The asylum clearing came into view. Lee, Sierra and I fell back to stay in the undergrowth while Scarlet and Blacke continued on.

They hovered about in the shadows, waiting for the older vampire to appear. It didn’t take long.

Demetrius came out from the front door, squinting at the sun with a single good eye. The other was taped over with a dirty cloth. It seemed I hadn’t just temporarily caused him discomfort earlier. During my escape, I might’ve blinded him on that side. In a way, my broken, mostly useless arm was justified. Then again I wouldn’t have taken an eye out if I hadn’t been dragged off with the intent to get murdered.

Lee and Sierra stiffened next to me as the vampires huddled. There was visible tension between them, but we couldn’t hear what was said.

My good hand tightened on the machete’s handle and I managed a final glance at my phone. LeBlanc had responded, quite concerned at the text’s contents. He’d be here soon.

I had half a mind to walk out there and end this thing now. But seeing Demetrius in person, I remembered how helpless I’d been the first time we’d met.

The blade in my hand was heavy but now I was staring at the skin covering the muscles and bones and his neck and it seemed so inadequate.

Was I completely insane? Obviously, I wasn’t okay. I hadn’t been for a long time but that wasn’t the same as whatever this was now.

Scarlet said something and suddenly Demetrius had grabbed her by the throat.

I stood, but Lee grabbed my shirt so I couldn’t run out there without any thought.

There was murder in that eye. Blacke took it upon himself to grab Demetrius’s hand and pried it off of Scarlet so she fell to the ground. He briefly glanced in my direction, pointedly. He had this under control for the moment. I crouched back down, but pulled the machete free of its sheath.

Lee put a hand on my shoulder. “Let them talk first. I think they deserve some answers, if they choose to ask.”

I nodded. It was against my better judgment, but closure was something to be valued. If I could give them that, I would.

Blacke kept himself between Demetrius and Scarlet, but he was clearly angry at just one of them.

I quickly checked my phone, seeing nothing new.

Scarlet started to cry, the tears glinting in the sun before she swept them away. She bared her teeth at the man that had tried to destroy her humanity.

And then, everything went wrong.

Demetrius detached himself from Blacke’s grip and lunged forward, grappling the younger man to the ground.

His teeth glinted as Scarlet leapt on top of him in an attempt to pull him off but she wasn’t quite strong enough, instead getting flung against the asylum’s wall.

This was my limit.

I dashed out of my hidey hole, machete in hand. Demetrius looked up and grinned. His teeth were dripping in blood, and Blacke was hurriedly putting pressure on his neck where he’d been bitten.

In just a few seconds, I charged as Demetrius released Blacke and stood, his shoulders broad, blood visibly dripping in his saliva. I felt my heartbeat in my ears as a throbbing and raised the machete, aiming not so much to decapitate him but to maim him by any means necessary.

I wasn’t sure if that was my mistake or if it was the hesitation to bring it down until I got closer but I was knocked off balance with a blow to my side, my ribs cracking with the force. It sent me back several feet. I lost track of the machete as it jerked out of my hand.

My first instinct was to stand but doing so took longer than I expected. My one arm was still useless and even using it to balance myself made it hurt, even with the brace.

This wasn’t going according to plan.

Sierra and Lee rushed to my aid, Lee helping me to stand while Sierra wielded the small axe between Demetrius and I.

Blacke was getting back to his feet, grimacing with pain as whatever wound was on his neck extended to his collar bone and every movement tugged at it uncomfortably.

Scarlet bounded to his side, her teeth glinting in the sun as Demetrius absorbed the situation. Demetrius laughed.

“A bunch of humans?” he asked. “Is this really what you thought you needed to stop me?” he asked Blacke.

Blacke’s expression flickered uncertainly. In the end he looked to me and Demetrius followed his gaze.

“You’re quite spicy,” Demetrius addressed. His teeth felt so much bigger than Scarlet’s. “This was your dumb idea?” he asked.

“It’s not dumb,” I snapped. “You’re a monster.”

Demetrius snorted.

He turned to Scarlet and her brother.

