Chapter-20

-Previously in DiR-

There she was, tightly tied with ropes on a pole. Her condition was worse than mine. As I moved closer, her eyes twinkled with hope.

"Nate, you're here," She smiled weakly. And suddenly the smile fell from her face. "You shouldn't have come here."

I struggled with my breathing and tried to move towards her. I had to free her.

"You did not see me here, Prince."

I turned at the voice and someone hit me on the head.

Everything happened in a blur. I hit the floor in no less than a minute. I heard Karen screaming my name again and again. My eyelids fell over my eyes, no matter how I tried to open them. I could no longer try to stand up.

***

Chapter-20

-Karen-

"Where do we go when we die?" I asked Jon.

Jon looked at me as if I had grown two heads.

"Why would you ask that?" He asked back.

"A girl can be curious." I replied.

"Last time you were curious to know about unicorns." He made a face.

He still managed to look cute. Will he ever know of my crush on him?

"Okay, you can just not answer me. There is no need to remind of my childhood curiosities." I said holding my hands up in defeat.

"Fine, listen. According to me, the soul leaves our body and dissolves in the elements of nature." He said shrugging. "That's my thinking. What do you think?"

"I think our soul goes to heaven." I said.

He chuckled.

"And there are unicorns, right?"

The memory ended and I exhaled. My body went stiff, my hands were numb and I stopped struggling. Nate was on the ground. Not breathing. I didn't know whether vampires really needed to breathe for survival.

The vampires picked him up and led him to another iron pole to tie him there. He wasn't moving and his head was tilted to his side. His eyes were closed.

"When he wakes up the next step begins." The main vampire said, grinning.

"I swear to god, if you hurt him I'll pierce your heart with a stake." I said with unknown strength in my then weak voice.

The vampire laughed. What was so funny?

"Don't worry." He said. "You won't live until then."

I didn't say anything. Everything was a lucid dream to me. I was going to die.

My parents and Jon will never find out the truth of my death. Maybe they will keep searching for me and in the end they will grow tired of doing so, and they will give up.

I heard Nate groan. He blinked his eyes open and they locked with mine. He was a disaster. He was kneeled down and the pole was supporting him. If it wasn't there he would be lying on the floor. There was no power in him. Why did he travel when he knew so well that he was weak and this could kill him?

"Karen," He breathed.

I nodded, giving him assurance that I was alright.

Now, his eyes turned to the vampire and there was anger in those green orbs.

"Why?" He whispered.

"You're asking me why." The vampire said with disgust in his tone. "Nathaniel, the prince of vampires, is here in front of me all weak and dying. He cannot even save himself from a group of vampires. How does it feel to die?"

"It feels great, if you ask me," He continued before Nate could answer. I had a thought that it wasn't a question directed to Nate. "Now you'll know the pain when I tear apart your head from your weak body like you did with my brother. But before that, this girl is going to bleed to death."

Brother?

"Brother?" Nate asked with surprise. "Whom are you talking about? I don't even know you."

The vampire was in front of Nate in no more than a second. Damn vampires and their sickening speed. He kneeled down to reach the level where Nate was. Now, as he was face to face with Nate, his whole face showed rage and annoyance. His fangs shinned in the light. His features were deadly in comparison to what I had been expecting from a vampire. The cracks were appearing under his red eyes with the darkening surface.

"First you should know me, I'm Matthew." He hissed. "And the reason you've ended up here is; you killed a vampire some time ago. His name was Raymond. Do you remember? He was my young brother. "

Raymond...that name was familiar.

Oh my god! Raymond was the vampire who Nate had killed when Jon and I had been trying to run away from the mansion and was caught up by two vampires. Raymond was about to drink my blood when Nate had appeared out of nowhere to save me.

I still remembered when he had torn off his and his body had gone limp. He was this vampire's brother. All this made sense now. He was here for his revenge and when someone wanted their revenge, they were blind with hatred.

"You killed him ruthlessly, Nathaniel." The vampire said. "But the fate has other plans now. I'm going to kill you and take my revenge."

He laughed and got up.

"But before I kill you, I'll make sure that this lady here dies slowly and painfully right before your eyes." He said to Nate.

"You hate me." Nate groaned. "Leave her out of this."

"I can't, Nathaniel." Matthew shook his head. "You've to learn the agony of losing someone. That will complete my revenge and give me peace."

