Chapter 61

My pupils were constricted as I speed down the freeway, going well over a hundred miles an hour. My breathing was ragged as the sirens howled and drivers slide off the road. For once I was glad to be in the USA, where people actually moved out of the way for the police. I laid on the horn only a few times, slamming one car from behind in my haste to get out of Waco.

Now I nearly cause the SUV to skid as I took the exit to Mart, noticing the sign for Mart now gone. The engine sign came up on the SUV, and I knew I was riding it too hard but I couldn't stop. I wouldn't stop. My friend was in danger and I was going to save him. This body was going to be put to use as not a predator, but a protector.

The SUV flies off the asphalt onto the grass and gravel, skidding and sliding. I slam it back down into third, sending the engine screaming as the tires grip, gaining traction. My eyes catch sight of the smoke and flames and my heart screams even moreso. My brain was on fire, everything flashing before me, every death I had dealt, every second I had lived my life as this hideous monster!

The SUV slams back onto asphalt, sending me into the roof, but I hit seat again and slam on the gas pedal again. I skid to a stop in front of the police station. Smoke billowed from the hood of my car as I stumble out, looking at the station. My breath was gone, looking at the structure being consumed by fire. Filling my lungs with air I scream out the name of my friend, 'JERRY!!!'

The only sound of crackling fire and wind was my response. My predatory eyes search around me and I murmur, 'There was more than one fire and I run as fast as my legs will carry me to the second of the three. It was the old Colonial house, already it was a collapsing in on itself and I knew someone was here, someone from the Silent Phantasma.

Turning, I run for the next, sliding to a stop in front of the house we had all stayed in. It was a furnace and the houses beside it were already catching, their long grassed yards already ablaze and I fill my lungs again, 'JERRY!!!'

No sound, nothing and I feel my legs buckle, my heart feeling itself wrench and pull away from my being. On my knees, feeling as if I'm splitting in two, my mind races through Jerry's last words to me and then it feels like I'm back as I say, head whipping up, 'He said he was at the library.'

Snapping to my feet in an instance, I rush to where I knew the library had to be. My legs light as I jump brush and hear the long grass of yards hiss as it hits my legs. I pass the police station and come up to the library, it was silent, the door wide open. As I step in, I step on something slick. Closing my eyes, feeling dead, I whisper out, 'Jerry?'

There was no sound as I open my eyes and look down. There was an arm and I gulp as I look ahead and see what remained of a body. But it wasn't Jerry and I let out a gasp of relief. It was Kalvin. His body hadn't yet turned to ash, meaning this was recent and I rush inside yelling out, 'Jerry!'

Nothing, I run down the isles and find him no where. Brushing my hands through my hair, trying to keep my sanity, I say out loud to myself, 'Ok, think Natasha, think. If he isn't here where could he be. This town is small, the library is small. Maybe he didn't find what he needed here, so where could he go?'

My brain was sifting through information. He could have used his phone to find the information. No the phones seemed unreliable from here, as he had been using landlines since our arrival. He might need a different library, but where?

Suddenly it clicks, 'A school. Schools have libraries.'

Looking around, I only see one ancient looking computer. Jerry would die before using that, but schools were well funded and their library would have computers.

Rushing to the back wall, I look at a framed map of the town, and smack my finger on the school name, cracking the frames glass snarling, 'There you are!'

Rushing from the room, noticing Kalvin's fingers and blood starting to gray I know my time was short. Jerry could be in real trouble now as I sprint for the school. My senses were on full alert, my power untapped, pheremones blasting my presence. I didn't care who knew I was here, I was going to kill anyone who tried to hurt my friend.

It took me precious minutes to find the school and I slow when I see the broken glass door and the large rock inside. This was Jerry's doing. He had rushed, and I felt the build up of dread once again. The halls moaned as the breeze whipped through it. Signs pointed the way to the library. My night vision coming in handy as I glanced into rooms and down corridors for possible threats. There were none, not a single being in a four block radius. Was I too late? I couldn't hear anything, no sounds of life except my own halting breaths, and skipping heart beat.

That's when I see the open door to the library room, the lights on, and I step inside. It was quiet, only the sound of the florescent lightbulbs buzzing as I call out, 'Jerry?'

That's when I hear it, a gargling sound, a slow almost non-existent heartbeat and I rush to it. There sitting by an upturned chair lay Jerry in a pool of blood. I scream out and rush to his side, holding him as I say softly, 'Its ok Jerry, I'm here.'

He stared up at me with scared eyes, blood seeping from his mouth, a jagged tear in the side of his throat. I place my hand on it, trying to stop his life from pumping from him as I whisper, seeing his lips moving, 'No, no, don't talk. Just stay calm, I'll call for someone.'

Tears were already burning my eyes, remembering my phone was in the SUV, somewhere... I sob and say, 'Jerry, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have left you.

