"No, Mr. Porto!" Elena cried out. She quickly rushed to where his body was laying, crouched down, and gently touched his back. A single tear fell from her left cheek. "It was an honor fighting by your side."
"Leonidas! Get back here!" Carlos shouted from the top of his lungs, his voice echoing with fury as he saw his prey escaping.
Rebecca wasted no time and dashed toward Decker, who had already got back to his feet. She jumped forward and delivered a powerful kick directly into the dark-skinned vampire's ribs. The vampire flung through the air, but Elena was already present in the air with her sword. With a quick downward slash aimed at his head, she sent Carlos descending back toward the ground, causing a small crater where he landed.
Rebecca, like before, did not want to give the dark-skinned vampire any chance to catch his breath. She poured a vast amount of spiritual force into her fist, ready to end the battle if possible. As the Head Maid got closer, Decker's right arm was already transformed, full of dark energy and taking the form of a long, obsidian blade.
As they both reached striking distance, Decker swung his arm, and the vampire maid's body split in two. Blood gushed everywhere onto the ground, even the maid's guts were spilling out.
"No!" Elena cried out, filled with grief and rage. She rushed in and swung her sword downward, but the dark-skinned vampire was too fast. He dodged her desperate attack and drove his arm-blade directly into her abdomen. Blood instantly spilled from her mouth.
Decker leaned close to her, his voice low and mocking. "You did well, maid, but this is where you die. You promised that brat that you would not lose. But I am here to break that promise." He gave a light chuckle.
Decker retrieved his arm from her abdomen with a sickening pull. The dark-skinned vampire gave a light, contemptuous chuckle before lifting the female vampire into the air by her neck, his right hand gripping her throat like a vice. Elena's feet kicked uselessly in the air as she desperately grabbed his crushing arm with her left hand.
"Any last words?" Decker mocked, his eyes gleaming with anticipation.
Her right hand was busy fumbling through the small satchel that was strapped around her waist. Her eyes, filled with blood and fading life, found a last, impossible reserve of strength. "I… I love him," she gasped, the words ragged and barely audible, a final declaration for the boy she was dying to save.
"Hehehe. Good, time to die."
Dark energy started to violently envelop the right hand of Decker as he squeezed the throat of the female vampire. He began to laugh maniacally, his fingers digging deep into the frail flesh of Elena, trying to crush her neck with raw, supernatural force.
Then, for a split second, he felt something cold and sharp entering his open mouth.
The cold was instantly followed by a blinding, agonizing burn that felt like concentrated acid eating through his flesh. Some of the liquid managed to enter his throat, searing him from the inside out. Decker immediately let go of the female vampire, roaring in a mixture of pain and pure shock. Elena dropped to the floor on her knees. She clutched her ripped throat and coughed. She was half dead but still alive, her chest heaving for air.
The holy water threatened to melt his internal organs entirely. If the blessed liquid had rested against his unprotected throat and stomach for even a second longer, it would have acted like a fatal acid and burned him completely from the inside out. However, the dark entity residing within him reacted instantly. The demon surged its power, coating his esophagus and stomach in a thick layer of protective dark energy.
This shadowy barrier shielded his flesh from the worst of the holy attack, but Carlos still dropped to his knees. His body convulsed as the demon violently forced his stomach to contract. He gagged and threw up a sizzling mixture of the holy water and his own thick, black blood. Even though the demon had successfully saved his life, the small amount of water that had slipped past the dark barrier still left him with painful internal burns.
The expelled mixture hissed and bubbled as it hit the cold stone floor, reacting violently as the holy substance clashed with his corrupted blood.
"Holy water! You threw holy water in my mouth, you stupid bitch!"
Elena lifted her chin despite the agony. Blood ran from her lips and pooled around her abdomen, but a faint, triumphant smile touched her face.
"It tasted good, did it not?"
Decker continued to cough the black blood, his mind utterly consumed by the chemical agony of the burn. But his vengeance was instantaneous. A dark shadow clone tore itself from his back with a violent jerk. It got to its feet and walked behind where Elena sat, weak and defenceless. The dark shadow clone smiled evily while grabbing the head of Elena with both hands. The vampire maid let out one final, terrible scream that echoed through the ruined chamber before the shadow clone brutally ripped her head from her neck.
