Chapter 10: Chapter 10 – Forced Mercy

"A...Ah..." The vampire winced and rubbed her throat.

Raphael choked her hard enough to snap a human's neck easily.

A bucket of cold water washed over his mind. Of course she was okay; she was a monster after all.

The bishop was right. He was still weak. His mind fell prey to his exhaustion and in turn, he became complacent with the current situation.

The wooden stake was next to her. His blood chilled. If she wanted, she could've easily stabbed and killed him.

He glared at her.

She coughed until black blood spilled over her palm.

He should kill her.

Raphael analyzed the quickest way to dispose of her. He had a spare wooden stake on him. He could stab her in the chest while she was preoccupied, and she would be none the wiser.

Inside his jacket, he gripped the wooden stake. Then, he crept towards the monster's bent form.

With a sharp breath, he pulled the wooden stake out of its holster.

'Sir...may you please pray for me?'

Her request came to mind, freezing his body.

Gritting his teeth, his fingers around the stake relaxed.

She may know about the vampire queen. So he shouldn't act rashly.

"Hey."

The vampire raised her head.

The morning light filtered through the broken staircase above them. Dust motes floated down on her as if she was a doll forgotten and abandoned by its owner.

He gulped down the questions when he saw the full extent of her injuries. Under the morning light, the bruises looked like someone had smeared black and blue paint over her body.

The manacles loosely hung around her limbs. She looked malnourished.

He took a quick whiff. No scent of decay was emitting from this vampire.

She dipped low and coughed again.

"My men will be looking for me soon. If they find you, they will kill you on sight." He cooled his heart and emptied his mind of all trivial emotions. Emotions like pity had no place in his field of hunting vampires.

He turned away from the woman – the vampire. "Once my men leave this area, I'll come back in two days, and you will tell me all you know about the vampire queen." He turned his head and narrowed his eyes. "Do I make myself clear? Vampire?" He spat out.

The vampire shrunk her body and nodded. She dropped her gaze and stared at her hands resting on her thighs.

Raphael looked up and closed his eyes. His body was still exhausted, but he had to muster enough energy to get out of this hole. He took a deep breath, gathered power in his legs and jumped.

He jumped from side to side, using the wall to push himself up. He winced when his left shoulder shot a warning with pain. He gritted his teeth and ignored the pain.

After getting out of the hole, he almost stumbled down the staircase.

"Captain?" Paul was at the entryway.

Shit. If Paul saw the vampire, he was going to kill her.

No, even worse. Paul was going to ask why his captain, who never showed mercy to vampires, left this one alone.

Raphael walked down the stair. "I-"

"Raph!" Paul groaned. "I knew this was going to happen!" He smacked his forehead and shook his head. "You stayed up all night again, didn't you?"

Raphael's lips twitched. Perhaps, he was worrying for nothing.

"It's fine." He waved his hand dismissively. Another wave of pain shot up his arm, radiating to the side of his neck. "Ugh."

Paul furrowed his brows. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing." Raphael walked past Paul, but Paul never made it easy.

He grabbed Raphael's shoulder to stop him.

If it was his right shoulder, then he could shake him off. But his left shoulder was a different story.

"FUCK!" Raphael hissed as he dropped down to his knee.

"R-Raph!" Paul's voice raised in alarm. "H-hey, Ralph, what's wrong."

"M-My shoulder..." Raphael tried controlling his breathing. In through his nose and out his mouth.

Raphael hissed when Paul tried to pull Raphael's jacket off the offending shoulder.

"Don't. S-shit. Don't move my shoulder." Raphael said, panting harder.

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"Can you move?"

"Y-yeah."

Paul helped Raphael up by holding his right arm. "We'll have Sam look after you."

Raphael groaned, not from the pain this time. "No... he's going to nag me the whole trip back to our base."

Paul gave him 'a look.' He usually reserved that look when he had to deal with immense stupidity.

Raphael knew he was being childish. But Sam was a proper menace when it came to the health of their squad.

"Then maybe next time, you should think twice before breaking your shoulder, captain," Paul said, emphasizing Raphael's position.

Damn, Paul was pissed.

Snorting, Raphael said, "I did not break my shoulder. I just sprained it."

Paul only raised a brow before helping Raphael walk back to their tents.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * 

"You broke your shoulder," Sam said conclusively.

Paul sent a look that said, 'see, I told you so.' to Raphael.

Raphael ignored him.

"Just fix it then," Raphael said.

Both Sam and Paul scowled in unison.

"You know as well as I do that healing blessing should only be reserved for emergencies!" Sam lectured.

"Is this not an emergency? I broke my shoulder!" Raphael said; he almost whined. The operative word was 'almost.'

Paul groaned and buried his eyes with his hand.

Sam sighed. "Raphael, don't play dumb. You know that healing blessing isn't really a miracle. It just forces your body to go into overdrive to repair itself."

"That's better than walking two days to our base with a broken shoulder." Raphael countered.

"The moment I cast the healing blessing on you, you will faint, and based on your condition, you probably won't wake up for a week."

Raphael snorted. "Stop being dramatic."

"You're not indestructible. That's not the only thing I found out from my diagnosis. You haven't been sleeping well or eating properly. I've already noticed you tore some of your muscles and sprained your right wrist. Plus, you..."

Just as Raphael had predicted, Sam lectured Raphael for a good thirty minutes. But, at least Sam was able to multitask and put a splint to support Raphael's shoulder until they could go to the base and properly fix his shoulder.

Sam also gave him some pain relief tonic to manage the pain.

"You need to sleep tonight, Raph," Sam said with a dark look.

"Yeah, yeah, I will," Raphael said dismissively.

Sam and Paul shared a glance. "If you don't, we'll tell the bishop."

Raphael's mouth dropped. "Are you kidding me? What are you? Twelve?"

"And you have to take the sleep tonic tonight."

"NO!" Raphael stood up. He winced from the pain in his shoulder. The pain relief tonic hadn't kicked in yet.

Sam raised a brow.

Damn it; Sam was serious. Clicking his tongue, Raphael muttered, "fine."

If the bishop got wind of Raphael's condition, he would force him to take "vacation" again.

"By the way, why were you in the staircase?" Paul asked.

Raphael controlled his expression to stay as neutral as possible. He shrugged his right shoulder. "The stairway broke under me."

Paul snorted. "The great captain falling in a hole."

"Was it a room?" Sam joined in as he packed up his first aid kit.

The lone vampire shackled in the hole came to Raphael's mind.

"Nah. Just a hole with a bunch of cobwebs and shit." Raphael said nonchalantly.

He reassured himself that he was only letting the vampire live until he got his answer. There were no other reasons.

It seemed he got better at convincing himself.

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