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Author's Chapter Notes:

Leo and Vela move out to test their strategy against the dreaded hunters, but does everything go according to plan? 

 

Action/plot chapter, very minor G/t content. 

Chapter Seven: Happy Hunting

 

 

 

The three of them went over the plan one more time. It was a rather simple strategy, but they would have to act quickly. The moon would be rising any minute now. Vela decided that she could borrow a little more time later by spending a few minutes now making special preparations.

 

“Leo,” Vela began, “you’ve seen Jacqueline’s other form. Were her wrists much thicker than they are now?” Leo considered this for a moment, trying to picture Jackie’s werewolf proportions.

 

“Not her wrists, no. Skinnier if anything. Her arms get a lot longer, and her hands get a lot bigger.”

 

“Perfect. Jacqueline, this will seem a little cruel, but I think you’ll understand the necessity.”

 

“What’re you gonna do to me?” Jackie asked apprehensively. Vela took up the dreaded silver dagger and snapped the blade off of it at the handle. Then, she took the blade in both hands and bent it into a ‘U’ shape.

 

“I’m going to pin you to the wall,” Vela said. She took some cloth and offered it to Jackie. “Wrap this around your wrist. It’ll guard you from the silver for now, but later when you struggle to free yourself, the silver will deter you for a short while.” Jackie nodded in understanding. She accepted the cloth and wrapped it around her right wrist securely. Vela then instructed her to place her hand against the cave wall. Jackie complied. Vela carefully positioned the U-shaped blade around her wrist and drove it into the rock until Jackie’s hand was pinned snugly, but not so tightly that it cut off circulation.

 

Leo, meanwhile, was transferring the remaining contents of his little food jars into one so that he could use the extras as delivery methods. He had two empty jars and one empty bottle once he was done. He then set about making a makeshift capping mechanism for them out of leather which he bound tightly around the rims with string. He offered the tiny containers to Vela.

 

“Can you fill these up?” He asked her. Vela took the tiny things in one hand.

 

“I surely can. But a whole jar-full would be a rather strong dose. The hunters would certainly feel adverse effects in the morning,” Vela said.

 

“Gonna hurt more than a dagger in the femur?” Jackie asked dryly. Vela smiled.

 

“Not remotely,” she said, and sunk one fang into the first jar, quickly filling it up with a mostly translucent liquid that had a very faint, pink coloration to it. In a moment, she had filled all of the containers. “Do you think that three will be enough, Leo?”

 

“Three will have to do. I don’t suppose you have any idea how many there are, Jackie?” She shook her head.

 

“I’ve got no memory of their party. You don’t retain a lot from when you’re a wolf. Sometimes little flashes, but nothing so substantial as a headcount.” Leo nodded.

 

“Well then, if there are more than three hunters, we’ll just have to improvise, right Vela?” Vela smiled, showing her fangs.

 

“Your confidence is inspiring, my little flame,” she said.

 

“I’ve never met a borrower so... self-assured,” Jackie said. “You’re a far cry from hiding at the sound of a footstep.” Leo grinned.

 

“I’ll take that as a compliment. I don’t know, I guess I’ve never really been in any real danger. Maybe that’s fooled me into adopting the ridiculous notion that there’s nothing to fear. Maybe I’ll learn.” He laughed while slinging his satchel over his back. “Okay. We should get moving. Vela?” Vela knelt down and scooped Leo up in her right hand, then tucked him into her cleavage securely. Jackie watched the casual act with interest. ‘Lucky guy,’ she thought. Then, she considered Vela’s position as well, and concluded that Vela was lucky too.

 

“Before you go...” Jackie began. Vela turned to face her in the entrance of the den. “Thank you both. Whatever happens tonight, thank you for trying... for not abandoning me.” As she finished, she was fighting back a sob. Vela’s face was unreadable. Then, she smiled in a warm way that looked almost a little wounded. Jackie didn’t know what to make of the peculiar expression.

 

“Don’t thank us yet,” she said softly, and then, was gone. They had bolted off into the night in pursuit of their game. Jackie was left sitting alone in silence and shadow. She stared into the night in the direction they’d gone as if she could somehow see how things would go. She looked at her pinned hand and gave it a little tug. It was a very secure brace. She was sure that she’d never get out as a human but wondered how long it would impede her other half. It wouldn’t be long, now. She could feel it in her bones.

