The Vampire's Apprentice

It only took a few steps back into city hall for Alain's walk to turn into a labored limp. Every movement forward brought with it a raspy gasp of air from his lungs as he struggled simply to keep himself upright, his entire body screaming in pain and exertion.

The others weren't doing much better. Between the rest of them, only Jasper seemed to still be in good shape. Even Az and Sable weren't immune; Az was wincing with every step, and Sable was biting her lower lip hard enough to draw blood as she followed after him. He couldn't tell what, exactly, had her in so much pain, but whatever it was, it had to be bad in order to reduce her to this.

Heather and Felix were doing better than he was, but only slightly. Both of them were covered in assorted bruises and scrapes that were weeping blood; Heather additionally had a black eye, and her breathing was coming out very labored. Whether that was simply because of exhaustion or due to something else entirely, he had no idea, and he wasn't particularly keen on finding out at this time.

They'd all made their decision, after all. Thorne had to pay for what she'd done, and it needed to happen fast, before things got any worse.

Mercifully, the interior of city hall was now almost completely free of Darklings. Any that were still remaining were swiftly taken care of by Az, who merely rushed forward and ripped them into tiny pieces. They may have still been alive, but there was little they could do aside from writhe on the ground in agony as the rest of the group passed them by.

Eventually, they made it to another room inside, which appeared to be a large circular atrium of some kind. And standing there in the middle was Thorne. She gazed out at them, but there was something odd about it, Alain noticed – her eyes were absent their usual gleam, instead seeming almost fogged over. Before he could bring this up to the others, Thorne crossed her arms over her chest.

"So you've finally come," she observed. "I was wondering when-"

Alain didn't wait for her to finish, instead bringing his revolver up and firing off a quick snapshot aimed directly at her head. To his chagrin, she was able to sidestep away from the bullet as it passed through the air; he had thought Sable was fast, but Thorne appeared to be even faster.

"Hmph," she grunted. "So eager to rush to your deaths, are you? Well, don't keep me in suspense… I've been dreaming of this, ever since our first meeting in the Sierra Nevadas."

"What do we do?" Sable asked him.

"You and Az keep her busy," Alain growled. "We'll try and put her down with a headshot. If you can both distract her long enough for us to get a clean shot, we can end this one quickly."

Sable nodded, then turned to Az. "With me," she said. "Let's finally put an end to this nightmare."

Az nodded, and him and Sable took off as fast as their battered and bruised bodies would allow them. Thorne showed no reaction until they had both nearly closed in on her, at which point she moved.

As Alain watched, Thorne easily sidestepped Sable's incoming strike, then kicked her legs out from under her. At the same time, as Az came in for what would have been a devastating right hook, she grabbed his arm and twisted it; Az let out a grunt of pain as he was forced to his knees, the joint in his arm audibly groaning in agony.

Alain didn't need to see any more. He immediately raised his revolver and began to fire, as did Heather, Jasper, and Felix. That prompted Thorne to let go of Az, but to Alain's dismay, she went from grappling with him to seeming to almost dance through the hailstorm of lead they were putting down range. By the time his revolver clicked empty, Thorne was right up in his face, and he was unprepared for the open-palm strike to his stomach that knocked the wind out of him and sent him flying back-first into a nearby wall.

Alain laid there for a few seconds, choking and gasping for breath, his empty Colt slipping from his grasp and landing on the floor with a metallic clatter. With a wince, he pushed himself up onto one knee and watched as the others fought.

Heather was trying in vain to engage Thorne in hand-to-hand, but Thorne was simply running circles around her, bombarding her with light strikes in order to disorient her and keep her off-balance. Heather tried to retaliate, but it seemed like every hit was coming from a different blind spot; there was simply nothing she could do. Felix and Jasper closed in with their rifles shouldered, but both held their fire out of fear of hitting Heather. Finally, Heather dropped down to one knee, and Thorne appeared and grabbed hold of her head, intending to either break her neck or simply tear it off in one fell swoop.

It never happened, however, as Az suddenly came barreling in with a feral roar. He collided with Thorne shoulder-first, ripping her grasp away from Heather as they both slammed into a nearby wall and kept going out into the outside hallway. Eventually, however, Thorne drove her elbow into his chin with enough force to disorient him, which enabled her to tear herself free of his grasp and speed around behind him, then drive her heel into the side of his knee; there was a sickening crack, and Az fell to the ground, his eyes widening with pain.

"Az!" Sable screamed as she took off running.

"Sable, wait!" Alain called after her, but it was too late – she'd already taken off running after the two of them.

And this, as it turned out, was exactly what Thorne had wanted.

As Sable closed in, Thorne's eyes narrowed. She stood and cocked one arm back, clearly intending to counter whatever Sable tried to do. Alain desperately picked himself off the ground and reached for his discarded revolver, only to wince in dismay when he saw it was empty. Heather, Felix, and Jasper all had loaded weapons, but were holding their fire, again out of fear of hitting Sable.

"Shoot, now!" Alain shouted to them.

They obliged, pulling triggers and cycling actions as fast as their hands would allow them. Thorne was forced to dodge the incoming rounds, which dropped her out of the stance she'd taken.

But it still wasn't enough to completely save Sable.

As she closed in, Thorne lashed out, again at her lower body. Alain heard it before he saw it – the sound of flesh being torn and bone shattering, followed a split-second later by an ear-piercing scream of agony as Sable fell to the ground, clutching at both her legs, each one suffering from a compound fracture. Even in the dark of the night and the black of the ichor flowing out of her veins, Alain could still make out the white of Sable's leg bones jutting out from her flesh.

