~O~

Blood pounded in Alice's ears and her breath came out in ragged spurts, but she had never felt calmer before in her life, despite the fact that she had taken three lives. She had surprised herself by doing this; she had never fired a gun before, much less ever even held one.

And yet, somehow, she had known exactly how and had fired off three rounds with deadly accuracy. Now, here she stood, staring down the barrel of Alucard's flintlock pistol with the end of said gun pointed directly at Zoran. She narrowed her eyes and took in a deep breath. It was an easy shot. She could take his life and put an end to this insane plan of his before anymore of her friends got hurt.

Zoran had already attacked and injured Alucard, Loran, and Sinclair. Who else would be on his list if she didn't put a stop to this madness? Alice tightened her grip on the gun and readied herself to take aim, but Zoran spoke as she did so, and his words threw her focus off course, as well as broke the deafening silence that had been hanging in the air. "That was quite an impressive display," he said, his one good eye never once adverting anywhere else.

His gaze was locked on her. It was a predatory gaze, and one that held no ounce of fear, nonetheless. He wasn't afraid of her, even though she had already killed three of his own. This made her uneasy, but she wasn't about to let Zoran know that. "I'm afraid I can't take that compliment from you," she said flatly.

Zoran simply chuckled and said with a grin, "Such a stubborn girl. You must be one of Sinclair's new pets, because I don't remember seeing you around the enclave before." She narrowed her eyes further, and hatred curled up within her at being called someone's pet.

"What's it matter to you whether or not you've seen me in the enclave?" she retorted back. Alice could feel eyes all around staring at her and Zoran; especially Shun's. She didn't even have to look in his direction to know his amber eyes were burning holes through her.

He's probably ready to react at any moment, Alice thought to herself. She knew Shun well enough to the point that she could practically feel his worry and anxiety within her. Zoran moved a stray strand of his oily black hair out of his face and said nonchalantly, "Oh, the only thing that matters to me is that I just want to know where Sinclair was able to find such a skilled shooter like yourself. That, and it kind of troubles me that I left before getting to know you. You could have been a good addition to my group."

Alice felt her eyes widen. She strengthened her grip on the gun and said coldly, "Like I'd ever join somebody like you. You're the one who wants to kill innocent people. Do I really look like the kind of person who holds the same ideals as you?" She could see Zoran's fangs beneath his smile and cringed as she pictured those fangs draining the blood of his and Loran's parents.

"Trust me, girl, you and I are a lot more alike than you may realize," he mused. Confused, Alice lowered the flintlock slightly and stared at him. Zoran simply chuckled. "Oh, you don't believe me?" he said through his grin, "Well, perhaps you'll believe me after I say this. I saw it in your eyes when you shot those three Blights a second ago. There was pure hatred and anger in your eyes, a hatred and anger that burns with the same intensity that's within me."

He paused for a second and pointed at his chest, more than likely at the so-called 'hatred and anger' that he had. He then looked directly into Alice's eyes and said, "You despise Vampires, don't you?" Alice felt her words catch in the back of her throat, leaving her unable to answer his question immediately. Instead, all she was able to do was shake her head.

Zoran narrowed his eye at her and said, "Don't lie to me. I know what I saw. You hate Vampires as much as I do. You hate all that they do, all that they stand for. You even hate yourself. Am I right?" All of the calm and confidence Alice previous felt when she shot the three Blighted Vampires had gone away now, replaced by doubt and worry.

She didn't hate Vampires; to hate Vampires would mean to hate Shun, and she did not hate Shun. Even if it was Shun that revived the sleeping Vampiric nature that had been asleep in her blood for hundreds of years, she didn't hate him or blame him for any of it.

He did what he had to at the time to save her life, and that was all that really mattered in the end. And as it stood then, she had accepting being a Vampire, and was even learning to embrace it, despite the obstacles she had to overcome along the way.

Alice shook her head and told Zoran, "You're wrong. I don't hate myself, and I don't hate Vampires. I'll tell you what I do hate, though. You, Zoran, and you want to know why? Cause you hurt those I care about, and to me, that's unforgivable. So, if you think for a second that you and I are the same, then forget it. The only thing we have in common is we both know which side we stand for, and my side is here, with my friends, my Clan."

