❝ a battle among the war ❞

The professor nudged at the creature's body with the toe of his boot, carefully testing if it would still spring to life and attack. When he determined it safe enough he managed to pull it up and harshly drop it down onto the bar the group had gathered around.

"A lot of what we hear about vampires comes from the Spanish missionaries' misconceptions about these culebras," he began, reaching down for a straw he'd noticed discarded on the floor, "but these puppies are more snake than bat."

He tilted its head to the side to reveal thick veins bulging from the skin of its neck. "Venom glands!" Tanner laughed excitedly. "And look." He folded the fangs back into its mouth with the straw. "Just like a snake!"

Scott seemed to be the only one other than the strange professor to be intrigued, exclaiming, "that's insane!"

Cataleya let herself hang back behind the group, only halfway paying attention to the makeshift monster lesson Tanner gave. Most of her efforts consisted of attempts at staying upright. She took a small step forward to get closer only to stumble and almost fall, sending her right into Richie's side.

"Woah," he caught her, "you okay?"

"Fine," she grumbled, staring straight ahead in an attempt to not look at him. Her eyes bored into the body of the culebra, almost willing it to jump up and pounce. At least that way he'd quick staring at her.

"Cata, look at me." Richie's voice plead as he looked down at her, his hand still on her arm to steady her.

She forced her gaze upward to meet his own.

He sighed. "I'm sorry."

"Don't." Cataleya shook her head before returning to stare at the culebra. She was growing tired of apologies, because somehow the one seeking forgiveness always found a way to fuck it up again.

The culebra granted her wish, letting out a surprised groan as it started to sit up. The group collectively stepped back, staring at it with apprehension.

"Okay," Seth spoke, "we should make sure these things are dead." He turned, grabbing a shard of wood and walking over to the creature. "I mean, really, really dead."

He stabbed the culebra's heart with the stake, blood spurting from the wound as he removed it. The creature flailed as it let out loud growls before finally turning into ash.

"Makes sense," Tanner nodded, "destroying the blood organ kills 'em."

Seth took a deep breath while his eyes washed over each person before nodding. "You know what to do."

The family and professor scattered, picking up various weapons to use on the remaining culebras. Cataleya too moved toward an unconscious culebra, but Richie pulled her back to him.

"Cata, why won't you talk to me?"

She stared at his chest, not wanting to look up.

"You won't even look at me."

Richie softly ran a finger along her jaw, and Cataleya's eyes fluttered shut. She hated that with one touch Richie could get anything out of her. She absolutely hated it.

Cataleya tilted her head back to look at him, his eyes searching her face for some sort of emotion. "Because I can't."

"What?"

"I can't look at you. Because every time I do now I imagine that kiss that shouldn't have happened." And the way your brother looked so hurt by it. "And I can't talk to you because you'll find some way to rationalize it and for some damn reason I'll probably believe you."

Cataleya took a step back to distance herself from him, although his hand still held her arm. In a way, she was grateful because her legs felt ready to collapse from under her. And right now, it wasn't from the blood loss.

"I-" Richie looked down, groaning at himself before continuing, "That kiss happened for a reason. We're connected, Cataleya. You feel it too. We both hear her, we've both seen the eye, and when we kissed, we both had that vision. I know you did."

She tried to ignore the small smirk that seemed to pull at his lips.

"Or else you wouldn't have pulled away so fast... We were meant to meet each other. I don't know why but I felt it from the first moment I saw you. And I still feel it, right now."

Richie's eyes bored into hers, leaving Cataleya speechless for the time being. "You can't deny it, Cata. I know you feel it too."

Cataleya couldn't deny it. Even though he unnerved her, from the first moment they met she was intrigued. The way his eyes looked into her made her curious as to what he was searching for. The way he was so gentle with her was something she hadn't experienced in a long time. And the way his lips felt on hers... It was like they were made for each other.

But he was dangerous. They both were, these Geckos. And she needed to get as far away from them as possible. Even if that meant having to force herself to forget them.

