by Nicola Rose
The man looked familiar, but it was dark and my vision was blurred. I think my eye was swollen. This fucking lunatic man, who the hell was he to do this? He didn’t look like a vampire with the heavy way in which he moved.
Zac would kill him. Those chains couldn’t hold him.
Mr. Crazy stepped back towards me, smiling, banging the pole into the floor.
Clunk… clunk… clunk.
He stopped an inch from my face, Zac’s stare burning holes into his back; ready to pounce, ready to break free.
I knew this man. I definitely knew him. Why was my head so damn jumbled?
“Oh my God! William?!” I choked.
“You know him?” Zac growled, speaking for the first time. Why hadn’t he busted out of those chains yet?
“He’s one of Anna’s boyfriends.”
“One of?” William cocked an eyebrow at me.
“He doubles as a fucking vampire hunter,” Zac groaned, white froth dropping from his chin.
Tendrils of fear crawled along my flesh, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake.
“What the hell? What have you done to Anna? Where is she, you bastard?” I yelled.
“Why would I have done anything to my sweet Anna?” William said. “She’s not a vampire. Or a vampire whore.”
Zac let out an almighty growl. Surely those chains couldn’t hold much longer. He yanked and pulled. Blood appeared around his wrists where he was bound, along with angry, red burn marks.
William followed my gaze.
“Struggling with those chains, Zac? Do you know how hard it is to get hold of silver plated chains like that? Still, we best get on with the show before you start recovering some strength. It’s fucking draining keeping up these cloaking and disorientation spells. It’s a shame to start without Alex, but perhaps this will help draw his attention.”
I watched William advancing purposefully towards Zac, as if I were stuck in a horror movie. He lifted the metal stake and thrust it straight through Zac’s chest with a sickening crunch.
Zac howled as his head slumped forward, blood flowing freely down his chest, and a gargled scream escaped me.
“Silver stakes are easier to source, pretty damned effective, too,” William mused, giving it a sharp jiggle from side to side and causing Zac to cry out again. The smell of burning flesh stuffed itself up my nostrils. Red and black welts gathered at the edges of the wound where the stake sat.
“Did he ever tell you, Jess? The most humiliating and painful way for a vampire to die is through bleeding them dry. Let’s speed that up, shall we?” William took a knife from his pocket and dragged it deftly over Zac’s wrist. More blood spurted out and streamed down his arm.
“No! NO!” I screamed, agony surging through every part of my being. This couldn’t be happening. Vampires don’t get fucked like this.
“Now then, for the big, bad wolf. Tell me, Jess, what do you think will get Alex’s attention most?” He took a photo of me on his phone, then one of Zac. “The threat of losing you? Or his precious Legacy bond?”
He paused, waiting for me to answer.
“If in doubt go with both,” he said with a shrug, tapping the screen.
“William! Why is Jess tied up like that? Why is she half-naked? You promised you wouldn’t hurt her!” Another voice I knew came singing through the air to slap me around. A door had opened and there she stood, all agog.
But it couldn’t be her. She was in danger, she’d called me for help.
“For effect, Anna-doll. All part of the plan. Relax.” William moved over to a far wall and my surroundings suddenly swam into vision. A crude pentagram was painted in red on the damp brick wall, from floor to ceiling, as big as a man. Beneath it appeared to be a wooden altar, upon which a variety of tools, goblets and trinkets sat.
William removed one of the heavy silver chains from around his neck and placed it on the altar, whilst muttering chanted words.
“I’m so sorry, Jess. It’ll be over soon. This had to happen, to get them here. But soon it will be done and you’ll be safe,” Anna pleaded, stroking my cheek with the palm of her hand as if soothing a child.
My brain couldn’t compute… it just wouldn’t. It stuttered and locked itself down. The power of speech left me… fucked off somewhere along with my power of comprehension.
“Well, well, that was quick.” William ran to the other end of the room and grabbed a silver chain.
