Chapter Ten
a/n So, this is the fight scene, and I wrote it, but I still don't have much confidence in it. Sorry if it's not all you could wish. And yes, this chapter is kinda painful at the end. That's just sorta the way it worked out.
Sam and Lizzy were forced to their feet, then marched to the wall. Dropping down, they sat side-by-side, arms tied behind them.
Sam stared longingly at the pile of weapons the vamps had taken off them when they were captured. With enough time, even one tiny, little blade would be enough to saw through the rope at their wrists. With a sigh, he looked over at Lizzy.
The expression on her face was one of focused intent. Sam watched in confusion as she shifted until she was on her knees. Hope finally made an appearance as she picked at the heel of her left boot. After a few moments, a large piece of the wedge came loose, and she cautiously slipped out a small, serviceable, triangular throwing blade.
Her eyes met Sam's and she smiled, then mouthed, Don't cut all the way through.
He blinked a yes and scooted closer, carefully lifting their key to freedom from her fingers. Feeling down her arm with his other hand, he found the rope and began moving the sharp edge back and forth over Lizzy's bonds.
When he was confident a good tug would be all it would take to break the rope, he passed the blade to Lizzy, taking over guard duty. Luckily, the vamps seemed confident, and the single one assigned to watch them had knocked back several beers in a row. It felt like forever, but Lizzy finally finished, and covertly slipped the knife back into the hidden compartment of her shoe. Then they waited.
While it was true that they were practically free, the only way they could reach the weapons without getting their throats torn out first was if some kind of distraction occurred. And they had to hope Dean and Gabs had come up with one.
Nearly forty minutes later, every head in the room shot up as the rusty rattling of a school bus came closer. They all heard the vehicle stop, before the engine was shut off. There were a few moments where they heard nothing, and then someone was hurrying toward the building, and there was an odd dragging noise.
The vamp leader nodded to a few of his pack, and they rushed forward and slowly pulled the heavy double doors open.
When the vampires started chuckling, momentary panic shot through the hunters. Their guard stood, forcing them to their feet and hustling them away from the wall.
The small blonde and the giant brunette knew they should be focusing on the fact that their weapons were on the ground, only feet from where they now stood. But all their attention was aimed at the figure walking quickly into the building, and the limp body they pulled, scraping over the dirt behind them.
In an instant, they both saw the one standing, bruised and battered, half-pulled up hair a mess, was Gabrielle. And the unconscious man on the floor was-
"DEAN!"
Sam lunged forward, struggling against the bone-crushing grip the vampire had on his arm. It was only when the hold tightened enough to cut through the red wash of anger and betrayal blinding Sam, that he stopped fighting. He shouted at Gabrielle, "You backstabbing bitch!"
Her dark eyes were sad and ashamed. "Elizabeth's my partner, Sam. What the hell was I supposed to do?"
"Come up with a plan!" he yelled. The pinch on his arm made him wince, but he kept talking. "You were supposed to work together to get us out of this! Not knock out your only ally, walk in, and give yourself up! None of us is getting out alive, now. You know that!"
The lovely hunter stared at her feet, then focused on the pack leader. "Please. Let my partner go."
"You will not beg for the man's life as well?" he waved a hand at Sam, old eyes amused.
She swallowed hard, then shook her head. "Sam and Dean... they're good guys, good hunters. And I'm sorry to do this to them. But the only thing that matters is my partner. Let her go."
"That sounded like an order."
"No!" Gabs protested, fear rising in her voice. She took a deep, calming breath. "No. I want to make a deal."
"Deals are for demons," the vampire responded. But he seemed interested.
"Elizabeth gets to leave, safe, unharmed and still human. In exchange, you get the Winchester brothers." Gabrielle jerked on the collar of Dean's jacket and stared at Sam.
The leader literally took a step back, and a horrible expression of surprised glee curled over his face. "These boys, they are the Winchesters?"
Gabs bit her lip hard, then confirmed her words. "Yes, they are."
"You bitch!" Sam howled again, and received a hard cuff on the ear that knocked him to one knee. Lizzy's tiny whimper echoed through the room, and Gabrielle's eyes went wide, fingers clenching convulsively on Dean's clothes.
"Please. You get the Winchesters. And me."
That pulled the head vampire's attention back to Gabrielle. Those evil, lifeless eyes scanned up her body, and the younger hunters watched the shiver that slipped through her.
"I have no mate," he mused slowly. "But I think you might do well at my side. Will you still bargain?"
Gabs' jaw was tight, and her eyes brimmed with hatred, but she nodded. "Kill the Winchesters, turn me, torture me, screw me. I don't care. Just let her go."
Another long look, and then he nodded.
Gabrielle's relieved sigh was audible, but caught in her throat when the fang spoke. "But first..."
