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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE 
MARCUS
The moment the door opens, I know something’s wrong. I can smell the blood. Kaden staggers in, blood dripping from his fingers as he stumbles before falling to his knees.
“What the fuck happened?” I ask as I rush to him.
“He found me,” he whispers.
“Ender?” I ask in disbelief. It feels like the man has haunted me for years, but this is the first time since the village, the first time in years, that he’s come after me directly.
Kaden lowers himself onto his side as I kneel down next to him and start tugging at his shredded clothes, looking for where he’s been wounded. His chest is torn open, blood freely bubbling from it. When he breathes, his torso looks strange.
Grabbing a cloth, I press it against the wound. I need to get him to a doctor but where the hell would I even go? We are quite far from anyone.
That is if I even make it there. Is Ender watching us? Is he coming for me next? Is this a warning?
I keep my hand pressed hard against him as he stares up at me.
“I fucked up. I shouldn’t have gone out,” he says, voice hoarse.
“You’re going to be fine,” I say, but even he can hear the lie. He knows he’s not going to be fine. He knows this is the end of his human life.
But I can save him… I can keep him alive if I change him. I’ve never changed a human before, never wanted that commitment, never thought I’d care about a human enough to do so, but as his eyes start to gloss over and his body begins to relax as if he’s embracing the idea of death, I know it’s now or never.
Pulling him up, I bite into his neck, making a commitment that will follow me for much of my life.

FINN
“Okay, class,” Claude announces from the front of a soundproof room. With vampires and their ability to hear things, it became essential that a room was created where information couldn’t be leaked to everyone in the office including non-detectives. And while it isn’t foolproof, it’s enough that Marcus felt comfortable with us having a meeting here.
Claude’s found a stick he’s using as a pointer as he slaps the electronic board like he actually thinks he’s a teacher.
“Dear god,” Marcus grumbles because he doesn’t know how to be nice. It’s too hard for him and would probably cause him physical and mental harm if he tried.
Claude aims his pointer at Marcus as the rest of our team, including Brooks, watches. “Excuse me? I have slept a total of fifteen seconds—which is why my clothes look bad—and have information for you, but if you don’t want it, you may trot on out.” While I feel slightly guilty that I slept more than fifteen seconds and probably should have been helping him instead of spending the evening being distracted, his clothes make up for it. His “my clothes look bad” is made up of an eye-melting neon yellow suit jacket with neon green slacks. While it’s not as… extravagant as some of his outfits, it still hurts my eyes just as much.
“Nah, I’m listening,” Marcus grumbles. “Please, enlighten us, Professor Highlighter.”
Claude’s eyes narrow as he shifts them down to his clothes. “Aw, you’ve taken note of my attire. Thank you. Anyway.”
He wakes his computer up and clicks to the first screen which has a bunch of shit on it that I do not understand in the slightest.
“After Finn’s blood assisted me, I began to speculate that there was something different about it. Finn, as well as Orin and others who’d cared for him after the attack, believed that the blood transfusion that he’d been given using Aria’s blood was the key, but I still speculate that Watson had given Finn some of his blood while he was with him. This notebook we found last night confirms that Watson was using a variation of what Miller had created, which resulted in the true vampires,” Claude says.
I feel uneasy about all of this but try my best to follow along. “Does it explain at all how he modified it? We know that when Miller gave it to pregnant women, their children were what we call the true vampires. So if I were to have a child, would my child be a vampire?” I ask.
“I’m wondering if what you were given had been modified since he was trying to target your body’s natural ability to heal instead of… whatever Miller was working on,” he says.
“Then what use is it? I can see and hear better than a human, but still nowhere near as well as a vampire, and I sure can’t heal in seconds.”
“But you must heal faster,” Alexei says, telling me he read the journal as well.
“Honestly, I don’t remember our mother ever claiming to see or hear any differently than anyone else,” Claude says. “So I’m thinking this version was more… modified to target specifically what he was looking for.”
Marcus seems to be concentrating as he nods slowly. “I agree. But we know that Miller technically made two things. He turned Watson who was born a human into a vampire, but he also made true vampires. So which of the things did he modify? We know they’re different because in one case he ended up turning Watson and in the other he created a being that could be born and age. We might never truly know. What we do know is that something in what Watson gave you kept your body from rejecting the caps that earlier humans and animals continually rejected.”
I glance at DeGray and Briar, who are both listening, and wonder if they read the notebook as well. If they know what I caused… no… Alexei and Marcus are right. It’s not my fault. I was a kid, and it’s not like I could have even stopped Watson from killing and torturing others.
