She was so preoccupied in getting Kyle and herself out; that she was just about to go down that dark corridor, toward that entrance/exit she had used, when she heard Cirpian's voice, “Gen.., it's locked...find a hiding place...”
He couldn't be serious, she had just a few minutes ago come in that way. Yet, she was not ready to doubt that voice. After all, he had given her a head start.
As she turned around to look behind her for another exit, that was when she saw him.
Cirpian.
Yet, the man in front of her, wielding a sword, was a far more opposing figure than the one who had cooked her dinner a few nights ago; and then rocked her world in the sack.
She would have just stood there watching him, if not for Kyle's dead weight and the dark haired man that she saw, now, standing next to one of her potential exits.
The moment, she saw him, she couldn't help being surprised by his sudden appearance. When she had looked over in that direction, a few seconds ago, he hadn't been standing there.
Yet, now, he was.
“Follow me...I know the way out...”
At first she hesitated. Yet, once she thought it through, she found that she really didn't have that many options. Besides, something told her that this mysterious stranger, wasn't one of the red head's minions.
He had an appealing demeanor, and a stance that was very similar to Cirpian's. While she couldn't see him that well, she could make out certain characteristic; he had short brown hair, brown eyes, and a well groomed mustache. Any other characteristics, were lost due to him being too far away and, in all honesty, Genevieve could have cared less about his looks.
As she made her way over to the corridor, that she had seen the stranger near, she chanced a second glance back over at Cirpian, and was relieved to see, that he was not just handling himself well, but he was also adverting attention away from them to himself.
Before going down the partially lit corridor, that the stranger had disappeared down, she worriedly looked at Kyle, who, if possible, looked even more at death's door.
Adverting her gaze away from Kyle, she chanced a hesitant glance back at Cirpian. And that worry, that she had been feeling for her partner, was quickly replaced with arousal; when she noticed how agile Cirpian was, with that sword. With one clean swoop, he took off one jackass' head and, then, swiveling around, he decapitated another one.
In all honesty, it should have surprised Genevieve, not just by how inhumanly, stealthy, Cirpian was, but by how much she wasn't disgusted by the killing. Yet, the way her mind rationalized what was happening in front of her, was that these dickheads deserved killing; because of what they had done to Kyle, they deserved what they were getting.
“Follow me...hurry...!”
It was that persisted voice again, that had Genevieve not just surprised, but adverting her attention away from Cirpian; back to the corridor. As she stared down this dimly lit passageway, she noticed, then, that the stranger was standing at the far end; motioning to her to follow him.
Chancing one last, hesitant, glance over at Cirpian, Genevieve, tightening her grip on Kyle, followed the strange man.
XXX
If Cirpian had known who Genevieve was following, he most likely wouldn't have been too happy. Yet, at that moment, he had his own problems.
If it wasn't from the cheap blows, it was from someone trying to jump on his back and sink their fangs into his jugular.
Just when he had decapitated one bastard, he was having to swing around and take off another one's head.
This battle would have put him into his comfort zone, if not for two facts: One, his enemies were not honorable. And two, he was seriously worried about Genevieve.
Just when he thought he had the upper hand, it was then that he felt this sharp pain in his back.
As the knife went deep, almost to his spine, he instantly dropped his sword from the excruciating pain. Regardless of popular belief, vampires, weren't really immune to most pain; they had unbelievable healing powers, but there were those weak areas in their anatomy that could bring them down for the killer blow.
It was upon losing his sword, that one of Madeira's fledgelings kicked Cirpian hard in the ribs; knocking the breathe out of him. After he went down and two of Madeira's fledgelings had him by the arms, Madeira, coming over to him, knelt down beside him and, skimming her lips across his forehead, she said, resentfully, “What now..., slayer?”
XXX
As Genevieve took one turn after the other, following the strange voice in her head, she tried to figure out why this whole situation felt so familiar to her. Yet, because of the distracted weight of Kyle, she couldn't really put a finger on what it was.
It was that last turn, and where they ended up, that finally had it all dawning on her; why this had all looked so familiar.
Her nightmare.
This had all happened in her nightmare.
And, now, it seemed that she was reliving that nightmare all over again. Yet, unlike before, there was no annoying alarm clock to wake her up.
XXX
It was funny how an opponent could get it into their head, that they had the upper hand. Madeira had thought she had the upper hand on Cirpian. Yet, really it was the other way around.
“So, what now, slayer?”
It was that arrogant smile, on Cirpian's handsome face, that had Madeira automatically frowning at him.
“What are you smiling about...?”
“Shhh...” his grin deepened. “Just watch.”
When one of her fledgelings flew through the air, without his head, and slowly dissolved in front of her, Cirpian, grabbing one of the two fledgelings, that had hold of him, picked him up by the neck and after ripping his head, clean off of his shoulders, Cirpian then turned to the other one; and slammed his fist right through this fledgeling's face.
Since Cirpian still had the element of surprise, he grabbed the handle of the knife, that was still lodged in his back, and pulling it out, he threw it right at one of Madeira's fledgelings—hitting him directly in the head.
