Chapter 10: Vampire With a Power Drill

Suggested track: Lovely Bones- Dead and Divine

Power drill in hand, Damien lunged at the wolves, and they scattered out of the way. Clawd dashed up behind the enrage vampire and gripped his wrist, keeping his hand still.

Damien struggled in Clawd's grasp. "Let go, stupid mutt!" he kicked and fought, but to no avail.

Clawd slammed Damien on top of the desk, pinning his arms behind his back and wrestling the drill away from him. "Okay, jackass," Clawd snarled, handing the drill off to Brocko. "You'd better tell us who knocked up my sister and why, or else you'll become our new chew toy!"

Damien squirmed around, shaking his head. "I already told you who did it! It was Aleasă a Inimii!"

Clawd tightened his grip, baring his teeth. "Who is he?"

Damien gritted his teeth. "I'm not allowed to say," he yelped when Clawd dug one of his nails into his back.

"Tell me!" Clawd growled, pushing his claw in so far that blood began to bubble out of the wound.

Suddenly, someone else rushed in the room.

"Damien!" Anna shouted, leaping on Clawd and attempting to bite him. She did not succeed, for Clawdeen grabbed Anna off and pushed her against the wall.

"Listen, you-!" Clawdeen was cut off when Anna suddenly punched her in the mouth, and she automatically released her. Anna sprinted over and pulled Damien away from Clawd's grasp with surprising strength, and the two grabbed each other by the hands and ran off.

Clawd was amazed. "How is that girl so strong!?"

"Because," Anna suddenly leapt back in the room, kicking Clawd in the jaw. "When I became a vampire, I got powers that made me able to lift twice my own body weight when I'm in these situations!"

Clawd stumbled backwards in surprise, recovering from the blow to his jaw. Romulus, however, was not amused. He snatched up Anna's wrist, and promptly doubled over when he received a kick to the groin. But, he did not lose his grip.

Anna tried desperately to break away, and she nearly did, but Clawd, Romulus and Brock all pushed her against the wall at the same time. They held her there for several minutes, and soon she stopped struggling. Her shoulders relaxed, and she glared at the wolves holding her captive.

"What was it you wanted?" she rasped, sounding furious.

"Who is Aleasă a Inimii?" Romulus asked, tightening his grip on the girl's shoulder.

Anna looked away. "Not allowed to tell you," she murmured. She looked up at Clawd, and her face softened. "I'll tell you this much: Eris told Aleasă to have sex with Howleen and get her pregnant. He said no, but then Eris threatened to kill his baby daughter. And Eris doesn't make empty threats, so Aleasă said yes and got your sister pregnant. He didn't want to, though."

Clawd raised an eyebrow, releasing his grip somewhat. "So, Eris forced someone to rape my sister?"

Anna nodded. "Yeah, and he feels terrible about it."

This changed everything. Clawd had felt so much anger towards the person who hurt his sister so deeply, but they hadn't wanted to do it in the first place? This was all very confusing.

All of the sudden, there was the loud rumble of many feet down on the floor below them, the second floor. Anna looked down, her eyes becoming wide. "Oh, yes!" she got out of the wolves' grasp. "Yes, it worked! They're free!" she said excitedly. She dashed out of the room, leaving the intruders in Eris' suite.

"She's weird," Clawdeen stated finally. "Should we get out of here?"

Clawd took a glance around the room before answering. "Yeah, we should leave before anyone else shows up. Come on, let's go."

On the roof, the party seemed to be going all right. Holt had collaborated with Naomi, the female DJ, and both their music put together created a loud atmosphere. But since most of the other party goers were drunk or on some kind of drug, they didn't seem to notice. Frankie felt bad, she was supposed to be taking notes for Jackson about clues, but so far the only things she had noted were Tessa's dragon tattoo and a scar on Graverobber's left wrist, and those were probably mere coincidences. Duece and Cleo were currently sitting on the edge of the pool dipping their feet in while Graverobber and Tessa talked with them.

"My twin was inside that lump!" Gaverobber said triumphantly as he concluded his tale. Cleo hadn't been paying attention, since she found the fashion magazine she had brought more interesting. Duece, however, was fascinated by this story.

"Then what happened?" Duece asked, leaning closer.

Before Graverobber could continue, Damien came rushing over. He smacked a hand on Graverobber's shoulder.

"Intruders!" Damien hissed, surprising his friend. "In our suite!"

Graverobber was very alarmed. "Wait, what?! Damien-!" before he could say anything else, Damien sprinted away, weeded through the crowd and disappeared.

Tessa rolled her eyes. "He runs everywhere. John, you should cover the bitch in grapeseed oil, that way he slips and kills himself."

This got Cleo's attention. "Grapeseed oil!?"

Suddenly, there was a crashing sound and a chorus of horrified shrieks. Everyone looked up in surprise as more vampires had suddenly run in on the scene. Duece recognized them; they were the straving vampires from the second floor. Now free, they rushed around aimlessly, and soon they began leaping off the building, transforming into bats and flying off. Some of them grabbed food off the refreshment table before doing this.

"NO!" a voice screamed. It was Eris. She rushed over and began to wave her arms wildly. "FOOLS! GET BACK HERE! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!"

The last to fly off was a mother with two small children, and despite the fact that they seemed young, they managed to safely take flight as bats. Soon, all the second floor vampires were gone.

Everyone was silent. They all stared at Eris, waiting for her reaction. Finally, she tossed her wine glass on the floor and yelled, "WHO SET THEM FREE!?"

"I did!" a female voice cried. All heads turned to Anna, who was looking defiantly at Eris. "I set them free. I created a wiring system that, by the push of a button, automatically unlocks all doors in any given hotel area."

