by Martha Woods
And Christian had a lot to answer for.
Chapter 8
The two cars pulled into the lot of the motel, a no name building that wouldn't bat an eye at a group like theirs arriving, so long as they paid. Liam stepped out of the driver's seat, his posture and the fierce look in his eye telling everyone that in spite of his pain he had found a renewed purpose in his life, one that his loved ones were all too happy to see. His serious presence was undermined quite a bit by their new addition though, black out shades draped lazily over Iggy's nose, sharp teeth revealed in a wicked grin as he popped the collar on his leather jacket.
"Is this where we're staying? Wicked!" He tugged the collar of his shirt, puffing a breath while he looked over the parking lot. "This is a step up from where I normally sleep, are you footing the bill?"
"This..." Cayden looked over at him quizzically, saying, "This is a shithole Iggy."
He shrugged. "The rooms have four walls and a roof, I'd say that's a step up."
Once they had gotten inside and paid for their room, they all sat around, sitting against the wall when no other chairs were available. Abigail sat cradled in Leah's arms, cooing gently and rocking back and forth, her lack of crying gradually starting to make the rest of the group uncomfortable, but that was a concern for another day. For now, their greatest concern was whether or not Iggy would break through into another room if he spent any more time bouncing off the walls.
"Can you sit down already?" Liam snapped, finally losing his patience. "We're trying to rest up, and we can't do that if you keep moving like that."
"I'm just excited to get started you know?" He flashed a grin, and they all had to admit that it was almost convincing. "Like I could probably head over there now if you wanted, give you the lay of the land, maybe snatch a couple of them for you..."
"Enough." Liam waved his hand tiredly. "We all need our sleep, we had a long drive to get here. I know you slept the whole time, but we didn't and... Wait, are you even going to be any use to us during the day time?"
Iggy quirked an eyebrow. "Uh, yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Because you're a vampire."
Iggy scoffed while Cassandra chuckled, the two sharing a look before she decided to elaborate. "Vampires don't just erupt into flames the second light touches them. He'll be weaker certainly, and weaker, but he'll be far from useless." Her tone turned flat. "Or at least, if he's useless it won't be because of the sunlight."
"Hey! I'll have you know I'm an excellent vampire!"
"You have certainly yet to impress."
"Alright shut up!" Cayden lifted his head off the bed, moving out of Farah's embrace momentarily to look at all of them. "We have a big day tomorrow, and I don't want anyone to be tired during it. So everyone get to sleep, and that means you too Iggy."
The vampire rolled his eyes, curling up in the corner of the room. "Sure thing dad."
"God. What I wouldn't give for just one normal night's sleep..."
* * *
Meanwhile, a mere four miles away from them, Skylar and her mother were making preparations of their own. “Are you sure that you’re ready for this?” Leah asked, “It hasn’t been that long since... Since the last time, there’s no shame in admitting that you aren’t quite ready yet.”
Skylar shook her head in disagreement, jaw setting in her determination. “No. It’s not fair for me to just sit out and let you do all the work on this. I might not agree with how things need to be done but... But I know that they need to be done, so I’m not going to run away from this.”
“Well good that’s... That’s very good.” Leah smiled over at her, asking, “Would you tell me about your family? It’s not going to be a very good first impression if I show up with you and know absolutely nothing about them.”
Skylar’s eyes lit up with joy, the opportunity to gush about her family, and her new-born daughter in particular having been denied to her for so long. “Which one do you want to know about first?”
“Hmm, how about your husband. I need to make sure there’s no chance of me stealing him away.”
“Mom!” She slapped a hand over her mouth, but she couldn’t quite contain the sudden giggles that took her over. “Don’t worry, there’s no chance of that ever happening. He’s the only one for me and I...” The mood turned a lot more somber. “I’m the only one for him.”
Sensing that her mind was going to some very bad places, Leah pushed on, leaning over and tapping Sky’s shoulder. “Come on, don’t stop there. What does he do?”
“He’s a businessman, a really good one too. We’ll never struggle for any money at all at this rate.”
“When you say good, how good?”
“Like he could buy the entire town and everyone and everything in it and it wouldn’t even show up on his account.”
Leah whistled, looking very proud. “Married rich huh? That sure sounds like something a daughter of mine would do.”
“It’s more than that!” Skylar knew her mother was joking but couldn’t help feeling offended at the notion. “I’ve never trusted anyone like I trust him, he makes me feel so loved and happy and... And safe. He made me feel safe.”
Leah nodded, looking off into the distance with her mind overcome with sudden thoughts of her own. “He sounds like a wonderful man. What about your daughter? I’m curious if she has that adorable nose of yours or not.”
“My daughter is the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid my eyes on. She’s perfect in every way, and I’m not exaggerating.” Skylar sighed in contentment at the memory, those little legs kicking at the air, a tiny mouth stretching in a yawn while she slept the day away. “I really can’t wait for you to meet them, the moment can’t come soon enough.”
