Chapter 29
With smooth strides my body passed vampires clutching desperately at the flames that engulfed them. No matter. They would be dead soon enough. Their anguish filled their lungs as I continued, "So, who's next?" The smile continued to confront the beasts.
The pack of vampires recoiled at the sight of their brethren's fiery demise, but it didn't dissuade them. The first leapt at me from the comfort of its pack.
That was its mistake.
Unperturbed, two fingers rose as words of a long-forgotten language leapt from my mouth. A beam of white fire caught the vampire in midflight, piercing its eye and continuing out the rear of its skull before scoring on the metal ceiling, drilling a hole of molten metal.
The others backed away. The body of the newly fallen squished beneath my bare, unbroken stride, "Is that all?" came a taunt.
Their fear was evident. In fact, the fear of every living creature in this facility was evident. Those sniveling behind would pay their price, but now…
The winged beasts of red flesh gathered their courage and leapt at me, hoping their strength was in numbers.
…it was their turn to suffer, "Excellent," the word escaped gleefully. Long whips of flame manifested in my hands, scorching the ground on which they trailed on. Psychic energy bombarded their minds, shredding their conscious and unconscious. They came with an unnatural tenacity, but they were slow. Much too slow.
The whips flashed and danced. Cutting, slicing, and severing. The ten freshly killed bodies laid smoldering. Another laugh cackled at clothes stained with the blood of the fallen.
Foolish beasts stood standing, quivering, but one set of eyes stood out from behind all the others. The last vampire in her human form. "Samantha Stone!" The call shook her to her core. She yelled something in a pitiful display of leadership before running away. The rest of the whelps turned towards me before the thirty charged.
The pace quickened. She would not leave this place alive, but there was a poetic irony to be found in the situation. The hunter now the hunted. Those who struck terror from the dark would die in terror as darkness consumed them.
Without breaking stride and with a simple flick of the wrist, one of the whips was thrown. It spun as it soared down the hallway and met the leading vampire, slicing its torso and cleaving the vermin in two. The halves of the body burst into flames as it fell, and the impact didn't slow the instrument of death. The tendril stretched out to the full width of the hallway and continued to slaughter those before me, charred lines along the walls marked its passage as it sailed.
Many tried to vault over, but the limited confines of the hallway led to their downfall. The weapon separated them from their legs at differing locations, but flames licked up their bodies all the same. It engulfed the creatures and caused them to scream in pain.
With each death a light marking life winked out of my mind's eye. Each corpse added fuel to the fire raging inside and out.
One vampire flattened itself against the floor, escaping the blow. It tilted its head to look up at me. Its disgusting head clicked and howled in its own language. The beast jumped to its feet, turning to flee. This one learned to act on its fear.
The free hand raised, two fingers extending, letting loose another beam of white-hot fury. It caught the vampire midflight, severing its spine before continuing through its heart and exploding out its chest.
My enhanced senses determined Samantha continued her retreat. Two others joined her as she called for more of her underlings to cover her own cowardly escape. Several doors she passed shut in an effort to obstruct my route to her.
Psychic waves cut their way through the vampires towards her. It tore at their very psyches, simultaneously filling their minds with horrifying images of death, destruction, and despair. Arriving at a heavy steel door, my open hand raised and an infernal spell came from my snarling lips. A blast of searing hot energy pummeled into the door, the strength of the wave blew the door out and onto one of the ten sniveling animals on the other side. Its body crushed by the heavy weight.
Smoke rose, creating an obscuring cloud. Their glowing energies marked them, and my mind's sight allowed me to see through their eyes. They enemy saw the dark outline of a figure stepping over their paltry defenses, illuminated by a fiery coil that snaked its way onto the ground. An aura of dread surrounded them, permeating into the minds of those around. With each step the intensity grew stronger, and rising desire for self-preservation gave way to insanity. With each weakened mind and crushed spirit the aura grew stronger.
The group turned and ran, as prey does, down into the long halls and into the bordering rooms beyond, slamming and shutting more heavy doors behind them. In their haste, they locked three of their kind out. The three screeched desperately in protest, but their 'allies' held the strength to brace and protect from their advances, sacrificing a few in the hopes of saving themselves.
The outcasts leapt towards their source of terror in a last effort of hysteric fear. One back-handed swipe lopped the heads from their bodies. Another spell. Another blast. Another door blown, and another echoing boom. The surviving vampires were already running in the hopes of escaping, but the constant wear on their minds took its toll. They gargoyles stumbled, falling over themselves until they laid writhing on the floor, the torment they experienced overwhelmed any conscious thought or action. They began begging for the release of death. Release was given, and their suffering ended.
With almost all life in the facility extinguished, anticipation to catch the leader grew. Samantha and two others built a sizable lead through their unnatural speed and expenditure of the underlings, but their pace now slowed under the constant barrage of psychic energy. The strain intensified. Samantha kept her wits about her, but the other two were weak, and their minds broke. All three stopped their escape as despair settled into their hearts.
My strides grew longer as the distance between my quarry decreased. It wouldn't be long now.
The hallway led into the room with Samantha Stone and her companions. Samantha, still in her human form, slouched against one of the walls sporting large gashes in her legs and side. The corpses of two other vampires in their gargoyle form laid crumpled before her, their throats torn from their bodies.
