Sarah's eyes flew open.
Oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god!
She planted her hands against Lincoln's chest and shoved him away from her as hard as she could. They both hit the dirt just as the blood came pouring out of her in a thick red stream. She choked back the gore as her mind tried to purge what it had just experienced. But it was no use. It was there now. The memories. Stuck inside her head for good.
This was a mistake.
"That was David's reaction too. I could never forget that part." Lincoln's voice rattled like an old tin can as he braced himself against the front tire of the Chevelle.
"Impossible."
Sarah wheezed before another wave of nausea gripped her. Partially digested blood soaked the dry ground around before she struggled to her feet, half-covered in her own crimson vomit.
"What-what was that?"
"I warned you."
Sarah just stared down at Lincoln in horror.
"He took you apart! Lincoln, he-."
It had gone beyond a savage beat down. Beyond anything she could fathom on her own. Drawn and quartered with a railroad spike. Flayed alive while suspended by what was left. Just thinking of it made Sarah heave again.
What Lincoln had done with the bodies of fifteen Santa Carla residents had been an atrocity. Unforgivable. Max had returned the gesture. Only he had wiped the floor with Lincoln before he disemboweled and hung him by his own entrails so that he had easy access to destroy every nerve ending with a discarded metal pipe.
Sarah pulled herself out of the memory before she could witness what came after. She never wanted witness something like that ever again.
"Seen enough? Cause there's a lot more."
Sarah shook her head vehemently.
"No. No more. Please. I don't want to know."
"So, you still wanna take on Max? Now that you've seen what he can do?"
"Why don't you ask him!"
Lincoln never saw what hit him. A baseball bat slammed into the side of his skull with a god-awful crack. Paul let loose a victorious war whoop as he wielded the metal bat aloft and slammed it down again, this time right into Lincoln's face as he pitched forward.
"Paybacks a bitch huh!"
Paul snarls were laced with venom as he grabbed Lincoln by his hair. Marko materialized at his side with a lead pipe under one arm and grabbed hold of Lincoln's legs. Together the two lifted the concussed vampire and hauled him away from the muscle car so that they would have enough room to work Lincoln over with as much finesse that they could manage in the short amount of time that they had.
"Lincoln!"
Sarah's panicked scream turned into a surprised screech when an arm snaked around her throat and squeezed.
"He can't hear you." David hissed into Sarah's ear as his hand clamped over her mouth and jerked her backward. Caught unprepared Sarah's reaction time was too slow. That gave David enough of an advantage to wrestle her to the ground and pin her beneath him.
"David? What are you doing here? Leave Lincoln alone!" Sarah coughed as David wrenched her right arm behind her back. "Let me go! Lincoln!"
"Oh shut up!" David snapped and slapped Sarah as she tried to fight back. Hard.
"Boys! Hurry up!"
"Don't worry about us. We're good. Just do what you have to." Marko shouted back as Paul chuckled darkly. Already Lincoln looked like he had met the back-end of a semi in reverse.
"I wish I could kill this fucker now!" Paul swung the now bloodied bat with a batter's grace as it whistled through the air once more. He grinned at the meaty smack along with the all-too familiar crack of broken ribs.
"You'll get him tomorrow Paul. Now we just have to make sure he gets the message." Marko slammed his pipe down once, twice, three times and was finally rewarded with the beautiful sound of Lincoln's cannon bone breaking in three different spots.
"Still don't make it fair." Paul muttered while flipped Lincoln onto his stomach. "He ain't even fightin' back."
"That's because you knocked him into next week. I told you not to hit him that hard." Marko reminded Paul as the two worked on pulverizing Lincoln's spine.
"I got caught up in the moment."
Paul cackled as he tap-danced down Lincoln's back. Man, that was going to hurt like hell when he woke up.
"Yeah well do you want him to be able to move tomorrow?" Marko pointed out as he grabbed Paul and pulled him off of Lincoln before anything could be shattered beyond repair. "We're good."
"Fine. But he's mine tomorrow."
Paul snarled, his fangs bared to emphasize his claim. Marko just rolled his eyes. They had gone over this at least ten times and still Paul was adamant that he would be the one to dish out Santa Carla justice when the moment came.
They could not kill Lincoln outside of Santa Carla. Hell they were not even allowed to leave the Santa Carla border without permission from Max so them being out here was strictly off the books.
"I know Paul. C'mon, grab his other arm." Marko tossed his piece of pipe and took hold of Lincoln's busted right arm. Paul shouldered his bloodied bat and yanked Lincoln's left arm up none too gently before the two dragged Lincoln back to the car.
It had taken them under four minutes to do the work of ten.
"He sure won't be happy when he wakes up." Marko laughed as Lincoln was dumped beside the trunk of his car. Paul could not help but admire the classic Chevelle from every angle. It was one hell of a machine. Pity. Whistling a jaunty tune Paul whipped out a switchblade that he had brought along for this particular task.
As Marko looked on, Paul slashed the Chevelle's high performance tires before he went to work on defacing the muscle car's immaculate paint job.
"Hey Marko, remind me how you spell payback?" Paul laughed as he engraved the word into the driver's door.
"Don't forget to asshole Paul. Because he is a major asshole." Marko smirked and gave Lincoln's battered unconscious form a swift kick just for the hell of it.
"Yes sir!" Paul barked in a mock salute as he spun around and kicked the driver's side mirror clean off.
"Are you two finished yet?" David slung Sarah over his shoulder before he rose to his feet. She hung limp and lifeless but there were no obvious signs of assault.
"Just about! Give me one more second."
Paul quickly carved his name into the front chrome bumper with a skillful flourish. There would be no getting that out without some severe auto-body overhauling.
"How'd you shut her up?" Marko asked David curiously. They all knew from experience that Sarah never went down easy. "Did you drain her?"
"No. If I did then that master would know about it. They're too closely bonded now and the last thing we need is for him to be aware of this." David explained as he dug into his coat pocket and withdrew an empty syringe that he had taken from Paul's private stash.