The Cursed Shifters - Mateless

Blood Soaked

                                There really weren’t that many weapons in the cars, Shiloh had the handgun she always carried, her set of throwing knives, a backup firearm, and two bowie knives. The only thing in the boy’s car was Michael’s constant carry firearm. Not a lot to work with for a hunt. Shiloh handed Dre and Lennon each a bowie knife and Bex her spare handgun, the throwing knives she strapped to her leg over her jeans.

                                “Celest said that the incidents were taking place on East Vine, that road isn’t that long so the question is how do we approach this? Do we find good vantage points and watch, prowl, or use bait?”

                                “I like the bait idea, you and Bex just standing there looking like dinner, talking and not paying attention, then they try to grab you, you kill them, BAM done.” Dre had a point that did sound like a pretty clean option.

                                “The problem there is the vampire may scent them and not attack, or it could scent them and have friends.” Cue Lennon pointing out the issues.

                                “So, we let the girls act as bait with heavy perfume, vampires can smell as well as we can, that should be enough. We take vantage points some high some closer and be prepared for any scenario.”

                                “Solid plan, Michael. Let’s get moving.” The streets were mostly empty as the group made their way over to East Vine Street. Just a few blocks away the streets were alive with laughter and conversation from the bars’ outdoor areas but the closer they got to East Vine the quieter it got, as if the area had been completely abandoned. A few people milled about in silence, drunk and lost from the looks of it. The girls would have to play drunk or their willingness to be on the street at all would raise suspicion in the vampires. The team quickly split up, the males seeking vantage points to watch for approaching vampires and the girls stumbling down the street to an area just out of the streetlights.

                                Shiloh began to play her part spinning a tale of a scorned woman drinking her pain away. “I jusss cannn’t believe… he would d-d-do… that!” she slurred and stuttered. “H-he can’t take the time to message m-me whennn thingsss are… are ssooo bad right n-n-now but he cannn go running to h-h-her?!” Bex caught on and began to rub Shiloh’s back.

                                “You know he’s just a f*****g idiot.” She fake hick-uped and swallowed like she was trying to keep her liquor down. “No man in his right mind would choose anyone over you. The dumbass can’t even think straight his head is so far up his own f*****g ass.”

                                Shiloh faked more hysterics whaling as the smell of rot and overly sweet cake icing drifted to her, he was here. “He t-t-told me he loved me, he-he cannn’t be withhhout me and d-d-does thhisss shhit over and o-over.”

                                “I’ll hit him across his stupid face with a chair, I’ll be happy to do so.” Footsteps approached the duo, light enough a human wouldn’t hear and probably would spook instantly.

                                “Ladies,” Both girls jumped a little pretending to be startled by the sudden appearance. “Whatever is the matter? A woman as beautiful as you should never have reason to cry.” Shiloh looked up at him hesitantly, still playing her part. He was tall, about six foot two and lean, it was obvious how he had managed to take off with so many women, the vampire was gorgeous. He had the same jet-black hair and startling icy eyes as Lennon, but his face was clean shaven with a strong chiseled jaw, straight nose, and she was pretty sure he got his eyebrows done. He oozed charm enough to make her gag. “Would you ladies like to accompany me to a party? It is just a short walk away and you can meet some of my friends. I am sure they will find you absolutely delectable, you won’t think of that, what did you call him? Dumbass, at all once we get there.”

                                They had not accounted for the vampire relocating his pray further then a near by ally but if there was more then one it made some sense. They could be walking into a nest under armed. Shiloh nodded to the vampire hesitantly looking a little transfixed by him. It was exactly what he wanted to see and gave a curt nod before taking them by the waist one on each side and heading down the street. Shiloh knew the males were trailing close behind, Michael would not let them out of his sight. He turned them toward the steakhouse on the corner and Shiloh c****d an eyebrow at the sheer irony of it. “The party is at the steakhouse?” She asked.

