As promised, here is the next chapter!
TW: this chapter features intense verbal and physical violence, including misogynistic slurs, gun violence, various mutilations, burning, all leading up to a gruesome character death. Yup, a character dies in this chapter.
"Wowser," Max commented, "she really has a thing against you!"
Sitting by her side at the kitchen counter, Victoria stopped nibbling at her peanut butter sandwich and looked at her with a pained look in her eyes:
"I told you, I was quite a bitch with her. Oh God, I just hope she'll forgive me or this is gonna get real awkward real fast, if my both my girlfriend's best friend and her other best friend hate me…"
"Hey, don't worry about that," Max murmured, stroking her arm. "First, Chloe doesn't hate you. I even think she's starting to like you. As for Rachel, well, I'm sure she'll see how different you are now. I bet that in no time, the four of us will be the hella best friends forever!"
After a pause, she added: "And in the meantime, I'll protect you if she feels like drinking you dry."
Victoria had a start and looked at her girlfriend in frightened confusion, but upon seeing the cheeky smirk on the freckled face, she understood it was supposed to be a joke and forced herself to snort.
Still, she didn't find it too funny. It kinda made her skin crawl, to be honest…
She decided to move to another subject: "Wait till I tell Tay and Court that I'm also hanging out with a vampire trio…"
"You think they'd let us in the Vortex Club?"
This time, the blonde laughed for real: "Now that would make for some very… interesting parties! Though Rachel will probably need a makeover if she wants to make a public appearance."
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. I don't think the Two-Face look is a permanent thing."
"You don't?"
Max shrugged: "I mean, we can heal almost anything, so there's no reason."
"Yeah," Victoria murmured in an odd, dreamy tone, then she resumed eating, while staring at a vacant spot near the microwave oven.
Max looked at her eating, and felt a slight pang of jealousy at the thought that Victoria could still enjoy peanut butter.
Jeebus! I'm so frickin' hungry! Think she'd let me take a sip off her? Nah, after all she gave Rachel, she's probably too drained for me. We're all too drained.
Still, I'm starving!
But then she noticed Victoria was still chewing absent-mindedly without swallowing anything, as if she was stuck.
"Huh, Tori? Everything alright?"
"Yeah," she said, shaking herself back to reality (and swallowing her bite at last). "I was just thinking… about what you said, you can heal almost anything. Made me think about you guys being kind of… immortal. And… this whole thing that happened tonight, I'm still… I dunno…"
"Tripping on it?"
"Yeah, you could say that."
Max gently laid her hand over Victoria's, stroking her soft skin. "You'll get used to it," she said. "You're now Victoria Chase, the only girl in Arcadia Bay to have a superpowered, invincible hipster waif girlfriend!"
Victoria let out a loud chuckle: "If I had known you would become so awesome, I'd never have called you a 'hipster waif'!"
"What?" Max gasped in exaggerated shock. "So I was not awesome before I became a vampire?"
"That's not what I meant!" Victoria retorted, blushing. "You were awesome before, of course, but I was way too proud to acknowledge it. Actually…"
"What?" Max pressed her, amused by her flustered hesitation.
If someone told me I would one day have this effect on such a gorgeous girl… I'd never have believe them!
"Well," the blonde muttered, biting her lip, "I had a talk with Tay the other day, and she opened my eyes on something… on the fact that I may have had a crush on you since day one?"
Max's jaw dropped. And then she burst out laughing: "Wowser, is that why you were so mean to me?"
Victoria shrugged: "I know, it's pretty lame…"
"It is super-duper lame," Max added to tease her. "And kind of cute."
And on these words, she leaned over to give her a sneak kiss on the lips that startled her and made her heart drum.
"Consider yourself forgiven," she said with a wink.
Their little moment of fluff was interrupted by a huff from David. All along, the man had been so quiet, eating his sandwich while leaning against the stovetop, that they'd almost forgotten he was here at all.
"Is everything alright, Mr Madsen?" Victoria asked.
"I'm sorry David," Max added, "we didn't mean to… embarrass you or…"
The man waved at them: "It's okay. I don't mind you guys flirting, but…" he sighed. "I'm still not… comfortable with this."
"With this?" Victoria frowned. "You mean, girls dating?"
"You can say 'gay', Victoria, and no, it's not that. I've known Chloe was gay since she started dating Rachel, I had plenty of time to get used to the idea. No, it's this whole… situation that bothers me. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't be happier to have Chloe back, and Max, I don't have any words strong enough to express how grateful I feel. You know I love her as my daughter, and you know how I wished I had a second chance with her, and you gave me just that. And Rachel… kid didn't deserve to die like this. Yet… this whole… superpowers thing, drinking blood…"
"We talked about that-"
"I know, but still... I don't want to hurt you, Max, but if I'm being honest here… it creeps me out."
"But we're still us, David. It doesn't matter whether we're vampires or humans, we're the same people."
"Are you really?" he asked, casting a concerned look at her.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you're talking about being immortal, or invincible. Is that right?"
"In a way. I mean, a couple things can kill us, but-"
"And you have, as you call them, superpowers?"
"Why, yeah, we can do, uh… stuff… but why do you ask?"
He sighed: "When Chloe lived here… and when she was with Rachel… they'd get angry, sometimes. Often, actually. I've lost count on the number of things Chloe broke around the house… and on my car. There was even this one time she…" he chuckled at the recollection: "It will be hard to believe, but once she relieved herself on my seat."
