The Chase

The Chase Ch. 23

Thad's P.O.V

I heard gunfire going off inside the building, but even before that I heard Ginger’s panic. Rushing inside, I saw Donovan firing off his gun at vampire who had Ginger against the wall. She was flinching at his bullets, but not doing much else.

“I hate these damn things!” he grunted as he shot repeatedly at the vampire. I dove into the wall of bullets and tackled the female to the ground.  She hissed and jerked wildly, snapping her jaw shut inches from my face. I growled deeply at her and held her tight against the ground, reluctant to start hitting her in case I lost control.

Ginger came up and fired into her until she stopped squirming as much.

“Stop! Please! Stop it!” she panted starting to calm down, “Tell your friends to stop shooting!”

“Why would we do that?!” Donovan shouted at her, not putting his gun down.

“I’ll stop attacking!” she hissed.

“Get the stuff we managed to find and let’s go.” Ginger said lowering her gun and grabbing her bag of supplies. Donovan followed her lead and I hopped up off the vampire, keeping my senses sharp in case she thought she had outsmarted us. Ginger and Donovan walked outside as if it was nothing, but I hung back.

“What are you doing Thad?” Ginger said furrowing her brow.

“Yeah, Bloodsucker, You’re wasting our time.” Donovan said, clearly frustrated.

“The sun is pretty much up,” I nodded up to the sky, “I’ll die if we leave now.” It was even already giving me a headache.                                                                                                                                                                                                               

“Well,” Donovan smiled happily, “Ginger and I can leave. I guess you’ll be home at sundown?”

He dramatically started walking towards the car and I rolled my eyes while turning to Ginger.

“What do you want to do, Ginger?” I asked her softly. She walked back over and hugged me tightly.

“What happens if we leave?” she whispered.

I shrugged while I kissed her neck and nibbled at her skin.

“Depends on if anyone’s staying here. If so they may or may not try to kill me.”

She looked indecisive as she started up at me.

Turning to Donovan who was standing outside with his hands on his hips, she said, “Can’t we stay until nightfall, Donovan?”

“Yeah, Donny, can’t we?” I said while batting my eyes sarcastically. He sat there in thought for a moment, ignoring my sarcasm.

“Will you get burned if we shove you in the trunk?” He finally offered.  

“Yeah, probably”

“Well won’t we die if we stay here?” he sighed, glaring at me.

“Hold on,” I said when I had an idea.  I ran back to where the vampire we had gunned down was, Ginger’s curious footsteps following closely behind. The vampire had slumped herself against the wall and was licking furiously at her wounds. Her eyes shot up to me as I walked up to her and kneeled down at her side. Ginger walked up panting and sat beside me.

“What do you want?” she spat, her eyes darting back and forth between Ginger and I.

“Will my human friends and I be okay if we stay here the night?” I asked her.

“There are no other vampires staying here, and no more will come since it’s already sunrise. I’m normally here alone anyway.”

“Then we can stay?” Ginger asked, turning to me.

“I didn’t say I wanted any human’s here, not unless I’m feeding on them, that is.” She hissed while glancing nervously up at Ginger.

“Can we give Donovan to her?” I joked. Ginger scowled at me and shook her head no.

“We’ll stay here,” Ginger said defiantly, “I’ll go get Donovan.” With that she turned and walked out to the door.

“How can you even stand to be around them?” she groaned.  I noticed that she was terribly thin and her face was gaunt. I almost felt sorry for her, but at the same time I didn’t because she had attacked Ginger.

“Ginger is my girlfriend,” I shrugged off her question, hoping that was enough of an explanation. The real truth was that it wasn’t that easy, not in the least. Maybe it only seemed so easy because I hadn’t cared whether I had any self-control before; now that I wanted to stay with Ginger I was forcing myself as hard as I could.

“You mean the human girl? She’s your partner?” her dark eyes widened as she searched my face for any trace of a lie. I nodded, but didn’t say anything else as Ginger and Donovan were approaching quickly behind me, their soft footsteps echoing to my ears. Ginger plopped down beside me and Donovan sat as far away from all of us as possible, but still stayed close enough that we could all talk.

“So I can shoot this thing if it tries to eat me, right?” he said, still sounding annoyed that we were staying because of me.

“I’m not a thing, I’m a woman. I also have a name, it’s Tori,” she spat, “I’m too exhausted to attack anyway.”

“Let’s hope so,” Donovan said while leaning against the wall and closing his eyes.  Ginger was about to do the same so I crawled over to her. She gave me a questioning look that was pretty cute.

“Need something Thad?” she said while scooting a little closer to me. I took her and rubbed it softly.

 “I’m just a little hungry,” I admitted with a little bit of a smile.

“Do you want to get some privacy?” she actually smiled a little bit back. I was a little bit shocked at her reaction.

“If that’s okay with you,” I helped her up and we started walking to the back of the building. Even though he probably looked like he was asleep, I felt Donovan tense up as we walked past him. The vampire, Tori, also gave us a curious glance. It made me feel a little nervous, but my throat was starting to burn so I couldn’t care much.

When we made it to the back, I sat down against the wall and pulled Ginger into my lap facing me.  She blushed a little and looked away.

“Nervous?”  I smiled, showing my fangs a bit.

“Let me guess, you can hear my pulse?” she sounded defeated. I chuckled and nodded in response, but didn’t hesitate to pull down the corner of her shirt, exposing the curve of her neck. I was a little excited, well, more than a little excited, so I didn’t hesitate to bite down. As soon as I broke the skin, Ginger’s hot blood flowed into my mouth.

“Thad…” she said, but it sounded more like moan. I felt her hands wrap tightly around my back as she pulled herself closer to me. I knew I had to stop soon, even though I didn’t want to, but even before I started to force myself to pull away, a muffled scream startled me. I swiftly pulled my fangs out and pulled her up with me.

“That sounded like Donovan,” she looked worried.

“You’re right, we better go-“but she was already running off holding her gun, as sighed and ran to catch up.

“Wait! Ginger your neck is still bleeding!” I chased after her, hoping I’d get to her before she got to the vampires.