Chapter 30-Get away

Chapter 30: 30-Get away

Click. Click. Click.

Metal echoed somewhere beyond the trees and then an impossibly brilliant light, one after another lit up until every direction exploded with blinding radiance.

It wasn’t ordinary light. It possessed the same holy warmth as the sun itself. Artificial sunlight that her ancestors invented many years ago. The entire flower field erupted into daylight in one moment.

"Aaahhh!" Maisa screamed.

Pure agony tore from her throat. Her skin immediately began smoking. The exposed flesh on her hands blistered within seconds as her face twisted in unbearable pain.

"It burns!" She screamed and collapsed onto both knees. "Aaargh!" Her cries came more loudly.

Her palms slammed into the ground. The scent of burning flesh filled the air, and her body shook violently.

She couldn’t even think properly. The pain consumed everything. Her senses, her emotions, and her body, it was all overwhelmed by the pain.

The artificial sunlight was made to feel just like sunlight to vampires, and when it came to turned vampires, it burnt worse than hell fire.

Zolani’s eyes widened. She hadn’t expected the hunters that far away from other known and prominent hunter families to come equipped to kill.

"No, Maisa!" Her heartbeat lept, and she immediately dropped beside Maisa. Unlike the newly turned vampire, the sunlight barely affected her.

Being naturally born granted mixedbloods partial resistance. The light still irritated her skin, but it couldn’t truly harm her. So she had no reaction to it, not like Maisa, whose skin was on fire.

She wrapped both arms around Maisa. "Maisa! Look at me!"

Maisa only screamed louder. "AAARGHHH!" The sound tore from her throat. Tears streamed uncontrollably down her face. "My skin, Zo... it hurts!"

Zolani didn’t let her go. She used her body to block the artificial sunlight from one side for her. But she only had one body and couldn’t shield from every side.

"It hurts!" Maisa broke into sobs through gritted teeth as she endured what she and her family had put other vampires through.

For the first time, she walked in the shoes of the prey instead of predator and felt the pain most had gone through by her family’s hands.

Being on the other side of the line, she could see how cruel such measures were. Especially since they came from a clouded perspective. Yes, she was a vampire, but she hadn’t harmed anyone or killed anyone, so... her mind scared her more than the pain of the burns.

She wasn’t just seeing her family from a new light, but she also saw the error in their practise. As hunters, vampires had no say whether they were innocent or guilty. Being a vampire was enough to justify being hunted and killed merciless.

"Aaarghhh!" She screamed out in pain.

Thinking quickly, Zolani bit into her own wrist, and her crimson blood flowed immediately. "Drink," she coaxed Maisa.

Maisa barely heard her. The pain took over her senses, including her ears. She couldn’t hear past the sound of her skin being turned into cooked meat.

"Maisa! Drink!"

Zolani pressed her bleeding wrist against Maisa’s lips. Instinct finally took over at the smell of rich, flavoured blood that her revlood senses feel is much better than human blood.

Maisa digs her fangs into Zolani’s wrist and drinks without restraint. Her teeth aligned with the teeth marks Zolani had previously made.

Her body feels alive as she drinks the blood. It’s not as rich as Varitreya’s blood, but it quenches her thirst and offers her relief.

Only a few mouthfuls, the burning lessened, and the artificial sunlight becomes bearable. The smoke rising from her skin slowly weakened, and her trembling eased.

She gasped desperately for air. "It..." she looked at Zolani in confusion. "...your blood..."

Zolani nodded. "I’m naturally born. My blood carries sunlight resistance," she smiled weakly. "My human half means it isn’t nearly as strong as whiteblood, blackblood, or blueblood... but it helps."

"I wasn’t aware thar natural born blood had such power..."

"It has more power than this. It can even grant a reblood the ability to walk in the sun. The higher ranking the blood, the more hours a redblood gets in the sun," she tells her another secret of their blood. "That’s why you aren’t burning anymore. But we should get going soon. My blood will only last for so long."

Maisa’s breathing gradually steadied. The pain dulled enough for coherent thought to return. Then, recognition strikes her, and her eyes widen.

"No..." she breathes heavily. She stared at the glowing lanterns surrounding them. "Formation Seven..."

