Hey, everyone!
Hope everyone is doing great, and are ready for this week's chapter!
Special thanks to my amazing and beloved friend, Courtney (brokenangelwings83) and my ultimate and beloved bro, Hali (proudtobeaginger) for betaing this chapter! thank you so much pals!
And also a shoutout to my usual editor, Animenerdd8, for being a lovely editor. I gave her a break this week ehehe, but I love you hun!
Hope you guys enjoy this week's chapter!
The Scent of Dog - Silver and Stakes
Lucy didn't remember how long she walked upstairs, she just knew that her legs were literally killing her. Perhaps it was the fatigue speaking, but despite just feeding, she was in the same amount of pain as before. But it didn't matter since all she wanted to see was blood - Jose's blood to be precise.
Tightening the grip around the (stolen) stake, she found herself smirking at the thought of Jose's blood on her hands. He had had her blood on his hands for far too long, but now it was her turn. Because today, she was one hundred percent sure Jose would be killed. And she was going to make sure of that.
Reaching the end of the long, twisted staircase she had been walking on, she reached a wooden door with a golden ring as a doorknob. And low and behold, the scent of none other than Jose was behind it.
Lucy smirked. She loved how he most likely knew she was there - her breathing heavy, her scent strong from blood, and her steps echoing the whole stairway. He was expecting her, but he wasn't expecting her to kill him. Because she was just a fragile, little crybaby, right? She couldn't hurt a fly even if she tried, right? Lucy inwardly laughed at the mocking words Jose probably thought about her.
Without hesitation, Lucy kicked the door open, making one of the hinges fly off. For once in her life, she didn't care if she ruined something. She just wanted to see blood.
As the door flew open, hitting the wall holding it in place, she hastily stepped inside, gripping the stake tighter. She was met by an office-like room, a desk filled with old looking books right in front of her, and a king-sized bed by the side. On each side of the bed there was a window, and judging by the hue of them, it was UV-windows - the same as she had. The cold, gray stone walls were decorated with old tapestries and torches, while on the hardwood floor, the skin of a bear was placed, which made Lucy feel her stomach churn.
For some reason, however, Jose wasn't there even though his scent was dirtying the air.
Suddenly, behind her, the half-broken door slammed shut, leaving a reverberation of the loud sound. Turning around, she was met by Jose wearing a large fur cape, a leather bag hiding under the material. He was more prepared than she was.
"Hello there, sweetheart," he spat, his black lips twitching in a mixture of annoyance and stress. "What a pleasant surprise."
Lucy rolled her aching shoulders, earning a few cracks from her joints. "We are ending this now, Jose," she stated, playing around with the stake in her hands. Surprisingly, she wasn't shaking, only fuming with adrenaline. "One of us will not leave this place alive, and I can spoil for you that it won't be me."
Jose threw his head back in a barking laughter, roaring as he held his stomach. "Very interesting, I will admit. Then show me what you got."
Natsu felt the stone walls crumble against his weight as he was thrown against the said wall for the twentieth time.
Screw Gajeel. Screw his cousin for breaking him out of his savaged state, losing his concentration. One of the vampires he was fighting - three in total as of now - rushed at Natsu. Said werewolf was quick to duck right as the vampire was about to reach him with a small, yet sharp dagger.
Natsu, armed only with his trustworthy fists and werewolf strength, growled as he grabbed the wrist of the vampire who just attacked him, and twisted it in a painful angle until the dagger fell to the floor, and the wrist snapped. As the blade clashed against the floor, a shriek that sent pain Natsu's ears escaped the vampire's lips as Natsu pushed him to the ground, and kicked him across the hallway.
As that happened, the two vampires were eager to avenge their now injured friend, and attacked Natsu from both sides, getting in some good hits, which Natsu took with gritted teeth.
"Oh, man," Natsu grunted, a breathy laugh escaping his lips. "I think I mighta broken a nail."
One of them, a buff male vampire, huffed at the mockery and said, "You'll wish it was just a simple manicure we messed up."
As he finished that sentence, he had already raised his fist as Natsu recovered, but Natsu was quick to sidestep to the right just enough that the white-knuckled fist passed a hair's breath from his face, smashing into the already broken wall.
With a smirk, Natsu raised both arms in front of him, and double punched said vampire's chest. Air whooshed from his lungs as he was pushed several feet away, roughly hitting the opposite wall. The impact of the attack gave Natsu a couple feet between them - enough to start focusing on the next vampire.
