Blood Land by J.R. Lawson (top ten ebook reader TXT) 📖

her and Will.  Nora wasted no time, and, with the shot gun in her hand aimed it at the monster again and pulled the trigger.  However, only a small click was made each time she pulled indicating she was out of shells; but that didn’t stop her.  She turned the gun around in her hand and swung it like a bat, hitting the night-flyer in the head with the stock.  It grabbed its face immediately and screamed as Nora then proceeded to hit it two more times.  The hellion fell to the ground and she now began to pummel the beast’s head with the stock of the gun, raining blows upon it, harder and harder, shouting and cursing at it as tears streamed down her face.

Then, without warning, Nora was grabbed from behind and lifted off of the ground.  She looked up and saw another night-flyer had grabbed her and was now flying away with her.  She screamed more and fought as hard as she could to try to free herself.  However, it didn’t seem to take long before she was dropped to the ground again.  She rolled over onto her back as she attempted to breathe in the air that was just knocked out of her.  She looked up and saw two hellions hovering above, fighting over her, each trying to make their way closer to her.  She rolled herself over again and got to her knees.  Her legs ached, most likely from the fall, but she tried her hardest to crawl towards the blurred image of Will lying on the ground in front of her.  Unfortunately, she didn’t get far, because one of the night-flyers that had been fighting above her finally made it to her, and powerfully landed on top of her back.  She screamed as she tried to struggle, but she was in too much pain and too exhausted.

“AHHH!” she screamed again as the vampire gouged its long black claws into her back, ripping away her flesh.  She began to cry as she looked over at Will laying there a ways in front of her.  This was it, she thought.  This is how it ends for the both of them.  She had wanted so much for them to finally be away from here, safe, and together.

Then, unexpectedly, the weight of the hellion on top of her was suddenly gone.  She looked up and saw it land hard on the ground a far off in front of her.  Another hellion landed on top of it and swiftly, without much effort, broke its neck.  That night-flyer then turned around and walked towards her.  She shut her eyes tightly, not wanting to know what could possibly be next, but then opened them slightly as she felt someone lifting her up to her feet.  When she had finally opened her eyes all the way she was now looking into the face of Rogan in his hellion form.  He was staring back at her with extreme anger.

“What the fuck is your problem?!” he screamed at her in that most demonic voice.  She just stared at him, not knowing what to say, but also not wanting to explain herself to him.  She slightly turned her head to look past him at Will’s lifeless form on the ground.

“Hey!” Rogan shouted again, now suddenly slapping her in the face hard.  Nora gasped at him.

“I demand to know what the fuck you were—” but Rogan didn’t get to finish his sentence.  Nora had forcefully pushed him out of her way and stumbled as fast as he could over to Will.  She collapsed as she reached him, landing halfway on top of him.  She looked down at his face and the amount of blood and gore that covered his neck and body.

“Will…” she began to cry.

“N—Nora…” Will suddenly choked out.  His voice was faint and gargled from all of the blood exiting his mouth.

“Will, I’m so sorry!! I tried!  I tried to save you!!” Nora wailed in utmost agony.

It seemed as if Will wanted to say more to her but his eyes rolled upward and his eyes glazed over, leaving a very vacant expression on his face.

Nora moaned and wept more in pain as she knew he was dead, “I love you, Will!  I’m so sorry!!!” she lay on top of him, grasping him tightly, not wanting to let go.  However, she was suddenly forced to as Rogan now picked her up, and brought her back to her feet.  He held her shoulders to help her stay up as she now faced him.

“You are so stupid, do you know that?!  How could you do that?  I told you to do one thing!  Look what happened?!  You fucking promised me!” Rogan began to yell at her.

“I don’t give a shit what you said!  Or what I promised!  Will got taken and I wasn’t going to….to let him….” Nora shouted at him tearfully but didn’t want to say the last word.

Rogan dropped his head.  He sighed heavily and then looked back up at her.  His expression had softened now and was more a sorrowful one.

“Jesus, Nora…” was all he said.

Nora then broke down and began to sob uncontrollably.  She didn’t mean to, but unexpectedly fell into Rogan’s arms.  He grabbed her and held her, uncomfortably.           “Nora...” he said, trying to get her to stand back up and back away from him, but she continued to cry.

