Nightfall –Chapter 6Evelyn crumbled into tears at the sight of her teammate on the floor. Without attempting to hold back her emotions, she covered her face with her hands and sobbed.
Larry scratched his captor’s throat out and immediately ran to Evelyn’s side. Reaching for her hand tentatively, he took it gently and folded his fingers over hers.
“Don’t cry.” He whispered, voice threatening to crack. Letting the crying woman lean against him for comfort, the vampire hugged her and murmured words of comfort in her ear. Once she had reduced to sniffling, he helped Evelyn up and smiled at her.
“Let’s go.”
Evelyn obliged and let Larry lead the way, her hand still in his. Looking at their intertwined fingers, she felt an odd sense of security and comfort, something she had never felt before with the other guys.
--
Carson’s eyes snapped open. He glanced sluggishly at his surroundings and groaned loudly before shaking his head. His neck cracked painfully and he grumbled.
“Goddamn it.”
Attempting to raise a hand to block out the unexpectedly harsh light that was currently shining in his eyes, he struggled, thinking that the bite had probably weakened him considerably. The tanned vampire shifted his bleary gaze to his sides and his eyes widened.
Holding his wrists in place were two metal cuffs fastened to the surgery table he lay on. His ankles, too, were secured by metal cuffs and he had the nagging feeling he wasn’t going to get out of his position without any sacrifice.
“Awake now, are you?”
Carson strained to lift his head as far as possible and hissed at the silhouette. “Out with it. What do you want?”
“Nothing much,” He could feel the speaker grin. The silhouette moved out of the shadows, exposing her blank yellow gaze and the dark brown hair that fell lightly on her slender frame. Shock then confusion overtook Carson.
“Weren’t you dead?”
The woman sighed. “That’s not the way to talk to your former fellow hunter, is it?” She clicked her sharp nails steadily on the surgery table. The vampire picked up a syringe filled with a clear liquid and jabbed it into Carson’s arm, ignoring his pleas for help.
“Let’s make this painless for both you and me. Now, would you like to start by filling me in on the hunters’ activities?”
--
The researcher jolted awake, drenched in sweat. Abandoning the comfort of her bed in search of Team 1’s room, she flung Team 1’s door open and immediately scanned the room.
“What the hell?” Valerie groaned as she sat up in bed. Reaching over to slap Su Hui in the shoulder, she squinted against the light of the corridor and tried to make sense of the silhouette.
“Chun Zi?” Chun Zi ignored the half-vampire and stormed over to Xia Yu’s bed, pulling the covers back to check that he was still asleep there. She heaved a sigh of relief.
“God, Chun Zi, this barging-into-the-room thing has got to go.” Su Hui muttered. Getting up from her bed, she retrieved some rope and handed it to the researcher. “Tie him down if you wish.”
“Kinky.” Valerie grinned. Su Hui just scowled at her.
--
“Pick me!” Joyce wailed as she flailed at Shu Xian. “I haven’t been on a cool kick-ass mission yet! C’mon, pick me!”
The petite researcher swivelled her chair and faced the other way, her dark gaze remaining on the laptop that sat snugly on her lap.
“I’m your own cousin, Shu Xian!” Joyce whined. The researcher ignored her. “Are you that heartless to deprive your very own sweet beautiful intelligent amazingly awesome cousin of a mission?”
Shu Xian continued to ignore the girl whom she regretted calling her relative.
Joyce sulked. “I’m here as a hunter to help. You haven’t been using my skills to the max, y’know. I can help track down the Leader.” She crossed her arms and shifted her weight from foot to foot. “I mean, all my team does is kill some dumb shits here and there.”
Shu Xian turned to face her cousin. She lifted her stoic gaze to the hunter’s.
“How many teams do we have in all?”
“Uh, three.”
“Is the person we’re trying to track a hunter, researcher or medic?”
“Uh, hunter.”
“That would mean that he belongs to a team, no?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Is the hunter who is unfit for missions on his team, or on another?”
“Uh, another.”
“Three minus one and one equals?”
“Uh, one.”
“Well done,” Shu Xian drawled, clapping her hands in mock appreciation. “Now let’s do some logic. Are you on any of the mentioned hunters’ teams?”
Joyce stared blankly at the researcher before allowing an ecstatic grin to grace her features.
--
“Thank you,” Zhuang Ying smirked as she switched off the voice recorder. Carson shut his eyes tightly and hit his head on the surgery table.
“Fuck.”
He couldn’t help it. Whatever the drug was, it had been potent enough to make him spill out the secrets of the hunters. It wasn’t like he could help it, the woman had made sure there were no means of escape for him.
“Why are you doing this?” He whispered hoarsely. He struggled to hold back tears –hunters weren’t allowed to cry openly –and looked at his former friend. “For money?”
The brunette shook her head simply and prepared another syringe of pure vampiric genes. “I’ve sworn loyalty to the Leader.” She smiled. “I had to. They resurrected me.”
“Didn’t you try to come back?” Carson probed further, trying to make her feel guilt. “The Leader... She’s the hunters’ enemy.”
Zhuang Ying scowled. “She’s not the enemy.” The woman hissed. “The hunters are. Iverra certainly didn’t do anything to them.” Wiping down Carson’s arm with more force than necessary, she breathed in. “They waged war on us. They called us immoral, they said we’re destroying the vampires’ lives. We are just giving them a chance to live their new lives the way they liked it. Unlike you bloody do-gooders.” She stuck the needle into Carson’s vein.
