Battle for Blood Ch. 06

Could it be? The sun?

Shane practically flew up the fire escape to the roof. Once more she bounded into the glare of the sun, this time unafraid. The warmth and energy radiated through her. She felt every molecule of her body reach out to it. Shane turned her gaze inwards, marveling at the strength coursing through her. Nothing had felt like this. The sounds, smells, everything was sharper. She could not only hear the men who were at work beneath her perch but she could feel their heartbeats and smell their scents. Is this what Cole feels? She wondered. There was a sudden pang in her chest. He wasn't here. Beyond that, even if he were, he could not be there with her, in the sun, bathing in the energy now flowing through her body. Shane tore herself away from the thought. Did she always have to find the worst part of everything to obsess over?

She opened her eyes into the morning light. Her face broke into a smile. There could be no bad in this. She laughed and started running, launching herself from one rooftop to the next, barreling around and over obstacles. She would paint the day with the sound of her footfalls.

Evening found her on the rooftop of Cole's building. She sprawled out on her belly, having discarded her shirt and pants, reveling in the feeling of the sun on her skin. Below her the workday was ending, the faded sounds of men working far away were lessening. Shane sighed at the red clouds of the sunset. The stars had always captivated her but she had never known what the sky was capable of in the light. She started to doze, letting the warmth flow through her.

Had she felt this way when she went on her rescue mission? She had been terrified of attacking in broad daylight but she was reassured that the forest could protect her from the worst of the sun's rays. She had checked her armor over so many times, making sure no unnecessary sliver of skin was exposed. She had never, now that she thought of it, remember how the sun felt on her skin before today. Such a creature of her environment, she had never questioned sleeping during the day, fearing the light, closing out the day whenever she could.

The sun had been the least of her concerns that day. They had instructed her how to get where she was going. She had crept through the woods, repeating her teacher's mantra over and over "take your time, lure them out, one by one." The wolves were humans though. Did she have to kill them? "They will rip you to ribbons if you hesitate longer than a breath. They have started a war and we need you to win it for us." Shane had agreed, drawing herself into the role Adriana had laid out for her. There had been so many wolves. How was she to take them all on herself? She remembered coming across the first group, prowling through the underbrush. They lay in a clearing, lazing in the day's warmth. Their smell was powerful, almost human but then so much more.

Shane's eyes snapped open. That was not the memory of a smell. She leapt up, looking around wildly. She was alone on the roof. She reached out with her new stronger senses, willing her mind to map the world around with smells and sounds. There were five wolves. Here, in Boston, looking for Cole. Shane followed their movements as they darted between buildings; they were so close, just coming around the neighboring warehouse. They could smell her too no doubt. No time to make it downstairs, no time to escape.

Shane yanked on her clothes and started to consider her options. There were five of them, and she was unarmed. She had taken out dozens in the woods but she had been armed; she had been the attacker. Now she was the prey. They had found her building, coming in through one of the side doors. They were all over the downstairs, probably struggling to follow her sent now that they were in a building she had been all over. She cast around for something, anything. She found a pipe, about the length of a baseball bat by the door down to the second floor. She lifted it. It was heavy, so heavy that yesterday she would not have considered it a weapon. But yesterday she had not met the sun. She took one look at the sunset. Now was her time. She had to stop letting people take that from her.

***

Cole let Elise finish, though she was taking her sweet time about it. How long does it take to write a letter to yourself? She continued, drawing her loopy handwriting across yet another page. He supposed he was being unfair. He had just told her she might not remember anything for some indiscriminant amount of time. He would allow her this one letter, which she would sign and seal, which he would return to her when, and if, the coast cleared.

The pair was sitting in his rooms again. Cole let his eyes wander around his living quarters. The council had given him the finest guest suits they had, which meant they were opulent and garish. He sighed at the ornate furniture and heavy wall hangings. He much preferred his bare bones safe house. The company this time had made it seem infinitely more welcoming. He recalled a time when he had gone for this type of thing though, the Victorian period had seem him be rather enamored with his own possessions.

