Fan Fiction ❯ Touch the Moon ❯ Only Immortal ( Chapter 3 )

I'm back with vengeance. Hope you all aren't too sick of my story yet, it's only got a few chapters left. Anyway, I hope you like my new chapter, thank you to Hele, Rosevine, whitebearwrites and Akurei!

Oh yeah, I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer by the way, which is mentioned like once in this story. Also, no offence to anyone with the family of Chi, it is merely the name I picked at random.

Touch the Moon: Chapter Three

I'm sitting in a sleek black Mercedes in Hong Kong and I'm still in a bad mood. You want to know why? Damn Lan for packing me off to Hong Kong like this! I know I said I didn't like London but I wanted to find out what would happen to Helen! After I got off the plane Lei --the vampire who changed me, just in case you wanted to know--picked me up from the airport, stuffed me into his stupid car and drove me off to this stupid gathering with the Chi family.

Lei and I don't get along. He changed me out of pity and we can talk, but we're not good friends. He's a forever twenty-eight year old business freak and I'm the lazy ass that lounges around adding to the number of couch potatoes in the World. He's also a very straightforward person; he was the one who told me I was a lazy ass in the first place.

I don't know why he bothers; it's not like I'll change my ways or anything. I mean, I got that sort of lecture regularly from my adopted parents and I never stopped smoking, fighting, illegally racing my bike or taking drugs. And now that I'm a vampire I don't even need to worry about keeping fit, heh.

I've been even ruder than usual to Lei, but he's patient. I'll give him that. I almost feel ashamed. Almost. It's nine in the evening, I could be out feeding, drinking, having meaningless sex but no, I have to go and socialise with a vampire family I don't even like. We're already in front of the meeting place. Lei is trying to get me out the car right now. After he stepped out to 'take-a-break-from-my-incessant-whining' I locked the car from the inside and now he can't get to me. Ha! Serves him right for leaving the keys in the ignition. I'm tempted to just drive off.

But then I'd be decapitated piece by piece by one or another of my family tomorrow for being incompetent and uncooperative. It's better that I just make a fuss now and then let myself get dragged in screaming and kicking rather trying to make an escape.

'Aki, get out of the car now.'

'No.'

'Why not?'

'I want to go back to London and see what happened to Helen.'

'Aki, don't be unreasonable. You know you can't get back to Helen in time even if we sent you off now. Don't make me treat you like a three-year-old and tell you there's a surprise waiting at home if you're good. Now unlock the door.'

'No.'

At this point Fei-Long, yet another of my family, comes along and opens the doors of the car with his own copy of the car keys, damn. I was hoping to miss at least half an hour, I haven't even managed to lock myself in for ten minutes yet. In any case Fei-Long is my age and a lot more street wise than I'll ever be, he was an orphan too, but he never got adopted or anything, he had actually survived on his own on the dangerous streets of Korea until someone changed him. Anyway he drags me forcefully from the car by my elbow and pulls me up the steps to the building.

He turns and smiles apologetically at me. He winks, 'there's a surprise for you at home if you're good,' he tells me. I just glare. Evil person. Just as we reach the top of the stairs, Fei-Long dragging me in the lead and Lei leading a whole entourage of our family who look no happier than me, we get stopped by the elder of the Chi family. He looks disapprovingly at us, well me actually. I raise the corner of my lips, showing a canine, leaving a clear message,

Get the Hell outta my way.

He turns to Lei, who seems to be our unofficial leader in Lan's stead. Lei just bows stonily, like I said, our families really don't get along. The elder just looks at us and we stare forebodingly back, only thirty-three of the entire family are really here today. The others managed to find an excuse to miss this gathering. Lucky them.

'Really Lei, I thought Lan would be here to greet me. It is only respectful.'

Is that supposed to be a veiled insult? This is one of the times where our family members all synchronise, well the present members anyway. We all glare at the elder with narrowed eyes, no one insults anyone in the Huang family. That's my family name by the way. I forget my temporary grudge against Lan and snarl with the rest of my clan. Even Lei growls low in his throat. However, instead of trying to rip the elder's throat out like I might've tried, Lei merely smiled slightly and replied,

'It's also respectful to keep one's mouth shut if they have nothing pleasant to say.'

With that, Lei leads us through the doors and into the buildings. The place is packed. Just to be vengeful, I say loud enough for the elder to hear, though I aim the actual comment to Fei-Long,

'I see Lan was right, they still haven't learnt what selection is.'