A slow, self-satisfied smirk stretched across Natsu's lips; this was easy.
Natsu quickly dropped to his feet, balancing on his hands as he tackled the vampire with a swift almost ground-touching kick. The vampire fell to the ground with a yelp, hitting his head hard against the stone floor.
As Natsu stood up straight and stepped over the vampire, he felt his feral nature return to him. He towered over the lying vampire, who was struggling to get up.
Suddenly, a noise from the side distracted him, and Natsu looked over at the vampire he thought he had disabled.
"Sue gave the signal!" the buff vampire, who had previously been knocked out, screamed out at his comrade.
Quickly, Natsu looked down at the vampire he was hovering over and was met by a golden gun pointed directly at him.
A gunshot was heard, a ringing in Natsu's ears appeared, and suddenly he felt the skin of his chest getting pierced through.
In the next moments, Natsu found himself in a world of pain.
The pain was unbearable. In fact, he would rather transform every day for a month than experience this agony. Different from a transformation, where 'all' he had to do was let all his bones get broken, this was true pain. It was as if this bullet - this silver monster - was slowly but surely replace everything inside of him with burning, seething acid, starting with all of his veins. His blood was boiling, and not metaphorically, but physically his blood was trying to kill him.
The spot the bullet hit him, his chest, was trying it's hardest to push the bullet out as it knew that this was something that did not belong in Natsu Dragneel's chest. But it was no use because the bullet was taking over his body - not only making him bleed profusely but taking over his every nerve. He didn't know anything else than pain at that moment, and he couldn't remember if he had given up on holding back his screams because he could only feel pain.
"Oh, man, when Jose hears about what I did, he'll definitely make me master instead of Lil' Sue!" one of them said with pride in his voice.
"You? I was the one who gave the orders!" another argued.
Their bickering went on, and Natsu's choked whimpers turned to labored breaths as he felt the world around him disappear - the unbearable pain going with it.
There was one word on Natsu's mind before everything went dark.
Why?
"MOVE!" Gray shouted, grabbing the flesh of Juvia's thigh tighter. The creatures in front of the infirmary door quickly jumped to the side, allowing the Izling to carry the mermaid inside the room. As he entered, Wendy, who stood by Erza's unconscious side, gasped at the state of Juvia.
The mermaid had her eyes shut in pain, and her one hand draped over a relatively large wound on her stomach.
During the battle, Juvia had been caught off guard and sliced with a dagger by one of the vampires, and slashed across the stomach. The wound wasn't lethal if treated correctly, but she was bleeding profusely.
"I need water!" Gray shouted as Wendy and some other creatures cleared a bed for Juvia. As she was placed on the mattress, she quickly curled up into a ball, whimpering as she tried to suppress the pain.
Frantic creatures ran back and forth, soaking blankets and pillows in water for the mermaid to have. Juvia was the kind of mermaid didn't need to be in water all the time, but water was crucial in the healing process.
"Wendy," Juvia rasped through clenched teeth. The younger fairy looked down at Juvia, placing her small hand on her arm. "D-don't waste your magic on Juvia. Water… it'll do it."
"J-Juvia, I'm fine!" Wendy tried to assure the mermaid, but Juvia wasn't having it.
"Just… stitch Juvia up, please?"
Gray watched closely as Wendy thought it over. He was torn, himself. He was worried about Juvia - more than he'd like to admit - and he knew that Wendy would make her healing process so much easier, but when Lucy came back, she'd need it so much more.
"Gray! I need you to distract her while I fix her up, please," Wendy pleaded, not looking happy to do it. It was clear to see that the young fairy was exhausted. By the number of people coming in, there was only so much Wendy could do with her magic.
Gray nodded at that request, and quickly pulled a chair up to Juvia's side, enveloping Juvia's hand with his own. Despite the circumstances, a faint blush appeared on Juvia's cheeks, and Gray had to fight back the urge to snort at that.
"Gray, my dear," Juvia started, her eyes shut. "Juvia is embarrassed that h-her Gray has to see her l-like this."
Gray shook his head, not really knowing what to do with the love-sick mermaid. "Ah, eh, don't think about it. We're family, we have to help each other."
Juvia only nodded, laying her head back as Wendy rolled her chair closer to the bed, getting ready to start. Under her breath, however, Juvia muttered something about wanting a family with Gray.
