Bite Marks

by Resca Rojas

  “Hey, are you okay?”

  Amber placed her gun down and looked at him. “Yeah. I think it’s time for me to leave.”

  “You’re leaving?”

  “My vacation is over tomorrow. I have to go back to Oakhaven.” She saw that Ethan was not excited to hear that. “Look around you. All of this is crazy, and I swore to protect my community, not to feed off people as a vampire or kill as a werewolf. Dante said that Nero had turned a rich guy in our town into a vampire, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That town knows nothing about the things that are going bump in the night. Let Klay and everyone else handle Kayla and all the other Elites. But I have to go home. Are coming?”

  “As long as we are together, I’ll go anywhere with you. Let me get my stuff and we’ll leave.” He gave her a hug.

  She was surprised. “Right now?”

  “My skin is still adapting to the sun but we got the car windows tinted, so it shouldn’t be a problem if we left right now.”

  “What will we tell them?’

  “We have all known for a while how you’ve felt. No one is going to beg us to stay if we don’t want to. Plus, they already heard. Super hearing.”

  Ethan turned out to be right about how the group felt with their decision to leave. All except for Dante. He was upset that they were losing a combat expert in Amber, and a tactical vampire like Ethan, but he played the part to convince them that they had his blessing.

  Thirty minutes later and Ethan had just finished placing the last suitcase inside the trunk. He was now waiting in the car as Amber was by the porch, saying goodbye to Klayton. Everyone else had already said their farewells.

  Klayton was looking at Amber, admiring her beauty the way that he had done when he had lifted the veil from her face ten years ago.

  They had grown apart, drifted into different people, but Amber always knew when something was bothering him. “What’s wrong? You had been acting distant and now I feel like us leaving is bothering you.”

  He grinned. Then he said, “Well, not both of you, just you.” He took a deep breath and scratched the back of his head for a moment; a nervous tick that he always did when he was about to tell something from his heart. “Our marriage got screwed up. But I was hoping that I could have kicked vampire ass with my best friend on my side.”

  You have people here that will do that with you, but I have to go home. This life is not for me.”

  “You mean saving people and hunting things?”

  Amber smiled she had enjoyed her time with her best friend, but she was sure that this was the right thing to do. She kissed his cheek. “Be safe.”

  17

  Ethan and Amber were only a few minutes away from their hometown. They were both happy with the decision that they had made. Both were ready protect their family and friends from danger.

  Amber felt safer with Ethan by her side, and he would not want to be anywhere without her.

  When they arrived at the town, it was quiet. Ethan noticed that not a single car was driving around. Amber was watching a video on her smartphone, when she lost reception.

  “I can’t get any signal, you?”

  Ethan handed her his phone and then kept his eyes on the road.

  “No bars either,” she looked at him, “what’s wrong?”

  Ethan was driving slowly now with an extra layer of precaution. “Barely any light post is on.”

  “What are you thinking?”

  “Vampires?”

  “Okay, if that is a possibility, then we have to head towards the police station.”

  “Yes.” He agreed and then began to slowly drive towards the police station with the headlights off. “We need backup. We can only do so much with just us two.”

  “Okay, you keep your eyes on the road, and I’m going to try and contact them.” Amber tried but failed to have any reception on her smart phone.”

  “Wait! The duffle bag. Klay gave us a satellite phone!”

  She smiled with relief in her face. “Okay, I’ll go get it.”

  Amber took off her seatbelt and climbed to the trunk of the Hummer as Ethan began to drive past the red lights.

  Amber looked as quickly as she could and found it. She then got up and looked out the back window. Her heart sunk.

  “Ethan…”

  “What, what’s wrong?”

  “They’re here. I see people looking at us from the roof of the buildings.”

  Ethan stopped for a moment to look, then he began to speed up again. “We are almost there babe. Watch, there is nothing to worry about-“

  Someone punch thru the glass window of Ethan’s door and grabbed him. The person tried his best to choke Ethan out.

  He could not make the grip any less tight. As Amber tried to climb over the backseats to help Ethan, more people began to break the glass around her and try to reach for her.

  A man was trying to open the door, but it was locked.

  Ethan remember that he could turn his nails into claws and did so and then he began to aggressively stab the person’s that was trying to choke him.

  Ethan opened the door as bluntly as he could to push the person back. He grabbed the machete that was on the passenger seat, exited the car and swung the machete directly at the man’s neck thus decapitating him.

  Ethan then pulled out his gun, and one by one, he shot every person that was trying to get Amber, directly on the head.

  Amber got out of the vehicle, and ran to the trunk. She opened it and unzipped the duffle bag. She grabbed a double barrel shot gun and after making sure that it had bullets, she cocked it and took aim at the group of people that were coming to them.

  “The hell is this?!” She exclaimed.

  “I’m starting to think that the man that Nero turned, did not listen and turned the whole town into vampires.”

  “Or Kayla ordered this as an act of revenge.” She grabbed the satellite phone and called Klayton.

  “Amber.”

  “Vampires have invaded Oakhaven.”

  “We are fighting them off but we don’t know how much longer we can endure by ourselves.”