Her eyes swiveled to me, glistening with terror, "What are you?" she breathed, chest heaving, "What did you do to them."
My gaze moved from her to the corpses and back to her in silence.
"They went insane!" she screamed, fear masquerading as anger. "They babbled nonsense and tried to tear me apart!" Her shouting became more unhinged, "They were my friends! And I had to kill them!"
Once more my gaze moved to the fallen vampires.
"Do you hear me?" she shrieked, "I had to kill them! I want to know why!"
A long pause before a simple answer, "They were weak."
The bleeding had long since stopped from Samantha's wounds. Her vampiric regeneration assisting her rapid recovery, "No," she hissed, barring her teeth, "You're a monster!" she jumped with inhuman speed, lunging for the throat.
My body whirled, already knowing her actions even before she made them, and wove behind her. A few smooth movements and the infernal whip sliced off both hands and severed a leg around the middle of her left shin.
The vampire fell on her side facing me, her body shaking in agony. Her cries lowered to whimpers that faded into the silence. For a few moments all was quiet save for the crackling sound of bodies burning. The seconds stretched on, "Get on with it," She managed through gritted teeth. "Finish it! What are you waiting for?"
A few more seconds of silence. Just when she began to believe she wasn't heard, multiple voices spoke from one body, "You took our father," they growled. The psychic barrage grew stronger with each phrase, "You took our sister!"
Samantha closed her eyes shut and screamed in pain.
"You threatened the lives we care about!" The voices reaching a crescendo before the psychic attacks stopped. Samantha cowered before the creature standing among the corpses of the fallen. My body stooped over her, and the voices spoke in the barest of whispers, "But there is one thing you've taken from us we shall take back from you."
She fearfully met the gaze, "What?" she asked dejected.
My body straightened once more, "Our blood."
Samantha's face shivered as the flesh mask was torn off to reveal her true nature underneath.
The whip darted and stabbed inside the vampire's torso. With a twist, a rip, and a spray of blood, the whip retracted into my left hand, leaving it grasping the stomach of my enemy. The other hand extended two fingers, and with a final spell, a flash of white fire bore through her eye and into her brain. Then the quivering body finally lay still.
My chest heaved, and a triumphant roar resounded throughout the slain vampire's base. It was finished.
Or at least it almost was.
One figure called out behind me, causing my body to turn and my gaze to fix on them. Despite being filled with fear, weak and pathetic fear, they stood before me. The figure saw what I held, and their terror intensified. Their words sounded garbled.
When I approached, they took a step back, but no more, continuing their babbling speech. They could've tried to defend themselves, but they chose not to. It would not have mattered anyway.
I grabbed them by the throat with my right hand, pushing them and lifting them up against the wall, slowly crushing the life from them. Even so, their gibberish continued, and a strange sensation came over me, forcing me to press harder.
Something called across the hold of a foreign entity, a voice.
"Come back to me."
The choking voice of a friend. My friend.
"Please, Caleb. Don't do this."
The voice from the figure slowly grew clear, as if it had been spoken with a strange distortion. With the voice, senses came and went. Bright colors faded, and my surroundings darkened as my consciousness began retaking control of my body.
The world became black, except for the flickering light casted by the flames consuming the bodies of fallen vampires. As my eyes adjusted and focused, I took notice of the true form of what I was choking. Of who I was choking. In my hand, eyes brimming with tears and gasping for air even while she tried to speak…
…was Jessica.
"Caleb don't do this! Please come back to me," she wheezed desperately. Her eyes began rolling back into her head.
I instantly released her, and she crumpled to the floor. My shaking hand stayed outstretched. The firelight illuminated enough. It was covered in blood. My face felt wet, coated in something, and a metallic smell filled my nostrils. I was covered in blood. I tried to scream in terror, but what came out was a dry gag.
What had I done?
A wave of exhaustion hit me, and my body began spasming uncontrollably as I again felt the effects of the vampire venom. I saw Jessica's still body and scrambled to kneel beside her, "No please!" I cried out, voice cracking.
I sensed her mind fading. I held her body in my arms, supporting her head with a shaking hand, "Jessica please don't," My vision blurred from tears. "I'm so sorry." I rocked back and forth with her, finding myself repeat what she told me just moments before, "Come back to me," I whispered. "Please." I pressed her forehead to mine and shut my eyes tightly, "Please come back to me Jessica." My body shook with each sob.
My heart pounded as I listened intently for any response. Something in her mind shifted and gained strength, just a little. I pulled my head back and watched. Suddenly she gasped and coughed, her eyes fluttered open, "C-Caleb?" she asked weakly.
I shifted my weight and laid her across my leg, still holding her head in one hand and stroking her hair gently in the other, "Yeah Jessica. I'm here," I comforted her.
Relief washed over her, and with her, me. She closed her eyes and rested, "I think our next coffee meeting is overdue," she muttered.
I gave a shaky laugh, consumed by a sense of gratefulness. She was ok. She was going to be ok.
Jessica heard my laugh and her lips curled into a smile.
We stayed with one another, consoled by the fact the other was ok.
We were both going to be ok.