Playing God
*Flashback*
"Just remember what my father taught you, Duke," I mutter. I look into his worried eyes one last time and peck him on the cheek, ruffling his hair up. He smiles, and for a second I see his eyes relax, but I know too well that this expression won't last.
"I've got it," he says, his expression is faultless; the expression of a man with a mission. "Slit through the wires. Cut the blue one. Easy."
I smile down at him crouched on the floor one last time and glance at the power box behind him. Although I was my father's daughter, on missions we ceased to be family. He had always referred to me as a soldier; just like out in combat, we all had our roles to play.
Right now, Duke's role as a soldier was to cut the electricity running through this house. It was a tactic my father had learnt from hunters he'd met, and it was one that proved to be rewarding. He had told Duke: Take Ronnie with you. She can keep guard. You slit through the wires, cut the blue one. The power will go down. They'll be forced outside and we'll be waiting in the forest. We'll ambush them and then we'll come get you. It was a tactic that had worked many times before; it was all about the element of surprise, striking when they would least expect it. Duke had moaned about being given this task, but the truth was that he had been awarded the highest responsibility. The mission depended on him.
Deep down I knew why my father had done it. Duke was a 20 year-old tall and well-built blonde. In the normal world, he would have been considered a thug, a bully. To me, he was one of the best fighters I had ever met; someone the group valued… someone who my father had thought would be good protection for me, in case things didn't go our way. I was just 16 and although I could hold my ground, this was one of the biggest missions we'd had all year. Hunters had come from all over, totaling 16 of us. We knew that this was a large coven, possibly 12 or more. Duke had wanted to be a part of the fight; he had been worried about this task because it wasn't what he was normally used to. He was always the meat, the killer, never the brains. But he had wanted to keep me safe; he would go where I went. He was in love with me.
"I'll keep watch. I'll just be outside," I tell him. I walk outside, carefully closing the door shut behind me whilst creating the minimum noise possible. The corridor is empty; I glance to either side of me and analyse the space. There's a window a couple of meters to my left which we could use to escape, as it is most likely that one of them will come to the power box room the minute the power goes down.
I count the seconds in my head. Thirty three, forty seven, ninety nine, one hundred and ten, one hundred and nineteen…
The lights go off. It takes him exactly two minutes to cut through the blue wire. I run back to the door, gently opening and grabbing him from within.
"Come, quick!" I say, feeling the wall in front of me until I reach the window. I feel for the latch, pushing it open. He climbs out first and then picks me up and pulls me through the window.
We run around to the back of the house and fall to the ground. My hands dig into the mud around me and I begin applying it to my face, arms and chest as if it were cream. Duke mirrors me. He sits down, his back to the wall and I sit in between his legs. He puts his arm around me, holding a gun in his right hand and a stake in his left.
"I'll keep you safe," he says.
"I'll keep you safe," I mirror. I hear him briefly chuckling and the sound is muffled by my hair.
His hand finds my cheek, and his finger caresses my lips before I feel the touch of his own kiss me. I kiss him back, knowing that this could be our first and last kiss.
We've done our part. As soldiers, we've completed our mission. But we're also friends, and our family is out there, yards away, fighting. We wait and wait and wait.
*Flashback*
"Eric?" I whisper into the darkness. I feel his chest in front of me and his hands circle my waist.
"Don't worry. It was probably just a power cut," he says, his hands reassuringly coursing up my body. "I thought these things didn't happen here Alexander!"
"They don't," he says as he walks towards us. "It's unusual but I can have a look –"
"Alexander." Roxanne's voice is merely a whisper. She jumps down, quickly making her way to us in the dark. "I heard the door open, and now the lights are out. What's going on?"
"Nothing," the three of us say in unison. Eric takes my hand quickly in his, a sign of possession and I lean into him reassuringly. My thoughts and feelings still stand. I choose him.
"It's been an eventful start to the evening. Why don't you all return to your rooms, freshen up. I'll have a look at the power room, see if there's anything I can fix. Hopefully the lights will be up before the rest of the house starts getting up."
"I'm afraid most of us are already up Alexander," Roxanne states, and the laughter of a large crowd coming from the balcony upstairs fills the room.
"Okay, okay. I'll try and make it quick then," Alexander resumes, and turns away from us. In the silence of the room I hear his footsteps driving him further and further away until it all hits me.
"Stop," I can barely believe my own words. Alexander's footsteps cease.
"What is it Ronnie?" Eric's smooth tone encourages, his hand placed warmly on my back.
"What if this isn't a coincidence?" I mutter. My words are directed up at Eric as I glance at him, until I realise that the whole of the house is up, and listening to what they probably see as a crazy and paranoid question.