  Ethan was shooting off any vampire that came closer to them. “There’s too many, we need to get the hell out of here. Get back in the car!”

  Ethan held them off as Amber entered the car. Then, he got on the driver’s side and hit the gas pedal as fast as he could.

  “Where to?!”

  “The home funeral is only a few minutes from here! We can seal ourselves inside until we get help.”

  “Okay, keep going, I have an idea.”

  There was now a car chasing them. Amber got half her body out the window, took aim and began to shoot the car’s front window with her pistol.

  The cracks on the glass ruined the driver’s view, and the car drifted and hit another parked car.

  “Okay, we are here!”

  Ethan parked the car and got out. The vampires had powerful stamina and had been running as fast as possible, chasing them and sniffing them out every time that they would lose sight of them.

  Ethan gave her the keys to the building. “Go! Open the door, I’ll hold them off!”

  There were six vampires running towards Ethan. He began to sprint towards them, charging at them with a machete.

  As they were about to clash with each other, a bright light appeared between them and blasting them a few feet away from each other.

  The vampires could not see well, but Ethan could. He looked up as Klayton extended him a hand and helped him get back up.

  Next to Klayton was a man that Ethan had never seen. “How are you here so fast?”

  Klayton pointed towards the mysterious man. “Meet Fay.”

  The vampires charged at Fay, but he summoned fire from his hands and burned them, which forced them to stop and try to put the fire out.

  “Fay? What the hell is he?”

  Bullets began to rain towards them, and Ethan closed his eyes as he waited for his inevitable en
d, forgetting that he was a vampire. When he opened his eyes, he saw hundreds of bullets all around them.

  “Fay is a warlock.”

  Fay closed his eyes, twirled his index finger around, and the bullets turned into the direction from which they had come from. Fay opened his palm and concentrated. Then he made a fist and the bullets shot towards all the vampires that were closed by and knocking them down to the floor.

  “Guys! I opened the door, let’s go!” Amber yelled desperately.

  “Go. I will meet you guys inside. I’ll hold them off.”

  Ethan began to run towards the building, but when he looked back, he noticed that Klayton looked fatigued and got on his knees while Fay was fighting off the vampires. He went back and picked him up in a fireman’s carry position.

  Fay created a ring of fire around the vampires which held them off. Then, Fay remained in front of them while Ethan took Klayton inside the building.

  Once he was inside wit Klayton, he asked Amber to close the door behind them. He gently placed Klayton on a sofa that Ethan had in a waiting room for funeral services.

  “What the hell is wrong with him?” Amber said.

  “I don’t know.”

  Fay appeared in the room. “He lost a lot of blood and energy when he asked me to bring him over here this fast.”

  “Wait what do you mean?”

  “Teleporting myself to him then taking both of us to travel over here consumed a lot of power. He agreed to give me half of his stamina and his strength. He will feel like this for a short while, then he will be back to normal.”

  “Will he be okay?” She asked him while looking at he ex-husband. She still cared about his well being.

  “Yeah. I’ll be fine,” Klayton said, then he groaned, “Fay, keep your end of the deal like we promise. Please.”

  “They’ll be in a safe place don’t worry.” He assured him.

  Ethan was looking out the window. “Guys, the fire is almost out. There’s more of them outside now, what’s the plan?” He walked over to Amber.

  “Stay still.” Fay placed one hand on Ethan’s shoulder and then his other one on Amber.

  She looked at Fay, “What are you doing?”

  Ethan inhaled, then felt dizzy.

  “The first time can be a little bit uncomfortable, I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry about what?” Amber looked around and noticed that they were no longer in the funeral home with Klayton, but instead, inside another room. It looked fortified with sigils all over the wall. There were guns mounted on the walls, and cans of food on a table.

  Fay walked over to the table and picked up a feather. He whisper an enchantment that Ethan and Amber could not comprehend, and then he dropped the feather on the floor. It quickly turned into a king sized bed with pillows.

  “I’ll be damn.”

  “Why are we here? Where’s Klay?” Amber said.

  “Klayton made a deal with me. I promised him to keep you both safe while he stayed behind.

  Ethan yelled, “He can’t make that choice for us. Send us back. We need to help him.”

  “He won’t.” Amber realized, “he’s more loyal to Klayton than us.” She looked at Fay, “He paid you with some sort of incentive, didn’t he?”

  “Yes. Right now, I’ve created multiple warding spells to protect us. Not even I can take out. It’s going to last six hours.”

  Ethan sat down on the bed and placed his hands on his head.

  “So, where are we then?”

  “We are in an underground bunker in New Orleans, deep in the swamps. The door has been warded with a spell, no one can find us.”

  “If we have six hours, then teach me.” Amber proposed.

  “Teach you what?”

  “I never wanted to be a wolf or a vampire. Maybe fate was telling me to hold on until you appeared. Help me learn how to use enchantments like you. I want to be an asset for when we regroup with Klay.”

  “Okay.”

  19

  Klayton was looking out the window, the fire was about to die down, and they sprinted towards the door. They began to pound heavily against it, trying to break it open.

