Cain fired a stream of water at the group, but the shot went wide. A vampire with her long, blonde hair in plaits dived forward. She punched Cain onto the wall, hard enough to crack the brick behind him. Cain cried out and dropped his water gun as the woman pinned him against the wall, one of her hands on his throat, the other holding a wooden sword against his arm.
‘You move,’ Tycho said, smoothly, stepping over Mitch’s legs to enter the room, ‘and he loses a limb. So, it should go without saying that, really, you have four chances before he dies.’
‘What do you want?’ Khalida said, holding her water gun steady, glancing over at the small group of vampires. She recognised James Shepard, who stood behind Tycho; his eyes were burning on Clarence, who stood back away from them.
‘For you to come with us,’ Tycho said. ‘Khalida, I know that you hold your principles so highly that there is no way I can ever change your mind about joining Rebirth. However, if you come with us now, I promise you a quick and painless death, and a proper burial.’
‘Really?’ she scoffed. ‘That’s all your offering?’
‘Were you expecting anything else?’ Tycho said, raising an eyebrow. Khalida looked over to Cain, whose eyes were focused on her.
‘And what about them?’ she asked. ‘Cain and Clarence?’
‘They will be dealt with accordingly,’ Tycho said. ‘Khalida, you need to realise that this is the end. You’re simply on the wrong side of history. The best you can do now is to make peace with it.’
Khalida looked back at Clarence, who was now at the far end of the room, his pupils pinpricks, his water gun held loosely in his hand.
‘So, we’re all going to die, regardless?’ she asked. ‘And the only difference is the type of death we have?’
‘You’re going to die regardless, anyway,’ Tycho said, ‘it will just be the few years of difference, and the level of pain you will go through before dying that will vary, here.’
He was just feet away from her. She sighed and looked down at the floorboards. Her muscles tensed. A stolen breath filled her lungs, and she leapt at him.
Tycho drew out his swords. Khalida could see the gleam of the polished, metal blade, just as Shepard stepped out in front of him. She posed her stake. Shepard’s arm cut under hers, jerking her arm upwards, his hand wrapping around her wrist. The stake, still clutched in her hand, was raised towards the ceiling; her wrist was in a vice. With a slight flick, Shepard’s grip twisted against her, and in the second between the snap and the pain, she knew what was going to happen. She screamed as her wrist was broken; the stake dropped to the floor, as stabbing shots of fiery pain surged through her.
Tycho sighed as Shepard let her drop to the floor.
‘You could have saved yourself from that,’ he said. He sighed again and turned to the body of the vampire in the middle of the floor. ‘What was Balewa thinking?’ he muttered. ‘It’s just you now, Clarence,’ Tycho said, as his group spread slowly around the room, ‘and you’re on very thin ice as it is.’
‘They’re working with Banes,’ Clarence said. ‘Banes Intuneric, your pet. He’s a spy for them.’
Even from her position on the floor, Khalida could see a moment of hesitation pass over Tycho’s face.
‘I don’t see how that is relevant here,’ Tycho said.
Clarence grinned weakly. ‘Cecilia told me of the relationship you two have together,’ he said.
‘Your sister, once again, has the wrong information, yet still plans to act on it,’ Tycho said. ‘You, Clarence, on the other hand, have committed numerous infractions, all of which are far more serious than anything you could possibly accuse me of doing.’ The edges of his swords brushed against his long coat. ‘We’ve wasted enough time here,’ he said, ‘and we have a long journey back to London. Shepard – if you would.’
‘Don’t!’ Clarence yelled, flinching, pointing the water gun up at Shepard. ‘Stay back!’
He pulled the trigger. Shepard shot away to the side, out of the path of stream of water. Clarence tried to aim again, but, with a speed only matched by his uncanny grace, Shepard knocked him back against the wall.
‘Get off me!’ Clarence yelled, struggling against Shepard’s grasp. Shepard’s face slipped into a grim smile.
‘You’ve brought this on yourself, Clarence,’ Tycho said, ‘however…’
He stopped abruptly, his ears pricked. Around the room, Khalida saw every vampire follow suit, their eyes narrowing. She looked up towards Cain, his face screwed with pain, seemingly oblivious to what everyone else was sensing.
