Escaping the Hunters

Bianca

We walked into the loud cheering crowd, after 3 hours of awkward silence and lots of text updates about what was happening at Zander's club. The people around us who really looked at him stopped and tried to turn away as if not wanting to be noticed. I saw one look almost frightened at Zanders presence and actually take off running for the door.

He got to the inner circle and pushed his way through before baring his teeth at the men fighting. "This is my club. We do not fight, we do not bet, and we sure as hell don't cheer either on!" He shouted and looked at the fighters. "You want to fight? You'll fight me." He growled like an animal and I shivered as he took off his jacket and then pulled his shirt over his head. "Everyone but staff and these two out!"

He looked over at me and moved to hand me his jacket. "Where do you want me?"

"Where I can see you. If this is going on downstairs I don't want to know what is going on up there. If you don't want to watch head back to the car. Just let me know." He said and I gulped.

"I'll find a seat." I told him and he nodded and looked around before he was moving men around as he pushed his way to the bar. A man was behind it, not looking happy but he nodded and bowed his head in respect when he saw Zander coming his way.

"You give her what she wants. No one touches her." He ordered and the man nodded and when he went to move I heard a scrape and looked down to his leg and saw a peg-leg. "Look at me." Zander said and touched my cheek. "You be safe." He said and I saw him glare at someone who bumped into him.

"Don't get too hurt." I told him and he looked back to me. "We had plans remember?"

"Do you have that little faith in me?" He asked before sneaking in towards me and kissing me hard. I reached up to cup his jaw and trying to his keep him close. "I have to handle this." He told me and I nodded and held onto his jacket and shirt.

"He'll be fine." The man behind the bar said and I turned to him.

"You're the one who told him what was going on?" I asked and he nodded.

"I usually work at another club. There are been rumors going through, I switched with someone and came into work seeing all the bets. I knew he was coming to NOLA so I notified him. Sorry, didn't know he was taking you on vacation."

"We're not on vacation. We're on the run..." I said before nibbling my lip. I should stop there. I heard a shout and looked over and saw another man in the small circle where to two fighters were. "Who is that?"

"That is the manager that Zander put in charge... he allowed this to happen." I cringed when I saw Zander start to punch him in the stomach over and over as he held him close.

I almost jumped when I saw the two men who were fighting move to protect the man Zander was beating to a pulp but Zander dropped the man and turned grabbing two arms headed for his face and then another headed for his gut and he pulled so they knocked into each other and bent so one flipped over him and landed hard and he made sure the one that didn't flip had his hand back so they could fight fair.

The man was already pretty beaten up and with two swift hits to his jaw he was falling to the ground and Zander stood above him before reaching down to grab his throat. With a snarl, he raised him up and bit his neck and ripped it. I turned my eyes away and that is when I saw the man who was supposedly the manager looking right at me. He turned and talked to the man who was still trying to get up after being flipped and told him something. I watched with careful movements getting ready to either run on hit him with something if he tried to come at me.

In a blink he was in front of me and had his hands in my hair and I screamed at the pair before my fist collided with his chest and he was pushed back far enough that while he still had my hair I was pulled of the stool and almost fell.

I reached back and got the stool I had been on as he let my hair go. I grabbed a hold and swung all the way around as he came for me and hit him in the face sending him to the floor. I went to hit him again when the stool was grabbed and taken from me.

"Go behind the bar." Zander said and I took deep breaths and looked over him and noticed more blood on him. "Go Viv." He said again and I backed up before seeing the other body laying face up, head disconnected from his body. I backed up until I felt the bar and turned to see how he staked the man who attacked me. "Stay here, protect her." He ordered the man and he turned towards the stairs.

"Viv?" The bartender asked and I turned to look at him.

"Vivian..." I said and he nodded and looked over my face.

"Last name?"

"Dunnage." I hadn't used a last name in the last two or three centuries. But with Zanders friends and family I wouldn't use a fake name.

"What do you do Vivian Dunnage?" He asked crossing his arms and I gulped.

"I was a fashion designer. Then... my brother died and I've been moving around a lot." I said and he looked down at my truth and gulped. "How about your name... and how do you know Zander?"

"I'm Brian Martin. And Zan is the one that cut my leg off." He said and laughed at my worried face. "I was trapped under a rock in Scotland... he found me, by then the blood in my leg had died and so he had to cut it off. I was bleeding too bad so he had to turn me."

"Wow." I said and looked down to his leg. "How long ago was that?"

"50 or so years ago." He said with a shrug and looked to the stairs when we heard a lot of feminine screams.

"Did you go upstairs?" I asked turning to him and he shook his head.

"As soon as I got here they put me behind the bar. I only texted when the fights were getting good and no one was paying attention to me." He said and moved to help a couple humans who were bleeding from the neck or other body parts and ran downstairs naked.

