TRI-BLOOD

CHAPTER 2 - Rescued - 3rd POV

A pained scream rend the air, jacking Luca out of his unconsciousness.

As he came to, he looked around, trying to locate where the scream was coming from. What he found almost made him join in the screaming and vomit at the same time.

The sneer-faced man looked to have beaten Sam in the neck and was drinking from his neck. Sam looked to be in so much pain and shock, hence the scream.

Luca did the only thing that came to his mind. He kicked the man with all his might in an attempt to knock him off his friend. But unfortunately, it was like kicking a wall, as the man didn't even bulge an inch.

Nonetheless, it wasn't a wasted effort, as at least the kick got the man’s attention, which made him stop drinking from Sam, which made Sam stop screaming.

Sam got the chance to crawl away from the man and quickly tried to stem the bloody gash on his neck with his palm. This made a bolt of pain run through his body, and he almost started screaming again, but he controlled himself and only let out a shaky groan.

“Oh, so you are awake also. Fantastic,” Sneer-faced said, addressing Luca.

“So since we are all awake, let’s do a bit of an introduction. I will go first. I am Prince Marco of the Massimo clan, son of District Six Vampire Grand Leader, Lord Brujj Massimo, distant cousin of The Emperor.” He said, “Now it's your turn.”

The boys stared at each other, dumbfounded. What is he talking about? Who is The Emperor? Who is the Grand Leader? What is District Six? Ironically, the mention of vampires seemed to be the least shocking of everything he had said.

“Ha ha ha. So you won't answer me even in the face of death?” Marco chuckled. “Tell me, who sent you fuckers? The werewolves, the SRB? Are you their human spies?” He ended by shouting, frustrated.

But the boys remained silent, cowering in their spots, too scared to even look up.

“Eiishh, this s**t is driving me crazy!” Marco shouted in frustration. “On one hand, I'm thinking all this might have been a big coincidence, and you two are just two dumb humans with the worst luck ever.”

Marco seemed to consider this for a moment, then looked towards his friends, who just shrugged as if to say they were as confused as he was. This seemed to rile Marco up further.

“But no! I refuse to believe in such perfect coincidence. Why is it at the moment when I decide to take a little filling? If you f*****g rats had entered 10 minutes earlier or 10 minutes later, I would have been safe. Also, why take the back door of all places? No, I do not believe that this was a coincidence. I am sure that you were sent by that SRB b***h, Amin, and I will make sure you both regret working for her.”

Then he suddenly started laughing. He laughed so hard that he began to cough. Meanwhile, Luca used that opportunity to crawl to his friend and tried to help him stem the blood on his neck.

Then Marco stopped laughing and became serious once again. “But who cares, though? I am Prince Marco, and I can do whatever the f**k I want.” He said, staring at the two boys cowering in a corner.

“How about I give you two the most painful turning that any vampire has ever experienced and see how the SRB likes that? Moreover, I have started the process on that one; you are the only one left.” He said, picking up Luca by the collar of his shirt.

“No wait,” Luca said in panic. “We do not know any SRB or werewolves. We only heard about the party and just wanted to be part of the fun. Please we were not sent by anyone.” Luca begged as tears streamed down his face.

Marco stared at him for a while as if to determine if he was telling the truth or not, then said with a shrug, “Doesn't matter whether you were sent or not, you walked into my turf uninvited, so you have to be punished.”

Luca was raised into the air as he stared at Marco’s open mouth whose teeth began to elongate and sharpen.

Luca closed his eyes and tried to prepare himself mentally for the pain that was about to come. But it never came.

Because at that moment, a loud crashing sound was heard at the back door, and a large object came flying into the room and smashed against the wall. On closer inspection, the object that had flown in was actually the huge guard at the back door.

Who could have done this? Luca wondered.

Then in walked a tall, beautiful brunette lady in a dark army-like uniform. She glanced around the room as if taking in everything that had transpired, then her gaze focused on Marco.

“Marco Massimo.” The lady said in a no-nonsense voice, "What is going on here? Why do you have bleeding humans on your floor?”

“Is that how you say hello to your brother-in-law?” Marco asked, unfazed.

Immediately, the eyes of the beautiful lady changed from their deep green to ocean blue, then a low growl rumbled from her throat.

“Don’t you ever associate me with your family of psychos. Over my dead body will I marry into your family.” She said through gritted teeth. “I will never…” But then she caught herself as she realized that Marco was using her emotions to derail her thoughts from what matters most- a typical vampire move.

She then took a deep breath and smiled, “Marco Massimo, please step away from the innocent humans. This party is shut down by order of the SRB. Also, tell your goons to stand down and stop staring at me.”

“And what if we don't,” Luca returned with a smile of his own. “I mean, you might be an excellent fighter, but six to one seems like an impossible feat even for you, Amin.”

“And who told you that I was alone?” Amin asked, still grinning, unbothered.

“Boys, come in” and there, hefty-looking men strolled in putting on the same army-style uniform as Amin.

“Oh, it looks like you came prepared. Since you are really bent on stopping me, let's see you try to stop this.” He said and turned to bite Luca as he had promised.

While Marco and the new girl - Amin - argued, Luca pondered how he would be able to deliver himself. He knew Marco had promised to bite him just as he had done to his friend, and he had seen how fast Marco moved, so unless the new girl was faster, which he doubted, it was up to him to save himself.

In the absence of any weapon, Luca clenched his fist and waited, he was never going down easily.

And just as Marco was about to bite down on his neck, Luca swung his fist with all his might and punched him in the eye.

The punch might not have accomplished much, but it startled Marco and made him pause for a brief moment and that was enough.

The woman was on them and grabbed Luca in the shoulder and pulled away from Marco’s grip, ripping his shirt in the process, and delivered a well-placed kick on his head.

Immediately, Amin and her three friends descended on the vampires and in no time subdued them.

While watching the short fight, Luca noticed that Amin and her friends- who seemed to be werewolves - were relatively slower than the vampires but their incredible strength overcompensated for that.

Some minutes after, the vampires were put in a kind of magic silver cuffs, and taken out the back door, Amin walked toward the corner where Luca and his friend were huddled together. Sam seemed to have fallen into a kind of slumber after being bitten by Marco.

When Amin drew closer, she noticed that Luca seemed to be bleeding on the upper left side of his chest. On closer inspection, it looked to be coming from four deep scratches. Amin’s face went pale.

“How did you get that on your shoulder?” Amin asked Luca, pointing at his bleeding shoulder.

Luca, as if just noticing the injury, shrugged and answered, “Well it must have been when you pulled me from Marco’s grip.”

“I think your… what is it called?” he said gesturing at her fingers, “Must have caused the scratch.”

While in the heat of the fight, the werewolves had all had dark claws at the tip of their fingers, but now their fingers were back to normal, no claw in sight.

Amin stared at the four scratch lines on his chest with a worried look, then took a deep breath and asked him, “How are you feeling? Do you feel a burning sensation coming from the scratches?”

Luca wondered what kind of odd question she had asked. “Of course I'm fine.”

Nonetheless, he took a moment to reassess himself just to confirm, only to realize that he was actually not fine.

His body seemed to have gone numb, and the scratch on his chest seemed to be increasing drastically. But most noticeably, his heart seemed to be attempting to jump out of his chest.

What is going on with his body?

But before he could ask anyone that question, he blacked out.