Fei-Long bites his lip to refrain from snickering and drags me a little quicker. Oh yeah, I'm good. I can see my surrounding family members snickering quietly. Either that or my surrounding family members have all gone into simultaneous coughing fits. Even Lei is smirking into a handkerchief whilst pretending to hack up his lungs. And I can just feel the glowering of any Chi members in hearing range.

Anyway, within in minutes I'm already hating this place. After my smart-ass retort to the Chi elder, a lot of people are suddenly 'accidentally' bumping into me or spilling their drinks on me. This is either payback, or the Chi family are just great clumsy idiots. And as much as I would like to believe in the latter, I'd have to say the former is more convincing, hard though it is to believe.

I only manage to walk straight for another two metres before someone else 'bumps' into me. That is it! It's my last straw! My very last accursed nerve snapped! I whirl around and 'accidentally' spill the entire contents of my drink onto the back of the offending person's shirt. Oh dear, what have I just done? I feel so guilty. Not. Serve you right. I'm a vengeance thirsty asshole. Live with it.

I mutter some half-felt apology before trying to wander off somewhere. I don't get far, the person, a man much bigger than myself, grabs me by the shoulder and turns me back around. I don't like be touched without consent of some sort. Ever. And I get pissed if someone touches me by force. Just like this fool has just done. I turn on my heel and raise my fist. I may be smaller but I have an experience of street fighting behind me. He was just a beer-belly. Lan was so right about the selection thing.

Just as I was about to embed my fist oh-so-(on-purpose)-accidentally into the man's gut, the sound of a shattering window stopped me. The entire mini-ballroom of people including the surrounding crowd around my little fight looks up to see the source of the noise. Then one word rang through every single vampire's mind.

Slayer.

And not just one of them either. But six. Immediately havoc broke out. Every vampire tried to scram. Including me. Slayers are the one thing vampires truly fear. They are human, but beyond powerful. Stronger than us even. We know nothing of them apart from they hunt us. Their determination to kill us is terrifying. They believe they do everything for human kind, yet I'm sure they're not human themselves. They're too strong. They utter philosophies about banishing the darkness from the World.

I get dragged along with the tide of fleeing vampires. I can't see any of my own clan anywhere. We're considered a very small family, and in being so, we have plenty of time to train. So the Huang family is pretty elite. They've probably all been clever enough to hide themselves rather than run. How stupid of me. I'm such a fool.

The Slayers are just plowing through vampires as if we are nothing. Inhuman shrieks ring through the air and silver blood is flying everywhere. I leap onto a high window ledge hoping to get into the shadows quickly but my clearance of the other vampires immediately catches the eye of a Slayer. I really feel like whimpering. Instead I swear and leap out of the window, disregarding the fact I'm shattering glass every where and that I'm five storeys from the ground.

I land on the floor a little crookedly, twisting my ankle as I do so. Ugh! I knew I shouldn't have jumped. Stupid, stupid, stupid! It's not bad and I can still run but not as fast as before. And right now, fast counts as everything.

Have you ever seen that show Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Well it's nothing like that. We're not slain by some small, karate-kicking brunette or blonde or whatever she is. Stakes and Crosses don't hurt us, I wear a cross laced around my neck for goodness sake--for looks if nothing else--! Vampire slaying is not as elegant as that. Slayers are strong and fast, they literally tears us up or break our bones. Anything to kill us. Just one Slayer could kill twenty of us without a thought.

It's sounds very, very painful if you count the amount of blood and screaming involved. I for one have no wish to experience it. I run as fast as I can, I can tell that Slayer is still chasing me, my vampire-enhanced hearing tells me that he is panting heavily behind me. I'm running blindly here, taking random twists and turns trying to loose him. I twist through crowds and bumble around. Mortals won't help, I probably resemble a drugged up criminal. Who would help me? I look like crap.

I take a wild turn and find myself in an alley way. I leap up a bit painfully on the sides of the building, all the way up the roof. Then I look around and find I'm trapped. I could try jumping to the next roof, it's not as if I'm not agile, but my ankle is really beginning to throb now and after all that running and panicking I'm feeling far too tired. The doorway down is locked, it's rattling in the wind but it's not opening. I see the Slayer joining me on the roof after the scaling the wall twice as fast as I had. I back away, step-by-step, very slowly. He knows I'm trapped and he enjoys it. For every step I take away, he takes one closer.

