Marathon runners, when near the point of exhaustion can get something called a second wind. Then again, you might have had a really big night out, be hung over and surviving on two hours of sleep, when suddenly, you get your second wind. You wake up. Your body believes your willpower and the need to carry on and obliges. I'm pretty sure I remember reading something scientific about the body learning to work with what you've given it, I don't know. Stuff happens, you get more energy - you power on.  

I was onto my third, maybe fourth round of 'second wind'. 

As soon Darius had me standing again, the aches faded to a dull pain, my muscles seemed to strengthen and I felt like I had about three red bulls all in a row. Angry red bulls, because I was seeing red. It was his fault this was happening and now, now, of all times he decides to just waltz right in and end it? Was that what he was even doing or had he come to only encourage them all to keep going?

Darius's head snapped to the side from the force of my hit. Drac hadn't moved an inch since we made the great revelation on who we were in the presence of, and I didn't care. More became clear to me as I hit him again and clearly he wasn't expecting any of this as I kicked him and he fell into the dirt. 

"You!" I roared, in the closest thing I have ever made to a battle cry.

"Considering you avenged my murder, I wasn't expecting this!" He was practically laughing as this time he did stop me from hitting him and I was pushed away.

"That's because I know who you really are now! All this time!" My anger made me stronger; possibly stupider too. "You. Asshole. I won't let you-"

Note to self. Don't piss off god, original vampire, creature, thing. They are stronger than anything else in this world, and as my back hit the dirt, that rib I'm pretty sure I'd broken responded. I was left crying out in complete agony and since he had yanked my arms up above my head, pinning me down, I couldn't move to try and ease the pressure.

"You won't let me what? From this angle Hunter, you really need to re-evaluate your options."

I saw Dracula move with my axe was in his hand and didn't doubt his intentions. "I think you're more at risk right now."

Darius, well, Cain only smirked and was gone instantly, barely straining against Dracula as he took the weapon from him. The duo began to circle one another and trying to hold back the screams I had inside, I crawled away from them.

"Do you really think you can defeat me?" Cain challenged.

"Things have changed sire!" Came the reply, before the pair started to speak in a language I didn't know. I don't even think it was one that even the highest achieves would recognize as it sounded like something you'd get subtitles for in movies when they read ancient texts in Latin.

Maybe it was Latin?

"You stupid fool!" Cain laughed, infuriating his opponent.

"Not this time!" Dracula hissed, clearly trying to do something with what ever magic he had.

It became obvious then that Cain was only toying with his one time progeny. It didn't matter if the attack came in the form of words, magic or swordmanship, it was all pointless. 

"Hunter, we will take you to have your wounds tended to!" Paytah comes up behind me, and I don't protest as he gets me up.

"I can't go yet, we need to stop the Warlocks!" I tell him, pointing back to where the magic battle is still raging.

"You can not fight. You are weak and injured."

"No." I tell him firmly, and his companion growls at me.

It doesn't matter because a breath later has one of the horned demons seeing our little gathering and charging over.  I actually forgot about those and the werewolf runs forward to meet it half way. I can see Paytah's reluctance to leave me, but he is right. I'm useless right now.

"Go, he needs your help!" I urge, shoving him away. "I'm fine!"

"I think you misunderstand the meaning of the word!" V answers and Paytah is all claws as he leaves us to attack the demon.

I'm not sure if I am happy to see him or freaked out by his sudden arrival. Alfie has me in his hold and we all disappear, soon returning back to my parents house where Tom is in fine form. He is screaming like a child being placed in the naughty corner, and with one quick look, Drew and Nigel are gone.

"Let me out of this!" Tom roars at us.

"No." I tell him, admiring the ropework done to keep him in the chair.

"You've looked better." V tells me.

"How is Zane?" Alfie nudges my midsection and I lift my shirt enough for him to tickle his tongue against my skin.

"Your demon took us to an actual hospital, not the one down stairs. He went straight into an operating room and we took so long to return because the snake needed to find something to give him a boost back." He pauses then, "I'm sure he will be fine."

"He will be." I agree, refusing to admit how scared I was for him. "Alfie, load me up with all you got. I need to go!"

This was wasting time. While Drac and Cain caught up, we needed to be stopping the others. Instead of being ready for battle, my knees give out I fall to the floor. My shoulders are stiff and black spots merge in with the blurryness of my vision. 

Not now.

Keep going.

"You will still need to rest. It's not a miracle cure!" V argues, and I feel him lift me so I'm now on the sofa. 

Slowly I find my voice. "I know, but it'll do enough to stop the pain!"

