The Daylighter Chronicles

Chapter Twenty-Four: Missing Black Heart

Ethan

I glared over at Kai when were at a stop light only a few miles from our destination,

"Got something to say, boy wonder?" I rolled my eyes,

"If you are going to drive the carpool don't you think that you need a bigger car?" We both then looked to Eerie who was lying in what one might call a back seat with all of our equipment because there was no room for her legs otherwise. When she caught us looking, she smiled and stopped rubbing the feeling back into her calf. Kai sighed,

"In retrospect, I probably should have grabbed the keys to the SUV." I snorted,

"You think?" I then felt Eerie's hand on my shoulder and saw that she had her other one on Kai's as she said,

"Now, now boys, right now is no time to fight, because the light is green." Kai and I both turned to see the green light as he hit the gas causing us all to be pushed back in our seats, and we continued the short trip in silence.

Once we parked the car, disengaged Eerie and the weapons from the backseat and armed ourselves, we began to stalk our pray. We found them outside of an abandoned school. At first, they tried to herd us together, thinking that we were, in fact, the prey, then they must have caught Kai and Eerie's scent because they began to back off a bit as their leader asked,

"What are two vamps doing with a human?" Eerie just smiled as she pulled a stake from her belt and twirled it as she said,

"Why we are here to kill you." He laughed as he looked around and said,

"There are a dozen of us and only three of you, run along before you get hurt." Instead of heeding the vampires warning she let her stake fly, catching the vamp to the leader's left right in the chest causing him to turn to dust. The leader looked from the pile of ash to Eerie as he said, "I take it you have trained very hard to make a kill like that." Eerie sighed,

"You have no idea." He then turned to me,

"Are you as good as her?" I shrugged and let my own stake fly, catching a vamp in the back of the herd in the heart as I said,

"I'm working on it." He then sighed and looked to Kai,

"I take it you are the one training this little band of hunters?" Kai shrugged,

"I'm training her. He's a stray that she took in." He nodded,

"I don't know if I have the confidence that we will win that I had a moment ago, but I do know that if we fight, I will do my best to take at least one of you to hell with me." Kai smiled as he stepped forward,

"We wouldn't want it any other way." The nightwalkers attacked fast and hard. It was difficult to attack at all while trying to block their blows, but as I watched Eerie from the corner of my eye I knew I had to do better to fight beside someone like her, someone that could give both angels and demons a run for their money. I shook my head to clear it as I ducked a punch and countered by sweeping his legs out from under him, I then drove a stake through his heart before he could retaliate. Once he was a pile of ash, I looked up to see that the other leech was very pissed. He rushed at me, but before I could think of how I was going to defend myself, a stake flew right into his heart, only this vamp didn't turn to ash. He stopped and looked down at his chest. He then pulled out the stake and began to stalk towards me as I called out,

"You guys ever see a vamp that can do that?" Both Kai and Eerie shook their heads. "Didn't think so." I then pulled the duel short swords I had strapped to my back out of their sheaths as I waited for his next attack. He didn't let me wait long. He stalked me like I was the rabbit and he was the wolf. We seemed to dance in circles as I asked him, "So, how does a vampire lose his heart?" He growled but didn't answer, not that I really expected him too, but because I noticed that it seemed to irritate him I continued, "I mean, you could probably get a fortune for a not turned to ash vampire heart on the black market." I then cocked my head to the side, "Do vampires have their own black market?" I heard him growl again and then he was on me, and I was deflecting his blows with my swords. It felt like our encounter lasted for much longer than I know it did, because as soon as I saw the smallest opening I took it, and kicked him in the knee as hard as I could, causing it to dislocate and him to fall to the ground. Before he could get back up though, I shoved one of my swords through his shoulder into the ground as I crouched over him and asked as he snarled at me, "So I know I asked before, but I'd really like to know what happened to your heart." I watched as Eerie crouched down on the other side of him and she sighed,