Seem to Stop My Breath

deticated to amanda- because she bugs me to update all the time
I Swear I’d Burn the City Down to Show You The Light.
Gerard’s point of view.

I ran towards the house by the river that Cassie was being kept. I had to get her out of that building before they realized she was a vampire. They would keep her alive longer if they knew she was a mortal, her as a vampire was exactly what they didn’t want. Moreover, her being a vampire meant that her blood was no use in whatever scheme they had concocted using that little green book and their dead leader. I got to the house out of breath and circled it in the shadows. I found the small window that Crash and Taylor had used to spy on Cassie. I saw Cassie, twitching, apparently asleep on a couch, before she sat straight up in a cold sweat. Our eyes connected for a brief moment as her fangs bared.

She went from being on borrowed time to dead.

They now knew, Cassie was out of time, I heard yelling from inside the house. I moved to the backdoor, hoping, wishing, that whoever was guarding it had been called to hold down Cassie.

I turned the doorknob and it swung open, I followed the noise to the middle of the house, where an open staircase seemed to be the source of all commotion. I froze, the commotion died down. Without thinking much I raced down the stairs to see some vampire hunched over Cassie’s throat which was a mess. Blood ran down her chest, which slowly but surely was still rising and falling. The vampire stopped and looked at me.

“You’re too late.” he growled

I glanced at Cassie’s limp body, her chest continued to weakly rise and fall.

“No, I’m not”

The other vampires in the room, about seven, circled around me and their new head. I kept
nervously glancing at Cassie.

“Yes, you are. The minute you sunk your god damn fangs into her fucking neck you were too late. It had to be you, because when we first found out about her she wasn’t one. You should of just let us kill her and use her then. Actually you could of run in valiantly and turned her then, it might of worked better, now though? You’re too late.”

He hadn’t killed her yet, and I wasn’t going to watch her die in front of me.

“When are you going to realize that purity of the vampire bloodlines doesn’t matter? Eventually everyone will be interbred and the vampire trait will die out, you know it.”

“That’s what you think” He replied, I saw something flash around his wrist as his fists clenched.

“That’s what I know” I growled back

“Well, you’ll be dead long before that point, so don’t worry about It.” he smirked, he never
saw it coming.

I launched myself at him knocking him down as I hit his head against the cement floor and the wall. I heard a sickening crack and felt him take his last breath from underneath me. Blood started rushing from his cracked scull onto the concrete floor. One of his goons pulled me off him and punched me in the stomach before the fact that I had just killed him sunk in. I found myself being pushed to the ground another vampire on top of me. I managed to kick him off and struggle to a standing position before being thrown against the wall and knocking my head. Seven on one just isn’t good odds.

Rescue arrived in the crash from upstairs. It sounded like a whole bunch of people were in the house. I sincerely hoped they were my friends and not reinforcements. My captors looked towards the stairs as a lone Mikey jumped down the final steps. Seconds later the rest of the gang came rushing into the basement. I took the opportunity to punch the guy who had me pinned against the wall square in the face.

Everyone seem occupied as I ran over to Cassie, she was still breathing, and twitched as I grazed her neck wound. I then noticed the wire. I Gently threw back the blanket that gathered around Cassie’s’ feet. A thin coated wire was attached to an anklet of wire around her ankle. A beat up lock kept her chained to the wall.

“Cassie” I whispered tugging the wire away from the wall.

It wouldn’t budge, I looked back at everyone else to see them still fighting.
I rushed to the vampire that I’d killed side. I checked him for any sign of keys. I found one in that looked like it would fit and prayed that it would. I rushed back to Cassie’s foot. The key fit in the lock, but didn’t turn.

“Fuck”

My eyes traveled to her chest. Still breathing, I had a little time.

“Gerard what’s wrong?” Mikey asked.

“She’s not…” Crash mumbled.

I turned around to look at everyone. Some of them were holding back tears. At their feet lie
eight bodies. We were completely screwed if the cops showed up.

“We either have to pull this wire out of the wall, or find the key to the lock. She’s alive, but barely.” I said my voice unusually hoarse.

Everyone searched through the pockets and along the walls of the basement looking for the key. Frank immediately went towards the wire attached to the wall much like a dog run. They had Cassie on a leash. I knew the key had to be somewhere, anywhere in the room. I knelt by Cassie’s head praying she could still pull through.

“Cassie, please stay with me”

I looked down and saw a trail of blood from the head vampire’s scull. I glared at him and watch the blood pool around his head and gather at his wrist, where a hint of gold was visible. He had flashed something before, but whatever it was on a chain that led to his fist. I slowly got up and walked towards his body, unaware to the bustling around me. I opened his fist and a tiny gold chain with a key attached to it was wrapped once around his wrist and then gathered in his palm. It had been a necklace, I had already searched his neck and pockets, but his fist, I never would of thought he had the key in the palm of his hand the entire time. I unwrapped the chain and ran to Cassie’s side, the key fit in the lock, and turned. A tiny snap noise came from the lock as it popped open. I quickly gathered Cassie in my arms.

“You found it?” Ana screamed from across the basement.

“Yeah, we gotta go quick, she’s barely breathing.

Tes ran to me with a sheet to cover Cassie in the rain. Ray and Bob stayed behind to clean up t he mess so we wouldn’t get blamed as we piled into our old van. We hadn’t used it in years, but I was able to lay Cassie down on the floor of it. Crash was driving crazily back to the house as Mikey talked on his cell phone to Bert, the only one we knew with blood bank connections. Being a doctor has it’s perks like that.

We arrived at the house in ten minutes, it seemed like ages as I watched Cassie for any signs that she was getting weaker. The stream of blood from her neck had died down, but I knew that wasn’t a good sign. Bert met us at the door to the house. His eyes widened as he surveyed the damage.
“Upstairs quick”

I followed him to the second story where Amy had already gotten a room ready. I laid Cassie down on the stark white sheets, noticing how pale she looked. I stroked her hair as Bert and Amy rustled around. Cassie winced as Bert touched her neck.

“This is going to sound strange, but do you know what blood type she is?”

“No?”

“Damn, well she’s lost a lot, so we have to give her a blood transfusion, and she’ll heal better on a diet of just blood, but she has to wake up first.”

“So she’ll make it?”

Bert sighed and turned his attention to Cassie’s neck. He started to clean it off and Amy presented him with a needle and thread. Amy then approached me and rubbed my back a little.

“Gerard, it’s best if you just let him work now” she led me out into the hall way where everyone was. Ray and Bob raced up the stairs, that meant the cleanup crew had arrived at the house we tore apart. Tears stung my eyes as Mikey walked forward and wrapped his arms around me.