“I yelled at him to get off her. What I said made no difference, so I don’t even remember exactly what I said. I just wanted to get him off of Geni before he killed her.
“He was on me in the blink of an eye from fifteen feet to biting my neck like that,” she said snapping her fingers. “When he bit me, my voran blood must have surprised him, so he pulled back but ripped my neck. If I hadn’t already killed him, I’d kill the bastard again,” the girl said feeling the pain in her neck but was too fearful to check it with her fingers, since it was bandaged anyway.
“Anyway, when he moved in for seconds I got my hands between us and stabbed him with both blades. They probably weren’t very long, but when I swept my hands from the center of his chest I took out his arms and exposed his heart. It was black like his eyes, so I plunged both aura blades into that and reduced it to dust.
“He burst into flames after that so I went to try and help Geni before I called you and passed out.”
Her eyes strayed to the table where Logan had moved. Kate and Charlotte were tending to the human girl on a wood table. Lena asked, “Shouldn’t she be in a hospital or something?”
“She’ll be alright,” Nick replied. “You saved her and with a little voran blood in her she’ll recover faster than normal.”
Logan nodded to the girl as he concurred.
“There was a lot of blood on her dress, Nick,” Lena stated less than certain that they were taking care of Geni in the best way. Maybe because she was only human, they didn’t care about her friend.
“There’s a lot of blood on you too,” her mentor stated pointing to her blouse. It had a couple tears, but was caked in dried blood. Most of it was hers. “But you’re already sitting up. If Geni needed to go to the hospital, we would have rushed her there; but your blood not only keeps her from turning into a vampire, but helped seal her wounds and regenerate lost blood.”
Worry returned to Lena’s face as she flashed back to the black eyes of the reaper and shook her head. “That thing was fast. I may not be able to fight as well as you, but my brain can usually see fast movements of vampires. He was faster than anything I’ve seen.”
Nick nodded knowing what she was getting at with the comment, “We guessed that they were both faster and stronger than the average vampire. We can only hope better training will save us if we have to fight them.”
“He crossed fifteen feet in a blink, Nick. I might not be able to react properly to fight a vampire, but I can at least see them coming. The alcohol only impaired me slightly. My eyes worked, but he was that fast,” Lena reinforced the impact of her words to make sure that they understood what they faced. She never wanted to run across something like that again.
Nick nodded and finally stood. Color was back in his cheeks already. Lena wondered just how quickly they could heal, but didn’t want to push that envelope again anytime soon.
Looking around the apartment that she could see, the girl noticed how empty it was and how plain. Nick must have thought the same thing as he spied a lonely looking couch, the kitchen table and a couple folding chairs.
“Do you want a loan to get some furniture?” the man asked using the idea of a loan knowing that Logan was a proud man and trying to provide for Kate now as well.
Shaking his head, the big man replied, “We haven’t had a chance to buy much yet, but we’re getting by. It’s enough for now. Don’t worry.”
Nick nodded and replied, “How much do we owe you, doc?”
Chuckling as he realized that Nick was trying to find a different way to help. “You already gave us room and board for free plus free food. My rate isn’t that high.”
Realizing that there was no way Logan was going to accept his help, Nick waited until the doctor felt that it was safe for them all to go home. The werewolf carried Geni down to the Escape and drove with Nick and the others back to the north commons on Halsted Street. The commons were basically part of the university campus and had a guard out front all the time since the disappearances began.
When the two vehicles stopped and Lena led them towards the building, the guard moved to stop them with his hands raised, “Whoa there, visiting hours have been over for a long time. You can’t go in there I’m sorry.”
Lena pointed to her neck and Geni being carried by Logan, “We had an accident and our friends are trying to bring us home. That doesn’t count as having guests. They’ll put Geni to bed and leave.”
Shaking his head the guard looked ready to argue, but Nicola moved forward and smiled at the man. The pretty blonde was dressed for clubbing since they had been at the Lair, but her eyes were what held the guard’s attention as she used glamour to do what they needed.
“You’re going to watch our cars for us to make sure no police come to ticket them while we’re taking this sick girl to her room. Then if anyone should ever ask, we were here bringing two sick girls home.”
The man just nodded slack jawed in the grip of the vampire’s power. With no more resistance, the group took the elevator up and with Lena and Geni’s keys placed the unconscious girl in her room. Lena debated on staying with her friend, but she was exhausted and only slightly more recovered because of being a voran and having Nick’s blood inside of her.
After the others had left and she was soaking in the shower, Lena gave a little prayer that she had been able to save them from the monster. Once exams were over, she needed to start training with Nick in earnest. The girl never wanted to feel as helpless as she had felt in the grip of the reaper.
Chapter 25- Revelations
Shedu looked to the sky seeing gray on the horizon. While the kasha could function easily enough in the daylight, they would still have to forsake the reaper’s trail before the sun rose. They couldn’t remain hidden from the world if they kept taking big risks anymore than the vampires, who seemed determined to show the humans their existence.
