The Madman of the Woods | ONC 2024 Shortlist | Vampire Romantasy | Supernatural

12 The Bloodline

Josie had the worst luck. Who should she run into when on a brief bathroom break? None other than the Banshee who was touching up makeup in the mirror. Josie sneaked out of there, cursing herself for picking that club. After searching for the damn vamp for years, she had to have found her when unarmed and in a public space. And not just any public space. A club crawling with vampires.

Josie made a beeline through the crowd to get back to Lailoken, but Banshee and her vamp friends caught up with her. The act of removing her from the dance floor was so swift and discrete, it had to have been a regular thing. She tried to scream but didn't even get a peep out, immediately silenced by the gloved hand of a vamp guard. She could bet lots of people had gone missing in The Red Den. How the vamps had gotten away with it was a mystery she was about to uncover the hard way.

"What do you think you're doing," Josie snapped when they stopped. "You can't just kidnap me."

"Hunters are forbidden from entering the club," one of the guards stated. "Don't act like you don't know." She patted Josie down and checked her arms for clan tattoos.

Her only sliver of luck in her unluckiness was that she had never passed her initiation test—thanks to Banshee—and was never officially welcomed to her clan or given the celebratory tattoo. Being the black sheep of the family had one perk at least.

"I'm not a hunter," she said as they exchanged a look.

It made no difference though. Banshee waved them off and turned to discuss something with two bald male vamps—the same ones Lailoken had a run-in with earlier.

Two tall female vamps dressed in tight, black guard suits held Josie down and dragged her into a dark hallway. Dread sank deeper into her bones the further away from the music they got. They traveled deep into the belly of the building, up the stairs, and passed a fancy iron door, where a different type of club was open for business, one that smelled like expensive perfume. A live pianist played cocktail music while about a hundred vampires—only vampires—lounged around, holding blood-filled glasses. Behaving like the modern aristocracy, vamps paid them no mind as the guards stopped to the side with Josie who struggled in their hold. She could imagine that humans being brought over from the dance club as a snack was a regular occurrence.

She gritted out, "I'm not a hunter. You have no right."

"Shush," the guard said, "and wait."

She ground her teeth and looked around for a way out. The place was huge with a tall ceiling and metal support columns. The decor was a mixture of black gothic, industrial metal, and a strange sprinkle of decorative trees in boxes, as if the decorator was trying to make multiple people happy. There were doors to the side, wider than the one they'd come through, all too far for her to sneak off to. If she were lucky, these vamps would have decorated their club with weapons she could use, but luck was not on her side at all.

"What does the VIV on the door stand for?" Josie asked, trying to sound like she wasn't at all scared shitless. "Vanish Inside a Vamp?"

The guards didn't answer but stared ahead. Their hold on her arms slackened, but Josie knew well she had no chance of getting away from them. Even a young vampire was stronger than the strongest human and those two had prominent gray streaks in their short hair already.

"Vampires Inhabit Villages," Josie stated.

One of the guards rolled her eyes.

Waiters in black and gold uniforms walked around with blood pitchers, refilling the empty glasses of the guests. Josie swallowed bile, wondering what type of blood it was. She said, "Vampires Indulging Vino."

"Very Important Vampire," the guard snapped. "Like VIP but VIV."

"Ahh. I get it. What makes these vampires important?"