Shattered Fangs (Outdated)

Chapter Twenty Four

Jess

I wake up refreshed, well as refreshed as you can feel when you were sleeping in an underground tunnel, trying not to be caught by an insane vampire hunter. I wipe the sleep from my eyes and stretch as much as I can in the confined space.

When I am fully awake I dig myself out of my burrow and fill it in with dirt, to keep Seven Fingers off my trail.

What should I do now? If I stay in the woods it's most likely to get me killed. If I go to town, I'll be safe. The vampire hunters wouldn't be able to attack me there, in full view of the residents. Yeah, I'll be safest in town.

I start running east, into the city. Slower than usual, since I'm still in chains. I'm lucky that I can walk at all, with the metal sapping my strength, and limiting my movements. I'm really glad that the hunters made the chains to that the person in them can still walk.

I make it to the edge of town. There are a few gas stations and abandoned storefronts, but that's all. I slow down slightly, relaxing. I should be safe now.

I randomly hear a faint boom, and a stabbing pain erupts in my shoulder. What is going on?! I'm supposed to be safe!

I whip around and see a large group of men standing at the edge of the forest. Uh-Oh.

While I am looking at them, another few hunters sneak up behind me and grab my limbs. That was a bad idea on their part.

I break free, clawing at them with my nails and kicking them in the gut. They go down on the ground. Seven more men start running towards me. I kick them too.

Then I feel a sharp zap on my back, and my body starts jerking all over the place, and I am unable to control my limbs. One of them must have used a taser. While I am disabled, another few men grab me and gag me, I fight violently, but am overpowered, weakened by the shackles.

I am shoved in a small cage that burns, a tarp is tied over it, and the cage is thrown in the back of a Jeep.

I am unable to cry out for help because of the gag and unable to move very much because of the size of the cage. I can't even look out at my surroundings beause of the tarp.

I am stuck in there for an hour, while the car is moving. Stiffness sets in my joints. I ache to free myself and move my limbs, but the cage is made of the leechbane metal.

When the vehicle comes to a stop, the cage is taken out and brought into a building. I can tell that I'm inside, despite the tarp obstructing my view because the light is dim, not that the lack of light bothers me. My nose is burning from the scent of leechbane.

Whoever is carrying my cage puts it down, upside down, and I am forced against the side.

Finaly, the tarp is removed, and I see that I am in a large warehouse with a wall cutting the floor space in half, filled with weapons, and a few other cages. I can tell that there are people inside them. Probably other captured vampires. Whether they are alive or not, I cannot tell. They aren't moving, not even breathing.

Seven Fingers walks into the room, from behind the wall, seeming larger than before. He is at least more intimidating, with me stuck inside this cage, powerless to fight him.

"Well! I see that you have gotten captured again, little princess."

"I'm the queen, not the princess," I mutter.

"What's that you said?"

"Nothing."

"Oh, you're lying? Sounds like you are for a little, I mean A LOT of pain." Why did I have to say that out loud?!

Several hunter minions come to take me out of my cage. I brace myself, ready to fight as soon as I'm free. They unlock the door, and I allow myself to be taken out of the cage and have the gag taken off. Seven Fingers probably wants to be able to hear me scream when he is hurting me. Once they are done, I explode into a hissing, clawing, biting, snarling, kicking ball of fury.

I take out the hunters and climb the walls, digging in with my claws. Then I hear gunfire. Someone is trying to shoot at me. I have to find a way out. I find a ledge near the ceiling and hide there, out of the way of the bullets.

I look around for any windows, or holes in the walls. I see one, ten feet to my left. It's my only hope. On the count of three, I'm going to make a run -er, climb- for it. One, two, three! I throw myself off the ledge, and crawling along the wall, dodging bullets, make my way towards the hole.

As I am about to make it out, a bullet grazes my arm, then another. A third bullet passes cleanly through my gut. I cry out in pain and clutch at my stomach. Then I remember that I needed my arms to hang onto the wall.

I plummet to the ground and getting riddled with bullet holes on the way down, crying out in pain each time a projectile hits me.

When I hit the floor, four hunters grab my limbs and hold me down. I struggle to get free, but it's impossible to gain enough momentum to do anything, while being held to the ground. I just end up shrieking and hissing at them in defiance, with some swearing sprinkled in too.

Seven Fingers strolls over to me and places his boot on my chest, pressing the air out of my lungs, forcing my stream of curses to stop. "Sounds like someone has anger issues. When will you learn that struggling is futile? You're never getting out of this! I am going to make you scream until the end of time."

He presses down harder with his boot, and I hear a few snaps. There go my ribs. A human wouldn't even be alive right now. Even I don't know how long I can take this. I can't even grunt.

Seven Fingers removes his boot and starts walking away. Then my smart mouth gets the better of me. I scream at him "You're evil! My sister and I didn't even do anything to you! Why do you have to do this!? You ***!! You're such a ****!!! **** you!!"

He runs back over to me and kicks me in the ribs, hard. I hear a few more things snap. "You wanna know why! You wanna know why! I'll tell ya' why! You Vamps piss me off! That's all!"

Wow, that was a letdown. I was expecting something more, like a traumatic injury from a vampire, or his mother being killed by one. Not him just being annoyed by us.

Seven Fingers leaves the room, but not before ordering his minions to put me in a cage again. I struggle, but am shoved into the crate again. One of the hunters keeps jabbing with a spear every once in a while, keeping me from falling asleep, or getting comfortable.

I remove the bullets stuck inside my body, wincing. It hurts to take them out, but it would hurt even more to heal around it and then have to take it out later. Heh. If I even have enough blood left to heal.

Thoughts drift through my head.

Where's Claire? Is David all right? Am I ever getting out of here?

Will David save me?

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-Castlequeen2004