Charlie Swan: Vampire Hunter

10

I stepped slowly out of the car, sword in hand but unlit. I wanted to see if talking might be able to deescalate the situation before fighting was necessary. Esme snarled and me and bared her fangs.
"You." She snarled. "You need to stop what you're doing and leave. Forks is our home and you aren't going to push us out as so many have before."
"I have no plan to force you out." I said putting out a hand in supplication for peace. "I'm just learning about a world that has apparently been all around me that I didn't know about. I'm not going to tell anyone, and I don't want to harm you or your family."
She snarled again, but made no move toward me. "Leave and I won't kill you, go home and pack your bags. That hunk of metal won't help you against me. So give up and leave."
I shook my head and brought the sword out in front of me. I didn't strike the igniter yet, but I adjusted my body into a defensive position.
"So be it." Esme said before lunging at me. She was so quick I barely saw her coming. I hit the ignition and swung with the sword.
I got lucky. The sword grazed her arm and left a deep gash. Her claws missed my neck by barely and inch.
She hissed as she turned, her golden eyes smoldering. "That may have hurt, but it didn't kill. You'll have to do better human."
I didn't have a chance to respond before she was on the move again. I knew I wasn't going to win this fight through speed or agility, Esme had the advantage in both respects, but I had a weapon that I now knew worked. I could do this if I was smart.
Her head was my next target. As she came at me in a blur of speed and sharp edges I swung high hoping against hope I would hit her neck. She must have seen the sword coming because she dodged, but because of the evasive maneuver she wasn't able to land any attacks on me.
"Don't worry," I said. "I can do better."
She growled and jumped over me to my back and charged. I spun and braced myself. She was so blinded by fury she forgot that my sword would hurt her and impaled herself on it. I felt one of her nails catch my cheek and rip, and felt hot blood spill down my cheeks.
The sword went into her gut and she groaned. And then smiled.
"Didn't Carlisle tell you? The only way to kill a vampire is to dismember them." She sneered. "If I were human I might be dead, but unfortunately for you, I'm not human."
With a disgusting ripping sound she pulled herself from the sword and staggered away from me. I may not be have killed her, but she was injured.
I stalked towed her. She started to run, but wasn't able to run at her normal speed. I still had to sprint to keep up, but I could keep up.
I was gaining on her, and raised my sword ready to strike. She stopped running.
"I know... when I've been beaten ." She gasped, falling to her knees. "I've lived... a long life... longer than... most. Please... make it... quick. I need... Carlisle to know... it was quick."
Her words made me pause. She wasn't as much a monster as I'd thought, but she was looking at me with defeat and longing in her eyes. I raised my sword and brought into it down in a swift clean strike. Her head rolled on the tarmac and I dropped my sword and fell to my knees beside her.
I took the body home and burned it. Anyone who saw the blood on the road would assume a deer had been hit and with the evidence of her body gone there was nothing else to do.
I was about to try and eat something when my door was nearly pulled off it's hinges. I looked up in surprise.
Carlisle stood in my door way, eyes wild  and disheveled. "Where is she?" He yelled at me. "What have you done to my Esme?"