HALF BLOOD
Nick looked around at the ratty hotel they were at. Sometimes it was hard to believe it was only a year ago that he got wrapped up in this world. Vampires, slayers, werewolves! He used to be completely oblivious and wasn’t sure he liked it better being informed. So far he’d found this world to be a much less forgiving world, always full of danger and sadness. But he couldn’t do nothing and it wasn’t like his life had been perfect before he found out. Far from it actually.
“So have you already caught the vampire?” Nick asked breaking the stony silence the rest of the slayers seem to prefer. “Yes Mike is bringing her now” Tomas said impatiently. “And she’ll know what the vampire council is after?” he asked. “Yes, she has had direct contact with the president of the council. He must have told her” he said. Nick shut up after that. He knew better than to anger Tomas. They waited five more minutes of annoying silence, the other slayers standing stiffly and Tomas twirling a stake between his fingers. Nick was about to break the unbearable silence when the door thudded open and Mark and another guy were carrying a girl with a black hood over her head. But the shocking thing was that she looked just a little younger than Nick. And she also looked slightly familiar. . . .
They pushed her down in a chair and slapped handcuffs lined with garlic on her wrists and ankles. The girl let out a slight yelp as the garlic singed her skin. And her voice also sounded familiar. Nick’s stomach dropped as Tomas pulled the hood off and revealed someone who make his breath choke off and his heart speed up uncontrollably.
Janie who he’d known since second grade. Janie who had been his best friend. Janie who he’d dated and loved and who had disappeared a year ago and a half ago. She blinked her eyes disorientally and her head sagged. No- it couldn’t be.
Tomas smacked her, “what are they after?” he asked. “NO!” yelled Nick pushing Tomas out of the way. “Janie?” he said looking into her wide, dark eyes. At the same time Tomas yelled “what the hell?” and then “Grab him!” “No, no! Janie’s not a vampire” he said struggling against the slayers that grabbed him.
“Nick? Nick!” yelled Janie coming to full awareness. “You know her?!” roared Tomas. For a while everything was chaos. Janie struggled against her bonds and screamed “Let him go!” “Tie-him-down” Tomas said and the slayers threw him into a chair. Tomas looking exasperated said, “She is the enemy!” “NO, let her go!” yelled Nick.
“I- don’t understand” said Janie. Nick looked at her. She seemed thinner and paler than she was before, but . . . she had always been thin and pale. And now there were dark circles under her eyes, as if she hadn’t slept in a while. She looked terrible and all he yearned to do was reach out and comfort and protect her. But he couldn’t for the second time. He couldn’t lose her twice. Once was more than enough.
“It seems that you and Nick here, know each other” said Tomas, turning a feral gaze on Janie. Nick deeply wanted to get in between her and Tomas, but her couldn’t move. “Is- isn’t that why he’s here?” asked Janie in a nervous and confused voice. “No, he works for me of course” said Tomas. Janie looked like she’d been slapped. He hated her betrayed look, it knocked the breath out of him.
“You don’t understand-but-your not a vampire!” Nick spluttered. Tomas nodded at one of the slayers and they put a gag over his mouth. Janie looked down. “Now” said Tomas, “What is the blood sucking council after?” he asked her menacingly. “I don’t know” Janie said. “Tell me!” Tomas yelled slapping her hard. Nick struggled even more. She spit blood and then looked up, “I don’t know” she repeated. Tomas looked mutinous and then his face changed to complete evil.
“How about a little motivation, then?” he said pulling out a clear bottle of garlic juice. Janie paled and closed her eyes. He opened the bottle and dripped some on the bare skin of her arm. She screamed as it burned her skin away. Nick tried to yell but it was muffled. He tried to feel for a weakness in his ropes. “I don’t know!” Janie yelled.
Tomas dripped some on her cheek. Her skin sizzled and blood gushed down her cheek. Her agonized scream tore through him like a knife. All Nick knew was that if she did know she had one hell of a pain tolerance. And then Tomas started beating her. Janie healed quickly but Tomas didn’t stop and soon she wouldn’t have the energy to heal. Nick tried to reach into his back pocket where he knew he would find the pocket knife he always carried. Actually it had been a gift from Janie when he turned fourteen.
Janie couldn’t heal anymore. She looked slightly unconscious. Her eye was swollen and her face bruised and bloody. “We know you know what they want” said Tomas. Janie glared and spat blood in his face. Tomas wiped it away angrily and then went back to smacking her.