"We can't leave him in the house unprot-" Nigel stops seeing us all gathered in the living room. "What are you doing here?"

"She will watching over that one with the demons. Come on, we need to go help stock the Warlocks." V is suddenly in command.

Drew looks my way as Alfie is back to inspecting me and if I saw someone looking like me try to watch over my brother I wouldn't let them. What the hell can I do? I don't think I could lift a cushion right now.

"He tried to kill her, I think that's tempting fate."

"He's tied up. Go!" I insist, trying to sound better than I am. 

If anything does happen, Alfie is here and I miss what V says to them. What ever it is works as suddenly I'm left with Tom who is showing me his vocab of insults and swear words and a snake who suddenly knows how to do a physical assessment. Apparently spitting at me isn't an option right now, and I can't help think he is trying to delay me leaving here. Then again, I don't think I could even get up and walk out so he doesn't have to worry about that happening.

"If you do not let me up right now I promise you I will-" Tom threatens.

"Just shut the fuck up! I don't care what you have to say!"

"I'm over it. What ever that all was, I don't give a shit about right now. Let me out of here. Drew is a weak fighter, you know he is. I need to go help my brothers!" He had to pull the brother card.

Alfie is suddenly in my face. His mouth opens and instantly so does mine; only I'm not the one doing it. He doesn't spit, but I feel him draw all the air out of my body. My lungs burn, my throat tightens and inside I feel as flat as a balloon. I'm paralysed, I can't move and even Tom shuts up as his spike covered tail comes closer, stopping just below his head and he cuts into a small section of his scales. 

My head tilts back and I close my eyes as I feel his blood drip down into my mouth.

I swallow.

Bile rises up my throat as what he just did hits me. Spit I can deal with. This is different. The tang of his blood isn't metalic like ours, but sour like off wine. My stomach churns, promising to throw it up and then I'm breathing again. My chest wells as if it is a balloon being blown up and the tingly feeling of repair that comes with his spit, feels like it's exploding within my stomach.

"Alfie fix Elise. Too much for Alfie to do. This help Elise."

I can't talk. The room is spinning as what ever is happening inside of me gets to be too much. It's like I'm flying, floating and closing my eyes has a burst of bright light greeting me. It's like I'm in a sci-fi moving, time travelling as I'm sucked through a tunnel of light, where time and space and gravity doesn't matter. 

"Elise! Elise!" Tom interupts the ride and turning my head to look at him, there are at least four Toms sitting there now. Just what the world needs.

He is struggling; fighting his restraints and I feel like I should know why, but I don't. I close my eyes again and the world is rushing by. I can't hear Tom now. I can't connect to a single thing around me. Maybe I am floating, I can't feel the sofa anymore. What I can feel is something over me, it's soft, and smells like Mum. 

Opening my eyes there are not torches or any lights and I realise I'm not on the sofa. The thing covering me is a blanket and pushing it off, I'm in my parents room on their bed. Looking around, Anippe's pale form slides closer, up my arm and around my neck. Alfie isn't here.

I get quietly, still finding myself completely dressed and covered in who knows what. The house is silent, and somewhere a clock is ticking in such a way if I had to hear it for too long it drive me insane. I cling to the walls, slowly creeping through the house to find Aflie isn't anywhere, Tom is gone and all the windows and doors have been smashed to pieces. My boots crunch of the broken glass, and in the yard something is on fire.

Before going any further, I go back to the attic and as I climb up, I realise I feel good. Like just had twelve hours sleep and hadn't been beaten to a pulp kind of good.

"Don't suppose you're up to the talking stage yet?" I ask Anippe.

She shakes her head.

"Can you do the mind thing, and tell me what happened?"

She shakes her head again.

"We were obviously attacked?" Nod.

"Did Alfie put me in the bed?" Shakes head.

"Tom?" Nod.

I guess he was right about being over the whole, fuck you I'm taking you to the vampire, thing.

"Are they okay?" She doesn't move.

Trying to work out how long I've been out of action is kind of hard right now and just as I'm about to ask her to take a guess for me, I hear the crunch of someone stepping on glass. Just great.

I lower myself down and Anippe stays poised beside my face as I keep low and move around to the kitchen. I cautiously peer around the corner and try to keep my mouth shut as I see Sam coming in. Her gun is raised, the torchlight piercing through the darkness as she looks around.

"Tom? Are you here?" She calls out. "Tom?"

I slip into the kitchen as she has her back turned to me and my first instinct is to just leave her here and go back up. The second is to start what I didn't get to last time I saw her and the third is to tie her up to the chair and leave her as vamp food. With a sigh, I give up and go with option four. Trying not to scowl too much, I answer her. "He's gone."

