The Vampre's Salvation

by Martha Woods

  He didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence before Damon sent his fist cracking against his cheek, leaping across the table and taking the both of them down to the ground. Though the rest of the members were startled, they wisely stepped backwards, knowing that something like this had been a long time coming.

  I, on the other hand, didn’t quite know what to do with myself.

  “What the hell are you two doing?” I yelled, jumping to my feet. “You’re acting like a couple of children!”

  “Stay out of this!” Tristian barked at me, Damon’s hand wrenching his head back and slamming down to the ground.

  “Amy, we need to do this, that’s just how it is!” He threw his knee into Tristian’s stomach, grunting in pain as an errant fist snapped against his nose. For the next few minutes, I watched them brutalize each other, one getting the upper hand before it was swept out from under them, so evenly matched that it was hard to tell who was going to be the one to come out on top.

  I knew who I was hoping for obviously, I just didn’t know if that was going to work out.

  Damon growled as he dodged Tristian’s punch, the other hunter’s fist making a cracking sound when it bounced off the wooden floor of the bar. Damon took advantage of the moment, slipping out from underneath Tristian like a snake, winding his arm around his throat and squeezing down, putting all his weight on the hunter’s back and pressing him into the ground.

  “Give up Tristian!” He yelled, tightening the chokehold. “I win, you lose, it’s that simple!”

  He didn’t want to give in, scraping his fingernails down the side of Damon’s face and seemingly trying to take his eye out, but soon enough his strength was fading and his eyes were starting to go blank, a quick tap on Damon’s shoulder ending the fight and getting much needed air back into his lungs.

  “F-fine…” He gasped, rubbing his sore windpipe and shaking his head. “You want us to play along with the freaks? You want us to get into a little play fight while we wait for Alvin to show up? You got it, just make sure that they’re prepared for a fight because I’m not going to pull any punches.”

  Two other hunters pulled Tristian to his feet, the hunter stumbling for a second before he got his feet underneath him. He started walking to the door, fixing me with an absolutely venomous glare before saying, “And you… remember what side that you’re on because I can assure you that I will.”

  Damon stepped to my side, one arm around his ribs and the other around my shoulders while we watched the rest of the hunters step out, the harried bartender coming out to sweep up the mess left behind by the fight.

  “Sorry about that,” He said, grimacing at me. “I tell you not to start any fights and then I go ahead and do something stupid like that…”

  “Don’t worry about it, I know why you did it.” I pressed a kiss to his lips, smirking when he winced at me kissing one of his cuts. “Besides, he was being a complete ass about everything, someone had to teach him a lesson about it. If it wasn’t you it was going to be me.”

  “Good thing that it wasn’t you, you probably would’ve pasted him all over the walls with how powerful you’re getting.” We started limping to the door, his face finally looking much more alive than it had been when I’d first shown up. “You’ve got to tell me how you made everyone freeze like that at the meeting, I’ve never seen anything like it!”

  “Honestly, I have no idea, one minute everyone is moving and fighting, the next they can’t move. It was just a pure reflex thing.”

  “Well we need to find out more about it, something like that could have so many uses! The number of times that we’ve gotten into fights around here, someone like you would be able to stop three quarters of our bullshit before it even started!”

  “Oh lovely,” I said, opening the passenger door of my car and pushing him in. “I could be your official nanny, making sure that you and the big boys don’t get into too much trouble. Sorry but I think I’m going to pass on that.”

  “It’s not… huh, guess that is what I was describing, isn’t it?”

  “It’s ok, I still love you.” I leaned into his shoulder, taking a moment to enjoy the heat of his skin against my cheek before putting the car back in drive. “Now, let’s go back home and see where everyone is.”

  Chapter 3

  We took it a little slower getting back to my place, both to let Damon unwind from his fight in the bar and for me to call Tariq about how the meeting was going. He told me that the witches had agreed unanimously to the fight, eager to put an end to the man who had so thoroughly manipulated and smeared them in the eyes of the other races. The werewolves were currently taking a short break in the meeting, retiring amongst themselves to make sure that their opinions were matched with one another, given how new the alliance was neither of them could begrudge them that.