‘We need to move, now,’ Tycho said. ‘Get them to the car.’
‘What’s going on?’ Khalida asked through gritted teeth, as a vampire with a scarred face grabbed her good arm and lifted her roughly to her feet.
‘Another car is approaching,’ Clarence told her, as Shepard pushed him forwards, ‘and they’re scared because it’s not theirs.’
‘Can’t you go back to quivering?’ Shepard muttered.
Khalida looked back to Mitch, catching a glimpse of him as she was marched out of the room,
‘What about him?’
‘He’ll be left here,’ Tycho said, ‘since we don’t have a need for him.’
‘That’s the kinder option, Khalida,’ Clarence said from behind her, ‘otherwise he’ll be eaten.’
Khalida gritted her teeth as she was scuffled forwards into the hallway. She felt the hand of the vampire tighten on her arm as they walked over the seeds on the floor. Instead of taking the stairs through the now darkened house, they turned to the window, a handful of stars becoming visible in the deep indigo sky.
‘Wait –!’ she yelled, as the vampire gripped her body and jumped from the window onto the ground below. It was not a firm grip. Khalida saw the ground rushing up to meet them. The vampire’s body landed gently on the grass, though she was thrown against the flawless, vice-like hold on her body. She cried out, as sickening pain ran through her wrist and echoed through her legs. As she was dragged towards a car, she heard the thud of the others leaping down to join them.
She heard the faint rumble of a car engine approaching, as the vampire leading her stumbled over the ground towards the black four-by-four.
‘Get them out of here,’ Tycho said, turning towards the driveway. ‘Don’t take them to London tonight – take them to a safe house, instead.’
‘Commander, you ought to leave as well,’ Shepard said.
‘I will stay and fight whatever is approaching,’ Tycho snapped back.
Khalida tried to lean back to see what was approaching, her eyes casting on Clarence and Cain’s figures as her hands were pushed behind her back. Tears of excruciating pain flared up in her eyes, as her wrists were bound in a set of tight, plastic cuffs. Rough hands pushed her up inside the car.
It smelled new, and the leather seating was cool against her skin. Clarence was thrown in next to her, and Cain on the other side of him. She could see Tycho and Shepard, along with a handful of others, stay rooted in front of the house, staring down at the driveway. A pair got in the front seat; the man with the scars, who had dragged Khalida to the car, got into the driver’s seat, and the blonde woman, who had held Cain, got into the passenger seat.
‘Marr,’ the man said, looking back at him in the rear-view mirror, his dark eyes sparkling. ‘You’ve been busy.’
His jaw tightened, though he didn’t say anything in response. The roar of the approaching vehicle grew.
‘Aren’t you going to answer Quinn, Marr?’ the woman asked, grinning.
‘He didn’t ask me a question,’ Clarence muttered.
‘You’re meant to say, ‘yes, I have been,’’ she sighed, twirling the end of her plait.
‘Why are we not moving yet?’ Clarence said.
‘The driveway is fucking one-way, moron,’ Quinn said. ‘We don’t want to be flying down just as something is coming up.’
Clarence sat back, his eyes looking over at Cain, who was ghostly pale.
Quinn turned the key in the ignition, and the hum of the engine filled the car.
Mitch’s Jeep flew into view, just as Quinn slammed his foot down on the accelerator. Khalida caught a glimpse of Leah clutching the wheel as they barrelled towards where Tycho stood. Khalida gritted her teeth and kicked at the back of Quinn’s seat as they drove. There was no give. He let out a bark-like laugh.
‘Darlin’, you’re going to have a kick a bit harder than that,’ he said, as they shot down the drive.
With a brief roll of his eyes, Clarence kicked at his seat. The headrest came off clean, and he pushed Quinn’s head forward. Before either of them could react, Clarence kicked again, his foot colliding with the back of Quinn’s head. The car swerved sharply. Quinn’s knuckles tightened over the steering wheel as he struggled to keep the car from veering off into the trees.
‘Did Feigrey say that we can harm this shit?’ Quinn said, as the woman grabbed Clarence’s legs.
‘Not ideally,’ she said, fighting against Clarence’s thrashing, ‘but given what he did to Malik, and his general behaviour so far, I think we’re more than justified.’
