Blood Gifts (5 page)

Luke was busy in the lobby slamming Geric
into a row of mailboxes. Geric fell to the ground and leaped up,
punching Luke so hard he flew across the room. The other two
vampires had split up. One was running at super speed down all the
hallways. The other had gone outside to monitor all exits to the
building.

"Oh, love is so painful," Geric said
mockingly as he ambled across the room, watching Luke stumble to
his feet to fight some more. "What will I do without my beautiful
Karina?" he mocked.

Luke took a swing at him again, but Geric
moved quickly out of the way. Then Geric grabbed Luke by the throat
and slammed him into a wall, holding him there.

"You should be draining the humans you drink
from, friend," he said. "Then you can grow up to be strong like
me." He slammed Luke against the wall again, and then threw him
across the room. He had sped away at super speed before Luke could
get back on his feet.

The spiky-haired vampire was walking slowly
along the third floor, listening for Karina. Listening for any
raised heartbeat or anyone out of breath. Also waiting to smell her
fear. He had checked her apartment. She was, of course, not stupid
enough to go there.

Geric marched along the second floor hallway.
He had simply followed Karina's scent up the stairwell. He hummed a
little tune as he walked, straight down the hall to the storage
room. He burst through the storage room door with confidence and
marched back to Karina's corner. People's boxes and belongings
started to rattle loudly in their cages as he approached her.

"Oh." He stopped a few feet from her in mock
awe. He tapped the nearest cage with his hand. "The animals are
restless." He laughed. Then he reached forward and yanked her up
off the ground by her arm. "Come with me, my lovely," he said.

Karina stumbled as he dragged her quickly
behind him. Her heart was pounding again. The contents of the cages
shook so much they created a roar.

Luke had run up to Karina's apartment to
check for her there. No sign of her, of course. He'd wandered the
third floor quickly, looking for her. Instead he found the
spiky-haired vamp, who smiled at him and cocked his head to the
side. As if to say, "You know we have to fight now."

Then the spiky-haired vampire flew at him
quickly, knocking him to the ground, and landing on top of him.
Luke shoved him so hard, the vampire flew at the ceiling and
smashed into it, causing plaster to fall back down. Luke rolled out
of the way as the vampire fell to the ground again. Luke jumped
quickly to his feet, but the vampire did the same.

"What's going on out there?" a woman's angry
voice shouted from behind a locked door.

Luke quickly grabbed the vampire by the back
of his jacket and dragged him down the hall, around the corner. He
didn't want humans to be collateral damage in this fight. The
vampire pried Luke's hands off of him, turned and punched Luke in
the face, sending him flying.

Geric had dragged Karina behind him, down the
stairs, to the lobby, which is where Karina knew she would have
options again. She picked up a heavy wooden armchair with her mind
and threw it at Geric's head. She had to jump out of the way as the
chair flew towards them. He was in front of her and it hit him from
the left side. He let go of her hand as he fell to the ground. She
ran quickly back to the stairwell. There was no sign of Luke in the
lobby. He must still be in the building. She had to find him.

He hadn't been in the second floor hall where
she had just been. She ran to the third floor and cautiously
stepped into the hallway. She heard a loud scuffle around the
corner. She ran toward it. Luke and the spiky-haired vampire were
pummeling each other. She concentrated and, with her mind, picked
up the spiky-haired vampire and threw him out the window at the end
of the hall.

Luke turned to look at her, out of breath.
"Wow," he said. "Thanks."

Karina nodded, she looked afraid, but she
smiled. Luke ran to her, grabbed her hand, and ran down the hall
with her, to the stairwell. They opened the door and started to run
down, but Geric was there, stalking up the stairs angrily, with
blood dripping from a gash on his head from the chair. Luke and
Karina turned to run back into the third floor hall, but the
spiky-haired vampire was back again, with a few cuts on his face
from the glass of the window, blocking the door to the third floor.
Luke put Karina in front of him and they started to run up to the
roof.

Geric and the other vampire walked calmly
behind them.