His mind wandered over to Shane, though he tried his best to hold them at bay. He needed to stay focused, stay present. He didn't want any suspicion that he had something else anywhere in the world. He had successfully blocked out thinking of her, her laugh, her lips, the way she always sat with her long limbs folded into her chest. He couldn't help it now. Somewhere he felt uneasy and it was letting her back into his head.

Elise paused for a moment, hovering near the end of the page. Her mind was too open; her anxiety made it seem like she was speaking to him. Does one sign a letter to themself?

"Sign it. If by signing it you would know that you had written it, uncompelled and within your right mind." Cole spoke from his spot in the couch across from her. Elise, used to his intrusions into her thoughts, finished the letter with a quick scribble and looked up.

"All done," she said with a small smile. And it was about time. The sun was setting outside and the manor was beginning to wake up. Within an hour the council would begin a meeting and in six hours time Elise would be sent to Ricardo, the vampire who would die at her hands.

"You're ready?" Cole asked, trying to keep the impatience out of his voice. She must be desperate to get out if she was willing to agree to as insane and dangerous a plan as he had presented. But it was the only way he could think of now and their time was precious. She had agreed, but she was certainly not ready.

"Yeah," the girl said, pulling her arms around her tiny body. She drew a deep breath. Cole watched her eyes and saw her determination. He hoped he hadn't overestimated his power. What he was going to do could cause permanent damage if done incorrectly.

He rose from his seat and went to sit next to her. Her eyes were still down cast. She chewed her lip nervously. "Sorry, kiddo, it only works if you look at me." He tried to be reassuring. Did I just say kiddo? Elise flicked her eyes up to him. He didn't need to read her mind to see the panic and fear. But he also didn't need to hear her reassure him of her readiness. She set her jaw and held his gaze.

Cole reached out to her with his mind. His power seeped into her eyes, into the darkness of her head. At first it was overwhelming to have access to her whole mind. Smells, sights and sounds were all jumbled at first. He would have to put them in order. He began sifting through memories, recent ones of him, if her daily routine, her interactions with people. He began to impose his will on those memories, crushing them beneath the force of his mind until they faded to white. He continued moving through her memories as though they were so many photographs, few of which held interest. He had to be careful, leave holes where there shouldn't be, alter things that didn't matter. She would be heavily interrogated after the events of the evening. He had to make sure there was only enough left to point things in one direction. The entire process probably took less than a minute but Cole still felt uneasy and he withdrew from the deepest recesses of her mind.

Elise, He spoke inside her conscious mind, you will leave this room and continue your evening as planned. You will not feel anything more than the normal trepidation you have before visiting Ricardo. You will not notice the syringe in your pocket until it is time to use it. When you enter Ricardo's room you will take off your dress but keep the syringe in your hand. He will approach you and begin to feed. Do not act immediately. You must wait for your moment, allow him to absorb himself in the feeding, and then plunge it into his arm or back. You will wait until he is lying on the floor and dying before realizing what is happening, at which time you will become frightened and you will scream until someone arrives. After that you will remember nothing more about this day or the last.

Cole released her mind slowly, letting her consciousness slip out of his grip the way one might place a delicate object on a hard surface. He felt her mind try to grapple with all of the missing pockets of memory, trying to sort itself out at first. Then, after a moment of struggle, it slipped rather easily into what remained of her recent memories. Maybe he had done better than he thought capable.

Elise got up, not looking at Cole or even the room around her, and she silently made her way out of the room, closing the door with a small click behind her.

The uneasiness Cole felt did not dissipate in her absence. He got up and paced the room. Shane, there she was again, in his head laughing at something. He could almost feel her arms around his neck, her head nestled into his shoulder, the smell of her hair tumbling out of her curls. He sighed. This would not do. He couldn't walk around the house like a lovelorn puppy. Cole set his own jaw, forcing his thoughts away from the girl he had left in Boston. All in due time. She was safe now. Don't do anything to mess that up. But the unease stayed, rooted somewhere in the back of his mind.