“True enough.” Leah stretched out her body, exhaustion finally setting in. “If they’re anything like you I’m sure I’ll love them, I trust that you have good judgement. I’ll be able to tell for myself soon anyway, I don’t imagine we’ll be doing this for that much longer.”
* * *
Claire was on the warpath, shoes clicking against the tiles as she stormed down the hallway, shoving anyone who stepped in her way off to the side. Any grunts of protest that she got in response were silenced quickly by the stormy look in her eye, any extra resistance and they were liable to have a fist lodged into their throat. It wasn’t long until she found the door she was looking for, the room that had become so familiar to her over the last few days looming in front of her and almost taunting her with its existence.
Even through her overwhelming rage, that horrible sting of betrayal, the memories of what she and Christian had done together still sparked desire deep in her gut, the sight of his teeth clenched and the feel of his fingers digging into her hips throwing itself into her mind unbidden. “Whatever.” She thought, “There’ll be other people who can do it better anyway.”
She slammed her fist against the door, the sound echoing through the building and making the other hunters turn towards her. “What the fuck are you looking at?” She snarled, “Move the fuck on!” Those who were wise took their leave immediately, those who were not only moved on when she took a step towards them. The door opened behind her, Claire not even wasting a second on seeing who answered the door before shoving them back into the room, stepping in and slamming the door behind herself.
“Jesus, take it easy!” Christian dusted off his shirt, eyeing her angrily. “’Bout time you got back here, you know you’ve got a lot of nerve walking out on me!”
“You. Talk. Now.” She spat out the words through clenched teeth, finger prodding into his chest with each word. “Don’t even think about denying any of it, I want answers. Now.”
He threw his hands up in the air, rolling his eyes all the while. “What do you want from me Claire? You want me to tell you every dirty secret thing we’ve been doing? You want me to show you where all the bodies are buried? What do you care?”
“I care about us actually standing for something real! About this not just
being some bullshit about hatred, that we’re actually helping people instead of hurting them!”
“We are!” He shot to his feet, suddenly towering over her. “The world owes us a debt it can never hope to repay, do you have any idea the lives that have been saved because of our actions? How many children have grown into strong men and women who would have been butchered in the crib if those monsters got half the chance?”
“Then why we’re you taking normal people in Boulder Junction? Why would you grab a hunter, one of us no less, and throw him in with the rest of them?” She clenched her fist, willing herself not to force it into his chest. “Why would you take a baby… Why would my sister take a baby and… And be prepared to kill it in front of its family?”
“That thing wasn’t a baby.” His eyes were cold, and the sight chilled her to the core. “That thing was just another monster, just another abomination that we would have to kill in a few years anyway. What does it matter when we do it if we know the result is going to be the same? And that hunter? What about him? Who cares about some traitor who would lie down with the freaks and the monsters willingly?”
She knew that what they had done was bad, she had prepared to hear the worst… But what she was hearing was so much worse than anything she could have imagined. “You’re insane, you and every single other hunter that swallows this… This sickness, this vile toxin and convinces themselves that they’re fighting for something worthwhile! Do you have any idea what kind of monster this makes you, the things that you’ve done? I know about grabbing the families, how long have you been doing that?”
“Since day one.” He shrugged. “If they’re going to willingly couple with creatures of the night and try to pollute the human race any further than it already has been then they don’t deserve to be a part of it anymore. I believe that we need to not just protect the race, but make it even stronger than before, and to do that we need to kill every weakness it has until all we have left is strength.”
He stepped forward, cupping her cheek. Claire flinched at the touch, but he didn’t seem to notice or care. “I really wish that you would see things my way, the way that your sister saw things. She knew what it was that needed to be done, she knew that to bring things to a close that we had to get our hands dirty, to stain our souls with blackness and be able to do things that made it hard to look into the mirror. Sometimes, back when I was still new to all this, I would lie awake and wonder if there was maybe another way that we could do things. But not anymore. My conscience is clear Claire, this is my purpose.”
She shook herself out of his grip, scrubbing a hand down her cheek just to get the feeling of him off her body. She found herself almost retching as the depth of his insanity became clear, the sheer lack of morals present in the man that she had shared her heart and her body with feeling like an infection that had crawled its way out of him and into her body. Claire felt like she would need to shower for a thousand years, to scrub at her skin until it was bloody and torn before she would ever feel truly clean ever again. “You… You have killed… So many innocent people. I have been a part of something that I’ll never be able to atone for, the creatures I’ve killed… They might have had more right to live than any one of us.”
“Don’t say such nonsense, you really think that some werewolf who gets off on killing children deserves to live more than you do?” He leaned in, smirking when he thought he sensed victory. “You think some bottom feeding vampire deserves to live when your nephew didn’t?”
“How dare you…” She looked up at him, white hot rage prickling at the edges of her vision, nails breaking the skin of her palm. “How dare you try and use his memory to win this! He was your son, he was my sister’s son, and you think you can use him as a bullet point in an argument?”
The words actually seemed to have an effect, Christian reeling back as though he had been shot. “I… I have felt his loss for every year since I lost him, we both did. Everything I do is in his honor, don’t you even think about doubting my dedication to him!”