Cataleya stared into those deep blue eyes of his that might as well have been black holes – seeing as how many times they managed to suck her back in – and lied.

"I don't, Richie."

That was the moment he started to break. "What?"

"I don't feel it." Cataleya gulped down the knot that formed in her throat. "I'm tired, Richie. I've been running for so long, and I'm finally free; free from my bullshit past and soon, free from you two. Once all of this is over, I'm gone."

She might've been better off shoving a stake through his heart. It probably would've felt the same. She watched the hurt creep across his face, like a dam slowly breaking.

"Cata..." Richie breathed, eyebrows furrowed.

"Please don't ' Cata ' me, Richard. I ran to make sure I'd stay alive, and I really don't think I can do that by hanging around you two any longer. Trouble follows y'all, and I don't wanna be anywhere close when it catches up again."

Richie watched as she shrugged off his jacket and held it out in front of her. He reached for it, eyes not leaving hers as he did so.

"Thanks again, Richie, for the stitches, and the jacket," Cataleya weakly laughed, "and for keeping me alive this long. But I think I can handle it from here."

Cataleya turned away from him, picking up a discarded chair leg and walking towards a comatose culebra. She raised the stake high, roughly bringing it down into its chest. It groaned, clutching at the hole in its heart before disappearing.

Richie could relate.

He pulled his blazer back on, fixing the sleeves as he trudged over to his brother.

"So this mistress," Seth groaned as he sat down in a chair, "you think it could be Santanico Pandemonium?"

"I don't know, could be." Tanner mulled. "I mean, she sure put the hurt on them bikers. Squashed them like they were cockroaches."

Seth sliced at a piece of wood, sharpening the end. "Well, Professor, unlike you" Seth looked up at Richie, ignoring the angry expression on his face, "my brother here's had a little field research on the subject. How 'bout it, Richie? Why don't you tell us all about your little dancing queen?"

"Fuck off, Seth," Richie groaned. He really wasn't in the mood to get any shit from his brother. Not right now.

"Woah, okay," Seth mockingly raised his hands in surrender, "what's with the attitude? I was under the impression that we only had one teenage girl in our little group."

Richie scoffed.

"Who is she?" Seth pressed further. "You said she led you here."

"She wanted me to set her free." Richie's eyes fell on Cataleya as he said this, watching her finger something at the end of a necklace.  "By killing her, I think."

"You killing her, or her killing us?"

"I don't know. I could feel her inside my head, and she was pulling me close. And yeah, I think it was to this place."

Seth nodded, turning his head to look at Cataleya. "Sweetheart, you've been here before. What's up with this place?"

She'd been here before? Richie knew now she had to be lying about not feeling their connection, and that just made her rejection hurt even more.

Cataleya quickly dropped the necklace back under her shirt before responding. "Well," she began, "I know just about as much as you two do. These things, culebras, obviously never showed during the deals. Or if they did it's not like I noticed."

Seth raised his eyebrows, urging her to explain.

"For a while, I was pretty out of it most of the time. I," Cataleya paused, sighing. "I used. And I don't remember much, but if I did see anything I probably just blamed it on me being high."

The group went quiet, and Cataleya willed someone, anyone, to speak up and end this awkward silence.

"We need to figure out what they want," Jacob stated. "Knowing that could help us figure a way out of here."

Cataleya breathed a sigh of relief as everyone turned to him instead.

"Maybe us being here pissed them off," Kate offered, standing as close to her father as possible.

"Doubt it," Richie retorted, "You seen the signs outside? This entire club is designed to lure people in."

Cataleya could tell from the edge in his voice that he was upset. She bit her lip, feeling like shit. In a matter of hours she'd managed to piss of practically everyone here. Screwing up seemed to be a specialty of hers.

"–Okay, Indy with a cock gun, what kind of temple?" Seth asked, exasperated with the Professor's excessive explanations.

"The kind where people come and make offerings to the Vision Serpent."

Cataleya's arm still bled, and she watched a drop slide down her now bare arm onto the floor. It seemed to slither to a small crack in the floor, the crack leading to a larger circle. "Blood offerings?" She spoke up, standing to follow the small river of blood.

