Widow

I hissed out in pain. My right leg was pinned as the car crashed into us. We were thrown off the road and into a tree. The impact also caused the airbags to deploy. Angrily, I tried to push the white cushion of air away to see if Jennifer was doing reasonably passably.
"Jenny?", I growled, feeling her pulse when she didn't respond. A shrill beeping irritated my usually fine hearing, so I couldn't focus on her heartbeat. But she was still alive, at least something. With another hiss I then tried to get my leg free and after a few minutes I managed to do so. Then I looked around for anything useful to smash the windshield with. But I found nothing. 
This day started really great. 
I cursed quietly and pulled my legs out of the footwell. With my healthy leg I kicked the windshield a few times. Since it was cracked, it broke after the fourth kick and I was able to pull myself out on the roof. I then unbuckled Jennifer and pulled her outside as well. 
I didn't even have a phone with which to call for help and her mobile, I regretfully discovered, was fucked after the crash. Mumbling more fancy curses, I put Jennifer in a stable lateral position and then limped over to the other car to see if the driver was still alive. 
If he was, he wouldn't be for much longer. 
But the car was empty. 
For a few seconds I looked around frowning, not sure what was going on. If this car was equipped with a remote control, then this action had been planned. I opened the car door and examined the interior. Sure enough, behind the steering wheel was some kind of machine with several cables linked to the car's electronics. 
The problem wasn't the remote control, or that Jenny was unconscious. The problem was that we were still a few miles from the village and too far from the house for me to reach any of them with an injured leg, within the next ten minutes. It would take at least an hour to heal.
Only it wouldn't take an hour for anyone else to show up here. 
That meant we were sitting ducks. 
I slammed the door again and went back to Jennifer to take her into the bushes. Pondering, I picked her up. As I lifted my eyes, I saw a small column of cars coming toward us on the road down the hill. 
"Great," I growled, taking her as far into the brush as I could. Blanking out the pain as much as possible, I ran back to the car and searched the back seat and trunk for weapons as fast as I could. However, a small pistol in a case, with two magazines each holding 12 rounds, was all I found. Better than nothing, but it wouldn't be enough if the guys were armed as well, which I thought they would be. 
With a heavy sigh, I laid down on the ground and slid under the car. If I crouched near Jennifer, she would make too easy a target. 
Back there in the woods, a gunfight between me and these people was almost harmless to her.
At least, if she didn't wake up and come back to the edge of the woods. 
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a moment before the cars stopped. I waited until everyone had gotten out, who must have been ordered to inspect the car. There were four different heartbeats. When the car doors were briefly open, I had been able to count another three heartbeats, apart from the drivers of the three black SUVs. So a total of seven people who were dispatched to handle the situation. The three drivers generally remained uninvolved. Mostly they had the order to stay behind the wheel to enable a quick escape. 
I waited a few more seconds for the men to stand around the car and inspect the interior. 
"They're not inside and no sign of blood. Could be they both kept consciousness and escaped into the woods.", short silence, "Bill, Joe, radios on and search the edge of the woods. Even if they survived, they're probably injured and couldn't have gotten far.", said the man standing directly to my left. 
Then he crouched down. I pointed the gun at him and waited calmly until his face was visible. Then I pulled the trigger and he fell to the ground dead.
"Fuck!" shouted another one and bent down from the front to shoot at me, but I was faster and shot him in the calf and thigh, whereupon he went down out of reflex and I put a bullet in his head too. Then I rolled out from under the car. One of the two men, who were sent into the forest, came stumbling out of the bushes, gun raised, but he got caught in a few branches. I got hold of him, put him in a headlock and broke his neck before he knew what happened. 
Killing made easy: Just do it and don't think about who you killed.
At some point it just went by itself. 
Then a car door opened and two more men came out, both with guns. With a disgruntled growl, I took cover as one of them took aim and shot me. 
"Get out or she dies!" one of them shouted. 
Only now did I notice the fourth man coming out of the woods with Jenny. She had regained consciousness and was trying to wriggle out of the man's grip. He hit her with the handle of his gun and she became unconscious again. 
I growled. That's why it was easier to fight alone. Anyway, I couldn't sacrifice her life, then this duman would surely kill me. Or worse.
If the guy had really been a vampire hunter, he surely knew one or two nice torture methods for my kind. 
And even though no one had told me specifically yet, I had been able to smell from the first moment that Jennifer, Max and the great Jonas Duman came from a direct bloodline. Apart from the fact that she had spoken of her "father" in the car earlier.
So now, if I allowed her to be murdered just because I was too proud to admit defeat...
With another growl, I then stood up, gun and hands raised in the air. Then I slowly came out from behind the car. 
"Throw it away," ordered one of the men with the guns. Both barrels were still pointed at me. 
I gritted my teeth and threw the gun into the bushes a few feet away. And all this because of a job I should have kept my hands off. 
The men nodded to each other, lowered their barrels and came towards me in unison. 
But as long as the gun of the last man continued to rest against Jenny's temple, I could afford no outbursts. Then the third came out of the van. 
He drew up a syringe and came toward me as well. I wrinkled my nose at the smell of a narcotic. 
This story was not going to end well.
I just wasn't quite sure yet for whom.