Nick could feel the edge of the pocket knife now and he tried to get it out. He clutched it with his finger tips and pulled. But just when he almost had it, it slipped through his fingers and clattered to the floor. He closed his eyes briefly, it had been his last chance. The sound had been drowned out by Tomas’s yelling and smacking.
Now all Nick could do was watch in horror as Janie was beaten. Tomas stopped and said “Now I didn’t want to do this but you’re leaving me with no choice” he said. He turned to Nick, “You seem to care for Nick here” he started. “No!” Janie yelled, and then Tomas punched Nick, hard, across the face. Nick’s cheek exploded in pain. “Are you ready to talk?” asked Tomas. Janie hissed, and her fangs slid through her gums. “NO?” Tomas asked her petulantly. “I though he worked for you?” she asked. “oh he does, I’m sure he understands. He’s just clouded by the fact that he knew you, but you are a killer” he said. “what do you think you are?!” Janie yelled. Tomas ignored this and pulled out a knife. He pressed it into Nick’s neck. “No” snarled Janie, and to his surprise her eyes flashed red. What in the-? He’d been with the slayers for almost six months and he’d never seen that before. “How in the-?” muttered Tomas narrowing his eyes in surprise. “You will regret it if you don’t let him go” she said through clenched teeth.
Tomas tried to take up a sarcastic tone but Nick could hear the nervousness in his voice, “And how are you going to do that, seeing as you’re cuffed to a chair?” Janie’s face started healing and she looked up with bright red eyes. “I’m not exactly your average bloodsucker” she said, and then she broke through the cuffs like tissue paper.
All the slayers descended on her. She ducked and twisted and moved with vampire speed, so fast she was a blur. In the confusion Nick’s chair got thrown back and it broke. He pulled himself out and slipped the ropes off. Then he lunged for his knife and threw it at one of the slayers named Roman who he had always hated. It caught him in the side and he fell to the ground.
Tomas saw this and his eyes sparkled angrily. Before he could move Tomas had knocked him off balance and was bringing his stake down in an arch to his chest. But Janie, moving faster than she ever had, jumped in between Nick and the stake, facing Nick. It pierced through her back and into her chest. She looked down at the silver point sticking out of her chest and coughed, which made her feel like her chest was tearing apart and then collapsed. Nick caught her.
“No, Janie, don’t die. No, you can’t. Oh, God” Nick said lowering her into his lap. Tomas looked disgusted. Nick didn’t even look up, he was too horrified. “She’s dead” said Tomas and then Tomas and the rest of the slayers started to leave. “Feel free to come back when you realize you have no where else to go” Tomas said over his shoulder as the door shut.
Tears ran down Nick’s face, and his hands fumbled uselessly over her. He’d lost her twice, this time for good. Nick cradled her against him, and kissed her paled cheek. With a shaking hand he reached down and pulled the stake from her chest.
At first nothing happened and then her eyes flashed open and she gulped air painfully. Shaking in surprise and relief Nick said, “Oh , God Janie” and he ripped off his shirt and pressed it to the gaping hole. Janie struggled to breathe air and her hands gripped the carpet on either side of her. “What can I do? What can I do?” Nick asked anxiously, but Janie couldn’t answer.
But an idea was forming in Nick’s head and he hurried across the room and grabbed his knife. He slashed it across his palm and pressed his hand to Janie’s lips. She seemed hesitant at first but then Nick felt her fangs pierce his skin. After a couple of minutes Nick sat back, a little dizzy, but fine. Just sick with relief. The hole in Janie’s chest started to heal, flesh wove back together like a spider web.
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Janie was in a dark place filled with red agony. Was this heaven? No, too much pain, Maybe it was hell? But then she could faintly hear Nicks voice. It was the only thing keeping her holding on, the rest of her wanted to sink farther into the blackness where she knew there would be relief from the pain. But she could still see a little of white at the end of a dark tunnel. Then she tasted something so wonderful, and she slowly started going closer toward the white at the end of the tunnel and then it filled her vision and Janie sat up breathing hard. She wiped a hand across her lips, her eyes wide and slightly confused, “well shit” she said.
Then Nick grabbed her and pulled her tightly to him, and then he kissed her. His lips were warm and hard on hers just as she remembered. Just what she’d longed for, for a year. She kissed him back fiercely and then all they did was cling to each other, she didn’t know how long she just focused on the feeling of him holding her, and the rise and fall of his chest.

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 08.08.2011

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