====
Meanwhile, John was sprinting down the ruined stone corridor with Leonidas secured easily on his back. His natural vampire strength allowed him to maintain a blistering pace. The castle shook from the distant, heavy thuds of the ongoing war, a constant reminder of the bloody siege raging through the lower levels.
"Old man, what is the plan now that the teleportation thingy is broken?" John asked. His voice was urgent and sharp, but his breathing remained steady.
"I do not know," Leonidas admitted. His voice was ragged with defeat, muffled against the shoulder of the white T-shirt of John.
John immediately came to a dead stop, his black sneakers sliding slightly on the scattered debris that littered the floor.
"What do you mean, you do not know? There has to be another way!" he insisted, turning his head to look back down the long, shattered hall where shadows danced in the flickering light of distant fires.
"Oh, hey, there you two are." A chilling voice cut through the thick, smoky air.
John whirled around. Right down the hallway, they could see Decker standing amidst the shattered stone and bloody wreckage of the corridor. The dark-skinned vampire watched them with a wide, evil grin that sent a shiver down John's spine.
"I have been looking for you," Decker said, his obsidian arm pulsing with a dark, hungry energy.
"Run, boy!" Leonidas urged, his voice suddenly filled with raw panic.
John immediately started sprinting again, his muscles firing with a new surge of adrenaline. Leonidas glanced behind him over the shoulder of his grandson and noticed that Decker had already begun to walk quickly in their direction. There was no need for the monster to run when his prey was fleeing into a crumbling dead end.
As John reached the main stairwell, he had been planning on heading downward to escape the upper floors. However, the massive explosion from the upper levels earlier had been more devastating than he realized. The structural shock had caused the lower flights of the staircase to buckle and collapse into a jagged abyss. He looked over the edge into the void and saw a huge amount of fire and thick, black smoke billowing from below where the stones had settled.
The path down was gone. Only the stairs that climbed upward into the dark, rain slicked heights were in good condition.
"I think we have to go upwards," John suggested, coughing slightly as the heat of the fire licked at his face.
"Then let us go!" Leonidas agreed immediately.
John headed up the stairs. His sneakers pounded the stone steps, crunching over fallen chunks of masonry. Even with a grown man on his back, the legs of the young boy did not tire. His vampiric endurance pushed him forward as if he were carrying nothing at all.
After a couple of minutes of relentless running, John and his grandfather finally reached the roof of the castle. He shoved the heavy iron door open, and a freezing rain immediately began to lash against them. The water quickly soaked into his white T-shirt, which was already dirty and torn into minor tatters from the previous fighting. The night sky above was lit by flashes of fire and the orange glow of the war below. John ran to the edge of the roof, frantically scanning the slick stones for any ways to escape. He did notice a man lying in the corner with a steel sword thrust straight through his chest, a grim victim of the earlier chaos.
"Boy, leave me here and run," Leonidas ordered. His voice was flat with the heavy weight of absolute command. "This is your only chance."
"I cannot leave you here," John refused, shaking his head stubbornly as the rain plastered his hair to his face and the thin fabric of his ruined shirt clung to his skin.
"Do you not want to live?" Leonidas challenged him, his eyes locking onto the young vampire.
"Yes," John answered simply, the truth ringing clear over the roar of the storm.
"Then leave me here! I am only a burden!" Leonidas argued, his frustration boiling over.
"No can do, old man." John surveyed the sheer, terrifying drop down the castle walls. The wind howled around them, tugging at his tattered sleeves. "You are hopeless. There is nothing here so far as I can see. Let us head down and find another way to escape."
John was about to turn back toward the door, but a voice, cold and cutting, sliced through the heavy, drumming rain.
"There is no escape," Decker announced from the doorway, having finally caught up to them.
Decker stood silhouetted in the doorway, rain lashing at his face in thick, heavy sheets. His voice remained strangely composed despite the carnage below. "Why did you have to come back here, Leonidas? Why did you not just run away? Instead, you came here to die. Did you really think your little plan was going to succeed?"
