by Nicole Rae
CHAPTER 17 Lakeview was dark with little to no activity, anywhere in site. There really wasn’t anything out of the ordinary going on, except that in the past, there still would have been kids out playing under the street lights in the warm summer air. Now, there was no sound of children playing. There was no smell of a late night barbeque blazing. There was only the dull hum of the street light bulbs as they passed them. Off in the distance Emily could faintly hear the sound of sporadic cars driving to their destinations. It really wasn’t that late. If nothing else, there should have been more traffic. There should have been people driving home from work doing last minute errands, or teenagers driving to the next party spot honking the whole time to signal more party goers to the direction of the fun.
As the three of them passed the vacant looking residential streets, Emily scanned the houses for signs of life. It seemed necessary to prove that herhometown wasn’t turning into the town of the dreaded sundown. Through tightly pulled curtains she could make out the faint hint of light peeking through the cracks. There were no sounds, nothing indicating anyone was home at all. No blaring TV’s or stereos as they passed. It just didn’t feel right.
Emily’s stomach cramped with a mild pulse , making her more alert. In turn, her heart rate began to race. That couldn’t be a good sign. The pain in her midsection seemed to be a built in alarm system that let her know her life was about to be in jeopardy. Every time she felt it, she had been attacked by a vampire not long after.
They heard a noise coming out of an alley and Sebastian was the first to take a careful look around the corner. He turned his head back to them with a manly nod. Emily saw that Tyler nodded back, though she had no idea what the exchange meant. Just in case, she gripped the silver shaker in her pocket. Tyler moved around her and motioned for her to stay put. He moved so stealthily Emily didn’t hear his feet or even his clothing make a sound. Sebastian moved out of his way equally as quiet so Tyler could have a look.
Tyler spun back quickly and leaned on the fence they were hiding by. He tipped his head back on the boards. His expression was more than a little wary. Emily had wanted to take a look for herself. Judging by Tyler’s reaction,she wasn’t so sure she wanted to know what was going on in that alley. She gulped, bit her lip and started for the edge of the fence.
Sebastian snatched a hold of her arm and yanked her to him. Her small body banged into his hard one with a jolt. She could feel the lines of his peck muscles flexed hard to take the blunt of the impact. The feel of his well-defined body made her dizzy. It only took a second to recover and then she was furious.
Emily glowered up at Sebastian. She couldn’t see into his eyes,but she knew he could see into hers. “What? I just wanted to see what“
Sebastian put a large hand over her mouth. She had a sudden memory of the first night they met, which was also in a dark alley.
“Do you want him to hear you?” Sebastian hissed the words into her ear. “Tyler I’m going to take care of this clown, stay here and watch Emily.”
Tyler nodded nervously with one hand on the butt of his knife. His body seemed to tremble with the anticipation of what was about to happen. He was scared, that much was obvious.
Emily started to protest and Sebastian put his hand back over her mouth. He shook his head fiercely, silently warning her to be a good little girl and stay quiet. Sebastian took out his knife and peered back around the fence. Before Emily could blink, he was gone, melting into the shadows of the alley.
Emily held her breath waiting. She grabbed a hold of Tyler’s hand that was not gripping a knife and held it as tight as she could. She didn’t want him to leave her. He was her friend and that meant a lot to her.She didn’t let many people in.
The sound of a snarl ripping into the summer night air made Emily and Tyler jump. Tyler’s hand tightened on Emily’s for a second and then he let go, pushing her protectively behind him. The answering growl was evident to be a warningthat wasn’t just a threat. It wasa promise. Emily couldn’t tell who the aggressor was. Obviously it was a vampire, what else would it be? She just wished she could see something, anything.
A whimper broke through her concentration. Someone else was back there. For whatever reason, it had never occurred to Emily that the vampires might be using the alley as a feeding ground. The whimper came again, but this time its owner was clearer. The voice sounded like a child, a teenager at the very oldest. It was a girl. Emily could hear a set of feet scrambling to gain purchase on the gravel on the alley floor. Once they had traction they were headed towards Tyler and Emily. Emily’s mind flashed back to her experience in an alley similar to this one.
