Alcingeria Chapter Ten: A Daring Plan

The Scorpions formulate and execute a plan to escape from Ignacio's custody. Will things go as planned?

Chapter Ten A Daring Plan:

Wednesday June 23^rd 1690

“Alright. I’m going to hand you the jars of blood. I need you to put them on the ground somewhere out of the way so we can tip the shelf over and break the legs off. Do you think you can do that?” Asked Macalister.

I grinned at Macalister.

            “Troll, I’m an experienced thief, not a butter fingered child.” I told him.

Macalister laughed quietly.

            “Well, we don’t call you ‘Kid’ for nothing.” Macalister teased with a grin.

            “Yes, yes. I understand; my alias suits me. Now, let’s do our job and get out of here!” I said.

            “Right then, time to move this stuff out of our way.” Macalister said.

Macalister reached up to the shelf and started grabbing jars of blood from the uppermost part of the shelf. He took two jars in each hand each time and handed them to me. I took the jars of blood from his hands one at a time. Once I had a jar in each hand, I turned around and set the jars on the ground behind me so that they were out of the way.

            “How’s it going?” Asked Don quietly from across the room.

Macalister stopped passing me jars of blood and turned to talk to Don.

“Good, we’ve almost cleared the shelf out. Is there any sign of Ignacio?” Asked Macalister in a whisper.

            “Not even a footstep. He must be asleep.” Don replied quietly.

            “That’s good, we need to finish up quickly, in case Ignacio wakes up and finds us trying to escape.” Macalister softly called over to Don.

He then resumed passing me the jars of blood and I placed them behind me. Each time I looked at the viscous red liquid within the jars, my stomach turned.

            “This is disgusting!” I whispered to Macalister.

            “I know. Don’t worry, we’re almost done.” Macalister whispered back.

Macalister then handed me a single jar of blood.

            “Alright, this is the last one.” Macalister whispered.

            “Finally!” I said, keeping my voice under control.

I reached out and hastily grabbed the jar of blood from Macalister, but in the dim light of the room I misjudged my reach and my fingertip hit the jar. Feeling that I had touched it, Macalister let go, thinking I’d grabbed it. The jar began falling towards the floor.

            “No!” I said in a fierce whisper.

I scrambled to grab the falling jar, but it was of no use. A second later, the jar hit the floor of the cellar and smashed, sending glass fragments and blood everywhere while producing the piercing sound of glass shattering. Fear spread throughout my mind and seemed to paralyze my limbs. I didn’t dare to even breathe. I heard no footsteps above. Perhaps Ignacio didn’t hear it?

            “No one move!” Robert quietly ordered from across the room.

Just then, the sound of shattering wood filled the air, light flooded in and Don and Robert were sent sailing across the room. They both hit the ground and stood up when they were on the ground at the other end of the room.

            “It’s Ignacio!” Don shouted.

I looked to Ignacio, his cloak was still on and his hood still obscured the upper half of his face.

            “Yes, it is I. You’re trying to escape, aren’t you?” Asked Ignacio.

            “Why wouldn’t we? You said yourself that you’re going to kill us!” I yelled defensively to Ignacio, fear creeped into my voice.

Ignacio was silent for a second or two. It was as if he was pondering something.

            “Well, now that you mention it my thirst is returning. Which one of you wishes to die first?” Asked Ignacio.

            “It’ll be you who dies first!” Shouted Macalister.

            “Well, it seems as though I must kill you all by force. So be it.” Ignacio said with mock regret.

“Come on, lads! Ignacio isn’t going to claim any lives today! Let’s give him all we’ve got!” Robert shouted to motivate us all.

            “You. I’ll claim your life first, seeing as you think you can stop me. I’ll make an example of you, and then I’ll kill your friends. I’ll enjoy drinking your blood.” Ignacio said as he stepped closer to Robert.

            “Hey! Stay back! I’m warning you!” Robert said to Ignacio

I looked over to Robert and saw that Ignacio was quickly backing him up against the wall of the cellar. Robert was running out of time!

            “Suck on this, Ignacio!” Macalister shouted.

With that, he bent down to the ground and scooped up one of the jars of blood from behind me. He stood back up and reeled his arm back, aiming a throw at Ignacio. After a second he hurled the jar of blood at him. The jar hit Ignacio on the side of the head, shattering and sending blood across his cheeks, lips and chest. Ignacio yelled in pain and I saw that the glass had cut the side of his head where it had shattered. Robert took Ignacio’s pain to his advantage and ran back to Don, who was already running to regroup with Macalister and I. In a few more seconds Don, Macalister, Robert and I all stood together, ready to oppose Ignacio. In less than another second, Ignacio whirled around to face us. I saw that his hood was now completely off, so I could see what he looked like. His shoulder length black hair billowed out behind him as he whirled around, his pale skin seemed to shine in the light. I then noticed something that erased any doubts from my mind that said Ignacio wasn’t a vampire: I noticed his luminous blood colored eyes in the darkness. He avoided the patch of sunlight let in by the small window above. His facial features were smooth.  I also saw that the cuts on the side of his head that had been caused by the shattering glass earlier had almost vanished. His tongue darted out of his mouth and licked the blood off of his lips and cheek. As he did this, the wounds on the side of his head rapidly healed. In the stories that my father told me as a boy, vampires could heal quickly if they drank blood.

            “Troll, get that shelf on its side and break the legs off! We need stakes! The rest of us will hold off Ignacio!” Robert said.

Macalister ran over to the shelf that we had cleared of the blood jars and he pushed it onto its side. I turned my attention back to Ignacio, who was already re-composing himself.

Author's Note

Please tell me what you think!

Reviews

[KeithKVH]

Great chapter! An unfortunate slip up for the Scorpions but they're obviously not giving up, and the way Ignacio just tore in there shows some serious strength and speed on his part. Leaves you with a showdown feeling, Ignacio has the vampire advantage but you still feel like it's anyone's game.

The way Ignaico heals upon drinking blood was clever, and I like how his face was hidden up until now and we finally see it. I also liked the dialogue through this most out of the chapters, it works pretty well in most places and the bit about Kid's alias with Macalister was a good show of the group's bond. I would only like to suggest removing or changing this part:

“Right then, I am starting to pass down the jars of blood to you.” Macalister said.

There is nothing grammatically wrong, but it's similar in a way to the points of exposition people have recommended I clean up in some early chapters, except you already have Macalister performing the action in the next line. I still feel it could improve the flow though if you either remove it or do something like:

"Right then, time to start moving this stuff out of our way." Macalister said.

I think my basic issue is that it's currently a literal announcement of an action already being performed, if that makes any sense.

Good work with this one, I'll be back for more later.

[Ryan Henderson]

Thank you for the advice! I appreciate the review and I will change that part!