Penny's Choice (6 page)

Her mouth was dry and her eyes widened. She couldn't let him bite her; she had to fight for her family. She had to escape. She stomped on his instep as hard as she could, make him groan. She took that as a chance and slipped away from his grasp. She sprinted for the door, but he blocked it. He was much faster than her. She ran over to the other end of the room.
So much for an escape.

"You... stay away from me, or just get it over with!" she said about in tears. She didn't what was wrong with her. She should have immediately lunged at the vampire.

The stranger replied with another grin. "Penny, come on, you really shouldn't be in here," he said. "Don't make me fight you."

What, he knew her name? He must have been listening in that night.

She reached into the back of her dress to pull out her small wooden daggers that she kept hidden there. She should have brought her wooden stake, but she hadn't thought it necessary before.

"Look you," she said, "We either do this the easy way, or the hard way."

He laughed gently; the sound made her heart flutter. What was wrong with her? Now she was getting all woozy over this killer?

"What if I pick..." The vampire carefully walked towards her, "The hard way?"

She could hear the playfulness in his voice. He wasn't scared. Didn't he know that she was in the Brotherhood? That he shouldn't mess with her? He was being far too playful to be a normal vampire.

"You asked for it," she said, raising her daggers over her head.

The vampire simply moved closer to her. "Bring it on then," he said with a childlike smile on his lips.

She moved quickly, jumping on a chair, using it as a spring board to tackle the vampire. She landed right on top of him, which seemed to surprise him. She threw him off his feet. She raised the daggers and pushed him down onto the floor. When she was just about to aim the weapon at his heart, he caught her arms and turned her over on her back. He was on top of her, pinning her to the floor. She couldn't move and every breath took extra effort. She stared up into his beautiful face and gritted her teeth.

"You really are a crazy one," he said, audibly entertained. "Boy does Chuck know how to pick them!"

She struggled to get free, and then he turned her over so that she was facing the ground and her long blonde hair fell away from her neck. She thought was the end of her for sure. Suddenly, he let go of his grip on her. Then she heard voices echoing down the hallway. More vampires would come into the room any minute.

"Stay out of sight," he said, pointing to a couch on the near wall.

She nodded and walked over and hid behind the couch hastily. She felt like a fool right away. Did she just follow his order? He may have sounded like Thomas, but he wasn't. Then another thought entered her mind. Maybe that was Thomas. No! Maybe this was all a vampire trick? Should she trust him?

Oh, Penny, you're so dead, she thought. She bit her lip and gripped her daggers tightly. Why not just go attack him right now when his back is towards her? Even if the other vampires came in right then, she would at least have revenge for her family.

The door opened just as Penny had hidden
herself
behind the couch. She remained deathly still while the vampires spoke.

“What did that human want with you?” A female voice asked. “He was rather forceful.”

“I don't know, something about his girlfriend,” the vampire responded.

“What? Did he think that you stole his girlfriend?” Another female voice said. Penny recognized this one from the massacre too.

“Shut up, Priscilla,” he replied. “I took care of it, Matriarch.” His voice changed tone when he spoke to the Matriarch. Penny froze. She was in the room with a vampire matriarch and two of the vampires that had killed her family.

“Fine, what happened to the door?” The Matriarch asked pointed at the busted door frame.

“Sorry, still don't know my own strength sometimes,” he said, shuffling his feet.

“Ugh, of course, only you, Clumsy Bat,” Priscilla said, taunting the vampire.

“Priscilla, mind your tongue. I seem to remember you taking more than a decade to get a hold of your abilities,” the Matriarch said. “He's also one of the best fighters we have.”

“Thank you, Matriarch.”

The two females walked out the room. After the coast was clear, the vampire
peeked
his head over the couch.

“You okay?” he asked.

“No,” Penny responded, getting to her feet rather shakily.

“Sorry,” he said holding out his hand to help her. She refused it, but ended up tripping on the side of the couch and falling into his arms.

“Penny, I think you should sit down for a minute,” he said as he placed her delicately on the couch.

Penny did not know what was happening. She knew for sure if the Brotherhood was to catch her sitting on a couch in the arms of her family's killer that they would for sure kick her out. And then where would she be?
Back with her grandmother?

“Penny, Penny, where are you?” Charles said through her ear piece.

“She's in a back office with me,” the vampire responded for her. Penny could hear an annoyed grunt on the other end.

“On my way, we've got trouble and
gotta
get out of here,” Charles said.

One moment later Charles burst through the room. He did not look happy, but he didn't have his weapons drawn like Penny expected.

“What did I tell you?” Charles
said, yelling in her direction.

Penny was about to stutter a response for why she had wandered off and gotten into trouble again, but the vampire cut her off.

“
Ya
know, you're not my boss...fine, I'll leave her alone and let her get eaten by vampires in the future, okay?” the vampire threw her to the ground. “Why do you always have to be such an uptight bastard?” He ran out of the room
, slamming the door behind him.

“We need to go,” Charles grabbed Penny by the arm and dragged her out of the room.

“
Ow
,” Penny cried as he hands dug into her arm. She would have protested more, but she was really confused.

Penny regained her mind enough to start asking a million questions. She was irate and wanted answers to all of her question right then and she wouldn't let Charles weasel his way out of answering this time.

