Terror filled Mary's heart as she listened to the footsteps get closer and closer with every passing second.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
She was just a nineteen-year-old girl… how could she possibly face a monster that was stronger and faster than a fully grown man.
No… she… wait… she wasn't an ordinary girl… she was… Sui Li.
Mary shook her head as she felt the strong emotions from the original Mary's body briefly overwhelm her mind.
There was an instinctive fear built into the humans of this world.
It was a survival instinct created from spending many generations on the same planet as an apex predator species.
Only the hunters with their gifts of light were capable of fighting vampires. That was common knowledge and yet…
"No… I… can't give up…" Mary muttered quietly as she rose up from the ground with trembling knees.
She was unable to overcome all the fear in the original Mary's heart but as she glanced down at her shivering sister… something finally clicked.
It didn't matter if she felt afraid.
She could not forget the reason why a young teenager had willing given up her body. She needed to protect Lily at all costs.
Fear was no excuse for cowardice.
Mary grabbed the knife that was embedded in the van door and pulled it with all of her strength.
The blade slid free, and she pointed the weapon at the incoming vampire.
A low hoarse chuckle escaped the vampire's mouth as he stared at the shivering girl with an expression of dark bemusement.
"Do you think that you can stop me with that?" the vampire asked quietly. There was a terrible moment of silence as tension filled the air.
Most of the prisoners inside the van watched the encounter but some looked away, unable to bear the sight of what they assumed would happen next.
The memory of the vampire tearing into the young man's corpse and ripping it apart piece by piece until it was nothing more than a shriveled-up husk was still fresh in their minds.
Mary calmed down her shaking fingers and took in a few deep breaths. She stared into those inhuman crimson eyes and the world suddenly slowed down.
She raised up her hand with the blade gleaming slightly under the artificial lighting. Without hesitation she flung the weapon at the vampire's face.
The vampire raised up his hand and caught the weapon easily. It would have been an intimidating sight if Mary had been watching.
Her true purpose had always been to distract him for just long enough to do…
This.
Mary screamed and slammed her body into the door of the van.
This time she put the full weight of her body behind the blow and the blocked handle finally moved slightly.
It was enough for her to use her fingers to curl around the handle and yank it furiously. The door opened wide to reveal the dark forest and the fires raging in the distance.
"Help! Help!" Mary screamed loudly at the hunters cleaning their blades in the distance. Her voice attracted their attention and the vampire realised what she had done.
"Shit… shit… you stupid bitch!" the vampire yelled with a trace of panic in his voice. He lunged forward so fast that his figure became a blur.
Mary barely had any time to react and her body simple moved reflexively.
She grabbed her sister by the arm and flung her outside just as the vampire's hand wrapped around her throat.
"Run… run…" Mary groaned painfully as she watched her sister groggily get up from the ground and stare at her with an expression of horror.
"Sister! I…" Lily stuttered but her voice was interrupted by Mary who screamed at her with fury evident in her tone.
"RUN NOW! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Mary shouted loudly. Lily turned around and fled with tears desperately running down the sides of her face.
"Oh no… you don't…" the vampire growled in anger.
He was about to chase after the fleeing livestock when the girl in his grip threw back her head and spat directly in his face.
"You… filthy human!"
Mary groaned in pain as the vampire lifted her up in the air by her neck and her feet dangled uselessly several inches from the floor.
The vampire threw her with so much force that her body slammed against the wall of the van, and she slid down with a painful moan.
Her ribs… were they broken?
"How dare you? HOW DARE YOU?!" the vampire was enraged, and his crimson eyes slowly darkened as madness gleamed behind his inhuman fa?ade.
Mary forced her eyes to open amidst the terrible pain that was present all over her body. If there was any silver lining it was the fact that she did not appear to be bleeding.
However, the enraged vampire might just kill her anyways…
Out of the corner of her eyes she could see Lily's figure getting further and further away from the van.
She headed towards the hunters just as Mary had hoped. A small smile flashed across the young girl's lips as she saw her sister escape.
She had accomplished the original Mary's request… now all she had to do now was focus on survival.
"I will kill you where you… urgh…" the vampire's threat died down in his throat as an arrow flew through the van's open door and lodged itself in his lower back.
The vampire pulled out the weapon with great difficulty and an expression of terror flashed across his face as he noticed its silver edge.
"Fuck! I need to get out of here now!" the vampire cursed in annoyance as he tossed the arrow outside just as two more flew inside.
This time the vampire stepped to the side and the arrows lodged themselves in the bodies of the survivors.
The mother and one of the older gentlemen were the ones who were hit. Blood slowly dripped down from their open wounds.
The mother died instantly as the arrow penetrated her throat.
Her hands fell uselessly to her sides and her young child sobbed desperately over his mother's corpse.
The old man on the other hand groaned in pain as the arrow plunged into his knee and crippled him instantly.
Hunters were not heroes… they were only concerned with killing vampires regardless of the cost of human lives.
Mary shivered slightly as she curled up in a ball to make herself less of a target.
The vampire's attention was drawn to the now bleeding humans and a hungry expression flashed across his face.
With a supernatural amount of willpower, he gripped both of their bleeding bodies and flung them outside the van.
He rushed towards the driver's seat and pushed the accelerator pedal with as much force as he could muster.
The van's engine shuddered slightly as the vehicle shot forward at a breakneck pace.
The vampire clenched his fist in anger as he stared at the hunters dressed in their long black cloaks.
This was a simple job and now it had turned into a bloody mess. He glanced at the surviving humans and did a quick headcount.
Alright there were five livestock left which meant that the trip had not been entirely wasted but he definitely needed to sell all.
Even that one…
Mary tried to get her body to move but could feel the corners of her vision slowly turning dark.
The effects of the drugs and the pain wrecking her body made it difficult for her limbs to obey the orders coming from her mind.
She tried to crawl towards the door but eventually she slipped away into a dreamless slumber with the sound of the young child and the other terrified prisoners crying in the background.
New novel chapt𝒆rs are published on free(w)ebnovel(.)com