Conquering A Bloodthirsty Earth (Book 3): Vampire Lord 3

by Jacobs, Logan

  And even though I didn’t want to use it against him just now, I needed both my hands free to fight him, so I needed to make sure that I put the bat somewhere that Isaac couldn’t get to it.

  But before I could decide what to do with the Louisville slugger, Natalie’s brother attacked. He dropped his hands from his slightly swollen right eye, jumped forward, and grabbed my shirt in his fists.

  When he leaned his head back and then started to bring it down toward my own forehead, I dropped the bat and then brought my hands up between his arms. I slammed my arms against his wrists to break his grip on me, and the moment he dropped my shirt, I spun around and started to run away from the stairwell and toward the rare book room.

  Because as much as I wanted us to stay on this floor for the sake of the fight, I also didn’t want to get myself thrown down all six flights of fucking steps just because I had stayed too close to the stairwell.

  Isaac followed right behind me without any hesitation. His footsteps pounded against the thin carpet behind me, so I didn’t even have to look over my shoulder to know that he was right there. I still had the bat in one hand, but I just held onto it as I passed the broken doors of the rare book room.

  I skidded to a stop and ducked through the broken glass into the long rectagular room. There were so many glass cases inside that the room was even more full of reflections than I had seen from outside the doors, so I figured that I might as well try to take advantage of my surroundings.

  Just before Isaac barreled through the broken doors after me, I stepped behind one of the glass cases that stood in the middle of the room. I laid down the Daniel Defense rifle on the floor beside me, so it wouldn’t get in my way as I fought the muscular vamp. I would have loved nothing more than to turn the rifle on Isaac and fire away, but the last thing that I wanted was to bring all the vamps in the school down on top of me.

  Unless I didn’t have another choice.

  As soon as I straightened back up, I noticed that the dim light in the rare book room cast three reflections of me on other cases all along the walls. So a second later, when Natalie’s brother busted into the room, he hesitated for just a moment, so he could try to figure out where I must be standing in order to cast those reflections.

  But while he hesitated, I made my move.

  I flung the Louisville slugger toward the other end of the room, so as soon as it cracked the glass case on the far wall, Isaac spun toward the sound and exposed his back to me. I ran full-speed toward him, and this time, he couldn’t react quickly enough.

  I crashed my full force into his body and brought him down to the ground so hard that his bottom ribs crunched against the floor. His hair was too short for me to get a good grip on, so instead, I just placed my whole palm on the back of his head and tried to slam his face down into the ground.

  Isaac bucked his head back like a bull, and as the thick veins in his neck all bulged out, he jabbed his arms backward to try to catch me with his elbows. He caught me in the ribs a few times, but I dug my knee in between his shoulder blades to keep him against the ground, while I kept my pressure on the back of his head to try to hold him down.

  It worked, but not for long.

  Natalie’s brother was strong as fuck, and he must have taken some martial arts classes while he was still a human. Either that, or the blood of one of the girls in the study room had given him some magical fucking jiu jitsu powers, because after only a few seconds of holding him down, Isaac wrapped his shin around my ankle and jerked it to the side.

  I didn’t know how he had managed such an angle when he was face down on the floor, but I didn’t have much time to contemplate it. As soon as he jerked his leg to the side, my ankle flared with pain, and I had to roll off of his back before my bone completely snapped.

  As I rolled away, I was able to jerk my leg free from his, but before I could congratulate myself, Isaac jumped up into a squat, grabbed me by the shirt, and then hurled me across the rare book room.

  My back crashed into a glass display case, and instantly, my flesh felt like it was on fire as a dozen thick glass shards buried themselves all along my spine like shrapnel. I slid down the display case and landed on my hands and knees, while two priceless old manuscripts tumbled to the floor beside me.

  I picked one up and flung it in Isaac’s direction, but the muscular vamp easily dodged it and then started toward me with a smile. He took his time as he moved across the room, since clearly, he felt like he was in control of the situation now.

