"I'll be fine Miles." Sydney reassures him, resting her back against the brick wall of the bar. Miles had carried her outside (something his small physique couldn't have handled beforehand), and sat her down with the other wounded vampires, who were waiting for their bodies to heal.
"Thirteen." Miles whispers as he looks around and surveys the area. "Thirteen are wounded."
"And probably three times as much are dead." Sydney adds.
Miles, ashamed, looks down at his pale hands and tries to stop them from trembling, but his efforts are to no avail.
"If you hadn't shown up and gotten people out of there, a lot more of us would have died. So don't beat yourself up about it, okay? You did good, kid."
Miles musters the best smile he can. "I'm like 2 years younger than you."
"Age doesn't matter in the vampires world." Sydney singsongs. "And welcome, by the way, to the vampire world."
"Thanks." Miles replies.
Sydney notices now, the unstoppable shaking of Miles' hands. They twitch in his lap, similar to when he became addicted to the venom. Desperate and needy.
What are you craving, Miles? Sydney thinks.
"I'm going to go look for Axel." Miles says, getting up from his place beside Sydney. She realises now where she went wrong.
Not what. Who.
••••••••••
Is it wrong that I miss this? Axel thinks as he stabs another vampire in the heart. He hasn't fought like this since Elias. But the difference here is that he doesn't care about the people he's fighting. Only the people he's fighting for.
Axel felt useless sitting on the side after his fight with the three vampires. He wanted to help and knew the best way he could was to get involved and fight.
Axel knows the lessons Elias taught him in the mansion will stay with him forever (some involuntarily. Like the nightmares. They don't really go away. Those are the ones that keep him up at night, that make him feel like going to sleep is like laying on his deathbed).
The frontline is where he belongs, not hiding out in the back. But maybe that's what's motivating Axel to fight carefully and not recklessly. The people he has to return back to.
The rogues are still very much outnumbered. It's not as if Axel joining them suddenly lifted the weighing scales, because there is no doubt in his mind that the rogues are going to lose.
So when is this going to end? With me and everyone else dead?
Axel knows when the fight will end. Elias told him about an unwritten rule in the vampire community. An ambush ends when the leader gets hurt. Whether it's a tiny scratch or immediate death, the fighting is over. These situations were rare, especially when the leader is the most skilled vampire out of everyone, but it gives rogues a chance to get away, and if not, captured and turned in instead.
It's also an opportunity to humiliate the leader. It's considered shameful for one to be hurt in battle, especially by a rogue. So if Axel wants to end this, he'll have to somehow plant a strike on the leader. But with Elias dead, the only question left to ask is who is the new leader?
••••••••
Miles heads to the front of the building where most of the fighting is happening, and tries not to panic too much when he doesn't see Axel on the makeshift battlefield. There's a lot of blood and violence, and it's nothing like the movie scenes Miles has grown accustom to. It's real and terrifying and another thing Miles will have to learn to live with.
He spots Axel after a few minutes. The whole time he's been looking at the wrong place. Axel isn't in the fight, he's a couple metres away, by the trees which lead to the forest, being held by two men. Their hands are pushing down on his shoulders, forcing him to his knees. In front of him is a woman, watching as all the chaos continues to unfold.
It isn't hard to figure out who she is. Her aura oozes of authority and dominance, with her black pinstripe suit and bold red stilettos. Her dark brown hair was slicked back behind her shoulders, as straight as her perfect posture. Her hazel eyes aren't lifeless. In fact, they're quite the opposite. Because how can one have lifeless eyes when they have lived countless lives?
There's no doubt that she's the new leader. The person who has replaced Elias. Except she doesn't wear a smirk on her lips, she wears blood red lipstick.
Rather than a stake like most vampires, she holds a dagger. Silver, the hilt embellished, and traces the sharp point along Axel's neck. Another way to kill a vampire, cut off their head.
Even with his enhanced hearing, Miles can just about hear her words.
"I'm not like Elias." She says, eerily close to Axel's ear. "I don't have a weakness. It's pathetic really, your lame excuse of an attack. I'm the new leader for a reason."
The woman slashes Axel's cheek with the dagger and Miles has to force himself not to scream. She then grabs a handkerchief from her pocket and wipes her dagger clean.
"I won't kill you yet, Axel Jacobson. But when I do, just know I'll make a huge show of it."
Axel spits at her feet. She responds by slapping him across the face. Turning his head at the sudden motion, Axel locks eyes with a frightened looking Miles. He tries his best to communicate with Miles, staring at a stray stake on the floor and then at the woman towering over him.
Miles nods his head, picking up the stake.
Be brave. Come on, Axel needs you.
It's simple, just a slab of metal with no engraving, but it's a weapon nonetheless. Axel nods his head discretely, mouthing the word 'now'. Miles sprints towards the woman, ready to attack her from behind when suddenly she turns, swiftly catching his wrists'.
"Oh you didn't think it would be that easy did you? I find it quite insulting actually." The woman laughs, squeezing at Miles' wrists. He yelps in pain at the immense force she's exerting.
"Miles!" Axel yells. "Throw it!"
Miles looks at the stake in his hands which were still being crushed, and flexed his fingers as much as he could to get the dagger as close to Axel as possible. With his hands held behind his back, Axel resorts to catching the stake in his mouth. And vigorously turning his head to the side, he slashes the leader in the thigh.
"No!" She screams, finally letting go of Miles' aching wrists.
The men, in their sudden state of shock, loosen their grip enough for Axel to push them back and slip away. He grabs Miles' hand, which he winces at - "Sorry" - and they quickly flee the scene.
"You idiots let him go!" The woman screams at the two vampires, who were still looking at her in shock.
"You-you got hurt." One stutters in disbelief. "The leader never gets hurt."
Knowing what this means, he calls off the attack, the other civilised vampires just as surprised as he when they find out what happened. Instead of continuing the fights, they capture as much of the rogues as they can assemble, taking them back to the mansion to be persecuted.
Whilst most of the clan are satisfied with the results of the ambush, the new leader is trembling with rage. She had been humiliated, defeated, her ambush cut short. She had wanted Axel dead, and what angers her the most is that she was so close to it.
Next time Axel Jacobson, you wont be so lucky.
••••••••••
A/N
Oh my goodness. I didn't expect for this book to be so violent. Sorry.
Also, what a long chapter.
YOU ARE READING
Infinite Miles
Teen Fiction"Because you Miles, are infinite." It was never supposed to go that way for Axel and Miles. And it was definitely not supposed to end like that too. But this is the story about what happens after the end. Follow Axel, Miles and Sydney through their...