"I mean, you said it yourself, right, Alexander?" I question Alexander now. "This never happens, not here. Then, there were the men in the forest: a vampire and a human. They were checking the grounds –"
"What?" Eric's body tenses beside me and his clutch on my back hardens. "When you came after me?" he asks, as if we were the only ones in the room. I nod, and although we're in the dark I know he felt it. "A vampire and a human? You could have been killed Ronnie! If the vampire had caught your scent…"
"He did. But they were under strict instructions to search the grounds, only that. He didn't have time to pursue me. I ran back here as fast as I could."
Eric doesn't say anything else, but I know him too well. The tenseness in his body, the slowness of his breath and the tightness of his hand over mine all show the current pattern of his thoughts. He's not putting what I'm saying together. He's not listening to what I'm saying. He had stopped listening a while back, when I had mentioned the men in the forest, a vampire. He knew that he had put me in danger once again, and it was killing him.
"Ronnie, you're not making any sense!" Alexander impatiently calls out. "None of this explains the power cut."
The memory of a summer spent with Duke crosses my mind. He was falling in love with me, and I would be lying to myself if I said that I wasn't catching feelings for him. Father had warned me: Kiddo, I'm not blind. I can see the way he looks at you, and the way you look at him. But I need you with me, and his mother and younger siblings need him. When more hunters arrive and we take down that big coven, we'll all have to go our separate ways, you know that? I had known that. Duke had known that. Yet we had still both let our feelings for each other develop.
"This could be a trap. I know this, because…" I pause. "… because it's a tactic hunters use. If you cut the blue wire, the lights go out. Whoever does this has the upper hand; they force you outside and ambush you. They have the element of surprise." My heart races as I say all I have to say, and it all comes rushed, most likely portraying me like a maniac. The room is silent.
"I believe you," Eric is the first to speak, but he's not the authority. I await Alexander's opinion, but he continues to be silent, replaying my words in his mind.
"I too believe Veronica," a vampire calls from above. "All we have to do is check the power room. If a wire has been cut, then we know what's coming. If not, then we can say that it's a false alarm."
"No." I stop him. "We can't take that risk. We can't check the power room. If they've just cut the wires, they'll still be around; there could be half a dozen hunters just on guard."
"Well then what does the hunter suggest we do?" Alexander's voice is plain and strong.
"We go outside. If they're out there, we face them. "
"I can't send my people to their death, Ronnie," Alexander cries out.
"That's not what I meant." My voice is a whisper.
My heart is beating fast and I try to steady it, in an attempt to not give my plan away too soon. I open my mouth, as if to speak and Eric's hand quickly drops from mine.
"No," he cries out, his voice a plea. "Ronnie, you're not going out there. Not on your own. I won't allow it. Alexander, Roxanne, none of us will allow it."
"Eric, how…?" How had he known? Could he read my mind all of a sudden? He doesn't reply to me, but retakes my hand in between his and exhales deeply.
"That's your plan!" Alexander exclaims. "So we just hand you over? Please." I can feel a grin on his face as he laughs in the room.
"All I ask if that you let me speak to them first. I'll be right outside the door; I won't even cross the drawbridge," I mutter. I don't sound convincing. I can't even convince myself so I continue. "I'll get them to come out from hiding. You'll be able to see their numbers."
"No, it's too much of a risk!" Eric cries out beside me.
"A risk that I'm willing to take. I won't send these people to their death, not without knowing who we're up against!"
"No!"
"Eric, they won't kill me. I'm not the only one they want. I can keep them talking. You know that this is safe."
"Eric, I say that we let her do it," Alexander. "They won't harm her straight away, and if she can get them to come out and talk, then it'll at least give us time to see who they are. If I recognise their faces, I'll know their strength. Christ! It might be people I know."
People I know. After I'd run after Eric, I had seen a human in the woods. What if they had allied? What if there were vampires and hunters out there? Hunters I knew. Would I be able to -?
Eric interrupts my thoughts as he grabs me by elbow and pushes me in front of him towards the door.
"I hate the idea of this. Under no circumstances must you step one foot away from the door. Promise me that you'll be right outside," he pleads.
For the first time since the lights went out, I can make out his face. The night light from outside comes in through the glassed sides of the door and reflect onto his face. His eyes looked stricken with worry.
"I promise."
"I'll be on this side. You have two minutes. The second your time is up, I'll come outside and the others will join me."
"I understand," I mutter.
He kisses me briefly. If I had known that this was to be our last kiss, I would have kissed him again, and again, and again. But he's said it himself: two minutes and then we'll see each other again and we'll be together again.
Two minutes.
"One last thing," he says, holding my hand back from reaching out for the door handle. "If you saw humans out in the forest, then this could easily be an alliance. If there are hunters out there, that you know, remember who the enemy is. You are not a hunter Ronnie, you are a Healer… Healers have their own enemies, and yours are out there, despite what species they may be."