  “Not so talkative now, are you?” Natalie’s brother laughed.

  I started to clench my fingers into fists before I remembered all of the sharp glass around me, so instead, I tried to lift my hands off the ground. The pain in my spine was so intense that it made my vision start to swim a little bit, but I knew that if I could just hold on for a few more seconds, my body would start to heal itself and push the shards of glass out on its own.

  I just had to make sure that Isaac didn’t kill me before then.

  By the time I managed to straighten up so that I was on my knees, Isaac had already reached me. My bat was still on the far side of the room, so it wouldn’t do me much good now, but at least Natalie’s brother didn’t plan to use it against me.

  That meant I could try to stagger to my feet and fight him hand-to-hand, but since my back still looked like the spine of a glass porcupine, I didn’t think that was the best option. Instead, I decided to wait for my body to push out a few more chunks of glass shrapnel, and to do that, I needed to distract him with the only thing that he seemed to value.

  I needed him to leave me for just a second to go check on the girls.

  “You know,” I said through gritted teeth, “you really ought to be more careful where you stash your valuables.”

  Isaac had pulled back his fist to drive me into the glass case again, but as soon as I spoke, he held his fist still, and the smug grin disappeared from his face.

  “What?” he growled.

  “Your valuables,” I said again. “Brianna and her friend aren’t on another floor at all. I already saw them in that study room.”

  “You saw… but you didn’t--” Isaac slowly started to lower his fist.

  “Oh, but I did,” I said with a smile. “If you can still find a pulse, you’re welcome to thank them for their donation.”

  Isaac looked genuinely torn, but I really thought he would go check on the two girls in the study room. But then the upset expression disappeared from his face, and he just laughed again.

  “Nice try, Sam,” Natalie’s brother said. “But I know damn well that if you had drained them dry, you’d be a hell of a lot stronger right now.”

  Fuck.

  It had been worth a shot, anyway.

  Isaac bent down to grab me by my shirt again, and he picked me up into the air. He snarled like he was going to bite me after all, but I knew that he just wanted to rub his victory into my face before he finished me off. He was just that much of an asshole.

  And that much of a dumbass.

  As my legs dangled above the ground, I felt several glass shards fall out of my back all at once, so while Isaac got ready to throw me across the room again, I twisted one arm behind my waist, waited for my body to push out another piece of glass shrapnel, and then grabbed it out of the air.

  I felt the glass cut into my palm as I tightened my grip around it, but I ignored the pain and just slammed my new weapon up toward Isaac’s abdomen. I shoved the piece of shrapnel just underneath his last ribs, and as a look of surprise spread across his face, I thrust it in even deeper until the entire piece of glass was inside him.

  Isaac immediately gave a little howl, dropped me, and stumbled backward.

  My boots crunched against the glass on the floor, but I didn’t wait for the rest of the glass to fall out of my spine. It felt more like a dull ache rather than a fire now, and that would just have to be good enough.

  I rammed my fists into Isaac’s stomach right on top of the punct
ure wound I’d just made, and as he continued to stagger away from me, I pummeled my fists into his abdomen again and again, so more and more black blood spilled out of the hole in his side.

  I had him on the run, but he was built like a tank, and he’d just had a lot of blood from the two girls, so he wasn’t going to go down easily. I was just about to swing at his face instead of his stomach, but then the last piece of glass fell out of my back. The wound burned like new for a second as the skin healed over, and it was just enough of a distraction that I had to hold completely still and catch my breath.

  Isaac didn’t miss his chance.

  He spun away from me, stumbled forward, ran through the broken glass doors, and disappeared around the corner.

  I had always liked Isaac, but suddenly, I couldn’t think of a single goddamn reason why. All I could think of was how the fuck much I was going to enjoy taking him down.

  After all, in my book, anybody who called his sister and his own girlfriend nothing but a fucking blood bag deserved to die.

