Sacrifice Helle

Chapter 14

(still Darien’s POV)

I left the house early, at sunrise, and wandered around the town, waiting for time to pass. I didn't feel like sleeping, we had slept for two days Wednesday-Friday. Only Lathien needed his sleep regularly. When it finally came to 12 I went to the park, at the same spot as last night. Lathien was already there, he had his usual emotionless expression painted on his face. Coldly he greeted me, "You had a good time?" I didn't reply. "Gerha likes her. Don't get attached to her." I gave him one glance, "I don't care." Lathien didn't say anything else, we waited in silence. They were late. "What the fuck are they doing..?", I hated waiting. "Probably fucking." I looked at Lathien, he grinned and so did I. 'Off course... Fucking.' "You want me to fuck you too?", Cora said and bit my neck. She had come in behind me, "What's this..?" She had noticed the biting mark I already had on my neck and laughed. Gerha had come too, "Leave the kid alone, you shouldn't tease a wolf with flesh it can't have." Cora ignored him and rubbed herself up against my back, then grabbed my front. I had to take it, she was older then me and stronger, I couldn't stand up against her. There was no chance she would take me, not when she had the alpha of our group. She was just teasing, treating me like a kid. Gerha ignored us and started walking away, continuing what we had started last night. Lathien followed him. Then Cora whispered in my ear, "Was she good? Did she please you?" "No.", I answered bluntly. She grinned and walked away, following the other two.

We searched for Vaan’s lair all day, found a couple of his children underground. Lathien ripped them out of the ground and dragged them out in the sun. Watching vampires burn was the best amusement we knew. But as time passed we understood that even though we had found the area, finding the exact spot where Vaan was was difficult. And with him being impossible to predict, we didn't know if he would lay in a cave, or if he had made himself a tomb, or just buried himself in the ground. Gerha tried to smell the ground, he smelled vampires he said. We were closing in, the scent was getting stronger and stronger, our hope was that Vaan would surround himself with them and not lay alone. If he was alone, the chances of finding him were close to zero. Lathien ripped once more a vampire out if the ground. It was screaming and struggling to get out of his grip. Gerha took over, laid it down on the ground and sat on it. "Now you tell us: where's your sire?" The vamp was screaming from the pain of daylight, Gerha held its head and looked it into it's eyes. "Where's your sire?!!" The vampire spit him in his face, blood spit. Gerha froze, then his face got just as emotionless as Lathiens. "Darien..", he said in a low voice, "Do this little vampire a favour for me, will you?" I came closer, Gerha looked at me and smiled evilly, "Just a little lesson.. Then we will let her go..." He moved up and left the vampire to me. "Don't kill her, I want her to bring the message to her sire..." The vampire looked up at me with blood red eyes, her skin was burning from the daylight, but since we were in shadows she wouldn't burn to dust so quickly. I used my magic and put her eyes on fire. Her screams filled me with happiness, I knew Gerha liked to hear this. I put her tongue on fire to, for spitting on Gerha. Then I moved the fire with my eyes and burned a message into her skin, covering her whole chest. The blood that came from her body was burned along with the skin, it gave a lovely scent. Gerha was laughing behind me with amusement. My fire was not a normal fire. What it burned could never come back or be healed. Then we threw the vampire back in its hole, barely alive. Gerha laughing his ass off. 'To Vaan with love' We walked off searching for more vampires. "How does he keep them so loyal?", Gerha wondered, "If someone was ever to threaten me on my life I would give up the Dark Lord himself..." Cora laughed. We had no morals, and no loyalty. The only thing keeping us to our Lord was that he could kill us just as easily as we could have killed that vampire.

The sun was setting without any sign of Vaan. We sat down, waiting. Now they would come to us. We hid from and waited for them as they rose from the ground. Gerha sniffed into the air, "There! I smell them over there!" We closed in on the place, Gerha swore he could both smell and see them with his inner eye. It was indeed a cave entrance there, going down underground. I walked over to it while the others were still hiding. It proved impossible for me to enter, the entrance was sealed. I walked back to the others, "It's it. The entrance is sealed with magic only known by the stronger vampires. We got him." "What's the plan?," Lathien asked Gerha. "We wait. No use in taking down the seal. He'll sense us and come out." A few vampires walked out of the cave and disappeared into the dark, not noticing us. Then there was silence. We waited. And waited. Two hours or more passed. Finally; he came.