Alex careened into the room, his fingers pressed into his head, just as Zac had done. I tried to yell, to warn him, but I don’t think it would have done any good, even if the words had come.
William leapt onto Alex and they grappled in the shadows. William took a punch to the face and blood pooled on his lip. He chanted incantations, frenzied and loud, the words a messed-up jumble of nonsense to my own ears.
Alex’s movements slowed and moments later, with cursing and clanking, William had him trussed up like a tame kitty, not a raging monster. Alex’s head shook from side to side in confusion and pain as he allowed himself to be manhandled across the room and strung up like the rest of us.
“Fight, Alex! What are you doing? Alex!” I found my voice, but as predicted it fell on deaf ears. He was completely overcome with confusion and weakness.
“Fuck me, I’m getting too old for this shit,” William gasped, doubling over to catch his breath. He snapped his fingers in the air and muttered further foreign words.
Like a fog-inducing bubble had burst, Alex regained composure. He didn’t thrash, he didn’t yell, but he calmly eyed his surroundings.
“The hunter you killed was a novice rookie, huh? Pity the same can’t be said for this one,” Zac groaned and Alex growled.
Zac’s head was still flopped forward, blood steadily trickling and forming a slick puddle beneath him. His chest heaved, the pole stuck rigidly right through him.
“I’ve seen you before, on the island. How did I not sense what you are?” Alex asked, his eyes sizing up William, tracking his movements like the predator he was.
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” William said, regaining an upright composure. “Especially when your men kicked the shit out of me one night that I pushed my luck at your club, and you still didn’t see me for what I was. It was risky staying in such close proximity for an extended period, but it takes a great deal of planning and energy to prepare wards that are strong enough to hold you two, whilst simultaneously masking our whereabouts from your clans. The spells to keep me hidden during preparation were nothing compared to this.”
William strolled over to Anna and put an arm over her shoulder. She flinched and darted yet another apologetic look my way. “The rookie that you took out served as a good distraction. Leaving those notes gave you his scent to chase around for a while,” he went on.
“You’re a Wiccan hunter,” Zac tried to lift his head in William’s direction, but it hardly moved.
“You never told me witches were an actual thing?” I shrieked.
William laughed, hearty and excited. “Oh, dirty little Jess, the irony of those words from your lips. How have you not figured out your lineage for yourself? I could feel it in you the moment we met. So could they,” he nodded to the Elwoods. “There’s ancient witchcraft in your blood, Jess.”
46
Jess
“What?!” we all said together – Zac, Alex, myself, even Anna.
William spun round, smirking at us all, proud of his big ridiculous lie. “You haven’t even heard the best bit, yet,” he grinned, his fingers toying with that bushy, black beard. “I did some digging on you, Jess. You have quite the potent family tree if you go back far enough. Your ancestors were of the Morena coven.”
Zac and Alex both snapped their heads round to me. I gave them a wide-eyed questioning look. I’d have shrugged if I wasn’t chained up.
Then everything fell into place in that foggy bit at the back of my brain.
Witch.
I was a witch.
“That’s
not possible. That whole bloodline was wiped out,” Zac said in a voice so quiet that I started worrying about the amount of blood pooled at his feet. Surely he could get free if he fought harder?
“A delicious twist of fate, isn’t it? And all true, I assure you. I’ve checked and triple checked. Seems some witches sneaked through the net and stopped practicing, but continued to breed. Until, here stands Jess. Descended from the very witch who created your Elwood Legacy bond.”
This time it was my head that whipped round, so hard it made my eyes throb.
“I checked her history,” Alex said. “I never found anything pointing in that direction.”
“You didn’t look in the right places. The covens are exceptionally adept at keeping our particulars hidden from those who have no business with them.”
Zac let out a snarl and pulled so hard on his chains that one of them snapped. My heart leaped with excitement. Though he was still stuck, it looked like two sets of chains had been used. He yanked again, and Alex followed suit. Anna shrieked and jumped back into a corner.
