Chapter 20
Lila's POV
SHIT SHIT SHIT. I think as the strigoi slowly start to surround us. I had known Victor was a fucking bastard but hadn't realized he was insane enough to give up innocent people to the very plague he preached about eradicating. Not to mention the idiot had shot me in the stomach. I could feel the bullet was there somewhere, which was making it kind of hard to take in more than shallow breaths at the moment, but I'm hoping it hadn't hit anything major with my closest source to healing Lissa currently held at gunpoint.
Of course, it would be fucking Martin who Victor had found to hand us over to. That's okay though, because as soon as I can stand up, I'm going to rip his throat out. He was the strigoi who had turned me and killed my charge, so if this was it, I am at least glad I get one last go at him. The rest of the strigoi in the group I don't recognize except for one in the back, from a crew we ran with a while back. By the way the others seem to be practically salivating as they saw us, they were probably newly turned, here to provide muscle but not much else. Good, we could use every advantage we can get. The siren finally cuts off, bringing us to a weird standstill, with Victor and Robert at the farthest end, Martin and his group on the other side, and our group stranded in the middle.
"Well, it has been a nice, albeit short reunion, but I will leave you to them then." Victor says as he gestures for Robert to follow. "Dear brother, let's go, we have big plans to carry through." Okay I need to create some more distraction to give us a bigger chance.
"You are not actually letting them leave, are you?" I try to inject my voice with incredulity as I survey Martin. His eyes widen slightly as he takes me in, the only reaction he shows to being surprised to find me here.
"Well, well, seems you survived the attack." Martin says. "Good job pet, I am impressed you are still alive, though your current company is certainly... strange."
"You're one to talk, running with a bunch of newbies I see, though you in the back look a little familiar, I've seen you in one of our crews before." I want to let our group know who the biggest target may be, that the others are probably just turned and may not know how to fight yet.
"Ah yes, since our last encounter with your companions, I was forced to make some addition to our ranks."
"Interesting group you chose to die with, but hey slim pickings I suppose" I try to shrug without screaming as the jolting movement pulls at the wound from the bullet.
To this Martin laughs darkly. "Not sure you've realized, but your side is not exactly on the winning end of this night." He takes a casual step forward, but still doesn't' approach further. He always did enjoy playing with his food.
"Oh, I'm not talking about tonight, though it will kind of suck missing out on when you are being hunted." I get raised eyebrows at this, good. "I mean, you are about to let that guy" I gesture to Victor "and more importantly his brother, walk out of here and tell the world how to turn Strigoi back. Pretty stupid if you ask me, but hey, maybe you are growing bored of the immortal life."
"Pipe dream from the old man, don't see why he can't keep to his delusions if he will continue handing over such precious prey as the Princess." Martin shrugs off the implication.
"Pretty big risk you are taking there." I say.
"Especially because we have evidence, they already did it at least once" Christian adds, catching on to what I am trying to do.
Martin assesses both of us, trying to see if we are lying. "Well, nothing a little compulsion can't clarify." He notes. "Gregory, bring Mr. Dashkov and his brother over will ya? Kill them if they resist."
"What?!" Victor starts yelling, "we had a deal, and we are leaving now." Gregory continues to approach him as if not having heard him, Victor's gun wavering now between Lissa and the group of Strigoi and landing on Gregory as he goes to grab Robert's arm. As Victor fires into Gregory, Christian is ready, bringing up a wall of flames that engulfs our group. Lissa then wastes no time coming over.
"You guys are crazy provoking him, but good plan." She says as she examines my stomach. "There doesn't seem to be too much blood." Indeed, I feel the entry wound already closing. "Lila, your eyes… they are red again." Not a good sign of my deterioration back to Strigoi but we have more pressing matters at the moment. "I think I can just pull the bullet out and you may be able to run until we can find a safer place to patch you up." On the other side of the wall of flames, the gun fires a couple more times and then stops.
"Great plan, let's get going." Christian says as he works on keeping the solid wall of flame all around us. "Not sure how long I can keep this up."
"Here," Dimitry says handling Lissa a pocketknife. "Best I got right now" Lissa offers me an apologetic look as she doesn't even have alcohol to clean it with.
"Just do it quickly." I say, if a bullet is becoming a minor inconvenience, I doubt bacteria will finish me off in my almost back to strigoi body.