Now, a lot of things can be said about the vampire Vaan. One of them is that he has kicked Gerha and Cora's asses once before. And with a smile he remembered the scared look in their eyes, how they had fled from him. Another thing was that although he didn't care much about them following him, he didn't like them stepping him on his toes. And not only had this Darien meddled in a little too much, they were also standing on his doorstep, waiting for him to kick their asses again. Their underestimation of him was simply an insult.

Vaans POV:

I walked up to the entrance. They thought they could hide from me? It wasn't even funny, it was an insult. And how dared they even come here? "I got your message...", I said as I leaned against the walls of the cave, looking at them. They didn't make a move. ’Making me take the first step then? How boring.’ I remembered Gerha and Cora well, their weaknesses were common knowledge among my kind. The new one, Darien, had a frightening ability, but he was still too weak. He would always be too weak. The last one though, I didn't know him well. An elf. 'Let's see what he can do.'

I flung myself at Gerha first, he tried to block, I stole his knife with me as I passed him. Too slow. I kept the knife close and aimed at Cora. She was weak against metal, so I jumped at her and stabbed the knife in her abdomen. She ignored the pain and grabbed after me with her claws. Transforming. Finally. I had wondered how long they would wait. The elf kept a distance, magic user probably. Demons were better built for close combat. There; wing flaps, the others had finally come around, a mouth filled with sharp teeth was aimed at my neck. I simply took a bow and Gerha flew over me. Then the fire I had been waiting for, I used my own magic and repelled it, forced it back towards Darien himself. He dodged it. ’Nice try.’ I had only used my fangs and my speed last time we fought, it had been enough. But against this Darien and that elf... I spun around, Cora attacked me, blood came from her wound. She didn't transform completely because of it. I stopped her with one hand and sent her to the ground with the other. Then I noticed a darkness surrounding me. 'The elf. It's a spell'. I bend over Cora’s body and bit her in her neck, her blood tasted bad, but it had it's benefits. I didn't get to drink more than one mouthful before Gerha grabbed my waist and was about to rip my body apart when I looked him into his eyes and froze him. The spell wouldn't last long against his strength, I jumped up on his back, grabbed a good hold of his bat-like wings and bit him in the neck, sucking blood from him too. The blood would probably give me the demonic power I needed to fight the elf’s magic. Gerha ripped me off his neck, my fangs left a deep wound. I landed on the ground and moved away from his claws, searching for the fucking elf. He was still keeping a distance. The newbie threw himself at me, his wings weren't even fully grown, 'what is Gerha thinking bringing this child along?

I let the elf wait, and flipped the demon around, grabbed his wing and broke it with my hands. He screamed and tried to bite me, but I got a grip of his hair and forced his head back, Cora came in from behind, but the demon blood of Gerha made me see things invisible for the eye, she had no luck with the ambush, even the elf’s darkness was fading. I threw Darien at her, she punched him away and continued for me. Still too slow, I moved to the side, took her arm and turned it around, making it snap. She ignored the pain again. This was why I liked her, she had the stamina, plus, she was a sexy bitch. Cora flung her other arm at me, this time she actually managed to scratch me, over my left cheek and down my neck. Gerha came at me again, I jumped and let him crash right into Cora, then focused on the elf again. I got a fist in my solar plexus and spitted up blood. 'Fuck it, the newbie..' "Why can't you fucking lay down and pray for your life?!", I hissed at him and went for the elf again, he had weapons. Suddenly the darkness was gone and I faced a couple of dark eyes. My body felt stiff. 'Damn it!' The elf held a sword against my throat, he then drew it across, my head would have come of if it wasn't for the demon blood I had drunk. I used my own healing technique, but the cut was deep, red blood mixed with black flooded over the sword. Then the spell that froze my body wore off.