"Ladies." I called out knowing another man, another vampire was going to only freak them out. "Come this way. We'll get you clothes and get you treated. He is okay to trust."

"Plus, I am gay!" He called out behind me and I turned and gave him a look. "Not helping, okay I will go get your bag from the car." He said and took off at a run. The leg didn't slow him down a second.

There were three girls in front of me, two partially naked and the other fully and I started to check their bites and grabbed a kit from behind the bar. A vampire bar or not this wouldn't be standing if it didn't pass human regulations. Which means it was well stocked and I helped get them patched up while Seth came back and handed out my clothes.

"Go and check on Zander." I pleaded with him and he looked at all the women before me and then nodded. I asked the women simple questions, getting enough to know who they were and what I can pass off as a fake memory for them as I took their memories.

I let them go and walked up the stairs listening intently before hearing voices. I got to the hallway and went all the down like in the last club to the master bedroom and saw Brian in the door way, Zander had another man by the throat not having the slightest care in the world that he was naked and I put my eyes to the ground.

"Vivian, I told you to stay downstairs." Zander said not even looking over at me.

"I got worried when no one else came down and it was too quiet." I heard the quiver in my own voice and he dropped the bastard and turned to me. I saw the slice on his cheek and I moved to him. "What happened?"

"One of the females didn't realize I was getting her out. She had a glass shard, she was only protecting herself." He told me and I saw how slow it was healing.

"You need blood." I said and he looked me over and a small smile came over his lips. "What?"

"Go get me one of your bags." He said and for a moment I was confused but then I realized he was talking about my blood bags. "Go and I will finish him." He nodded behind him and I nodded before turning. I wasn't at the stairs yet when I heard the heartbeat stop. I kept my head high as I got to the car and went through the cooler to find the O-.

I went back inside and grabbed a bar towel, his shirt and jacket and then walked upstairs to meet him. Seth had the vacuum running so he didn't really hear me but as I went to the bathroom and saw Zander cupping water to his chest I held out the towel and started to wipe the blood away.

"Here." I said holding up the bag and he looked at it and tried to take the wrong end out so I took it from him, undid the loop from the right side and held it out for him. I finished cleaning his back of the small amount of blood and realized how quick he drank the bag.

"I'll give it to you... it does have a better taste overall." He said and I smiled. "But it would probably be better warm." He let me know and I shrugged.

"I like it both ways. They warm them up in the hospital so it's okay to put in the microwave." I said and he nodded and turned to face me fully.

"Did he hurt you?" He asked and I shook my head.

"He fought like a teenage girl, grabbing hair." I laughed lightly and he ran a hand through where he had grabbed and I smiled at him. "I'll be missing a few strands but it's better than my heart." I said and he snarled and leaned in to take my lips in a crushing kiss.

"I'll get the ones downstairs too." I heard Brian call out but the way Zander was kissing and holding me I wasn't sure he heard.

He picked me up by the smallest part of my waist and set me down on the bathroom counter before he pulled away. His eyes were red and I couldn't help but smile at him. "I guess our first date is out of the question tonight huh?"

"No. No more waiting. We're going to get people to clean this up, we'll escape through the tunnels and then we'll rearrange our timeline so we leave from the restaurant. They won't know where we are going and anything from here anyways." He assured me and I nodded against his chest as I leaned in. "Do you want to change or-"

"I gave those girls my clothes. So, this will have to be good enough for where we choose to eat." I said looking down at my pencil skirt and dark grey V-neck.

"You look beautiful in anything Vivi." He told me and I noticed the change in my names from when he was being serious, needing my attention, and getting all sweet. "What?" He asked with a small smile and I raised my hand to dive through his hair.

"I just realized that you call me three different things... Viv, Vivi, and Vivian. And each time you say one it certainly has a different undertone." I said with a small giggle and he leaned in and ran his lips across my neck. I gasped when he nipped it and he pulled his head back a bit.

"Do you not like the names?"

"No...it just let's me know how you are feeling towards me. Like earlier you were mad at me for coming up here and checking." I said and he growled and made a go for my wrist as my hand still tunneled through his thick hair.

"I wasn't mad... in fact it was a warning. To make sure that you knew what you were going to see if you stayed." He said it slow like he was worried that I had changed my mind about him.

"Well, it's not like I saw you with another woman..." I said and he gave a small smile before nodding. "You're no more scary to me than a baby goat." I told him and with that comparison I was thinking back to the little one I had as a teenager.

"A goat?" He laughed.

"I had one a long time ago... cute little things." I told him and he smiled. "So, the tunnels here aren't connected to a sewer right?"

"The last one wasn't a sewer, it was under a car wash." He corrected me and I sighed before rolling my eyes and waiting. "And no, it's all under the street, and since this is New Orleans, there might be some liquid washing down the sides, but it's not in the sewer." He told me and I just nodded.