Alexei sits up. “What if it’s not that Finn’s blood is different alone, but when mixed with a vampire’s blood, something about Finn and his blood are able to use the properties of vampire blood?”
“So that’s why Watson mixed his own blood with it?” Marcus asks.
“I don’t know if Watson knew this or was just using his own blood with the belief that it’d be helping Finn in some way,” Claude says.
“So that’s why you believe my blood helped you. Whether it was because you are a vampire yourself or because you had Marcus’s and Alexei’s blood mixed with it, we don’t know,” I say.
Claude leans back. “Here’s the thing… I have no proof about any of this, and a lot of what I can do is only theorize and guess, you know?”
“But if we look at this from the perspective of what Ender is saying, then we have to believe that someone out there knows this,” Marcus says.
“Knows about Finn?” Claude asks.
“It seems Ender does,” I say. “Well… in a way. He said he could tell Watson did something to me. But I don’t know if he actually knows anything beyond that. And then we have the council who was able to get into Claude’s information somehow.”
“Right… Ender made it sound like others were looking for Watson’s research,” Marcus says.
“We can’t let anyone find it,” I say. “Who the fuck knows what someone could do with this if they used or manipulated Miller’s research. Hell, they could make a whole army of vampires like Miller did.”
“We don’t know that it even exists anymore, do we?” DeGray asks. “I mean it was what, nearly sixteen years ago that he did this to you and clearly didn’t continue to practice it.”
“Yeah… that’s true. And, to my understanding, he never did this to anyone else after. Let me ask Charlie. She might know,” I say as I pull my phone out to ask her.
Claude rolls his chair back a little, like he’s preparing to get up. “Marcus and I will head back to Watson’s. The safe was a bust, but that doesn’t mean there’s not something else in that house that could lead us to useful information. He could have multiple houses or locations that we’d never know about.”
Alexei turns to Claude. “I’ll see if I can find something we missed. I know his belongings were examined thoroughly after it came to light what was happening, but I didn’t personally see to it. There’s a possibility I’d see something that’d been missed.”
“And I will grudgingly go to this godawful meeting with the council,” I grumble. “Why must they torture me?”
“I will go with you,” Marcus decides.
“Nope. I will take the report, show them that I clearly haven’t morphed into a bat and leave. I feel like if you join us, the council might be a bit… on edge, if you get my drift.”
Marcus grunts like he has absolutely no idea what my drift is. Like he’s positive that just last night he didn’t shake Harris all around and threaten his life.
“I can take him,” DeGray says.
“Sounds like a decent plan. Thank you,” I say as I give him a smile.
Marcus seems to think this is a godawful plan as he scowls but DeGray is used to it, so he ignores him. “What time’s your meeting, Finn?”
“In an hour, so I’ll do what I can here until then.”
Marcus is displeased this has been decided. “If they even twitch at you wrong, I’ll murder them. You tell them that,” Marcus says, and then since it must not look like I’m going to waltz in with the threat bursting from my body, he scribbles something on a Post-it note, folds it up, and hands it to me. “This is private. Please pass it to them.”
I immediately open it and read out loud, “‘If you dare to even glance at Finn wrong, I will hunt you down and make you beg for forgiveness—Marcus.’ Aw, what a sweet note,” I say as I shred it while Alexei snickers. Of course he finds this joyful, he’s cut from the same cloth.
Marcus seems quite disgusted that I would dare destroy his evil plans.
      
“Did you go to River’s for Christmas?” I ask DeGray as I turn the car toward the city center where the council is based.
DeGray smiles fondly at the thought. “I did. I really enjoyed it. It’s so nice spending it with his family. I had my niece but as she got older, our Christmases revolved around staying at whatever facility she was in at the time. River’s family is just so… joyous and bubbly. They’re the sweetest and they have all these fun family traditions that I just love.”
“I’m glad you two found each other,” I say as I pull into the parking lot.
“Thanks. Me too,” DeGray says as we get out and head inside. The woman at the front desk smiles when she sees us but it’s clear it’s a smile that she plasters on for people she’s not all that excited to do stuff with.
“Good morning, Detective Hayes. I’ve been told that only you have been asked to join the meeting,” she says, and from the look on her face, she’s quite worried about declaring this. I’m sure news of Marcus travels far and wide.
“Why?” I ask.
“Only you,” she repeats.
