IZEL

The first thing I noticed when he left the cabin was that he left his food on the table. 

I began salivating at the sight of it, the smell, the distance. My stomach gurgled, begging me to fill it. I had never gone this long without eating so all I could think about was food. It felt like my stomach was curdling inside of itself and even though I wasn't one to eat somebody's leftovers, I couldn't help myself now. I was desperate, and I needed the strength if I wanted to escape and kill the Slayer.

I shuffled forward with my chair, the loud groan following. I was so close that I could already taste the food on my tongue. I leaned forward, angling my head towards the food when the door suddenly flew open. It was kicked so hard that it broke away from its hinges, sliding across the room and knocking the table in the process, and the unstable thing toppled down, taking the precious food along with it. 

I was so close.

I sneered and looked up, hunger boiling my blood, but my expression quickly fell when I saw what was before me. Vampires. Three of them.

We've got company.

That was what he meant by company. I cursed myself and my stomach for only focusing on food rather than on what he said, and yet I found myself saying to the vampires: "you could have knocked, you know?"

One of them was right in front of me before I could even register its movement.

"Hello there, Vanquisher," a male Vamp said tauntingly before the other two joined it.

Three Vampires against one tied-up Vanquisher. So this was how it was all going to end? I was going to die, tied up to a chair in a cabin in the middle of I didn't know where. Defenceless and vulnerable. I gulped, aware of the fact that there was no getting out of this one.

"Looks like someone made this easier for us," a female said, dragging its long nails down my cheek.

"Are we sharing this time?" Asked the other female impatiently. "Let's share this time, blood tastes better when it's shared."

They were going to drink me alive, well, that came as no surprise. "Actually," I said, "blood tastes better when it remains in the body."

"Let's make this one suffer," the male said, ignoring my earlier statement. "She's that Vanquisher, after all. The one who came up with the idea that's making our attacks so much harder to execute."

"If I apologise, will you let me go?" I asked, despite knowing the answer already.

"Really? This is the one?" The long-nailed female asked, glaring at me. "Because of you, I've had a whole lot more work to do than before. My poor Valc is getting tired of watching your villages for long hours."

"If it wasn't for you," the male cut in, "your kind would've already been done for."

"So how are we going to kill her?" The impatient female suddenly said, "I vote we drink her to death, that way the blood will be fresher."

"Do I get a vote?" I asked. "Because I vote no."

"So we're drinking her to death, right? Because—" 

The impatient female didn't get a chance to finish, not as a blade suddenly pierced its heart, killing it on the spot. The Slayer suddenly appeared in the doorway and said, "wrong."

He threw another blade, one after the other, directed at the female. She managed to catch the first two, but not the third and I found myself impressed at the Slayer's accuracy as it pierced through her heart. I immediately chastised myself for it afterwards. 

The male was a harder takedown, but that didn't stop the Slayer. He was twice the Slayer's size so it took the Slayer a while to get himself at an advantage, but when he finally did he got the vampire to the ground, unsheathed his sword then stabbed it so hard through its chest that the point went through the wooden floor.

The vampire roared—and roared—but didn't die. It was still alive. The Slayer missed his heart on purpose by what seemed like inches. Now that was pretty impressive.

But I still said, "you missed."

The Slayer glared at me, "I don't miss, Izzy."

"Yeah you did, it's still alive," I nodded toward the vampire. "I suppose there's a first time for everything."

The Slayer sighed but I could have sworn his lips tugged up slightly before he focused on the vampire beneath him. 

"Here's what you're going to do," said the Slayer, his voice menacing. "You're going to deliver a message for me."

The vampire tried to escape but the Slayer moved his sword closer to the vampire's heart, making it go still.

"Go tell the Zas that Jaeger is looking for him," he continued.

"Jaeger? Is that your name?" I asked.

"If you don't deliver my message," the Slayer continued to the vampire, ignoring me. "I will find you and I'll make sure your death isn't as fast as these two over here. Understood?" His voice was cold and deep and dangerous. When the vampire remained silent, hesitating, the Slayer shifted the sword again. "Understood?" he repeated, and several seconds passed before the vampire finally agreed to the conditions. 

"Good, and if you so much as try to attack, I will kill you," the Slayer pulled the sword from the vampire's body before getting off of it. I had expected the vampire to attack the Slayer as soon as it was free, but it didn't. I expected it to at least stand up, but it didn't. It remained on the floor, motionless.

The vampire was dead.

I laughed. He killed the vampire he had been interrogating. "Wow, well done."

"That wasn't supposed to happen."

"You killed it by mistake," I let out another burst of laughter. 

"Did I pull the sword out at an angle?" He wondered to himself, "I guess it was closer to his heart than I thought."

"You think?"

"Can't believe I wasted so much time threatening him. All that wasted effort," he sighed. "Now we have to lure more in to deliver my message."

