Back To You

Chapter 15

Right before Gavin could offer his brother some much-needed words of comfort, the loud clanging of bells drew his attention to the doorway. Gavin's expression flipped from caring to icy in an instant, "Right now, you need to run."

"What?" Aidan turned his focus to the door, where three individuals now stood, wearing full-face helmets and what seemed to be motorcycle full-body racing suits that covered every inch of skin. Vampires. In daylight. In London! Aidan almost couldn't believe his bad luck. Before he had a chance to react, their table, mugs and all, was sent flying towards the newcomers, hitting the three with an ear-splitting crash and toppling them backwards out the door like tumbleweeds. Gavin grabbed his arm and ran towards the back exit, shouting a hasty 'Sorry about that!' at the two stunned baristas. As they ran through the back alley, Gavin hastily dialled Tyler.

"We're being attacked!" Gavin hollered the moment the tall wolf answered. "On my way," was the calm but curt reply before he hung up.

They made it to the main pedestrian path, full of the usual crowd of everyday shoppers, students, office workers and the like, when Aidan, gasping for breath, finally had a chance to look back. To his horror, the three vampires were still running towards them, with no sign of slowing down.

"Shit!" Gavin swore as he realised the vampires had no qualms about starting a fight in a crowd full of humans. The brothers dashed away, weaving between bodies while their pursuers continued to gain on them. Aidan knew that he would never be able to outrun vampires. The only way out of this was to fight them head-on.

Bemused pedestrians watched as two handsome young men were chased on foot by three road racers. Some even wondered if there was some sort of filming going on, and were those two men the lead actors? A couple of concerned citizens whipped out their phones to dial the police.

Gavin yelled over his shoulder, having decided that staying in the crowd was a bad idea, "Follow me!" They did not need any humans to end up as collateral. Aidan ran as fast as his cramping legs would move, following behind Gavin, and so did the vampires. 'I really should work out more,' the human internally whined. "Probably take up long-distance running for increased survivability against supernaturals!"

Gavin led them into a side road and continued running until he reached a deserted area between two rows of shuttered buildings. He turned around and placed Aidan safely behind him, taking a defensive stance against the vampires. Just as he geared up to attack, two vampires landed on Gavin from above, having jumped from one of the building's roofs. Another two followed suit, landing on top of Gavin, who was now sprawled on his back. Squeezing every last bit of energy reserves he had, Gavin randomly grabbed at flailing limbs and somehow flipped the pile of bodies over before scrambling off the top. To Aidan, it reminded him of a pancake being tossed in a frying pan.

Breathing deep breaths, Gavin shouted, "Run! I'll hold them off!"

Aidan shook his head vigorously, refusing to leave his brother.

Gavin turned to face a total of seven advancing vampires. Without a backward glance, he yelled, "Aidan, go!"

With no other choice, Aidan turned and ran, his face scrunched up in an ugly grimace from the pain of leaving his brother to fight alone. 'I'm so useless. So weak. I can't even help Gavin!' He screamed inwardly as he ran through quiet back lanes, not paying attention to where he was going. 'I should just become a werewolf, like Gavin.' The thought struck him hard. 'No one will ever mess with me then!' He would not be chased about like defenceless prey. He refused to be a helpless human.

Struggling to keep his momentum going, Aidan blindly turned a corner and immediately crashed into a helmeted body. The impact sent both of them rolling to the ground. Barely a few seconds after, Aidan staggered shakily back to his feet, fear overpowering the pain of smacking face-first into the hard body and then rolling about on actual cobblestones. The vampire was equally quick to get back on his feet, hands flying immediately to the helmet in a reassuring gesture confirming it was undamaged.