Life after Death
Eight.
Jack ran to the emergency stairwell, leaping over an unmoving slayer. Shouts and shrieks bombarded his ears. The squeal of car tires caught his attention for a second, but he returned his focus toward the stairwell. Taylor and a bunch of teens were trapped within the conference room. Many older vampires were taking over the situation in the garage. He needed to extend his helping hand elsewhere.
He twisted the door knob, pulling the emergency door open. He arrived at the base of the staircase, ready to charge up the stairs, but paused. Jerry stood before Sam on a landing in between two flights of stairs. A male towered over them, cackling. He narrowed his eyes at the dark clothed figure. Jerry and Sam were in trouble. He had to get to them.
"Oh, Jerry," the male commented. "I have to say, you will always be an excellent slayer. Too bad you have such unfortunate luck."
Jack's heart stopped. Slayer. Jack analyzed the man, eyes sweeping his attire. A stake peeked from the large pocket of the man's trench coat. Jack clenched his fists. A slayer called Jerry a slayer. Jerry was a slayer. Jerry was a slayer the entire time and slayers were attacking them.
"Jerry!"
Jack shot his eyes upward. Kim stood at the top of the staircase. He sighed. She was okay. He wanted to drop to the ground from relief. After all the horror he witnessed, he was happy to see Kim. A figure appeared behind her. He shouted, eyes wide, rushing up the stairs.
A stake lodged within Kim's back.
"Kim?" Jack questioned, vision blurring around the edges. "Kim!"
Jack reached for the slayer and snapped the male's neck. A shriek erupted from behind him, but he ignored any distractions. He dropped to his knees, cradling Kim to his chest. Silence engulfed them as tears ran down his cheeks. At the moment, nothing mattered.
Kim was fine. Kim was fine, but everywhere else was in disarray. Constance attended to the wounded. Rudy gathered the survivors and sent them to the cafeteria. Jack sighed, eyes on Kim's pale face. Someone passed him a bag of blood. He ripped through the bag, ignoring the large puddle forming from the tear. He fed Kim the liquid, watching her glazed eyes as she stared up at him.
"She is lucky."
Jack glanced at Constance as she hovered over him. The wounded occupied a cleared out conference room toward the back of the hallway. All vampires healed with amazing speed. The wounds weren't anything to be concerned about. Only the newly turned vampires suffered from a slower healing response than the older vampires. Despite their immediate healing, anyone could be traumatized, human or vampire. Jack ran his fingers through Kim's long blonde locks.
"I'm fine, Jack," Kim remarked, wrapping her fingers around his wrist.
"They staked you."
"They got me in the back," she remarked. "Missed my heart. I believe blind rage will do that. I could tell he was a new thing."
Jack shook his head, focused on Kim's red tinted lips. An empty blood bag rested beside her head. Kim pulled her body into a sitting position, planting a kiss to the corner of his mouth and then to his lips. She smiled, gentle and relaxed. Jack couldn't say he was very relaxed at the moment.
"You need to talk to the others," Kim reminded. "The teens need to see your face."
Jack shook his head, hands cupping Kim's face. He didn't want to leave Kim just yet. There were enough staff to handle the other vampires. He wanted to stay by Kim's side. The teens would understand. They all knew Kim meant the world to him. They would understand his absence in the most trying of times. Hushed sobbing drifted to his ears. He winced.
"Jack," Kim called out, wrapping her hand around his wrists and pushing his hands away from her face. "You need to see about the children. Where are Jerry and Sam?"
"I don't know," Jack responded. "I wasn't really paying too much attention to them to be honest."
Kim frowned, brows furrowed. Jack sighed. He poked at the strained skin between Kim's brows. She shouldn't be making such uncomfortable expressions. He remained kneeled at her side. She urged him to head out and after a while he agreed. He hesitated, unhappy with leaving, but decided to continue out the door. Jack headed to the cafeteria where Rudy gathered the survivors. Many vampires, young and old, chatted amongst themselves as staff spoke with all the little clusters of individuals. Jack noticed the missing right away. He tried to ignore it for the moment.
"Jack," a female voice called, heavy and worn out. "Jack."
Jack turned to the owner of the voice. A female fashioning a tattered butterfly blouse stood nearby. She sat down, inviting him to join her and her group. The other vampires at the table talked over each other, fragmented sentences tumbling from their mouths. He whispered words of encouragement at the table before he left. He promised to return to them at a later time. He visited many other tables in the same fashion.
Someone tugged at his sleeve just as he was finishing up his conversation with his last group of teens. He whirled around, shocked by Taylor's presence. Moisture filled eyes met his own. He sighed, placing a hand upon her shoulder, drawing her in to an embrace.
"What are we going to do, Jack?" she asked. "This place is supposed to be a safe haven for newly turned vampires. We are supposed to learn and grow to accept ourselves here, but after this attack I—I don't understand. How did they even find us?"
An image of Jerry and the slayer flashed through his memory. He closed his eyes for a second, grasping onto the image and trying his best to capture any necessary information he could. Theories began to swirl within his head.
"What are we going to do?" she asked, voice soft. "I'm so scared. And then Al – oh my gosh!"
Jack looked to the ceiling, moisture in his own eyes. He could only comfort them. He had no idea what they would do next. He guessed they would rebuild. They would figure out where to go from the attack. Things would change. Things had to change. He pulled away from the embrace, smiling.
"We'll be fine," he promised.
"Is Kim okay?" Taylor questioned, wiping her eyes. "I heard she was attacked."
