I was about to tug on the restraint one more time when Seraphin appeared before me, crouching and slipping the key easily into the lock. A muffled click sounded and I was free. I stared at her, not knowing exactly what to think or if she was going to finish me off. She gave me an assuring nod before a splash of her hot blood streaked across my face.

Christian was standing behind me and had caught her by surprise, slashing her across her neck and nearly decapitating her. She crumbled to the floor, writhing in pain, with her hand over the deep gash as her dark red blood gushed out from between her fingers. I jumped up and over her, diving for my machete.

I gripped the handle as I rolled painfully to my knees, attempting to stand onto my good leg. The pain screamed inside my torn muscles as I stood holding my machete at the ready. He could have killed me easily but he hadn’t. He needed me alive. He needed my blood to cure his vile disease that was slowly disintegrating his insides. His face was a pallid green now, no longer the healthy glow he’d had prior to the explosion. The blood loss had cost him; both his eyes flashed a deeper puke green at me, both filled with the putrid color now. He hissed and snarled as he crept forward, his wild expression hungry for blood. My blood.

“Stupid human. Now I will have to feed off your blood first. You dare try to kill me? I have lived through more attempts than you can imagine. A puny human like yourself is nothing to me. You are but a speck in my eye. I will outlive you and your precious family, I promise you that.” He was closer now, though his gait was unsteady, like he was still hung over with drink. I was certain I could take him, even with one arm and a leg functioning way under capacity.

“Just try it.” I gripped the hilt of my blade, making my knuckles gleam white as bone. I tried to focus on this beastly man heading in my direction, with murder swimming in his eyes, a thirst for blood and vengeance making him lick his fangs.

His face snarled as he started at me, his broad body flinging itself, more than anything else, in my direction. I steadied myself, ready to jump at just the right moment. Patience was my virtue; patience was never more important to me than now.

At the last moment, I knew it was time. I lunged to my left, bending somewhat as I held my blade to his abdomen and let his oversized knife cut the air in a whoosh right over my head. He missed but I did not. My blade sliced into his gut, letting a spill of blood and ichor tumble out as I slid across the ground. I ended up rolling as my wound caused my leg collapse beneath me, breaking my slide and sending a ferocious pain, like knives, up my leg, rendering it useless. I tumbled across the ground and landed near the edge of the gaping hole. The wind rushed over my head, screaming in my ears as my hair flew wild and loose from its ponytail, blinding me in its dance.

I winced as I rolled away from the precipice, dragging my unwilling limbs with me. I looked to where Christian lay in a lump, hunched over. His left arm cradled his gut as he used his knife to prop himself up a bit like a crutch. He was barely alive, yet the vampire in him kept him breathing. His wild look was gone and instead the serenity of a man accepting defeat washed over him, making him look slightly gaunt but handsome once more.

I kept crawling away; I had lost my machete out the gap of the blasted window. I was weaponless but I was sure I could steal his knife away from him if I wanted to.

“You know what, April?” His voice came out raspy and tense, as if his lungs could not bear the stress of speaking. I didn’t answer but continued my crawl across the floor, as far away from him as I could get. He watched me pensively, unmoving from his spot.

“I thought humans were all dead. I thought they were the weakest of us all.” He let out a gurgled cough, shooting out clots of greenish, crimson blood. When he was done spitting the mess out, he glanced back toward me. I was closer to the door than I was before his fit and kept dragging myself along. “But you aren’t the weakest. You’ll be the last of us to walk this earth. You’ll be all alone, with no one else, the fittest of the fit.” He hawked again, hunching over and falling to the ground, moaning in his agony. I wasn’t one to condone torture and I shuddered to watch him suffer.

To my shock, I heard footsteps running out in the corridor. I pressed my back against the wall, weaponless and hurt so badly I would be no match against anyone now. I grabbed a broken post of wood that lay beside me, still not willing to go down without a fight. I waited patiently as the trample of shoes spilled into the room. I dropped the wood when I saw none other than Blaze, Rye and a group from our own hive filling the room.

“April! You’re hurt!”

You think? My sarcasm was thankfully all in my head.

Rye collapsed next to me, pushing my loose hair away from my face. “You’re drenched in blood! Where are you hurt?” I smiled at him, relived to see his steel grey eyes.

“My arm and my leg on the–I can’t get up now.” I nodded down to the wraps on my arm and leg. He touched them, assessing how badly they were dripping.

“But your face and chest are covered in blood, where did he get you–your neck?” Rye’s panic made me give out a haughty laugh.

“No, it’s not mine. Seraphin got hit…she’s hurt bad.” I pointed to her crumpled body next to the chair. Blaze bent down to assess her but quickly glanced back up at me, shaking his head. His face tight and tense.

