IZEL

The Slayer finally dropped his guard.

The rope he had tied wasn't securely fastened around my hands and I knew that with enough effort, I would be able to free myself. I didn't look back again as I ran towards the cabin, afraid he would read something on my expression. As soon as I entered the cabin I began fiddling with my hands, trying to free them from the rope. Eventually, they slipped out, and as soon as they did I rushed and started rummaging through all of the drawers until I found a knife.

It was small but it had a deadly point, which was better than nothing.

I stood behind the door, waiting for the Slayer to step inside. I calmed my breathing so that I could hear his footsteps as he approached, and as soon as stepped over the threshold, I leapt toward him and sunk the knife into his chest. He tried to say something but failed, choking on his blood. I had to use more effort because of the small size of the weapon, but eventually, I hit my target.

I yanked the knife from his body and he crumbled to the ground with a hard thud. 

"Enemies can't suddenly start working together," I said, my heart pounding from adrenaline. "And you learnt that the hard way." I bent down, wiping my hands of his blood before stripping him of his weapons. 

When I finally had all his weapons, I left the cottage and his body, knowing the Tergots would appear in no time and take care of him. I ran as fast as I could out of the cabin and in the direction we had come from. I was suddenly full of energy despite the long journey we had just done. It was probably the adrenaline fuelling me.

I ran, and ran, and ran until I couldn't run anymore. I slowed my pace and eventually leaned against a tree as I caught my breath. I couldn't believe I had done it. I killed him, I finally killed him. The Masked Slayer was officially no more. 

I knew it would take some time for me to get back to Lilliville, especially since I had no idea where I was, but I would get there eventually, and that was all that mattered. A twig snapped and I immediately spun around, unsheathing my sword as I searched the trees. Another twig snapped and the grass ruffled. Something was coming, but it wasn't being stealthy at all. 

Finally, a figure appeared. It was a human, and judging by their limp, they were injured and completely oblivious of my presence. It was a male, with hair that was trimmed on the sides and...

Alek.

That was Alek!

"Alek!" I called.

His head whipped in my direction, startled.

"Izel?" He narrowed his eyes and then began limping in my direction when he was sure it was me. "Izel!"

I ran toward him, greeting him with an embrace and his arms wrapped tightly around me.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Me? Are you?" I asked back, noticing the blood on his uniform.

"I... "His body trembled slightly in my arms. 

"What's wrong?" I asked, looking at him intently.

He sighed, his voice fragile as he told me, "Everyone's dead, Izel."

"...What?" I asked.

"The vampires got to us, they ambushed us and..." He swallowed. "I barely escaped."

"Everyone?" I asked, my voice breaking.

"Everyone." He confirmed with a sorrowful tone. "I just wish you were there, to help protect the village. If you were then maybe—"

Just then, the ground began to shake and some unknown force pulled me away from him, the space between us increasing with each passing second.

"What's going on Alek?" I asked, reaching for him. The ground continued shaking and the gap between us increased still.

"Alek!" I called his name...

"Alek!" I screamed and was confused for several seconds. 

I was no longer in the forest. I was in a cabin, tied to a chair again and the face I saw in front of me wasn't Alek's, it was the Slayers'. He had been pulling me in the chair, I realised, because I was now outside, but he must have stopped when I screamed.

It was just a dream. 

I was awake now so why was my breathing erratic, why did I feel like I was heating up, and why were my fingers trembling? I felt tense and my chest tightened to the point where I had to take deep breaths to get any air into my lungs.

"Have you forgotten how to breathe or something?" The Slayer asked.

My village, what if they got attacked while I wasn't there?

"Izzy?" His voice was serious now. "What's wrong with you?"

When I didn't answer, he knelt in front of me but I didn't focus on him. 

"Izzy, look at me."

A lump formed in my throat but I still didn't look at him, I couldn't. That dream just made me realise a newfound fear of mine. Not being able to protect my village.

"Look at me!" He implored.

My mind swarmed with images of vampires raiding Lilliville, of dead bodies, of green grass turned red with blood.

The Slayer hesitated before bringing his hands up to my face, cupping my cheeks, and it was hard not to notice how warm he was. "Look at me," he said softly this time, and my gaze slowly fell on him only to find him observing me intently, his brows furrowed. "Are you okay?"

"You have to let me go," I croaked. "My village, they could be attacked while I'm not there and—" My voice started cracking so I stopped and composed myself, not wanting to break down in front of him.

