Only he and Ada were at the Council Square ready to do battle, but he could smell his vampires, and he could smell their fear despite being stronger than the enemy.
“I am called Eli, and I am the one in charge here!” Eli was taller than Clayton, but not by much. Eli did have thirty or forty pounds on Clayton, which didn’t concern him. What bothered him was he had been eating human food for the past two weeks. He didn’t know how much strength he had left against them.
“You’re in charge? I don’t think so,” Clayton said with contempt.
“Where are all your friends? You and your Maid going to fight the six of us?”
Clayton chuckled. “Maid? That was funny, Eli. Tell you what, since you made me laugh, I will let you and your friends go without killing you.”
“My, my, aren’t you the confident one? See, here’s where I tell you the bad news. We’ve been doing some scouting.” Eli pointed his finger all around the village. “You haven’t had much to drink or eat for two weeks or so.”
Carefully concealing his shock, Clayton said, “It doesn’t matter. If I have to, I will die to save my friends.”
Eli brought the captured vampire close to him, closed his eyes, and took a whiff. “You’d die for these sweet-smelling folks?”
Clayton had enough as he stepped down from the square. He and Ada took several steps toward them.
“That’s far enough, mister!” one of Eli’s friends said as he placed both hands on Pierre’s wife.
Without warning, the sour-smelling woman vampire rushed to Ada and punched her in her chest. Ada went sailing into a nearby house and was rendered unconscious.
Clayton ran at top speed, grabbed the woman vampire by the head, and snapped her neck, instantly killing her. He looked down at her and spat.
“You just killed my wife!” Eli yelled.
“Shame. Call it justification!” He pointed around the village. “This is my land, not yours! And I will fight for it with my dying breath!” Clayton said with conviction.
“Your place? Not for long!” Eli said with supreme confidence.
Clayton put his hands around his back. “I’ll make a deal with you, Eli.”
Eli’s blue eyes lit up with excitement. “What kind of deal are we talking about?”
“Release all of my friends, and I will single handedly fight the six… sorry, your wife is dead, make that five of you, I will fight.”
Eli did not like Clayton’s comment. He and the others took a few steps toward Clayton.
Instead of backing away, Clayton walked toward them. Eli seemed confused Clayton did not fear them.
“You know you cannot hope to win against the five of us, right?”
Clayton shrugged his shoulders.
“Think you’re pretty tough, Clayton?”
“Are you going to accept my deal, or are you going to talk me to death?”
Eli looked at Clayton, then looked at his friends. All of them nodded in agreement.
“Okay, we accept your offer!”
They quickly surrounded Clayton. He knew at his current level of strength from not sucking blood for so long; he could take two, maybe three of them, but not all five. But he would not, could not back down in front of his tribe. Clayton was hoping one of his tribesmen would help him because he knew he would not win the fight. And that meant certain death.
Clayton had to make the first move, or his death would be quick. He sped toward Eli’s friend and snapped his neck, but less than a second later, he felt a kick in his back, which made him fall. He was far weaker than he realized.
“Not up to your usual strength level, are you, Clayton?” Eli said tauntingly.
The four vampires rushed to Clayton. They started kicking him and beating him to a pulp. Clayton was helpless as Eli lifted him harshly by his throat. Eli addressed the vampires that refused to come out of their homes.
“There’s a new breed of vampires here today! We shall take over your lands and kill every one of you, sweet-smellers!” Eli said in triumph.
While Eli was bragging, Clayton took a whiff, whirled around, and managed to get loose.
Eli saw the two newcomers entering the area. “And who are you?”
“I am Clayton’s father, Tarson, and this is my wife, Tabatha, and we have come to aid Clayton.”
Eli looked at Tarson and Tabatha, shook his head, and scorned. “You can’t do that; it’s against the engagement rules. Clayton agreed to fight alone and without help.”
“I am not planning on giving my son any physical help,” Tabatha stated simply.
“Then how are you to aid him?” Eli asked in confusion.
“By doing this!” Tabatha removed a cup and threw it in the air.
Clayton sprang into action as he leaped in the air, caught the cup, and landed with the cup still in his hand. He drank greedily from it. Unbridled power surged through him quickly! In no time, Clayton was upon the sour smellers. He rushed to each vampire and, one by one with breathtaking speed broke the necks of all of them except Eli.
“I’m pretty sure that was against the rules,” Eli remarked in protest.
“You took advantage of a bad situation. I made sure to even the odds,” Tarson said with hatred.
“How did you know about Eli?” Clayton asked his parents as he grabbed Eli’s throat and squeezed.
“We were out on patrol when we spotted them hurrying toward here. We knew we hadn't been at our best. Your mother and I went to several towns trying to find a human who had the same blood as we do to make you stronger than if you had other smelling human blood.”
The bruising of Clayton’s ribs and his face were slowly disappearing. He felt whole again.
Clayton walked to where Ada was sitting up and leaning against a house. Eli fought to release himself from Clayton’s iron grip.
“Let me go, Clayton! Now that you’re at
