by Nicole Rae
He tried to take on the role of a good host but Emily wasn’t buying. “You’ve got us here just get on with it. This doesn’t need to be a production. If you’re going to kill me just do it.” She stared at him defiantly. Of course,she didn’t have a death wish, but there was no point in any pretense of survival. This was where she was going to die. Andre was going to drain the life out of her. She didn’t see much point in delaying the inevitable.
The head vampire laughed again. “So feisty aren’t you? I don’t plan to kill you my dear girl. I owe you a life debt after all.”
“What are you talking about?” Emily asked.
He ignored her question and continued. “You see, this isn’t the first time I’ve visited this little town. I passed through about five years ago. My clan was heading a few states over to be with friends. We were only supposed to be here for a night but there were… unfortunate complications.” He moved to Emily’s side and brushed a hand on her cheek.
She tried to turn her head and couldn’t. The power still lingered around her body, not allowing her to move. “Don’t touch me!” Emily snapped. “What does any of this have to do with me?”
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Sebastian. He was watching her and Andre’s exchange with open fury. His eyes burned with it. The power that shackled Sebastian didn’t allow him to free himself, despite his vigorous attempts. Sweat dripped from his forehead, displaying the amount of strain he was exerting.
Andre removed his cold fingers from her cheek. He clasped his hands behind his back and began pacing. He weaved around all of the imprisoned slayers as though they weren’t even there. “It appeared that we were being tracked by a slayer. It was tragic what happened. I was going through a violent faze back then you see.” He stopped and faced her. “Cruelty isn’t usually in my nature.”
Sebastian snorted and rolled his eyes.
The narrow eyed glare Andre shot him was full of venom and barely contained hostility. When he turned his attention to Emily, the hardness had dissolved. “As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, I am not normally cruel. I just couldn’t allow her to go back to her people and tell them we were in the area. I made her suffer that night.” He stopped pacing and gazed at her, as though willing her to understand.
Emily glared back. “I still don’t see-“
He put a hand up silencing her. “Back then I had this theory. I thought it would be marvelous to utilizea slayer’s strength and abilities by turning them to my side. Obviously no slayer would willingly cross over so when I captured this particular slayer it was the perfect opportunity to test the theory. I still think it would have worked if it wasn’t for that blasted creature she was blood bonded to getting in the way.” He waved a hand dismissing the thought. “It is said that a slayer who is given the blood of my kind can’t take it.” He smiled at Emily. “I think if given the proper nurturing care, they could tolerate the change.” He sighed,regretfully. “No matter, he spoiled it.”
This was ridiculous. Was he planning to turn her? He said that he owed her a blood debt. Her mind raced as it tried to put it all together. Nothing made sense. He moved closer to her again breaking through her thoughts.
He bent so that he was about three inches from her face. He smiled wistfully at her for a moment before shattering the world as she knew it. “You know? You have her eyes exactly. The same beautiful shade of blue. You have the same bone structure too. The resemblance really is uncanny.”
Emily’s breath caught in her throat. “What… are… you… saying.” She put emphasis on each word, speaking slow and clear, as to not be misunderstood. Annoyance was rolling off Emily. The fear that had taken her over at the first sight of Andre was dissipating to make room for the irritation.
Andre put a finger to his lips considering. “Is it possible you didn’t know? That you still don’t know? Hmm…” Abruptly, he dropped his finger and peered at her. “Emily, do you know of whom I’m speaking?” He didn’t even give her a chance to respond. “Now I know you know her. Her name was Melissa.”
Emily’s heart fell to the floor. In a single instant, this monster had turned her world even more upside down than it already was. “No,” she whispered. Her mother couldn’t have been the one he tried to turn. Her mother was not a vampire slayer. She was a mom who liked to garage sale and bake cookies.
