These were true vampires. More vampire than human and healed just as fast but then Ace Martin of the Southern Five. Best friend and partner to Trevor Holmes rushed in with a gun drawn in one hand while using his other hand to move furniture around, waving for the chair to be lifted and tossed in the corner, causing it to break against another vampire as the wood pieces splintered his skin like darts. I slowly pulled myself up from the desk, seeing the man that was once behind me was torn apart by the throat, face barely recognizable, yet still alive as he coughed and sputtered dark blood from his mouth. It was important that they remained alive.
The pictures of all the cats watching everything happen suddenly screeched in fear when Ace waved his hand across the room. Using his fingers to point like he was counting each feline until they disappeared, and the pictures blacked out.
“They’ve seen enough to go back and tell but that’s alright,” Ace sighed as Adrias came walking towards me. His white curly hair was soaked with blood on the end as he immediately cupped my face. His breathing was harsh, and his nails dug into my cheeks when he examined me with such aggression and quiet anger.
“I’m fine,” I told him. His red eyes were bleeding to the point where his face was covered with blood stains cascading down his cheeks, but he continued to examine me. Bringing his nose to me for a smell, hand going through my hair as if he was looking for abruise before taking my arms to stretch out. I had one bruise on my elbow that he noticed, and he began to hiss.
“When I was four, I fell out of a tree when no one was looking,” I said, turning my elbow to show him just how old the bruise is. With my wings slowly folding like pages in the center of a book behind me, I tried to ease his anxiety. “Old wound, Adrias.”
“H..hurt,” he let out, straining against his teeth but I shook my head.
“No. Not hurt.”
His head slowly rotated as his shoulders cracked before Trevor’s deep yellow complexion began to bleed into his skin, the dark curls, and dark features faced mine where he was still covered in blood. I could see the blood in his teeth, embedded in his nails, and his white shirt was covered in old blood. Not from this incident. His nostrils were flared, and his jaw was locked with anger but instead, he brought my head close to his chest for a hard kiss on the skin. Only to take off his shirt, unbuttoning as fast as Ace claimed we needed to go. He immediately wrapped it over my chest to cover up the lack of fabric covering my bra and we made our way out. Ace placed some sort of charm on the room as it began to self-clean, resorting the broken pieces of furniture back to its original state. The blood from the fallen vampires were slowly draining back into their bodies as they began to heal.
I never got the chance to see the stadium but when we made our way outside, I saw nothing but siren lights going off in the distance. Everything was taped off as a thick cloud of black smoke trailed high into the sky where the stadium should have been. Instead there were families being placed in the dining hall in search of others, children were gathered around, reporters, media, everyone was here trying to figure out what washappening while the same scene replayed over and over again from different phones. The young princess running barefoot in the sand towards a live dragon.
“The second barrier has been opened like we knew it would be,” Vanessa said as Trevor held the phone out on speaker for all of us to hear. “I’m looking at the news showing Lake Lanier is blocked off, large smoke is appearing from the water. They think something is burning but…we know…the truth.”
“The entire stadium was swallowed by the water,” Trevor said. “They just formed a fucking lake in the middle of this school campus.”
“Grounds,” I silently corrected. “Vanessa, what are they saying?”
“Uh…Shit…It’s so much going on. Y'all better get back to Raven’s house because Maggie is…I don’t know what to do…None of us know what’s going on with her–––and–––”
“What are they saying?” I asked again. Maggie Grey was an entity on her own and would have to be dealt with but right now, this was far more important to me.
“Uh…They’re saying people drowned in Lake Lanier tonight from an unauthorized party and that boats were set on fire. There are rescue boats pulling bodies out and in search of others, but I think they’re not even telling the media everything. I think they’ve already found some shifters… It’s a total mess right now. I’m hearing the Wetlands has opened up and allowed shelter in place from the Triton himself. We need to get down to Lake Lanier and try and clean up as much as we can before the witches get a hold of it. It’s still my territory but…You know the Dubois…We don’t give a fuck about any of this shit.”
“Did you know about any other vampire clans that are local to the area?”
“No? Should I? What are you talking about?” She asked before groaning dramatically. “Please don’t tell me it’s more of y'all.”
Trevor and Ace looked at one another, sharing the same look while I gave a simple nod in confirmation.
“We will be heading back now.”
Souxie Lafayette
I stood against the back of a local police car as I watched everything play out. The stadium was nothing more than a lake with the canopy of trees sprouting above the water like an island. Parked cars, tents, and anything around it was taken in as the black smoke slowly began to clear up. Harvey and his brother were moving around like seasoned officers, giving out orders and making sure no one got close enough to the dangerous lake that was now a permanent fixture amongst Drew Collins grounds. I smiled when I saw Professor Akeem who apparently was released from his holding after finding no such connection to the First Family. He wore his UBI jacket, matching the rest of the officers and agents.
Solomon King seemed to move like a seasoned hero. I saw where he directed sirens to go in the water and pull out as many bodies as he could before they could appear on the other side. Just like Isis said, her mother and aunt were here, called to the scene and peacefully working side by side Solomon and his sirens without any problems. He truly was trying to make peace like she claimed. With a blanket draped over my shoulder, and despite it being dead in the middle of the late summer, Harvey made his way over to me with his stupid glasses and smug expression.
“Are you having suicidal thoughts?” He asked. I rolled my eyes and turned my head, ignoring him. “Are you thinking about death a lot?”
“Leave me the fuck alone, Harvey. You lied to me.”
“I never lied to you about my feelings,” he said as I kept my eyes on Professor Akeem who purposely avoided looking my way. “I never lied about my attraction towards you–––”
“You lied about everything else.”
“Yes,” he nodded. “And? I was doing my job.”
I turned to look at him as he stepped closer, smelling like my favorite cologne. He gently pulled my bruised hand in his where I attempted to do my spell.
“So no, I am not a student at Drew Collins. I went to Howard University above ground, one of the few schools that feeds into the Underground universities. I am an officer of the Underground Bureau of Investigations, and I usually work out of New York most of the time. Sometimes in DC but the official office above ground is in New York. Do you have any questions for me?”
“What’s your real name?” I asked.