“Whoops, power’s running down,” William said, calmly drawing a blade across his palm. He clenched and released his fist, squeezing out further blood until it was dripping down his arm. Then he pressed his hand to the centre of the pentagram on the wall. As the blood smeared into the rough brick, he bellowed magical words.
And then they were gone again. The vampires were subdued, heads slumping with a glazed look.
“Enough talking,” William grunted.
Without pause for thought, he grabbed a stake and pressed it over Alex’s heart.
He didn’t flinch. Not even as William stared him in the eyes, pulled his arm back, and drove it straight through him.
“Tough boy, Alex. Who’s going to get the double-staking?” He picked up another pole. Where the fuck did he get so much silver from?
“Jess? I asked a question? Which one?” He pressed his knuckles into Alex’s forehead and the chunky, gothic rings hissed and smoked as the silver skulls burnt his flesh, leaving angry red welts. He held them there, the smell of burning flesh making me gag, and this time Alex flinched. Satisfied, William walked over to Zac and did the same thing.
Anna whimpered from the shadows.
“Come on, Jess. How many times have I got to burn them? I can keep going all day…” He took the stake and pressed the shaft against Zac’s forehead, causing him to shudder – his head forced up by the burning bar, eyes half-closed.
Witch. I was a fucking witch. Do something, Jess.
The buzzing thrummed through my ears. I closed my eyes and focused on it, willing it to take form, for something to happen. I’d conjured fire, sand, I could surely hurt William if I tried.
I opened my eyes and directed all my rage towards him, all the buzzing, and the pain in my head. A flimsy layer of static seemed to ebb over my skin, but… nothing. There was nothing.
William took that stake and forced the tip into Zac’s mouth. He gargled and choked, head thrashing, as threads of smoke traced up his face.
“Alex! I choose Alex!” I cried.
“Of course you do. Poor old Zac isn’t looking too healthy, is he? I guess that slit wrist really did speed it up. Good idea to even things up,” William said, all sing-song and cheery, as he ploughed another stake into Alex’s stomach.
“You can’t take us all on, you’ll never get off this island alive,” Alex coughed.
“I don’t need you all. Your clans are confused and unable to trace us thanks to my spells. I’m satisfied with you two, since you’re the big guns. Your men will disband. You must be stopped before you succumb to the lure of your damned Legacy.”
“Ha!” Alex spat blood straight into William’s face with an amused grin. Did he even care that he was chained up by some psychopath that was going to drain all his blood and kill him? Zac managed to raise his chin an inch to give him an exasperated look. “Trust me, there is no threat there. Trying to break Zachariah on the Legacy is about as effective as trying to mine gold out of your ass. Although… that would be a brutal experiment. One I might just try out later.”
“Sorry, I should have said I’m happy to take out the three of you, not two,” William dismissed Alex and allowed his glare to rake over my body, his face a vision of disgust.
Zac and Alex growled simultaneously.
“She’s not a vampire,” Zac mumbled.
“Yet. But she’s as good as. Vampire whores always end up dead, or turned. I’d rather ensure it’s the former.”
This time the growling from the vampires was drowned up by the yelling of Anna as she marched across the room. “You promised, not Jess… you can’t.”
William produced the bloody knife from his back pocket and ran it across my collar bone, pressing hard enough to make a sharp sting. Zac yanked at his chains, albeit with a lot less gusto than ten minutes ago. He barely had the energy to speak let alone break free.
You’re a witch. Do something.
I felt the power behind my eyelids, sweeping through my core. I focussed everything I had onto the bearded-goth-witch-man in front of me.
“I gave you a chance, Jess,” he said. “I told you to leave.”
“Those useless bits of paper taped to my bike?” I almost laughed. “Why didn’t you just sit me down and talk? How long have you known, Anna?” I turned my glare onto my ashen-faced best friend.
