Author's Note: Double Update! Please review!
Fragilis
Chapter 7: Run
Quinton could smell it in the air. Something very wrong was happening. A demon had been released, and now the demon he kept suppressed within himself was fighting to come out.
"Quinton! Quinton!" he heard the familiar voices calling his name from across the boardwalk. He stopped, knowing they would follow him even if he pretended as though he hadn't heard them.
Steven and Lyrra ran over to him. Over the past year the two had become inseparable – Nyssa had shared her thoughts that they had become intimately close several times, but neither were positive.
"Where's my sister?" Lyrra demanded rather than asked. Along with her closeness to Steven came a new assertiveness in the past year.
"I – I don't know; I, um, I'm doing stuff for my uncle…" Lyrra raised a questioning eyebrow, but didn't get a chance to say anything.
"Hey, check it out!" Quinton internally breathed a sigh of relief – leave it to Steven to distract people from hard to answer questions.
"What am I checking out?" Steven nudged Lyrra, and the two turned so their backs faced Quinton. A black outline of a pair of lips was on Lyrra's left shoulder, and a black, tribal-style bear claw on Steven's. "Ah, you got the bandages off."
"Don't they rock?" All Quinton could do was nod. He really needed to get away from them. Looking at Lyrra made him think about Nyssa. Although normally that wouldn't be a problem, the thought of her made the demon in him leap up.
"Listen, I really gotta go. Uncle Obie's excepting me."
"All right, but, dude, while we were in the tattoo shop, I saw this design – man, you, me and Jared have to get it," Steven told him.
"Yeah, absolutely – see you guys around."
"Bye," they called after him, and Quinton could feel Lyrra's questioning eyes staring after him – she was far too perceptive for her own good.
Quinton practically ran all the way to the apartment he shared with Obie. Obie wasn't actually his uncle, but he could never try to explain it to anyone, even his best friends.
He reached the apartment door and fished his keys out of his pockets, but when he looked at the door to put the key in the lock, he froze.
A bat wing drawn in blood was just under the eye hole on the door. Quinton knew immediately it was the symbol of whatever Cimmerius was allowed out of Nefandus, but upon closer inspection, he realized with horror that he knew whose symbol it was. Elias.
Quinton shoved his key in the lock and got into the apartment as quickly as he could. "Obie! Obie!" he shouted for his older friend.
"What's the matter," the man asked, coming into the living room.
"Did you see the door?"
Obie went past Quinton to examine the door, and Quinton went into his bedroom, where he could hear Obie swear loudly from the front of the apartment. By the time Obie got back to Quinton's room, Quinton's bag was half packed.
"If Elias is out, then there's only one reason why he's here," Quinton said as he threw more clothes into the bag.
"You know who did that?"
Quinton paused and turned to his friend. He nodded gravely. "Elias, my older half-brother – if he is out of Nefandus, then it's for me – Erzsebet wants me back," Quinton explained, referring to his mother by her first name. "I hafta get outta here." He turned back to his task, this time Obie helping him.
Only a few minutes later, Quinton was standing in the living room, his bag at his feet, waiting for Obie to come back from getting "something."
"Here," Obie handed him a large wad of cash. "You're gonna need it." Quinton nodded and took it, knowing better than to question the gift. The boy and the man embraced. "You're welcome back whenever you need."
"Thanks, Obie… for everything." Obie nodded, and Quinton left without another word spoken between them.
Quinton debated whether to say goodbye to his friends or not. He knew he had to though. He couldn't leave without at least saying goodbye to Nyssa – seeing her, kissing her one last time – at least until he was sure he could come back.
The sun was going down, soon it would be time for the hunt. He shivered, not believing he'd actually thought such a thing. He really needed to get away before his demon completely surfaced.
A shriek interrupted his thoughts. Without thinking about where he was going, he'd gotten almost to Jared's home. He ran towards the now multiple shrieks – he had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that he knew who it was shrieking and why.