I glance over at DeGray who gives me an uncertain look. I mean… I guess it’s not like they’re going to torture me in the council room. “I’ll be right back. If you hear screaming or they keep me for longer than fifteen minutes, break me out.”
“Got it,” DeGray says.
“Please don’t scream,” the woman requests.
“It wouldn’t be on purpose, obviously,” I assure her. “It’s a natural reaction from my body being forced to be around people I don’t want to be around, you know?”
“Then I’d be screaming right now,” she says.
I grin as she shows a hint of a real smile. “I know the way. Am I good to go back?”
“You are.”
I head down the hallway while hoping that they will take my report and let me fuck off. Maybe I won’t even have to sit down. As I grow nearer, I realize that I don’t hear any voices coming from the room and decide that if I have to wait on them, I’m going to be unreasonably angry. Generally, I try to be accommodating and work with people, but being on edge hasn’t helped my mood lately.
When I pull the door open, I see that there’s absolutely no one inside the room yet. It’s probably some power move just to piss me off. Deciding that I’ll toss the report on the table and scurry—
My eyes drop to the floor where I see a smudged streak of blood. Pulling my gun, I check the room, but I’m very clearly alone unless someone is hiding on the other side of the table. Slowly, I step in a little farther, making my way deeper into the room before I see a foot sticking out from behind the table.
Moving around the room, my eyes latch on to the body lying on the floor, head several feet from where it should be.
The door opens and I turn quickly, lifting my gun as the noise surprises me before coming face to face with Kaden.
“Detective? What…” Kaden stills. “What is that smell?”
He rushes around the table as Harris, who he’d been talking with, hurries after him, coming across Eugene’s body that has blood pooled out around it.
“What the fuck?” Harris shouts, panic rising in his voice. “Did you do this?”
“Does it look like I could cut a head off a vampire?” I ask, unsure how to even comprehend him blaming me for this one. I’ve been blamed for a lot of weird shit in my life but hacking a head off a vampire is a new one.
“Fuck,” Harris says, clearly shaken up as he moves closer to Eugene before taking a step back and quickly looking away.
“Come on, get out of here,” I urge, sure he doesn’t need to look at the body of a man who was likely a friend. “Let’s lock down the building. The killer could still be inside. When’s the last time you saw Eugene?”
“I…” Harris shakes his head. “About an hour ago. What the fuck…”
“I’m sorry,” I say as I usher him out into the hallway.
Kaden follows me. “Um… sorry. Okay, there are three exits. Hayes, can you get to the first one and alert the secretary?”
“Yeah, of course,” I say as I rush down the hallway and back the way I came from. “There’s been an attack. Has anyone left through the front door recently?”
The woman looks at me in shock as DeGray jumps up.
“W-What? Um… a few people. They all signed out, though,” she says as she sits up, looking uncertain as I hear DeGray calling someone.
I turn to DeGray. “I found Eugene White dead,” I explain.
“Fuck,” he says, looking at me in shock before relaying the information. I’m not quite sure who he’s talking to, but I know they’ll have people over here in record time to help.
DeGray agrees to watch the area near the door, in case they need to stop someone trying to escape. I keep my gun out and ready as I move deeper into the building. By now, people are flooding out, trying to see what’s happening or panicking about what might happen. Keeping the chaos down could save lives, so I find Harris and ask him to help keep them under control.
Then I find Kaden who is doing his best to sort through people rushing around.
“Do you have cameras in this place?” I ask as someone bumps into me in their panic. It’s clear the council isn’t used to stuff happening here.
“No cameras.”
Of course not. Vampire establishments suffer far too often from a lack of security. They seem to think that they are untouchable, until they’re not. “Okay. Were there people here today that you didn’t know?”
He shakes his head. “None that I saw.”
“Okay, I’m so sorry this happened. We’ll figure it out, okay?” I say.
Kaden nods. “Yeah, I just… like how could this happen under my nose?” he asks.
“K-Kaden?” a woman calls. “I saw someone exit the room about… forty minutes before the human arrived. I… didn’t think anything of it because I knew you had an appointment with the detective, and I assumed it was someone from his department.”
“Did you get a look at him?” I ask.
“It was extremely brief, but he was a tall man wearing a gray jacket and dark pants.”
“Did he have long hair?” I ask, wondering if it was Ender. Maybe he’d been planning to kill us all but hadn’t known that our time to meet had been pushed back an hour.
“I think so but… it was hard to tell with a hat on. Definitely a vampire.”
“Thank you,” I say.
Fuck… he’s just picking us off, and for what? What does he want? What does he hope to gain? Does he want what Watson had used on me? But what does killing Eugene solve?
