“I find it amusing.”
“Maybe that’s because you developed your sense of humour back in the eighteenth century.” I tend to get antagonistic when I’m scared.
Ethan has a massive grin on his face. “I like when you fight with me, it’s fun.”
“I’m glad I’ve kept you entertained.” I mumble.
Ethan swerves the car around a corner, we’re in an abandoned looking industrial estate now, it appears as though the place hasn’t seen any activity whatsoever since the eighties. Everything is soulless and grey.
The night is pitch black and the only way I can see anything at all is because of the shining headlights streaming from the front of Ethan’s car. But a moment later I don’t even have that benefit anymore because Ethan switches them off, probably in a last ditch attempt to lose the van of slayers.
“I’m going to have to fight them,” he tells me. “You must promise me that you will remain inside the car until it’s finished. I’ll make sure to keep them as far away from you as possible.”
I gulp, my mouth suddenly sandpapery dry. “Do you have to fight them? I mean, do you even know how many there are?”
“They usually hunt in groups of five or six. Don’t worry, I could handle twice that.”
“If you say so,” I reply, wondering if that’s true.
Ethan turns into an open space that probably used to be a car park. The green van follows. He pulls the car around in a circle and then stops so that we are facing the slayers, then he places his hand on the door handle. He pauses a moment and turns to me. “How about a kiss for good luck?” he’s smiling all the while, despite the fact that he’s about to take on several slayers intent on his demise.
“Does nothing deter you?” I ask, not knowing how he can be so calm about all of this. Then I have to remind myself, he’s almost two hundred and seventy-seven years old, of course he’s calm, he’s probably taken on thousands of slayers in his lifetime.
“Nothing has yet,” is all he says before hopping out of the car and running toward his opponents.
Ethan slows his pace and then stops smack bang in the middle of the distance between his Cadillac and the slayers’ van. They’ve turned their headlights off as well, the only light shining is the full moon in the night sky. Without realising it I’ve wrapped my arms around myself, my left hand clutching on tightly to the seat belt that I have strapped across my body.
I loosen my grip so that the material doesn’t end up cutting into my skin. I have never been so on edge in my entire life. The tension is palpable as I watch Ethan stretch out his arms and then flex his fingers in preparation. He really is trying to piss them off. My heart almost jumps out of my chest when the van doors slide open and three men get out on each side.
Three and three equals six against one, doing the maths doesn’t seem to be calming me down as it normally does. Each one of the slayers is close to six feet tall. Of course, none of them are as tall as Ethan, but I suppose that’s the supernatural uber-mensch vampire genes for you. Oh, and did I mention that every one of them has an array of weapons strapped to their chests, alongside varying shapes and sizes of knives and swords clutched in their twelve combined hands?
I try not to watch. I turn my head away from the scene in front of me and try to picture tranquillity in my mind. But it doesn’t work. My traitorous head keeps doing the stupid fucking maths, three plus three equals six against one, six multiplied by two hands equals twelve hands against two, twelve legs against two, six muscled bodies against one, and my goodness, what oh what will happen once those hands and legs and bodies have defeated Ethan and come for me? What will those men do to this one broken girl when they get to her?
I decide to hell with not watching. I turn back around just in time to see the slayers form a V shaped formation in front of Ethan. It’s at this point that I realise I don’t want anything bad to happen to him, even if he is basically a parasite. I don’t want to lose him, because I don’t want to lose the way he looks at me, the way flirts with me even though I protest about it. He is the only being in this world that can bring the deadness in me back to life.
The first slayer makes his attack, he’s a broad man with red hair. He launches his blade at Ethan, but he’s too slow compared to Ethan’s swift and precise movements. He speeds to the left, out of the way of the slayer’s sword, a sword that I would swear had been aimed for Ethan’s neck. If it had of hit it would have decapitated him. My blood runs cold at the thought of a disembodied head rolling along the ground like a football.
The slayer grabs something small from his chest strap, a wooden stake, and fucking launches it through the air at Ethan. I almost laugh when his hand shoots up, so fast my eyes could only barely see the movement, and snaps the stake out of the air mid-flight as though it were a Frisbee.
Ethan then flings the piece of wood away and flies at the slayer, all the while two others are trying to come up on him from behind. But they don’t get to him because he has already grabbed the ginger haired slayer by the throat. I see his lips move as he holds the slayer in his grasp, but I can’t hear what it is that he’s said because the car windows are shut tight.
This is when the fight taking place in front of me becomes all too real, all too horrific and brutal. Ethan’s hand grasps the slayer’s neck and tightens, his fingers sink in like claws and rip the man’s throat straight out. Blood sprays and the liquid looks black like ink in the dark. I yelp and tears inadvertently run down my cheeks as I get scared on a whole new level.
I’m no longer frightened of what the slayers might do to me, I’m frightened of Ethan. Everything he told me must have been a lie. He’s a monster, a killer. He turns around swiftly to meet his next kill, the moonlight spots him for a fraction of a second and I see his eyes drowning in red. Just like Lucas when he’d been feeding on Amanda.
Ethan has just grabbed the second slayer by the hair and ripped his entire scalp right off. If ever there was a case for attraction and revulsion being at odds with one another then this would be it.
I watch in terror as he sinks his teeth into the man’s throat and begins to drink. But he doesn’t allow himself to become consumed by it, all too soon he flings the limp body of the dead slayer aside and makes his way toward the next. The final three spread out and try to surround Ethan. The slayer with the short brown hair catches Ethan off guard and manages to slash his arm with a sword. It must be that bullets can’t kill a vampire, because none of the slayers are using their guns. Most of their weapons look like they came from the props section of a period drama, and I’d swear the first man Ethan killed was carrying a stiletto.
This slayer seems to be the best fighter of the six and he’s fast enough to keep up with Ethan. He zips from one position to the other making some impressive attempts at wounding the vampire.
Unfortunately Ethan moves in quickly and punches the slayer right in the face, possibly breaking his nose judging from the spray of blood. The slayer is sprawled unconscious on the ground as Ethan moves in for the kill, but then he becomes distracted by the remaining two and leaves the slayer where he fell.
Ethan grabs the long shining sword of one of the slayers. He overpowers the man, turning his weapon on him, in toward his heart and then stabs him with his own blade. He then tosses the body aside and launches himself at the last man standing, who pulls a bow and arrow from his back and aims it straight at Ethan.
In a blur of motion Ethan is behind the poor man. Quick as a flash he grabs his neck and with only the slightest of movements snaps it. The limp body of the slayer falls to the ground, he doesn’t look like he was any older than twenty-five. A being so full of life instantly snuffed out with one single violent movement.
At first I had been angry at the idea of an organised group of people fighting for the extinction of another species. But now, as I have witnessed first-hand what Ethan’s kind are capable of, I’m beginning to understand why humans would risk their lives to kill off vampires. The thought of Ethan getting back inside the car with me has my entire body breaking out in goose bumps. My heart pumps faster than ever before.