Both girls had their mouths slack, torn between bewilderment and laughter.
"Oh my dog, Chloe did that?"
"She did, yes. And Rachel… girl doesn't look like it, but she was a hurricane. First thing didn't go her way, she'd lay down the wrath of God on everyone crossing her path."
"Yeah," Max agreed, "Chloe told me about it. But, why are you telling us this?"
"My point being, when a normal - I mean, non-powered - person gets angry, they will break stuff, trash a car, or in most extreme cases, hit people, but they can be contained, calmed down. Their scope of destruction is relatively limited. My point being, as vampires you're still you, and I'm willing to believe that, but you're teenagers who are suddenly given superhuman strength, and… magic, to move things with your mind, or summon the rain… so what if one of you gets angry? What if you can't calm down?"
Victoria felt a cold chill run down her spine as she weighed David's words. Max noticed this, but before she could say a word to reassure them, a frantic knock on the door startled them all.
"Wait here," David ordered as he went to the front door. He opened it cautiously. His visitor was a slender, raven-haired man, clean-shaven, draped in an expensive dark trench coat that flapped about him in the night breeze like leathery wings. And he looked like he was on the verge of an anxiety attack.
"David," the visitor nodded. "I am sorry to disturb you."
"Sebastian?" David asked with surprise. "Wha… what are you doing here?"
"I am looking for Max. I was thinking she could be here?"
"Why, yes she's here, but what's the matter? You look worried."
"Can I see her?"
David hesitated. Having a guest over while two girls who were supposed to be dead and buried were upstairs, pretty much alive, was far from ideal. But at the same time, he looked really worried. Wasn't he like, Max's boss and mentor, on top of being her teacher? Wouldn't it look suspicious if he said no?
Come on, Chloe and Joyce were busy upstairs, they wouldn't come down before a little while. Let him in, ten minutes to see Max was okay and have a coffee, and that was it.
"Of course, come in. Coffee?"
"Yes, please."
The vampire followed David to the kitchen, where he saw Max and Victoria. His young protégée, who had recognized his voice, was standing and greeted him sheepishly, kneading her elbow. The blonde was gently rubbing her arm for comfort.
"Max!" the teacher exclaimed. "Oh merci mon Dieu, I had such a bad feeling about you!"
"About me?" the girl asked nervously. "Why? I-I'm fine, really."
Monsieur Lacroix sighed loudly in obvious relief, though he was still nervous and jittery.
"Is there a problem, Monsieur?" Victoria asked.
"I just…" he paused to catch his breath. "Just drove all the way from Newberg. I had this… ominous gut feeling, I felt like something had happened to this town, and I had to find you."
"Well, yeah, there was Ra-" Victoria started, but a gentle elbow to the side from Max followed by a very insistent look persuaded her to switch the course of her speech at once. "There was this strange power surge across town, but other than that, we're fine."
"Are you sure? I still feel… something…"
Saying this, the teacher looked around, discreetly sniffing the air, looking increasingly uneasy.
"Are you telling me everything, Max?" he inquired.
The brunette gave David a glance.
Please dog, please make him understand I need some help here…
"They came to check on us after the surge," David intervened, much to the girl's relief. "To make sure we're okay." He nodded toward the unfinished sandwiches and mugs and added: "We were just having a little late snack when you arrived."
"Oh? Well, I guess I got a little worried for nothing," Lacroix said, smiling in slight embarrassment. "But still, I have this… feeling…"
He looked at Max with insistence, and she shrunk under his gaze, taking shelter in Victoria's arms. She knew why he was so suspicious: she had Rachel's scent on her, he had caught it, but he didn't know what it was, and this was puzzling him. He gazed at her intensely, and as she struggled to meet his eyes, she felt they were done for, he knew, or if he didn't, he would find out and they'd be in for a helluva scolding!
Was the scent really too weak for him to make up his mind about it, or did he just not want to make a scene in this house, and would catch them later? Whatever it was, he suddenly broke eye contact, let out a chuckle, and said:
"Well, I am glad to see everything seems to be alright with you. I shall be on my way, sorry for the disturbance."
"You're welcome," David said.
And just as it seemed they'd be off the hook, Chloe suddenly ran down the stairs, chiming cheerfully:
"Coming to get Mom a bite, she's so hungry she could faint! Everything's great, she's- uh oh…"
She froze dead in her tracks, livid, when she entered the kitchen area and saw their surprise guest.
Max looked at her teacher in panic. His already pale face turned so livid it was almost transparent.
"Chloe?" he gasped. "Here? With… with… are you out of your mind?"
"Well I…" Chloe started hesitantly. "I couldn't stay dead to my mom forever, right?"
"But this… I did not expect this so soon! I thought we would discuss it beforehand, come up with a proper plan! How in the world did you explain that?"
"Wait," David asked, "Sebastian, you know her? And you knew she was…" he paused, his mouth agap as it clicked. "Wait, are you a vampire too?"
This time, Lacroix looked like he got struck by lightning. Standing straight, his eyes vacant, his arms loose, he remained there like a broken puppet.
"Uh, Monsieur?" Max hesitated.
Way to go, David!
"Monsieur?" Victoria added. "Are you going to be alright?"
