Action time! Slightly shorter chapter here, but it's all action, so that should satisfy you. :)
Amelia dreamed about her father, and woke up screaming into her pillow. Thankfully, no flames. Scrubbing her hands through her hair, she wandered upstairs into martial chaos.
Bobby dug through his piles of books, Jo sat at the table hurriedly sharpening a machete, and Ellen rummaged through a backpack
"I get the impression we're not going to be eating pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving," Amelia sighed. "What's up?"
Bobby glanced over at her. "Winchesters found a vampire nest. It must be pretty bad for them to ask for help."
"Awesome," Amelia deadpanned, yawning, "at least I didn't get a chance to unpack."
"We're driving," Ellen told her. "Be quick if you want to ride along."
Amelia grabbed her duffel and a couple machetes from her trunk in addition to her normal gear, and stowed them in the Harvelle's car.
"Let's go," Ellen barked, "we have to get there before nightfall."
Bobby followed in his Chevelle. No one had much to say on the drive. Ellen drove fast, so she wasn't in any mood to talk, and Jo and Amelia felt awkward talking with Ellen there.
In spite of her ever present worry of starting fires, Amelia fell asleep sprawled across the back seat. Jo might be less likely to shoot her than the Winchesters. Ellen maybe not so much. Halfway there, they received a rather frantic text from Sam with the location of the vampire's nest, and Ellen drove even faster.
"Do you think the vampires will catch them?" Jo couldn't help but wonder.
"It's a big nest. Even the Winchesters might not stand a chance."
"I'll keep in touch with them," Jo held her phone tight. "So we know if anything happens to them."
Amelia checked the sharpness of her machete, and pulled out a rather large knife to belt on when they arrived. Couldn't hurt to have too many weapons.
A half hour later, Sam's text failed to include one of the established code words. Nightfall was still an hour off.
"If they're bold enough to attack hunters in the daylight," Jo swallowed.
"Do you even think they're still alive?" Amelia asked, quietly.
"We have four," Ellen gripped the steering wheel tight. "We might not stand much chance against a big nest, but we have to try."
Bobby agreed, and they took all of ten minutes to come up with a plan, before charging in, Dean-style.
Ellen and Bobby drove their cars right through the front door of the old warehouse, Jo and Amelia riding shotgun. Literally. Three vampires lounged in the entrance, springing up when the two cars broke through the door. The buckshot from the shotguns, well soaked in dead man's blood, quickly took them down. Bobby threw the car into a slide, smoke curling up from the rubber. Amelia leaped out, machete flashing in the air, and quickly beheaded them before they could recover. Ellen and Jo emerged from their car, machetes belted on, sawed-offs in hand.
"Stay together," Bobby barked. "They know we're here."
They had hoped to surprise more than just three of the vamps in the initial assault. But of course hunters never had luck. Jo spotted a blood trail, and they followed it at a jog, shotguns loaded. Amelia hummed Knockin' on Heaven's Door to herself.
A vampire sprang from the shadows, fangs down, snarling. Ellen jerked, and the blast from her shotgun caught the thing in the chest. Then chaos erupted. Amelia spun, raising her gun as footsteps galloped up behind her. She got off one shot, into the arm, before the vampire crashed into her. They tumbled to the ground, and Amelia stabbed her knife wildly, trying to get to the thing's throat.
Suddenly, a blade flashed and the vampire's head flew off into the air, drenching Amelia in its blood. Keeping her lips tightly closed, she wiped off the blood from around her mouth. Wouldn't do to become a vamp herself. Bobby, already blooded from the vampires, glanced down at her and nodded once.
Amelia rolled to her feet, grabbing her shotgun on the way up. Bobby turned to help Ellen, who had a vampire in her face. And Jo... Where was Jo?
"Jo!" Amelia yelled, and caught a glimpse of pink and black flannel disappearing into the shadows. "Jo!"
She sprinted after her friend, stuffing a couple more shells into the shotgun as she ran. A vampire had Jo around the neck, dragging her along behind it. Jo didn't struggle against it, and at the very least was unconscious. The vampire snarled when it heard Amelia, and tossed Jo through an open door, turning to face Amelia.
The vampire's eyes went wide when the buckshot caught it in the chest, and he fell to his knees. Amelia drew her machete as she ran towards it, and shifted into a swinging stance, preparing to chop off the vampire's head. As she started to swing, another vampire blindsided her from behind, and they fell through the doorway, almost on top of Jo's motionless body.
The vampire wrenched the machete out of her hand, hissing when it touched the dead man's blood, and effortlessly picked Amelia up from the ground. Amelia struggled, to no avail, and the vampire pressed her arm to it's mouth. Its cold teeth sunk deep into her arm as it sucked her blood.
"Drain the blonde," the second vampire told the first, and she tossed Amelia against a wall. "Get your strength back to kill the others."
