She screamed for a second before Nick clapped his hand over her mouth. It was the dead of a cool night, and he didn’t want to wake anyone. He pressed down on her chin, bending her backwards while gripping her mouth tightly closed. He used his legs to keep her lower half still as he heard the bones of her spine splinter and crack. With every wriggle, the damage became worse. She screamed but it was barely audible. Blood seeped from her nose and mouth, wetting Nick’s hand, but he didn’t stop until the back of her head hit the front of the balcony: finally still. It was then he saw three more people on street level, looking up at him. They had witnessed the fight and were now stalking forward, fangs out. He couldn’t risk them being left there. There could still be people around. He would have to protect them and end this quickly.
He tipped the vampire over the edge and it plummeted towards the pavement, crunched upon impact and did not move. Nick leapt over and followed it to the ground. His landing was much more gracious. He rose to his full height, not letting his nudity stop him. He flexed his fingers, staring at the trio approaching him. “I’d think about this if I were you.”
Suddenly Nick doubled over. A tension in his stomach causing him to be violently sick, bringing him to his knees. What the hell? In his head, yet again, he heard what sounded like screeching.
*
Talia was snapped awake. Her mouth was sore and as her vision cleared from her slumber she saw someone remove their forearm from just in front of her face. Had she been forced to bite someone? The bite of an Alpha could turn someone. And just as she made out a shape cradling their arm and vanishing through a doorway, her vision cleared and her head pounded. The cries of a baby were responsible. She looked around to find herself still caged, surrounded by her mother who replaced the mask over her mouth, and Tynan, holding the wailing baby aloft. His expression was puzzling. The baby was howling with misery, crying so hard its little fists were shaking with the effort. Heaving a tiny breath before unleashing another cry. Tynan though, smiled in wonder, glancing at Talia.
“Just look at him. The cell structure. The muscle density. Oh, you wonderful specimen.”
Tynan held the baby, checking him over. Either Tynan didn’t know or didn’t care that the walls of the room were shaking. Talia could tell, for the ground underneath the stretcher was rattling the cage.
“Leave the kid alone!” Talia coughed through the mask, still feeding her the dreaded wolfbane.
“I’m not going to hurt him,” Tynan replied pleasantly, placing the child on a makeshift changing table. He held the baby still while with his other hand he reached into a drawer and pulled out a syringe. He glanced back at Talia. “Not for too long anyway.”
*
Nick’s warning wasn’t listened to, but that didn’t surprise him. He had hoped the sight of a wolf would worry the vampires. But they approached him as he heaved on his haunches, his head pounding, the world spinning. His hands, flat against the ground, were going in and out of focus, and his nails had reduced to normal. With a shaking hand, he put his fingers to his mouth, feeling straight, flat teeth. That same hand barely had enough time to block a furious kick to his jaw. He stood up quickly, trying to regain the advantage, or any advantage, but tripped and stumbled back down. He swung blindly with a fist, hitting nothing, and the vampires gave a collective chuckle as they all closed in. He felt the fangs of one pierce his hip and bite down. Two punches from the others cracked both sides of his head. Nick rolled backwards and stumbled to his feet. One launched itself at him and Nick caught it, throwing it as hard as he could into a nearby car. But it wasn’t enough, not nearly. The vampire got up with a mere shake of the head. Nick walked backwards as quickly as he could, hot sticky blood seeping down his forehead. Without his wolf strength, he needed an advantage. He pushed the ringing in his head aside and ran towards the nearest fence just behind him. He had no hope of running past three vampires to get to the safety inside the apartment complex. He had to go up. Get leverage. High ground. Anything.
He leapt and climbed the fence as fast as he could, the vampires hungrily chasing after him, until one ripped the rails out from the ground, causing the rather stringy metal to collapse from under Nick. He dropped to the ground and hadn’t even hit the dirt before all three mouths were on him. Biting him hard. Unloading with their fists. Feeding from him. Draining him fast.
*
Tynan pulled the syringe from the screaming child and dabbed the wound with a cotton ball. A man Talia had never seen before entered the still shaking room and applied a band aid as the stretcher rattled so hard the wheels slipped from under it and it crashed to the ground. The impact popped the mask off Talia’s mouth and snapped the breathing cord from its socket. The wolfbane had stopped being released. Talia took some deep breaths as quietly as she could. She had maybe a few seconds before Tynan realised what had happened to the cord and fixed it. Luckily, the room was in just as bad of shape as the stretcher, keeping him preoccupied. The light above Talia dropped about a foot as the howls of the
