Blood Hunt

The Beginning
Book one


I’ve been doing this for almost twenty-years, far too long. I’m thirty-six years old now; I first learned the truth about the world as a child. Vampires, they’re real, they’re everywhere. And they’re not what you think. All that crap you see in movies is just that, crap. About the only truths to the “Movie Myths” is that they kill for blood, and there are a few people like me out there, people who hunt them. My name is Perseus (My parents were mythology buffs). I kill vampires.
I can’t say I hunt them out of revenge. I got my revenge a long time ago. I suppose it’s more sport than anything. Some guys get off on shooting deer; I get off on slicing vamps to ribbons. What can I say? It’s fulfilling, what can I say? Not only is it fun, as morbid as that may sound, but every vamp I bleed, is hundreds of lives saved. The bastards aren’t immortal, but they live a long time. One vampire just might kill a thousand people easy in its lifetime, if you want to call it a life.
There are plenty of ways to kill a vampire. The whole stake in the heart deal, sure it works…but you put a piece of wood in anything’s heart, I bet you a wooden nickel it dies. You can kill them just about any way you can kill a human. The thing is, vamps are not human. They are a bit stronger and faster than us, but still vulnerable. Guns work, but they’re noisy, and you’re pretty much limited to head shots. You can shoot a vamp in the gut, and it might die, if it doesn’t feed that is. The bastards do heal good. Holy water and sunlight…no go. Though they don’t like sun for some reason, it won’t kill them. I think they are light sensitive, I never really thought to ask before I wasted one. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. The bottom line is, they prowl in daylight just like at night. They’re actually bolder in daylight. They know a hunter is less apt to attack during the daylight hours; More possible witnesses. If the average person sees you pull a four foot sword out of your coat and slash the shit out of a vampire, they’re going to call the cops to report a murder in progress. Trust me; the cops won’t buy “officer, he was a vampire, I swear”. Vamps have evolved to the point that they pass for human all to well. They have the world fooled into thinking they’re not real. Well, most of the world. There are a few of us who learned the truth the hard way.
I was thirteen when I found out, that was also the first time I picked up a sword. Okay, I know what you’re thinking, “Guy hunts vampires with a sword…he’s seen ‘blade’ too many times”. Well news flash people, I’ve been doing this for eighteen years. That’s long before the Blade movies ever came out. Though I am a fan, I love those movies; I have the DVDs and Blu-Rays.
 



CHAPTER ONE
I have faint memories of how it happened. To the best of my recollection, it was fast. I was in the kitchen of my parents’ house, searching for a snack. I heard a knock on the door. I didn’t think anything of it; my parents were in the living room. If it was someone important, they’d call me. I heard my dad’s heavy footsteps go from the couch to the door, then the door click. Nothing out of the ordinary…then came the crush and the screams. Needless to say, I was scared, but adrenaline forced me to react.
I peeked around the archway leading from the kitchen to the doorway. I don’t know how much time had passed. It felt like it took me hours to get to the archway. What I saw will never leave me. My dad was lying near the door, his neck a pulpy disaster. A black clad figure was on top of my mother on the couch. He was hunched over…biting her. The adrenaline kicked in again.
On the wall, above the fireplace hung a large broadsword; my dad had gotten it a few months back. He said it looked like something Hercules would use (like I said, my parents were mythology buffs). Before I realized it, the sword was in my hands, held over my head. I must have mad enough noise that I distracted the bastard. He looked up at me, still on my mother. I noticed her staring at me too, she was still alive. All this happened in a split second, and then I noticed the fangs. That was when I knew. I knew it was a vampire. He looked at me with a wide, sharp toothed, bloody smile. Like he knew it was over. I let the blade fall. I cut him from the side of the neck to his chest. It was easier than I thought it would be. I don’t know if the sword was that sharp, or the vamps body was that soft, but he was like butter. The one swipe was all it took. He dropped.
The body fell over; I pushed it off my mother. She was still breathing, and looking at me with pleading eyes. Her throat slowly trickled blood, she tried to say something, but it only came out as a gurgling sound. I felt tears well up in my eyes. The thought to check on my dad had occurred to me, but I knew he was dead. I grabbed the phone from the table at the end of the couch, and started to dial nine-one-one. I stopped before the second one. I may have only been thirteen, but I knew that nobody would believe it was a vampire. I didn’t know what to do. I left the phone on the cradle, and went to my mother. She was already gone. It was at that moment that I had realized that I was alone. My grandparents had all passed except for my mom’s dad, but he lived in New York, we live in Colorado. It would do no good to call him. I barely knew him anyway.