This time, Gray snorted, "I know you do."
He didn't deny the thought though.
Wendy began trying to stop the bleeding and stitching up Juvia, and soon the mermaid was sleeping soundly, her stomach covering in bandages, and her body swept in a thin, wet blanket - her aquatic body taking in the moisture.
Gray leaned back against the wall of the infirmary, a shaky sigh escaping his lips. He didn't want to show it physically, but he was worried about the whole situation. It wasn't looking good. The infirmary was being filled faster than they had beds, and there was still a fight going on.
There was no sign of Natsu, and he didn't even know if Lucy was okay.
And he was worried about her, a lot. He had just decided that he needed to apologize to her, and now he didn't even know if he would ever get to do that.
Of course, he trusted Natsu with his life - not that he would ever admit that of course - but Phantom Lord was strong. Stronger than he had expected. No one had expected this. They had moved their entire guild for one, stupid fight, for crying out loud!
Getting snapped out of his thoughts, he felt a tug on the sleeve of his jacket - which he surprisingly still wore. Looking to his side, he saw a worried Romeo.
"Is anyone else hurt?" Gray spoke apprehensively, but he quickly relaxed when Romeo shook his head.
"Can… can we talk outside of here, real quick?" Romeo asked, not meeting the eyes of the Izling. He looked visibly nervous, so Gray knew it was important.
Walking out the infirmary door, Gray nodded for him to follow him.
Outside the infirmary, away from the crowd of helping and injured creatures, Gray resumed his leaning position, his arms crossed.
"Are you okay, kid?"
Romeo leaned his back against the wall and shrugged. "I don't know… I have this weird feeling."
Gray raised a brow. "What kind of feeling?"
Biting his lip, still not meeting the elder creature's eyes, Romeo murmured, "I… I think it's a wolf thing. I just- I can feel that something is wrong. It's like, now that we're so few werewolves here, our bodies think that we're a pack…"
"What are you getting at?"
Romeo's hands clenched and unclenched a few times as he kept chewing on his lip. The younger creature's nervousness quickly rubbed off on Gray, and he felt himself growing impatient and worried about what Romeo was about to say.
"I think," he took a deep breath. "That Natsu is hurt. As in, really, really hurt." Gray's eyes widened at that. Natsu was strong as fuck, but he wasn't invincible. This was bad.
"I can feel it! It's like a pack instinct, I think," Romeo explained his eyes filling with tears. "It's like a signal to tell us that one of ours is in danger. The others are too busy, but I need to get in there. We need to help him."
Gray thought over that for a second. Sure, he had a bad feeling about this as well, but Romeo seemed to be genuinely concerned, and Gray knew for a fact that werewolves could sense each other. They just couldn't risk losing a guild member.
"If I get us in there, which I'm not sure I can, by the way, would you be able to sense that bastard?" Gray asked, his hand reassuringly placed on the werewolf's shoulder.
Romeo nodded eagerly, a small smile of hope edging on his lips.
Gray returned the smile. "Keep close to me, and if anyone tries to attack you, you have to yell for me, understand?"
Romeo nodded again, standing up straight. Gray sighed as he looked out of the guild doors at the bloodbath going on. Luckily, no one has died - though some seemed to have come close - and Natsu, nor Lucy, we're not going to be the firsts ones to.
Lucy dodged yet another punch, holding back a whimper as the sudden movement stretched her wounds. She was probably bleeding everywhere, but she didn't care, for the pain was drowned out by the victory of getting a punch in every once in a while. Sure, her fists her shaking and she was nowhere near as strong as Jose was, but she was trying. She really was.
Getting caught off guard, Lucy found Jose's hands on her raw shoulders before lifting her off the ground and throwing her across the room. With a loud cry, Lucy hit the wall beside the window. Falling to the ground and landing on her front, she felt the pain from the impact soar through her wounds. She felt her vision grow blurry. Was it tears or was she passing out?
"Oh, sweet, innocent Lucy Heartfilia," Jose chuckled. Still having her head low, all she heard was Jose's calm footsteps walk towards, slow as he knew she was too fatigued to run. Injured and unable to see clearly was probably one of the worst things to be before going into a battle.
Managing to balance herself on her elbows, Lucy pushed herself into a sitting position, looking around to find something - anything! - to steady herself with.
