2 Chapter 2. Join the Darkness
Blood flowed from her mouth…
She used the rest of her blood magic to kill the ones holding the chains. Sending them back to the walls almost dead.
"This is not enough… not enough! I won't let you defeat me!" Eva's voice exploded with her remaining energy.
The raging fury in her heart burst as she fought for the last time. Growing her fangs, and claws, she attacked them as they came and pushed them to the walls.
"Catch her! Don't let her escape the circle!"
More hunters came up and wrapped additional chains around her body until the weight of the heavy freezing metal forced her to kneel.
Unexpectedly, from behind her a hunter suddenly struck her back with a silver stake crushing her bones. She let out an almost silent gasp from the pain. Arching her body as if she had lost every breath in her lungs.
Those hunters had prepared weapons with the most powerful spells of their order for years. They were meant to use them the moment one of those pureblood vampires appeared.
Eva couldn't move, the pain was unbearable. And that simple moment of weakness, was her loss.
They stabbed one stake into each of her limbs and her shoulders. The regenerating skin could only encircle the metal, covering it with small stretches of skin and veins, even bone.
Eva couldn't help but fall to the ground with blood running from her mouth. She didn't remember the last time she felt so much suffering.
Her fangs re-emerged from between her teeth in a last gesture of rebellion, growling as she tried to contain the pain.
She wouldn't scream for any of those stupid hunters, and never beg for mercy.
Once again she tried to look up at the man who didn't move an inch from the beginning, even when her sight was blurry and fading.
"Why...?" her voice was barely out of her lungs, "Why?!"
The scream provoked a tremor in the room, breaking the windows, and shattering the walls.
One hunter struck her jaw to silence her. But Eva didn't stop resisting. She would never stop struggling until that man answered her.
However, the hunters couldn't bear the consequences of her breaking the chains. Many had already died at her hands. Their most powerful and talented hunters had died within a few seconds of fight.
"Hit her harder!" shouted one hunter, "shut that bitch now!"
One hunter pummeled her mouth again, hitting her rougher, and blocking her view of the man.
"Eva Der Vinter, pureblood vampire," said a man in a large purple robe, holding a golden scroll in his bloody hands, "the last of the Der Vinter clan, you have been tried and sentenced to die for the crimes you committed in the Town of Terin. The massacre at the harvest festival, the murder of twenty maidens from the kingdom of Akor, and the kidnapping of ten village children to be used as slaves and blood reserves..."
"No... that's not true," Eva said with what little strength she had left.
The men pressed the stakes hard into her back, breaking her bones and tearing her tendons. She clenched her mouth harder to stop her from making a noise. Although nothing mattered anymore. Little tears of blood flowed from her eyes.
"As well as the deaths of over fifty of our order's hunters. Noble sons and daughters who protected our world from you inhuman beasts."
The man had one hunter take one of the boiling seals to mark Eva's skin with the heat of the metal. Every high-ranking vampire punished by the hunters' order was required to bear the marks of the crimes they had committed.
They would bury her body with the mark, and she would never be reborn. That was the worst of punishments, being buried alive for eternity, without seeing or breathing the same air as human beings.
However, Eva was no longer listening, the stakes were draining her vampire blood and making her completely vulnerable. Even with her superhuman strength, it was impossible to escape.
She tried to look at the man in the back one last time, struggling but it was impossible. A hunter punched her in the face again and spun her body around. She did not resist. Nothing mattered anymore.
With their rough and rude hands, they mistreated her and forced her to uncover her skin, which was now wounded and scarred. She couldn't defend herself, she had no energy left.
They exposed her belly and tore off the rest of her clothing, then drove the metal right into her heart. Hot, stiff, and stinging. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't feel anymore. With each strike, she coughed blood and let herself go into the darkness.
Her only hope was the sun and its light burning her skin. Soon she would leave that world, soon she would cease to exist.
The morning light was awakening little by little. Her past fear was now her savior that would spare her from an eternity in hell.
"We won't make it that easy for you, damn monster," one hunter said in a vicious voice, uncovering his face. The ferocious man didn't show any mercy from the beginning. She remembered him as he was the one with the most impressive skills. The brother of the hunter who trapped her.
He had a symbol on his bald head, tinted in purple, one she would never forget. "We won't let you die quickly and painlessly. You killed our brothers, my brother and hundreds of women and children too. I won't let you go like this. I will never forgive you!"
He had the windows covered immediately, shattering her last hope. Then he drove the strongest stake into her heart, twisting it to make her scream in pain.
Eva couldn't help but shed more tears and cries as she couldn't take it anymore. Her wails echoed with deep sorrow.
"Just one more, bitch," the man said with a smirk on his face.
And when the next stake was about to arrive, a blue glow ended everything.
She can't remember where it came from, but warmth suddenly enveloped her body.
It was strange how familiar it felt.
She closed her red eyes and let herself join the darkness.