There’s noise and I realize the VRC is here to help, so I make my way back toward the meeting room where Marcus and Alexei have just stopped outside of. “This room?” Marcus asks.
“Yeah, he was dead when I walked in. From the look of the blood and Harris’s account, it sounds like he was killed in the last hour,” I say.
“Fuck… you think someone was trying to get the whole council?” Marcus asks. “Someone had to have known about your appointment if they were. Where’s Addison?”
“I… have no idea.” I turn to Kaden. “Have you seen her?”
“She was in her office, said she’d be late to the meeting,” Kaden says. “This way.”
He rushes down the hallway and I leave Marcus to follow him as I go into the room with Alexei.
“Let me guess, they tried assuming you did this?” Alexei says.
“How’d you know?” I ask dryly.
“This is a clean cut.” Alexei kneels down. “We also have a shoe smudge by the door. Is it enough to show any treads?”
“Not really, but we might be able to make something out of it,” I say as I examine the blood mark. “How did the blood get over here, though? Did they walk in it? Couldn’t have or there’d be tracks closer to the body.”
“Maybe it dripped off something. Assailant could have used a knife or something. Almost had to have with this clean of a cut.”
“That’s… kind of unusual for Ender, isn’t it? He doesn’t seem to need a knife, and it doesn’t seem to be his MO… I mean, that’s not to say he wouldn’t.”
“Right, but someone younger like Landall would have needed to use a knife,” Alexei says. “It could have been done to throw us off or it could be that Landall is assisting Ender.”
“Why would he assist him?” I ask, genuinely curious.
“I have absolutely no idea how the brains of anyone but myself works,” Alexei says. “Oh, and Claude’s. Claude is like a cat, you toss a ball of something shiny, and he immediately trots after it.”
“Very true.”
I hear Marcus a moment before he enters the room with Addison in tow.
“Fucking hell…” she grumbles. “You’re telling me not a damn one of us heard any of this? Saw something? The council is just falling apart.” She doesn’t seem overly distressed about the dead man but more so about the fact that someone walked in here under her nose and did it.
She tsks, turns around, and leaves the room just like that. I catch Marcus’s eyes, but he only shakes his head.
“What a mess,” he mutters.
OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO 
MARCUS
“I’m starting to think that we should relocate to Orin’s,” I say as I park the car in the driveway.
Finn releases his seat belt before turning to look at me. “Don’t you think if Ender wanted either of us dead, he’d have tried at the bridge?”
“I don’t fucking know what Ender wants, Finn. What I do know is that he loves to manipulate people… break them down and toy with them. In all the years I tracked him, there was no rhyme or reason to what he did.”
Finn sighs before getting out of the car, leaving me to trail after him. “I’m so frustrated,” he says.
“I’m sorry.”
He shakes his head. “Dear god, don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault.” He heads inside and immediately slumps down on the couch while I turn the dogs out into the backyard. They’re quick to return, allowing me to head over to the couch where Finn is lying down. I pick him up before lying down with him in my arms. He lays his head on my chest and closes his eyes as I wrap my arms around him, squeezing him tight to me as the dogs prance around, thrilled we’re home.
It’s as if all his anxiety is washed away as he melts against me with a deep breath. Leaning up a little, I kiss the top of his head and close my eyes. I’m not sure how long we lie there or at what point Artemus and Hela pile on, but just holding Finn makes all of the stress of the day go away.
“Are you hungry?” I ask.
“Not if it means either of us moving. Do you think Claude would come over and feed me as I lie here?” Finn asks.
“I’m most positive he would, and I’m also positive that it’s an awful and extremely awkward idea,” I reply, not wanting to fathom what it’d feel like to lie here as Finn’s pillow while Claude feeds him.
“Live a little, Marcus.”
“I’ve lived a lot and that is one thing I don’t want to live through,” I decide.
Finn chuckles and squeezes me tighter. “Just a little longer and I’ll get up and we can eat.” He burrows against me even harder as I run my fingers under his shirt to rub his back. He murmurs something and within a few minutes I realize his “little longer” has turned into a nap.
Honestly, I don’t mind. At times in my existence, I hated how long of a life it was back when I felt like I had nothing. But now I have everything, and I could remain here with Finn for as long as he wanted and love every moment of it… even the way Artemus’s paw is digging into me.
