Emelia glanced at Henry for a moment as they walked down the streets of New Orleans, she felt so happy, yet she was filled with an undying dread and sense of worry. Henry, sensing her distress, turned to look at her. "Are you alright?" He asked, "I'm fine.." She lied, but gave him a small smile anyway. Henry frowned, and took her hand in his, holding it tight, and giving it a light squeeze. Emelia felt her face heat up, so she looked away from Henry.
They walked up to the slave auction, and Henry waited for Emelia to point out Arthur. "Do you see him?" Asked the vampire, "No, maybe he skipped town?" Emelia suggested. "Highly unlikely, perhaps he knew we were coming.." Henry replied.
"If he knew I was coming back, he may have gotten to Abe!" Emelia began to panic, "I don't think he did.." replied an all too familiar voice, the pair turned to see Abe standing there, his stupid hat and all, ax hidden beneath his long coat. "Abe! What are you doing here?" Emelia asked, hugging him. Henry felt that feeling again, jealousy.
What did he have to be jealous of? Emelia was his friend, that's all.
"Jack Barts...is dead, he told me about some slaver lord in the New Orleans, so I got here as quick as I could." Abe replied as Emelia let go of him, and took her place beside Henry. "Perhaps we should rent a room at an Inn?" Henry suggested. The team walked to the nearest Inn, and waited to be checked in, the Inn keeper took one look at Henry and Emelia and said, "Don't worry, I know what kind of room you need."
Henry and Emelia tried to stop the man, telling him they weren't a couple, "Nonsense, I see plenty of young lovers such as yourselves come down here to get away from your parents." He replied with a smirk. Abe got a single bedded room, and they took their belongings to their rooms on the fourth floor. Emelia and Henry blushing as they opened the door to their queen bedded room.
"I'll sleep on the floor, or that couch.." Henry said, "Y-you don't have to, I can sleep on the couch. It wouldn't be fair to you, you paid for the room." Emelia interrupted, Abe just laughed at the pair, "Oh come on, two 'young lovers' such as yourselves sleeping in the same bed should be no problem!" He laughed.
Emelia punched him, and set her bag on the bed. "Should we split up and look for this guy?" Emelia asked, "Yes, we'll cover more ground, and we'll meet back up here at midnight, alright?" Henry asked, the others nodded, and they walked out of the Inn together, but each took a separate path.
Emelia walked down a street with shops on either side, she smelled fresh bread, roasting meat, and horse shit. Not the greatest combination. Henry walked down a street with a Church and a cemetery, where he saw two holes being dug. Abe walked down a street where a slave auction was going on, he swore he could feel their fear.
The three, in their separate paths, walked for hours, when none of them saw any vampires that matched Arthur's description, they returned to the Inn at midnight. "I only saw two vampires, didn't you say you say a lot more here last time, Emelia?" Henry asked, "Yeah, I don't like this, somethin' ain't right here.." She trained off. "We should get some rest, and scour different parts in the morning." Abe recommended, the two nodded, and the team went to their rooms.
"We'll share the bed, you just stay on your half and I'll stay on mine, yeah?" Emelia proposed, "Fair enough." Henry replied with a nod. The two slept in their white shirts, and pants. Emelia felt uncomfortable, yet at the same, very comfortable.
She laid her head on her pillow, away from Henry and he did the same. "Goodnight.." "Night.."
Sometime in the night, Emelia felt a prick at her neck, and the weight of the bed shifted on Henry's side. She thought it was only a dream, until she awakened.
Emelia had turned to her other side, her head on Henry's pillow, she breathed in his scent. Pine, musk, and some kind of cologne. She sighed in content, and then jumped out of the bed when she realized Henry wasn't in the bed, and slightly out of embarrassment for what she had just done.
"Henry?" She called out, no answer. She walked to Abe's room, he was gone as well. Panicking, she went back to her room, and saw a note that had fallen off the bed. She leaned down and picked it up, she began to read: "Miss Kyle, I thought I had warned you not to return, and not to return with your friends either. Did I not make it clear what I would do to them? If not, I apologize for not being more clear. I'm sure you would like to know what I really will do to them, and I'm sure you're very confused as to how my underlings snuck into your rooms and took your precious Abe and Henry from under your watchful nose. I just had one of my children drug you, and then knock out the boys, simple enough. Now, I'm not going to be cliche and tell you to try and save them, to meet me at some warehouse, No no, that would never do. I'm going to torture, kill and then dump their bodies, and you will have to live with yourself knowing it's your fault. You brought them back here, when I asked you not to. And now you will know what happens when someone disobeys my orders. Perhaps we will meet again, but not today. ~Arthur Benningham."
