My feet pounded heavily against the dirt trail. Dried leaves and twigs crunched underfoot. Air rasped harshly against my throat as I tried to draw yet another desperate breath. My eyes stung as horrified tears attempted to escape.
I couldn't hear them, but they were there.
The feeling of panic grew, a roaring flame of terror consuming me. I twisted my neck painfully in an attempt to catch sight of my pursuers. They were playing with me, I knew it. They could have outrun me by now.
Had they never been taught that it was rude to play with their food?
My sides felt as though they had been ripped apart. There was only a few miles left. I could do it, I had to.
Oooomph!
As I turned my head, towards my destination once again, I ran straight into what felt like a tree. I bounced off of the obstacle in my path, landing on my back in the foliage littering the ground. My head slammed into something hard, dazing me. I tried to regain my feet but the world spun before I could reach a seated position.
Looking up, through the haze, it was easy to identify the creature standing over me. Red rimmed eyes gazed at me, hunger evident.
They were faster than I had ever imagined, I hadn't even seen it. It had seemed to appear out of nowhere.
"Get away. Get away!" I warned, waving the silver stake which was grasped in my hand, in front of me.
The nightmarish thing gripped my arm and dragged me to my feet. His hold on my wrist was so strong that a cry of pain tore from my throat. He squeezed harder, forcing my hand to open. The stake dropped to the ground, useless, my eyes followed it as he kicked it carelessly into the scrubbery.
"You fool yourself." The creature growled, taking hold of my hair he yanked sharply upwards. Peering at my neck a snare crept across his face "You aren't even marked. You think that pathetic little stick could hurt us? We were here before your grandfather walked this earth." He held me upright by my hair, my legs no longer supporting me, I simply hung there.
"She is young, is she not?" An observer questioned. "And pretty. What say we wake her? What a waste it would be to send her to her eternal sleep?"
"I'm starving." The first snarled. "It has been almost a week since we last fed and you want to make her one of us? Another mouth to feed?" Discarding me to the forest floor, the creature made his way towards the previous speaker, the one who thought I was too good to just eat. I scrambled across the ground, trying to reach the stake, my limbs weak, struggling desperately to gain purchase on the gritty forest floor. I slowly managed to drag myself a little closer to the only weapon available.
"Well, if one more awakened, creates one more mouth to feed, surely one less makes things easier for me." Looking back over my shoulder I stopped in horror. From where I lay I had a uninterrupted view of the creature taking hold of the Strigoi's head in one hand and shoulder in the other before he twisted his wrist deftly, pulling the head clear of the body. The other strigoi fell limp to the ground..
He showed no emotion at all as he tossed the head carelessly away.
"The sun will soon rise, so unless you have any objections I'm going to begin," he stated authoritatively, addressing the two others gathered next to the body of what had moments before been a living monster..
Pulling me into his arms he pushed the hair free of my neck. Bunching it into his fist he pulled my head to the side, exposing my vein.
I struggled, trying to throw my head from side to side, kicking out, thrashing my arms. I couldn't do anything to stop him. The more I struggled the tighter his grip became.
"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. It's up to you, half-breed."
The venom strigoi possessed could cause the most incredible sensations, an intense pleasure nothing else could compete with, but I had no wish to trade my life for these imagined feelings. I fought even harder, kicking out at him as hard as my weak limbs could manage.
He said nothing before grasping my head between his hands an lowering his exposed fangs. As they slid into my skin I felt the most excruciating pain imaginable. Nothing I had previously experienced could compare to this. I had not imagined something could hurt as much as it did in that moment.
Slowly the pain lessened, the whole world began to dissolve in front of my eyes. I vaguely noticed two additional sets of fangs entering my skin at the crease of each elbow.
I fought onwards, although I knew in such a state my protestations were useless.
The darkness encroached on my vision further. My sight narrowing.
Eventually, no matter how hard I tried, my limbs would not thrash as my mind instructed them.
Then I heard it, a distant pounding. The sound of horse hooves slamming against the dry mud. A small flicker of hope ignited within my chest, but it was quickly smothered.
My eyes completely clouded over and I fell into a pool of shadows, unaware of anything but some sort of floating sensation.
They were too late. Darkness claimed me.