"I'll blame myself," I continued, "If anything happens, I'll blame myself. 'Why wasn't I there? If I had been there maybe I would have been able to save them, maybe things would have been different.'" My eyes burned and I blinked to hold back the tears, "that would tear me up inside out, and I know that would probably make you feel good but... please, let me go."

The Slayer watched me silently for some time. And I could have sworn he was considering it, I could have sworn I saw concern, pity, remorse or even sympathy in his eyes, but he averted his gaze before I could be sure. He swallowed, dropping his hands from my face and then he stood. He stood and left, going back into the cabin. He just left me outside tied up to that chair without saying a word.

"Slayer!" I screamed, "Let me go, dammit! I swear I'll get out of these ropes and I'll make you regret choosing me to help you with your stupid plan!" I roared, unable to reign in my anger, not when my dream had felt so real and was still ripe in my memory. "I swear I'll kill you! I'll make sure to stab my sword deep into your chest and puncture that black heart of yours!"

I screamed for what felt like ages, but he didn't appear, and I couldn't hear any movement in the house. He just left and...

The wind changed suddenly.

Not again.

I shut my eyes, willing the tears to stay back. He was using me as bait. Again. 

I opened my eyes just as a vampire appeared from within the forest, stopping as soon as it laid eyes on me. There was just one this time, but it didn't waste any time. It looked ravenous as if it hadn't eaten in ages, and here I was, out in the open, tied up. A free, fresh, helpless meal. It sped toward me, and I could tell it was coming straight for my neck. It wasn't going to bother to kill me before drinking me dry.

I shut my eyes again, tensing, waiting to feel its fangs in my neck. The impact came, but rather than its fangs in my neck, the whole thing fell on top of me causing me to fall back along with the chair. The vampire was on top of me, but it was still, and when I looked up I noticed that a blade had gone through the vampire from behind. The Slayer's blade. I rested my head against the ground as the Slayer appeared, retrieving his dagger from the vampire before flinging the body off of me. He lifted my chair making me upright again, but the vampire's cold blood was all over me.

I looked up from the blood and right into the Slayer's eyes, "I'm not bait you—!"

"No you're not, you're a Vanquisher," he cut me off.

My brows rose. "What?"

"I need that Vanquisher part of you and I just hope I won't regret it," he said and suddenly began untying me.

"What are you talking about?"

"Use that anger of yours, but just make sure you kill everyone but me. Remember if you die, you fail your village," he said, shoving a sword into my hand.

"What do you—?"

Before I could finish my sentence, three vampires appeared from the forest, two Supremes and one Quearus.

"Oh look, it found one," said the male Supreme, pointing at me. "I told you it wasn't a lost cause."

"Yeah, well it is now. It's dead," said the female Supreme.

"Wait a second, that's no simple villager, it's a Vanquisher," said the male.

The female Supreme looked at me properly for the first time and her eyes narrowed, "Isn't that the one that came up with that darn plan?"

Did everyone know about that plan and that I was the one who came up with it?

The Quearus cocked her head to the side as she looked at us, "Yes, that's her, and she's with the vampire that kills his own kind," she deduced. "How interesting."

"Who's taking who?" asked the female Supreme. "I dibs the girl."

"No, I'll take her," said the Quearus, "she'll be easier to finish off. You two keep the fake one occupied, then I'll deal with him once I'm done with her." The Quearus grinned, revealing her fangs. "I haven't had blood in quite some time, so this should be nice."

She was fast, very fast, too fast, like all Quearus'. I hadn't even seen her move before she suddenly shoved me against the wall. Hard. I had never defeated a Quearus on my own before, and it didn't look like I was going to succeed in doing so now.

"This is what you get for coming up with that plan of yours," she whispered in my ear. 

The last time I faced a Quearus on my own, its fangs sunk deep into my neck. And hers did too. She sucked my blood ruthlessly and I felt myself losing awareness.

I need that Vanquisher part of you, I heard the Slayer's voice in my head.

I was losing the feel of my body.

Use that anger of yours.

Losing consciousness.

Remember, if you die, you fail your village.

My village, I thought of them, all of them. Of Alek, Raya, Fergus, and even Raymond. My body was shutting down, but my mind was still active, flooding with thoughts, and I used those thoughts and feelings to fuel myself. I tried to move my body, any part of my body but just managed to get a feel of my hand. The one with the sword. I couldn't bring myself to lift the sword and strike her, so I struck down instead, the tip of the sword digging through her foot.

She shrieked, and as soon as its fangs left my body I felt a surge of energy. The adrenaline. I lifted the sword from its foot then kneed it in the gut making it gasp and stumble backwards, slightly. It quickly recovered and sped to me at full speed, but I was ready for it now. I was no longer bait, I was a Vanquisher. 