 

She had experienced this more than a dozen times now, the coming of a true, full moon. When the moon wasn’t quite full. The extent of her change varied slightly, and the moonrise would take her by surprise, but the full moon she could feel coming for hours. It was as if it was shining through the earth itself and possessing her before finally doing its work. It felt energizing. Her body was heating up. She looked at the wound on her leg. It was already beginning to heal. Lycanthropy had its marvels, but then...

 

“If only...” she said quietly. “Could I really make them my friends?” There were tears in her eyes as her vision began to blur from the mental fog that overcame her senses as the first light of the full moon shone into the den. It had begun.

 

Vela sprinted through the woods faster than Leo had ever seen her go before. He figured that she wasn’t running at top speed when they were traveling. There was no real need. But this was astounding. He couldn’t even see anything. It was too fast for his mind to adequately process the dim objects as they passed him by. Vela’s first goal was the tree by which she had slept the night before. Then, once she had the original trail of Jackie’s arrival there, she turned and bolted in the new trajectory.

 

It was a simple hunt for Vela. The trails were fresh. A cunning human tracker would be able to follow them. Start at the tree, follow the blood-scent and trampled plants to the attack site, then pick up the hunter’s scent and find their camp.

 

“This shouldn’t take long, Leo, but we have some time to talk,” she said a little more loudly than she had spoken when they traveled before.

 

“I’m sorry I scared you tonight, Vela,” Leo began, cutting straight to the presumed point. “My not being there when you awoke must have been really confusing.” There was silence for a moment save for the rushing of wind.

 

“It was devastating,” Vela said. “I didn’t know what to make of it. I... I jumped to some unfair conclusions.” Leo’s heart ached at the idea that he had made her feel abandoned.

 

“I’m so sorry, Vela. I would never run off on you. I would never do anything to hurt you.”

 

“I know. I should have thought better of you. My emotions got ahead of my logic. Once I calmed down, even under ground, I could smell the lycanthrope. I’m not upset. It was just very jarring... last night we... it was so precious and wonderful and... vulnerable... and then you were gone.”

 

“Last night was the greatest experience I’ve ever had. I love you with all my heart. I belong to you now.”

 

“And I, to you.” This made Leo’s skin tingle with pleasure. But he still felt terrible about how he’d scared her. He could easily imagine her pain. If he awoke one night to find her gone, he wasn’t sure what he would do.

 

“And you should have woken up with me still beside you.”

 

“It’s alright, my light.” There was a pause. “But I swear if you ever scare me like that again, I’ll keep you inside my stomach for a week!” She said in a mock-serious manner. Leo chuckled.

 

“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” he said.

 

“It was a guarantee, delicious little man,” she said seductively. “But I also have to thank you. You saved my life. I can’t imagine how scary it was for you to stand up to a lycanthrope in a rage. I’m not convinced I could successfully fight her if it came down to it. And if she had succeeded in digging me up and exposing me to the sun, I would be no more. Your bravery and selflessness erase all other slights I felt upon awakening. You owe me no apology. I owe you my life.”

 

“You don’t owe me anything. You’re mine, right? I was just looking after my own.”

 

“Oh, Leo... then I am in good hands. All is well.”

 

“Ha! That’s right, your well-being is in my hands, while my everything can fit within one of yours.” Vela giggled. The conversation was taking the serious edge off of what they were preparing to accomplish. Leo didn’t know if Vela was nervous, but he was glad for the brief distraction. A delay in seriousness between points of business. He was also glad to have discussed her feelings about his brief disappearance. He knew that it wouldn’t sit well with her. But he also knew she would understand. A thought occurred to him concerning her level of understanding. Something she had said back in the den.

 

“Vela, back there, you told Jackie that her life was ours until we deemed that she could take care of herself. What did you mean?” Vela’s face twisted slightly.

 

“If we pull this off...”

 

“When we pull this off,” Leo jumped in. She sighed.

 

“Okay... once we are met with success, we can discuss things with Jacqueline more thoroughly. Tomorrow will be a new moon. She’ll be in a position of near-perfect mental clarity compared to her current fugue. I’ll be more comfortable hearing her out on her plans and decisions.” Leo frowned. So soon.

 

“Oh, I thought you meant something... different.”

 

“Did you think I intended to adopt a lycanthrope?” Vela asked with flat sincerity.

 

“‘Adopt,’ is a pretty inaccurate word for it. I just thought... she’s got a lot in common with us. No humans to rely on. On her own. Well, we aren’t on our own. We have each other. But she...”