Closing my eyes, I begin to drift off to sleep until I hear someone nearing the house. A moment later there’s a knock and Artemus and Hela take off to see who it is. Hela is positive it’s a friend and Artemus is positive it’s a foe, telling me that it’s someone he doesn’t know.
“Fucking hell, tell them to leave,” Finn murmurs, and the way he clings onto me has me so close to ignoring it, but I reluctantly slip out from under him. “You better fuck them up.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I say as I reach the door and pull it open and realize it’s Harris along with some other vampires, a mixture of men and women from the council and teams on the VRC that work a different shift than me.
“Good evening, Detective Church. We need to pull you in for questioning pertaining to the death of Eugene White,” an officer, a woman I know as Officer Ridley, says.
It takes me far too long to comprehend what she’s saying. “Wait… you want to question me, as in you think I was somehow involved in Eugene’s death?” I ask, positive I’m comprehending this wrong.
“We’ve been made aware of the threats you made on Eugene’s life,” she says.
“Threats? You have to be fucking kidding me. Eugene and Harris were harassing and stalking Detective Hayes. Did they tell you that?” I ask incredulously. There is absolutely no way this is happening.
She glances over at Harris before quickly hiding her surprise. “Let’s go down to the department and discuss this.”
“You can’t be serious,” Finn says as he rushes up. “They were practically on our property. They were following me because they made up some weird… idea that I was being turned into a vampire after they stole my blood without my permission and analyzed my personal data without permission,” Finn says, a sharpness to his voice I rarely hear. “Assuming they were just worried, I let it slide, but if Harris is going to do this, I would like to press charges. I am a human, and they have no legal rights to my personal information or my disabilities.”
Officer Ridley seems quite reluctant to be involved in any of this. “I hear your concerns, but currently, we have record of Detective Church’s threats and need to take him in for questioning.”
I shake my head as my aura begins to seep out. I’m pissed, beyond pissed. I want to fucking put all these people in their goddamn place, and begin to feel pleased as the younger ones start to submit to me, until Finn pushes me back.
“Marcus, don’t you dare,” he says.
I hesitate and drop the control while feeling a little guilty after hearing Finn’s tone. I hate upsetting him.
“This whole thing is ridiculous. Harris knows it’s ridiculous and instead of appreciating our help with the case, he decided to do this as some petty way to get back at you. I know it’s stupid but do not harass the rest for doing their job,” Finn says, sounding exasperated about the whole thing.
“Fine. I will go and answer your ridiculous questions, and then I’m done with this,” I say.
“H-He should be arrested for assaulting us!” Harris yells.
I’m not quite sure at what point I assaulted him, but Harris is pissed and I’m well aware he’s going to make my life miserable for the next few hours.
Officer Ridley waves me toward her vehicle like she thinks I’m going to willingly get into it to let them drive me off.
“I’ll drive myself.”
“I will drive,” she says as anger burns deep inside me. Irritated beyond reasoning, I head out to the car as they tell Finn he can’t come. Of course Finn is not pleased by this; honestly, the only one minorly pleased is Harris, who thinks he’s going to get me good with all of this. What he doesn’t realize is that I have far more pull in the VRC than he could even imagine. It’s not hard when I’m the oldest vampire there besides Claude, and Claude has no interest in taking over shit unless forced to for someone he cares about… or maybe for a limited-edition pair of shoes absolutely no one else would ever want.
“He should be detained,” Harris says as he hurries after us to the car.
Ridley looks over at him in disbelief. “We’re bringing him in for questioning, not an arrest. We cannot make an arrest without proof,” she says, but Harris is in a huff and it takes everything in my being not to chuck him into the neighbor’s yard—at least give them something to drag me into the department over.
“Finn, please go stay with Claude and Alexei,” I say.
“Yeah,” he says as he stands in the driveway looking utterly exhausted. I don’t blame him; this whole thing has been a shitshow and this is just the icing.
Getting into the back seat, I’m happy when I see Harris doesn’t join us in this vehicle. I’m not positive that I wouldn’t have killed him on the drive over if he had.
Ridley starts to drive as I let out a sigh of rage which makes her partner in the passenger seat jump. “You know this is absolutely ridiculous,” I say.
“I do. I haven’t met a person you haven’t threatened,” Ridley says. “But you threatened the wrong man this time. You know the council has far too much control that they want to toss around.”
“I absolutely love wasting time that could be spent trying to find the real killer,” I say.
Ridley sighs because she understands where I’m coming from but continues her drive.

