Dance with the Devil

Chapter Three

   I tugged myself out of Luke’s grip and moved back to the window, biting on my fingers I whistled, its piercing sound cutting through the angry shouts and crackling fire. They couldn’t be that far, not once the fire began eating at the house lighting up the night.

   “We’ll have to jump!” Luke shouted as part of the roof collapsed in on itself, burying the vampire’s body in red hot chunks of wood.

   But I shook my head, I was not a vampire, I would not survive that leap without injury, “No, they’ll be here, have faith in them.”

   The house shuddered as the last word left my mouth, its supports were failing.

   Luke grabbed me by my waist and lifted me into the window. “We don’t have time for faith Eve, now jump!”

   There was a deafening crack and again the house trembled nearly knocking me from my perch. I looked down, looked to the dirt alley below me and said a prayer before leaping into the air. But instead of falling I rose, my arm caught in a firm grasp, the wound in my back protesting the strain it was now under.

   I bit the pain back and I shot my gaze to the sky, seeing a man’s face as dark as night, “Macario,” I whispered in relief.

   I knew they would come.

   Macario grunted as he hauled me upwards but the house gave another shudder before I had cleared the window and my body swung back inside, my leg catching on the broken glass. I cried out as the shard cut through cloth and flesh, feeling the blood seeping into my boot.

   He passed me off to another, Simon, as he reached back down for Luke, the fire licking at his back as he dragged him too to the eve.

   “Can you make it across?” Simon asked me, looking down to the tear in my leg.

   I knew very well that Macario’s skin looked the same, but unlike his thick brown skin Simon’s was fair like mine and I could see it as he began to redden from the heat. His dusty blonde hair was matted to his forehead in places and his shirt clung to him with sweat. But it was as if it was all the norm and he made no mention of it, did not flinch as the flames reached out for us time and again, because hunters were not distracted.

   I looked to the gap I had cleared not ten minutes before, “no,” I shook my head, “not injured.”

  He nodded sharply and called over my head, “take Vee,” he said to Macario, “She cannot make it.”

   To their credit neither man looked to me in disdain, they knew it wasn’t because of my gender but because of my wounds I couldn’t do what they were about to do. Unlike Luke’s feminine moniker for me, the men who cared enough to protect me referred to me as Vee. These men here tonight were the closest of my brothers, and though they nearly as much as Luke respected my skill, they knew to an outsider I would still appear as a weakness. So as to protect my identity, to keep my gender hidden from the outside world and those who would target me, if only in name, I was Vee.

   I watched Simon leap first across the alley, then Luke. He, unlike Simon, wobbled for a moment but then found his footing, turning an expectant gaze on me.

   “To me,” Simon shouted with his arms extended, “Throw her to me.”

   Macario didn’t hesitate; he picked me up like a sack of flour and tossed me across the gap to Simon. He had to lean into the empty space but he caught me, by the waist of his breeches Luke held firm and kept the both of us from tumbling down to the ground. Then it was Macario’s turn, and not a moment too late. As if it was his weight pushing off the roof that caused the collapse, the house crumbled to the ground as he leapt through the air.