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Blood Allies
The werewolf came at me, howling. Before, that would have scared the shit out of me. I would have screamed and ran. But now, after god-knows-how-many-years stuck in Purgatory, I almost laughed. Intimidation only works if you can be scared. The one thing I had to loose now was my life, and after being in this adjacent-to-hell hole, that just wasn’t scary.
I adjusted my grip on the rough knife, waiting on the balls of my feet as he charged with bloodlust in his eyes. My arms relaxed, and I felt a small smile twitching on my lips. I only needed to time this correctly…
He lunged forward, covering the last couple of yards while his claws swung wide to decapitate me. Instead, they cut through air as I ducked aside, kicked in his knee with the sharp crack of breaking bone, and swung the blade straight through his neck.
The body hit the ground seconds after the head. I stared down at the bloody mess with a sigh, not feeling victorious or relieved like I had the first few times I had fought, but tired. Killing this werewolf had done nothing in the long scheme of things. It was just a waste of energy, a waste of time, and a waste of life.
True, he had been deranged and insane, but down in the armpit of God, every monster was deranged and insane. They killed each other for no reason other than pure frustration at being trapped in a twilight forest with no escape for eternity. And most of the vamps and werewolves had eaten enough humans to miss the taste of the food supply when it was gone. But when a vampire or werewolf missed the taste of humans, they didn’t just get pouty like a two year old without chocolate—they went insane.
So instead, they ate each other.
I sighed and began wiping down the blade, mostly just to keep the blood off my shirt. I still avoided looking at the wolf while I put together my stuff—i.e. my knife and some berries that were probably poisonous. I ate them anyway, because hell, I’m already dead. And the afterlife can’t get much worse than it already is.
And then I left my camp site. It was rather annoying, having to leave the site, but if this wolf had any buddies, or even if any monster was just around, they would smell the blood and probably track me down, which was the last thing I wanted. It was still a shame, since the site had been ideal, surrounded by trees for camouflage from the casual monster, and had only a short hike to reach the river. Even though the river was mostly a deathtrap and I really didn’t need to drink water anyway, my throat still got dry when I went days without it. Though, water wasn’t exactly what I really wanted, deep down inside…
I can still remember what it had been like, tasting human blood for the first time. I can still see her face every time I close my eyes. I can hear her hammering heart, and can almost taste the gushing blood pumping through her veins…
I shook my head, trying to clear it. Water would have to do. And I knew, if I keep flashing back to the memory of the girl I had killed, I would eventually cross the point of no return. I would end up like the vamps around me, controlled by the pain and the want inside. I would go insane.
Not me, I thought with grim determination. I am not letting that happen to me ever again. I died because of my mistake last time, and I deserved to come here and pay my penance for her death.
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I hiked through the night. Or what I considered night since there was no sun, just this faint light that seemed to originate from nowhere and everywhere. By the end of my hike, I had managed to find a nice campsite close to a rapid part of the river and had successfully avoided all the vamps, werewolves, leviathan, and other monsters stalking the forest.
It had been a long hike, and I was tired. It wasn’t that I needed to sleep anymore, but I enjoyed sitting down in a tree and just staring up at the rustling leaves. Those rare moments of calm were one of the few things I could enjoy here.
In the quiet that followed, I felt my tenseness melting away, and I closed my eyes and crossed my arms behind my head, making myself a pillow. I had just relaxed--meaning the hiss of a voice that sounded through the forest caught me by surprise.
I jerked upright as my eyes darted over the area around me, wondering if I needed to be prepared for a fight. However, if a monster was stalking me, they wouldn’t start talking and alert me to their presence. Something else had to be happening…
“Traitor,” hissed the voice again. “We’ll be sure to make this slow.” That was followed by a thump and a muted howl, along with the smell of fresh blood.
My throat became suddenly and unbearably dry. I gulped and lowered myself from the tree, knowing that soon wolves and vamps would show up to taste this fresh blood. Monster blood wasn’t the same as human, but when your throat was dry enough to crack, it was still amazingly tempting.
It was just my luck that someone was being killed fifty feet from my new campsite. Now I would have to find another one, since the smell of blood wouldn’t fade for months, making this a new monster hot spot.
I grabbed my pack and started to walk away. Maybe it wasn’t empathetic to leave some poor sucker to die, but in Purgatory, that was how you survived. Alliances were always shifting, and more often than not, they got you killed. Letting the assholes kill each other guaranteed survival, if just for a short time longer. By now, I was used to death. One more wasn’t going to torture my mind.
A pain filled voiced returned with a comment I couldn’t quite make out, and was answered with another fresh spill of blood that I identified as vampire. I licked my lips and started to jog away, not wanting to deal with such temptation. But what a new voice said next made me stop and turn.
