Love Comes In Many Dangerous Forms

The next day, my heart felt like it was pounding out of my chest and I would occasionally feel like I was about to throw up. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking, and when I would hum my lullaby the notes would jump higher than they were supposed to be.

“Excited?” Shane smiled.

I nodded biting my lip, “And nervous. You?”

“Same,” he looked over to the small tunnel that we were supposed go, Aiden and Colton had to stay behind Blaine told us that there was too many hills and that were would have to go through a hole in the ground, not good walking ground if you’re walking on four legs.

“Bye sweetie,” I cooed, scratching behind Aiden’s ear before I turned to Colton. “If anything happens to my horse, there will hell to pay.”

He just rolled his eyes, grumbling something under his breath.

“I mean it Colton. We’ll see you in a couple of hours,” I warned before I turned on my heels to face Shane and Zach and smiled hesitantly. “What’s the game plan?”

“Um,” Zach frowned.

“Please tell me you didn’t think that we were just going to walk in there and take them,” I sighed.

They said nothing.

I groaned, “How about we go in, explain, and if Blaine’s brother is there, we just take them and run like hell?”

“Sounds good to me,” Shane agreed.

“Bring the rest of the blood transfusions; they’re going to need it… and they’ll go for me first; they won’t be lucid from the all blood lust, just open the transfusions and get out of their way.”

“What about my dad?” Shane asked.

“Give him blood, and talk to him. I’m pretty sure he’ll recognize your, it has only been a few years since you last saw him, correct?”

He nodded.

I bit my lip, “Tristan, I’m afraid, won’t as easy. I know he won’t recognize me so you may have to restrain him for a minute. Just don’t hurt him, but if he gets too out of hand Blaine can do whatever he did to me.”

“I’ll try not to,” Zach complied.

I gave him a warning glare, “You won’t hurt him or Shane’s father, Blaine can keep it under control.”

He sighed but eventually agreed.

“Good, now let’s go,” I stepped through the tunnel where Shane and I were in last night.

The strange thing was that I didn’t mind the dark that much anymore – it still terrified me, but not as much as it did the first day. But I still had the nagging feeling, that someone was watching me.

When we came to the first obstacle I almost groaned. There was a rock with only a small entry way at the top of it.

“Damn,” I scowled at the wall, and it stayed there taunting me.

Zach flaunted his ability to climb perfectly and he worked his way through the opening.

“You’re so funny Mr. I’m-A-Full-Immortal-And-I-Can-Do-Whatever-The-Hell-I-Want,” I grumbled, climbing sluggishly up the wall, and Shane kept pace with me holding the torch so I could see where I was supposed to place my footing. I made my way into the hole and was greeted by air whipping against my open skin, and it took me a moment to register that I was falling.

I didn’t have time to scream before I landed in Zach’s awaiting arms.

“Jerk,” I hit his shoulder weakly. “You could have told us.”

“Sorry,” his lips pulled up into smirk but it quickly disappeared when Shane climbed down.

I struggled with getting out of Zach’s arms, and managed to stumble as he placed me back onto my feet.

I sighed; blowing a few wisps of hair out of my face and saw Blaine walking forwards and I noticed that the tunnel split into two ways. But then he turned sharply to the left side and darted down until I couldn’t see him anymore.

“Blaine?” I called, running after him.

Zach and Shane hurried after, Zach ran ahead of us though – that is until he stopped abruptly. I almost fell, but Shane caught my arm, and steadied me.

“What is it?” I frowned.

“There’s a hole,” Zach answered, starring ahead.

“Blaine told us about that,” I reminded him.

“He didn’t tell us about the city,” he explained, taking the torch, shining it down into the hole.

I leaned over just enough to see the few buildings that surrounded the bottom of the hole. They looked similar to the houses in the village – they were made out of old materials, metal, bricks, wood, and they were tiny.

I knew where we were. The humans, when they just found out that immortals existed, they went to hiding so they wouldn’t become food or a slave. They hid anywhere they could, separated into colonies, and they did anything to keep the human race alive. My grandmother and grandfather – when he was alive – were in one of those colonies.

I saw Blaine move out of light and towards one of the houses. I jumped down, landing in a crouch trying not to injure myself.

“Come on guys,” I told them following Blaine.

They both were by my side a moment later. Blaine stood beside one the metal homes; it was made of thick rusted steel like the wanted something protected.

I let out a shaky breath, “A-are they in there?”

