Ruby Ring

Chapter 13: AMBUSH

JUSTIN

Rain began to pound even more on the windshield of Daniella's car and the windshield wipers were working overtime. As if that wasn't enough, thunder could be heard every five minutes from afar. Daniella switched on the headlights, revealing two dark silhouettes.

"Stop! Don't run them over!" Justin cried. Daniella did as she was told and pulled over to the side. Justin squinted his eyes.

"What is it?" Daniella leaned towards him.

"Two cloaked figures," Justin shuddered. He instantly recalled the cloaked figures that told him to give up the ruby ring he bought for Bridget. He remembered he got bad vibes from them and he felt those bad vibes now.

"Justin, don't," Daniella pleaded as Justin reached for the door handle. Refusing to listen, he got out of the car and approached the cloaked figures. Just then, Madeleine's police car parked on the opposite side of the road.

"I'm gonna have to stop you right there, Justin," a male voice ordered.

"How do you know my name?" Justin growled.

"None of your business. Where's the ring?" the man demanded.

"What's going on here?" Madeleine said as she emerged from her car.

"I wanna know what these people are up to," Justin answered. "Who are you? Show yourselves!"

"As you wish," the figures removed their hoods. One of them, a man, was sporting a short white ponytail. The other, a woman, had straight slicked back snowy hair.

"Let me handle this, Justin. Step back!" Madeleine got in front of him.

"No!" Justin shouted as he lunged forward to punch the man. To his surprise, he blocked his fist with his hand.

"That's not gonna work!" Lux got out of the car.

"How about this?" Madeleine yanked the cross off of Justin's neck and threw it at them.

"How do you know they are vampires?" Justin queried.

"They look like John Morrison, that's all I can say," Lux shrugged. He looked to the car, where he saw David rubbing garlic on his Taekwondo gloves.

"You say they're vampires?" David entered the battlefield. "Then this should hurt!"

"Be careful!" Lux cried, but David had already punched the woman's jaw. It bruised a bit. His attention then shifted to the book in his hand. He flipped through it, hoping to find something helpful. Nothing.

"Do something, will you?!" Justin roared with impatience.

"Dude, seriously? I'm wimpy; I can't fight! What I lack in physique, I make up in knowledge. Knowledge is power, Justin,"

"Well, fist fights won't work. Guess I gotta resort to this," Justin grabbed a silver chalice from Lux's bag and chucked it at the man. It hit bullseye on the forehead.

"You're gonna have to do better than that," the man rubbed his forehead.

"Is there any fire spell in that book of yours?" Jackie turned to Lux.

"I'll check again," Lux flipped through his book once more.

"We gotta cover you somehow. Distract them, probably," Justin announced. Jackie ran up towards the woman, knife in hand, and swung her arm at her neck. Suddenly, the woman grabbed her by the wrist. Jackie gasped.

"I found something," Lux closed his book.

"What?" Justin huffed.

"Apparently, vampires can use fire spells against their opponents. We can't use fire in this rain because water stops fire and none of us can use fire spells. So that's off the list,"

"Dammit," Justin squinted his eyes as he watched Jackie reach into her pocket and pull out a wooden stake.

"Yes, Jackie!" Lux cheered as Jackie struck the woman's chest with the wooden stake. The woman gagged a bit as she attempted to remove the stake from her body. Nothing. Her iron grip on Jackie's wrist loosened as she fell to the ground.

"Where is Patrick?" Jackie growled as she stood over the woman, victorious.

"You...w-will find...him w-where Hunter...West i-is," the woman spat out.

"Where is Hunter? Where is he?" Justin interrogated. No answer. The woman's head tilted sideways, blood oozing from where Jackie had struck her in the chest.

"You killed her! Now you will pay the price---with your lives," the man hollered.

"Over my dead body," David turned around and whipped out a tornado kick. He hit the man fair and square on the cheek, causing him to stumble back. Seeing his chance, Justin uppercutted his foe in the jaw. The man fell to the ground and inched towards the woman.

"Consider yourselves lucky, youngsters. But hear this---my father will have your heads when I tell him about what you've done to my beloved Mary. When I'm through with you, you are going to remember Robert Morrison, son of John Morrison,"

"John had a kid?!" Justin shouted as Robert snapped and disappeared in a flash. Mary's corpse lay untouched in the middle of the road.

"What should we do with her body?" Lux turned to Madeleine.

"Good question. I guess we just move it to the side?" Madeleine shrugged.

"So Hunter and Patrick are in the same location, huh," Jackie put her hands on her hips. "That doesn't really help much,"

"Think about it, Jackie. It must've been implied that the disappearances of both Patrick and Hunter must be linked if they're in the same place. The question is, why would both boys get captured by a vampire? They didn't do anything wrong," Lux said.

"There can only be two reasons: to be turned into a vampire or to be their food," Justin interjected. All eyes were on him. "That's all I know,"

"Let's keep moving," Madeleine headed back to her police car. Everyone save Justin followed suit. Finally, Justin went back inside Daniella's blue Mazda.

"Justin, you shouldn't have gotten involved. You could've gotten hurt," Daniella warned once Justin fastened his seatbelt.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Justin ignored Daniella's warning. He was on a mission to rescue Bridget and Camilla, so he had to use every opportunity presented in this journey to get a clue to their whereabouts. That can be justified, in his opinion.

"I'm serious, Justin. You better watch yourself. Nobody's gonna take care of you eventually. You gotta start taking care of yourself," Daniella said. Justin heard from Hunter that Daniella was a mature girl one year his senior. She was already starting to sound like a college student despite graduating high school a month before. Justin always hated unsolicited advice. He always thought people who gave him unsolicited advice weren't trying to help him.

"This just in, Daniella. Patrick and Hunter are in the same location. Jackie killed one of the two figures and she was able to get some information from her. Their disappearances must've been linked somehow. I dunno,"

"Well, at least that's something. Let's go," Daniella started the car and trailed behind Madeleine's police car. Hearing Mary's clue somehow gave Justin some hope that Hunter was still alive, but worry took over. He couldn't help but wonder about Hunter's fate. What was he up to now? Mary implied that he wasn't captured for food, so he must've been turned into a vampire. Hunter as a vampire...that was a scary thought. Justin had no idea, but he was about to fight the hardest fight of his life when he reached his destination.

---

Author's Note: Why would Hunter be turned into a vampire? Where would he and Patrick be?