Scarlet bounded around Blacke to stand in the sunlight. Blacke followed shortly after, still dripping blood down his arm.

I reached out to grab Scarlet’s hand and she came back to stand with the rest of us.

In the shadows, Demetrius paced back and forth a couple times, sizing up his chances at getting burned or hacked at by Sierra. Blacke’s blood continued to drip to the ground and some part of my brain was starting to urge me to address it. But there was still a predator waiting for its chance to maul us.

“I didn’t need either of you,” Demetrius rambled. “It was just easier to take down the best game that way. You should be grateful I took care of you at all.”

Blacke growled lowly as Scarlet cowered next to him.

Demetrius extended his bare hand into the sunlight, observing as his skin slowly started to turn pink. A crooked smile came over his face and he adjusted his jacket sleeve to cover the already burnt skin. “Minor setback,” he pointed out.

His lunge was just a blur. He was in one spot and then I was hurtling through the air and came to staring at the sky with Scarlet half on top of me. Her arm laid over my waist and a second later I realized I’d lost my breath and sucked air in.

She unraveled herself, standing and looking to where Blacke shielded Lee and Sierra in a similar condition of recovering after yanking them out of the way. Demetrius turned to us.

I tried to find the machete, wherever it was on the ground. It was several feet away.

Scarlet braced herself as Demetrius made the attack toward us, she caught his hands in hers and tried to push him back, though it was a losing battle. She was significantly smaller and Demetrius looked like he’d been well fed while she was withering away in hiding.

I scurried, crawling to where the blade was reflecting sunlight. My fingers barely brushed against the handle when I was grabbed by the hair and dragged away.

I kicked and punched as best as I could but I couldn’t see and the blows just met empty air.

On the ground again, the wind knocked out of me, my old broken ribs hurting so badly with the force. Demetrius grinned down at me.

“I want to see your eyes pop,” he said, licking some of the old blood off his lips. “I want to see your lungs collapse under the weight of your stupidity you stupid– dumb– girl.” His fingers wrapped around my throat and pushed.

I thrashed, doing the absolute best I could but even when I landed a hit, it felt like punching a rock wall. There wasn’t any budge from the larger vampire.

The tiny fraction of air that managed its way through my windpipe didn’t do much, just sputtered out from my lips.

Someone hit Demetrius from behind and he collapsed on top of me for a moment, his grip broken. The air burned as it came in but I swallowed as much as I could greedily as Demetrius turned and kicked whoever had been bold enough to come after him away. They launched several feet, but I could only make out their silhouette.

Then he turned back to me and his hand was coming back again.

With my father being a police officer, I knew what I had to do, even if I didn’t like the idea.

I bit him. I bit hard. I bit until my jaw hurt and he was cursing at me and tried to pull his hand away. In doing so, a chunk of his flesh separated from the rest of him. I spit it out, hating every drop of warm blood that seeped past my teeth.

The tiny moment was all I needed and I flipped over, grabbed the machete and swung blindly at his form.

It hit something and Demetrius howled and launched himself away from me, cradling a heavily bleeding arm.

I scrambled back, making sense of what was going on around me.

There was a car driving up the asylum’s driveway in the distance. Blacke was getting off the ground with Sierra and Lee’s help while Scarlet was a motionless heap on the ground just a couple meters from me.

Seeing her prone and lifeless sent a pit into my stomach. Somebody as experienced with killing as Demetrius could’ve killed her in a matter of seconds, if given the chance. So he probably had.

Demetrius himself was accessing how bad his injuries were. His arm was deeply cut, the machetes in my hand stained with his blood. Sierra braced herself with the tomahawk, ready to brawl with him if he decided I was too much trouble.

But Demetrius did turn back to me. The look of pure rage in his eyes told me enough. I ran. I didn’t get very far before he had stormed me again and I was tumbling, getting back up as he freed himself from Blacke’s grasp with another devastating kick that sent him flying back. If I lived through this, I’d have to thank Blacke later for taking such a beating, it had to hurt even if it wasn’t going to kill him.

