“WHAT DO YOU want?” I asked him.
“I…” He licked his lips and eyed me. “I know what you are.” Then he took a step back as i flashed my green eyes to him.
“I asked what you want.” I repeated.
“I want to help you. My kind has your friends. I know those boys are innocent but Rosetta will have them killed anyway. I know where they are stashed. I want to help you release them.” He said all this hurriedly, like it was rehearsed.
“Vampires don’t have any one bit of humanity or compassion in them.” Jake said, he came to stand by my side. “What do you really want?”
“Not all Vampires. Besides, I’m a young one, u was turned a few hundred years back.” He said defensively. Then he added, “When I ran back to meet my people that night to tell them what happened and what I saw, I was berated and bullied. They made my life a living hell. They told me I might have made a difference in saving Xavi. I knew I could do nothing, but as you said, Vampires have lost all shred of compassion.”
He sounded quite genuine to me now. “So what do you want to do?” I asked.
“I want to get back at them. I want to steal from them, their prize. That would make me feel much better.” He had a malicious glint in his eyes.
I turned to look inquisitively at Jake. He simply shrugged and said, “If it’ll mean to save Arthur and the rest, I mean, why not?”
I nodded and stepped out of our territory. Jake followed me and Bruae led the way.
“You know they have them here in North London.” Bruce said when we started walking. “But you can not scent them out or hear them. They’re protected by magic. A witch helped us.”
We said nothing except to exchange glances and kept on walking.
“Hey, keep trying that number.” Jake said to me.
I remembered and turned on the tab and kept on trying. “Still voicemail.”
“Maybe you should leave her a message. Girls love that.” Bruce said front the front.
“Girls? Girls.” I snorted in pretense disgust. “Who told you it is a girl.”
“I remember what it was to be your age… as a human. I would never try even once to call any of my male friends. But when it comes to females…”
“How old are you now?” jake asked.
“Maybe 287 years old.” Bruce replied off-handedly.
“No, I mean. What age were you turned?” Jake corrected himself.
Still voicemail, I groaned to myself.
“Oh, I was turned at 21. I have spent the last 266 years of my death as a Vampire.” He gave a dry laugh at that.
Maybe I should just leave a message, I thought to myself.
“Do you miss it?” Jake asked again. “Being human.”
“Maybe. A little. But I didn’t have much to live for. I was dying. Highly metasized cancer of the lungs. I was not responding to chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The doctors said I had a month to live. Look at me 2 centuries later.” He laughed again.
But what would I say? I asked myself. I tried again.
“The vampire blood healed you?” Jake was in awe.
Bruce nodded. “And since then, I’ve never felt any kind of illness again. Your werewolf blood can’t do that, can it?”
“Well, n-no.” Jake stammered. “But we can ease pain from a human in suffering by taking in most of the pain.”
“But you still leave some of the pain for them… and the thing causing the pain.” Bruce asked.
“Well, Y-yes. But –”
“Do you know your Feline friend can heal too? Like vampire blood.”
“What? Me?” I asked, engaging in the conversation for the first time.
“Yes. What? You didn’t know.” Bruce was in disbelief. “Yes, your blood can heal all manner of illness but without turning the person. Didn’t you read the WereCat’s manual?”
“There’s a WereCat manual?”
“Ofcourse not. I’m just fucking with you. Tell me, what cat are you?” He asked.
I could not answer, because I had never fully shifted. I kept quiet.
“You don’t know. Oh God, you’ve never shifted before. That night was your first and only time.”
“Not my only time. But yes my first.” I said.
“You should see what experienced werecats could do. They were equivalent to like 20 alpha wolves, if not more.” He said.
“You saw them?” I asked, getting excited.
“Nope, I’m not that old. But some of my friends did. They lived through the times of werecats.”
“Is it true that they – Oh my God! Its connecting.” I held out the tablet. “Someone is picking.” I yelled.
“Hello?” Came that familiar sultry voice from the speaker.
“Hi. Elsa. It’s me, J-jason.” I said.
“Oh! Hi, Jas.” Her voice was cheerful. “It’s been a while, I was thinking you’d never call.”
“You know I would.”
“it’s nice to hear your voice. Is Jake there?”
“Yes, I’m here.” Jake shouted.
Elsa laughed.
“We are here.” Bruce said, with flourish.
“Is someone else with you?” Elsa asked.
“Oh yeah. It’s our new vampire friend. He is helping us.”
“Is that right?” She asked herself. “You’re on an adventure again, right?”
I laughed.
“Your friends are just through that gate.” He guided us to the entrance.
“Is this place like a basement or something?” Jake asked, peering through the gate. “Smells weird.”
“You boys be safe, alright? I have to go now. I’ll call you later. Bye.” She hung up.
I smiled and felt relaxed.
“Hey, are you with the key or what?” Jake asked. He pulled at the chains. “Damn. This steel is tough.”
“The keys are not with me. I hoped we would be able to break then out.” Bruce said.
I came up to stand beside Jake. “Let me try.”
He stood aside to make room for me. I pulled at the chains and felt adrenaline rushing pumping into my blood and rushing through my veins. The chains broke and the door swung open.
“You are really strong.” Jake said. “Hello?” He called into the dark hallway. His voice echoes.
Bruce had an uncertain look on his face. I turned to him. “You okay?”
He nodded hastily, mumbling something I couldn’t catch.
Jake cupped his hands around his mouth and called again. “Hellooo?” There was a reply but it sounded like an echo of Jake’s voice.
“Did you hear that?” I asked Jake. He nodded.
“Bruce, lead the way.” I said. But Jake had already raced forward.
“Bruce?” I called.
I sidestepped the broken chains on the floor and looked out. Bruce had disappeared and instead I stepped into the middle of 6 hefty men with glaring red eyes.
THEY STOOD IN a semi circle. Three were by my left and three by my right. They smiled, showing long extended fangs.
“Bruce did a good work, don’t you think?” The vampire to my far left said.
The others nodded in agreement.
I stood in confusion for a moment, then I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
I had been going for martial art classes since I was 6, to make up for my lack of lycan gene. The vampire to my left, the one who had spoken stepped closer and raised his hand hand place on my shoulder to push my back. I timed the movement with my side eye and caught the hand twisted and bent over, lifting the vampire bodily over my head and slammed him to the ground. I gave a mighty kick to his head and the sound of this neck bone beakinh filled the air.
He was not dead, but that would keep him out for a few hours. The I turned and ran into the dark hallway. My eyes adjusted as I ran and I saw things clearer. I heard the Vampires behind me, chasing me in a hot pursuit, but I was faster. Maybe because if my size.
I heard a scuffle down the hallway and I sped up. The hallway stopped and turned left, I followed the turning and saw many things at once. There was the biggest vampire I had ever seen battling with Jake, he was supported by about 6 other Vampires in the flanks.
Jake had shifted and he was holding his own well but not for long. The vampire was so engrossed in taunting Jake that he didn’t see me and react fast enough. I leap frogged over Jake and barrelled into the Vampire, slashing at his chest. I had not known when my claws came out, but I saw his ribs flayed open and his heart slowly stop beating as he twitched and dessicated.
The other Vampires withdrew in fear. The battle was balanced. Then the ones chasing me fro outside came and unbalanced the scales. I looked around and saw Arthur and the boys in a locked cell. They were both frightened and excited. But they watched on.
Seeing as there were more Vampires than us, they ignored their fallen comrade and gained confidence. And the advanced upon us as one.