Thanks to Jeni Chapelle, Morgan Wilson, Stephanie Whitaker, @wickedrambling, and Tyler Zeoli for all your feedback. I hope you like this re-edit. It clocks in at 903 words!
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There we were, face to face with Desdemona, the self-proclaimed "Duchess" of House Kariko. My partner, Andy, and I had just rescued Katherine from her captivity. We still had to find Connor, but at the moment, we had to deal with the vampire who was responsible for turning both of them. There wasn't much space to fight. We were standing in the middle of a hotel hallway.
I turned to Andy and said, "You get your ex-girlfriend out of here. I'll go up to the top of this place and send up the signal. Meet me back here."
While Andy and Katherine took the elevator to the ground floor, I climbed up to the roof, feeling like a superhero, with my cape fluttering in the wind. I held onto a broken antenna and lit a signal flare, holding my arm out to make sure it could be seen. A flash of light illuminated from the police cruiser on the ground, my signal received. I dropped the flare and spun to rush back inside the building. My feet skidded to a halt as Desdemona's shadowy figure blocked the doorway, hands clenched into fists.
"You interfering little commoner!" Desdemona said. "There is no way you are going to take my Connor away from me!" Her scowl began to falter and her shoulders started shaking. "I cannot lose him the way I lost..."
I sighed as I made my way to the door that led to the stairway. "Then I'll find him myself. If you want to continue your undead existence, it's best you leave town. But if you attack me, you will meet your end. I already signaled for backup, anyway."
I shut the door behind me and locked it, but I knew Desdemona wouldn't let that stop her. I ran down the stairs as fast as I could. This would be so much easier if I had my sister?s super-sprinting power, I thought. I almost laughed at the idea.
Finally, I made my way to the ground floor of the hotel and found Andy in the hotel's kitchen. It was completely empty except for all the alcohol and kitchen utensils.
"I was able to sneak Katherine out through the exit over there," he said, pointing to the back door. "But what about Connor and Desdemona?"
"Desdemona kinda found me when I sent the signal," I said. "I still haven't found Connor, though."
Connor barged into the room. "That's cuz I'm right here!" He went into a fighting stance, showing off the broken shackles on his wrists. He was in full vampire mode, eyes gleaming red and fangs bared, ready to kill.
"Let's dance," I said, going into my fighting stance. "One last time."
He struck out first, swinging at me like a boxer. I jumped back to dodge his attack. Then Connor turned his attention to Andy, who had his lighter ready. Connor gritted his teeth and tried to kick the lighter out of Andy?s hand. That gave me the opportunity to throw a garlic powder bomb at my former boyfriend. Connor immediately started coughing and I couldn't help but grin.
"Do you have the cure?" Andy asked.
I reached into my pocket and took out a small bottle, the kind regulated for TSA checks. Inside was a cure that would turn a vampire back into a human.
"Connor," I said, "do you want to take the cure?"
Connor cleared the smoke away from him and coughed as he shook his head. "There is no way I'm going back to the life I once had."
I stepped closer to Connor, keeping the cure safe in my hand. "Andy and I are going to burn this place. Any vampire here will either burn or run for the hills. Your family misses you. Your friends miss you."
Connor took a step back. "I don't care about any of them. They never cared about me."
All of a sudden, Desdemona barged into the room in a rage. Andy grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the alcohol stash and took a handkerchief from his pocket. He poured some of the contents of the bottle onto his handkerchief and stuffed it into the bottle. As soon as he lit the cloth, I knew what was coming.
Andy threw the bottle towards Desdemona, but Connor jumped in front of her and absorbed the blast. Connor sunk to his knees as Desdemona reached out to him.
"You need to come with us, Connor," I said. "We can get you out of this."
He glared at me. "No. I can't go back. I already made my choice."
He took Desdemona's hand. She pulled him into an embrace and held him like a lover as the fire consumed the two of them and started to spread.
Andy touched my shoulder, jerking me from the gut wrenching pain in my chest. "We gotta get out of here."
I swallowed back the agony that threatened to overtake me and nodded my head. "Yeah, okay." Tears streamed down my face as Andy and I ran as fast as we could out the back door.
We heard an explosion behind us just as we made it out to the back lot. I covered my ears and turned around. The fire must have hit the gas from the stove.
My knees fell down to the pavement as I sobbed into my hands.
He was gone.
Topic: Found and Lost: Draft 3 (Read 1059 times)