  Klayton cracked his knuckles and smiled. He was too fatigued to transform into a lycan. If he did turn now, his body would be in too much pain. He could still smell and hear better, but his healing factor was that of a normal human being.

  He grabbed Amber’s sawed off shot gun and the eleven inch stainless steel machete that Ethan left behind when they were teleported out of the town. Then, he waked out of the room and searched for a better one that provided him a better tactical advantage.

  The vampires broke open the entrance door and entered. They were five in total. Kayla had sent twenty vampires to invade, transform, and kill everyone in Oakhaven, but now they were down to just this small count.

  “Look for him! This lycan has done too much damage. We come back empty handed, and Kayla will kill us.” Their leader, Hayden, was an angry six feet two-hundred and fifty pound vampire. The other four obeyed and went about searching for Klayton. They were not able to locate him with their enhanced sense of smell due to the fire’s smoke burning their sensitive nostrils.

  While Hayden and the other three vampires were each in different sections of the building in search of Klayton, one vampire had entered the coffin room.

  “Freaking coffins,” he scoffed to himself, “what would be the point.” He murmured. He then began to open each coffin, looking for Klayton.

  The vampire was beginning to get angry with each empty coffin. There was only one left. Predicting that he would get the same results, he had lowered his defenses and was not expecting anyone on the last one that he was going to open. When he did, Klayton greeted him with the sawed off shotgun aimed at his face.

  “Don’t do anything stupid, or I’ll blow your head off and you won’t be able to heal from it.”

  The vampire hesitated and stepped back when Klayton signaled him to move back. As Klayton was getting off the coffin, the vampire took it as a chance to attack him.

  Klayton leaned back into the coffin and shot the vampire as he was going to hurt him. The now lifeless vampire felt back.

  “Crap. Crap.” The other vampires arrived at the front of the door. “Okay,” Klayton chuckled, “This is exactly what it looks like.”

  They charged at him. Two of them began to beat him up mercilessly while Hayden went to check on the person whom Klayton had just shot.

  Hayden then turned towards Klayton, who was now being held down by the two vampires. One of them punched him in the gut as Hayden walked towards him.

  “I thought that you were this big bad wolf, killing all of us in one quick sweep.” He punched Klayton on the left side of his stomach.

  “I thought that Kayla was known for having tough as nail soldiers doing what she wants. You need two people to hold me down while you punch me?”

  Hayden punched Klayton as hard as he could, with all the anger and rage that had built inside of him ever since he had found out that Klayton and his brother had been killing his family. Klayton spit out blood on to Hayden’s shoes.

  Hayden became more angry and barked at his men to let Klayton go. He rolled up his sleeve and began to punch Klayton nonstop, each blow hurting him more than the last.

  One of the vampires spoke up. “Hay, she did asks us to bring him back alive.”

  “Oh, now I have to listen to what you have to say too?”

  “Boss, it’s not like that, I was just- “

  For a big guy, Hayden was quick on his feet as he stood up and picked up the vampire by his throat with one hand. “I think it’s in your best interest if you go guard the building before I kill you. You’re expendable in this mission, you get that, right?”

  The vampire said nothing and left the room. Hayden turned back to Klayton, and as he was about to resume punching him as hard as he could, he heard a small thud hit the floor. He turned towards the noise and saw that the vampire who had just left, had hi
s head rolling on the floor without a body attached to it.

  Without waiting for Hayden’s orders, the other vampire took out his gun and said, “I’ll go check it out.” He left the room and walked around the fallen head. He looked to where he assumed the attack was, and a knife pierced his throat. While he struggled to take out the knife, the attacker shot his head with a shotgun.

  A man wearing a hoodie walked over the dead vampires that he had just killed and entered the door.

  “Who the hell are you?” Hayden demanded.

  The mysterious figured removed his hoodie and revealed to be someone whom both Hayden and Klayton hated.

  “Nero? My own brother has turned on his family and killed my men?”

  “I had a change of heart. Now, I want to bring chaos to everything that Kayla built. I’m burning everything to the ground.”

  “But why? She gave you everything, more than any other person. Well, except Garrett.” Nero remained quiet, which angered the vampire more. Hayden tried charging towards Nero, but Klayton held on to Hayden’s legs preventing him from moving.

  “You stupid idiot,” He leaned down and punched Klayton to the floor and freed himself. He turned back towards Nero, who now had a gun aimed at Hayden’s head.

  Nero’s pistol shot point black into Hayden’s chest. The healing factor was soon going to push out the bullet and heal Hayden, but Nero took out his blade and cut off Hayden’s head before he could recover.

  Nero turned towards Klayton’s attention and saw that he was up, leaning against the wall. “You helped me?” Nero stared at him.

  “Enemy of my enemy and all that shit. My chances are better with that guy dead.”

  “I’m not here to kill you.” Nero said.

  “You wouldn’t be able to.” Klayton said as he gasped for air. The fight had tired him more.

  “Jesus what’s wrong with you? Did he poisoned you?”

  He groaned. “No. I used a spell to get here. Took a lot out of me.”

  Nero offered his hand. “I’m building a small army of rebels to take out Kayla and her soldiers, you in?”

  “You tried to kill me before.”