There was something in his eyes that I couldn't understand. Again he had guessed my thoughts. Twice in the space of a few minutes.
"Emily," I call out to the girl I had met at the ball. I cannot see her, but I know she's listening. "Arm William with stakes and silver chains. If they are out there and this turns into a fight, leave with him the minute you can. The same goes for all of you. Run."
I close the door behind me. Eric's fingertips linger on mine for far too briefly and then they're gone. I turn my head around towards the forest outside the castle's walls and the feeling of loneliness embraces me. I can feel the eyes of my enemies on me but I can't see them. To a human, these woods would seem empty, quiet, peaceful, but I know that despite this feeling of loneliness, I am not alone. Deep down I know that this feeling of loneliness has only erupted as a result of the distance I have put between me and Eric. I can still feel the linger of his fingertips on mine and it hurts to look down and not see them there, clasping my hand in his.
"I know you're out there," I mutter, my voice breaking with fear.
I wasn't ever one to show fear. I wasn't either one to even fear, but things are different when you become the hunted instead of the huntress. My hands begin to shake and I feel as if I am just frozen in my spot, my voice trapped inside of me.
"Let's get this over with. Come out, show yourself!"
Those last words are barely out of my mouth when a silver arrow is released and shot at me from behind a bush. My nervousness clouds my judgement and doesn't allow me time to react; instead, I freeze in my spot as the arrow hits the door behind me and bounces off. I was safe; whoever had shot obviously had not intended to harm me as the arrow had hit the door at around half a meter distance from where I was standing. I stand there, glancing at the shrubs, trying to see the smallest of clues as to who the person aiming was.
"You call yourself a hunter?" I ask, nervously laughing. "You have poor aim!"
I knew that for the time being I was safe. Whoever it was intended to play around a bit and more than anything try and force Eric and the others out before finishing me off, so I had to stick to the plan. I had to force them out so that we could see numbers, weapons… so that we could see who we were up against. And right now, provoking them seemed like the best way of forcing them out.
"Poor aim, you say, Ronnie?" I recognise the voice before I see him and all of the worries that I had had only minutes ago come to life. This wasn't just a voice that I had heard before, this was a voice that had reassured and calmed me countless times; this wasn't just someone I knew, this was someone I had loved. His body had protected me. His lips had kissed me. His heart had loved me.
"Duke," I whisper as his tall body comes forwards from deep in the forest. His black tank top reveals the bulk of his chest and arms, but it's not his physique that my eyes focus on. Instead, my eyes shift from the large crossbow that he carries on his back, to the knife in his hand that he places on the back of his belt, to the look in his eyes.
He continues to walk through the forest and crosses the road from the castle grounds to the drawbridge. He doesn't seem to mind that he is on our territory, closer to me and the vampires within the castle than to the people who are with him here tonight. He stops on the other side of the drawbridge, and now more than ever I can look into his eyes. I see guilt and regret.
"You know I could have aimed better than that Ronnie," he mutters. The seriousness in his voice pierces me, as I realise that this Duke is not the same as the one I had fallen for. He doesn't want to do this, he doesn't want to hurt me and this is killing him.
"Duke…" I mutter again, the only word that I seem to be able to pronounce. I am still frozen, directly trying to read his eyes. "You?"
"Believe me Ronnie," he cries out, stepping forward onto the drawbridge. "I didn't know it was you!" He holds out his hand, and his eyes beg me to move forwards towards him. Instead, I move further back towards the door until my feet can't back up anymore.
I want to believe Duke, I want to jump into his arms and feel his laughter in my hair as he spins me around like he used to, but I can't trust him. Not yet. Healers have their own enemies, and yours are out there, despite what species they may be. Eric's words infiltrate my thoughts and now more than ever I feel his emptiness by my side. I want him to be here, to help me get through this. If more of my friends are out there in the forest, I need to know. But having Eric beside me would only make me worry even more; yet another life that could be taken at any moment. Just like Duke had fired a warning arrow at me, another hunter could fire one at Eric and purposefully not miss. Wait Eric, I say to myself, hoping that if he can in fact read my thoughts, that this thought is one that he listens out for.
"Ronnie, what is it exactly that you are?"
"I'm a Healer," I whisper. His face drops and his eyes look more hurt than ever.
"Duke, it's not something I chose, it just happened," I argue, trying to make him understand. I step forward, making the distance between us shorter. "…but I can assure you that Eric, my vampire mate and I –"
"Where is he?" he interrupts.
"Where is who?" I reply and try to play it dumb despite being well aware of whom he means.
"Eric."
"He's inside. Everyone is." I mutter. I have to tell him everything; I have to make him understand. "Duke, please listen to me. Eric and I are not a threat; we're not a threat to vampires, nor are we threats to hunters or to humans. Nothing has to happen tonight; a war can be avoided. You just have to believe me!"