Emelia clutched the letter in her fist, and shoved it into her pocket. She quickly got dressed, and ran out the door, asking anyone and everyone if they had seen anything weird, if they had seen her friends with some men. Nothing. No one had been awake at that hour, so no one saw anything.
Emelia walked back towards the fancy hotel she killed those other two vampires by, and found another note hanging. It read: "Ah, perhaps we shall have a little fun. I'll tell you three places they might be, each has several of my children waiting to kill you, only one has your friends. Good luck, Emelia.."
She felt sick, reading her name written by such a sick vampire, and why did he call the other vampires his children? This bothered her.
She ran to the first place it said they could be, an abandoned factory near the river. She walked in the back entrance, hoping to sneak up on the vampires. There weren't any vampires at all. "What the hell?" She whispered. She quickly got to the second place, where there were half a dozen vampires. She began fighting with them, shooting one in the head, another two were beheadded, another had its face burnt to a crisp, and one she hacked to bits. The last one, however, she interrogated.
"Where are they!? They aren't here are they? Are they at this place?" She asked holding up the letter. She had tied the vampire to a pole, and lit a fire under her, Emelia kept dumping water over her head to keep her alive and suffering.
The vampire let out a scream, "No! They're not there!" She screamed, "Where the fuck did that bastard take them!?" She asked, she didn't care if anyone heard her, she was far enough from town that she should be alright.
"Where the hell did he take my friend!? Where did he take Henry!?" She asked again, taking notice in her own words, and harshness. This was unlike herself. But this was what she had to do to get her friends back. To get Abe back. To get Henry back.
"He had us take them to his estate uptown! It's in the woods, a secluded place. Please just stop!!" Emelia forced the vampire to give her coordinates. "If you're wrong about this, I'll find a way to bring you back to life again, and I'll fucking kill you!" She yelled, and let the vampire burn to death.
Emelia quickly rented a horse, and began riding to Benningham's estate in uptown Louisiana. She could faintly see the glow of candle light in windows, she sped up, and went through the woods. She left the horse in the woods, and scoped out the area. There didn't seem to be any vampires outside of the building, but she could see a couple figures walking past windows.
It took Emelia a moment, when the adrenaline wore off, to realize she couldn't do this. "What in the name of God am I doing? I can't fight only God knows how many fucking vampires, I need Abe...I need Henry. I can't do this...I can't do this." She said to herself.
"They're going to die and it's all my fault, they're going to be killed by some monster, just like mom and dad..." She whispered. She took a deep breath, "No time to panic, no time to blame myself. They may have died on my watch, but I won't let that happen to Abe or Henry.." whispered Emelia.
She snuck from the woods to the attached shed, she stopped when she saw Henry's gun, and Abe's ax, and other possessions. Martyrs, knives, and pistol. She grabbed it all, putting the ax in her coat, and wielding her blade, which she named 'surprise', and putting the pistols in her belt by her back, and the knives in her boots. She almost left the room, when she saw Abe's hat. She placed it atop her head, perhaps she could confuse them.
If she planned this correctly, she could almost disguise herself, like the stick bugs she had read about, if she looked like Abe, perhaps that would put them off guard. She had to try.
She walked through the door, and saw two vampires standing in front of a large door, and one more by the staircase. She cocked her pistol, and shot one right between the eyes. The other two, panicking, tried to find where the bullet came from, they saw a figure with a hat.
With two pistols, she shot the other two when they charged, bullets going into one's shoulder, and the other's useless heart, she grabbed her blade, and decapitated them both. More surely would have heard the noise, they would be coming soon, she walked to the door she had seen earlier, and opened it. It was an empty kitchen.
She stood in the middle of the large entry room, and looked at the staircase. She walked up the stairs, and walked into a large upstairs ballroom, a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and a marble fireplace crackled in the middle of the opposite wall. There, in front of the fire, she saw her two friends kneeling, tied and beaten. They seemed unconscious.
She felt something push her into the room, and the door locked behind her. Benningham appeared in the corner, "I see you managed to find us, well, no matter. The more the merrier." He said with a smirk. "Let my friends go, and I won't fucking murder your sorry ass!" She yelled, "Oh come now, we both know you would. I think you forget that most vampires can read minds, including your dear friend Henry. The one whom you were in bed with, I heard. Is he something to you?" He asked.
Emelia felt heat rising in her neck, "Well, well well, he is something to you, but he doesn't know. Such a shame he'll have to kill you, or you'll have to kill him, and your friend Abraham." Benningham hissed and snapped his fingers.
