Chapter 14

She let out a soft, sleepy grunt and her eyes opened into slits, closing tiredly again after she noted that it was still dark. It seemed like she couldn't get a decent sleep tonight, even if she tried her hardest to get her mind off of her troubles.

"This must be a longest winter night ever," she muttered to herself and blindly felt for her phone, pulling the covers off of her body. She dragged herself into the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee and something to eat. If she could do nothing but waste her time with tossing and turning in bed, she might as well get some work done.

While waiting for her toast to be done, she sat at the table and reached for her mobile phone, dialling Stark's number. Her fingers were lightly drumming on the wood surface, but as seconds stretched to minutes without anyone picking up the phone on the other end of the line, anxiety started blooming in her chest.

She stood up and dialled another number, hoping someone would answer the phone in the main office of the headquarters. Breakfast forgotten, she quickly made her way into her room, changing her clothes, but didn't get a reply, even by the time she was done. She stared at the screen for a minute, watching the small phone icon buzz from time to time without avail. She pressed a button, discontinuing the call and headed towards the stairs, running up to the first floor.

Grimmjow's head snapped up as there was a knock on the door and he got up from the bed, tossing the heavy volume he had been flipping through on the mattress. He knew it would be Nel standing in the doorway, but he was still surprised to see her up and dressed so soon after she had gone to bed.

"What's the matter?" he asked and looked over his shoulder to get a glimpse of the clock on the nightstand. "It's only 2a.m."

Nel was caught slightly off-guard to see him step out half-naked and bare foot, her attention momentarily held by two new scars; one in the middle of his torso and another on his left shoulder, both of them caused by silver bullets. A pang of guilt shot through her, knowing that she was responsible for one of them, but she repressed that feeling so she could concentrate on more pressing matters.

"I can't reach Stark or anyone in the headquarters." she stated seriously, worry obvious in her tone. "I'm afraid something happened to them."

Grimmjow's scowl hardened and he snorted lightly.

"I talked to him an hour ago and he sounded just fine. Not to mention, Aizen isn't supposed to be back for a while."

Nel sighed and pushed past him into the room, grabbing the phone he'd gotten from Halibel from the nightstand. She pressed a few buttons and held the device up toward Grimmjow. Slight confusion was evident in his blue eyes, first at what Nel was trying to prove, then at why Stark didn't pick up the phone.

"Aren't you overreacting it? He could be just out of earshot."

"Still doesn't explain why no one is answering the phone in the headquarters. Someone should be in the main office 24/7. The fact that somebody is not there is more than enough reason to call an emergency." She turned to the bed, picking up his shirt. She was about to toss it at him when something caught her eyes.

"What is that book? It looks familiar."

Grimmjow stepped forward and took the cloth out of her hands, putting it on as he spoke.

"I found it in your study. It's about pure-blood clans that lived before the Purification. I was bored out of my mind, that's why I decided to skim through it," he shrugged as he was done buttoning his shirt, sitting down to put on his shoes as well. "I killed a few brain cells reading all that bullshit. Next time, I'm just gonna ask you to fence with me. I saw you still have those swords hanging on the walls."

Nel's head whipped back towards him, remembering the only time they had "fenced". A shiver ran down her spine at the memory. She hoped Grimmjow didn't plan on repeating that incident. Though, by recalling that night, she realised how much their relationship had changed; she couldn't even imagine him trying to pull anything like that again. Was she getting soft on him?

"After this is over, I'm sure I'll be willing to do pretty much anything to thank you for your help."

The vampire grinned at her, his sharp fangs peeking out over his thin lips.

"You should know promising to do anything always ends up bad. What if I asked you to-"

Suddenly Grimmjow fell silent, his head perking up and his grin disappearing altogether, his body tensing noticeably.

"Someone's here."

"Ulquiorra again?"

"No, I can feel this one's aura. It's a vampire."

"I'll go deal with it then. Just give me a minute to get my guns."

Grimmjow merely shook his head, standing up from the bed.

"Their aura's familiar. I think it's one of Aizen's fracción. Greedy idiot thinks he can take on both of us at once."

With a small shift of air, he was out of the room, leaving a surprised Nel behind. She quickly made her way to her room to get her guns, cursing Grimmjow inwardly for being so impatient and reckless. Even if it was just a fracción he could still get himself in trouble...

The fact that she started caring for his well-being didn't even surprise Nel anymore. She took note of it as something that had happened while she wasn't paying attention, but she decided not to dwell long upon it. It wasn't exactly a bad thing, per se, it just added to the things she worried about on a daily basis.

By the time she exited her house, he had already gotten hold of the other vampire, the lifeless body lying at his feet, halfway buried in the kicked-up, bloody snow.

"Can you feel this?"

She slowly walked up to him, her eyes sweeping her garden while her senses were feeling about the surrounding fields.

"Vampires..."

"At least six of them."

"Not counting those that are probably lurking outside of the circle we can feel." She waited with bated breath, her moist palms clutching her guns. "How do they know where I live? My house is far enough from the town so their senses couldn't reach this place."

Grimmjow slowly shifted in his stance till he was back to back with her, his body tense as a drawn bow.

"Ulquiorra must've found you by scent. I remember him telling me he could smell you all over that park where we fought. Bet he followed you here." Grimmjow gritted his teeth in a snarl, murderous intent filling his gaze. "Piece of shit ghoul must've reported it in the clan. Son of a bitch lied straight to my face."