My eyes beg him to believe me, and I see his expression soften as his eyes reassuringly look me up and down. I see his body relax and he breathes a sigh of relief. He lets out a short chuckle and then his signature bad boy smirk finally calms me down.
"You're still you!" He belts out, grinning at me before turning on the spot towards the forest to address the others that are still hidden. "This is bull!"
He turns back towards me and the blueness of his eyes allows me to see right through him. He still loves me.
"Ronnie," he whispers, moving closer towards me and stretching out his hand for me to take.
I don't let myself think about it twice; the look in his eyes, the smile on his lips. He's my friend. Before Eric has time to read my thoughts, before Eric has time to react and open the door, I am in Duke's arms.
For the second that we embrace I feel safe, I feel happy. I feel as if the worry of the last few days was all for nothing. I feel as if Emily and William will truly have a future together, and that like them, all the other vampires in the doors behind me will walk out of this unharmed. But most of all, this trust I feel with Duke allows me to dream of a future with Eric. I dream of a future where it's just him and me, together, without the fear of anyone breaking us apart. An infinite future.
But as quickly as the feeling of safeness comes to me, it goes. Duke grabs me by the throat and puts a knife against it as he spins me around to face the castle door that is now open.
Eric's stricken face finds me; a look on his face I have never seen before. His fangs are extended, his hands are in fists and his eyes… his eyes are blazing red, the anger and pain in them making it hard to look away. But Eric is not alone. My eyes drift from Alexander, to Roxanne, to Achiel. They all stand on either side of Eric. Alexander's eyes find me first, but as I look into him, he gives me the same worried look that now clouds Eric's face; his fangs are also extended and his eyes are blood red. Roxanne's expression is full of anger, her hands also in fists, and just in front of her is Achiel, standing in a tall and strong pose with his fangs a threat and his hands crossed in front of his chest.
"Return her to me," Eric's deep voice returns my eyes to him. His tone is menacing, and I know that he will not ask a second time.
"She's an abomination," Duke calls out, "You both are. You both must die."
Eric slips out a growl, and my eyes find him to calm him down.
"Duke, I thought you understood," I make conversation, both to buy Eric time to cool down as well as to buy myself time before my throat is slit open.
"You think I'd sign up to the war of the century without knowing who I'd be fighting, without knowing why it was even happening? Ronnie, the minute the vampires recruited us, I knew that I would be the one to do it, to kill you. I had to be. I loved you once," he says, lifting the knife from my throat to turn me around towards him. My eyes swell up with tears as I look into the eyes of someone whom I had also once loved. "I loved the other Ronnie, the one that was a hunter, the one that would not have thought twice about killing a vampire, but that Ronnie is long gone. I have been well informed of what this disease has done to you, of what it can still do to you."
"And may I ask, just who exactly informed you Duke?"
The silence pierces my ears as I wait for my question to be answered.
"I did," a stranger sings as he makes his entrance from within the woods.
The events that follow envelop too quickly before my eyes for me to grasp sense of what has just happened. Eric runs at the stranger, but before I can yell at him to stop, Joshua and Lydia run out of the castle to try and hold him back. They pull him back whilst he tries to fight them off.
"Traitor!" He calls at the stranger. "We are family. Family!"
The disappointment and betrayal in Eric's voice explains it all to me. This man is Blake, Antoinne's son, Eric's brother. The leader of the hunters is Duke, and old friend, a love of mine. The leader of the vampires is Blake, a friend, a brother of Eric's.
This war is much more personal than either of us could have thought. These are people who we love, who are close to us, who will always try and do the best by us… even if that includes taking our lives for us.
"Family, Eric?" He questions, with sadness in his voice. "You stopped being family the minute you started caring for her," he points, his face disgusted at the sight of me. "She killed him, and you sleep with her, you care for her, you even love her. How can you stand to be near her? It makes me sick!"
"It is impossible for you to understand what Ronnie and I have! You will never understand, you will never have this, and I am sorry, because this is the best fucking feeling in the world. Ronnie is mine, and I am hers, but the bond that we share as a result of her being a Healer is so much more than love. I feel desire, I feel a strong pull towards her, I feel as if I might die if I am not near her every second of every day." Eric slows down to catch his breath. "Antoinne spoke of Alexia all of his life. You've heard all of this before."
Eric's words bring tears to my eyes, but it's the harshness of Blake's next words that toughens me up. I have to find a way to escape from Duke's grasp. I must.
"You're just as ill as he was. Healers are an abomination, a disease. She has broken who you are, just as Alexia broke our father. He was never the same after her; he spent his whole life obsessing over Healers! I will not let you become that brother. At the surface, you may not understand why I must do this, but deep down there is a part of you that will welcome death; you will thank death for breaking your tie to this human responsible for our father's death!"
