Blood Dawn

Chapter Two

Draven was sprinting as fast as his vampire legs could take him through the Opal forest. He could feel the onset of an overwhelming wave of exhaustion from the blood loss which made his step falter as he broke through a clearing.

A large open meadow with a lone oak tree in the middle greeted him.

“f*****g shoot him already!!” One of his assailants roared.

Running towards the tree with a trunk of at least ten feet in diameter, he used the hand that wasn’t currently trying to stop the bleeding while making sure his intestines stayed inside him, to whip himself around. The momentum allowed him to launch himself towards the forest line of thick bushes and trees on the other side. A shot rang out and he heard the bullet hit the tree as he rounded it.

A few hundred yards into the forest, a fresh salty breeze greeted him. It gave him a much needed rush of adrenaline and a gleam of hope that allowed him to put a little more distance between him and his two attackers. That welcoming breeze got stronger in this direction which meant he was heading toward the cliffs. His only option would be to base jump from the cliff. He planned to launch himself out as far as he could into the ocean below and swim to shore.

Easy enough and he wouldn’t have to worry about bleeding out as the salt water would seal the deep stab wound in his abdomen. But it was going to hurt like a b***h and leave one heck of a gnarly scar that was going to be permanent.

That is if the fall didn’t finish the job these two incompetents were having a hard time accomplishing. There were jagged rocks protruding from the waters below that would no doubt kill him if he didn’t get enough clearance.

As a pure blooded vampire to one of, if not the oldest vampire leaneage in the world, Draven was able to heal scapes, cuts, burns, injuries of the mild caliber in a matter of minutes. Injuries of a more serious nature like the deep stab wound he was currently sporting would take a couple hours to repair, a transfusion or feeding, and require medical intervention by one of the physicians of his race who specialized in vampire anatomy. Vampires could live for milenia before old age would rapidly deteriorate them into crypt keeper territory but like humans, they were still mortal beings that could die if they bled out or miscalculated their launch and smacked right into sharp rocks at the bottom of the cliff.

Breaking through the final clearing where the forest met the cliffs, there was about a fifty foot distance between himself and almost freedom. Draven pumped his arms and legs in massive strides to allow him to launch off the cliff's edge.

BANG!

Strange how the horizon began to blend together with the approaching cliffs edge and the blue sky. Over and over the images followed one another in rapid succession. It was then that Draven realized he was stumbling forward and rolled over and over himself until he ended up on his stomach with his arm and face peeking over the cliff's edge.

“Holy f**k!” Draven croaked, puffs of loose dirt flared around him before he coughed and opened his eyes. The drop to the ocean below from his pov was a good two hundred fifty feet down with a rocky watery shore.

When he heard the fast approaching footsteps of his attackers, Draven forced his body to get up. A hot excrusiating throb emanated from his thigh and he knew he’d been shot. Facing them, he took them in slowly sizing each one up and down.

Both had to be an easy six, three and they were built like tanks. They both had black short military cuts with blue eyes. He would have thought them twins but noticed the subtle differences in their features. Both were dressed like militia X-Op soldiers in black combat suits and boots. They both looked equally annoyed and pissed off he had taken them on a little run through the woods. Like they didn’t appreciate his attempts to save his own ass. The audacity of him to even try.

He had been enjoying his run when at about a mile into the Opal Forest trails the first of his attackers had jumped out from a bush and swiped a long hunting knife at his midsection. Draven had quickly jumped back but managed to fall into the chest of the second attacker that had jumped out of the bush behind him. That was when he felt strong arms gathering him up. The first one got a running start and embedded his blade deep into Dravens abdomen.

His dire situation becoming crystal clear, an overdose of adrenaline overtook him as he kicked the first attacker back and reached down with his left hand and grabbed a handful of nuts. Twisting with all his might, the second attacker crumbled to the ground in a fetal position around his injured sac.

The click of a gun loading had sent his legs running as fast as he possibly could in a random direction. After what he assumed was a momentary recovery of the one that had been rendered to the ground by the nut-twist, they swiftly gained speed on the headstart he had given himself. Which let him know they werent’s human.

