Vampire Hunt Read online

  Prologue

  A long time ago, in the land of the East, a baby was born in the city of Azure, home to the most feared of all demons. As the child was swaddled in a crimson satin cloth and placed in the arms of her bright-eyed mother, a boisterous laugh came booming from her father. Servants looked at each other, marvelled at the sound; it was certainly the first time any of them had heard such a joyful sound emit from their master, when they were only familiar with blood-curling laughter and a cold gaze.

  Servants and elders crowded around, trying to catch a glimpse of the future heir to their kingdom.

  In the years that followed, it was easy to see that Ava had became a favourite to all. She was well loved and pampered as a child. By the time she was two and clumsily toddling around the halls of Azure, her once scrounge elders were lavishing her with gifts and vying for her attention.

  By the time she was three, her parents noticed her propensity for curiosity, shaking their heads each time their baby came home with dirt covering her fluffy ears. The rosy cheeked babe with black wavy locks and big, bright eyes was always up to some kind of mischief. Soon, the tired parents learned that it was best to leave their young daughter to her own devices, for no matter how many times they tried to keep her in her nursery, the little one always found a way out.

  "I'm sorry to be interrupting your tea time, Madam!" said a servant, fingers wringing with worry, "it's young mistress Ava, you've got to come quick!"

  There they watched as their doe-eyed daughter sat next to her blackened face Uncle. Shock was evident on his face and his hair was a mess. Chuckling, a blue crackle of electricity danced across her fingertips.

  "Where the hell did she learn that?" her stern-faced father bellowed, watching his now nervous brother grinning sheepishly.

  "Well, I may have bought her a few books here and there," he said with a smile, "But I really had no idea she'd be this quick a learner!"

  "You know how she is," he said, exasperated, "the last thing we need is for my little darling to go running around zapping folk or hurting herself!"

  "Relax," he chuckled, "she is your daughter. Doesn't this just prove how our blood runs through those veins? We are the most powerful demons of this land."

  The years passed kindly for the Azurians, until tragedy struck on Ava's fifth birthday.

  "My beloved has not woken, each year she seems to be growing weaker," he said, voice shaky, "please tell me, what is going on?"

  "It seems that there may have been complications had arose after the birth of your daughter, and this illness had laid dormant, until now." said the doctor, solemnly, as he took a step back from the bed-ridden woman.

  Hiding behind her father's legs, Ava watched as her mother laid in bed, still and death-like. "When is mummy going to wake up?" she murmured.

  The room fell silent. Without so much as a glance, he moved away from his daughter, "Take her to her nursery." he croaked as servants took her by the hand, deaf to her protests.

  By the time she was six, Ava had memorized every nook and cranny of the Azure lands, and she would run off to play by herself. For those with great potential, it was not unusual to be shunned, for she had also garnered the scorn of her siblings. After the death of her mother, her father had remarried a dozen times, and she had lost count of the number of children that competed for her father's attention. It was on a gloomy, rainy day that she decided to wander outside the tower, through the bustling market street, to the city's entrance. Thin as a twig, body caked with mud, clothes tattered and torn, a human boy who looked not much older than her had laid just outside their walls. Guards passed him by without batting an eyelash. Meekly, she poked him with a stick.

  "Hello?" she murmured, gazing at him with wide, curious eyes. She heard a grunt of pain, a wail of agony, and that was all it took before she dragged his frail body back to the tower.

  "Now, what's this?" laughed the bushy bearded man.

  "It's a human boy, Uncle Aldwyn!" said Ava, her ears perking with glee. Bandaged and comfortably clothed, the boy laid in her bed as she knelt by his side. Little hands dabbed a wet cloth over his bruised cheek.

  "Yes, it is, and did you patch him up all by yourself?" responded Aldwyn, with jolly laughter. Silently, she nodded with a toothy grin.

  "Well then, I hope he will make for a good slave boy!" responded Aldwyn.

  "He's not a slave boy, he's a friend." she smiled.

  Part I

  “Do you think it’ll last?” she whispered, looking at the man sitting by her side.

  “What, our abilities going away or us being together?” he asked, tilting his head to the side as he watched her lips part.

  “Being together, like this.” Ava said, as she gave out a shaky exhale.

  “I don’t know.” he murmured, looking down at his hands. To him, his hands were blood-stained for all of eternity, even though he was just following orders from the elders of Azure. But they were the hands of a murderer nonetheless and the guilt bore a hole into his soul. But when he looked at her, all the pain he felt, washed away.

  “What if it is, permanent?” she turned to face him now, and he could hear the hope in her voice.

  “Then, you, little miss mischievous, get just what's coming for you.” he smiled, reaching out to touch her cheek with his not bloodied hand.

  “And what is that?”

  A smile grew on her cherry red lips just as he moved to kiss her. The taste of his lips were sweet, his breath hot and musky. He held her in his arms and they laid naked on the cold concrete floor.