"Penny pipe down,” he said.  She rolled her eyes and then followed his eyes. He was concentrating on to something, trying to catch a glimpse of something in the forest. She decided that maybe now wasn't the best time to pester him with questions. There seemed to be danger in the making.

"Come here," he gave her his hand. "We have to move now!” His voice turned very serious. His hand gripped hers, but before they could take another step a horrific roar bellowed through the woods.

"What in the world was that?" she asked, her voice shaking.

"More werewolves," Charles said angrily and dragged her towards the car.

Out of the woods twenty huge vicious beasts, over four times the size of a
man,
surrounded them. She gasped and tightened her grasp on Charles's hand.

She peered at the beasts who wanted to rip off their heads. They snapped their jaws and glared.

"How are we going to fight them all?" she asked. They came prepared to fight vampires, not werewolves.

"We, Not we... you are not ready to fight a werewolf,” Charles said. Before she could point out that she had already killed one, he stepped forward.

She thought he was going to fight all of the werewolves, who towered over him. They would tear him to shreds. Werewolves were tough foes and one man could not fight even one alone. In the car, there were three of them. Plus, the car had provided some protection. They were out in the open, face to face with the werewolves.

A wolf leaped in her direction, but another body flew from behind them and smashed the wolf against a tree. Penny fell to the ground from the impact. She was dizzy and couldn't stand up. She needed a moment to collect herself. When she looked up to see who had taken out the werewolf so easily, she saw the person she had least expected to be there to help them: the vampire who had killed her family.

"Penny, Charles don't move," the vampire ordered, Penny nodded, too dumbfounded to argue. Why was he saving them? Did she smell like tuna noodle casserole?

The wolves’ howling shook the ground beneath her feet and raised the hair behind her neck. Penny was horror-struck as the werewolves flew at the vampire in the midst of them. The
vampire's gaze was calm on his beautiful face. She thought that he looked a touch like Charles. Penny couldn't believe how amazing he was in a
fight,
his moves were elegant, graceful, and beautiful.

The vampire moved extraordinarily fast, it was hard to keep track of him in the fight. He didn't think twice before he pounced on them. He caught a werewolf's head and snapped it off its shoulders. Blood squirted out of his neck. The vampire changed his targets to a very powerful looking werewolf, but to her amazement he finished him off in a second or two.

He kept them as far away from her as he could. He fought two or three werewolves at a time. He punched one in the face with so much power that its head practically exploded. The vampire grabbed another’s lower jaw and tore it apart. Then a split second later he snapped another wolf’s neck. Werewolf blood flowed all over the vampire’s face.

He cleaned the blood from his face with his hand and turned back around, grabbing the throat of yet another werewolf. His light, shining eyes had turned black, showing the anger that streamed through his blood.

Penny was horrified with the gruesome scene, but her guardian vampire would not stop for even a second. She second guessed her choice to join the Brotherhood.

A playful smile graced his mouth as he gave her a sideways glance. He shouldn't look so carefree. Didn't he realize that there were about a half dozen wolves gnashing at him? A yell fled her lips, but the vampire had acted already, he stuck his two fingers into the beast's eye and tore its head in two parts.

Things were moving too fast for Penny to keep up. The vampire never stopped protecting Penny and Charles. Penny couldn't believe that she was still alive. When she first saw pack of werewolves, she was sure that she was going to die.

A werewolf jumped on the vampire and bit his arm. She screamed and stepped toward him to help. She really wanted to rescue him, but her legs wouldn't move from where she stood. Why did she even care about this vampire anyway? He was responsible for so much death already.

Charles was also in the fight, but he was not nearly as majestic as the vampire. His arm was bleeding slightly, and there were some nicks on his face. He was mostly just providing some back up to the vampire.

A low growl behind her made her heart stop. She turned around slowly and came face to face with the glaring brown eyes of a werewolf. She screamed for help and sweat poured down her pale face.

The werewolf snapped its jaws and attacked her. She tried to run, but
she  flew
in the air and smacked the ground hard. Blood gushed from a wound in her head. The werewolf leaped on top of her.

The vampire crushed the werewolf on top of Penny with one swift blow and then he was gone again, fighting the last few werewolves.

"You are not going to die," the vampire said to her. "Not now. I can't bear to lose you after all of this."

His voice was very protective and she couldn't understand why. Why was this crazy vampire protecting her and Charles? She remembered what Charles had said; sometimes vampires do things that don't make any sense to humans.

The vampire turned around and ducked the last werewolf. He plunged his hand into the werewolf's chest and tore out its beating heart.

"Penny runs. You have to leave now. I have killed most of the werewolves, but the vampires are coming for you," the vampire yelled over his shoulder while protecting himself from a dangerous werewolf, she nodded and ran, but before she could only run a few steps before she was lifted up in the air by her hair. She screamed and saw it was another vampire who had lifted her off the ground.

This vampire had pitch black eyes that were filled with hate. He stared at her in a way that cried death. Penny had no idea what was going on. Why was one vampire protecting her and why was this one about to eat her.

But instead of biting her, he covered her mouth and nose with a handkerchief that smelled of camphor. Penny collapsed into a lifeless heap the vampire's arm.

Penny woke up in the black of night riding in a vehicle. She tried to get her bearings and noticed that she was lying next to another person.

“Charles?” she asked, remembering that she was attacked and drugged by a vampire. She hoped that someone had been able to save her.