Blood & Juniper

The guard recovers almost immediately. I defect his impulsive punch, thrusting it aside. I wrestle an arm around his neck in a hostage hold. We roll, flipping over in the thrashing stalks. I glimpse that inexplicable distraction in the ruckus with my own dose of belated shock.

It's swooping down from midair. A shawl of torn rags spread like giant condor wings. It plummets for the shooter. The face is a grotesque mask, defaced like a weathered gargoyle, more disturbing than the original creation. Thin sinew strains against its jaw. An anglerfish maw open, gleaming with plentiful teeth. Two burning lights like the bioluminescent antennae hover above the splitting mouth in pitted sockets. Hellfire eyes that are beyond sanity, only seeking destruction.

The thing descends, falling upon Fidget who hasn't stopped that death scream. Her terror curdles my blood. The demonic silhouette rips into her like an entire pack of starving lions. The noise is horrific like she's fallen into a grinder.

I'm tossed onto my side by the guard's elbow as he throws his body, slipping the chokehold. I continue rolling, trying to subdue him.

His maneuvers are frantic though practiced. Rapid fists sweep the air at my face and c.h.e.s.t, forcing me on the defensive. He uses my own weight to my detriment, rolling with my grab for him. His eyes are rouge embers zigging across the dark.

I fail to block. There's an aggressive pop in my jaw as the right hook connects. He grapples my returning swing and twists. I wince at the gravel crackling up and throughout my shoulder.

He's scrambling to stay above. More pressure weighs on my shoulder. I bite down on a shout, he's going to dislocate it. Claws stab deep into my side, thrusting and thrusting like chaotic shears. Demanding submission or death.

I curl in from the flashes of jolting pain. He shreds the leather like paper, ripping open flesh, chipping away at the ribs.

I act on the shout, bucking him off balance. Claws nick my neck as they hum past. The bloody marks sear where he intended to rip out my throat.

I kick him in the stomach, freeing my arm. Sharp pain sucks at my side. He's relentless. White hands lash out, coming back in a blur. We whip-round caught in a maelstrom. I snatch his collar and throw myself forward mashing his forehead with mine.

There's a deafening crack. Dizzied cusses swirl in the starred confusion but he's resilient, still holding on. I sling a recession of punches, ignoring the burn in my wounded side. He's ready, blocking at every turn, both hands crossed like bird wings then snaking around mine in violent misdirection.

I detect the pattern, an opening presents itself. I go for his face, throwing all my power into it. I feel my knuckles split against the cheekbone as it shatters apart.

He throws his head back, bawling at the sky. The skin ripples across his broken cheek, channeling his war cry into brazen assault. All limbs barring down, scrambling. He batters against me without remorse.

I strike out at his throat, exhausted and desperate. He bats it away and goes for another tactical grab. We reel, slamming into a large rock. I can't shrug him off. His bloodied breath is spitting in my face as he roars, "Bring him down!"

I catch a second figure charging before it rams in my bleeding side. The solid wack knocks out my breath, sending me spinning like a dislodged propeller ripping up pebbles and grass.

A syrupy glob chokes up my lungs. The sour twang striking my nerves. I force myself up on shaky ground. The heavens and earth rotate in a whirlwind of torment, then a shadow of a foot flashes by to divide them. It smashes in between my eyes. I grunt, rolling rough with the blow.

Dazed I back off, narrowly avoiding the newcomer with the snarling face. Nature seems to bend around him as he rides a wavering current. His stomping boots split the earth.

I'm distracted by the brute and miss the grappler coming for my flank. He pins me before I can scuffle. Arms locking, binding me like a straight jacket and rendering my arms useless. His skull-trimmed friend bounds over to lay into me.

I yelp, jerking to avoid a concussive swing to the head. The effort proves futile as his other fist comes around, bulldozing my gut. The agony is a shockwave. I squeeze my eyes shut but it still feels like a fluorescent bulb bursting to pieces inside my sockets.

My knees falter from the blow but I don't mercifully drop. My shoulders pinch, held fast. I'm suspended like a cut of beef for the onslaught.

'You've failed.'

He wails on me, pain lances into my bones from every direction. Blood runs into my eyes from a forehead gash, but my vision is going black anyway. I gasp as fangs clamp down onto my shoulder. Teeth hit bone and break through.

'They'll kill her.'

With a surge to break apart, I shout, arching back with a hop. I throw myself forward to catapult the other.

'The sun will burn her up to nothing. Ash… Ashes… Ashes.'

Not entirely successful but my arm is loose. I capture a fist full of hair and throw it down, crunching to meet my knee. A muffled cry escapes the concaving face. I toss him drunkenly aside.

I spin to incapacitate the other as my senses splitter apart. I'm struck directly in the side of the head, a bolt discharging in one temple and out the other. My vision spirals down to black.

Silence.

The air is crackling in my ears. Muffled voices come roaring up from the head-pounding fog. There's pressure on all sides. I must have blacked out. I blink at the fuzzy dark.

