Chapter 2
It was around two hours before dawn when Blade drove into the warehouse. An old rock and roll song was blasting from the speakers, accompanied by the sound of sparks and power tools in the workshop. Blade stopped the engine after parking and pressed the button for the garage door to close.
Whistler walked from behind a corner, wiping his oil covered hands into a rag.
"You're back, how did it go?" he asked.
Blade only grunted as he got out and opened up the back passenger side door and carefully pulled out a sleeping Amore. He closed the door and turned to see Whistler already walking away.
"I'm surprised you're already back, what was it a slow night or something?" the older man asked before turning around and seeing the sleeping girl in Blade's arms.
"Who the fuck is that?!" he yelled.
"Don't freak out Whistler," Blade said as he walked towards the cot set up in the medical bay.
He placed Amore on the cot, took off her shoes and pulled a blanket over her before walking to the next room.
"Don't freak out?! Are you kidding me," Whistler yelled. "What in the world is wrong with you? You brought a child here?! Have you forgotten what we do Blade?"
"No I haven't forgotten but she doesn't have any parents, and I couldn't just leave her," he growled.
"Why the hell not?"
"Those cuts and bruises aren't just from the vampires that attacked her tonight Whistler! Some of those were old, plus the girl is mostly bones she probably hasn't eaten in weeks. Damn it old man I couldn't just leave her out there to die! She was lucky I was there tonight, if not they would've bled her dry and God knows what else" Blade yelled.
At those words, Whistler's face softened, he knew Blade was right. Hell, he had witnessed firsthand what those bastards could do, and it would sit too heavy on his conscious to know that he put an innocent child back on the streets with those things. But this was no place for a child, he didn't want to bring in this girl to their world.
'Well that went out the window when those bloodsuckers went after her,' Whistler thought to himself before sighing, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Blade," he started but he before Whistler could continue the little girl walked into the room, rubbing the sleep from her eyes yawning. The blanket Blade had given her, clenched in her tiny fist making the blanket wrap around her like a cape.
She looked at Whistler and then ran towards Blade, who picked her up. 'She's already got him wrapped around his finger,' Whistler thought, chuckling and shaking his head.
"What's your name?" Whistler asked her, she blinked her eyes slowly at him in response.
"Her name's Amore, I don't think she can speak" Blake answered him.
Whistler nodded, "how old is she?"
To that, the girl proudly held up five fingers with a smirk on her face, obviously proud that she could answer that question.
"Five, huh?" Whistler grumbled then looked at the child for a few moments before groaning in defeat.
"Alright, she can stay…but she better not be any trouble. Lucky for us I know sign language so I can teach that to her so we can communicate better. Until then we could use notes, do you know how to read or write?"
She pinched her fingers close together, squeezing her eyes to further her point. "Alright, we'll work on that too."
"Thanks, old man" Blade said, and Whistler roller his eyes walking away.
Whistler simply replied, "shut up! I'm not old."
Blade snickered and looked at Amore who was now fighting to stay awake, "come on let's get you to bed." He walked over to the med bay and put her on the cot, said goodnight, then turned off the light.
He walked up the stairs and into his room and closed the door behind him. Amore looked up after him and after watching the door for a few minutes, scrambled off the cot and slowly climbed the stairs.
Tilting her head back, she narrowed her eyes at the doorknob way above her head and stuck her tongue out in concentration. She bent down and shook her butt a little in preparation before jumping up and turning the doorknob.
The door cracked open slightly, and the girl peeked into his room to see him laying down on his bed, she quietly walked into the room and closed the door behind her.
Looking around, she saw that it was neat but filled with only the necessities such as a bed, side table, and a dresser. There were few decorations though it did hold an Asian style of decoration.
Walking up to the side of the bed, she went on her tiptoes so she could see over the bed. Peeking over the edge, she slowly reached out and poked the sleeping Blade.
He grunted and but didn't wake up, so she poked him again. Still nothing. So she poked him again and again, still nothing. Finally, the girl got annoyed and shoved him hard, but her plan backfired as she fell back on her butt.
He growled in annoyance and looked over, shocked to see the two blue eyes staring up at him from the floor. "What are you doing, how did you get in here…and why are you on the floor?" Blade asked, raising an eyebrow.
Sitting up, he asked her "didn't I just put you to bed?"
Amore looked up at him and then put her hands up, clenching her fingers a little in reply.
For a second Blade was confused before it hit him.
"Oh no, you're not sleeping in here. You have a bed downstairs," shaking his head.
She just looked at him and then she pouted slightly, but Blade continued to shake his head. She frowned before widening her eyes, even adding tears to her eyes, threatening to spill over onto her caramel cheeks.