I twisted to the side, dodging her just before she grabbed me. She met the wall rather than my body and before she could get its footing again I thrust the sword right through her abdomen and into the wood of the cabin. 

She screamed an ear-piercing scream.

I stabbed her stomach, not wanting to kill her, but wanting her to experience pain. She was trapped between my sword and the wood, and she couldn't move because every movement brought excruciating pain. She may not die from this, but she would feel a whole lot like she was dying.

"And this is what you get for drinking my blood," I whispered in her ear.

The Slayer appeared, having gotten rid of both of the Supremes.

"Well damn," he said, and I was sure I imagined the pride that flickered across his expression. "Looks like you've been defeated by a Vanquisher, a young one at that, how embarrassing for a Quearus."

The Slayer flicked the sword, making the Quearus groan in pain. The Quearus had her back to us and her front against the cabin, so the Slayer had to step closer to her so she could see him.

"Here's what you're going to do if you want to get out of here alive. You're going to relay a message for me." He flicked the sword again, "Tell the Zas that Jaeger is looking for him. Tell him that—"

"You're going to die along with the humans, fake vampire," the Quearus tried to sound menacing, but she could only mask so much pain from her voice.

"Die along with the humans? Well, you're going to die before them if you don't do as I say," the Slayer countered, flicking the sword again, tormenting the Quearus. "Tell the Zas that Jaeger is alive and coming for him. Tell him that I'm coming for revenge, that I'll take everything from him like he took everything from me. Understood?"

"This sounds too personal for—"

The Slayer flicked the sword again making the Quearus groan in pain. "Understood?" He repeated and this time the Quearus nodded. "Good, and don't even think about not delivering my message because I will make sure to find you and finish off what we started. But before I let you go," the Slayer looked at me now, a wicked grin on his lips. "Try."

"Try what?"

The Slayer flicked the sword and the Quearus growled, gritting her teeth. "That."

That was cruel. But despite knowing that, I felt myself smile at the thought of torturing a vampire. It would be a change for once, so I flicked the sword and the Quearus cursed.

"I swear I—" the Quearus choked on her words when I moved the sword again.

"You may be a vampire," I said, shifting the sword, "but you can be just as weak and vulnerable as humans. Remember that."

The Slayer looked at me with a new expression. The pride I thought I mistook was there, but there was something deeper to it, something I couldn't figure out.

"Okay, fun time's over," the Slayer said then pulled out the sword, and the Quearus roared in pain as soon as the sword left her body.

She groaned, holding the wound it left behind, a wound that I could see right through. My stomach gurgled at the sight.

"You should've just killed me," the Quearus croaked out. "Especially you, Vanquisher, I'll make sure that when we next meet my face will be the last face you see. And I'll make sure to wipe out the remaining villages one by one despite your plan. You see that over there?" she asked pointing to the ravenous vampire the Slayer had killed. "That's going to make sure all you humans get wiped out, because even if you escape, those right here, can smell human blood from long distances even if you don't have a cut. So we'll find you, and we'll get rid of you. There's nowhere to hide," she cackled.

By the time she was done talking, her wound had already started closing, the veins and flesh knitting together, and I felt the little food I had in my system rising up my throat.

Only once she left did my stomach calm.

"Well," the Slayer began, and my eyes turned to him. "Let's just hope that—"

I didn't think before I grabbed the sword from his hand and pushed him up against the wall, pressing the blade of the sword against his neck. Just because we fought together didn't mean I forgot what he had done. That he had left me as bait despite my plea to go back to my village.

"Tell me where we are," I demanded.

"Well, I did kind of expect this," he said more to himself than to me.

I shoved him harder against the wall. "Tell me where we are, or else," I warned him.

"Or else what?"

"Or else I'll put you in the same position the Quearus was in. You won't die, you'll just be in great pain like she was."

The Slayer shifted. "You wouldn't do that."

"Oh, but I would," I said, fully ready to bring the sword to his stomach, stab him and keep him pinned against the wall.

I fixed my hold on the sword and pressed it harder against his skin. He must have realised I wasn't joking because he swallowed and his eyes opened wider. I pulled the sword back then, aiming right for his stomach but his hand caught mine before the sword could penetrate his skin. He turned us around so that he was pushing me against the wall, still grasping my arm. He removed the sword from my grip.

"You were actually—?"

