Austin’s POV

“The Witchers are starting to edge up on us.” Chris stated bluntly. We were all gathered at a table in the main hall. A night hound, I think it was Jack’s, paced on the balcony overhead. The familiar air, warmed by the glowing lights and fireplace, did little to quell fears.

“Look, they haven’t discovered us yet. Our little island is pretty secluded from the mainland. It’s just barely sight, and that’s only IF you can get to the crevices.” Alan shook his head with a sigh. It was a pretty big if.

“Can’t we just contact Ryan and Tino about leading them to a false trail?” Ghost suggested. I reclined in my seat, fiddling with the end of the table cloth and pondering our situation.

The Witchers had gotten very…out of hand lately. They used to be some small cult, back a hundred years ago or so, but now they were some “elite” force. I don’t know how many of them they are, but they’ve become a nuisance since then. Their order has evolved over the years and become a bit more of a threat, but still nothing so much to worry about. They went from hunting witches to chasing necromancers, to now attacking clans of vampires like ourselves. Yeah, the name Witchers didn’t just refer to the weird ladies dancing in the forests trying to summon demons.

It took a lot more than dancing to summon those winged freaks.

“We would have to send one of our own, and that would be more than dangerous. There’s rumors that there have been a few independents coming to scout out along the ridges ten miles south of here.” Chris shook his head. His arms wrapped around his shoulder, rubbing out a few sore muscles.

“Tino will have to check with us in a couple of weeks or so. We’ll just have to wait until then.” Balz grumbled. Alan’s eyes drifted towards the chandelier hung from the ceiling. It was much more entertaining than this conversation.

“What about Ryan or Aaron? Have we heard from them? Phil hasn’t been seen recently either.” I added in. Ryan, Aaron, Phil, and Tino were technically apart of the Volcan clan, but they didn’t always like being in the castle. Instead, they preferred to roam around and acted as scouts and go-betweens for meeting with other clans.

“I know, but last time Ryan brought word and acted for all of them. They’re all supposed to report the next time we see them.” Chris sighed, scratching a list down on a sheet of paper. The quill bounced back in forth as his loopy handwriting was scrawled onto the sheet.

“How’s Alex?” Alan asked Jack, who had stayed silent until now.

“Fine. I hate to do this, but I think we’ll have to hunt soon.” Jack sighed. Alex had been keeping to himself mostly in his room for the past week. He was our official records keeper and has been busy taking inventory in the library. The job he was working on wore him out and he’d completely forgotten to feed, always saying he’ll do it later. Well, it was a little late for that now and it was obvious he was on the verge of bloodlust.

“I know, I know. If we try to get him to feed from Annabelle, he’d probably kill her.” I rubbed my forehead as I thought about it. Hunting would mean going out and kidnapping some person, bringing him/her back, and then draining her. It was a messy process, involved killing a person, and we had to be very careful about not leaving any traces behind. We couldn’t kill the human in their own town because it would leave a body behind and the Witchers would come.

Basically, it was a pain in the neck to do.

This was part of the reason we had feed-subs. We didn’t have to excessively kill people, we often took them away from poor conditions, and it didn’t require so much work in hiding bodies!

Just because we’re vampires doesn’t mean we’re not humane.

“Look, we’ll have to do it at some point anyways. Moon’s almost full-time for a feast.” Alan laughed. When the moon’s full, we sometimes decided to treat ourselves and take one person. Yeah, it’s a party for us.

Hey, we get blooddrunk, we get to relax and not worry, and we have some fun!

The only other time we did this is if we had a new vampire to add to the clan. It was the initiation for them-have their first meal as a creature of the night! But this wasn’t the point of today….

“So you’ve been checking up on him?” Alan asked Jack.

“Yeah he’s in his room-“

And Jack’s sentence was cut off by a scream, or what we thought was a scream.

“Was that the feed-subs?” Jack turned his head. Alan shook away the thought. It sounded like one of the night hounds was fighting with another. The sound was muffled and far away.

“I don’t think so.” The ginger shrugged. We sat in silence, watching as Chris handed his night hound the rolled up paper. The beast trotted up the grand staircase to the bedrooms to put it away. The night hounds were fairly intelligent like that.