"Putain de bordel de saloperie de merde, Max!" Lacroix erupted so violently the girl cowered and whimpered. Victoria instinctively tightened her protective grip on her, as Chloe rushed forth to also wrap her arms around Max. For a split second, as their hands touched over the smaller girl's shoulders, the blonde and the bluenette glared at each other. Then they quickly broke eye contact to focus on comforting their freckled friend who was shaking like a leaf under Lacroix's verbal assault. She had no idea what he was saying, but by the tone of it, and by the look of his wide eyes and bulging veins on his neck, it sure wasn't nice.
"Qu'est-ce que vous avez fait, mais qu'est-ce que vous avez fait, espèces de connes? Est-ce que toute cette putain de ville est au courant?"
David stepped in between him and the girls, one hand raised toward the teacher in a gesture of appeasement.
"Lower your tone, Sebastian," he ordered softly but firmly. "I don't know what gets you so worked up, but we will sort this out peacefully."
But it wasn't enough to calm the Frenchman down. He started pacing back and forth between the kitchen and the dining area, holding his head in his hands and hyperventilating, while mumbling a litany of:
"Putain, putain, putain, putain…"
"What's he saying?" a frightened Max whispered to Victoria.
"He's very upset that you told us about you and Price being vampires. Now he's afraid the whole town knows."
"No, that's wrong, we've been careful to just tell the three of you!"
She turned toward her teacher and tried to tell him, but the words died in her mouth before they could come out. Chloe came to the rescue:
"Sir," she said, "we didn't tell anyone but Chase, Mom and Stepdouche. Promise! Scout's honor!"
"You've been a scout?" Victoria raised an eyebrow.
"Shuddup, Chase," Chloe mumbled.
Lacroix didn't seem to have heard her, as he kept pacing and mumbling.
"Uh, sir?" Chloe insisted. "Did you hear? I said we didn't tell anyone outside of this house. See? We've been careful!"
"Monsieur, vous allez bien?" Victoria attempted.
"Je suis tellement énervé que j'arrive même plus à parler anglais," he groaned.
"What ?" Max asked.
"He said he's too upset to speak English."
"Now that ain't gonna make conversations easy," Chloe snickered.
"Unless one of us speaks French like, really well," Max said, and before Victoria could protest, here she was looking up at her with her big, wet eyes.
Victoria sighed: "Fuck, okay, I'll deal with him. Price, you take good care of her."
"You bet I will," the punk retorted with a shit-eating grin.
Reluctantly, the blonde let go of her girlfriend – who gave her a squeeze of the hand and a whispered thank you as she left – and went to talk to their panicking teacher. Whatever she said, her tone was comforting and it seemed to work, as she slowly led him to the couch where he sat. Then she spotted a liquor cabinet and went to fetch a bottle of bourbon and a glass. She filled the glass, gave it to him, and sat on the coffee table, facing him. He took a long sip, belched, and then they talked for several minutes. Max, Chloe and David were watching them from the kitchen, confused.
"Any idea what they're talking about?" David asked.
"Nope," Max said. "I picked Spanish as a second language… and I'm not even very good at it."
"I'm pretty good at Spanish," Chloe said. "Donde esta la marijuana?"
Max snorted and rolled her eyes.
"You're cute when you laugh, Maxi-pad."
Max had a sudden coughing fit.
"If only you put as much energy studying as you do cracking jokes," David sighed wearily.
"If only you weren't such a stuck-up ass-"
"Do you really think it's time to get it started again?" Max interrupted her, frowning.
"As you wish, Ma'am," Chloe replied with a smirk. "Seriously, isn't she adorable when she gets bossy too?"
Max shushed her, and thankfully, Chloe didn't follow up this time. Why did she always have to be the smartass at the most inappropriate times?
"At least it looks like it's working," the brunette commented, focusing on the couch again. "He looks more relaxed."
"Yeah," Chloe snorted, "wait till we tell him about Rach-"
"Chlo, shut the fuck up!" Max whispered, rudely elbowing her. "You want him to have a stroke or what?"
"C'est qui, Rach?" Lacroix suddenly asked, shifting his attention to his two protégées.
Oh, shit.
Didn't take a master's degree in French to understand he was asking who Rach was.
Abruptly, he stood up and paced for the kitchen, repeating his question, and many more, in an anxious, rapid-fire fashion, Victoria in his wake trying to answer his questions as fast as he asked them.
"Tori, tell him Rach is no-one, just, uh, some friend we ran into earlier this evening, and-"
Lacroix's reply was as sharp as it was unintelligible.
"He said to cut the crap, he knows you're lying," Victoria translated.
Lacroix then told Victoria something that sounded like an order, and the blonde said:
"He just asked me to repeat what he told me on the couch. He was spending the evening with his boyfriend in Newberg, they were playing bowling with his friends when all of a sudden he felt a… psychic blast, no, a psychic tidal wave, he insisted on the term, coming from Arcadia Bay. He said it was so strong it made him nauseous, and he was afraid something had happened, that you'd disobeyed him and left the lair where you were grounded, and by the way, he grounded you? Seriously? Because of Tay's mom?"
"We'll tell you later, Tori."
"Okay, so he was afraid you got out and did some more stupid shit, so he drove back here on the double. He got really scared when he saw you weren't at the lair and there was a third coffin there, so he went to the dorm looking for you, and then here, and I'd just managed to calm him down when Price fucked up, so now he wants to know who's Rach and what that third coffin is about."
"Well…"
But before they could formulate an answer, Lacroix tensed, like an animal sensing danger, and blurted something out before making a dash for the staircase.
