Keeping Human

Chapter Seven

Nelly fluttered open her eyes slowly, but that was the extent of her allowed movement. She could not lift a finger, or turn her head to look around the room. She could barely mutter a word, just some inaudible grunts.

Across the room, situated in dark lighting. Angela, sat predatory licking her lips in Nelly's direction. She smiled and played with the knife she held in her hands, twisting the pointy end onto her index finger and drawing her own blood.

"It's taken you longer than expected for you to wake up, but since you already told your brother that you're in safe hands, there's not much to worry about." Angela stalked forward and sat on Nelly's lap facing her. "Let's see, if you could speak, what would you be saying? Why are you doing this? What do you want from me? It doesn't have to be this way. That about cover it, hon?" She smirked and smelled deeply. "You do smell delicious, probably the best I will ever taste. Oh just one sip of you would turn anybody insane! No wonder Adam couldn't handle you, the poor virgin."

Angela took the knife and slowly dragged it across Nelly's skin, not that she could feel it, but it terrified her all the same. She wanted to scream for help, she wanted somebody to come and save her, but she couldn't. She was trapped inside her petrified body. Alone.

"Do I frighten you?" Angela asked. "Hm, I suppose I do." She smirked. The only thing Nelly could move were her eyes, and they were watering intensely. "You're crying. What for? You can't feel any pain, what is there to worry about?" Angela breathed a sigh of realisation. "Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to turn you, honey. I'm just going to kill you." She held up her hands in surrender. "Oh, no, don't worry about a thing! If you die, your family is safe, Ophelia is safe...probably. The entire war will either come to a hold or rage across the oceans...and I...well," she chuckled, "I will get you."

Nelly released a few grunting noises from her mouth. "What was that?" Angela held a hand by her ear. "Do speak up, how am I to understand you?" She belly-laughed. "Would you like to know a secret?" She asked. "Okay, if you insist." She finished with a smirk. "I don't even want to kill you, I'd happily keep you alive, my own personal blood bank. But if I don't, Lady of the Lair will be ever so mad at me." She stared into Nelly's frantically moving eyes and smiled greedily. "After all, I wouldn't be finishing the job she gave me."

Angela leaned in and sliced Nelly's shoulder open with the knife. Her body could almost couldn't handle the excitement and smell and her eyes began to turn black as the veins popped out on her face.

Nelly was screaming on the inside, she was thrashing around and trying to throw Angela off of her, but on the outside, she was a petrified statue, and Angela was licking up her blood.

"My word!" Angela screamed. "This is even better than I imagined. I don't know if I can...control...myself." She breathed as she lapped up the trickling drops streaking down Nelly's arm.

"That's enough!" A voice bellowed from behind her. Nelly could not move to peer who it was coming from the darkness. "Let her go, right now." He ordered. His figure moved into the light, his maroon hair slicked back, and his stubble still untidy and untrimmed.

Seth. Nelly whined inside of her head. Do something, Seth.

Although the majority of her thoughts were occupied by the idea that Seth had come to rescue her, she also was terrified that perhaps he would join in on the feeding frenzy.

Angela gave a sultry chuckle, "My, my. Detective Thorne." She smirked and turned to face him with a giant, blood-infused grin.

"Step away from her, this instant." He growled.

"Betrayal!" She fake-gasped and smirked. "Not so much your strong suit."

"Hypocrisy clings to your lips, Angela. You've betrayed all of us. Me, Justine, Chauncey, Kora, Adam, The Twins, Ysabelle-"

Angela broke off his words with a hearty chuckle. "-Ysabelle." She smirked. "Who do you think gave the order?" She whispered and edged closer to him, slowly trailing her fingers across his chest. "Who do you think, asked me to end the human causing all of this heartache and misery," she said softly, "rid the problem, she told me, she believed that I was the only one capable. I alone could end this war."

"Or set fire to it." Seth snapped and shoved her away from him.

Angela hissed. "Careful now, you're going to want me on your side in this war."

"Am I?" He threatened and stepped forward, trailing his eyes over to Nelly's bleeding arm.

Angela whispered, "It's beautiful, isn't it? Give it a taste, you'll never taste anything like it. She's special, and her blood is even more precious."

She moved towards him and gently took a hold of his hand, leading him to Nelly, who now found control of her fingers and toes.

"C'mon," Angela urged, "taste it."

Seth was transfixed on the blood that was seeping out of Nelly's arm, but before his eyes could glaze over with the darkness, he let out a loud yell and grabbed Angela by the throat. She gasped and stabbed his side with the knife he held; he let out a screech and threw her into the kitchen, where she crashed into plates and glasses. He looked down at the knife that stuck out of his side and slowly pulled it out with a grunt in pain. Blood spat out of the hole it can created.