Pushing back the memory, she tugged at Tyler’s arm. “Ty someone's coming,” Emily whispered franticly.
Tyler tensed and Emily heard the sound of him removing a blade from its sheath. “Take this just in case.”
Emily felt the offering of the knife’s shaft on her fingers. Without thinking she grabbed a hold of it expertly as if she had been doing it for years. “Get ready,” she said, hearing the footsteps get closer. Whoever it was coming to meet them was running now.
Emily took a deep breath and held it, wishing she were invisible. Strangely though, she wasn’t as afraid as she should have been. Suddenly there was a figure bolting out of the alley and heading in their direction. The shadowed figure stopped and seemed to be taking in the observers. Itclearly wasn’t Sebastian. It was much too slight to be him. Emily took a small flashlight out of her jacket pocket and pointed it over Tyler’s shoulder at the stranger.
At the sight of the small, bright beam of light the figure recoiled back and almost fell on the rocks. Itdidn’t look like a vampire. Everything she had learned so far, taught her that vampires and apparently their hunters, could shroud themselves in total silence. Whoever this was seemed petrified at the sight of them. Emily had a feeling that a crazed vampire wouldn’t have even batted an eye lash at them, let alone be afraid. The person looked ruffled like they had been in a hurricane or something.
Without hesitation, Emily moved around Tyler and shown the light in her own face. Maybe the person thought she and Tyler were vampires. After being in the dark for so long the brightness was a shock. Emily had to blink a few times to adjust to the change.
“What are you doing?” Tyler tried to pull her back behind him, with no luck.
Emily knew she was right about this one. Every fiber of her being was telling her she needed to help this girl. She was the cause of the whimpering they had heard. Emily locked her feet in place and somehow steadied herself so thateven Tyler couldn’t budge her.
Emily looked down the mouth of the alley at the sound of violent fighting. Sebastian was in full on combat mode with one of the vampires. He was expertly dodging and weaving. Emily didn’t think he had his knife, had he lost it during the scuffle? He couldn’t kill the vampire without a blade and they were too close to each other for Sebastian to pull out his crossbow.
“Tyler go help Sebastian,” Emily demanded firmly like a drill sergeant. “I can take care of the girl,just go.”
A struggle seemed to be going on inside of Tyler. It was his will and desire to protect Emily verses the need and instinct to aid in the fight. After a moment he turned and took out his bow. This was apparently his compromise. This way he was able to stay close to Emily. If necessary, he was in a position where he hopefully could take out the vamp. Within seconds he had a silver tipped arrow trained on the two figures.
Emily left him to his business and moved to check on the other girl. As Emily got closer, the girl stepped back in preparation to run. Emily held a hand up in front of her urging her to stop. She didn’t know if the girl could see her. Emily tried to communicate with her eyes that she would be safe, at least she hoped that were true.
“It’s okay,” Emily pleaded. “We are the good guys I promise. Was there only one that attacked you?”
The other girl stopped moving. Even though she didn’t answer, the poor girlat least didn’t
seem to be on the verge of running away anymore.
Emily sighed with relief. No confirmation of more vampires was good enough for Emily, even if she hadn’t technically gotten an answer. “Okay that’s good. Are you hurt?” Emily tried to give her a once over with the flash light but couldn’t see much. That is until the beam of lightreached the girls neck. “Oh my Gosh! Are you okay?” Emily moved toward her in a rush.
Streaming down the girl’s throat and drenching her dark T- shirt,was a steady flow of blood. As if she hadn’t noticed, the other girls hand flew up to examine what Emily was talking about. “Oh God,” she breathed sounding totally panicked. “Oh God it hurts.”