"Wait! Monsieur!" Max called, running after him, with everyone in her wake. "What did he say?"
"He said he just sensed the same energy signature as the psychic blast, coming from upstairs!"
Oh shit oh shit oh shit!
On top of the staircase, Lacroix made a turn to the right and slammed Chloe's bedroom door opened, startling the two women inside. Joyce was helping Rachel get dressed with the clothes she'd left in Chloe's dresser: torn dark jeans, a Firewalk t-shirt, and a red flannel shirt that had seen better days. For a second, the three stared at each other in awed silence, and Lacroix felt a frozen blade run down his spine as he gazed at the bare bones and teeth of the teenager's half-decayed face. Then he returned to the hallway and slammed the door shut.
"C'est Rachel Amber," he said, his voice soft and quivering.
"He said-", Victoria started, but was interrupted by Chloe:
"This is Rachel, yeah I got that. Well, yeah, sir, it's her. So fucking what?"
His voice was still quivering when he mumbled something that Victoria translated:
"He said she's been dead for months and you brought her back."
"Well, yeah," Chloe stated, crossing her arms defiantly. "By the way, you totally lied to us, you said we couldn't bring people who've been in the freezer for over a month, yet it fucking worked!"
Max cringed, and even Chloe took a step back when Lacroix let out a string of indignant words.
"I'm going to leave out the cursing and focus on the essential, he said there's a good reason he told you you couldn't do that," Victoria explained, growing increasingly nervous as to where this thing was going. "He said he knew if he didn't, you'd try to pull out a stunt like that, and now you've done it and the whole town is in danger because of your, uh… I think 'shits' would be the right word."
"The whole town is in danger?" Max asked, casting a confused look at Chloe.
"Wow," the punk retorted, "melodramatic much?"
Lacroix grumbled something short as he swiftly turned around and re-entered Chloe's room.
"No time to lose, gotta check it out while there's still time," Victoria translated for her increasingly confused friends as the girls followed their teacher inside.
Rachel was sitting on the bed, looking anxiously at this man she didn't know saying stuff she didn't understand with a nervous and angry voice. The man shoved Joyce aside, ignoring the woman's protests, and went straight to the teenager. She whimpered and tried to crawl further back on the bed to escape his reach, but he was too fast, and he grabbed her head with both hands in an inescapable clutch so he could stare into her eyes. He studied them for a few seconds, and Rachel could see an orange flare in his irises just before he let her go and jumped back, his mouth open, fangs out, hissing like a scared cat. Then he blurted out a word in a whisper of almost religious dread. A word that sounded like…
"Lahlamee?" Chloe asked, turning to Victoria for an explanation.
But the blonde shook her head. She heard the same thing, but had no idea what it was supposed to mean. What he said next, though, she understood perfectly, and it froze her heart with terror:
"Alright, no need to panic. It's not too late, if we act now, we can still save the day, but we have to act very quickly to get rid of this abomination."
As she registered his last words and translated them in her head, she saw him walk back to Rachel in a determined manner, his hands outreached.
"Hey!" Joyce protested as she was about to intervene.
"The fuck?" Chloe protested as well as she and Max stepped in.
Once more Rachel tried to wriggle away, whining, but once more he was too fast for her. Only this time his hands clasped around her neck.
Get rid of this abomination.
"He's gonna kill her!" Victoria shrieked.
Startled, the three women wasted no time grabbing Lacroix and pulling him away from Rachel. Then they stood between him and the bed, forming a protective barrier.
"The fuck are you thinking you frog-eating son of a bitch!" Chloe spatted out, flaring with anger.
"Why do you want to kill her?" Max asked, shaking with indignation.
"Pas le temps d'expliquer," Lacroix said, still in French. "Écoutez, je sais que ça vous semble cruel, mais je vous que je n'ai pas le choix ! Je dois le faire, avant qu'il ne soit trop tard !"
Max turned to Victoria.
"He said there's no time to explain and you should let him do it before it's too late," Victoria whimpered, stepping back until her back was against a wall. She noticed the door was very close to her.
Shit shit shit, another photography teacher turned maniac killer, what the fuck is wrong with this school? I should run out of this mess.
What about Max?
This is vampire business, I'm out of my league here!
But I can't leave her! We busted our asses finding Rachel, and now he wants to kill her? What if he turns against Max then?
There was a second of indecision when no-one moved. It was Joyce who made the first step, planting herself right in front of her undesired guest and declaring, her voice stern:
"That's enough, mister! I don't care who or what the hell you are, you are not hurting any of my girls! Now get-"
Before she had a chance to finish her sentence, the vampire made a swift wave of his hand, and the older woman yelped as her feet were pulled off the ground by some amazing force and her body was hurled out of the room. The sound of her frame being dropped in the hallway was covered by the even louder sound of the door slamming shut.
"Mom!" Chloe screamed.
"She will be fine," Lacroix reassured her, although only Victoria could understand.
And indeed, right at this moment they could hear the woman pound on the door and abuse the handle while cursing to be let in, but the door wouldn't budge. Victoria thought she could help, but her body wouldn't respond.
"Don't stand between me and my mission," the teacher then snarled at the girls, his eyes turning a bright orange.
Oh shit, full-on scary vampire mode!
"I have no idea what the fuck you're saying," Chloe roared, her own eyes glowing orange and her teeth coming out, "but there's no way I'm letting you hurt my Rach, so you better back the fuck off before I beat you the fuck up!"