Eric. I call out his name in my thoughts. His eyes, hurt from Blake's words, find me and I know that I have his attention… I know that he can read my mind. Blake's grasp on my arm has loosened. I can escape. I can reach the knife in his pocket with my hand, but I might not be able to make it across the bridge before he catches me, so you must catch me first. He blinks his eyes in acknowledgment, and I know that my time is limited before something else happens.
I look at Alexander one last time, then at Roxanne and Achiel, and then one last time at Eric. If I'm going to attempt this, I want his face to be the last I see in case this doesn't work out.
My feet quickly push up from the ground, my left hand reaching for the knife that sticks out of his back pocket, whilst my right hand breaks free from his hold. Like a bullet I run – with Duke tracing my steps right behind me – and land in Eric's arms.
Eric's arms circle around me, preventing me from seeing what is happening around me, but the sound of Duke's footsteps behind me informs me of his position. His feet come to a halt and then start retreating further and further away until I can no longer hear them.
"Ronnie," Eric's eyes survey me up and down countless of times. "Are you hurt?" His arms wrap around my waist and he kisses the top of my head before moving his hands to examine my neck which only minutes ago had had a sharp knife held against it.
"I'm okay, I promise," I say and I see his eyes relax.
"Eric," Alexander's deep voice interrupts us.
As if time had stopped for us, Eric and I are oblivious to the events of the last minute. It is only when we look up from each other back towards Duke and Blake that we realise why Alexander has called for our attention.
Duke has retreated further towards the woods and now stands next to Blake with a crossbow in his hand and a sly grin on his face as he glances over at Blake who is holding a gun aimed at Eric and me.
A gun.
A gun with silver bullets.
Eric is over a thousand years old. Yet, whilst silver chains would only have weakened him temporarily, a silver bullet to the heart would be fatal. I have to prevent that.
My first instinct is to shield his body with mine. I move in front of him, and he lets out a growl of anger. Stop. If I am shot, I will heal. Your blood could heal me. But if you're shot, it could be fatal. You could die Eric. I know that I am not making any sense. A bullet could be as fatal to me as it would be to him. It could pierce through my heart or through my lungs or kidneys and kill me quicker than Eric could get me out of here and feed me his blood. But the truth is that all of this danger is old news to me. I had been in danger all of my life, and this time is no different, except for the fact that Eric is here, with me… and I value his life more than I value my own.
I love him, and I am not going to let anyone hurt him.
"How romantic," Blake points out with a sarcastic tone to his voice. "You would do that for him?" He asks as a tone of shock replaces the sarcasm in his voice.
I don't give him the satisfaction of a reply. Instead, I try to hold myself back from breaking down as tears fill up in my eyes. I look up at Eric and I meet with his eyes one last time before taking up the same position as him. I push my back up against his body, rest my arms on his as if to cover them and bring my legs in front of his. Although I only come up to halfway up his chest, I make sure to cover everywhere vital, including his heart.
Unexpectedly, my mind surprises me with images of when I had first met Eric. That day, he too had pulled me towards him, and had held me with my back towards him, to keep him hidden in the darkness from Kyle and me. It had only been a matter of seconds before he had disarmed me, unwinding the silver chains from around my neck, and had noticed the Healer sign on my neck. It was because of that day that we were here now; it was because of that sign that we had ever become the people that we were now; it was because of that sign that we had even had the chance to love each other.
I will safeguard Eric with my life. I am willing to die for him. Just as I know that he is willing to die for me too. I can feel the anger in his chest building up as I lean my head into his chest; an anger caused by my refusal at letting him protect me. He has to allow me just this.
But do I fear death?
No.
Fearing death means regretting ever finding out that I am Healer and I can't regret that, not even if it has led me and all the people that I care about to this moment. I don't regret who I am, and my heart most definitely does not regret loving Eric.
I was his.
My mind returns me to the present, to the end, and Blake's sly grin pierces my eyes.
He begins to chuckle and claps slowly, mocking us.
"You really are ready to take the bullet for him!" He says, his laughter infecting Duke beside him. "Shall we test it out?" He asks, and Eric's growls erupt from his chest in reproach.
Blake fires, the firing of the gun startling the birds and creatures in the woods. Rather than wrap my arms around myself in protection, I hold onto Eric's arms, making sure that the bullet does not graze even a hair on his skin. Yet, I should have guessed Eric's reaction and senses would have been faster than mine. He pulls us both out of the way, comfortably out of the bullet's path.
"You think I would have let you protect me with your body?" He whispers in my ear.
Now I understood. I understood why Eric had let me stand in front of him. I understood why he had offered such little resistance when he had known I was ready to offer my body to save his. For him, this was just a fun game of 'avoid the bullet', some practice before the fight that would inevitably surface once Blake drained the bullets. By standing in front of him, it was easier for him to swerve me out of the way, easier for him to protect me, although I had been convinced that I was the one protecting him. He was clever.