"I've felt the pain of losing someone I loved already." Nate said. His voice was grim. I knew who he was talking about. Kaitlin. "There is nothing in the world that can give you peace other than your own death."

"Then it is time," Matthew smiled brightly. "It is time to give you peace, my prince. I think you've suffered enough."

"No," I muttered.

Matthew moved beside me.

"Let's start with the excited lady over here." He said before leaning down to touch my throat with his mouth. "Hmmm...this is something no one can resist."

He sunk in his razor sharp fangs into my skin to drain me.

The pain made me scream and whither in pain. It was not same as when Nate had drunk my blood. This was painful. I could only feel the vampires hunger and anger. My veins burned to fight him off me but it was too late. I heard Nate screaming my name over and over again.

The voice I heard next was not of Nate.

"Get off her, you sucker."

-Victor-

Fantastic.

A club.

It was a club with a weird name of 'Demoniacal'.

I walked towards the club, crossing the traffic. It was good that in our dimension we didn't have to travel by these things with wheels but they were not so bad. I liked the rush of air on me when I had once taken a bike to ride.

Now coming to the club Demoniacal, I could sense dozens of vampires over there. What the hell was going on here? It was like the name of the club really suited it.

I had been into many clubs in human dimension. Not to mention the hours of hangover after taking strong restricted drugs running in the blood streams of those bad girls who were ready to give up anything to be with me.

The music deafened me as I entered the club after compelling the bouncers. They were asking for my ID. How was I supposed to give them my fake ID which I had forgotten at the mansion while following Nate and the unknown vampire. I was in tension. Yeah, the coolest vampire was in tension for the moment.

Of course, I had a spare locket to transport me. It was a backup if I had lost the real locket.

I pushed through the swarming bodies of people who were dancing their heads off. Not literally though. The girls were trying to tug me to them. I had to defend myself and walk through the crowd.

I felt eyes staring at me.

Great! It was time for some action.

The first vampire moved like a snail, walking over to me and asking for an ID. Not again.

I turned to face him and gave him a charming smile before snapping his neck. The people around us screamed with happiness and some erupted into laughter. They were on drugs and they thought it was just a fake show.

The other vampire charged on me out of nowhere. I moved aside, giving him a punch on the face. He was thrown on the bar, destroying some of the glasses in the activity. I moved swiftly, pulling his hair and looking into his eyes.

"Where are Nathan and Karen?" I forced every word out of my mouth. I wanted to kill this guy but not before getting the information.

Another vampire came from behind and caught me by neck. The arms around my neck caught me off guard for a second. I pulled my right elbow up and jammed it backwards to hit the vampire many a times. He was no match for my speed. He stumbled back and I turned to my back.

"Never backstab," I said, snapping his neck.

The vampire I had compelled was still under my compulsion.

"Where are they?"

"They are underground." He answered.

This club had an underground area; almost every club in this world had those areas. I had to get down there. I don't know why but a feeling told me that something bad was going on with Karen and Nathan.

"Where is the way to underground?" I asked him.

He pointed at a door which was situated at a small distance from us. There were two vampires guarding it. Not much of a number for me. I could take them down in no more than a minute or maybe less.

"Thank you," I snapped his neck, pushed him and watched him fall in the crowd.

I smiled and danced a few steps in the crowd with the intoxicating music beats. The girls were lovely here. Only if I weren't here for the hero work...I moved slowly to the two vampires.

"Hey, man where are you heading to?" One of them stopped me.

"I'm looking for the washroom." I shrugged innocently.

"That way," He said.

"Something is wrong," The other vampire narrowed his eyes at me.

"Whoops, I guess you guessed it right." I punched the vampire on his jaw and heard a heart-warming crack.

The other one tried to move but I outrun him by kicking on his knee, breaking it. They were just weak minions. Snapping their necks, I opened the door to the dusty underground and met with another weak vampire on the stairs. I bared my fangs, bit him and snapped his neck quickly.

He screamed and fell lifeless on the stairs.

The room was lit up with only one bulb. My eyes adjusted to the darkness easily.

What I saw was a terrifying scene. A vampire had his canines sunk into Karen's neck and was draining her to death. Nate was tied on the pole next to hers. Who would have known my brother was useless when it came to heroic acts.

"Get off her, you sucker." I screamed on top of my lungs.