I grabbed the sword from the elf with my hands, it penetrated my skin, blood dripped onto the ground. I ripped it out of the elves hands and scratched his face with my claws, hissed at him, got a better grip on the sword, stole one of his knives and turned around for Cora and Gerha. He came flying at me, I lifted up the sword, cursed it and flung it at Gerha. He took a hit in his right arm, my curse would paralyze him slowly. 'Cora, come sweet girl...' The elf threw a knife at me, it was cursed as well, but I grabbed it in the air, and threw it back at him, he dodged, but didn't focus on me while dodging. So I came at him, grabbed his neck with my fangs and ripped it open. Suddenly a flash of red fire came at me. 'Ah, damn it, the newbie’s fire..!' I repelled it once more, it was close to hitting me this time. Sick and tired of him I sent the knife meant for Cora in his chest, aiming for the heart. It missed, I was unable to be precise due to my neck wound, too much blood had been spilled. I ignored it and quickly drew the knife out again, then faced Cora. I moved away from her attack and stabbed her in the back with the same knife. Where did Gerha go? Upon realizing what had happened I then laughed out loud. Gerha had left. 'Given up? Already? Learned your lesson from last time perhaps? Well, not good enough...' The others, realizing that Gerha had left, escaped from me too. 'Damn demons and teleporting..' The elf was gone with them.

I grabbed at my neck and snapped it back into place. The fight must only have lasted about 7 minutes, but to the undead that was an ocean of time. If I had been unprepared, the fight might have ended differently. I gave Gerha his credits for lasting this long, but if he thought he could bail out now, over a little paralyzation, he was wrong.

Raphael’s POV:

I saw Vaan walking slowly towards us. Me and Daniel hid ourselves from him, and in the same process hid the demons and the elf. Vaan looked far better than his enemies, only a few scratches down his cheek and neck. He came out in the opening in front of the cathedral. He looked in our direction, but didn't see us. So he took a few steps in another direction. I saw him searching. "What we doin'?", Daniel asked me. "If we let him see tha demons, they'll see us too ya know...", I answered. "Is he gonna kill 'em?" "Probably...", I mumbeled and looked at the demons and the elf again. 'One of them must be that friend of hers...', I thought. Then Vaan spoke, "Come on, Raphael..! Give them to me..!" Daniel looked at me, "U kno him?" "Yea." Vaan was smirking and wandering slowly around, like a predator waiting for his prey to jump out so he could eat it. I looked at him, then at Daniel, then at the group who were standing with us. "I don't wanna send 'em to a grave", I said, "One of 'em's Helles knight." "She got a demon guard?", Daniel asked surprised. "Yeah." "So we protect 'em then, right?" "Looks like we are."

"Raphael!", Vaan shouted, "What's so fucking good about keeping them alive? I'll only help the world get rid of some demons, I'm actually working for the good cause..!" He smiled evilly, "Yeah! I'm a freaking angel here! Come on, give them to me...." The demons were closing together. Preparing themselves for Vaan to attack them again. One of them was partially paralyzed and parts of his neck was an open wound, the other had it's arm broken and two deep cuts in her torso, the third had also been stabbed in his torso, close to the heart. The elf had lost a lot of blood and his energy was almost used up.

Vaan... he had only his scratches and a nasty wound around his neck, but it was closing up. "We protect 'em.", I said to Daniel, "But only until he leaves so they can get home to their nest." Vaan was getting impatient, walking back and forth. The minutes passed by. Then he suddenly stopped and smiled, "Okay then, you can go for now. But don't think I'll let you get away so easily next time! And you should really thank Raphael for this, don't know what he's thinking...." And with that he walked away back into the park. We waited until I sensed his presence far away, then I focused my mind back onto the demons that were still laying on our doorstep. "What now?", Daniel asked me. "Nothing.", I said, "They will probably leave now." The demons did start to move, they seemed to be a little unsure, and turned around, one of them sniffed into the air. "I think he's gone", the paralyzed demon said, "Your idea worked, Darien.", this he referred to the black haired demon. 'So that's Darien...', my eyes took in the demons features. The female supported the paralyzed one as they moved away, the elf following them. Darien waited for them to get further away, then he whispered out into the air, "Thank you Raphael." I smiled. To have a demon thank me... what an honor. "Thanks yourself. For taking care of her.", I said back. Darien jumped with shock, looked around frenetically, but he couldn't see us. Then he went after the others.