. To my left I could hear fighting on the other side of another door leading into the room.
My lips curled to reveal the full length of my fangs as I snarled at him. Renewed fury coursing through me as I looked into his eyes. He had a crossbow pointed straight at my heart.
“I gave you chance after chance to leave me alone. I even tried to get along with you… and what did you do? You threw it all back in my face.”
“I cannot get along with you. You are an evil creature whose only purpose is to be exterminated immediately.”
I heard a groan behind me and glanced back to see the woman who had been shot with the arrow struggling to get to her feet. I noticed Sam’s eyes unwillingly flick towards her in concern and I smiled. If he cared about her then she could watch him die.
He must have noticed my change in stance as he put his full focus back on me as he aimed his weapon.
Just as he moved to release the arrow the door on the left flew open to reveal Jamie. Behind him I glimpsed the unconscious forms of several men.
He stopped as he entered the room, taking in the scene in shock. He swallowed as he slowly raised the gun he was holding and pointed it… at me.
A sudden flash of hurt went through me as I looked into his eyes which were torn with indecision and doubt. I felt my fangs retract back up into my mouth and I was sure my eyes were returning to their normal color. What was I doing? His brows furrowed and I realized I had said it out loud.
I usually have a far better control of myself than this… I would never usually go this far. It must have been his blood, as intoxicating as it tasted it was like a drug to me. The smallest taste leaving me craving more. It had given the monster a chance to take over.
I slowly raised my hands in surrender. His head flicked towards Sam as he moved.
“Good boy Jamie! You see? It’s a monster shoot it, shoot it now!” when he didn’t move Sam re-aimed his crossbow at me. “Fine then I’ll have to do it for you.”
“No!”
Jamie suddenly swung the gun so that it pointed towards Sam. There was a silent pause as they both regarded each other incredulously. Then reading the determination in Jamie’s eyes, Sam swung the crossbow towards him.
There was a sudden bang that echoed around the room and Sam dropped the crossbow as he stumbled back. I watched as a red stain appeared and spread across his shirt.
As he fell to his knees he stared at Jamie with glassy eyes,
“Why?”
His face was grim. “You wouldn’t understand.”
He persisted as he grew weaker, “Why?”
Jamie strode across the room and bent to whisper something in his ear. As he hesitated I was startled by the sound of the skylight above my head shattering. I jumped out of the way just in time for Julia, and then Chris to land next to me.
Chris calmly and silently took in the room. She surveyed the scene and then me;
“Well, looks like we missed all the fun then.”
I glared. “It wasn’t fun.”
She grinned, “come on admit it…. I’ll bet there’s a part of you that quite enjoyed the whole scenario.”
I shoved her away angrily. “Shut up.”
She frowned “fine then. We’ll wait for you in the car. I’ll be in charge of clean up.” turning on her heel she strode from the room dragging Chris. She slammed the door behind her.
I looked back at Jamie. He was just pulling away from Sam, who fell away from him with a look of pure horror on his face. Curiosity burned through me at what he had said but I didn’t ask. It was personal to him, although if it weren’t for Julia’s terrible timing I probably would have heard anyway.
I walked over to them slowly, stopping a few feet away. Behind me I heard the woman cry as she tried to crawl towards Sam.
We both stood in silence as the light faded from his eyes. Eventually his heart finally stuttered before stopping altogether. Jamie still didn’t move. I stepped up to him and touched his shoulder. He jerked away from me so I lowered my hand.
“He’s gone Jamie.”
He sighed, “I know.”
Without another word he turned and left so I followed alongside him. When we were almost at the exit door he paused and took my hand. For a second warmth shot through me before it was suddenly followed by a burning pain in my back. I gasped in pain and shock, and I felt Jamie stiffen and turn in surprise. As I fell to the ground I twisted in time to see the woman drop the crossbow as she finally fainted next to Sam’s body.
I cursed myself for being stupid enough to dismiss her as irrelevant without a second thought. Jamie shouted my name but he sounded far away… I felt his warm hands grab me as I blacked out.