The tanned vampire looked at her bare arm and frowned. “Where’s your guardian angel?”
“It was gone when I got resurrected. It didn’t work, did it?” She shrugged and pressed hard on the plunger. “Very soon, you’ll join our side, whether you like it or not.” She snarled. The man swallowed hard and tried to fight off the drowsiness and pain that seemed to take over him with every effort he made. Finally, he closed his eyes once more and exhaled.
Perhaps, just perhaps, it was time for him to stop believing in angels.
--
“Shi Chun!” Evelyn wailed as she ran towards the researcher. Shi Chun tossed her long hair over her shoulders and tilted her head.
“What’s wrong?” See Min inquired as she screwed the cap back onto a bottle and replaced it on the medicine shelf. Removing her lab goggles, she brushed her hair from her face and sat down on a chair beside Shi Chun.
The researcher flipped through a few papers and made some notes before looking at the sobbing hunter. “What now?”
“Carson.” Evelyn whimpered before dissolving into tears. “If only I had been fast enough, he wouldn’t have been turned.”
“You can push the blame to Larry, you know.” Shi Chun grinned. The hunter looked affronted by the very mention of his name and looked away.
“Why are you talking about him all of a sudden?”
“We’re just saying, it wasn’t your fault. Where was Larry when you and Carson were trapped?”
“He was held captive too.” She mumbled. “He scratched the bastard’s throat out.”
“And next?” See Min smirked.
“Hehuggedmeandtoldmenottocryandnottobescared.” Evelyn shrank back and avoided any eye contact. Shi Chun studied her and beamed, “You’re blushing.”
The researcher got acquainted with Evelyn’s gun.
--
Xia Yu sat listlessly on the couch as he stared blankly at the television. Raking his nails over his fore arm, he felt a compelling urge to scratch at the skin there. He had been feeling itchiness underneath the skin ever since he was in withdrawal.
He felt bile rising in his throat and rushed to the bathroom to puke his guts out. The vampire shakily placed the toilet cover down and rested his head on it after flushing.
If only I had more self-control.Xia Yu shook his head and felt his limbs trembling again. He collapsed on the tiled bathroom floor and shivered violently. This was worse than hell, he thought, what had made him do this?
Reaching a clawed hand to scratch mindlessly at his forearm, he gradually spaced out and grew increasingly numb to his surroundings.
A while later, Chun Zi peered into the bathroom to find Xia Yu in a zombie-like state and the metallic smell of blood in the air. Blood was trickling from his left arm where he had scratched the skin off and he was currently working on wrecking his right arm too. Around him, the usually white tiles were stained a crimson red from his blood.
“Itchy blood.” The researcher whispered. She knelt beside the hunter and held his wrists firmly to prevent him from scratching himself further. Fighting back the tears that threatened to spill any moment, Chun Zi forced Xia Yu’s wrists back by his sides. The vampire whimpered and struggled some more, breathing heavily.
“Stop it. Xia Yu, stop it.” She soothed. She tried to ignore his struggling and his scratching of the bathroom tiles. Loosening her grip on his hands, the human flung her arms around his neck and let her tears spill over. “It’ll be okay, I promise. Just hold on.”
“I’m here.”
--
See Min tugged the covers over Xia Yu and sighed, rubbing her temples. Upon hearing the door open, she raised her head to look at the people who entered.
“Seriously? Orange and white? Again?” Su Hui sighed. She dropped into a chair next to See Min and stared at the immobile vampire. “How is he?” See Min shrugged in reply.
Shi Chun sulked. “What’s wrong with orange? It’s nice. You can’t deny your love for it.” She punched Valerie in the shoulder before crossing her arms.
“Well I can, I will and I just did.” Su Hui snickered. “Where’s Evelyn?”
“Off to a rendezvous with Larry, who knows?” See Min grinned. Checking her watch, she brushed her fringe away and raised an eyebrow.
“What’s wrong?” Valerie pressed.
“Nothing. Just that Team 2’s going on the next mission. I can’t pinpoint what’s wrong though.”
--
Somewhere, in the Leader’s office, a phone rang. A tall, slim woman picked up the receiver and smirked.
“Team 2. Team 2’s going.” A stoic, even voice rasped.
The woman smirked even harder. “Isn’t that the team where a certain raven is in?” She flipped open the large file sitting on her desk. Carefully thumbing through the pages, she stopped at a page with a picture of mentioned raven and smiled at the photo.
“Let’s see, lover of luxury items, appreciates finer things in life, owns a red Ferrari, dresses impeccably,” The woman read aloud, knowing full well that the caller could hear her. “Won’t it be a shame if she just upped and went?”
Silence.
Then, the caller snapped, “I get your message, loud and fucking clear. We had a deal.”
“We did, I do remember.” The woman circled a thick black circle around the raven’s name on the page. She smiled again. “I’m just saying, you know. Wouldn’t it be such a huge shame? Such a young, promising girl.”
“Hold up your end of the deal, lady.” The reply was swift and clipped. “If you even think of harming her, I assure you, you will pay dearly.”
The line went dead.
--End of Chapter 6--To all of you who shot me, I demand compensation! )< *has a pierced lung, 2 broken ribs and a fractured thigh bone*