  “A chance to live for ourselves. Unshackled by cursed abilities and our ancestry.”

  Ava rested her head on his chest as a wave of terrifying excitement washed over her.

  “Scary,” she whispered softly.

  “Yeah,” he agreed, the rumble of his deep voice tickling her cheek, “and surprising.”

  Ava lifted her head to gaze into his eyes, smiling. “Oh?” she teased. “Our abilities going away, or us being together?”

  He smiled cheekily, and Ava thought for a tantalizing moment that he might be about to kiss her again, but before he could, she saw the ground beneath him light up in a peculiar symbol.

  “Kaden, no!” she cried out to warn him, but it was too late, her heart stopped as she watched his eyes roll back and his body spasm. Cloaked men appeared from thin air, the elders of Azure, surrounded them and chanted indifferently to her lover’s screams.

  An overwhelming animosity bubbled up from inside her. It was a feeling she loathed in herself and it made her sick to her stomach. Before she knew it, the blue crackle of her power lit up her twisted, sneering face as she unleashed her wrath, electrocuting everyone who stood in her way. Blood-curling screams and charred bodies were all that was left.

  She cried in the darkness, tears falling onto her bloodied hands.

  Ava woke up, tiredly smiling to herself. It was just a dream after all, even though it had recurred all too often now and it always left her feeling hollow inside.

  “Snap out of it, Avey, it was just a nightmare.” she chided herself, shaking her head side to side. Taking a deep breath, she got up from her makeshift bed of hay and leaves.

  She wasn’t a little girl anymore, but a young woman of twenty four years of age, on a mission to stop a series of kidnappings from terrorizing a neighbouring clan. Unless someone puts a stop to the madness, the trouble may never end, it was already happening to her clan. They needed her, she told herself, it wasn’t a time to cry over convoluted dreams no matter how much they tore her up inside.

  “What’s a young girl like you doing over at this side of Capetown?” the bar tender grinned, shaking his head at the girl standing before him, her oversized bag pack towering over her tiny form.

&nbs
p; “I was sent from the Azure nation and I am here to investigate the kidnappings that have taken place in your village.” Ava stated in a matter of fact way, unfazed by the man’s condescension.

  At that, he raised a bushy eyebrow before continuing, “Look, I don’t know who in their right mind would send a little girl like you, but you don’t want to get yourself involved in th-“

  The blue crackle of spark coming from her fingers, or rather the look in her eyes, stopped him dead in his tracks. The cat got his tongue.

  “Well, they say he’s got fangs and deadened eyes, and rumor is, he’s a vampire, so he’s probably huddled up somewhere in the day and hunts for prey around the north and south entrance – at least that’s where the bodies have been found, and others have gone missing.” he chuckled, wiping his brow nervously.

  The bar’s patrons grew silent as they watched blue sparks continue to run across her hands.

  “Yes, I know all that already, in fact I've got a little something left behind from the suspects." she murmured, producing a pendant with a peculiar emblem etched onto it. She was met with silence. "Don’t look at me like I’m about to set this place on fire.” she added, rolling her eyes, “Believe it or not, it’s my nerves.” The bartender continued to smile uncertainly at her.

  "That emblem! Some of the villagers have said they spotted a pair of suspicious hooded figures bearing an emblem on their coats, last spotted making their way through the secluded forest north of the village. We thought of them as odd as not very many wander to our village."

  "That's the emblem we saw alright!" added another man from the bar.

  "Thank you for the tip, could I have some mead, please?” she continued, smiling sweetly at him.

  Wordlessly, he complied and she placed a coin in his sweaty palm.

  Ava takes a swig from the bottle before clambering off the tall chair and making her way out.

  “Now if I were a vampire, where would I hide my fragile ass by day?” she murmured to herself, rubbing her chin.

  Walking out of the shade, she threaded along a lush grassy path, smiling at the children playing by the side. Their eyes sparkled and their laughs were joyous. It was

  unfamiliar to Ava, who recalled the strict rules and mannerisms that Azure children were to abide by, or risk exile. Laughing and playing the way these children

  do, unrestricted, were simply out of the question for those with great potential and power, at least that’s what they were told.

  Nodding decidedly to herself, she walked through the northern gates, past the old oak pillars where here on out was considered dangerous territory.

  If the annoying bartender with the one eyebrow was correct, then the first place she would investigate would be the nearest cavern from town through the forest.

  “There’s really no place else a vampire could be hiding around the southern outskirts of Mirstone.” she pondered to herself.

  All was silent except but for the sound of feet crunching on dried, deadened leaves. How long the trek had went, she was not sure but night was falling, and she was starting to regret her decision. Groaning, tired fingers reached for a water flask strapped around her waist. She chugged down on the last of her water and carried

  on.

  After what seemed like eternity and night had begun to fall, she sighed in relief as the sight of gypsum and limestone greeted her.

  This is it.

