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

20 The sting of the sunray

Lailoken sat on the ground and allowed his fog to spread in all directions, stretching his power to its limits.

"How do I find the supernatural hunters?" he asked the trees.

He didn't get an answer immediately, but as soon as one of the trees said, I know where, he gathered all fog to follow the trail. Tree by tree, he followed clues and gossip while the sky above him began to lighten. Eventually, the trees led him to a fenced property beyond which there were no more trees at all. Even his fog didn't like daylight, so he turned into his solid form and put on his sunglasses. It helped for now, but once the sun rose, he would be in trouble.

He ran down a long road in the direction of a one-story house, which stood alone in the middle of a barren field of trimmed grass. Something felt off about the place. There was no one there and all the lights in the house were off, but he felt as if someone were watching him.

The phone in his pocket was buzzing, but he didn't look at it. He guessed that River and her parents were panicking about where he was. The sun would rise any minute now, and he was far from their den.

He approached the front door and knocked, hoping that he was in the right place. Trees were unreliable navigators, but it was the only idea he had. The day grew brighter, and he was out of time to look for shelter. If it was the wrong house, he would have to run to the woods and hide underground for an entire day, and he would rather avoid that. Another day would be wasted and more trees would suffer.

And what if Josie refused to talk to him? When she left him without a goodbye, she could have decided she wanted nothing to do with him. If she refused to help him save his forest, the least she could do was to give him closure.

His sensitive hearing picked up soft footsteps right before he heard a voice. "Don't move a muscle," a man said, coming up from behind him. "You chose the wrong house to invade, bloodsucker."

It had to be Josie's hunter family. Lailoken sighed in relief. At least he was in the right place. "I'm looking for Josie."

"I don't care what you're looking for. You have thirty seconds to leave or you'll get to feel firsthand why they call this gun the sunray."

Lailoken gritted his teeth. The man had to have noticed that it was too bright for him to just walk away. "I mean no harm. I only want to talk to her."

"Yeah, right. Did Philip Leonardo send you? The Guild is taking care of the matter of what happened at The Red Den. Take up your issue with them."

Lailoken didn't know what the man spoke about, surely, he wouldn't know about the blood trials, but it made no difference. "My name is Lailoken. Please, ask Josie. She knows me."

He picked up a faint voice that spoke close to the man. Stall him. We got him.

"I mean no harm," Lailoken repeated.

"How did you get over our security fence?" the man asked. "That's what I want to know."

"Why wouldn't I? Any vampire could jump over it."

The man scoffed. "Not without getting shot by our motion-activated sunray.

Lailoken guessed it wasn't fog-proof. "Please, I just want to—"

Before he could finish the sentence, a bright light assaulted him from all directions. While he recoiled, shielding his eyes, a chainlink net wrapped around him, searing him with hot magic everywhere it touched. He instinctively curled up on the floor, trying to avoid the net.

"Got him," another man said. More voices gathered around, laughing and congratulating each other. They turned off the bright light at last.

Having gotten over the initial surprise, Lailoken turned into fog, escaped the net, and reappeared next to the man he spoke to first. "That was uncalled for," he complained.