Nightwalker

Chapter 2

She was soaking wet and practically fuming, when she walked into the old storage building, which served as their hideout. She threw her sword sheath and her guns on the nearest table and sunk into the nearest chair. She shrugged out of the wet coat and hung it across the armrest, before leaning her head back and letting out an annoyed sigh.

“Let me guess.” A voice sounded from her right. “No luck tonight?”

She turned her head to look at Nathaniel, who was standing leaned against the door frame. He had to have just gotten back himself, because his black hair was wet and hanging into his eyes.

She scowled when she realized that he was dripping wet and still looked like a photo out of a magazine, while she probably looked like a drowned rat. Life was just not fair.

“No one seems to know anything about it…” She sighed. “Or if they do, they are not going to tell us.”

Nathaniel walked into the room, shedding his own coat as he went. Nat was tall and lean, and at first glance, he didn’t look like someone who hunted vampires for a living. Had you seen him handle a gun, you would know that he was very good at what he did.

He had a proud and handsome face. A vampire had once made the mistake of calling him a pretty boy… Just before a bullet hit him between the eyes and went right through his brain.

He threw himself in a chair besides hers. It creaked loudly under his weight and for a moment she thought it would collapse with him in it.

Being vampire hunters didn’t allow them to think a lot about their interior design, and so their furniture consisted mostly of wobbly old chairs and tables that had seen better days. Her bed post contained several bullet holes from the time Nathaniel had shot a crazed vampire that had tried to attack her in her sleep.

Despite the sounds of protest, the chair was able to hold his weight, and Valencia forced her mind away from their poor decorating.

“I didn’t find anything either.” He said and leaned his head back to stare at the ceiling. “It’s like those people were attacked by a ghost.”

Valencia scoffed. “A ghost with a taste for blood, in that case. I wish dead people would just stay dead.”

Nathaniel turned his head and grinned at her. “Well, that’s our job, isn’t it?”

Valencia couldn’t help but return his grin. Despite the nature of their job, they loved it. And they were good at it. Whatever was out killing those people might be able to hide from the bloodsuckers, but it wouldn’t be able to hide from them.

ℓ

She had woken up to Nathaniel pounding on her door, telling her to get up.

Now they were both standing bowed over what had once been a human body, but now was nothing but pieces of bloodied flesh.

She had seen many vampire victims through the years, but never anyone looking like this. Most vampires simply killed by either breaking their victim’s neck or draining them for blood. This one slaughtered them.

The face was practically ripped off, and the chest torn open, but Valencia was pretty sure it had been a woman. What remained of her shoulders was too narrow to be a man, and under some of the blood splatter she spotted a few dainty fingers. It might have been a younger boy, but she decided to assume it was a woman. Kids shouldn’t be walking around that late at night.

The sight of the corpse was gruesome. At first sight, it was nothing but a bloody mess, but if you looked closer, you could see white glimpses of bones sticking out from her chest, where the ribcage had been torn open. The chest itself had been hollowed out, as if an animal had devoured her entrails.