Zoran's smile wavered for just a moment, then returned as fast as it had vanished. "Well, that's a shame. I was really hoping you and I could work together, but it looks like you'll have to die alongside your Clan," he said with a blasé shrug of the shoulders, "But maybe you ought to keep this in mind when you're staring death in the face and question your loyalties, because you are bound to turn on them eventually when the time comes. Just remember that those who are broken like you and I often can never fully be put back together."

Alice squared her shoulders back in an attempt to appear stronger than she felt on the inside, and said with finality, "You're right there. Putting together broken pieces will never return you and I to our original state, but that's where there's another difference between you and I. Unlike you, I'm not going to stand by and continue to be broken. I'm going to search all over for all of my missing pieces until I'm as whole again as I can possibly be, and when I am, I will be stronger than before. You will still be weak and frightened, despite whatever words you spew from your mouth."

Zoran's smile completely vanished and was replaced by a savage snarl. He then turned to the blonde-haired Vampire at his side and said, "Alexander, shut her up." Alexander nodded and readied himself to attack, but Alice reacted quickly. She lifted the flintlock and fired, planting the bullet in Alexander's knee. He cried out in pain and dropped to the ground, unable to stand on his injured leg.

"I don't think so," she said as she loaded another round into the chamber, which, again, was something that nobody had shown her how to do. Alice then aimed the gun at Zoran and shot again, but right before the bullet struck him, he struck first.

Faster than the bullet, Zoran formed a dark mist around him, and Alice saw as the projectile touched the mist and disintegrated in mere seconds before her very eyes. She gasped and took a step back, shaken by the fact that the gun wasn't able to touch him. Zoran waved his hand and disbanded the mist into the air around him. "Nice try," he said, "but no dice."

She growled, aggravated by his sardonic attitude. Alice wanted nothing more than to put an end to this, to ensure that she and her friends would be safe from this madman. Zoran looked to Alexander, who was struggling to his feet, his knee almost fully recovered, and said, "I believe we're done here for now. We've gotten our point across, so there's nothing else that needs to be done. All we can do is wait for the people to take action and unknowingly assist us towards our goal. However, that doesn't mean I won't leave a little parting gift for you all."

Zoran lifted his hands, and black mist encased him and the Blighted Vampires behind him. But when the mist cleared, Alice saw that Zoran and his lackeys were gone, but about half of the Blights remained. Their dazed, blank expressions vanished and were replaced with savage, feral snarls.

They began their charge towards Alice and the others. Acting quickly, Alice loaded another round in the chamber and fired as many shots as she was able to manage. Vampires dropped to the ground left and right, her aim never off even once. But even though her aim was as good as Arthur's in her mental vision, she was drastically outnumbered.

There were still about a hundred Blighted Vampires heading her way, and she only had so many bullets. In fact, as she cocked the flintlock back another time, she discovered she had actually used her last round. Alice was now not only at a major disadvantage, but also defenseless. She swore under her breath and prepared to turn tail and run, but as she did, something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye; Shun.

He had jumped beside her and narrowed his eyes. Next thing she knew, the Blighted Vampires ceased their assault. He had made another barrier like the one he and Sinclair had supported earlier. This time, though, it was just Shun, and Alice could see that it was already putting strain on his body.

"Shun, don't do this," she said, "You could barely hold the barrier with the help of Sinclair, so what makes you think you can do this on your own?" She hated to doubt his abilities, but she had seen him earlier, struggling to help Sinclair and bleeding from his nose as his body was pushed to its limits. She had hated standing over there behind that building and watching him suffer.

Shun almost lost his balance and said through gritted teeth, "What do you suggest I do then? Drop the barrier and let these things come after us and take our chances running? No way." Alice shook her head. She didn't have any other options to suggest as to what to do in this situation. Staying behind to fight would be suicide, especially when Sinclair and Alucard were both out of commission at the moment.

Shun gasped and his knees buckled again, but unlike a second ago, he was unable to stand back up all the way. A fresh line of blood started to run from his nose. Alice wished he would stop, but she knew he wouldn't. And she hated to admit it, but none of them could afford to have him stop, because at that moment, Shun was the only thing holding off the Blighted Vampires that stood only a few yards away.

