The vampire ignored Vincent completely, entering into the building by breaking the door down as if he was removing tissue paper.
What erupted then was chaos, screaming and guns firing, and in the center of it, he was completely and totally calm. It was bizarrely beautiful to see the serenity that imbued him, beautiful, but terrible. He glided into the room, ignoring the bullets that penetrated his body as if they were annoying insects, moving inexorably forward. The hunter he was approaching, panicked and not thinking, emptied an entire clip into him before those pale hands tore him apart without hesitating or blinking. Blood spattered pale skin with no reaction, he was doing precisely what he had been made to do, and despite the horrific sound, the visuals, there was a startling grace to the movement. The man hadn’t even had time to made a sound once he was on him.
Ignoring Vincent, whom he had, rather carelessly, it may be said, provided with a gun, and ignoring the other hunter, followed the sense of Matthias which was growing stronger and stronger, breaking into room after room until he saw him, rage bubbling over, his eyes flashing black and remaining so. He drew in a sharp breath, and delicate hands curled into fists tight enough that they made bleeding furrows into his palms.
They had starved him deliberately, and already thin, he was now emaciated, body covered in healing wounds and bruises, but that wasn’t what struck him. He was raving, mindless, thrashing against the chains that held him, iron soaked in holy water which left burns in its wake that laced his pale skin. The younger vampire’s eyes were pitch black, features feral, biting at thin air, and his own body was littered with visible bite marks from where he hurt himself in fits of rage. When Lucien called his name, quietly, Matthias turned those unseeing eyes to him and snarled openly as a tiger, and with as little cognition save for instinct.
Ignoring this, hoping that Matthias would not force him to do the thinkable, Lucien went to him, working at the chains, ignoring the searing pain that resulted from the burns that formed upon his palms. More than once, Matthias twisted his head to bite him, and Lucien had had to stop, let him rage further, before continuing. Halfway between terrified and enraged beyond description, the young vampire started to slam his own head into the wall. Dazed, snarling, stopping only when he looked forward with blank, vacant eyes for a moment, blood running from his hairline, he didn’t notice at first when he was free. When he finally did, he shoved past his mentor, who was no food source, and went directly for the remaining hunter.
He didn’t have a chance, he was on him in a few seconds, thrown his full weight and then teeth into throat like a wild animal. There was struggling as the man’s throat was torn open, screaming, Matthias’ face soaked in blood like the muzzle of a great cat. Eventually, the screaming turned into gurgling, then silence, the struggling stopped, and he settled down to feed.
He hadn’t immediately followed Lucien the chaos that’d immediately broke out made him hesitate, peered into the room before he made any attempts to follow suit of the vampire. Who seemed unafflicted by their guns, he watched morbidly horrified as a hunter utterly panicked emptied his clip into Lucien. The gore that followed made Vince feel ill, again. A gun was passed into his hands for a moment he just stared at it, no intention of hurting anyone—he’d taken an oath. But Vince clutched the weapon hoping that perhaps that’d been enough to ward off any hunters that were left in the wake of Lucien. He was wrong. Either the man couldn’t distinguish between human and vampire, or Vince was never the target just happened to block the path of a stray bullet. It didn’t matter.
The floor was cold, like ice, like him, blue eyes fluttered back open he’d tripped—no. Vince made the mistake of glancing down, blood was seeping thick and red into his jeans. He forced himself up, not letting his mind dawdle on it letting the adrenaline mask most of the pain. Limped, clutching onto whatever he could to steady himself until he found his way into the room where they’d been keeping him. In time to see Matthias, thin pale and covered in slow healing wounds launch himself towards the hunter. Vince trembled, true honest fear enveloped blue eyes as he sunk down into the floor not even fully in the room.
Vince glanced away, a shaky hand going to staunch the bleeding from his thigh but it was harder than he thought. Trembling from fear, adrenaline, or even just a total lapse in concentration—had he hit his head? He couldn’t remember. Perhaps that was his clue. He just watched half curled up on that cold floor as Matthias tore into the man, the sickness twisted inside of him as if he’d been stabbed to the stomach. Blood was everywhere. It was like watching a nightmare come to life.
He thought of that night how he’d been trembling, talked of being dead on the morrow, Vince didn’t want to think just how close to death these hunters must’ve forced him to become this starved. He tried to force himself to sit up, not sure what he’d do if he could but something, only searing pain rippled through his leg as he tried to move it. Red was tainting the floor beneath him, he narrowed his eyes staring at his leg momentarily the realisation sank in, the bullet had struck the femoral artery. He was going to die. Lucky it’d been his leg, lucky that he’d made it this far although watching Matthias feed with the ferality of a wild animal didn’t make him feel so lucky.
Tried to drag himself into the room but to no avail so he settled, laying there still in the door way blue eyes somewhere between Matthias and the floor. Horrified, scared and not wholly willing to die just yet—but he couldn’t see Lucien taking him to the hospital. It was bleeding too fast. “Matthias,” he called, quietly, voice nothing more than a croaked whisper. Pointless. Too quiet and the vampire was focused on feeding, draining every single drop from his victim.
Matthias would live, and that’s all he cared about.
He smiled through the pain even if he was terrified, absolutely terrified of him.