Andre wiped the tears from her face that she didn’t even know were there. “Did you even know she was a slayer?” He shook his head regretfully.“I’m amazed your father never told you.” He senta look at Sebastian. “Or that the other hunter slayers never did, especially that one. You my dear are an important part of the underworld now. If I were you, I would be demanding answers.” He attempted to show compassion. Genuine sensitivity wasn’t his actual goal. It was clear he was amusedby it all. “You’ve missed out on years of critical training. That’s a shame.”
Speaking wasn’t an option at that point. Emily swallowed hard, fighting back the heaving sobs that wanted to break through the surface. This could not be happening. She kept her eyes on the floor. Breathing deep she tried to push down the emotional flood that threatened to overtake her.
Andre didn’t speak anymore. Pleased with himself he went to a vacant chair and sat with his hands on his knees observing the unraveling of his dirty work in action. Satisfaction crossed his features and he smiled slightly as he watched her. It didn’t even seem to matter to him that he had totally shattered someone’s world.
The misery that had enveloped her was being quickly replaced by rage. Emily could feel it coursing through her veins making her blood run hot to boiling with every passing second. Her heart still hammered but no longer with fear. She wanted to fly out of the stupid chair and rip that abomination, that murderer to shreds.
Emily envisioned the window near Andre shattering, blowing shards of glass pouring over him. She pictured her invisible bindings crumbling to dust and falling to the floor. Most of all she pictured what it would feel like to kill Andre with her own bare hands. Normally, she couldn’t really imagine herself as a slayer. Right now, she wanted nothing more than to claim that heritage and use its power to take out Andre for good. The fact that she had been lied to her entire life wasn’t lost on her either,but she didn’t have time to think about that now. Revenge took precedence and she could almost taste the beauty of it. She wanted it. She wanted him.
There was an instantaneous shift of power in the room that was palpable. Andre felt it too. His eyebrows rose slightly in response but he showed no other visible reaction. Emily knew the change was hers. She could feel the pent up power flowing through her. She pushed it out as hard as she could, picturing what she wanted, harnessing her fury into a tangible weapon. Andre’s power that bound her to the chair dissolved. The window at the far side of the room near Andre crashed inward sending a spray of shattered glass raining down at the end of the room. The door to the den made a splintering sound and came off its hinges crashing against the opposite wall of books.
Without any further hesitation Emily reached for her knife and leapt off the chair at Andre. She had the element of surprise on her side. He never had a chance to move against her. Her force knocked the chair backwards to the floor. The two of them grappled both trying to gain the upper hand. Emily found an opening and buried her knife to the hilt into Andre’s shoulder. The wound wouldn’t kill him but it would hopefully slow him down at least. He clawed at her arm and the marks burned.
She didn’t cry out though. She refused to give him the satisfaction. She yanked the knife from his shoulder and struck again. She aimed for his heart, he moved just in time making the blade hit near the shoulder again. Blood poured from the wound profusely.
With a grunt he pushed her off of him and she scrambled to her feet before he could pin her. In the blink of an eye Andre was on his feet preparing to spring. He was losing a lot of blood. At the moment,that wasn’t a deterrent from his attack. He lunged for Emily but she dodged and spun around.
> This put her at his back. Using this to her advantage, she plunged the knife into his back close to where the heart should be. Andre fell to the floor. Emily breathed hard as she waited for his next move. The breath burned in her lungs, they felt as though they were on fire. It astonished her that she was doing as well as she was. The fatigue was beginning to weaken her, though she refused to quit. He wasn’t getting up this time one way or another.
Was he dead? As impressed as she was with her new found fighting skills she doubted she hit the heart. Reaching down, she pulled the knife out and hesitated. This was always the part in a scary movie where the supposed dead guy came back for one last attack. That wasn’t happening. Using what little strength she had left she hurled Andre’s body over so he was facing her.
His eyes were open and staring. He wasn’t dead though not yet. Thoughts of her mother lying helpless in her hospital bed flashed before her eyes and that was the only encouragement she needed.