This was not some random attack, it was a contracted hit which meant that the two before him were assassins. Terrible ones at that. Draven was insulted that whoever had ordered the hit on his life had sent these two thought him so weak. In a fair fight, he would have had no problem taking them down one by one. Hand to hand combat had been his favorite subject at Apex but he was close to bleeding out and a push away from becoming fish food.

He'd known his father had his enemies. Hell, his father made sure to make new ones every week with his business dealings and now that Draven had turned eighteen back in June, it was clear those enemies would now be gunning for him.

Draven smiled, allowing his canines to fully descend. His fangs were long, razor sharp and prepared to take bloody chunks out of whichever one of them came close to him.

He kept an eye over the edge and back at the "assassins" trying his best not to pass out from the blood loss when a flash of light behind the head one of them caught his attention.

Something had emerged from the treeline. Or rather someone. Whoever this was, was so pale in the sunlight his eyes had a hard time discerning any distinguishable features and it walked toward him with sure and determined strides. As the figure got closer, his surroundings and his assailants faded away. Everything, the cliffs, the sound of the thrashing waves below, or the loud pounding of his heart as it struggled to keep up with the demand his damaged body needed, all of it faded away until all he could see was... her.

Am I hallucinating? Had to be because he was pretty sure it was from the blood loss.

Draven realized then why she appeared to glow when she first emerged from the forest. Her snow white hair reflected the light of the summer sun overhead around her head like a halo. The ocean wind blew her long hair around her like swirls of snow in a snowstorm.

Her heart shaped face reminded him of an anime character with prominent high cheekbones that made her cheeks hollow. Her nose was small and perfectly straight as it curved up slightly at the tip. The line of her jaw was straight and v’ed at her chin. Sparkling red diamonds embedded in her pale porcelain face made her look like she was weeping tears of blood. Her lips caught his attention next. Full luscious wet lips that were a pale pink but were stained dark red at the opening of her mouth.

He then focused on her eyes, eyes that were staring right at him. The pupils of her eyes were so white they were glowing. He felt like a deer in the headlights of a semi truck. The iris’s were pinpricks of bright red with the sclera of her eyes stained blood red. Both of her eyes were glossed over making her look utterly terrifying.

And yet her beauty was so ethereal that he couldn’t believe his eyes. “You can’t be real.” Draven panted.

“Oh we’re real you little s**t. And I am going to really enjoy fileting that soft pretty skin off your muscles for that little stunt you pulled.” He assumed the one who had beed nut-twisted spoke.

“My bad, I thought you guys were attending a b**m convention with all the tight and black, I thought you might like a warm up.” Draven smiled snidely.

Mr. Nut-twist didn’t appreciate his sarcasm and he growled very low and deep in his throat. The sound was like that of his best friend, Elijah, made when he was rank pissed. Which let him narrow down exactly what he was dealing with.

Lycans.

Deciding that he would rather spend his last moments enveloped in the vision of their newest addition, he refocused on her. Maybe she was an angel of death to carry him onto the afterlife. He would gladly volunteer as tribute.

As she slowly approached, he realized the blood red diamonds that were embedded on her face ran down her beautifully long neck and shoulders in long lines that would connect and separate. It reminded him of rain streaming down a window.

Shiney deep red trails of diamonds came down her long delicate neck onto her chest, disappearing under her black tank top that revealed the pale skin of her midriff. Dark capri jeans covered her long and lean legs. Her full hips gave her an hourglass figure and he noticed how they gently swayed from side to side like a pendulum. Her thick thighs rubbed together with every step she took.

And what do you know, his fangs began to throb at the thought of those thick thighs wrapped around his…

No, he wasn’t fantasizing about the terrifyingly beautiful creature before him right now. He just wasn’t.

She was tall, close to his six foot three height because as she was getting closer he noticed they were almost eye to eye. She took his literal breath away. Or maybe that was because he remembered he was actually dying.

