Fated Heroes

by Brittany Cournoyer

  Kimberly and I stared at Nick as he let out a howl of triumph before turning back to the house. He didn’t even look back at us before he charged inside. I wasn’t sure if Kimberly and I should follow or not. We looked at each other, and on the darkened sidewalk our eyes mirrored the same feelings. Because at the moment both of us knew it didn’t need to be verbalized. We were too terrified to see what waited for us on the other side of that door.

  Chapter 3

  Against our better judgment Kimberly and I wordlessly, and at a much slower pace, followed our wolf friend through the broken door, bracing ourselves for what might be on the other side. Neither of us were sure what we’d see when we stepped over the threshold, but I definitely wasn’t ready for what my eyes landed on. It was like a nuclear bomb was detonated inside my living and dining rooms.

  The living room was destroyed. My furniture was flipped over with stuffing ripped from the cushions, my television was in a shattered heap on the floor. The wooden table it had sat on was a jumbled pile of splintered wood, and my electric fireplace was somehow ripped open with its wires exposed. Every single picture that I had hung was now either thrown on the floor, with the glass from their frames embedded in the carpet, or barely hanging on to the hooks in the wall. But it wasn’t the walls that had me gasping for air.

  No, what literally caused the air to be forced from my body, was the blood. Never in my life had I ever seen so much blood. Every exposed space on the walls was painted in the red bodily fluid. Whether it was from the vampires, Michael, Nick, or everyone, I wasn’t sure. However, with as much blood that covered the walls in the living room, I couldn’t help but question how anyone could still be alive. That was, until I looked in the kitchen and dining room.

  If I’d thought the living room was bad, it was nothing compared to the state of the other rooms. If a nuclear bomb was set off in my living room, then the mother of all bombs was dropped in there. Not only was my furniture caught in the destruction, but body parts let me know that there were many casualties. Arms, legs, heads, and lots and lots of blood had filled every square inch of the room. And surely that wasn’t pieces of intestine that I’d just stepped on?

  My heavy oak dining room table was flipped over on its top and someone, hopefully Mike, had used the legs to impale four of the vampires in place. I saw that pieces of their throats were also ripped out for good measure. The pizza that we had happily feasted on not even an hour before was thrown across the room, and pieces of cheese and pepperoni were stuck to my walls with drops of blood dripping onto my floor.

  The heavy wooden curio cabinet that I had pushed against a wall in my dining room caught my eye. I had used it to store my precious dolphin collection, but it now laid on its side as it pinned two more vampires to the floor. I sighed heavily as I saw that only one of my dolphin statues wasn’t a victim of the destruction, and I slowly bent down to pick it up.

  “Be careful, Court,” Kimberly warned me as I reached out for the figurine. “One of them might still be alive.”

  I didn’t care at that point. My house was a wreck and pretty much uninhabitable, and I wanted that fucking dolphin. Even though I hadn’t checked the other rooms, just from the blood trail from the living room that led down the hall, I knew I’d find more body parts and blood spatter. There was no way I could stay there at all during the foreseeable future. And at that point, when it got cleaned up, I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to.

  I breathed a sigh of relief when I was able to pick up the small figurine and stood back up as I clutched it to my chest. It might seem silly that I was that emotional over a dolphin figurine, but it was pretty much the only thing I had that wasn’t destroyed. Plus, it was also a gift from my father. I needed it with me to help maintain the sense of control I felt I had lost. The minute those vampires targeted my house, I knew that my life would be forever changed.

  If I’d thought the dining room was bad, the kitchen was giving it a run for its money. It was completely FUBARED. Meaning, completely fucked up beyond all recognition. Bloody silverware littered the floor, cabinet doors hung off hinges, and my refrigerator was tipped on its side. It looked like it was a breath away from crashing to the floor any second, and its contents were spilling out of the open door.

  “I don’t even want to know the details of how all of this happened,” Kimberly said in shock.

  I could only nod in agreement. “Where are Mike and Nick?” I belatedly asked after Kimberly and I finished looking around.

  We made our way through the minefield of wreckage and body parts, and went to check out the rest of the house. It was exactly as I had suspected. Body parts and blood were breadcrumbs to more bodies and battle scenes. Thankfully, my house was pretty fucking small, even though it had three bedrooms, and we were able to locate our two best friends in my bedroom.

  Nick sat there on my bed, shifted back to his human form, clutching a sheet to his body. His clothes must have ripped off when he shifted into a wolf. His arms and the other exposed areas I could see were covered in scratches and bite marks. He looked stunned at what had happened, but thankfully he was okay. Mostly, his face showed deep concern for our friend.

  Mike was laying in the middle of my bed on top of a blood-soaked comforter. He was still in his wolf form and his, I guess someone would call it a snout, was rested on my pillow. His beautiful gray fur was now a deep shade of red from the blood that oozed from open wounds. Chunks of fur had been ripped from his body and in their place were bite marks from the blood suckers’ fangs. Four deep gashes, that I could only assume were claw marks, ran down the length of his back, and it looked like a hunk of his back was missing. His eyes were closed and I knew in my gut that he wasn’t just resting. No, he was passed the hell out. Whether it was because of pain, blood loss, or an adrenaline crash, I wasn’t sure. But the rise and fall of his chest helped me breathe easier. It let me know that he was still alive. Barely, but at least he was still with us.