 

“Lycanthropes have no friends and live short, violent lives,” Vela said. She wasn’t so much finishing Leo’s thought as much as his had shaped her own line of thinking. He was right, of course. She knew that. This ‘Jackie’ would not be long for this world, even if Leo’s plan worked, and to Vela, it really was a matter of ‘if,’ though she was trying not to doubt him. But Vela was also conflicted. Lycanthrope or not, the girl was still very much human in her eyes. Humans were unpredictable, fickle, and somewhat selfish creatures. They were even terrifying in a group. But then again, Jacqueline would likely nevermore be accepted into humanity as a member of a group. She was an outcast. She was still unpredictable, and even dangerous, but Vela couldn’t say that she seemed selfish. Her time as a fugitive had changed her. And Leo seemed to see something in her. Vela trusted Leo’s judgment of humans perhaps even above her own. He spent his life living in their shadow. Vela spent her life stalking them from shadow. She didn’t study their livelihoods or their ways, merely their habits and vulnerabilities.

 

Vela also had doubts for her own selfish reasons, and she resented that she was allowing such selfishness to interfere with her reasoning. The girl was trouble. She would pose very difficult logistical issues every month for days at a time, especially while they were nomads. Then, there was the more subtle issue; namely, Vela didn’t like to share.

 

She didn’t care that Jacqueline demonstrated obvious affection and perhaps even attraction for her Leo; that was superficial. Vampires weren’t jealous of physical affection. The things she occasionally did while feeding on humans could very easily be described by other species as sensual or downright lewd. It was very intimate. Nothing like she had done with Leo the night before, of course. Her body hadn’t responded like that in many years. But not too far shy of it from an onlooker’s perspective. And she would not give those tendencies up. However, Vela was very concerned with the emotional implications. Those aspects were very novel to Vela, and she was almost insecure about their potency— the hold they had on her.

 

The lycanthrope’s affection was understandable. Jacqueline likely saw Leo as her tiny savior, and to an extent, she was correct. Leo had mended her bleeding wound and even now planned to put himself in harm’s way for a lycanthrope who had plainly abducted him not a day before. Leo was in the midst of doing what no one else would do for the girl. Vela certainly wouldn’t be involved were it not for Leo’s insistence, but then, Leo was also her little savior.

 

She inwardly sighed. She knew what was necessary and already understood Leo’s position. She knew she would relent. But she needed assurances. She could accept the inevitable liability that came with traveling in a lycanthrope’s company. She didn’t care that the girl had an obvious attachment to Leo, or more broadly, borrowers. She didn’t care if Leo had an obligatory attachment for Jacqueline, or even more generally, an attachment for humans. Vela, too, had an attachment to humans. There were other benefits. For one, Vela could feed on her. That just seemed like a given to Vela. Secondly, Jacqueline could look after Leo in the day, much as Leo seemed to believe he was looking after them. Vela also understood that Leo couldn’t convert to nocturnal habits completely. He needed the sun. She wanted him to have it. He was almost her link to it.

 

There was even a chance that Jacqueline could prove instructive to Vela. Vela had lost touch with any humans who mattered to her ages ago. Most were likely deceased. What Vela did care about was Leo’s love. That, she had decided, belonged to her and her alone. Nobody else was entitled to his heart-fire. She had discovered it hidden behind a wall and it had been burning her beautifully ever since.

 

“Alright, Leo,” she said.

 

“Alright, what, Vela?”

 

“You win. When there’s more time, we’ll discuss short-term plans with Jacqueline. The girl can stay with us.” Leo knew that there was more to this.

 

“What’re your conditions?” He asked.

 

“I’m glad you already know me so well,” she said. “First, I need you to consider, this girl could get us both killed.”

 

“Such was our introduction. I know that.”

 

“Second, I will take more time to warm up to a human than I did to you. I haven’t... bonded with one in a while. Don’t expect this to be a happy family—not in short order.” Leo nodded. Vela collected herself. “Finally, your body is your own, your freedom is your own, but last night you gave your heart to me. I don’t know if you understood what that entails, but I’m very jealous of your love. I just had to say that.”

 

“And yet, I knew it. It goes without saying that my heart is only yours. Don’t be jealous of the werewolf.” Vela laughed softly. Leo wasn’t sure he completely understood her phrasing just then. His body and freedom were his own? He tried to make sense of it. He would have to ask her for more clarification later. At the moment, Vela suddenly cut slightly to her left in a quick directional change.