"Insolente," he whispered and, with a smirk, he raised his hand in their direction, palm down, fingers stretched out.
He's not gonna pull out a Palpatine, is he? Max wondered.
Bolts of lightning sprang forth from his fingers. Max didn't have time to brace herself and gasped as she took the hit with full force and was blown off her feet and against the opposite wall. The world ceased to exist to her, reduced to a void of suffering as the electricity slithered through her guts like worms of fire, and her lungs filled with scalding air. A split-second later, the bolts died out and she fell on top of Rachel, who yelped in fright and curled up in a fetal position, then rolled over to fall on the floor by the side of the bed. She coughed, each breath at once a torture and a relief, and rose on all four, just high enough to look for Chloe. Her friend had fallen on the floor on the other side of the bed, and was struggling back on her feet, her body steaming with electricity and her eyes fuming with rage.
"You motherfucker!" she groaned. "I'll show you!"
She reached out her hand, aimed for Lacroix. He asked for it, she was going to get Sub-Zero on his ass! She mustered her magic, summoned the cold, and with a shout, released it. But nothing happened.
Too much energy spent looking for Rach. Too much blood given to her. Crap. Let's do it the old-fashioned way, then.
So she rushed at him and threw a wide swing at his face. He flickered away from her fist. Not one to give up that easily, she went at him again. And again. And again and again and again, throwing a rain of knuckles at him, but none of her punches connected: Lacroix would always flicker out of the way at the last moment. Screaming in frustration, she threw both arms at him in a large haymaker, but again he flickered aside and the girl, caught in her own momentum, staggered forward and rammed into her old cathode ray TV with a loud crash.
His way free, Lacroix went for Rachel again.
He hurt me, Max thought with dread. He hurt me and Chloe. He's crazy, he's gonna kill Rachel for real! I got to stop him!
Max, he's your teacher, your mentor, are you really going to defy him?
Yeah, well my mentor just frickin' fried me with his fingers for not wanting him to tear a girl's head off! What's he gonna do next? Kill Chloe because she challenged him? No, no, no, I can't let that happen!
But you're no match for him!
I gotta try something, and fast!
She started frantically probing around for a weapon, anything she could use to at least slow him down. In her rush, she knocked down a shoe box and spilled its content on the floor. A couple CDs. A few photographs of Chloe and Rachel. A bag of weed. And a short-barreled revolver.
A gun? What the hell was Chloe doing with a gun in her room?
No time for questions. The brunette took hold of the weapon, raised it in front of her, aimed at Lacroix.
"Freeze, or I'll shoot!" she ordered, cringing at how pathetically weak her voice sounded.
He stopped, look at her with a slightly amused look, scoffed at her, said something in French that sounded really contemptuous, and went for Rachel again.
Max, are you really going to do that? Fire a gun, you?
She closed her eyes.
He hurt Chloe.
And, screaming to cover the detonations, she emptied the gun at him.
Victoria curled up, head between her knees and hands wrapped around her ears, and screamed her lungs off.
The vampire recoiled with each shot, but when the gun was empty, he stared at the bloody holes in his clothes in shock, then at Max, and the fire in his eyes doubled in intensity, his fangs looking even sharper than before.
Her trembling hands dropped the gun, and it was quite likely she peed in her pants a little.
He's so going to fry me for this!
But before he had time to recover from the unexpected assault, Chloe was on him again, jumping on his back, one arm clutching at his throat while her other hand started clawing at his face, splattering his eyes with his own blood. But soon enough, Lacroix started hissing furiously and clawing back at her, tearing ribbons of flesh from her arms in primal fury, and it was obvious she wasn't going to last more than a couple seconds on her own.
You have to go, Max!
I can't! He's gonna rip me to shreds!
You have to help her!
I don't know how to fight!
Did you forget already how you ripped Logan a new one?
But he was human!
It doesn't matter! Trust your instinct, you're a predator Max, remember? A fucking predator, time to act like it!
She took a deep breath, tried to recall how she'd felt, the first time she lost control of her vampire instinct. How she'd seen red just before she pushed Logan like a ragdoll. And how she'd managed to control this rage to bully him in the bathroom, a couple days later. There was a beast inside of her, she could unleash it, she knew she could.
Her heart started beating faster and faster. Her sore muscles tensed. Her fingers started to grow longer and curl into tapered claws.
That's it, Max. Unleash the beast.
With a deep growl, she jumped to Chloe's rescue.
Victoria kept screaming as the room was swept by a hurricane of claws, teeth, snarls, screeches and blood splatters, smashing Chloe's chair, and then her desk to splinters, leaving deep red scratches in the walls. The three opponents could not even be distinguished, their bodies fused together in a blur of absurd violence.
Eventually, the hurricane smashed through the door and Max's small frame was propelled through the opposite door to land in the middle of Joyce and David's bedroom where she remained still.
Good, Lacroix thought as he finally managed to get a good hold on Chloe's wrists and wrestle her into submission. Max would be down for a few minutes, more than enough time to put that punk brat to sleep and take care of business before it was too late. He strode the young punk's back, twisted her arms behind her so he could hold both wrists with a single hand, then with his other hand, grabbed her hair, pulled, ignoring her screams, and rammed her head against the floorboards, twice, three times, until she lost consciousness and her released her, her face still in a hole of broken wood. He sighed. Bordel! She was a tough one! And Max! He looked at his ruined coat, his arms cut to ribbons of leather and skin alike, and the bloody stump of what used to be his pinky finger. Bitten off. He never thought the little freckled girl could be such a vicious fighter!
