The Vampire's Harvest

129

Uncertain how a pepper shaker could keep an army of vampires away, you put your trust in magic and remove the sticky shaker from your pocket. Holding the pepper in the palm of your hand, you cast a similar charm as you used on the jack-o-lantern, hopeful it may conjure something akin to a shield.

The glass heats in your hand, before evaporating completely. The pepper remains a dark, speckled pile upon your palm. At the end of your enchantment, the grains rise up and encircle you like a cloud. For a moment you gaze at the expanding sphere with wonder.

Then you take a breath.

You inhale the pepper and your throat burns like fire. You cough and choke, your steps shaky as your body quakes. Your eyes water as you look out towards the street, but you turn away to blink the tears that fight to cool your aching eyes.

Through gasps and wheezes you mutter a retraction spell that will cancel the one you had initially set upon the pepper. The cloud of grey falls to the ground as you lean into one of the cool brick walls surrounding the alley. Your chest heaves and your eyes sting, but you do your best to assess the situation so you can decide how to regain your footing.

However, your little trick has gained notice and though some look on with amusement, many have taken your bizarre spell as a challenge.

You stumble backwards as the vamps rush into the alley. You turn in the opposite direction with hopes of finding the coven close to the end of their ritual. However, as you run through the narrow passageway, you find that they too are being surrounded. The once firm, confident chant of their spell is now a rabble of nervous noise. Ferris finishes with a booming command, but with the others distracted and out of sync, you worry what the result might be.

Will-o-wisps shoot out from the center of the coven's circle and most find their aim in the vampires, however some of the ethereal flames make way to the wolves and soon both nightwalker and moon beast are lit ablaze. Flames of rosy red flicker and dance as the vamps and wolves flail around. Their faces contort with irritation, their eyes darting to you and the coven with clear intent to do harm once they've extinguished these bothersome fires.

And extinguish them they do after some quick rolling in the dirt street.

You and the coven watch as the whole battle comes to a standstill while both sides of the fight take dirt baths. You look back and forth from the others, wondering if this was the intent, if this was the expected result. From the looks on their faces, you aren't sure they know either. So you turn to Ferris and find the color drained from his face.

"Run, all of you," he commands. He beats it down the alley while the coven looks with panic at each other, before glancing towards the battle torn street. The wolves and vamps don't seem quite as concerned with each other anymore, instead they look rather partial to human sacrifices.

Before one mage can even manage to scream, a vamp tears out her throat with his teeth. That provokes enough fervor in the others to send them charging after Ferris. However, neither wolves nor vamps know exactly who is coven and who isn't. They start picking off humans indiscriminately. The innocent bystanders rush to get back into their homes, but many are plucked from their stoops. As for you, you find one particularly angry wolf, who is now missing a large patch of fur on his shoulder blade thanks to the coven's fiery failure, is readying a pounce. Fear and guilt keeps you rooted in your spot and you wonder if the wolf would have the good graces to kill you quickly.

You never find out.

Just as the wolf leaps at you, another blur of fur fills your vision. Fur of golden brown honey.

"Gianette!" you cry as she beats the wolf back. Relief swells in you to a point that you think your ribs might crack, but when Gianette turns with teeth bared, the air quickly leaves your lungs. You ready a plea, but she grabs you in her great jaw and then runs down the street, tackling a vamp here and there in order to clear your path. The jostling digs her teeth into your stomach, though she never breaks your flesh thanks to the thick fabric of your clothes and cloak. By the time you reach the woods, you feel like you'd been soundly beaten in a thick burlap bag.

Gianette drops you to the ground with an unceremonious thud before turning back for town. You reach out and call to her, but she growls in response. You flinch, recoiling at the sight of her curling lips and flattened ears. With that as her goodbye, she races off, leaving you with only the clear message that you are not welcome in the town and that you'd better be gone by the time she returns.

You decide to listen to your sister. You head out into the woods, not knowing where to go or what to do. Only knowing that you'll now be forever alone.

***

You've found one of the unsuccessful endings for this branch of the story... Why not go back and see if there's a way to keep the vamps at bay?