Blood Slayer (5 page)

Chapter 13

     She followed James around the cabin; she heard a whinny from her left. The black flying unicorn was tied to a post on the other side of the cabin. Something wasn’t right. She didn’t like James and didn’t like being locked in the cellar. She sure didn’t like Ivan. Adam hadn’t come for her yet, which bothered her. Why hadn’t he come to save her? Didn’t he like her?

     It was hard to look away from the unicorn. He was so beautiful. He deserved better than to be tied to a post like that. He should be able to run or fly free.

     “Hey, kid, stop drifting and come on!” James shouted. She hadn’t realized she was walking toward the unicorn while he walked in the other direction. He was a good twenty or thirty feet away. She wanted that unicorn, to ride him, pet him, brush him and take care of him. She’d never tie him to some stupid post.

     “I’m not gonna tell you again kid. If I have to bring you over here, it won’t fun for you. I guarantee it!”

     Without another thought, she turned and ran toward the unicorn. She was only a few yards away. Once she reached it, she quickly worked the rope to untie it. The knot was tight, but she pulled at it frantically, working her fingers between the knots. James footsteps got louder as she felt it loosening up.

     Finally the rope fell free. The unicorn let out a whinny and even stood on its hind legs for a moment. Once it settled down, she tried to climb on but was having a hard time. She was too short. It lowered its wing for her to use as a step. She stepped onto it as he lifted her, allowing her to easily climb onto its back.

     “Don’t do it kid!” James shouted from a few feet away. He grabbed at her, getting a hand on her leg as the unicorn ran several steps and began flapping its wings, lifting off the ground. Jessica shook her leg as James only had her with one hand. There was a knife in his other hand he was using to swipe at her. The unicorn turned hard to the left, then quickly to the right. The turbulence was too much for James as he lost his grip and fell.

     They were already quite a ways up, so the fall would hurt James pretty badly. She couldn’t see him fall since it was too dark. She just held on to the unicorn’s mane as it flew them upward.

     “Where are we going?” She asked it. “Can you talk? Where are you taking me?” It just made a huffing sound as its wings cut through the night air. Unlike the first right, she looked around the city and saw the lights beneath her. It was such a beautiful site. The cool air blew against her face and hair. Though she still wanted to know where they were going. She had no sense of which direction they were headed.

     After a
while, the lights below started getting larger. They were going downward, but slowly. Were they about to land? They were! She saw a rooftop not far away. At first, she couldn’t make it out. Then she recognized it. It was Adam’s place, the compound! She had no idea how the unicorn had found his way back, but she was happy.

     As they sailed to a landing she heard voices screaming.

     “Stop right there! Don’t move!” Several men with flashlights came running toward them. As they got closer, she saw they had guns. “Who is there?”

     “It’s me!” She cried out. “It’s Jessica! Is Adam here?”

     “Jessica?” One of the men lowered his gun and walked up to her. It was Cedric. “I thought they got you.”

     “They did. I got away. I stole their unicorn
!” She said with a gleefulness that seemed inappropriate considering she had just been kidnapped by vampires.

     “I can see that,” Cedric said, looking the beast up and down. “I’ve heard about these things, but never knew they actually existed. I thought they were extinct.”

     “Well, here he is. What should I name him? Can I keep him?”

     “How did you get away?” Cedric asked, his voice showing no sign of emotion.

     “I told you, I took the unicorn.”

     “I know what you said. People don’t just escape when the vampires take them. They are either drained and killed, turned into grubs, or turned into a vampire. Did they turn you?”

     “Turn me what?” She wasn’t understanding what he was saying.

     “Did they turn you into a vampire?”

     “Do I look like a vampire? Hello?” She climbed off the unicorn, bouncing off its wing and onto the rooftop.

     “Come on. Let’s go see Adam.”

     “What about my unicorn?”

     “He can stay out here. One of you guys, tie him somewhere so he doesn’t get away.”

     “No!” She shouted. “You’re not tying him up. The vampires kept him all tied up and were mean to him.”

     “Tie him up,” Cedric said, ignoring her.

     “I said no!” She ran up to it and stood on the edge of its wing. “I’m going to just fly away with him, and I’ll never come back and never help you again!”

     “We will open fire if you try to run kid,” one of the men behind Cedric said.

     “Stand down,” Cedric ordered. “All right. We won’t tie him up. We’ll keep some guys out here with him. Look him over guys; make sure he’s not infected or anything. Jessica, you come with me. We’ll go see Adam.”