I stopped laughing. Lure more? I didn't want to be used as bait again. "If you're looking for the Zas then just go to him yourself."

"Oh, I am going to him."

I blinked, "then why are you threatening others and telling them to tell the Zas?"

"Because I want the Zas to know I'm coming, and I want word to spread."

"Why don't you just do a sneak attack rather than announce it?"

"There's no such thing as sneak attacks when you're going after someone like the Zas," he told me.

I scoffed, "do you even know where the Zas is?

"At Zvade?"

"And do you know where that is?"

"Of course I do," he said as if it was obvious. "It'll be quite a journey though, the Zvade is such an inconvenience to get to," he sighed. "The land is surrounded by water, and it'll take ages to get there from here. It would be much faster if we met in the middle."

"Would he meet you in the middle?"

"Probably not."

"Then what's the point of threatening the other vampires if the Zas won't even come after you? Isn't it a waste of time?" I was aware of how many questions I was asking, I just needed to make sure I understood so that I could come up with an escape plan for myself.

"It is, but I still want to do it. If the Zas won't meet me in the middle, this'll at least irritate him, knowing that I'm bettering his vampires."

"You really like irritating people, don't you?"

"Especially you, Izzy," he grinned.

I tried hard to ignore that nickname that I despised, but it still sparked irritation within me. "It's a waste of time if he's likely not to meet you in the middle."

"It's not just about that Izzy. By doing this, word will spread, and if word gets to the right places, we might just get some help.

"Help?"

"You'd be surprised how many vampires want the Zas dead."

"If you do get help, I'll end up dead."

"You're right, I never thought that far," he mused. "But if you die then that sucks for you." His lips curved upwards when I shot him a look. "We all die Izzy, some before others, but we all die."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"At least if we get to the Zas, your death won't be in vain."

I sneered at him. But he seemed set on getting to the Zas, the most feared and powerful vampire alive. I had never seen the Zas in person but I bet he was just as ugly as the Valcs. 

"First the Roi, now the Zas," I said. "Why?"

"They're the reasons for this war," The Slayer said. "Maybe getting rid of them will get rid of the war."

I knew that vampires and humans used to live in peace some centuries ago, in a 'you don't harm us and we won't harm you' kind of peace. Vampires used to get along with humans, and some, I heard, had found humans attractive, and because of that attraction one thing led to another and you could find couples of vampires and humans. Is that the kind of peace the Slayer wanted to accomplish?

It was only in recent centuries that the violence began, it just took one tyrannical vampire to become the Zas and start promoting the vampires who killed humans. The more humans a vampire killed, the more favoured they were by the Zas. This continued with the Zas' that followed, and it only got worse and worse.

The current Zas despised humans with a passion, judging by the way he's currently trying to wipe us out. If he got his way any longer, we would end up extinct eventually. The Zas clearly wanted to get rid of anything associated with humans. He had already succeeded in getting rid of those who were offspring of both humans and vampires—Impurities, I thought the name was—only because of their human genes.

I heard that Impurities used to be shunned by both vampires and humans after the violence started. Vampires found them impure while humans found them dangerous. They didn't exist anymore though, and if we weren't careful, humans would end up like them. Extinct.

"Why do you even need me?" I demanded.

He let out a deep breath before saying, "Because you're just as good as most vampires."

"So you want me to fight alongside you," I finally managed to say, "and other vampires that might just kill me?"

"Yes."

I nodded but said, "No."

"You don't have a choice."

"I'll die in this chair then, I won't lift a finger to help you."

"Yes, you will. I know you, and I know what you want."

"You don't know me and what I want is you dead. I'm not going to risk my life fighting with vampires for vampires."

"But it'll lead to peace, which is what you want."

"What makes you think I want that? What if I just want you all to die?"

"Because that's one of the reasons you weren't fond of your Roi, he wasn't doing anything to try and solve the war."

I remained silent, not sure how to answer. I did want peace, but a long time ago. I gave up on that dream because peace seemed too unattainable, too impossible.

"The only way this war is going to be solved is if one of our races goes extinct," I said.

"I thought so too," he confessed, "but realised that would suck for you humans."

"Are you insinuating that we would be the ones to go extinct?"

"Yes," he said with no hesitation whatsoever. "I'm not wrong, and you know it."

I groaned, "I'm still not going to help you."

"You will, and you want to know how I know?"

"No."

"Because you care for your people, and you know there's no hope for them," he continued, ignoring my answer. "You may have delayed your extinction but you haven't stopped it. It'll come. You want to end the war so no one has to go through what you did, but just don't know how. Well, this is how. Get rid of the sources of the war, the Roi and the Zas."

His words took me by surprise, especially because everything he said was true. I did care for my people, and our extinction was coming. But how did he know what I wanted, exactly what I wanted and what I had gone through? How much did he know about me?