I'm nearly blinded as her torch spins around and is shined in my eyes. "Elise?"

"No, it's your fairy godmother." I snap, shielding my eyes,

She gets the hint and lowers it. 'Sorry. I thought you'd be in the middle of all the action or something."

"You're looking for Tom?"

"I saw Drew and he said he was back here. I came as soon as I could." Sam tells me like it's something I should care about. "Where he is?"

"I have no idea, I woke up alone. How long ago did you see them?"

"Um, about half hour ago, maybe? Elves have infested the bush out there and it took me a while to get through. Luckily they chased after Drew, Nigel and that vampire you know."

"Yeah, lucky." I answer; not hiding my sarcasm. "Why are you so desperate to get to Tom?"

"I- we, I was-" She starts stuttering and it clicks into place then.

"A minute ago you were all over Logan and now you're what, with Tom?"

"He didn't want anything serious and so when Logan told me you guys had broken up, and he was willing to see if we could be more than friends, I just went with it." She keeps rambling, and I don't want to hear it or care right now.

"Save it."

Time to go. I leave Anippe with the order to stay and hide, grab the sword I had taken from the attic and go. If Elves are in the trees, that could be an issue, but like Paytah their views were kind of sexist which also explained why Sam had been left alone while they went after the others.

Had they survived?

I get clear run through the trees, I'm back at the oval when I sense Sam behind me. Of course, she had to follow, but that may not be a bad thing. The Academy is stands as a shell of the building it once was. The left wing still burns, while gaping holes in the other sections are either smouldering or nothing more than rubble. Somewhere in there, Huntington was hiding with the final year students and I prayed their bunker was strong enough to keep them safe.

The magic storms were still fighting, so nothing had changed there and I didn't want to consider the possibility my parents and Logan were dead. As Sam stopped beside me, we said nothing to each other and instead, started to move slowly, cautiously through the field of the dead. Demons lay beside our kind, werewolves and shifters all still as life had left them. Who knew who had fought on our side; friend and enemy now rested where they fell together on blood soaked earth, it would impossible to know. 

"This is horrible." Sam whispered from behind me.

"This is nothing compared to what will happen if they're not stopped."

"All this for a piece of paper?" 

Something moved, and from the smouldering corpse a flame flicked up from the body. That thing had been throwing balls of lava at us earlier and I didn't hesitate in stomping on it until the light was extinguished. People moaned, the injured starting to come together and trolls were already dashing about the area, doing what they could. The fighting had stopped here. A few groups moved around like us, stopping the evil from rising again and daring to look at the swirling mass of magic ahead of us, I had no idea what we would be walking into.

"It's more than a piece of paper." I tell her. “It’s what it stands for, and the power it holds.”

"You know something don't you?"

“I know a lot."

"Cause you're a Bunting?" She says my surname with the same distaste that Penny had about the Van Helsings and it takes every inch of willpower I have not to let her taste the blade of my sword. "Is that your snake?"

I turn left, and freeze as sure enough, Alfie's bulk rises before snatching the ape like monster up into his mouth. He shakes it until it snaps apart and with the creature dead, his mouth opens as he hisses into the darkness. Sam and I stop moving as something comes forward. At first I think it's another Apopyht, only it has a body to rival a mammoth at the base of that long neck and heavy, stumpy legs bring it closer.

"What is that?" Sam gasps.

It's like a dragon grew hair and lost its wings. "No idea!"

Alfie lunges at it. We keep moving; I can't do anything to help him. It's too big and if he knew I was there, he'd probably be more focused on keeping me safe than anything else. Five figures move near Alfie stopping me, that idea leaving me. If they attacked him, I don’t care if it killed me to try and help him. I relax as they start to attack the other creature too; vampires judging from the way they move. We keep going and make it the fence without too much trouble. Sam's tired and she starts to fall behind. I feel like I cheated due to my power nap and Alfie's help as I now feel brand new.

I'd feel guilty later.

There is no sign of Drac or Cain, at least there isn't until we start to run towards the figures we can see a few miles ahead of us and with a scream Sam is knocked over. It takes me two seconds to know who is trying to bite her; Dracula.

This ends now.

I rush to help her, and slamming the blade into his back gets his attention. He isn't the vampire I left behind from earlier. He is completely feral, with blood caked around his nose and mouth. His left cheek looks like he had part of it ripped away and he shirt is in tatters.

"Wow, you look more fucked up than I am!" I leer at him.

