In an ashen cloud of mercurial embers, the faint silhouette of his body shape collapsed beneath it's own weight. Crumpling with crisp flakes that threw themselves airborne as the form of Aramis met the concrete of the floor.
My scream, dwarfing the raucous thunder outside, ripped through my throat. It peeled the paint off the car like a murder of vicious claws, crunched the stone like angry fists and thumped Victoria in the chest like a hammer. Yanking her from her feet as she was flung back, colliding with a nearby work top. Sending forgotten tools, and errant metals clattering to the ground with her body.
Jace was upon me instantly. The mass of his muscle pinning my struggling frame to the ground. Through my own, careless, struggles; I noticed his face, contorted and red, wet with tears. A clearer mind would have bade me to stop. To ask him what was wrong. But I couldn't. I was shattered, in a million pieces and a planned to impale each and every shard in to Victoria while blind anger still held me.
Jace was much stronger than I was. Despite my kicking, and writhing, it did naught to push him away. My arm somehow wriggled free, immediately diving into my bag and clutching one of the spell packets I'd prepared earlier. I tightened my fist around it, before slamming it in to my attackers face. It ignited in a burst of pale blues, coiling flames like venomous fingers around his head. The smell of burning flesh and hair caught in the air as Jace clutched at his face in anguished screams.
I rolled onto my front, clutching my bag closer to my chest as I scrambled to my feet, and leant against the car. Tears stained my cheeks, stinging my eyes and cursing me with a watery inability to focus.
The flames were snuffed out with a snarl. His eyes a shade equivalent to a deathly iceberg, fangs bared, his blistered skin knitting itself back to its original plushy tones within seconds.
He took a step forward, a conflict arising in his body language. Tense with a retributive anger, but trying to restrain himself. To relax and understand. His features returned to their more human, gentle, appearance and he took another step. My breath hitched in my throat, as there was movement behind him.
Victoria shakily rose to her feet. Clutching her forehead with a groan as she leaned on the work top, pushing herself up from the floor. In the moment Jace was distracted by her reappearance; I dashed to the blackened ashes of Aramis, whimpering somewhat as my hand dove into the warm softness and gripped the cool metal of the knife. The handle dug into my palm as I squeezed my fist around it with such a tightness that I was certain I would never let it go.
My breathing shallowed, my eyes focused, and my jaw clenched. I made to launch myself in her direction when I heard it.
Clack! Clack! Clack! It echoed through the garage, the unmistakable, unmissable, and completely foreign sound of slow, purposeful heels. So out of place in the madness that it caused all three of us to focus our complete attention on it. Staring into the shadows of the room expectantly, fearfully. Like prey that knows it's cornered.
Jace stood closer and protectively in front of Victoria, who defiantly peeked from behind his muscular arm.
The overhead lights buzzed violently, flickering as they seemed to fight in an attempt to stay lit. With a violent pop, like a gun shot, the bulbs exploded, one after the other. Plunging us all into almost darkness. The orange street lights, filtering from the window, and the odd flash of lightening was all that lit the figures in the dark.
I wielded the knife close to my chest as I took a single step backward, my heart leaping from my chest as the car beside me screeched with new found weight. A crouched silhouette landing heavily on the bonnet. Two pin-prick sized sparks of silver, pierced their way into the room, as the figure leaned forward.
Jace let out a growl, deep, and low. A warning snarl.
My eyes darted around the room in some vain effort to drink in some form of light and see something.
For a moment. All was silent. Too silent for the number of people in the room, and on top of the panic I felt, I feared I might be deaf. Even the sound of my own, stifled breathing seemed muted to me.
Within an instant, the lights flickered back on, causing my eyes to scrunch with pain as I temporarily shielded them. Soon they focused enough, to see four additional figures had entered the room.
The first I noticed, was the athletic frame of Simon. Crouched on the hood of the car, the tattoos of his left arm seemed to spill out in front of him as he held it in front of him for balance, his fingers rested on the red metal. His features were mostly covered by a grey hoodie, but I could feel the solemness of his expression radiate from its shadows.
The second, causing Jace to yelp defensively closer to Victoria, was Bethany. As she now stood but inches from him, comically short in comparison, but her ice cold demeanour coupled with the sheer amount of uneasy stillness she displayed, was more than enough to intimidate the difference away.
