The Venatrix

Chapter Fourteen

We stand on the porch, looking at the carnage that is unfolding in front of us. There has to be at least fifty vampires. Unlike the last attack I witnessed, this one is unorganized. They aren't attacking specific individuals. They aren't asking questions.  They aren't making demands. Frankly, it's weird. What changed?

"How long has it been since you have had to fight a vampire?" I ask Malkai. 

"A little over a century but I remember the basics." He said. 

"Great, let's go!" I said tossing him a stake from my sash. Then I charged headfirst out onto the battlefield.  I rack the slide on my gun before opening fire on the hoard turning my targets to ash. 

I find myself standing off with a rather large vampire. He is easily seven foot tall. All muscles. so muscular that he looks like he did steroids in his human life. I mean I guess it makes sense. Most tall people are skinny and lanky. Maybe he needed to be a muscle head to feel good about himself.  Vampires are strong creatures, but this guy looks like he could break me in half. 

I do my best to keep as much distance between us as possible. When I am at a safe distance, I aim my gun and pull the trigger. I don't hear the boom that comes when a round leaves the chamber. I don't feel the recoil. All I hear is a click. I pull the trigger again just to hear the same sound. I am out of bullets. I look up at my opponent to see that he has a wide grin on his face. 

"The legendary hunter is out of bullets, what will you do now?" He taunts closing the distance. I feel myself start to panic. He is right. I broke my own rule and allowed this guy to box me in. He is too close for me to use a stake effectively. This dude could easily overpower me. I must get away from him. So, I can use my flame thrower. 

"I'm going to take pleasure in killing you." He said grinning like a mad man.  He swoops down to grab me. I pull a stake out of my sash and bury it deep in his hand. Not giving him a chance to recover I bolt to my left, weaving through the crowd of vampires and werewolves fighting. I flip the switch on the flamethrower. It needs at least a minute to warm up. 

The vampire searches the crowd for me. I look down at the switch and see that it's still in the yellow. Hurry up. Hurry up. My eyes widened. I just realized that I am feeling something that I haven't felt in a long time. fear. I am scared. I haven't been scared in a long time. I haven't been scared since my first job. I glance down at the switch and see that it is bright green. We are good to go. 

"wolves get clear! get clear!" I yell at the top of my lungs, gesturing wildly with my hands. The wolves' glance between me and the hose with wide eyes before abandoning their partners. I hit the button on the hose attached to the propane tank and watch the flames spray out. I watch the vampires in its path turn to ash including my large opponent. All the stragglers are quickly eliminated. 

I glance around and see that everyone that we started with is still here. We didn't lose anyone tonight. It looks like no one sustained any major injuries. I let out a sigh of relief before falling to my knees. If they are experiencing attacks like this on a regular basis, they are lucky they haven't been eradicated. They are stronger than they look. 

"Hey are you okay?" Malkai asked, sitting down beside me. 

"Yeah. Are you okay?" I asked. 

"You scared me." He admits. 

"I did?" I asked mindlessly pulling at the grass. 

"I felt you panic. then I felt your fear. What happened out there?" He asked, looking at me but I refused to meet his gaze. 

"Seven-foot-tall vampire. I broke my own rule and let him box me in." I explain and then I remove my gun from its holster before pointing it towards the ground and pulling the trigger. All that I hear is the dreaded click. 

"You ran out of bullets." He said, pulling me into him. 

"I have no more bullets." I sigh. 

"How hard will it be to get more?" He asked. 

"Right, now it will be impossible. I'll have to make do without it." I admit trying to hide the melancholy in my voice. 

"Nora, I know we can't cry but you can be sad about something. That gun is important to you. " He said, pointing to my mark on his face. 

"That was before I met you." I said. 

"What?" Malkai asked. moving back so he can look at me. 

"You're right! This gun is the equivalent of a child to me. It never lied to me. It never decided I wasn't good enough. It was my family. When I was forced to leave home, I sold my soul. I didn't ask for much. I just wanted to survive. I got lost. I got full of myself. I forgot who I was. All I wanted was for my mom to say. Hey, we left a light on for whenever you're ready to come home. I didn't think that I would ever get that, but you changed everything. Now I have a family. I have someone that won't give up on me. I have someone that will leave a light on for me if I get lost. In a roundabout way, I am trying to tell you that I love you." I say grinning. 

"Nora, you are my best friend. You are my lover. You are my family. If you want, we can do the human thing and formally get married. If you ever do get lost, I'll come searching for you. If I can't find you, I'll light the path so you can find your way back. I'll always be here Nora. I love you too!" He said pulling me in for a deep kiss. 

"Miss.Nora, Mr.Malkai we found something interesting!" One of Maddox's men said. 

"Let's go and see what they want." Malkai said, giving me another soft kiss before dragging me off in their direction.

All of them are standing outside the pack house, looking up at the sky. I walk up beside Maddox and match his stance. I then follow his gaze but don't see anything. 

"What are we looking at?" I ask. 

"We think that small groups of vampires are living on top of the pack house. " Maddox said. 

"I don't see how that is possible. We can't even step on a homeowner's porch without permission. We will get blown out of the doorway." I explained. 

"The tallest ladder we have wont reach the roof." One of Maddox's men explained gesturing to the building. 

"Well, I would think not!" I said looking at what appears to be a fifteen-story apartment complex. Wait, when did this get here? 

Everyone is looking at me like I have two heads. We didn't have any apartment complexes where I am from. This is new even for me.

"Wolves can't climb." Maddox said. 

"I've never understood that. Y'all are buff as hell but can't climb anything. Then to add insult to injury you can't rip vampires apart with your teeth until a full moon." I rant. 

I have walked past the pack house hundreds of times, and it never looked like this. It is smaller and more intimate. It wasn't fifteen stories. There is something fishy going on here. There is something telling me to leave it alone. Don't investigate. 

"You're the one with the most combat experience. We think you should climb it!" Maddox said. Something is wrong here. He is being pushy. His voice doesn't have the power in it that it normally has. His eyes are dark but not in the normal way. They are vacant and almost seem lifeless. I look at his beta and gamma. They share the same dark vacant expression. Malkai however just looks confused, like he can't figure out what he is looking at. 

"I guess I'll climb it." I sigh making my way over to the complex. I look up towards the top of the building. It looks ominous.

Who knew that climbing this building would be one of the worst mistakes of my life?