  Now that the last of the glass shrapnel had fallen out of my back, I felt a fresh wave of strength flood through my body, and I pushed all that strength into my legs to propel myself forward after Isaac. My boots crunched on top of the glass as I dashed forward, and I felt my elbow scrape against the broken door on my way out.

  As soon as I left the rare book room, I sprinted toward the stairwell, since that was the only place I could think of where Isaac might have gone. I didn’t see him as I ran forward, but the moment I passed the back hallway along the side of the sixth floor, I saw why.

  The blonde and the pink-haired Japanese girl had crawled out of the study room, probably in some last-ditch, desperate attempt to escape from Isaac. But if they’d thought they could sneak away while Isaac was distracted with me, they had clearly been wrong.

  Isaac had either spotted or sniffed them out, and now he had hauled the blonde to her feet to use her as a body shield. Her hands were still zip-tied in front of her, so Isaac had one arm around her waist and one hand in her hair, and his teeth hovered just above the pulsing artery in her neck.

  “Time to tell the truth, Sam,” Isaac snarled. “Did you really bring Nat with you? Because if you didn’t, or if I think you’re lying, I’ll rip my girlfriend’s pretty little throat right out in front of you, and I have a feeling that’s not something you’d like to see, is it?”

  The Japanese girl tried to crawl across the floor toward Isaac’s ankles, but when I gave a quick shake of my head, she stopped mid-crawl.

  “Alright!” I said and raised my hands. “If you let her go, I’ll take you to Nat. Maybe your sister can talk some sense into you.”

  “Where is she?” Isaac demanded. “And where are the other bitches that you brought with you?”

  “They’re with me,” I sighed, “but I didn’t leave them on the first floor.”

  “Then where are they?” Natalie’s brother growled and lowered his canines a little closer toward the blonde’s neck.

  “I left them on the fifth floor,” I said as I clenched my fists. “I didn’t want them to be with me when I found you, but I wanted them to be close enough that I could still hear them if they had to scream for help.”

  Isaac relaxed his grasp a little on his girlfriend, but her dark green eyes were still wide with terror, and I could see her body as it trembled against his grip.

  “Just let her go,” I said. “If you let her go, I’ll take you to Nat, okay?”

  “Oh, you’ll take me to her, alright,” Isaac said with a smug grin, “but I’m gonna hold onto my girlfriend for just a little bit longer. I’d hate to find out that you were lying to me-- and I’m sure Brianna here would hate that, too, wouldn’t you?”

  “Please--” the blonde started with a desperate glance at me.

  But Isaac jerked back on her hair, so she didn’t finish the rest of her sentence.

  “Then, come on, let’s go,” I growled.

  I glanced at the pink-haired girl again and hoped she could somehow read my mind and would stay where she was. I knew that she had no idea that I was a vampire, so I just had to trust that she would stay put and not try to come after us and get in the way of my plans to take down Isaac.

  I led the way toward the stairwell, and Isaac forced the blonde to march along right behind me. I knew that I might only have one shot at saving Isaac’s girlfriend and taking Isaac out at the same time, so I sure as hell didn’t want to fuck it up.

  When we reached the top of the stairs, I stopped and turned toward Isaac.

  “I’m sure you understand why I might not want to go down the stairs in front of you,” I said. “Why don’t we walk down them side by side?”

  Isaac narrowed his eyes like he was trying to figure out how it might be a trick, but he finally just shrugged and moved himself into a position beside me, and that forced Brianna onto the step below us. The muscular vamp couldn’t keep his arm around her waist as long as she had to walk in front of us, so he let his right arm drop down to his side, but he tightened his grip on her hair with his left.

  While the blonde led the way, Isaac and I walked down the stairs one at a time right behind her, and I just bided my time until we reached the landing halfway down to the fifth floor.

  Then, I finally made my move.