  “What the fuck happened?” I finally asked after I finished looking Mike over.

  I winced at how harsh and accusatory I sounded, but I was in shock as I tried to let everything that had happened finally sink in. My friends and I had been fucking attacked by goddamned vampires, and two people I loved and trusted, with my life, apparently, had turned into wolves in front of my very eyes. I was surprised that I was even still upright at the moment and hadn’t passed out from everything that’d happened.

  “I-I don’t know,” Nick stammered. He sounded exhausted and weak. “I found Mike in the second spare bedroom fighting off the last few vampires and I jumped in to help. They had him pinned to the floor, tearing into him, and I was able to attack them from behind. After I killed them, I helped bring him in here so he could lay on your bed and rest. I wasn’t able to see how bad his injuries were until he laid down. I think he passed out from the pain.”

  “What about you? Are you ok?” Kimberly asked Nick.

  I walked over to my closet and found a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt for him to wear. Luckily, I had worked at a high school for a while and had a few unisex t-shirts that I mostly wore for sleeping in.

  “These will be too big on you,” I told him as I handed him the clothes. Nick was obviously a force to be reckoned with while in wolf form, but in human form I unfortunately towered over him in height and outweighed him as well. “But at least they’ll keep you covered until we can get you something else.”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Just some scratches and bites,” he answered Kimberly as he took the clothes from me. “Thank you.”

  “What the hell was that? How can you change into a wolf?” I asked him.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never done that before,” he answered with a mixture of confusion and disbelief.

  “Why don’t you go into the bathroom and clean some of the blood off?” I suggested to him.

  “Um, because there are some dead bodies in there that I don’t want to step on.” Nick shrugged as he pulled the t-shirt and pants on.
>
  “We need to get Michael some help. Should we call a vet?” Kimberly suggested helplessly.

  We all stared at each other completely clueless. We had never been in this situation before. Did we call the police and report the vampires? Did we take our human slash wolf friend to a vet to get his wounds looked at and try to stumble around some weird explanation after questions were asked? What did we do? Clearly, none of us had an answer.

  “All I know is that we can’t stay here. Those vampires were probably just a small handful of what is out there, and we can’t wait around to see if more come this way. You heard vampsucker number one. He said they came because we were with their enemy. We need to get the hell out of here, and fast,” Nick told us in an authoritative tone.

  That was something all of us could agree on. I was sure Mike would have agreed with Nick if he wasn’t unconscious. Wordlessly I waded through the body parts and mess in the kitchen to hunt down a few trash bags. I wasted no time in shoving as many clothes and toiletries into the bags as I could. I found some boxes of food that luckily made it through the war in my kitchen and then headed to my garage. I popped the trunk of my car and shoved the bags inside before slamming the trunk shut. I refused to open my garage until we were in the safety of my car. Which, in hindsight, was a stupid notion to have, considering I had two busted doors and numerous broken windows. Anyone could have come inside my house at any time.

  “Kimberly, how about you grab an extra blanket from the hall closet that we can lay Mike on in the car. Nick, will you help me carry him to my car?”

  Kimberly abruptly went into the hall and grabbed the first blanket she could find while Nick and I made haste in picking up our injured friend. Even in his unconscious state, I could have sworn I heard him let out a small whimper of pain as we slipped our arms under him.

  “Hang in there, buddy, we’ll be finished soon,” I promised him as we slowly picked him up and carried him down the narrow hallway.

  It wasn’t easy at all as we tried to carry the wolf through my house. Blood was still seeping out of his wounds, and it made our arms and his fur extremely slippery. The distance from my bedroom to the garage wasn’t even that long, but with the weight of Mike, plus having to lock my arms to hold him up, I was physically exhausted by the time we put him in the car on the blanket. Nick and I were both breathing heavily, and my arms felt like limp noodles. I loved my friend, but, fuck, he was heavy.

  Once we were all fastened securely in my car, I finally felt safe enough to open the garage door and leave the house. I knew it would be my last time ever looking at it as I pulled away. Even if I was able to clean up the disaster inside, it wasn’t safe. The vampires now knew that whoever occupied that house was friendly with a shifter.

  I wasn’t even sure where we were going to go. I just backed down my driveway and started down the street. Instinctively, I knew that I needed to get as far away from my town as possible to keep me and the other occupants in the car safe, as well as give Mike time to rest up and heal. And when I looked in my rearview mirror, I knew we had made the right decision to flee. Because not long after braking at the stop sign, I saw more pale figures in dark clothing flock to my house. And even though we were far away, I just knew they would have blood-red eyes.

  That’s when it dawned on me why my house looked like the center of an explosion. Not only had Mike retaliated to help his friends, he was also sending the other vampires a message. And it had been received loud and clear. Now, just how were they going to respond?

