Vampire Hunter’s Revenge

Chapter Three

Before anyone had a chance to react, the vampire lunged between them with enhanced speed. When he stopped, he had one arm locked around Eva's waist, holding her back against his chest so that she was in between him and the other Hunters. His other hand grasped her jaw, forcing her head to the side. As they watched in horror, he buried his fangs into the right side of her neck. Eva's face contorted in pain, but she didn't make a sound.

It was over in only a moment, then the vampire slowly and dramatically licked the blood from her skin. "You've always tasted so sweet..." he spoke in her ear, and Zack couldn't help but notice a different type of pain in her eyes. She struggled against his hold, but they all knew she wouldn't be strong enough to break free. "Now we shouldn't keep the others waiting. Your friends are welcome to join us, of course. Plenty of food to go around." He gave the other Hunters a smirk, Eva's blood still dripping from his lips. Then he was walking backwards towards the door on the other side of the room, dragging her with him, taking extra care to keep her positioned to shield him.

Then they were gone, and Adam cursed as he threw the machete on the floor. "What now?" he demanded, no longer trying to be quiet. "If we go after them we're all dead."

"Was that the Hunter they turned?" Zack asked Kristin.

The redhead nodded, her gaze still lingering on the door her friend had been dragged through. "Yes. He's also Eva's former partner... and ex-boyfriend."

All the pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place. "Well shit..." Rubbing a hand over the scruff on his jaw, he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and quickly dialed a number before holding it up to his ear. "Hey Logan. How fast can you get to LA?"

***

Eva prayed the others were smart enough not to follow them straight into the trap. Part of her hoped they'd be smart enough to just let her go and torch the place. It would be better than risking losing more lives to these monsters. Sure enough, the room the vampire dragged her to was full of vampires, and they all watched with hunger in their eyes as Damian fastened her to a wooden St. Andrew's Cross. Once the cuffs were secure, he took a single step back, his own lustful gaze traveling along her body before he reached out to trail a fingertip along the necklace she wore. "Did you really think this would stop me?" he asked in that same seductive tone that used to send shivers through her body. Now, it just made her heart ache.

"I've always been fond of the placebo effect," she replied, trying to keep her voice from quivering.

Damian only smirked, tilting his finger so the nail pressed against the tip of the scar on her sternum. His eyes locked with hers, a powerful energy radiating through his gaze and mesmerizing her. He barely even moved, and she felt the white-hot pain of the scar splitting open as his nail dragged slowly down her chest. She clenched her jaw with a sharp intake of breath, refusing to give him the satisfaction of whimpering in pain. When he lowered his hand, however, she couldn't stop the breath of relief. "I've had tattoos that hurt worse than that," she told him, but his smirk just grew.

"I do love your tattoos..." He turned his attention to her left forearm, where the two protection symbols were inked into her skin. Starting at the crook of her elbow, he began to slowly kiss and lick across the tattoos. Eva squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head away from him, her skin crawling and stomach turning. She didn't think she could go through this all over again. His kisses reached the inside of her wrist just below the cuff, and suddenly his fangs sank deep into her flesh. Startled by the sudden change, she gasped, her head falling back as she struggled to contain a scream.

A low growl rippled through the room, and she knew that the scent of her blood was starting to work the other vampires into a frenzy. Fear gripped her, her heart started to beat faster, and she felt Damian smile against her wrist. His fangs withdrew from her skin, but he continued to kiss and lick at the wound as he spoke. "Don't worry, love... There's plenty of other mortals here they can feed on if they get impatient." He moved away from her wrist then, burying his face against the left side of her neck as his hands began to tear her shirt from collar to hem. "I just promised them a show."

She swallowed hard as he paid the same attention to her neck as he had her wrist, her mind searching frantically for something else to think about, somewhere else to go. It was obvious what he had in mind, and between her arms restrained out to her sides and his superior strength and impossibly high pain tolerance... it was also obvious she couldn't fight him. There was also a room full of hungry vampires just waiting for their turn.

