Chapter 6 #2
The vampire raised his eyebrows and exchanged a strange look with his minion. “From time to time, they are. So, what are you going to do about it?”
This was bigger than just me, Tammy, and the werewolf. The unassuming people dancing upstairs were in danger, too.
I frowned. “How about the human women in the feeding rooms on this floor?”
“Why ask when you know you wouldn’t like the answer, little human?”
I exhaled loudly. “You…”
Calm down. Remember what Dad says: “You can’t win a fight if you let your hot temper loose.”
“What’s with the werewolf, then? Isn’t it enough that you use humans as your food supply?” I asked, glancing at Tammy.
She wasn’t herself. Tammy, too close to the vampire, was as unmoving as a statue. The two punctures on her wrists bled profusely. Soon, she’d be as weak as the werewolf. It seemed the vampire wanted to toy with us. He could have killed her by biting the right spot on her vein.
The two wide-eyed vampires stood speechless for a moment, and the eerie silence had the small hairs on the back of my neck rise.
“The little human knows too much. What a treat.” The master vampire turned to his minion. “Make sure you kill her, though. No loose ends.”
Fear still buzzed under my skin, but my anger rose like a tsunami.
I couldn’t stop the scoff that escaped my throat.
I’d had enough close-call encounters with the enemy, heard enough scary stories about them, and I’d trained enough to handle myself. I repeated this mantra in my head until I believed it.
“You didn’t answer my question. Since I’m about to die, please divulge your secret about why you’re torturing this man?”
The minion vampire let out a low laugh. “Can I play with her before I drain her of her essence, Master? I like ?em feisty.”
Ignoring his question, the master vampire’s crimson eyes were intently set on me, and his gaze was now infused with suspicion and curiosity. His attempts to figure me out frustrated him, it seemed.
“Our boss wants him,” he snapped.
As in the vampire Queen?
“And let me guess, you’re trying to torture information out of him,” I said.
The boss vampire turned to his friend. “New plan. Torture her and get whatever info she’s hiding out of her. I want to know who she is.” When his minion didn’t move, he shouted, “Get her now, idiot.”
If they were to find out who I was, the entire werewolf kingdom would be in danger, as my father would gladly exchange his life for mine. I had no choice but to win this fight.
“Finally,” I said and clenched my fists.
As the minion vampire took steps toward me, I sprinted to Tammy, pulled her by her uninjured arm, and leaned on the wall next to the door.
The vampire blurred behind me with a silver dagger in hand that I hadn’t noticed before. He moved fast, but so did I, having learned how to use my small size to my advantage.
He swung to the side of my stomach, the sharp dagger pointed toward my flesh, but I blocked his strike. His eyes broadened, but he didn’t waste time. He moved into my space, grabbing my shirt at the collar with his left hand and swinging the knife with his other hand toward my abdomen.
“Now that’s just a stupid move,” I said.
Leading with my left shoulder, I twisted my body and tackled him, while at the same time, I grabbed his wrist with my right hand and shoved it away from me.
But he was stronger. I couldn’t escape the dagger completely, and he grazed my forearm. Sharp pain exploded, traveling to my shoulder and neck.
I gulped for air. It wasn’t a superficial cut—he had cut through my leather jacket, and blood seeped out of it and dripped onto the floor.
My heart pounded as the scent of my blood mixed with that of Tammy’s. Someone inhaled sharply in the room, and I shook my head.
The King and my bodyguard would be disappointed with me.
I couldn’t just wait for the vampire’s next move, so it was my turn to grab the top of his dress shirt, pull him close to me, and knee him hard in the groin before he could blink.
He bent over, cursing me. My boot connected hard with his wrist, and he released the dagger, which fell to the ground with a clink.
I stretched my arm to pick it up, but the vampire boss moved faster than me. He snatched it up and tossed it between his hands.
I fought the urge to roll my eyes at him. It was a cheap circus trick that had no place in a fight with a respected opponent. But these vampires underestimated me and had no regard for human life.
The master lunged at me. I dodged his attack to the side at the last moment. Grabbing his wrist, I bent it backward until his face scrunched up, and he groaned. I used his distracted state and twisted his arm behind him. His hold on the knife loosened.
I pulled the dagger out of his grasp. “You won’t be needing that.”
And then I stabbed his back. He would have died if I’d pierced his heart with silver. Vampires were immortal, but like other supernatural creatures, they were not invincible.
Silver was a poison to werewolves and vampires.
He went limp in my arms and dropped to the ground, the dagger sticking out from his back.
“You bitch,” the vampire minion spat, also on the ground.