"What?"
"The other Winchester. Release him."
Dean was dropped quickly onto the ground and lay there, the only movement the up and down expansion of his chest as he breathed.
"Now step away."
Gabrielle licked her dry lips and walked around Dean.
"Stop."
She froze, then closed her eyes and put her hands on the back of her head. The leader chuckled darkly. "Very good, my dear. Anna Lee, check her for weapons."
A scowling redhead pushed forward and ran her hands roughly over Gabs' body. The pat down was thorough, but quick, and as she stepped away, she shook her head. "Bitch is clea-"
Her words were cut off by Gabs' roared, "NOW!"
Sam and the vampires watched in shock as Lizzy, Gabrielle and Dean (Dean, who Sam had been sure was knocked out) flew into action.
Dean flipped up onto his knees, cross drawing twin guns from beneath his coat, and shooting at every vampire he could see. Four were down in seconds, writhing and gasping as the Dead Man's Blood poisoned them.
Gabs pulled the pair of long, thin lengths of steel that everyone had assumed were accessories out of her hair. It took a moment, but Sam recognized them as Emei Piercers. Spinning, she drove one into the vampire Anna Lee's throat, then yanked it out and used it to stab through and rip out an eye. A kick to the female's chest, which sent her crashing to the ground, and Gabrielle ran forward, pinning the fang down with her knees. Pulling one of the Piercers up, she brought it down to sink through the vamp's right wrist and into the dirt floor. The woman's teeth snapped down, and her nails tangled in Gabrielle's now loose hair. Gabs screeched angrily, slammed the hell of her hand into the female's nose, and ripped her tangled locks out of the ginger's grasp. Then she caught the wrist, slammed it to the ground, and impaled it with the other Piercer. Looking around for a beheading tool, a yell spun her around and Gabrielle caught the machete that was tossed to her, turning back to the redhead.
Lizzy ripped her arm free from the vamp's loose grip, felt the ropes break, and pushed herself forward, rolling and grabbing up her Glock. She fired three bullets into the male vampire still holding Sam, then threw the gun at the tallest hunter. He reflexively jerked his hands apart to reach forward and catch the gun. Then Lizzy, standing over the pile of weaponry, called Gabs' name and lobbed a machete toward her older cousin. Next, she picked up the large hedge clippers with a vengeful grin, and dashed closer, chopping the blades together. The sharp blades cut straight through the neck of the vampire she had already wounded.
It was the wink, and her giggled words, "He needed a trim!" that snapped Sam out of it. Sweeping the room with the gun, he managed to get a shot in the leader's shoulder before another fang plowed into him from behind.
The next few minutes were a tangle of bodies, the shine of blades and splatter of blood, flashes of pain, and the cries of fighters as they strove desperately to kill one another.
Finally, enough of the monsters had been decapitated for Sam to burst past them, his machete in hand, and began searching the rest of the building for the kidnapped children.
Rounding the next corner, he saw an actual door, padlocked from the outside, with a fang-baring, elaborately tattooed man crouched beside it, staring down the hallway in the opposite direction.
Jumping back, Sam felt something brush his elbow. Spinning, blade raised, he found himself staring down at a pair of familiar blue eyes.
"Can't get rid of me that easy, Big Guy," Lizzy teased.
As one, they grinned and rushed the door. The brief scuffle that followed ended with a lightly clawed leg for Lizzy, a bloody nose for Sam, and a newly re-dead vamp.
Sam glared at the padlock, trying to decide if they could break it with the blade, a voice spoke from behind.
"Grabbed these for you. Thought you might want 'em."
Gabs stood there, looking surprisingly collected for someone gasping for breath. She held out Sam's small case full of lock picks.
"Thanks," he said quietly. Then the guilt overwhelmed him. "Listen, Gabs, I'm so sorry that I thought you'd betray us and hurt Dean, and that I called you a bitch and-"
Her hand came up and cut him off. "I get it, Sam. Lizzy, next time can you please shut him down before the sorrowful puppy dog eyes show up?"
The shorter girl grinned, "You got it."
Sam tried again. "But I was wrong, wrong about the whole set up, Gabs, and-"
This time he stopped when Lizzy hopped up and wrapped her arms around Sam's neck. Her weight pulled him down until the blonde easily mashed her lips to his.
Gabs watched for a moment, wanting to laugh. When her cousin kissed with intent, no guy could resist. By the time Lizzy finally pulled back, Sam's lips were swollen, his face was flushed, and he smiled, eyes gleaming. "Right. No apologies."
"Besides," Gabs added, a mocking grin on her face. "If it came down to you, me, Lizzy, or Dean, I'd pick me."
Liz snorted and Sam knelt and began working on the lock. "Where is Dean?" he asked.
