Sixteen Candles

Patrick’s POV

The vampire moved so fast I didn’t realize what was happening until it ringing off gunshot filled the moonlit clearing and probably miles farther.

I turned just in time to see Violet fall to the ground. Turning back to the vampires, I watched as he hit his knees. Blood seemed to flow from him mouth and I watched as the skin began retreating backwards as though there was an accelerant over his skin.

Once the skin was gone, him muscle disintegrated in the opposite direction. After that, His bones turned to ash.

After a few seconds, I ran over to what was not the body of Violet.

Her dark shirt shone with blood, too much to get a clear count of the wounds. Reaching out, I ran a shaking hand over her shirt, noting every time one of my fingers sank into a wounds. Five on her torso and I noticed one on her thigh. I didn’t know enough to tell which had killed her and even if I did, I didn’t know how it would help.

Sliding her cell phone from her pocket, I dialled the only number I could think of as useful.

"What the hell, Vi?!" Came the answer on the other end.

"Jordan, it’s Patrick. Vi’s dead."

"No shit. I thought I was bleeding for nothing."

I was confused.

"Where are you?"

"I don’t know. She brought us to this clearing and then we ran into a few enemies and she got shot."

"She took out the team first?"

"Yeah. The last one died with her."

"Figures. I’m heading back to the house. Check for anything reflective, then call me back." He hung up.

I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to find, but I knew it probably involved that mirror. Looking around, I knew for a fact that there wasn’t anything within a five foot radius of where we were, and I also knew that I would probably have heard a creek or river.

Standing up, I moved a few feet, while listening for anything that sounded like water. Nothing.

I took a few steps away from Vi and felt worse with every step I took. I was worried that carrying her on my own would prove even more dangerous than coming back for her.

There was absolutely no sound. Even the wounded wolf seemed to silence as though he were dead, though I knew he could be alive. There were no bird, no critters, not even wind disturbed the area.

After a moment, once I decided that there was something odd about the silence, the werewolf let out a howl, it was bone chilling. Looking back, I notices Violet’s hair seemed to move in a wind that wasn’t there.

I turned and was about to take a step towards her when I noticed that the vampire dust was beginning to crackle. It looked as though there was lightning flowing through each particle and grain. Stepping closer, I noticed the pile spread.

It got farther out ward and then began to turn shiny, become a glass-like reflection. As the crackling died down, I noticed that there were symbols dotting the glass.

Looking back at Violet, her hair slowly fell back to the ground.

Taking another look at the glass, the symbols looked like an exact replica of the tattoo on her neck.

I blame it on having had her blood, but I knew exactly what this was. Like the mirror in her office, it would react the same way.

Turning around, I walked over and picked up the body. She was practically feather light, probably an immortal thing.

A few steps forward and I took a deep breathe before stepping onto the glass and sinking below the surface.

Beyond the reflection, was a sort of hallway. The walls were covered in dark wood paneling. There was a sort of luminance to the hallway, but no lighting. At the end of the hall, there was a door, which was open slightly.

Walking down the hell, I walked through the doorway and into a room full of mirrors.

The room was circular and everything except the floor was a mirror. Each mirror had a symbol in the center of it. They were like the symbols on the ash mirror, and on Violet’s neck.

I recognised one of them from the back of the hidden study door/mirror. Deciding, I walked forward and into the momentary darkness. I few more steps and the dark faded to Vi’s study, and the guys.

Before anything could be said, Jordan grabbed Violet from my arms and took off upstairs with her. I followed.

Pete, Andy and Joe all ran after me.

"Trick!" Pete hollered as we stepped onto the third floor stairs and kept going.

Jordan took her into a room across from the lab and set her on the bed in there. Once she was there, he headed across to the lab as I walked in.

There was a lot more blood than I had originally thought. Jordan ran back into the room holding a variety of things.

He set a blood bag onto the side table along with a glass beaker. He sat on a chair in the room and started working on getting the bullets out of her.

"What happened?" Joe asked.

"Is she going to come back?" I asked Jordan.

He sighed and glanced my way. "Yes. The real question is when."

"Patrick! What happened?" Pete was apparently sober again.

"I’m not entirely sure. She took me to his forest in the middle of nowhere and then we got attacked. Something about a Blood Trace. Then she got killed and I stepped through some mirror made from the ashes of the vampire that killed her."

"That sounds really creepy." Andy noted.

"How did you know to do that?" Jordan asked.

"I have no clue."

He nodded and went back to retrieving bullets. "How long ago did she get shot?"

"Ten, fifteen minutes."

"She shouldn’t be getting cold."

"Like, physically cold?"

"Like her body is reacting like a human’s would." He froze. "Human blood."

My turn to freeze. "What do you mean by that?"

"She had human blood. You gave her blood."

"HE WHAT?!" The guys all yelled.

"How much did she get?"

"About a pint."

"And she didn’t get transfused?"

"What does that mean?"

"You didn’t drink her blood."

"Wouldn’t that have turned me?"

"No. I doesn’t work like that, not with Violet."

"So what happens now?"

"Someone has to drain all of her blood."

"Call the Dandies." I snapped.

"He’s busy." Pete noted.

"Doing what?"

"You Don’t want to know." Jordan noted.

"So what, we have to find a vampire to take all of the blood from her body?" Joe asked.

I turned to look at Pete.

"No. Not a chance."

"Pete--"

"No, she bit you. She kidnapped you, she can stay dead for all I care!"

"She didn’t kidnap me, and I wanted her to drink m blood."

"Why the hell would you want that?" Andy.

I rolled my eyes. "Please, Pete."

Pete looked at Jordan.

"Her options are fading fast. Someone has to."

Pete looked at me and then back at the body on the bed. "Fine. But only because Trick asked."

"I owe you one, man."

"More than that, but anyway." He walked over to the bed and grabbed one of her wrists. "Just drink until there’s nothing left?"

Jordan nodded, getting up and leaving the room.

Andy and Joe followed and I walked out the door, closing it as I watched Pete sink his teeth into her veins.