She pressed the tip of the blade to his chest. She would have to get through the ribs and penetrate the heart. The blow to his back must have been close. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been so debilitated. As she broke the skin Andre spoke.
“This won’t bring her back,” Andre choked. His whole body shook with the effort to speak but his voice wasn’t much above a whisper.
It took everything Emily had not to bludgeon him to death. “Maybe not,but it will make me feel better.” She pushed the blade in another inch. André gasped and tried to swipe at the hilt. The effort was pointless. His strength had dwindled enough that Emily didn’t even budge her position. “Kill me if you must but my work is already in effect.” He coughed and a trickle of blood ran out of the corner of his mouth. “Lina and I have made a faction of soldiers to deal with this miserable little town. You won’t-” His words were cut off with another bout of coughing. He retched a fountain of blood that pooled around his head thick and viscous. It didn’t at all look human.
Emily swallowed back nausea at the sight of the blood. She reached up to tuck hair behind her ear that had escaped the pony tail earlier and left a wet track down her jaw. She hoped absently that it wasn’t blood. “Where is this Lina? What about the newborns?”
“They will come to you soon enough,” Andre sputtered. He attempted to sneer at her but it was just sickening with all the blood. If it was even possible, his face had gone even more of a fish belly white giving it the pallor of chalk. It looked as though if she blew air at him he would turn to dust and disappear.
“Tell me and I’ll make this quick.” She put more pressure on the hilt to emphasize her point.
The dying vampire sighed causing blood to gurgle in his throat. “Never.” He closed his eyes for a second before regaining focus on her. “Your mother wanted…”
Emily never found out what her mother wanted. Her name on his lips was the final straw for Emily and she drove the knife home strong and true. Andre was still staring at her, but he no longer saw her. Emily Jameson had just killed another vampire. Not just any vampire, she had managed to cut the thread of life from a head vampire. She fell back on the floor, leaning back on her hands with a sigh of relief.
There was only a moment of calm before the room erupted again. The fallen slayers as well as Sebastian were free from Andre’s spell now that he was gone. Sebastian jumped up and ran to her, while the others came back to life more slowly and disoriented.
“Are you alright?” Sebastian asked with concern. He offered her a hand up and she took it.
She wiped her blood stained hands on her pants with disgust. “Yeah,just peachy, how about you?” Despite her exhaustion, her voice sounded falsely perky and upbeat. If it wasn’t for the carnage at her feet it would have seemed as though everything were normal.
“Honestly? A little bummed that you stole the glory and got Andre, but whatever.” An approving smile tugged at his lips, spreading into an actual grin.
Emily stared at him incredulous for about five seconds before breaking into a smile herself. “Why Mr. Sebastian? Are you actually smiling? Apparently I should kill head vampires more often.”
“Don’t let it go to your head Jameson.” Just like that, Sebastian’s mask was back on. Even through the guarded facade, his gorgeous eyes still shown with pride. “Good work and I’m sorry about your…”
Emily waved off his sympathy. “Don’t worry about it. It is what it is.” She was really good at hiding her true emotion. Emily wasn’t about to let Sebastian or anyone else know how much Andre’s confession had really gotten to her. She did plan however, to let Sam know what she thought on the subject. For the moment her emotions were in check. It felt like ice had crystallized around Emily’s heart keeping her whole. Any minute reality would set in and shatter the sharp shards of ice that were stabbing into her soul, tearing her already formed wound wide open.
“Bass? What happened?” Kyle was still trying to drag himself to his feet.
With a dramatic flourish of his arm Sebastian gestured at Emily. “Well, it would appear that Emily stole the show and did our job.” He bowed to her… actually bowed.
Emilygiggled embarrassed. “Stop it.”
“Way to go Em,” Tyler said proudly. He brushed the hair out of his face as he watched Andre’s dead form lying broken on the floor. “That is frickin awesome.”