The car stopped, LeBlanc leaping out without turning it off or anything. He was in plainclothes, but was screaming something into a radio before drawing his side arm.

I slammed into the ground again, my chin hitting hard and stars dancing across my vision. I came back to LeBlanc shouting at Demetrius to freeze.

From the gap in constant pain that man had been inflicting on me, he listened, for a couple seconds then he rushed past me with a humored laugh. In that moment, I knew we had lost. I dragged everyone out here just to die, he was too fast and I knew Officer Leblanc would hesitate just a little too long—

The sound of the gun firing was brain-shattering. I ducked my head, covering my ears as a few more rounds went off until the quiet settled.

I picked my head up to find LeBlanc running to me. He helped me sit up as the world came into focus again. My heart was stuttering away in my chest and my head felt too heavy and too light at the same time. Pain was everywhere. My broken arm was throbbing much like it had the first time.

LeBlanc checked my face. “What for fuck’s sake were you thinking?” he snapped. Once he was satisfied I wasn’t dying he moved on to Scarlet, who was still prone on the ground.

I rushed over to her with him. His fingers went to her neck and felt for a pulse. With a sigh of relief he relaxed. “Anyone else injured?” he asked. He looked over to see Blacke barely standing upright and began to approach the other vampire. But Blacke slunk away, into the shade of the trees. His eyes flashed warily at the policeman.

“Don’t you dare run,” LeBlanc told him. “I don’t know what everybody’s role here was but I’m sure the truth’ll come out eventually.”

I swallowed. He had a point.

Scarlet started to pick her head up and I dropped down to take her face in my hands.

“Hey,” I told her softly. LeBlanc wandered off in pursuit of Blacke, and exchanged a few words with Lee and Sierra.

She reached up and felt my face, noticing the blood. “Is he gone?” she asked.

I nodded. “Dead. He won’t ever hurt anybody again.”

She sighed. “Good.” Her head laid back down.

“Scarlet?” I asked, the panic setting in again.

“I’m okay,” she reassured. “My head’s just… swimming.”

“Okay.” Lee and Sierra were now approaching us.

I found Lee was trembling as she put an arm around my back reassuringly. “Just like old times,” she joked. “Is it always going to end up like this?” she asked.

“I hope not,” I said. The tears were starting to drip down my face. They weren’t bad tears. But I didn’t think they were good ones either. It was just… relief.

I would’ve appreciated one of Elias’s dick jokes right about now. Him and Christian were safe at least, even if there was a lack of comedic relief after this incident.

LeBlanc shouted from somewhere behind us and I whipped my head around to look. Blacke was lunging, rather slowly for a vampire, at Demetrius’s body.

I didn’t understand until he grabbed the machete off the ground.

“Stop!” LeBlanc yelled, but he didn’t stand a chance as Blacke grabbed Demetrius by the hair, the body was still limp but we all knew it wasn’t a guarantee. 

With a horrible squelching, popping sound and the flash of the blade, Blacke beheaded the corpse. It was graphic, and bloody. My stomach tried to force everything back up but I swallowed it all down.

LeBlanc, panicking, shot him, adding to the extensive injuries he’d received for the day. But he didn’t waver. There was a fresh trail of blood but he simply glared angrily at LeBlanc and ran, taking the head with him. Before I knew it, LeBlanc was staring into the darkening woods after him, but unable to follow.

Then he turned to us, holstering his weapon finally.

There were more police soon after, and he did his best to keep them from interrogating the absolute hell out of us. Everybody was treated for injuries, though Scarlet and I had the worst of it. Scarlet was dealing with a bad concussion. I had extensive bruising on my ribs and my arm needed to be put back into place after I’d abused the heck out of it. The marks on my neck would be visible for a long time, but they’d heal. Overall, we didn’t fare as badly as I thought we could’ve. Lee and Sierra both just had minor cuts and bruises. 

Everyone was fine…

Except Blacke, if he was still alive at all.

---

AN: Finally. And now, I think there's only two parts left but we'll see some small pieces and loose ends got moved around the past few days because it felt better that way but we shall see.