“Thank you,” I say. “Now, where did they take her?”
“I don’t know. They just came to our cabin and threatened to kill us if Lydia didn’t come with us.”
Knowing Lydia, she would do anything to keep her friends safe, even if that meant walking off with a deranged, power-hungry witch intent on killing us all.
“Okay, let’s go find her. You two get off the grounds. It’s not safe.”
We leave them behind, taking off to find our girl.
When we get topside, it’s dark and eerily quiet. There’s not a guest or monster in sight. The air is heavy with the scent of rain and the ground is soaked through and muddy. My feet slosh through puddles as we try to catch Lydia’s scent.
I’ve spent the better part of a century honing my hunting skills. It doesn’t take me long to figure out where they’ve gone.
The clearing.
The three of us move as fast as our broken bodies allow us to.
At least they won’t be expecting us, so we can take them by surprise.
I have no plan other than to kill that fucking witch bitch.
Being free of the prison, I can feel my vampire self coming back to me a little at a time. One look at Jack and Hendricks and I can tell they’re experiencing the same thing. Jack is already starting to transform.
We reach the clearing, and I see her crumpled form in the center of a summoning circle. Her brunette hair and blue highlights are fanned around her head like a broken halo, and her arms are spread at an odd angle.
The witches are all positioned around the circle, chanting something that I can’t understand. Whatever it is can’t be good, because as we get closer, I can feel my energy waning. They’re siphoning from us already, summoning our power as if it belongs to them.
It’s going to take all of our strength to stop them, but my sights are set on the silver haired one who seems to be the ringleader of this fiasco. But it seems Jack has the same idea.
His vines are out and shooting straight for her. He wraps them around her neck, pulling her with such force I’m surprisedhe didn’t decapitate her. But the way he squeezes her it’s clear that’s exactly what he plans to do.
Her pasty white skin becomes near purple as the vines cut into her flesh. She kicks and claws and then finally I see her hand raise and the torches take flight straight towards us. Hendricks and I manage to tuck and roll, but Jack takes a direct hit.
It causes him to loosen his grip for a moment as he straightens himself up, but she takes advantage of his distraction, pulling the vines with both her hands. He goes down hard.
“You fucking bastards. Now we’ll have to start all over again and she’s almost tapped out. She’ll have died for nothing, you idiots,” her voice cracks.
The witches stay exactly where they are like they’re stuck in a daze, waiting for orders. It’s fucking eerie as hell.
Hendricks lunges for the witch, but she waves her hand, and another round of torches careens straight for him. He’s impaled in his shoulder with one of them, pinned into the ground with the fire crawling up his arm.
I try to go to him, but the witch sends up a wall of fire, cutting me off from everyone.
I can hear Hendricks crying out in pain and then a woman’s scream.
“Time to die you fucking bitch,” Jack says with deadly calm and malice.
The sound of head separating from body is one that I could know in my sleep. Screams emanate from all around us and I wonder if whatever Jack just did caused her hold on the witches to dissipate.
“She’s dead!” Jack calls out.
“Great! Can you get to Lydia?”
“No, but I’ve got Hendricks. He’s burned pretty badly but already. Can you see Lydia?”
Fire rages all around getting closer by the second. I can’t see her, but I know where she’s at. The fire warns me away, but I ignore it, even though I know it can kill me. All I can think of is getting to her in time.
The soft sounds of her heartbeat let me know she’s still alive, but each beat seems to be fading. And fast.