An inner voice urges, 'Get up and fight or we die here!'

"Where'd the other one go! Where's Truman!"

"I don't know! But this one is getting back up. We need to finish him off-"

The other is nearly hysterical, cutting him off, "Here's the gun, where ARE they!"

I hear something violently rattle the weeds, hissing and ripping through the field as it circles us like an invisible basilisk. I flinch and strain to see as the guards shout panicked curses and tromp around.

"Where did it go!"

"That thing is coming!"

"There! There! Shoot it, Shoot it, SHOOT IT!"

"Wha-No! Shi-Ahhhhhh!"

That pressure at my back is ripped away and I glimpse a blurry face ridden with terror as the foot is yanked beneath him. His wails fall away as he's dragged, disappearing in a curtain of tall grass. I fight the dull throbbing in my head, forcing the world on its correct axis.

I stumble, unable to stand. 'It useless, I'm useless! But I need to get up now!' I start to panic, start to lose it. Blood floods my mouth. My rationale muddles and snaps like weak threads. Fatigue morphs into something lethal. I see red.

I recognize the shadow of my assailant coming to seize and throw myself on him. Heedless to everything but the attack.

'We must survive. And they must die.'

My senses are amuck. There's a guttural gagging sound and my fingers come back wet. A spray of blood enlivens my thoughtless wrath. The inner monster is piloting, howling with delirious laughter. That blaring hum is getting louder.

I watch the arc of his limb coming down to retaliate, it's easily dodged. I take another clawed swipe, fangs descending to tear through flesh. Thick wet bubbles up, he chokes out a shriek. I shove my hand deeper, sink my teeth in further. The ringing is an ear-splitting pitch.

The pain is remote as he tears at the side of my face in a frenzy, into my arm, into my damaged side. He's losing his edge. I'm numb to it, fueled by this insensate craze. I clamp down harder. He cries out garbled air.

I taste his strength crumble against my teeth, resolve becomes poison in his blood, doubt spreads like rapid venom. I whip back, stealing my pound of flesh.

I fall on my hands and knees taking him down with. His back slams into the ground. I'm bellowing in senseless rage, hand flying up to wipe the blood from my eyes in a frenzy. My fingers raise higher, curling for a final strike. His heart radiates as if alive, screaming, ringing. Or maybe that's his scream.

I target and pulverize it, crushing his heart and cage. He doesn't make another sound.

There's scarcely a moment's peace as a wayward shot fires off. I whirl unsteadily, stumbling upward. My head is blurry from violence. Its ache and sweet indulgence meld together. I'm drawn by a distant struggle and hone in. That last hostile vampire and the ghoulish creature flail in a brawl.

Slobber and blood run from the disfigured thing's oversized teeth, greedy for more to gnaw. The claws swat rabid and eager.

The vampire waves the firearm around like a loose cannon on deck, beating the creature back and failing to get a clear shot. The score of returning kicks and thwacks hardly dissuades the monster rampaging above him. The second blast explodes through the sky, zipping past too closely. A stray pelt grazes my shoulder and scorches through.

I jolt sideways then sprint at them. The sting of the silver motivates my thirst, hurtling me deeper into insatiable brutality.

I snatch the hot muzzle, yanking the shotgun in a twirl. The b.u.t.t of the weapon fits against my shoulder as if I were meant to wield it. I aim down, locking with wide ruby eyes and drink up the horror within them.

I pull the trigger.

The eyes disappear. I taste the bloodshed on the air. I pull again, again, a fourth time, a fifth time. The gun clicks empty long before the fifth.

I stare down panting at the face I blew away, trying to make sense of it. I see the destruction but am too riled to feel anything for it. I wind down, slowing my breath. I've completely lost it.

I hear a gush of squelching meat and spin, aiming the gun on alert. I stare down the sites at the monster. I recall through the red haze, it's the Reaper and her vandalized head.

She's run off with her prize, hunched like a cave goblin. Her talons curled covetously around a disgusting organ lump. She's s.u.c.k.i.n.g it dry.

It unnerves me to notice the whites of her eyes are no longer white. They are immersed in liquid black. Those icy blues swim bright and piercing in a pitch of utter darkness. She's staring at me.

I throw down the firearm and fall into the weeds as my legs give out. I remember one thing clearly about being human, I would have never lost control like this.

'You're falling apart, Sam. It's only a matter of time before you're back to-"

"No," I expire my refusal, then wince clutching my gouged side. I close my eyes, pushing both the pain and that train of thought away. I ease the tension in my shoulders trying to get my priorities in order, "No."

I scrub my hands over my face and exhale again, evaluating the carnage through my fingers with growing dismay.

Add a few more vampires to my mounting body count and to make matters worse they're all Thorn affiliated. If I keep this up I'll be signing my own death warrant.

I'm becoming a regular vampire hunter, but ironically, the one I want dead is *still alive*. We are all alive, though not out of the woods yet.