There was only a few hours before sunrise and we still had a lot of ground to cover. Rodney and Minx were the first to head off into the thickening trees with the rest of us close behind, I was the last to enter with Hayden just in front of me. The deeper we went the darker it was getting as the trees got taller and blocked out more of the moons already dimming light, my senses were heightened due to the fear of being hunted, all of our footsteps sounded like a herd of elephants trampling the bushes and twigs that covered the ground. Rodney did his best to clear the way as he ran along slightly making a path for those behind him, there was one branch that was bent forward as the others rushed past, as it snapped back into position it knocked Hayden off his feet, I was quick to pick him up and toss him onto my back and continue running, with him now on my back I was able to pick up my pace and catch up with the others. The moment I caught up with the rest of the group I heard the faint noises of one or more of the hunters tracking us just to the left. What were they doing? Are they afraid of us or are they just waiting for the right moment to strike. It was at that moment that Hayden tapped me on the shoulder.
"Jackson, two of the men are just to the left of us, I can kinda see them" Hayden whimpered out.
"I know buddy, they been there or a few minutes now, let me know if they get any closer or do anything weird, that way I can concentrate on the path"
"You got it" Hayden responded.
It was then I heard a third off to the right and he was close it looked like they were getting ready to strike and soon, a straight up fight I could handle, it was the waiting that had me on edge. "There's a clearing up ahead" Minx shouted. That was it we had to make a stand there if we wanted to make it out alive. Just before the clearing I raced of the group telling Rodney to keep the group moving as I passed, he nodded in response, and I pushed my legs to the max as I sped up. At the clearing I made my way right to head off the lone hunter before he made his way out. Just as he took his first steps out of the trees I connected with a straight right to his chest sending him flying into tree, I didn't waist any time and was right on top of him throwing more punches, breaking some of his ribs and what felt like a few of my knuckles in the process, the vest he was wearing must have had some metal plates in there or some thing, no human has that hard of a chest. The man winced in pain as his ribs broke, but that didn't stop him from going on the offensive, he pulled a small sworn from his side and began his attack. I did my best to dodge his onslaught, he was pretty good with the blade and even with my enhanced speed he still was able to slightly connect a few times cutting my chest and arm. My body was beginning to slow down, all the running was starting to take it's toll, and my mind was starting to wonder and thinking of the others and how they were doing, I had to finish this fight and soon. "Come on Jackson you've taken down tougher opponents in the ring and they were vampires" I thought to myself. My opponent dug his feet in and sopped himself after I sent him flying backwards after a swift kick to his chest, he was quick too, in one fluid motion he was on the charge again. What happened next I would have never expected, as the man drew near little Hayden jumped off of my shoulders onto a tree behind our attacker and was quickly on his way back before the man or I knew what was going on, the attacker had one choice to make, turn to stop Hayden or continue to attack me, I guess he didn't see Hayden as a threat because he continued at me, that was his first mistake he made all night, well I guess his second, the first would have been to attack a buch of vampires in the first place. The moment Hayden hit the man's back he struggled to get him off, Hayden grabbed the mans hair pulling his head back exposing his throat, and in one quick motion Hayden bit down, his killer instincts took over and he latched his arms and legs around the man, as he forced his weight forward knocking him to the ground, blood sprayed from his neck and out the sides of Hayden's mouth, I didn't the little guy had it in him but here I was watching as this little vampire took down his prey it was a sight to see. I knew we didn't have time to waste so I jumped in and helped Hayden bleed him dry. When the man's pulse had come to a stop, Hayden and I released him and stood up, he looked up at me and gave me a wicked grin, I giggled a bit and ruffled his hair, we wiped the blood from our mouths with the shirt of the now dead man laying before us.
