Enlightenment

Part 19

              A few hours later we were ready to go. When Jamie had woken up I had let him use the bathroom before I made sure he was securely tied up in the car.

              We couldn’t have all easily fitted into the Ferrari, so I allowed Julia to drive the others. Once they were all piled into the car she grinned at me;

“Race you there!”

I sighed, “Fine.” But they were already peeling out of the driveway.

              I quickly glanced around to make sure that no one was around before I started running.

              It was possible that I could beat them. The Ferrari was fast, but it had to follow the roads. I took the more direct route, running straight across the town, jumping across people’s gardens and running along the roofs.

              Occasionally I heard a dog bark, but I was long gone before anyone had any chance of seeing me.

              I stopped at the road leading up to the warehouse just before the car rounded the corner. I used the instant to brush my windswept hair back from my face out of the way, and I couldn’t stop myself from smiling briefly when I heard Julia’s curse as she spotted me.

              For an instant I worried about David and Anna, they must have been going at a breakneck speed to get there in that time, but I was quickly reassured when I heard Anna’s gasp as she got out of the car. David followed her looking impressed.

“How did you get here?”

Julia laughed; “She flew.”

Anna’s eyes grew big and round, “really?”

“No I ran.”

She looked faintly disappointed until the realization kicked in, “you ran all the way across town in that time?”

“Yes”

“woah…”

I frowned, “enough, we are here to sort out serious business.”

              I signaled for Julia to get Jamie out of the car, and Chris went to stand on his other side as we had planned. The other two got behind them and we walked the rest of the way in silence.

              We stopped several meters away from the entrance. With Anna and David present I didn’t want to go inside unless absolutely necessary. That would give the hunters the chance to get behind us where they would be unprotected.

              I knew that they knew we were there. There was no way they would be unaware of what was happening outside of their own building with the amount of security measures they had.

              Sure enough, within seconds I could hear the commotion within, as they all armed themselves and debated what to do.

              Eventually Sam stepped out first, followed by a large group of hunters all pointing weapons at us. An unexpected wave of hatred swept through me at the sight of him. I forced it deep down so that I didn’t do anything too reckless. Now was the not the time, regardless of my personal feelings towards him I wanted to get this matter resolved peacefully.

              Julia wrapped her arm around Jamie’s neck and muffled his cry of protest with her hand. I tried not to let this irritate me. Sam’s eyes were narrowed as he went straight to the point;

“What do you want?”

I looked him in the eye “I want this whole thing to be over. Here’s the deal, you leave us alone. Forget we ever existed… and we give you Jamie back.” I figured it was too much to ask for him to stop hunting vampires altogether.

He didn’t even stop to consider, “No.”

              Julia let out an angry hiss, but I held up my hand to silence her. I didn’t need her making the situation worse. Unfortunately she ignored me;

“How about this then? You listen to Jade here, and agree to the deal… or I snap his pretty little neck.” I glanced back to see her hands tighten and had to force myself not to react.

Jamie made a muffled sound and I spoke to Julia.

“Let him speak” this time she wisely listened to me.

“Sam, I think you should listen to her” with some difficulty he nodded towards me.

Shock passed across Sam’s face before it went blank. “Jamie, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that maybe… maybe you should take the deal. I’ve been watching them this whole time. They don’t want to hurt anybody; they just want to live their lives in peace.”

Apparently this was the wrong thing to say. Incredibility and fury filled Sam’s expression. “Can you hear what you’re saying? What have I been teaching you all of these years? Did you take nothing in?”

Now Jamie was starting to get angry as well, “of course I did. But we don’t know half of the things about these people that we think we do! They are just like us!”

Sam stopped looking directly at Jamie as his face once again went blank. He raised his voice to address his group. “Jamie has been corrupted by those creatures. Do not listen to anything he says. He is now on their level.” Roughly translated I guessed that meant kill him along with the rest.

Jamie let out a gasp “Sam! No! That’s not true-“his voice broke.

Sam raised a gun and pointed it straight at my chest. I raised my eyebrows in disbelief.

“A gun? You’re going to shoot me?” I knew it would hurt but… “You know that won’t do much damage.”

He grinned nastily “Normally it wouldn’t no… but this is a new thing we’ve been working on. Liquid silver capsules. One shot will be highly toxic for you. It might even kill you, if we’re lucky.”

              A small wave of fear crept through me. But I didn’t let it show. I don’t remember meeting a weapon that could so easily cause so much damage to me. Normal guns don’t bother me. I can usually manage to dodge the bullets, and if I can’t… well it hurts like hell, but it’s not going to kill me.

              But I couldn’t dodge them this time. If he shot and I moved it would hit one of the people behind me. Most likely one of the humans because they wouldn’t be able to move fast enough.

              My last shred of hope that he wouldn’t want to risk harming Jamie was destroyed when a saw his finger move and two loud shots echoed of the surrounding buildings.

              The first caught me straight in the chest and I felt myself fall backwards numbly. I caught a view of blood spraying from Julia’s arm as the second hit her before the pain registered. It was sudden and white hot. Shooting through my whole body and making me scream.

              My head tilted to the side in time to see Chris diving on top of Anna protectively before Jamie’s face swam in front of me looking terrified. I heard him call my name but it sounded as if he was miles away. I tried to smile at him reassuringly, and my hand reached up to touch his face before the world faded into blackness…