"So it was a trap after all." Nel concluded as calmly as she could have in a dire situation such as theirs. "I wonder what was true from his little story."

"I don't give a shit. I just want to find him and rip him to shreds."

"We will have to deal with the vampires first."

A grin stretched across his face.

"With pleasure."

Loud panting and the sound of footsteps filled her ears, giving her the feeling of being hunted, chased by faceless, unidentifiable figures. The world rushed by around her, making her head spin and her senses dull.

It took Tia a moment to realise that it was her making all that noise, her mind emerging from under the fog of confusion. She gulped down air and forced herself to close her mouth, breathing through her nose. She leapt over several metres of icing, landing in the snow silently.

Her heart beat wildly, almost tearing itself from her chest. Her palms were sweating heavily despite the freezing temperature as she clutched her pistol in one hand, and her phone in the other.

She still remembered Stark's tone, asking for her help before the line had cut, and she had been met with dreadful silence, prompting her to fear the worst. She had left her hiding place in less than five minutes, rushing to town as fast as her teleportation skills allowed her. She had tried to contact Stark again, but all her efforts had been fruitless. She was afraid she was already too late just because she had made the cowardly choice to run away and hide from everyone, including her own friends.

She gritted her teeth and teleported again, despite it taking a big toll on her body now that she'd done it countless of times already, having come from a great distance. She didn't care if she exhausted herself, though. All that mattered was getting to the headquarters as soon as possible and helping the others. She pushed her senses to full throttle, up to their greatest limits to be able to feel the auras in the biggest possible circle around her.

She gasped and stopped dead in her tracks, her vibrant green eyes wide with shock. Even though the streets were empty and silent, she could feel several vampires all around her in the nearby streets. What frightened her the most was the dense and suffocating monstrous cloud that she felt enveloping the hunters' headquarters. It took her a minute to realise what it was.

Dozens of vampires. Vampires inside and around the building, without a single sign of even one human there. She wasn't sure if that meant the hunters had fled or if all of them had been killed. Her stomach curled into a tiny ball at the thought and she had to take deep, calming breaths before she teleported again, looking for any familiar auras in the area.

She decided to avoid going near that specific building and headed towards Stark's house instead. It was the only other place she could imagine him fleeing to after such an attack. She desperately hoped she got it right and that she wasn't actually leaving his corpse behind for the vampires and ghouls to feed upon.

It took her about ten minutes and careful manoeuvring to avoid bumping into any vampires to get to the house without anyone noticing her. It wasn't like she couldn't kill them if it came down to it, but that could have alarmed the rest of them and she would have found herself surrounded by a multiply of vampires.

Her fingers slid to the doorknob, turning it, but the front door was locked. She checked for Stark's aura, only to find it reduced to a barely noticeable twinkle a few houses down the street. She ran down the stairs and out of the garden, leaning down as the branches of the bushes lining the fences got in her way.

Her eyes instantly zoomed in on the dark shapeless heap lying motionlessly at the base of the fence, the long, naked branches of some of the nearby hedging leaning above his body, almost as if trying to shield him from sight. Small batches of snow dotted the ground around him, having fallen from the stirred bushes. One of his hands reached in front of him, his skin visibly pale, almost bluish in colour.

"Stark!"

Icy blue eyes opened slowly, a barely audible sigh leaving the man's dry, pale lips.

"Tia?"

He was pulled up from the cold ground by surprisingly strong hands, his back gently laid back against the fence behind him.

"Keep still for a moment, I'll take care of your wounds first, then take you back to your house."

Stark closed his eyes again, his breathing shallow. When he spoke, his words were almost a whisper.

"Leave it, Tia. They bit me, I have barely enough blood left to function. Even keeping my eyes open takes considerable effort. Your blood manipulation technique can't help here."

Her intense green eyes zoomed in on his neck, noticing two pairs of bloody pinholes, one on either side of his throat. His face was bloodshot, his bottom lip split open.

"Then you'll just have to sleep till you regain your strength. I'll-"

The other hunter's weak voice interrupted her.

"Listen here. You have to find Lilinette. I lost her in the chaos at the headquarters," he heaved a shallow sigh, the air whizzing in and out of his lungs. "Aizen's henchmen attacked us out of the blue. The guards were dead before they could even scream for help. Then all of a sudden, the doors and windows were smashed in and dozens of ghouls and vampires swarmed in. Tia, I may be a veteran hunter but I've never seen this many of them together before. I don't know where Aizen found them but we don't have any chance against an army like this."

He attempted to sit up, wincing at the pain. Halibel tried to get him to remain motionless and not talk as much, but he waved her away.

"We tried to alarm Hirako's group and some others, too, but we couldn't reach them. I'm afraid they were attacked too."

"An aligned charge?"

"Most probably." Stark's gaze blurred, as if he was on the verge of fainting. "Either way, I ordered everyone who got out of the headquarters alive to retreat. You'll have to do the same and this is an order. Find Lilinette and get the hell out of here. If every hunter group has been overrun like this, you guys won't find any help anywhere."

Halibel's hands balled to fists at her sides.

"Stark..."

"Just do as I said."

"...Alright."

TBC

A/N: Remember the cliff-hanger at the end of chapter 2? (Probably not, but it's OK, I wouldn't either.) I can't believe I waited 12 chapters to resolve such a small thing. I feel like Kubo. *facepalm*

Sorry for the short-ish chapter, but I simply needed to get this over with so I can update after such a long time.