I didn't give him a chance to finish before I shoved myself off the wall, one foot placed behind his leg so that he tripped over it and fell to the ground. I landed on top of him and placed my hands around his neck.

"Where are we!" I demanded again, tightening my grip. "If you don't tell me, I swear I'll—"

He gripped my hands with his, but I tightened my grip still before he tried to peel off my fingers. He brought his arms around my waist instead and rolled us over, exchanging our positions with him above me now. He gripped my hands, ripped them from around his neck and held them against the floor.

"Calm down!"

"Telling me to calm down won't make me calm down!" I screamed, bending my legs inwards and kicking them up, flipping him off of me. 

I quickly got to my feet and took hold of the sword, but he was on me before I could do anything, wrapping his arms around me and holding me in place in a tight embrace. I tried to lift my arms, but his hold was too tight, so instead, I brought my head back fast, hitting him in the face. His hold loosened slightly and I managed to break out of it and jabbed the sword forward. He just managed to dodge it and then looked at me like I was the crazy one.

"Are you crazy!" He exclaimed.

"You're a vampire. I hate you. I'm meant to kill you. So no, I'm not crazy!"

I swung the sword across but he ducked and then tackled me to the ground, so suddenly that I lost my hold on the sword. He pinned me down, making sure he had all my limbs accounted for. I fidgeted trying to find any way out, but I couldn't, his hold on me was too firm, and knowing I couldn't get out of his hold by squirming, I calmed myself. For now.

"Tell me where we are," I demanded again, my voice lower.

"I'm trying to help you!"

"I don't need your help! You're a vampire!"

"So what?"

"So what?!" I asked, frustrated. "I'm supposed to kill your kind." 

"No you're not," he told me. "You're choosing to kill vampires."

"I'm doing it to survive. Your race started this war, they started killing us first."

"Exactly, my race not me. You can't judge me for their actions!"

"You're just as bad as the bulk of them," I spat.

He flinched but said, "I'm not like the other vampires."

"Not like them?" I scoffed. "You're right, you're far worse than them. You kill both races, both humans and vampires, you have no loyalty towards anyone, you find pleasure in killing everyone."

"I do not find pleasure in killing anyone," his voice dropped an octave. "And it's not like you don't kill either."

"Yeah, well the difference is I kill to survive! You don't, you just kill anytime. If I don't kill, I'll end up dying. I do it for protection, you do it for satisfaction."

"You know nothing about me."

"You know nothing about me either. It's because of your kind that my parents are dead."

"Your kind killed my mother, yet here I am putting aside the differences to save both races."

"Putting aside the differences?" I scoffed again. "That's rich coming from you."

"I'm doing this so that others don't have to lose their parents like I did," he admitted. "Like you did."

"You are the reason most people have no parents, 'cause you've killed people's parents, Slayer," I told him. He was worse than the Zas in a way, and I didn't know what made him suddenly change his mind and try to be a hero, but whatever he did, it wouldn't suffice for what he had already done. It wouldn't bring back any of the lives he had taken. 

"You've made people orphans. It's because of people like you that there are people like me who have no family left," I said resentfully. "So no, I can't work with you. Enemies can't suddenly start working together, and I'm definitely not going to be the one to learn that the hard way."

The Slayer stared at me, his gaze sharp and unwavering. His lips were pressed together in anger and his jaw visibly tensed. I made him mad, really mad, and I could feel his grip on my wrists firming as he leaned down.

"You need to watch what you say when you're in a vulnerable position like this, Izzy," he whispered in my ear, his voice having hardened ruthlessly.

"I never watch what I say, Slayer, you know that," I said, ignoring the shivers running down my neck from the threat. "And I'm not going to help you. "

A long silence stretched between us, a silence that the Slayer broke when he said, "You're right. I guess I don't deserve to be alive, but neither does the Zas. It's because of him that I'm the way I am, it's because of both vampires and humans that I'm the way I am actually, and that's why I kill them both."

"That makes no sense," I shook my head.

"It does, you'd just never understand. You don't know how it feels to lose everyone you've ever cared about."

"I do, actually."

"No, you don't," he said, leaning up to look me in the eyes again, "You have that friend of yours, Alek, and Raya, and your whole village. But me? I have no one."

"Because you choose to have no one."

"Because even if I chose to have someone they'd want to kill me once they knew who I was."

"The Masked Slayer?"

"No, Jaeger. The real Jaeger."

I paused. "And who is the real Jaeger?" 

"Someone you don't need to know."

Despite my anger, I couldn't help but notice that the Slayer had something that was afflicting him internally, a secret that was eating him up inside. He was lonely, I could see it in his eyes, in his expression, in his words. 