Henry and Abe's heads snapped up, they were in some kind of...trance? Almost like their minds were gone, like they were being controlled. "Henry? Abe?" She dared to ask, Abe struck at her with his fist, Henry followed, Emelia dodged them both. "Please, guys. Snap out of this, you know it isn't you.." She tried to reason with them.
Benningham just watched from by the fireplace. "Now you will pay." He said, "Pay for what!?" Emelia asked as she was punched by Abe, "For murdering my first child and the other of my kids you killed!" He yelled, Emelia was kicked across the room by Henry. She felt something crack inside her, and the breath was knocked from her lungs.
"What first child? Why do you refer to those monsters as your kids!?" She asked, her voice nothing more than a loud whisper. "You don't remember, do you? I suppose you were only, what, sixteen?" Emelia realized what he meant. "You mean the vampire that killed my parents, was your first vampire?" She asked, "Yes! I was there, and you killed him!" He screamed.
Emelia quickly dodged a bullet from Abe, he still had a pistol. The hat fell from her head as she rolled away from him, Henry picked her up by the collar. "Now you will die for what you did, and so will your friends. You will pay for killing my favored child!" He yelled, a sick grin on his face.
" I do remember..." She began, as she clutched Henry's hands, trying to make his loosen his grip. "Drop her." Ordered Arthur, Henry dropped Emelia to the floor, and she caught her breath. "I remember that night like it was yesterday, I walk in to see my parents lying bloody on the ground, and then I saw him, he chased me to the woodshed. I had fallen down, he was no more than a foot from me, and I reached for an old broken blade.." She continued.
"And then I severed his fucking head off!" She screamed with a wicked smirk. Benningham advanced, Emelia stood and took a swing at him with her blade, he knocked it from her hands. She was thrown against the wall again, Abe and Henry continued to fight her. She punched Abe and knocked him back a moment, and then she shot Henry in the arm, knowing it would heal.
"Sorry.." She mentally apologized.
Benningham took a swipe, and his hand was cut off by an ax head. Emelia wielded Abe's ax, and struck him at the shoulder, severing his arm off. He screamed in pain, and Emelia dragged him to the fireplace, and stuck his face into it. Abe shot her in the arm, but she kept going.
"Your fucking monster killed my parents, and now you will pay. Justice will be done you fucking bastard!" She screamed and held his head in the flames. Henry and Abe yelled out in pain, Emelia looked at them and saw them clutching their heads in pain, the effect of the mind controlling was wearing off.
Abe, while still being controlled, shot her again, this time in the side. She yelled out in pain, and Henry snapped. "Henry!" She screamed in pain, and his mind was free. She stood and swung the ax at Benningham's neck. She decapitated him, and threw his body into the flames.
She stumbled back, and was caught by a pair of strong of arms. "Henry.." She whispered, and he took her aside, Abe finally snapped out of it, and helped him.
Henry stitched her up as best he could, and than used whatever Abe could find as a bandaging. "You're going to be alright. You're okay.." Henry whispered, mostly trying to reassure himself. "I'm sorry, guys. This was m-my fault-" "No, it's no one's fault. You did what you had to." Henry told her.
After he was finished bandaging her, Henry picked her up, and carried her outside. They saw two horses, Abe came running out of the house, and Henry gave him a look, Abe sat his hat back atop his head and Henry rolled his eyes. They mounted the horses, and rode back to the Inn. Emelia had fallen asleep in Henry's arms.
When they got back to their rooms, Henry laid Emelia on the bed, and he sent Abe back to his room to get some rest. Henry laid beside Emelia, and put an arm around her. She was something to him, he cared for her, deeply. And he could read her mind as she slept, he read some of her dream, and it was exactly this, he was something to her as well.
Henry smiled as he held his friend, or something more than a friend, closer to his body. She smiled. "I'm here to keep you safe again, thank you for saving me, and Abe.." He whispered to her, hoping she would hear him in some way. Emelia inhaled his scent, and slept a little deeper in Henry's arms. He slept a little deeper with his arms around her, her scent calming him. Lilac, apple, and the outdoors. "Goodnight, Emelia.." He breathed.
To Be Continued***
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A/N: AAHHHH!!!! This is such a long chapter and now my brain hurts! I hope you all enjoy, and I also hope this makes sense? Well, enjoy and have a great day! ~Emilypeej (Also yes I named her blade after the ship from Master and Commander. I have a Russell Crowe obsession ok?)
He just so happens to be the most beautiful man I have ever seen in my life!!! <3