Blayke

by Dawn Sullivan

  “Chandler,” I protested, glancing back toward the windows longingly, “we need to try something else. We will die in there.”

  “Come on, Blayke,” she whispered urgently. “Get in here!”

  Reluctantly I slipped inside, jumping when she shut the door behind us. It was so dark, and I shuddered when I brushed against the cold, concrete wall. “Chandler,” I tried again, “we have to get out of the house.”

  “What do you think I’m trying to do?” she snapped, crouching down beside me. I blinked as my eyes grew more accustomed to the darkness, and was surprised at how well I could see her. It was just the outline of her shape against the floor, but I shouldn’t have even been able to see that in the pitch blackness of the room.

  Realizing I was still clutching the backpack tightly to my chest, I quickly slipped it over my shoulders as I watched Chandler peel the rug on the floor back. “No way,” I breathed when I saw the trap door beneath it. How had my family kept all of this from me over the years?

  Feeling along the outside of it, Chandler grasped the edge of the door and pried it open. “Hurry,” she whispered, “climb down.”

  I hesitated before kneeling beside her and sliding my legs slowly into the emptiness below. “I…

  “Grab hold of the ladder here,” she said, tapping one side of the floor. Looking down, I was surprised to see the very top pegs of a metal ladder. “You’ve got to hurry, Blayke,” Chandler hissed urgently, glancing back over her shoulder when a loud, inhuman screech floated into the basement.

  I swallowed hard, fear pushing me down the ladder, even though I wanted nothing more than to be the slayer they thought I was and run back up to the kitchen to save my parents. I couldn’t do it, though. I was afraid if I tried, we would all die. I didn’t know the first thing about being a hunter. I had never been in a fight in my life. I didn’t even really know how to throw a punch, much less take on a vampire.

  When I reached the bottom rung, I felt around tentatively below, letting out a sigh of relief when both of my feet were finally firmly on the ground. I waited for Chandler to drop down next to me, but it didn’t happen.

  “There’s a flashlight hooked to the wall right by the ladder. See it?”

  It took me several precious moments, but finally I had it in my hands. “Got it!”

  There was a click, and then I blinked rapidly when I was temporarily blinded by light before I directed it up toward my sister. “Run, Blayke,” she said, “as fast as you can, and don’t look back. There’s a key hanging right by where you found the flashlight. Get it, and then take this tunnel until it spits you out by the back pasture. The gate is locked, but that key will open it. I want you to run as far and as fast as you can. Don’t look back.”

  “No, Chandler,” I protested, shaking my head violently. “Mom said you are supposed to come with me.”

  “I can’t,” she said shortly. “I need to help them.”

  “Chandler!”

  “Go, Blayke. I will find you. I promise!”

  Chandler closed the door, ignoring my pleas. I scrambled back up the ladder as quickly as I could, but when I tried to open the trapdoor, it wouldn’t budge. “No!” I screamed loudly. “Chandler, no!” Why was this happening to me? Why?

  With no other choice, I slipped back down the ladder, and shone the flashlight around me. The walls were made of dirt, and it was cold and damp. There was only one direction I could go, so after retrieving the key from the wall, I grasped the flashlight tightly in my hand and began to run down the long dirt tunnel. Fear filled me at the thought of it caving in and burying me alive, which just made me run faster. It took me a while, but I finally made it to the gate that my sister told me about. Slipping the key in the lock, I turned it and shoved at the gate, wincing when it creaked open loudly. I shivered in the chill of the night air, looking around wildly for any of the monsters that I saw just a few minutes ago at my house. Not seeing or sensing anything, I stepped cautiously out onto the damp grass and let the gate shut behind me.

  Suddenly, there was a loud noise that sounded like a bomb going off. I turned back to look toward where my house should have towered over the trees around it, just in time to see boards and debris go flying, and flames streaking toward the sky. My breath came out in huge gasps, my chest heaving as I realized what had happened. It was gone. My house was gone.