‘That’s fine with me,’ Quinn said, braking as the car reached the end of the drive. With a dark excitement in his eyes, he got out of the car and opened the door next to Khalida.
‘C’mon,’ he muttered, reaching over her to drag out Clarence by the scruff of his neck.
‘Get the fuck off me!’ Clarence screamed as he was hauled out. Khalida felt his weight move over her, wincing as his joints dug into her, before Quinn threw him out of the car and onto the ground.
‘Got to be quick,’ the woman said, leaning against the car, with a mindful glance back up towards the house.
‘I know, Benkowski,’ Quinn said, looking down over Clarence.
‘Fuck you!’ he yelled, his eyes blazing with ire, the pupils pinpricks. He tried to get to his feet, but Quinn kicked him back down. Quinn smirked, drawing out a wooden sword.
‘You’ve always been such a cunt, Marr,’ he said. He drove the sword into the flesh of Clarence’s leg, piercing down between his bone and calf, just as Khalida leapt from the car.
Clarence’s screaming ripped through the twilight, mingling with the sounds of an approaching engine and a couple of gunshots. A surge of adrenaline filled Khalida’s body. Her run was awkward with her hands bound behind her. With a fleeting glance backwards, she saw that Benkowski was after her, her feet so fast and light that it looked as though she was soaring forward.
Khalida stumbled and fell forwards into the woodland, and with a shriek of pain, she forced her wrists under her legs and in front of her body. Her vision blurred for a moment as she ran her hands over the ground. Her hands found the rough bark of a small, thin stick. As Benkowski leapt at her, Khalida snapped the stick between her foot and good hand. With a surge of energy, she thrust the stick forwards and scraped it across Benkowski’s palm. Benkowski hissed and jerked her hand back, coming to an abrupt stop in front of Khalida, just beyond her reach.
‘A twig?’ she smirked, rubbing her injured hand. ‘It’s going to take more than that to save you.’
Khalida held the stick out in front of her, doing her best to hold her arm steady. In between the trees, she saw Quinn give Clarence another kick. The car was empty.
‘We’ve got to go, Benkowski,’ he called out. ‘It’s a fucking twig; don’t be a pussy about it.’
Benkowski grinned with a roll of her eyes.
‘Just drop the stick,’ she said. ‘It’s over.’
Quinn made to move over to them. Clarence jerked his body upwards and sank his teeth into Quinn’s leg.
‘Get off me!’ Quinn yelled, raising his sword upwards to come down across Clarence’s body. From behind the car, Cain leapt upon him, digging his teeth into the flesh of Quinn’s neck, and bit down hard. Quinn’s yell was crushed; his eyes bulged as Cain’s teeth clamped down like a vice. While Benkowski was distracted by the blood spurting from his neck, Khalida ran.
She didn’t know where or why she was running. They could see her clearly, when all she saw was the murky darkness of night. They were faster than she was. Stronger. She wondered what the point was; if they didn’t capture her tonight, then they would find her tomorrow. Someone would find her and drag her back to Rebirth.
Her family was dead; her sister who had protected her was dead. And her friends; Mitch was dead already, and Poppy and Leah would soon follow. Cain and Clarence would die after being tortured for information, and she along with them. Then, the country would follow. Rebirth was a creeping shadow, lurking, seeping like poison into the soil and the air.
She was yanked back sharply; her legs gave out from under her.
‘Come on,’ Benkowski said, picking her up by the scruff of her neck and snatching the stick from her hand. The rumble of a car was nearly upon them.
Behind them, she saw Quinn collapse to the ground with Cain still on his neck. Cain released him from his bite and turned to Clarence, snapping the handcuffs off him with his teeth. Clarence seized the wooden sword, and in one, swift motion, he drove it through Quinn’s chest.
‘Goddamn it,’ Benkowski hissed, drawing her own sword with one hand, as Clarence staggered to his feet, leaning on Cain for support. She marched back towards them, Khalida’s feet scuffing over the ground, her jeans catching on thorns. ‘Stay in the car,’ she said, throwing Khalida unceremoniously onto the back seats.
Khalida fell against the seats. The smell of leather filled her nose as she twisted around onto her front, crying out at the pain in her wrist. She looked out of the rear-view mirror and saw the bullet-torn Jeep veering towards them, its windshield smashed.