"Anna!" Damien rushed over, grasping his girlfriend by the shoulders. "I told you not to do that! Do you have any idea what Eris will do to you!?"

"Yes, Anna!" Eris snarled, her voice sounding a bit strained. "Do you have any idea what I could do to you!?"

Anna suddenly pushed Damien away from her. "You don't own me!"

"I don't, I'm just trying to keep you safe!" Damien's voice cracked, and he sounded desperate. "Anna, listen-!"

"You took me away from my family when you bit me!" Anna yelled, stalking away. "And I'm leaving to find them again!"

Eris suddenly ran after Anna, kicking off her high heels to pick up more speed. Anna saw this, and began to run faster. She leapt off the side of the building, but unlike the others, did not turn into a bat right away. The transformation didn't take place until she was just a few feet off the ground.

And then, it happened.

Clawd's car had taken awhile to start up, so when it finally did, his foot hit the gas pedal immediately. He accelerated forward, but something dark colored and heavy collided with his car and broke the windshield. Clawdeen, who was in the passenger seat, yelped in surprise.

"What was THAT!?"

Clawd got out of the car, taking a look at the damage. "What the actual hell?" he looked down on the pavement in front of him, seeing he had hit a bat. The bat's fur melted away, revealing itself to be Anna.

Clawdeen saw this and got out of the car, kneeling down to feel the vampire's pulse. After a moment, she looked up at Clawd and shook her head.

"She's dead."

Clawd looked up at the roof, seeing someone looking back down at him. For a long time, Damien and Clawd's eyes were locked in cold contact. Finally, Clawd looked away.

"Let's go," he said, his voice shaking.

Up on the roof, Damien stared down at his dead girlfriend with an unreadable expression. He turned away, walking very slowly and staring at his feet. Graverobber stood up, going to Damien and attempting to comfort him. Damien responded to this by shoving Graverobber in the chest, stalking to the refreshment table and tossing the entire bowl of punch in the pool. A good amount of the liquid spilled on Tessa, who yelped and nearly tumbled in the pool. Damien disappeared into the building, leaving everyone speechless.

Feeling a mixture of emotions, Frankie wrote down what she had just seen on her notepad. However, the pen slipped from her hand when Eris came and smacked her on the back of the head.

"Get out of here!" the older vampire screamed. "You're just a spy, anyway!"

Cleo suddenly stood up. "You brute! Don't strike my friend!"

Eris got face to face with Cleo, showing off her teeth. "You don't tell me what to do!"

Without warning, Cleo drove her hand to Eris' stomach, and a sound that almost sounded like knuckles cracking rang out. Eris crumbled to the ground, blood spurting from her nose as she lay there in shock. Cleo stood above her, eyes narrowing in silence. She then turned away.

"Come along, Duece. Let's call a cab home."

Duece looked honestly quite shocked as he took Cleo's arm and the two left the building. Eris sat there on the floor looked dumbfounded until two other vampires began to help her up.

It took a while before the party got going again. The rest of the night was just a blur to everyone, and at five in the morning, Jackson woke up on the DJ table with a throbbing headache.

Grunting, Jackson heaved himself up, arching his back until it cracked. He took a look around him, his brow furrowing at the smashed beer cups and cake plates. There was even a pair of men's underwear draped across his foot. Jackson rolled his eyes.

"Dammit, Holt!"

He made his way around the area, stepping over some passed out partygoers and a young couple copulating near the pool. After going down the stairs, Jackson looked around and began to call softly.

"Frankie? Draculaura? Duece?" he walked up the hallway of the top floor. "Anyone?"

"Jackson, is that you?"

Jackson looked up, seeing Graverobber approaching him.

"Graverobber!" Jackson felt somewhat relived to see him.

Graverobber gave Jackson a puzzled look. "I didn't see you at all last night! You were there, weren't you?"

Jackson shrugged. "Kinda," he changed the subject. "Could you explain last night's events to me?"

Graverobber rubbed his chin in thought. "Not quickly," he took Jackson by the hand. "But there's something I wanna show you, Jackie,"

Jackson raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Graverobber led him into the elevator and to the presidential suite. After unlocking the door, Graverobber gestured to the couch in the center of the room.

Tessa was lying on the couch while Dodi stood by and hooked an IV into her arm. For a moment, Jackson didn't know why Graverobber was showing this to him, but soon noticed the tiny, squirming bundle cradled in the crook of Tessa's skinny arm.

"You had your baby?" Jackson asked in surprise.

Graverobber looked incredibly pleased. "Fifteen minutes ago."

Tessa stared down at the newborn with incredible fondness. "He's such a sweetie," she murmured, nuzzling him. "He's got your eyes, John."

Graverobber sat down, taking Tessa's free hand and gazing down at their son. "He's chubby, unlike you."

Dodi finished hooking up the IV, stating, "Okay, Tessa, with this IV, you don't need to eat constantly, but you can only have it when you're sitting, okay?"

Tessa wasn't really paying attention. "Uh, huh," she mumbled, letting the newborn grab her finger.

Dodi turned to Jackson, giving him a smile. "Hi, again."

Jackson just smiled as Dodi got up and left the room. Tessa fluffed the couch pillow, being careful not to unhook her IV. "I'm goin' to sleep, John."

"Are we still naming him Cricket?" Graverobber asked, picking up the baby. Tessa sighed.

"Whatever."

When she drifted off to sleep, Jackson went to get a better look at the baby. "He's adorable, John,"

Graverobber's head snapped up, and Jackson drew back quickly. "I-I'm sorry! Was I not supposed to call you that?"

Graverobber was silent, then he sighed. He hoisted his son up on his shoulder, patting his back. The baby snuggled against his father's shoulder, yawning as Graverobber spoke up again.

"Do you wanna know how I got my name?"

Jackson nodded, very intrigued. "Of course!"