Tale of a Vampire Assassin

Chapter 24

My body felt like a ton of bricks being lifted off the ground.  I didn't need to breathe but to speak.  Seeing Gray lift me off the ground by my throat rather than my hips . . . .He might as well have ripped my head off.  I felt like I was going to pass out.  "Kill her," Max said from behind us.  I could hear his footsteps growing closer to us.  Gray simply held me up only a few inches off the ground, enough so I couldn't get my feet to touch and get loose of his grip.  I couldn't get loose now because Gray was so much stronger than me.  He was older.  Like one hundred years older.  Without silver or being able to touch the ground I could never overcome him.  I was going to die today.  I simply gave up and stopped fighting against his grasp, accepting my fate.

"Good," Max smiled.  I could hear the nasty smile in his voice.  The sound of it felt greasy in my ear.  "Give up," he said, "It won't be so terrible for you that way."  I rolled my eyes.  How could death not be terrible when I would die from the hands of my mate?  "Bring her to the center of the roof, Gray," Max said.  He was already headed there.  I felt Gray moving slowly toward Max.  I wished I was close enough to kick him in the groin.  That might snap him out of Max's spell.  Sadly though, I was just out of reach.  I slumped back into my giving up sag-of-a-position.

I felt the toe of my boot skim the surface of the roof.  I pulled my toe back up so the souls of my feet were parallel to the ground.  I relaxed again and I felt my toe drag once more.  I pulled my foot back.  If I was going to escape I was going to have to time it right.  I was going to kill Max and I was going to enjoy it!

Gray stopped in the center of the roof where Max had directed him.  I looked over into his eyes.  They were glazed over.  Okay, so it wasn't a spell.  Somehow, Max had given Gray his blood.  Max was an empty bag right now.  I knew how to get  him back but it was going to be painful.  For me.  I could remember gazing into those same eyes after love making.  They were so deep and peaceful.  There was no way Gray had anything to do with Max.  Max had obviously forced him into this.  It sounded like the new him.

"Now I want you to listen, Andy," Maxy said.  I did listen.  I wanted to know if he was going to tell me how he got Gray to drink his blood.  "Do you know why I'm doing this to you?"

I just stared at him.  He was stupid if he thought I could talk or nod right now.  I simply showed him my fangs.  That was an honor that he would never know.

Max huffed.  I wondered if he regretted his decision to have Gray practically strangle me.  "I did this because you took my life away from me."  I rolled my eyes.  He still had his life.  He could have kids, get married, fall in love; he could do whatever the fuck he wanted!  Why the fuck does he have to kill me?

"I can never be berried next to my wife now, if I ever marry," he said.  "You took that away from me!  Now, I'm going to take something away from you."  Max started walking toward me.  He pulled a pair of pliers out of his pocket as he strode forward.  He was going for my fangs first!  You sick fuck! I thought to myself.  I relaxed my feet and my toes touched the ground.  I rocketed backward and I pulled Gray down on top of my body.  I shoved his limp body off me and to the side.  I ran invisibly to the edge of the roof and rubbed my throat as I crouched and hissed at Max.

Max stared at me wide eyed.  His mouth was momentarily agape.  He glared down at Gray who was just laying there like a sack of potatoes.  "What are you doing?  Go kill her!"  Gray did as he was told and fumbled toward me and the edge of the roof.  When he reached me I grabbed him by the arm and threw him off.  He dropped down to the concrete that was in a back alley to the building.  Gray would be okay, but I was going to have to hurry.

When Gray smacked the ground there was a stomach twisting crunch that accommodated the thump of his body.  My jaw twisted in disgust and I turned back to Max.

"Fuck!"  I smiled at him and flitted to him.  I stopped right before him to grab him by the throat.  He took a stab at me with the pliers and I ripped them out of his hand.  I lifted him far enough off the ground so his feet wouldn't touch as he swung them at me for phantom kicks that I barely felt and then I threw him  down into the other alley on the other side of the building.

I landed on my feet next to his twisted body.  One of his feet were up by his ribs.  I smiled down at him as I dropped his leg and said, "I'll take that!"  I twisted his leg back so the joint would grind just before I ripped it off.  Max screamed slightly just before I crushed his windpipe by the heel of my boot.  Tears flowed from his eyes as he squeaked almost silently in pain.  "You deserve this," I told him and went for his other leg.  I simply ripped it away from his torso and dropped it by his head.  He stared at it in horror and cried and squeaked.

Max's blood pooled around my feet and my mouth filled with bile at the disgusting half-er smell.  I wanted to vomit.  I stopped with the torture and walked behind him.  I sat him up and whispered in his ear, "This is what it felt like when I saw Gray was your zombie," and ripped his throat out with my bare hand.  I rapped my arm around his neck and ignored the terrible smell of his blood.  "Do you want it to end?"

Max nodded and squeaked.

"Be glad that I'm so nice," I said and tore his head off.  His blood spurted out of his neck and then pooled once the flesh was separated.  "Yuck," I said and dropped his head by my feet.

I stood up and pulled my lighter out of my pocket.  I never left the office without it.  I carried Max's remains to the empty dumpster and dumped them inside.  The blood still flowed out of the pieces of him.  I would have thought he would have bleed out by now.  He hadn't, obviously.  I dragged the dumpster down by the pool of blood and scooped what I could up into my hands and slung it into it.  When I couldn't get anymore up, I shut the lid on the dumpster and propped it open with a stick before I summoned the rain.  I grabbed a dirty newspaper from the ground, twisted it tightly, and lit it as the thunder rolled.  When the paper was flaming just enough, I threw it into the dumpster and walked away.  Just as I turned my back I heard the growl of flame consume Max's remains.  He was officially dead.  Good riddance!

I flitted to the other side of the building and found that Gray wasn't there.  What the fuck?