The shot of Blake's gun frightens me a second time, and this time, Eric's hands wrap around my waist, lifting me from the ground. Again, he reacts fast enough for us to both dodge the bullet. Disappointingly for Blake, the third one is also a miss and I see him frown at his failure.
"Oops! I believe that I am out of bullets," he says, violently hitting the gun against his hand. "I guess I'll have to go for plan B."
At the raise of his hand, an army of vampires and human hunters descend from the darkness of the forest. The vampires, armed with nothing but their fangs, are all unfamiliar faces to me, but the hunters that walk side by side with them, armed with knives, guns and chains, shock me to my bones. My eyes settle on Jimmy first, a man the same age as my father who I had met a couple of years back. Then I notice Craig and Martha, his wife, with whom my father and I had lived for a couple of months when I was 14. Rob and Joseph are the next two faces I recognise, a father and a son, on whom we had always been able to rely over the years. None of these people had ever gotten as close to me as Kyle and James had, or as Duke had romantically, but I had known them, and at one point or another, they had felt like family.
But now, they are all against me. I am not the same to them.
"We want them alive."
With those four words, Blake plays God and it starts.
Eric instantly pulls me out of the way, back towards the door from which all of the castle's vampires are pouring out from. I see the two camps collide and the slaying and killing begin, as Eric pushes me up against the door and tries to regain my attention.
"Ronnie!" He yells, but the brutality of the scene behind him keeps me fixated. These are people that I know; people that only one night ago had been celebrating, dancing and catching up with each other. These are people who didn't even know me, but who were willing to lay down and sacrifice their lives for me. And yet, every time I blinked, another of their lives was being taken.
My eyes fill up with tears, and it is not until Eric kisses me forcefully that I turn my eyes onto him.
"Ronnie," he breathes. "Promise me that you won't move from here."
I nod continuously at him, and he kisses me briefly in acknowledgement before turning his back on me and moving to stand two metres away from me. I know what he intends to do. It's as if he had planned this all along with the others inside. The others are pawns, pawns that are to be sacrificed in order to remove as many opponents from the battlefield as possible, as long as Eric and I survive. Whilst the hunter and vampire alliance believe that Eric and I are an abomination, Alexander's army of vampires believes that we are two pieces of a very important puzzle that can only fit together, and what's a puzzle without a missing piece? And so whilst everyone fights, Eric is left further behind, his only role, fighting off the unusual vampire that might get through and far too close to me.
My eyes search the battlefield, focusing on Alexander and Ronnie which together are fighting three human hunters. Although two of them fall to the ground, the third quickly grabs Roxanne's hands, binding them together with silver chains, and delaying Alexander who stops to help her. This third hunter manages to get through, only to meet a quick death at the hands of Eric who ruthlessly snaps his neck before the hunter has time to react and aim his gun. At the same time, a vampire gets through, but Eric weakens him, by biting into the hunter's broken neck, distracting him with the scent of blood. He's obviously a new-born and is still unable to control his thirst; Eric takes advantage of this before quickly ending his life. Eric arms himself, with one of the hunter's guns, and passes me a knife.
Eric protects me with his body a further number of times, proving himself an effective bodyguard, but whilst I observe from the safeness of the castle door – from where I have promised not to move – I can't help but feel useless. The only reassurance that I seem to gain is from my observations of the battle. The first time I glance over, the two camps are equal and it scares me how even the numbers are. Yet, by the second time and third time that I look over, it is clear that our side has the most skilled warriors, as the opponents continue to decrease in numbers. We are on the winning side.
It is only when my eyes settle on Achiel that I realise that no matter how uneven the numbers may be, we could never have too many. Achiel is suffering. He is surrounded by two vampires and a hunter and I don't know how much longer he can hold them for. Despite the vampires seeming young and inexperienced fighters, with the hunter they heavily outnumber Achiel, creating a most unfair fight and a quick and easy killing. The closest allies to Achiel are also fighting their own battles, and it dawns on me that Eric and I should be fighting our battles rather than keeping ourselves alive.
It was clear that Blake was to play God, but who were we to sink to the same level as him?
"Eric," I say.
I try to get his attention, but he fails to hear me. His eyes watch the battlefield, waiting for his next victim to filter through our defence lines. A hunter, followed by a vampire slip through and Eric's grin immediately sparks up his face. He'll enjoy the kill as if it's a hunger that he needs to feed. His animalistic killer vampire side is a side that I've rarely seen before, a face that he hasn't had to put on when he's been with me, but it reminds me that this is who he really is; there will always be a part of him which will enjoy preying, feeding and killing.