  Meanwhile, deep inside the cave, Vincent stared down two greedy vampires. He had tracked them down and spent the day in their cave, trying to understand them and convince them to change their ways. It was not necessary for them to drink blood, so why give in to their cravings so easily? Wary of his demeanor and equipment, his presence was tolerated for most of the day, but it seemed that the duo had finally had enough of him. Night was nearing, and the moon had begun to rise, strengthening them - and as their strength grew their patience waned. The time for words had ended.

  Vincent had been confident in his combat abilities from even before he was turned, and his skill grew even further afterwards. However, he couldn't take this situation lightly. While both he and his opponents had the same advantage of near-immortality, his opponents had fed recently and would be at maximum strength - unlike Vincent. Then again, Vincent was of a rare breed of vampire - a berserker type, far better suited for combat than the more common manipulator or stealth types.

  Not only that, but it seemed that they weren't fools. They each drew a dagger before slowly circling around him in opposite directions so that at least one of them would be outside of his field of vision. Vincent's armor - leather, with steel plates placed conservatively to minimize unnecessary encumbrance - shifted as he readied his bardiche. The large, curved blade was forged from an alloy laced with silver, and was even more dangerous to a vampire than it would be to a human. It was likely that the same could be said of the daggers his enemies now wielded. Infighting among vampires who involved themselves in vampire hierarchies was a frequent occurrence, so it was commonplace for them to carry weapons that were capable of killing their own kind.

  The ensuing flurry of combat only lasted a few seconds, a battle fought in breakneck speed.

  Just as his opponents were about to leap at him, Vincent dashed forward towards one swinging his oversized axe at high speed, preferring to go on the offensive than to defend against a pincer attack. His target blocked the axe with great strength using a dagger, sliding back a short distance across the ground as the bardiche rebounded. But Vincent had anticipated a block and used the momentum of the rebound to his advantage, spinning with it and sweeping the pole arm around at the other vampire - who had leapt towards him, dagger raised. The blade cut clean through the airborne vampire before he could react. A shriek filled the air and the vampire crumbled, transforming into ash rapidly from the site of the injury and plastering the cave with the force of Vincent's attack.

  Vincent followed the spinning attack through, bringing himself around just in time to parry upwards the thrust of the remaining vampire's dagger, knocking the vampire off balance and stumbling backwards into the cave wall. Without allowing any time to recover, Vincent used his strength to drive the blunt, wooden end of his bardiche into his opponent's chest - staking the vampire through the heart. Like his friend, the man crumbled into ash within seconds.

  A few minutes later, the sound of footsteps and clinking armor echoed out of the cave as Vincent approached the exit, covered in ash and with two new silver daggers strapped to his belt.

  Humming to herself, her hands lit up with the blue crackle of her power. Ava smiled, the cave was illuminated now, quelling any fear she had.

  Not a short while later, the sound of footsteps and clinking armor made her stop dead in her tracks. What was that? Her power fizzled out as she doubled back and hid behind a large rock. If she squinted hard enough through the little light in the cave, she could make out the form of a lone, shadowy figure. As it neared, the sight of silver glimmering across the mysterious figure's waist level sent shivers down her spine. Those weren't ordinary daggers, she had studied all about the weapons that vampires would use to slay their own kind. Bracing herself, a surge of lightning sparked to life across her tiny palm.

  "You're a step too late, little missy." he bemused, grinning at her, exposing pearly white sharp fangs.

  Frowning, she took a step forward, readying herself to blast him into oblivion.

  "Just who are you?" she muttered, squinting her eyes as beads of sweat trickled down her forehead.

  "The name's Vincent, the last of the House of Van Alen." he said, taking a bow, still grinning.

  "I have heard of your kind, and you're not who I am after," she said, slightly releasing her guard but still wary of the stranger, "just where did you get those?"

  "Why, from those that presumably you are after, seeker." he said, his voice echoing through the cave.

  "How do you know what I am?"

  "I don't, actually know what you are. But judging by the mark
on your skin, you must be from the Azure nation, a demon clan of the East."

  "Where are those that I am after? I need to take them as prisoners for the crimes they have committed."

  "They are gone. Vanished into thin air apart from their ashes scattered deep in this cave." he smiled with a twinkle in his eye. "With all that said," he continued, "now I must go and venture onward, but perhaps I will grab some tea first." he said, licking dry, chapped lips.

  "Wait!" she yelled.

  He stopped in his tracks, a look of recognition crossed his sharp features, "Ah, that's right, is this what you want?"

  Long, slim fingers held the daggers out to her. She reached to grab it but to no avail, his grip tightened.

  "They can be yours, for a little gold and perhaps if you could treat me to the finest tea around."

  She called him seven kinds of evil and grumbled under her breath, begrudgingly following him out of the cave.

  Eden slams down her tenth drink for the night, curling up next to Gunnar amidst the noisy chatter. It was getting late, but the bar was still bustling with activity, mostly burly men. Sinking into the plush cushion and her pal, she said in a sing-song voice, "Get me another drink?"