Rise Of The Hunters - Chapter 88

“Rick!” screamed Willow. She kicked out at the black-eyed guard as he snarled, and tried to bite her again.

Rick was currently wrestling with another two guards, who had fused to each other. From the looks of it, one hadn’t survived the meld, and the other didn’t seem to care.

“One moment,” he grunted, holding two hands down with a knee, while trying to contain the other two.

Hayden sat against the wall, watching everything quietly. His bow lay in his ŀȧp, but there were no arrows for him to shoot. Instead he had a knife in his hands, waiting for something to get close to him.

The three vampires were busy with Lisa, who was laughing maniacally and spouting off tidbits of her ‘secrets’ to whoever would listen, while tentacles extended out from her ċhėst, and tried to grab whatever got close. She didn’t seem to be controlling them, as they were able to move as fast as the vampires.

“Hayden!” she screamed as she narrowly managed to avoid another bite. “Now would be a great time to save me again!”

Hayden turned to look at her, but didn’t move. He seemed to be in a kind of trance.

“Hayden! For the love of…!” shouted Rick as he was interrupted when the guards’ arms got loose again and locked around his neck.

Dr. Achak stood back, letting his two ȧssistants handle the majority of the fighting. Turning away from Lisa, he appeared next to Willow, flinging the guard back across the room. When he smacked the wall, there was a meaty crunch, and the guard stopped moving. Then he appeared next to Rick, grabbing the melded guards and similarly flinging them across the room, to land next to the first.

“If you would be so kind as to aid us in fighting your former ȧssociate, I would be grateful.”

Rick nodded, not fully realizing who the man was. Willow moved towards Rick, then froze when Dr. Achak turned towards her, and she got her first good look at him.

“Is something wrong?” he asked, looking at her quizzically. Behind him, one of his ȧssistants went flying through the air.

“You’re the vampire…from the cave,” she couldn’t finish her sentence. Her teeth began to chatter and she backed away from him. If he hadn’t been blocking the door, she would have sprinted for it.

“If he wanted to eat you, he would have already,” said Hayden, touching her shoulder.

Comfort and calm flowed from his touch over her entire body, and she relaxed.

“Hayden?” asked Rick, noticing something was off.

“I’ll be fine, I’m just trying to find myself again,” he said, turning towards Lisa.

“How interesting,” murmured Dr. Achak, his eyes glowing in interest.

Lisa locked eyes on him, and stopped talking. The tentacles stopped weaving around her crazily, and the two vampires took that opportunity to kill her.

“I have such a headache. What happened?” he asked.

“You just took away my panic and fear, and distracted a crazy tentacle lady.” Willow sat down on the edge of her bed, feeling light as a feather.

“Really? How did I do that?” he looked around confused.

“I believe it may be a latent ability. Would you allow me to take a sample of your blood to run tests? I believe you all may be infected with a new virus, far more dangerous than any I’ve seen so far. I would hate for any of you to change into monsters as your acquaintances.”

Rick looked at Willow, then at the various dead bodies around the room, at Hayden, then at Dr. Achak.

“Yes, please. Lisa had said the virus was supposed to harm vampires, too.”

“Really? How unfortunate. I will definitely have to look into this!” Rushing from the room, they were left alone. The other ȧssistants had already left.

“Are you okay, Willow?” asked Rick, after helping Hayden into his bed. He sat down next to her on the bed.

“I don’t want to die,” she whispered, looking at him with tears in her eyes.

Taking her into his arms, he hugged her. He wanted nothing more than to promise her only good things, but he couldn’t.

XxxxX

Xun crashed into another wall, and tried to hold onto the rope with all his strength. He was trying to keep everyone else from being knocked off, and it was banging him up. Light ahead of him, raised his hopes.

As they were all pulled into the air, gasps for breath were all anyone could hear. Pulling himself onto the rocks, he turned and started making sure everyone was there. The youngest had been held by the oldest, to ensure everyone made it.

“That was horrible!” sputtered Matilda, shivering in the cold.

A howl erupted from Tommy, and he fell down, convulsing. Everyone fled from him, except Xun. He jumped over to him and started talking.

“Tommy, calm down, I have you, it’s alright, just breath, Tommy, I got you, it’s okay,” he repeated over and over, trying to pull his knife out without cutting the boy.

The boy’s skin was starting to ripple, as if something was just under the surface, trying to get loose.

Cutting his hand, deeper than he had intended, Xun allowed the ensuing flood of blood to pour over Tommy’s face and ċhėst. Pulling him onto his ŀȧp as the convulsing lessened, he started rocking him.

“Tommy?” asked Matilda, scared.

“He’s alright, everything’s fine now,” said Xun softly, hoping and praying he was right, but knowing he probably wasn’t.

XxxxX

They had retreated into the empty dock house, and Lola had a fire going. Everyone was soaked and cold. Having lived in the cave their whole lives, they had never experienced cold like this before.

“Mind telling us, what happened outside?” asked Theo.

“Tommy was infected by a werewolf. He never turned and my blood has the ability to keep them from turning.” Xun sat, still holding Tommy, who was asleep, as his mom bandaged his hand.

They knew about werewolves, having passed the stories of the war down, but they never had to worry about the werewolves and vampires before.

“It was believed, when we left the cave, that the monsters would be gone,” said Adam, looking at his wife and son by the fire.

“Sadly, it’s the people who have almost disappeared.” Lola poked at the fire, before adding more wood.