  Chapter 4

  I couldn’t stop driving. Even though I had no idea where we were going, no destination in mind, I just couldn’t bring myself to stop the car. It didn’t matter that my back was screaming in agony over the fact that my spine was stiff with tension. I didn’t give a shit if my hands were cramped and starting to go numb over the vise-like grip I had on the steering wheel. None of that mattered. Not knowing if those freaks were behind us was what helped me keep my foot on the gas pedal. The uncertainty of whether my friend would make it through the night kept my focus on the dark road ahead of me. That was what mattered.

  “We’re going to need to pull over soon,” Nick finally stated reluctantly from the passenger seat.

  “I thought you fell asleep,” was my only reply. I completely disregarded that we needed to stop. That wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

  “I don’t think any of us are able to fall asleep,” he responded.

  I couldn’t say if his statement had merit or not. I was too focused on my unknown destination and Mike to pay any sort of attention to the other occupants of my car. The only sound in the car was Mike’s labored breathing and any noise from the outside that dared to breach the barriers of our metal confinement.

  “We really do need to stop soon,” Kimberly finally spoke up from behind me.

  I stole a glance at her from my rearview mirror and saw her fingers slowly running up and down Mike’s gray snout. Her eyes were focused solely on the wolf that lay on the seat beside her.

  “Why? Do you need to use the bathroom?” I asked.

  If she had said yes to that question it wouldn’t have surprised me. We had been driving for hours. We hadn’t stopped for food. We hadn’t taken any restroom breaks. And, as luck would have it, since I had filled up for gas just that morning, we hadn’t had to stop for gas. It was as if we’d come to a mutual, nonverbal agreement that we’d continue driving until one of us couldn’t take it anymore. So far I was the only one to do any driving, but it wasn’t as if Nick and Kimberly hadn’t tried their hardest to switch places with me.

  They’d asked. Every hour or so, one of them would volunteer to take a turn behind the wheel. And every single time, I would flat-out refuse. After everything that had happened, driving us to only God-knew-where felt like the only thing I could do to help. Mike saved our lives by slaughtering a dozen or so vampires and nearly sacrificed his own life in the process. Nick transformed into a wolf as well and not only killed the three vampires who were ready to feast on us, but then saved Mike’s life, too. Kimberly wordlessly sat in the back seat to help keep our friend calm and soothe him anytime he let out a whimper of pain. And me? Well, all I could do was drive after standing there like a fucking statue after my friends got violated and mangled. And I’d be damned if I fucked that up by whining over my back hurting.

  “We really need to find a place to stay for the night. Mike’s and Nick’s wounds really need to be cleaned up and I need to put some dressing on them to stop the bleeding. The bites and scratches are starting to slowly heal, but he’s still losing some blood. And yes, I really need to pee,” Kimberly said, once again the voice of reason.

  “She’s right. The next exit shows a store that’s open twenty-four hours. Maybe one of us could run in and buy some supplies and some other things we might need. I’m sure there has to be a hotel around here with some vacancies,” Nick suggested.

  After a quick inventory of the car, it was a no-brainer that Kimberly would be the one who had to run inside. My forearms and clothes were caked in dried blood, and even though he downplayed his injuries, Nick was in no condition to go in, either. Not only was he in clothes that were way too big, but he was covered in blood as well. The bite and claw marks were starting to heal like Kimberly had said, but were still very visible and a few seemed to be seeping with blood also. We weren’t thrilled about sending Kimberly in the store alone after what had happened, but we had no other choice.

  We pooled our money together, and after running over a quick list, I dropped Kimberly off in front of the store. Instead of finding a parking spot, I decided to circle the lot until she appeared in the brightly lit doorway. That was when an errant thought crossed my mind and I couldn’t help the snort of laughter that I let slip.

  “What’s so funny?” Nick asked me. He clearly could not find anything humorous about our current situation.

  “During everything that has happened, it has never come to anyone’s mind to use a fucking
cell phone to call for help,” I said as I let another laugh slip out.

  Nick stared at me in confusion for a second until it dawned on him exactly what I was saying. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  I shrugged my shoulders and tried to stifle a laugh. “So while we were running across the street to call for help, we could’ve just used our own cell phones.” I couldn’t stop myself from fully laughing at our stupidity, and I was relieved when Nick let loose a few chuckles of his own.

  “True, but then again, what would we have said? ‘Help, our best friend turned into a wolf and is being attacked by vampires’? Halloween isn’t for a few more months,” Nick pointed out.

  Before I could say anything else, I saw Kimberly walking hastily to the entrance. I quickly circled my car around and she jumped in the back seat with her purchases. Nick quickly filled her in on our discovery, and I laughed once again when she agreed with how idiotic we were. But she was also quick to point out—just as Nick had—that nobody would have believed us.

  It was another few minutes before we pulled into the parking lot of a cheap motel, and we sent Kimberly inside to secure us a room with two beds and a spare cot. Luckily, we had enough money left over to pay for a few nights. Even though it probably would have been safer to keep driving, we needed to rest and let Mike heal as much as he could before we crammed him in my car again. We didn’t even bother to ask about a pet policy. As far as we were concerned, Mike was a human and would be back into his form once he felt better. At least, that was what we all hoped.