"Corin, keep your eye on the lovers while I
go get something, won't you? And call Zachary up from the street,"
Geric said as he slipped quietly into the third floor hall.

Karina stumbled onto the roof, the cool air
hitting her hard. Luke protectively kept himself in front of her as
they backed away from Corin.

"Zachary," Corin said in a normal tone of
voice without taking his eyes off of the two in front of him.

Suddenly Zachary flew up from the street,
quietly, and landed on the roof.

Karina looked around for anything she could
move with her mind. Lawn furniture, anything. There was nothing.
Apparently, throwing vampires off the roof would do no good. They
could just hop right back up there. She held Luke's hand as they
were slowly backed into a corner. The low wall around the edge of
the roof hit her upper thigh. Corin and Zachary stopped a few feet
from them. Corin stared at them menacingly. Zachary looked stern,
but almost bored.

Suddenly Geric burst through the roof door
and marched toward them with something in his arms. A little blond
girl in pink pajama pants and shirt. She looked about five years
old. She looked terrified.

"Geric," Luke said with a growl to his voice
again.

"So troublesome," Geric said to Luke, his
voice was happy and mocking again. "I just want to do us all a
favor and save your talented mate from human mediocrity. Why so
much drama?" He stopped walking about twenty feet from them. He was
standing near the edge of the roof. Karina watched in horror,
terrified of what he might do to the girl.

Geric held the little girl up by the back of
her pajama top. She squirmed a little bit. "You humans always seem
to like these little things so much," he said, looking at the girl
with a grimace on his face.

"Geric, don't," Luke said.

"I will make a deal with you, Hero," Geric
said. He suddenly swung the little girl out so she was dangling
over the edge of the roof, held only by the back of her shirt. Her
eyes grew wide and she stopped squirming.

"Let the girl go," he nodded to Karina, "or I
let the girl go," he nodded back at the little girl in his
hand.

Karina gasped. Luke said nothing.

Geric nodded impatiently. "Come on now, you
know I'll do it. I can drop little girls off the roof all night,
just give her up."

"I'll do it," Karina said, stepping out from
behind Luke. "I'll go. Just put her down."

"Karina," Luke said. He knew he could jump
off the roof and catch the little girl if he had to, he was just
trying to formulate a plan.

"No, it's not worth this," Karina said. She
walked forward and Corin grabbed her arm roughly.

Geric smiled with delight. He still dangled
the little girl. "Escort the young lady from the premises, please,"
he said to Zachary and Corin. They quickly obeyed. Karina gave Luke
one last worried look before she walked through the door to the
stairwell.

"Alone at last," Geric said as he watched
them go. "Well, except for the small one," he said, shaking the
little girl a bit. She whimpered.

"Geric, put her down," Luke said.

Geric smirked. "What would be the fun in
that?" His mood was quite chipper now. He glanced at the little
girl happily. He shook her a little bit to make her whimper again.
Then he laughed. He glanced back at Luke.

In the distance, Luke saw the two vampires
pick Karina up and super speed down the street. He made a note of
the direction they had gone.

"You have to be wondering, Hero," Geric said,
"am I fast enough to catch the little girl if she falls?" His eyes
were bright as he stared at Luke. "Well," Geric said, "are
you?"

Geric suddenly threw the little girl to the
opposite side of the roof, so high in the air it was obvious he
intended for her to fall over the other side of the building. She
screamed. Luke sped over and jumped in the air and caught her
gently just before she sailed over the other side of the roof. He
glanced back. Geric was gone.

He looked down at the little girl in his
arms. Her eyes were wide again. She stared up at him. Her little
fists each held a handful of his T-shirt. She was desperately
afraid.

"It'll be okay," Luke said to her. He held
her close and ran back into the building and down the stairs. He
got to the first landing. "Do you remember what floor you live on?"
he asked her gently.

She nodded and said, "Three."

He stepped out into the third floor hallway.
"Do you remember what number is on your apartment?"

She nodded again. "3B."