My whole world was turned upside down. I didn’t know what to do or where to go. I didn’t think any of my friends’ parents could help. How could I explain to anyone that a vampire killed my parents, and I killed the vampire. Hell, I was having a hard time believing it. It just didn’t seem real. But there were the bodies of my dead parents and the vampire that killed them. The proof was undeniable. The only other thing I was absolutely sure of, was that there was a dead vampire in my living room, and there had to be more.
I don’t know what made me do it, but something made me go to the garage and get a shovel. I went to the back yard and started to dig a hole. I dug non-stop for over an hour, probably closer to three to be honest. After the hole was deep enough, I went back into the house, and into the living room. All was as I had left it. I grabbed the body of the vampire by the wrists and drug it to the back yard. I was surprised that there was not a lot of blood coming from the vamp’s body. i guessed that they didn’t have a lot of blood in them.
After I dropped the dead vamp into the hole, I started to worry if it would come back to life. All I knew was what I had seen in the movies. I hadn’t staked the thing, I decided that I should. I went back into the house, to the kitchen closet. I grabbed the broom and snapped the handle, making a make-shift stake. When I got back to the hole, I kneeled down and took a deep breath before I shoved the broom handle into where I thought the heart would be. It still didn’t feel right. I thought about what else I knew from the movies…the head. In some movies, they cut the head off of the vampire’s body too. The very thought made my stomach churn, but I thought I had to do it. I went back inside to the living room, and did my best to ignore my dead parents. That was when it hit me. They might turn into vampires too. I hated the thought of what I had to do. In the kitchen, was the rest of the broom handle. I went and got it, broke it in two and did what needed to be done. Then I picked up the sword from next to my Mom, and raised it above my head. “I’m sorry”, I said, then I let it fall. I felt like I would puke, but I still wasn’t done. I walked over to my dad’s body, and did the same thing. I started to feel dizzy, and even sicker to my stomach as I made my way out back to the hole that held the vampire. The sword was still in my hands. At this point I was running on pure impulse and adrenaline. It took a few tries to get the blade in the hole at the right angle. It kept hitting the sides, but I finally succeeded. That was when I did puke. And after that, I passed out.
 
CHAPTER TWO
What really confused me was the fact that they call me crazy, but there was a dead vampire, in a hole, in my back yard. I racked my brain for the longest on that one. I could only come to one conclusion. The police covered it up. The only reason they would, is that vampires were everywhere. There were probably vamps in the police force, city hall, everywhere. It probably went further than that. The bastards probably ran the world. There was no telling how deep their influence ran. Things began to become very clear to me. All the missing person cases…even Red Cross blood shortages could all be linked back to the blood suckers. We’re just cattle in the world. That pissed me off to no end. Hell, the president could be a vampire for all anyone knew.
On the day of my eighteenth birthday, they had to turn me loose. Since they never charged me for anything, they couldn’t keep me any longer than that. The official story, was that I went crazy, or had a “psychotic episode”, and killed my parents and a visitor with a sword. Because I was psychotic at the time, I couldn’t be held accountable for my actions. Never mind the fang toothed bloody mouthed corpse in my back yard, or the gaping holes in my parents throats. It was all my fault. Let’s just pump the kid full of drugs and hope he forgets.
They put me up in a hotel close to the hospital. I assume they wanted to keep an eye on me. Then again, it may have just been convenient. I was paid up for two months at the hotel. It was called “The Red Rock Hotel”. It wasn’t bad compared to the white walls, stiff sheets and terrazzo floors I had lived with for the past five years. Just having a regular bed made up for the short-comings of the second rate hotel. No cable, only a standing shower, and the thin walls that provided a constant stream of moans and bumps from the next room. It really wasn’t all bad.
