The Awakening - (Evian) - Chapter Twenty-Four
by lala02
Chapter XXIV
Thump, Thump
Limbs were flying everywhere…
Thump, Thump
Blood was all over the place…
Thump, Thump
Gunshots and flashes lit up the darkened building…
Thump, Thump
They were running out of time…
Eve fired the last of her rounds from her two guns then threw them down
to the ground just as a vampire came charging after her. She leaned to the
left when the vampire jump-kicked in the air towards her, then raised her
left foot up, pulling a knife out of her black boot in the process before
twisting around and jabbing the knife in the vampire’s chest…killing it
instantly.
Turning back around to the front, Eve watched as Julian fought with two
mortals before grabbing them both by the arms and throwing them across the
room. Looking to the left, she watched as her father broke the arm of the
vampire he was fighting before stabbing him through the chest with a long
knife.
She was fighting another vampire when suddenly it let out a blood-curling
scream before dropping to the floor dead. Eve growled instantly as she jumped
back a bit then snapped her head in the direction of the darkened upper right-hand
corner of the area, when the smell of gunpowder assaulted her nose. Narrowing
her light blue eyes so that she could see in the darkened corner, Eve gasped
in surprise as Joseph appeared from the darkness and began opening fire.
More screaming and shouting erupted from the area as Sylvester and Gabriel
made their way into the opening, firing more shots.
“It’s about time you three made it!” She shouted. Suddenly, a hand gripped
her right shoulder from the back! Snarling, Eve grabbed a hold of the hand
on her shoulder and pulled it, flipping the vampire…oops, mortal over her
back.
“Sorry about that, Joseph overslept!” Sylvester shouted back.
“I did not!” Joseph replied as he continued firing.
“I was just tryin’ the lighten the mood, geez!” Sylvester rolled his eyes.
Sensing that Sylvester and the others could handle the rest of the vampires
and mortals alone, Eve placed her knife back in her left boot then took off
in the different of one of the exits.
She had better things to do…
Amon sat patiently in a mildly lit room on the other side of the building
waiting. He knew she was coming, so he made sure he had everything set for
when Eve arrived. Looking down at the Book of Legends resting in his lap,
he placed his left hand on top of it and kept his right hand hidden.
“It’s almost time Eve.” He chuckled sinisterly. “Almost time.”
When the last of the vampires and brotherhood members were put out of
commission, Gabriel dropped down to the ground holding his right side as
he tried to catch his breath.
“Man, that was tiresome.” He breathed out. “Are you guys all right?” he
asked.
“I’m fine.” Sylvester said.
“So am I.” Uriah replied.
“Yeah, me too.” Julian said before it went silent.
A chill suddenly ran down his spine.
“Where’s Eve and Joseph?” he asked.
Uriah immediately began to panic. Where the hell was his daughter?!
“Joseph! Eve!” Uriah called out as he began to try and sniff out their
scents, which was hard to do since the strong stench of vampire and mortal
blood heavily permeating the area around them.
Panic began to swell within Julian’s chest as he immediately went searching
for Eve throughout the fallen bodies around them. With every step taken,
it felt like his heart was about to stop. He was so into locating her body
amongst the scattered bodies surrounding him, that he didn’t hear Sylvester
screaming his name until Uriah placed a hand on his shoulder.
In that instant, his face paled and dread slowly crept upon it. Willing
his stiffened body to turn in the direction that Uriah stared in, a gasp
escaped.
“No.”
Julian stood there stunned as he watched Gabriel cradling the battered,
beaten and bloody body of Joseph in his arms tightly. He knew that even
though Joseph and Gabriel had their share problems recently, that they still
cared about one another and would never wish the other dead.
“Get up! Don’t you die here!” Gabriel shouted as he gripped the front
of Joseph’s shirt. “What about Xavier?!”
Suddenly, Joseph tilted his head up slowly as tears began running down
his face and smiled.
“Ari..anna…” he whispered softly before clenching his eyes shut and gasping
for breath one last time.
“Joe…” Gabriel whispered as more tears flowed from his eyes. “JOSEPH!”
Eve stopped moving when she heard the painful wail of Joseph’s name being
shouted by Gabriel and right then and there she knew. Her eyes flashed red
suddenly before returning back to their light blue color. She couldn’t wait
until she got her hands on Amon.
Julian just stood there silently, watching Gabriel as he continued to
hold Joseph’s lifeless body. Someone else taken far too soon before their
time, he thought bitterly. This was just getting more and more painful by
the moment and it was going to continue to spiral out of control until Amon
was dead.
“Julian.” Uriah called out to him, snapping him out of his own thoughts.
“What is it?” he replied, then waited.
“She’s not here. Eve must’ve went after Amon alone.”