Ivy stared at Emily as though she had never seen her before. The normally rude girl had bruises on her face and some definite swelling. Emily could tell Ivy was amazed. It was kind of satisfying to show the other girl up. Maybe now she wouldn’t treat Emily with such hatred, probably not though.
Before they could leave for the compound Sebastian said they had to take care of business at the house. As a team, they collected the bodies of Andre and Charles and hauled them to the back yard. The seasoned slayers explained to Emily and Tyler that the old ones took longer to turn to dust. It would happen eventually,but that wasn’t good enough. In matters of the supernatural, time was of the essence. They couldn’t afford to take the chance an unsuspecting human stumbled across the bodies before they vanished. That would cause an epic uproar that wouldn’t be easily dealt with.
Once they were in a pile Kyle lit a match and set them on fire. Emily had never seen a fire blaze up as quickly as that one had. One second they were looking at a pile of really dead vampires and the next into the bright flames of a bon fire.
Within just a few minutes, the bodies were turned to ash that would leave nothing behind but a scorch mark in the grass. Sebastian and Tyler gathered rock from the flower beds to put around the fires circle. If anyone ever came back here, all they would think was that the people that lived in the house had weenie roasts in the summer.
The fire had been bitter sweet. It had symbolized the close of a horrible event. With that closure, came the mark of the beginning of more death to come. It didn’t smell bad, weirdly enough. It actually just smelled like any other bon fire. Emily supposed that was for the best. It wouldn’t pay to have neighbors come to investigate why the odor of burning flesh was in the air.
When they left, they did so together. No one spoke and that was okay. They were all preoccupied with what had happened and with grief for their fallen brother. It wasn’t awkward though. For the first time in a long time Emily felt like she was in the right place with her life. So with her new family, she went home.
EPILOGUE The day after the raid went by in a blur, thanks to Emily sleeping through half of it. When she woke up she still felt crappy, but rested.
Aside from muscle fatigue her body was in good condition. Who would have thought a person could escape multiple vampire attacks with only minimal soreness? She might not be like the average vampire slayer, but at least she healed like one.
Alexander had decided there must have been something wrong with the summoning process. Emily clearly had displayed slayer characteristics during the raid and her extra abilities proved she was not a regular human. He vowed to help her track her history and get to the bottom of thing
s. Little did he know, Emily was a very relentless person when it came to such important things. She planned to hold him to every square inch of his promise.
After a bit of searching, she found everyone in the kitchen conferring about the prior day's events. Alexander, Sebastian and Ivy were sitting around one of the tables eating sandwiches. Apparently the only food a big tough vampire slayer knew how to make was bread with meat and cheese.
Kyle and Tyler were standing by one of the long counters engaging Beth Thomas in what looked like nothing more than flirty banter. She was shy and awkward, but looked interested. The poor girl had been through a lot and was probably very confused. Beth would be returned home in a day or so and therefore, put back into reality. Would Alexander alter Beth's memory, removing all traces of her life being threatened? It might be the best thing, allowing Beth a semblance of normalcy to her life. No human needed nightmares about being almost bled to death by an undead creature of the night.
Emily was still confused for crap’s sake and she was smack dab in the center of this mess. The big Gothic house where they had taken down Andre would be a prominent fixture in her own dreams for quite some time. She wondered absently what Sam was going to think about her recent revelations and
accomplishments. At this point she honestly didn't care. Nevertheless, she didn’t want to hurt him. He obviously didn’t want her in this life and with good reason, blamed it for her mother’s death. Either way, being deceived her whole life had left her with a bitter taste.
Calling Lucy was going to have to be a priority in the near future too. Emily had seen five missed calls and several text from Lucy just before falling asleep. She was freaking out over Emily’s last text. Understandably, Lucy was confused and panic mode had set in. Emily didn't know the rules surrounding humans gaining knowledge about the Underworld, but would be breaking those rules where Lucy was concerned. She was Emily’s best friend and she knew she could trust her with this. After all, hadn’t Lucy already confided that she was connected to the paranormal world?