“You helped the Winchesters, Benny. You helped them live and to get out this god-forsaken hell hole. You betrayed us, and for that, you will suffer slowly.”
I blinked and starting to walk toward the smell of blood. The Winchesters… I knew them. Hell, they had nearly killed me. And in the vampire world, they were known as Vamp Enemy Number One. The first monster to kill them would be made freakin king.
Even the damned leviathan hated them. Like the angels, leviathan held wolves, vamps, shape-shifters and the like as “lesser beings.” But after Dean Winchester had killed the leviathan leader, Dick, with an unknown weapon; the leviathan hated the Winchester guts. And as every monster knew, in order to hate someone, you had to consider them worthy of your attention.
So, why exactly had this vampire helped them? I moved closer, curiosity eating away at me. I might not have considered the Winchesters as friends, but we weren’t exactly enemies. That this vamp had sacrifice everything for a couple of humans was the worst of taboos. I had done it, and look at what had happened to me. The fact this vamp had done it meant he wasn’t like the others. He was different, and if he was different, he might be an ally I could rely on…
I stood warily away from the clearing where the man I assumed was Benny was kneeling, a cap on his head, face down. Two hissing women I could see by the fangs were vamps, with one werewolf and a stranger I couldn’t identify stalked in circled around him. Now, this was extra strange. Every monster species in Purgatory hated every other species. No alliances were formed with vamps and werewolves or shape shifters and rougarous. And of course, leviathan killed everything else on principle. This vamp must have pissed off a lot of people.
Then again, he had helped the Winchesters. That automatically pissed off a lot of people.
“Yawl want me to confess?” he asked in a southern husky accent.
“We want you to suffer,” replied the unidentifiable man. “And you will. Nice and slow. And once we’re done, we’ll leave your mangled corpse by a tree for the rest of the barbaric monsters to discover.”
I growled in my throat. There was killing, and then there was this. If a werewolf ate a rougarou’s heart, that was normal. It’s what werewolves did. But torturing? Yes, we’re monsters. Yes, in Purgatory, we’re also cannibalistic monsters. But we don’t torture. We don’t do the tango with our prey before slicing and dicing. We leave that to angels and demons.
The knife was in my hand before I could really think about what I was about to do. I hesitated, vampire and human battling inside me. The human wanted to help his man, while the vampire wanted to survive. Four to one were only good odds if you were in the four.
Then one of the women leapt forward and sank her teeth into his arm, ripping out a good chunk of coat and flesh.
“Damn it!” I hissed while Benny screamed. I couldn’t leave him here to die, not like this. But if I wanted to survive, I would have to be smart about taking them on. Because of the overpowering smell of fresh blood, they wouldn’t smell I was here until I was close enough to kill them. They had numbers, but I had surprise.
“I am so dead,” I muttered as Benny screamed again.
I crouched low and took off at a sprint, being sure to be silent as I ran. The werewolf was patrolling the edge of the clearing. He would be my first target.
My hands caught rough wood bark as I rolled behind a tree, rustling a few leaves and making the branches creak. It wouldn’t be enough to make him suspicious, but he would come over, if only having been lead by his instincts.
Sure enough, he started over to my tree, still looking about as relaxed as one could be when listening to ear-splitting screams. I tensed, mentally prepping myself for action.
Just when he reached the trunk, he seemed to realize something was wrong. But by then, it was already far too late. My knife slashed through his throat faster than lighting.
But I had miscalculated something. As I caught him and silently draped him over the ground, I could see the warm blood gushing from his neck. I watched his form flicker until I saw a fourteen year old girl with pretty brown curls lying dead on the rainy streets of Chicago, her face so stunned and white, while her lips were speckled with blood…
No. I pulled in my fangs with great effort, bringing myself back to reality. It was the effect of Purgatory. I had thought that the remembering of human food was what made monsters go mad in Purgatory, but now I wondered if it wasn’t the damn place itself. Maybe it made everyone mad.
I stood up and strode into the clearing, making all three monsters freeze.
“Hello,” I said with a smile as my knife flashed like silver lighting, decapitating the first vamp still with the comical O on her face.
The other vamp unfroze and lunged forward, fangs barred and aimed at my throat. I stabbed forward and caught her right in the chest, making her screech as her teeth scrapped my throat. Pulling the knife free, I kicked her backwards and sliced off her head cleaner than Mom used to slice the top off a pepper.
The man growled in frustration and stalked forward, not looking the least bit sorry I had killed all three of his buddies. He had a knife of his own, already dripping in blood.
I shook off the crimson droplets from my blade, letting them scatter on the ground.
He struck a lot faster than I had anticipated. He managed to score a deep cut on my arm before I dodged the next swing, blocked his right arm and swept his left leg. He staggered but didn’t fall, still granting me enough time to slice him clean across the chest.