“I… not long… how long did you know?” she whispered, tears welling in her eyes. I should have told her long ago, before this lunatic worked his warped charms on her.
“I couldn’t risk revealing my identity before I was ready.” William dragged the blade over my chest, drawing blood. “The notes served two purposes. One, to distract my boys here, and two, because when I realised you were a witch I owed it to your coven to try and protect you.”
“This is protecting me?” I looked down at the knife that was still trailing lazy paths across my skin. Zac and Alex were too quiet. Their chests didn’t even seem to be moving with breath.
“Well,” he smiled. “Then I dug deeper and found out you were Morena. Now I owe it to my coven to destroy you. You better not have vampire blood in your system… you been doing any kinky bloodletting with your boys? If so, I guess I’ll just have the pleasure of killing you twice.”
William dragged the blade back across my breast and circled it on my stomach. “I think you should join them in the same death. I’m going to watch you bleed out, you filthy fang-loving whore.”
The knife dug deeper, the point almost breaking through. The buzzing built in my head and surged across my skin.
Anna launched herself onto William’s back and he swung around, grabbing her by the throat and throwing her across the room. She skidded on the increasing puddle of blood underneath Zac and crashed into him, landing in a heap next to his dangling body, his blood all over her.
“Don’t disappoint me, Anna-doll. You knew the plan. Get your shit together,” William spat in her direction, crinkling his face as she tried to wipe the blood away, only smearing it further.
“Not this… this isn’t right…” she stumbled over her words, and over the blood, falling back on her ass.
I stared at Zac for help, willing him to look at me and give me a fucking clue. William already had his attention focussed back on me, playing with the knife over my skin. But Zac was staring at Anna, saying something to her. She stood shakily and tried to reach up to his chains.
We’d all been strung from some sort of hooks, hanging down from the ceiling beams. She was on her tiptoes, slipping around in the slick, red gloop; chains clanking.
Seriously, was this how I was going to die? It was hardly surprising, given my penchant for chasing down danger. But it sucked. If anyone in this room was going to have the pleasure of killing me, it should at least be an Elwood. Not this bearded fuckwad.
And yes, I was aware how fucked up that was. But it was the truth.
No one is killing you! Do something!
; I had to keep William distracted, which didn’t seem like it was going to be a problem. He was chuntering on about what a whore I was, about what a waste it was to kill a part-witch. The diatribe spewed forth relentlessly. The whole while, the knife nicked and cut across my body, searing and stinging pain accompanying his words.
A tide of rage built inside me. It seemed to blast out into a wall before me, thickening the air, turning it into something more tangible. Growing and consuming.
A flicker of confusion passed over William’s face, but I was too lost in his torrent of abuse to focus on it. However, I was shocked back to the present when sudden pain erupted like fire in my core. I looked down and watched, like I was no longer inside my own body, as he slowly drew the blade back from my abdomen, crimson spilling down my legs.
Zac let out the loudest roar and the bricks themselves seemed to tremble. The walls groaned and shifted, dust filling the air as cracks split upwards towards the roof. Was that me? Did I shake the very foundations? It felt like an energy from my core had churned the earth, but then it was gone…
William’s eyes grew wider, analysing me, perhaps fearing me…
He turned round, only to find a silver stake swinging through the air, straight into the side of his head. Anna dropped it immediately with a sharp clang on the dirty floor and William slumped to the ground unconscious.
Standing over him, Anna stared at his head.
“Anna!” Alex yelled.
She snapped herself into focus and grabbed a stool from near the wooden altar. With a skittering of nervous mumbles, she climbed onto the stool and began working on my chains.
I looked hard into her eyes, but she refused to look back at me. Instead she continued her twittering, this time clear enough to be understood. “What’s a vampire’s favourite holiday?” she squealed.
Her hands were shaking so hard that she couldn’t get a decent grip on the chains. My weight bore down and prevented her from getting the leverage she needed to free them from the hook. The ends around my wrists were fastened with a padlock.