Placing her hands on the ground, she tried pushing herself up, but just as she was in an almost upright position, she felt a strong kick to her stomach, sending her flying towards the wall under the window. As all the air was knocked out of her, she cried out, clutching her stomach.
To make it all worse, she was so close to the window that she could hear the battle going on outside. She heard the screams and battle cries of her guildmates, battling Jose's sadistic army. She choked back a cry of frustration, not being able to help them in any way.
She could smell their blood, but her hunger wasn't empowering her - it was disabling her. She was too weak to win this fight, and not only because of her physical state but also in general. Since joining Fairy Tail, she realized that her inexperience was what would drag the guild down. Like she was right now.
Shut up, Lucy seethed to her self-deprecating mind. She knew that it was her newborn brain - mostly - that was talking, and she really couldn't afford that mindset. Not right now, at least.
"You got nothing to say, Heartfilia?" Jose taunted, a smirk on his lips. He kicked her again, and she tasted blood in her mouth, coughing out the air that had been forced out of her. "Don't you get it? This is deserved. Your family owed me!"
"Lucy, get back!" Her mother screamed, running towards the man, stake in her hand. A dull one. "Jose… we have given you everything. We owe you nothing!"
"Your family owed me money for staying away from the railroads," Jose explained, cracking his knuckles - mostly to intimidate her. Lucy felt her cheeks wet with tears. It hurt, and it never stopped hurting. "The price for not feeding off of people by the trains… I chose my prize, and it's you!" He kicked her further into the small corner of the room. Lucy screamed through gritted teeth, her throat raw from both hunger and the immense shouting she had gone through today.
Not being fast enough, from being just a mere human, Layla had been the last one to die.
"Oh, you really are a spitting image of your mother, ain't ya?" He continued, only fueling the fire building up inside of Lucy. The tears she was shedding wasn't from pain anymore but from anger. "Ah, yes, I remember her screams."
Jose threw her mother's corpse to the side, wiping his bloody mouth.
"You sound just like her."
Blocking Jose's next kick with her arm, not even flinching upon contact, Lucy growled, glaring at the man who killed her mother so mercilessly.
"Don't…" Lucy panted, pushing his strong arm away. Swiftly pushing herself to her feet, using one of the wooden pillars from Jose's bed to balance herself with, she continued, "Ever!" With an iron grip, she grabbed the stake still sitting in the rim of her shorts. "Talk about my mother again!"
Letting out a roar - one she didn't know her body could physically make - she leaped off the ground towards aiming the stake towards Jose's chest. Jose predicted this, making sure he turned his only weak spot away. However, as she charged towards him, she managed to break not only the fabric of his shirt but also leaving a sharp cut above his heart. Upon impact, Jose stumbled a few steps back, grasping the cut with a gasp.
Lucy, fueled by anger, landed on her feet with no problems, turning her hateful gaze towards Jose once again. Her knuckles were white around the stake now covered in a small amount of Jose's blood.
Unexpectedly, Jose let out a sinister laugh, using the palm of his hand to dry off the blood on his chest. "Oh, so now she's angry. All I had to do was talk about your weak, dead mother."
She suddenly didn't recognize herself through her anger, but she didn't care. If this was what going feral meant, she loved it. Watching the man who killed her entire family being so clueless about his upcoming death.
No warning on her face whatsoever, Lucy lowered herself just slightly, placing her hand on the ground and pushed herself forward. She screamed out as she dodged his well-placed attack, and used her sharp nails to leave a red, bloody trail across his face. Though he seemed unfazed by it, Lucy smiled as she landed on her feet again as his eyes twitched from the pain.
"You're just making it worse for-" but before he finished that sentence, Lucy had raised her leg and kicked him in the face. Jose naturally stumbled backward, looking shocked at the angry, panting vampire in front of him.
Back and forth. Right leg, left leg. Throwing him back a few steps with each kick and making him slowly look more and more beaten. Lucy jumped forwards, jacking her elbow into his wound she so neatly made.
In any attempt at fighting back from Jose's side, Lucy merely ducked and dodged while she was furiously hitting and kicking him with the last of her strength.
Simultaneously Jose was trying his hardest to keep up, but he forgot one fateful thing - newborn vampires are strong as fuck when they first go savage.
"The life of a vampire starts in the newborn phase. It's the first three months after being turned. Their strengths are incomparable to any creature, almost as great as their older vampires. Their hunger is out of control, meaning that they are more likely to go savage."