I don't try to get his attention a second time. He is concentrated, alone in his own world. He is like a killing machine with only one purpose: to kill the two men in front of him.
And so, I slip past him. He doesn't expect me to disobey his orders, and so he doesn't even notice me when I run past him, onto the bridge. I know how dangerous this is, but I must fight my own battle, I must fight my very own demons.
Within seconds, I am fighting my way through the battlefield. With only the knife Eric had given me in my hand, I stab a vampire who crosses my way, only momentarily delaying him, and allowing me to keep running. Then, a huntress – a young blonde girl – approaches me; she couldn't be older than seventeen, but from her skill, I know that she has only recently become a hunter. I quickly destabilise her, slit her throat and throw her on the ground. Time is ticking, and whilst I am enjoying the return to my hunter ways, I have to get to Achiel.
I see him now. He has been forced onto the ground. The two vampires try to lift him onto his knees by grabbing him by his arms, whilst the hunter circles him with a stake in his hand. I have to do it now.
I run up and jump on the hunter's back from behind, slitting his throat in the process. He doesn't have time to throw me of his back or put up a fight. He falls to the ground beneath me, and I fall too, but quickly get on my feet. That's when I know my plan has worked.
"Run Achiel!" I yell, as the vampires release him and grab me, setting me on my feet again. Achiel looks up at me. His eyes gleam with tears and he shakes his head, resisting my command, but then he turns his back and runs. "Run Achiel!"
I exhale, knowing that everyone is safe now. It is over. Everyone retreats.
"Ronnie!" A familiar voice cries out. It is filled with pain, anger and defeat. I try to resist it, but it penetrates me and I feel the pain of its owner fill me, as if I had been stabbed in the heart and died a hundred deaths. I collapse, weak and it is only due to my two captors that I don't hit the floor. Tears erupt, trickling down my cheeks as I force myself to look at the voice's owner.
Eric is still standing on the other side of the drawbridge, the furthest back from everyone that has retreated. He stands, bloody, with a pile of dead bodies at his feet.
"Ronnie," I cry out again.
My head fails to understand what has just happened. Ronnie is being held, far from me, by two vampires. I fail to believe what my eyes are showing me. That cannot be her. I turn my head around, hoping to see her behind me by the door to the castle where I had told her to stay. She isn't there. How? How could she have slipped past me? How could I not have seen her run past?
I had failed her. I hadn't looked after her. I had broken all my promises to her. My legs collapse before me and my body falls onto my knees, as I crouch over and hold my head in my hands.
"No, no, no, no, no." I repeat. The more I hope that my eyes are deceiving me, the more I start to believe that they really are. But as I look up, my eyes meet with Ronnie's body which is still being held up by the two vampires.
This is my worst nightmare, my worst dream; a dream which I never expected and never hoped would come true. Never had I expected our path to lead to this. Of course, I never expected it to be easy; a relationship between a vampire and a human could never be easy, and one between a vampire and a Healer even less, for their blood would attract more opponents, but a war?
A war in which we were to lose? A war through which Ronnie and I would not survive? I thought that I had lost enough already. I thought that those days in which I had distanced myself from her had been painful enough. I had lived in her shadows… I had been so close yet so far. So close that I could hear her tears, so far that I couldn't comfort her. So close that I could hear her heartbeat, so far that I couldn't make it speed up at the touch of my fingertips on her skin. So close that I could feel her scent overpowering my senses, so far that I couldn't taste her lips.
I had deprived myself of her for far too long, to try to keep her safe, and it had all come to this. Now she stands there, so close yet so far… so far that I can't save her. I can't do anything but watch and the feeling of not being able to do anything about it drives me crazy.
Ronnie was mine.
Ronnie was my one love, the one person whom I truly loved, the missing part of me that I had been unconsciously searching for over 1,000 years of my life. She had been programed into my DNA the minute Antoinne had made me what I was now and since then, my existence as a vampire had been leading up to the moment I'd meet her, to the moment where I would change from being a vampire to being a mate to a Healer.
Ronnie was my reason for living; she was the girl I laughed for, the girl I worried for, the girl I fought for; she was the girl next to which I wanted to wake up every night and go to sleep every morning; she was the girl I wanted to kiss, the girl I wanted to please, the girl I wanted to make love to every day. I wanted her. Every second of every day I wanted her. I wanted to be near her, I wanted to be inside of her.
Ronnie was my everything.
Eric gets back on his feet and adopts a position of strength. To my surprise, his expression changes from one of defeat and helplessness, to one of anger. It reassures me to see him like this; I want him to be strong, I need him to be strong. But the vengeance in his eyes frightens me. I can sense that he's not thinking straight; all he can see is me and them, and I fear what he could be capable of.
The two vampires on either side of me pull me forward, and they start to walk me towards Blake, who carries a wicked smile on his lips.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," he says, as the vampires push me onto him. I meet his eyes briefly. He clasps my hand in a strong clutch, and I wince in pain.
