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“Well, I have to say, it’s about time you two got back together, I was getting impatient,” the witch said stepping from the tree line curled in what looked like the shadows she commanded. It was as though she had just appeared out of nowhere. This made me think back to the way she had escaped the river of blood in the vault, telling me then that she most likely had created some kind of portal.
She wore her usual red cloak. The same one I had seen her wearing in both my dreams and the nightmare reality. I didn’t know what she meant about us being back together or why she would need for us to be, but I knew one thing, I wasn’t the only one who didn’t like her comment. I knew this when I felt Lucius get tense.
“Aww, well, would you look at that, honey, she was rooting for us,” I said sarcastically making Lucius scoff.
“We meet at last for I have been curious about when the bitch I intend to kill would turn up,” Lucius said in a calm tone that the hard muscles beneath my palms told me he was anything but.
“I wouldn’t be so cocky, Vampire, after all, it’s not like I came alone,” she said, now raising up her hands and out from the shadows stepped the army of rogues she had brought with her, one we both already knew were there. I didn’t know how it was possible for me to know this as it wasn’t as if I had any supernatural gifts to help in this department. But for some reason, I just had. As if I had felt them humming against my skin, one that gave new meaning to the saying making your skin crawl.
“Good, for you will need a fucking army,” Lucius told her.
“Now. if I had known that was all it would take,” she said in cocky tone.
“You mistake me...for you will need the fucking army just to give you a head start before I rip your fucking heart out, witch!” Lucius snarled the threat making one of the figures that suddenly emerged next to her start laughing, one unfortunately we both knew well.
“See, I told you he is arrogant,” she said turning her head towards the witch. However, one look at her and I just groaned in annoyance before commenting dryly,
“Ah, well, it’s clearly not a party without Bitch face...well, this should be fun, I was looking for another shot at killing that bitch!” This had the desired effect as it made Lucius chuckle and Layla furious,
“We will see about that, you little cunt!” Layla snarled stepping towards me, only to find herself stopped when the witch’s hand rose, ceasing her movements.
“Not yet, we need her,” the witch warned, making Lucius growl low in his throat, pulling me tight to his frame.
“Yeah, to fucking bleed!” Layla said maliciously.
“Silence!” the witch snapped after turning her head to the side and slicing a hand down in front of her making Layla cower slightly,
“Wow, so crass...seriously Lucius, you had terrible taste in women before you met me.” Lucius didn’t look away from our enemies, keeping his eagle eyes on them, whilst agreeing with me,
“That I did, love.”
“Enough of this! You know what we want, Vampire, now show us the way,” the witch snapped, and the jerked motion made her hood slip back a little. But what was then odd was the way in which she hurried to cover herself back up, yanking it forward with a fumbled motion. I frowned in question as it was almost as if she didn’t want to show her face. Was it because of the scars...? Did she consider it a weakness...or perhaps it was more than that?
“Explain to me why I should, do you think your little army scares me?” Lucius challenged.
“No, but what does scare you, Vampire, is losing your Chosen One and can you really risk fighting them all without risking her life...besides, here’s a little example to back up my claim.” The witch then made a motion with her hand and suddenly there was a whizzing sound before pain burst in my shoulder at my back, making me push into Lucius from the impact.
“AAAHH!”
“Amelia!” he shouted as I fell into him, and when I lifted my face off his chest the first thing I asked was,
“Where did all the blood come from?” Lucius looked down at me and the second he saw that I was hurt, he did so with blood thirsty murder in his eyes, as his demon started to come through.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, for I have ten more aimed at her that you can’t see and won’t have the power to stop. Now, show me the way and I will let you heal her,” the witch told him, making him close his eyes and snarl as he twisted his neck to the side in a painful way. It was then that I knew he was actually fighting with his demon side in order to try and stay in control.
