Purge (Curse of Cain Book 1)
Chapter Twenty-Two

Isaac had lost count of how many vampires he slain that night. It was nearing morning, as the moon had slid to the west in the sky above the forest. He was drenched with blood, but paid no attention to that as the succulent vampire essences continued to fuel his bloodlust. He reveled in the taste and the feel of the power, groaning with each draw of liquid from each of his victims.

Through Isaac’s senses, the world was so much more vibrant. Colors were amplified, smells doubled in potency, and sounds echoed everywhere. He didn’t think he could stop himself from devouring yet another vampire. It was too addicting.

Isaac licked his fingers and sat down in a soft area of grass, sighing. With each wave of vampires, it became easier to take them down, and the last batch was child’s play. Bodies laid about him, all in rapid decay. The surfaces of their skin were turning into grey, almost ash-like, and shriveling. In a matter of an hour, they would be a pile of bones and ashes.

He stood and began in the direction Korinna ran off, where their safe house was.

A sound went off on one of the bodies, an annoying screeching that made Isaac cringe. He lunged for the body, patted it down for the noise until he lifted up one of those plastic devices.

The screen was lit with the name, “Conner.” With a grin, Isaac fumbled for the buttons until a voice called out.

“Hello?”

Isaac held it to his ear like the one female vampire did and said, “Who’s this?”

The other side went silent for a long moment, then the voice growled, “Isaac?”

“How do you know my name?” Isaac glanced at the screen then put it back to his ear. “Are you Conner?”

“Yes,” the voice seethed. “Did you kill them all?”

“Every group of vampires that has seen me, yes.” And he was quite proud of that fact, especially when his whole body buzzed from the blood. “What is this, some type of pocket telephone?”

Conner roared from the other side. Isaac held the phone at a distance, snickering to himself.

“I am going to find you – and I’m going to kill you –” Something else happened on Conner’s side of the phone call; a bunch of muffled sounds and another voice, though muted to where Isaac couldn’t make out who it was or what they were saying.

Conner growled again and his voice disappeared, soon replaced by another one.

A more agreeable voice, Isaac thought with another wolfish grin.

“Isaac,” Dante’s voice said. “Stop this madness.”

“Why should I?”

“Because there are rules,” Dante replied. “And now that you’ve crossed boundaries, you will have to die.”

“Isn’t that what you planned for me anyway?”

“I planned to put you on trial by my superiors, asshole, and let them deal with you. Valeria begged me not to do anything.”

Isaac laughed. “You’re still after my sister, even after a hundred years? Pathetic.” Isaac paced around the bodies and kicked one of them in the head. A sickening crack echoed in the quiet of the forest as the neck snapped. “These creatures you sent after me were just as pathetic as you are.”

“Val is dying, Isaac.”

“She’s mortal,” Isaac snapped. “She’s meant to die.”

“No, her body is catching up with all those years of being frozen in time,” Dante growled.

“Immortality is unnatural. It is best that the natural balance takes over.”

“You’re fucked up. You don’t even care that your sister is about to die.”

“I’m fucked up? After everything you’ve done to us, I’m the one that’s fucked up.” Isaac scoffed. “That’s classic. How about you look in a fucking mirror for once, Dante.”

Dante ignored that and said, “No matter what you think, I loved Valeria more than anyone or anything else. What I did was all for her and I’ve been paying for it since the day I went to the vampires.”

“And you’ll pay for that. Once I’m done with you, I’ll parade around town with your head held up high and your blood in my veins.”

“We’ll see.” Dante paused, then said, “How about you stop this madness and meet me? I’ll finish what I started a hundred years ago.”

“You were never good at ending things quietly, Dante,” Isaac said. “I always had to end things for you – and this will be no different. I will kill you.”

“Then what? Will you go on with your immortal life?”

“Maybe. I might end up just killing all of your coven in the meantime,” Isaac replied. “I may just be winging it.”

Dante hissed through the phone.

Isaac grinned, purely amused by Dante’s reactions.

“I will meet you at the cemetery,” Dante said. “We will end it there.”

Dante’s side of the call ended and several beeping sounds came from the phone before the screen went dark. Isaac stared at it for a moment, confused at what it was doing, before crushing it in the palm of his hand.

He dropped the remains of the device and sighed.

Finally, Isaac would be able to kill that bastard.

● ● ●

Conner watched as Dante put on a leather jacket with hidden pockets on the inside. They stood in the estate’s garage, in the area they kept their weapons. Dante turned to daggers and stakes and filled his pockets.

“You don’t have to do this. Let me do this – or wait for the Prince to come to town and make his own judgement.” Conner stood against a steel column, fidgeting as he watched his Master prepare himself for a battle which might be his last.

“Do you really think the Prince would be happy to see such a mess unresolved? He’d have my head, after finishing off Isaac.”

“And you plan on leaving me to rebuild everything you’ll leave behind? Once you leave here and meet with him, you’re practically dead,” Conner said.

Dante turned to him and smirked. “You have little faith in me. I’m older than Isaac is, you know. And I’ve actually lived these hundred years, instead of being trapped in a coffin. Wouldn’t I be stronger?”

“He’s been feeding on vampire blood all night,” Conner said. “That’s like steroids. So what if you can’t? You don’t feed that often anyway.”

“Then maybe I will feed before I leave.” Dante rubbed his chin in thought. “That would put me at a better advantage.”

“You would have to drain several vampires to match him, Master.” So that was out of the question. There were probably fifteen vampires left in the entire estate, not including the possible vampires that escaped Isaac.

And Conner doubted that any did escaped.

He sent out around twenty vampires to attack and kill Isaac.

Before Isaac woke up, there were nearly sixty vampires in the coven. It was fucked up how easy a vampire could take out others.

“I think the only way I could be at the same advantages as him is if I drank from a sorcerer,” Dante muttered. He zipped up his jacket and walked over to the key rack, which had at least a dozen keys hanging.

He grabbed the first set of keys and then turned to Conner. “I wouldn’t though. I couldn’t drink from her.”

“What if she let you?” Conner asked.

“No.” Dante’s face twisted into a menacing scowl. “Don’t even think about it, Conner. She is dying.”

Conner held a hand out in truce, sighing. “Okay, okay. I’m just trying to help you, boss. I don’t want you to die.”

“Most secondhands would, to get this position.”

Conner flashed him a toothy grin. “I’m not most secondhands. You’re like a father to me, Dante. No one would want to let their dads die.”

Dante averted his eyes and muttered, “Yeah.” Dante knew firsthand how that felt.

A door several yards to the left of them opened and one of their lesser known coven members came into the garage. It was a girl looking the human age of seventeen, with multicolored hair and piercings.

She sauntered in and said, “There’s a witch out front asking for you, Master.”

Dante nodded. “Thank you, Sandra.”

Sandra waved and left where she came in, shutting the door behind her.

Dante sighed. “Looks like dying will have to wait.”

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