“WHERE IS DIMITRI?”

THE vampire turned to face him with an evil smirk “you thought I wouldn’t catch up to you?” He releases Iva and she fell to the ground gasping for air, she dragged herself towards the bar and leaned on the table. The vampire walked with a fancy-rich-man gait over to the beast. She wasn’t sure of the beast success in the upcoming battle she sensed, he hadn’t fully recovered, was hungry, and had metal handcuffs on.

“Where is Dimitri?” The vampire stared into the beast’s eye fearlessly he casually looked down at his wrist and breaks out into a maniac cackle before resuming his façade “you let a lady capture you? This is shameful” the two goons gave a broad grin, they only stood ready to beat the beast.

“I think you should be the one ashamed Gus, what you tried for several years to do, a little human did that. Say doesn’t that make you feel worthless?” he glared at the vampire who wasted no time reacting to the demeaning statement, he threw a punch at the wolf causing him to bleed.

Angered, the wolf sneered and ran into the vampire causing him to stagger a bit, the force not enough to get him off his feet, the beast was still recovering, his wounds had miraculously advanced since last night but not enough, at the slightest friction, they seemed like they would open up. The vampire jabbed his elbow into the wolf’s spine and this forced his mouth open in a gasp for air.

As the goons concentrated on their prey, the occupants of the bar who had not made it outran over to the back, It was a stampede of people in fear and desperation.

Iva wondered why he was trying, why he attempted to save her, it was fruitless and she had cuffed him restricting most of his movement.

She sat still trying to regain her strength while looking around for a weapon, on her right, being the left side of the bar, a large board was stamped to the wall upon it was a sawn-off shotgun. She grinned broadly at the sight but this was obstructed with doubt of the rifle having any magazine loaded in it.

Peeking at the goons, she crawled over to the wall, Gus, the vampire had his fist all over the beast and the others were coming in hard with their arcana. For our young detective, she had a specialty for hand combat, knew her way around guns and hand knives. With her brief encounter with Gus, she realized that they weren’t enough. He had extraordinary abilities and super fast reflexes or responses, this ability she couldn’t keep up with. That canceled hand combat as a way to get around this situation, she would go ahead to cancel the use of short knives as well except her prey was in a more vulnerable state, she had already sustained some broken bones and she was half useless. The best option would be either distance or a steady load of ammunition.

She struggled her way to her feet grabbing a table to pull herself up. A large clank pulled a goon over to her, the metal beer cup had fallen off the table she leaned on.

She hissed as she tried to maintain a distance from him, he smiled lethally and slammed his feet to the ground causing the floor underneath her to give in. She threw herself away from a large crevice that had formed on the floor and stared at him despicably. The Terramage hurled large rocks at Iva, with only a few minutes of heads up, she flew herself again and again landing hard on the floor.

She squinted to see the beast as he was giving out, his body steaming as the Pyromage and vampire took turns finishing him up. Balling her fist, she pushed herself up and ran for the shotgun. Spring on one of the bar tables, she lunged for it. The Terramage pulled the wall beside her knocking her to the floor.

“Silly bitch” he hissed as he stomped towards her, a large screech filled the room as Yi ran through the back and aimed for the mage, Yi used his talons to scratch open fresh wounds on the goon and he struggled to get the bird off him. Iva struggled on the floor, she couldn’t count the number of bones she had broken but she had to get up, she had to save the beast, she had to rescue her partner, she had to solve the case and all this may not be possible if they were unable to get out of this situation.

She pulled herself up, shrapnel peppering her face as her head touched the bulging rock, dislodged from the wall as a result of the mage’s arcana.

She reaches for the shotgun with her left arm and yanked it off the wall, without hesitation, she crouched biting back the pain, and locked the gun in between her legs, aiming at the Terramage, she pulled the trigger causing a large bang and he flew over backward.

The shot had blown his chest open and he died instantly.

At the sight, the Pyromage and Gus turned over to her in disbelief, she pointed her gun at the vampire and immediately tossed everything in her pocket across the room. Before she could fire, the vampire was at her, his hand squeezing her throat.

“Crazy brat, I should have killed you earlier!” He squeezed tightly at her throat cutting her air and she struggled, her feet kicking rocks and debris. Her one good arm tried vainly to loosen the vampire’s grip. Hot tears streamed down her cheeks and her eyes bulged as he pressed harder.

The air vibrated before her and the vampire tilted her head for a bite, His mouth covered the surface warmly and his fangs met her neck, cool blood welled around her neck soaking into her turtleneck. Her movement seized and her good arm fell to her side. A large explosion filled the air and the vampire jerked away with shock but that was it for our young detective, the air felt heavy in her lungs and her eyes fell shut.

“Iva! Iva!” A distant cry came, she tried to call back but it was all in her head, she couldn’t voice it out ‘Dad!’ she yelled but she was mute, she could hear his voice calling her but she saw nothing…