“Let’s go,” Liam said.
Jack squeezed Charlie’s hand and released it before they climbed over the rocks and walked into the burnt-out, soot-covered rubble of her prison for the past three years. Waves of heat still wafted up from the smoldering ruins, and charred debris stabbed through the holes in the soles of her boots. She winced at a couple of sharper jabs but mostly ignored the discomfort.
They spread out to cover more land as they searched for any Savages hiding behind or beneath the burnt-out remains. With all the vegetation almost completely gone, there were few places someone could hide and ambush them, but the wide-open space left them vulnerable to anyone with a gun.
Charlie turned in circles as she surveyed the alien landscape while keeping her instincts on high alert. A hundred feet away from her, Jack’s eyes alternated between her and the area he searched. Tension emanated off the others as they investigated their areas.
Charlie edged around a clump of blackened trees that had fallen against each other to form a twisted teepee. Grasping some of the branches, she pulled them back to peer cautiously inside.
Her hand fell to her side, and she pulled her knife free when red eyes met hers. The Savage hissed, but before it could charge at her, Charlie let one of her blades fly. It caught him in the eye and knocked him into the back wall of trees. Damaged from the fire, the trees crumpled and fell when the Savage tumbled into them.
Charlie was running around the teepee as the rest of the trees fell. The Savage howled as it clawed at its eyes. Arriving at its side, Charlie seized its hair and drew her knife across its throat to silence it before pulling out her stake and driving it through the vamp’s heart.
The body didn’t hit the ground before Jack was standing beside her. “Are you okay?” he demanded.
“I’m fine,” Charlie assured him.
“Assholes,” Jack muttered.
The others arrived as Charlie knelt to pull her knife from the Savage’s eye.
“Better not piss her off, Jack,” Stefan said. “You’ll find one of those knives in your heart.”
“She already broke my nose,” Jack replied with a smile.
“She probably won’t be the last one,” David said with a laugh. “You just have that kind of personality.”
“Fuck off,” Jack said, but he was still smiling when he held his hand out to Charlie. She took it, and he helped her rise.
“I’m ready to get this over with,” Charlie said.
“We all are,” Aiden said.
“Let’s spread out again,” Liam commanded.
Charlie kept her knives in hand as they separated to examine the remains once more. When they arrived at the crumpled ruins of the mansion, they moved through the debris in search of any survivors hiding beneath it.
“If they still had the pictures of us, the fire would have destroyed them all,” Mal said. “I doubt they took those photos off this island.”
“Probably not,” Charlie agreed.
“They took our pictures?” Mike asked.
“Yeah. I don’t remember it either,” Jack said.
Mike stared at him for a minute before shaking his head. “I’m glad the trophy room is gone. I hope everyone in this place felt their skin melting off their bones while they burned. After everything they did here, after Doug…” Mike’s voice trailed off, and he glanced up at the sky.
“They deserved this,” Jack said.
Charlie agreed, but all the death surrounding her was beginning to wear on her. Kicking over a board, she sneered when she spotted the skeletons lying in a tangled heap. Their faces were twisted into grotesque expressions of pain.
Jack stared at the charred remains before resting his hand on Charlie’s shoulder and pulling her closer to kiss her. She hated these monsters; she was a fighter and a killer, but he sensed her unease through their bond. She was glad they were dead, but she didn’t like seeing this.
When they finished searching what remained of the mansion, they continued across the island. He spotted a couple of skeletons with their hands stretched through the rubble like they were begging God for mercy. Jack approved of God’s response.
The death of these monsters would never bring Doug back, but it felt good to know they were dead.
When they reached the other side of the island, Jack turned back to examine the destruction before they walked further down. They started back across, carefully covering the land they missed in their first sweep.