 

“Now, onto the task at hand. I’ve picked up another scent. It’s human. It appears that they pursued her a while, then they backtracked. We’ll be on them soon. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Leo thought about his little plan. It was a simple matter of stealth.

 

“I’m sure. I’m ready. Just... careful with your aim.” Vela scoffed.

 

“Operation ‘flying squirrel.’ How very absurd!”

 

“It’s beauty and elegance are in its simplicity. You’ll see,” Leo insisted.

 

They were coming up to a clearing. Leo could see orange firelight through the trees. His heart began to beat faster. So much for distractions. His task was at hand and he was becoming dreadfully nervous. His whole life centered around stealth, but he had always been on a mission to ‘borrow,’ never to deliver...

 

They neared the edge of the clearing and took in all that they could see. There was a large fire and three large tents. Four people sat around a small table chatting loudly and drinking from big, metal goblets. They were dressed in an assortment of chain mail and plated armor, some leather and some steel. They were all heavily armed.

 

“Three men and a woman,” Vela said quietly enough that only Leo could hear.

 

“I couldn’t tell that from here,” Leo said. “That’s a problem; I only have three doses.”

 

“I’ll incapacitate the fourth, just get the venom in three of their drinks and I’ll go for the last once it begins to take effect. You must act quickly. This has to be quick and quiet, lest we alert our lycanthrope friend and she does unforgivable things to their sleeping persons.” Leo nodded, and took a deep breath. He held it for a moment before letting it out slowly. It would be easy, he said to himself. It was just like stealing a piece of holiday pie while the master of the house drank too much mead at the same table.

 

“Okay. I can do that,” he said.

 

“Are you nervous?”

 

“Yup. Ready when you are.” Vela smiled. ‘This man,’ she thought.

 

“Such gallantry. Alright.” She pulled him from her cleavage and held him in her right hand as one would a dart, her thumb and forefinger on his chest with her hand under his legs. She brought him to her lips and gave him a long, silent kiss. “Be silent and swift, my little poison projectile. Before Leo had a chance for second thoughts, she threw him.

 

He sailed high into the air in a parabolic arc above the party of hunters as they chatted without a care. He got a good look at them while soaring towards his objective. Vela had excellent aim, and he weighed next to nothing, so the throw was easy, and his landing would be harmless. He landed directly at the base of the table around which the humans sat, narrowly passing under the edge of the tabletop at just the right angle. He hit the ground and rolled into the base.

 

It took him a second to get his bearings. Being thrown like that was rather disorienting. He sat up and dusted himself off. Then, he looked into the woods at where he thought Vela was still standing. He couldn’t see her, but he gave a thumbs up in the general direction, figuring she would be watching him closely. He made his way around the base of the table and took inventory of the four people’s positions.

 

He couldn’t see them but for their legs in his current position. He could also see the weapons they all had strapped to their sides. There was a hammer that looked more like a gigantic meat tenderizer which belonged to the biggest of the bunch. Leo decided to think of him as ‘Big Guy.’ There was a bow leaning on the table next to a much leaner figure. Leo hated the idea of someone shooting a human with arrows, so he named him, ‘Coward.’ Then, a broadsword hung beside the woman at the table, so he referred to her as, ‘The Knight.’ Finally, the gaunt man he had seen at the table across from Big Guy was armed with three daggers. There was an empty sheath on his left side where one dagger was missing. ‘Bastard.’

 

They were all facing each other. This would be difficult. It would be hard to sneak up behind one person in plain view of the other three. Still, he had come this far, and borrowers weren’t ‘known for nothing’ for nothing!

 

 

 

He made his way up to the chair of the largest man. The armor he wore was thick and made of leather. He thought he stood a good chance of climbing him unfelt. As he made his way up the chair, he began to take note of their ongoing conversation.

 

“And the moon’s just come out, so last round,” said Big Guy.

 

“Oh, there’s no hurry. I’ll wager she’s bled to death by now. Anyway, she can’t go far or fast. But no matter where she is, she’ll come limping over if she’s still alive once we sound that alarm,” said Coward.

 

“Well she better! Otherwise we’ll have to go find her! You got any idea what a silver dagger costs?” Asked Bastard with indignation.

 

“More than a bribe for a murder charge?” Asked Coward. “Cause if you go pulling that dagger out of a dead girl who ain’t looking like a wolf, and someone sees? That’s where you’re gonna be.”

 

“Yeah, probably have to bribe the constable with your other three,” Big Guy said, laughing.

