Chapter Twenty Five - Part Two: Cornered

Greek streets were not meant for attempting to outrun unwitting servants of a vampire. The early morning hour saw roads in near gridlock and sidewalks saturated with shop owners getting their properties ready for the Friday rush.

Leta's arms pumped as she bolted over fallen restaurant tables and avoided near collisions with absent-minded walkers. Her lungs were working overtime to pull in enough fuel to sustain her as the sound of hissing followed in their wake.

Hayoto pulled a cellphone from his pocket and dialed as they ran.

"Allister! We're being followed by thralls! Heading west towards safe house!" He shouted into the receiver before hanging up.

"Where are we going?" she called over the crowd.

"Safe house near Hippio Kolonos." Koa responded.

Leta knew the park. They'd explored the outdoor amphitheater and enjoyed the great views of the city from the hilltop when she'd first arrived in Athens.

"Why aren't going back to the Sect?"

"Protocol when evading Blessed is stay away from the Sect and draw attention away from the Priestess."

"Mind-controlled Priestess equals bad for us." Hayoto added, picking up speed.

They turned left at the next street corner in an attempt to head west but came up short when across the street was another thrall, vacant eyes snapping to the three of them like it was starving and scented a meal.

"Go. Go. Go. Go. Go." Hayoto chanted as he pushed them north, sliding over the hood of a car that slammed on the brakes as they ran through the busy street. The beeping car horns and curses of drivers were soon long behind them as they headed up a slight incline in the road.

'Oh, thank god I put points into stamina.' Leta thought to herself as she pushed her body to keep up with the others. There was an odd hovering in her lungs like a strain was eminent but never came, her nanites healing any strain as soon as it appeared.

A waiter was setting a table outside a restaurant as they were passing by, his eyes looking up in confusion as their footfalls pounded the concrete. When his green eyes met hers, his expression relaxed, jaw going slack as his eyes became vacant.

His hand caught her wrist with a sudden vice-like strength, her arm feeling like it was nearly going to twist out of its socket as her momentum pushed her forward.

"Gah!" She grunted in pain, trying to pull her arm free but the moaning thrall seemed to be putting all its strength into trying to keep her still.

Koa and Hayoto heard her cry and skidded to a halt, jostling to turn around and get her free.

Grinding her teeth, Leta focused on a small shock, praying she didn't overdo it. She heard a faint snap in the air as the thrall's eyes went wide, mouth opening to let out a hard moan as his body got ridged.

Half a second later she let the charge go and the waiter dropped to the ground, now limp fingers releasing her wrist as he tumbled unceremoniously to the sidewalk.

"Holy sh**" She breathed.

Koa grabbed her elbow and ushered her forward, the three of them picking up speed again. "Leave him! We've got to go!"

"It's me! The trigger is me!" She shouted into the wind.

"I saw! Put your hood up!"

Leta did as she was told as they turned north again to avoid a street crowded with tourists. She thought she saw more than one face go vacant and follow their movements as they passed by.

"He's been busy." Hayoto growled when they turned another corner and headed into a side street that was so small it was more of an alley way.

There sudden luck avoid an abuse seemed to run out as a group of about ten thralls staggered around the corner and blocking their path.

"Back, back around." Koa bit out, but as they turned another handful of thralls had moved into position to cut off their retreat, effectively trapping them in the alley as they shuffled slowly towards them.

"Oh god…" Leta breathed in fear before nearly jumping out of her skin when Koa shouted Hayoto's name, pointing to a door that had been propped open on the side of an optometrist's shop. It was dark inside as though the doctor had stepped out for a smoke break before his beguiling kicked in, casting the threshold in deep shadows.

"Hold on!" Hayoto grabbed their shoulders and hauled them towards the open doorway, pushing them forward with the same force as a man jumping from a sinking ship.

Leta braced herself to crash into a desk covered in lenses and spectacle frames. Instead, a sudden icy sensation embraced her like she'd been pushed into the Arctic ocean as absolute darkness overtook them. The sudden freeze had her gasping, the air freezing in her lungs that it hurt to breath as her skin seemed to tighten like plastic wrap on her bones.

She would have thought she'd been thrown into the vacuum of a starless outer space if not for the tight grip of the Assassin on her shoulder. In the split second that she was thrust into the world of darkness heat blasted over her as she landed on broken concrete.

The sting of sharp pebbles digging into her palms and the smell of car exhaust had her snapping back to reality as the three of them stumbled through what had to have been a portal.