After he retrieved his sword, Madeira and, especially her slowly dwindling fledgelings, were still trying to figure out what the hell had happened.
Madeira had been positive, that it was just Cirpian.
Yet, Cirpian, had known before even slithering up the complex's building, to enter that window, that the idiot that he had thought he had dropped off at the airport; was not far away.
Brian.
After smilingly decapitating another fool, and, then, sniffing the air, he caught Brian's recognizable scent. He knew just from the way Brian's scent whiffed over to him, that he was off in the far left, doing the exact same thing as himself.
There was some comfort of him being there, at that moment, but, where Cirpian was concerned, he wouldn't let on to Brian.
The idiot would just get a big head.
XXX
As Madeira watched her fledgelings, one by one being decapitated; she wondered what was worse – one slayer or two.
She had thought all along, that it would just be Cirpian. Just from reading his thoughts, she had been led to believe this. Yet, evidently his thoughts had been more deceiving than himself; to his true intentions.
Liar!!!
If there was one thing she would not stand for, it was when people lied to her. Of course, she didn't see the problem in her lying to others. Yet, the other enraged her. Especially when she couldn't either catch the lie in their thoughts or their thoughts were able to deceivingly manipulate her.
It had been the case with both Cirpian and that stupid cop. Detective Freemen's thoughts had told her the exact same thing as Cirpian's—that she had come alone.
Yet, she hadn't.
How that human was able to deceive her, was a first for her. One that she was hoping to smooth over, by lying to herself that Cirpian had some how cloaked the detective's mind; she would be in denial, all the way up until the very end, about that stupid human being stronger than herself.
; Yet, no matter how much she tried reassuring herself; just that thought, alone, kept popping itself up like an annoying jack and a box.
What brought her some comfort, was seeing how one of her fledgelings was sneaking up on the second slayer with a sword of his own. He was just about there, and, once he got up behind him, possibly he would be able to strike that killer blow. Or, at least, distract Cirpian enough, that she could sneak away.
XXX
Genevieve couldn't believe it, her nightmare was coming true. She was standing just in the doorway of the exact same bedroom shaped room, that her nightmare had taken place in; another similarity, that had been in her nightmare, was that this room had an eery, yellowish, light hanging just above a boarded up door.
Now, wasn't that sucky ass.
“Shit...”
As her gaze wandered over the boarded up door, that was very similar to the one in her nightmare, she tried reassuring herself that this door was different. This door, for one, had rotted boards. While the boards in her nightmare...
Well, they were vague...
While this still wasn't much of a discrepancy, it appeared to somewhat calm her nerves.
“What's wrong?” it was Kyle's persisted voice, that had her instantly looking away from the door to him.
She didn't really want to tell Kyle her irrational fear. For one, he looked too drained to be able to handle any of her bullshit.
As she looked back the way she had come, she tried figuring out what she should do.
One, they could go back the way they came; the fighting didn't sound as bad—in fact she couldn't really hear anything.
Or two, she could try getting that door open.
Shit damn, her options were definitely not good.
“Gen..., I'm not going to make it.”
It was the drain in Kyle's voice, that had her not just adverting her attention back to him, but, ultimately, making up her mind.
“Hold on Kyle, we are going to get out of here...We're almost there.”
After she hesitantly glanced back in the direction she had come, she hastily carried Kyle into that dark room; toward the door.
While it didn't take but a few steps to get to that door, to Genevieve it had felt like an eternity. She had felt this foreboding feeling with every step and, while the room was deserted, her mind kept playing this nasty little trick on her; she kept imagining her sister's body, laying lifeless in the far right corner of the room.
Yet, it had taken a few brief glances for her to realize that that wasn't true.
It was still somewhat of a surprise, when they finally got over to that door. Yet, that surprise was quickly replaced with her survival instincts; she needed to get that door open, and Kyle out of here.
Now that she was able to see the door and boards a little more clearly, Genevieve could now see that the boards were more rotted than they had appeared from the doorway. Also, the door looked to have seen better years.
Grabbing hold of one of the boards, she tried, unsuccessfully, to yank this board away; with her one free hand. While the boards were rotted, Genevieve knew that, unless she either let Kyle go or she sprouted a third hand, that the board wouldn't budge.
Since the latter was inhumanly impossible, she would have to let Kyle go. The main problem she had with this option, though, was that irrational fear, that the moment she let him go, her nightmare could very well repeat itself.
She couldn't bear the image of James holding Kyle's severed head in his hands.
Grabbing hold of another board, that looked looser than the first one, she tried, again, to pull it free, but found, that like the first one, it wouldn't budge.
“Gen...” when she felt Kyle letting go of her, she tried tightening her grip on him. Yet, it was his persisted way of wanting to be free, that had him pushing himself away from her and stumbling over to the right side of the door.
Propping himself up against it, he said, “Gen, you can't hold me and try yanking those boards free... at the same time.”
While the desire to argue with him was just on the tip of her tongue, Genevieve realized that that argument would waste precious time; she needed to get those boards down and Kyle to a hospital.
Before she started yanking the boards down, she chanced one last brief hesitated glance over at him.
