He heard his father's voice before he heard Jacob's, loudly demanding to be let through. "Oh, I think I hear the timer going off," Fishlegs said, quickly making an escape into the kitchen. Hiccup stood up, as two large persons entered the room.
His father was glaring at him with a look strong enough to wither the most seasoned war general.
Gobber, on the other hand, just looked relieved.
"What… in all of Thor's good earth..." his father muttered, before closing the distance between them and pulling Hiccup into a chokingly strong hug. "I thought you had died."
"Well, I didn't," Hiccup coughed out, and his father let go of him to firmly grasp his arms.
"What were you thinking?" Stoick looked down at him with a serious expression. "Hiccup… you know the code. You know you can't mess with other people's dreyri."
"I know Dad, it's just… he was going to…" Hiccup shook his head.
"Gladys told me," Stoick said, "That Dagur has kidnapped one of yours." He paused. "You can't imagine my surprise at that."
"She's not my dreyri," Hiccup said firmly. "Dagur—and everyone else, apparently, just thinks she is. I mean, I kind of started it, but I swear, she's not."
"And who is she?" his father asked, sitting down. Gobber did as well as Hiccup.
"She's just my friend—if she's even that," Hiccup said. "She saved my life."
"Gladys said she was a hunter."
Hiccup glanced at his father, and nodded. "She is. That's actually how I met. She was trying to kill me. And then she decided to save me… and then we were on the run… that was a few days ago. And then two days ago she ran away without even a word. I mean, I would have thought she would have at least said goodbye…"
His father and Gobber were both silent.
"Hiccup," Gobber said slowly, "Did you… do you… happen to like this girl?"
Hiccup refused to look up at them. "I… I guess so," he said, shrugging a little too large a shrug for his small frame. "I mean, I do like her. But I don't think she likes me back. It's probably because of what I am…" he sat back in his seat, staring at his hands. "She hates vampires."
"Then why did she agree to help you?" Stoick asked him, confused.
"I don't know!" Hiccup said. "She just… I don't understand her. Anyway, she's gone, and Dagur has her… and Camicazi won't let me out of this house."
"Well," Stoick said, heaving a sigh. "According to word in the Vein, she has the right now. Dagur and Drago have a price on your head. They want you dead. And they're willing to exchange the girl for you."
Hiccup looked up at him in surprise.
"Now," his father said, putting up a hand to stop him, "Don't get any ideas now. We're not going to hand you over just because some human is in danger—"
"She's not just some human, Dad," Hiccup said quietly. "I really like her."
His dad didn't reply, just gazing at him silently.
"More or less than the other girls you've liked?" Gobber asked.
"That's not a fair question," Hiccup retorted. "Regardless, I'm going to go after her."
"For Heaven's sake, Hiccup," his dad snapped. "Don't be ridiculous. Leave the rescuing to Camicazi. She's good at that sort of thing. You don't have the heart to do what needs to be done. No, I'm sending you home, where you'll be safe."
"But—"
"You're a thousand year old man, Hiccup," his dad said, rising from his seat, "You should learn to follow orders. Now come with us, we're heading to the airport."
Hiccup glared up at his dad, before slowly rising. "Fine," he said, "But I want our people to bring Astrid home too. She'll be safe with us. The hunters want to kill her too—because she helped me, remember. I owe it to her for that at least."
"I'll see that it is done," Stoick said, and Hiccup followed them out of the living room. "And I'll deal with you later," Stoick said as they passed the kitchen.
"Right—right—looking forward to it," Fishlegs said, laughing nervously.
They got into the car, and the driver closed the door.
As they started off towards a private airfield, Hiccup looked out the window, at the sunny scenery going by. He hoped that Camicazi was successful in rescuing Astrid. She had sworn that she would.
But somehow he didn't have the faith to believe she would keep to her word.
Astrid vomited.
Except that she no longer had anything in her stomach.
So it was more of a dry heave than anything else.
Gagging on her own spit, she struggling to breathe, before Dagur kicked her again in the chest. "Like that?" he asked, kicking her again, "Like that, eh? Not so nice when someone does it to you, is it?"
She would have kicked him back, if they hadn't secured her feet to the ground with a chain.
"Give me the whip, I want to have another go with it," Dagur said, suddenly leaving her side and grabbing the whip from one of the guards. He returned, dangling it in front of her. "Remember this?"
She smiled widely at him, her teeth coated with blood. "Do you have memory problems, Dagur?" she asked, tauntingly, "You used that on me just an hour ago. Maybe you should see a neurologist."