His eyelids start to flutter and I say, holding him closer, 'No, no, Jerry don't go to sleep. Jerry!'

His eyes go half mass, the light slowly fading from them as I howl, 'Jerry! Jerry' No, no, NOOOO!!!!'

Howling sobs rip from my throat as I hug him to me, no longer hearing his heart. Knowing my dearest friend was dead. I gulp for air, even as my throat constricts in pain. The smell of blood all around me, slicking my shirt, my friends blood. My friend!!!

That's when I hear a southern bell voice next to me, 'Such a shame, he was such a good boyfriend.'

My eyes snap open, the sobs dead on my lips. I was stiff, staring straight ahead, mind frozen. Everything inside me went cold as ice as my eyes slowly turn and look up at the fiery red head. She was about four feet from me, blood on her hand as she sighs, saying, 'Though I hate to admit I never liked how attached he was to you. Yes Mss. Boss and all. Made me jealous.'

My brain couldn't process what was happening. She smiles, her fangs flashing as she holds up the faded card saying, 'Though I have to admit, he came close to figuring it out, the little imp.'

Now my insides turned even colder, frigid, jaw setting as I watch the card burst into flames as she continues, 'He was just too trusting.'

'Shut up,' I growl in a demonic voice I didn't know I possessed.

'Oh please, what can you possibly do to me? You're a bitten clanless who is barely even a C rank. I just killed an A ranked vampire if you hadn't seen him in the public library already.'

'You will die.' It came out of me from the deaths of hell. A slow moving breeze starting to circle me, ripped pages and papers floating slightly, my hair raising a bit.

She laughs saying coolly, 'Oh, will I.'

Suddenly she rushes me and just before her blood stained claws came an inch from my face, I say in a voice so calm it made the hairs on my body stand erect, 'Stop.'

Just like the ghouled in the tunnel all her forward momentum stopped. Only her eyes seemed to move as realization dawned and widened with surprise as I say, 'Disappear.'

Wind burst from around me, sending everything flying away from me and Jerry, Beck instantly flying back, slamming through a wall, and another.

Something had snapped inside me as I look down at my dear dead friend. All the tears were gone, all the laughing, just numbness. Putting him down and folding his arms I whisper, kissing his forehead, 'I'm sorry my friend.'

Slowly I stand, the circling breeze still flowing around me when I hear the door slam open. My eyes turn to it and I see both Ki and Nick. Their eyes were wide and I can smell their nervous pheremones. Nick asks in a choking voice, 'What's happen?'

Ki had out one of his blades, but I could care less as I suddenly hear her heart beat. She was reviving and myy head snaps back to the hole. I say in that cool unearthly voice, feeling this power like a deep void around me, 'Return!'

In an instant she was slamming into my open palm, as if I have caught a ball one handed. She lets out a winded oaf, ribs snapping, her limbs like a rag doll as they dropped down beside her. My hands grip her shirt to prevent her from ever touching foot on earth alive again. She coughs blood into my face, asking in a choking way I knew well, 'Wh-what are you?'

'Someone you should have never messed with.'

Wind swirls violently around us, chairs, desks, and papers lifting and whirling around me as I ask coolly, knowing she could see madness in my eyes, 'Do you know what true fear is?' Let me show you.'

Her eyes were wide, terror filling them as I let this power fill the area. Her slitted pupils showing absolute terror and suddenly her nose starts to bleed, her eyes starting to go bloody as she screams out.

Far from me I heard words, but my focus is on this vile creature in front of me. Blood leaks from her mouth until I feel a hand slam down on my shoulder.

My head snaps around to see Ki gasping, bloody sweat streaming down his face. He lets out a breath, frost coming from his mouth as he says breathlessly, 'Do you think Jerry would want this?'

The moment he had touched my shoulder the wind had stalled and I stare at him. I notice the frost on his black clothes, and cracked and chapped lips. What had I done?

Turning around, I look at the girl dangling from my hand, her eyes were blank but her heartbeat was strong. I wanted to kill her, to eviscerate her, but I stop myself.

'Let her go Nina, let us handle her,' Nick says, also gasping, standing behind Ki, frost tipping his hair.

Everything inside me said to erase her from existance, but finally I remember something Jerry told me long ago, his sarcastic voice invading the numbness inside me, 'Vengence brings disgrace.'

A small sob escapes my lips as I whisper, 'Why now Jerry?'

Looking at this vampire in my grasp, I slowly remove my hand, one finger at a time from her shirt and she drops like a lifeless doll to the ground.

Just as suddenly, the power that had escaped me pulls back inside me and I gasp in surprise at it's force. I stager and collapse myself, head falling just inches from Jerry's.

His lifeless eyes staring back at me and I croak out, tears leaking from my eyes, unable to move, 'I'm so sorry Jerry. I'm so so sorry.'