Her arms swayed at her sides in sync with her strides and that's when he noticed the serious hardware she was working with. Those same blood red diamonds were covering the whole of her hands up to her forearms. Long blood diamond encrusted claws that he imagined were razor sharp if they were on a creature like this.

She stopped a couple feet from them and continued to stare deep into Draven’s eyes. He was helplessly captivated by her.

When the sunlight reflected off the diamonds that covered her skin, a refraction of the red light hit Draven in the face causing both assassins to turn around. He was sure his assailants were been equally stunned by her sudden and shocking appearance.

“What the fuuuu…" The one to his left didn't finish the expletive that left his lips on an exhale. Both of them doing a slow once over her body.

They see her too. Which meant that she wasnt just some figment of his imagination. Of course she was real because he was giving himself too much credit. There was no way, subconscious or consciously, he could create something as devastatingly beautiful. Not even in his dreams.

Draven stared deep into her eyes and it was then he noticed she had an almost incredulous expression on her beautiful face as her eyes continued to bore into him. A sudden shiver made its way up his spine to the nape of his neck. His vampire instincts lit off like the fourth of July, warning him that the being before them was deadly.

“Who the f**k are you?” Nut-twist yelled over the sound of the wind and crashing waves below.

“Who the f**k sent you?” The other chimed in.

Silence. She answered them with nothing but silence, her eyes still on him.

“Hey I’m talking to you.” Nut-twist took a step forward.

“I know you heard me bitch.” He made an attempt to grab her by the arm. Draven took a step forward to hold him back when Nut-twist turned around suddenly. The man’s eyes were bulging from his face as his mouth was agape as horror registered on his face.

Later, Draven would reflect if the reason he had missed the death swipe was because of his hindered senses due to the blood loss or if it was because the deadly creature before them was faster than his eyes could track. Though, he was sure it was the latter.

Draven’s eyes went wide at the man’s throat, or what was left of it. Nut-twists partner could only stare in frozen shock as his comrade dropped the gun in his hand. Draven sidestepped as the injured lycan fell into the open arms of his partner and they both crumbled to the ground next to him.

The gurgling that was coming from the lycan was something that he would never forget. His attempts to breathe were blocked by the blood that was slowly drowning him as he rapidly bled out at the same time. His partner tried desperately to staunch the exsanguination but to no avail.

Draven watched as the life drained from the lycans teal blue eyes, his partner continuing to attempt life saving measures. A shimmer of red caught his attention and he looked down. Her right hand was covered and dripping dark red droplets of blood. She dropped something.

Ah yes, the lycans larynx and Adam's apple. Yummy.

Slowly, Draven's eyes moved up her arm, then her shoulder and finally her face. He felt his heart skip a beat. Her eyes were still on him, completely uninterested in the dying lycan or the sounds of futile sobs coming from his partner.

Why is she looking at me like that? Draven wondered. She was looking at him like she couldn't believe her own eyes of his physical presence. It was then he saw the understanding in her eyes of him that made his stomach sink suddenly to the floor.

Does she know me? Before that question could gain any momentum in his mind, a sputtered gasp and the bubbly exhale succeeded in pulling Draven’s attention back to the pair on the ground next to him. The partner that was still breathing held the body of his partner, rocking him and whispering unintelligible words into the deceased ear.

Tears fell from his closed eyes and on to his fallen comrade, mixing with the blood that was all over a face frozen forever in fear. He pulled back from his partner's ear and used a gloved hand to close the lifeless eyes that stared wide at the sky.

Slowly, the remaining assassin laid his partner gently on the ground and turned to face them. His eyes began to glow neon green as he panted hard. The fury contorted his face and rage radiated off his tremendous body in waves of heat and all of it was pointed right at the terrifying beauty next to him.

This is not good, yup definitely not good. Draven thought to himself as he looked at her to make sure she noticed the lycans attention.

She could have cared less, completely oblivious to the rank pissed lycan getting ready to rip her to shreds. She was still completely focused on him. Her terrifyngly beautiful face now an expression of... hurt. Draven furrowed his brow at her. If he didn’t know better, she was looking at him like she knew him.

The lycan lunged at her.