It took me almost no time at all to find a job. A little pizza place called “Pizza Mountain”. It wasn’t so bad, the place almost never got busy, and they had a girl to answer the phones. All I had to do was make pizza. Of course there was the added bonus of free pizza, which really saved on food cost. I knew I needed to save my money. I didn’t feel safe being so close to where I knew vamps lurked. For all I knew, they were just waiting to take me out of the picture. I was a witness. Needless to say, I had become quite the paranoid conspiracy theorist. It’s a wonder they even let me out of the loony bin. I even got myself a decent katana from a pawn shop. It’s a decent sword, Japanese style. All I really cared about was that it had a good strong handle. The guy at the pawn shop didn’t ask any questions either. That was good.
I choose a sword for reasons that I described earlier. Guns are loud, they attract too much attention, and a stray bullet could hit a human. Besides, you would have to blow a lot of holes in a vamp to cause enough blood loss to drop it. They usually turn tail and run before you seriously hurt them. Besides, the sword is more sporting. It’s fun.
 
CHAPTER THREE
I had been at the Red Rock for about a month and a half. I was walking home from work one night, about six blocks. I kept thinking that I heard footsteps behind me. My first thought was that it was a vampire. I didn’t have my sword with me, just a large chicken and cheese pizza, and I didn’t think that would help me much. I was only about a block away from home at this point; I hoped I’d get there before the thing attacked. Sword or no sword, it would have to work for it’s meal.
I made it to the door of my room without incident. But as soon as I put the key in the lock I felt a hand on my shoulder. On instinct I turned and swung my fist. The pizza dropped to the ground just as I felt my fist connect with bone.
“Wait!” cried my assailant.
I didn’t wait, I swung again. This one landing him square on his ass.
“Fuck man! I’m here to help!” he said.
“Help with what?” I asked, my fist still raised.
“You’re Perseus Covell right?”
“Yeah, so…who are you?”
“Slade Korvenn” he replied, raising his hand to be helped up. I only looked at it. He shrugged and ended up getting up himself, “you have no idea why I’ve tracked you down do you?” he asked.
“Well” I said, “I guess my original idea of you wanting to kill me is wrong”.
“You worry about that a lot?” asked Slade.
“Yeah, I kind of do” I said.
“You should” he said this with one of the most serious and deadpan faces I’ve ever seen. It reminded me of some of the doctors at the state hospital.
We both stood in silence for a minute. I bent down and picked up the pizza I dropped before decking the man. It hadn’t fallen out of the box, so I figured it would be salvageable.
“You like chicken and cheese?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Come on in” I said as I turned to open the door.
I only had one chair in my room, I gestured to it and he sat down. I held out the pizza box and offered him a slice. The pie was in surprisingly good condition for having been dropped anyway. He took a slice; I sat down on the bed with the rest and took one myself.
“I heard you got out of the hospital,” Slade said, “I didn’t know if any of the others were going to try and find you, so I had to try”.
“What others, and why, would you mind filling me in?” I asked. I had a feeling I knew what he was talking about, but I wanted to hear him say it.
“The other vampire hunters, you’re a marked man Perseus. It’s a wonder that the vamps have not made their move on you yet. Not only have you seen them, but you killed one.
There it was the validation of my sanity. Five years I waited for just one more person to say they’ve seen a vampire too. Now this guy even says he hunts them. I did the only thing I could. I gave him some more pizza, and began to question the hell out of him.
He laid it all out for me. He told me that even though I was only a minor threat to their “secret existence”, they would still want me gone. Especially the family of the one I wasted. Apparently, vamps are very, very vindictive; especially when a thirteen year old kid bleeds one of their own. Go figure.
He also filled me in on basic vamp knowledge. He told me that sunlight, holy water, garlic…he told me that all that crap was bullshit. A good whack to the head, neck, or chest was the best way. He also told me that the only way a person would ever become a vamp, is if they ingested the blood of one; which meant that beheading the bodies of my parents wasn’t necessary. At least I was thinking right…but still, that fucked me up. Doing the vamp didn’t really bother me, but the ideas of what I did to my parents made me sick; it pissed me off.
I said, “I’ve been waiting five years for someone to tell me I’m not crazy. I always knew I wasn’t, but it means something to hear someone else say they know vampires exist”.
“Fucked up isn’t it?” said Slade.
“Yeah,” I paused, “but it all makes sense too”.
 
CHAPTER FOUR
Slade and I spent the next few hours talking about my safety, and what I should do. He also passed on to me what other knowledge there was about vamps. There really wasn’t much just that they’re everywhere you think they’d be, and no one knows who the first was. The whole Dracula idea is shit for sure. The vamps probably don’t even know who their main ancestor was.