Dagur's smile dropped away, and he took a step back. "I was just going to use this once, to remind you, but I guess you don't need reminding. And this time, I am going to make you cry."
As the whip cut against her bare chest, she gritted her teeth so tightly she was sure she cracked a tooth. She felt the whip three more times, before she felt it no more, and everything turned hazy.
She was doused again with cold water, and came to with a start, struggling against her chains in a desperate attempt to fight back. She heard crazed laughter, and glared at Dagur. "I'd love to hear what Hiccup would have to say if he could see you now," Dagur said, grinning wildly at her. "I think he would throw you to the dogs if he could see how ugly you are. Oh, but be thankful I didn't do permanent damage to your pretty face… When I Turn you… I want to flaunt you in front of everyone…"
She spat at him, and he wiped it off his face with a grimace. "I think she's ready, don't you, Heather?" he asked the woman, who said nothing to this, her face just as steely as it was before. Dagur approached her, and Astrid tried to pull herself farther away from him.
This was something she could not endure. Whips… kicks… scalpels… Tasers… all manner of torture she could suffer through. But this… "Please," she choked out, as Dagur grasped her neck gently, turning her head from side to side, deciding on left or right.
"That's right!" Dagur said gleefully. "Finally, you understand what you're supposed to do! Now, if only you had begged earlier, we would have gotten this part done already." He came close to her, and she could feel his breath on her neck.
Astrid stared at nothing in particular. She stared at the guards. She stared at the flickering lights in the ceiling. She stared at Heather, whose eyes were squeezed shut. Finally, she closed her eyes, lips trembling, childhood trauma trickling up her spine like bile.
She heard herself scream as Dagur's teeth sank into her neck. She felt pain—pain she had not experienced since she was a child. For long minutes, she felt her body growing weaker as Dagur drank her blood, before he drew away, looking at her with pleasure, wiping the blood of his mouth.
She hung there, gasping and panting, her strength slowly returning.
Dagur stepped back away from her, to observe, and she saw him frown.
"What the fuck…" he muttered. "Why isn't she…? Heather! Open your eyes!"
The female vampire did so. Dagur approached her, grabbing her face and forcing her to look at Astrid. "Tell me that doesn't look odd," Dagur said loudly in her ear. "Why the hell isn't she Turning? Why. The. Hell. Isn't. She—"
The door to the room opened, and another vampire walked in.
Dagur's head whipped towards him, a look of upmost hate disfiguring his features. "Ryker," he said, crossing his arms. "What are you—"
"I'm not here to discuss trivial matters with you," the new vampire, Ryker, said. "I'm here for her."
Dagur stared at him. "What? No… she's mine. And I already Claimed her."
Ryker raised his eyebrows, looking at Astrid. "She hasn't Turned," he pointed out. "Have you lost your touch?"
"I did Turn her—she just didn't Turn," Dagur exploded. "I swear, I did—somethings wrong with her."
Ryker walked over to Astrid, and she struggled to move away from him. He examined her neck, and when he moved away, he looked shocked. "Well, that settles it," he said. "She's coming with me."
"Now see here, Ryker," Dagur said irritably. "Whether or not I Turned her yet is beside the point. The point is that she's mine. You can't take her without offering me something—"
"You took her from Hiccup," Ryker reminded him.
"Out of retaliation," Dagur explained.
"Right," Ryker said, slowly and as if speaking to a small child. "Well, Drago is nothing but abiding to the code. Let us go to your offices and discuss a price, shall we?"
Dagur glared at him, before shrugging wildly. "Fine," he said, a loud whine in his voice. He, Ryker, and Heather walked out of the room. With them finally gone, Astrid felt the energy finally leaving her body. She had been tense, not letting the pain of Dagur's attacks show visibly.
She felt herself growing hazy again, her surroundings blurring as the pain ebbed and flowed in and out of her consciousness. When she heard the door open, she woke, startled into alertness.
The door opened, although Astrid could not see who had opened it. Heather stepped in, looking at the two guards.
Heather turned slowly to look at Astrid, and Astrid met her gaze with an unflinching one of her own. Heather was a few inches in front of her within seconds, punching her in the stomach, and then punching her, lighter this time, in the mouth.
Astrid nearly gasped, and when Heather stepped away, turning and walking from the room, Astrid felt sure that the vampire had knocked one of her front teeth out. After a moment, she realized that the strange object in her mouth was not a tooth, but something cold and metallic.