“He’ll live,” I said.
He stood on shaky legs, a little hunched over with his hands still holding his groin. He dashed toward me and swung a punch to my jaw, which I barely avoided.
I aimed at his throat's main nerve, ensuring I put all my remaining energy into my punch. With not much strength left in me, I wouldn’t outlast a supernatural in a fight. I had to bring him down, now or never.
As soon as I hit his throat at the right point, he passed out, and his body dropped like a rock to the ground.
Both vampires would recover in minutes. Those were strikes that would have sent a human to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, but for vampires, I merely incapacitated them to buy me a few lifesaving minutes.
With no time to spare, I rushed to Tammy—her eyes were big, and her mouth had slackened. Suddenly, her eyes rolled back, but she didn’t lose consciousness. She only swayed left to right, and I steadied her.
“What’s wrong, Tammy? What do you feel?”
She lifted her hands as if she wanted to hold the sides of her head, but her hands didn’t seem to know where to go. It was strange to watch her uncoordinated body movements.
“My head is spinning, and it hurts. I have the worst headache,” she said, leaning back against the wall with her eyes squeezed shut.
Alcohol and a poorly done compulsion could do that to a human.
I didn’t know how much Tammy saw from my fight and how much she’d remember. Vampires would usually say something at the end of their compulsion to release the human.
Also, when they drank from a human, they would usually lick the wounds to seal them with their saliva—that was if they wanted their prey to live another day so the vampires could harvest more blood.
I lifted Tammy’s wrist carefully and examined it. She wasn’t actively bleeding like before, but she still needed bandages, and pressure had to be applied to the punctured skin.
I shrugged off my damaged jacket, letting it drop to my feet. Then I took off my shirt and twisted it around Tammy’s wrist. I wrapped it as tightly as I could and yelped when a cough echoed behind me.
I turned to the bloody, kneeling man, who studied me with amused eyes.
His gaze fell to my breasts, and it was only then I realized I was hanging out in my lacy black bra. I shivered as my brain caught up to the fact that I was half naked.
The cool air in the room brushed over my exposed skin, and goose bumps rose up to my shoulders. I quickly picked up my jacket from the floor, threw it on, and zipped it up to my neck.
Unlike Dad’s werewolves, who would shift back to their human forms after a run in the forest, I preferred not to show my nakedness to the world.
“I’m sure werewolves see lots of breasts on a regular basis,” I said and narrowed my eyes at the stunned man.
The beaten-up man smirked and attempted to roll his eyes at me, which proved more difficult than he must’ve thought, so he ended up only groaning. I still found it funny and smiled at him.
“That’s what I thought,” I said and turned to check on Tammy.
She was holding up for now. I released her body to lean against the wall, walked up to the werewolf, and kneeled beside him.
“How am I supposed to free you from the shackles? We only have a few minutes left,” I said and nodded toward the two unmoving vampires on the floor.
The veins around his shackled wrists had turned dark blue with the poison spreading through his bloodstream. The toxin made him weak, but he was conscious—a good sign. Otherwise, how was I supposed to drag more than a two-hundred-pound man out of this room?
“You can’t,” he said. “Save yourself and your friend. You can leave now.”
“No way.”
He was defeated and tired, but I wasn’t going to leave him behind after all this.
His gaze set on me, his expression serious. “You got lucky. Now you escape. Got it?”
I stifled my gasp. “First of all…that’s just rude. Second of all, I can be very stubborn, so start cooperating because we’re not leaving without you. You got that, werewolf?”
His lips curved up, and he shook his head slightly, letting out low whimpers in the process.
“I fought for all of us here. Okay?” I said, hoping he got it through his thick wolf head.
The vein under his pack marking darkened and throbbed. He didn’t have that much time left before his long werewolf life was cut short. He raised his eyebrows, one of them cut and bleeding. “Why are you staring at my neck tattoo?”
I let out a heavy sigh. “I wished I had one too. That’s all.”
As a human, I could only wish I had the royal pack marking—a crescent moon.
My stomach tightened in painful knots. I sucked in a deep breath, but the scent of chemicals mixed with rusty blood wafted in the suffocating torture room, making me gag.
The man groaned again as he attempted to adjust his position. His arms must have become numb since they were suspended in the air.
“Since you’re a reckless human, what’s your idea of breaking through the silver chains? It’s not like you have a key or super strength to break through them,” he said.
Again with the reminder of how weak humans are.
The longer I stayed here, the more I endangered Tammy’s and my life.
The werewolf was right—I didn’t possess any supernatural powers to free him and escape the torture room with Tammy unharmed.
But I sure was going to try.