He asked me if I had a weapon, I showed him my blade, and then I had a thought. I put it to his neck.
“What are you doing?” he asked without a tremor in his voice.
“How do I know you’re not a vamp?” I asked.
“I was wondering when you would finally ask that question” he said, “you should have a long time ago”. He pushed the blade from his neck. “To start, I didn’t kill you when we were at the door. Two, I ate pizza. I’ve never known a vamp to eat solid food. And finally, we’re going on a hunt, you need to get a feel for the job”.
“Job” I said.
“Well, it’s more of a hobby. You won’t get paid; you live off of what you find in vamp hideouts…which can be a lot. It’s fulfilling though, dangerous and addictive. And it’s all you can do since they know who you are”.
I thought about this for a minute. “When do we start?” I asked.
“We’ll leave in the morning, my car is parked behind “Pizza Mountain”, I don’t want to walk back tonight. There could be a swarm, I don’t know if I was seen following you.”
“It’s that deep, huh?”
“Yeah, it’s that deep.”
I noticed a shadow run past the window next to the door. “One thing you still haven’t answered, Slade.”
“What’s that?”
“Is it true that they have to be invited in?” I replied.
“No,” said Slade, “What’s wrong?”
Maybe I had a look on my face, or perhaps it was the fact that I had grabbed my Katana off the bed and unsheathed it. Whatever it was, Slade looked worried.
“Do you have a blade on you?” I said.
“Yeah” he said, pulling a huge survival knife out of the back of his pants, “I always have my backup.”
“Well, I think you were followed” I said.
I don’t think I heard the door fly off its hinges until it hit the wall behind me. Three guys came through the door…Vamps. They were dressed like any normal person would be, I guess. Had it not been for the fangs, they could have been the guy next to you in line for a roller coaster.
The one in front seemed to be in charge, he pointed at Slade and the other two dove at him. The leader came at me. My sword was in my hands already. I almost felt thirteen again, I think. Impulse told my body what to do, adrenaline fueled it. The fang mouthed fuck was just about on me when I landed a home run swing to his neck. I swear there was a look of pure surprise on his face before his head fell off. I guess he didn’t see the blade until it was too late. So far I was two for two, both were caught by surprise.
It took a few moments to snap back to reality. I couldn’t believe how fast it had all happened. I turned my head just in time to see Slade hit the wall on the far end of the room. One of his vamps lay on the floor in a small puddle of blood. He got that one, the vamp must have dirty worked him. What else would you expect from a blood drinking cock bites though?
In no time at all, the vamp was on Slade, trying to push his own knife into his shoulder. The tip was pushing into his skin, he cried out in surprise and pain all at once. Again impulse took over, I ran to the struggle, or I jumped I should say and without thinking stuck the tip of my sword into the back of the vampire’s neck and twisted. The vamp screamed, which I did not expect at all. He jumped up, with the blade still in its neck, leaving a gash in its own flesh and at the same time wrenching the sword from my hands.
That was all the time Slade needed to leap up on the vamp’s back. “You son of a bitch” Slade screamed as he slid his knife into the bastard’s throat. He twisted and yanked, the vamp could only bleed as it fell to its knees.
On instinct, I bent down to pick my sword up.
“Take its head off, they don’t breathe” Slade yelled.
With one swipe, I lopped off its head, the body dropped.
Slade looked at me. “Thanks, good job” he said, “we should go by the way”.
“Yeah” I said, “I’m with you”.
With that we were off, out the door with blades in hand. I didn’t have to ask to know where we were headed; Pizza Mountain to Slade’s car. I prayed we wouldn’t run into any company.
It took us about ten minutes to make the six block trek to Pizza Mountain. When we walked onto the front parking lot, where the customers parked, it was quiet. The lights to the store were off, as I had left them, but the large overhead lights that usually lit up the parking lot at night were off. “I don’t like this” I said.
“The lights” Slade asked.
“Yeah, they were on when I left work”.
“I noticed too” said Slade, “There are more waiting for us somewhere”.
“Probably out back, waiting for us to go to your car” I said.
“You go left, I’ll go right” Slade said, “If we come at them from both sides we’ve got a better chance of surprising them”.
“Look, man” I said, “I aint exactly good at this vampire fighting crap”.
“You did fine earlier”.