He brushed it off and made his way to Nelly, picking her up with a loud groan. "Come on, Nelly. We're going to get you out of here."

"You're not going anywhere!" Angela screamed and launched herself at Seth from across the room, forcing him to drop Nelly's limp body.

He grunted in pain as he landed on his side and kicked her off with his boot. She slammed into the wall and hissed as he slowly got up.

"It's over!" He bellowed. "You're going to lose this fight, Angela!"

She let out a hysterical laugh, "That's funny! Coming from the guy who had a knife in him a moment ago! And let's not forget who put it there!" She taunted, and threw herself in his direction, pummelling him to the floor.

Nelly could feel the pain in her arm, the sensation of touch was coming back and she could move her joints ever so slightly. Her eye watched the fight between the two vampires from the ground.

"Seth..." She whispered. It was about as loud as her voice would allow.

Seth held her tightly and began to crush her ribs. "Why would you even want her in this war?! She's useless unless you turn her!" Angela strained and sunk her teeth into Seth's arm.

Seth hissed and involuntarily let go. "You know nothing!" He spat back and ducked as she punched the wall behind him, leaving a huge cratered hole in the brick.

Nelly found the strength to push herself from the blood-stained carpet and sat up with trembling arms. Panting from the pain and the poison, she let her head hang back as she gripped her bleeding arm.

Angela ducked from Seth's attack and it gave her the upper hand, she took both of her hands and wrapped them around his neck, like a rope tightening.

He gasped and grabbed her arm, ripping at her flesh with his nails. She leaned in with her fangs, aiming for his jugular.

"Angela!" Nelly screamed in a rather off-pitch tone.

Angela turned to face her and watched as Nelly rubbed her free hand in the blood that trickled down her arm and pointed it towards her. She panted heavily and shook in terror, but held a brave front. "Kill me now or you won't get another chance. You want my blood, don't you? Come and get it."

Angela slowly released her grip from Seth, her vampiric temptation too much to control; her eyes blackened over and her face turned dark, the long fangs that hung in the front of her mouth dripped with blood and saliva.

She threw herself at Nelly in a blind frenzy, only to be yanked back by Seth. He pinned her to the floor and stomped on her head, crushing it into dust.

He groaned and made a strange noise as he watched her entire body disintegrate into bone and eventually, ashes.

He panted and held his side in pain. He looked down at it, and watched as it slowly began to pull the muscle tissue together from the inside. "She won't be the only one after you. There'll be more. She's just the only one with history." He mumbled.

Seth stumbled forward towards Nelly and glanced at her arm. She trembled in utter fear and shock, but he simply made a tourniquet out of her tie and patched up the bleeding.

"How did you know I was here?" Nelly wondered and grimaced as he wiped up her blood with her white school shirt.

Seth scoffed. "Any vampire, werewolf or canary could smell you from a mile off."

"If that's true, then why are Caleb and the wolves not here, defending me?" She asked, looking down at the ash-covered floor.

Seth frowned and scoffed in Nelly's face. "Are you still thinking that your wolfie friends are as truthful as they seem?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Nelly whined.

Seth sighed and rubbed his forehead, smearing Nelly's blood onto his sweaty skin. "It means the pack has come for what it's owed."

As the sky darkened, so did the lights from Jack's house. The curtains were pulled closed by a man with glowing eyes.

The tallest man with the largest arms stepped forward menacingly, crossing his arms and snarling disapprovingly.

Staring deeply into Caleb's eyes, he chuckled. "I never thought in a million years this would have to happen, Caleb. You've not only let me down, your brothers and sisters down, but also yourself." The muscular man said. He gently stroked Madeleine's hair, to which she shifted on her feet and whimpered loudly. "Oh, no, no, shh." He hushed. "I'm not going to hurt you, sweetheart." He smiled and glared up at Caleb, who was being held back by three other men. "I'm going to hurt him."

"Oliver," Jared emerged from the crowd, "two of the cold-ones passed into our territory in the last hour."

Oliver snarled. "So what are you doing talking to me then? Go and rip their throats out!" He ordered.

"That's just the thing, one of them took the other one out before we could intervene...and that smell, that's Nelly."

Oliver growled. "They hurt her?"

Caleb struggled. "Let me go! I've gotta get to her!-"

"-And leave poor Madeline all alone in the company of seven werewolves?" He challenged. "Okay, Caleb, new deal," he smirked, "we will let you leave, right now," the other pack members looked at each other warily, "you can go to Nelly and save her from those wretched demons. Or, you can stay here, with Madeline and do as your told, so that we can do our job or we will bite her tiny, little head off." He threatened and snapped his human jaws at Madeline.

Caleb growled angrily, "You would never hurt her, she's a human! It's against our law!" He challenged.