 

“And who’s gonna see? Ain’t no one else in these mountains but us and ours. No one is gonna rat on me for getting my dagger back. And if she’s dead, so be it. Don’t wanna miss the price for her pelt and my dagger!” Bastard growled. Leo was practically sick with rage towards these people, and him in particular, but he kept his head. He was at the waist of Big Guy.

 

“Besides, if she’s not dead, she’s a wolf. We finish her off. If she is dead? Well. One less fucking werewolf,” Bastard proclaimed.

 

“Here-here,” said Big Guy. “And here’s to your aim, off by an inch like always.”

 

“Oh, go have a sit on your bloody hammer, you miserable lout,” said Bastard.

 

“Yeah, you hit nothing but tree,” said Coward.

 

“And you didn’t even fire an arrow!” Countered Big Guy, standing up and slapping the table with both hands. Leo held onto his belt and rode his momentum onto the table’s top. He rolled, stood, and dunked an uncapped canister of venom into Big Guy’s drink with the grace of a ballerina, swiftly rolling back off the table and onto the ground. He darted under the chair of the woman who sat beside him and across from Coward. In the commotion, she had picked her drink up from the table to save it from spilling.

 

“Dammit all, you almost spilled my wine. We don’t have much left, ya know,” The Knight protested.

 

“Relax, Goldilocks. One way or another, we’re only gonna be here one more day. In spite of what these two buffoons have to say about my aim, little werewolf ain’t walking that one off. I didn’t hit her heart, or even her artery. But it was deep. I threw that like I was aiming for a target a mile off and she was not five yards away. No way that’s not dug RIGHT into the bone! Bastard said with pride. “And I haven’t even got any arrows!”

 

“Alright, alright,” began Coward. “If you want me loosing arrows while you three are dancing around a werewolf, don’t complain to me when ya take one in the gut. Silver doesn’t care that you ain’t got the curse, it’ll kill ya nonetheless.” As he spoke, The Knight set her cup down on the chair next to her, still in her hand. Leo had been waiting in position and dropped another dose of venom the second it ‘clinked’ against the surface.

 

“Ugh, you two and your long-range weapons. You’re always so proud when you get a kill even though it’s me and him,” she said, nodding towards Big Guy, “who always really put our skin in the game. Hell, werewolf last night ruined my chest plates. Good thing she didn’t like dipping her claws in silver plated steel. But I’m pissed. I say we get this show started and try to lure the poor bitch back out for the final round.” Leo was making his way up the bow next to Coward. Almost there.

 

“Ah, ya bloodthirsty bastards, give it a damned minute,” grunted Big Guy. “I’ve still got half a glass here. And I thought we agreed on one more round!”

 

“Alright, fine. I’ll go get it,” said The Knight. She turned in her chair and reached for a big wine skin hanging on the tree behind her. As they all looked at her expectantly, Leo leapt from the tip of the bow and dropped the last dose into Coward’s glass before zipping off the table and leaping off the other side. He slid to a halt and was about to finish his descent when he was suddenly and rather uncomfortable cut off. He’d been in the chair when The Knight sat back down with the wine skin. Her leather clad buttocks came crashing down atop of him, flattening him out on his chest like a pancake. He would have cried out in pain, but all the air was pressed from his lungs. This was not his idea of ‘according to plan.’ He could hardly move a muscle.

 

“Alright, cups,” the knight said. Everyone downed the contents of their cups and passed them to her one at a time, and she topped them off. Then, she drained her own cup, wiped her lips with the back of her hand, and filled it back up. “I’d rather sip this strong stuff than get started hunting a corpse anyway.” She made to stand up, but suddenly felt a strange lump in her chair. She leaned to the side and looked down. “What the ever-loving fuck?” She gasped.

 

Leo, still quite out of breath, stood up and attempted to run. Instead, he merely stumbled out of the chair and onto the ground. He crawled an inch or two before a silver dagger struck dirt not hair’s breadth from his face.

 

“Well, Vela. Hope you’re watching,” he mumbled with a pained tone. Suddenly, The Knight’s boot landed beside him, and she grabbed him by his leg and held him up in the middle of the table.

 

“Whatcha got?” Big Guy asked.

 

“A little thief!” Exclaimed The Knight. “And he was pinned right under my ass! How’d ya get down there, ya sorry little excuse for a rascal?”

 

“Uh,” Leo groaned between a small fit of coughing. “Was going for the wine? Not much of it around these parts.”

