GrimWire

Chapter 5

"What the hell happened here?" Lucas asked breathlessly. He'd never seen anything like what he was looking at right then. The vampire felt a bit of bile rising at the back of his throat. On the stone floor near him was a Stalker, or rather, what resembled a Stalker. The boy's face was torn apart, his body too. It was hardly even recognizable with how torn up and bloody it was.

"What could have done this? Another Stalker maybe?" L'liya asked.

Lucas shrugged, "Maybe. The marks resemble that of claws. It's a favored weapon of theirs."

"Dispute over the girl?"

Lucas looked over to the rigid body lying not too far from the Stalker. Her body looked untouched aside from the bite on her neck. Slowly, the vampire shook his head. He wasn't entirely sure that a dispute over the girl was what happened.

"I don't know, L'liya. Her body doesn't look like there was a fight. If there had been a fight over her-"

"She would be battered more, yeah. You're right," she sighed heavily as she looked around the hall.

There was nothing else there, no signs of other Stalkers and no sounds from the ends of the hall.

"Well, we won't get anywhere staying here," Lucas said pushing himself up from where he'd been kneeling down. Stepping over the body he led the way down the hall. As he got to the end of the hall he was met by two people. One was a girl, the other a boy. Lucas, unsure if they were Stalkers or not, watched them carefully. It didn't take long, however, and they bared their teeth at him.

Lucas invoked his grimoire. The ring on his finger burned slightly, but it was a feeling he was accustomed to. The girl, who had lunged first with snarling teeth and extended nails as claws, was closest to him. Lifting his hand, he pointed at her and his concentration centered on throwing her into the wall to his right.

Flicking his fingers in that direction, she stopped midway to him and was flung into the wall. Lucas faced the boy, but found L'liya right next to him with her dagger protruding from the Stalkers chest. Only then did he realize that he'd misjudged and almost got himself killed. L'liya glowered at him.

"My, aren't you lucky she was there to stop him from ripping your heart out. I hear there are only two ways to kill a vampire," the voice was dangerously familiar and Lucas felt his face turn a brilliant red. Pivoting around completely, Lucas came face to face with Tyrathane. He grew even more flustered at the sight and ground his teeth.

"What the hell are you doing here?! It's dangerous, there are..." he stopped himself, unsure of how much to tell the boy before him.

"Stalkers? Yeah, I know. I overheard your conversation earlier. Sorry," Tyrathane threw his hands up, a wild grin on his face. Lucas felt that the human was far too giddy for his own good.

His eyes dropped and he found himself looking Tyrathane over. Three long cuts in his uniform alarmed the vampire and he leaned forward to examine them better without thinking twice.

"You're injured... how, what happened?"

Tyrathane glanced down at his chest, an eyebrow lifted and his green eyes widened slightly with a bit of confusion, "Hu? Oh, hey, would you look at that. Nope, not injured," he said, pulling the fabric back to expose slightly tanned skin beneath, "Must've caught my uniform on something while I was looking for you. Not that I was worried or anything. Just curious," he said off handily.

However, he turned his green eyes at Lucas with a killer grin. Slowly the slightly taller boy leaned forward, coming very close to Lucas' face, "or were you hoping I would be worried about you?"

Lucas flushed again as he stared at the boy. Those green eyes... they were so... enchanting. It took him longer than he liked to admit to look away.

"No..." he retorted, trying to put the cold wall back in his tone.

Tyrathane only laughed.

"So, this is your distraction?" L'liya butt in and for no help either. If anything she just made the situation worse.