“What?!” Julian shouted then began to panic. “Oh no…”
“We have to find her before she finds him. If we don’t…” Sylvester suddenly
stopped.
“Don’t say that. Let’s just go.” Julian said before unknowingly taking
off in the direction Eve exited a while earlier.
She knew she was close, so close that she could taste it. She was gonna
have to prove them all wrong again. There was no way in hell she was gonna
die here in this hell hole…die by that bastard’s hand.
As she continued her quest, Eve’s nose was suddenly assaulted with a distinct
scent that only two people she knew ever possessed.
This was it…the time was…
Now!
Pulling her knife out of her boot, Eve continued with caution straight
ahead until she came across a door slightly ajar. Cautiously, she pushed
the door open some more then slowly entered. Once inside, her red eyes locked
with his blue ones.
“It’s about time Eve. I mean, you had me kinda worried.” Amon smirked
then stood up from his chair.
“Enough talk. This ends now!” she snapped.
Amon rolled his eyes. “Really Eve, why are you so quick to meet your doom?
You know what is written in the book. I would think that you would want to
take your time with this.”
“I’m not gonna let some stupid book dictate my life. I choose my own destiny
and no one else. I choose to LIVE!!!” Eve shouted as she made her move with
her knife held high in the air.
He needed to find her fast. How could he have been so stupid as to let
her out of his sight?! God, he couldn’t pick up her scent…but why? Julian
had long left the others behind as he rounded the corner to the left. He
was half way down the hall when he suddenly grabbed his left side and crumbled
to the ground.
‘What the hell?!’ he grimaced in pain as he tried to suck in a breath.
Removing his hand from his side, Julian brought it up to his face and found
blood. His face paled once more. Something wasn’t right.
How the hell had he done that, Eve thought bitterly as she held her left
side tighter while she rested on one knee. The bastard had gotten lucky with
that hit. Standing back up to her rightful height, she released her side
and took her fighting stance.
“Did you really think that this would be easy Eve?” Amon asked.
Eve shrugged. “Well…I did a bit.”
Eve watched as Amon smirked again, but unlike before this time she noticed
the lustful look in his eyes.
This was unbelievable.
“You too?” she sighed.
“I’m not my foolish brother. All he wanted you for was pleasure, but I
have a far more important plans for you besides that.”
“I’m listening.”
“I want it all, money, power…respect. I want your blood flowing through
my veins. Your blood is the key to day walking.”
“My blood?” Eve whispered.
“Yes. With your blood vampires able to walk in the light, it’s only a
matter of time before this world will be overpopulated with us. And those
who try to rebel against my rule will die.”
“That’s it. That’s what all of this has been about?” she sneered.
“More or less. You’re the chosen one, the one destine to end it all for
vampires but what you didn’t know was that it went two ways. You’re also
the one who could keep us going. Your blood is special…unique. But I need
it more than any other vampire because I’m dying.”
Silence-
“That’s right, I’m not a vampire like Dante, but because I drank from
his blood…I was able to live longer. As you can see, I look many years older.
But enough about that, back to the real matter at hand. Not many of the hunters
know it but our numbers are smaller than you think.”
“That’s not my problem.”
“True,” Amon shrugged, “but your blood will rectify the problem, and vampire
race will continue.” and then charged towards Eve.
Standing back up, Julian then continued down the dark hall while holding
his injured side. As he neared the end of the hallway, the sounds of yelling
and items breaking came to his attention. Sniffing the air once more, he
was immediately overcome with Eve’s natural scent as well as the smell of…blood.
When Julian finally arrived inside the room where Eve and Amon fought,
he was greeted with a rather gruesome sight. Blood was everywhere! Red covered
almost the entire floor and the walls were just the same. He then turned
his attention towards the both of them fighting and nearly lost his lunch.
Eve was covered from head to toe in blood. There was so much blood on
her that with every move of her body, blood flew from her hair. And there
were so many scrapes and bruises covering her face and arms. Then a thought
entered his mind as he cautiously looked down at his arms and drew in a
deep breath.
Eve had just dodged another one of Amon’s attacks when she spotted Julian
standing in the doorway staring at his arms. Then to her horror, she watched
as Amon regained his balance and started towards Julian.
“JULIAN!!” she yelled out, just in time for him to roll to the left to
avoid Amon’s attack.
“Well now, this should be even better.” Amon smirked evilly as he turned
to face her.
“Your fight is with me now!” Julian snapped as he hurried over to stand
in front of Eve.
“I don’t think so. Guess I’ll have to take you both on.”
Twenty minutes passed before Uriah, Sylvester and Gabriel arrived on the
scene. Once they entered the room, they found Julian unconscious on the floor
in the corner of the room and Amon holding Eve by her throat.