It reminded Emily of a small child. The girl didn’t seem to notice the pain, until she noticed the wound. From the look of all the blood, she should have been in agony. The poor girl’s breath was coming in small heavy pants now. If she didn’t calm down, she was going to hyperventilate.
Emily tore off her coat and wrapped it in a ball. It wasn’t an ideal bandage, but it would have to do. She applied the coat to the girl’s neck and pressed as hard as she could, without knocking the poor thing over. She looked as though she was going into shock. The longer Emily was with her, the better her eyes seemed to adjust to the darkness. “I need you to come over by the fence. There are a few bushes you can hide behind until I come back for you. I have to help my friends okay?” She put her arm around the other girls shoulder to guide her to their hiding place.
“I want to go home,” the girl sobbed. “Please don’t leave me.” She dug into Emily’s arm so hard Emily could feel the sting of broken skin where her nails had dug in.
“I know you do,” Emily soothed. “We’ll get you home soon. I need you to just sit here for now okay?” Emily sat the other girl down so she was concealed behind the bushes. “I’m Emily by the way. Who are you?” Emily was whispering now since they were closer to the chaos.
“Beth,” the other girl said her voice wobbling.
“Hey, I know you,don’t I?” Recognition snapped into place within Emily. “Beth Thomas,right?”
Beth nodded weakly.
Emily went to high school with her. Beth was in one of Emily’s English classes. “Alright Beth, you stay here. I’ll be back for you as soon as I can,I promise.”
She didn’t give Beth a chance to protest again. She stood and hurriedly moved to the alley. Before she got very far, Emily was stopped short because a cold hand grabbed her around her neck. Emily gasped and tried to struggle free. It was no use. Whoever had a hold of her had a grip of steel. The more she struggled the tighter the hold on her throat became, as though she were stuck in a body sized Chinese finger trap. It was becoming harder and harder to take in a breath.
“Don’t move and I’ll loosen up,” a menacing voice breathed in her ear. His breath had a recognizable scent.
It was almost intoxicating to Emily’s senses. A dizzy feeling began to wash over her with a growing intensity that made her knees shake. Unlike before though, something clicked in her brain and the wooziness fell away as quick as it had come. “What do you want?” Emily struggled to speak against the force of his hand, clenched like a vise around her throat.
“Why leverage of course. Your friends are killing my friend. This angers me. I believe they will stop if they see what I have to barter with.” He sounded carefree like this was just another day in the life of a psycho. It probably was for a vampire.
“Let me go,” Emily pleaded. When he didn’t she tried to get a hold of the blade she had shoved into the waste of her jeans.
He got to it first and dropped it to the ground, just out of the reach of her foot. “You really didn’t think I’d let you get to that, did you?” The vampire made a tisk-tisk noise and shook his head at her disapprovingly. “Silly girl, silver blades are for hunters and you,I’m afraid are no hunter. You know nothing of this life. I wonder though… Do your chums realize what a true treasure you are to them? Well, I guesswe’ll soon find out won’t we?”
Emily wanted to scream to get Tyler and Sebastian’s attention. She could see them now. They were really letting the vampire have it. They were so engrossed in the fight they hadn’t even noticed that Emily was now captured not more than ten feet away from them. Just as Tyler raised his blade to the vamps throat,Emily’s captor spoke.
“Oh boys, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” There was a taunting edge to his voice. “I believe I have something you might want to trade for my friend.
Tyler froze and looked up, saying nothing.
It was Sebastian who responded. Andre let the girl go, or your leech friend here dies.”
Andre? It was the vampire creep from the computer lab. Emily was gripped with fear now. Both of the vamps that she had encountered besides him were terrifying. There was just something different about Andre. The look of fury and what she now assumed to be hunger, flashed in her memory like an unshakeable nightmare. As if sensing her realization, the hand around her neck clenched even harder and she choked for air.