Then a click, behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see David and Joyce stand on top of the stairs. Joyce was standing behind her husband, who was aiming a very large and heavy revolver at Lacroix.
Just great, he thought. Of course the old crone had run to her husband for help, and he came with his artillery. Would that nuit de merde ever end?
"Get away from my daughter, you creep!" he roared like he was in a bad cop show.
"Wait, David, I-"
No time to finish that sentence. The ex-Marine shot before he could utter another word.
The vampire looked intensely at the huge Magnum bullet as it stopped in mid air before it hit him. He'd had enough gunshots for tonight, thank you very much.
Before David, shocked, could recover and fire another round, he felt his gun snatched from his fingers by an invisible and irresistible force, and next, that same force seemed to both push and drag him at the same time toward the vampire who held him by the collar and cast his fiery gaze into the man's eyes.
"Sleep," he ordered, and the man went limp.
"David!" Joyce shrieked, and she sprang forward, but Lacroix grabbed her with his other hand, looked her in the eyes and:
"Sleep."
The woman went limp as well.
He had barely had time to put them down gently when...
"Surprise, motherfucker!" Chloe yelled as she jumped on his back and went again for his throat. As he tried to wriggle free, he shrieked in agony as the punk's blue nails dug into his sockets and gouged his eyes out.
"Salope!" he shouted as he jumped back, slammed himself against the wall to crush his assailant. Then, as soon as Chloe released him, he turned around and, feeling without seeing her, kicked her hard enough to send her flying over the banister and crashing on the floor below. He heard the loud, disgusting crack of bones as her spine snapped. She didn't scream, didn't say a thing. She just went limp as dead, but her heart was still beating. Good. Paralyzed, hopefully long enough to get things done.
Temporarily blind, he groped his way back to Chloe's room. Once inside, he huffed in frustration. No scent of Rachel Amber. And no scent of Mademoiselle Chase. Gone.
Merde!
The clock was ticking, and it filled him with dread. He calmed down, focused. Four heartbeats in the house. Max, Chloe, Joyce, David. So the two girls were out. How did they do that without being seen? A cold breeze gave him the answer: the window was open. Alright. He isolated the sounds from inside the house and expanded his hearing outside. A dozen more heartbeats. Sounds of TV, children playing, tottering footsteps… tottering footsteps. Gotcha.
Victoria had sprained her ankle jumping off the roof with Rachel in her arms. And here she was limping for her life, dragging her dead-but-not-dead and panicking former best frienemy, drenched with sweat and the downpour that had started again and about to shit herself with stress.
As soon as Max and Chloe had managed to drag Lacroix out of the room, the blonde had jumped on the bed, grabbed Rachel, and fucked off with her through the window. She couldn't believe she'd had the guts to do that. Nobody really knows how they will react in a moment of danger, and apparently, Victoria was of the heroic kind. Who would've thought? She hadn't even thought about it. The only thing that had crossed her mind was that, he was after Rachel, so the best course of action was to take Rachel away. Hide her somewhere, she didn't know where, or how, but the matter was, take her as far away from him as they could.
Then what? Like he'd give up that easy! The bastard was obviously insane, see how he summoned thunder and lightning and shit? Another killer after Rachel, and this one had superpowers. Couldn't things be fucking simple around here for a change?
"Where are we going?" Rachel moaned. "What's going on? Who's this guy? Did you see what he did with his fingers? And then he was shot but it didn't kill him! What the fuck?"
"Shut up," Victoria hissed between gritted teeth. "Shut up, Rachel, I'm trying to get you out of this mess, so you got to stay quiet!"
They were almost at the neighbor's door. She'd knock, ask for shelter, and then call the cops. He couldn't get in if he wasn't invited, they'd be safe!
"Mademoiselle Chase!" a male voice echoed behind her, making her skin crawl.
Fuck.
"Mademoiselle Chase! Where are you?"
She took a peek behind her shoulders. Here he was, standing on the Price-Madsen driveway, looking around. How could he not have spotted her already? Don't they have super-sight or something?
He turned his face in her direction and she almost retched as she got her answer: his cheeks were smeared with blood and gore, and there were but shreds of raw flesh where his eyes were supposed to be. Blind! Now was her chance. The heavy rain would make it harder for him to smell or hear them. If she could just hide and call 9-1-1…
Wait, were they even equipped to deal with a vampire gone wild?
Maybe not, but they were better than nothing…
The neighbor's house was silent, the windows were dark, and there was no car in the driveway. Nobody home? Or maybe they were just sleeping and the car was in the garage? Shit, knocking was too risky, even if somebody was home, by the time they got to the door, Lacroix would have heard and caught them… so what?
"This way," she murmured to Rach as she changed course and dragged her toward the neighbor's backyard. If they could find a shrubbery, a tool shed, anything to hide…
"Mademoiselle Chase, it's useless to hide! I will find you!" she heard his voice echo behind her as she made her way along the side of the house.
"I promise, I am not enjoying this!" he continued. "I know how cruel this situation can seem to you, but I have a duty to perform!"
Keep talking, she thought to herself. A duty to pop a nineteen-year-old girl's head off? Tell me about it!
