Before we could come up with a plan, Sarah stalked out into the middle of the alley. Guess we aren’t going for stealth then. Fuck.
As we congregated around her, she let out a single bark. The large man at the other end of the alley turned to see what was happening. The phenotypic reconstruction that Argir had provided was scarily accurate: blonde, blue-eyed, large bodied. He looked like he could be a linebacker for the Seahawks with how muscular and large he was.
How are we supposed to face that? Even if all of us worked together, with those bulked up arms of his, he could swat us all like flies with no problem.
A body slumped behind him and my attention shifted. Shit, did he just kill somebody else? What if we were too late? But my ears detected something that wouldn’t have been there if the person were dead: a heartbeat. Faint, but it was there. He must’ve been feeding. I still wish we’d gotten here in time—
The villain ran down a converging alley, immediately out of sight. Shit! Sarah booked it, her paws slamming on the pavement, sliding as she approached the corner of the alley. She continued to chase, and the rest of us followed after her, doing our best to keep up.
The man turned a corner, and I heard him swear as Sarah blocked the alley, snarling. He must’ve hit a dead end. Catching up confirmed the suspicion. The five of us blocked the mouth of the alley, and the killer began to pace like a wild animal in a cage.
“I don’t know what the fuck you are,” he said at Sarah before looking at the rest of us, “but the rest of you don’t have heartbeats. Why are you chasing a fellow vampire? I was just feeding,” the man rumbled, his voice low.
Shit, we totally left that man behind! I looked back toward where we had just come from, wondering if one of us should go back and check on him.
“I didn’t kill him, if that’s what you’re worried about,” he scoffed.
“But you have been killing, haven’t you?” Antun asked.
Sarah growled again, teeth bared.
The man straightened, face falling neutral. “It’s no business of yours. The Inquisitor finds those who are unworthy of the gift, and I take it away.”
Everything in me turned cold. I was in the presence of a true killer, something I knew for certain now.
He dared a step forward and Sarah barked, her teeth bared as she continued to growl. “The Inquisitor never told me what to do in this kind of situation,” he murmured, looking at each of us. His eyes landed on me, the smallest of the group, and his mouth set in a line of determination before he charged at me.
Before he could reach me, Sarah lunged and bit his arm. He yelled out in pain, trying to shake her off. He grabbed her by the scruff and pulled, but her jaws had locked tight. She was not letting go for anything. Her paws scratched at his torso as she clung to his arm.
He punched her side, making her yelp and let go for the briefest moment, but it was enough. He pulled his arm away, blood dripping down the wounds but not flowing smoothly like living blood would. Stepping out of her reach, he lifted his fists in front of him, standing at guard.
Guess Ravena’s hand-to-hand training is going to come in handy. Everyone took up a stance, Sarah ready to lunge again. In Antun’s hand was the yew dagger, shining golden in the sparse light of the alley. I again wished I had my own, because with the size difference, there was no way that I could make much of an impact now.
When he charged, we all did.
Antun got to him first, slashing with the dagger. The man dodged it, knocking it from his grip with a forceful punch to the forearm. Antun yelled in pain and tried to lunge for the dagger, only for the killer to lift him off his feet by the shirt and throw him into the nearby alley wall. I heard cracking and saw broken masonry in the crater of the wall where Antun had landed.
While he was throwing Antun, Syla jumped on his back, going for a chokehold. He squashed her between his back and the unforgiving brick wall over and over again until her hold loosened, and he grabbed her and threw her at Antun’s feet.
Michael landed a blow to the man’s jaw, sending him reeling for a moment. He followed up with a couple of jabs, but the killer was ready now. He blocked the jabs and gave an uppercut of his own to Michael’s jaw, sending him flying backwards.
During all the commotion, I’d snuck around the perimeter and had almost reached the dagger. I was lifted off my feet by the back of my shirt, twisted around face to face with the vampire who had killed so many of our kind for no known reason. He shoved me against the wall, my head banging off the brick and my vision going black. I wasn’t passed out, but I couldn’t see anything for a few solid seconds.
As my sight cleared, I saw Syla crawling for the knife, trying to keep out of his line of vision. I looked anywhere else but at her, not wanting to give her away. My eyes landed back on his. “Why did you do it?” I asked, my shirt collar starting to cut off my air supply.
“Order,” he says before he puts me down and grabs either side of my face. Visions of the victims, their necks twisted unnaturally, flooded my mind. I managed to get one hand off of my face, holding his arm up with both hands for a second. I ducked, grabbing the dagger that Syla held out, and swiped.
The man yelled, the dagger having finally landed a slash on his arm, the same one with the bite. Sarah latched onto the same arm in the same place, and his yell morphed into something more like a cry. He didn’t know it yet, but he was already doomed. The yew toxin seeped into his arm as he continued to fight.
Sarah scratched at the man’s body, and when she let go of his arm, she was aiming for his throat.
But there was an opening. He rushed forward and was suddenly on the run again. We all pursued him, but he’d had too much of a head start and we lost him in the twisting of the alleys.
Sarah nudged the bag that Syla had been carrying with her muzzle. “Were you wanting to shift back?” Syla asked.
Sarah barked once, which we had determined to be her “yes,” and Syla got the clothes out. Looking around, she suggested that Sarah go behind the dumpster to shift for privacy sake. The men turned around all the same. When she’d transformed back into her human form, she took the clothes from Syla and dressed quickly.
“We have to go after him,” she insisted, “but I need to eat. And rest.”
“Drew got him with the yew, so he should be on his way down now. Still, we need to keep up with him. Sarah, can you track him in your human form?” Antun asked.