He froze, unable to believe what he was seeing for a moment. It only lasted for as long as it took for the others to again open up on her, pouring yet more lead downrange. But as she always had, Thorne was able to dodge through the incoming bullets without a care in the world. She simply twisted and turned as she moved over to where Sable had come to a rest, directly in front of Az. Thorne bent down, no doubt to finish her off.

It was her first mistake.

Az suddenly lashed out, wrapping a hand around her foot and pulling. There were a series of cracks as Thorne's foot was suddenly rotated a full 180 degrees; she let out a pained grunt and leaped back, tearing her foot out of Az's grip. Az glared at her for just a moment, then began to crawl over to where Sable was lying, clutching at her ruined legs with tears of pain streaming down her face.

"My lady…" he breathed. "I am here…"

While he attempted to get to Sable, Thorne was trying to put weight on her wounded leg, and wincing with every small movement. Alain was about to tell the others to fire on her, but they seemed to understand what needed to happen just fine on their own. All three of them shouldered their weapons once more, but unfortunately, Thorne still wasn't completely defenseless. She took off towards them once more, her speed dramatically diminished thanks to her wounded foot but still far superior to anything even a high-level human athlete could have mustered up. Bullet after bullet struck her in the torso, causing little blossoms of black ichor to bloom across her front, but she showed no reaction aside from wincing.

It only took a few seconds for her to make contact with the group, who all were forced to scatter as she barreled into them. It didn't take long for Alain to realize what she was trying to do.

She was trying to feed in order to regain her strength.

And as it turned out, he was her target. She bypassed all the others, instead closing onto him as he tried to scramble away and rip the shotgun from off his back in the same move.

"You have become an annoyance," she growled. "I am going to enjoy making you into my thrall and watching you finish off your friends, one by one."

Bullets continued to bite into her flesh, even as she shifted from side to side, causing them to narrowly miss her head every time. She made it to him, then grabbed him by the throat and hoisted him up just as he was able to get the Ithaca off his shoulder and begin to angle it towards her head. Right when the twin barrels were right about aligned with her head, however, she reached out with her free hand and took the shotgun by the barrel, then crushed it and threw it away. Alain could only watch in dismay as his weapon was destroyed and tossed aside.

"Shame," Thorne said. "I was hoping you'd put up more of a fight than this."

And then she bared her fangs, clearly intending to bury them into his throat.

She never got the chance, as both Heather and Felix suddenly charged at her, knives in their hands. Felix went for her arm, while Heather went for her head; Thorne was forced to drop Alain onto the ground once more, catching Heather's knife just before it made impact with her eye, the blade puncturing straight through the palm of her hand, erupting out the other side. Felix's blade, meanwhile, found purchase in her other arm, but when he went to pull it free, Thorne kicked him away, sending him sliding back, leaving the knife embedded in her arm.

"How annoying," she mused as she pulled both knives free and let them fall to the ground. Heather stood in front of her, twin wooden stakes drawn from her belt and held in her hands, but every time she attempted to lash out, Thorne was able to avoid the incoming blows with ease. Finally, she grabbed hold of both of Heather's wrists, clearly intending to break them.

She was completely unprepared for Sable to come flying into her from behind, sending them both sprawling.

Both vampires fought for dominance on the ground for just a moment before Sable won out, ending up on top as she pinned Thorne down.

"Jasper, do it now!" she called. "Shoot her!"

Jasper came running up, rifle in hand. As he passed, Alain caught a glimpse of the twin puncture marks on his neck that were still weeping blood, and immediately knew what had happened. It didn't matter, though – Sable had successfully pinned Thorne, finally, and now it was all going to be over with a single gunshot.

Jasper raised his Winchester rifle, took aim… and held his fire.

"What are you doing?!" Alain called.

"Her eyes…!" Jasper managed to get out. "Frosted over… she's being brainwashed!"

"What?!"

Jasper ignored him, instead looking over to Sable. "You have to knock her out!"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Sable growled. "Do you have any idea-"

Alain suddenly surged forwards, wrestling Jasper's rifle out of his grasp. Before Jasper could utter any words of complaint, Alain turned the gun around in his grip, then began to bash Thorne in the head with the stock of the weapon. He did this over and over again until she stopped moving, with the only signs she was still alive afterwards being the small groans of pain she involuntarily let out in her unconscious state.

Alain spared one last look at her, then handed the rifle – battered stock and all – back to Jasper without a word. Jasper blinked, but said nothing in protest, even as Alain moved over to Sable and helped her up, then bent down to grab Thorne.

"You can't be serious," Felix said.

"If Jasper's right and she really is brainwashed, then she's not the real mastermind," Alain grunted out. "Sable, help me."

Sable obliged, bending down to support Thorne as Alain leaned her against his shoulder with a pained grunt.

"And what if she isn't brainwashed?" Felix challenged. "What if the bitch was just faking it, or what have you?"

"Then we'll take her down for real," Alain answered without looking back. "Can you two help Az?"

"Sure," Heather said. "But where are you planning to go with her?"

Alain looked around at the remnants of city hall, which were covered in black ichor, broken bits of glass and stone walls, and riddled with bullet holes. It only took a moment for him to come up with an answer.

"Anywhere but here," he said. "Follow me, I'm ready to get out of this hellhole and get some answers."

The others exchanged a glance, but didn't argue. Instead, they all helped one another pick Az up, then followed after Alain as he began to step out of city hall and back into the city.