Chapter 5
1174 Words
The cathedral appeared through the fog like the corpse of something that had refused to die.
Saint Vesper's had once been beautiful.
Now, its stone walls were blackened with age, ivy crawling through cracks in the masonry like veins beneath dead skin. The enormous rose window above the entrance was shattered, leaving jagged fragments of coloured glass clinging stubbornly to the frame.
It looked like a haunted castle.
Every vampire's dream.
I stared up at it.
“Charming.”
The other vampire hunters I had come with took their time to inspect the surrounding, something we usually did before we started any hunt.
I reached beneath my jacket and felt the familiar weight of my blades.
Comforting.
I raised two fingers. Everyone went silent.I listened.
Nothing.
No wind.
No insects.
Not even the distant hum of the city.
Just silence.
The kind that felt deliberate.
I frowned.
“Something's wrong.”
I tugged my leather jacket into place and checked the blades strapped beneath it again. Black trousers, combat boots, silver at my waist. Not exactly party attire.
Then again, I wasn't here to party.
The heavy wooden doors groaned behind us as we entered the cathedral.
There was no point in trying to be overly stealthy. Vampires had impressive perception, and if any were present tonight, they already knew we were here.
Rows of wooden pews stretched toward the altar.
Most had been overturned.Some were stained dark.
I crouched beside one and ran two fingers over the floor.
Dried blood.
“Recent,” I whispered.
A soft scraping sound came from above.
I looked up.
Nothing.
Then—
A body dropped from the rafters.
I barely moved before my blade was in my hand.
The vampire hit the floor on all fours.Its head snapped toward me.
Its eyes black as midnight, fangs gleaming in its salivating mouth.
“Everyone get in position!” I shouted to my fellow hunters.
It lunged.
Adrenaline surged through my body and I ducked with the speed of a hunter who had been in training for over ten years.
Its claws sliced through the air where my throat had been.
I drove my elbow into its ribs and grabbed its arm, twisting it to an unnatural angle and pinning it behind the vampire's back.
The creature shrieked in pain and thrashed to free itself from my grip.
My blade sank beneath its jaw.
The vampire howled and collapsed.
I twisted my blade and pulled it out with a sickening squelch.
“That's one.”
A scream erupted from the bell tower.
I spun around, stance set for combat.
“Well, guess they know we're here”
The cathedral exploded into movement.
Vampires poured from the shadows.
One dropped from the balcony.
Another burst through the confessional.
Two came from behind the altar.
“Hunters!” one of them hissed.
The first reached me.
It was a big one, at least seven feet tall. Personally I preferred them bigger, they were a much easier target that way. And their size slowed them down.
Typical to most vampires, it lunged at me without technique. I deflected and slammed my boots into its side but I'd gotten too close.
Its claws scraped across my shoulder.
Pain and anger flashed through me and I gritted my teeth.
“Filthy bloodsucker!”
Lunging for my neck again, the vampire bounded forward, saliva oozing from its mouth.
I leapt back and delivered a powerful kick. The front of my heavy boot connected with the vampire's jaw.
In a flash, my blade sliced across its throat.
It stumbled.
I caught its collar and drove my knee into its chest.
“Stay down.”
It didn't.
So I finished the job.
For an hour, the cathedral was chaos.
Claws.
Crossbow bolts.
Screams.
Shattering glass.
The smell of blood.
They were many but we were stronger. Finally we got to the last vampire.
It crawled backwards on the floor, it's face bloody and injured.
“You're Frederick Vale's daughter. You have his eyes”
A slow devilish smirk spread across the vampire's black lips. His ashy face twitched.
I paused with my blade in the air and scoffed.
“Trying to buy time? You're not leaving here alive—”
“You hunt our kind, but you don't know what hunts you” black substance dripped from the vampire's mouth.
My smirk disappeared.
“Your father knows”
Before I could ask what it meant, it attacked.
On impulse my blade swished brutally, slashing the vampire clean across the throat.
I choked gasp left it as it dropped to it's knees.
“He's coming for you!”
The vampire let out a terrifying cackle before choking on its own blood and collapsing into ash.
Silence returned.
I stood there, breathing hard. Ash drifted around my boots.
What did the creature mean by that?
Our boots crunched over dead leaves as we made our way between the trees, the cathedral long swallowed by the darkness behind us.
As I and all other hunters headed back, my mind flashed back to what had happened two months ago.
To the club.
To midnight hair and silver eyes.
To him.
The vampire I just killed never mentioned his name, but for some reason unknown to me and the universe, I knew it was him.
And now that I think of it… father gave me a deadly warning that night.
About… him. What was my father's connection to that man. And to this vampire I'd just killed?
There was so much to know, but how could I find out?
There had to be a way—
The hunter walking before me froze suddenly.
They had been talking and laughing loudly since we left the cathedral. The usual post- hunt nonsense. And suddenly they were quiet
“What?” I snapped out of my thoughts.
The others had stopped too. They looked around cautiously and murmured amongst themselves.
“Did you see something?” I called out to no one in particular.
A hunter at the front sighed in relief. “It's just an animal guys. False alarm.”
A small rabbit scurried past and dove into a hole.
They all sighed and we continued walking. One of them offered me a drink from his bottle. I declined with a small smile.
“Wait.”I raised a hand.
Everyone fell silent.
I listened.
Nothing.
No birds.
No insects.
Not even the rustle of leaves.
The forest had gone completely still.
My fingers slipped toward the blade at my waist.
A cold breeze passed through the trees.
Then another.
But the leaves didn't move.
My stomach tightened.
Someone was here.
I walked away from the others, jumping over a fallen tree, and stopped some distance from them.
Slowly my eyes scanned the darkness. The moon w
as out in full, and the forest was a rather sparse one, so I could see my surroundings decently.
Nothing.
Just trees.
Shadows.
Fog curling lazily between the trunks.
Then I saw something… or rather someone.
Him.
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