He quickly walked to the door of 3B, and set
her gently down in front of it. He had to carefully pry her little
fingers off his shirt.

"Are your mommy and daddy home?" he asked
her.

She nodded. Tears were starting to run down
her face. He wiped her tears away with his thumbs and said, "You'll
be safe now, okay?"

She nodded again. He knocked on her apartment
door loudly, then super sped away before her parents could answer
the door.

He sped down the stairwell and out of the
building. He ran down the street as fast as he could go in the
direction he had seen them take her. He tried to follow her scent.
He lost the trail a few times and had to back track to make
different turns. He realized they had taken her outside of town. He
ran down the highway and into the woods. It was really a park,
green grass with trees here and there. Then he saw them. Geric had
just caught up to them and they had stopped to confer with him.

They saw him speeding up to them and took off
running again. But he was too fast. He pulled Karina out of Corin's
arms and set her down. They all stopped running at once.

Karina had been pondering something as the
vampires talked a moment ago. Wooden stakes through the heart
killed them. They were standing in a wood. She had telekinesis. Now
that Luke had distracted them, she tried her plan. With her mind
she quickly broke off a small branch from a nearby tree and slammed
the broken edge of it into Zachary's heart. He burst into dust
immediately and fell to the ground. She was shocked. So was
everyone else.

Luke didn't waste a moment. He quickly
grabbed the branch lying in the pile of dust and shoved it through
Corin's heart. He turned to dust as well.

Geric's eyes were wide. He had just lost two
of his clan. He stood farther away than the other two had been, so
Luke picked up the branch and threw it at Geric.

Geric deflected it easily with his arm. He
stared in shock at the dust on the ground. Then he looked back up
at Luke. "This is not over," he said. Then he sped away, a blur
through the trees, away from town.

"Oh, my God," Karina said and turned to Luke.
She threw her arms around him and he held her tight.

Chapter 12

Luke and Karina had decided it was too
dangerous to go back to her apartment for her things. So Luke had
picked her up and sped to his apartment to get money, clothing, and
his car. They would have to buy Karina clothing when they got to
where they were going.

They walked down dank stone steps to his
apartment, and Luke unlocked the door. It was a one-room apartment,
very neat and tidy, hardly any possessions in it.

"You don't have much," Karina said, shivering
at the door.

"I like to travel," Luke said as he opened a
drawer and pulled out a small pewter trinket box. He opened a
closet and pulled a few shirts off hangers and a couple pairs of
jeans from a shelf. He put it all in a duffel bag. He pulled a
backpack from the closet and filled it with the meager contents of
a few drawers. He carried it all with one hand and put his other
hand on Karina's back as he led her out of the apartment.

The sun was starting to come up as they
ascended the stairs.

"This way," Luke said as he walked to a
carport on the side of the house. He pulled a tarp off of an old
dark green car and threw the tarp in the trunk. It was a car he had
fixed up, a muscle car from the '70s. He threw his duffel and
backpack in the back seat, then led Karina to the front seat and
helped her in. She seemed to be in shock. He shut the door behind
her and sped around to the driver's side. He got in, started the
car and quickly pulled out onto the road. He started driving, and
kept glancing at her to see how she was doing.

"You okay?" he asked her.

"I feel like I'm dead," she said quietly.

"What?" He was startled by this.

"I can't go home. I can't take anything I own
with me. My friends won't know where I am. And my life is sort of
over. My town, my business... and vampires are after me." She
stared at the road ahead.

"I'm so sorry for this," he said quietly, and
put a hand on her forearm. She had her arms wrapped around herself.
She loosened her arms so she could hold his hand.

"You can call your friends," he said kindly,
"when we get to where we're going. They can take care of your
apartment and everything." He squeezed her hand.

"Okay," she said. A few tears rolled down her
cheeks. "Why do they want me so bad?" she asked. "Even if they
change me, I wouldn't be theirs." She looked over at him with
worry.

"You actually would be, the way they do it,"
Luke said.