As opposed to the kasha, Shedu took in the small team of vampires following the trail with them. They were from the coven of a vampire called Marek and little more was shared with them, though he knew that they were the ones fostered by Nick. How his blood could keep the creatures from turning evil and giving in to their hunger, the kasha leader didn’t know, but he didn’t sense evil in the ones with him. It was the evil done by vampires that drew kasha to kill them and their senses noticed the evil before the scent of undead as they hunted.
The reaper’s scent, on the other hand, reeked of evil. It had been killed by a girl, another voran as Nick called them, and she wasn’t even trained. While Shedu knew that surprise had given her the advantage, he felt that it was a good omen. If a novice could kill one, then surely the well trained kasha could kill more.
While following the scent of a reaper was possible, it was proving problematic as well. Their vampire escort, a trio consisting of their two best trackers and fighters as well as a recent addition to their ranks with military training, had followed the scent with the kasha and had the advantage of being able to leap farther than the feline hunters. It was a humiliating thing to have to admit, but when they were dealing with buildings that differed by several stories, the vampires could still somehow make the leaps to cover the distance and even account for the changes in height.
The young one leaped from the six story building as the kasha cast hooks with long lines of thin, lightweight but strong rope that was more like wire. Unlike the elder vampires who made it to the roof of the next building that was across four lanes of road and thirty feet higher in a single running leap, the young man had to land catching the wall. His feet found purchase on the ledge of a window before propelling up the remaining twenty five feet.
Shedu had never truly watched the leaping skills of vampires. He had hunted and chased them, but watching these three the kasha noted that they seemed to defy gravity. It wasn’t just the strength of their legs and speed, but the elder two appeared to alter their weight or something similar to make up for the extra height.
Three lines were thrown an
d the kasha released the ropes letting gravity take them towards the far building. Taking running jumps, they leaped across the divide catching the still swinging ropes higher than if they had simply swung from the building. Feet stopped their momentum against the walls before they scaled the building with the lines.
By the time the three kasha were coming over the ledge, the vampires had already tracked across the roof and found the next leaping point. This was a lower building that they could all make it across to in easy jumps for their respective kind, so Shedu and his team quickly coiled their lines as they walked across the roof before stowing the hooks again.
The vampires were already on the next roof waiting by the time he had his gear put away. It was vexing seeing the ease with which the creatures moved about the city. Only the tallest skyscrapers would be a challenge they wouldn’t be able to just leap, the kasha thought.
He noticed the vampires looking to the east and realized that for them the sun was more of a liability. While they wouldn’t burst into flames like in the movies just from sunlight, their skin was more sensitive to the rays. Depending on their strength, they might also grow lethargic and be of less use.
The team leader of the vampires pointed towards the horizon and stated, “We have to give up the chase for now. By the time we retrace our steps to the car and drive home the sun will be up. We won’t be much good to you then.”
Shedu nodded wondering if his team should continue any longer. They had the same walk back to the CR-V and couldn’t just leap off of a building to the street whenever they wanted to, but the reaper’s trail might grow cold. “We might as well call it also. We can start here tomorrow, Derek, together or separately.
The vampire put out his hand to shake the kasha’s hand. Shedu shook his head and chuckled, “I can’t while my claws are out. They might scratch and pull away some of your spirit, though admittedly we were told they pull away evil, so you might be safe.”
Withdrawing his hand casually, Derek brushed at his windblown hair instead. “No sense pressing my luck. Santa gives me coal every once in awhile too.”
The girl beside him laughed, “You’re only bad with me and I make up for Santa.”
Nodding the man replied to the attractive, blue eyed, blonde, “Well, you do give better gifts.”
The third vampire mimed being sick and received a joking slap on the arm from Sophia.
Shedu listened to them realizing how human they still seemed. “We will descend for a jog back to the car, if you want to join us.”
Derek shook his head. “We can make better time across the roofs.”
Giving a wave, the vampires moved at twice the speed they had running with the kasha following the trail and leaped onto the next building effortlessly.
“They seem very... normal,” Lamassu said slowly.
“I am glad that we didn’t waste time fighting spirits that are doing good,” Shedu replied with a nod to the girl.
Sniffing disdainfully, Alad replied, “They seem alright, but I still don’t trust them.”
Lam smiled and said spreading her hands in a gesture that inferred it was alright, “I doubt they trust you either, Alad. I mean we don’t. Why should they?”
Groaning at the girl in annoyance, the tiger man ignored her. “So we walk back to the car now?”
Shedu nodded. “There isn’t much darkness left. We will return this evening and try to follow his trail.”
“I think I heard that there might be rain today,” Lam stated as the three chose to take the stairs down from the seven story building. The leap was doable for the kasha, but it would still hurt; so Shedu chose to use the rooftop entry and the stairs beyond the door.
“Then we will be back to looking for the reapers again, but starting in this direction,” their leader replied not willing to give up the secret of their race for the sake of a trail.
The scream that woke Lena where she lay on Geni’s floor with her pillow nearly woke the whole floor. It was early and the drapes blocked out most of the light of the morning sun. Moving quickly to her friend’s side shushing her gently and repeating in a hushed tone, “It’s alright, Geni, you’re safe.” She slowly managed to get the shaking girl to breathe slower, but her shaking wouldn’t go away as quickly.