Shun's face was twisted into an expression of pain, and Alice could no longer stand to watch. She grabbed onto his shoulder and said, "Please, Shun, that's enough. You can't keep this up for much longer. I can get the others to take a head start and you can drop the barrier and run to catch up. I'm sure we can outrun them, I'm sure of it."

Shun shook his head and said to her, "What about Dan and the others? They aren't as fast as we are. These things would catch up to them in a heartbeat and our friends would be dead. And Loran? Who would carry him? Sinclair? Loran's weight would slow Sinclair down, and then we might lose both of them."

Alice bit down on her lower lip and shook her head. She didn't want to lose anybody, but she knew good and well that Shun couldn't hold up the invisible wall for much longer. She ran a hand through her hair and said, "I don't know. I don't know." Shun's eyes started to close slowly, and he would shake off his fatigue for a short moment before they started to close again.

"Get down," Gillfrey's icy voice said from behind. Alice looked over her shoulder and saw as ice was starting to form in the Count's hands. She gasped and latched onto Shun's arm, and then, using all of her weight, she pulled him down; if he hadn't been drained, he probably would have resisted a bit more.

The moment she and Shun had ducked down to a certain point, Gillfrey released the ice that had formed in his hands. Shards of clear, frozen water went shooting through the air and, being that Shun had lost his focus and dropped the barrier when he was pulled down, struck the Blighted Vampires in front of them. The ice cut through their bodies like thin water, and the Blights' blood went spewing out from the holes left behind.

They began to drop to the ground left and right as Gillfrey shot more ice into their foes. Then, a moment later, the Blighted Vampires were gone. Many of them lay fallen on the ground, dead. The rest had given up on trying to get a meal and had run off somewhere into the city.

Gillfrey looked over his shoulder at Carson and said, "Go after them and make sure they don't get too far." Carson gave a quick nod and bolted off in the direction that the remaining Blighted Vampires had run off in. With the immediate threat gone, Alice stood up and looked at Gillfrey. "Thank you," she said with great reluctance. The Count narrowed his eyes at her and said, "Don't think much of it. Seriously, don't."

Alice held back a smart remark that danced on the end of her tongue; she didn't need to cause any trouble now that things were starting to die down. Behind Gillfrey, Alice saw that Sinclair had gotten back on his feet and had hurried to Loran's side; the gray-haired Vampire still hadn't moved from where he laid on the ground.

The Vampire Lord cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "Hey, can I get some help over here?! Gillfrey! Shun! I need help!" Gillfrey made a noise of annoyance as he turned on his heels to answer Sinclair's call. Shun, who had caught his breath after exerting so much energy on sustaining the barrier, struggled to his feet and hurried to Loran's side the moment he regained his balance.

Alice was about to head that way as well, but stopped when her eyes fell on the three corpses that laid closest to her; the Blighted Vampires she shot. They each had a bullet hole right between their eyes, their faces frozen in the expression they had previously been in before their lives came to an abrupt end.

Blood pooled around their bodies, making it look like they were floating on a shallow sea of red. Alice had never killed anything before, so she wasn't sure how to feel about taking the lives of creatures that were too far gone to be considered 'living.' But nonetheless, she figured she should have felt some kind of guilt or remorse. And yet, there was none. She had killed them without a second thought, without malice.

It wasn't human to take a life and not feel anything. This thought made a wave of despair wash over her. Not human. The words echoed through her mind. If she were human, she should have been somewhat upset over this, even if the Blighted Vampires were the ones who had been doing the attacking. Alice shook her head, and when she did, her eyes fell back onto the pools of blood.

She stared at them for what felt like forever, the world fading away around her, making the blood the only thing she could focus on. Alice felt as her canine teeth elongate into sharp fangs. Taken aback, she clamped her hand over her mouth, which caused her fangs to puncture the skin of her palm.

Blood trickled from the small wound and dripped into the Blighted Vampire's. Not human. Not human at all. She took several steps away from the Vampires she killed and dropped Alucard's flintlock on the ground. The moment it struck the asphalt, she turned on her heels and bolted down the nearest alley, running as fast as possible in a desperate attempt to get away from the horrible sight, and the reality that came with it.

Well, today has officially sucked, but getting this chapter made me feel a bit better. Ah, the relaxing ritual of writing. Anywho, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, so read and please leave a review on the way out. ~Copperpelt~