She crawled to her feet, groaning"What was…"

"Shadow Step skill." Hayoto gasped for breath as if he had just run a marathon, his breaths heavy like he couldn't seem to get enough oxygen into his lungs.

"Where are we?" Koa winced, looking around for signs of danger.

They were off the ground level based on the views of buildings around the, but where.

"Ministry building… Authority of Common Agricultural Policy…" He huffed. "I could sense the open… door that led from the… stairwell to the roof… It was the farthest… place I could take us… We're right next to the train tracks…"

"Can you make it?" Koa asked firmly.

Hayoto took another deep breath, then nodded. "I'll make it. We're almost there."

Five minutes later, they were once more at street level, slipping out the back and sneaking behind the woman pacing next to the back door angrily arguing with her son over the phone.

The back door faced an employment center that had seen better days but thankfully shared a side street devoid of people.

Koa looked in each direction and, satisfied that there wasn't anyone that could see them, turned back with a finger to his lips for her to keep quiet.

At the end of the side street was a pedestrian bridge that crossed several train tracks. They moved slowly, eyes darting around for threats as they inched towards their last barrier to the bridge, a small back street.

The crunch of car tires on the pavement and the whine of a small motor had Koa pushing Leta into the alcove entrance of the employment building, backs stiff against the metal pull-down barrier.

Hayoto peaked out, dark eyes watching as a young man on a scooter puttered down the road and into a private parking area.

The heartbeats that sounded in her ears as they waited for the vehicle to go away felt like they could be heard down the street.

A breath later and Hayoto nodded for them to move forward to the mouth of the side street before raising fist for them to stop. He peeked around the corner slowly, then pulled his head back.

"I'm pretty sure there are two thralls down that way." He whispered, pointing to the right.

"Are they headed towards us?" Koa hissed back.

"No, they're just standing there. One's facing the train tracks and the other is facing this way. There's no way we can cross the street without one of them seeing us."

"I've got an idea. Let me peak." She said softly, creeping forward.

Hayoto was right.

Two vacant eyed men were standing listlessly in the street, slack jaws letting out the tell tale moans.

Leta looked around, trying to find something she could use-

two small street cones had been placed in front of a light post after recent construction. Finding her target, she raised on finger and focused.

One of the street cones rattled then went flying down the street the the opposite direction, crashing into a parked hatchback car and causing the car alarm to screech and it's emergency lights to blink on and off.

It was like she'd wrung the dinner bell.

Two heads turned as one, blank expressions focusing on the car and shuffling in the vehicles direction to investigate.

"Go. Go. Go." Koa whispered.

Quick as they could they crossed the street, a moment later up the short flight of stairs on onto the bridge.

Each footstep closer to the other side had Leta's heart climbing higher in her throat, hoping beyond hope that they would make it.

Then Hayoto raised another first to stop and fear took hold again.

A head crested the stairwell in front of them, followed by another, and another.

Faces relaxed as one, far away stares focused on them.

"Oh f***." Hayoto hissed, turning to run back the other way.

Behind them more thralls hobbled up the stairs, throaty moans like the sounds of a wolf pack closing in on it's prey.

"Oh f***." He growled again, Hayoto and Koa pulling daggers from hidden sheaths in their coats jacket.

Leta took a stance and raised her fists, her pauldrons melted into her hands to become punch daggers, her downloaded knowledge of spears informing her that her favored weapon wouldn't be as effective in so tight a space.

"Get ready." Koa barked as the hoard of thralls moved closer and closer, the noose tightening.

Ten meters…

Five meters…

The hoard of thralls at their front and back stopped as one just three meters from them, frozen in place like well trained soldiers.

When no attack or instigation came, confusion settled next to fear in Leta's mind.

"Why aren't they moving?"

As one the thralls in front of them split like the red sea, parting to stand on either side of bridge so that an opening wide enough for a single person was created.

A young man stood there, hair so blond it was nearly white and dressed as if he had just stepped out to get breakfast with friends.

He walked fearlessly down path the thralls had made, the mindless sentinels seeming oblivious to his presence and yet closed in behind him to cut off any attempt at escape.

When he stepped closer, Leta could see neon green eyes and a sardonic, almost manic grin spread across his youthful face.

"Oletta Black. You, my dear, have been hard to speak with as of late."

She took a shuddering breath.

It couldn't be.

Could it?

"Alaric…"