FINN
I walk over to Claude and Alexei’s house and knock, honestly surprised they haven’t come out to see what’s going on. In the window, I see Alexei’s cat watching me closely. She smacks the window while rearing back a little, like she’s trying to play with me through it. When I knock again and they don’t answer, I decide to call them.
“Hello, my sweets,” Claude answers.
“You home?”
“I am not. Something wrong?”
“Oh, Harris forced Marcus to go in for questioning because he ‘speculates’ Marcus killed Eugene since Marcus threatened him the other evening for harassing me,” I say. “They have absolutely nothing to hold against him. It’s going to be a waste of everyone’s time, so I’m not actually worried about it. I was going to bug you guys if you were home, but I’ll go to Orin’s. I’m sure he’ll be ecstatic to see me.”
“This is utter bullshit,” Alexei says in the background, apparently listening in. “They’re seriously going to try to pin something on Marcus? On Marcus, of all people?”
“Sure are,” I say.
“Should we go to the department?” Alexei asks.
I debate it but tossing Marcus’s team into the mix probably won’t help much. “They told me not to go, so I’m going to call Brooks and see what he thinks. I’m sure he already knows what’s going on and is going to fight for Marcus to get out of this,” I say.
“I’m sure,” Claude agrees. “Let us know if you hear anything else.”
“I will, thank you.”
I head back to the house in the dark and debate taking the dogs, but if I have to run to the department or something else, I wouldn’t want to leave them in the cold car. So I give them each a kiss and promise that I’m not running off for eternity before grabbing the car keys.
Honestly, I’m still debating going to the department… I mean, they can’t stop me from showing up at my own workplace, right?
“Daddy’s gonna break Papa out, alright?” I ask.
They seem pleased by this as I head out to the car. If the council throws a fit, I’ll go to Orin’s after making up a story about forgetting a vital piece of something at the department. As I pull out of the driveway, I call Brooks over the car’s speaker.
“Hey, Finn,” he says, sounding absolutely exasperated.
“I have a feeling you know just what I’m calling about,” I say as I turn out onto the road. It’s pretty dark in this area, since there’s a new residential development going in that hasn’t been finished enough for much lighting.
“I sure do,” Brooks says. “Just… let the council do their thing. They have nothing on Marcus. They’re going to ask him some stupid questions, decide it’s a waste of time, and send him on his way.”
“The woman who saw the suspect leave the council’s meeting room described a man that looked absolutely nothing like Marcus. She even talked to Marcus. I’m pretty sure if it was him, she’d have gone ‘Yes, he looks just like you.’”
“Right. Just… it’ll be fine. Where are you?”
“Maybe… heading to the department.” I make sure to say it quiet and fast enough that he might not comprehend what I’m saying.
“No. Go stay with Orin; I’ll call you if anything changes.”
I sigh, less than pleased by this idea and still tempted to go to the department anyway. “Keep me updated on what’s going on, please.”
“I will, I will. Just sit tight.”
“Grudgingly,” I say before ending the call.
As I look up from pressing the button, I see something quickly move across the road. Startled, I hit the brakes, afraid it was a dog that I’d narrowly missed, a moment before something slams into the side of my car.
The car is rammed to the right with enough force that it dips off the road as I try to quickly straighten it, but it’s too late when the front end catches on something and I’m thrown forward as the airbag goes off. It hits me hard enough that it stuns me for a moment before I realize what just happened.
It was probably a deer. It was just a deer…
I know it wasn’t a fucking deer.
Anxiety eats at me as I pull my gun out and undo my seat belt. My phone is no longer on the seat as I drag myself into the passenger seat to see if it fell down near the door. In my panic, I’d forgotten that I can use the car to make a call out, but when I try to wake up the media center, it won’t respond. That’s when I see the phone wedged between the seat and the door.
Just as I’m reaching for it, the passenger door screams as it’s ripped right off the car. Panic courses through me as I jerk my gun up and shoot the vampire twice before they disappear. I only have regular bullets, and while they’re modified to work better against vampires, they’re nothing like the illegal ones no one will allow me to carry.
The phone’s fallen out of the car and onto the ground, but there’s really no safety for me inside this car with the door missing. Diving out of the car, I grab for the phone but the vampire rushes for me. In the dark, I can’t make out who it is, but my fear is skyrocketing… I need to keep myself focused.
I stumble back and the vampire grabs the phone, crushing it in his hand and throwing it. Aiming my gun, I shoot at him, but he easily slides out of the bullet’s path. The vampire is old, clearly quite strong, and I know that unless I do something, he’s going to kill me.
