The Last Human (Vampires Rule # 1) (9 page)

I pretend to view the books on the shelves, while at
the same time I edge near him. He ignores me, until I’m about
a
meter away from him at which
point he looks up and his brown hair falls in waves across his
face. I let out a sigh, feigning to show my annoyance at not
finding a specific book.

“
Books get taken pretty quick,” I say,
giving him a glance. I keep my voice
low less Elis and Maxwell over hear.

The new guy
looks at the rows of books. He doesn’t say anything at first,
and I think he is just going to ignore me, just like he ignored
everyone at school, but instead, he says, “You must be Jake.” His
voice is small and soft like he doesn’t use it much.

“
Uh
…yeah…and
you are?” His Artico Guards look between us as if considering if
they should intervene.

The new guy brushes his hair from his face and gets
to hi
s feet. “You can call me
Zack.”

Before I can reply a strong hand
grabs my arm. I look up, startled to see Elis.
“Time to go,” he says in a low voice.

I try to pull free, but his iron grip doesn’t budge,
so instead
, I resort to words,
“Get off me!”

“
No.”

I look back at the others as if
expecting them to stick up for me, but they just
stand motionless as though they couldn’t care less. The new guy
casually gets back on his knees and resumes perusing the books on
the bottom shelf, tilting his head to the left as he reads the
titles on the spines.

“
Fine,” I say through gritted
teeth
, and I allow Elis to
steer me away. But at least I know the guy’s name. Some
progress.

The dim lights over-head suddenly black out, sending
us into darkness, and Elis’s grip on my arm tightens, his fingers
pressing into my skin. I turn to him and open my mouth to say that
it is probably a short fuse, but he clamps his hand over it in a
lightning fast movement, pushing the words o
n my lips back down my throat.

I look at him in frustration. He places a finger to
his lips and shakes his hea
d,
just as the lights overhead glimmer back on. I relax, but Elis’s
doesn’t withdraw his hand from my mouth or loosen his grip on my
arm.

I’m about to protest, but Elis snaps his head to the
right, staring at something down the aisle that has caught his
attention. I follow his gaze to see something round rolling in our
direction like a bowling ball kicked with low force. I frown,
trying to figure out what the hell it is. It seems to have white
hairy strands attached to it and i
t leaves a red trail behind it.

My mouth falls open in shock as I
realize what it is. I watch in horror as it
continues to roll, eyes still open, blood oozing from the wound
where the head seemed to be cleanly sliced, white hair still up in
a bun. I feel bile building up in my throat as I stare at the
librarians head. The wrinkled head comes to a standstill, resting
motionless on the floor, the lifeless eyes stare blankly forward.
And then, a growl pierces the silence.

It is not the snarl
of a Vampire, nor is it the hungry growl of a wolf. It is a sound I
have never heard before, a sound out of this world. It sends a
trickle of cold sweat slithering down my neck and a shiver to
resonate through my body like the plucking of draw strings on a
guitar, drawn and brittle in tone. My mouth suddenly feels dry as
if all the liquid has been drained and sucked out, leaving behind
nothing but crisp skin.

Elis yanks me backwards into the aisle. My yelp gets
caught in my throat as I stumble on my feet, but Elis keeps me
upright with his strong grip on my arm. I glance around, at the
others, to see the new guy visibly shak
ing, his bottom lip trembling.

“
Move it!”
Elis hisses at the other Articos. They grab the new guy by his
arms and start to sprint down the aisle, before taking a right and
disappearing from view. I jump as I hear several blood curdling
guttural snarls and growls, and the sound echoes off the library
walls. Elis pulls me in the same direction the others took off, and
we both break into a run.

My heart hammers in my chest, thudding like the
beating of drums
. A rush of
adrenaline erupts through my body as I run with Elis at my side,
his hand still around my arm in a vice like grip as if he is
worried he might lose me if he lets go. Up ahead, I see the others
disappear down a hallway. I turn in that direction, but Elis pulls
me back and directs me into a different corridor.

The sharpness of the turn makes me trip over my feet,
and I
totter on the spot. Elis
drags me for a few moments before stopping and releasing his hold
on my arm. I back up against a wall and slide down to the floor. My
breaths are ragged as I try to get my breathing under control. Then
the thought strikes me.

I look up at Elis, “Maxwell,”
I gasp. He didn’t come with us.

“
My duty is to protect you, not Maxwell,” Elis
says, and he drags me back to my feet
. “We need to get out of here.”

He starts in a run and pushes me along until I start
sprinting on my own, my lungs burning with every stride as they
pump oxygen. We turn into another hall way, one side of the wall
is
paneled with glass,
stretching to the ceiling, and giving us full view of the outside.
Elis comes to a halt and turns to me. I double over, spent and
exhausted.

“
What the hell was that thing?” I say, standing
back up straight, but my legs wobble underneath me like jelly. “And
why di
d we split up from the
others?”

“
Questions later,” he says, then pauses, and
glances sharply at the glass panel. At first, I’m not sure what has
his attention, but then my eyes widen as I see a black shape
hurtling towards us through the night sky, its arms stretched out,
and legs tucked in. I don’t get a chance to scream as it blasts
through the glass, shattering it, and sending shards shooting in
every direction. I duck, and fall to ground as glass explodes
around me, showering all ov
er
the place like hail stones.

I roll across the floor, avoiding most of the sharp
fragments, and glance up just as the black shape lands several
meters in front of us, blocking the entrance on
the other side of the hallway.

