I've Got a Nice Big Vampire Problem

Conan walked through the door, Gavin close in tow, both looking very sleepy. They had no blood on their clothes, which had always confused me. If a vampire was sucking blood, how did they not get even a little bit on their clothes? I brushed the question away as I studied Conan's tired face. I became curious. I had never seen Conan asleep before. Gavin collapsed on the couch and Conan used what was left of his strength to get to my bed on the second floor.

The moment his face hit the sheets he was out. I giggled. His gorgeous marble face looked less harsh while he slept, giving him an adorable angle. I sat on the bed beside him and stroked his golden hair out of his face. Just as a question popped up in my head Mackenzie appeared in the doorway, looking bright and amused.

"Can we wake them up?" I whispered to her. "Is it possible?"

Mackenzie shook her head. "No," she said. "I tried to wake Gavin after he ate back in Cornet. For a full hour I ran around his room acting like a lunatic and he did nothing but lay there and breathe."

I smiled and looked back at Conan. Mackenzie disappeared back down stairs, probably to hover over Gavin. I listened as Mackenzie settled down on the leather chair opposite the calm breathing of Gavin. The sound of rustling leave and branches soothed me. I crossed my legs and stared at Conan, prepared to sit here and wait for him to wake up. I kept my ears open, hearing everything as it was supposed to be.

Then something changed. The leaves kept moving and the branches continued to hit each other, but the rest stopped. The scuttling and chit chat of the animals was now gone. The silence became superimposed. It was too quiet.

I turned to face the window, my eyes sharp and my ears strained. I saw nothing, but it was the fact that I heard nothing that was making me nervous. Something was going to happen.

I reached back blindly and grabbed Conan's shirt and uncrossed my legs, placing my feet firmly on the floor. I fought through the pounding in my head, knowing I needed a plan. This was a semi circle room. There were corners. If something was going to come after us, I would throw Conan into the corner and place myself in front of him.

I wished Conan would wake up. This silence would be so much easier to deal with if he could evaluate it and tell me if I was being paranoid or not. But he wasn't. If I had to I would sit here like this for the whole hour he slept.

It turned out I didn't have to.

________________________________________

Lysias watched as his men pressed themselves against the brick house from the edge of the forest. His left hand was clutching at a huge maple tree, trying to restrain himself. He was frustrated. How much closer did he need to be? The damn feeling hadn't left and he was maybe fifty meters away from her. With the close proximity, he could feel what she felt. She was scared and tense. She wasn't moving. This in turn made him feel scared, and he did not enjoy that. Scared was a feeling he hadn't felt in a very long time. Even though it wasn't actually him that was feeling it, Lysias despised the feeling.

The fighters aligned along the house watched him and Denver for the sign. Lysias looked back, making sure the other half of his fighters lay in wait fifty feet away, and flicked his finger up.

Their movement was swift. The fighters crashed through the dining room windows and lunged for Abigail's friend and the unconscious Gavin. The girl gasped and reacted faster than Lysias' would have thought her possible. A few of the fighters shot up the stairs to get to Abigail.

Some of the vampires backtracked and then hurtled themselves through the window's where Abigail was sitting. Her dead insides seemed like they kicked back alive for just a moment as her chest clenched and her stomach smashed itself into a small ball. Lysias did his best to not react to the inner beating he felt with her. She moved. Lysias suddenly felt a huge surge of protectiveness. It took him a moment to realize that it wasn't him feeling it, but instead Abigail.

Abigail was terrified. He could feel her horror scoring through her, almost painfully. A roar sounded through the house. Lysias tensed. One of the males had woken up.

It was on pure instinct that Lysias abandoned the tree that had held him back, ran into the backyard, skidded to turn his positioning and then launched himself into Abigail's room.

The moment he saw her, the feeling of absolutely needing to be by her left. Instead it was replaced with a horrible, all consuming desire to be with her. To have her. For her to be his. It shattered his wall he kept with him and made him stop what he was doing.

She was beautiful. Even with her eyes wide with desperation and horror, and crouched over the sleeping body that was Conan, she was the most radiant thing he had ever seen. She may as well have glowed. Every single part of her was attractive to him. He had to fight off the desire to step closer to her. To grab her and press her against his chest.

It took him a moment, but he eventually found his wall and tugged it back up, shoving his obsession with her down. He surveyed his surroundings with his peripheral vision because he was not taking his eyes off of Abigail until this became a life or death situation for him.

Abigail was a vampire. There was no doubt about that now. Who had changed her didn't matter to him, honestly. Sure, if Salvador had he was doomed, but Lysias knew he would have time with her and that pretty much completed all of his goals he wanted to accomplish before he die. Before this Intertwining thing he had other goals, but they left the moment he had smelt the scrap of Abigail Hunters' shirt.

There were two of his men lying on the ground, one of them in pieces, the other with no head. Lysias guessed that the one in pieces was the man whom had been first in the room. She must have figured out that she didn't have time to rip them into shreds by the time the second man came after her. Even so, the fact that she had accomplished killing two of his best men after being a vampire for a maximum of one week was something he would have to congratulate her for later.

Abigail opened her mouth, sucked in and roared. Immediately Lysias was impressed. That roar was a lot bigger than the roar that should have come out of someone her size. That was what he had heard. Both of the males were still asleep.