He only hisses, springing forward. He is too out of control to think about what is actually doing. He's desperate to feed and I don't think he actually knows that I am me. Instead I'm blood, food; everything he needs right now. This time my blade is coated with his blood from the front and he falls hard.

"I told you I'd kill you!" I raise my sword and swipe down only to have him roll out of the way and grab my legs. He bites.

Sam starts shooting our way and now I'm worried about being shot too. I manage to kick him in the head, enough to release the hold and thank god he didn't get to take a chunk of me with him. Then I start to worry. If he is here, where is Cain?

"Back off Hunter!" Tom calls from behind me.

You have to be kidding me. "What?"

Dracula is back, snarling at me like a rapid dog before he is once again dancing around the tip of my blade. He gets past me and my elbow meets his cheek, knocking him over once more.

"Go, we've got this!" He tells me.

Nigel runs over, not wasting time and pins Drac down. As he goes to behead him, Dracula seems to remember who is he and what is going on, stopping him mid-strike. I freeze as Nigel is thrown backwards, and he doesn't move again. Drew looks nearly as bad as Dracula, limping as he struggles to get to Nigel. Tom and Dracula being to circle each other.

"You should have done what your ancestors did, let someone else kill me and just claim the glory." Dracula taunts.

Sam stands by Tom, not sure what he is talking about. Why isn’t she shooting him?

"No need. I am better than them." Tom tells him. Idiot.

"Let them die. It will teach him a lesson!" V makes me jump as he appears at my side. His in better shape than everyone else, and he looks me over. "You're looking, better."

"So do you.” Judging from how red his teeth are when he smiles, I wonder if he had himself a snack on the way over. “You know I can't let that happen."

I don't like Tom. I really don't like Sam. I do consider Nigel and Drew friends and no matter what, it's the right thing to do. As soon as I start moving towards them Dracula looks at me, a bloody grin gracing his face.

"Run, run rabbit! I do enjoy the chase!" He taunts.

Tom and Sam are thrown backwards by an invisible source, yet Drac is weak. He is breathing heavily, and had he been anyone else, his wounds would have crippled him by now. He still manages to take steady steps, yet he clearly has some urges to contend with now. I can feel his hunger, he craves blood. It was going to make him reckless and taking out the dagger from my belt, I was going to use that to my advantage.

I sliced my palm open.

He stopped walking.

In a barely there, flicker of movement, his tongue ran along his lips. Smirking, I hold it up, feeling the warm liquid trickled down to my wrist. "Come and get it."

Like an obedient dog being called for dinner, he runs forward. I don't know how he did it, but the sword leaves my hands instantly and we’re left with nothing other than hand to hand combat as he wants his prize and I want to live. Dracula worked himself into a frenzy and I was refreshed enough to take it, and give my own back. At least until one wrong move had his hand around my throat.

"I should make you wake up once I kill you otherwise all this work will be for nothing. You will be my, Bunny, my pet, and the first thing I'll make you do is kill all the ones you loved."

"Well, with an offer like that, how can I refuse?" I choke out, and gripping onto his arm, I can't get him to let go. "Cain!"

Dracula flinches, so clearly the vamp hadn't killed his maker, or maybe he had and wasn’t expecting him to rise again. Either way, that second of distraction lets me kick his knees in. He stumbles, I get free and Tom is running over to us with V. I stomp hard on the open, bleeding wound on his stomach making him cry out before pinning him down.

"You lose. Enjoy hell, say hello to your brother for me." He only laughs and just as he goes to grab me, I jump away and not because of him. "Now!"

Dracula looks back just as Tom sends the blade of his sword through his neck and the second his head is removed from the body, Dracula's scream lingers in the air as the dust of his body sizzles into nothingness.

I could have killed him.

I could have made him suffer.

Thing is, none of that mattered to me like it did to Tom. He needed to be the one to kill the vampire. If he lived through the night, his loss would eat him up inside. I'd have to watch my back even more as he'd see me as the reason for any of his life’s failures and god forbid the Van Helsing name was tainted. Our eyes met and he knew what I did, but it didn't matter. He had killed Dracula, and just like his ancestors, they couldn't do it alone. It didn't mean that anyone was going to find that part of it all out; after all, all families had secrets.

Drew came limping over, a slow and unsteady Nigel behind him. "We're ready. Let's go."

"Where?" I stand, cringing as I forgot the cut on my palm. Tearing a section of my shirt, I made an improvised bandage.

"There, come on!" He pointed behind us to where the real war was happening.

"You two can hardly stand!"

"Doesn't matter." Drew answered stubbornly.