“What was that thing?!” the girl cried with tears streaming down her cheeks. Lena could tell that she was seeing the dark horror of the vampire, and wasn’t sure how she could ease her friend’s mind. To lie to her was the logical guess, but she hated to do it.
“It was just a bad dream. You were just having a bad dream. You drank a lot and have exams coming, so I’m sure whatever it was probably is a metaphor for the stress you’re under. I know I am still stressed,” Lena said trying to figure out what to say. Thinking about how she wanted to become an actress, the girl realized that she could treat it like an improv class.
Geni’s green eyes looked at her friend and shook her head looking dead serious. Those eyes were haunted by what she had seen. “It wasn’t a dream,” she affirmed as Geni’s hand touched her bandaged neck. “I can see your bandage too, Lena.”
“No, when we passed that gap between the buildings and I threw up, I must have woken up a dog. I think it was a pitbull. He tore my neck pretty good. That’ll teach me to go out drinking on a fake ID.”
Shaking her head vehemently until the pain from her wound made the girl stop, Geni stated, “I wasn’t as drunk as you. I saw him. He dropped from above me, so I turned to look when I heard the thump of his boots. His eyes were black and he smelled like dirt and blood.”
The girl shook her body in repulsion as she seemed to smell the reaper again. Her shoulder wound hurt her with the motion forcing her to stop and she pointed to Lena. “You know what it was. It had to be a vampire!”
Looking at her friend like she was crazy, the dark haired actress tried her best to make Geni believe her words, “That’s impossible! Vampires don’t really exist. They’re just in movies.”
“Everything has a starting place, even fantasy and horror movies. What if peoples’ dreams and nightmares are real? I know what I saw and he should have been impossible. Those black eyes froze me. I couldn’t move and he bit me!” Her hand went to the bandage again as her memory reinforced what was under the wrap. “You know what I’ll find under here? Fang bites. He sucked on me and I felt my life draining away, but I couldn’t move or fight back.”
Lena started to get up shaking her head. “That’s not what I saw.”
“There was a flash of light and fire. I couldn’t move, but I saw you bleeding and you made me drink your blood.”
“I got blood on you when I went to check on you before I passed out. If Logan didn’t live so close, we might have both bled to death. I managed to call Nick before I passed out and he sent Logan, since he used to be a doctor. Actually I guess he still is a doctor, since he got a new job at a clinic. You know we should go down there sometime to see him,” Lena said trying to draw the girl off topic.
Geni stood up and rested her hands on her friend’s shoulders. “Lena, I am telling you that I wasn’t that drunk. I know what I saw.”
Surprising her friend, she ripped the bandage off of Lena in a quick move that surprised even the voran. The girl had been subtle, but the pain as the tape ripped free of her skin was much less so.
“Ow! What are you doing?”
It was Geni’s turn to be surprised. The wound looked nearly healed. “What? That’s impossible, unless...” the blonde haired girl’s mind was quickly moving along with her scenario. “Oh my god, you couldn’t heal that fast unless you were turned into a vampire!”
“Gah, come on!” Lena complained and walked over to the drapes yanking them open. Sunlight streamed inside making her squint with the quick change of lighting and the brunette mimed sunning herself and fanning the rays to her. “If I were a vampire, could I stand in the sunlight? No!
“So come on, it was just a bad dream, Geni.”
Looking less convinced, Geni w
alked into the bathroom ripping off her bandage. Teeth marks including the deep bites of the reaper’s fangs were noticeable in the mirror. They weren’t as healed looking as Lena’s, but they looked less fresh than would have been believed for the several hours between the attack and now.
“Lena, there is no way that this was made by a dog.”
Spreading her hands, the dark haired girl suggested, “Well, we’re obviously not vampires, so why don’t we go over to Nick’s? He and Logan picked us up and bandaged us, so he’d know as much as anyone.
“If we take our books for the exams, maybe we can even con Charlotte into helping us study instead of driving each other nuts with our different classes. Maybe even Sami will be up to it if her anemia isn’t making her too tired. That girl is pretty smart for a fifteen year old.”
Geni smiled and said, “Maybe we’re just dumb for twenty year olds?”
They both laughed until their heads hurt. Hangovers were already beginning to manifest; which disappointed Lena, since she had thought a transfusion of Nick’s blood would have canceled the previous night’s drinking. Since the blonde was willing to go to Nick’s instead of driving Lena nuts trying to lie to her about it, the brunette said, “Well, dress in something studious and let’s head over there. Maybe it will seem less like studying if we do it there instead of in the dorms.”
Hurrying to her room to change, and glad that she had showered the night before, Lena drew out her cell phone from her shorts to quick warn Nick that they were coming and of Geni’s certainty that they had been attacked by a vampire.
He could hear arguing before the girls pushed the unlocked door open. Lena waved at Nick looking harried to say the least. “Hey, Nick.”
Geni was worked up and said to her friend’s back, “I keep telling you that it wasn’t a pitbull or some other dog that attacked us. I saw him.”
Standing Before Monsters (Vorans and Vampires) Page 34