He watched the last rays of sun fade from the sky. Tonight would be an interesting night.

***

Shane stood in the bathroom of Cole's safe house. The tile beneath her feet was stained with the same blood that covered her body. Her blood, their blood, she didn't know. The woman in the mirror was in bad shape. Her right ear was mangled, one side of her face covered in thick, deep scratches across her cheek. A swelling in her jaw was developing. Her hair was matted with blood and debris. But her eyes were alive, that's all that mattered.

Shane mustered her strength, bracing her red hands on the side of the porcelain sink, leaving bloody handprints underneath her fingers. She forced her mind inwards to her beaten body. Her head bowed slighting at the effort. There was so much damage she was at once overwhelmed by the different parts of her body calling out for healing. She had to be smart, work systematically. First she silenced the nerve in her right hand as the pain of her weight on her arms sharpened to a point at the base of her thumb. Broken, twin fractures in the small bones in her wrist. She would deal with it in a minute.

First things first, close the open wounds, burn out any infections that were taking root, then bones, then muscle, if she had any strength she would work on the superficial tissues more at the end. Shane felt her lower ribs where a deep gash still wept blood from her left side. She had stopped most of the bleeding during the fight but the tissue remained open and raw. The beast had come at her so fast, even after so many charges, she had gotten complacent, thinking she knew what to expect from him. Somewhere in her head she found the strength to scold herself for stupid, lazy fighting. She set herself to healing the wound, her mind drifting back to the fight.

The wolves had been sniffing around the ground floor when she stepped out on the exposed staircase that ran along the back wall. She crouched down on the top step, watching them from between the iron railings. From her perch she watched as they drew closer, waiting for them to see her finally. One of them caught her sent and turned up his eyes to hers. She could see the person behind his eyes but when he bared his teeth, she knew this was no time for compassion.

"You'd best go back," she said down the stairs. The wolves gathered, bristling and baring their teeth, in a loose ring around the staircase. "This won't end well. I can take you and you know it." Shane hoped she sounded as confident as her words.

One of the wolves began to shift, rising up on two legs, the fur receding from his upper body; his face became human enough to communicate before he stopped the shift, a grotesque combination of man and wolf.

"Come with us now and you will not be harmed." His words were hard to make out from his twisted mouth but Shane got the idea.

She gave the creature a half smile, "We both know that is not going to happen. We also both know that one of us will die here and I have a strong suspicion it won't be me."

"Brave words for an unarmed human," the werewolf barked at her.

"I am neither unarmed nor human, so maybe not so brave. But I am right." Shane could see the wolves positioning themselves around the stairwell, in case she decided to launch herself over the side and hit the floor. There was no avoiding this fight. But she was not stupid; she could not take on five wolves at once. She looked once more at the man, if you could call him that, at the bottom of the stairs. "You will have to come and get me."

With that, she turned on her heels and disappeared back up to the second floor. The only shot she had was to lead them on a merry chase and circle back to pick them off one by one. The blood pounded in her ears; she was strong enough.

Back in the bathroom, Shane coaxed the skin to close over the gash, fusing the last layer of skin closed so that all remained of the wound was a red, angry looking scar. It would do for now. She turned her attention to her neck. The bite mark was deep, penetrating the thick muscles of her upper back on one side, and exposing white flashes of her collarbone in front. She shuttered at the memory of the wolf behind her, hitting her back and forcing her to the floor under its weight, it's massive jaws around her shoulder, tearing at her.

Her teacher had warned her about wild wolves. She knew that they were more animal than human but she hadn't accounted for the fact that they were much more powerful than the majority of wolves she had come up against. One of the wolves had grown massive as it pursued her, muscles rippling along its back. It stood on two legs, at least seven feet high. It was just the two of them at that point.

