Witchblood (28 page)

         They were within touching distance now. I felt the anger and resentment coil like a spring inside me, and suddenly I felt my predatory instincts kick in. Instinct overrode both nerves and caution. Adrenaline flooded my veins and I felt my fangs suddenly start to push through the tight skin in my tender gums. The tiny hairs stood up on the back of my neck, alerting me to the gang’s uncomfortable closeness.

         I paused and let them surround me. The first girl I saw took my breath away as the memory of her mean, scarred face flashed through my head. Then it all happened so fast. The girl behind me grabbed my ponytail and pulled my head back, whilst the girl on the left punched out, hard and fast into my stomach, and the girl on my left simultaneously punched my face. I heard her fist slam into my cheekbone, with a resounding crack and pain sliced through my face. As my face was burning a fresh pain burst to life in my stomach.
I thought vampires didn’t feel pain? Damn!

         All this happened in a split second, and as the girl behind me reached for my bag I zoned in. Playtime was over! I brought my right foot up and angling it backwards and straight out I kicked as hard as I could. In retrospect, it was possibly a little harder than necessary because the girl let out a shriek, let go of my hair and flew backwards by about ten feet. She landed with a shocked thud in the middle of a muddy puddle, and I winced as her head slammed into the side of the dustbin, knocking her out cold.

         It took the two girls at my side a couple of seconds to catch on to what had happened, giving me time to prepare for my next move. I thought they’d take the opportunity to turn and run, but clearly they were not giving in yet. They both drew evil-looking knives from their back pockets and advanced a step towards me, smiling cruelly.

         ‘You’re going to regret that, bitch.’

I took another step backwards and spoke.

         ‘It was you that hurt the man at the post office, wasn’t it?’

         ‘So what if it was?’ The grimy-looking blonde replied, a smug smile spreading across her face.

         ‘Do you recognise me?’ I asked, taking another step out of their reach.

         ‘Should we?’ The dark haired girl said with a careless shrug.

         ‘What if I told you my name was Jessica James?’

         ‘Nah, doesn’t ring a bell with me, does it you Ash?’ the blonde replied.

         ‘Nah, why? Are you important or summat? Do you think that’ll stop us hurting you?’ Ash asked, sniggering evilly.

         ‘Right bitch, I’m bored of chatting. It’s payback time!’ the blonde interrupted.

         ‘You’re damn right about that,’ I said, and as they both swung their knives forward I was somehow able to see it all in slow motion, gauging exactly where each knife was going to strike. Both my hands darted out, faster than a rattle snake going in for the kill, and with strength I didn’t know I possessed, I caught both of their hands. I hauled their arms up twisting them simultaneously, so both girls ended up facing away from me, their arms twisted up behind them.

         They struggled helplessly in my iron grasp and I realised with a jolt that I had to do something fast, before the animal took over and I ripped them apart. With a degree of relief I hurled the girl in my right hand forward so she flew at quite a pace to land with a bump next to her friend, who was stirring with a groan. The blonde in my left hand soon joined her, and I took a deep breath of the night air quickly before I darted towards their now cowering bodies.

         ‘What the ...?’ one asked.

         ‘How di..did..?’ said the other.

         ‘Oh, you care who I am, now you think you might not win?’ I snarled. ‘You saw me only a few weeks back.
You!’
I said directing my glare at the dark haired girl, ‘you stabbed me in the back, stole my bag and my ring, and left me for dead.’

         ‘No, no, you can’t be. She’s dead. You don’t look anything like her. She...  she was blonde, and we didn’t get no ring.’

         ‘Haven’t you heard of hair dye?’ I shot back as they shuffled further back against the filthy bin, and I took a step towards them. ‘I was found seconds before I died, and I was changed. I was saved,’ I said.           I was suddenly overwhelmed with a rush of emotion and power as I tried to ignore the vision of Luke I’d thought was a hallucination. He had left me to become what I was, and I could feel the vampire’s cells in every vein of my body making me hard and strong. I instinctively knew I could dart and jump with the dexterity of a cat. For the first time since my death, I revelled in my new body and stretched my limbs. It was time to finish this.

         I darted with a sudden rush of adrenaline the fifteen feet to the other side of the alley. Just before I reached it, I leaped gracefully at the brick wall, and knowing their eyes were glued to me, did a smooth back-flip and darted back to their corner, where they were desperately scrambling up to their feet. My little display had taken less than a second, and I still had them backed into the corner.

         ‘This is what I am now,’ I said smiling broadly. I instinctively knew the angle of the light of the bright full moon and tilted my head back slightly so they got an eyeful of my new and very sharp teeth. ‘And I’m fed up of you ruining people’s lives.’

         ‘No, no! You... you can’t be. That can’t... no, no, no!’ the blonde stammered. The two other girls had frozen, their eyes locked on my teeth.

        
Huh!
Somehow their fear didn’t fill me with pleasure. It wasn’t who I was. I just wanted to make them stop, but I didn’t want to become a monster myself.

        
‘Get your skinny little asses out of my sight. I’ll be watching you, and if I ever hear of you hurting people again, I’ll hunt you down and you’ll have more than a few bruises, I promise you!’ I finished trying to sound scary and serious, whilst struggling to conceal the urge to giggle.

         Not one of them moved a muscle, and it took me a minute to realise they were still too petrified to move any closer to me. I took a step back and watched as the two blondes shot past me and ran off down the street, calling for their friend.