“That doesn’t mean shit; I wasn’t walking into a dark parking lot earlier”.
“Do you have a better idea?” He raised his knife in an offensive position.
“No” I rose my sword to what I thought was a mean looking stance, “we’re not exactly in a position to turn around I guess”.
“Like it or not, this is what you’re into.” Slade said in a sullen tone, “Just keep your neck protected, and go for their chest and head”.
We both went opposite directions around the building. I kept my back to the wall as I inched my way to the back where Slade’s car was. I heard a scream, it was Slade. It sounded like a battle cry more than anything.
“Fuck” I said.
 
CHAPTER FIVE
I took a deep breath, kept my blade raised and ran toward the noise. I saw three figures near a black car as soon as I turned the corner. One of the figures was Slade, I could tell by the way he was wildly slashing…trying to keep the vamps at bay. They looked to be toying with him, taunting him.
“Ooh! Big hunter, eh, can’t even kill two vampires” I heard one say. “Bet I can change that” I yelled. Both vamps turned toward me, Slade jumped at one and tackled him. The other started to run toward me. I swung at his neck, but missed, and momentum caused me to follow through with my swing. The vamp seized the opportunity to grab me in a choke hold, one hand holding the wrist of my sword holding hand so I couldn’t move it. This bastard was strong.
“You must be the one we’re looking for” he hissed in my ear, “Silus wants you bad. I’ll bet you’re worth at least a million easy!”
I tried to struggle, but I couldn’t move. “You better just bite me, because if I get the chance, you’re head is coming off bitch” I growled at the vamp. I probably sounded funny because I was scared out of my socks. I heard the vamp laugh, then what felt like two ice-picks stabbing my neck. I was about to scream, that is until I heard one of the greatest sounds you can hear in that situation. The sound of a shotgun being cocked. The vamp stopped in mid-bite.
“Let him go!” It was Slade, of course.
“We can talk about this right” the vamp asked in a shaky voice.
“Maybe, if you let him go.” The vamp didn’t let go, Slade must have pressed the barrel of the gun against its head, because I felt its head shift behind me. I was afraid to look. “If you want to talk, you let go, otherwise I pull the trigger.” The vamp let go. I took a few steps forward, turned and raised my sword. I wanted to waste the bastard; Slade stopped me. “Hold on” he said, “I want to hear what he has to say. He said he wanted to talk.” He looked at me with a questioning glance.
“I knew you were a reasonable person” said the vampire, “Silus is willing to pay….”
The bang was louder than I thought; I’d never heard a gun fired in real life before. It made me jump. The vamps head exploded in a splash of red and gray. Some of it splashed on my shirt. Slade’s expression showed no emotion at all. The body stayed standing for a second before it dropped.
“I thought guns were too noisy” I asked.
“They are, but I wanted to make a point” Slade replied.
“What was the point?”
“That I hate vampires.”
“Oh.”
“You okay” he asked.
“Yeah, just a couple pokes” I said, rubbing my neck. “I thought I was dead. That fucker was strong.”
“They all are. The other one took a small chunk out of my arm before I stuck him.” Slade pointed to a spot above his left elbow.
“Damn” I said, “you need a doctor.”
“No, I’m cool. I’ve had worse; I’ve got a first aid kit in the car. Let’s go” he said.
We walked to the car, which was an older style Camaro. We got in and Slade pulled a clear box out from under his seat. His first aid kit, he started to patch himself up when he told me to open the glove box. I did; An automatic pistol was inside.
“Keep that, you never know when you need one.”
“Sure” I said as I laid the gun in my lap, “where are we going?”
“My place” he replied, “I think this qualifies as your first hunt.” Slade finished with his arm, put the aid kit back under the seat and started the car.
“What about the bodies” I asked.
“Usually we’d clean up, but we’ve got to go. I know there will be more before long” Slade replied.
We pulled out onto the road and started out towards Larkspur, a town way far away from Denver, where we were. We left the bodies of the dead vamps where they were, I didn’t expect to hear about them again. I figured they’d be covered up. Who cared though, I was obviously in this shit over my head anyway; what could get worse?
It was quiet for a while; Slade was the first to speak. “You kill vamps good” he said.
“I almost got killed” I said, “you had to save my ass.”
