I half expected to find my room in complete chaos. The door crashed open, everything destroyed and probably Bennett and a dark vampire duking it out. But, it was none of those things. I ran up to my door, turned the knob and pushed. Nothing happened.
“What’s wrong?” Ronon asked, his eyes darting every which way like he expected a member of the dark to come barreling toward us at any minute. Seeing his edginess only made me more tense. A dark vampire really could come barreling toward us at any second.
“I think it’s jammed,” I said, ramming my body against the door to force it open.
Ronon pushed me aside, preparing to ram the door himself. “Let me have a go at it.” He took a few steps back, and collided with the door as if it were a brick wall. He staggered, looking offended by the opposing door.
“Let us try,” two of his hybrid soldiers stepped forward, eyeing the door with so much disgust I would have thought they were staring at Baal himself. Ronon stepped aside allowing them to attempt entry.
I eyed the pair, and watched as they ran forward and kicked the door in unison. An audible crack sounded like a bolt of lightning, but it was the scream from inside the room that really surprised me.
“Who’s in there?” I pressed my face against the minute space between the door and its frame. Had one of Baal’s dark vampires locked itself up with one of my friends? Panic ripped at my heart and I signaled for the duo to kick again. They happily obeyed, kicking the door with another loud snap as the door began to give way.
Like before, another cry spilled from my room, as sheer terror was ripped from the lungs of whoever was inside. I kicked at the door myself this time, grunting with effort and shouting threats to whatever dark vampire was dumb enough to hurt my friends. I swore to rip its head off, and as the door broke from its hinges I propelled myself inside ready to bash some skulls.
“Claire?” A quivering voice called my name from a dark corner. A voice I knew as well as my own.
“Liz? Where are you?”
She stepped forward, her face covered in snotty tears. Blood dripped from her nose, and a blood-soaked makeshift bandage was covering her left arm. She looked like hell.
“Are you okay?” I pulled her to me, carefully inspecting her injured arm. “What are you doing in here?”
“B-B-Bennett,” she stammered, shaking with fright as she watched Ronon and his soldiers flood into the room and inspect every nook and cranny as if a dark vampire could hide under a chair or something.
“He left you in here?” I couldn’t keep the heat from my voice. He swore to me he’d look after her.
“N-no, he s-saved me. T-they appeared out of n-nowhere, Claire,” she began sobbing again. I wrapped an arm around her, ushering her to the couch as I rubbed her back and tried calming her down. I needed information from her and it didn’t help that she was stammering like a terrified kitten.
“It’s okay. I’m here now,” I cooed.
“A-and you brought f-friends,” she said, eyeing Ronon suspiciously as he strode up behind me.
“I did,” a laughed escaped me. “Now take a deep breath and tell me what happened.”
She did as I ordered, and seemed to find a sense of calm. One of Ronon’s soldiers handed me a small handkerchief, and I nodded my appreciation. As I dabbed the blood away from Liz’s face she began to recount what happened.
“Portals opened up all over the place. Those nasty vampires started running out like damn roaches, Claire!” Her voice steadily grew into the mouthy girl I’d known my whole life. “I was on my way to show your mother some of my plans for building the new addition when it happened. They saw me coming down the stairs and I ran.”
She took a deep breath, and I nodded for her to continue.
“I barely made it half way up the stairs when they grabbed me. I tried to fight them off, but they were too strong. One of them cut my arm, and I thought for sure I was going to die, but then Bennett showed up. He killed them and then he locked me up in your room and told me not to open the door until he came back.”
“You did good,” I praised her. The fact that a human encountered