Leah, tucked down behind the steering wheel, was driving erratically, swerving left and right as far as she could on the narrow driveway, barely in control of the car. Then, Khalida’s eyes found the shadowy figures of the vampires running alongside, firing bullets towards it.
To her surprise, the car only sped up as it approached. With a sickening crunch, Quinn’s body went under the tyres. Cain and Clarence collapsed to either side of the road, out of the way. Khalida was flung onto the floor of the car as Leah rammed the Jeep past them. Metal screeched on metal. Her breathing rapid, Khalida twisted her way out of the car and onto the ground.
‘Is my husband dead?!’ Poppy yelled out of a shattered window.
‘He is!’ Cain shouted. ‘I heard his heart stop!’
‘Very well, then!’ she called back. The Jeep rammed its way forward, Quinn’s body mangled underneath it, with one of his broken eyes smeared like yolk on the gravel.
Poppy flung open the door and leapt down onto the side of the driveway, pivoting on her cane as she drove her stake into the chest of an oncoming vampire.
‘Get in!’ Leah yelled.
Khalida saw a hoard of vampires descend down from the hill and through the woods. Poppy swung away, her cane rooted in the earth, drawing back as she plunged the stake into Benkowski’s chest.
Cain pushed Clarence towards the Jeep, and Clarence pulled himself in. Khalida saw the gouge in his leg, blood running down, curling around his shoe. He held out his hand to help pull Khalida up into the car. From the corner of her eye, she saw Cain run forwards with the sword, pulling Poppy down and pinning her to the ground as a hail of bullets fell on them.
Something caught around her middle; Clarence’s hands pulled her upwards onto the seats as Leah rammed the car forward. Cain’s body curled around Poppy as he began to pull her back to the car.
Khalida saw Tycho advance on them, his face almost impassive, apart from the stiffness of his lips, the furrow of his brows and his burning, crimson eyes. He held a gun in his hand, aiming at Poppy. Poppy’s eyes narrowed, a snarl growing around her lips.
The gun fired as she threw her stake forward. Poppy’s body was thrown back against Cain. The stake lodged itself into Tycho’s upper shoulder, his knees collapsed under him as he fell to the ground. A few vampires stopped and turned to h
im as more bullets came at them, and Poppy and Cain clambered into the Jeep, Cain in the front seat. The car immediately began to plunge down the hill.
‘Did you kill him?’ Clarence asked from the other side of Khalida. Figures began to run down the hill towards them, fast and swift.
‘I don’t know,’ Poppy gasped, clutching her arm. ‘Missed his chest, got him in the shoulder.’
‘You’re bleeding,’ Khalida said.
‘Can’t you drive any faster, Leah?’ Cain asked.
‘I’m trying!’ she snapped.
‘It’s a fresh wound,’ Poppy said. ‘What about you, are you bleeding?’
‘I’m fine,’ she said, a warm sensation creeping around her torso. Her shirt was dark and saturated with blood. ‘I think I’ve been shot.’
‘That looks serious,’ Poppy said, worried urgency creeping into her tone.
‘We can’t fix it right now,’ Khalida said. ‘Keep driving.’
‘You’re going to die,’ Clarence said, his voice flat.
‘What?’ she asked.
‘I’ve seen this before,’ he said. ‘You’re bleeding out right now.’
‘I suppose so,’ Khalida said, her voice sounding like a distant echo to herself.
‘You’re going to die.’
‘One day,’ she said. ‘But there’s nothing I can do about this.’
‘No,’ Clarence said, ‘you’re dying right now.’
‘I guess I am then.’
Clarence looked at her, his eyes large and intense, studying her face.
‘Don’t be so naïve,’ he said.
‘Don’t you dare!’ Khalida yelled, trying to push him away as he leaned across and bit her. She screamed as his teeth dug into her neck. A white-hot burning sensation began to spread underneath her skin.
‘What the hell did you do, Clarence?!’ Cain yelled from the front seat.
‘She’s not going to die now,’ he said.
‘Get out,’ Poppy said. ‘Get out, now!’
‘I’m staying with her!’ Clarence said, as something hit the car. The edges of Khalida’s vision began to waver and blur, and a moan escaped through her lips as an unflinching agony began to engulf her.
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