Exhausting Night

Both of us skidded to a stop just outside the bedroom door, shocked. It seemed like the store was swarming with vampires and great big dog-like creatures that were almost graceful, pretty, despite their furious silver or yellow eyes. With a jolt I realized these were the werewolves.

Allan stood in the center of the room, a stake clutched in either hand, and around him stood my snarling coven. Wait, my coven? my mental voice gasped and I did a doubletake. Yeah, there they were. David stood closest to the oncoming predators, snarling and lashing out if they came to close to the heart of the coven- Star and Laddie, who barely knew, besides from instinct, how to fight at all. Paul and Dwayne fought back to back, swinging large crosses like lassos from their gloved, protected hands. Marko held a water gun in hand and was shooting Holy water at the intruders.

It only took me and Edgar nanoseconds to get our wits about us and jump headfirst into the melee. My hunting instincts set in, and I felt my face change. To distort into something feral, aggressive, and anciently wild. My fangs grew out, sharpening into razor points and my fingernails followed suit. This change all took place in mid-air, as I leaped at an enemy.

My claws connected with their target- the undead thing's neck- and he yowled in pain. His teeth flashed out, and I barely had time to pull my arms away as his jaws clicked right where they had been. He snarled in rage, his flaming vampire eyes searing me to the bone.

We circled each other for a minute before he feinted to the left. Just as he did so, another vampire hit me from the right and sent me spiraling away. I snarled ferociously and turned on my new attacker, slashing my claws across his face. He hissed in pain and grabbed me, wrapping his clawed hands dangerously around my throat.

My growl choked and spluttered as the air was cut off from my wind pipes. I kicked out strongly in panic and my foot connected with his stomach. He dropped me, groaning and doubling over in pain. I didn't hesitate and roundhouse kicked him. My heel hit the side of his head so hard with my semi-new, extremely powerful strength that I dented his head. I heard the sickening crack, felt the splash of blood and the sudden ache of pain that stung up the back of my leg with the impact.

The other vampire leaped as the vampire I'd just probably killed fell to the ground, and his teeth sank deep into my shoulder. I cried out and jabbed him with my claws until he fell away from me, bleeding from his arm where I'd been stabbing him. The fresh smell of blood- it didn't matter that it was vampire blood- invaded my nostrils, and my senses went wild. And with the wildness came a new wave of power, of fresh power that I could only feel through hunting- and now, fighting.

Up my throat and out of my mouth came a powerful, extremely loud roar that made my enemy pause for a moment, puzzled and nervous. I grinned savagely at him and lunged into him- not at him, actually into him. My claws sunk deep into the skin of his belly, while my teeth chomped down hard on his neck. He struggled against me, kicking and scratching, but I forced him to the floor as his struggles grew weaker and weaker. His breath came in ragged, choked gasps until he finally lay still. And even then I didn't let go until a few minutes later, when the screams and hisses of the fight stopped.

Sitting up slowly, almost as if I were aching, I turned my head to the left and right, looking for any more enemies. But they had all been driven off. "Megan, are you alright?" Edgar asked, rushing over to where I still crouched, half-feral, over the dead body of the vampire. "Yeah…" I said slowly, as a wave of exhaustion flooded through me. When I tried to stand, it almost overpowered me and I sunk into Edgar's arms.

"Are you sure? That's a nasty bite on your shoulder," he noticed, catching me. I nodded, eyes half-closed. Whatever rage had filled me just then, it had disappeared just as quickly, and had taken my energy with it. Plus I hadn't slept in a while…

"Well, if you're sure…" Edgar trailed off uncertainly, as if he didn't fully trust my judgment. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," I told him irritably. "How's everybody else?" I asked, trying to sit up. Another wave of light-headedness hit me. Maybe I had lost a lot of blood…

"Allan has a bad cut on his arm, and David was bitten on his neck, but other than that everyone's just got a couple of scratches and bruises." As he spoke, I looked him over, spotting a large bruise just beginning to blossom under the skin just above his left eye. I touched it lightly with my fingertip, suddenly remembering what had happened between us just before the battle and didn't say anything.

"What the hell was that about?" Paul's voice thundered, and I looked up to see him standing, livid, face-to-face with a much calmer David. "What do you think?" he replied. "I don't know, David. You're story seemed a little weak to me," Paul snarled, clenching his fists.

