I Am A Monster

I Am A Monster : Chapter 14

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Chapter 14

Once our old camp is cleaned up of the dead and the wounded are treated, our trek starts. We morph. Then we run for miles, our muscles working together tirelessly, using the pack link to show each other obstacles, working like one huge, oiled robot. Sabrina leads, her piercing yellow eyes narrowed.

Something coming up ahead, thinks a younger member of the pack, Jaclyn. We slow down. Smells like vampires. What do I do?

Suddenly, something leaps out of the branches, which rustle. It's a vampire, no older than a teenager, snarling, her bright, vivid crimson eyes swiveling around. She attempts to grab me and crush my ribs, but I outmaneuver her easily. I've pinned her to the ground in seconds, and I hear her cry out in pain as her back slaps against the dirt. I lean down and hear her ragged breath, see her wide eyes for one short second, before snapping her neck with a satisfying crunch.

A battle cry goes up--a vampire battle cry. Dozens charge out of the forest. Why dozens again? I think, as I kill the first vampire--but even more are surging out of the trees. We're hopelessly outnumbered. I transform into my human form and unsheathe my blade. Black Flame pulses with dark energy, radiating it across the battlefield and making the enemy take a step back, distracted, giving the werewolves a second to destroy them and sink their fangs into the vampires' necks. Then they unfreeze and continue to fight. I, on the other hand, use Black Flame like it was custom-designed for me. My fingers fit around the wooden hilt in a natural way, like the manufacturer had studied my hands for years. The blade feels so good in my hands, so natural, like a second half of me.

The other half.

I slice through my enemies as easily as one would slice through butter with a steak knife. Vampires erupt into dark, black flames. For once, I'm smiling. I don't remember the last time I've smiled. Spitting ash out of my mouth and continuing to grin like a crazy person, I annihilate my enemies.

Then the ground erupts underneath me, and I hear a bellow, one of a huge creature, and immediately recognize the sound as the beast that had chased me so many years ago, the day me and Emma split up.

My fighting becomes subdued as I hear the beast thundering closer. Finally, it bursts out of the trees.

The beast looks like a hunched-over thing, like a cross between a hairless monkey and a T-Rex. It's hunched forward, with mottled green skin and acid green eyes with slits down the middle. Its arms and legs are short and stubby, and it looks large and powerful. It has a wide, slavering mouth, with two rows of dagger-like teeth. It roars, and the ground vibrates.

For some weird reason, I'm not scared. I'm furious. I'm furious and it's clouding everything else out. I'm shaking with suppressed rage. I charge forward, slicing any enemy that dares to get in my way, and jump straight at the beast.

The blade sinks deeply into its arm. It roars in pain. I hang there, gripping my sword, being swung wildly around, until it manages to throw me off. I go sailing through the air. I transform in midair, and land on its back, my claws digging into its inch-thick skin.

Since my claws are several inches long, they pierce its body, though only barely. It makes a strange sound, like a cross between a strangled yelp and a teeny roar. It's almost comical.

I bite down on my neck with my thin, needlelike, razor-sharp teeth, and it makes the same strangled yelp. Then I claw my way down its back, cutting and digging my way down on my way. It roars in pain and rage and tries to turn and snap at me. I dodge its teeth and jump off its back, morphing in midair again and grabbing my sword, cutting my way down. It roars again and goes flying off into the woods. Dozens of vampires dispatch and follow us as I desperately try to remove Black Flame from the monster's thick hide. Succeeding, I drop to the ground, holding a bloodstained, dark black dagger in my right hand. I'm met by a terrible sight. About thirty or forty vampires are cutting me off from the pack.