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At first, I think I’ve somehow managed to enter this room stealthily despite my brazen need for Quinn making me feel like we’re charging in, guns blazing. But then I see a hideous-looking vampire approaching Quinn, ready to do unspeakable things to her, as she looks on helplessly, still bound by chains and seemingly immovable.
“Boss says I can’t have fun,” he says, with an unsightly rasp. “I’ll show him.”
He looks to be far older than I am, but he has lived a life much crueler to him. I see traces of life-extending formulas in his skin, hair, and eyes that have all failed and run their course, thinning his hair, leaving his skin patchy and eyes perpetually bloodshot. His bones and muscles seem to have deteriorated as well, leaving unsightly and illogical masses where his form should be.
And I know that if I rush to save Quinn from him, I’m going to blow our cover.
But I don’t care. She is mine. She most certainly does not want to give in to him.
I begin to charge just in time for Ren and Rory to catch up to me, dissuading me in harsh whispers.
“Don’t!” Rory says. “You’ll expose us before the rest of our team can catch up!”
But I’m not about to let this fiend violate her. As I rush into him, I try to understand his physique, grabbing onto what I think is muscle to catch him off balance and throw him to the ground.
“Intruders!” He shouts meekly, rasping and coughing as he lands on the rocks. “PEACE has arrived!”
I am full of fury, as I tear into the elderly vampire, punishing him for what he was about to do. I retrieve a stake from my pocket and drive it into him.
“Very good, Caspian,” Alistair says, appearing from behind a stalagmite. “We’ve been expecting you.”
He is clad in a hard, plate armor that makes simple methods like staking him difficult.
“Thank you for handling Loris. He’s been quite unruly, and I didn’t have the heart to stake him myself,” Alistair adds.
Several vampires appear from behind him, some also clad in similar armor to safeguard themselves.
I think to reach for the stake, which now lies on the ground beside me where the vampire named Loris died. But I cannot make any sudden movements.
This fight may be difficult.
I look at Quinn, who seems grateful for stopping the vampire, but also too weak to speak. I clench my fists at the realization that a venom courses through her, ravaging her from the inside. If we’re going to get her out of here and save her, we will need to end this quickly.
We can still save her, but we’ll need Rory’s assistance.
Before I can strategize further, still paralyzed by being torn between saving Quinn and stopping the vampires, Alistair charges at me, accompanied by four vampires. They knock me to the ground and pile on top of me, Alistair retrieving my stake before I can grab it and driving it forward.
This may be the end, as I see the stake within inches of my torso, his hand just above me. I think of how pathetic it would be to die here, overwhelmed by common, criminal vampires while Quinn dies slowly beside me.
I think I feel the stake penetrate me briefly.
But before Alistair can impale me with it, it vanishes from his hand.
His fist pounds forward, and now his hand is on my chest. He looks at me, confused.
“What?” He asks. “What did you do?”
I feel the cool plate armor on top of me, worn by Alistair and the other vampires, begin to heat up. He looks down at his armor, as it now glows red, and he screams. The other vampires climb up off of me, tearing at the armor, attempting to pry it from their bodies.
The fire becomes molten on them, searing into their flesh. Only Alistair, in a fit of rage, tears free from the fiery armor, but as the other vampires claw helplessly at it while it lights up around them, they combust spontaneously and become ash, flayed alive by the holy, cleansing power of the flames. The remains of their armor fall to the ground, nearly liquid.
He glances at the tunnel entrance, where Rory smirks, clutching the stake, and Ren is mid-transformation, teeth bared and fur covering his form.
“You bitch!” He yells at Rory, charging into her and knocking her to the ground. She is caught off-guard from the assault, her smile instantly fading.
She attempts to find the leverage she needs to drive the stake up into him, but he pins her arm to the ground.
“You think your cheap parlor tricks mean anything to me?” Alistair roars.