John noticed that Decker had some sort of object in his left hand, wrapped in cloth with blood clearly leaking out of it, staining the fabric a deep, dark crimson. Ignoring the dark-skinned vampire for a moment, the young vampire slowly backed up to where the dead man was lying. He gently placed his grandfather next to the body, resting Leonidas against the cold, wet stone wall.
John then gripped the hilt of the sword embedded in the corpse and pulled it free from the dead man's chest. The action was difficult and sickening, the sound of the steel sliding against bone muffled by the relentless downpour.
"What are you doing, boy?" Leonidas rasped, his eyes wide with terror. "You are not planning on fighting him!"
John hefted the heavy blade, the freezing rainwater washing the fresh blood from the steel until it shimmered under the flashes of fire from the war below. "What else is there to do, old man?" The voice of John trembled slightly, but the resolve in his eyes was pure steel. "I am fucking afraid, but if you are going to die, then it will be over my dead body."
Leonidas looked at the boy for a long moment, seeing not the child he remembered from the safety of Earth, but a fierce, loyal determination he had never witnessed before. He turned his gaze to Decker, his voice cracking with a final, desperate plea. "Please, do not let the boy suffer, Decker."
"Oooh, but you do not get to decide that, Leonidas." Decker chuckled lightly, the sound drowned out by the constant, rhythmic pounding of the rain. "I will not kill the boy immediately. I am going to play with him for a little bit."
John gripped the sword with both hands, the metal cold and heavy in his palms. He walked forward and stood still, his black sneakers searching for grip on the slippery roof as he kept a respectful distance between them. "Decker, before we get this party started, I was wondering one thing."
"And what might that be, young master?" Decker asked, tilting his head with that same evil grin.
"Do you have any connection to the werewolf that wanted to kill me?" John asked, his voice cutting through the heavy, vertical sheets of water.
Leonidas, focused entirely on the immediate crisis, had completely forgotten about that incident. Now, thinking back, he was also curious to know if that attempt was all the doing of Decker.
The dark-skinned vampire dropped the bloodied object he was holding to the ground. It hit the wet stone with a dull, heavy thud that was audible even over the constant, rhythmic pounding of the rain. The object was shrouded in a disheveled mass of torn fabric, remnants of a maid's uniform that had seen better days. The once crisp white apron and dark dress were now frayed and tattered, draping haphazardly over its sickening, unnatural shape. Dark, fresh stains seeped through the fabric, crimson rivulets marking the cloth like a sinister tapestry. Blood trickled down, pooling at the base and mixing with the rainwater, while the shredded edges of the uniform fluttered slightly in the damp air.
Decker began to clap his hands slowly. The sharp, wet sound of his palms meeting was barely audible over the relentless downpour. "Amazing. Yes, boy, it was all part of my plan. I wanted to shake things up. I thought Leonidas would lose his mind and attack the werewolves, but he was quite composed."
The dark skinned vampire walked a little to the side, taking a short, casual stroll across the slick roof as if they were not cornered on a collapsing battlefield. "The name of the werewolf I sent to finish you was Jones. He never returned from that hunt. I assume someone in your little group made sure his end was as pathetic as his life."
"I do not care about his name!" Leonidas demanded, his body resting heavily against the cold, wet wall. "Why would a werewolf even work for you? Did you offer him a lot of money? Why would a werewolf risk his life in vampire territory?"
"I blackmailed him, Leonidas. I had his daughter in my grasp." Decker started to laugh out loud, a harsh, joyful sound that felt entirely out of place in the freezing rain. "He did everything I said, and in the end, he died anyway."
"You bastard! What did you do to his daughter?" John cried out, his voice raw with a sudden, burning fury.
"I killed her, boy. She became troll food. I think her name was Dona... Dina... Dena. Yes, that is her name. Dena."
The grip of John tightened on the hilt of the scavenged sword. Decker turned to look at him, and John noticed his left eye was already a searing, glowing crimson red. John held the heavy steel blade tightly, his knuckles white as the rain soaked through his tattered, dirty white T shirt. "You will not get away with this, Decker," he swore.