"Last I saw, he was holding his own against a chick and the freaky-ass pack leader."
"Huh," Sam muttered, then heard the release click. "Got it!"
Tugging off the pad lock, Sam swung the door open.
The light that flooded into the cramped room fell on the huddled group of twenty or so kids, who blindly stared at the entrance in terror.
Sam and Gabs hesitated, but Lizzy walked straight into the room, a sweet, genuinely friendly smile on her face. "Hi, there. You're Mrs. O'Grady's fifth grade class, right?"
One boy came to his feet and stood in front of his classmates. His voice trembled, but the message was clear. "I won't let you take anyone else."
In response, Liz nodded, before sitting cross-legged on the floor. "I'm not a vampire," she assured him. "here, look." Peeling up her lips, she showed her normal, even, white teeth.
He shook his head, refusing to trust her. "They don't always have fangs. Only when they wanna bite us or scare us."
"Smart boy."
They could tell the boy wanted to smile at the praise, but her remained where he was, determinedly stone faced.
The blonde tilted her head. "What's your name?"
"Why do you wanna know?"
Now her eyes went hard. "Because you are a human being. You are a person. Not cattle or a snack."
The boy frowned, then took a step closer, suspicious brown eyes watching her like a hawk. "Darryl."
"Hi, Darryl," she waved her hand gently. "Lemme teach you something about vamps. It's true that you can't see their fangs all the time. But you can see the holes the fangs come through. So you check their gums, even if they're not showing velociraptor teeth, and you can tell for sure."
Darryl seemed to process her words, then demanded, "Show me your gums."
Willingly, Liz pulled up her lip again. Darryl looked carefully and then nodded. "You're not a vampire. Are you Buffy?"
That startled a giggle out of her. "Nope, sorry. My name's Lizzy. But me, and Sammy and Gabs-" She hitched her thumb over her shoulder at the two hunters who still stood at the door. "-and Sam's brother, Dean, we kind of have a job like Buffy's. We're here to rescue you guys."
One of the girls, small,with black hair and asian eyes, perked up. "Really?"
"Really. Now, I'm gonna stay here and protect you, while Sam and Gabs and Dean make sure all the vamps are dead. Then Karen Riley, the mom who was on the bus during the field trip, is gonna help us get you all home, okay?"
The kids all nodded and slowly moved closer to Lizzy.
She turned to the others. "Go get 'em, Gabs."
"Stay safe, Lizzy."
It was five minutes later that Gabrielle and Sam came to a thick, sealed door.
Gabs glared. "If they turned any of the kids, they'd keep them here."
"Yeah," Sam sighed. Neither of them wanted to open the door, but they knew they had to. Sam started on the lock that held the heavy bar across the door in place. After that was finished, they pulled it out of the way, and Gabs wrenched the door open. Sam had his gun in one hand and the blade in the other as he charged into the room. When he pulled up and abruptly stopped, Gabrielle peered over his shoulder, and they stared in horrified desolation at the sight before them.
Six kids were in the room. Three were dead and drained, heaped carelessly against the wall. The other three snarled at the hunters, fangs covered in dried blood.
Two of the children were chained to the opposite wall, straining against the metal fetters that held them. The third had somehow gotten free, and was currently chewing on and lapping at the leg of an adult vampire it had torn to shreds. The small fang was busy with its snack and simply growled at Gabs and Sammy, instead of attacking.
They never looked at each other, just moved in. Three swift slices, and the vampire children were unmoving corpses.
Sam felt dead inside. It wasn't fair for kids to be dragged into a world were nightmares were real. He remembered Dean trying so hard to hide the truth from Sam, to protect that naive innocence that was childhood. Rage at the yellow eyed demon, at all the evil, bloodthirsty things out there that had destroyed and twisted his family, and so many others, poured into him.
Then, all that justified fury slipped away, leaving Sam feeling tired and hopeless as he watched a flood of tears track down Gabrielle's cheeks.
Gabrielle stared at the thin, brunette girl whose head lay on the floor at her feet. And memories of Chrissy and Sarah ran through her mind again and again. Stumbling over to the children who had been meals, she knelt beside the each small body, and committed every pale face to memory. It was moments like this that she wished she had faith in a tender, merciful God. These children didn't deserve what had happened to them. Going back, she memorized the other three faces, then pulled a flask and a box of matches out of her pocket.
They never said a word, as they moved all the bodies together, sprinkled the scotch over them and dropped the flaming match. Before the remains were consumed the hunters walked out, closing the door behind them.
The job never got any easier. But when they came back to the room Lizzy and the rest of the children were in, and found Dean with her, watching over the kids like some kind of holy protectors, it was suddenly okay. And worth it, to know that these children were safe.