Hey Mr Bloodsucker, Sucks To Be You

Chapter 15

Dimitri ~#~

I wasn't stupid. I knew what they were talking about. When Cappa poked his face round the side of the door and jerked his thumb as a signal to come back in, I didn't question it. I knew he and Mai needed time to talk things over, why not, seeing as they were both major parts in Hale's grand scheme of things.

"You can come back in now." Cappa said quietly as he disappeared. "Thanks."

"No sign of Hale?" Mai asked when I entered.

"I'm still alive, aren't I?" I asked, settling down on my bed. "Believe me, if Hale had shown up I'd be ash by now."

She swallowed tightly. I could see the cogs turning in her head, and I watched her while she sat with her knuckles pressed against her mouth. Cappa shot me an evil look. I held up my hands in a silent surrender.

"We'll be fine, Mai."

The irony of a situation had never seemed more painful. As soon as the words passed his lips, a tremendous smashing sound from outside jolted us all alert. I was at the curtain in seconds, standing to one side of the frame as I pulled it back a fraction. The sun was setting, good for a quick escape.

I searched in the twilight for faces I knew. The source of the smash had come from the dustbin being knocked over in the bushes, and its contents was strewn in the hedge close to where I'd thrown my stake. I glared at it carefully, and panic settled in my stomach when I made out a pair of feet slung over the side of the bin.

"We have to move." I said quietly. "Now."

A dark shadow was pressed against the wall to the right of the reception door. He turned his face, slowly, towards the source of the sound, and my nerves did a back-flip. Dante.

"What is it?" Mai's voice was high with panic, and Cappa had hold of her arm.

"Dante." I muttered icily. "He's here."

She clapped a hand over her mouth. Cappa was glaring at me. "You ass! You led them right to us!"

"I was careful." I told him sincerely. "I covered my tracks. There's no way they could have followed me here."

Dante slipped inside the reception. Prince was stationed outside by the dustbin, looking hungrily at the person on the other side of it.

"So much for trusting his loyalties." Spat Cappa, moving away from Mai and collecting the blood rucksack.

Slinging it over his shoulder, he risked a glance out of the curtain.

"Dante's inside." I warned. "We need to get out of here now. If I can get to the bush where I threw the stake, we can kill Prince."

Mai nodded. Cappa looked fed up, but by way of an answer he pulled back the curtain a little way and tugged the window open.

"Right." He muttered. "I'll go first and act as a distraction. Mai, you hide. Dimitri...." He trailed off, looking me up and down. "Just stake the damned sucker."

Mai ~#~

Cappa dropped silently out of the window, a shadow in the pitch black. I followed, dropping close to where he was crouched in the leaves, scuffing up a considerable amount with my boots. Dimitri was yet to jump, crouched on the windowsill and judging where he'd land. Hopefully not on us. I laced my fingers through Cappa's briefly, and gave him one last kiss as Dimitri dropped beside us, for good luck. Cappa pulled his hand away from mine and stood up, moving away from me, in the opposite direction to where Dimitri had vanished into the shadows. Gone to find his stake, probably.