Zolani looked at her. "You recognise it?" Her eyes furrowed with doubt. Maisa was a nearly turned vampire. She shouldn’t know about hunters and their methods. She began to question how Maisa knew the strategies of a hunter.

Maisa nodded frantically. "I’ve read about vampire hunter tactics," she quickly covers up her slip up with a lie.

Zolani looks sharply at her. But since she had no reason to doubt Maisa, she brushed back her doubt.

Maisa’s voice shook. "Hunter tactics on page seven," her voice echoed between them. She pointed toward the lights. "They weaken weaker vampires first with artificial sunlight. They burn them until we can’t fight..."

Her breathing accelerated again. "Then..." her voice cracked. "They move in for the kill."

As if answering her theory, the leaves rustled, branches snapped, and shadows emerged between the trees.

Crossbows, blessed chains, and holy blades are raised. Nearly a dozen hunters stepped from the darkness, ready to kill her and erase her from the surface of the earth.

With their weapons already raised, their leader smiled. "The trap worked!" His eyes settled upon Maisa. "She can’t escape. Kill the vampire!"

Maisa’s entire body froze. She recognised the formation, the discipline behind it, and the equipment. Every piece came straight from the lessons she’d grown up with, what her father had taught, and everything she had once believed in.

Only now, she stood on the opposite side. She wasn’t the hunter anymore. She was the prey. Her father’s tactics and inventions were being used on her. It saddened her heart.

The possibility of her family’s legacy being her end one day made her heart break into a million tiny pieces. And the pieces were too small to put back together.

Zolani tightened her grip around Maisa’s hand. "We’re leaving."

Maisa looked up. "How? Knowing this formation, they’ve set up barriers to trap us inside these fields."

"We run."

"There are barriers. Aren’t you listening?" She asked.

"I know." Zolani smiled. "Trust me, I’ll get you out of here safe and sound."

Their fingers intertwined naturally. The mate bond pulsed warmly beneath their skin. For one heartbeat, the fear in Maisa’s heart disappeared.

"NOW!"

Zolani launched forward, and the world exploded into motion. Flowers bent beneath hurricane-like winds, the moonlight blurred into streaks, and the trees became green smears.

Maisa felt herself flying rather than running. That was the second time that she was moving that first, but with Zolani pulling her, the speed was a hundred times faster than hers.

Even after becoming a vampire, she couldn’t match Zolani’s speed.Behind them, the hunters shouted.

"After them!"

"Don’t lose them!"

"They’re escaping!"

Bolts of arrows and weapons flew through the air, but none of them came close to grazing her. Zolani moved too fast.

Ahead, thin glowing lines suddenly stretched between trees, the barrier runes that kept vampires inside. They were hunter containment seals.

Maisa’s heart sank. "We’re trapped! I told you about the barriers," she reminded Zolani. ℯℯ𝑙.

"We’re not."

Zolani’s eyes sharpened. She instantly recognised the weak points. "They’re using Everheart patterns..." she said, her tone laced with hatred and anger that couldn’t be hidden when she mentioned the name Everheart. "...but they made one mistake," she added.

Maisa was stuck on the hatred she felt from her. She wondered if her family and Zolani had crossed paths. Knowing the way family and vampire encounters usually ended, her heart shook.

Zolani was her first friend. The kindest soul in Veris, she couldn’t imagine losing her over a past she couldn’t change.

The mixedblood released Maisa’s hand for only a second. Her fingers struck three glowing rune stones hidden beneath nearby roots.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

The entire barrier flickered violently and then shattered. Thousands of glowing fragments dissolved into the night like broken glass and their escape route opened.

Zolani grabbed Maisa’s hand again. "Move!"

Maisa let her hand be grabbed again as she was in pure shock. Her father’s formation was broken so easily by a vampire. Her heart sank. It seems that along with hunters, vampires were evolving and getting better at fighting back, defending themselves, and escaping the traps.

They burst through the opening just as hunters reached the barrier.

"No!"

"They broke it!"

"After them! Before they get away!"

But it was already too late for them to catch them. The two vampires vanished into the moonlit forest, leaving only crushed flowers, broken runes, and a circle of furious hunters staring at the empty darkness where their prey had escaped.