  “Whatever you can do to convince them, Tariq, I believe in you. Come meet back at my apartment as soon as you two have an answer, we need to talk more about our plan.”

  “Understood Amy, we’ll be back before you even realize we were ever gone.”

  “It’s amazing what you’re doing, you know that right?” Damon spoke from next to me when I disconnected the call, head leaning leisurely against the backrest and his shoulders stretching out. “All of you, a few years… hell, even a few weeks ago I would never have seen something like this being possible. But here you are, helping to bring some semblance of peace between four groups that have been at each other’s throats for thousands of years. Well, maybe three, the hunters aren’t making it easy.”

  “No, but I have you to work on that.” I rubbed his knee, not stopping until he was looking back at me. “You’re not giving yourself enough credit, you probably won at least a few of them over with that macho showdown of yours, you asserted your dominance or however that works.”

  “I asserted my dominance?” He laughed, “I know we might act like it, but we’re not gorillas Amy, I can’t hit away all my problems.”

  “But you can sure try, can’t you?”

  “Yeah,” He said, looking out the window at the passing buildings. “I guess I can. You know I’m going to have to fight Vincent when we get him back right?”

  That made me whip my head to the side so fast I’m surprised I didn’t snap my neck. “What? Why would you fight each other I thought we sorted everything out between us?”

  “It’s just something that we’re going to have to do, just to clear the air and make sure that we can move on.” He reached over, squeezing my hand gently. “We’re not going to try to kill each other, it’d just be like the fight I had with Tristian. Well, maybe a little more heated than that.”

  “Fine, but if you two start breaking things then I’m going to do something to stop you. I don’t know what, but something.”

  He smiled. “Deal. Now let’s get back to your place, I’m starving and I was not going to eat the food at that bar.”

  I’d already made most of the rounds tonight in regards to people that I knew, so it should have come as no surprise when I walked up the stairs with Damon in tow and came face to face with Cara, herself seemingly just on the way back from knocking on my apartment door.

  “Cara!” I said, jumping back in surprise when we almost walked into each other. “What are you doing here, is something wrong?”

  “Oh, Amy! No, no nothing’s wrong I just… wanted to come and see how you were doing with everything.” She peeked around my shoulder, waving when Damon came into view. “And you too, I guess we never really got much of a chance to talk.”

  “No, no we didn’t.” He stood there awkwardly for a moment, not sure whether to continue or walk past. Eventually, he compromised, holding his hand out and directing her to the door. “Why don’t we head inside? I’m dying for something to eat, how about you?”

  “I… sure, I could eat.”

  I scoffed, following them to the door that had been reset onto its hinges and even freshly oiled. “Thanks for offering everybody my food, lucky
for you I went shopping recently.”

  Once we were all inside I tossed my coat off onto a side chair, not bothering with hanging it on the hook after the night that I’d had so far. When vampires are more gracious hosts and less pigheaded than your fellow humans you know that you’re in for a very interesting time. Cara noticed the stiffness in my back, stepping forward and pinching one of the cramped muscles.

  “What’s up Amy? You look like you’ve been through the ringer.”

  “It’s nothing, just… a long night of negotiating, that’s all.”

  “With Rick?”

  The laugh I gave in response to that startled her, her hand flying back as though she thought she’d physically hurt me. I was quick to try to reassure her, but my choice of words… maybe left something to be desired.

  “God no, eight hours from now he’s probably going to try and arrest me, negotiation would just be a waste of time.”

  “Eight… eight hours?” She led me over to the couch, sitting me down and taking my hand between hers. “What do you mean, how can you be so calm about that?”