Chapter 14

     When they walked into the building, Jessica couldn’t believe all the damage. A vicious battle had taken place their earlier. She hoped no one was hurt badly. There were bodies lying around all over covered in blood.

     “Who are all these dead people?” She asked Cedric.

     “They’re all grubs. Fortunately we didn’t lose anyone. A few people were hurt though.”

     There were others moving the bodies around, cleaning up the walls and trying to get things back to normal. They went down several flights of stairs and into a large room. There Adam was with a group of other men sitting around a table. When Jessica walked in, Adam’s eyes widened as if he was looking at a ghost.

     “Jessica?”

     “Yep! It’s me!” She squealed.

     “The vampires got you. They didn’t kill you or hurt you?”

     “No, I think they w
ere going to, but I escaped!”

     “I need to talk to you,” Cedric cut in. “Alone for a moment.”

     “Ok, excuse me everyone.” Adam said as they stepped into the hall. “Ok, Cedric, what’s on your mind?”

     “She
flew in alone on that flying unicorn the vampires took her on. Something is wrong.”

     “You think they let her go? To spy on us or something?”

     “I don’t know. They didn’t turn her into a grub. They didn’t her to a vampire either. Not this quickly, she wasn’t gone that long.”

     “So you don’t believe her?” Adam asked.

     “The kid is a space cadet. No way could she outsmart a group of vampires.” Cedric replied.

     “She’s autistic Cedric, she’s not stupid. And I don’t think a group captured her. I saw James on the rooftop. That unicorn is his. James is human. He’s one of Ivan’s little handymen. He thinks Ivan will turn him one day.”

     “So he’s one of those?”

     “Yep. ‘They’ are worse than the vampires as far as I’m concerned. The vampires do what they do because it’s their nature. The collaborators
have a choice. They chose to betray their own species. That is the worst.”

     “I didn’t even think the vampires accepted collaborators anymore.”

     “There’s still a few. They rarely actually turn them though, only when they need to fill their ranks. But if they screw up even a little they kill them or turn them to grubs,” Adam said.  “I think Jessica is ok. They can’t turn her into a grub because of her autism. For some reason, she’s immune to their mind tricks. She probably got away from James. He’s not the brightest.”

     “Ok. I’ll still keep an eye on her,” Cedric said.

     “That’s fine. Just cut her some slack. She’s still a kid.”

     “Got it.”

     When they stepped back inside, Jessica was sitting at the table talking to the rest of the men in the group.

     “And then this Ivan guy talked to me and they were going to lock me back in that nasty basement. But I didn’t want to go there. So I saw the unicorn tied up outside and ran to him.” She was saying, but looked up as Adam and Cedric stepped inside.

     “Hey Jessica,” Adam said. “Welcome back. We’re glad you’re safe. Cedric will take you back to your room so you can get cleaned up.”

     As they walked back down to her room, Cedric didn’t speak a word the whole way.

     “Are you mad at me?” Jessica asked.

     “No,” he said.

     “Then why do you act like you are?”

     I’m always this way. Here’s your room. I got work to do,” Cedric said as he walked off.

Chapter 15

     As she washed off in the sink and changed her clothes, there was a knock at her door. It was Anna.

     “Hey kid, glad to see you’re ok.” Anna said. 

     “Anna!” Jessica squealed and hugged Anna. She squeezed so tight, that Anna had to pry her away.

     “Thanks Jess, I’m happy to see you too. I have to breathe though.”

     “Oh, sorry. I guess I get carried away!”

     “Yeah, you can I guess. Hey. When you’re feeling up to it, Adam wants to talk to you. He would like to find out where they took you, who was there, what they were doing. All that good stuff.”

     “Oh, well I really don’t know where I was. The unicorn flew me back here. It was like he just knew the way.”

     “Yeah, I heard about the unicorn. Adam went to go take a look at him. See if there is a way he can use him.”

     “Use him for what?”

     “I don’t know,” Anna said. “A decoy maybe or maybe Adam will ride him into battle.”

     “But he’s mine! I saved him! He likes me!”

     “Ok, I’m not going to argue with you…” Anna began.

     “Wait! Desmond!”

     “Who?”

     “Desmond! The old guy in the basement!”

     Anna shook her head, having no clue what Jessica was talking about.

    
“Desmond who, and what basement? You’re not making any sense Jess.”