 

“Oh, what’s that? Little thief wants to pinch a thimble of wine! And look, he’s even got a little container for it in his hand! Awe, you dumb little... you all see this?”

 

“I saw you miss it with your dagger,” Coward said to Bastard.

 

“Shut up and mind your drink, ya no good...” Bastard began, but The Knight cut him off.

 

“You ever seen one of these?” She asked Big Guy.

 

“A borrower? Nah.”

 

“They don’t borrow, they STEAL!” She said gleefully. “Well how’s about I give you what you came for, eh?” She said, and dunked Leo into her wine glass for a moment before extracting him and dropping him on the table. “You manage to fill your little glass up in there, little thief?” Leo landed in a heap. He looked at the canister. There was actually a little wine in there.

 

“Cheers,” he said, holding the glass up. The knight began to giggle uncontrollably. Leo wondered if the venom was working and she was interpreting it as unexpected strong effects of alcohol. If drunk is what she was expecting, maybe drunk was how she felt? Leo looked over at Big Guy. He looked fine, and he was the first person Leo dosed.

 

“Drink up then, little thief. Enjoy it. Then, you’re target practice. No one steals from us,” Bastard seethed. Leo was feeling rather big just then. He’d noticed something...

 

“I’d say you’ve thrown your last miss, my friend. If your aim was better, we’d never have met, but as it happens...” Leo trailed off.

 

“What was that, you little shit?” Bastard began, but then he was distracted. Coward suddenly fell face first onto the table, totally unconscious. “The hell?” The Knight went to draw her sword, but she only got it half-way before her fingers slipped from the handle and she fell out of her chair, totally limp. Big Guy didn’t move. He had passed out in his seated position and remained exactly as he had been, save for a loud snore.

 

“What the hell is this? What’s going on, thief?” Bastard shouted, drawing his remaining two daggers.

 

“Little cocktail I like to call ‘Vampire’s Kiss,” came a sultry voice from behind him. He turned and stabbed with his right hand but hit nothing but air. He saw a pale blur moving to his left, so he swung his left dagger at it. The assailant caught the blade in her teeth and bit down, shattering the dagger. She caught him by his left hand and spun him around and dipped him low as one would a dance partner and smiled in his face. Then, in an instant, she had his neck in her teeth. She bit hard and injected him with a strong dose. He tried to scream, but her hand covered his mouth so tightly that nothing but a muffled grunt could he heard.

 

When she had fished, she dropped the man to the ground with a dull ‘thud,’ licking her lips. Vela took a deep breath.

 

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Leo.” She said.

 

“That was getting a little intense, yeah. But...” he looked around. “A job well done?”

 

“I was worried when he threw the dagger, but he really does have awful aim.” Vela said. “Getting sat on hurt much?”

 

“Only on such a stiff surface.” Leo commented, rubbing his aching back.

 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Vela said jokingly.

 

“Hey, now. Don’t go making assumptions. Bastard taste good?” Vela looked at the fallen man.

 

“Sure. Good as any man who hasn’t bathed properly in weeks. I did have a little drink... couldn’t help it. Tasted blood once tonight and got thirsty, even if I don’t need it.” Leo laughed.

 

“I’m sure that monster can spare some. Come on; let’s grab something stinky off one of these guys and go lead Jackie to... Vela?” She was staring intensely into the woods behind him.

 

“Oh, dear,” she said calmly. “We miscalculated.” Leo turned around slowly. There were six armored men frozen where they stood, having just emerged from the woods into the clearing.

 

“Don’t suppose we can negotiate?” Leo asked. Vela snatched him up and sprinted towards the stunned party. She seemed to float from the ground and kicked the lead member square in the chest, knocking him back a few feet. He choked out a silent, agonizing gurgle as bones broke. She continued straight through him and sprinted onward.

 

“That’s a fucking vampire!” Someone shouted.

 

“She killed all four of em!” Cried another.

 

“After her!” Screamed a third.

 

“What? Screw that! She’ll slaughter us like—” began the second.

 

“You heard me!”

 

Vela charged into the woods at a speed Leo knew to be very restrained. He understood why. She was leading them on a chase away from where they’d left Jackie.

 

“Happy hunting,” Leo grunted.

Chapter End Notes:

Thank you for reading! Looks like the action is just getting started! More in the next chapter!

 

If you enjoy my writing or have other negative, constructive criticism to offer, please feel free to share your feelings in a review! 

 

Leo and Vela's adventure continues now in Chapter 8! -->

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