Cries of a Love Bat

Travie McCoy was the first to say anything. He stepped out from a group of three and walked closer to the fountain, staring at the Dandies in their dress clothes. He fixed his baseball cap then let his hands fall to his sides. He was glaring at Will, who was standing opposite us – our three groups in a triangle – and staring back in hatred. “Any last words, Beckett?” Travie taunted.

Will’s lip curled, and his fangs grew out. I had seen them before, but they seemed sharper tonight and more deadly. “Besides that I’ll see you in hell?” he spat out, growling with his words. I had never seen William like this. I had seen him upset, and I had seen him relaxed and calm but now he showing his different side. Usually he would throw out a ‘darling’ or ‘sweetheart’ to ease his threats and demands, and seeing him now made his other self a million times nicer and more pleasant. Travie growled out a response, so William’s eyes narrowed. “Watch yourself McCoy. You may think you have good arguments, but your threats are empty.”

“You burned our fucken house you son of a bitch,” Travie snarled. “We had family in there, marks of our own. All dead because of you.”

“The less of you the better,” William stated, his eyes still small and angry. “You’ve caused us more trouble than Pete and his hunters have, in the last few days than them in years. Chicago and its surroundings would be better off without the lot of you.”

It got quiet again, as Travie and Will stared each other down. No one moved, no one made a sound. They just watched the two of them. “What are we waiting for?” I whispered as quietly as I could.

Joe leaned down close to my ear. “Will, he always makes the first call. He starts the fights and ends most of them.”

“Oh,” I said softly. It was like watching a tennis match, my eyes bouncing between the two of them.

William finally turned, looking over at us. Any indication of anger left his face and he smiled. “Fall Outs! Glad to see you again.”

Patrick lifted his head, in a sign of recognition. “We came because this is such a small group. Didn’t want to waste the chance, to let Emily get used it before we brought her to bigger fights.”

If Will could have smiled wider he would have. “Emily, darling! I almost didn’t notice you standing behind Andy.” His eyes were shinning, and I defiantly like this William better, it felt almost safer. “Pleasure to have you finally join us.”

“I’m finally happy the boys let me out,” I smiled back. Might as well stay on his good side. I really didn’t want to get him mad.

“Don’t worry love, you’ll be safe with us.” It got quiet again as William turned back to Travie and looked at the other Hoods. It was such a simple gesture I almost didn’t notice. His hands were at his sides, and he lifted his fingers ever so slightly, but everything erupted.

All at once, everyone moved. First I noticed the Hoods charged at the Dandies. They lashed out and hissed, ripping at each other. Nail scratched skin, blood pouring out. I learned before that vampires still had blood when they got turned; it didn’t flow through their veins or pass through their heart, it just sat in their veins. Eventually the blood dripped to the floor, turning the snow a deep red.

One Hood picked up a Dandie and threw him over his shoulder. The Dandie hit the floor, his shoulder shuttering with a crack, but he stood up. He jumped off the floor and slugged the Hood across the snow, and arm still in his hands. The Hood and his decapitated arm puffed to dust, but the blood was still there.

Andy had ventured off with his nun-chucks, swinging and bashing Hoods and Dandies alike in the head. One hit a Hood to the groin and he fell to his knees. Patrick ran up behind him, staking him through the neck. They both then quickly went after a Dandie, knocking him down and shoving the wood through his heart. Every single one burst into dust and clouded the snow just like the blood. They were off though; Patrick was two steps behind Andy when it should have only been one. But I realized that Patrick always went out with Pete and Pete always went out with Patrick, so working with Andy was still new.

Joe was half kickboxing and half using his stake. He was throwing punches and kicks hard enough to stun the vampires, then spin around and put the cross through others chests. Sweat covered his forehead and blood stained his hands. He didn’t notice as some of his stake got stuck in one the Hoods; he only pulled it out and used what was left to kill.

More blood and dust was splattering through the air, and I spun in circles, watching the fighting that was going on around me. I couldn’t will myself to move, but I wasn’t the only one. Will was standing and scanning everything going on around him. Next to him on his right was Brendon, whose face was twitching in grimaces; Ryan stood next to him. Pete was on William’s left, his eyes slightly glazed with dark bags under them.

A body stepped in front of me, and without thinking I mumbled, “Move creep.” I tried stepping around him, trying to look at Pete again, but I stopped midway as I was shoved back.

“Feisty for slayer,” the vampire pointed out. “Too bad I can’t let you live. You’d make a nice pet.” A fake smile was plastered across his face as he came forward with arms outstretched.

“Excuse me?” I asked, baffled. “I’m not anybody’s pet.” I squeezed the stake in my hand, and did what I had practiced on the dummies. Surprisingly it wasn’t that hard. As soon at the point made contact with the pale skin it sliced through, and hit the right spot. The vampire let out a shaky breath and spit out into dust.

I was thankful for all the times I had practiced with Ryan and Brendon, for they helped me get used to the speed vampires had. Shortly after I was done wiping the blood from my stake to my jeans another Hood approached me. I felt blood drip down onto my hands and sweat burned my eyes. One after another they came to me. I was thankful that only one vampire approached at a time, unlike Joe who seemed to have his hands full.

When I made contact with another dead heart, the body’s dust floated to the sickening snow underneath me. I still hadn’t moved any more than three feet from where I was when the fight started. I was breathing hard, ready to just stop. I was tired, and probably had already killed seven vampires. I thought of it as a huge accomplishment because I could have died those seven times. I bent over with my hands on my knees, one still clutching the wooden cross.