I didn't care about him or what he was going through but I cared about the others and what they might go through and no matter how much I hated to admit it, the Slayer was right. He had been right since the beginning but I was just too stubborn to agree because I didn't want to fight alongside him. Killing the Zas, like he said, might be the only way to stop the war, which was what I wanted. I wanted to make sure no one else went through what I went through, and this was the only way to bring me close to obtaining that.

I sighed, but I didn't give in just yet. "What makes you think killing the Zas will do any good?"

"The Zas is feared, and people tend to listen to those they fear. So getting rid of their fear—"

"Would just make them fear you."

"And if they fear me, they'll listen."

"And who's to say you won't make matters worse if you end up ruling?"

He shrugged, "I hope I don't."

I could hear the sincerity in his voice, but I asked, "And what if we fail? What if we don't kill the Zas, then what?"

"You said you wanted to save your people, yes?" He asked. "Well, if you do, then you'll stick with me no matter how much you hate the thought of doing that. You saw that ravenous vampire, the Quearus said it smells blood even when you're not bleeding, so even if humans managed to survive an attack, if they managed to get away, how long would they survive? 

"Do you think humans would be able to win with just a handful of survivors? Even if they somehow managed to stay alive, it would get to a point where they wished they were dead. They wouldn't be able to settle, always on the run. And when would that stop?

"If you want to solve something you go to the source, and the source is the Zas. That is the only way you will save your people, the only way you can avoid extinction. If we fail, then at least we can know we tried. But if we don't try, the result will inevitably be failure."

I remained silent, unsure how to respond.

"It's because of the Zas' decisions that your parents and mine are dead," he continued, "so how about we get revenge... together."

It was true that I wanted revenge, but did I want it with him? Would I even be able to do it with him? With a vampire who had already killed so many lives?

No, I wouldn't be able to fight alongside someone like him.

"I can't," I said softly. "I can't fight with you, I can't fight with someone I don't like at all, with someone who's killed so many lives and despite what you told me, I don't hate you any less than I did before."

The Slayer averted his gaze and finally let go of me, standing up.

"When you're raised a certain way and you're told you're meant to do certain things as a child, you grow up believing that's your purpose," he said, looking down at me. "I always thought that I was meant to kill, that killing was the only way to stop the war."

To stop the war? Was that always his intention?

I sat up. "You can't stop wars with bloodshed, that'll just end in—"

"More bloodshed, I know," he cut in. "But I didn't care about that at the time because the full meaning of it hadn't hit me and I genuinely thought I was born to kill."

"You thought you were born to kill?" I asked, realising he was speaking in the past tense. "Then what do you think now?"

He took his time before speaking again. "I used to be good, I used to not kill people," he said with a timid quirk of his lips. "But because I didn't kill them, they had the upper hand and tried to kill me."

"But they failed." Clearly.

"They failed to kill me, but they managed to kill the only person I ever cared about, so when I survived, I sought revenge. And when I was done with revenge, I kept killing because I thought if I did, then fewer people would have to go through what I went through," he confessed. "Only recently did I realise that I was putting them through exactly what I had gone through. Because when I kill, I could be killing a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister, a father or a mother, so someone somewhere could be losing the one person they ever cared about too."

"So what, you're good now?" I asked. I wasn't mocking him, I was genuinely curious.

"Far from it," he admitted, "but closer than I've ever been in years."

I looked at him, studying him, my gaze fixed on his as I tried to find some speck of doubt, of insincerity in his eyes. I didn't find anything and I began to feel something other than hate for him.

Sympathy.

But that wasn't enough for me to trust and fight with him. What if he suddenly decided he preferred being bad to being good? What if he decided to go back to killing people, to being the Masked Slayer that I knew, then what?

I had to be sure that he wouldn't go back to his old ways if I wanted to at least try to work alongside him. I had to be sure he regretted killing all those people and wasn't just saying all of this to convince me. I had to be sure he wouldn't do it again, and I had the perfect question to figure that out.

"If you could turn back time to the day they failed to kill you, what would you do?" I asked, keeping my eyes locked on his.

I didn't know what kind of answer I wanted. All I knew was that if he told me he would get revenge again, then he wasn't being genuine with what he was saying. 

I glanced at the sword on the ground not far from me, just for in case he gave me the wrong answer. He must have noticed my eyes because he suddenly bent down, resting his hands on his knees and drawing my full attention back to him.

His eyes focused nowhere but on me.

"Simple," he said, "I would find you."