"Do you see me running, boy?" Decker countered, his evil grin suddenly vanishing into a mask of cold bitterness. "Your grandfather killed my little girl. Why are you not angry at him? Is it because she is not a Crimson? She was my daughter!"
Decker took a step closer to John, chuckling again, though the sound was laced with a genuine, sharp edge of hatred. "This is life, my dear boy. Remember, only those who have the power make the rules."
"Yeah, I have heard that before," John spat back, the rain dripping from his chin and plastering his hair to his forehead. "But have you heard that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind?"
Before anyone could react, a figure suddenly materialized directly in front of John with supernatural speed. It was Carlos. Clearly annoyed by the comment of John, he lashed out. He slapped the young vampire hard across the face with his right hand, the force of the blow ringing out like a gunshot over the rain.
"Boy!" Leonidas yelled, stunned by the sudden violence.
John stumbled and fell backward onto the wet concrete, the heavy sword flying from his grasp and clattering to the ground with a harsh, metallic ring. He looked back up at the dark-skinned vampire, his hand touching his stinging face where the blow had landed. Carlos stood over him, radiating a cold, focused anger.
"The saying you are talking about is one that only the weaklings would say," Carlos sneered, his silhouette sharp against the heavy, vertical sheets of falling water.
The young vampire gritted his teeth, scrambling awkwardly to pick up the fallen sword as he forced himself back to his feet. "You bastard," John muttered, locking eyes with Carlos.
"No, boy, do not attack him!" Leonidas shouted a warning from where he slumped against the wall.
Ignoring the plea, John rushed toward Carlos with the sword held clumsily in both hands. He swung the wet steel as he lunged into striking distance, but the skilled vampire easily dodged the wide, amateur attack. Carlos moved with a fluidity that made the heavy rain seem to part around him.
"You bastard, stand still!" John screamed.
John attacked Carlos again and again, but each strike missed its target by a wide margin. The dark-skinned vampire seemed to be effortlessly dancing across the slick concrete, barely moving as he evaded every desperate swing John dished out. Decker stood watching from the sidelines, clearly enjoying the sight, like a cat playing with its food before the kill.
"You have already butchered so many people," Carlos suddenly sneered, his tone conversational despite the chaos. "Moms, dads, even children. Do you not feel the weight of all that blood on your hands?"
Without warning, Carlos released a small spirit force sphere. The projectile struck John squarely in the chest, the impact knocking the wind and the air out of the young boy instantly. John coughed, spitting a small amount of blood onto the wet concrete as he dropped to his knees, clutching his chest. Tears of frustration and pain welled in his eyes as he balled his fists against the stone. I am so weak, he thought bitterly.
"Decker, I have another question," Leonidas declared, his tone retaining the strict authority of a Lord.
Decker looked at Leonidas and grinned. He spread his arms wide in the heavy rain. "What is your question, my lord? What does the foolish Leonidas wish to know when he is staring death right in the face?"
"Where did you acquire the Book of the Dead all those years ago?" Leonidas asked.
"You mean the book that you stole? Do you mean the day that you murdered my daughter?" The dark-skinned vampire sighed and slicked back the little bit of wet, disheveled hair he had left. "In those days, my daughter and I were still human beings living in seclusion. Many years before my child was born, my wife was pregnant with her. One sunny day, we were visited by the brother of my wife. Bless his soul, as he is no longer in this world. I do not know what he did for a living because she never talked about him. He came to our house unannounced, and I do not know how he discovered our location. The man brought this bizarre book and told us to keep it safe. He claimed the book possessed the power to bring back the dead. I did not want this item in my house with my child still in the womb. I knew that these types of things always demand a heavy price. Her brother swore nothing would happen. The only condition was that we must never open its pages, and he promised he would return to retrieve it in a few months. We kept it hidden in our basement ever since."
"Then how are you so certain that it was me who killed your daughter?" Leonidas countered.
"Do not play the fool with me, Leonidas. I know what you did. I saw it with my own two eyes. I was returning from buying groceries. On my way back, I heard a massive explosion. As I approached, I hid behind the bushes and saw that my entire home had been blown to bits. The very last thing I saw was your hand buried deep inside the chest of my daughter before everything went completely dark."
