It seemed sorrow and gravity ganged up on her for it was too much for her to bear as she came to knees. She sobbed uncontrollably as she waited for some sign that this was all but a dream that Arnold was ok. His eyes were lifeless, the stench of his blood filled the air around them. She wished his life was spared instead of hers for he was her master, husband, and protector. It was all in a matter of seconds and he was gone just like that it seemed surreal like it wasn't really happening. Dracula seemed pleased with the outcome of his handy work and smiled proudly as he approached Astrid who was still being constrained by Hector.

"Take a good look Astrid. You see what happens to my enemies they all perish each and every one of them." Said Dracula as he approached her.

She refused to look she couldn't any more it was at this point a struggle to do so. All she felt compelled to do was run, run far away from this place far from Dracula far from her problems just anywhere peace was guaranteed. Dracula cupped her chin firmly making her look up once again at Arnold who was stewing in his own pool of blood. Had she not suffered enough? Why prolong this torment? She thought.

"This would've went much smoothly if he would have just complied with my demands. A pity Arnold seems to never learn from his mistakes. What he fails to realize he may have won the battle, but I'll always win the war. With that in mind... I ask you if will come peacefully and do this the easy way."

He gently wiped a tear of blood escaping her eyes with his finger before he went to lick the blood off his thumb. His eyes lit up an electric blue as the taste of her blood was divine only left him wanting more, but this was not the time for that. They needed to flee the scene for someone surely would've noticed the commotion by now.

"Or we can do this the hard way and you shall share the same fate as Arnold. Life is full of choices and it seems to me yours are limited at the moment."

"Fuck you! I'm not going anywhere with you." Shouted Astrid before she spit in his face as Dracula was still crouching before her.

Immediately he wiped the spit that managed to get into his eye off him with his sleeve. Astrid didn't have much time to react when she felt a stinging sensation across her left cheek causing her head to swing to the right. Dracula had slapped her he was furious with her defiance, but at the same time half expected it. The gypsy blood flowed through her veins which accounted for her feisty and bold behavior.

"You're lucky I'm in a considerate mood today princess. Such behavior will not be tolerated going forward. Hector we best be off, shall we?" stated Dracula as he arose from the floor.

Astrid with her head still feeling stuck looking right looked at the door that was wide open still. She had to escape in this very moment for this was her one and only chance. The place where she had called home for thirty years now had nothing left to offer her now. Her old life as she knew of it was shattered and beyond repair. There was no fixing this it was to much too handle she had to escape right then and there. Sharply she elbowed Hector in the stomach causing him to release her wrists before she bolted off and ran out the front door.

"Get up you idiot! She is getting away." Dracula angrily shouted at Hector who was doubled down in pain on the floor.

Hector proved useless so Dracula once more had to control the situation at hand and ran out the front door after Astrid in the pouring down rain.

Her lungs felt like they were on fire as she ran down Portsmouth drive in the pouring down rain. She could hear them shouting out after her, but there was no sense in running. Running was a futile point of escape so in that moment she decided to do something she hadn't done so in a long time and that was spread her wings while taking off into dark clouded sky. Black wings ripped through her skin of her back causing a brief moment in pain till they full elongated as she prepared to touch off the ground. Leather wings black as night carried her higher and higher into the atmosphere with the rain soaking her as it heavily came down upon her. As she flew up towards the heavens everything and everyone looked like ants to her down below. She could see the lights of all the houses, skyscrapers, and streets as if it looked like some sort of electrical grid. The beautiful breathtaking view below was short lived when she could hear a loud shrieking noise behind her. Glancing over her shoulder she could see two black winged beasts heading in her direction. Adrenalin kicked causing her to beat her wings faster, she didn't have a clue where she was going or where to fly to it was all a matter of losing them as she dove in and out of the clouds before her.

"Take that side." Commanded Dracula as Hector sped up to the left of Astrid and Dracula remained on the right of her.

Hector was now parallel to her as was Dracula for she seemed sandwiched between the two of them in the open air. Hector made his first move and rammed right into her causing her to collide with Dracula who was flying next to her.

"You're surrounded Astrid give up now and we shall show you mercy, we swear of it!" hollered Hector over the heavy rain and howling wind.

"Right! Just like how you showed Arnold mercy. I think I'll take my chances." She said as she elevated herself higher up into the atmosphere as the two trailed behind her.

