Blue Flames

Chapter 22

It happened in the middle of a training session with the junior soldiers.

They were running sprints around the lake, while I watched over a fight between Vanessa and one of the other soldiers, a twenty year old bear shapeshifter.

During my teaching sessions I had noticed on many occasions how Vanessa seemed always on edge. And not just when fighting or when she was exhausted. Always. She was close to two centuries old. For a vampire of her age, being constantly on edge meant bloodlust issues.

Today, she was beyond pissed off for some reason.

The cocky bear had just landed a blow on Vanessa's kidney and jumped away with an agility fit for a cat.

"Come on, Van," he chuckled when Vanessa groaned, crouching with her hands on her knees, "This is why you'll never make it to the seniors."

As soon as the words left his lips, Vanessa's head snapped up. Her beautiful brown eyes were nowhere to be seen behind the bright red covering her irises. A vicious snarl echoed around the woods. A hissing, growling sound that escaped her throat before she lunged at the shapeshifter with phenomenal speed, fangs flashing and venom dripping. The bear didn't stand a chance.

Fortunately, I was close enough and fast enough to intervene. Right as Vanessa's fangs grazed the boy's neck, I pulled her off by the back of her shirt, kicked her in the stomach and sent her flying back towards a tree.

"Get out of here!" I said to the shocked kid, keeping myself between him and Vanessa before she lunged again. She was focused on the bear, which made it easy for me to grab her by the throat and threw her on the ground. Her back hit the forest floor, and I immediately locked her wrists over her head with my hand and sat on her thighs to immobilize her lower half.

Her face, inches from mine, was crazed, crimson eyes and long fangs dripping with poison.

Vampire venom was dangerous to shapeshifters and witches, it could induce seizures or even paralysis for a limited amount of time.

Witches could be turned into vampires if the amount of venom was substantial, shapeshifters only suffered temporary physical effects until their bodies burned through the venom.

For the fae, however, injecting a certain amount of vampire venom in the bloodstream had lethal consequences. It made the fae go insane.

If they were not put down a day after the venom entered their bodies, the fae would start suffering a serious case of bloodlust. All reason and emotion lost.

The last recorded case of a vampire attack on a fae was centuries ago. The fae in question had gone crazy and slaughtered his entire family and half the town he lived in. Men, women, children of all ages, he attacked everyone and glutted himself on their blood.

That was the main reason why the fae were a very secular race. They only allowed a limited number of trusted vampires into their territory. Uncle Robert had been one of them.

There was no record of a fae coming back from the venom induced blood craze. Until about twenty six years ago.

Vanessa made a lunge for my throat, but my hold on her was firm. I heard the other juniors approach but kept my eyes on her.

"Van?" Corbin's voice asked, his tone full of fear.

"Corbin, take everyone and go." I had to deal with Vanessa, and their presence would only distract me.

"But-"

"Now. That was an order."

There was a pause, before everybody moved away. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw them all run deeper into the woods. Corbin hesitated a bit at the treeline, but eventually he, too, left. I breathed out in relief. I didn't want anyone harmed if Vanessa lost all reason.