Demonspawn (30 page)

Victoria saw it too, as her head locked in
that direction.

I squinted as hard as I could. Even though I
could see better, I couldn't see completely. It was just dark
enough near the front of the store that I couldn't see
anything.

But I could hear it.

It sounded like an animal, low to the ground,
tearing and gnawing at something. The fact that I could hear it and
not see it sent shivers up my spine.

Apparently Victoria could see it, as she
leaned over and started talking to it. She kept her distance,
though.

“Hello,” she said in that sweet voice of
hers. “I'm Victoria. Don't be afraid.”

There was a pause, following by more tearing
and gnawing.

“Listen, you've been bitten by a vampire. I'm
afraid you're a vampire now, too. I know you're confused. But I can
help you.”

There was a hiss, like a cat. I saw Victoria
stiffen. I took a slow step next to her. I could finally see what
she saw.

Sitting, curled up in the corner with her
legs in front of her, was a woman probably not too much older than
me. From the looks of her clothes she was having a night on the
town. Torn miniskirt, a spaghetti-strap shirt. Her eyes were blood
red, just like my own. She would have been attractive, if it
weren't for the blood dripping down the front of her face, and the
large fangs. She looked back and forth between Victoria and me
while she ripped into a raw piece of steak.

“You need blood. I know that tastes good, but
you're gonna get real sick.”

No response. Just that same wild look.

“Something's not right here,” Victoria
said.

I looked at her. From my point of view, that
was the understatement of the year.

Something knocked me to the ground from
behind. I landed only a foot away from the vampire in the corner. I
looked up to see a second vampire, this one a guy, with its arm
wrapped around Victoria's neck. He had the same wild look as the
other one.

Before I could even think about helping I
felt a hand around my throat. The female vampire straddled me. She
couldn't have weighed any more than me, but she was strong. She
took a quick sniff of my neck, then reared her head back to show
off a huge set of fangs. She lunged down toward me, but I was
already gone. I vanished, and felt her body sink into mine. Her
hand went through my neck and braced on the floor. I quickly stood
up, trying to ignore that strange feeling of when I was inside
someone else.

I turned around to see the male vampire
flying towards me. He went through me and collided with the female.
They both tumbled to the ground and scampered back into the corner.
Victoria had tossed him like a softball. She was simply
straightening her shirt, not a mark on her. She definitely didn't
need my help, like I could offer it anyway.

I jumped back to her side, not taking my eyes
off of either vampire. She gave me a curious glance.

“Neat trick there.”

I ignored her comment. My pulse was racing.
Fighting humans was one thing. Fighting vampires, well, I knew I
was out of my league.

I looked at the vampire couple. Somehow, I
knew they were a
couple
. My guess was they got attacked
somehow while having a night out. They crouched in the corner and
continued to bare their fangs and snarl at us. They were both
covered in blood and smelled terrible.

“It's like they're feral,” Victoria said.
“This isn't normal.”

I tried not to roll my eyes. I had no idea
what
normal
was anymore.

Victoria caught a sense of something. She
turned around next to me. I did the same.

Two men stood from where we came in, with a
third behind them. Vampire hunters. They both had crossbows aimed
directly at Victoria. She ducked in time for both bolts to hit the
wall behind us. If they were aiming at me, I wouldn't have been
able to react in time. I'd be dead.

I heard Victoria snarl next to me. Before she
could react the male vampire was on her again. I tried to help her,
but the female vampire grabbed me from behind. I vanished, and the
vampire again fell to one knee out of confusion, but I was furious.
I could vanish all day long, but I couldn't help Victoria if I
couldn't touch anything.

Turns out I didn't need to. The vampire
hunters already reloaded their crossbows, and fired one more time.
Victoria spun around and the bolts pierced the male vampire's back.
I saw him go limp and fall to the ground.

The female ran by us and tried to attack the
vampire hunters. Right as she drew near, the man in the rear
stepped forward and unleashed a stream of flame onto her. The woman
let out a scream that would stay with me forever. She flailed about
wildly for a moment before falling to the ground.

