It's been two months since my last update. More info on why in my message board. Sorry guys!
Anyway, there are 2-3 more parts coming up real soon.
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"A bit stubborn and hard-headed. She'll keep on doing something to get what she wants."
"And she can be a bit of a crybaby sometimes."
"She's also-"
"I can hear, you know," I called out irritably to the shit-talking duo.
Apparently, on the way out, my father and Ryder seemed to have hit it off talking about me.
Miffed, I smacked my father playfully on the back.
But I was still supporting him with my arm.
My father turned around to grin at me. "No harm meant, sweetie."
Ryder turned around to grin at me too boyishly, and I wanted to melt just then.
Harumph.
I looked away.
But it felt so strange.
Just the other day, we really were at each other's throats...on the very brink of it.
Then his face grew serious, adopting a sort of thoughtful quality to it.
"I don't like how this is turning out," he muttered quietly, almost to himself. "I haven't run into anything at all. I figured I would have to put up more of a fight...at least with Abel. I don't like how this feels at all."
"So you're saying something's up?" my father asked.
"Probably..."
My father sighed. "I need a terribly long smoke break after this."
"This is ridiculous. There's not even a single security camera, or even a PIR device here. Either they're overly confident, stupid, or something is up. Let's just move quick, but be quiet about it."
And then suddenly Ryder stopped in his steps. He crouched low, pressing his ears to the floor.
"Someone's coming. Many yards away from us, both someone's coming."
I could hear it to, if I strained my ears. Light footsteps. And singing that accompanied the cadence of it.
It was Isabelle; that voice.
"Run!" I shouted. "Towards the sunlight-if we get to the light she can't follow us there-"
Fighting wasn't a choice. It was better to just run, when I was carrying my dad with us.
I heard Isabelle laugh. Her laughter rang against the corroding walls of the warehouse. "Oh, you little darlings can't run away from me! Not possibly!"
We literally ran for our lives. But Isabelle was a vampire, she was fast. I was fast too, but not fast enough. Ryder kept the same pace as I did, but there was no way that my dad could.
"Just leave me," he grunted. He was limping. "She'll get us at this rate."
"Like hell I will!" I said. "I know this will hurt your male pride, but now's not the time!"
I heaved my dad onto my back, carrying him as we ran down the corridor.
"To think that my daughter can carry 159 lbs WHILE running," my dad murmured in disbelief. "If I were one of those parents who'd capitalize on their children..."
It seemed to stretch on infinitely. Just how long was this warehouse that seemed to hold nothing but these metal barrels? But the smell that emanated from them...
Isabelle was drawing closer. Ryder stopped, and then kicked the barrels closest to him, prompting a sort of domino effect as all the barrels came crashing towards her.
She was forced to jump just then to avoid them, and since her area of movement was constricted, this allowed Ryder to bring up his gun and aim at her as he ran. He shot her straight in the chest, and she fell against the barrels.
Her body began heaving, and the gasps turned into laughter. "Oh, that hurt, Hunter! You've wounded my heart...literally."
Ryder cursed. "These are fucking silver reinforced bullets! No way should she still be in a position to be laughing!"
One of the barrels cracked. Something seeped out from it. Blood.
I stopped in my tracks, not aware that my dad was sliding down from my back.
"What are you doing, Kay?!" Ryder called out towards me. "Hurry!"
My eyes dilated and I began breathing harder. I licked my lips, turning around slowly.
"Can't deny your nature, can you, sweety?" Isabelle said, slowly getting up from the floor.
The bullet emerged from her chest as her wound started to heal, her body rejecting the foreign intrusion. "This is what you are. You want the blood. This blood calls out to you!"
"Kay, stop!" Ryder shouted, running towards me and shaking me. "Get over it! Ignore it! We need to get out of here!"
"What's happening to my daughter?" my dad said, touching me. "Her eyes..."
"Your dad will DIE if you don't snap back now!" Ryder shouted. This brought me out of my bloody abstraction.
I snapped back to reality and looked around me. Isabelle was trying to stand up now, with a hand against the wall for support.
I grabbed my father and heaved him onto my back once more, and we took off.
Isabelle was limping towards us, and her image was receding into the background.
We were so close; I could see the entrance to the warehouse and the boarded windows that glowed lightly from the sunlight awaiting us outside.
"Kay!" my father shouted. I felt him slipping away from me, and I looked behind me. It was Isabelle, keeping up with us. She had a grip on my father's leg, and he was struggling with her, while I was struggling to keep my hold onto him.
But at this rate he'd be torn between the both of us.