"Kim is centuries and centuries old, one little stake to the back isn't going to get rid of her," he remarked, amusement in his voice. "Sadly, I'm stuck with her."
Taylor punched his shoulder. "She better not hear that from you."
"Eh, she knows I love her," he stated. "Now, I think I see Rudy. I'm going to have a chat with him."
Jack gave Taylor a quick hug and a smile before he walked over to Rudy. The elder vampire ended his heated conversation with one of their members just as he approached. Rudy gestured toward the entrance of the cafeteria. The stench of iron floated throughout the main floor. He growled, fangs elongating. There had been many slayer casualties. Their support group experienced the same amount of casualties. They entered Rudy's office. Jack took a seat on a torn leather chair, tan padding seeping through the splits in the leather. Rudy put his office chair back in the correct position.
"It is bad Jack."
"I know."
"Everyone is scared."
"I know."
Rudy rubbed his forehead and then handed a piece of copy paper to Jack. Jack eyed Rudy's solemn expression before he scanned the page. His eyes widened. His grip tightened, nearly crumpling the page within his hands. He raised his eyes upward, resting on Rudy's slouched posture.
"Those are the names of the deceased as of now," Rudy responded, reclining in his chair. "There are many more missing. Cindy is still compiling a list as we speak. Jack, this is very bad. Anyway, I heard about Kim. How is she?"
Jack clutched the fabric of his jeans. "She is a spitfire. I was worried, but she is fine. We are old for our age. We heal a lot faster than the new ones."
"Of course," Rudy shared. "But she was still injured. It is nothing a bag of blood couldn't solve."
"She received some."
Rudy sighed, eyes on a spot behind him. "I'm glad we received that shipment from the hospital just this past weekend. They almost insisted they deliver another weekend. I mean we would have been fine for a normal weekend, but today wasn't normal. We are going through our supply quick."
Jack slumped in the chair. He knew there were many individuals scared and worried. He was scared. Despite, the years he spent as a vampire, he was scared. Slayers were never something to play around with.
"I just –," Rudy began. "We found that stake not too long ago. It was within our walls. No one should know about us. We are hidden from the public for a reason, so how did those slayers find us?"
The sound of pained grunts and cries surrounded them. More theories somersaulted around in Jack's head. He knew there was something he may have missed, but he planned to take time to figure it out. All he knew was Jerry was a slayer.
"I'm not sure," Jack shared. "But I think Jerry is a slayer. I know he is a slayer."
"Jerry? A slayer?" Rudy inquired. "That is a heavy accusation, Jack. Actually, he isn't on our list. A staff member found him and Sam at the bottom of the emergency staircase."
Jack winced. In his haste to get Kim to safety he may have forgotten about Jerry as well as Sam. He could barely recognize anything at the time beside Kim. All he registered at the time was Kim and the black blood oozing from her person.
"Yes, he was found at the bottom of the staircase with Sam," Rudy stated. "Sam is with Constance as we speak. I haven't seen Jerry."
"I just don't know what to think, Rudy," Jack said. "Two slayers knew Jerry's name."
Rudy frowned. "They could have known him from somewhere. Maybe a long time ago."
Jack bit his lip, shaking his head. "The last slayer knew him by name and called him a slayer."
Rudy sat up, setting his elbows onto his desk. Something flashed across his eyes as his mouth hung open. There were only two reasons a slayer knew a vampire by name. Vampires were able to travel about the city and the world. For the most part, vampires were regular citizens even after their change. A slayer could pick up a name in casual conversation, someone could know someone from their youth, but slayers rarely got into a casual civil conversation with a vampire.
"Jack, I'm certain Jerry has a good explanation," Rudy promised. "I know right now with all the chaos everything seems bad."
Jack forced himself to listen to reason, but a small ball of worry grew within his chest. He clenched his jaw, eyes narrowed at glass shards littering the floor. If Jerry had a good explanation, then he had to explain what the slayer meant by 'excellent slayer'. Not just anyone was an excellent slayer.
Unfortunately, he couldn't be worried about the possibilities. He couldn't think too much about it, Life after Death had to do its job. He arose, thanking Rudy for the update. He turned and froze. Kim stood in the doorway, resting her left shoulder on the doorframe. He rushed to her, pulling her into a hug.
"Kim, you are okay."
Her fingers glided along his spine, calming his worries. He buried his face within her shoulder. Despite the smell of sweat and traces of dark black blood, Jack still picked up the familiar scent of her Cherry Blossom shampoo. He sighed. For the moment, he pushed aside all his theories and suspicions. He had Kim at his side.
"Like I said, I'm just fine, Jack," she whispered, tightening her hold.
Jack focused on nothing beside the tone of Kim's voice. His job could wait for several more seconds.
Hey everyone! Here is another update. Hope you enjoyed it!
Special thanks to reviewer:
Ilwynoges, thanks for the review. Well, I always like to give thanks to those who review, follow, and favorite. I want to show I truly appreciate the support. You are welcome. You adore Jerry? Wow! I'm so glad you like him in this story. Sometimes it is hard to write his character when I put him in different things. I write him very well? OH, that is such a compliment! Thanks! Thanks, I'm glad you enjoy the story. I am having fun. You are too kind. Thanks for the support.
Well, everyone the next chapter is 5% (estimated) of the way done. I know a low percentage, because there is much work to be done on it. But stay tuned, things really get started from here on out. I mean they already started but, you know what I mean.
Thanks to everyone who reads, reviews, follows, and leaves a favorite. I appreciate all the responses. You all are the best. Thanks.
Until Next Chapter,
Bye