“We have to help her!” Gabriel said as he started forward but was stopped
by Sylvester.
“No! We can’t.”
“Let me…”
“We have to let her do this on her own.” Uriah whispered.
“Because of what the book said?” Gabriel snapped.
Uriah nodded as he started at her daughter fighting for her life.
His grip around her neck was tightening as she continued to struggle.
If he kept applying pressure to her neck, it wouldn’t be long before it
snapped. Forcing herself to stop struggling long enough, Eve quickly reached
behind her back and pulled out another knife that she hid safely in her
back pocket.
Amon never saw it coming…
Gabriel watched as Amon suddenly released Eve with a yelp before grabbing
a hold of his own neck. His eyes grew with absolute horror as he felt blood
seeping from his own neck.
“Oh…sh...” Amon gasped for air one last time before his eyes rolled in
the back of his head and he dropped to the floor…dead.
Gabriel then freed himself from Sylvester and was just about to run over
to where Eve stood quietly with her head down, when she suddenly looked up
at him with red eyes, which caused him to halt in place.
Julian came to moments later. His head was throbbing painfully and he
was sure that his right arm was broken, but that was all forgotten when
he spotted Amon lying a few feet away of him dead. Alarms immediately went
off in his head as he shifted slightly to look for any signs of Eve. It
didn’t take him long as he saw her standing over by the wall.
“I don’t understand.” He whispered. “The book was wrong. You’re still
here...right?
Silence-
“Eve…”
“Julian…” she whispered back. “It wasn’t wrong.”
“No…” he whispered numbly. This was not happening…
Silence-
Walking over to where he lay, Eve knelt down beside him.
“I wanted to prove that damn book wrong, but obviously that wasn’t to
be the case.” She sighed painfully. “But I couldn’t leave you without saying
goodbye.”
“No!” He sobbed out as she carefully rested her head on his chest. Julian
then brought his left hand up to her hair, even though it was bloody, and
ran his fingers threw it.
“Just promise me something.” She whispered as her breathing became shallow.
Julian closed his eyes and bit his tongue to keep from crying out once
more as the scent of death reeked over her before answering. “Anything…”
With the last of her strength left, Eve placed her lips by his left ear
and whispered what she wanted to say before locking eyes with his…one…last…time…
He sat quietly at the counter drinking his favorite drink in the world…that
god-awful tomato soup cake smoothie.
Six months had passed since that night…the night that he lost her. He
had refused to let anyone touch her as he held her lifeless body as close
to his as possible. Even though Amon was gone, that didn’t mean that war
was over. He and the others hadn’t expected anyone else to come after them
once they found out about Amon…but they did.
Uriah was the first to go. Julian realized later that he just didn’t want
to go on living without his daughter again.
Then followed Gabriel. He was on his way to be with Xavier in Ohio, when
five vampires attacked him. He never stood a chance…
And last, was Sylvester. After Eve’s death, he helped Julian bury her
on the grounds of the Crane cabin and then decided to stay with him until
he recovered completely. Three weeks later, he was killed in an explosion
that was meant for the both of them, but too bad the people didn’t do their
research right because Julian was still recovering.
“I sorry about what happened to your friends Julian…and Eve. But drinking
yourself to death isn’t gonna bring them back.” Grace whispered, startling
Julian from his thoughts.
“I know.” He replied.
“I’m glad you told me everything.”
“I’m still surprised you believed me.” He smiled. Too bad it didn’t reach
his eyes.
“Yeah well, it shocked me too.” She smiled.
Silence-
“Well…I guess I’ll see you tomorrow again.” He sighed.
“Same time?”
“You know it.”
As he started walking back to his new home on the other side of town,
tears instantly appeared in his eyes as he thought about Eve once more.
Six months…six long months of pain and misery. He dreamt about her every
night, some dreams good while the others replayed her death over and over
again. And the only thing that kept him from killing himself and joining
her in the afterlife was what she whispered in his ear before taking her
last breath.
{Flashback}
Walking over to where he lay, Eve knelt down beside him.
“I wanted to prove that damn book wrong, but obviously that wasn’t
to be the case.” She sighed painfully. “But I couldn’t leave you without
saying goodbye.”
“No!” He sobbed out as she carefully rested her head on his chest.
Julian then brought his left hand up to her bloody hair and ran his fingers
threw it.
“Just promise me something.” She whispered as her breathing became
shallow.
Julian closed his eyes and bit his tongue to keep from crying out
once more before answering. “Anything...”
With the last of her strength left, Eve placed her lips by his ear
and whispered “Live…live for me and remember…I’ll love you always…” before
locking eyes with his…one…last…time…
{Flashback ends}
“I love you too Eve…always.” Julian whispered as he continued on his way.