And oh, Lucy had gone savage. The mention of her dead mother - the woman who brought her up, and whose corpse Lucy herself fed from - had ignited that power inside of her. This - her painful existence - was all Jose's fault, and now he was paying for it.
With one final kick to the chest, Jose was sent flying backward, landing on his back with a yelp.
Quickly, Lucy used her vampiric speed and found herself sitting on top of the man who ruined her life. She placed her strong knees firmly on top of his arms, pressing down as hard as she could to keep him at bay.
With a wicked smile, her mind clouded by both her injuries but also her anger. And her anger was fuming as she tauntingly hovered the stake above the man's chest.
"PLEASE!" he cried out, using all his powers to try to push him away, he let out a pathetic yelp as Lucy just pushed down harder.
With the stake hovering over his chest, Lucy all but snorted. "Give me one good reason why I should let you live? Just one, you filth!"
He roared under her strength, thrashing as he was searching for a reason.
Lowering the stake, she tauntingly dragged it across his chest, living for the way his breaths intensified in fear. She cocked her head in a condescending way, silently repeating 'Just one reason'.
It didn't seem as if he could find one. That was until he widened his eyes, and blurted out, "They are alive! The lion and the ram! Even their godforsaken baby! THEY'RE ALIVE!"
That, Lucy was shocked by. She loosened the grip around the stake, yet she still kept him locked to the ground, not daring to let him go.
"Where?" she asked, no playing around in her voice.
"I-I don't know! His heart was s-still beating when I left him. I figured he would just die, but his heart was returning to normal as we left the mansion. I'm telling the truth!" His voice was desperate, however, there was no indication of a lie. Just pure desperation.
"Aries and the baby? How do you know about them?"
"I have my contacts," he tried, nodding furiously, begging her to believe him. "Th-they weren't there when we raided the mansion."
Lucy felt relief flood her veins. Not only was Loke alive, a little hurt but alive, but Aries hadn't even been hurt. She wasn't there. She was off that day. They were safe.
She had lost everything but a small part of her own life was left. It was still there, and she was so happy.
"So please! Have mercy!" he yelled out, snapping her back to reality as he tried once again to fight against her strength, but she was too strong. She had always been - she just needed the right circumstances.
"I don't think so, sweetheart," Lucy mocked, a small smile on her lips as she raised the stake again. "You didn't give my mother mercy when you killed her. You didn't give me mercy when I was begging for you to stop. Who have you ever given mercy?"
Blood splattered everywhere as Lucy dove the stake through his heart, an agonizing scream leaving Jose's lips as he died once again.
Ahhh, some Lucy badassness, some light Gruvia(?) and Natsu's like doing his own thing with a bullet in his chest lol.
I hope you enjoy this chapter! We're almost done with this arc and will quickly move away and onto new things. I hope you're as excited as I am.
Don't forget to tell me what you thought! What did you like, and what didn't you like? Did it live up to your expectations?
Until next time
/Sofie
Reviews
stranger1999: oops, natsu got hurt :(( but i hope you enjoyed nonetheless! thanks for the support!
MorriganFae: ahh thank you so much for the support! it seems like vampires are literally everywhere, but what would you expect for a vampire guild ahaha. and yeah, lucy what you doing ahaha. thank you for reading!
arcadea333: i hope lucy's fight with jose satisfied your lucy needs ahah. thanks for the support!
Star-The-Writer: and shit in fact went down ahaha. Hope you enjoyed!
naluloverr: ah i'm glad you like it! gajeel is literally just like "I DONT CARE ABOUT ANYONE but hey please be careful" ahahah. thanks for reading!
MissVarta: Ah yes, the good ol' Sue. She probably could, but with Jose still in the house, and him still having eyes everywhere, i feel like that would be hard. AND JUST YOU WAIT PERHAPS YOUR NALU WISH WILL BE FULFILLED thanks for reading, pal!
SleepinBeautyK: welp, you were right and natsu got shot, but i hope you enjoyed it!
ThayetJade: Ah of course! I love to interact with you guys and see what you think of the story! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
CathJorda: Ah that comment made my day! And don't worry, there will be a lot more with wolf things and packs, so just you wait! I usually strive to update once a week, but sometimes of course, life gets in the way, but usually four times a month, if i'm not too busy! thanks for your support!