  Chapter 13

  Isaac could only see me out of the corner of his eye, so I slammed my elbow into his ribs hard enough that he released his grip on the blonde. Then I shoved her forward out of the way, and then I brought my fist up toward the muscular vamp’s jaw.

  Isaac caught my fist on its way to his chin, and we stood there locked together as our muscles strained to see who would break first.

  “Run!” I hissed to Brianna but didn’t drop my gaze from Isaac’s face.

  I saw the blonde stumble back upstairs, and when she was safely around the corner and back on the sixth floor, I kneed Isaac in the crotch. He yelped and dropped his hand from my fist, so then my knuckles were free to sail right the fuck into his jawline.

  My punch rocked his jaw to the side, and I thought I heard something pop, but I didn’t stop long enough to make sure. Instead, I followed up the jab with an uppercut from my other fist, and this time, Isaac tottered back toward the wall of the stairwell.

  Since my blows to his abdomen hadn’t seemed to slow him down that much, I focused all my punches in on his jaw, but I still managed to land a few on his eyes to make it more difficult for him to come after me. He landed a few punches on my torso, but none of them were enough to slow me down.

  When Isaac’s face finally started to swell up, I knew that I was making headway. But just as I had almost backed him into the corner of the stairwell, Isaac found a sudden burst of energy and shoved me across the landing.

  My lower back rammed into the railing, but it wasn’t quite hard enough to topple me over completely. As Isaac started to run at me again, I dropped my stance to make it harder for him to push me over.

  Natalie’s brother pushed at my shoulders and tried to bend me backward over the railing, so I just reached up and dug my fingers into the still-open wound that the glass shrapnel had left in his side.

  It had just started to heal over, but the moment my fingers ripped into the seams of his flesh, thick black blood started to flow again, and I reached inside like I could find his lungs and just puncture them with my blunt fingernails.

  Isaac looked like his face might turn inside out from the pain, so I ripped my hand out of his side and then pushed him to the ground. He landed stomach-down on the stairs, and he started to try to crawl back up to the girls on the top floor, so I moved before he could.

  I bounded up the stairs toward his head, and then I slammed my boot down onto the back of Isaac’s skull. Instantly, his body flopped down against the steps, but I could see that I had only dented the back of his head, so I gritted my teeth, raised my boot, and stomped onto his skull again.

  This time, my boot fractured his skull into pieces. But e
ven though his body was completely motionless, I didn’t want to take any chances, so I raised my leg and stomped down one more time, until the heel of my boot was slick with moldy vamp brains.

  I staggered toward the railing and grabbed it to keep myself steady.

  I knew that this wasn’t really Natalie’s brother-- it was just some monster who looked and sounded like him. He hadn’t really been the same Isaac that we’d known since the moment he had turned into a bloodsucker.

  Or maybe he’d always been this asshole, since he’d changed himself on purpose.

  But either way, it didn’t change the fact that I had just killed my girlfriend’s brother.

  I sagged against the stair rail and leaned my forehead against my hands. The fact that I’d had to kill Isaac made me feel like I was the monster, but I knew that there hadn’t been any other choice. I didn’t know why the vaccine hadn’t turned me into the same kind of bastard as most of the other vamps that I’d met, but I knew I was different.

  Maybe the vaccine brought out something deep and dark that was already in people, and all these fuckers who had seemed like nice, ordinary people were actually, at their core, full-on fucking assholes.

  Or maybe I was just genetically one of the lucky ones, and that had allowed me to hold on to my humanity when nobody else could.

  Well, maybe not nobody else-- after all, Hippie Hank had been a nice guy, and he was just as much a vamp as I was. So maybe the vaccine didn’t turn everybody into monsters. Maybe it just brought out people’s deepest selves, so some people turned into walking nightmares, and some of us turned into… well, just stronger and faster versions of ourselves, who just happened to need human blood to survive.

  But whatever the reason was, it didn’t matter right now. I pushed myself up, glanced at Isaac’s lifeless body, and then looked up the stairwell toward the sixth floor.