The third was Elizabeth. Her soft expression, filled to the brim with sorrowful understanding, met my gaze with a careful tentativeness, as she placed gentle hands on my own, gesturing for me to relinquish the knife from my grip. I struggled to let go. My fingers hesitating in the movements to uncurl, like the very idea was causing me significant discomfort. She eventually pried it free from my hands with a stifled whimper, holding it close to her as she used her other hand to place reassurance upon my shoulder.
She turned with the knife and walked to the fourth additional figure in the room.
Standing tall, a gown so black that it drowned the light better than any thalassaphobic nightmare, with her curves mimicking the same ferocity of its ocean. Her chin was held high as she looked down upon us all with all the projected regalia of a queen, or a highly disapproving mother, and despite the seriousness of the situation; I couldn't help but feel a little bit childish beneath her gaze. Limbani.
She stepped forward, beneath the harsh buzzing lights that cast a veil about her expression, as Elizabeth met her, she looked down at the knife. At the pile of ashes. At me. At Victoria. Her stare felt like an eternity ebbed and flowed behind burnt umber irises.
"Will it run?" Her voice sliced the silence like the knife in Elizabeths grasp, startling the three of us like the first primordial thunder. I looked to Simon, whos figure lurched over the front window of the car. He seemed to be fiddling with something, before the vehicle roared into life with a sickly sputter of the engine.
He gave a confident nod, switching off the ignition and pulling the keys outward. With a quick gesture, he tossed them in the direction of Jace and Victoria. Jace made to catch them, only to look confused as he noticed that Bethany had caught them about ten inches from his outstretched hand. She smirked confidently. Relishing in her apparent superior speed, as she tauntingly dangled the keys just above the skin of his palm. She giggled when he went to snatch them from her, only for her to move them out of the way at the last moment. She relented though, handing him the keys.
"Go." Limbani said, Bethany stepping away from the pair as Simon hopped off the hood of the car. My heart ached and before I could even attempt a meagre protest for some form of justice, Elizabeth was before me. A hand on my chest, warning me not to argue.
Victoria and Jace slunk, timorous in their way to the car. Their eyes never leaving the piercing, watchful gazes of the Vampires in the room.
Elizabeth held me strong. Keeping her eyes locked with mine, channelling whatever strength she could to me. A lump had formed in my throat, and I jumped as the car roared into life once again. The tires shrieking against the concrete, as a puff of white smoke was spat in the air from the exhaust. Within seconds they were off, barely waiting for the garage door to open before they went speeding down the road.
"They killed him..." My voice croaked, betraying whatever fake strength that I had. But that began to bubble into rage as the unfairness of the situation set in. It stang at the insides and turned it sour. "They killed him! And you just let them go!?" I spat. Demanded.
Limbani walked gently over to the pile of ash in total silence. Leaving my anger and rage to bounce off the walls pathetically unanswered. My lip quivered as her lace-gloved hand stooped into the ashes, clutching at something within there. A few dregs of ash fluttered to the ground as she pulled it free from the soft grey pile, and she blew on it sweetly, like dust on a forgotten heirloom. I became thoroughly confused as it twitched once it was free of ash. Or rather... it beat. Like a heart.
Bethany came beside Limbani with a small, dark-wood, box. Opening it up where Limbani placed the object inside, closing the lid with a decisive click before planting a kiss in red atop its grain, and taking the box from Bethany.
"Come, my love. Let's get you home." Her voice was gentle once again, if tinged with a bittersweet sorrow masquerading as complacency. I almost didn't want to move, despite the enticement of her invitation.
"What about Victoria?" I asked, knowing damn well that I wouldn't rest until I saw them again, if only to ask them why.
"My children are bored, my love. It has been a while since they have played." She chimes with a neutral tone as we walked through the garage. It was then I noticed that neither Simon, Elizabeth, or Bethany were following us. A dawning realisation sunk heavy in my chest and stomach at what she meant by that, and it took me longer than I would like to admit about whether I was okay with it or not. Unsurprisingly... I was.
A/N: Woo another chapter! Right? Right?
Thanks for reading thus far you guys. It really means a lot.