         The dark haired girl, the skinny girl from my nightmare remained, staring at me. A frightening smirk crossed her face and I wondered briefly if the bang to the head had caused any lasting damage.
Why didn’t she follow her friends?
Instead she took a step towards me.

         ‘If you’re really that dizzy blonde I cut up, I don’t reckon you’ve got it in you to follow through with those threats. You were a wuss then, and you’re a wuss now. No matter what you’ve become. I’m not scared of you. If you’d wanted to kill us, you would have already.’ Her eyes were wild, and her face was hard and emotionless.

         For a second my instincts failed me, I was so thrown by her reaction, and in that second she drew her knife and jabbed it into my side.

        
Shit!
The red hot pain sliced through my torso and I took a second to feel my side and look with shock at the blood pouring out onto my hand. I doubled over and drew in a deep breath. Tears welled in the corner of my eyes and I wondered why it hurt so much. I hoped I healed as fast as Daniel had, that first day I’d attacked him, and with that thought and the smell of fresh blood wafting up and around me, something snapped.

         Before she could stab me again I pounced the short distance, and fangs bared, I grabbed her like a rag doll and threw her down the street. I leapt after her landing gracefully at her side, as she attempted to scramble to her feet, but I was on to her first. I grabbed her again by her coat and scrunching it in my fist I held her high, her feet scrabbling to gain purchase on the floor. My instinct fought between biting the girl and releasing her. Her evil stench was so bad that I knew I’d regret it if I tasted her foul blood; but the scent of my own fresh blood confused me and I drew her towards me.

        
Jessie, no!
A voice in my head whispered to me.
Don’t let yourself down. Let the girl go.
I looked at the girl’s ashen face and realised I’d done enough. She trembled slightly and I noticed a tear in the corner of her eye. I instantly dropped her, and at the same time I whirled round to fight, realising someone was coming up behind me – fast.

Chapter Fourteen

The dark-haired girl scrambled to her feet and took off down the alley with a slight limp, but I paid no notice. A second later I was in Daniel’s arms.

         I wrapped my arms round his neck and clung to him, the adrenaline still coursing through my system. I tilted my head up to his and pulled down his neck to kiss him, but he gently pushed me back with a smile.

         ‘Jessie, are you OK?’ he asked. ‘I can smell your blood; it’s quite intoxicating.’

         I paused, realising I’d forgotten all about the wounds. The pain had become a dull throb, but hurt no more than a trapped thumb. I looked down to inspect myself and could see through my blood-soaked slashed top that the skin on my side had instantly healed. I felt my face gingerly and found that it was as perfect as before.
Great!

         ‘It seems I’m all healed. Although I thought you said we didn’t feel pain? It felt ruddy painful to me. I thought I was going to die
again
for a minute,’ I said with a small smile.

         ‘That’s strange. It shouldn’t have hurt. We do feel wounds of course, but not as sharply. Maybe ….’ his words were suddenly cut off by a sudden slow clapping, and we broke apart and swung round to face the direction of the noise.

         We faced two men I’d never seen before. One was huge and bear-like. I imagined he should have had an olive complexion, that is if he hadn’t had a vampire’s pallor. He had thick brown hair and the huge shoulders and chest of a bodyguard. This was one man you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alleyway, but unfortunately for me this was exactly where I was meeting him!

         The other man was his polar oppositewith blonde, almost white hair, cut short and neat. His face was thin and hard-looking, somewhat rat-like. He was lean and wiry and seemed short next to his companion, yet he was easily as tall as Daniel. They both had the glimmering chocolate eyes of vampires and I wondered if they were going to be friend or foe. I looked to Daniel for assistance and he took a quick step in front of me.
Oh dear!
If he was shielding me, this didn’t look good!

         ‘Jessica, meet Lucius and Aaron, Sebastian’s bodyguards,’ Daniel said formally, nodding briefly towards the men.

         The two men stepped forward, their clapping coming to a chilling stop.

         ‘Well, that was quite a performance. I have to say, we’ve wanted to sort those girls out for months,’ Aaron, said in a silky smooth voice.

         ‘And it’s always fun to watch a good girl fight. I believe you’re the new addition to our little family, and it seems you have some lessons yet to learn, but for a first fight that wasn’t bad,’ the bear-like Lucius said, with a slight European accent.

         ‘We were just going to see Sebastian. I..’ Daniel tried to interrupt, but they silenced him with a quick gesture.

         ‘You
are
correct of course. He is very interested to discover your motives for allowing this newborn to reveal herself to those girls like that. He had us follow you the minute you left the club, and as we believe this was planned, he won’t be too happy,’ the rat-like Aaron said.

         ‘Come,’ Lucius said, quietly extending his arms and gesturing ahead of them back down the alley. I looked at Daniel hopefully, but he looked glumly back and gave his head a little shake. Taking my hand, he led me forwards as the two bodyguards fell in behind us, shepherding us back the way we’d come.

         ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked you to help me do this, Daniel,’ I whispered as we walked.

         ‘It’s fine. I‘ll make Sebastian understand. Don’t worry, he likes you.’

         When we reached the club, I expected to be led back along the corridors that I knew fairly well now and towards Sebastian’s rooms, but instead we came to a stop by a door I hadn’t seen before.