"Hey! Calm down, Paul," I called, sensing the beginning of a fight. "Well this is bullshit! Why would this Max dude, whoever he is, tell you to start your own coven 'to become great' when he should know that it would cause chaos with Damien's coven? And why would he be angry with you if he really did want you to become great?" Paul demanded. I couldn't help agreeing with him- at least I hadn't been the only one to sense some fishiness with David's story.

David's eyes burned with a bright anger, but it was shadowed with nervousness and I knew that Paul had hit the nail right on the head- David had been lying. But why?

"Well?" Paul was still waiting for an answer. David's eyes flashed black fury, and I expected him to swipe his claws across the other vampire's face. But the rage vanished and David seem to visibly shrink in his skin as he sighed in obvious reluctance.

"Okay. So I lied a little bit. Big deal," he muttered. "It is a big deal because it obviously concerns our lives!" Dwayne shouted, siding with Paul. Marko's eyes were dark with suspicion but he didn't say anything. Star, Laddie, and Allan crouched behind the other vamps, watching with wide eyes. I got to my feet and Edgar stood protectively by my side as David launched into a second tale- one that I hoped to be true.

"Well, the part I told you about me being adopted is true. And, after I was Changed, me and my adoptive siblings really did get in with the wrong crowd. But instead of running away from them, I tried to lead them. I fought a lot of the time, trying to earn my place as the coven's leader- soon, my nickname was 'chief'." David smiled ruefully and I remembered when Tony had come to warn us of Damien's rising coven- he had called him chief then.

"I'd gathered a small elite core around me to protect me and my position- Tony and Damien were among them. I thought I could trust them, I thought they were my friends."

The fiery rage roared to life in David's eyes. "I thought wrong. Being leader of a coven is a coveted position, which I'm sure you could've assumed, and I knew that others had wanted it. But I didn't know just how badly until the night I was forced to leave. I had been injured by a rogue vampire a couple nights before and I couldn't hunt on my own. Damien agreed to help me whenever I went out. We were out hunting, me and Damien, when we ran into Max and Tony. They smiled at me and told me that it was time my leadership came to an end. I turned to Damien to tell him to get ready to fight, but he just grinned at me and attacked me. I managed to escape, but not without injury."

With that, David pulled up the sleeve of his leather jacket and showed us a long, thick scar that ran from the length of his elbow to his shoulder. "I ran all the way here, to Santa Carla- you see, I'd been living in Luna Bay for some time and it's even more infested with vamps and wolves than here. I found the caved-in hotel and rested there until I was fit enough to hunt. After a while, I figured I'd form my own coven."

David shrugged, glancing at Paul warily. "That good enough for you?" Paul didn't answer for a while, but when he did, his voice was subdued. "When they attacked just now, they weren't trying to kill us, were they? They were just testing our strength."

A cold chill ran through my body. "And they would have killed Allan," I realized. David nodded in my direction. "They would have wanted to pick some off our allies," he added with a shrug. "We have to stick together more often," Marko muttered determinedly, resting his eyes on me. I met his gaze and I felt a panic rising in me- Marko was right, and if anything happened to any of my new family, I would be devastated.

"Right. And we should probably run more patrols, too," David agreed, turning to me. "Do you think you could run on a human's schedule if you had to?" I nodded, not completely sure I wanted to leave the sanctity of night that I'd come to love. "Alright, I want you to run patrols with the Frog brothers every day until this coven is taken care of. Every night, when we come to the Boardwalk I'd like a report, and when we leave at dawn, we'll give you three a report. Got it?" I nodded, feeling as if a dead-weight had just dropped onto my shoulders.

"Alright. We'll leave you three now and run patrols until dawn," David assured us as my coven headed outside. I nodded to them and as soon as they'd left, me and the Frog brothers gathered together in a little circle.

"Good thing you're friends were close by. We would have been dead meat," Allan said in a shaky voice. I felt the panic clench at my heart again, fervently thanking God for my coven and for the fact that my best friend was still alive. "We should probably get this place cleaned up before we have to open it tomorrow," Edgar said quietly. We all nodded and got to work.

It took us until about 4:30 in the morning to clean up broken glass, patch up a hole in a large wooden sliding door and then get it back on its slats, not to mention the mess of comics and book stands that were strewn across the room, so sleep that night was moot. I couldn't believe that the Frog brothers' aunt and uncle hadn't woken up with all the noise we'd made, stoned or not.

At six o'clock sharp, Marko and Star flew down into the store to tell us that they'd followed the coven's scent trail miles into the woods until they'd lost it when they'd crossed a large river. After they'd left, we all collapsed in a bed, exhausted. I was finally able to drift into a light, uneasy sleep.

R+R please. No flames.