The air became dryer and thinner the farther up she traveled, though the sky seemed infinite she wasn't sure how much higher up she could go. Weaving in and out of the blankets of clouds she turned to look over her shoulder again to see no one was following her. Astrid flapped her wings keeping her elevated as she circled around to see if there was any sight of them anywhere.

Everything about this situation was less than to be desired for Arnold was gone, her one and only ally. Even if she was to escape them and make it out of this alive, Hector would have members of the Ventrue hunt her down. With Arnold gone, all her family dead, and now Dracula was after she agreed she would need a miracle right now. Continuing to hover in the air lost in her own thoughts of where to go from here she wasn't paying to Hector who was approaching her. The loud blowing of the wind made it easy for him to sneak up on her undetected leaving her vulnerable to his attacks. It all happened so fast that one minute she was alone and then next Hector was only a couple feet in front of her giving no time for Astrid to even move out of the way.

Astrid took a blow to the stomach as he collided into her, but not only that he had his claws deeply embedded in one of her wings. Hector seemed to be enjoying this little game of cat n mouse as he watched Astrid helplessly try to free her wing from his grasp.

"Awe why do you resist me Astrid. I thought we were better than that?" said Hector with much sarcasm before cutting deeper into wing with his sharp nails.

With one wing flapping and Hector holding the other one she couldn't keep herself afloat. This constant power struggle between the two made Astrid feel as if she was on the losing side here. Her circumstances dire and the only thing keeping her from plummeting towards the earth was Hector till had grasp of her wing.

"Let go of me!" she commanded as she made a final attempt to try shaking him off her wing, but Hector was persistent.

"Oh, now you want me to let go of you. Could've fooled me two summers ago when you attended my party. You couldn't keep your hands off me from what I recall."

"You're insane! You know that? Now let go of me." Hollered Astrid over the loud wind that whipped at her wet hair.

It was becoming apparent he wasn't going to let go and it would be only a matter of time before Dracula would show up again. No way she was going to go peacefully with these two, she rather be dead burning in hell than suffer this fate. The one and only option she foresaw she could take in that instant was something she dreaded on ever doing. The pain would be immense and there was no telling if she would live through the whole ordeal of cutting off her wing, but it appeared to be her only option. Hector immediately stopped laughing at Astrid's expense when he saw her trying to tear off her wing with her nails.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting the hell away from you!"

"Listen to me before you do something you will regret." Implored Hector as he saw the blood gushing from her open wound.

"I've heard enough from you to last me an eternity. Everything is so fucked up right now because of you. How could you? How could you betray us like this?"

"I can very easily live with myself for I didn't become head of the Ventrue by being friendly to everyone I have crossed paths with. Now you're in quite the dilemma and I'm offering you a way out. Unless you want to share the same exact fate as your family and now Arnold, I suggest you come with me now while we still have a chance to escape."

The two looked to their left as they could hear a loud screeching sound in the distance. Dracula was coming he would reach them in a matter of seconds and certainly not enough to decide on the offer she was just given.

"Astrid he's coming! Stop pissing around and let's go."

"No..."

"What do you mean no? He plans to kill you once he gets back to Romania."

"I don't care anymore... Let him come. With my family and Arnold gone...I have no reason to live. You guys have taken everything and I can't justify living this life anymore when there is nothing left. Said Astrid just before she went to slice the remainder of her wing off her back.

"Noooooo!" cried Hector as he watched her plunge down into the depths below. Hector was in such disbelief the only thing solidifying the fact that she actually did it was the torn off wing of hers in his grasp. Dracula saw everything that had happened the moment she had cut off her wing and could almost in that moment imagine the pain that it must have caused. With Hector still shaken by what happened Dracula wasted no time and went to sped off on after her.

Amount of pain from severing her wing caused her to black out sending her rapidly falling towards the landscape below. Memories started to flash before her eyes as she entered this deep dark sleep. The memory of her brother and sister chasing her in a game of tag on the castle grounds...the days spent by the Mures river trying to catch fish with her bare hands it was all coming back to her. She was overcome by nostalgia over her past, a past she tried her hardest to forget about. Voices soon after could be heard and she could hear her father calling out her name. The voice was calm and stern like she had always remembered and for a brief moment it brought tears to her eyes. Astrid couldn't be to sure if she was dying or dreaming but it seemed put her pain at ease and her soul at rest.