The group turned their eyes toward it as well, staring down as the blood gathered at the center.

"If it's blood that they want," Kate speculated, "then they're gonna want more soon."

The professor walked to the walls, pulling off posters as he practically giggled. "She's right," he talked excitedly, "this isn't just a bar on top of a temple." He turned, facing the group. "This place is a giant people juicer."

Cataleya raised her eyebrows. "People juicer? For who?"

"I think it's safe to assume he means the snake people, sweetheart."

Tanner nodded. "If this is a feeding under naturalistic conditions, then their nutritional autonomy might be hierarchal."

"English, Professor, please," Seth urged.

"He means there's a pecking order, sweetheart," Cataleya mockingly replied, avoiding Richie's stare she felt on her.

Tanner awkwardly smirked. "Beauty and brains..."

Seth groaned, sending a quick glare in the annoying Professor's direction. "Alright, enough. Hookers feed the pimps, pimps feed the capos, capos feed the bosses. I get it. How do we shut it down?"

"I don't know. But I know who's on the menu."

"Seriously, dude?" Scott asserted. "You need a Ph.D. to figure that out?"

Cataleya smiled. She had to admire the boy's boldness.

"You're one rude little bastard," Tanner spoke, taking a few steps toward Scott.

Kate grabbed Scott's arm as he started toward Tanner as well.

"What did you call him?" Jacob asked threateningly.

"Okay everybody just calm down. Now, look," Seth stood up, and gestured with his gun as he spoke, "I get we're just a big rag tag team of ramblers here, but I'm guessing tonight's not gonna have a Scooby-Doo ending. So whatever beefs we got," Seth's eyes met Cataleya's for a split second, "forget 'em, or else we're all gonna get juiced."

Cataleya looked at Richie then. His face held no emotion but she could see in his eyes he was still hurt by what she said to him. She tried to offer him a smile, but he turned away.

Richie couldn't handle looking at her for too long. If he'd have watched her lips pull into that smile one second longer, he'd have marched over and kissed her again.

"Or worse," Seth continued, "end up like that Cisco kid."

"Yeah..." Tanner drawled, "where is Ranger Gonzalez? What happened to him?"

Cataleya's heart tightened at the mention of her brother. After six years of not speaking to him once, she'd just watched him die.

"Santanico killed him," Cataleya spat, the name burning like bile in her mouth.

Seth furrowed his brow as he looked at Cataleya, confused by the amount of emotion the Ranger's name evoked from her. "Forget him," he spoke, "we need a plan."

Scott slowly nodded to himself, walking over and stepping up onto the table beside Cataleya. "Easy. Grab all the shotguns, knives, and wooden stakes you can." He bent down, grabbing a knife and handing to Cataleya. "That way, when those bloodsuckers come back, even if we can't kill them, we'll make them wish they were unborn."

"Right on, kid," Cataleya smiled, reaching up to fist bump the boy. She was glad he seemed to take Seth's advice of forgetting their feuding. She didn't think she could take upsetting anyone else.

"We're gonna need a better plan than that." Richie deadpanned, looking up at Scott.

"You got one?" Cataleya asked, tilting her head as she twirled the knife between her fingers.

Richie smirked. "It's coming to me."

° ° °

Weapons of all sorts were thrown onto a table; knives, guns, stakes. Scott dropped a chainsaw onto the table as well, earning an incredulous look from his sister.

Cataleya gathered shotgun shells, carrying a handful over to the brothers at the bar.

"And here are eight more."

Seth took them from her hand, "–to get served up on a goddamn silver platter."

"Seth."

Cataleya internally groaned. She just had to walk into another Gecko argument.

"What was the plan? Keep the money for yourself, let us get eaten?" Seth asked, continuing to open and empty the shells into a large glass jar without looking up.

"Well, not everyone." Richie looked over at Cataleya, earning a single eyebrow raise from the girl.