  “What do we have here?” I heard a voice sneer softly, causing sheer terror to race through me. I turned slowly, still trying to grasp the fact that the home I had lived in most of my life had just been blown to pieces, knowing that my night was about to get a whole lot worse. The thing in front of me smiled, showing large, pearly white fangs. “My very own huntress,” he drawled, slowly making his way to me. “Everyone is gone, little girl. My friends, your family, they are all gone. There’s just us now.” He chuckled, a deep laugh that quickly turned into determined anger as he growled lowly, “And soon there will just be me.”

  I tried to jump back when he reached out and grabbed a fist full of my hair, but he was too strong. He opened his mouth wide and began to lower his head. Knowing I wasn’t going to make it if I didn’t do something quickly, I brought my knee up, shoving it into his gut as I raked my nails across his face. He dropped me in surprise, giving me enough time to swing around with my heavy flashlight and slam it into the side of his head. Not waiting to see if it had any effect on the vampire, I pushed away from him and sprinted across the open pasture and into the trees beyond.

  I ran as fast as I could, fighting the urge to scream when I was consumed with thoughts of the dark red eyes from the thing that was chasing me. I knew what it was. I knew it would not stop until one of us was dead. The only thing that I did not know, was how to kill it. My family didn’t have the chance to tell me everything before we were attacked. Where were they now? Where was Chandler? Had they made it, or…?

  Shoving that thought out of my mind, I pushed through some trees, crying out when a branch hit me in the face. Another scraped along my thigh, tearing a hole through my jeans and causing a sharp sting of pain. Please, I thought wildly, not bothering to take the time to stop and look at it, please don’t let it bleed. I was afraid that would only attract more of them, because one thing I did know was that they thrived on blood.

  I ran several more yards before I finally stopped, unable to go any further. Bending over at the waist, I tried to steady my ragged breathing as I wrapped my arms tightly around my aching sides. I winced at the burning sensation in the back of my neck. It had dispelled briefly while I was running through the tunnel, but was back full force now.

  Suddenly, I froze, slowly raising my head and looking around. He was close, very close. I could feel him, and I was getting brief glimpses of his thoughts. It was all a game to him. One he knew he would win. And when he did, he could not wait to drain my body of its blood.

  Tears blurred my vision as I started moving again. I did not want this. Not any of it. I would give anything to be home, in my bed, safe and dreaming of happy things. Instead, I was running for my life, trying to escape the demon following me. I still did not understand how they were able to find me, but I knew it had something to do with who I was…what I was. Which was all still a mystery to me for the most part as well.

  Catching my foot on a tree limb, I cried out as I stumbled, falling to the ground. No! Moaning softly, I pushed myself to my knees and then my feet, grabbing hold of the tree next to me as pain shot up through my ankle. Hearing a deep chuckle, I swung around, barely catching myself on the tree before I collapsed to the ground again. My breath hitched and I swallowed hard as my eyes met the calculating red gaze of the vampire’s standing just five feet from me.

  “Did you really think you could get away from me, little girl?”

  I could almost reach out and touch him. An evil stench poured off him, making bile rise up in my throat. Then anger filled me, a rage like I had never felt before. He had taken everyone and everything I cared about from me. At that moment I h
ated him, like I had never hated another person. I wanted him gone, dead like I was afraid my family was. The ring on my finger began to warm, and then pulse. A soft glow illuminated from it, and the demon’s gaze wandered from my face down to where it shone. Slowly, instinctively, I lifted my hand, palm out, as I said, “Tell me something.”

  “What?” he asked absently, his eyes narrowing slightly, but never leaving my fingers.

  “Are you really a vampire?”

  His eyebrows shot up as he looked back to me and sneered, “Like you don’t know, hunter.”

  “True,” I agreed, hating him even more. “It wasn’t hard to figure out.” Closing my hand into a fist, I pointed the dark, glowing sapphire at him and watched in shock when a bright blue light shot out connecting with the demon’s heart. The vampire screamed as the light burned a hole through his chest, before it disintegrated the monster into ashes. I stared in horror at what was left of the vampire. So that was what the note meant by the ring protecting me.