But the pain was starting to rip through me, making me fall limp against him and as a result, his arm tightened around me. Then, pushing past the pain, I used my strength to reach up so I could put a palm to his cheek,
“Hey, it’s okay, come back to me...yeah?” I said trying to help him focus as he struggled to hold himself back from allowing that part of him to take over. I knew this when the black veins started to branch out around his crimson eyes and snake down his neck where his skin seemed to ripple with the increasing power building. But at the sound of my voice he started to pull through and was soon looking down at me, half as a demon, half as the man I loved, before whispering my name,
“Amelia...I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay...I’m okay, it’s just...ahh...my...” I finished this as I tried to reach around my back to pull whatever I could feel was stuck there.
“Ssshh, it’s okay, I will heal you,” he told me softly.
“Tut, tut, not yet, Vampire... now show us the way, as I am sure it was not a walk you could have ever forgotten,” the witch said with a smirk in her voice making him growl.
“She’s got a fucking arrow in her shoulder!” he snapped making me frown. Holy shit... was that what it was, no wonder it fucking hurt!
“Yes, and she will continue to bleed the longer it takes you...quicker if you remove the arrow.” The witch said making Layla laugh,
“I can’t fucking wait for that show!” I hissed her way, and said to Lucius,
“New rule, no ex bitch faces on date night.” He gave me a small strained smile before cupping my cheek and rubbing a thumb over my cheek,
“Sweetheart.” His tender endearment was interrupted the second the witch snapped,
“Time to get moving!”
I felt the rumble of Lucius’ growl against me before he swept my legs up and even though he did so gently, I still cried out in pain as he took me in his arms, being mindful of where the arrow was sticking out of my flesh.
“Ssshh now, it will be alright...I will take care of you, my Khuba,” he told me softly at the sight of my pain. I nodded twice and laid my head against his chest as he carried me. Then I tried to ignore the strange feeling, like a wave of heat, as if someone had shot a firecracker in my shoulder not an arrow.
Lucius started walking and I glanced over his shoulder to see that the witch was following along with the shadows of rogues behind her. Layla at her side, of course, dressed all in black like some fucking ninja! Gods, I hated her! Unfortunately, it looked like we were outnumbered here as there were seriously too many shadows to count and with my injury, then in all honesty, I couldn’t be bothered anyway.
Lucius continued walking, and we left the clearing as the last of the sun said goodbye to the day and a full moon replaced it. This at least gave us enough light to see and the car behind us soon became a shadow in the distance. Lucius continued to take long strides along what looked like an old footpath that was most definitely overgrown. He was trying to stay along the tree line instead of going into the thick of the forest, and I soon realised why.
He kept looking up at the night sky as we walked, which was when I realised...he was being led by the stars. That had been why he was waiting for night fall.
“Well, look at you...total...boy...scout.” I said feeling lightheaded, from what I gathered was losing blood. Lucius gave me a little shake and said,
“Come on, sweetheart, keep talking to me now, yeah?” I took in a deep breath and let it out again.
“Any pain when you do that?” he asked, me making me frown in question,
“No,” I told him with a little shake of my head. He then went on to ask,
“Any shortness of breath?”
“Well, yeah but that’s most likely down to the arrow sticking out of my body,” I replied making him smirk,
“Not lost your sass...also a good sign.”
“A good sign of what, that I am still living and able to verbally abuse you?” He chuckled again and I looked behind him, making him say,
“Don’t look at them, look at me.” I knew why he said this as he didn’t want me to panic. A little late for that, seeing as I had already been shot and didn’t exactly see how we were going to get out of this.
“It’s kind of hard not to, I mean they are kind of noticeable,” I told him, making him repeat the order,
“Ignore them and tell me how you feel?” I chuckled but it ended on a groan thanks to the burning pain that tightened when I moved.
“Without laughing,” he advised.
“Well, don’t say that, as now all I will want to do is laugh!” He shook his head as if he was questioning my sanity when I explained,
“It’s the same as telling someone who’s scared of heights not to look down, they always do!”
“Alright, sweetheart, I think I am getting your point here...now tell me, any sharp pain when inhaling or chest pain, which is more severe on one side?” I frowned again and said,
“No, just a burning pain...why?”
“Because your heart rate has increased.” I laughed once, winced again, and ignoring his raised ‘I told you to keep still’ brow, I said,
“Again, if I were to venture a guess that would be from the arrow sticking out of my shoulder.”