Backing away, I hold my gun steady, wishing this had happened in the residential area, but out here with all these new half-built houses, no one’s going to hear any of the shots or even notice anything.
He steps toward me and I take a shot, judging where he’s going to be, and then another. The first one misses but the second hits him right in the throat, forcing him to draw back. Turning, I race toward a house that’s merely foundation and frame, but I need to put something between us. Out in the open, I’m completely defenseless against vampires.
And that’s the moment I realize that the vampire isn’t alone.
“Finn, hurry! Come here,” Landall says as he waves to me.
I hesitate as I realize that I have absolutely no idea who to trust, but I don’t think I have much of a choice because I’m not going to make it alone. As I move toward Landall, the other vampire slows, giving me some distance. “Please don’t be lying to me. Please actually be helping me,” I beg as I near him.
He reaches a hand out to me and when I give him mine, he closes his fingers around it and pulls me in close.
“Landall,” I say. “Please…”
“I’m sorry,” he says as he grabs a handful of my hair and yanks my head back before biting into my throat.
Pain rushes through me but his mistake was pulling me in close because I manage to shoot him in the stomach twice before he tears back, ripping my neck as he jerks away. “Dammit, what the fuck did you shoot me with?” he says as he stumbles back.
It’s not enough, and while I have some ammo on me, I know it’s not enough, but I see a spot where a construction truck is backed up right against a nearly completed house. There’s a slim spot, narrow enough for me to fit through, so I rush toward it and squeeze inside. It won’t take the vampires long to get in. They can break a window or move the truck, but it might give me a few moments.
Inside the house, someone had left a light on, allowing me to see as I rush for the tools and find a crowbar. I pick it up and tuck it under one arm as I reload my gun. Twelve rounds left… that’s all I have.
What the fuck do I do now? What the fuck?
I need to calm down. I’m letting my fear of the situation get to me.
Blood is wet on my neck as I assess the exits. They’re likely splitting up, figuring out how to corner me, but I know Landall is the weaker of the two.
If I run, they’ll give chase, and I’m quite obviously not going to outrun either of them. That’s when I see a radio and hurry over to it. It’ll hinder my hearing, but the likelihood of me hearing them anyway is next to none. I need to fuck with them. I need to stop them from having such a clear upper hand.
Hitting it on, I crank the volume all the way up so the music is blaring before I back away. That’s the moment I hear a window break.
I have a fifty-fifty chance of it being Landall, and while I hate those odds, there’s nothing else I can do. My chest is pounding out of control as I move in closer to the broken window, hoping the noise from the radio is drowning out my sounds as I wait for them to come in. The only thing I can’t hide is the smell of my blood. Drawing close to the window, I hear another shatter at the far end of the house, surely trying to drive me where they want me.
A hand grips down on the edge of the window before they pull themselves in, moving as I twist my body, using my prosthetic arm to help because I know the strength of that is greater than my real arm. Before they even land on the ground, I drive the edge of the crowbar right into the vampire’s chest, letting the metal sink through flesh and tissue. They fall back with a cry, and I realize that something’s not right because the noise was made by a woman.
Are there three vampires?
She twists and jerks back, ripping the crowbar out of my hands. I don’t dare dive back in for it; instead, I grab onto the edge of the broken window with my prosthetic hand and drag myself through. The glass catches on my clothes but letting my prostheses take the brunt keeps me from getting cut up too badly.
I don’t expect that I can get my car out of the ditch and go, but beyond the development is a pond that leads to a subdivision I could reach… I could find help. I could call someone.
But can I reach it in time?
Keeping as quiet as I can, I move quickly through the darkness, knowing the smell of my torn throat will alert them. I slip past a nearly finished house and reach the pond as I see a shadow move toward me. Turning to them, I hold my gun steady.
They rush me and I shoot at them, hoping at least one shot will hit hard enough to get them away as I skirt along the edge of the pond, using the light bouncing off the water to guide me. Another shot rings out, and this one makes impact, but it’s not enough. I need ammo like I used on Watson. I need shit that makes a difference, that helps me put them down.
The moment I realize I’ve made a big fucking mistake is when the vampire slams into me and I stumble back, water splashing up. My prostheses are water resistant, but they cannot get submerged—Watson had been working on that when we’d figured out who he was. As the weight of the vampire throws me off balance, I sink under, the water covering me.
