《Calla》Chapter 14
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Calla's mind was in hyper-drive as she followed the two Childe to an open air park without any vampires nearby. They came to a stop in the middle and faced her head on.
"Realised the futility huh." She smiled at the pair. Another two minutes and she'd of caught up enough that she wouldn't miss.
"You could say that." Turlin said with a shrug as he calmed the urge to lash out. "You know, you're quite troublesome for such a mousey thing."
"It's one of our better qualities you know." she smiled at him innocently as the barrel of the gun was pointed at the pair. "A lot of vampires are quite stupid and hold onto their human notions. They don't think a small woman like ourself is capable of great violence or overpowering them. Leena is one of those still affected by such thoughts."
"Fuck you. And why are you speaking like that?" Leena ground out but Turlin raised a hand to stop her. Calla slightly shifted the gun to point at Leena as her gaze sharpened.
"She wasn't being rude Calla, she was just curious."
"Oh." Calla said as she slightly lowered the gun. "It's just how we are. We came together and now we are one." Leena glanced at Turlin with a confused look but he just shook his head.
"Anyway....Calla, do we have to fight?"
"Well you don't have to we suppose." she said with a frown. "But we'll be killing you either way."
"With a gun?" he said mockingly. Calla just stared at the firearm for a moment before her gaze flickered to Turlin. "The cowards way." She just gazed at him silently before he decided to push further.
"I'm at half strength and you think yourself stronger than us. Why don't you prove it?"
"Okay." she smiled at him once more. "We'll let you manipulate our pride." She discharged the gun into the air, released the clip and threw the clip and body in separate directions.
"Nice one Turlin." Leena whispered to him and he felt a tad proud of himself. Before them, Calla stripped herself of her trench coat, boots and suit. She stood before them in a tight fit whole body suit that completely covered her up to her neck. She lifted up her coat and stuffed her hands in the sleeves, drawing out four knives. She flung two in front of Leena and Turlin. They slowly picked them up, the knives themselves being about eight inches of stainless steel, and ran their fingers along the blade.
"Do you always carry so much weaponry?" Turlin asked with a raised brow only to be met with an expressionless Calla. She tore a tassel off her coat and tied her brown locks into a bun before placing one knife in each hand.
She shuffled closer to them in a half crouch and they did the same, until only three meters was between them. Calla's mind was moving a mile a minute as her eyes ricochetted from side to side, taking in every detail of the pair. The world seemed to still as she immersed herself in the coming battle and she blocked out her surroundings. Usually it would be dangerous to do so but she'd detected no other vampires or wolves.
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'He's the only one to escape us. We need to hunt him again. He's weak, we should deal with the child-lover first. No no, dispatch him and then her....slowly.' Calla's mind cycled a lot of possible scenarios as the tree rotated each other.
She saw the subtle signal of eyes between the two and Leena lunged at her but as she went to counter and respond Turlin threw his knife. Calla twisted and parried Leena's blade, using the force of the clash to distance herself from the woman and dodge the incoming projectile.
As she went to move, Turlin was already headed there and made to tackle her. His experience had given him a good idea of where she'd move to. Sensing the danger of being held down she threw out her own knife towards Turlin, who dropped to the ground to dodge. Calla's eyes glanced back to Leena who had already changed directions and placed her on the back foot in retreat as Leena's blade slashed near her face.
She knew a tree was close behind her when she was backing up and back-flipped with her hands so she was crouched against the side of the tree, before pushing herself forward in a lunge. The tree bark cracked from the force of her legs' thrusting her forward. Leena was caught off guard by the move but was knocked to the side by Turlin who took a deep cut to the side of his stomach as Calla dived through them. She rolled forward when she landed and got back to her feet, whipping herself round to keep them both in sight.
"Turlin how is it?" Leena enquired quietly and he looked down.
"Not good." he said with a heavy smile. "She's very different isn't she?"
"How do you mean?"
"When the fight started, she became so serious. Look at her now. She's like a statue." Leena realised he was right. Calla was devoid of expression, no anger, resentment or happiness. It was a far cry from the taunting woman who had engaged them to begin with. "She's probably manifesting an ability."
"Is that bad?" Leena murmured under her breath, giving Turlin a glance every so often.
"The worst." he said with a resigned smile. "She must be close to the level of a Blood-letter, I've seen some of them do similar things."
"Well fuck." Leena cursed. "What do we do?"
"Listen to me closely." he heaved a sigh of resignation. "This wound....I won't be able to fight much longer and then you'll be on your own. I'll engage her and you flee, otherwise we're both going to die here."
