~O~

Shun broke free from all the fighting and leaned against the wall of a nearby building, panting heavily as he tried to catch his breath. His fatigue had begun pestering him throughout the battle, causing him to slip up and make mistakes that could have caused the end of him. So, before it got to be too much to handle, Shun had decided on breaking away to rest for a moment.

It wasn't a choice he wanted to do, but it was the best thing for him; if he stayed out there and kept pushing himself to the limits, he wouldn't be able to keep up. And if he couldn't keep up, then all it would take was one Vampire to blindside him and make everything go dark. And if Shun wanted to stand any kind of chance against Alexander, then he at least needed to be able to hold his own in battle.

He glanced at the bloodbath that was still taking place. Bodies of fallen Vampires from both sides had begun to cover the ground that the living were still fighting on. The asphalt street, which was already cracked from years of neglect, was glistening in the light of the full-moon with blood.

Shun had taken down a good number of Alexander's underlings after Loran got Alice out of harm's way, but the raven-haired teen had been running on pure adrenaline then. As the fight progressed, that adrenaline started to wane, and when it did, the deep gashes in his back made themselves more profound.

Even then, as he was leaning his shoulder against the brick wall to rest, the claw marks that ran down his back stung and made him flinch every time he turned a certain way; they were starting to become a handicap for Shun. He had been able to push through the aching pain for a while, but the more he fought, and the more he moved, the more those wounds hurt.

Now, they seemed to be the only thing his mind wanted to focus on. There was still the fear of the wounds carrying the infection known as Blight, though. Even though Shun hadn't begun to display any signs of losing his mind to the infection, that didn't mean he wasn't infected.

The disease might have just been taking a while to set in, or Shun's body was trying to fight it off. Regardless, Shun had made sure that when he jumped back into the fight, he kept himself from being scratched again, just in case the Vampire that wounded his back hadn't been Blighted; the last thing he needed was to be clear from the infection from the initial wound, only to be scratched again and contract the disease that time.

Shun straightened up a bit, which caused the four claw marks on his back to hurt further. But he fought through the pain and turned back to face the fighting. Although it was a bit difficult to tell, it appeared that Sinclair's Clan had the upper hand. Not many of the Yoru Clan had fallen compared to the mass of bodies from Alexander's side that littered the ground.

Shun took this as a good sign, but didn't take it to heart; the tides could change at any time and sweep them beneath the waves. The raven-haired teen was about to return to the fight at hand, but a loud explosion stopped him. It apparently did not catch the attention of any of those fighting; if it did, then they were ignoring it and remaining focused on defending their own lives.

Shun looked over in the direction that the explosion had come from. He saw something that looked like dust or smoke billowing up in the distance; he couldn't really tell much else about it against the night sky. But Shun did have a feeling about one thing, though.

Something was telling him that that explosion was caused by Sinclair, and if the Vampire Lord was there, then so would be Alexander as well. The adrenaline that Shun had been running off of earlier, suddenly came rushing back with the thought of going up against Alexander.

And with the return of this adrenaline, the pain in Shun's back seemed to fade into a distant memory for the time-being. He glanced over at his fellow Clan mates that were fighting; they seemed to be holding their own. They shouldn't suffer if I leave, Shun reasoned with himself and darted off in the direction of the explosion.

~O~

Alucard fired another round from behind a shattered window of a building. It found its target, dropping the enemy Vampire to the ground in a heap. The second-in-command then ducked back behind the wall and loaded another round into the pistol.

He was acting as a sniper, just minus the high-ground and seemingly-unlimited ammunition. Alucard was making sure to target the underlings of Alexander that seemed to be giving the Yoru Clan the most problems and ensuring that the fight would fall into their favor.

But there was a bit of a problem; Alucard was almost out of bullets. He had perhaps just over twenty, and he could figure that a fourth of those would be misses, while another fourth might hit their target, but not be a kill-shot. So, the way he looked at it, Alucard only had half of what little ammunition that sat in front of him now.