“Just like you saved mine at the hotel” Slade said matter-of-factly, “we all need help at times. Vamps are stronger and faster than us. I’ve had to rely on someone to save my ass more times than I can count. But I’ve done the same for other hunters. It’s just part of the territory.”
“Either way, thanks for finding me and saving my ass. I always had a feeling that the vampires were looking for me” I said.
“Yeah, you pissed off a pretty badass group of vamps.”
“Something that last vamp said got me wondering” I said.
“What?” Slade looked at me.
“Who is Silus? He said Silus would pay a lot of money for me.”
Slade sighed, “Silus Ravyn, head of the Fanglord family. Probably the worst family of vamps there is. You killed one of his, a vamp he turned himself.”
“Great” I said, “do you mean family as in brothers and sisters?”
“More like a mafia family” Slade replied.
“I pissed off the godfather, huh?”
“Pretty much” he said, “try not to think about it.”
“Yeah, sure, easy to not think about a bunch of vampires that want to eat me.”
“Could be worse” he said.
“Yeah” I smiled, “how?”
“That vamp could have killed you” he said, “or took you back to Ravyn so he could turn you.”
I was silent for a moment, “how much farther” I asked.
“About an hour” he said.
“What’s your story, you know mine” I said.
“I was afraid you’d finally ask that.”
 
CHAPTER SIX

For the better part of an hour, Slade talked as he drove. Not once taking his eyes off the road. He told a sad story about him, his wife, and his five year old daughter. The vampires made a surprise house call at their hotel room at Disney Land. Slade barely survived, his family was not so fortunate. The scar on his neck made it seem as though he wasn’t fortunate either.
“Disney Land” I said with a raised eyebrow.
“Yep, happiest place on earth” Slade replied sarcastically.
“You’d think a murder at Walt Disney Land would have been all over T.V.”
“When it comes to vamp jobs, they always get covered up. You know all about that.”
“Yeah, I do” I said, “How exactly did you survive?”
“A maid knocked on the door, the vamp hopped out of a fourth story window. He must have been a new turn, most would have snagged her too.”
“Damn” I said.
“The maid called nine-one-one, they just barely stabilized me. I was in I.C.U. for two weeks. A nurse there brought me into the fold as far as hunters go” Slade said.
“Kind of like you did me” I asked.
“Something like that” he said, “When I could finally talk again, she asked me if I knew what happened. I said no, so she told me; That adrenaline amnesia crap.”
“So she was a hunter too” I asked.
“She kind of is, she’s like a vampire hunter secretary. She takes care of finding and buying weapons, keeping tabs on vamp attacks, where they’re congregating, things like that. She doesn’t get in the action too much.”
“What’s her story?”
“Ask her yourself when we get to the compound” he said, “I’ve been with her for five years, since I was released from the hospital.”
“She basically recruited you?”
“She offered me the opportunity to be part of the only solution to the problem, I took it.”
“When you say with her, do you mean like together” I just had to ask.
“No, no, she’s my best friend though” he said, “Why do you ask”, he finally looked at me, his eyebrow was raised.
“No reason, just curious” I said, “what’s her name?”
“Auralynne, Auralynne Cade” Slade replied.
“That’s an odd name.”
“She’s an odd woman.”
That was the last word either of us spoke until we reached Slade’s compound.
 

CHAPTER SEVEN
Auralynne Cade was an odd woman. We arrived at Slade’s compound in Larkspur after well over an hour of non-stop driving. It was really a small abandoned apartment building he had bought from the city, but he could call it a compound if he wanted. After going through two gates, we arrived at the front door. One of those large double doors you always see on apartment fronts. Slade hit a small black button on a silver intercom box.
“It’s me” he said into the box.
“Who is me?” The box crackled in a high pitched voice.
“Who do you think?” Slade replied, then when no answer came, he spoke again.
“Dammit Auro, if you don’t let us in, I’m going to ram the car through the side of the compound, your side!”
“Why didn’t you just say it was you?” The high pitched voice said, “I would have buzzed you in a long time ago Slade. Who’s with you?”
“Perseus Cowel” he said, “I found him and we’ve had a really fucked up night, just let us in.”
“Wow, you found the kid huh? Did you run into any fanged fucks?”
“Yeah, we did” Slade said, “can’t we talk inside?”
“Yeah, we could” Auralynne said.
I looked at Slade, “What’s her deal?” I asked.