"Smart, little Moroi!" We hear Martin yell from the other side of the flames. "But we'll see how long you can keep your little trick up!"
Ignoring the yelling, Lissa motions as I lay flat on the ground. The bullet hit me on the left side of my lower torso. Taking a deep breath, she places the tip of the knife on the half healing wound and widens the gap so she can better see the field. The bullet is not hard to find as my healing body aids in pushing it out to where she can reach it and bring it out. She then places her hand on the wound, and I feel a rush of something warm fill the gaps in the injury.
"Okay" Lissa says after a few minutes. "I healed the bigger bleeders so is not completely done but you should be able to get up and run at least." Just as she finishes talking the flames around us seem to stutter but hold, though the circle of flames is now closer to us, giving us less space.
Dimitri seems to realize we are almost out of time as he hoists me up by the arm and turns to Christian. "Okay, Christian, when I say go you bring the barrier down and we head to the exit. You and Lissa need to head towards the alleyway we came through, use your fire to distract any Strigoi that try to follow, we'll hold off the rest until you are both clear." He is already strategizing, keeping his voice low so the strigoi can't hear outside our circle, making sure the weakest people in the fight can get out so the strongest one can hold them off. Got to say, I was half expecting his male brain to try to rescue Rose first which would have been a very stupid plan.
Speaking of… I turn to see Rose, surprised she hasn't chimed in yet or tried to crack a joke before we all most likely get killed, but as I look at her, I wonder if she's been hearing anything we've said in the past couple of minutes. She is staring straight through the wall to where Martin was last standing, completely frozen.
RPOV
I can't move. I know we are running out of time, and should be planning an exit strategy, but my body won't respond no matter how much I'm willing it to snap out of it. As soon as I saw Martin, all the memories came rushing back. The fear, the desperation of days on end being tortured, of putting on a brave face but knowing all along I was going to die, or that Lissa and Dimitri would come only to end up dead. We were even in this ridiculous situation because of me, because we keep trying to change what had happened with nothing else than stupid hope the rumors were true and now we were probably not living long enough to find out.
"Hey, Rose." Dimitri reaches for me. "You ready?" I flinch as he nears, and though I curse myself internally I can't help it.
"I…Yes its nothing." I need to get this under control, I can't let them down now. Fumbling I start pulling the stake I was given from my belt but hiss as it burns my hand and I drop the stake to the ground. "Fuck" I say staring at my hand, the redness from where I was grabbing the stake quickly receding, but without the stake I feel even more defenseless, now I don't even have a weapon to fight with.
"Roza…" Dimitri starts, reaching for me again, when suddenly Christian gives a grunt and the flames sputter and go out.
There is a pregnant pause, probably not more than a few seconds, where our group and the strigois look at each other, and then there is no more time for anything because they quickly surround us.
"Go!" Dimitri motions to Lissa and Christian as he steps in to block out a strigoi who was getting too close to them. Christian grabs Lissa's arm and they start running towards the alleyway exit. A Strigoi steps in their way and with a swift motion Christian lights his head on fire. Smart, wanting to preserve as much fire as possible.
Lila is already battling one of the four remaining strigois on hand-to-hand combat, and I am still standing like an idiot as one of the new strigois starts towards me. Move, damn it! The strigoi is about to hit me square in the face when Dimitry steps in, using a combination of kicks and punches to drive him back. He half turns my way, as if checking why the hell I'm not moving, before turning his back again to continue fighting the strigoi. He keeps facing that way, even as another strigoi starts advancing at his back, like he trusts me to guard his blind spot.
I look down at my wrist, where the spirit charmed bracelet still is. I can't be helpful like this, but as a strigoi… a strigoi does not feel, does not hesitate they just attack, and that is exactly what I need to be right now. Without giving myself time to doubt my plan I rip the bracelet out of my wrist, and every single thought empties my mind. All the flashbacks, the fear, the hesitation, gone, but one emotion remains. Rage, and it keeps growing as I see the fighting around me. I'm going to kill every single one of these vermin. I can't even understand why I was scared anymore, and want to laugh as I see the discarded stake on the floor I have been trained to rely on so much. I need no weapon, with this body, I am the most lethal thing here.