"You don't have to make it so hard for yourself, Mademoiselle Chase! I mean you no harm. All you have to do is surrender the girl, and you will sleep in your own bed tonight, safe and sound!"
They'd reached the dark backyard. Great, now what? How can you stay hidden from a monster that has better senses than you? Think, Vicky, think! In Predator, they covered themselves in mud. Think we should do that!
Ew, gross!
Yeah, I know, but there's a time to worry about looks and hygiene, and it's-
"Tori?" Max's voice whispered, causing the blonde a mini heart attack.
"Don't be afraid Tori, it's just me," Max continued as she crept over to her, Chloe in her wake. Victoria hadn't seen how the fight ended, and she gasped in shock at the sight of the girls, both a bloody ragged mess, their clothes filthy and shredded with claw marks, and Max's hair caked with a very ugly mass of dark congealed blood.
"Oh my God, Max, what happened to you?"
"Took a big blow to the head," the brunette explained. "Don't worry, I'd probably have a concussion if I was still human, but it's healing fine. Hurts like hell, though."
"You can complain," Chloe snorted, and Victoria noticed the punk was wincing and nursing the small of her back. "Asshole broke my fucking back, now that's pain!"
"What happened?" Victoria asked. "Are Joyce and David okay?"
"Yeah, looks like he put some kind of sleeping spell on them, they're just starting to wake up. Where's Lacroix?"
"Did that cheese-eating cunt fucking bail on us?" Chloe added.
"Wait," Victoria said, "you didn't see him? He was in the street looking for us when we came here to hide."
"Well it looks like he's gone," Max said, "we left the house and spotted you guys, we came right over and didn't see or hear him anywhere."
"That doesn't make sense! He was right there behind us, calling me!"
"Bah, I ain't gonna complain if he decided to give up," Chloe commented. "But I see this asshole again, I'm a fucking killing him for good!"
"I'd still like to hear his explanation," Max said.
"There's no good enough explanation for killing Rachel," Chloe retorted.
"That's not what I meant," Max defended herself. "I just wonder what got him so worked up. He was always so kind…"
"So was Jefferson," Victoria added icily. "I guess the only good explanation is that photography teaching is a breeding ground for sociopaths."
Max sighed: "Yeah, you're probably right. Still…"
"Would any one of you tell me what the fuck is going on?" Rachel erupted. "Who the fuck is that guy and why is he so mad at me when I never seen him before?"
"That's a long-"
"Wait!" Max interrupted as she grabbed Chloe's arm tight. "Don't you hear?"
"Hear what?"
"Shh! Listen!"
The two vampires listened attentively. Then Rachel declared:
"I can hear it!"
"Me too!" Victoria added after a short while. "What's this?"
The sound was faint, and hard to discern behind the rain. It was like interference on a radio channel. No, it was higher. Way higher, like a series of high-pitched screeches, belonging to a hundred of different creatures, all screaming at the same time. Like guinea pigs? No, more like rats… but it seemed to be coming from above. Like…
"Holy shit, run!" Chloe shouted as they spotted the black cloud of hundreds of bats, pouring down on them.
Run they tried, but the cloud caught them off-guard and didn't give them a chance. Soon enough, the girls were on their knees, their eyes closed, flailing their arms around to protect themselves from the onslaught. Then Max started to feel uncomfortably numb, and stiff, her movements became increasingly difficult until they stopped entirely. Only her eyes still moved, and as she looked at her arm, frozen in a raised position, she saw the water had turned to ice.
Frozen was the right word. She had been literally frozen solid. She looked at Rachel and Chloe, both equally stiff as ice statues. She tried to call them, but her jaw was frozen shut. Victoria was the only one who was spared.
"Max!" the girl shouted, and she rushed at her, touched her, and hissed in pain as she swiftly pulled her hand away from the burning cold.
Meanwhile, the storm of bats gathered on a spot a few feet from them and landed all on top of each other to form a seven-foot-tall pillar of fur and leathery wings. Then the transformation occurred: the animals literally melted down into a pillar of thick glowing mist, and a split-second later, the mist had taken the shape and substance of Sébastien Lacroix.
"What have you done to them?" Victoria screamed at him, tears flowing from her cheeks. "Why don't you leave us alone, you freak?"
In response, the older vampire plainly looked at her, his newly-grown eyes glowing like embers, then made a swift move that shoved the helpless girl away. She landed heavily on her tummy, her breath cut out.
Then he walked toward Rachel, and said, in English, his voice filled with regret:
"I am sorry it had to happen this way. I am fully aware that this will sour our relationship, Max. I just hope, given enough time, you will be able to understand and forgive me. But I have to do it. The life of this town is on the line."
Once again, he wrapped his hands around Rachel's neck. She tried to scream. Max tried to scream, Chloe tried to scream, but all that came from their throats was a feeble hum. Chloe shed a tear as Lacroix's grip tightened painfully and Rachel's eyes went wide with pain and distress. Max closed her eyes.
Sorry, Chlo. Sorry.
Then Rachel mustered all the strength she had left and managed to crack the ice and let out the longest, loudest wail of agony Max had ever heard. And that's when the bomb exploded.
Or at least it felt like it: as Rachel screamed, a light brighter than a thousand suns pierced through Max's closed eyelids and a blazing hot wind swept over her. With a painful pricking sensation, life was abruptly restored in her limbs and she fell on her knees, her prison of ice evaporated. Confused, she looked around: Chloe and Rachel were free too, Victoria was recovering, and the four girls quickly stood up and huddled together to gaze at the horrible spectacle of her former teacher and vampire mentor wailing and thrashing around, engulfed in flames. Soon, through the fire, they could see Lacroix's hair and clothes turn to ashes, his skin and flesh fall down in chunks, and he lay bare, a flaming black skeleton that stared at them, grinning the grin of death.
