I walked over to the head and kicked it towards the body, lining up the kick as best as I could. One final nudge with my foot and apart from the three-sixty incision all the way around his neck, the vamp looked as good as new.
Just another dead body, I thought.
I brushed myself off. The ash clung to my clothes and despite my best efforts half of it remained. I was about to leave when I heard a gurgling sound. I looked down at the body in front of me. The skin was beginning to heal around his neck, his body repairing itself. A hand twitched and a leg kicked out reflexively.
“Now that’s interesting,” I said.
The gurgling continued, along with the occasional cough. I crouched on my haunches to watch what was happening. His eyes implored me to finish him off yet again. I imagined that having your head reattached to your body the wrong way around would be difficult to live with.
Almost half of his neck had healed. At this rate it would take less than a minute for his neck to heal over completely. How extraordinary!
At least now I knew why the body had to be burned. It would be best to keep heads far away from bodies until I could burn them. That raised another interesting question. Could a vamp’s head attach itself to another vamp’s body? Maybe I’d check it out one day, to see what happened. For now I had to deal with the problem lying in front of me.
I unsheathed the knife, wrenched back his head — or was I technically pulling his head forward — and removed it once more. I tossed it some metres away and kicked the body, to make sure it was still.
A couple more trips and that would be enough for today. Danny would probably be wondering why I was taking so long. Could I risk two at once? Would I take the chance? I thought about what some of the vamps had been wearing. Most were in short sleeves. If I could grab two at once, get one on the ground beneath me and take out the other one first… too risky, I decided. I’d be better off waiting until I was more experienced.
When I returned to the shelter again I caught Drake watching me. I poked my tongue out at him as I snatched another of his soldiers, and he smiled. I hesitated for a moment. There was something in that smile, like he knew something I didn’t. It was almost as if he was biding his time, that he knew one day I would come to him.
I was tempted to find out what was behind the smile. If I could back into a corner, using the vamp I had a grip on as a shield, maybe he’d open up and let me in on the secret. Why, oh why did I always have to give in to my curiosity, of all things!
I moved too late and someone lunged at me from the side, all three of us tumbling to the ground, me in the middle of a Helena sandwich. Flash! We were gone.
The vampire who had charged me sunk his teeth into the back of my neck, near the spine. The one underneath me couldn’t move, the weight of both our bodies pinning him to the ground. I reached back and clasped the arm of my attacker, thankful he was wearing a t-shirt. My lips and other hand sought my originally intended prey. I hadn’t planned on taking out two at the same time, though fate seemed to have other ideas.
My attacker struggled wildly when he realised what I was doing to him. He couldn’t disengage my hand. He clawed at me with his free hand and applied as much pressure as he could to my wrist. I heard a snap and felt a twinge of pain, but my grip on his arm remained true.
After the struggling ceased I released his body and rubbed my wrist gently. The bones had already mended! That was much faster than when I’d had my fall. Did smaller or fewer breaks heal quicker? Would my body adapt and heal all breaks faster and faster, until the only thing to indicate a break had occurred was the sound the bones made upon breaking?
I guess only time will tell.
I felt, rather than heard, a presence. Being upwind no scent reached me, so I wasn’t sure what was there. I spun around quickly, ready to pounce or flee, depending on the foe — am I ready to face a werewolf on my own yet? It was Danny, come to investigate what was taking me so long.
“I see you’ve been busy,” he said.
I shrugged my shoulders. “I thought I’d practise a little more. It was easier to focus… afterwards.”
Danny smiled and crouched down, touching each body in turn.
“I’m beginning to understand how mortals can be so… distracted. Next time just tell me if you think that sex will help you to focus.” His smile widened and his eyes held a mischievous glint. “I don’t mind.”
I gave his arm a gentle whack. “For an angel you’re as devious as any mortal I know.”
I leaned over his back while he was still crouching, wrapping my arms around his neck — piggy-back, piggy-back, I want a piggy-back — and took us back to the cottage.
He chuckled. “Two on the last foray?”
I let go of him and headed towards the bathroom.
“How could you tell?” I yelled back at him.
“The kills were very fresh,” he called out.
“Yeah, well, I’d been toying with the idea, but decided against it. As usual, things didn’t work out as planned. I think they’re trying to goad me,” I called out over my shoulder.
Danny followed me into the bathroom.
“What makes you think that?”
“One of the vamps said Drake was interested in me even more now, and that he wanted me to swap sides.”
I slipped out of my dirty clothes and stepped into the bath.
“He seems to think that Drake has someone that would be of interest me. I can’t for the life of me think who it would be… unless you’re a double agent.”
Danny snorted. “Not likely.”
He rolled up his sleeves and knelt down next to the bath. Picking up the cake of soap, he gently nudged my shoulder — an indication I should lean forwards so he could lather my back.
“Anything else?” he asked.
“Before I was jumped — the last time I was at the apartment — Drake was smiling at me, like he knew something.” I was still itching to know what it was. Damn curiosity! “I hesitated, and that’s when I got jumped.”
Danny gently massaged my back.
