*Alright, it's a little longer than I meant for it to be but...oh well. This is the sequel to Bagged. This makes absolutely NO sense if you haven't read Bagged so...read it! Heh. Enjoy.*
"We don't need your help, human!" a vamp chick snapped as I chased the local VHB (Van Helsing Brigade) away from her group of vamps. What is a group of vamps called anyway? Totally not the point. The point was that not three months ago I had been a leader with a powerful army at my disposal. Now I was…what? Just some human? Great. Hero to zero.
"Come on now," Erol growled, pulling Connor to his feet after he'd been knocked over by the brigade's leader. "That human just saved your life. She's on our side."
The chick rolled her eyes and her pierced nostrils flared. "We're nowhere near the same side. Just because she's a vamp groupie doesn't mean we're on the same side."
"Hey now," Gia scoffed, coming at the vamp confrontationally. "She ain't a groupie! She's done more for vamps than you can even imagine." Little Gia crossed her arms over her chest and glared up at the vamp chick. "In fact, it's thanks to her that the Baggings were called off. I suggest you tell her how much you appreciate her. Worshipping her wouldn't be out of the question." She threw a playful smile my way.
The vamp chick looked Gia up and down. "You can help me any day, sweetie," she said, flirtatiously.
Connor and Erol stifled laughter, though not very efficiently. "You are so not my type," Gia chuckled at the wannabe punk vamp with bright pink hair, stylishly torn shirt and black cargo pants. She looked like late 90s punk personified, except she bathed.
Gia's response didn't deter the girl. "Oh come on. I know you're a…friend of Sappho."
"Never said I wasn't," Gia retorted with a smirk. "Doesn't mean I go for the likes of you." This pissed the punk chick off.
"Guys, let's go," Desmond sighed. "We came, we saw, we kicked some ass. End of story." Funny coming from the guy who beat the crap out of this one vamp in Boston for asking if he wanted to share his human whore (referring to me). As if he was one to shy from a fight.
Daydream kissed her mate on the cheek. "Desmond's right you guys. Leave the ingrates to suffer another attack without our help." She gave the punk chick a knowing stare. "One less vamp making trouble for the rest of us."
The punk vamp looked around at her followers, nervously. "What do you mean?"
"She means you're going to die tonight, sweet cheeks," Gia barked. She could be so scary for such a little thing. "We came here to prevent that. Gain more ground for vamps. It was actually that human who told us that we couldn't let you die." The punk chick gave me an appraising stare. "You okay Mari?" Gia asked. "You look confused."
I nodded. "Who is Sappho?"
The punk vamp gave me a strange look and Gia smiled at me. Not any normal smile. The smile I had come to learn meant that I had just said or done something fairly stupid. It was loving while still a little patronizing. I looked over at Daydream who mouthed "Ancient lesbian" in answer to my question. I nodded in understanding, though why "friend of Sappho" seemed like a topical reference for lesbian I could never understand. Why not just say lesbian? Clear everything up.
I shook my head of my own ignorance. "Look, whether you want my help or not, I'm here to offer it. My friends here are extremely powerful vamps who could help keep you and yours out of harm's way tonight." The vampyre looked into my eyes as I spoke, as if she was seeing me in a different light. "The choice is yours. If you were any kind of a leader you would want these people defending your friends. Your family." I crossed my arms in front of my chest. The vamp's eyes widened. I looked down to see that my shirt had been pulled down a little to reveal the mark on my chest.
"You're her," the vamp practically whispered. "The one they've been talking about. You're Nyx's right hand. The one who saved all those Bagged folk. The Blessed one." I suppressed a sigh. I was getting awful tired of that nickname. "I'm Astrid," she stuck out her hand. Suddenly I was worthy of an introduction? Ugh, whatever. I shook her outstretched hand.
"I'm Mari," I replied, looking her over. A smile touched my lips. "So what was your birth name, Astrid?"
Astrid blushed and looked down at the ground. "Mollie." She immediately glared at Connor and Erol as if they were ready to insult her. "And I don't wanna hear anything about that name! It's so…girly. I changed it to Astrid at my House of Night." She turned back to Gia and me, like we were her sympathetic ears. "Astrid is old Norse for divine strength." She pushed her chin out, proudly.
"So you're like…super strong?" Erol asked, receiving an unwarranted glare from Astrid.
"Yes. I would be a female warrior if things weren't so crazy right now. Does that surprise you?"
My comrades broke down laughing. "Sorry," Desmond sighed. "It's just…you clearly have never met the great warrior Boudicca. She makes me feel like a little girl." It was hard to imagine anyone making the muscular and manly Son of Erebus feel emasculated in any way, but the nearly Amazonian vampyre would definitely be the one to do it.
Astrid ignored our laughter and gave me another look over. "So when will they be attacking?" she continued. "When will my people be out of danger?"
I stared at her as the wind blew my hair in my face. "Haven't you been paying attention to the world around you? You're constantly in danger. This danger just happens to be immediate and predicted. Specifically between eight and twelve tomorrow night."
She stared at all of us a for a moment before scoffing. "And how do I know you're not doing this just to get into our home and steal from us? Or mooch off of us at the very least?"