  I started to shake as I stared at where the demon had stood just moments before. I had done that. I had killed something. Me, Blayke Wynters, the girl who had cried for days after her dog passed away. How could I have murdered someone? A part of me knew that if I hadn’t, I would be the one who was dead right now, but it did not change the fact that I killed someone…or something.

  I stood there trying to catch my breath, trying to understand everything that was happening to me. Leaning back against the tree, I rested my head on it as I started to realize that I was having an issue holding myself up. It was as if all of the energy was slowly draining out of my body, and I was useless to fight it. Slowly, I slid down to the ground, slumping against the tree. My eyes drifted shut, and I lost consciousness.

  It was so cold. I shivered uncontrollably, moaning in confusion as I reached down for my covers. Why was I freezing? And where was my dark purple, fuzzy blanket? The one I always snuggled close at night? Slowly it began to register that I was not at home in my room, awakening in my comfortable queen-sized bed, with my head resting on my feather pillow.

  Cautiously, I opened my eyes slightly, barely peeking out through narrowed slits. A soft gasp escaped when I found myself looking at mud, caked with a layer of leaves, right in front of my face. My heart began to pound as I bit my lip nervously. Where was I? Slowly, I pushed myself up on shaky arms into a sitting position, groaning when my body protested in pain. I ached all over, apparently from spending the night passed out on the cold, mud-packed ground beneath me.

  Glancing around in bewilderment, I noticed my backpack sitting next to a tree near me, and just a few feet away was what looked like a pile of black ashes. “Oh, my God,” I whispered, jumping to my feet, wincing at the slight twinge of pain in my ankle, before backing slowly away from the stark reminder of what had taken place the night before. “It was only a dream,” I murmured, trying to convince myself it was true. “A nightmare. Nothing more.” But the longer I stared at the evidence right in front of me, the clearer the horror of the night before became. It had happened. Demons, vampires, witches…they were all real. And I was now a part of their crazy world. A huntress, slayer of those regarded as demons.

  I looked around wildly, unsure of what I should do. The sun was just coming up over the horizon, which meant it was early morning. If what I had been told was true, I would be safe until nightfall. Taking a deep breath, I picked up my bag and slung it over my shoulder. There was really only one thing for me to do right now. I had no choice. I needed to find out if my family was alive.

  “You’ve got this, Blayke,” I muttered as I began to trudge back to where my home was supposed to be. I knew it was gone, blown up somehow the night before. What I didn’t understand, was how it had happened. Were my parents in it at the time? Was Chandler? Would I ever see them again? Grasping the strap of my bag tightly, I picked up my pace, ignoring the ache in my ankle, knowing the only way I would ever get the answers to my questions was if I made it home. “Please let them be alive. Please.”

  The sound of crackling wood reached me before I made it back to the house, or what was left of it. I stopped in shock to stare at what had once been my home. The top story was completely gone, and the rest was still in flames. There was nothing left of the things I had grown up with, things that I loved. I knew they were only material possessions, but they all meant something to me. And now, they were gone.

  Dragging my gaze from the destruction in front of me, I made my way around to the side of the house, and stopped in my tracks. My father knelt on the ground not far from me, beside my mother’s body. Chandler was standing just behind him, her hands covering her face. My breath caught in my throat as I took a step toward them, and then another and another, before dropping down beside her. She was so still. There was no movement at all, no signs of life. “Mom,” I whispered, reaching out to touch her arm lightly. When there was no response, I began to shake, a sob tearing from my throat. “Mom!” I cried, as I touched her cheek with trembling fingers. “Mom, wake up!”

  Chandler came over and knelt beside me, wrapping an arm around my waist. She tried to pull me away from our mother, but I wouldn’t let her. “Blayke,” she whispered, her face wet with tears as she held me close, “it’s going to be okay.”