A key.
The guards were distracted, urgently whispering to each other in their shock at Heather's disregard for Dagur's order that no one touch Astrid before he returned, and Astrid pulled herself upwards, as far as the chain attached to her feet would allow, until her fingers could grasp the key, removing it from her mouth. She hung back down, exhausted.
One of the guards glanced her way, curious as to why she had seemingly done a useless pull up, and then resumed his conversation with his fellow guard.
She worked slowly on the shackles attached to her wrist, hoping that when they were released, she would not collapsed onto the ground once she hit it. With a click, she fell to the ground, managing to stay on her feet.
The two guards jumped into action, startled by this. One aimed his gun at her, but did not fire, and the other appeared by her side and tried to grab her arms. She quickly disarmed him, knocking him unconscious and then shooting the other. She took a moment to be thankful that they were under orders not to harm her.
She jumped up, her body aching and screaming with pain, and grabbed the key from the dangling shackles, and unlocked those that bound her feet. Her wrists and ankles were bleeding, but she hoped they would hold up until she got out of here.
She made it to the door, which Heather had left open, and down the hall, before two guards appeared in front of her. One she managed to shoot, the other ripped the gun out of her arms, ready to smash it over her head, when he grunted and fell to the ground.
Whatever had killed him had worked too quickly for her blurry and exhausted eyes to keep up with. It was then, after a moment, that Astrid saw who exactly had entered the hall. "Camicazi?" she asked, the name slurring slightly.
"That's Ze Great Camicazi to you, human," the female vampire said, walking up to her and putting an arm around her shoulders. "And we've got to get out of here—someone will notice that you're gone. Come on, lean on me. Ha… Lean on me… You know, I remember when that song was released—it's the strangest things you remember—"
"Do you have anything I can wear?" Astrid muttered, for her clothes were torn, and she was missing a shirt, as they walked, half ran, out of the room and down the long hall.
"I'm sure we can get you something in the chopper," Camicazi said, "I didn't realize they were going to strip you down. I'd let you have my coat but… don't have time to pause to hand it over."
They rounded a corner, and came face to face with two more vampires. Camicazi let go of her, as she drew her knives and attacked one. The other came for Astrid, to retain her, and Astrid twisted his arms, shooting him between the eyes with the gun she had taken from the guard.
He dropped to the ground, incapacitated but not dead. Not yet. It would take a few minutes for his brain to lose function, and sometime later for his organs to shut down.
Camicazi took off her down jacket, handing it over to Astrid, who put it on quickly. "Let's get out of here," she said, taking Astrid's hand and taking off down the corridor. They had just gotten to the ground level, when alarms started going off. She heard Camicazi swear under her breath, before hurrying along. "Irene, Yuki, get ready."
Astrid quickly realized she was speaking into some kind of com. Someone busted through a door, a large, muscular Asian woman with a Mohawk. "This way, Boss," she said, nodding over her shoulder.
Camicazi nodded, pulling Astrid along. The three ran through, and Astrid saw many dead bodies—all belonging to vampires—on the ground, as they went. The door that led outside was blasted to pieces, and they hurried through, where a chopper was waiting for them. "On, on!" Camicazi said, practically picking Astrid up and tossing her into the chopper. The chopper lifted up into the air, and began to fly away.
"Boss!" she heard the Asian woman sharply.
"Shit!" Camicazi turned to Astrid, "Hold on, Babe."
Astrid was prepared to reprimand the woman for this informality, but instead grabbed onto a handle on the side of the chopper. The pilot of the helicopter swerved the chopper back and forth, evading something that was sent after them. After some time of this, the airspace became more peaceful, and they were flying neutrally.
Camicazi turned towards her, opening the jacket to peer at the damage done. She whistled, and touched Astrid's neck with two, slender fingers. Astrid struggled to remove her hands, but her energy had now wholly left her. Everything seemed numb and aching at the same time. Her vision was blurring in and out, and she soon realized it was her consciousness that seemed to want to escape her. She was aware of Camicazi speaking to her, but the words were lost on her.
The next thing she was aware of was being carried off the helicopter. She saw a large house—some sort of mansion—bigger than she had ever seen before, more akin to a palace, than anything else. There were woods and large trees surrounding them. And she saw someone running towards them. Someone tall and lanky with a mop of auburn hair on their head. The person took her into his arms, looking down at her with an expression that confused her.
Then all turned to darkness.
To be continued…
Thanks for reading!
See you next time!