  “What I’m doing here is more important than worrying about that, besides there’s no way that he could get away with it.” I started listing off the reasons on my fingers. “I didn’t actually do anything, the autopsy will show that I didn’t do anything, he already held me and didn’t charge me with anything so there’s that bluff called. Besides, even if he and the rest of the team want me gone a blind and deaf jury would find me completely innocent and probably give me an opportunity to counter-sue.”

  “I… wow.” She leaned back, all urgency lost from her expression and replaced with astonishment. “You’ve really thought about this haven’t you?”

  “I’ve seen a lot of kinds of death Cara, accidental, murder, suicide. It’s only appropriate that I recognize career suicide when I see it.”

  Damon walked over with a pair of sandwiches, setting one in front of Cara and taking a seat. Even he looked confused by what I had said, taking a bite of his sandwich and considering his words before saying, “So I don’t get it if you’ll be completely fine either way… why worry about finding an answer for him anyway?”

  “Aside from the fact that I don’t want to spend the next month in jail while they wait for it to go to trial?” I shrugged, looking down at my feet. “I don’t want him to get fired. In spite of everything that’s gone wrong between us, I know that he’s still a good cop. He cares… he cared about more than just the bottom line, which is more than I can say for half the idiots that make up the rest of the forensic team.”

  “He’s threatening to arrest you for a crime that you didn’t commit and that he knows that you didn’t commit.” Damon shrugged, scowling through his sandwich. “Fuck him, let him ruin himself. The more people we get off the force willing to do that the better.”

  “I guess you’re right,” I said, “Still, he’s basically my mentor you know? I’d feel wrong if things ended that way.”

  Cara leaned into my side, wrapping an arm around me and squeezing tightly. “You’re versatile, you’ll make it through all of this! Wait, if that wasn’t what you were doing all night, what were you doing?”

  “Oh, I was negotiating with two separate groups that want to kill each other to make sure that they work together to defeat an even bigger threat.” I wiggled my phone in my hand. “And I just got off the phone with my friend who is taking care of another two groups on top of it all, so it’s just been a fair bit to handle.”

  “Oh,” She said, “Yeah that does sound like a lot to deal with all in one night. Compared to that my night has been easy.”

  “How is your night going? It’s not like you to just drop round with no warning, is something happening?”

  “No, nothing major…” She began eating her sandwich, avoiding eye contact while I glared at her.

  “Cara…” I said, leaning in. “Don’t lie, what’s going on?”

  “Compared to what you’re going through it sounds so stupid! I don’t even want to talk about it anymore.”

  “Come on, just because I’m having a hell of a night doesn’t mean you’re not too.” I took her sandwich-free hand, running my thumb along her knuckles. “You can talk to me Cara, what’s going on?”

  “I broke things off with Troy, it just wasn’t working out and I’m feeling a little down tonight,” She sighed, “I thought maybe I could come around and we could throw back a bottle of wine or two like we used to you know?”

  “Oh, come here…” I wrapped my own arms around her, bringing her ear down to my chest and squeezing her tightly. “You’ll find someone who works for you, trust me. There isn’t a man or woman in the world who wouldn’t give their left leg to be with you, I could probably name two of each right off the top of my head right now.”

  Damon snorted, knowing immediately that I was talking about Mika and Ivanka. “No offense Amy, but you might want to keep those two friends away from her, I’m not sure even she could handle that much.”

  “Honestly, I’m up for anything right now, just so long as they have a pulse and aren’t complete monsters...” She looked up, noticing the way that we had both gone completely silent. “What?”

  I waved my hands, trying to physically bat away the tension and return to a topic of conversation less vampire like. Since every single problem, solution and goal in my life right now could be traced back to them it was easier said than done.

  “What would you be looking for? Maybe someone who’s exactly what you need could be right under your nose and you’d never know it.”

  “Oh, I don’t know…” She placed a finger on her chin, leaning her head back against the couch and thinking to herself. “I’d want someone dependable, but not clingy you know? They would still need to have their own life, after all, I’m a woman, not a daycare.”

  I nodded, knowing exactly what she meant. “I lucked out there, Damon still has a life of his own, not like some of the losers that I’ve dated.”

