Chapter Two:

The Benchwarmer

When I came to, I was still in the graveyard. Only my head friggin' hurt. And then my vision cleared and I saw Cole, but it was really hard to look at him. Those bites looked painful on his neck.

"I swear, I didn't drink on Pyre Night," I said automatically, though it was kinda groggy.

Cole sighed in relief. "I thought you were a goner, Jo."

And then it all registered. I groaned in annoyance and sat up. "I thought so too. Goddammit, as soon as I get my hands on that bitch I'm gonna rip her to pieces!"

"Believe me; I'm joining in." Cole offered me a hand to help me get up, and I gratefully took it, still feeling a bit woozy. "But Zeke called me and told me that we need to find out how she was defeated before. There's gonna be a story-telling soon at the old clocktower. We should check it out."

I nodded and followed Cole. We took our time getting out of the graveyard, since we were watching out for Vampires. And then it occurred to me that Cole had red eyes and fangs…

"Cole, are you one of them?" I asked.

He hesitated. "Yeah. Come sunrise, Bloody Mary's gonna have control over me." Cole waited a moment before he added, "You too."

My heart dropped. Right. That bitch—Bloody Mary—bit me. I unconsciously moved my tongue over my teeth, but I didn't feel any fangs. My neck hurt though.

"We'd better hurry," Cole said. "While you were out, I followed Mary. I lost her, but she sent these things called 'Harpies' after me. They're pretty much female Vampires with Uzi's and teleportation powers. Top that with a bad attitude, and you've got a difficult enemy."

I felt so weak, it wasn't even funny. My head was pounding, and I was constantly licking my lips. Man, what I wouldn't give for a drink…

"Joan?"

"Huh? Yeah, what's up?" I asked, snapping back to reality (or a really bad dream. At this point, I couldn't tell).

"You okay?" Cole asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, just… shocked I guess."

Cole patted my shoulder. "Don't worry about it. We'll get Mary. Let's just check out that story on Father Ignatius, and then we can make a plan."

"Good idea." I followed after Cole, but I lost him as soon as we got out of the graveyard. I soon figured out that I needed to follow the gigantic cloud of bats.

I tried to activate my fire, but, for the first time, it hurt like hell. Seriously! It felt like I was burning myself alive! I had to stop, and so I just ran after the cloud of bats that Cole had turned himself into.

Why can't I do that? I wondered as I rounded a corner, right into a coven of Vampires.

"Oh shit…" I muttered as they faced me, sadistic grins plastered to their pale faces.

"One of the newborns," one of the Vampires said. "Looks weak."

"Probably because you can't smell any blood on 'er." One of the larger Vampires examined me quickly. "Hm… Maybe if she drank some, she'd look stronger."

I don't like where this is going… I reached for my nodachi, only to find that it wasn't there. Shit! The graveyard—!

A Vampire ran at me, hissing and spitting venomously. I brought my leg up and kicked it in the throat before it could get too close. The Vampire slammed into the wall, blood leaking from a new wound on his head.

All the Vamps started coming towards me. I knew that I had good experience with hand-to-hand combat, but the way I was feeling definitely put me at a disadvantage. If we ended up fighting for long, I'd be overcome and probably eaten… or they'd do something else with me. I wasn't into the big hype on Vamps, and even the mention of Twilight made me sick.

A Vamp kicked me hard in the gut while I was panicking. I hit the ground hard and rolled a few times as I slowed out of the alley. As I got up, I saw people—Humans—dressed up and watching us. They probably thought this was something for Pyre Night. Something that the Conduits put together. My head throbbed, and I found myself staring at their necks—.

The same Vamp who kicked me leapt onto my back. I reacted quickly by grabbing onto its head and flipping it onto the ground, then rammed my elbow into its throat. Its friends were quickly on me, but that's when Cole came in all of his bat-shit wonder.

The mass of bats (a.k.a. Cole) rammed into the Vamps and got them off of me pretty quickly. He turned into his new Vampiric form and stabbed a Vamp in the chest with the silver cross that he had instead of his AMP.

The other Vamps got scared and ran back into the alley. Cole stabbed the cross into the other Vamp's chest (the one I'd taken down) and frowned at me.

"What the hell?" he said. "Why didn't you use your powers?"

"Apparently, Vampire plus fire powers equals painful," I answered simply.

Cole rubbed the back of his head. "Damn… And I guess the way you are now, you aren't too strong either."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean, you over-used, blood-drinking, walking lightbulb?"

Cole rolled his eyes. "Look, I dunno how you've been resisting so far, but you need some Human blood, or else you're gonna stay like you are. So, let's just—."

"Hell. No."

"But you need it!"

I stood up and crossed my arms. "Screw that! I'm not gonna eat a Human!"

"You aren't eating them—!"

"Only sucking away their lifeblood, right?"

Cole bit his lip. "Then what do you want to do, O stubborn one?"

I shook my head. "I dunno. Wait a sec, just help me get back to our apartment, and I can chill out there while you kick Mary's ass!"

Cole's eyes widened in surprise. "Is Joan MacGrath actually asking to sit this one out?"

"No. I'm just asking to rest up, so I can kill that bitch myself."

Cole sighed. "You won't get strong without Human blood. As soon as I saw a Human when I got out of the cathedral, I ran over and just… Well, long story short, she's dead."

I glared at him. "You killed someone?"

"I couldn't control it." Cole's eyes lifted until he saw a few people—Humans—staring at us from the street. "Fine. I'll take you to the apartment. But you'd better sit this one out. If you can't use your powers and you won't drink blood, you're practically useless."

"Say that again—!"

Cole grabbed me around the waist and launched himself into the air via a car. I was cut-off mid sentence to scream for a second before I realized that I flew around the city all the time. Cole didn't turn into a cloud of bats; instead, he just carried me the old-fashioned way… by slinging me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes! That bastard…

Cole dropped me in front of his apartment. "I'll call Alec," he said before I could say a damn word. "He'll look after you while I'm gone… and make sure you don't do anything stupid."

I would've argued, but chances were that I would be doing something stupid.

"Get inside," Cole ordered.

I frowned at him, but listened. I'd asked to sit out, anyway.