Ryder lifted up his gun, taking aim, but it was impossible with the struggle and the proximity of the both of us. Isabelle was using us as a shield. "Hurry!" he called.
He grabbed one of the nearby barrels and threw it at the window, mustering as much strength as he could into that throw. The window shattered, and I could see the sweet, warm sunlight.
But suddenly I felt myself propelling towards the floor, and the weight of my father on top of me.
Ryder shouted something.
Isabelle pushed my father aside, and jumped on me, baring her fangs. I swung a leg at her, and her body moved ever so slightly at the impact, but she was not affected at all.
There was no way. Isabelle was supposed to be this strong. And the silver bullets did nothing, either!
I got up as fast as I could, heaving my father up with me. There was no time to return to carrying him too, and the sunlight was not so far away.
He was limping, though, and I was pulling him a long with me. Isabelle was getting back up; she was ready to lunge again, but just then, my father wrenched himself free from me and tackled her right before she could raise her arm and just before Ryder and I hit sunlight.
Something in her grasp glinted silver. She threw him off her and rolled back up, pointing a sharp sliver right at my father, who was on the floor, gasping.
"Don't move," Isabelle said, tossing her hair. "I'm talking to you, hunter. Your gun."
Ryder lowered his gun.
"Throw it to the floor. To this side of the warehouse," she demanded. Then she smirked. "Though I doubt it can do much to me."
He let it drop to the ground, his face empty of emotions. And then he kicked it towards her, where it landed next to her heels.
"I'll trade Katherine for this man here," she said, nudging my father with her heel. "How about it?"
I was about to agree, but then Ryder cut me off. "I'll give you what you guys really want. You can take me, and take the key."
I looked at Ryder. He couldn't have been serious; did he have a backup plan?
"No," Isabelle said. This surprised both me and Ryder. She smiled. "I don't get a twat about this Cain. It's Abel who does, but not me. I'm just interested in her."
We were supposed to have the advantage. We were in the sunlight, where Isabelle couldn't cross into. She was old enough to be awake in the daytime, but not yet powerful enough (though, what we saw just now brings that into question) to walk free in sunlight. The shelter of the warehouse was all that was separating us.
"Sinclair's mine. He'll realize it, that more than this awaits him. More than this ridiculous city. That he can change the world with me."
"He doesn't appear to love you," I said. "You're a crazy bitch. Why would he?"
She laughed, trying to hide the anger. "He'll come to do so."
I drew my lips together. "Oh really? He saved my life. He protected me. He told me he loved me, and we've kissed plenty of times. And he gave me his blood. Has he ever done any of that for you?" Of course, the love confession was a lie, but I was angry enough to fabricate.
Isabelle's smile became twisted as her lips quirked. "Oh... really?" she said. I could see the trouble she was having with fighting her anger.
"But let's put that all aside...come to me Katherine," she whispered seductively. "Come here. Things will be better. Reunite yourself with your father. I'll give you things you can't have as you are...if you don't, he'll die, you know."
One man approached her and mumbled things into her ear.
"What?! I don't have orders to-what do you mean I CAN'T?!" she shouted, and then grabbed the man by the bulge of his front pants, crushing it.
He screamed, and then crumpled to the floor when she let go.
"Forget Abel, I'll do what I want!" she shouted, raising her heel and driving it into the man's windpipe.
A terrible noise emitted from his throat as blood spilled forth from it. She dragged her stiletto heel across his throat, hard, until his head was completely severed.
"He forgets HIMSELF these days! He's just a mere underdog of the council! He lets the fact that he rules over a small, dismissive city, get to his head. I am the future sovereign of EUROPEAN LANDS, and he's just a-mere -underdog!" she screamed as she took the head into her hands and crushed it with inhuman strength.
I choked, and the noise sobered her momentarily.
"I'm so sorry you had to see that," Isabelle said sweetly, letting go of the man. She wiped her hands delicately on her dress. "It's just some people can be just so ridiculously stupid sometimes. We can't let such stupidity reign freely in this world, can we? Let me show you a different world, Katherine. Come..."
"Don't let Kay do it," my father said, looking at Ryder and panting. "Take her away."
"Are you sure?" Ryder asked quietly. They looked at each other. My father slowly moved his head. A sort of understanding seemed to pass between the two.
Panic and anger seized me. "No. That's not going to happen. Let my father go; I'll trade myself for him."
Ryder held me back, and shook his head sadly. "I can't let you do that, Kay."
"Just go," my father breathed.
"Shut up," growled Isabelle, yanking my father by his hair. He didn't make a noise, but instead clamped down on his lower lip.