Before Victoria or I could do anything, the
vampire hunter moved the flame toward her. I tackled her to the
ground and covered her as best I could. She was crushed beneath me,
but it didn't seem to bother her. We were both sprayed with flame,
and I could feel my clothes start to burn away. I heard them
laughing behind me, which made the anger start to build. I didn't
dare move, though. Victoria had her arms pinned between us, and if
we rolled an inch either way she'd be exposed to the flame.

“They're done,” someone said. “Torch the
whole fuckin' place.”

“Bachner isn't gonna like that.”

“Fuck him. He wanted her dead. Well, she's
dead.”

“We just killed an innocent guy!”

“Shut up and get moving!”

Victoria's eyes never left mine. I thought I
saw a look of panic as we heard the flames spread around us. We
heard them pouring kerosene, throwing flame everywhere. After a
minute we heard them leave through the back door.

The fire didn't take long to get out of
control. The corpses of the two dead vampires were motionless next
to us. The smell of burnt flesh made me almost throw up. The legs
of a table next to us burned away, and it fell dangerously close.
Victoria flinched and shifted uncomfortably.

“Fire will kill me...very quickly.” She was
afraid, but she hid it well.

I could feel the flames still eating away at
my back. If Victoria was gonna make it out of this, it would be up
to me. I popped out my wings, knocking things over as I did so. I
wrapped them around both of us while trying to pull her into a
kneeling position. She kept her arms carefully to herself and
leaned close to me. I could see sweat dropping from her hair, while
the flames didn't bother me at all. My wings were fireproof, along
with the rest of me.

“Good thinking.”

I nodded. I pushed her head down a little
more while I looked around. I gave a brief thought to crashing
through the storefront window, but that didn't feel like a good
idea. The way to the back was blocked by fire and smoke. So I
looked up.

A skylight.

“Hold on, “ I said, and took one last deep
breath.

We wrapped our arms around each other, and I
beat my wings as hard as I could. Holding a hundred-pound woman, I
expected some problems. But Victoria was strong, and my wings were
stronger than I thought. The only problem I had was how fast the
skylight came at us. I barely managed to get my eyes closed in time
before we went through it.

The sound of glass breaking filled my ears.
When I felt we were through, and felt the cold night air, I landed
on the roof and let Victoria go. I fell to one knee, more from
shock than anything else.

“You okay? You hurt?” she asked.

I looked up and shook my head. She gave me a
nod.

“Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

She walked toward the edge of the roof facing
the street. I was a second behind her. People were lining up
outside to watch the fire. Traffic was already slowed to a crawl,
first from the murder crime scene, then a fire. I could hear sirens
from a few streets over.

“Look,” Victoria said, pointing to the street
corner.

While everyone else was focused on the fire
beneath us, three men were loading something into a van, only
occasionally looking toward the butcher shop. I didn't get a good
look at the hunters who tried to kill us, but Victoria and I
thought the same thing. That was them.

I heard her make a strange noise, almost like
a snarl.

“That's twice now I've let them get me by
surprise,” she said. “It's not gonna happen again.”

Her tone scared me.

One hunter nodded to another. They climbed in
the van, and started driving away. Victoria wrapped her arms around
my neck, which surprised the hell out of me.

“Follow them.” She patted my right wing. That
tickled. “I've always wanted to fly.”

“Uh, Victoria...I can't really fly. I mean,
I've never really done it, except in the woods. And carrying a
person? I just don't know-“

She rolled her eyes. Then she let go of me
and ran toward the edge of the roof. She jumped, and soared through
the air over the street. She landed on another roof and kept
running without missing a beat. I watched with my jaw hanging
open.

I felt foolish all of a sudden, like I'd let
her down. I sounded like an idiot, trying to make excuses.

I could fly, perfectly well. I knew it. My
wings could easily handle her weight and mine. But I felt like a
freak half the time. I was afraid. Afraid that flying would make me
lose my humanity. Afraid of being seen.