She sighed, realizing that she wouldn’t yet be getting lunch, and said, “Yeah. I even tasted his blood, so now I’ve really got his scent. Are you sure we can’t stop by a fast food joint first? Werewolf metabolism is really fast and all of that fighting has me famished.”
Needy bitch, I complained to myself. Nevertheless, we stopped by a food truck on the way so she could get something in her system, eating on the move. After she’d eaten, she said, “Okay, let’s find this guy.”
❖ 🩸 ❖
Jared collapsed onto the bed, Dani fretting over him. “What happened? You were supposed to only feed.”
“Not my fault,” he groaned as he rolled over onto his back. The bite had clotted but the cut from that wood knife was still leaking. “Ran into some people with a dog, they attacked me. I barely made it out, but we have to leave. I don’t know if that mutt of theirs is a tracker or not, but I’d rather not find out.”
“We have to patch you up first; get you cleaned up a little. We’ll stand out like a sore thumb if people see you like this,” Dani fussed. She ran out the door and over to the front desk in the foyer, where she’d remembered seeing a first aid kit. Hopefully it still had something helpful in it. There was a singular ace bandage; it would have to do.
Hurrying back to the room, Jared had begun sweating and panting. Could vampires get infections? What was going on? She wrapped his arm as best she could, then went to his duffle to get a clean shirt. “Come on, you need to change, there’s blood all over you.” With a little assistance, he managed to get into a clean tee shirt. But it didn’t stay clean for long as he soon was vomiting into the toilet. He couldn’t stop shaking, and his steps were a bit drunken as he made his way back to the bed. He knew they needed to move, to leave, but he needed to get past this first.
As he laid in the bed, there was a knock on the door. Dani looked at the door in fear, then back at Jared, unsure of what to do. But Jared needed help. Maybe whoever was behind the door could provide that. She dared a peek through the peep hole, spying two men and three women. The tallest woman told the others to stand back, and as they did so, Dani realized what she was about to do. She ran back to the bed just as the door shuddered once, twice. On the third strike, the lock on the door gave way and it burst open.
The tall woman came in first, followed closely by the albino man holding a wooden knife, blood still staining one edge. The others followed behind, the other man closing the door and standing in front of it.
Dani cried, “What do you want?” She didn’t understand; Jared had just been out to feed and he came back like this, then five strangers burst into their room, one of them armed. Nothing was making sense. The albino looked at Jared, his grip on the knife tightening.
“No!” Dani threw herself over Jared. “You’ll have to kill me to get to him.”
The redheaded woman shrugged and started walking forward. “No,” the shortest woman barked at the redhead, making the woman glare at her. But she stopped.
The albino took a step forward. “He is already dying. I can make his pain stop.”
Dani shook her head in denial. “No,” she croaked out, voice scratchy with tears.
The third woman, the one with blue eyes and a face meant for smiling but hadn’t one, started walking forward. She put her hand on Dani’s shoulder, waiting for her to turn to her. She did, and the woman said, “He made his choices. Now it’s time for you to make some of your own.”
Dani looked down at Jared, his pupils dilated and eyes struggling to keep focus. “Jared, what did you do?” she breathed.
❖ 🩸 ❖
“Jared, what did you do?” the woman asked the killer after Syla approached her about having choices to make.
Jared looked around in confusion, still lying on the bed. He looked horrible, and memories of how the yew toxin had affected Nikola started to surface. Nope, you stay in your box until I’m ready to face you. That is not right now. Still, he continued to deteriorate and flashes of memory kept slipping through.
He looked at the woman, then reached out and clasped her hand. “I had to make sure he wouldn’t go after you,” he coughed. The fit lasted for a moment, then he continued, “The Inquisitor. He gave me a purpose again, giving meaning to this new life we were given. I just had to be his hand… to deliver justice.”
“Who is this Inquisitor?” Antun asked. Jared’s eyes couldn’t focus on him, even after he’d stepped forward. He didn’t have long now.
“I never saw him, he only ever… spoke in my mind. I’m not crazy,” he insisted, “he said he’s like us…” He began to cough and wheeze, his breaths becoming more labored by the second. “If you live by the rules, you get to live. If you don’t, he sends me.”
Like us? Does that mean that this Inquisitor guy is another vampire that we’re dealing with? Was Jared ever actually evil, or was he just manipulated into doing what this other guy wanted?
My mind spun with more and more questions.
What rules is he talking about? Is there some vampire law I don’t know about or something? If there were, surely Antun would’ve said something about it by now.
Antun stepped forward, once again saying, “I can make it stop. I don’t like seeing him in pain any more than you do,” he assured.
“Dani,” Jared wheezed. She was instantly there, clutching his hand. “I’m done for. I… did things but… but it was all… to protect…” He coughed, blood splattering the sheets on his chest. “You are so much like her… my Ellie… Guess… I get to see her again… soon…”
“Don’t leave me, Jared!” Dani cried out. “Just tell me what happened! We can fix this…”
He squeezed her hand, making her stop. “Already told you… I’m done…” He looked at Antun. “If you want the… deaths to stop… you have to find him… The Inquisitor… He’ll never end it… You have to run, Dani,” he urged, coughing again before finishing. “He will not… tolerate your mercy… and kindness… much longer.”
He grabbed Antun’s wrist, still holding the dagger, as if he’d bring it closer. Then his hand went limp, dropping Antun’s arm and resting on the sheets. His breaths ceased, eyes staring at nothing. He did not move again.
“It wasn’t his fault,” Dani sobbed. “He made him do it. It’s not his fault…”