He leaned in again and gave me a quick peck before pulling on my hands. We went down stairs and he pulled me behind the bar. He reached down and pulled up a small key out before heading to the wall with pictures and old paintings on it and he moved three and set them on the bar before slipping the key in the small hole I would have never noticed and I saw Brian walking towards us ready to put things back up.

We went through I couldn't help but look around at the walls as we made our way for 10 minutes before we entered another bar. But this time it seemed as we were upstairs. We passed a few bedrooms and I heard people inside.

"Where are we?" I asked him when I saw some man coming out with no shirt, but a small line of blood going down his chin.

"Zander." The man nodded his head as we stopped.

"Do you have what I asked for?" Zander asked him shortly and I looked back and forth as the man nodded and then jerked his head to the left telling us to follow him.

"What did you ask him for, when did you ask him for it?" I asked and Zander just reached back as we walked through the hallway and grabbed my wrist and pulled me close to his back. He moved his hand around my lower back and kept me against his back and I laid my hands against him so he knew how close I was.

"Here you are sir. She is in there." He nodded his head again before backing away. The man looked familiar and I had to follow him with my eyes as Zander pulled me with him.

"She who?" I asked as we got into what looked like a hotel room and Zander closed the door behind me.

"You think I am going to let you feed from a man?" He asked and I tilted my head. "I tried your way... and now, if you're okay with it, you'll try mine." he said in a more of a worried tone than a commanding one.

"How do you know who I am feeding off of?" I asked and felt a little hurt that he would bring me to someone he has probably fed off of and f****d.

"One of my best friends dated her for a long time. He died around two years ago, and he fed off of her regularly so she kind of got addicted to the feedings. She is the only woman I know is clean, and would trust not to talk crap about me." He said and I smiled.

"What's her name?"

"Bianca." I heard a feminine answer and I looked at him then to the right and saw a woman dressed in professional wear. "You must be the lady that finally caught Zander's attention." She said coming closer and holding out her hand.

"She is Vivian." Zander said my name before I could and I gave them both a small smile.

"Why don't you head on down to the bar, get caught up with Mitch and Vivian and I will get to know each other before she decided whether she wants to feed from me or not." Bianca told him and I just stood there not really bothered no matter what he wanted to do.

"Are you comfortable?" He asked me and I nodded. "Fine, you know the number to the bar... call it when you're done with talking, or feeding." He said and I nodded as Bianca told him that she knew what to do. "I'll be putting myself to work." He said moving to pull me in all to himself first and giving my temple a long kiss. "See you soon."

"Bye." I whispered and I felt almost at a loss when he leaned down and gave me a soft kiss before backing away.

"Come and sit with me hun." I heard Bianca and instead of watching him walk out of the door I focused on following her.

"So... you're not a vampire-"

"No... and I assume that he didn't tell you but I am half witch. My dad was a warlock and my mom was human. He left my mom when I was just a little thing so I didn't learn magic or anything until I was 18 and couldn't control it. But I gave up my magic." She waved me off and I felt a little defeated when she said that.

"So you knew about the other side of the world?" I asked knowing how that was how I described our world compared to the humans.

"Not until I was 18 and made something magical happen." She sighed and shook her head. "That's how I met Zander. One of his other friends was messing with me, I raised my hand to block him and then he was frozen in place and I freaked out and tried to run. Zander caught me of course, but I kept screaming. He calmed me down, asking if I was going to do the same thing to his men."

"What did you tell him?"

"I just kept telling him that I wouldn't say anything. I got really scared and didn't think I would live." She shrugged before laughing. "How wrong I was. Zander must have realized how shocked and freaked out and he just hugged me and told me to calm down. He did something and made me relax." She told me and I nodded a bit and waited for more and also started to build up my own questions for her but then she looked at her wrist, and then offered it to me. "I've been told I don't even taste like witch."

"I've never tasted witch... I only ever had a blood supply. I never drank from a vein. Well I did once... but the girl was so heavily drunk it felt like drinking straight cognac." I whispered out the last part before looking away from her wrist.

"Well... I am sober as can be... and completely willing." She admitted and I nodded and tried my hardest to make eye contact with her. "Look at me." She said and I looked up at the request. "I don't let just anyone drink from me. Do I enjoy it? Yes. And I only let friends, and soon to be friends feed from me."

"Soon to be friends?" I asked her and I noticed her smirk.

"Well... you know what... how about we just cut it to friends." She said and this time she held out her hand for me to shake.

I shook it and then she grabbed my hand and pulled me in a bit before rubbing the top of my hand and I waited as she pulled her sleeve up and looked me in the eye. "I've never." I stated and she smiled at me like I was a small child and I waited.

"Use your fangs and just slide them in. It's going to happen quick. The blood with rush into your mouth quicker than a bag would. Just drink until I tap you." She instructed and I nodded before she nodded to me now.

I pulled her wrist up, said a silent prayer to any kind of god that I would be able to stop and then stuck.