I tackle the strigoi that was trying to scurry past and drive him to the ground. A female, smaller than me and clearly relying on brute strength with no fighting technique. I pin her down and snap her neck, which will keep her down for now. I quickly get up and grab the nearest strigoi by the arm and twist it behind his arm. I find leverage in his hip for my foot to give me purchase so I can bit into his neck, ripping it out with my teeth and almost taking his head clean off.
Ahead of me the brown haired Guardian stakes his strigoi, and without missing a beat, comes over to the female I have on the ground and stakes her too. A quick survey shows me that there is a body with a head burnt off on the floor, and another decapitated body near another female strigoi. Ally. A small voice in my head says about the pixie hair cut strigoi, dismissing her as my next target. There.
Fuming with rage, a blond strigoi steps in to confront pixie cut. Enemy. The voice supplies, as the brown eyed Guardian shouts "Go help Lila!" as he turns to give chase to the last Strigoi, a sorry excuse for a man who is already trying to run off through the entrance to a building. Needing no more prompting, I join the fray as Lila circles the remaining strigoi.
"This ends here Martin." She says, without taking her eyes off him, but letting me cover his left flank while she covers his right.
My focus narrows down to his movements, as he bends his knees slightly, setting up a fighting stance even as his stupid smirk stays on his face. "I'm going to kill you both" he sneers.
I don't bother waiting anymore. Taking an offensive stance myself, I strike, aiming a kick to his thigh which he blocks without flinching. I'm already shifting, aiming my punch at the side of his face, and as he raises his arms to cover them I raise my knee and it connects with his ribs. Martin shifts at the last minute, so my hit goes from rib fracturing to seriously bruising. He takes a step back to create some distance but Lila is ready for it, attacking from the other side. She punches and he deflects and it looks like he is tiring out, but as soon as Lilla slows her attack he makes his move, grabbing the leg she had extended for a kick and twisting it out knee bending the wrong way.
Lila hisses and wobbles on her uninjured leg but before Martin can pin her down I jump and get him on a choke hold. I try to lock him in, but he bites down on my forearm, forcing me to let go.
He gets up with a jump and we are back to circling again, Lila's right leg unsteady but holding.
"Why are you even defending them," Martin preaches "you should be thanking me, I made you better, superior than any other creature on the planet, and you waste it away on silly fantasies."
"You didn't make us better" Lila yells "we were your minions, doing your bidding and killing innocent people to stay alive."
"Life is about survival of the fittest, dear pet, if you aren't strong enough to fight back then you don't deserve to live."
"Shut up" I hiss. "For all your big talk about being the superior predator, when you are about to die in this shithole and no one will remember you." I smile though I feel no joy, only a cool rage and excitement at seeing his head part from his body.
I attack again, Lila helping pin him down to the floor. As we struggle, I realize we've made it back to our original position where I dropped my stake. Grabbing on to it though it scalds my skin, I drive it through his leg.
He yells but its not enough, I want him to suffer just as much as he made me suffer, I want to see him beg for death. Pulling the stake out I stake him through the stomach. Martin looks at me as he struggles to breath and shake off Lila, who has her arms pinned down as I have his legs. "Its beautiful isn't it." He tells me. "letting the bloodlust consume you. Even if you turn back, you are my creation now" he laughs as Lila and I finish tearing him apart.
Lila's POV
There's a buzzing in my head. Kind of like when you go to a really loud place, and then for hours later you can hear a weird buzzing because it is very quiet. This feels like that. Though only about 30 minutes have passed since we first entered this parking lot, it feels like hours. I look down and see my hands are covered in blood. It feels familiar, and at the same time there is a small part of me that still revels against the idea of bloodshed, even if this has been my life for close to five years now.
To my right, Rose is still kneeling by Martin's body. Blood covering her hands, chin and clothes. I see some movement towards the end of the parking lot. With my heighted sight its possible to make out Robert and Victor cowering in a corner, seems the strigoi decided to keep them alive for the time being.
Rose raises her head, her gaze following mine to where the two older man are now standing, Robert fidgeting with his hands, Victor looking horrified once he notices our group standing while the strigoi are all dead.
Rose comes to stand besides me, one hand lifting to wipe the blood still dripping from her face.
Suddenly she makes a hissing sound, an almost unintelligible "he's mine" comes out of her and she sprints towards Victor. I try to grab her arm to stop her but as soon as I get close she spins and kicks my injured knee right where Martin crushed it before, sending me to the ground with a crash.
Everything happens pretty fast after that.