Chapter 178
His father shouted orders to the rest of the team, demanding they chase after the two Vampires that were attempting to flee. Christian desperately wanted his name to be listed among those directed to go after the old woman or the young man. But his father demanded he stay, “Get in there, boy!” he shouted gesturing in the direction of the mammoth monster.
The floor, an expensive marble, likely imported from France, was slick with blood. A quick glance around the room told him he’d have to step over two bodies just to get to the monster. Slipping and falling, coating his britches in crimson, wasn’t appealing, though leaving the house with blood on his pants was a pleasant alternative to how he’d left his last hunt.
He had a knife, a silver blade his mother had given him, as well as a pistol loaded with silver bullets. He knew the pistol wasn’t as deadly as the blade, but in his hands, was either likely to get the job done? Rather than launch himself at the brute, the way his father clearly wanted him to, Christian raised the gun and pointed it at the fellow’s chest. Plenty of practice at hitting targets over the years had made him a decent shot, for a human, and despite the angry roar the Vampire made as he dodged away, Christian’s bullet hit the mark, landing squarely in the fiend’s chest.
A smile spread across his face as he watched the Vampire freeze and look down at the gaping wound. Black ashy smoke filled the air, and Christian could see clean through the coin sized hole to the wall behind the bloodsucker. Satisfied that this should weaken the monster, he chuckled, relieved that the process would not be so difficult.
And then, with a loud roar, the monster launched himself across the two bodies on the floor, colliding with the human, and knocking him backward into the door that led down to the cellar.
Christian’s head hit the wood frame, hard. Stars filled his line of vision, and the threat that the Vampire might scratch or bite him, had him kicking and swinging, panic filling his mind. He landed a blow to the giant’s shoulder, and he went flying back into the dining room table. Another satisfied smile came to his face before he realized he had had little to do with removing the monster from atop him. His mother’s arms were still poised in the air from the toss. She’d been the one to launch the creature across the room, not him.
“Get after him!” his father demanded. Christian pushed up off of the floor, his boots sliding in the blood. The Vampire had recovered much more quickly than he had and was coming back at him. The others were standing in the periphery, watching, waiting, but not interfering. He didn’t understand what his father was trying to prove. He was a human, after all. He couldn’t possibly kill this bloodsucker on his own, could he?
Even as his mind raced with decisions about what to do next, Christian realized his body felt different. A burning seemed to fill his veins, from the tips of his fingers, up past his elbows, into his biceps and then shooting down each leg to his toes. His heart was pounding in his chest, the engine forcing this new sensation to radiate through every extension of his being beating triple time.
He recognized the sensation immediately. It was the response he’d been longing for all of these years. Whatever it was inside of his body that caused him to be capable of transforming had been triggered, and he was now in the process of becoming a Guardian. He didn’t even need to kill the Vampire anymore. There would be no stopping it now. Whether it took a few days or a year, it would happen. Feeling invincible, Christian pulled the blade and met the Vampire halfway into his lunge, knife aimed at the creature’s throat.
Anger clouded the brute’s judgement. He wasn’t paying enough attention, and it had not occurred to him that this human was now stronger and faster than he had been a few seconds ago. It was likely temporary, just the body’s response to preserve the newfound Guardian in its initial state of change. Christian had read about this before, in his father’s papers. A Guardian or Hunter might get an initial surge of whatever it was causing the change so that they could win the initial battle. Then, it would fade, and over the next several weeks up to a year, he or she would go through the painful process of permanently changing. For some, it was excruciating. For others, it was hardly noticeable. Most landed somewhere in the middle.
He couldn’t be concerned about the long term effects at the moment. Thankful for the initial surge, he rammed the blade into the Vampire’s throat, catching him squarely in what would’ve been his jugular had blood still pulsed through his body. The knife caught, cutting deep enough to scrape bone and ligature. The bloodsucker screeched, its arms flailing as it attempted to free itself from Christian’s weapon.
Careful of the three-inch claws on the tips of each finger, Christian dodged out of the way of the arms as they came flying at him. Pulling the blade free was a struggle. He had to grab hold with both hands and pull it up and out. Once he had it back entirely in his possession, he raised his boot and landed a kick squarely in the monster’s chest, similar to the way he remembered seeing his mother attack when he was younger, the way she often practiced with her father in the barn.
The creature hit the ground hard, a puff of ash and smoke coming out of the gaping hole upon impact. No longer frightened that this brute may infect him or tear his limbs off, Christian leapt down upon the trunk of the Vampire, pinning his arms with his knees as he jammed the knife back into its throat. He recalled how quickly and accurately Jess had sawed through the woman who had attacked him. Due to the girth of this monster’s neck, it would take longer for him to remove the head, but as far as he knew, the other two Vampires were being handled, and he had all night. Christian began to saw.
The room was quiet, save the sound of his knife gritting through sinews and flesh, grinding through bone and other harder tissue. The Vampire struggled at first, attempting to knock his attacker off, to free himself, but Christian’s determination was more than the monster could handle. A fury possessed him unlike anything he’d ever experienced before as he severed the monster’s head from its body.
His heart was pounding in his chest, sweat dripping down his face. Locks of his blond hair, fallen free from its binding, fell over his eyes. With his mouth open to suck in air, he finished the job, snatching the decapitated head from the floor and holding it up for all to see before it turned to ash, leaving a thin dust to sift through his fingers and mingle with the drying smears of blood on the floor.
It wasn’t until he was done and the Vampire had completely disappeared that his father began to clap. “Well done, lad! Well done!” Peter said, laughing and stomping his foot. “I always knew you had it in you.”
Congratulations came from all sides of the room then, as the rest of the Goodies came forward and banged him on the back. His mother stayed back, waiting to be last. When the others had finished, she stepped forward. Wrapping her arms around him, she whispered, “I am proud of you, son. I hope that this life that you have chosen is all that you hoped it would be and more.” She kissed his cheek, and Christian beamed with pride. The sensation of power surging through his veins was still there, though not quite as strong as it had been when he’d initially met the monster. He knew there was a possibility pain would follow, both physical, and ultimately other sorts of pain as he began to navigate this strange new world, but it would all be worth it. There was no doubt in his mind that his father had been correct in exposing him to this world when he was so young. He was clearly meant to be the most powerful Guardian to have ever lived. As the others began to clean up the mess left behind in the wake of the evil he had destroyed, Christian looked around himself in satisfaction. One day, he would command all of them, once they recognized his power, his intelligence, his cunning. Oh, yes. One day, he would be the Guardian Leader and all of this world would be his to rule.
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