Without allowing myself to hesitate I suddenly launched myself into the air, flying over our table into the center of the room. Cries of alarm told me I had already been spotted so I kept moving. I was less than two meters from the relative safety of her shelter when something hit me in the shoulder sending white hot pain shooting through my left arm. I didn’t falter quickly throwing myself to the ground behind the wood, only then allowing myself the luxury of a small groan.
Melissa let out a terrified shriek at my sudden appearance and backed away, foolishly almost getting in range of their shots which I could hear echoing across the room accompanied by the snarls of vampires. It seemed the fight had started. Hastily I grabbed her and yanked her back to safety, swearing as the movement pulled at my injury. She stared at me with wide eyes as I grasped the shaft of wood that stuck out of my shoulder with my good arm and pulled. It didn’t make a pleasant sound as it came free. Risking looking over the wood for a second I spotted the nearest human edging in our direction and hurled the bolt with all of my force, impaling him through the stomach. I felt my bloodlust rise as the warm liquid spread across the fabric of his shirt.
Slumping back down to the ground I gasped as the movement pulled at the flesh that was trying to knit itself back together. Ignoring the pain I looked at Melissa; her heavy eye makeup now ran down her cheeks in big black tear tracks, her clothes were even more ripped and torn than they were supposed to be and a bruise was slowly coming out on arm.
“Are you injured?” she mutely shook her head, seeming too frightened to speak. “Good.”
She took a deep breath, “Wha- what is happening?”
“Drawback of being a vampire, people are always bloody trying to kill you.”
She looked taken aback at my matter of fact tone; I spoke as if this sort of thing was almost a daily occurrence… which thinking about it, it practically was.
A quick glace told me that most of the hunters were now preoccupied with fighting so I decided it was time to risk it. If I could move her somewhere safer then I would be free to fight. Gritting my teeth I moved into a crouch, “we need to move.”
“What!”
“It’s not safe here.” She was shaking her head but I ignored her. “Come on, I’m going to carry you.”
Her mouth hung open, “You’re going to what?”
“Carry you. You can’t move fast enough.”
“But you’re injured and I’m almost as tall as you!”
“Doesn’t matter. I’m stronger than I look. Ready?”
“Wha-“
Jumping to my feet I suddenly heaved the table into the air and threw it into the crowd, injuring several of the hunters. In the resulting chaos I grabbed Melissa, wincing as her weight rested on my injured shoulder and ran.
I would have easily got to Jamie if a figure hadn’t suddenly freed herself from the crowd and threw herself bodily into my path. She cried in pain as I fell over her and hit the ground, dropping Melissa. Instantly I was attacked by a two others who swung their knives towards me, forcing me to simultaneously duck and twist out of the way. Unfortunately this then didn’t give me enough time to properly dodge the next attack, earning me a long thin cut across my upper arm. Infuriated I snarled at them viciously baring my fangs, causing the one nearest me to stumble back in horror. He was the youngest I realized, sandy hair flopping in his eyes. Taking advantage of his distraction I punched him hard, knocking him out but not killing him. From then on it only took me seconds to kill the other, efficiently snapping his neck before he could react in time.
From then I spun around, managing to pull out the knife concealed in my boot and thrust it into someone’s thigh as I came up. They cried out in pain and stumbled away from me, quickly becoming blocked by the next wave of people heading towards me. I cursed; that was my favorite and only weapon, I would have to find a way to retrieve it somehow. A quick glance across the room showed that everyone was in similar situations to me, even as I watched Beatrice savagely ripped through someone’s throat before diving towards the next one. I shuddered; I had never wanted to see my sister like that.
Jumping to the side I avoided the knife that had intended to slash my throat during my momentary distraction, before grabbing the assailant and bodily throwing him across the room. Abruptly I froze as I heard the click of a gun.
Slowly I raised my hands and turned to face my assailant, coming face to face with the woman, Clare. The burns looked even worse up close making me wince in sympathy. An almost insane fury filled her expression, the waves of hatred emanating from her made me shiver. Her mouth worked for a moment before she could speak.
“You. Killed. Everyone.”
I kept my expression cold. “I warned you but you didn’t listen. You pushed me to my breaking point and I snapped.”
“Sam is dead because of you!”
I nodded, accepting her words, “yes I suppose so. He just couldn’t leave us in peace.” Then something clicked in my mind, it was too big a coincidence that she just happened to raid this club the moment me and Jamie came into town. A vampire club had never been raided by hunters before. My voice was sharp, “How did you find us?”
She sneered at me, “I’ve been tracking you ever since I recovered from the fire. Jamie has a tracking chip in his arm.”
I went cold, “You’re lying.”
She laughed, getting ready to pull the trigger. Suddenly I heard a shout;
“NO!”