Her eyes flickered around the room at an unnatural speed, taking in every detail that her eyes hit. They flashed across his eyes twice, and each time his mind sent shocks through his muscles that would have sent shivers through him had he not been holding himself completely still.

One of the three men circled to the left and another of his men circle to the right. They were going to go at her both ways. Lysias' crossed his arms and kept his eye on Abigail, anticipating the result of the attack.

He wondered what she could do, and if she would dare attack him if she finished with his guards.

________________________________________

If I would have had a heart it would have stopped already.

Conan lay sleeping behind me, unaware of anything that was occurring. I thought of trying to kick him to wake him up, but then one of the vampires might use that as an attack point. The three vampires dressed in similar black suits that surrounded me did not frighten me, but the man standing behind them did. The three vampires underestimated me, probably just as much as I did myself, but I trusted myself to take care of them. The man standing behind them, though, was measuring me up as I could tell he was impressed. That scared me, because I knew he would expect me to be good, and would therefore use all he had against me. There was something about him that told me I would lose.

Mackenzie roared on the floor below me. I stiffened. She sounded defensive – alive, which is what I needed. She had to stay alive while I made sure Conan stayed alive.

Two of the vampires began to come towards my sides. The one to my left looked twitchy, like he was more eager than the other. He would attack first.

I was right, he did. Except he dove at my feet, as if he were trying to wedge himself under to get to Conan. I grabbed his face before he could get closer than an arms' length away and used my fingers to crush his skull ruthlessly while I looked to the side for the other vampire. He was already flying at me. With my left hand impaled in the other vampires' skull, I realized that I would have to take this guy single handed. Literally.

He approached feet first. I found it odd that the angle he approached would mean me no harm, because he would land just in front of me. I brushed the weird landing position aside. By the speed he was coming, he would have to launch himself forward into the wall. I frowned. What good would that do him? He would just fall on me.

Which would get me out of the way of Conan. This vampire wasn't trying to get to me, but instead Conan. My breath hitched and a certain determination soared through me. If they weren't trying to hurt me, then I could use all my energy trying to keep Conan safe instead of myself.

His toe hit the ground about a foot away from me. I swung my left foot around from its' outstretched position where it held me sturdy, into the air to meet his side at side splitting speed.

He flew across the room at a sick angle and hit the wall with a crack the made my stomach churn. As I fell I saw a long, straight bone sticking out of his back. His spine.

The other vampire watched his fallen comrade for a moment, while I tore my fingers out of the mans' skull.

Downstairs, Mackenzie gave a roar that quickly turned into a scream. Fear and hate boiled in my chest as I roared, knowing I could do nothing to help her without abandoning Conan. And I couldn't do it. I hated myself for it, but I couldn't abandon Conan for my best friend. My throat became unusually thick and a heavy pain laid itself on my dead heart.

"LYSIAS!" The scream was from outside the house. The vampire that had frightened me positioned himself so the man screaming could see he was listening, and yet still did not take his eyes off of me. I guessed his name was Lysias. "SALVADOR IS HERE!"

At first, I almost sighed in relief. Then I remembered Conan's recount of his last few minutes at Cornet and remembered that Salvador also wanted to kill me. I scowled. This was great. Why do I have to be the only girl alive that is wanted by two vampire clans?

Lysias growled and turned away from me to look out the broken windows. So did the other vampire. I took the moment.

Grabbing Conan's shirt and pants, I picked him up and sprinted down the stairs. The vampires didn't even make a move to follow me. As I ran, I evaluated. The staircase was empty. The kitchen was empty. The living room was where everyone was. I entered through the back, where Mackenzie had positioned Gavin, but was now being pinned by three vampires while she struggled like crazy. Four more vampires stood only feet away from her, looking out the window.

I picked up speed, placing Conan right behind Gavin as I pounced. I broke the back I landed on and proceeded to throw my fist towards the face nearest me. The vampire flew. Mackenzie used the two thirds of her body that were suddenly not being held down to fight the other vampire off of her arm as I backed up to cover Conan and Gavin. I let out the breath I had been holding in. I was surprised none of the vampires had heard me coming. What were they doing looking out the window?

One of the vampires shifted and I saw what they were listening to. A helicopter blade peeked out from behind the tall trees that blocked the lake from view. It moved forward, and soon the whole helicopter was visible. I didn't need to wait to see what that helicopter was going to do or whom it belonged to. That was Salvadors' doing. I picked Conan up, and saw Mackenzie haul Gavin over her shoulder.

I took off out the broken down front door and then skidded to a stop. There was a line of men dressed in green coming towards the house. I recognized two of the men. Greg and Evan, who had helped me get to Cornet with Conan and Falvor. These were Salvadors' men. I looked down its' length and the joy I had almost felt at escaping evaporated. It was a huge circle. They were closing in on us.

Mackenzie stopped beside me. Watching the slowly approaching men with panicked eyes. "Abby?"

"We have to hide them," I said. There was still another forty five minutes until Conan and Gavin would wake up. I felt a horrible foreboding in my chest as we ran back inside. Mackenzie and I were about to be the center of attention in the middle of a war that has been bursting to happen for the past century.