Leonidas remained silent. The old Patriarch simply stared back at his enemy.
Decker leaned forward, his voice dripping with venom. "Do you deny that, Leonidas?"
"No. You speak the truth," Leonidas replied flatly. "I killed your daughter."
Decker chuckled, the sound hollow and devoid of any real joy. "When I finally awoke in the ruins of my home, I had nothing left. No wife. No daughter. Just the burning memory of your hand inside her chest. I swore right then that I would tear down your entire world. I found a greedy vampire willing to turn a human for wealth, and I paid an incredibly high price to let him infect my veins so I could surrender my frail humanity. I used my newfound immortality to become a wealthy businessman, forging connections with people in high places just to get closer to you. But I knew the power of an ordinary vampire would never be enough to kill a Clan Lord. That is when I found the witch Vivian. She hates you just as much as I do. Also, she was the one who gave me the alpha werewolf venom to poison you, and she was the one who called forth the dark demon from the abyss. I made a deal with that entity. It granted me this unnatural strength and permanently stained my blood and my skin pitch black, all at the cost of devouring my soul. You thought you could walk away unpunished, but I will have my revenge and for all the families you slaughtered. Rest assured, I will make your end remarkably slow and incredibly painful."
John stared at the wet ground until a pair of polished leather boots entered his limited vision. Decker reached down, grabbed John by the throat, and effortlessly lifted the boy entirely off the ground. He dangled the young vampire in the air right there in the middle of the roof, his feet hovering uselessly above the concrete floor. "Young master, do you think the number of vampires that died today in this war is high? Even the amount of people I have killed in my lifetime as a vampire is a mere drop in the ocean compared to the butcher you call a grandfather, the old cunt," Decker growled.
John was suspended in the air with his feet dangling. "I know," he said softly, his voice barely audible over the constant and rhythmic drumming of the rain.
"Huh, what did you say?" Decker narrowed his eyes, pulling John closer to his face so they were eye to eye.
"I know Leonidas is a piece of shit. He is a vampire after all," John said, his gaze fixed on the monster in front of him. "He even tried to kill me because I am different."
Decker froze, his eyes locking in their sockets as he processed the statement. He held John suspended for a long moment before abruptly loosening his grip and letting the boy go. John hit the concrete feet first, but he was too weak. His legs gave out, and he fell heavily onto his knees.
The dark-skinned vampire then shifted his gaze toward Leonidas. "You tried to kill your own blood, Leonidas. You truly are vile," Decker said, snickering afterward.
Leonidas did not say anything. He simply sat against the wall, drenched in the heavy and vertical sheets of rainwater. His silence was damning.
John slowly struggled back to his feet, holding his stinging chest. He looked straight at Decker. "I know Leonidas is a piece of shit. You are right. But you are not him. Why would you stoop down to his level? What would your daughter think if she found out that her father became a bitch?"
The rain hammered down as John exploited the rawest point of Decker's grief, his voice dripping with venom. "Do you think she is proud of you? Do you think she is dancing in heaven while you became a piece of shit after she died?"
"Shut up, you cunt!" Decker screamed.
Decker did not hesitate. He punched John hard in the face, and a spray of blood spurted out into the dark and rainy air. John could do nothing as gravity took over. He was flung backward and fell hard onto his back on the cold, wet concrete floor.
Leonidas could not move. All he could do was scream, "No! Stop!" The vampire lord was forced to watch as Decker was suddenly on top of John, punching the boy repeatedly in the face. Decker eventually stood up, taking a few sickening seconds to look at John, whose face was already covered in blood.
"You are not going to dance," Decker sneered. The dark-skinned vampire lifted his leg and brought it down with crushing force, snapping the femur of the boy in two.
The scream of John was raw and piercing, like that of a hunted animal. "Haaaaaaahhhhh!" he shrieked, clutching his shattered leg.
"I like you, John. That is why I am going to let you watch while I beat your grandfather," Decker announced.
The young vampire, in severe, blinding pain, tried to speak. "No," he managed in a hoarse, broken tone.