Tom and Sam stood together, talking closely and from what I could hear, it was now a moment to celebrate. "No. Go back up there, help where you can and get yourself looked at."

"You can't tell us what to do!"

"She's right. We can do more elsewhere!" Tom declared. Coward.

"You're injured, he's just weak. There is a difference, but you should go with him." I say softly to Drew and give him a hug. "Please, just look after yourself!"

"What about you!" He kept arguing.

"I'm fine. I have an Alfie, I'm good to go all over again."

It's then I noticed V had disappeared. Had he gone back too?

"Fuck!" Drew hugged me with strength I didn't know he had, and when he spoke, he was calmer. "Try and stay safe."

"Of course I will! It's me we're talking about!" I look up at him and smile.

"That's what I'm worried about." He frowns.

Drew lets me go and Nigel takes his place until I force them away and start to run to the others.

A void of darkness makes seeing anything hard. The magic offers light, yet it has its limits and as I leave the shadow land I see the woman I had seen raise the dead standing on her own. No, not on her own. V is there too.

They are yelling at each other, I'm not sure what about as I can't hear them over the zaps of electricity that hovers above us as the magic barriers collide. I don’t' know which side is winning, it's impossible to tell. What I do know is V is in trouble as two of the most horrid creatures I have ever seen in my life appear out of thin air and grab him. They resemble zombies, only not like any of the human kind I've ever seen in my life. 

Decaying flesh is blistered and oozing, like an infected wound. Their faces are hollow, removing any clue as to what they actually were and their bodies look like nothing more than thin, lithe limbs on a tree. Arms look like bear claws and the smell has my stomach churning. V is having the same issue as he actually gags and coughs.

The woman laughs.

A furious howl has me looking beyond her, and at the base of the magic cloud, I see numerous figures fighting against more of those things. The Academy battle field has been abandoned, and now everyone left was here. All the magic was going into the tornado and they couldn't protect themselves so now here we were, defending them.

That would be easier if she wasn't around with her minions.

"Stupid vampire. You will all never amount to anything in this world!" She leers at V, stalking towards him as the hood of her black cape drops down to reveal a mass of curly black hair. Her skin is just as dark as her arms are held up above her head. 

"Mana la na corpus na la..." She starts to chant.

That can't be good.

I have a problem with acting before thinking. I know I do every time I start something that feels like a bad idea. Then again, sometimes it actually works out for me. Shame I usually realise how bad an idea actually is once I’ve committed to it. I start running with speed that would make a cheetah jealous, at least that’s what it feels like as I approach from the night and raise my sword. As soon as I am in striking distance I leap forward, resisting the urge to cry out, though from how hard my heart is pounding in my chest they all could all probably hear me.

She must hear it or sense me, because violet eyes turn to meet me as I land just behind her and cut. My blade is well used, stained with Dracula's blood and the numerous things I had to stab crossing the oval. The handle feels good in my hand and I feel the shudder of resistance in my arms as I go through flesh and bone. Her head screeches like a banshee as it falls to the dirt and the rest of collapses in a heap beside it.

I don't expect the explosion of purple magic that erupts from her body or for it to send me flying a good twenty meters away. Better than that, each of the creatures she had been controlling exit in a similar fashion. Their stench sticks to the freezing night air and I push myself to sit up.

Move.

Do something.

Breathing is a good start and opening my eyes, the sky is lit up like I'm seeing the Northern Lights in a brilliant emerald wave. Purple glistens across it like a million shooting stars and suddenly V is there staring at me instead.

"Did I kill her?"

"You did. At least I would think you did." He extends his hand and pulls me up. 

My tailbone hurts, my back hurts, and actually, all of me hurts. My neck feels like I've got whiplash and I'm pretty sure the groove of my butt is going to be forever marked in the dirt. "Do they always do that?"

"I do not know. Want to try doing it again to find out?"

"Oh sure, that was easy enough. Three to go right?" I look back and we start walking to where I notice our guards are reforming, building up another perimeter around the ones doing the magic.

I’m not expecting to see so many of them. Demons, humans, the pale form of fairies and the hooded figures of witches are in a giant circle that snakes around creating layers of them. They all hold hands, eyes closed; chanting. It’s from there, the magic rainbow has formed, and expended into the sky. There has to be over a hundred of them!

 "What is this even doing?"

"It's a show of strength to see who will fold first. Without the opposing force there, their power will flood the land and be impossible to stop. It is why they all came out here, to try and stop them from reaching the Academy, the Treaty and from taking over." He tells me as we start to jog over to our team.

 I look up and feel the darkness in that cloud. If that did break free, it would all be over. Now we just had to make sure that didn't happen.