He fell down, and stopped moving.
"Is he… dead?" Rachel asked.
"I… think so…" Max whispered in awe as she took a hesitant step forward.
Was he really? Could he be dead? She still couldn't wrap her head around it. Her mentor, the one who had made her dearest dream come true… suddenly become such a vicious enemy, and now… this?
She stooped down to have a better look at the body, careful not to get too close to the flames, when a burning skeletal arm shot up at her. With a gasp, she fell back on her butt and crawled back to her friends, eyes bulging with terror as the skeleton returned to life and began to crawl on its elbows in her direction. The other girls immediately surrounded her, tried to pull her back on her feet, but in their frenzy they all fell and before they could stand back up, the thing was on them, and they collectively held their breath and stared at the blazing death in silent prayer. As he was almost within arm's reach, Lacroix reached out as far as he could toward Rachel, his empty sockets staring into her soul while from its non-existent throat came a low, agonizing roar:
"Laaaahmeeeeee…"
And the arm, and the head, and the rest of the body dropped back down, lifeless, and a few seconds later, the fire died out and a pile of smoldering ashes was all that remained of Sébastien Lacroix, photographer and vampire.
"Mom! Are you okay?"
"I'm good, I guess," Joyce mumbled sleepily as she shook her head and slowly got back on her feet. "Hon?" She asked as she turned toward her husband who was also standing up, grumbling.
"I'm okay, honey," he said. Then, staring at the damage in awe: "It looks like a goddamn storm went through here!"
"And you, girls, are you okay?" Joyce asked with worry in her voice. Dirty, bloody, limping, exhausted and with their clothes in shreds, the four teenagers looked like they'd stepped right out of a conflict zone.
"Nothing a good sleep won't fix," Max reassured her before wrapping her arm tight around Victoria's waist and adding, looking up at her girlfriend: "That was very courageous, what you did, Tori. Thank you."
In spite of the fatigue, Victoria still blushed furiously: "That was not much, really…"
"You fucking jumped out of a roof to save me from a superpowered psychopath," Rachel said, nesting in Chloe's shoulder. "And you manage to be humble about that? Guess it's true you've changed…"
Then, smiling with the good half of her face, she offered her hand:
"I guess it's time to make peace, then?"
"Accepted," Victoria replied as she shook her hand.
Chloe smirked at David, who suddenly decided his shoes were the most interesting thing in the room.
"Get away from my daughter, you creep?" she quoted with an amused tone.
"I, uh…" he grumbled sheepishly. "It just came out this way…"
She snorted: "A bit cheesy, but also pretty badass." Then, much to the man's astonishment, she offered her hand. He looked at her, expecting some kind of joke, but her smile seemed most sincere as she added: "Thank you, David."
He gladly shook her hand: "Anytime," he said.
"Where is he now?" Joyce asked anxiously.
The four girls looked at each other, their eyes shifting rapidly from one to another. Chloe scratched her neck, Max rubbed her arm.
Victoria was the first to break it: "He's gone. For good. He, uh…"
"Spontaneously combusted in the Wilkins's backyard," Chloe concluded. "There's nothing left but ashes, now."
"Spontaneously comb…" Joyce murmured, trying to wrap her head around it. She gave up. No way she could comprehend all that happened tonight. Maybe with time, but not now. And there was too much to do now right now to sit down and think.
"Alright. With all the mess we made, someone's bound to have called 9-1-1, so you girls need to bail right now."
"But what about you guys?" Max asked.
"Don't worry about us. We'll clean up, and come up with a story for the cops. You girls take care of yourselves now, so go back to your hideout and rest and we'll see what we do tomorrow."
"And take Sebastian's car with you," David added. "Hide it, you need to cover your tracks."
"Uh, I guess his keys burned with him," Chloe said.
"And? Is that a problem to you?" David replied with a knowing smirk that made Chloe chuckle.
"Not really."
So it was a long, long night, and after they'd done everything they had to, Victoria returned to her room so late it was almost early, and crashed on her bed without taking off her shoes. Max had almost begged her to stay in the lair, but she was not willing to sleep in a coffin, and even the idea of sleeping on a couch in a bunker surrounded by coffins was not too appealing to her. After the shit they went through, she needed some sense of normalcy.
Normalcy. Yeah, right, like my life will ever be normal again.
As she drifted off to a well-deserved sleep, though, a thought came back to haunt her.
It was not about how she'd witnessed her teacher going all Roman candle on them after trying to kill someone, no.
It was not about how fucking terrifying it was to see her cute little girlfriend snarl like a fucking dog as she jumped at her teacher's throat.
It was also not about how she was now involved in a goddamn cover-up.
Though all these thoughts could legitimately keep her from enjoying a sound sleep, the one that had been bugging her the most all night was about Rachel. More precisely, how her eyes had flared when she saw her after waking up, and again just before Lacroix went up in flames. That fact in itself was not too surprising, she knew by now that vampires' eyes could glow. But the glow in Rachel's eyes was not the fiery radiance she'd seen in Max, Chloe or Lacroix.
Her glow was a bright, toxic green.