Why do I always get the worst luck? I'm going to be the Huang family's first dead vampire in almost a century. Ugh, talk about cursed beings. I am really, really scared right now, trust me. I'm just good at not showing. I just snarl at him like a cornered animal. Get away, get away, get away!

Me, being the jinx of all jinxes am a very jinxed jinx. Instead of getting away as I would have like him to, the Slayer suddenly flies forward and catches my throat, can I cry? I struggle like Hell gasping for air and fighting to get free, but the guy doesn't even flinch. Instead it keeps tightening even though he's long since stopped my windpipe. That's when it strikes me that he doesn't want to just suffocate me, he intends to break my neck.

I kick and fight for all I'm worth, if this was any normal human I could have them off in a matter of seconds. Vampires are made for endurance after all, but this is serious, not matter what I do or how hard I fight I can't break the Slayer's grasp. I can actually feel the bones in my neck and collarbone begin to bend and it's a scary thought. Not to mention I'm in immense pain. I can't breathe and my bones are splintering and I'm so tired and my vision is blacking.

And I can't even scream.

You can only imagine my surprise when the Slayer suddenly drops me. I land in a heap unceremoniously on the floor. The sudden rush of oxygen in my system makes my throat burn as my lungs eagerly take in as much of the stuff as possible. Why did he let me go? I instinctively snarl and look around wildly, hair flying into my eyes everywhere.

I catch sight of a small boy at the door to the roof. He can't be more than thirteen, but the fact that he's in leather trousers and black, button up shirt tells me otherwise. He's gazing a bit fearfully at the Slayer who is glaring at him balefully. I don't blame him, this guy is enormous. Slayers aren't allowed to kill in front of mortals. They, like us try to keep their existence secret. It's a lucky thing for the boy that Slayers are forbidden to kill any human.

'D-don't worry,' I tell him, my voice sounds rasping like mad. Damn, I sound like a toad. 'he won't kill you…he's not allowed to hurt you.'

He looks at me fearfully and I feel utter sympathy for him. He's frightened to his wits end yet he doesn't run and just watches me to make sure I'm OK. However, I am more than surprised when the Slayer just growls and sends the boy flying into a low railing around the roof top building. He smacked his head straight on the railing. Ouch…

I narrow my eyes. Slayers. Are. Not. Allowed. To. Hurt. Mortals. Who is this guy? He's just broken the one and practically only rule in Slayer history. His own clan are going to be after his blood tonight…Slayers are bound to the point of obsession not to hurt any humans. I've seen Slayers of go out of their way to protect humans.

He turns back to me; I've been edging closer and closer to the door all this time. He's going to finish me. Remembering the pain and agony of suffocating I forget my throbbing ankle and burning lungs and run as fast I can down the stairs. I soon enter a nightclub, the partygoers going at everything full swing. I wander straight into the middle of the crowd to loose the Slayer in case he has followed me. Looking around me I see a man in jeans, a long coat and nothing else, oh I love clubbing…

Without even thinking about it I drag him into a dark corner of the bar. When I emerge again, my stomach is sated and I have a nice new coat to hide in. I look good in it too. I pull the collar up as high as possible and step into the crowded streets of Hong Kong. Time to go home.

I push and elbow my entire way home, even at night Hong Kong is crowded to the extreme. I try not to limp too much or catch any attention. I didn't though, I just looked like any other partygoer struggling through the a crowd of straying hands, raging hormones and drunken slobs.

When I finally reach the enormous apartment in a 'higher-class' place of Hong Kong, I struggle to the door, hoping against hope that I won't black out, my vision is acting all funny and I keep feeling out of breath. Shoving the key in the lock I stumble into the house wearily. Immediately the lights flick on and I look into the faces of thirty-three worried family members.

None of them say a word, but I can feel the relief. But from our synchronised feelings running around the room I can tell they must've been worried sick once they'd headed back home only to realise a family member was missing. No matter how lazy or annoying he is. And they must've had a fit if the state of the room is anything to judge by.

Fei-Long, Lei, Jun-Mei, Shu-Moon, Xiao-Lung, Mai, May, Tsui, Lai, I could name them all. And right on the edge of the crowd, who do I see? A flash of auburn hair among all the black. Helen stares at me with fear and concern mixed in her now-red eyes. She's the surprise waiting for me at home if I was good? I laugh and the others just look at me like I've lost my mind,

'Thanks a lot Lan.'

And with thirty-four pairs of ruby eyes staring a me, including Helen, I loose consciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~

Whew, that's that for another chapter. Only two more to go from the looks of it, I'll see you people next chapter. Bai bai!