“Don't move from that spot...You hear me Detective Ernesto, you stay right there.”
“Yes..., mom...” it was that sarcastic smirk, that he gave her, that had a little smile tugging at Genevieve's lips.
Hastily grabbing the first board in sight, she swiftly yanked it free and then proceeded to yank more free after that one.
It was on the third to last board, that she was about to yank free, that she felt the hand on her shoulder. As she looked over at Kyle, she noticed how big his eyes had become. Yet, before she or him could even utter a word, she was roughly turned around.
This person's sudden appearance had had her so taken off guard, that she hadn't even time to utter a curse word. When her brain did eventually catch up with her eyes, she didn't even have enough time to react; before she was being yanked by her shirtfront, and then thrown, like a rag doll, through the air.
XXX
Brian hadn't really thought he would get away with double crossing Cirpian. It wasn't that he hadn't gone to Paris, he had; he had just doubled back – he had taken the first flight he could get, back to Tucson.
While he had only been in Tucson for three days. It was during those days, that he had wondered why it was that Cirpian hadn't yet figured out that he was back. He had thought for sure that Cirpian's senses would have picked him up a lot sooner, than right then. Yet, that hadn't been the case.
Possibly Cirpian was slipping. Where he had thought his old friend was invincible, he was starting to realize that the man had his draw backs. One of those draw backs, just so happened to be, what brought down most powerful men; the appealing appearance of a beautiful woman.
Or, in Cirpian's case, it had been that beautiful woman's scent.
His nostrils must have been all stopped up with that woman's scent.
Smiling at this thought, Brian swiftly took off another fledgeling’s head.
It was the sting of the sword past his ear lobe, that abruptly had his thoughts yanked back to the reality in front of him. Quickly turning around, he was somewhat taken off guard, when the fledgeling, in front of him, thrust his sword almost in his chest. After swiftly side stepping his quarry, he slapped the fledgeling's ass with his sword – eliciting a growl from his opponent.
If not for him pulling his attention away, and chancing a quick glance over to Cirpian, possibly Brian would have been paying more attention to his own opponent. Yet, instead, all he noticed was the fledgeling sneaking up on his old friend.
“Cirpian, watch out...!”
Again if Brian had been more focus on what he was doing, he wouldn't have ended up turning back to his opponent and having a sword thrust right through his chest – nearly missing his heart.
It was after he stared down at the sword in his chest, that his instincts kicked in and, angrily bring his sword up, he rammed it up through his opponent's groin and all the rest of the way up – cutting his quarry in half.
While he had successfully killed his opponent, it was the excruciating pain of having that sword in his chest, that had him kneeling over and dropping his blade. As he feebly tried to retrieve it, that's when he felt the sword at his throat.
“This just ain't your day, pretty boy.”
XXX
Being thrown, hadn't actually hurt. If anything, it had knock the breathe clean out of Genevieve. Yet, once she was able to get her equilibrium back, her survival instincts went on in full gear.
As she looked over to the person, who had thrown her, she was surprised and, at the same time, not that surprised to see that it was James.
As her gaze wandered over him, she noticed how his face was half way burned off. It was nothing, but bloody meat – it kind
of reminded her of the way ground beef looked, before it was cooked.
It was just that sight of his bloody, deformed, face, that had her stomach instinctively lurching.
Yet, what quickly put that lurch to rest, was when he turned his ugly attention to her partner. Just the thought of what he was going to do to Kyle, had her instincts kicking in.
Instinctively fishing that vial of water out of her pocket, she unscrewed the cap. It had been her first thought, to just run at James with the vial and toss it in his face. Yet, seeing how that had only worked to screw up his face and anger him, she decided on a different tactic.
Bring the vial up to her mouth, she took a quick swig of the stuff and, after hastily getting to her feet, she ran over to James.
Before James could even lay a finger on Kyle, she, grabbing James' arm, roughly turned him around and planted her lips directly to his.
XXX
Cirpian had successfully decapitated, not just the fledgeling in front of him, but the one Brian had warned him about. As he now made his way toward Madeira, he could sense how terrified she was. Yet, there was something else; she was still in denial about losing. In fact, from what her thoughts told him, she had one last ace up her sleeve; that she was going to use against him.
Yet, no matter how hard he tried to pry into her mind on what this ace was; her thoughts were unclear.
When Cirpian was not but an inch away from her, he immediately sense the change in her scent; she was no longer afraid. In fact, she was, if anything, very sure of herself.
Deciding to not let his thoughts dwell on why this was, he raised his sword. It was just as he was about to bring his sword down, that she said, “I guess you have no use for your friend...”
Halting, he stoically stared right through her. “You know something, Cirpian, you and I are not so different...You, like me, use others to obtain what you want...”
The whole time that Cirpian had been listening to Madeira speak, he had also been paying close attention to his surroundings.
While his sense of smell was alerting him, to Brian being badly wounded; his acute hearing, was what warned him that there was a fledgeling behind him.
“You have a choice to make..., either me...or your friend.”
The Alexandru Chronicles: The Beginning Page 28