Up until then she had managed to stay out of direct contact with her pursuers. At least one had met its end when it tried to follow her across to a neighboring rooftop, falling three stories to the alley below. Shane had tried not to hear the sound of the body hitting the ground but it echoed up between the metal and concrete. The other wolves would start to get more serious now. They didn't take death of their compatriots well. She had managed to confuse them by leading them into a warehouse and then fading upwards, into the rafters, and watching them as they moved between the endless rows of packed boxes waiting to be shipped. One had wandered too close to a perfectly sized metal crate—perfect because it was large enough to cause damage, but just light enough that Shane could force it off its resting spot, down onto the wolf below. She had disappeared up into the ceiling again as the other wolves came to respond to their mate's cries of pain.

Three left, but three of the strongest, Shane reminded herself. The wolves had let out a hunt call, chilling her as it echoed off the walls and ceiling. They split up again, rushing around to the periphery of the warehouse. Shane considered her options: they could run farther and faster than she could. Leading them too far would tire her more than it would them. She would have to confront one of them now before taking off again.

She chose her target, letting the animal pace up and down the row of shipments beneath her until it had worked it's way into a good ambush spot. She dropped silently to the floor behind the wolf, waiting till he caught her scent as she approached from behind. In a flash he turned, snarling at her. He lunged, she dodged easily striking him on the side of his torso with the pipe she still carried with her. The animal howled in pain and anger but he kept coming, again and again. She kept out maneuvering him, waiting for his offensive, using his strength, his power to do most of the work for her. He handed only glancing blows as she moved away from him. She landed another decisive blow the fourth time he charged her. His howls had alerted the other two. They were coming. She had to move fast. Expecting his movements, she waited for him to leap, readying herself to smash the pipe into his head as he flew towards her.

But she misjudged his movement. This time he didn't leap at her but slipped underneath her attack, going for her body instead of her head. She didn't have time to react before he'd opened that gash along her side. She had righted herself faster than she had ever moved, so as he turned back on her in triumph she was ready for him. Before the look of victory faded from his eyes, she lodged the pipe in his skull.

The other two were fast approaching. As she fled upwards once more she encouraged the flesh in her side to heal faster, hoping it would be enough. Now the wolves would follow her scent much more easily.

The last stand was going to happen on the roof it seemed. Night had fallen but floodlights on neighboring buildings sent strange shadows across the roof. Shane chose her position wisely-she would only get one shot at getting one of them off the side. She crouched next to a mess of pipes, close enough to the edge to serve her purpose, but not so close she couldn't maneuver. In an instant the two wolves had burst through the door of the stairs, growling and furious. They sniffed the air, sensing her blood hanging in the thick evening humidity. The one that caught her sent first got cocky, or maybe just so enraged he couldn't see her trap. He launched himself at her hiding spot. Shane gritted her teeth, watching the enormous animal come barreling at her. She waited until the last possible moment as the creature's two front paws left the ground, almost reaching out to her, she dropped both hands to the ground, her body twisting from underneath her, and in one smooth motion brought both her legs up and under the wolf as he sailed through the empty air above her. Her feet hit home, directly in his chest, knocking the wind out of him. It gave him the extra push so that when he landed on the edge of the roof, there was no way to pull himself back. With a final yelp the wolf plummeted.

One left.

But he had her already, crushing her beneath him as his teeth sunk into her flesh, his claws raking her back. Shane panicked, feeling the intense weight above her, the deep shuddering pain of his mouth. She tried to struggle out from under him but it was useless against his size. She landed blows on its huge body but nothing could make the creature move as it forced her down towards the tar roof. One massive paw found her back and pressed hard, she felt her ribs creak with the weight above her. She'd let him get too close. Shane reached inside herself, into the energy she knew she had somewhere. She had felt it today, she had felt the sun, and she would not die under this dog.