“I asked because there might have been the possibility of a pneumothorax.”
“A collapsed lung?” I translated in form of a question.
“Yes, but seeing as you seem to be breathing without difficulty then I would say that, thankfully, this isn’t the case.”
“Any other fatal worries I should know about, Doctor Phil?” I asked and his replied shocked me, because clearly, he had heard of Doctor Phil...unless I had mentioned him in some cocky reply before?
“I’m not worried about your state of mind here, sweet.”
“Yeah, but he is the only famous doctor I know about, other than the one from Doctor Who.”
“Who?” he asked making me repeat,
“Yeah, Who.” He frowned and said,
“Actually, now I am worried about your brain.” I was about to laugh when he shook his head silently reminding me that laughing wouldn’t be fun for me right now.
“Doctor Who is a TV show, I wasn’t confused or forgot. Now go back to your other worries,” I told him without telling him how sexy the whole doctor act was.
“Other than a fucking witch that can pull arrows from a veil of another realm?”
“Ah, yeah, well that does sound bad, as I gotta say, this being shot business isn’t fun for me.” He gave me a tender look before looking up at the stars again, changing his direction a little. Then we started to make our way towards a large open space as a field spread out in front of us. I half expected us to find Maria from Sound of Music being followed by a bunch of singing kids and a broody guy she fell in love with. Forget Nazis, an army of Vampires being led by a pissed off witch with a grudge, was where the real horror was at, I thought sarcastically.
“Now, tell me what your other worry was, other than yes, the army, the witch and raining arrows from another realm...wow, must say, didn’t see myself saying that sentence today.” Again, I received another grin before he said,
“My concern was if it had hit the brachial artery, then there would have been dramatic blood loss, requiring the application of a tourniquet to prevent exsanguination but the arrow is continuing to slow down the bleed rate, so this is good.”
“Wow and here I was thinking I was the smart one...see, total boy scout,” I said making him laugh after which he told me quietly,
“Amelia, listen to me, they can’t see you from here, so they won’t know what you are doing.”
“Why, what am I doing?” I asked whispering back.
“I want you to pull the neck of my shirt down and bite my chest as hard as you can.” Suddenly my fun day was getting better.
“Hardly time for a hickey, handsome.”
“Amelia, you know what I want, now it won’t heal you completely, not until I can remove the arrow, but it will help with the blood loss.”
“And the orgasm that usually follows it?” I asked making him reply,
“It won’t be enough all at once.”
“I guess that’s why they didn’t use a gun to shoot me with, huh, clever really.”
“Right, well, before we praise the enemy too much, can you get on with it, as we have a way left to go and you will need strength for both the journey and when we get there,” he advised in a tense tone.
“Why?”
“Because I have a plan,” he said making it wise not to ask but instead to praise the right person who was on my team.
“Of course, you do...my man always has a plan,” I said making him grin, flashing his fangs that I knew were the parts of his demon he hadn’t yet released. After all, the threat was still at our backs.
After this he nodded down at me, telling me to start so I did what he asked. I yanked hard on the neck of his t shirt, gripping the material as if this would help. Then I first kissed the small section of bare chest making him wink down at me in thanks before I bit down on his flesh as hard as I could. He didn’t even flinch as his blood dripped and pooled in my mouth. I continued to suck at him and started to feel better the more blood I took. But then when I started to pull back, he snarled down at me,
“More.”
“Lucius, no, you need your strength too and I am feeling better.” His snarled response told me I wouldn’t win.
“More, Amelia, now do as you’re told.” I rolled my eyes at him before going back to sucking more, grinning around his flesh when he said,
“My itchy palm will owe you for that one, my sassy girl.”
After this I didn’t know how much farther we ended up going but I must have fallen asleep at some point with my face nestled against Lucius’ chest, one that had healed long ago.
“I think this is close enough!” The witch’s voice startled me awake and I quickly opened my eyes to see where we were.
I gasped in horror as we had now been plummeted right into my nightmares.
A single dead tree.
A missing bloodied noose.
A body no longer swaying at the end of it.
The place where Lucius first died.