He looked back at me, “I told you she was odd.” He pressed the button again. “Why can’t we talk about this inside, Auralynne?”
“I’m still not sure it’s you” she said in a chirpy voice.
“Do I have to tell Perseus here about you birthmark?” Slade said with a sly grin. The door immediately buzzed and popped open a few inches. We stepped inside to the foyer.
“Birthmark” I asked.
“I’ll tell you later” he said.
The compound used to be a two floor, six units building. Slade had turned it into a two floor, open floor warehouse. At least that’s what it looked like. There were computers, televisions, stereo systems, and boxes of what seemed to be full of CD’s, DVD’s, Blu-Ray’s, or video games, and a couple small boxes of what looked like necklaces and other jewelry.
In the center of the ground floor, sat a woman at what looked like a cafeteria table with a few different computers tangled in a jungle of wires. She had jet black hair down to her rear and wore black eye makeup like a gothic teen. The general populace would likely pick her out as the vampire over some of the vamps I’d seen so far. Slade walked over to the table.
“Auralynne Cade, meet Perseus Cowel” said Slade.
She stood up, I noticed she was taller than Slade, and Slade was taller than me. That was when it hit me just how normal Slade looked. He wasn’t wearing combat gear, just regular clothes, and normal light brown hair in a ‘Joe Anybody’ style. When standing next Auralynne, he looked normal. She was pretty though, I’m sure, under the makeup.
“Nice to meet you Perseus” she said in a chirpy voice. Not what you expect to hear from someone who looked like she belonged in one of those black metal music videos.
“Got you some vamp action tonight” she asked.
“Yeah” I answered, “it wasn’t much”.
Slade spoke up, “five dead vampires, Perseus got three kills…well, two and an assist anyway”.
Auralynne noticed the sword in my hand.
“You’ll want to clean and sharpen that” she pointed to the Katana, “I’ll get it for you”.
“Uh, thanks” I said as I handed her the sword. She took Slade’s survival knife too.
“Where’s your claymore” she asked.
“Still in the car, I didn’t get to use it” he almost sounded kind of disappointed.
“So you bled two vamps with just your sticker, that’s nuts!”
“If Perseus hadn’t been there, I’d probably be a vamp right now” Slade said, they both looked at me.
“Good work, for a beginner” said Auralynne, “think you can keep it up?”
“Do I have a choice” I replied.
“Not really” she said with a smirk.
“Hey” I said, “How did you know it was safe to let us in? What if we were vampires?”
“Easy” she said, “while you were at the door, I had the sonogram scanner on you. Kind of like doctors use on pregnant women. I scanned you both for a heartbeat. That, combined with enough surveillance to cover a block in every direction, makes sure no vamp gets in here without me knowing it.”
“Okay” was all I could say.
“Come on” said Slade, “I’ll give you the tour and we’ll get you set up in one of the rooms in back.
Slade showed me around his compound, what was once a six unit two-level apartment building was now a two-story vamp hunting headquarters. He had gutted the building, and made a few small sleeping rooms in the back on the bottom floor, placed enough surveillance equipment around the perimeter to make the C.I.A. jealous, and used the rest of the space for what he called ‘the spoils of war’, which included all the electronics I’d seen earlier. Apparently, vampires get bored too, so they stock their homes with video games and the like. He just cleaned the place out when he hit a vamp hideout. Auralynne sold the stuff on e-bay to fund their operation. “She’s awesome” was what Slade had to say about her. There was even a few motorcycles and a new SUV in the underground garage.
“So”, I asked, “am I supposed to stay here now and join your fight?”
“Do you want to?” he replied.
“Do you think Auralynne will care?”
“Somehow, I don’t think so” he said, “come with me”.
He took me to the rooms in the back of the ground level and opened one. Inside was a clean, neat looking room with a large paper banner going from wall to wall that read ‘Welcome Perseus’.
“She’s had this room ready for three days, since we found out where you were, and that you were alive” he said.
“Looks like I’m in” I said.
“Welcome to the Blood Hunt” Slade said as he extended his hand.




 
EPILOGUE
It was that night that I got my new family. Slade and Auralynne became my brother and sister of sorts. Naturally, I would always wonder just how I got into this situation, but then again, I don’t think I’d change a thing. If I had any idea what was ahead of me though, i’d probably run back to the state hospital.