His breath caught when he saw it. The group was there, as was Elias. Nyssa was the one shrieking as Elias had a hold on her. Quinton pulled the stake from his bag – he'd taken it with him for his own protection, but hers was much more important.
A stake would kill a normal vampire; a stake rubbed in holy water would obliterate a normal vampire entirely. But Elias was no ordinary vampire. He was of the Cimmerii – the most powerful and ancient of the vampires. The stake would do little against him, but it would keep him from taking Nyssa.
As fast as lightening, Quinton ran up behind Elias and drove the stake into his back. Elias screeched and dropped Nyssa, who quickly scrambled back away from him. The others snapped out of the trance-paralysis that had kept them from helping Nyssa before.
"Run!" he yelled to them as Elias turned his attention to Quinton. As Elias attacked him, he could just make out that Steven and Jared sent Nyssa and Lyrra away, but they remained.
"So, little brother, are you ready to face destiny?" Quinton refused to answer Elias's question; he was completely on the defensive – the stake lie helplessly on the ground – the only way to actually defeat his brother would be to give in and use his powers, and he couldn't do that.
"Steven, Jared, run; I can handle this!" he called to them – he couldn't have his friends involved. "Take care of – oof – of Nyssa and Lyrra."
His two best friends nodded and took off after the girls – they understood.
He also had to send them away because he didn't need them to see him use his powers. There was no other way to fight his brother. His nails sprouted out, and he lashed out at Elias's face. Elias let out an animalistic growl of pain – at least Quinton managed to get him back for the scar on his own face. At the same time, the brothers lunged at each other, sharpened, oversized incisors bared. They bit and scratched like animals for what seemed to be hours. Finally the two separated. Both breathed heavily, and Elias smirked.
"I expect it won't be too long before you join us in Nefandus once again," and with that, Elias dissolved into mist. Quinton, still breathing heavily, stared at the spot in disbelief. Had he actually used his powers? Dark Goddess…he had to get out of LA before the demon took complete control – there was too much evil there to ignore.
His feet carried him, against his will, to the old graveyard. And just as he had thought, the other four awaited him there.
He heard them before he saw them; his senses were sharpened with his recent use of powers.
"What was that thing?" Lyrra was asking.
"I think… I think it was a vampire…" Jared responded.
"Dude, I told you we needed to add 'save from forces of evil' into the pact – I mean, vampires, come on. I was right, wasn't I?"
"He's not a vampire – he's a Cimmerius; they're much worse," Quinton said as he joined them.
"Quinton!" Nyssa was immediately in his arms, holding onto him tightly. Quinton looked over her head to see his three best friends looking at him with wide, horrified eyes. He squeezed his eyes shut, and quickly pulled his nails and incisors back in.
"You're one of them," Lyrra accused.
"Yes," there was no use lying anymore. She just shook her head and looked at her sister, worried for her safety.
"But you're not evil," Nyssa said, pulling away from him slightly so they could look at each other's eyes.
"I'm trying not to be." He pushed Nyssa away from him fully. "I have to leave," he indicated to the duffle bag he had with him.
"You can't!" Nyssa cried and threw herself at him again.
"Nyss, I have to." He pushed her away once again.
"Take me with you," she begged, gripping his hands. "Please," she fell to her knees in front of him, and Quinton's heart broke.
"I can't," he whispered and drew his hands away. Lyrra immediately pulled Nyssa to her and held her, and Quinton could see it in Lyrra's eyes; he had committed the worst offense possible: he had made Nyssa cry, and now, he would be the object of Lyrra's despise for the rest of his existence. His beautiful Nyssa now cried into Lyrra's shoulder because of him. He didn't blame Lyrra in the least; he despised himself.
He picked his bag back up. He nodded to Jared, who nodded back – what else could he do? Then turned to Steven, who looked completely lost; Steven's defense mechanism whenever something he didn't like or understand was to make jokes, but there was nothing funny about the current situation.
Quinton turned and left the graveyard and his friends. He prayed to the Dark Goddess that one day he could return.
But for now, he had to run.