  “I don’t have much of one, but it’s true.” He finished off his sandwich, clapping the crumbs off his hands and onto his plate. “Can’t say the same for most of the other people that I know, so they’re off the table.”

  “Hmmm… what else?” She sighed, “I don’t want to sound too vain but they’d have to be muscly like you could grate something on their abs, you know what I mean? They don’t have to be Schwarzenegger big, just really in shape. And be at least nice, I’m tired of going out with complete jackasses.”

  “Yeah… you’re pretty much describing a dream, aren’t you?” I thought that Damon might take offense to that, but he only nodded along.

  “What? You’re right, I’ve never met anyone in my life who fits all three of those. Pretty much every guy that I’ve met who’s been muscled up has also been a complete asshat.”

  “Damon,” She said, “You’re muscled up.”

  “Yep, what’s your point?” He grinned, opening a beer that I hadn’t seen him bring over or that I even though I owned, taking a generous gulp before sighing in satisfaction.

  “Actually…” He said, fixing me with a look. “I think I know one guy who might be like that…”

  Before I could answer I heard a knock on the door, briefly torn on whether I should ask a follow up question before I stood and answered it, swinging the door open to reveal Tariq and Tabitha standing looking proud.

  “Oh,” I thought, “Now I know what he means.”

  “Amy! We have some very good news to share with you!” Tariq stepped inside, squeezing me in a quick embrace before walking further in. “The witches were very receptive to our request almost immediately, but the werewolves were… oh, hello.”

  Cara didn’t speak for a moment, her eyes locked on the arms still straining the cuffs of his shirt before rising to the easy smile on his face. “I… hello there, how are you?”

  “Good, I’m very good!” Tariq held his hand out, never dropping his smile even as she took a few seconds to shake his hand.
“I don’t believe that we’ve met, my name is Tariq.”

  “I’m Cara.” She returned his smile, a faint blush dusting her cheeks while she looked into his eyes. “It’s very nice to meet you…”

  “Likewise, I had no idea that Amy would have company if I had I would have brought something to celebrate.” He turned back to me, eyebrow raised as he asked, “Do you want to discuss the plan later or…?”

  “No, it’s fine.” I shook my head. “She knows about everything, more or less.”

  “More or less?”

  “She knows what vampires and witches are, other than that she’s about as clueless as I still feel sometimes.”

  Cara looked between us. “Wait a minute…” Her eyes widened, finger pointing at Tariq when she realized what the meeting must be about. “Are you…”

  Tariq snapped his fingers, a small flame appearing on the end of his index finger and dancing in front of her eyes. She squealed both in shock and delight, falling back into the couch and giggling to herself, “I had no idea there were others around, I thought that Amy was the only one!”

  “She’s one of the more powerful ones, certainly.” Tariq clicked his fingers, the flame disappearing without a hint of smoke. “But I like to consider myself pretty knowledgeable about all of this as well.”

  “You have to show me more!” Cara turned to me, the most excited smile I think I’ve ever seen her wearing on her face. “How could you not tell me that you knew someone like this? He’s already so much more interesting than ninety-percent of all the people we know!”

  “I only met him recently, besides what was I going to say? ‘Hey Cara here’s Tariq, he’s a warlock and he likes flowers, you two should make friends’?”

  “Said like that I don’t see that being successful,” Tariq said, “Though I do quite like flowers.”

  “I’d love to hear more about that if you wanted to tell me,” Cara said, “About being a warlock or about flowers, either one works.”

  I shared a look with Damon, an unspoken confirmation of “Oh, this is really something that could work isn’t it?” I hadn’t considered that the ideal match for Cara would be a warlock, and to be fair there was no indication that this was going to go any further than just her looking in awe at his arms and melting at his silky voice, though I could hope at least. She deserved to be happy after the year she’d had, and in the short amount of time that I’d know Tariq I could tell that he was a wonderful man who deserved whatever good fortune could come his way.