"Stop! You're hurting her," Eric hisses. His fangs extend but he does not move from his position.
"I mean her no harm Eric," Blake calls out. "I just want to…"
With one arm he circles my waist and pulls my body towards him, whilst with the other he brushes my hair aside, revealing my neck to him. He is going to feed from me, right here. He tilts my head to one side, so that I am directly facing Eric and before I can fight him, he pierces my skin with his fangs.
I yell out in pain.
Eric runs at me, but before he can move past the bridge he charges into Achiel and Alexander who grab him and hold him back.
"Don't do it Eric!" Alexander shouts at him. "This is what they want!"
"He's right Eric," Blake calls out, laughing as he sets me back on my feet. He retreats his fangs before continuing. "I only wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Now I know. Now I know why you can't resist her, it must feel so good to be inside of her and feed. Now I know why you don't want anyone else touching your things."
"Ronnie is mine," he growls.
"Oh, believe me, I know," Blake agrees. "Tell me, when was the last time you fed on her?"
This question sets me off guard, and it seems to anger Eric even more for he doesn't reply.
"Tell me Eric, or I'll feed from her again. No, in fact, she'll be our whore and blood bag. I'll pass her around to –"
"Two nights ago," Eric gives in to Blake's ruthless tactics.
"I bet you wished you had her in your arms now, with her vein open to you, nourishing you." This is torture. I knew what the scent of my blood did to vampires, but what it did to Eric and Alexander was a completely different experience. Blake was provoking Eric. "Tell me, did you enjoy it?"
"Yes," Eric coldly responds.
My eyes search Eric's and I know that all that Blake is saying is true. My blood is weakening him. Blake is tempting him with my blood, a source he always craves. I am so close, yet so far. The temptation will drive him mad if Blake keeps me here for much longer. I am like a drug he craves but cannot have.
"Well Eric," Blake begins, turning me around and pulling me off into the forest. "I'm sorry to say that that was the last time you'll ever feed from her. It really is getting late, we should be going."
"NO!" Eric calls out from behind us, as Blake pulls me further away. Eric attempts to break free from Alexander and Achiel, but they stall him again.
Laughter erupts from Blake's lips as he pulls the gun from earlier from one of his back pockets. Without giving it a second thought, he fires it at my abdomen and I fall to the floor.
"Oh. I guess there was one more bullet after all!" He continues to laugh.
Eric calls out as I hold my stomach. I am in so much pain. With my neck oozing blood and my bullet wound now also erupting with blood, I feel as if my body might explode. I manage to bring myself on all fours, and I glance at Eric.
"I love you," I whisper, knowing too well that he'll have heard.
Duke's arms find me and they pick me up, roughly touching my bullet wound. I fall into his arms, and the feeling of being upside down makes me instantly cough up blood.
"If anyone tries to follow, the next shot will be fatal," Blake's cold voice resonates within the forest. "Let's go."
Following Blake's command, Duke begins to walk into the forest, with me in his arms. This is it. This is what it has all come to.
"Ronnie!" Eric yells, his voice momentarily easing my pain. "You can't do this! You can't take her from me!" He screams.
From within Duke's arms, I turn to see him one last time by lifting my head over Duke's shoulders. Eric's eyes lock within mine, and as if my eyes motivate him, he attempts to jump from Alexander and Achiel's grasp.
This was what I had feared before. I had seen the look of vengeance on his face. He hadn't been thinking straight and he was capable of anything. Now, Blake's threat has simply gone over the top of his head. His anger has clouded his judgement.
And so Alexander does the unimaginable. He lifts his fist and thrusts it into Eric's face, knocking him out cold. I relax, knowing now that he is safe. My eyes move from Roxanne, to Achiel, to Alexander and to Eric, who is unconscious on the floor, one last time.
"Duke?" I ask as my vision becomes blurry. I have lost a lot of blood and unconsciousness will soon take me as well. "Are my friends safe?"
Duke has the decency to reply.
"Yes. We don't intend to harm them. It was just you and Eric whom we wanted. Now that we have you, Eric will soon follow."
My body numbs and my eyelids feel heavy. Those are the last words I hear.
Hey everyone! I am so so sorry that it has taken me this long to update, but the truth is that I'm currently in China, doing a Summer programme so I haven't really had any time off! I've only just finished the course, passed my exam, and the minute I started having free time, I started to write! I hope you've enjoyed this chapter; it's quite heavy and longer than the rest. Ronnie is now in the hands of the enemy. Please like, follow, review my story. How do you think the story should end? What do you think the next chapter will be like? I know how I want Ronnie and Eric's story to end in my head, but I'd be interested to hear what you guys make of it. Thanks a million! Trisha x