I ran towards the vampire, pulled his head from Karen's neck and launched him in the air. Karen fell on the ground; her hands were tied and bleeding. Too much blood. I stopped breathing to stop smelling her blood. That was the only way she could remain safe from me.

I looked at Karen, she was panting. Her neck was bleeding. The smell of her blood called me to her. I wanted to taste that blood. The monster in me growled, asking for me to taste it once. I closed my eyes trying to tame the monster. I blinked several times and touched her tears stained cheek.

"I'm here," I whispered to her.

It nearly killed me to stop myself from taking the blood out of her.

You're strong, Victor. I kept chanting. You can fight this. You're here to save her.

"You are going to pay," The vampire stood up and moved towards me with his full speed.

I opened my eyes wide in the dim light and got up. We engaged into a fight.

-Karen-

I tried to take long breaths. It was how it worked. I could not be so weak to not fight a blood drain. I had no idea what had happened in span of my blood drinking and Victor's voice.

But here he was, fighting with a vampire. The two were fighting with invisible movements. They both were fast. I could not actually see who was beating whom.

I heard Nate yell and break his ropes.

"Karen, you're going to be okay." He said, coming to pick me up.

"I'm fine." I couldn't speak clearly.

My whole universe was in pain. My neck hurt like hell and I could barely stand on my feet.

Nate untied my ropes and pulled me to his chest, engulfing me into a cold hug. Yes, his body was cold. Then he looked down at me and cupped my face into his palms.

"We're getting out of here soon." He said and disappeared.

The next thing I knew was the Devries brothers fighting Matthew. Nate was weak but everything in him screamed anger for what Matthew had done. He fought along with his brother.

I placed my hand on the pole to keep myself standing.

Victor punched Matthew along with a punch that came from Nate and he went on his knees. Victor quickly moved to Matthew's back and held his hands behind him. Nate's fangs were exposed. He was the same Nate I had seen that day when he had killed Raymond.

"Kill me," The vampire in hold snarled with a grin.

"You do the favour." Victor smiled at Nate.

Nate went ahead and snapped his neck. He tore off his head from his body with the help of his fangs and looked up at the ceiling with blood running down his strong jaw. I felt an urge to throw up but I didn't have power in my body to do so.

When it was all done Nate moved beside me to help me stand still.

He raised his hand to his mouth and bit into his skin, drawing dark blood. When the blood appeared he held up his wrist to touch my lips. The blood wet them and I showed my reluctance to drink it.

"Drink before the wound heals," He whispered in my ear. His cold breath made me shiver.

I followed his instruction. I thought I would gag or something but nothing like that happened. I felt energy pouring into me slowly. I could feel my strength coming back. The blood was...tasty. I moved away his hand.

"This will get me addicted." I said to him.

"I won't mind." Nate gave me a lopsided smile.

I stared at the strange locket in his neck.

"It is a locket used to travel. The witches created the locket for keeping the power intact as we travel across the dimension." He caught me staring.

"That means you were not weak. You acted the entire time?" I asked. "If you did, it didn't look like acting."

"No, I was weak. Because I was told not to travel before the locket was made for me. This is Victor's. But I think it did what it was supposed to. It gave me enough power to stand up and the rest was my willingness to kill the bastard." He explained. "Looks like powers are nothing when compared to willpower to do something."

I nodded and we looked at Victor who was checking the surroundings. He moved with a smug smile on his face and stood in front of us.

"I'm fine now," I said to Nate as his eyes flickered at my face. His eyes were full of concern but what scared me was the drying blood on his mouth.

How ironic, because I obviously had the blood on my mouth too. I too must be looking like a vampire myself. Wow, just wow.

"How did I look while kicking their asses?" Victor raised his eyebrow at me.

I smiled even when it hurt my muscles.

"You're wearing a biker jacket." I noticed.

"Yeah, I borrowed it from a biker guy." He smirked. "Illegally."

Suddenly, I saw a shadow creeping behind him.

It was a vampire, with a wooden stake gripped in his hand. My eyes went wide with fear as the stake was raised in air by him.

"VICTOR!!!" I screamed.

A/N Watch your back, Vic!

Keep calm and love cliffy. >_<

DiR was #55 on vampire last week. Guess what? I shrieked with happiness and pumped my fists in air, scaring my mom. She thought I was mad. -_-

Thank you for the likes and reads and comments. Please don't stop with your feedbacks :)

Take care, my marvellous readers.

m_m