Dawn of Vengeance

Chapter 31 - Ensnared

Jake's POV:

"Only one?" Both Lance and Issac asked at the same time while Jake stared at the small golden orb in his hand.

Only one he thought closing his hand over it and looking at Rex who must've already guessed that Jake was already intending on going alone anyway. Lance and Pierce were too much of a liability it being a full moon tonight and Issac's hate for Stark made him as unreasonable as a child. Maybe he was being arrogant in assuming that he could handle Stark on his own, he knew he couldn't but if he was in time he was sure that he wouldn't be alone. Rex stared into Jake's eyes and for a moment a bit of silent communication was going on between them for Rex seemed to know exactly what Jake was thinking.

"Three Beings eh?" He asked with a grin as he placed a hand on Jake's shoulder. "Not a problem!"

Nodding Jake did exactly as Rex had told him to do visualizing the place he'd wanted to go with his mind's eye and he felt a warming sensation pass through his entire body. Something must've been visible because Both Lance and Issac made to grab hold of him before he vanished but Rex--using Jake's shoulder for a hold--booted them both in the chest so that they couldn't stop him. The last bit of them that Jake saw was Lance being slammed into his brother while Issac fell flatly on his rear end, and Rex was giving Jake a thumbs up smiling with his entire body before he was blotted out by an intense light.

When the light went out Jake found himself looking back at the Golden Gate Bridge from the shore of Alcatraz island. An excruciatingly loud scream made Jake whip around, his hand instinctively going to his Slayer's holster only to find that it wasn't there. Realizing he shouldn't take any chances Jake tapped the jewel on his necklace bringing forth his Skin and a Slayer to his hand. Feeling slightly better with a weapon in his hand Jake began walking up the path in search of any signs that Father Matthew was here stopping after his first step suddenly aware that he didn't know if his mentor was here yet. There was no boat docked so maybe he wasn't even here.

Reaching up and tapping the jewel in the center of his chest making a small orb appear before him Jake tapped it and said his mentors name. He knew that Father Matthew wouldn't answer no matter where he was, but at the very least the jewel that was embedded in the cross would show him where he was. The orb fluxuated before turning into a disc about the size of a hand mirror showing Jake an image of himself oddly enough. He could see himself  in the orb though he was further off meaning that the jewel on the cross was facing him, and that meant-

"Father Matthew?" Jake called out looking in the direction that he thought the cross was in and sure enough he saw a faint shimmering further along the shore. "Father Matthew- Look you know that you shouldn't have come here all alone. You should've brought a squad of-"

Jake stopped noticing that the angle of the shimmer was too low to be coming from someone's chest. Tightening his grip on his Slayer Jake slowly walked over to the place where the cross was and found that it was actually lying on the ground but even stranger than that, the string beads that held it around Father Matthew's neck was broken. It was as if it'd been torn from his around his neck and cast aside but that didn't make any sense at all. Scouring the ground for any signs of a struggle Jake found none and there was no blood on the ground, so why was Father Matthew's cross laying here? This was as much a part of him as his heart was, surely he would've picked it up if it'd been torn off. What was he missing?

There was another loud scream coming from inside the prison drawing Jake's attention away from the cross for a mere moment. He swallowed hard and he could feel his heart pounding away in his chest and the hairs on the back of his neck begin to stand on end. He wasn't alone any more. Reaching down to pick up the cross Jake hard a horrible snarling sound come from the ground and when he looked he saw a hideously scarred face staring up at him. Recoiling from the Strigoi vampire as fast as he could Jake lost his footing and fell to the ground just as the grey body flew straight up obviously meaning to tear into him. Him falling may have just saved his life as he rolled to the side and withdrew a short sword from his Skin and leered at the Strigoi as if folded onto itself.