A hand clapped over shoulder and I jumped. It pushed me to the floor, snapping the stake in the process, and I felt weight forced onto my back. Whoever it was, was sitting on me. “Ready to die, Princess?” The breath on my neck and the gruff voice sent shivers down my spine. I tired moving but he was heavy. He pushed my head closer to the snow, and I felt like throwing up when I smelled the sour blood and inhaled the dust of the dead.

“Bastard,” came from above and the weight seized. The man was shoved to the side and I heard his neck crack as he hit the floor next to me. I looked over at him and blood pooled from his open mouth.

I turned over and sat back on my elbows, crawling backwards and slipping my feet against a patch of ice. Hands went under my armpits and lifted me up. When I was standing the hands let go, and Ryan stepped forward. He pushed at the guy’s throat and pushed his nails into the skin. Blood leaked from the new holes and Ryan bent down, biting on the imprints he made. The man turned still and Ryan pulled up.

He wiped the sleeve of his dress shirt across his mouth, the red blood staining the white cotton, and looked at me. “You hurt?”

“No” I chocked, and the stinging in my eyes left as tears fell down to my cheeks. I rubbed them off quickly. “I-I don’t even know why I’m-I’m crying.”

“It’s okay,” Ryan assured me. “Come on, you’re standing by us now.”

He grabbed my wrist and pulled me with him. He stalked over in the direction of where Will and the other two were standing. He hissed at some Dandies who accidentally got in the way, and shoved at a Hood who fell to the floor. Ryan didn’t realize he helped a Dandie, because the girl was able to get on the Hood and turn him into dust.

When we turned our bodies slightly to walk around a group of five fighting, another hand came around my wrist and I was pulled in the opposite direction of Ryan. I looked and screamed slightly at the Hood who was smiling wickedly with blood all over his face, a bruise on his eye, and a busted lip.

Ryan snapped back and tugged me past him. He leaped at the Hood who was quickly joined by three others and they were all wrestling on the floor in seconds. I was pulled back and looked up at Brendon who handed me off to another set of hands, before joining Ryan in his fight. Brendon was cursing loudly and threatening that if Ryan even had the tiniest bruise he was going to possibly kill everybody. Hands were flying to scratch pale skin, and teeth were itching to bite something.

“It’s okay,” was said softly behind me, and I didn’t realize that I was really crying now. I looked back at Will whose eyes were soft and concerned. “Stand by us.” He picked me up and was able to safely pull me into the imaginary circle - where no one dared to cross into - that he and the others had been standing at. He placed me next to Pete and asked seriously, “Feel better? Pete and I wont let anything happen to you, promise.”

I nodded and wiped my tears again, smiling at him a little. I looked back to Brendon and Ryan who were now engaged in a different fight, standing back to back and protecting each other. A hand went up to Ryan’s hair and he was tugged to the floor, but that only made Brendon’s outburst worse. Joe was now fighting one on one, looking around and smiling when he spotted me, quickly returning to slugging the man across the knees and kicking him in. Andy’s hair was now pulled back into a ponytail and he was dripping with sweat but still not looking tired. Patrick’s shirt was soaked through with blood and sweat but he seemed to be struggling even more now to keep up with Andy.

“Trick,” I whispered, watching as he stumbled into a Hood.

“Hmm?” William asked, looking at me then following my gaze. “Oh.” He held up a hand to me, motioning away the issue. He stepped out of the circle and sauntered over to Patrick, knocking a few Hoods out on the way. He didn’t directly help him, but he was able to shove a guy into the guy that was fighting Patrick, so it gave Trick a few moments to catch up. On his way back over, Will was kicked in the back of the legs, and his knees buckled. I reached my hand out and grasped Pete’s tightly, subconsciously. Pete quirked his eye brow but didn’t say anything.

Will got up and spun around, knocking the guy so hard that when he fell his neck cracked and snapped. He came back, not fazed or even hurt, and took his place back next to me. “I try to watch them. I don’t want anymore of us dying, unless they have to. You okay? Feeling better now?”

“Safer,” I agreed, and Pete squeezed my hand.

Will nodded. “Pete told you that you are free to come and stay at the manor right? I’m trying to be fair about this, I really am. If you miss him I don’t mind if you come stop in and say hi or, or spend the night. He surely has space in his room…with the exception that you don’t do anything…unacceptable.”

“I…” I looked up at Will, stunned at how nice he was being, but he was probably just trying to take my focus off the fighting. “I’ll think about it.”

Will’s eyes went back to scanning the fights. The snow was now redder than it was white, and dust covered rest of the ones fighting. Brendon and Ryan came back, Ryan having a bruised cheek.

“You good Em?” Ryan asked, pulling at his shirt, fixing a few buttons that came undone.

“Yeah,” I whispered, “thanks.”

“It’ll be okay,” Pete finally said, his voice soft and comforting. “It’s overwhelming at first, I know.” His thumb rubbed the back of my hand, helping soothe my nerves still.

“So when is this over?”

“When they start leaving. I don’t tend to fight much unless they’re desperate for help. It lets me keep an eye on who leaves and in which direction. Look, Travie’s slowly limping out towards the south end of the park.” William pointed. “I suggest you walk them Bren. He’ll go after you four for sure.”