Everything that could go wrong did in that very moment, she was too far down for him to reach her in time before she would come into impact with the ground. If she wasn't dead from the blood loss of tearing off her wing already, she certainly wouldn't survive the fall Dracula thought. Another instance where one of his plans was so close to fruition for it only in a matter of seconds be wrongfully snatched from him. He could only beg the devil in that moment of time that she would live to see another day for she was essential to his plans, plans that he along time ago failed to achieve.

Astrid suddenly awoke from the shock of such a hard landing. Her eyes fluttered open slowly as she could start to see black dots in her vision. It seemed the sky above her was moving in a fast pace and she couldn't for the life of her figure out why. Her body ached she barely could move and the blood oozing profusely from where wing used to be was only making matters worse. Dracula landed on top of the moving semitruck that was coasting down a main street in the city. He watched Astrid drift in and out of consciousness with blood spilling out all over the roof of the truck from the wound on her back. A wound like that would take more than a day to heal and from the looks of it she wasn't going to last more than ten minutes if he didn't do something that very instant.

Her eyes opened again once more long enough that she could see someone walking towards her before they would close again. She was so close to death it reminded her of the time when her transformation took place all those many years ago. However, this time she decided she wasn't going to fight it if anything she would welcome it. She grew tired of fighting to see another day it seemed pointless if she was going to be all alone after all. With her family and now Arnold all dead, what was point of living through all of this she thought to herself as she remained lying still.

Dracula kneeled next to her trying hard to not slide off the truck that was now going at least fifty miles per hour. He pushed her so that she was laying on her side assessing the damage to her back. The gash was deep and still seeping blood as it ran halfway down her back from where she cut it off at.

Someone was running their hands down her back causing a warm tingling sensation to occur. It frightened her somewhat for she wasn't sure if what she was feeling was real or was, she simply dreaming again. The ache in her back seemed to melt away as the warmth she was feeling had a tsunami effect over her entire body. He rested his hands on her wound while he watched the skin on back begin to stretch and come back together again. Now that the bleeding had stopped, he had rolled her on her back once more so he could scoop her up in his arms. The rain would simply not let up the two on top of the semitruck were completely soaked and the wind kept pushing Dracula down as she tried to get up on both feet with Astrid in his arms.

The loud striking of lightning awoke Astrid again as she almost jumped in Dracula's grasp. She was about to let out a scream when Dracula slapped his hand over her mouth before she had the chance to do so.

"Shhhh I don't need you creating any more attention towards us."

The semitruck came to an immediate halt as it came to a red-light causing Dracula to fall forward. Astrid fell out of his grasp and slid down the slippery top of the roof to the truck. Sparks began to fly and the sound of nails on a chalk board could be heard as she tried to stop herself with her fingernails from sliding off the truck. The roof was too slick from the rain for nothing she did could stop the momentum of her falling off the roof and onto the hood of the truck just as the light turned green.

Everything was hurting her body had gone through so much today and now it seemed the wound on her back was bleeding once more as she laid on the roof the truck. She was spent with no desire to move even with the truck driver blowing his horn at her profusely she didn't care.

"Hey! Hey lady... are you ok? What are you doing on my truck?"

"She will be alright my good sir. You see my fiancé is mentally ill and I'm afraid suicidal on most days. Such a shame I thought she was doing better this time." Reassured Hector as he rushed over to talk to the driver through his window.

Dracula went to pull Astrid by her arm off the hood of the truck since she could barely move until she was in his arms once more.

"Help! Help!" Astrid managed to scream weakly just loud enough for the driver to hear.

"Do ignore her sir, she constantly does this for attention. We shall take her to the hospital immediately to seek medical attention."

"I can call the ambulance if you want." Offered the Driver.

"That won't be necessary but thank you for your concern. I believe me and my brother got it from here."

Dracula had his had over Astrid's mouth again in attempts to muffle her screams as they walked to the sidewalk. She was too weak to run and with only one wing she was doomed. They walked over to Hector's car which he had went back to go get when Dracula was off chasing after Astrid.

"No...no!"

Astrid started to kick and scream violently in whatever means necessary to free herself from his grasp.

"Enough!" shouted Dracula before he sucker punched her in the face. Astrid blacked out once more as her body hit the pavement to the parking lot they were in.

"Why did you do that?"

"She has caused enough trouble for one day. Hopefully that'll knock her out till we have reached Transylvania." Said Dracula as he placed her on the back seat laying down.

"Did anybody see us? "asked Dracula.

"And if anyone did who cares. We will be out of this country in a matter of hours." With that being said Hector put his car in reverse before gunning the gas pedal as they flew out of the parking lot and onto the highway airport bound.