It is crouched on the floor on all fours. Its skin,
coated in a black fur, is laced with strands of shimmering white.
Its large head is bowed, a narrow snout protruding
tow
ards the ground.

And then, it looks up, lifting i
ts thick head in our direction.

My breath catches in my throat as fear twirls through
my body, whirl winding all the way to my heart,
and triggering my pulse into acceleration as the
creature before me locks its gaze on mine.

It has two large oval eyes, a red slit running
through the middle of each, and the eye itself glowing a midnight
blue. It pulls its lips back in a silent snarl, sharp teeth jut out
from its gums, and a black tongue hisses out from the
pits of its mouth.

I gulp, transfixed on the spot, and watch in shock as
it stands, and towers to over eight feet on its two hind legs, that
are fused with thick muscle and bone. Its thick, fury muscled arms,
hang to its sides like slabs of concrete. Its large paws, black and
white, have lethal cla
ws
sprouting out from the skin.

Elis spins so fast that he is a blur of black and
gold. He grabs me by my waist, and before a sound even escapes my
throat, he jumps through the window, torpedoing through the
glass.

W
e go hurtling
outside into the cold night, my own screams ring in my ears. Glass
bites into my face, the jagged ends slicing into my pale skin. The
surroundings are a blur; a mish mash of images spun around and
around.

We fall with a thud,
and my breath is knocked out of me, every ounce wasted and
depleted. I open my eyes to see stars twinkle down on me from the
night sky above. I realize I have fallen on top of Elis, who has
taken the brunt of the impact.

I slide off him, and hit the soft earth and the smell
of dirt and grass wafts up my nose. Elis seems unscathed and
he smoothly rises to his
feet.

Then
, I hear a
feral growl cut through the night air and I glance back at the
library just as the creature explodes from the glass panel window,
its blue demented eyes wide with hunger as it spirals through the
air.

A growl rumbles through Elis’s throat, the sound low
and primal, and before I manage to get a chance to say anything, he
leaps into the air, his mouth pulled ba
ck to reveal his fangs.

He clashes with the creature in mid-air, and snarls
and growls echo through the night, and both of them go tumbling
onto the hard earth below
,
locked in a vicious embrace.

The creature lands atop of Elis, its thick fury
muscled arms pinning him to the ground, its snout wide open as a
brutal growl resonates from the darkness of its mouth. With a quick
flash of his arms, Elis pushes the crea
ture off him, sending it reeling back, and jumps to
his feet.

The next moment, Elis is a blur to my eye, as he
careens into the creature, striking it from different angles. I
catch the flash of a blade followed by a sp
ray of red. The creature falls back, a knife
protrudes from its broad shoulder, and it tilts its head back and
roars an agonising harsh screech. I cover my ears as the noise
threatens to explode my ear drums, and I stagger to my feet just as
the creature pounces.

It barrels towards Elis, its jagged teeth gleaming
under the moon light. It swipes at Elis with its clawed paws. Elis
gracefully steps aside, but a foll
ow through paw knocks him back.

And the creature
springs.

It pins Elis to the earth, its forearms and hind legs
weighing down on his body. The creature bends down, mouth open,
teeth inches away from Elis’s throat.

Elis holds the creature back with both his arms and
turns his head in my direction. “Get to the car and Go!” There is
strain in his voice as he keeps the creature away from his throat.
Despite the situation, Elis’s light blue eyes seem focused and
c
alm.

I hesitate, frozen in place by shock and fear, until
Elis screams again. “GO!

My body kicks into action, working on its own accord
as my limbs spark back to life. I sprint to the car parked across
the road, my legs pumping as my muscles work their gears. I almost
slam into the side door as I reach it. I refuse to look back as the
growls of the creature cut through the air behind me, followed by
Elis’s snarls.

I take the spare key
out of my pocket in trembling hands, the key that I always keep as
back up. I open the door, get in, and gun the engine.

***

I’m accelerating down the road. Buildings blur by.
Lexus taught me how to drive years ago, but right now I struggle to
keep the car straight. It must be down to my nerves and the reality
of the situation I’m in. I ignore the stabbing guilt of leaving
Elis behind. I can only hope he got away, somehow.

I drive with a disturbed frenzy, like a crazy driver
who has lost his mind. I almost go careening into a building when I
take a sharp turn, just avoiding the structure by a foot or
two.

I release my foot on the gas pedal slightly, and
glance out the window, and I almost lose my grip on the steering
wheel when something thuds on top of the car, its
weight almost denting the
roof.

I scream and slump into my seat. I stare up at the
car’s ceiling with wide eyes. There is the
sound of screeching as if something is digging its
claws across the roof.

I turn my eyes back on the road, peeping just above
the dashboard f
rom my slumped
posture, and spin the car sharply to the right. From the rear view
mirror I catch the glimpse of something go hurtling from the car,
its dark frame disappearing as it hits the concrete road. I take a
deep breath, and push my foot on the accelerator.

***

I try not to think about the creature at the library
and the dark shape that was thrown off the roof of my car, and
instead, I keep my focus on the road with
one aim on my mind: Get to the Manor
alive.

With only a few bloc
ks away from the safety of the Manor, I turn into a main road,
hoping for a short cut, but I realize my mistake a little too late.
The road is blocked with crates, tonnes of bricks left for building
work. I turn sharply and hit the brake at the same time.

I was going too fast, and the sudden turn and
br
ake, causes the car to veer
to one side, and the air bags go off in my face like balloons,
making me lose my grip on the steering wheel. The car topples to
the right and I hit my head against the window, and a sharp pain
bursts through my skull, blinding me as fire engulfs my senses. And
everything goes still.