     “Desmond is the guy the vampires are kee
ping trapped in their basement, the basement where they kept me. He’s been trapped in there for years! We have to help him! They just feed him dead people. It’s so gross!”

     “I don’t know any Desmond. And I’m sure Adam isn’t going to authorize a rescue mission for save a guy none of us are even sure exists in a cabin we can’t find.”

     “The unicorn knows how to get there.”

     “Jess! Listen to yourself. We can’t load up all the vehicles to go save some old guy none of us know where he’s at. And we’re not going to follow a unicorn there. Ok? Adam has something planned after last night’s attack. Maybe we can find him then. But you just have to sit tight, ok?”

     Jessica hung her head and slumped onto her cot.

     “Ok,” she muttered.

     “Do you understand? It’ll be ok. I promise. Just trust us. Adam knows what he’s doing,” Anna assured.

     “Ok.” Jessica lie back on the cot and turned her back to Anna. She stood looking at the girl for a minute and left the room. She knew Jessica at
Asperger’s, but it was so frustrating to deal with at times.

     After Anna left, Jessica sat up and looked around her room. There had to be something she could do. The first thing she wanted to do was go look at the unicorn. He needed a name. She changed into her polymer suit and zipped it up. Once it was on, she reached under the cot and took out her cross bow. She had an extra quiver of bolts they had given her before she was taken. She slung the quiver over her shoulder and fixed the other to the crossbow.
The last thing she grabbed was her backpack. Anna gave it to her after their last training. It had survival items in it, but Anna hadn’t had a chance to go through it with her.

     Once she was geared up
, she stepped outside the room and into the hall. It was late, so most of the compound was asleep. She ran to the stairwell as fast as she could and climbed the stairs until she reached the roof. Once at the doorway, she cracked it slightly to peek onto the rooftop. Adam was there with Cedric and Anna. They were looking at the unicorn. Adam kept trying to climb on, but the unicorn would buck each time, knocking him away. Cedric held the rope that was still around its neck as Adam would make an attempt, but the unicorn always pulled it right out of his hands.

     Jessica let out a giggle watching the scene. They all turned when she made the sound.

     “Jess!” Anna called out. “What are you doing?”

     With that, Jessica decided to make her move.

Chapter 16

     She came out from behind the door as the three of them looked at her.

     “Just what do you think you’re doing?” Cedric said. He was standing in front of the group with his arms crossed.

     “I’m going to go save Desmond.” She said.

     “Anna told me about him. She also explained to you why we can’t go after him.” Adam said.

     “I know what she said. But I can’t just leave him there. They’ll kill him.” She looked at all of them and they were staring at her like she was crazy. This was the same look she often got from her mom, teachers and classmates. It was always as if anything she wanted to do made no sense to anyone else. Either that or people just assumed she was incapable of doing anything. “I’m taking Hawk, and I’ll go by myself.”

     “Who is Hawk?” Adam asked.

     “The unicorn. He soars like a hawk. So I named him Hawk.” She started to walk toward Hawk, but Cedric stepped in front of her. “Just let me go,” she said.

     “That’s not gonna happen kid. It’s too dangerous. You can’t do this alone, especially at night.”

     “I can do it! I escaped from them, didn’t I?”

     “Jess, just go back inside ok? I can take you to the range and we can shoot the crossbow some more.” Anna said.

     “No! You guys aren’t listening! Ugh!” It was so frustrating. Just because she had
Asperger’s, didn’t mean she was a dummy. She thought these guys were different, but they are now treating her like everyone else always had. Like a little kid, or even a baby. She was still fifteen, Asperger’s or not. She quickly tried to run around Cedric, but he grabbed her by the arm.

     “Let me go!” She screamed.

     “No! Enough is enough!” He began to jerk on her arm as he started walking toward the door.

     “You’re hurting me!” She cried.

     “Cedric, that’s enough, let her go.” Adam said.

     “She’s already put is all in danger. I’m not gonna let her do it again!”

     “Let me go!”

     Something large and black knocked Cedric to the ground. He released his grip on her arm as he hit the rooftop, out cold. Hawk was standing there extending its wings. He’s swooped over to them to protect Jessica. Hawk positioned himself between Adam and Anna, letting out a loud a loud neigh, causing the two of them to back off.

     Using his wing as a step, Jessica climbed onto his back, and with one big leap, they were sailing skyward into the night.