The injured vampire crawled through the door, closing and locking it behind him. Without defense, Amelia crouched against the wall, eying the vampires closely.
"Nothing personal," the vampire told her. "You do have delicious blood, though. Exercise, but still enjoy the good things in life, yes?"
She smacked her lips. "I'm hungry for another taste."
It lunged in, trapping Amelia's hands in a grip almost tight enough to break her wrists, and leaned towards Amelia's neck, fangs slick with blood.
Amelia pushed back, straining against the vampire's iron grasp on her wrist. As the fangs touched her neck, Amelia managed to put one finger on the vampire's forehead. Then, she closed her eyes and tried to concentrate as the teeth slowly sunk into her neck, and the vampire on the floor savaged Jo's neck.
Flames within flames within flames, in the center of the thing's head. The focus itself was brutal, then blood burst from her nose, and thunder roared inside her mind. The vampire pulled back, confusion paralyzing it for a second.
The connection broke, and Amelia released the small knot of pure fire that she had crafted inside the vampire's head.
Amelia heard a dull pop, and the vampire's head simply exploded in every direction, coating her with blood, and brains, and she didn't even want to think about what was smeared across her face. She opened her eyes, hoping that vampire blood wouldn't run into her mouth and infect her. The vampire on the floor stood up, in pain from the dead man's blood, but snarling. He could still easily kill her.
"What did you do?" The vampire growled at her.
Amelia took a step from the wall on shaking legs, raising one hand in front of her. The other she used to wipe some of the blood and brain off her face, and press on her bleeding nose. The vampire stood its ground, over Jo's bleeding body. The only way Amelia could tell she was still alive was by the blood that pulsed from the girl's neck.
There wasn't time, she had to get pressure on that wound.
The vampire charged, and Amelia closed her hand, replicating the tiny firebomb in her closed fist. The vampire came teeth first, confident in its superior strength. Hardly able to focus her eyes, Amelia lunged forward, hand smashing the clump of flames against the vampire's throat. He reached forward to toss her away, and she blew half his neck off with the small charge. The vampire seized, stumbled away, and collapsed to the ground, shaking.
Amelia reeled, and fell to her knees. She had to kill the vampire, or it would heal. No way she could make another flame-within-flame to finish beheading it, though. There was already a good probability she was going to faint in the next few seconds.
Taking her hand from her gushing nose, Amelia started crawling very slowly to the vampire. Her hands shook, and her breath came in short, painful gasps. Hand in front of hand, one eye closed, the other only half open. Blackness rimmed her vision, but she tensed up her muscles, and pushed the faint away. Finally, she reached the vampire.
Amelia took out her knife. She could barely hold it for the spasms in her fingers. Gritting her teeth, she two-handed the knife as best she could, and started to hack at the vampire's neck. He stared at her, glassy eyed, blood running out of his mouth. His entire throat was missing, and she could see the bones of his neck, white hidden in the mess of red, bloody flesh. She threw up, and the blackness crawled closer. But she finished the job, and sawed through the remaining flesh.
When Amelia cut the last bit of skin, she let the knife fall to the floor. Her hands shook uncontrollably. After rolling the head away so it wouldn't regrow back onto the body, she raised her head and tried to look at Jo. A few feet from her, though, the world faded into blackness. She couldn't see any father.
"Jo," she rasped, "Jo."
Amelia swallowed, and crawled forward into the darkness, head down. Her entire body shook now. Thousands of bees swarmed in her head, thunder, and drums, and the taste of blood in her mouth. After an eternity, she touched fabric, and by sheer force of will opened her eye a crack.
Jo lay on the ground in front of her, blood staining her shirt. Her skin was deadly pale.
"Jo," Amelia croaked. "Come on, Jo, don't leave me."
She pressed her bloody, shaking hand to the alarming gash in Jo's neck. Amelia couldn't feel anything in her limbs anymore, so she wasn't even sure Jo had a pulse. Blood kept trickling through her cold fingers, though, so maybe that counted for something. She had to keep pressure on the wound or Jo would die, but not too much or blood supply would be cut off to Jo's brain. Jo's beautiful blonde hair was stained and clumped with her own blood.
A tear dripped from Amelia's face, leaving a thin trail against the dried blood covering her face.
"Come on," she growled, as much to herself as the silent Jo. The blackness had almost reached the center of Amelia's vision, she had barely a pin-prick of vision left.
She fumbled with her numb, dead fingers, and turned Jo's head to the side, the gash facing up. Then darkness overcame even her stubbornness, but even as she collapsed, Amelia moved her arms so her hands fell against Jo's neck, pillowing the rest of her now dead-weight body on her arms to keep pressure on the wound even when she blacked out.
Suspense! Sorry to leave you hanging, but I'll post again soon.