                                “Oh no dear, it’s under it, there are private rooms below.” s**t, that was going to make it hard for the males to follow them in. Shiloh desperately hoped they hadn’t bitten off more than they could chew. Shiloh didn’t see or scent any guards as they approached the back door of the steakhouse, and it only had a deadbolt on it. Either they were very confident that they would not be found, or they were very confident they had the strength to handle anyone that came looking. Shiloh hoped it was the former, she also hoped they would have more weapons laying around. Inside the door was a drab stairwell leading beneath the building, no entrance into the steakhouse from here so there may be another entrance that could be utilized as an escape route for them or the vampires. The girls halted and gave each other look like scared mortals that were just remembering all the murders that had been happening.

                                “Oh, don’t worry ladies its much nicer beyond this dreary stairwell, don’t you want to come see.” Shiloh recognized the attempt at compulsion for what it was and smiled broadly nodding her head, Bex did the same. They really should have gone into acting instead of hunting.  Satisfied the vampire began down the stairs, Shiloh kicked a piece of gravel into the doorframe to keep it from shutting before following. The room beyond the stairwell looked like the nest in every single vampire movie that ever tried to make vampires sexy, red and black velvet covered everything, and Shiloh was definitely stealing some of those black silk throw pillows if they didn’t get ruined in the fray. There were two human women in the room, engaged in conversation with two more male vampires, a third male lounged on a chaise. Shiloh swore she could smell a female in the room, but she was nowhere to be seen and the scent was a couple hours old.

                                Opening the private link to her group she relayed the scene to the males. “Michael, you will need to get these women out. There doesn’t appear to be another exit but it could be hidden behind all the drapery. Bex, play along we are enamored and interested, all of them are attractive so normal human girls would be elated right now and a bit catty at the competition in the room. Roll with it until I signal. How close are you guys?”

                                Lennon responded first, “Three minutes, we didn’t want to get to close and all that plum perfume you sprayed is easy to track.” Fayrah was pacing in Shiloh’s mind, she did not like playing pray and wanted to sink her teeth into the throats of these leaches.

                                “Better hurry, Fayrah is giving me fits.”

                                “Sit anywhere you like ladies, would you like anything to drink? We have some of the more popular options, wines, beer, vodka, but I am afraid we are low on things to mix them with.” Bex nodded to him and took a beer that Shiloh knew good and well she had no interest in drinking while Shiloh approached the vampire on the chaise. He was probably a popular football player in some little town before this life took him. Attractive with blonde hair and brown eyes and he knew it, it was written all over that cocky look on his face.

                                “May I sit with you?” Shiloh purred.  His cocky look turned into a smirk, and he nodded tossing a look at the vampire that had brought them like he’d won some competition. Shiloh slid onto his lap; the drunk girl was now the easy drunk girl. She could not imagine how none of the vampires had noticed she was armed; her best guess was they thought the weapons part of a costume for the comic convention going on a few blocks away. Shiloh settled herself on him realizing he was in fact made of as much muscle as he appeared to be, she placed her hand on her thigh, fingertips a fraction of an inch from the loop of one of her throwing knives. ‘You should have kept one of the bowie knives.’ Fayrah scolded, tensing at the contact from the vampire. ‘These will do.’ Shiloh soothed her wolf.

                                “We are at the top of the stairs Shi, they may hear us coming in though Dre is like a heard of Elephants on stairs.” Bex heard and immediately dropped her beer, the glass mug shattering as it hit the painted concrete floor.

                                “Oh my gosh I am so sorry!” She cried, “do you have towels? Where is the trash? Ill clean this up, my stupid butter fingers…” On and on like an embarrassed schoolgirl, while the boys made their was down the stairs, when Shiloh sensed them near the bottom she struck.

                                Looping her middle finger through the ring of her throwing knife she pulled it from the sheath and slashed it across the vampire’s throat in one fluid motion. He didn’t have time to register she had drawn the knife before blood was pouring from the gaping wound. His hands flew to his throat trying to stifle the bleeding and Shiloh drove the knife into his heart. The human girls in the room had run to a corner, cowering, and crying. The three other males were growling, eyes locked on Shiloh not a single one noticed as Bex picked up a large piece of glass from the shattered mug or the three large males barreling into the room.  Shiloh crouched low and growled a warning at the three vampires, barring her teeth. Her team wouldn’t make another move until Michael made it over to the humans, but the vampires might. Scratch that, they would, the dark haired one that had brought them began to lunge for Shiloh, teeth gnashing ready to tear her throat out. Bex was there with her shard of glass, driving it into his thigh.