"Amore," he growled, "don't you dare do it."
Amore nodded her head, her eyes growing wider causing Blade to groan. Boom, there it was. The puppy dog face.
With that, Blade sighed and finally gave in. Leaning over, he picked her up and sat her down next to him on the bed. "Fine you can stay in here, just stay on your side."
Amore smiled and looked at him and then laid her head on his chest along with her arm and closed her eyes. He grunted and tried to move her, but she grabbed his arm and wouldn't let go.
'This girl is going to be the end of me' he thought with a sigh and closed his eyes and relaxed, eventually falling asleep.
15 years later
The night air was warm and quiet, few people were walking the streets, and all seemed well to anyone that didn't know the real horrors that occurred in the city. Most were unaware of the dark world that laid right under their noses. Unknowing to the claiming of hundreds of lives of those that were unlucky enough to be dragged into that world, the world of the vampires. Death was massive in the air, as well as a strange feeling of anticipation. It felt as though something big was about to happen to the people of the city.
Downtown, a semi-truck drove down the streets and while it appeared ordinary, what it held inside its trailer was anything but that…
** Inside the truck***
Soft rock played from the radio of a classic black Challenger that sat in the back of the truck. Inside sat a young woman of no more than twenty, twirling a switchblade knife on the palm of her hand. Tattoos crept up past her long sleeve crop top, revealing a dangling moon belly piercing, as well as white tribal tattoos that twirled around her sides and back. She nodded her head to the beat of the music, checking her watch to view the timer that was ticking down in greenlit numbers.
Feeling the truck speed up, she grinned and pulled her hair up in a bun, a few of the white strands hanging around her face. Looking over herself quickly, she counted her pair of katanas, ten tanto knives and loaded her 45 mag., placing it in her thigh holster.
At that moment, she heard Whistler honk the horn followed by a large thud and some rolling.
'Playtime' she thought with a smirk, before seeing the doors open and Blade run inside. Right outside the door, some man sat blaring his horn, cursing at Blade.
She looked at the man with a bored expression, what was honking going to do at this moment? They were in a sixteen-wheeler truck, and he was driving a tiny little car…yeah, that works out.
Blade opened the door and climbed in, turning on the engine and looked over at her quickly.
"Ready?" he asked to which the woman smirked and spun her switchblade. With that, they burst out of the truck and flew over the car with its angry driver, who screamed in fright and pulled over to the side.
Hitting the ground, Blade landed in the middle lane of the traffic and stopped the car before hitting the cars that were coming in their direction, barely missing the car in front of them. Throwing the car in reverse, he expertly turned the car around to face the correct course of traffic without stopping. Speeding up, he pulled up next to the truck, and they both looked over to see Whistler give them a thumbs up, and she waved to him before they drove past.
Looking ahead, she saw the two vampires on their bikes, Blade pressed the NOS button that she had recently installed, and in a few moments, they were right behind them.
He looked over at her, "nice work with the engine work Amore."
She looked over at him and nodded her head in thanks, holding in the proud smirk that wanted to form on her lips.
That wasn't an issue, however, after one of the vamps turned around on his bike, and started to shoot at the car, putting three bullet holes in the windshield. Then the other turned around and began to fire too, adding more holes.
Blade gave a dark chuckle and nodded his head, while Amore narrowed her eyes, now she was going to have to install a new windshield…again. Looking over at Blade, she signed, "the one with hair is mine."
"All yours," he said, smirking. He knew how much work Amore was constantly putting into the car and how she felt when it got messed up, which was frequent with their line of work.
Blade sped up and ran over the other vamp, the other saw this and shot at us a few more times before putting away his gun and driving into the opposite lane then back into our lane once we passed him.
Looking through the back window, Amore saw the guy grinning, thinking he had the upper hand. I rolled my eyes, knowing what Blade was about to do. Blade slowed the car down, and the guy crashed through the back window.
'Make that two windows to fix' she thought before the man landed on her, face in her lap which pissed her off even more.
Glaring at him, she kneed him in the face, catching the back of it and using the force of the hit to force his face even harder into the dashboard. Grabbing the end of his shirt, she thrust him up into the roof a few times before dropping him. Opening her door and grabbed her gun, she threw him out the door, shooting him right before the car next and back to them could hit him.
She closed the door and wiped off the ashes that had fallen on her with a stoic expression. I looked at Blade, and he smirked and said "Nice shot."
"Thank you" I replied when all of a sudden the first vamp that we had run over jumped up from underneath the car.
She had to give him props, he had been hanging on to the underside for a little while. He screeched and started to pound on the hood trying to intimidate them, to which they both raised an eyebrow and Amore tilted her head to the side.