"Your leader is already gone, now I need to get rid of the Vampire's leader to start anew," he clarified.

"Why are you acting like you care?" I questioned him, "why are you trying to save humans when you're a vampire?"

"Because humans are attacking out of fear. They're the victims and they're losing. And it's because of the Zas that I lost people, the only people that ever cared about me, the only people that I ever cared about."

I scoffed, "vampires care for others?"

"I don't know what you're taught about vampires but yes, they do. Well, most of them do," he amended.

"So you want me to go on a journey with you where the end result is my death?"

"If vampires actually show up to help they won't kill you."

"How do you know?"

"I'll make sure of it."

"Oh yeah?" I challenged.

"You're not going to die, Izzy, I won't let them kill you."

Something surged in my chest, both at his words and the intensity of his gaze, a gaze I found myself struggling to look away from, but my intuition screamed for me not to agree to fight with him, not to trust him. This was a trick, and he almost convinced me. Almost. But if I kept disagreeing I had a feeling I wouldn't get out of this chair.

 He suddenly blinked as if realising what he said then cleared his throat and added, "no one but me will get the satisfaction of killing you."

I looked down as if in contemplation, but in truth, I was coming up with a plan on how to escape, but the only idea that kept crossing my mind was that I needed to get him to trust me. I needed to be compliant and find a way to convince him to give me food so I could regain my strength, then to convince him to untie me, and then find a way to get him to drop his guard around me, and once he did, I would get rid of him. And once he was out of the picture, I could go back to Lilliville and fight the vampires with my kind. 

"You know I'm still struggling to digest all of this," I said, looking at him again. "I'm too hungry to process any of the information."

The Slayer looked at me for a long time, then chuckled, "Nice try." He approached one of the bodies and started pulling it toward the door, "I'll take them outside so the Tergots don't come in here."

"Oh come on!" I complained. "I'm serious, I really am hungry. Just give me some food then I might consider helping you, with no resistance," I added the lie smoothly. "Starving me won't make me help you, Slayer."

He paused for a long moment. He was going to agree. He was going to turn around and face me, untie me and then give me some food. Then I would attack him.

He turned around and faced me. My stomach gurgled, knowing exactly what was coming, but he just smirked then turned around again and left.

I needed to get out of this chair.

*****

Night came after what felt like an eternity.

After the Slayer took out all the bodies, he decided not to come back until dark. The whole day, I hadn't eaten for a whole day. It felt like my stomach was eating itself. I couldn't even keep my head straight. It was hanging against the back of the chair as I looked up at the roof, barely keeping my eyes open. I was more concerned about dying at the hands of hunger than vampires at this point.

"Guess what time it is." I heard the Slayer ask when he entered the cabin.

I really wanted to tell him to piss off, but I wasn't going to waste my remaining energy on words.

"Dinner time," he replied and I looked up to see him holding up a sack.

My eyes went wide as they locked on his sack. "Baby corn, pumpkin and..." I sniffed. "Tuna."

"They're all tinned, how did you...?" The Slayer blinked at me, regarding me as if I was some wild animal. "And they call vampires the monsters."

I didn't take my eyes off of him—off of the sac—as he made his way to the counter and took out two plates. An involuntary squeak surfaced which I tried to mask with a cough, but judging by the look on the Slayer's face my masking didn't work.

He put portions on each plate and then placed them on the table. He tipped and pulled my chair from the back before pushing me to the table. He pushed me in, and in, and in until my stomach had no room to take a proper breath.

"You pushed me too forward," I coughed.

"I know," he said with a grin.

I rolled my eyes and shuffled back slightly with my feet. I waited to feel him loosening the rope around my hands, waited to feel my hands again, but instead, he went to the other side of the table and took a seat.

"Dig in," he said, placing a plate before me and then began eating.

"You have to untie me," I told him.

"I don't trust you enough, and I'm not in the mood to have to restrain you and tie you up again."

He was joking, right?

"I'm not going to do anything to you, Slayer." Not until after I've eaten.

He kept his gaze on his plate, shuffling his food around with his spoon, and I half expected him to agree but instead, he said, "you know my name, why are you still calling me Slayer?"

"Because that's who you are." He was a heartless Slayer who killed—and kidnapped.

His jaw tensed visibly but he didn't say anything. He kept his eyes on his food and I waited for him to say something else but when he began eating again I decided he didn't have anything else to say.

"How am I supposed to eat without my hands?" I asked, continuing our earlier topic.

"Dogs do it all the time," he said, taking a spoonful of pumpkin.

"I'm not a dog."

He glanced up at me, "are you sure?"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not going to stick my face in the plate and eat without hands." 

I could have done it, I had done it before actually, but I just really wanted him to free my hands so I could put them around his neck and drain the life out of him.

