Hey Mr Bloodsucker, Sucks To Be You

Epilogue

Joanna ~#~

I walked in a slow circle around the puddle of ash, dappled overhead with moonlight from the trees. It was only metres away from the building, it would've taken seconds for her to have sprinted the last little stretch. She had died not knowing how it had all ended, whether or not we had finally achieved what we had worked so hard to get to. It was a saddening thought.

"Do we know how she died?" I asked Chris, tapping a finger on the side of my leg. He, like me, had been summoned quickly from our little heart to heart in my office, as soon as the poor girl's remains had been discovered.

"Afraid not." Chris crossed his arms and leant back against a tree trunk. "She wasn't that far behind me, I thought she was following." He shook his head. "Apparently not."

"She wasn't burned." I murmured to myself, dropping to a crouch next to the heap. "She was most likely staked. Could Dimitri have got to her before we caught up with him?"

"Impossible. He was right in front of me." Chris shook his head. "When I saw Cappa racing out of the trees I thought he was aiming for me when he grabbed Dimitri. He was this close in front of me." He showed me a tiny space between his thumb and forefinger.

"She could've run into a tree branch." Offered a voice to my left, and I gave a grim chuckle.

"And accidently skewered herself? I think not."

Chris sighed and unfolded his arms, standing up. "Well, we'll comb the woods and see. But I doubt we'll find anything to be honest, whatever it was is either long gone or in plain sight." He gave a pointed glance to the vampire who had spoken. "Which I highly doubt."

"Okay, then." I sighed, picking at a loose cotton on my jumper, and stood back up. "Let's just get something to collect the ashes with, we can't leave her out here."

Slowly, a brown-haired girl stepped forward with a jar. Dropping to one knee, she gently scooped Lisa's ashes into the glass container.

I sighed and squinted through the crossed branches, thinking of Mai and Cappa back in the medic section, safe without the knowledge that, yet again, there was another threat running out here in our woods.