Thank you to Emily, Redrachxo, Skeletal Princess, Jessilee1027 and Guest for your wonderful reviews. :)
The second their rag-tag team vacated the van Jonno felt a bone deep chill. Apprehension coupled with regret and a winter's caress. It was Vlad's icy fingers closing around his neck. He drew his weapon and glances around their cell with lips set in grim inevitably. At least he'd been given a reason to fight.
Vlad had taken enough from him; Evans was right – whatever happened Jonno would take out Vlad.
Their leader, a seasoned veteran named Alisa with a scar almost as long as her finger trailing down her throat, barked orders. Jonno caught the ever so familiar and ever so wistful flecks hidden behind determined obsidian, almost as dark as the night. Had she already signed off on some of them?
After all, this night would end in bloodshed – no other way about it.
God, these were the moments that made him miss the low mortality rate that came with the treaty.
'But only when Vlad wasn't toying with the rules...' The Ingrid-esque voice faded with a laugh.
Alisa then ordered them into pairs, and by unfortunate coincidence reunited Jonno with the girl he'd slugged in the gym. As she joined him, crouched behind mortar, her eyes burned with fury. Ever the professional Jonno murmured "kill the undead bastards first – hate me later." She nodded her head reluctantly and Jonno hoped she wouldn't get them killed.
With Alisa and her partner they crouched by the front doors, hearts pounding, hands tight around weapons - waiting for the signal. Their plan was to lure the vampires (intelligence had told them the Draculas had guests) down to the lobby and the six teams, of two, in action would surround and attack; a well-aimed UV grenade would take the vamp's numbers down a fair amount.
The only sounds shattering the night were the slow breathing of Jonno's colleagues until…
There was a clattering inside the doors and then a faint buzzing of circuitry. Alisa met Jonno eyes and raised her two fingers, telling him and his partner to hold. They all froze.
After a few seconds the buzzing grew to a high pitch beep, irritating to the slayers' ears but they weren't the only thing being bothered by the noisemaker. Moments after the beeping had started they heard voices.
"What in Beelzebub's name is that?!" The voice was old and wizened, most likely a member of the council that the Dracula's were hosting.
Then there was another voice however Jonno ignored it as Alisa made eye contact again and made the gesture to charge.
Jonno opened the door twenty centimetres and hefted his throwing arm.
The vampires hadn't noticed. Then he took a breath.
"Slayers!"
As quick as he could Jonno hurled the UV grenade at a spot in the centre of the lobby.
One vampire exploded into ash.
They burst in through the doors, stakes at the ready – immediately engaging in combat.
Two out of three of the vampires who'd been in the lobby when the bomb exploded leapt out from behind a wall attacking Alisa and her partner with ruthless efficiency. Jonno sprinted towards them, intending to intervene when a fourth vampire snatched him from behind, hissing "I haven't tasted a slayer in too long," in his ear. Jonno noticed his Erin-lookalike partner charging up the stairs.
He couldn't give it much attention as he felt fangs scrape his jugular and was forced to twist to break the vamp's grip. Pivoting around the vampire's swipe he came face to face with a youthful looking leech armed with a devilish grin.
It was like looking at male version of Ingrid.
The vampire took a swipe at Jonno's ankles and he jumped yanking on the black pony tail his enemy sported. The vampire hissed, eyes glaring red as he snatched Jonno's wrist, twisting it and jerking it forwards, pulling Jonno into him as he turned into a bat. Disorientated by the sudden lack of person Jonno levelled his UV pistol awkwardly and fired off several shots in the bat's direction, missing every single one. He did however; startle the, now rather large, group of slayers and vampires fighting in the lobby with the flashes of purple deadly light.
They went right back to attacking each other.
This lapse in enemy gave Jonno a chance to look around and he realised his Erin-esque partner had vanished.
When he last saw her she'd been heading up the stairs. Should he follow her?
He shifted, checking for an opening to sprint up the stairs and swiping with his stake at a vampire's spine.
That was when the door at the top of the lobby burst open.
Jonno watched as Vlad toppled out of the doors onto the balcony propelled by a Slayer's Guild, standard issue combat boot. His partner stepped through the doors seconds afterwards wearing a smug smirk.
"Not him!" Apparently Jonno was not the only one to have stopped as he heard Alisa's voice cutting through the violence.
The Erin-like slayer smiled, ducking a sweep from Vlad with ease. "It's fine!" She called down. "I can take him!"
That wasn't what Alisa meant! They were meant to leave Vlad alive so that he could weigh down the council, drain their powers with the precious metal in his bones and hover between indecision, slowing the vampires down considerably.
Jonno glanced up at the balcony after dusting his present opponent. He could only hope that Vlad survived her attacks long enough to screw something important up within the vampire community.
Another vampire charged at him and Jonno ducked a punch that produced a large hole in the wall behind him. He glanced at the shattered mortar, then at the vampire's fist that was now bloodied from its onslaught.
It smiled, bearing crooked teeth. "Next time it's gonna be your head boy,"
Jonno's eyes widened and he ducked again, this time slicing at the vampire's ankles with his stake. It dropped as if the rug had been pulled from beneath its feet and Jonno swiftly ended its life.
Vlad and the almost-Erin were now downstairs, Vlad continually being forced back towards the centre of the lobby. The scuffle of the fights around them ceased as both vampire and slayer watched the showdown in the middle.
God… She's really going to kill him.
His partner struck as Vlad dropped to one knee, barely supporting a flimsy block. Shadows formed on the vampire's forehead along with lines of concentration as a small flame lit in the palm of his hand.
No! Vlad shouldn't be able to do that. It was pitiful in comparison to what he'd bee previously capable of but no, he shouldn't be able to do that. Jonno looked to Alisa who also was at a loss for words.
Jonno's Erin however had a terrible reaction. Eyes widening she shoved against Vlad's block stumbling backwards, giving the vampire more than enough time to win the fight.
In slow motion, the Van Helsing watched as Vlad landed on his blocking arm as he hurled the golden fireball upwards and his leg shot out, knocking the female slayer to the floor. She yelped and Jonno began to charge forward.
A glossy black chandelier swung enchantingly above their heads.
Neither slayer could do anything as the amber flames hit the antique's link to the ceiling and it dropped, hurtling through the air to where the young slayer was immobile on the floor.
"Aaaah!"
It was so loud and so agonised that all the vampires raised their hands to their ears. Vlad's face was splattered with the slayer's life force.
His partner was contorted awkwardly on the floor, blood pooling out from where the chandelier had impaled her. She was most definitely not breathing.
Jonno's eyes moved to meet Vlad's as the vampire stood. For several seconds they were unnervingly quiet, perhaps because even the vampire looked bothered by the death that had just occurred.
Then his face contorted into a snarl.
"Get. Out." The scarlet in his eyes matched the blood on his skin, stark in comparison to his ashy complexion.
Alisa gave the signal, and the slayers retreated.
As they moved towards the doors Jonno looked back at Vlad. The vampire's tongue flicked out and cleaned several specks of the dead slayer's blood off his lips.
Once they got outside – Jonno threw up.
Not too sure about this chapter, I'm not too good with fight scenes.
Please leave a review! Especially if you can give me some advice about combat sequences!