  “Is she?” I couldn’t bring myself to finish the question. My mother could not be dead. She just couldn’t be. I needed her.

  “She didn’t make it.” My sister’s voice seemed so far away.

  Tears of pain and despair slid down my face, and I held in silent screams as I looked blindly at the only mother I had ever known. “No, Mom! Please! This can’t be happening!”

  “Blayke.” Chandler whispered my name again, tightening her hold around my waist.

  I heard her voice, but I couldn’t tear my gaze from the woman who had raised me. “This is all my fault.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  “It is,” I insisted. “She’s gone because of me. Because of what I am…who I am.”

  “No,” my dad interrupted forcibly, raising his head to look at me. “None of this is your fault, Blayke Wynters. Do you understand me? You can’t help the life you were born into, anymore than Chandler or I can. If anyone is to blame for your mother’s death, it’s me.” Shaking his head, he raked a hand through his hair before looking back down at Mom’s still body. “Humans don’t belong in our world. They can’t defend themselves against evil. Not like we can. I knew this, but I was selfish. I fell in love with Amelia, and refused to give her up. I told myself that she was aware of the risks, but I knew better.”

  I watched as Dad gently brushed Mom’s hair back from her forehead, before leaning down to kiss it softly. Sighing deeply, he gathered her body in his arms and stood, his eyes on us. “We need to leave before the authorities get here. There is no way that we will be able to explain all of this.”

  “But, what about Mom?” We couldn’t just leave her here.

  “Your mother is gone to us now, Blayke,” he whispered.

  “But, we have to bury her. She needs a funeral.”

  Tears formed in my father’s eyes, slipping out and falling down his cheeks. “Yes, she does, and that is one last thing that we can do for her. She will be buried in the way of our people once we reach Angel’s Pass.”

  I didn’t know what that meant, but all that really mattered was that we weren’t going to leave her behind. Wiping the tears from my face, I pulled away from my sister and struggled to my feet. Reaching out, I touched my mom’s arm one last time before letting my hand fall to my side.

  “Now what?” I could hear the pain in Chandler’s voice, and knew she was suffering as much as I was, even if she tried not to show it. As the older sister, Chandler always thought she had to be the strong one. This time was no different, even if her heart was breaking too.

  “We need to get out of here,” Dad said, turning away from us. “Blayke, you ride with Chandler. Follow me. We will take back roads to the interstate so that we won’t pass
anyone who may be on their way to town. I was able to use magic to mask our farm throughout the night, but it’s fading, and I don’t have enough power left to bring a shield back up.”

  Chandler and I followed Dad to the vehicles parked near the barn, and I stood quietly as my sister opened the back door of his car. After laying Mom down on the seat, he ran a hand gently down her hair before covering her with a blanket Chandler retrieved from the trunk. It didn’t feel right to leave him alone, but I knew by his tone of voice that he wasn’t going to listen to either of us right now.

  Shutting the door, Dad glanced back at the house. “Hopefully, everyone will think we are out of town when they don’t find any bodies in what’s left after the fire begins to die down.”

  I flinched at the word die, my chin trembling as I looked out over the pasture, away from what was left of our home. “And when we don’t come back?” I asked quietly, exhaustion seeping deep into my bones as I tried to process everything.

  “There will be rumors and speculation, but with no bodies, it will fade away and we will eventually all be forgotten.”

  “That’s it, then?”

  “It has to be,” Dad responded roughly. “As much as I want to stick around and wait to see if the vampire who killed Amelia returns, the chances of him being alone when he does are slim to none. I could lose the two of you as well, and I won’t chance that.”

  “What happened to the others?” I questioned, already sure that I knew the answer.

  “We killed them,” Chandler said, placing a hand on her hip, anger flooding her face. “Unfortunately, the one who murdered Mom managed to get away.”

  My eyes going first to Chandler, and then my dad, I shook my head. “No, he didn’t.”

  In the process of opening the front door to his car, Dad paused as he looked back at me, “What do you mean?”