"Yes, that's true. Yet, she is also the sister of a deserter, and, excuse me if I'm mistaken, lads, but that's in our law too. Or did you forget when you decided to abandon your pack?" He smiled.

"You monsters!" Caleb shrieked. "She's just a little girl! She had nothing to do with any of this!" Madeline began crying, her body trembling in fear.

"Alpha..." Jared snarled. "Do you smell that?"

Oliver turned his attention from Madeline and glanced at his pack members sniffing the air, their eyes turning either a beaming orange, red or yellow; the hue from their orbs glowing in the darkness of the room.

"The monsters are here. How many?" He turned to Jared. "Go now. Check." He glanced at one of the others in his pack. "Go with him, Ricky, report back ASAP."

Jared and the man with the scruffy hair nodded, quickly fleeing from the room and out of the front door into the darkness of the night.

Outside, in the dimly lit street, Seth took Nelly's hand. "We have to leave, Nelly."

Nelly's face drooped. "What?" She shook her head rapidly. "I'm not leaving without my brother and sister."

Seth grumbled in annoyance. "You'll do as I say, you owe your life to me, girl." He tugged on her arm rudely.

She yanked her hand back in protest. "No! You can't make me." She firmly stood her ground, opened her mouth and began to scream. "Caleb! Maddie! I'm out here! Help me!"

Seth didn't hesitate; he lunged forward and grabbed her mouth, slamming it shut. "You'll be quiet!" He ordered. "There are two of those dogs coming to rip out our throats with no surrender, do you really want that? Do you?" He shook her by the arm roughly.

Nelly shook her head violently, tears welling from her eyes.

"If I let go of your mouth, you'll do as I say?" He raised a brow.

Nelly nodded slowly; to which, true to his word, Seth removed his clasped hand from her mouth. 

"Now, stop being a brat and follow me." He sighed, grabbing her hand and turning her to him. "Hop on, like a piggy back."

Nelly furrowed her brows but slowly clambered onto his back; without a single strain, he heaved her up and took off. The sudden speed knocked her back slightly, but with a simple jut from Seth's arm, she steadied and felt the wind blow through her curly hair. Somewhat peaceful, she watched as the scenery fled past her, only small titbits of the landscape stood out, and the smear of streetlamps the only source of light.

Within only a few minutes they reached the familiar location of Wattling Woods, a popular landmark outside of Veciba, in the direction of London. As Seth slowed to a stop, Nelly opened her eyes. Peering into the darkness of the woodland, her heart gently patted inside of her chest.

He released her slowly. "Don't worry, I didn't bring you here to turn your skin white." He mumbled as he removed the maroon leather jacket he wore and handed it to her.

Nelly hesitantly took it and put it on, shivering lightly. "What did you bring me here for?"

Seth sighed. "With those dogs on your trail we're going to have to keep moving, they can't trace my scent, but they sure as hell can trace yours. I'm hoping if you stick with me it'll mask it from them."

"My brother and sister-"

"-They wouldn't dare touch Caleb or Madeline." He sighed and headed towards a nearby tree. "You've nothing to worry about." He said, slinking down the stump.

Nelly raised her brows. "Do you think I'm stupid?"

Seth frowned and glanced up at her. "They won't. They still have the treaty if not their morals."

Nelly crossed her arms and looked around at the cloudy night sky. "What do you expect me to do? Follow you around like a homeless puppy? I have basic human rights and needs."

"Would you like to keep such human rights and needs?" Seth snapped.

Nelly's head jolted back in surprise. For the first time she heard some kind of emotion in his voice, as though her humanism offended her vampiric captor.

She nodded slowly.

"Then do as you're f*****g told." He spat.

Nelly's eyebrows furrowed. Slowly, she moved towards him and took a seat beside him on the cold grass. "Why are you helping me? If Angela was telling the truth, Ysabelle Callista made the orders for her. The treaty obviously means nothing to her."

Seth's head didn't lift. "I'm keeping a promise."

"You killed one of your own to keep a promise?" Nelly questioned.

"It was harder than you think."

"It sure didn't look like it, I want to know why you're helping me." Nelly frowned.

Seth sighed and turned away from her. "Get some sleep."

"Here? On the woodland floor?" She said, taken aback.

Seth shot a glance from the corner of his eye. "Sleep, or don't. I don't care, but we're leaving at first light. So, take that information and do with it what you will."

Nelly watched as Seth grumpily faced away from her; she shivered and held her arms crossed in hopes to keep herself warm in the chilly British weather.

Her eyes fluttered shut, images of Angela's crushed skull whooshing into ash before her eyes played back. And she struggled for hours to get even an ounce of sleep.

CHAPTER SEVEN, END.