Something hit me in the side, knocking me to the ground again just as the gunshot rang across the room. I sat up slightly dazed looking for the danger. A dark blur jumped on Clare’s back, throttling her- the vampire I had originally signaled to what must have been just a few short minutes ago, although it seemed like hours.
Looking to my left I spotted Jamie, he was the one who had pushed me out the way. I smiled at me and relief washed through me; he was ok. Impulsively I pulled him into a hug, needing to feel the reassurance of his warm body against mine. He couldn’t hide his groan of pain, making me jump away from him immediately. Breathing in I caught the scent of something I should have smelt immediately; blood. Not just any blood… Jamie’s blood. Surprisingly I didn’t even feel the usual hunger that accompanied his scent, instead my mind filled with horror as I located the dark patch that was slowly spreading out from his stomach.
“No, no, no, no, no…” it took me a few seconds to realize that it was my voice I could hear saying the words out loud.
I searched his face in panic, looking for some sort of sign as to what I should do. He smiled weakly at me; “I’m fine,”
“You are most definitely not fine!” I cradled his head in my hands, hating to say what I did next; “I don’t want to lose you! Can I… can I turn you?” although I hated the thought, desperation and my desire to keep him with me won. Indecision flickered through his eyes for a moment before they turned resolute, hope flared in my chest until he spoke;
“No.”
He tried to say something else but at that moment something hit me hard in the back of my head. The fragile illusion that we were somehow sheltered from the fighting around us was shattered as I twisted to see Clare bearing down on me once again. The vampire whose name I had never learnt lay dead on the floor behind her. Swinging my left leg up I caught her in the jaw, sending her flying backwards away from me. Out of the corner of my eye I was relieved to see Melissa crawling towards him and putting pressure on the wound. That was good, he would be ok for a few seconds while I got rid of the threat.
She was getting to her feet as I advanced towards her, my lips pulling back in a snarl as black fury bubbled up inside me. I didn’t care that she was trying to get revenge for her lover, or make the world a better place or whatever it was that she believed in. The only thing that mattered to me was that she had put someone I love in danger and that meant that she would die. Without warning I suddenly sprang forwards, heavily colliding with her and making her stumble backwards. The thick rage made it impossible for me to remember my usual efficient fighting techniques as I wrestled with her, feeling slight surprise at her strength. Suddenly I found her neck exposed and without a second thought my fangs were sinking in, savagely tearing through the flesh.
I drank quickly, focusing on draining her life as quickly as possible so at first I didn’t notice the pain. It spread through my whole body, burning from no discernible source and I fell away from her gasping. She was drained from her wounds but still managed a weak grin as she watched me suffer.
“How?” I wheezed,
“Silver solution, injected straight into my blood.”
I frowned, evaluating the taste that still lingered in my mouth; now that I knew I could faintly detect the bitter metallic flavor that the richness of the blood had hid so well. Even now the skin was peeling from the inside of my mouth and my throat was raw. I nodded to myself, “Clever.” Then something occurred to me, “But now you are going to die too. A human couldn’t handle that concentration of silver in the blood for long.”
For the first time I saw a flicker of true sorrow in her eyes, but it was quickly swallowed by the harsh resentment, “It’s worth it as long as I get to see you die first.”
My face twisted in disgust as I watched her trembling limbs, she didn’t have long but I still knew a way to hurt her; “You really think this is what Sam would have wanted?”
Turning away from her stricken face I began the long process of dragging myself across the floor to Jamie. All my body wanted to do was to writhe in the agony that was threatening to overwhelm my senses but with the last of my strength I pushed it as far down as I could. He was still conscious when I reached him, his eyes widened in horror, making me guess that I looked pretty bad. His hand shakily reached up to brush my face and came away covered in blood; my nose was bleeding.
“You’re… hurt,” he struggled to get the words out, I shook my head and tried to smile, “I’m… fine!” I gasped as another spasm of agony ripped through me, making my limbs jerk uncontrollably for a second. With an effort I clenched my fists and bit back my scream, knowing it would only upset him.
The energy was rapidly leaving my body as my vision began to flicker around the edges, sending strange green splotches across my line if sight. I blinked, trying to focus on his face for one last time as he weakly gripped my hands.
Dimly in the background I heard a high pitched wail… sirens? What were the authorities doing here? A window smashed somewhere near me and bright blue and red lights were also added to the colours dancing across my vision. People were shouting in panicked voices around me but I couldn’t make sense of any of it. Somewhere something else shattered and vibrant flames sprang out of nowhere, quickly spreading across the wooden furniture.
My head rested on Jamie’s chest as blackness finally managed to wash out the last of the colour. My eyes fluttered closed and I used my last breath to whisper the words “I Love you…”