Rye gave a nod and turned back to me, the same hard look on his face as he took in the fact that his ex was dead. I would have to tell him her actions in the end, still not sure where she had stood but after it all, she had let me go. I was hoping that would be enough for me to forgive her betrayal.

“Rye, I don’t think I’m going to make it out of here. Promise me you’ll find my family.…” I gulped down the stone that now formed in my throat as the tears began flowing. The air was feeling colder as time went on and blood continued to course rapidly from my leg. I could feel a threatening darkness wanting to embrace me, take me deeper into its clutches.

“No! I won’t let you die. Here, you have lost too much blood and you need to drink. Go ahead, drink April. Now!” His voice was urgent as he pressed his wrist to his teeth and bit down, bringing his crimson life force to the surface. He brought it to my lips and I let him, clamping my mouth over the wounds. The silken drink flowed quenchingly into my mouth. Its warmth seeped deep into me as it went. It heated my core and brought me comfort, shoving the pain away from my broken body.

“That’s enough, Rye. Let me give her some, too.” Blaze came up to us and bit his wrist, pulling Rye’s arm away from my starving mouth, replacing it with his own. I felt immediately better and the darkness pulled away from my vision almost as quickly. My body felt tingly, renewed. When Blaze pulled away, I’d had my fill. I licked the last remnants of his blood off my lips, feeling the euphoria filling me up again and I relished it.

“Oh, wow.” Rye’s excited voice bounced in my ears and I turned to see what he was looking at. He had unwrapped my leg and the skin was a soft pink color, knitting together before my eyes. I shifted my eyes to my arm as Rye undid the tie on it and gasped to see the skin there healing as well. I smiled, amazed at the power surging through me.

“I’ve never seen any vampires do that,” Blaze offered, his voice solemn as he observed the wounds. In just moments, I felt good enough to stand up. Rye helped me into his arms but the pain was not completely gone. I gritted through it as I held onto him. He smiled calmly at me but I was far from ready to let my guard down. I still hadn’t found my family.

“Have you found them?” I asked quietly, hoping to hear something I wanted to hear. I waited but impatiently. I waited and fought the overwhelming urge to run out and continue to look for them.

“Yes.” Rye’s voice came out stiff, making me pull away from him to stare into his eyes. There was something he wasn’t saying underneath his answer. He looked reluctant to tell me, his eyes pained as he avoided my gaze.

“What is it Rye, tell me what happened!” I pulled and yanked at his shirt.

“They’re alive, April. Just barely, but they’re alive.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The battle was over but we were left with scars so deep, nothing would ever be the same again. And there were other wars to be fought. I had finally reunited with my broken family but my mother was weakened nearly to the point of death. Her only chance for survival was endless transfusions of human blood boosted with an occasional dose of vampire blood. I wasn’t sure if that was what she would have wanted but I was pretty sure we “humans” could not be turned from the vampires’ blood; our immunity seemed to prevent it, at least up until now. But we were no ordinary mutations. Something had to be done.

Her initial refusal of vampiric blood frustrated me to no end, but how do you change the mind of someone so traumatized, someone who did not wish to go on in a world like ours? She had lost her will to live. Even if Jeremy and I were there for her, she would not return from the deep chasm inside her mind that she had let herself descend into. She lay almost catatonic, lost inside herself. She accepted human blood to be transfused into her veins from the frozen stores in the hive but anything vampiric, even disguised as a unit of human blood, she’d somehow sense and would begin bouts of endless screaming until the unit was removed. That was torture to me in itself. I often left the room when this happened, hoping it would end soon. Despite her protestations, I felt that the little bit of vampire blood we’d managed to put into her body would help her recover.

Jeremy was much less affected. He was a strong young man and had remained at my mother’s side at all times, when they had let him. They had left him alone, unsure of what to do with a young boy. Even the desire for a cure had not brought them to the point of harming a child, not one as young as him. Maybe someone my age, but not him. It had been his salvation.

I’m hunting game again, having brought my mother and Jeremy back to our mountain sanctuary for some peace and normalcy. But it’s not the same and I fear we’ll have to return to the company of others soon. My mother seems more at ease in the mountain air but she’s still a shell of her former self. She had lost something in those missing days of her life. I have no idea how to get it back. She was no longer withdrawn inside herself but she wasn’t the same either. Her spark, her light, was missing, and the darkness within her made me wonder what exactly had happened inside the enemy hive. She did not tell and I did not ask.

I miss Rye, even though he comes to visit regularly and see if I need anything. I never do, but his love keeps me going. Even though he wants more from me he knows that for now, this is enough. It has to be enough.

For now, the days rush by and the nights are mostly silent. The soothing hum of the camera monitors, Jeremy’s soft snores and my mother’s weak whimpers from her nightmares keep me company at night. They keep me calm as I wait for another dawn.