Don't Open That Door - GoM 1

Anniversary - 7

Alex opened her eyes and rubbed her sore head, growling. Then she recalled the ertes taking Claire away. She forced herself up, cursing out loud to clear her mind, and grabbed the wall for support to make her way to the living room. Her blurry eyes cleared enough to spot the trace of dark blood down the hall. So at least she'd hurt the brunette. Good. She hoped the erte had understood that cut had been but a teaser of what they had coming.

The cool sunset breeze helped her focus. She didn't bother to lock the front door and followed the trace of blood drops on the grass across the yard, past the Hilux under the apple tree and up to the front fence of the farm. The trace vanished behind the trees growing along the fence. The soil was still wet under the trees, and she spotted there a set of tire tracks that didn't belong to the Hilux.

She took a couple of pictures of them with her phone and ran back to Old Bootter's workshop. She was soon back out with a handful of weapons wrapped in an old cloth. She got in the Hilux, started the engine and left the farm, making a call as she drove.

"Hey, Mike! Look, I really need a favor," she said. "Someone's been in my farm, and I thought maybe you could help me identify the tires." She was relieved to hear the quick answer. "Thanks, Mike! I'm sending you the pictures right now."

She was force to stop to send the photographs to the mechanic. A moment later, she dropped her phone with the weapons on the passenger seat and stepped on the bus. She opened her window to let the wind finish clearing her head. She needed to calm down and think.

The ertes couldn't be far. They had to be hiding somewhere near town. According to Bootter's writings, their hideaway would be an abandoned house or barn. They'd called her Corban, so they wouldn't kill Claire right away. They were too twisted for that. They'd keep her to do to her the same they'd done to her family: torture her and feed on her for as long as they could keep her alive.

The thought made Alex sick, but that granted her a little time to prep up. And damned if she wasn't about to use it.

Mike called her back when she was almost at the road by the lake.

"Hey, Al! Those tire are from Will's C10," he said.

"Will Murray? You sure?"

"Positive. He insists in using the original tires of his old truck. Finding them it's a pain every time he needs a new set. He must've gone up the hill to pick up some wood."

"Thanks, Mike. I really owe you."

"One of Claire's pies will do."

"You got it! Bye!"

Alex entered the road by the lake and floored the Hilux. Will Murray lived nearby, just past Vincent's campground on her way to town, in his old house surrounded by trees. If the ertes were driving his truck, they'd most likely killed him and taken his house as their temporary den. Considering they looked like hot girls, it wouldn't have been hard for them to lure the old widower into taking them to his place. That way, they'd have both shelter and food while they hunted Alex and Claire down, to finish what they'd started ten years ago.

Alex drove past Vincent's and stopped the Hilux on the shoulder of the road, out of sight from Murray's place, to walk into the strip of woods that grew around the house. She soon spotted the lights on inside. She sneaked closer and circled the house to peer in through the kitchen window. And she had a hard time, holding herself back when she saw Claire and Murray tied down to chairs around the table.

Claire didn't look hurt, but Murray was in bad shape. Plain to see the ertes had been feeding on him for the last couple of days. He and Claire were unconscious, stunned by the poison from the ertes' fangs, meant to subdue their victims and make it easier for them to feed.

Her heart drumming in her chest, shaky hands, breathing heavily out of fear and anger, Alex forced herself away from the window and back to the Hilux. A few minutes later, she was dropping Bootter's old weapons on her kitchen table.

She needed to stay focused, so she made coffee, turned the music on loud and set to work.

Ever since those vampires six years earlier, it was the first time she readied weapons with the certainty that she would use them in just a while. And it was the first time ever that Claire's life depended on her skill to use them

Yeah, the witch had caught Claire back in Montana. However, Alex wasn't alone to save her. Aidan was there, and together, they'd rescued Claire and Mark in time. But now she was all alone. Claire's life was entirely in her hands.

Ten years earlier, when she'd found out what had really happened to her family, Alex had spent many hours learning about ertes from Bootter's books and journals. So that night, she didn't need to waste any time researching about them. As the stars showed above Baker Lake, Alex got ready to kill her family's murderers.

She'd brought Bootter's small crossbow with a dozen arrows. She replaced the arrows' regular points with silver points, and cleaned and oiled the cross bow until the only sound it made was the trigger's soft click and the quick hiss of the string. She also cleaned the short blades Claire's had picked up from the cellar, ignoring they were made of silver and would come in very handy that night to keep her alive. Just in case, Alex polished two silver daggers too.

Once she had it all ready, she changed her clothes to black leggings and a black long-sleeved top. She secured the arrows quiver to her back, slid the blades into the sheathes fastened to her waist and thighs, and grabbed the crossbow. She felt like some psycho commando, but at that moment, the last thing she cared about was her looks.