I could tell he wasn't going to budge so I glared at him, glared and glared, wanting my gaze to sink into the depths of his soul, haunt him for the rest of his life, and appear in his nightmares. I knew the Slayer could feel my eyes on him but I was taken aback when his gaze met mine, just as strong. He was unflinching, determined, and amused when I began getting uncomfortable after several minutes. I averted my gaze and then glanced back at him and he was still staring at me, his gaze sinking into the depths of my soul. 

"Stop looking at me."

"You started it," he said.

I was starting to get annoyed. I was never good with eye contact, so I didn't know why I started this in the first place. "Stop," I repeated.

"Make me," he challenged.

"I'll stuff my mouth with food and open it wide for you to see," I threatened.

To my surprise, the Slayer's lips curved into an amused grin, "Is that supposed to make me look away?"

Well, yes. Usually, people got disgusted seeing food in someone else's mouth and immediately looked away. I had my doubts about whether it would work on a vampire, but I was desperate and wanted his eyes looking anywhere else but at me.

"I've killed more than you can count, what makes you think something like that would disgust me?" He questioned.

"Desperation," I mumbled.

"If you remain the way you are I'll end up looking away soon enough," he said, and I scrunched my brows in question. "Just your face disgusts me, the food would make you more bearable to look at."

I stared at him incredulously. Did he just insult me? How dare he insult me?

He looked back down at his food and continued eating. At least he wasn't looking at me anymore, so I guess my threat kind of worked, but as the Slayer continued eating, I noticed something about his expression. He seemed amused, humoured. He was enjoying my shock. This was entertaining for him.

I was about to insult him back when a light bulb went off in my head and his words replayed in my mind.

I don't trust you enough.

He didn't look like he didn't trust me, so all I had to do to get him to untie me and stop being constantly suspicious of me was get him to trust me. If I could get him to drop his guard I could kill him. If he didn't suspect me, it would make escaping so much easier. I could get rid of him, escape, make it back to Lilliville, and find a way to better the vampires. If I could delay our extinction, maybe I could find a way to prevent it. 

Forget him and his plan. I was a Vanquisher, a fighter, not bait. I wasn't simply human, I was a dangerous human, and I was going to make him pay for the way he treated me. I would tie him up, starve him, and mock him. I would make him feel small and powerless like he did to me. I would get my revenge on him and all the vampires. I would save humans with humans. I would save my people with Alek, not with a vampire. Not with him.

I forced myself to view him as a somewhat decent being and not an evil, heartless creature.

I bit my tongue and forced a smile, making it look as genuine as I could. The Slayer looked up and was completely taken aback by my expression.

"So funny," I muttered, with that genuine smile of mine. "You're so... witty."

The Slayer didn't answer, and I didn't need him to, I just needed him to think I was manageable, to think I was trustworthy.

I finished my food in silence and even thanked him for the delicious meal. Who knew a 'thank you' could pain someone so much? The pain, however, was worth it, because after the meal he came and began untying my feet from the legs of the chair.

That was fast, I thought. I always knew I was charming but I never knew I was that charming.

After my feet, he moved to my hands and as soon as my hands were free, he pulled me up.

"Oh, you don't know how good that feels," I exhaled, stretching and rubbing my wrists.

"Glad I untied you?"

"So glad."

"Perfect."

He suddenly grabbed my hands and tied them behind my back again, a grin on his lips as he did so.

"Hey!" I shouted, "What are you—"

"We're moving again," he interrupted, securing the knot.

Is that why he fed me? So I would have enough energy to move? Damn, I should have attacked him as soon as my hands were free.

"That's not fair," I grumbled.

"Nothings fair, Izzy," he said, raising a hand and patting my head.

"Stop that!" I shoved him away with my shoulder, an action he was clearly entertained by judging by the wry grin that spread across his lips.

"Now, you either walk by your own will, or I force you. Your choice."

With that, he turned and left the cabin. I paused for a second, debating. If I wanted to gain his trust and make him think I was manageable, I had to make this easier for him, so I decided to follow him.

"Can you at least tie my hands in front of me?" I requested as I caught up to him.

"Last time I did that, you kneed me in the gut," he recalled.

"I did that?" I asked shocked, acting innocent. "I don't remember doing that at all."

"Well, then you've got a horrible memory because it was less than a day ago."

"Well, in my defence, you had just killed the Roi."

"I had, hadn't I?" He mused.

"So you'll tie my hands in front of me?" I asked.

"No."

"I can still knee you in the gut with my hands behind my back, you know," I reminded him.

"I know," was all he said in response and I sneered.

Just a little longer and then I wouldn't have to deal with him. I would gain his trust soon enough, I was going to make sure of it, and once I did, I would stab him in the back. 

Literally.