I pulled the sheath and the sword from the corpse and tossed them at Hayden. "Here kid you deserve to keep a trophy for this one, not like you need the weapon" I smiled and he nodded. "We should catch up with the others" Hayden jumped on my back and we were off. There must have been something in the mans blood that was giving him strength, I could feel it starting to take affect on my body now, my legs no longer felt week. The others had just made it to the other side of the clearing, with no sign of the other two hunters in sight, did they fall back to regroup, did I put a kink in the plans by attacking first, all I could do was hope that the others were all ok. The gash in my chest was deeper than I thought, causing me to loose a lot of blood, even though I just feed, it was deep and looked as if it was going to take a few sleep cycles to completely heal. As we reached the edge of the clearing and reentered the forest it became clear to me that I needed to catch the others fast, I did have a copy of the map, but who am I kidding I had no idea where I was in order to make it to the safe house and dawn was fast approaching. The only thing I could do to follow the others was to follow the broken branches on the ground as Hayden kept a watchful eye for our enemies. I was pushing myself to the limit, my legs felt like jelly, but I wasn't going to give up that easy, I pushed even harder. I came up to a large tree, and it was either go left or go right, I chose to go right, it looked as if everyone went right. It was then that Vaso appeared telling me to stop, it was to late, I heard the click and a large bear trap latched on to my leg, I screamed out in pain as the teeth ripped through my skin until they stopped on the bone, Hayden went flying as I fell to the ground tumbling into some bushes, Vaso ran up and tried to help me pull the trap off of my leg, we both pulled as hard as we could until it opened up just enough to get my leg free, Vaso pulled off his shirt and wrapped it around my leg to help slow the bleeding, I couldn't help but look at his gorgeous body as stood before me half naked, his sent was intoxicating, it almost made me forget the pain altogether.
"What are you smiling at" Vaso asked cracking a little smile of his own.
"Me...oh..uh...nothing. It's just nice of you to help me out...you know...giving me your shirt and all" I blushed and turned my head to the side to hide it.
"Hey no reason to get all shy now" Vaso said with a smile, he held his hand out to help me to my feet.
I hobbled up and put my weight on his shoulder, there way no way I was going to be able to run in this condition, if there was going to be a time for the hunters to attack it would be now. I was then I noticed a man coming out from behind some trees heading straight for us, Vaso pushed me to the ground, it was some thing that I wasn't expecting. Just as the man was near Vaso and ready to strike, Hayden appeared from the bushes taking the attacker by surprise, just as he turned to see him coming Hayden used the blade he got earlier and took the man's head clean off, his head flying one way and his body continuing at Vaso and I, the blood flowing out of his neck soaked the two of us.
"Sorry" Hayden giggled.
"Don't be sorry, that was fucking awesome" Vaso said with a chuckle as he wiped the blood of his face.
"Wow, Hayden you're becoming the little killer huh" I chuckled as I wiped my face as well. "I'm sure glad I gave you the sword now"
"Me too" As he put it away and walked over to help me up.
Hayden and Vaso helped me to my feet and then Hayden went over to take any other weapons he could find on the body. "Hey you never know, we just might need some of this stuff" He said as he took the vest containing a variety of weaponry.
"We should get going, the sun will be up soon, and in your condition Jackson we need all the time we can get" Hayden and I nodded in response.
The three of moved as fast as my body would let us, and with each step I felt closer to collapsing, little Hayden did his best to keep me up on his side, but it wasn't enough, so Vaso picked me up and began to carry me in his arms, we were able to move a lot faster and cover more ground that way, and it was a big plus for me because I was so close to his hot body. Looking over at Hayden all decked out with his new found weaponry he looked like a little soldier. The sky began to lighten as the sun was on the rise, we only had a short amount of time before sunrise was here. I don't know if it was the sun rising or the tremendous amount of blood that I've lost that was causing me to go in and out of consciousness or a combination of both.
"There it is....just over that ridge" Hayden shouted. "Hang in there Jackson we're almost there"
Vaso looked down at me and smiled, I smiled back. We reached the safe house in just enough time, Minx was at the door along with Rodney, Lauren, and Saul, all of them with a worried look on their faces. We made it inside with some time to spare, Rodney locked the door behind us and Vaso brought me over to one of the small rooms with a make shift bed in it and laid me down, then took a seat next to me tending to my wounds and cleaning up some of the blood around them. I felt my body get all tingly as he touched my chest, I gave him a smile and he gave me one in return and then leaned in and gave me a kiss on the lips, it was just a slight kiss, but when he went to pull away I reached up and pulled him back and gave him a passionate one. I could hear Hayden telling our war stories from the other room as the others began to settle down for bed. We had a long night ahead of us tomorrow, and who knows what was in store. Vaso laid down next to me, he and I continued to make out, there was some thing about this boy that just made my whole life feel special, he came back for me which showed that he felt the same way for me, or at least I hope it did. We kissed and let our hands explore each others bodies until we fell a sleep in each others arms. It was one of the best nights of my life, well so far.