Negative Space Ch. 16

I edged out from behind the pillar and scanned the room for faces I recognized. Julian was unconscious, slumped in a corner where Luca must have dropped him, and Luca himself was not far off. He was facing me, but in the middle of hand-to-hand combat with a grizzled, muscular vampire. Another was coming at him from behind, and I made up my mind, training the gun on that second vampire, closing my eyes, and pressing all my intent, my magic, my Khrusos into the bullet, aiming everything I had at that vampire who was now raising his arm to wound Luca. Something moved close to me and I flinched, accidentally pulling the trigger. The shot was louder than the last, and the moment between the gun's recoil and the vampire crumpling to the floor was endless. It happened though, and Luca thrust his own claws through the bowel of the other vampire he was fighting. He looked up as he shook pieces of intestine off his fingers and saw me, still grasping the gun, my heart shuddering. He nodded.

My relief was instantaneous. I discarded the gun – its accuracy was too inconsistent, its desires not necessarily my own. I could have hit Luca. I searched the room for Theo. My heart began to thud as I could not locate him. Quivering, almost hyperventilating, I began marching to the center of the room, shoving my Khrusos with the flat of my palm at any advancing vampire. The crowd gradually became quiet around me as vampires backed away to the walls, watching their comrades on the floor, moaning. I made my way toward the guard's desk where two vampires continued to fight, their wrestling obscuring their faces. The adrenaline flooding my body focused me, shutting out any extraneous information. I could see only them, the black edging into the corners of my vision, not only blocking out what I didn't need to know, but also threatening to overcome me.

With a grunt, the man underneath tossed his foe off, and for a moment I saw Theo's sweet face, drenched in blood from a cut above his eye. That was all I needed to see, and pulling on the absolute dregs of my energy I thrust my palms out toward his attacker and funneled everything I had toward him. He collapsed instantaneously. Theo looked up at me just in time to see me to stumble and fall, finally surrendering to the darkness.