The Underground City of Cinders

Chapter 19

Dimitri sat up, feeling glass crunch beneath him. He tried to catch his breath. A twinge in his side caught him off-guard. He looked down to see a sizable piece of glass lodged in his upper thigh. He grit his teeth as he pulled the glass from his leg, fighting the urge to cry out in pain. The behemoth stood, watching him, on the other side of the shattered window. Dimitri calculated his chances of being able to outmatch the hulking vampire that towered in front of him. He knew he wasn't going to be able to emerge victorious relying on mere strength alone. He began to devise a plan to outmatch this behemoth with his wits.

The behemoth laughed, "Well, I must congratulate you. The blondie managed to escape but no matter, he won't get to the girl before we do. Now that I have you here all to myself, shall we play?"

Dimitri winced from the pain in his leg as he stepped though the frame of the broken window, "I don't want to fight you."

"You don't want to fight me? I'm sure it's because you know you can't beat me, isn't it?"

Dimitri shook his head and a deep, throaty chuckle reverberated through him, "You think I can't beat you? You may be strong, relying on your sheer size to dominate your opponents, but you underestimate my power. You do realize that Lareina is my mother, right? Do you honestly think she wouldn't have passed a single trait on to me?" Dimitri stepped toward the behemoth and smiled as a look of confusion spread over his face, "You must have heard the stories about Lareina's powers, how she can bend anyone to her will with just her mind. Children don't always get the exact traits from their makers but I guess you could say I got lucky with this one."

The behemoth began to shake as he tried to fight against Dimitri's power but even with all his strength he was rooted in place. Dimitri sauntered over to the behemoth until there was only a foot of space between them, "I have been practicing this ability for a long time and I must say I have gotten rather good at it, wouldn't you say? It comes in handy whenever I have to hunt down prey." Dimitri licked his lips, "I have been feeling rather famished lately. I usually don't go after prey as big as you but in this case I will make an exception."

There was a sickening crunch as Dimitri kicked the behemoth in the shins and the hulking vampire was brought to his knees. Dimitri reveled in the horror that was plastered all over the hulking man's face, "Well, don't you look just terrified. Believing your strength is all you need to win against every opponent was your first mistake. You underestimate those smaller than you and that was your second mistake. Let me teach you a lesson you won't soon forget. Don't ever underestimate anyone, no matter how strong you think you are." Dimitri ran his tongue over his protruding fangs, "Not that you are going to live long enough to take that advice." Dimitri yanked the behemoth's head to the side, exposing his neck, and sank his teeth into the flesh of his throat.

I had barely begun to relax before Chase pulled up to the restaurant. He is driving Dimitri's car? He got out of the car with a heartbreaking look of dismay. I could hear sirens in the distance but I knew it was too late. I glanced back at the smoldering ruins behind me. This was intentional. Lareina wanted to make sure there was nothing left of the restaurant. I doubt there will be anything but the steel beams left by the time the fire department gets here. Chase raced over to me, pulling me into an embrace and I could feel his body shaking against mine. I could tell he was using every ounce of strength to hold back the string of curse words that were sure to explode out of him at any moment.

I gazed up at him but his focus was somewhere far off in the distance. I reached my hand up to touch his face and he stared down at me, reading the guilt on my face, "This isn't your fault Elizabeth. This is all my fault." He peeked over at Chloe, "Chloe... I'm so sorry. If I had known... I never would have asked you to look after her if I had even the slightest inclination this was going to happen. Your restaurant..."