Eva tried to imagine she was somewhere else, somewhere safe and peaceful, but was immediately pulled back into reality as his fangs sank into her neck once more. This time, she lost the fight against the scream. The strangled cry that escaped her lips excited the vampire in front of her, and he sucked harder at her neck and tore the fabric of her sports bra. She hoped he would get carried away and just end up killing her this time.

***

Eva was drifting in and out of consciousness when she felt the restraints release from her arms, and she crumbled away from the St. Andrew's Cross to be caught by a solid, muscular body. She didn't need to open her eyes to know it was Damian that lifted her off the floor and began to carry her. She also didn't need to see where they were going to know he was about to place her in a cage so she could recover some before he fed off her again. Too weak to struggle, too weak to care, darkness claimed her once more after he'd only taken a few steps towards her new resting place.

"f**k, Eva..." a quiet voice whispered beside her, soft fingertips brushing a strand of blood-soaked hair away from her face. Eva recoiled sharply away from the touch, but relaxed once more when she recognized Jayce's voice.

"Why'd you come back alone again?" Ransford's gruff voice spoke next, and her body reflexively curled into a ball on her side to shield herself. That was when she became aware of a fabric that had been draped over her body. Her fingers curled around it, and as she took a slow breath she was able to smell Ransford's cologne. He must have given her his shirt.

"Didn't..." she croaked. "He was... prepared..." She curled into a tighter ball, her body beginning to tremble from the shock of the blood loss.

"Where are the others?" Jayce asked, her voice laced with worry.

Eva only shook her head. She didn't know what happened to them after Damian dragged her away, and she didn't want to keep talking. They both fell silent then, allowing their friend a chance to rest. Jayce continued to softly stroke her hair, hoping to provide at least a little comfort after what she had just endured. It wasn't long before Eva had drifted off to sleep once more, though her body continued to convulse.

When the rattling of the cage bars awoke her, Eva was shocked to see Zack standing there. There was pain and sympathy in his eyes as he looked at her, but he didn't say anything other than "Come on. Let's get you guys out of here." The door to the cage flew open, and Jayce helped her sit up and crawl out. Once her feet were on the floor, Zack scooped her up into his arms. She immediately tried to shove him away from her, but still lacked the strength. Instead of releasing her, he pulled her closer to his body.

"I won't hurt you," he whispered against her hair. "You're safe with me." The quiet words didn't calm her panic, but she stopped struggling and let him carry her.

When they moved into the next room, her stomach turned violently at the sight that greeted them. Bodies, blood and heads covered the floor in disarray. Of course... he would have had to go through the nest to get to their cage. "How...?"

"I called back up," Zack answered, a note of pride in his voice. Her lips twitched into the barest hint of a smile, and she felt her head resting against his chest. His scent of sea salt and cedar enveloped her, mixing strangely with Ransford's synthetic cologne on the shirt she wore, but she found it soothing.

The overwhelming scent of blood that filled the entire warehouse disappeared the moment they made it outside, and Eva reflexively took a deep breath. It was night now, and she briefly wondered how long she had been held captive. There was a lot of activity surrounding the gate. Several vehicles, with at least a dozen people walking between and around them. It appeared Zack had called a lot of back up. Adam was waiting next to his car with the passenger doors already open. He moved to take Eva from Zack's arms, but the other Hunter just pulled her tighter against his body and brushed past him to get in the back seat with her.

Adam's jaw clenched, but he didn't argue with the man, and just turned to Jayce and Ransford. They both had bite wounds on their necks, but looked relatively functional. His concern grew that they may have been turned, but that was something for them to deal with when they got back to Sanctuary. "Good to see you're alive," he greeted them, before he started to walk around the car to the driver's seat. "Guess one of you can sit up front." Jayce slid into the backseat next to Zack, whom had Eva cradled on his lap, and Ransford dropped into the shotgun seat. The doors slammed closed, and their silent journey to Oasis began.