Seth paused his task, swiftly turning his head and looking at Richie with annoyance.

Cataleya couldn't help but smile. God, these two are such idiots, but they're amusing idiots.

"I'm joking. If you wanna know, I didn't have a plan."

Seth scoffed, returning to emptying shells. "Apparently.."

"You were in charge, which you reminded me of every five seconds."

"Thirty-six jobs."

"Thirty-five!"

Cataleya rolled her eyes, grabbing a knife and assisting Seth with emptying the shells.

"You did the last one without me, Big Papa, and it got you tossed in the can," Richie defended.

"Yeah, well," Seth sneered, "I still put this together and dragged you out of your little uni-bomber shack. Remember that?"

Richie stared at him, scoffing before shaking his head and looking down to fuss with the cell phone he'd been taking apart. "You are just so up your own ass right now."

"Then I guess we have something in common, considering you seem to be so up Cat's lately..."

Cataleya paused, her hands going still as her eyes flicked up to the brothers.

"Oh my god," Richie groaned, "you're still mad at me for kissing her aren't you?"

Cataleya's grip on the knife in her hand tightened out of nervousness. She thought the topic had been dropped, but she should've known by now that nothing was ever dropped when these two were concerned.

"Yeah," Seth's glance moved between his brother and the girl seated on a bar stool across from them. "Maybe I am."

"Don't be," Richie spoke quietly. "She already made it clear she's not interested."

Cataleya closed her eyes, silently groaning. The way he'd said it, the way he sounded so crushed, hurt Cataleya's heart. Because she was. No matter how hard she denied it, how deep she tried to bury it, how long she tried to ignore it, it just came bubbling back up.

Cataleya set the knife down, dumping the last shell into the jar and turning away from the brothers without saying a word.

They watched her walk away, running her hand through her hair in frustration.

Cataleya wandered over to the family and the professor as they flipped tables in an effort at building a sort of wall. Jacob and Tanner dragged a pool table over, the two struggling to overturn it.

"Need some help?" Cataleya offered, sticking her hands in her back pockets.

"Uh, no thanks, Cataleya," Jacob replied, "don't want you hurting that arm any more than you have."

Cataleya smiled at his concern.

"Speaking of, what happened to that arm of yours, Kitty?"

"I got shot by the ranger." My own damn brother shot me. "And if you call me that again, I will throat punch you."

Tanner raised his hands in surrender. "You got it. No need to be so aggressive."

Cataleya smirked, hiding the frown that threatened to show itself when she remembered her brother. Even after six years he'd gone practically unchanged, still managing to be so damn self-righteous. He'd gone and gotten himself a job as a rinche.

The familiar whine of the metal bars echoed through the bar, signaling that somewhere a gate was opening.

Seth walked past Cataleya, grabbing her and pulling her behind the flipped pool table. The family huddled together, brandishing weapons of all sorts as they crouched down. Richie placed the finishing touches on the bomb before joining the rest, right as a woman slinked from some unknown area.

She turned towards the stage, watching a giant monster walked out. It let out a guttural growl as it stood towering above everything.

This thing didn't look like a culebra. If Cataleya had to give it a name, she'd call it a demon.

"Puta madre... the hell is that thing?" She exclaimed, peering over the edge of the pool table.

"I don't know but it's seven against two. I'm liking those odds," Seth shrugged.

The brothers raised their guns as more culebras began rising from the floor. Cataleya recognized some of them, and their being attacked.

Jacob groaned, eyes flicking from monster to monster as his children stayed close. "It just got biblically worse."

"Wait a second, I know that lug nut and his biker chick. They weren't culebras before," Richie spoke, eyebrows furrowing as the two new culebras snarled in his direction.

"Neither was that perv, either," Scott pointed.

Cataleya thought back to the attack, trying her hardest to remember the last time she'd seen them. The could remember a woman clamping on the biker's neck, dragging him to the ground.

They were bit. They turn when they're bit.

She didn't have time to share her findings as Professor Tanner ran out in front of the table yelling out in a sing-songy voice, "Culebras! Come out to play!" He began shooting out at the creatures with his gun, shouting as he did so.