He nodded and slipped under the door, and slipped back out. I was pretty sure that he was checking to see if his brother was there. He stayed, so I guess he wasn’t there.

Zach went ahead and ripped the door off the hinges. And we all entered cautiously.

The walls were made out of the same material as the outside, but the inside was more bent up. The walls looked like more like tinfoil than steel, claw markings and dents decorated the room. Red and black blood coated everything; the immortal blood dissolved the metal like acid. But the one thing that stuck out the most was the two pairs of blazing red eyes glaring at us through blood lust.

Zach ripped open the blood transfusions and threw them at the eyes, I couldn’t see their faces the shadows masked them, and I didn’t know who was who. The eyes closest to me didn’t pay attention to the transfusions and lunged at me.

Blaine was the first to react, and he took over the body.

“Wh-who is it?” I looked back in forth between the two eyes.

Shane was oddly quite, starring at the other immortal.

Blaine moaned, “I need… blood.”

Zach gave him the rest of the packages, and he drank them one after one until they were all gone.

“Blaine,” I pleaded as he finished the last transfusion. “Are you inside of Tristan or Athen?”

He walked closer to us, so that the torchlight illuminated his face and I could see him better. The vampire was around twenty years of age, he towered over me and looked like he could snap me neck like a twig if he wanted to. His blonde hair was cut short, and his skin was deathly pale. And then his red eyes cooled into a deep violet.

I smiled, “Tristan.”

“He doesn’t know who you are,” Blaine told me apologetically.

“Tristan… It’s me Cassiel, your sister?” I bit my lip.

Blaine shook his head.

“Tell him I’ll explain later, I just want to get out of here as fast as possible,” I sighed.

“Dad?” Shane touched his father’s shoulder

Athen glared at him, but then recognition set in, “Shane?”

He nodded; a relieved smile seemed to be permanently set on his face.

“We’re going to have to leave, soon. My brother will be back,” Blaine warned us.

“I suggest we run, Shane you lead your dad, and you’re going to have to put the fire out,” I looked around nervously.

“Let’s go,” Zach opened up his arms to me.

“I’m fine,” I told him and started running, but he quickly caught me and swept me up into his arms.

I gulped nervously as Shane put the fire out and we were surrounded by darkness

“It’ll be faster if you just let me hold you,” he explained, and he started running along with Shane, Blaine, and Athen. “And you can’t see.”

I gave in, and rested my head against his shoulder and closed my eyes, trying to ignore the damned dark that was dead set on making my life hell.

We made it back to Colton and Aidan in half the time, and I heard someone mount Aidan, I was almost certain that it was Blaine. They had to slow down slightly even with Aidan sprinting. Though I was sure that we would make it out of the labyrinth today.

My head started pounding – like someone was driving nails into my skull. I could feel the blood draining out of my face, and I was so cold. And a loud ringing filled my ears; I tried to block it out, but nothing worked.

I moaned weekly, trying to tell Zach to stop running and put me down.

“Cassie,” he stopped abruptly, and looked down at me.

I heard Blaine turn Aidan around and Shane stopped running.

“What is it?” he asked me worriedly.

“Put me down,” my words came together in an incoherent slur.

“Get her out of here, now,” Blaine ordered hurriedly.

“What‘s wrong with her?” Zach growled.

“Just listen to me, and get her out of here,” Blaine repeated seriously.

Zach did what he said and ran as fast as he could.

I shivered as the frigid air slapped against my skin. I fought the urge to vomit as I saw the dim light leaking into of the cave. But when we exited the tunnel, I immediately felt better.

Shane and his father were with us a minute later.

“Are you alright?” Shane asked me, concern flashed across his face while his father’s only showed hatred towards me.

I frowned, “I don’t know what happened…”

“I do,” Blaine approached us with an exhausted Aiden.

I left Zach’s arms but he caught me, “I’m fine, really.”

He sighed as he released my arm from his grasp.

“You’re such a good boy,” I brushed Aiden’s mane out of his eyes and kissed his forehead.

“What happened to her?” Shane asked Blaine.

“My brother did that,” he explained, hostility coated his voice. “He was trying to kill her.”

Zach growled, “Is he here?”

“He was close, but there wasn’t any chance you would see him or that he would approach you. His shadow was there.”

“Why does he want to kill her?” Shane hissed as his eyes narrowed into tiny slits.

“He wants her, dead or alive, but he wouldn’t kill her unless there was no other option. He wants her soul one way or another.”