The dark-skinned vampire then switched his attention to the vampire lord. He clapped his hands once as he walked toward his prone enemy. "I must commend you, Leonidas. You are truly one of the strongest vampires I have ever seen. How did you survive the venom of an Alpha Werewolf that was also enhanced by a witch?"
"Hehehe, as you can see, I am still here. I may be alive, but I'm not exactly getting up and about," Leonidas chuckled weakly.
"I didn't want to kill you with my own hands," Decker sneered, his voice rising over the rhythmic drumming of the rain. "I wanted my pet troll to eat you and turn you into troll dung. Do you know how funny it would be if the great Leonidas was troll shit? Hahaha! You would be a laughingstock in the vampire world. Leonidas, the Lord of Shit! Hahaha!"
The laughter was a jagged, ugly sound that cut through the downpour. It was not long before Decker reached Leonidas. The vampire lord looked up at the dark-skinned vampire as the heavy, vertical rain fell upon them in a relentless, punishing wall of water. "Do your worst."
Blackened teeth protruded from the mouth of Decker as he smiled, a monstrous expression that held no trace of mercy. "I will try." Leonidas steeled himself, knowing that nothing but agony was coming.
Decker reached out his hand, grabbed the right leg of Leonidas, and began to drag the vampire along the cold, wet floor of the castle roof. The vampire lord did not struggle. He knew the effort was futile, and he simply let his body be pulled across the rough concrete.
John was still on the floor, powerless and crippled, watching as his grandfather was dragged away. The rain hammered against the roof, drowning out all but the sound of wet stone scraping against stone.
In one swift, savage motion, Decker swung the vampire by his legs into the air and straight down to the concrete. Leonidas was slammed to the ground, landing brutally on his face. His body bounced once on the hard floor, and the bones in the face of Leonidas cracked audibly, a sharp, sickening sound over the steady drumming of the rain.
Decker let go of the leg and turned the vampire onto his back. He held out his right hand, and his dark nails started to extend into wicked, jagged claws. Without a word, he plunged his entire hand deep into the abdomen of Leonidas.
The vampire lord did not scream, but he grunted sharply as the nails pierced his body. "I like how you are not making any noise, Leonidas. However, I want to hear you squeal."
The dark-skinned vampire twisted his hand while it was still lodged deep inside the body of Leonidas. The face of the old vampire turned a deep crimson as he fought desperately to keep himself from screaming. John, on the other hand, had managed to somehow lift his upper body despite the agony in his shattered leg. He could not move his lower body, but his voice was still raw with fury.
"Leave the old man alone! Come fight me, you asshole!"
Decker heard the desperate challenge and turned his head slightly. "Wait your turn, boy."
He then focused his attention back on the vampire lord, leaning in close so his blackened teeth were visible through the sheets of rain. "Where were we? Oh yes, you are supposed to squeal, right?"
Leonidas reached out with a trembling hand and grabbed the wrinkly right wrist of Decker. "Don't... touch me!"
Decker did not even flinch. He ripped his arm back with such violence that blood sprayed across the wet concrete like a crimson fan. Before the Crimson Lord could react, Decker seized the right arm of Leonidas with his left hand. With a flash of his newly freed right hand, he sliced clean through the wrist of the vampire lord.
Blood spurted from the stump, mixing instantly with the heavy rain. Leonidas could not help but let out a loud, guttural grunt. Dark blood oozed from his mouth, and thick, ropy veins pulsed across his neck as he fought the urge to scream.
"Why won't you scream!" Decker roared, his voice nearly drowned out by the drumming downpour.
He stood up and began to systematically stomp on the Crimson vampire. Each blow delivered by the dark-skinned vampire was harder than the last. John watched in horror from the floor, his tattered white T shirt soaked and clinging to his frame. Tears carved tracks through the blood and rain on his face.
"Please stop! Please!" John cried out, his voice cracking with desperation.
Decker did not listen. He continued the assault, his foot hitting the body of the vampire lord with the force of a falling hammer. Huge cracks began to spiderweb across the concrete floor beneath Leonidas. After five minutes of relentless pounding, Decker finally stopped, though his primal anger still simmered. He looked back at John and began to grin, showing those blackened teeth.