Kicking and twisting, I lunge away, but instead of going toward the shore, I end up in deeper water where my arm and leg feel like weights. Thankfully, they’re still working because when the vampire grabs me, I hold my arm up and he catches onto the metal of it, raking nails against it as I break the surface. I push into him and wrap my prosthetic arm around his throat. He twists hard and pain spikes across my stomach sharp enough that I nearly let go, but I can’t. Instead, I tighten my grip as hard as my body will allow me, making my arm scream in pain as I press the gun against his skull and shoot him twice in the head.
I doubt it’ll kill him, but it’ll slow him enough that I manage to reach the edge. As I step down, I find that my leg is not where it should be and I stumble but manage to catch myself, causing pain to shoot into my abdomen from where the vampire sliced my stomach.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. No, my leg can’t stop working. I can’t…
I look behind me at the occupied houses I’d been heading toward but there’s absolutely no way I’d make it like this. The two other vampires seem to have not caught up with me yet but it’s only a matter of time before they do, and they’d immediately see me dragging myself across the open ground around the pond.
I take another step, and while my leg isn’t responding well, the knee is locking so I can put weight on it as I move toward the house closest to me. Dragging my leg after me, I climb up onto the deck and grab the door before realizing that this house is locked and there’s no way in.
Fear and desperation are eating at me as I try stepping off the deck and my leg gives, sending me onto the ground on my hands and knees. The pain that shoots up my stomach makes me bite back a cry.
I push myself up, using my right arm that allows me to twist up onto my knee, when I see that there’s a crawl space open under the house.
They might be able to smell me, and while the pond washed away some of the blood, the wound on my stomach isn’t going to help, but I have no idea what else to do. At least it would force them through a small entrance, giving me time to take direct shots at their heads as they entered. What the fuck else could I do? Using my right arm and my left leg, I drag and crawl my way into the crawl space, pulling myself under the house.
I keep moving until I’m at the absolute farthest spot as I cradle my gun against me, heart pounding. I reach down and touch my stomach, but my hand comes back colored dark.
Fuck. I can’t die here. I can’t leave everyone I love.
The moment I see someone walking past, I try to calm my breathing. I’m going to die. This is how I fucking die and I don’t even know what to do about it. I don’t even… fuck.
My heart clenches as they stop, and I see another set of feet.
“Where the fuck did he go?” the woman asks.
“I can smell his blood,” Landall says.
My leg and stomach are screaming in pain as I press myself tightly against the wall. It’s going to be okay. Everything will be okay.
Please don’t see me. Please don’t find me. Please just go away. I want to go home. I want to go back to Marcus. I don’t want to fucking die…
I swallow hard as I see them move past the opening and out of sight.
My clothes are soaked, my throat aches, and when I touch it, I can feel sticky blood. My stomach is a jumble of nerves, but I keep my gun steady and wait.
The minutes tick on, but it hasn’t been long enough to leave. Not yet. If I’m lucky, someone will see my car, someone will wonder what happened, and possibly scare them off.
And then I can escape.
Suddenly, Landall drops down before the crawl space.
“There you are,” he says as he starts climbing in. I aim my gun and pull the trigger, but the gun just clicks.
No, no, no.
The ammo couldn’t have gotten that wet, could it? I had quickly gotten out of the water, but maybe it was longer than I thought.
I pat my pockets wildly, needing more ammo, but what’s it even matter? It’ll be just as wet. No, no…
Landall reaches for me and I kick at him, but he grabs my prosthetic leg that I can’t draw away, digging his nails into it as he starts to pull. Pain screams into my leg, shooting up into my body as I use my good leg to kick him. He doesn’t care, there’s nothing I can do to stop him as he pulls me out from under the house.
He’s going to kill me.
“I tried to help you, and this is what you do?” I ask as I try to reach down to release my leg, but the way he twists it causes pain to make black spots bubble before my eyes. My nails dig into the dirt as I try to grab onto something, but it just makes the pain worse as I’m dragged out from under the house.
And then suddenly I stop as something hits my lap.
Landall drops back on his ass as I realize that what just landed on me was his head.
Ender pushes Landall’s body out of the way as I look back and see that the woman is also missing her head.
“Well, aren’t you popular this evening?” Ender asks as he grabs my good leg and drags me to him. He reaches down and catches my hand, pulling me up as I stare at him in disbelief.
“P-Please… let me go,” I say.
He lifts my chin up and looks at my neck before running his tongue over it.
“See, I got it all wrong. I thought I needed Marcus… but it’s clear it’s you I need,” he says as he picks me up and slings me over his shoulder.
I want to fight against him, but I feel so fucking faint and the moment he grabs onto my legs to hold me still, my world turns black.