It was like he was having a temper tantrum.
He got further up and started to crack the windshield more than it already was. Amore gave Blade her gun, and he shot the vampire in the head turning him into ashes.
Unfortunately, most of the ashes stained the window and caused it hard to see the road. Blade turned on the window wipers, but they didn't help much and Blade tried looking out the window to see the way.
Ahead of us was a car that contained two vamps, started to shoot at us and began to laugh. Amore flipped the ultraviolet lights on, and the shooter ducked down while the driver turned around and began to burn and die.
Turning the lights off, Blade sped up and rammed into the car ahead causing it to hit a roadblock and flip over and slide a couple of feet, not stopping until it hit a pole.
Some civilians ran up to the car and opened the door, pulling him out. However, he jumped up and shoved them away, trying to scramble away from the scene.
The pair drove up and stepped out of the car, Amore staying back to lean against the hood of the vehicle as Blade kept walking up and shot him. But he didn't burst into ashes making Amore think something was up, looking around she saw that the crowd was starting to grow larger. Frowning, Blade walked over to the now laughing man, "why aren't you a pile of ash?" Blade asked.
The man laughed and showed him something on his wrist, then he pulled out his…fake fangs.
'Shit' Amore thought, 'this is starting to give off a bad vibe.'
He was a familiar and then he told him Blade was set up, as he said that he looked at something over Blade's shoulder. She followed his line of sight and saw some woman videotaping the whole thing from one of the buildings.
She looked over to Blade in worry and saw him growl at the now dead familiar. He turned around, and they got back into the car and started driving back to the warehouse.
It was silent between the two before she looked over at him, "Whistler is going to be pissed."
Blade nodded, "I know."
An angry Whistler was not something you ever wanted to deal with. He wasn't able to stay mad at Amore long, seeing as though he saw Amore like his grandchild. However, with Blade, he gets as angry as a bull seeing red in a matador match and would last a little while longer than his anger at the woman.
The moment the Challenger rolled into the garage, they were met with a fuming Whistler. The moment they got out the car, he began to yell that we were incredibly stupid and he had trained them better.
Amore knew that Whistler was right about the sloppiness of tonight and that he had a right to be angry. They all knew the risk and that this had a strong possibility of coming back and biting them on the ass. However, she knew that Whistler digging into their asses right now, especially Blade's, was not going to fix what had happened. They had been tricked, and now they were going to have to deal with the repercussions as best as they could.
She walked over to Whistler in mid-rant and placed a hand on his shoulder. He looked over at her, to see her frowning, with one shake of her head and the look in her eyes, he knew what she was trying to say. He looked over at Blade for a moment before he hobbled away to his work, grumbling.
Blade walked off, grumbling something about meditating, leaving Amore to herself. She couldn't help a soft chuckle at the two men with how much they were similar though polar opposites. She wouldn't trade either of them for the world though.
Amore could barely remember the night that Blade had saved her, though she did remember some flashes of what had happened. What she did know, was that the two had raised her and they were her family. They had been through hell together, shuddering at the memory of Frost and those horrendous reapers. She didn't even want to remember the time where they had been searching for Whistler, the state that they had found him in…
Shaking her head, she rid herself from reflecting on the memory and moved over to the weapons table. They each had their own thing, Whistler was all the technical and gadget crafts and Blade had his meditation and nightly ventures. Amore, she had the best of both worlds, creating weapons for Blade's Challenger and fixing the car itself.
There was nowhere she would rather be, besides that she felt as though there was no way that she would've survived if Blade hadn't found her. Blending in wasn't exactly an option for her, having white hair and blue eyes with brown skin wasn't exactly common. Add the fact that, her eyes were extremely sensitive to sunlight and without wearing some kind of protection. Without sunglasses, or goggles her eyes would bleed and she had a risk of going blind and being mute was enough of a struggle, although she embraced it.
She placed her katanas on the wall and laid her knives and gun on the table. Amore felt slightly disappointed in not using her knives but didn't dwell too hard on it. She cleaned and checked over her piece, making sure it was reloaded before heading over to the car to check out the damages.
Just as she was about to check under the hood, she heard faint rumbling, similar to that of a helicopter.
'Relax, it could be headed for anywhere,' she tried to reassure herself, but the feeling of dread in her stomach let her know otherwise.
Slamming the car hood back down, she grabbed her gun before making her way up to the overhead walkway where she met up with Blade and Whistler, the latter which was holding a shotgun.
"What is it?" Whistler asked Blade.
"What you were afraid of."
That's when the windows busted and smoked started to fill the warehouse. The only thought that crossed my mind was
'Well, shit…'