                                The two vampires that had been chatting up the girls on the couch were up and moving, one headed for Dre and Lennon while the other charged at Shiloh, she sprung up using the strength in her legs to propel her into a pounce, tackling him to the ground. Guns were out for this fight, a stray bullet could go through the ceiling and hit someone in the steakhouse above, not to mention the shots would be heard.  Shiloh and the vampire tumbled across the floor, the impact of his head hitting the concrete barely phased him, he gnashed his teeth at her throat. Shiloh head butted him in the face breaking his nose and he growled. While she grappled on the floor her team was engaged in their own battles.

                                Bex grunted as a fist collided with her stomach, she pretended to double over the injury before throwing an uppercut into the vampire’s jaw, the force of the hit sent him stumbling backward. Bex had no weapons to use, short of tearing his head from his body she had no way to kill him. “Lennon! Knife!” She cried, not missing a beat Lennon tossed her the Bowie knife, but the time it took for her to look and catch it the vampire was upon her, and he knocked it out of her hand before she properly grasped the handle. The fistfight began anew as she swung with her left for his face, and he grasped her right had bending it back breaking the wrist. Bex screamed as the bones snapped and pain shot through her arm, but she did not halt her attack, her fist collided with his face, he lost his grip on her hand.

                                Michael had taken full advantage of the vampires being engaged with his friends and was starting up the stairs with the two horrified human women when Bex scream distracted him. He almost turned back into the room but the faces of the two women held so much terror and his orders were to get them out. They headed up the stairs.

                                Dre had the vampire he and Lennon were fighting restrained, it back to his torso arms locked in his. Lennon approached it slowly ready to take its head off with the bowie knife. Shiloh was still grappling with the vampire in the floor, she began to shift into her wolf, Fayrah was overjoyed to take over and as her snout formed jowls salivating Shiloh hear Fayrah laugh darkly in her mind. Lennon took the head of the vampire at the same time Fayrah sunk her teeth into the neck of the one before her. Her teeth cut through its skin and arteries like tabletop butter and blood caked her muzzle as it poured out. She jerked her head back tearing a gaping hole in his neck and bit down again to sever the head. Shiloh looked up through Fayrah’s eyes to where Bex had been fighting, thinking she had finished the vampire off, he stood, Bex held against him, Shiloh’s bowie knife at her throat. Fayrah growled loud enough to shake the foundation of the building and gnashed her teeth at him. The snarl would have frozen anyone in place from fear. The vampire stared the russet-colored wolf down, Fayrah kept snarling and snapping, Dre and Lennon tried to use the vampires focus on her to their advantage to flank him, but he heard them coming and turned sideways, pressing the knife in enough to draw blood. “You have taken three of my friends little Alpha, I think it’s only fair I take one of yours.” Michael came barreling down the stairs and the vampire’s attention snapped to him, it was all the girls needed, Bex shoved her forearms beneath the arm holding the knife and forced it away, spinning out of his grip, Fayrah lunged for him knocking him to the ground. He rolled trying to get on his back and get the knife back but as soon as he got to his back and reached out Fayrah put a heavy paw on his arm, she was as long as he was tall and easily matched his weight or bettered it. She snarled in his face, before dealing his death. Not the quick death of his friend, no she tore and tore into his chest, burrowing her muzzle into it until she reached his heart. The vampire screamed in screamed in pure agony as the wolf shredded his chest and snapped his ribcage. Once she finally reached his heart, she snapped her jaws closed around it and ripped her head back from his chest. The screaming stopped and the room was silent as her friends stood there shocked.

                                Shiloh shifted back to her human form, still caked in blood and tore down some of the drapery to cover herself and wipe off what she could. “One of you will have to go get the car, I can’t walk down the street like this.” As she spoke, they heard a light shuffle from behind one of the drapes, assuming it was a rat they disregarded it. The female Shiloh had scented had returned in time to the s*******r of her companions, hidden behind the drape that covered the door to the steakhouse, she scurried out and into the night far from what she knew would be her death. Another night, another night she would get her revenge.