Chapter Two
THAT SAME NIGHT
BLOOD AND DEATH along with the putrid vapor that a vampire emits are the usual signs that the creature had been in the area. And judging by the number of decaying bodies of humans, Lukais Korvyn knew he had only missed them by an hour at the most.
The Carpathian male and his brother, Trevok, had been hunting a small band of vampires for the past three months. Where the chase had started in Seattle, Washington, the brothers knew that it would end here in Canada. The vampires were few now, down to probably five, tops.
"So, what do you think, Lukais? These humans all carry weapons, radios, and are dressed in camouflage; hunters by the looks of them. And look here. They all have crosses and some even have marked canteens of holy water. It's a dead give-away. No pun intended."
"It may be possible that they were attempting to hunt the vampires, stupid, but possible. It cost them their lives. A damn waste if you ask me." Lukais turned over one of the deceased bodies. "This one was just a boy, no more than his early twenties." He shook his head in disgust. "We have to catch them; this has gone on long enough."
"We will get them, brother. Do not let this tragedy affect you."
"How the hell can it affect me? I do not have any emotions or feelings. I see no color. It is you who should be worrying about yourself. You have found your lifemate. You..."
"You need to calm down. I swear, sometimes I believe that you still retain some emotions. You bitch all the damn time. Now come on, let's scout out the area more. The air smells of burnt flesh."
Lukais scented the air. "It comes from over near that clearing." He stood up and went to his left, Trevok following close at his side. "Tell me, how is Bethany these days? Believe it or not, but I find some peace in hearing you speak so fondly of her."
Trevok smiled at his brother, his gray eye's flashed with mirth.
"She is well. In fact, we have some wonderful news. I just found out before we left the house tonight, but Bethany is with child. I wanted you to be the first to know."
Lukais stopped and looked at his brother. "I am... I believe, happy for you. Bethany must be overjoyed. You will make a fine father, Trevok."
"Thank you. And do not worry. I know you have a lifemate out there waiting for you to find her. It is only a matter of time." Trevok placed a hand on Lukais' shoulder.
"Unfortunately, brother, time is something I do not have much of." Lukais sighed. "The darkness inside me grows stronger with each passing day. It is becoming harder to fight it. If I do not find my lifemate very soon, I will have no choice but to face the dawn. I will not disgrace our race by turning vampire. I promise you this."
Trevok gave a gentle shove on Lukais' shoulder.
"Stop sounding so dramatic. You will find her. Have no doubts or it will burden you and feed the darkness."
The Carpathians entered the clearing; to their right was a pile of smoking ash. They examined the mound closely.
"This was most definitely vampire. What is that, gasoline? Could a human of destroyed this one?" Trevok looked the ground over and found a spent matchstick and a small plastic bottle. Picking it up he smelled what was once the contents of gasoline.
"Trevok, over here!"
Trevok walked over to where Lukais was knelt by a tree. "What is it, what have you found, Lukais?" He hunkered down beside his brother.
"Human blood. Female. Look at these prints in the dirt; they're all over the place. Could it be that some human woman killed the vampire? She was wounded in the process, though. His blood is here as well." His midnight blue eyes closed as he tried to imagine what sort of woman would have taken on the damned creature all on her own. "This is odd. There is some foreign substance in this one's blood, a poison or something along the lines. And the blade to this knife has disintegrated. This weapon, which I assume must have been dipped in the deadly chemical, was used on the vampire. Whoever she was, she killed the vampire, incinerated him, and ran off deeper into the mountains."
"Damn, Lukais, you're good."
"All the evidence was here, you would have spotted it too."
"Yes, but not as fast as you usually do. Come on, we need to hurry. We still have to dispose of the human bodies and destroy all traces of the vampire's tainted blood. And the woman was injured; if it were by the vampire then she could have been bitten. We can not have her running around out there with that kind of wound."
Twenty minutes later the brothers had purified the grounds and were tracking the scent of the injured woman. The remaining vampires, it seemed, must have found their fallen comrade and went after the woman.
━━━ 死 ━━━
Weary from the encounter with the vampires, the loss of her friends, and the stinging wound at her throat, Luce found it hard to continue running. Her pace had slowed down to a sluggish walk. Her breathing was labored and shallow.
"Damn those bastards. I'll see every one of them dead. Permanently." Her words were slurring and her vision blurred. "Shit." She knew that it was impossible to go on any longer. Her body was worn out and her neck was throbbing.
The vampire's bite was the worst of it all. Memories of her childhood flashed to the forefront of her mind. Luce knew what happened to those who were bitten; she knew that there was nothing to stop the inevitable. She'd sooner put a bullet in her own head than face that outcome, just like she had to do with her own family.
Tears burned her eyes. She fell to her knees in exhaustion and sorrow. "No. Not me. Those damned creatures won't get me as well. I'll kill them all before I give up."
She pushed to her feet again only to be forced back down, her face hitting the cold dirt and soggy dead leaves. A heavy weight was on top of her, pinning her down.
Maniacal laughter echoed from several spots around her. She was surrounded and in serious trouble.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 死 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Sorry it took so long to update. I will try my absolute best to keep up with this story. I have so many wonderful ideas that I wish to try out. Please R & R!
