Chapter Eight

Going to The Cave was not going to be as easy as it was last time. Romulus wasn’t expecting our involvement with the Hunters last time. Now, he knew we were protecting them, and would expect us if he already had Anthony in his custody.

The Cave was actually the name of a club downtown where Romulus hid his headquarters. The ground level was a typical looking club, and it was fairly successful, most of it’s patrons never knowing what happened behind close doors, and not caring. Romulus’ ‘dandies’ had no interest in stirring up petty trouble. They liked their trouble cool and calculated, and that required a safe haven where they could be left alone. But, every so often, one (un)lucky girl or boy was granted a private audience with the elites downstairs; where Romulus would likely wine and dine some naive thing, seducing them before ultimately taking their life, allowing all his innermost circle to feast on the poor unfortunate soul. If he liked them enough, he would allow them the concession of his dark gift, turning them just before death. That was how Anthony was turned.

And that was why Anthony now sought revenge. He never accepted his fate, at least that was how he wanted to come off. Embittered by his misfortune and Romulus’ attack, he was obsessed with retribution. He was a force to be reckoned with when it came to the majority of the vampires in the area, most little older than himself, though he was impressive for his extreme youth. But Romulus and his boys were a completely different pack. Anthony was a sweet kid, and helpful at times, but I wondered often if his revengefulness was just an excuse for him to play his favorite role as the tortured soul. The Lost Boy, I heard some tauntingly call him.

It was a Saturday night, so the club was well populated, though not as much as it would be when the night matured. We walked in boldly, not wasting time with the bouncer, who knew well enough than to ask three elves and a vampire for identification, but I could hear him sound the alert. Anna pulled Patrick back into the crowd of club-goers to keep him safe, while Celeb, Jack and I stormed downstairs. We had to first walk through the standard VIP room, again, no one wasting the time to try and stop us, to the back, down another flight of stairs, and into the true Cave. At the bottom, and around a corner, away from the view of the previous levels, was Anthony, crouched in defense against the 5 guardsmen before the door to Romulus’ lair. The guardsmen didn’t bother getting into stance, they paced casually, one twirling a pocket watch, one buffing his nails on his shirt, like the droogs of A Clockwork Orange. To them, this was sport, and they weren’t the slightest bit intimidated by the fledgling.

“Oi!” Celeb shouted. Everyone, save one dandy, looked at us. We rushed to Anthony’s side.

“We’ll take him from here.”

“Oh no you won’t!” Said an incredibly handsome looking dandy standing at the center. “Romulus said we could keep this one. Said he has plans for him.”

“Well he’s going to have to cancel them.” I pulled out a small vial of StarWater from around my neck. “Remember me?”

They hissed and drew back; now they crouched into a defensive stance. “Tell Romulus he can come and get the kid himself, but we had him first.”

The handsome dandy was behind us. “You’ll never get out of here with him, you don’t have enough of that stuff, and we have human friends as well.”

I grabbed the dandy by the neck. The other 4 began to growl, but Anthony and Jack growled back, and I could hear Celeb pull out his water pistol with StarWater as well. “Look, I’m getting really sick and tired of having to deal with your lot, it’s bad enough I have to deal with the night crawlers here, but I would appreciate not associating with pretentious smart-asses like yourself with over developed senses of ambition, now let us leave with the fledgling and save yourselves the pain, trouble and embarrassment of us utterly drubbing you, or as your kind like to say ‘beat the undead nightlights out of you.’ Now scram.”

But before I could fully release my grip on the twat, I heard one of the bouncers from upstairs “they have two more upstairs, and one’s a human. Should we grab them?” The handsome dandy’s lips twitched into a maniacal smile, and my eyes widened. Celeb squeezed the trigger on the pistol, causing the target vampire to shriek in pain. I quickly renewed my grip on the dandy’s neck and threw him as hard as I could down the hall, past the stairwell and against the door at the end of the adjacent hallway. Celeb kept pace with the thrown vampire, but turned racing up the stairs as fast as he was physically capable, to meet the aid his wife. Jack wrestled with one vampire, but he was positively feral, used to the viciousness of nomadic life. He ripped the throat of his opponent open and ran away up the stairs as well. However, Anthony, in his continuing trend of annoying the hell out of me with his stupid vendetta, was trying to fight the remaining two vampires (the one Celeb shot, having fled inside, most likely to warn Romulus, the handsome one having run after Celeb upstairs). I heard Anna yell from outside, running away, in our own language “Elanor, we are clear, hurry with!”

I grabbed the vial of StarWater hanging around my neck, snapped the glass in two with force enough to cause the contents to spray non-discriminately across the three scuffling vampires. They all howled in pain, and I grabbed the incapacitated Anthony by the hair and ran as fast as I could out of that club. They were already on guard and several vampires stood blocking my way out.

I had to make a drastic decision, so I went ahead and bit my wrist open. Blood rushed out of my ulnar artery flowing freely down my hand and dripping onto the floor. I reached forward to tackle my way past the barricade, but when they realized what I had done, they instinctively shied away, and it only took my touching one of their faces before they backed off and let us pass. I could hear the one I touched panicking, and several ran off to get him something to clean it off. Once outside the club, I changed my grip on Anthony, throwing him over my shoulder, my bloody arm wrapped around his waist, and ran a more human speed down to where we had parked Patrick’s car, where the others were waiting for me. As soon as Anthony and I were in the car, we drove off, not even waiting for me to shut the door.

“Oh my goodness, you’re bleeding!” Jack cried out. He pushed Anthony aside, who was trying to turn into a seated position after our unceremonious entrance into the vehicle. Once next to me, he grabbed my wrist inspect the wound. “You were bitten?!” There was sheer panic in his voice.

“Jack, leave it alone. Don’t touch the blood. Wash any off your hands, don’t taste it, not even a drop.”

“Why? What’s wrong? What happens if a vampire bites an elf?!”

The silence only lasted two seconds in reality, but after the frantic speed of our escape, it was profound. “You die.” Anthony blurted out maliciously.

“Shut up, thou stupid impudent ass! I could rip out thy heart with my own bare hands after the brazen exploit thou just performed!” I shouted at him. Anthony sat unaffected by my words, which only increased my rage.

“Elanor!” Jack called to me, in effort to gain my attention back. “Is that true?” He said much quieter and calmer. “Does elvish blood kill vampires.”

I took a deep breath and calmed myself. “Not directly. Elvish blood is the cure to vampirism, nothing more, nothing less.”

There was a pause before Jack continued. “So you’re saying... that if any vampire drank elvish blood... even a drop you said... they would go back to the way they were before they became a vampire?”

“No.” Was all I said. I was too agitated to say any more. I hoped that he would just read my mind and be done with it, but all I could think about was Anthony’s foolishness.

“No, love.” Anna continued. “You wouldn’t go back to the way you were. You would go back to the way you would be now.”

I heard his breath catch in his throat.

“Celeb. I need your pistol.” He pulled it out from it’s holster and handed it to me. I opened up the reservoir, dipped my sleeve in to wet it, and began to wipe away the blood from my hand and wrist. The wound was already closed, though it would take a full day for it to be unnoticeable.

“These water pistols really are the most gauche things.” I commented