Max

"Emergency protocol." my father said to me after calling me in from outside. 
"What, why the emergency protocol?!", I followed him down to the basement confused. 
You would think he would have his workstation in a slightly better lit place, but his computer, as well as other electronics and files were all behind a thick steel door in the basement. 
While he now opened the door and sat down in front of his PC, I was still waiting for an answer.
"I can't smell what's going on," I growled, crossing my arms. 
"They took Jenny and Widow hostage. If it was just Widow, then I wouldn't insist on emergency protocol, but since they also have your sister, the whole thing looks a little different.", he typed an email, to dispatch. 
That was step one of the emergency protocol.
"What do they want in return?", I asked, guessing. 
"The flashdrive with the data. And, of course, the password, which only the vampire knows. And they already have him in custody. We must be playing with the wrong cards, as usual," my father mumbled in response, opening a program.
"What the hell is so important on this damn stick that everyone is making such a fuss about it?", I took out my phone and opened the file with the full emergency protocol. 
"Simple version will do I guess?", I then asked and was about to turn away to gather the things we needed for an impromptu mission. 
He wouldn't tell me what kind of information was on that disk anyway. 
"Mhm."
"Do you know the location?", I walked to the door, already laying out in my head the weapons we had here at our country home, "Hopefully we won't need backup or we may pay for the extra deployment.", I muttered more to myself than to my father and superior.
"I'm figuring it out right now," my father muttered as he continued to type away on the computer. I resigned myself to that and left. 
If this vampire allowed these weirdos to harm a hair on my sister's head, I would assassinate both him and the people in charge.
And if I had to run the place down with a fucking tank, I would.

Widow

Fucking anesthetic stuff. Once again, I didn't know how long I was asleep now. To my satisfaction, it took three of those shots to knock me out completely.
But after all: This seemed to be a situation that repeated itself over the last couple of days. 
I heard blurred ambient sounds, voices, changes in location, screams, and even a few gunshots. But I was not able to move or make a sound. 
After what felt like years, I managed to move my fingers. Finally the numb feeling in my limbs subsided. With a groan I opened my eyes and tried to sit up. Something that only worked after the third attempt. I breathed in the cold, stuffy basement air and wrinkled my nose at the stench of feces and rotting flesh. 
Where the heck were we?
Speaking of us, I immediately looked around for Jennifer. She was in the same room as I was. Although the term 'room' was a bit of a stretch. 
It was more like a cell, separated from the other cells only by thick steel nets. All of them were filled with people. Many, weakened people.
I could smell the nutritional deficiencies in their blood, as well as the injuries, some of which they carried on their skin and in their flesh. 
The corridor in front of these small rooms was lit by a few neon lights. Most of them were only half working or not working at all. They gave just enough light for a normal person to guess how much space there was on either side.
What kind of sick place was this?
I hurriedly jumped up and examined the cell door. Too massive to break open, the lock was very old-fashioned. With locks like this, there was no way of knowing if the locking hooks were in the same place as the lock itself. 
The door frame was made of a stone structure, so I was sure that I couldn't just kick this door in either. Then I shook my head and turned my attention to Jennifer. I could take care of the escape later, but for now her health had priority. I checked her breathing and examined her for broken bones or other serious injuries, but she was fine so far. Except that she was sweating profusely and babbling softly in her sleep. A nightmare most likely. 
The most worrisome thing about her condition was her body temperature. The cell was cold as hell, not a thing to me, to a human that was potential cause for hypothermia or pneumonia. 
Still wearing the cardigan, I took it off and covered it up to ensure she didn't hypothermia further while I slept.
I stared at her, my eyes found her veins by themselves. I was tremendously hungry. Due to the events of the last few days, I hadn't had the chance to get myself something edible, or to ask for some blood. So now I had to keep my distance from her in order not to provoke my instincts unnecessarily.

