The Khigir Hunters

4. Vampires

"Twelve hours?" My voice was a little over a whisper.

"I know it's not ideal, however it is the quickest way of transport." There it was again; Dion's professional tone. The blonde man stretched out his long legs as far as they could go in the little space provided on the plane. I sat next to the window seat to my right, with Dion on my left. We've been in the air for about five minutes, and he only now decided to tell me that the flight would last half a day. I suppose I should've figured, but I couldn't understand how you were expected to sit still in a seat for twelve hours.

Dion busied himself with his laptop that looked extremely expensive. I decided to enjoy the view of my homeland. My eyes slowly lost their longing as I realized this would probably be the last time I saw my home for awhile. It didn't help that the ground below us quickly became obscured with the same fluffy whiteness. Normally I'd appreciate the sight of these marshmallow-like clouds, however I had no interest left in me. I currently felt emotionally drained, and I should. What teen wants to lose their mother?

The view out the window became nothing more than a blank sheet. I sighed with impatience. As much as I despised my father, I wanted to get off this plane as quick as possible. The royal blue char in front of me became dull, and my eyes roamed for a change of scenery. Unintentionally my hazel orbs landed on Dion's laptop. I gulped, silently looking at his face to see if he saw, but he was preoccupied with typing. Hesitantly I looked back to the screen to see it was written in Russian. Luckily it's natural for me to be fluent in my home language. I squinted my eyes discreetly, taking in every word.

*Сообщается сегодня: Обнаружено гнездо вампира. Мишени были успешно обездвижены и обезглавлены. 0 из 3 пострадавших выжили. 1 был заражен и немедленно подавлен.

*Today's Report: Vampire Nest Discovered. The targets were successfully immobilized and decapitated. 0 out of 3 victims survived. 1 was infected and immediately dealt with.

Dion quickly scrolled past through many similar reports, all dated from this past week. I would have laughed if Dion wasn't so scary... and made of muscles. Maybe he has a thing for horror fiction. My mind wondered to "vampire nest." It all sounded so strange. Now he was reading a report mentioning a "djinn." Whatever the heck that is... "Draining blood?!" What?!

"Yulia?" I could sense Dion looking straight at me, but I was too pale with too many thoughts going through my mind. "Yulia." This time I looked up at Dion, meeting his piercing blue eyes. I didn't even notice he had closed his laptop. For some reason the words on his screen weighed unpleasantly in my heart, like maybe there was an element of truth behind them. Logic would say otherwise, but something wasn't sitting right.

"I would appreciate if you didn't concern yourself with my commissions."

"R-right, sorry." I quickly looked down at the floor. Dion had this atmosphere of danger around him, like he somehow had dominion over everyone. At the same time he could be really down to earth, like how he was at the fast food joint. Although I haven't found myself completely relaxed around him... It was the fear of the unknown with Dion. He knows things, things that he won't share.

"You're probably wondering what it is you just read." Dion sighed, reopening his laptop. This caught my attention, and I perked up. "I specialize in universal mythology, and this," he gestured with his hand, "is a work of fiction that I put together." Ok... so it's fiction... but why is it in the form of a report and dated? Dion must have read my thoughts again because he began to elaborate. "Despite what you may think, I'm still in university and my," Dion inhaled sharply, "estranged professor assigned me with composing this. It's all for the sake of fiction... he's a huge English nut." Dion chucked, and I couldn't help but smirk. He really didn't like his professor, that was for sure.