He turned back to his victim. "My lord, I am going to play with your grandchild for a moment. It is not fun beating a helpless cunt, but I will come back for you."
With a sudden, violent motion, Decker grabbed the clothes of Leonidas and flung him high into the stormy sky. Leonidas felt the cold breeze rushing past his face as his mangled body was launched upward, silhouetted against the dark clouds.
Decker crouched, channeling Spirit Force into his right fist. He charged so much energy into the strike that his hand began to emit a faint, malevolent glow that cut through the gray curtain of rain.
"I hope you don't die, my lord."
Decker leapt, soaring higher than the ascending Leonidas. At the apex of the jump, he drove his glowing fist directly into the center of the chest of the vampire lord. A massive shockwave exploded outward, blasting the rain away in a perfect, hollow sphere for a split second.
The bones in the chest of Leonidas exploded. His internal organs were shaken to the core, and blood spurted from every orifice of his body. The vampire lord was hammered back down toward the roof. He did not just hit the concrete; he smashed through it, plummeting through multiple floors and ceilings below in a cascade of rubble and dust.
"No!!" John reached out a shaking hand, screaming in absolute despair.
In the immense cavity far below, Leonidas lay mangled and utterly still. His chest was caved in, and his eyes had rolled backward into his head.
On the roof, Decker stood before John, whose eyes were red and swollen from crying. The villain leaned down, his shadow falling over the broken boy.
"Young master John, I want to show you something."
John looked up at the dark-skinned vampire with a mixture of raw anger and crippling pain. He still could not move with the broken leg. Decker reached down, grabbed John from behind by the collar of his tattered shirt, and began to drag him along the cold, wet concrete of the castle roof.
John twisted his head, the heavy rain stinging his eyes, to look back at the gaping hole where Decker had punched his grandfather through.
"Don't worry about your grandfather, boy. I will fetch him shortly after I am done with you," Decker said, chuckling darkly over the steady downpour. "I do not like to hurt children, boy. I even own an orphanage," he added, lightly shaking his head. "But you are a different case. Blame it on your last name."
John, being dragged with both legs trailing on the rough ground, felt a fresh, agonizing wave of pain shoot through his shattered femur. "Well, there is something you do not understand, Decker," he gasped.
Decker stopped and paused for a moment. "And what is that, young master?"
"I did not choose this last name."
Decker gritted his teeth, his expression twisting into a mask of pure hate. He quickly grabbed the boy by the back of his head. "Blame the Heavens, then!"
The dark-skinned vampire forcefully slammed the head of his opponent into the wet concrete floor. The impact echoed in a jarring, sickening thud. As the forehead of John struck the hard surface, the skin burst open. Blood seeped out and pooled quickly, mixing with the rain to paint the ground a dark, glossy red.
Carlos grabbed John by the collar again and dragged him toward where the mysterious, bloodied object was laying. He lifted the boy partially up by the neck, forcing John to watch. He then used his left hand to channel Spirit Force, gently lifting the heavy, cloth-wrapped object from the wet ground.
John watched as the object floated in front of him, suspended in the vertical rain. He felt a cold fear constrict his throat; his eyes shifted frantically, dreading what was hidden beneath the frayed maid's uniform. "What is this?" he whimpered.
"Oh, it is just a small present I thought I should get you," Decker replied, his tone sickeningly gentle.
Decker then swirled his index finger, and the soaked fabric wrapped around the object began to unravel itself slowly, cruelly peeling back layer by layer.
The eyes of the boy stretched wide with a dawning, absolute horror as he saw the back of a human head, the wet hair instantly familiar. The head slowly spun in the air, rotating until John saw the face hovering right in front of him.
Hot tears leaked from his eyes, blending with the freezing rain. His mind shattered; he desperately wanted to believe that all of this was only a nightmare. He stopped breathing as he looked at the lifeless, pallid face of the person who was so very dear to him.
It hurts, it hurts, he thought, feeling like his heart was being devoured alive by hungry rats.
"Please God, no." He slowly stretched out his trembling right hand, reaching for the impossible.
"Elena," he whispered.