He growled in aggravation and peered out through the shattered window again. His violet eyes scanned the battlefield, hunting for an enemy Vampire that might have been giving Sinclair's Clan mates difficulties. Alucard didn't spot one immediately, but he did identify Alexander's second-in-command, Sykes.

It would be a small accomplishment to take out the Vampire that was close to Alexander. So, Alucard drew back the hammer of the flintlock pistol and set the sights on Sykes. He narrowed his eyes, making sure that everything was dead-center before he made the shot, when a loud explosion rang out into the night air.

It startled Alucard, making him duck back behind the wall and search his hideout for anybody that might have snuck in while his back was turned. But he was all alone. Confusion then flooded into the second-in-command, and he glanced back out through his window to see a large smoke cloud billowing up into the sky.

Alucard felt his eyes grow wide; the smoke cloud was rising from the direction that Sinclair had run off to fight Alexander. Panic began to rise within Alucard with the thought that the Vampire Lord might have been injured or fallen, and before he knew it, the second-in-command ran from his hideout and towards the smoke cloud.

~O~

The force of the explosion knocked the two Vampires back, flinging them against the brick walls of the alleyway. Sinclair coughed and fanned away some of the dust debris from his eyes. The explosion had been his fault. The Vampire Lord had sent another telekinetic attack at Alexander, but the blond-haired Vampire had moved, causing the attack to hit an old gas-pipe to one an abandoned building.

The gas-line, which should have been shut off whenever the building was condemned and abandoned, apparently had not been. Once the force of the attack hit the pipe and busted the metal, the gas inside burst free, causing the explosion, and more than likely bringing unwanted attention to their personal battle. Enough of the dust had cleared away for Sinclair to see through now.

And through it, he was able to make out Alexander's silhouetted form; it appeared at though the enemy Vampire was still trying to recover from the impact of the blast. Sinclair decided to take advantage of this opportunity. He dove through the remaining dust that lingered in the air and readied himself to attack Alexander.

But when he reached out to dig his claws into the disoriented Vampire, Sinclair found that he was no longer there. The Vampire Lord began to search frantically for his target, but the dust still wasn't making it entirely easy to see all of his surroundings. "Where the hell did you go?" Sinclair shouted.

He was growing tired of this game. The Vampire Lord was ready to put an end to it. The rest of the debris dust cleared, leaving on a thin fog behind to make the world look dirty. When it did, Sinclair glanced up and found Alexander sitting in a windowsill above, his legs crossed and a smirk on his face.

"What's the matter, Sinclair? Getting aggravated?" the blond-haired Vampire taunted. Sinclair narrowed his eyes and growled. Alexander only chuckled and dropped back down to the ground with a cat-like grace, despite all of the scratches and minor wounds that littered his body. Sinclair wasn't much different. The Vampire Lord had his own share of gashes and cuts from falling on the ground and being flung back against the brick walls that surrounded them.

But neither of the Vampires had landed a decisive hit yet. Alexander took a couple steps closer to Sinclair and folded his arms over his chest. "You're still holding back your real power, aren't you, Sinclair?" the blond-haired Vampire inquired, "Why is that? Afraid of flattening this whole city block without breaking a sweat? Please, do tell me." Sinclair clenched his jaw and let out a low, menacing growl.

"It's none of your damn concern. Besides, I don't need to use my full powers to take you down," the Vampire Lord said coldly. It was true that Sinclair could have already ended this fight if he unleashed the full strength of his telekinetic powers, but he wasn't going to; he had vowed never to use them again a long, long time ago.

The memories, even though they were from hundreds of years ago, were still fresh and raw in his mind. He could still see the faces of the townspeople as they and their little settlement were wiped clean from the face of the Earth. It had all been in the best intentions, though.

Sinclair had been trying to protect them from an attack by a Vampire Clan that had been going all along the countryside, killing entire settlements and villages. But the Vampire Lord wasn't about to let them get this town in particular, only because it was the only one that was not afraid of Vampires. The townspeople there idolized Vampires and wanted to bridge the gap between the two species.