Even after hours she still didn't wake up and slowly I started to worry. Every half hour I went to her, checked her bodily functions and tried to wake her up, but in vain. As I gently shook her shoulder for the ninth time now and impatient  spoke her name, I heard movement from the cell to our left. 
"She'll come around soon," said an old raspy voice.
My alarm sirens blared and I instantly stood up.
I looked inside the cell and located a man.
An old, emaciated man. He sat in a corner and looked at me out of dull eyes.
"How long have you been stuck here?", I wanted to know. This study of physical weakness is reached only after a few months. Again I wondered why all these people were held captive here. 
He laughed tonelessly. "Weeks, months? I don't know."
"Then why are you here?", I tilted my head. 
Even if he was stuck in the same room with us, this old codger certainly wouldn't pose a threat.
So I relaxed a little and focused on getting some answers.
"I don't know exactly either. They torture us until we forget who or what we are.... The people here don't use animals for their experiments, they collect us." 
"Us?"
"Old, homeless, sick, just people no one misses," he said wearily. 
I pondered.
Torture to oblivion?
This guy was talking about brainwashing.
"You're a vampire, aren't you?" the man then asked.
I screwed up my face and clicked my tongue slightly after a few minutes of silence. 
For the fact that the existence of vampires was actually a pretty discreet, if not secret, matter, I've encountered a lot of people in the last few days who were enlightened about the whole thing. At least, to the point where the stereotypes interfered with logical thinking. 
"Yeah.", I reluctantly admitted. 
"Are you hungry?" the man crept a little closer. I took a step back from the bar. This man had no notable flaws compared to the others, nor did he have any wounds or illnesses. Something that made me increasingly skeptical.
"You would give me your blood?", I asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes."
"Why?" suspiciously I looked down at the skinny man's pitiful figure.
"My days are numbered. Whether I suffer much longer or not, I'd rather put that in your hands than those people's.", he came crawling to the grate wall. 
Hardly any deficiencies, just a little less nourishment than usual. I needed to regain my strength somehow, but still I didn't budge.
"Come on, unlike you, I don't bite," the man said, holding out his wrist to me. But I shook my head.
"Not until I have an escape plan. A dead body right now would only cause us problems. I'll take you up on your offer, but not now," I then said after a few seconds of playing through what this murder would entail. Then I turned my attention back to Jenny, who was now shivering with cold. Concerned, I went to the cell door and peered out into the deserted corridor. Somehow there had to be a way to get out of here. 
After a few more hours, Jennifer started kicking, punching and shouting something unintelligible. I frowned and crouched down next to her to keep her from hitting the floor and hurting herself, but she continued to struggle. Only now did I see that she was crying. 
"Jenny!", I said firmly, trying to wake her up, "Wake up!", I dodged a kick and turned her so she couldn't hit me. 
"Jennifer!", I finally hissed, when she did catch me with her elbow. She woke up, paused for a moment, and started crying even louder. 
"Jenny," I tried to brush her off as she clung to my arm and sobbed. Awkwardly, I turned my gaze to another corner of the room. 
What the fuck did one do in a situation like this? 
I had very rarely watched television.
And when I did, it was never movies where the main character got into such a situation.
I decided to wait. For her to calm down a bit. In the meantime, I distantly patted her shoulder.
Her crying became more quiet and then, at some point, it was just a wet sniffle. With a sigh, I then loosened her grip and tried to look her in the eye. She had lowered her face to the floor and was avoiding my gaze.
"Jennifer," I said, waiting for her to look at me, "It's all right, you'll be fine," I added truthfully, watching her swallow. Now I also had to make sure that no one hurt her. 
I had been raised as a gentleman, and even after 170 years in a different line of work, that part of my upbringing didn't change in the slightest. A promise is a promise. And I kind of promised this roght now, so I had to keep my word.
"I'll get us out of here," I grumbled, then carefully let go of her forearms. When she didn't budge, I cleared my throat and sat back up. She sniffled, wiped her eyes on her cardigan, and nodded with an averted gaze.