He was really trying not to show any weakness in front of me.
I was going to break.
She drew her nails down my father's chest, causing it to bleed a little. She smiled sweetly. "Are you really going to let your daddy die like this? Not daddy's little girl? I'm going to tear out his heart, you know, and I'll make a feast of it, unless you step inside."
She licked her lips, looking at me from under her lashes. "Your choice. We'll have you later, anyway. Why make it unnecessarily longer?"
"You're fucking kidding me! I'm not leaving you here!" I shouted at my dad.
"No child would want to leave their parents. How...inhuman would that be?" Isabelle's laugh was low and sultry. But I could sense that she was becoming pissed and impatient.
Ryder had me in a lock, holding my arms back. I tried to fight to get away, and it was a struggle for the both of us. "Let go of me, Ryder! LET GO OF ME! You both are being fucking ridiculous!"
"Kay..." Ryder said softly.
"Atta boy," he said to Ryder, managing a weak smile. "I like a man who'll listen. Protect my daughter, okay?"
"I will," Ryder said gravely. Then he added in a quiet enough voice so only I could hear: "Even though I've failed before."
"Shut up!" Isabelle shouted. She grabbed my father's hand and snapped it at the wrist. He screamed when she tore his hand out, his radial bone glistening prominently from the jagged flesh of his wrist. Blood dripped profusely against the hard cement floor.
She raised it up for me to see. I fought against Ryder even more viciously, shouting.
"Come here. Will you really let the hunter stop you? All children need a dad. For a soft word, a soft kiss...a soft touch." She pressed the hand against the flesh of her cheek, sighing. "There's no one else in the world like your parents."
"Make a move away from here and I'll kill him," Isabelle continued, tightening her grip on my father's shoulder and consequently drawing blood from it. He groaned.
Ryder wrapped his arms around my waist, and then heaved me over his shoulder.
My hair was matted with tears, and I pounded my fist on Ryder's back as I felt the both of us moving away and out into the sunlight.
"Let me go! Let me go or I'll fucking hate you, Ryder!" I cried. "You can't do that... you just can't do that...he's my father...my only father..."
I didn't see the expression on his face. "If that's all it costs for you to continue living, then hate me, Kay."
"LET ME GO!" I screamed.
I heard the echoes of my father's screams coming from the building.
"Don't listen," Ryder urged me.
He finally complied when we were far away enough, on a small grassy and verdant hill just outside of Los Angeles, overseeing the buildings and the dynamic streams of cars.
He let me down slowly, and I stumbled blindly away, and then my weak knees collapsed to the ground.
He tried to help me up, but I pushed away his hand.
"You have to understand, Kay, that nothing is more terrible for a parent than failing in protecting their children."
"What do you know," I said angrily, refusing to look at him. "What the hell do you know? Do you think I can live with knowing that I could have saved him?!"
"I know a bit more than you think I do."
"Go away," I said stubbornly, crying. "I don't want to see your face again."
Who's going to be there when I graduate? When I get an asshole of a boyfriend and beat him up? When I get married?
"Do you really think that?" he asked quietly, kneeling down. He tried not to allow any emotions into his voice, but his eyes held some hurt in them.
I didn't say anything. He took my silence as a "yes", and then he stood up.
"I'm not going to leave you again Kay," Ryder said softly. "But if you don't want to see me again, I understand, and you won't. But I won't ever leave you again, not after what that caused to happen. Just know that...if you ever need me I'll be there."
He hesitated before turning to leave, his keys jangling against his pants. Surprising both me and him, I stood up abruptly and wrapped myself around his waist, from the back. He stopped in his tracks, not saying anything.
"Don't leave me," I said, sobbing into his jacket. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I didn't mean it ...don't let me be alone! I don't want to be alone...!"
I didn't have anyone else. My dad was gone. My mother...well, it doesn't matter anymore, does it? Jenny and Forrest and Sinclair had left me behind....
"I'm not going to leave you, Kay. Not if you don't want me to."
I took in the smooth scent of leather.
He lifted me up and carried me, as I kept my arms wrapped around his neck and my face buried into his clothes.
Before I knew it, I was being placed onto the back of a motorcycle far away from the warehouse, so that it was just but a small picture skirting the horizon. He handed me a helmet wordlessly, and I took it. He started the motorcycle and we were off.
He made a few circuits around the same path and a detour, presumably to shake off any pursuers.
"Do you hate me?" he asked quietly. The wind was whipping softly against my face.
"I don't know," I replied truthfully. "I don't know....I just know that it hurts, like this huge empty void... We just made up, you know..."