Sinclair thought that they were a truly unique people, and for years that Vampire Lord had been wanting to bridge that gap as well. He had wanted to see the end of Vampire Hunters and Vampires killing one another in massive bloodshed. So, he vowed to protect that village in order to keep their ideals alive. But the Vampire Clan that had been crossing the countryside was a huge one, more than Sinclair could have handled on his own.

He had been cocky and arrogant at the time. The Vampire Lord had figured at the time that since he had control over his full powers that he could just wiped the incoming Clan off the face of the Earth. Well, he did, but he had also taken the town in which he was trying to protect along with that Clan. Sinclair could perfectly recall standing in the middle of where the town had been, and stared in horror at the ground that had been flattened and stripped bare of trees and everything else.

He still remembered the years of self-loathing he experienced after that, and it was during that time that he vowed to himself that he would never use those powers again. Sinclair shook himself back into focus, pushing the dark memories away and returning his attention to the task at hand. But by the time he was fully back in reality, Alexander lunged at him, pinning the Vampire Lord to the ground. Upon impact, Sinclair had the air knocked from his lungs, and he tried to catch his breath.

Alexander saw this and dug his knee into the Vampire Lord's chest, putting all his weight behind his knee and into Sinclair's ribs. With this added weight, Sinclair struggled even more to catch his breath. "You think too much, Sinclair," Alexander sneered and pressed his knee further into the Vampire Lord's ribs. Sinclair could feel several of his ribs cracking from the pressure.

The edges of his vision were starting to grow dark, and little flashes of light danced in the Vampire Lord's line of vision. No, I can't blackout….I've…..I've got to stay…..Sinclair felt his mind growing heavy, and his eyes started to droop down as unconsciousness latched onto him. But just as the Vampire Lord was about to slip into the blackness of his mind, a gunshot rang out and he heard Alexander cry out.

When this happened, the weight that was being placed on his chest lightened a bit, allowing enough oxygen to return to Sinclair and bring him back to a state of awareness. Sinclair was then hit with the smell of blood. He looked over and found Alexander clutching his shoulder.

Blood was seeping through the blond-haired Vampire's fingers from the wound under his hand. Somebody then knelt down beside the Vampire Lord. Sinclair turned and saw that it was none other than Alucard. The second-in-command's eyes were wide and brimming with concern. "Sir, are you alright?" Alucard asked frantically. Sinclair nodded and said, "I'm fine. Now, help me up." Alucard nodded and helped Sinclair up to his feet.

The Vampire Lord wobbled for a moment, for he was still lightheaded from loss of oxygen. But he recovered quickly, and already he could feel his damaged ribs healing themselves. "Perfect timing, as always, Alucard," Sinclair said to his second-in-command. Alucard gave him a single nod and pointed the flintlock pistol at Alexander.

"Just give me the word and I'll shoot him." Sinclair was about to tell Alucard to back down, that this fight was strictly between the Vampire Lord and Alexander, when the blond-haired Vampire was suddenly flung backwards and pinned against the brick wall by an invisible force. Alucard looked at Sinclair, thinking that he had been the one to do this. But the Vampire Lord shook his head, telling his second-in-command that he hadn't used his telekinetic powers just then.

Alexander was still pinned to the wall, and Sinclair could see that more of the invisible force was being pressed down onto the blond-haired Vampire's body.

Blood then started to trickle down the corner of Alexander's mouth as he was crushed further by the force. "I suggest you get out of the way, or one of you might get caught in the crossfire," a voice said from behind. Sinclair turned around and found Shun standing behind them.


It's bout to get real up in here. I'll get out for that now. Anyway, I'm not sure if I will be able to upload tomorrow because I'm getting my senior portraits done and blah blah blah. Like I also said, if I do upload Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, then they will be late uploads. Like, really late, because I have band camp. Ugh. -.- It's my last band camp though until college, so I can't really complain. Gotta make it last, right? Well, hope you all enjoyed this chapter. And also, check out my profile for a new poll! Read and leave a review on the way out! ~Copperpelt~