Robert Crane - Family

I felt flesh give way to hard metal and meta strength. He flew through the air again, this time up and away from me, arms and legs stretched out limply, trailing the direction of his motion like streamers in the wind behind him. He came to a hard landing about fifteen feet away and I felt a shiver through my arms from the impact, a soreness that I knew my meta healing powers would keep me from feeling tomorrow.

The blond vampire vaulted back to his feet two seconds after landing and let out something between a hiss and a scream, high pitched, that made me cringe and look back to the other. Both of them, now, were dead on target, and the target was me. I took a deep breath as they both twitched, feet anchored in place, looking like they were ready to leap at any moment.

“We need to withdraw,” I heard Zack’s voice in my ear; he was one of the ones still standing, apparently.

“They’ve still got an RPG around here somewhere,” Parks said. “We get airborne without dealing with it or them, we’ll be back down in a worse predicament a few seconds later.”

“I’ll deal with them,” I said, not really feeling the truth of that down to my bones. “Get the wounded to the helo; I’ll cover your retreat.”

“You’re insane,” Scott said. “Those things aren’t playing; they’ll eat your throat out while you’re still alive.”

“I’ll be fine.” I kept a wary eye on each as they started to circle around me, not gaining ground, hesitating to spring. “Get moving and I’ll be right along.”

“What are you gonna do?” I could hear the strain in Zack’s voice as he helped Kurt to his feet.

“Not make them sparkle.” I tensed and gripped the torch-club even tighter, knowing they’d be striking in tandem.

They broke their holding pattern at the same time, both of them springing into a loping run, scattering dirt with every step. I realized for the first time that they were wearing leather dress shoes to match their black shirts and pants, and I would have laughed if I hadn’t been feeling a prickle of concern. They were wicked strong, vicious, more resistant to damage than any meta I’d encountered other than maybe Wolfe or Clary, and they had an appetite for blood – mine, apparently.

They closed the gap and I wondered how I’d deal with both at once when a tornado blew past and flung the raven-haired one into the air again and away from me. I turned to focus on the other, bringing my weapon around and down in an overhand swing. It landed in a perfectly timed blow, hitting the softer neck tissue and the side of the vamp’s head, the force of the strike driving him face first into the ground. I didn’t feel any pity for this beast and landed another hit to the back of his head as quickly as I could, then another and another before something struck me from behind and I had to roll my way out of the attack as I felt teeth sink into my shoulder.

I hit the ground and jabbed my elbow into the belly of the beast that had gotten me, the black-haired vamp. He didn’t let loose, and I felt the teeth dig into my left shoulder. I jerked forward as hard as I could, ripping myself free, losing flesh, muscle and blood in the process. I brought my right hand up and hammered the vamp with three quick blows from the burning club, using the last to jam it into his face, end on, running the flaming cloth hard into his eyes and nose, drawing another hissing scream and several swipes from claws.

I sensed the other coming up on me and turned, bringing the club around in time to catch him across the face. He screamed and I jammed the flaming end into his eyes, and after hearing the same howling noise from him, I ran for the chopper. I could taste blood in my mouth and my left arm was numb. My left shoulder was not; it screamed at me. I saw a few bodies still huddled at the chopper’s door, and I realized one of them was Reed, who was climbing inside. Scott was another, though he was already nearly in, pulling something in along with him, something brown and furred – Parks, I realized after a moment, though he was in bear form and bleeding quite a bit. Zack was last, helping to get Parks inside with one hand, while his gun was out and tracking behind me with the other. I couldn’t see his face as the spotlight from the front of the helo was nearly blinding me, but I saw him watching, and I heard him when he shouted a warning.

I turned and they were almost on me, the light illuminating both of them, their faces, their fangs. I had burned them, patches of black charring sullying their smooth, pale skin. The light caught the stomach of the blond one I had baseball swung; his belly was laid open from my attack, guts hanging out. It did not seem to affect him as he moved just as effortlessly as the other.

I paused to prepare myself. Raising my weapon and dodging to the side, I hit the blond one with a kick to his open entrails while I swung the club to keep the other back. My kick landed and knocked the blond-haired one to the side while my swing of the club convinced the other to alter his movement to avoid it. He did so successfully and I couldn’t follow up, since I was still in the process of catching my balance after the kick.

Blondie dropped to the ground in front of me as I caught my footing. He landed on his back, and before he could scream, as they were so fond of doing, I brought the burning end of the club down and rammed it into his open guts, shoving hard. I wondered if there was any truth to the idea that a stake to the heart would kill them; if so, I assumed a flaming club would do just as well.

He screamed, and it was not a hissing affair, as the others had been. This one was pure, bellowing torment that went up to the heavens as he writhed so hard he bounced a foot off the ground. I shoved him down harder and pushed my weapon into the softness under his ribcage, tearing even louder screams from him. His accomplice hissed at me and drew up for an attack as I withdrew the torch-club, the flame sputtering but still burning, and I waved it in front of me at the other, giving the black-haired vamp pause.

“Succcccubus,” he hissed, his black hair and red eyes caught in the light of the helo’s spotlight.

“Vaaaaaaampiiiiire,” I said, mocking, and I stomped his mewling friend in the face before I took a step away from the prostrated blond fiend. He rocked back and forth slightly, but did not try to get up; had I known a sure way to kill it, I might have taken the chance, but all the methods I could think of were exhausted and I didn’t want to take my torch-club away from defending me in order to explore the ins and outs of slaughtering these creatures.

I started circling toward the one still standing; I only needed to take him out of action and we could get airborne and away from these things. “How about you come over here and I’ll give you a sweet, tender probing with this?” I waved it in front of my face. “Got an ass? I’ll be glad to shove it up there for you. If not, I could always tear you a new one like I did with your pal Spike over there.” I waved my club to indicate the blond vampire, still writhing on the ground.

He hissed at me, but didn’t reply other than to keep up with the circling. He maintained a distance of about twenty feet from me, but now he was heading more toward the chopper and the doors. I could see everyone was aboard now, and I heard the rotors spinning up, the speed of their rotation increasing as it readied for takeoff. He sashayed toward the entry and I began to fear what he might try when he reached the door. I took two steps forward and, mindful of the rotor above, lunged at him, keeping my head down and swinging the club in an arc in front of me.

The black-haired vamp dodged and halted by the door. I came at him again, this time drawing the torch behind me, giving him an opening. I saw his red eyes flash and I slowed myself, trying to entice him to make a move. He went for it, leaping at me, keeping low enough to dodge the rotor, and he caught me as I brought the weapon back around, grasping onto my arm and sinking his nails into it. I felt pain that I dismissed and began a full spin with him hanging onto my arm and shoulder. He was off-balance, and I ripped him from the ground, whipping him around as if he were a club I were swinging.