"Look," Connor sighed, tired of being silent. "If you don't want our help, fine. We'll be on our way. We have to get to our friends in Florida. This just happened to be on our way and Mari demanded that we help you." He gave me a little glare. "It was moderately annoying." Connor had grown to realize I was frustrating. Good. It would help him survive with us.
Truth was, I was the only one who wanted to stop in Valdosta, Georgia, to help these people out before getting down to the Norton brothers, David and Tyler, in Florida. David, one of my best friends, and his twin brother had made a beeline straight to Miami from Maine, trying to get as far from that horrible testing facility as they could while still on the east coast. They had taken in a bunch of vamps and humans alike who had helped one another during the time of the Baggings. Unfortunately, a VHB down there had turned seriously nasty and was giving them some problems. They called for us.
The day before, we had been in this place called Salem, a few hours north of Valdosta. We were helping some folks get to a safe house, and one of them turned out to be psychic…similar to Connor's brand of psychic except this person was a vamp. She told us about an issue down in Valdosta, in that creepy and vague way. Gia checked into our future and saw what would happen. I seemed to be the only one who wanted to make this little stop in order to prevent a massacre and I couldn't figure out why. Gia, Connor and Erol had been very against it while Daydream and Desmond, though not entirely pleased with the idea, seemed rather ambiguous about the whole situation. It had only been three months. Was my team already losing their passion for helping people? Connor I could understand, he wanted to find out what god he was meant to serve. He wanted to know who had given him this ability to give creepy prophesies. This was all just in the meantime. He wanted to know as soon as possible. What excuse did everyone else have?
"Mari," Gia whined, giving me her puppy dog eyes. "They don't want our help. Let's just go. We can probably make it to Miami before dawn." She furrowed her brow, deepening the puppy dog eye effect. Unfortunately for her, I had become almost immune to it.
I gave her a stern look then looked back at Astrid and her nervous team. "So what'll it be?" I asked.
Astrid took us to their hide out which turned out to be an abandoned warehouse. Oh yeah, that didn't scream PEOPLE ARE HIDING HERE at all. It was a wonder they hadn't suffered this kind of attack before.
"It's most likely that they will attack there, there, there and there," Gia informed them, after breathing in the essence of the place and getting a feel for its future. She pointed to two large windows on the upstairs level, a single large window on the lower floor and the main doors. "You should have at least two people stationed near them at all times. It's the best way to ensure that they won't catch you by surprise."
A skeptical male vamp stared at Gia as she gave her orders. "Only likely? If you can't even be sure then what kind of psychic are you?"
"The kind who sees all and therefore knows that probability is something to be taken into account," Desmond countered. "She can see every outcome and knows which ones are more likely than others. Be grateful." Desmond barked the last sentence, glaring at the vampyre. He'd become very protective of Gia in the last few months.
"Just trust us," Daydream added, holding Desmond's hand as though she was holding him back. She gave a sweet smile. "We've got this down to a science." And she was right. This certainly wasn't the first time we'd come in and pulled off one of this missions. In fact, it was getting to be a habit of ours. We came in, Gia psychically checked the place out and told people what to expect, we dealt with the attackers and left the next day. We were like those cowboys in old westerns. Where ever trouble was, we'd be there. Unfortunately, trouble was everywhere.
"So you do this a lot?" Astrid asked, somewhat dubious.
Erol chuckled. "Only every day that ends in a Y."
The skeptical guy continued to look us over. "So then what's in it for you?"
Gia and Erol looked like they were about to come at the guy so I intervened. "We get to help those in need. The more vamps that get killed the less ground we have to stand on. But we don't charge people if that's what you're getting at." I could tell by his reaction that this was exactly what he was getting at. "We do appreciate people allowing us to eat some of their food, but we ask for nothing."
"What do we get from you, human?" he asked, eyeing the blue veins which were pretty bright in the crook of my elbow. He was talking about my blood. Typical. Thinking with his teeth.
"You get the crap beat out of you if you look at her like that again," Gia growled. I had actually expected Erol to say it. He did, however, step in front of me with her as if shielding me. Like they hadn't learned that I was completely capable of taking care of myself.
Astrid socked the guy in the gut, causing him to fall back and double over. She wasn't kidding about that divine strength stuff. "Show some respect, Tony. That's the Blessed one you're talking to."
I cringed. "I'm Mari. Please…leave out the…title or whatever. I don't really care for it." I was starting to miss Jason. He always made sure to treat me like I didn't matter at all. Oh goddess…there was something so wrong about that.
Tony got to his feet, coughing from having the wind knocked out of him. "So she's marked by Nyx. Big whoop. So are we. She's still just a human.
I watched as both Erol and Gia tensed, ready to fight. "It shouldn't matter what I am, or what you are for that matter. That's the point. That's what we are fighting for." I gave him a hard look. "I don't know about you."
"Is it true?" a frail looking blonde girl asked, cutting through the tension. "Can your blood heal us? Bring us back from the brink of death?" She seemed so excited. Like a puppy when its people come home.
"Yep," Desmond chuckled. "These three can attest to that, personally." He pointed to Daydream, Erol and Gia, all of whom I had saved.
The other vamps in Astrid's group began to stare. Ah yes, the freak show attention I was so used to. I'd missed it so. Not.
