Chapter 59 - Dire Times Require Dire Measures

Christina and JJ moved so fast that I didn't register the actions themselves—only their results. I could see the afterimages the two left behind, but had no brainpower to process them. It was like watching a slide-show.

After Christina's initial lunge, JJ stood a step away from his initial position, with Christina's deadly claws in the air where his shoulder was a moment earlier.

Next snapshot, JJ held a gleaming short dagger a finger-breath away from Christina's neck. I could see his back now, and my momentarily forgotten nausea returned with a vengeance at the sight of the clothes burnt into his skin.

I looked away before the bile could escape my stomach. That was seriously sick. Reality crashed on me like a sledgehammer. I just almost blew up. JJ half-blew up. Sergey had totally blown up.

Where were all the patrons from the restaurant I saw earlier? The servers? The cooks? The security?

"My love, your burns make you so slow. Why do you keep protecting all these wenches you care nothing about? You should've just let that one die!"

Christina's shrill voice forced me to snap my head back up. The two vampires stopped moving momentarily. A sense of vindicated satisfaction rose in me at the sight of several red scratches marring Christina's pale arms. Strangely, they didn't bleed at all.

JJ's lip curled in distaste, showing his fangs. I thought he had some new wounds too, but it was hard to say when I couldn't bring myself to look at him too intently.

"You are a rabid dog, Christina, and wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you."

In the next moment they were at it again, and I didn't know what to do. I took in a deep breath and immediately regretted it as the stench of roasted meat and smoke hit my nose.

This was a trap for JJ, that was for sure. The one JJ expected to fall into. But I doubted he expected to end up wounded like he did. He told me to run and hide. How far away? Did he think he would lose this fight?

Now that was just something I couldn't accept. I didn't want to become a random victim of vampire claws either, though, so I run to the farthest away from the fighting vampires corner of the hall and crouched under a table.

Not really a protection, but the feeble feeling of safety helped me to think and breathe. When another breath came out of my lungs as a chocked sob, I realised my eyes were wet with tears.

Away from me, JJ and Christina were still fighting. It was hard to tell who was winning from the flashes I could catch, no matter how hard I strained my eyes. They moved all around the hall, breaking chairs and tables on their way as if they were nothing.

Whenever the fight would move even slightly in my direction, my heart stopped and my blood ran cold from fear. I watched, because it was scarier not to. But be it my luck or JJ's interferences, the vampires stayed safely away from me.

I saw Christina's claws caught JJ's side, leaving a long tear in his shirt and skin, but no blood poured out again.

Then JJ's dagger ended up in Christina's chest, so deep that only the hilt was visible. She shrieked in pain, and the sound made me shudder.

In the next flash, the knife was in Christina's clawless hand now, and she turned it on JJ. He must've grabbed a butter knife from one of the few whole tables left, because the next several flashes I caught featured them fencing like that.

It ended when JJ's dagger flew away and into a wall, where it stuck with a low humming sound from the leftover vibrations. Then JJ threw out his mangled butter knife—at Christina, too—and fought her hand-to-claw.

Then something whip-like and with a sinister-looking spike on its end flew at JJ's face, but only hit his shoulder. I realised with a gasp that it was Christina's tail, one that she didn't have a moment earlier.

By then, they both had plenty of new holes and slashes in their skins and clothes. JJ's shirt fell off entirely, and Christina's dress became much more revealing than it had been. Not that there was anything prettier than wounds to reveal.

Both vampires fought like their wounds meant nothing, but it was clear to me that chances weren't angled towards JJ now. Not when he was weaponless, and Christina had these claws.

I had to do something, I just knew I had to. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, again inhaling the nauseating smells of smoke and charred flesh that felt seared into my brain now.

It made me flinch, but I forced myself to continue and opened my well wide to see.

Christina's and JJ's auras were impossible to miss. They pulsated with power compared with the surrounding hall. Latching onto them, though, was harder than anything I did with auras before because of how fast they moved.

Both auras were full of grave's chill. The rest was harder to distinguish in details, and I didn't even try. I had to separate JJ's aura from Christina's for what I wanted to do, though, so I tried my best to see the differences between them.

At first, it was just a mess. Two messes. Then, flash by flash, impression by impression, I caught it.

Christina's aura was as mad as she. It was full of desires that fought like fire and water amongst each other. It was enough to make me shiver. JJ's aura was almost the opposite of hers. Even with how it blazed with anger and pain right now, it had nothing on Christina's madness. I also caught a sheen of JJ's glamour, but it was too weak for my liking.

I dared to open my eyes without closing my well and look at how the fight was going. It took me a moment to filter through auras to see with my physical eyes, but I managed.

A half of Christina's tail was missing, and her left wrist was bent at an unnatural angle. JJ had a new set of tears on his less burnt shoulder, so deep that I could see white bone peeking through. And yet they were still fighting, and still too fast for me to see the details.

Not even in my worst nightmare had I've dreamed about casting a spell in such circumstances. But if I ever had to succeed, it was now.

It was another question if I would manage to.