The black blood that stained his shirt made me freeze. Of course. Who else played with their prey before taking a bite? And that stench that hit my sensitive nose, like rotting fetid meat… He was fuckin leviathan.
I screamed when his hand struck out like a snake and broke my wrist in three places, sending me to my knees and my knife skidding aside. He grinned, his shape twisting until I saw a tall middle aged man with a head full of salt and pepper hair smiling down at me, shirt still stained in blood.
“Hello sweetheart,” He said in the same deep bass tone of my father.
I hissed in boiling rage, allowing instinct to take hold. My fangs bit deep into his hand, making him yell and strike out, sending me sprawling backwards with the force of the blow. I spat out black blood. Disgusting.
The vamp named Benny was clutching his side and wheezing. I looked up to see his eyes were shocking blue with intelligence inside them. And pain.
Before I could scramble for the knife, I felt myself being hauled upright and slammed into a tree. My knees buckled and I saw stars dancing in and out of my vision.
Blood from my scalp trickled down my face.
“I’m disappointed in you,” My father growled, his face dark with anger. I had to chock back a scream. It was like my worst nightmare come to life. And the damned leviathan knew it.
“Go to hell!” I screeched and slammed my fist in his belly.
He didn’t even wince.
“Pitiful,” He smiled at me. “Is that all you have?”
“Why don’t ya try this,” spoke a weak voice. My father chocked as a knifepoint erupted from his throat. His grip lessened and I half-fell to the side, stumbling back from the hated man.
“Ouch,” He complained as the knife was withdrawn. He turned around and glared at Benny who could hardly stand now, rubbing his throat. “That almost hurt.”
I nearly missed the wink of motion as Benny threw the knife toward me, thus managing to slice myself as I barely caught hold of the blade. The leviathan spun around to face me, but I was already in motion.
His head hit the floor with a sickening thump. I grabbed the head and ran to the edge of the clearing, throwing it as hard as I could into the river. The bloody limb hit the water with a splash and was instantly ripped apart by the rocks and dragged away by the currents.
“Reattach that, you fucker.” I panted. I gave myself a second to stop my hands from trembling and to silently scream from the pain in my broken wrist before turning back to the clearing where Benny was on his knees, coughing.
Striding forward, I placed the knife under his chin and made him look up.
“Well?” He panted, blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth. “You gonna make this quick? I’d hate to be dragging this out all slow-like.”
I licked my lips. On one hand, he had saved my life. Then again, I had saved his. He could be a complete enemy. But he could also be an ally.
“Have you ever killed a human before?” I asked.
He looked surprised by the question, but I had to give him credit for the quickness and honesty of his answer. “Hundreds.”
My blade quivered and drew a thin trickle of blood, making him wince. I took a deep breath to steady myself and glared down at him, hard.
“Then why would you help a human? Especially a Winchester?”
He gave a small snort. “What? You never help a friend before?”
That made me think. He had just called the Winchesters his friends. Not only was that ridiculous on the level of the whole human/vampire thing, but it was also unthinkable because of the whole Hunter/vampire thing. The Winchesters were hunters down to the marrow in their bones, and here this vamp was, saying they were friends.
“Wow. They must have been really low on allies if their making deals with vamps now.”
Benny smirked. “You could say that. Now sweetheart, I’d hate to be rude, but if you’re gonna kill me I’d preferred you moved on and did it. Not that I don’t like stopping to chat, but I would like to be gone before more of our kind start showing up and gettin’ all violent-like.”
He had a point. I almost withdrew the knife, but yet… This was Purgatory. The best way to live was stay out of all conflicts. I had just gotten myself majorly involved. If I let this Benny live, every vamp would know my face, and they would not be happy with me. There would be no more staring up in the rustling leaves, enjoying the peace of a quiet forest. It would be a mess of running, fighting, and blood.
If I killed him now, I could go back to being happy on my own. I looked down at the bloody knife and knew the human and the vampire were fighting once again.
But I couldn’t kill him. I may have killed monsters before, but something told me that Benny was anything but a monster. I needed a friend, and I knew it. You can’t trust monsters, but could I trust him?
I let the knife fall away from his throat and stuck it in my belt.
“Thanks doll,” he said as he stood up, wincing and rubbing his throat. He looked genuinely surprised I hadn’t taken off his head then and there. Maybe that’s why he offered his dirty hand to me instead of walking away. Maybe he thought I wasn’t a monster either.
“The name’s Benny.”
I stared into those electric blue eyes and pondered again. I needed a friend. And since he was a friend of the Winchesters, as unlikely as that was, he had to be more trustworthy than any other monster in this place. And he had saved my life, just like I had saved his. So I took his hand, knowing I had just crossed that point of no return. And I knew, in this case, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing.
“Lenore.”