Cataleya just stared in his direction, realizing how ridiculous he looked thrusting towards the monsters. "Wow. We're all gonna die." She reached down and grabbed a shotgun, aiming at a culebra before pulling the trigger.

"Nice to know your glass is half empty, sweetheart," Seth laughed, "keep shooting."

Tanner's gun clicked, signaling he needed to reload.

The growls and snarling of the culebras grew louder and louder as they neared, almost as if they sensed the group slowly running out of ammunition.

"Get down," Richie commanded, pulling out the cell phone he'd tampered with and dialing '666.'

"This better work," Tanner groaned, crouching down behind a smaller table.

Richie smirked. "It'll work." He pressed call, quickly ducking down and instinctively throwing an arm around Cataleya as the explosion sent shards of wood and debris in different directions.

The moans of pain from the culebras soon died down, and Scott leaped over the table to finish off any remaining ones. His family stood, filing out from behind the table to help him.

Cataleya rummaged through the remaining weapons, grabbing two machetes before she stood. She started past the brothers, but Seth held her back by her arm. "You don't have to do this."

"I still have a promise to keep, so I'm gonna fight right alongside them."

Seth clenched his jaw, sighing. "Alright, then."

The demon culebra, as Cataleya now tagged it, growled, knocking the stakes from its body with its strange hands.

"Shit!" Seth exclaimed before running at it. It swung its arm out, sending him flying into an overturned table with a yell.

Richie opened his knife, holding it out in front of him.

"What do you think you're gonna do with that stick pin?" Cataleya laughed, holding the machetes out in front of her.

Richie chuckled, "You'd be surprised," before charging at it, stabbing it in the shoulder. It barely seemed phased, punching Richie square in the face and sending him to the ground.

Cataleya raised her knives, her attention off guard for a split second as she heard Jacob scream out for Scott. She quickly scanned the bar, noticing he was gone. And right then, the demon culebra swung at her, sending her flying back. She groaned.

"Alright, pendejo, if that's how it's gonna be."

Cataleya jumped up, charging the monster with her knives in hand. She ducked the first swing, promptly cutting off the hand that struck out at her. It screeched while wildly swinging out at her with its remaining hand.

"Guys?" She ducked again, lodging one of her machetes into its leg. "A little help would be nice."

Richie groaned as he lifted himself from the floor. "Seth," he called out, "Plan B?"

The monster struck out at her again, landing its blow right as the brothers both ran at it with sharpened chairs. It roared before turning into dust.

Richie reached down to pick up his knife and shook the blood from it. "Well, that's one for the books."

Cataleya moaned in pain. "You idiots couldn't have done that first?" She reached out her hands, waving her arms impatiently as she waited for them to help her up.

"Seriously," she wiped her bloodied lip with her thumb, "why wasn't that Plan A."

Seth raised his eyebrows, scoffing.

Cataleya started to panic after remembering Scott was gone. She quickly started towards Kate and her father, only to be blocked by none other than Santanico herself.

"You can't leave. Not yet."

Cataleya was practically chest to chest with her as she stared the woman in her eyes. The same woman she once thought was her savior. What a fucking disappointment.

"And why not, hm?" Cataleya challenged, cocking her head to the side.

"Because you belong here. You and Richard. Somewhere inside, close to the bone, you know it too," Santanico spoke softly, her voice almost sounding like a hiss.

"No," Richie brandished his knife as he walked closer, grabbing Cataleya's hand and pulling her away from the woman. "You don't know us."

"That's not true. Is it, Cataleya?" The woman took a few steps forward, staring down the girl. "Yo estaba allí cuando me necesitabas, mi orquídea..."

Cataleya glowered, almost wrenching from Richie's grip to charge at her. She felt so much rage at this woman. This liar. This murderer. She'd lured Cataleya here, and for what? To die. This woman led her here to die. And she wasn't about to go down without a fight.

