Page 11 of Liberty

“We have to help her.” Oak blinked.

“Who?”

“The girl.” He dropped the book to the ground, leaving it open where it fell.

“But what girl?” I asked again.

“I don’t fucking know!” he roared, his face covered in a panic that even I couldn’t ignore. “We have to go. We have to go now.”

He didn’t even bother with the front door, just turned from where he stood and climbed out the window. He was almost in a daze. His eyes were glazed, and his face paler than usual. I looked to Sterling, who shrugged and followed him through the window. I did the same, and soon, we were trailing behind him at a blurring pace, letting him lead us to who knows where.

He slowed when he got to the closed down entrance of the city street before pausing to take a deep breath, “Do you smell it? Do you smell her?”

I inhaled, sifting through the earthy elements and disgusting city filth, picking out notes of lavender and vanilla and – “There’s a vampire nearby.”

“No shit,” Sterling said. “There are three.”

“Besides us, dumbass.”

I watched as he paused, sniffing the air before tilting his head. “He went that way.”

Usually, when we sensed another vampire, we wouldn’t hunt them down. We mostly had no issue with them. But the fact remained, Oak came to this spot for a reason, and even if I spent the better part of my life arguing with these two men, I would rather have them in my corner than outside of it when the time came for our lives to end.

Oak led the way, cautious as always as we turned the corner. His steps were careful as he kept sniffing the air. He stopped, turned toward us, and said, “I think the girl is –”

An ear-piercing scream filled the air, and Oak was gone. Vanished. Sped so quickly out of our vision, we both missed it. Not like it mattered much. It only took a few seconds of tracking, and we were on his tail. He had stopped at the mouth of the alley, his mouth opened wide.

“It’s Sarah,” he breathed in wonder.

“What? Sarah died like two hundred years ago,” Sterling interjected, trying to talk some sense into him.

Oak wasn’t having it. “I need to save Sarah.”

Whatever trance he was under wasn’t a haze I could seem to get through. He bolted forward, grabbing the vampire who had the woman pinned against the wall and flung his body through the air. It landed on the far side of the alley, skidding across the cement. He was either new or completely preoccupied because there was no way Oak should have been able to catch a vampire like that off guard. Yet as Oak advanced, it was clear that someone wasn’t leaving today and that someone would not be Oak.

Oak rarely got angry; his temper was as even as they come. Yet as he slowly stalked toward the rising vampire, I could feel the rage pouring off him. The heat of his fury pushed against us, and without even realizing I was doing it, I stepped in front of the girl who lay in a heap on the pavement, shielding her with my body.

It was a myth that we were as cold as ice. How could we be cold when it was the fire in our veins, the magic coursing through us that was fueling our life force? Still, Oak shouldn’t have been this hot; his skin shouldn’t have been glowing with the strength of rage that rivaled all that I had seen. And when he bent down and grabbed the offender, crushing his windpipe in his hands right before Oak’s roar filled the air, the ground shouldn’t have shaken.

But it did.

The ground shook beneath my feet with each verbal release of anger, and it baffled me. With each shake of the ground, with each wave of heat that expelled from his body, with each roar that surfaced from the usually somber man, I was confused. But I did not interfere. I did not interfere until Oak was done with his torment and had driven his silver dagger through the offender’s heart.

Sterling stepped forward, his hands up as he tried to soothe Oak. “He’s dead. He’s all ash, buddy.”

Ha, since when was Sterling buddies with anyone? Not since we were kids, and I didn’t plan on changing that soon. Still, I had to give Sterling credit for trying because the way Oak’s vein bulged on the side of his neck, I don’t know if I would have been brave enough to step forward.

“Sarah,” Oak croaked from where he knelt over the pile of ash.

“She’s dead,” Sterling responded, then shot me a look that mirrored my own thoughts; Oak has fucking lost it.

Oak stood up, stumbling as he turned toward me. He was weak, whatever happened made him weak, and he needed blood. And rest. In that order. He fumbled his way over to me, his height looming over me, and as much as I trusted him, though I hated him, I didn’t trust him right this second with the girl.

“I can’t move out of the way; you’re unstable, man. She’s human. You could kill her in a heartbeat.”

He shook his head. “It can’t be.”

I held my ground in front of him. “Because it’s not.”