“It was probably a diversionary tactic,” he said, dismissing it as anything more than that. “They can be quite cunning.”
His hands relaxed the muscles on either side of my spine. I shivered.
“I’ll say!” I grumbled. Shae must have told them that my curiosity was always getting me into trouble. That had to be it.
Danny sponged off the remaining soapsuds and I leaned back, more relaxed. He splashed his hand in the water, making little whirlpools.
“Hey, guess what!” I said.
“What?”
“That last one broke my wrist —”
“That’s something to get excited about?”
“No, let me finish. He broke my wrist, but it was healed by the time I’d finished with him. Sure, I felt a twinge of pain. Nothing major though. Nothing I couldn’t deal with.”
I leaned over and rested my chin on the side of the bath.
“I know I’m different to them, but you know how everything works for them, don’t you?” Danny looked puzzled. “I mean the healing thing.”
He nodded his head.
“So do smaller breaks heal faster or does the body adapt and with each break it learns how to heal itself faster and faster?”
“For them the number of breaks doesn’t matter. It’s the severity of the break that does. If the bone has been pulverised it can take anywhere up to six hours. Clean breaks heal within minutes.”
“I swear it only took around thirty seconds for my wrist to heal, once the vamp had stopped trying to crush it.”
Danny’s hand trailed in the water and he flicked water in my face from his wet fingers, grinning like a naughty little boy.
“I don’t doubt it,” he replied.
I blinked the water away from my eyes and retaliated by splashing handfuls of water over the side of the bath until he was thoroughly soaked. As I was laughing at him, water dripping from his hair down his face, his cl
othes and hair dried, like he’d never been wet.
“No fair!” I complained, still laughing.
His fingers splashed gently about in the water again
“So how did you like your first bliss-creek?” he asked.
“My what?”
He flicked more water at me.
“Your bliss-creek. You remember — roughly translated it means something like thunderbolt, or lightning strike.”
I stepped out of the bath and tackled Danny to the ground, pinning down his arms and shaking my head so droplets of water rained down on him. The water on my body trickled down to soak through his clothes where I straddled his abdomen.
“You mean blitzkrieg. It was fun. You should have seen the looks on their faces.”
I giggled as I remembered the comical looks of surprise. Only Drake had appeared cool and calm, that knowing smile touching his lips.
“I appeared in a different part of the apartment each time. It confused the shit out of them. I think I’m going to enjoy doing this.”
Danny slipped his wrists out from under my hands and rolled me over onto my back, our positions reversed. I didn’t even put up a playful fight. I was too engrossed in the fact that all of my fingers had made contact with his skin and nothing had happened. My mind went back to other times, when my hands had caressed his body or we’d held hands to journey through the lights. I realised, then, that on a subconscious level I must be able to control it.
“Helena, are you with me or have you drifted off?” Danny whispered in my ear, his hot breath distracting me from my thoughts.
“I was wondering about my hands.” I wiggled my fingers, stained red from another day of hunting, in front of my face. “My fingers hold any vamp they come in contact with in a death grip. I don’t need my entire hand to make contact, only my fingers. Anyway it’s a death sentence. Yet I can touch you and hold you and nothing happens. Why is that do you think?”
Danny creased his brow, thinking of a reasonable explanation. “Psychological perhaps. Maybe you don’t want to hurt me. Or maybe you can’t use your death grip on those that aren’t evil? Or maybe,” his voice hinting at something more, “you just like touching me.”
I smiled at him slyly, narrowing my eyes. “Oh, you’re evil all right, Danny, just not the kind of evil you’re talking about.”
18. Unwanted Attention
The vampire — I’d grabbed a female — didn’t struggle, which surprised me. I turned her around. She had a glazed look in her eyes and a pained expression on her face. There was something about her scent that made me hesitate. It seemed tainted somehow.
“Danizriel,” it was annoying having to call him by his real name, “if you’re not busy, can you come here for a moment?”
Danny appeared a few moments later, tensed for a fight. He glanced around quickly to assess the situation, and seeing nothing out of the ordinary, relaxed.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
I pulled the vampire over to him. She didn’t resist — more zombie than vampire. Could she be some sort of freaky cross-breed?
“She doesn’t seem right,” I explained. “Her scent is mixed up with something I don’t recognise.”
Danny sniffed the air around her. He examined her head, neck and hands, and rolled up her sleeves to inspect her arms. She’d been a junkie in her previous life. The scars were still bright red.
“Did they think they could drug me, via her blood?” I asked, incredulously. Then the uncertainty set in. “They can’t, can they?”
“No. There are no drugs in her system. What you’re smelling is arsenic.”
“Arsenic. Why would anyone want to shoot up arsenic?” There was only one reason I could think of. “Could that kill me?”
“I doubt it very much, although the amount that’s been injected into her would likely have weakened you greatly, and possibly impaired your judgement and senses. You see how she looks — her eyes, and the lack of resistance. I suspect they thought it would make it easier to dispose of you if you were in the same state as this poor wretch.”
