David shoved the makeshift stake through the skull of the Blood vampire he was fighting with, adding a second to his chest. The body dropped on the dirt floor just as Paul's screams rang out. Pain seized in David's chest faster then he could whip around to see a Blood shove a stake into Paul's chest.
"No!" David screamed, jumping up on the fountain's edge and diving at the Blood who stood over Paul's fallen form. Enraged, he clawed and slashed the Blood vampire until there was a pulpy mass that used to be a vampire lying on the ground at his boots.
Paul was gasping, clawing at the stake in his chest. David heard Marko and Dwayne still fighting, spurred on by the pain of their blood brother. He knelt swiftly at Paul's side, lifting the other Boy up a bit.
The pointed end of the stake had gone all the way through. It had probably clipped Paul's heart, as David judged in the semi-darkness.
"I can pull it out." David offered weakly, knowing there wasn't a hell of a lot he could do for his pack mate. Paul shook his head, groaning and chewing his lip bloody through the pain.
"No. It's over, dude. As much as I don't want to admit I just know." His eyes were wild as they met David's, a feral animal knowing its final moments were descending. "Win for us, yeah?"
"Goodbye, Paul." David's eyes stung with tears as he cradled his fallen pack mate. Paul grinned wickedly, throwing the horns hand gesture just before his mouth opened up in a scream that never came. Death descended upon Paul and took him away on blackened wings.
Reverently David dragged Paul's corpse to the fountain and laid him inside, hidden from the fighting all around. They would properly bury him later.
Seething with fury at the loss of a pack mate, David laid his coat over Paul's body. Jumping on the edge of the fountain he shot into the air, descending upon the Blood vampire that had backed Dwayne into a corner. Ripping the stake from the Blood's grip, he slammed it through the back of the other vampire, shoving it through the heart and out the chest.
David opened his mouth to roar triumphantly when Ruby screamed. Dashing towards where he had left her, he found one of the Bloods had discovered her. His talons held Ruby by the hair, other arm wrapped around her tightly. "We found you, you bitch. You're an abomination. I can smell it on you." Ruby struggled as her captor held her tightly.
"Release her!" David stopped short of launching himself at the Blood that held Ruby. "It's me you want!"
"We'll deal with you later." The Blood sneered, his free hand groping over Ruby's body suggestively. Ruby's revulsion spiked through her bond to David, spurring him angrily.
"Don't you touch her!" David slid into frenzy at the sight of the other vampire trying to violate his childer, running directly at them both at top speed. He was nearly there when something plowed into him, knocking him to the ground. Ruby screamed again.
Pinned by the other Blood, David found himself about to be impaled with a stake. There was no time to react. It was over. He had failed the Lost Boys and Ruby...
"No!" Marko roared, barreling into the Blood vampire who pinned David. With all his strength he managed to knock the vampire off the Lost Boys leader. Both vampires looked at each other as they tumbled to the floor, realization dawning in their eyes.
They'd managed to stake each other at the same time.
"Marko, no!" David screamed, Ruby's screams mingling with his as Marko fell over on top of the Blood vampire and died. Torn, David looked from the fallen figure of his pack mate to his childer. Ruby was in shock from seeing Marko die to save David, the tall form of the Blood vampire towering over her.
"This ends now!" David charged towards the Blood, body-slamming the other vampire into the jagged stone wall. The force of the blow knocked his grip on Ruby's hair free and she fell to the ground. David attacked savagely, the other vampire fighting back just as ruthlessly.
An unearthly howl punctuated the air. David looked up just in time as Ruby appeared out of the tunnel's edge, stake gripped in her clawed hands, slamming it right into the face of the Blood vampire. David grabbed another that had fallen by the wayside and shoved it with extra force right into the Blood's heart, effectively pinning the dead corpse to the wall by his face and chest.
"For Marko." Ruby spit on the corpse, pink-tinged tears falling down her cheeks. David stared at the body then grabbed Ruby to him, hugging her tightly against his frame. She wept uncontrollably into David's chest as he held her.
The cave was silent. No sounds except Ruby's grief now. David reached out through his blood bond to the others. Marko and Paul were gone... where was Dwayne?
Nothing. No return call.
"Dwayne!" David pulled Ruby with him, dashing around the main cave, looking for the dark Lost Boy. He kept pushing at the blood bond, trying to find Dwayne. Everywhere he looked there were fallen bodies of Blood vampires, about a dozen. Marko's body still lay where he had fallen, on top of the Blood he had staked.
"Dwayne!" Ruby cried out, desperate for an answer. Again she and David called his name but there came no reply.
"Is he...?" Afraid of the answer Ruby didn't finish her question.
"I don't know." David eyes stung again with hot tears. Dwayne was missing. Clutching Ruby to him, David sunk to his knees under the weight everything. Gripping each other, they sobbed through the grief and realization that they were all that was left of the Lost Boys.
THE END
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A Song For the Dead (Carousel Series #3)
FanfictionThe past is too fresh and too painful to visit when you're a new vampire. Ruby learns the hard line that separates the living from the undead. David's paranoia grows as The Lost Boys are fractured by drama and the threat of attack from a rival vampi...