"Turlin no-" Leena started but Turlin cut her off.
"If you survive, you can get Xavier to stop her. If you don't get away, we'll die and have achieved nothing. At least if you escape you can avenge me." He smiled and gave her a pat on the shoulder.
"Fine." she managed to spit out through gritted teeth. She looked angry but saw the sense in his words and was overcome with sadness at the fate of the man she called her brother.
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"Give me your knife." and she did. "I'm going, don't hesitate for even a second. Head straight to the stronghold." She nodded and at the signal of his nod he shot forward whilst she turned and fled back.
Calla dodged his lunge and snapped his arm in the middle. At the same moment she spotted Leena fleeing and was infuriated. She went to throw her knife only for Turlin to swap knife hands and stab into her arm. Calla winced before headbutting Turlin square in the face, knocking him to the ground. She span back around only to discover the red head had gone.
Her previously empty gaze turned deadly as she looked back down to Turlin.In a vengeance she brokeand beat him, repeatedly, until he was little more than a bloody mass on the floor.
'They tricked us. Denied us.' She screeched in anger at nothing in particular, only to hear Turlin laugh at her. It was soft and light but she definitely heard it.
"We know you can hear us." she said as she swooped close to his face. "Child-lover has escaped for now but we'll get her later. And you will help us."
"I don't think so." he managed to squeeze out.
"You will. We will devour you. Consume you." She bit into him and began to drain him, and released him when he was just on the cusp of consciousness. "We can feel it. With your life, we will become a Blood-letter and then we will hunt down the child-lover."
'What do you mean?' he asked in his head. 'How will my death help you become a Blood-letter?'
Calla was too angry to really enjoy her meal, but soon after she started drinking from him again, she felt the feeling. Her body and mind were changing, evolving and becoming something greater. The rims of her irises turned light blue which stood out against the angry crimson inside them. The muscles in her body became even tighter and her bones became like iron. The miniscule imperfect cracks that had been on her skin disappeared and became smooth to her vampiric vision.
'Blood-letter.' She thought with a sigh. 'The world is so clear.' She looked around with an expression of awe.Scents were more distinct and her eyes took in so much more. She pulled the knife out of her arm and it quickly healed over thanks to the freshly consumed blood in her system. Returning to her clothes, she quickly dressed and took a lighter from her pocket, and set Turlin's dry body alight.
'First Turlin and then Leena. That's two escapes in one night.' Her mood was feeling a bit down when she thought that she'd failed twice. 'She'll flee to Xavier now, probably to warn them about us. It won't be long before the news of a vampire-draining vampire gets around and the different sides start to put two and two together. We won't forget but it's time to cut our losses.'
Taking her phone from her pocket, she dialled up Zaros to get a status update.
"Redgrove." he said curtly.
"How's it going Zaros?" she asked softly as she began to walk towards some ongoing battles.
"It's going well on our side. Like you said, the vamps are wiping each other out, you get many?"
"Three Childe and some newborn." she said without any pride.
"Really?" his deep voice came through in disbelief. "Damn."
"Zaros, we need to speak to you in person if that is acceptable? It's important."
"One second." he paused and she heard muttering in the background. "Alright, where?"
"Outside the cafe? We will meet you in an hour."
"Okay, see you soon Redgrove."
Calla made haste to her apartment and got her old duffle she still had. She went to the basement and filled it with a couple of her body suits and as much blood as she could stuff inside. She rearmed herself, and got a new handgun. Calla grabbed a couple of bottles of cream body spray she had to disguise her scent and put her duffle out the front. With a cannister of petrol she kept to hand, she scattered it around the basement and all over the first floor and lit it without hesitation when she got outside. The flames would destroy anything they might use to learn about her.
She ran away from the building with her duffle slung over her shoulder but the screams of the burning humans seemed to carry on for miles as she smiled. She was soon at the cafe and found Zaros waiting outside. But before he could even turn to face her she punched through his chest from behind and ripped out his heart. The strength difference she now felt as a Blood-letter was amazing.
Calla drew her hand back and crushed the heart, leaving Zaros to breath his last breaths without even knowing who killed him.Running out of Sostine and down the highway she couldn't stop her bubbling laughter as she was once again free from a stupid society of self-important vampires who wanted to control her.
She'd managed to kill two of the five on her list and knew that sometime in the future she'd be back for Leena, Xavier and Avan. Her instincts demanded survival first when the chance of winning became nil.
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