“Why would she let herself be used as a pawn like that?” I asked.
Danny continued to inspect her. “She’s very new. They probably created her for this very purpose. She wouldn’t have had any say in the matter whatsoever.”
It made me angry. How many lives had been wasted because of the power others sought or wielded?
“They don’t really care, do they?”
“No. She’s a means to an end. I seriously doubt she’s the only trap they have in store for you, though. You’ll need to be more vigilant.” Danny took me by the arms and looked into my eyes, all serious. “Nothing rash, promise.”
“Yes, yes,” I replied petulantly, shaking off his hands. Gees, he’s big on asking for promises. “I won’t do anything rash. But, is it likely they can inject something into one of their own I won’t be able to detect?”
“No. Anything in a vampire’s system that is not blood will change their scent for as long as it is in their system. Most substances, once in the blood, are hard to get rid of.”
“So is there something we can do to remove the arsenic from her blood?”
“She’s a vampire, Helena, why would we help her?”
“I’m part vampire at least… you helped me.”
“That was different. You’re different.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I wonder…”
“What?” I asked, hoping he’d thought of a way to fix her blood.
“I wonder if they do want to capture you, and not dispose of you. I wonder if they do know how to extract something like arsenic from the blood. Too many questions, as usual.”
“As long as I don’t fall for something as pathetic as this we’ll never find out.” It wasn’t worth the risk.
“I can take care of this one if you want,” Danny offered, seeing how her condition upset me, “if it pains you too much.”
I pulled out my knife and quickly dispatched her myself. I didn’t want Danny to think I was weak. I didn’t want him to do the dirty work I couldn’t stomach.
The odour was more pronounced as the arsenic reacted with the air.
“I’d always been led to believe that arsenic didn’t have a smell,” I said.
“There’s a lot that mortals can’t smell,” Danny replied. “Vampires and werewolves are good examples.”
He reached down and turned her body to ash with a simple touch.
“Do you think you can whip up something I could use to torch the bodies with? Something I can keep here? I haven’t gotten around to exploring the mine shaft yet, and I know you’ve got to start patrolling again, otherwise questions might start being asked.”
Danny looked thoughtful, his eyes lost somewhere in the distance, but unfocused. He blinked a couple of times and his focus returned.
“I do need to report in more often. I might be given a fair amount of free rein, but even that has its limits. No doubt I’ll receive a dressing down from my superior for my laxness. I’ll still come on some of your raids, though. At least a few times a week. You’re quite graceful and it’s very sensual to watch.” He cleared his throat and clapped his hands together. “What would you prefer, flammable liquids and matches, or sulphur filled syringes?”
Which would be better? I didn’t know. “Can I try both and make a choice later?”
Danny created a small hole in the ground near one of the trees, complete with a cleverly disguised trap door. In this he placed five containers of lighter fluid, waterproof matches — I didn’t even know they existed — and half a dozen syringes filled with a yellow substance that stank like rotten eggs.
I was looking forward to trying them out and finding out which burned the body to ash the quickest, and was the easiest to employ. At this stage I was leaning towards the syringe — one step instead of two.
“Shall we be off to work then?” Danny asked.
I pulled him to me and kissed his lips, a long lingering kiss that suggested h
is work would not be finished when the day was done.
“I’ll meet you back at the cottage at sunset,” I replied. “Don’t be late or I might fall asleep.”
Danny walked away from me chuckling. He waved a hand behind him and disappeared. I was going to head back to where there’d been recent werewolf activity to see if I could pick up a fresh scent.
It turned out there was one recent scent trail, not more than eight hours old. Being able to determine the age of a trail seemed to be an instinctual thing. It was something I’d inherited from Chris when I’d been changed, but did not come to fruition until after I’d gained full strength. I ran swiftly, following the trail as it wove in and out of the trees and changed directions. A number of other scents crossed its path. I made a mental note to come back and follow them later on.
At one point, twelve other scent trails collided with the one I was following. This was a hunting party. Were they hunting werewolves or did they think they were hunting me? Another hour along the trail and the answer became clear. The vampires had surrounded two werewolves. Another werewolf lay dead on the ground.
The werewolves sniffed the air, their ears twitching. Their sense of smell was much better than that of the vampires — and mine — and they’d already detected my scent. I wondered what the werewolves would think of me. Will they be wondering if I was friend or foe? If it suited my purposes, I’d be a friend for now. Between the three of us we might be able to take down half of the vampires before they scattered.
With only an hour left before sunset — I didn’t want to be late home — I’d have to work quickly. Should I go in for a quick snag or suddenly appear in the thick of it, standing with the werewolves. Wouldn’t that give the vamps something else to think about!
It was decided then. A couple of snags to put them on edge — they’d be torn between concentrating on what was going on inside the circle, and what was going on outside the circle — then into the middle. By then the werewolves would know I was no friend of the vamps.
In and out, in and out, faster than the blink of an eye — two vampires gone in less than ten minutes. The rest of the vamps were shuffling nervously from foot to foot, scanning the horizon and trying to determine where the next attack would come from.
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