“I really don’t think you are in any position to bargain young Sebastian. All I have to do is tighten my hand a little more and her sweet little neck will be snapped like a twig. You kill him and she dies before you have time to blink.” Andre ran his nose along Emily’s jaw line lovingly, breathing in deeply as he did. “That would be a shame too. It’s positively sinful how decadent she smells.”
Emily winced at the thought of his teeth breaking the skin at the hollow of her throat. “Sebastian kill him. Don’t worry about me.” Her words came out in a hoarse whisper from Andre’s pressure but Sebastian still seemed to understand.
Tyler’s blade was still trained on the fallen vampire’s throat. It wouldn’t take much for him to finish the job. Emily’s eyes darted back and forth from Tyler to Sebastian and finally to the practically dead thing on the ground. She had to do something. What could she do? There was no way that she could over power Andre. At most, all she could have hoped for was that he did snap her neck. At least if he did, there wouldn’t be any lingering pain.
The three of them were still exchanging words, but Emily blocked them out. They became almost like a blur of sound, like a distant hum. Their voices swam together like nonsensical gibberish. Every passing second brought her closer to the devastating realization that her life was about to end before the night was up. There were so many things she still hadn’t done. She had never told Lucy what was going on with the vampires. She had never had a real boyfriend. Would George cut her a break if she didn’t show up to work because Andre cut out her throat? Who would take care of Sam? Andre’s voice was the hardest to block out because he insisted on keeping his lips near the corner of her jaw when he spoke. His words although broken, kept penetrating the walls she had put up in her mind. One of her mother’s famous mantras pierced her thoughts like a warm blanket. Quitters never win...
Suddenly the solution was there. The silver powder. If she could just get the lid off without Andre noticing. Her hand moved almost in perceptively into her pocket. Andre was so engaged in the duel with the other two he didn’t seem to think twice about her movements. She made a purposeful point to continue to struggle a little. If he thought she was trying to break free, he might not think that she was trying anything
underhanded. He clearly underestimated her.
The lid was off the plastic container. She was almost there, just a little more. She wasn’t really sure how to use the powder but she dug her fingers inside trying to get a hold of some. Remembering what Sebastian had said about the powder needing to be activated she tried to figure out a way to throw the powder somehow.
“Struggling will do you no good my dear girl,” Andre whispered almost seductively into her ear breaking her concentration for a moment. He still hadn’t noticed what she was doing. Or if he did he was waiting for the last possible minute to catch her in the act. Then he would kill her for sure.
Emily couldn’t think about that. She had to try. What other choice was there?
Besides, her life depended on it. Either way he could kill her, she didn’t have anything to lose. She hoped anyway, dying really didn’t seem like an appealing option.
When her hand came out of her pocket it was fisted around a mound of the silver powder. Almost there. Through her struggling she managed to cock her head to the side so she would have a clear shot at Andre’s face. Her eyes remained in front of her. She could tell that Tyler could see what she was doing. He was trying not to give her away with long glances but she knew that he knew.
Time was running out, she couldn’t afford to wait any longer. Soon, Andre would resort to inflicting pain on Emily to get his point across. Right now he was just a cobra preparing to strike. Once he was in full action mode, it would be harder to fight back. With one small but quick motion she thrust her arm upward releasing the powder into Andre’s face at point blank range.
CHAPTER 18 Andre howled as the silver crystals took effect, eating into his flesh. It burned him instantly on contact. Each flake burst into a small pocket of flame that tore into his skin, melting like acid. Andre lost his grip on Emily’s neck.
As she watched, he clawed at his face trying to put out the burn and scrape off the powder. It was no use, the powder wasn’t powder anymore. For a second Emily couldn’t move. The sight in front of her paralyzed her where she stood. A part of her, a very small part wanted to help him. She battled with herself as she watched the vampire’s agony. Then she remembered he wasn’t on her team. Just moments before, he had threatened to drain her like a bottle of Propel on a hot day. With that in mind, she raced across to where Sebastian and Tyler still held the other vampire.