“If he was alive now… If he could see what the legacy was that you had built in his name… He would be ashamed of you.” She shook her head, looking directly into his eyes with pure loathing in her expression. “It’s a mercy that he isn’t, if you two had raised him he would have ended up a monster just as you two did.”
Words were not Christian’s answer, nor were they her response. Claire gasped in pain when her back connected with the wall of the room, his hands digging into the skin of her throat and crushing down on her windpipe, harsh grunts and snarls coming through his clenched teeth. “You fucking bitch!” He shouted, slamming her against the wall once more. “How fucking dare you!”
She slammed her knee into his stomach, taking advantage of the momentary lull in his focus to bring her arm down onto his arm, breaking his hold on her and shoving him away. He lost his balance when his leg connected with a chair, toppling over to the ground and scrambling to regain his footing. Claire doubled over coughing, keeping her eyes on him every second he was on the ground, knowing that if he got the advantage again she was dead.
He charged towards her, fist shooting out and clipping her shoulder, her own hand digging into his ribs and forcing the breath out of his lungs. Christian whirled around, elbow striking her in the cheek and throwing her off to the side, Claire colliding with the end table and slumping down to the ground, gripping her face in pain. Her eyes went wide when she heard the sound of a knife sliding out of a sheath, turning slowly to see him advancing on her with a look of absolute malice on his face.
“You shouldn’t have said those things Claire, you know what he meant to me. What happens now… This is your fault.”
He lunged in, reflex the only thing that stopped a knife slashing into her throat as she grabbed the nearest thing and swung it wildly. Idly, just before it connected with his face, she found it kind of funny that she was defending herself from a knife with a lamp, but she figured that she couldn’t really be picky over what saved her life.
The knife dug into the wall next to her head, laying forgotten as his hand flew to his face, glass shattering against his cheek and scoring into his eye. He roared in pain, collapsing backwards and rolling onto his side, desperate to get any one of the hundreds of shards of glass out of his face. Claire stood shakily, hands against the wall while she tried to keep her balance, freezing when she touched the knife briefly.
She could end everything right here, with one thrust of the knife the world would be so much safer, the rest of them forced to disband and risk an easy death if they tried to mobilize again. It was with a heavy sigh that she let her hand fall away, limping towards the door without even looking down at him. “You’re not worth it,” She said, “Maybe you will be to someone else, but not me.”
The door closed shut behind her, the only sounds left in the room those of his muffled whimpers of pain, finally starting to be able to see something out of the eye that hadn’t been hit. “Jesus Christ…” He said, sitting up, “My eye…”
He blinked, then blinked again, his left eye still filled with tears but seeing clearly through the water. It was with dawning horror that he realized that he couldn’t see anything through his right, not a hint of blood or vision or anything, just a looming dead zone on the right side of his sight. “No… No, no no no!”
Christian scrambled to stand, each movement stretching the skin of his face and dragging a thousand needle points across his nerves, but in his haste to find a mirror he didn’t notice. He looked at his ruined reflection, the entirety of his right side bloody and scarred, but that paled in comparison to the sight of his eye, enough to bring him to his knees and to vomit helplessly onto the floor.
He slammed his fist into the ground, snarling and grunting as he smashed the mirror and threw the frame against the wall, belongings and decorations crushed and smashed in his wake, pictures of him and his family shattering and laying forgotten. The door splintered underneath his boot, hunters by now running
out into the hallway to see what the commotion was. When they saw his mangled face they stopped in their tracks, fighting their own nausea at the sight.
“What the fuck are you all looking at me for?” He screamed, blood streaming down from where he tore the skin open again. “Find Claire! Bring her to me!”
* * *
"Now you listen to me." Cayden spoke very carefully to Iggy, making sure that none of his words were wasted. "I don't care about the whole 'Rebel without a cause' thing you've got going on, when we are in there you don't do anything unless I say you can, do you understand that?"
Liam sensed the natural conflict brewing in the younger vampire, stepping in before he could speak. "I know he seems like an asshole, and well, he is. But he knows what he's doing far more than any of us do, this is his natural element. When it comes to a plan going well it's stupid and arrogant to assume that one lone trooper can solve all the problems themselves, that's a mindset that I'm still trying to grow out of. And you're younger than me, so there's still a chance that it won't get its hooks in you if you just give it up."
Iggy looked around, knowing that he wasn't going to find anything except agreement with the two men, but he figured it was worth a shot at least. He shrugged, falling in step with the hunter and mock saluting. "You're the boss, boss man. You just tell me where to go and I'll do it."
"Alright good." He pointed up to the roof of the building, glimmering in the moonlight. "Jump up there and keep watch, don't move until I give the symbol."
"What's the symbol?"
Cayden smirked, cocking his shotgun for emphasis. "I'm gonna toss someone through a window."
Iggy's cackle carried clear to them even as he leapt through the air, landing on the edge of the roof without a sound. The others merely looked on in amusement. "Hayley, you and Michael go through the side door on the left, come join us when everything starts kicking off."
