The Vampire Next Door

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty

Death was not a new thought for Paige, when her parents had died; she wanted it, yearned for it. Now it was different things had changed, she had changed she no longer embraced the idea of dying, not now she had someone to live for.

She watched Ipes as he circled her for the third time, she had hoped that there might be some way she could reason with him, some better nature she could appeal to but she was kidding herself. He only wanted one thing and that was to make her suffer. The fact he was taking so long about it only made her believe he was silently plotting ways he could end her life.

"Where's that idiot vampire you're so attached to?" He asked finally breaking the silence.

Paige looked up to him and narrowed her eyes, she could see from the look on his face that he feared Seth and rightly so, because Seth was going to kill him when he finally got his hands on him.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" She mocked.

She could see how angry he was when he narrowed his eyes at her and growled, "You think you're funny don’t you? Well let me tell you something little one the fun and games haven't even begun yet!" He hissed.

She watched him as he turned and looked at April expectantly, wanting the answer to the question he had just asked Paige. When she shrugged her shoulders, he became incensed.

"I'll ask you both once more, where is he?" He roared his cool facade slipping.

"Over here," Seth said, approaching them with Marcus by his side.

The look of fear that washed across Ipes's face did not go unnoticed by Paige even if it was only for a split second.

"Is he your backup?" Ipes asked pointing to Marcus, his tone traced with humour.

Marcus looked towards Seth and rolled his eyes, "Backup? No I just came along to watch him kill some demons." He said glancing at Ipes.

Ipes laughed with him, clearly not fazed by his prescence. It was Seth that he was bothered about, Seth was the one who held the power, he could sense it. He watched them as they stopped and Seth turned to face Paige.

"Paige come here," he ordered. Seth glared at Ipes daring him to stop her from coming to him.

Paige got to her feet and shakily made her way over to where Seth was, she held her breath half-expecting Ipes or one of his demons to attack her. She breathed a sigh of relief when she was pushed between Seth and Marcus. It made her heart sink that he didn’t embrace her, or even ask if she was all right.

“Are you alright?” Marcus asked stroking her arm, they both ignored the fierce glare Seth gave them.

“Yes, I think so,” she whispered finally looking at Seth who was still glaring at their exchange.

Ipes cleared his throat gaining Seth’s attention once more and that same glare was now trained on him, “What do you want, I’m tired of your games now!” Seth spat.

Ipes seemed to think about the question for a while before he answered, “I want revenge, I want you to pay for what you did to my sister!” he hissed.

Paige looked at Seth in confusion and frowned when he seemed just as thrown by Ipes’s outburst. It didn’t take him long to realise who he was talking about and when he did he laughed at him, “Oh I remember her, yeah sorry about that,” he told him with a smirk.

Ipes was furious with his lack of remorse, it was without question that he had taken her life deliberately, just down to the fact that he hated demons. Seth had become quite well known among their kind for killing demon women and it wasn’t something that sat well with Ipes.

“You cannot go unpunished!” he roared, he had come to earth to kill Seth but had become sidetracked along the way, but now he was back to square one and he wanted nothing more than to finish what he should have a long time ago.

Seth shrugged his shoulders, he didn’t care, remorse wasn’t something he felt especially when it came down to demons. They were pure evil, they had no redeemable features, they had no souls they deserved to die.

“So you want to finish this once and for all?” Seth asked.

Ipes nodded his head then glanced at Paige, “I want you to kill her!” he demanded.

Seth and Marcus both burst into a fit of laughter at his ridiculous request, as if he would ever kill her for a demon. He always thought Ipes was a little insane but now he had just proved it. He was done with playing games now, the small talk was over he wanted him dead and he was going to kill him and end it once and for all.

“I’ve heard quite enough of your bullshit to last me a lifetime,” Seth told him.

As he moved to walk towards him, Paige’s hand shot out and she grabbed him. He glanced at the hand that was wrapped around his arm and frowned at her. He could see she was scared but he was a vampire, he was not as fragile as she was, nor was he as scared.

“Paige now is not the time,” he hissed pushing her hand away and glaring at Marcus, silently warning him to keep her safe.

“But...”

“But nothing,” he snapped at her, she was just prolonging the process and he was already fed up, he growled at her warning her not to push him any further.

He didn’t particularly like frightening her, but sometimes he could wrap his hands around her throat and throttle her. She knew nothing of what was facing them and by trying to stop him, she was giving Ipes and his demons ample opportunity to attack them. He could see the defeat in her eyes, and when she finally let go of him he smiled at her softly, hoping it might reassure her that he was going to be okay.

He kept his eyes on the five demons that were surrounding their master, protecting him and he was watching April who had yet to make a move or even speak. He knew nothing of what was going on inside her head, he had no idea where her loyalty lay, or what part she had played in Ipes’s being there.

“So you want to play the hard way?” Ipes asked with a smirk.

Seth laughed and nodded, “Always.”

Ipes clicked his fingers and before anyone could react, the demons were descending on Seth, intent on killing him. All they knew was killing, and  all they wanted was death that was what they lived for. They liked to cause suffering and pain whether it was to a supernatural creature or a human.

Seth hissed as one of them bit into his arm, its toxic saliva burning his skin, it was a pain much worse than holy water. He bit down the urge to gasp as the burning sensation coursed through his veins. He wasn’t going down without a fight and he was damn  sure a bit of demon spit wasn’t going to be the cause of his death.

He grabbed hold of the demon that had bitten him and gouged his eyes out, enjoying the screams of pain and slight wince from Ipes. He rubbed the black blood between his fingers and smirked as he shoved the spiny, pale demon away from him. He could hear Paige’s screams behind him, he could hear her begging Marcus to do something, to make it stop but he pushed her voice out of his mind and got ready for the onslaught of furious demons that all pounced at once.