I forced it all aside.

I jumped off the roof and beat my wings. I
actually flapped too hard at first, as I started to gain more
height than I meant to. My wings were so powerful. My first
instincts were to go all out, but I didn't need to. A simple flap
here and there, and I could glide on the wind.

I could feel my heart beating as I soared
across the street. Despite the fact that just minutes ago I was in
a burning building, I was excited. No trees outside my apartment,
no more hiding. Just pure freedom.

I heard a few shouts below. People were
staring and pointing up at me. Feeling a little paranoid, I climbed
up a little, to make sure no one saw my face. The city lights were
beautiful, a hell of a distraction.

There was a screech of tires below. I saw the
van speed up and hang a crazy right turn, almost hitting a few
people. Victoria was still running and leaping across the rooftops,
looking almost like a little Barbie doll. They must have spotted
her, and the chase was on.

I pushed aside the feelings of excitement and
focused on what was happening below. Victoria didn't lose pace at
all. She jumped down to the street on the hood of a car, crossed
the street while dodging traffic, then jumped on top of another
roof. It was quite a sight.

The van was easily doing fifty miles an hour
on the crowded city streets. Victoria kept up, and surprisingly I
did too. In fact, I was starting to pass them. I had to throttle
back a bit, glide on the wind a little more.

It looked like it was getting even more
dangerous below. Some people crossing the street barely managed to
avoid the van in time. It kept weaving in and out of traffic. I
didn't sense a good ending to all of this.

Sure enough, I looked up ahead to see an
elderly man crossing the street at an intersection. The van was
maybe ten seconds to him. There was no way he'd make it across in
time. He didn't even know his life was in danger.

I glanced downed below. Victoria was keeping
pace with the van, but there was no way for her to save his life.
That's assuming she even noticed him ahead of her. It was up to
me.

There was only one way to make it to him
quickly. I folded my wings behind me, and let gravity do its
thing.

A complete free-fall. Nothing I hadn't done a
hundred times in the woods behind my apartment. At least that's
what I told myself.

The city below rushed up at me. I wasn't
thinking clearly, but I did know that if I messed this up, I'd
probably kill myself as well as the old man.

I had the angle to him. The question was did
I have the second I needed. I was maybe fifteen feet above the
street when I tossed my wings straight out. The man saw the van,
and was frozen with fear as it barreled up on him. I got low
enough, and pretty much slammed into him. I didn't have a choice,
there was no way I could slow down. I heard the wind rush out of
him as I grabbed him and tilted my wings to gain some height. The
van actually smacked my right foot as it went by, almost screwing
up my flight. I ran up the side of a building for a second, still
holding the man tight. Then I let my wings slowly carry us back to
the street.

The man fell to one knee. I went down with
him, keeping a grip on him to help hold him steady. He had a hand
to his chest and breathed heavily. For a second I thought he was
having a heart attack.

“Are you alright?”

It took him a moment. He finally managed a
nod. “Shit. I think I have a broken rib.”

I felt terrible. It wasn't like in the
movies, me saving somebody and being a big hero. But it really was
the best I could do.

“I'm sorry. But hey, at least you're
alive.”

He smiled. “Yeah.”

He glanced at my wings. I looked at them
myself, and noticed that we had a small audience. Some people
stared at the van that sped by. Others were staring right at us. A
few people gawked and pointed from their cars, others stopped in
the middle of the street and sidewalk. Everyone wanted to get a
look at the freak. I felt so exposed.

“Get to a hospital,” I told him. I would
never know his name, or ever see him again. But I would always
remember the smile he gave me right before I hit the night sky once
again.

I climbed to just above the buildings. It
took me a minute to catch back up. Victoria still kept to the
rooftops. The van still tried to steer clear from her. I didn't
have a damn clue of what Victoria had in mind, but this had to
stop. Someone was gonna get hurt or killed. Hell, maybe either one
of us.