“Nora!” he then shouted as he pulled her off of him and held her out at arm’s length.  Nora stared back at him and noticed a fearful look in his eyes now as he looked down at her.  She looked also, seeing the blood that covered her and his hands and arms.  She knew what he was afraid of.  Like a shark smelling a meal, his eyes widened and Nora immediately pushed away from him.  However, she realized she had absolutely no more strength left in her and she collapsed to the ground.  She looked up and saw Rogan standing over her, but she could no longer move.  The scene in front of her began to get blurry, and blackness crept in around the outside of her vision, closing in until there was nothing left but darkness.

CHAPTER 12

 SUNLIGHT COULD BARELY be seen through her closed eyes, but she could somehow sense it as she began to open them.  Nora looked around her and quickly realized she was in her own bed.  She sat up and groaned at the soreness that pulsed throughout her whole body.  She instinctively reached to rub her lower back and was surprised to feel more than just her shirt.  She looked down to see that she was still wearing her purple tank top from the night before, however it was now ripped and stained red in various places.  The back of it however was completely gone, but as her hand rested on her back, she did not feel skin like she would have imagined.  Instead, she felt cloth and as she looked down she noticed white bandages were wrapped around her mid-section quite carefully.

She quickly stood up and moved to her full length mirror that hung on the closet door to the right of her room.  She looked at her image with much disdain.  She wore her clothes from the night before, torn and stained with blood.  She turned slightly to look at her back in the mirror.  It was completely covered and wrapped in white bandages.  She just looked at it in the mirror for a few moments before then looking up at her own face.  She looked awful.  Her hair was still up in a ponytail but it was a mess and she had dark circles under her eyes.  Not to mention she had a terrible headache and she was as sore as could be.  She thought to herself for only a few minutes as she looked at her appearance in the mirror.

Finally however, she looked away long enough to open the closet door and pull out a white tank top.  She changed into it; being careful as she felt the most painful she had ever felt in her life.  She then pulled her hair out of the horribly tangled pony and reached for a brush to manage her tangles.  She only looked in the mirror again as she finished and stared at the image of herself with her hair down.  Her wavy auburn hair was frizzy and seemed to have a mind of its own as it graced her shoulders.  She grumbled at her reflection and then quickly put it back up into a ponytail and exited her room.

It was then that she made no hesitation in walking down the hallway to another bedroom.  As she quickly opened the door to enter, she stared at the empty bed inside.  She heaved a giant sigh as tears began to well up in her eyes.  She knew it would have been a long shot to see that bed occupied.

All of a sudden, a sound echoed from the kitchen.  Nora perked up a bit as she heard it.  It sounded as if someone was in there making food.  She could even smell it.  She instantly ran from the bedroom and down the hall.

“Will?!” she began to exclaim in a slight bit of excitement as she entered the kitchen eagerly.  However, she stopped almost instantly as she saw who was in the kitchen.  The person was standing at the stove and turned to look at her.

“Hey,” was all he could say.

Nora said nothing as she stared into Rogan’s face.

“Um I made breakfast,” Rogan quietly stated, “You should come eat something.”

Nora wrapped her arms around her chest, hugging herself as she suddenly felt exposed.  She looked away from him as she then uttered, “I’m not hungry.”

“I know, but you need to eat anyway,” Rogan countered, “Come on, have a seat.”

Nora ignored him and continued to stand there, not looking at him at all.

“I wasn’t asking,” Rogan then said again.  Nora turned to him and he was staring at her in a very parental way.  She grumbled a bit and then went around him to the counter peninsula that stuck out from the wall and sat on one of the stools that lined it.  Rogan then handed her a plate from across the counter and set it in front of her.  She looked down at it; scrambled eggs and bacon.  Ordinarily her stomach would be growling with hunger at the sight of this kind of food but she felt no desire to eat it.

“I’m not hungry,” she repeated.  She looked up at Rogan who was staring at her from the other side of the counter.

“You said that already.”

“Well, I’m not!” Nora now shouted, “I don’t want it!”

“Well, what do you want then?” Rogan asked her calmly.

She looked up at him.  Anger began to fill her as she looked at his relaxed face.  He only stood there waiting for a reply from her; as if they were just having breakfast together and nothing was wrong.

“I want…I want,” Nora started as a million thoughts raced around in her head, “I want some answers!” she finally shouted.

“Depends on what the questions are,” Rogan stated.

“I want to know what happened last night.”

“You really don’t know?” Rogan leaned on the counter and