"Eso ya no significa nada para mí, asesina," Cataleya spat, clenching her jaw as she returned Santanico's intense stare tenfold.

Santanico smiled bitterly, ignoring Cataleya's words and continuing to take steps closer. "I'm in your souls..."

Richie's gaze never faltered from the woman as he slowly began backing away, Cataleya still in his hold. He'd trusted her, this Santanico, and now he felt completely and utterly betrayed.

Cataleya looked up at Richie, the nervous look on his face worrying her. He never seemed too stable when he was nervous.

"Richie, Cat," Seth coaxed, "Don't listen to her. Look at me."

Richie ignored his brother's pleading, instead glancing down at Cataleya before looking back at Santanico. She wanted them both, but he wasn't about to let her take Cataleya. No, she'd endured enough. He was going to set her free.

Richie lowered his knife, the hold on Cataleya's hand loosening the more the woman spoke.

"You have to let these people go," Richard proposed, his hand completely dropping Cataleya's as he carefully started to push her towards Seth.

"Richie, no," Cataleya protested, looking between the woman and him.

Seth's hand slowly inched towards a stake placed beside him. Santanico glared at him, and Seth lowered his hand.

"Oh, fuck this," Cataleya exclaimed, grabbing the stake and raising it above Santanico's chest.  This was her shot to get rid of her brother's killer once and for all.

Cataleya hadn't even made contact when blood spattered over her. It covered Santanico too, dripping down her shocked expression.

Cataleya froze, dropping the stake and slowly turning to see Richie clutching at his bloodied stomach.

"No..." she breathed. Cataleya reached down for him, grasping at his jacket as he fell.

She'd lied to him. She'd felt their connection. If anything they were more connected now than they were before, because seeing him like this didn't just make her feel like shit. It physically hurt.

Santanico roared, shoving Seth backward with all of her strength before grabbing Richie's hand. She started to pull him away from Cataleya, dragging him back into the depths of the bar.

She tugged at his jacket, at his arm, at anything to keep him from being dragged away, but Santanico won that war in the end, pulling him through a doorway as the gate clanged shut.

Seth shouted after his brother, scrambling from the floor as fast as he could. But it wasn't fast enough.

Cataleya felt a tear slip down her cheek, no doubt leaving a trail in the blood that covered her face. Richie's blood.

There was a strange mix of emotions she felt as everyone ran around her.

She was shocked. Everything felt like slow motion, the words being shouted from behind her low and barely audible. She stared down at her trembling hands, the bright crimson specks of Richie's blood covering every inch.

She was calm, flicking the tear from her face after noticing his knife lying close by. She picked it up and inspected it. She closed her hand around it, the knife retracting before she shoved it into her back pocket.

But most of all, she was pissed.

Cataleya pushed herself from the ground, fists balled at her sides as she glared at the gate he'd just been dragged through.

Your time is up, Santanico. And I'm coming to collect.

°°°

author's note;

In the last chapter barely anything happened and in this chapter, stuff was super depressing! Wow, I am so sorry omfg... :/ I'm also running out of gifs to use at the beginning, if you couldn't tell. Oops.

But more action and more Cataleya and Richie. What are y'all's thoughts on the ships and who, at this point, do y'all ship the most? Also, I haven't put much thought into ship names so if you wanted to come up with some I would totally not be opposed to that :)

Just to clarify a few things:
Cat still has a gunshot wound on her arm and I try to make sure to bring that up bc in some fics I know they seem to forget they have injuries lol. All the fighting probably ripped the stitches a little so it still hurts her. She also lost quite a bit of blood from it, as well as from when she was bit, so she's feeling a bit dizzy and unsteady from it at times. Adrenaline helps a little, which is why she can still fight, but not much.

Freddie officially comes in next chapter. Are you ready? Next update will be Friday. Only three more chapters until part two !!! I hope this isn't dragging along too much. I'm just trying to make it so you kinda "get to know" her character in a way, if that makes sense.

Love y'all so much. Thank you for 2k views and all the wonderful and hilarious comments I get. Until next time... 😘

;tabitha