Chapter 13: Chapter 13
Ingrid mustered up the courage to awaken her vampire powers once more, despite the repercussions. Knowing that Rohit was in danger fueled her to surmount this obstacle. So she proceeded to bring out her innate abilities once more and focused on disbanding the barrier with it. Immediately after her eyes turned red, Ingrid thrust her hands forward and manifested a scarlet orb that had dark streaks like a marble.
It was actually the culmination of her latent abilities stored for emergency use only—something that would exhaust the user soon following its release. It was a catalyst to boost her prowess as well as a two-way weapon at the same time.
The vampire heiress knew she had no choice, and followed through with the terms without a second thought. The powers she drew from herself allowed her to not feel any pain, and had amplified her abilities beyond her normal capacity. Using this, Ingrid projected the orb from her body and when it was far enough in front of her, she detonated it like an underwater mine.
The impact created from this caused the dome mirage she’d been trapped in to light up with gold crevices, which lined it all the way around. The crevices divvied up into more cracks until it shattered like a window, allowing for Ingrid to emerge into what appeared to be the real store. She knew, however, that it was another barrier Colette erected, but unlike the previous one, she could hear something around the wall separating the changing area from the sales floor.
It was most likely the store associate herself, and she trapped Rohit in her illusion as well.
Ingrid wasted no time, and dashed around the divider with her superhuman speed. The ability she expelled from her body earlier allowed her to stay energized a little longer in her vampire state. She had to subdue the associate before she exhausted herself, and would be incapacitated for who knew how long. All she knew was to save Rohit first and ask questions later.
Colette was standing beside the young man in front of a mirror.
He was wearing a dark, long coat she picked out after reviewing his preferences.
“Wow, look at you!” the young woman commented, widening her ecstatic, gold eyes.
“Never thought of buying something like this,” Rohit replied, adjusting the lapels. “I usually wear hoodies if I go anywhere, since I don’t go to fancy places too often.”
“Well this is for everyday wear as well as formal.” She chuckled and places her hands on her hips. “Can I cook? Or can’t I?”
The young man laughed. “I gotta admit, you had me in the first half there… I thought you were gonna drink my blood!”
“Yeah…” Colette looked at her reflection in the mirror and lowered her arms with a sigh. “I’m sorry if I came off strongly…” She then inched closer to Rohit, as she latched onto his arm with a somber expression to the ground. Her cleavage hugged his deltoid beneath the white blouse she wore.
The captivated man froze in place, his stomach fluttering and his heart racing while trying to keep a blank expression. He didn’t fight her intimate advance this time, but let her do what she had to do to vent her worry. Rohit wouldn’t cave to his desires, as he was in control of them following some concern for the store associate’s dilemma. Once the air was clear of her initial bloodlust, he decided to give her a second chance. An empathetic gesture, but that’s just the kind of person he was.
She continued, “It’s… something I struggle with internally being what I am…”
“A vampire?”
She shook her head. “A—”
“Let him go!” a voice boomed from behind, startling the pair.
As soon as Colette turned around to see the source of the thunderous roar, a tense hand was clasped around her throat, as she was thrust into the wall, where a rack of clothes fell down, and nearby clothes fell off their shelves.
The wall behind the impact left an indent, as the wooden crevices caved in.
Colette was gripping Ingrid’s hand, as she tried prying it off of her, while she attempted to explain. “It’s… not what y-you… think!”
“Like hell!” Ingrid retorted, and then ordered Rohit to run, while keeping her attention on her foe.
The young man wanted to intervene, but the power spectrum was overwhelming.
It was like the surrounding area emitted a certain aura that impeded anyone from coming any closer—like a gravitational field repelling unwanted bodies.
Colette gritted her teeth, as she dug her fingernails into Ingrid’s hand in an attempt to pull her hand back, but the vampire heiress persisted by pulling her neck forward and then slamming it into the wall again, causing it to dent further. The associate gasped at the recoil, but used her other hand to land a punch at Ingrid’s side, which happened to be the spot where her bullet wounds flared up most, despite being healed.
Because of the surging pain, the young woman let up on her grip and stepped back.
It was enough for Colette to angle her body to the side and draw her leg to her chest before shooting a side kick in her sternum.
It sent Ingrid flying into the aisles, knocking them over all the way to the other side of the store. She created an indentation upon the wall, similar to how she slammed Colette on the opposite one. The clothes from the shelves fell on top of her, as she sat exhausted and immobile.
Rohit held his arms in front of him to prevent any debris and clouds of dust, kicked up from the tiles, from flying towards him. He then saw Colette walking towards Ingrid, holding her hands to her sides with a pair of orbs in each hand like she was going to inflict more damage upon the weakened vampire heiress. He instinctively scurried to her position.
“I see that talking isn’t getting through to you,” the associate warned. “So violence is how it always ends…” Her tone then retracted with disappointment. “That’s all vampires have known…” She stopped before the spot Ingrid had been sitting beneath the clothes and glared with her gold eyes. Just before she could bring the orbs down upon her, Rohit yelled, “Enough!” and pushed her to the side, causing the orbs to fly up into the lights and cause a power outage within the barrier.
Colette shook her head and regained her composure. She initially glared and bared her fangs at Rohit, who met her gaze with equivalent ferocity, but suddenly softened her eyes back to hazel irises. She then nodded at him, who nodded back.
As Rohit was uncovering the layers of clothing where Ingrid was supposed to be, he realized she wasn’t there. He shifted his eyes about the store in search of her, as did Colette when she gasped that the vampire heiress wasn’t where she landed anymore.
All of a sudden, something dropped from the ceiling and pinned Colette to the ground. Two metal poles impaled her legs, as Ingrid drove her knees into the associate’s arms.
She drove two more poles from the clothing rack into the young woman’s palms, as she hissed at her, with her eyes turning gold again. She hissed back and clasped both of her hands around her throat again. “Stay away from us!” she shouted, tightening her death grip, which was causing Colette to slow down in her struggle against her.
She was only losing consciousness, but Rohit didn’t know that, so he yelled, “Ingrid, that’s enough!”
As sobering as it was when she consumed blood or a red liquid did the vampire heiress come to her senses and back off of Colette right away.
Her irises turned blue again and she stood up in shock, like she wasn’t in control of her body. She looked at Rohit, and he was just as stunned as her that she listened so quickly.
‘What was that?’ he mused.
‘That power…’ Ingrid thought simultaneously. ‘Was that—?’ Her analysis was interrupted by Colette’s groaning, as blood continued to seep from her wounds.
Rohit paced forward and knelt beside the associate. “Help me remove these,” he stated to Ingrid, as he proceeded to take hold of one of the poles and tried removing them.
She quietly helped him easily remove it, since it was lodged in there and he struggled to pull it out.
In the midst of that, he muttered, “You look beautiful in that dress, by the way…”
Her eyes darted in his direction, as she removed the pole from Colette’s palm.
“I think green looks good on you.” Rohit then recalled her wearing his bathrobe, which sported the exact same color she had on right now, and blushed.
Ingrid cleared her hair behind one ear, flustered as well. “Th-Thank you…” she replied with a sheepish grin.
He returned her smile, then changed the subject back to their current situation. “Thanks for your concern also. I know it was an uncertain situation, but she didn’t do anything to me. I promise.”
Ingrid nodded, feeling a bit better, knowing that Rohit was unharmed in all this. She was still weary of Colette’s intentions though, especially since she couldn’t pick up her scent. Vampires were usually able to detect one another unless they cast a certain spell to conceal their trail. This associate didn’t have any enchantment put on her, besides the barrier, but that was erected after she and Rohit entered the store.
Just who was Colette?