“RED!”

The word sounded and we all shot off like a rocket. All I could think was of Alex. The only person that was not present at the meeting was Alex, who was sleeping…

Or so we thought.

Vampire speed was useful when it came to trying to sprint to the other side of the castle, down the steps, and through the door. Jack burst through first.

Inside, everyone was in a panic. Vic, Tony, Mike, Kellin, and Jaime were all grasping the cell bars for dear life, shaking the rattling foundations and trying to make noise. Misty, Blue, and Grey-Girl were crouched against the window that looked into Lynn and Jynx’s cell. Annabelle and Luna were nearly in tears at the sight of what was happening to my feed-sub.

Jynx was nearly unconscious on the floor, but still mumbling out. Her ankle twitched from underneath Alex, who was bent over her, viciously attacking her neck. Lynn was looking scared in the corner, unsure of what was happening to the person in her cell.

In an instant, I was behind Alex. My face lit up in hot fury and my hands clamped on his shoulder, ripping him off my girl.

“GET OFF HER!” I screamed to him, barring my teeth in a savage growl. Alex slumped against the wall, already starting to get drunk from the intoxicating blood. I even felt myself be pulled to Jynx’s sweet smelling scarlet blood that pooled around her neck. Her eyelids rapidly fluttered open and shut.

I stooped down to her side as Jack started yelling at Alex. She looked out of it, but in pain nonetheless. I tried picking her up, but she started to whimper out of agony. Her face was a pale white.

“Austin, I think her legs are broken. There’s something wrong.” Alan softly whispered to me. He softly prodded a few spots and she nearly screamed. Yes, it was broken.

That bastard.

A few minutes later, I had her in my arms. Ghost and Balz were talking to the other subs and we headed upstairs. Before I reached the top, Jynx twitched and her breathing hitched. She was starting to have that experience where you think you’re falling, but you’re not. It happens a lot in dreams.

“Austin!” She called out, still half awake. Her arms instantly wrapped around my neck, clinging on for dear life as her mind drifted away from her body and left her feeling as if she was falling down. I held her chest closer to mine and tried not to bump her legs. As soon as I was safely out of the hallway, Alan took the lead and we went to my room. Alan was instantly at my side with a cold, wet cloth and I draped it over her neck after setting her down on the bed.

Alan went to work examining her legs and I pressed the cloth against her neck. It was hard to fight the urge to give into the call of her delicious blood.

It was a long, painful, and slow process, but eventually Alan bandaged up her legs and a few gashes before putting them in a sort of brace between planks for it to heal. The poor girl wouldn’t be able to walk for quite some time since both legs were broken!

“Austin, she’s lost a lot of blood.” Alan told me gently. I looked at the faint traces of red on my hand through the wet cloth. It had completely bled through.

“Can you feel her pulse?” I asked my friend quickly. She had to make it through, she just had to!

“It’s there, but it’s faint.” His sad eyes turned back up towards me. Jynx’s soft breath stuttered and grew weaker.

“No, please, there has to be something we can do!” I cried out. Alan pointed to me, then held his hands in surrender.

“Hey, it’s your chance. You have one shot at it and she doesn’t have much of a shot with this much blood she’s lost.” Alan explained. Oh, I knew what he was talking about. It was risky, dangerous, and might kill her, but it would be her one shot.

“Here’s a dagger. Only a little. Too much will stop her heart completely.” Alan warned me. Taking the handle, I pressed the cold metal blade to my wrist, drawing a thin line.

I had one shot, maybe one minute left to save this girl. Draw some blood, give it to her, and wait. Vampire blood was so powerful that most mortal bodies can’t take it. Only those in the best condition survived.

Jynx wasn’t in the best condition.

So as the deep scarlet plumped up on my wrist, I pressed it against her partially open lips and let it drop in. Four drops and I removed my pale hand. She coughed, sputtered, and thrashed violently. This was our one moment to see. I held her arm down, watching her move. Hope rose in my heart.

And then she held still.

Notes

Hello everyone! So we left off at a HUGE cliff hanger!!!! What will happen? Well, you'll just have to keep reading on to see the outcome!