Vampire Hunter

by Dante Steel

  “Well, isn’t that a pleasant hello. We are doing the best that we can. Allow me to assure you of that.”

  “You can take your assurances and shove them up your ass,” Gary said. “Listen, we’ve been patient, as patient as can be, but this is ridiculous. Elena never should have been entered into the game. Her mother has died. She needs to go to the funeral. Get her out now!”

  “I understand your frustration, and I sympathize—”

  “That sympathy can go up your ass, too,” Gary grumbled. “Are you making any progress at all?”

  “We are doing everything we possibly can to get you out of the game. We have tried to run other tests. We have tried to take out sand and rocks. That has failed.”

  “Well, maybe that’s because the sand and the rocks aren’t real.”

  “In the game, they are,” he said.

  “The game isn’t real!”

  “It must be if you and your entire body and conscious are within it,” Haru said, the man almost sounding annoyed. He was not the kind to be ruffled easily. “That is why it is so difficult to bring you back out.”

  “Fine. The sand and the rocks aren’t originally from the real world. Is that why you can’t get them out of here?”

  “I suppose that is possible.”

  “So put a dog into the game and get the dog back out. Something living,” Gary suggested.

  “Oh, no! We can’t subject an animal to testing like that! It is far too dangerous.”

  Gary wanted to strangle the man. “Too dangerous for an animal but not too dangerous for Elena! Is that what you’re saying?”

  Haru audibly swallowed. “I… I suppose that you could think that, but honestly, Gary, we cannot in good faith—”

  “You know where you can shove your good faith, too,” he grumbled.

  “Please, sir—”

  “Back to sir, are we? Getting a little hot under the collar, are we?”

  “Are you,” Haru countered. “You can rake me over the coals as much as you want for not having gotten you out of the game yet, but we are trying.”

  “Try harder. You have a deadline now. Elena has to be back before her mother’s funeral.”

  “I do not see how—”

  “Fine. No dog then how about a cat? They’re assholes, right? Even cat owners think that sometimes.”

  “Mr. Johnson—”

  “Don’t you ‘Mr. Johnson’ me!” Gary shouted. He glanced over his shoulder, worried he had woken Elena, but she didn’t stir. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want excuses. You need to find something, anything, alive to bring into the game and then take out. You can’t be certain without tests, right?”

  “We are running tests,” Haru started.

  “What kind? You aren’t telling me anything specific! All I have is your say-so.”

  “And that is all you are going to get, Mr. Johnson. Given your level of education, you wouldn’t understand the depth and breadth of the experiments we are conducting. Trying to explain them to you would be a waste of time. My coming here was a waste of time. I need to go—”

  “You need to make this right by Elena. She trusted you all to get her out of her sooner rather than later. Now, because of your incompetence, she might not be able to attend her mother’s funeral. You have to fix this!”

  “I understand,” Haru said.

  “I know you’re saying you’re trying hard, but it’s not enough. Not nearly fast enough. Not good enough.” Gary couldn’t help himself. He knew he was being a hard ass, but nothing had changed. Yes, they were in a new issue, but they weren’t any closer to getting home, and he was livid. He was going to apply as much pressure as he needed in order to get Haru to the results they needed.

  “I did not want to say this,” Haru said slowly.

  “What is it?” Gary groaned. “Another problem? Another setback? Has someone else entered the game, someone outside of you and your horde of incompetent developers?”

  “There has not been another breach like Samuel August at least. No, there is merely another glitch in the game. Do not worry, though. It shouldn’t affect your gameplay at all. We are working on it.”

  “Nothing ever goes smoothly with you, does it?” Gary asked.

  “Allow me to assure you that we are doing everything in our power…”

  Haru’s lips were moving, but Gary wasn’t listening anymore. He was too angry, too upset, too furious. This was terrible, so very terrible, beyond terrible.

  Gary wasn’t normally a violent man. At least he hadn’t been violent before the game. Right now, though, he curled his fingers into a tight fist, and he punched Haru in the face as hard as he could. The developer landed flat on his ass, and he scrambled to his feet.

  “Mr. Johnson, that was uncalled for.”

  “I can give you a whole list of items that were uncalled for,” Gary said.

  “I will not return until we have news for you.” Haru nodded stiffly and walked off into the darkness.

  Gary couldn’t help but realize that the Japanese man had said news. He hadn’t specified if he would only come for good news.

  I’m sure that the next time I’ll see him is when he has more bad news to share.

  Chapter Twelve

  Gary returned to Elena and woke her. “We need to find some water and food. I haven’t been able to locate a town yet.”

  Elena blinked and stared at him. Then she glanced down at herself and covered her boobs. “Did we…”

  “You don’t remember?” He asked. His heart sank.

  “I do. I just… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take advantage of you. I can’t believe I did that to you.” Tears welled in her eyes.

  “Elena. Believe me. You know I want you. I was worried about letting you because I didn’t want you to feel like you were taking advantage of me. You didn’t, though. All of it was consensual.”

  “Except for…”

  Gary winced. “If you want, we can talk about that now.”

  “I’d rather not.” She stood and stretched.

  Gary glanced away.

  She laughed. “You can look,” she teased.

  He did, but at her face, not her boobs. “Are you okay?”

  “Not really.”

  “It’ll take time.”

  “I know. Dad was worse, of course, but this is hitting me harder than I thought it would.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault.” Still naked, she crossed over to him, lifted onto her toes, and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”

  “Anytime, Elena.”

  She grinned. “Yeah, more than most guys, huh?”

  “You could say that,” he said, his cheeks growing warm with embarrassment.

  “You really can shoot a load into a girl.”

  He swallowed hard. “I just… ah… should we? I don’t have any condoms.”

  Elena stilled, her eyes opened wide, making her look like a deer in headlights. “I can’t get pregnant. Not now. Not with being in the game.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She started to get dressed. “You’ll just have to pull out then.”

  He grinned. She didn’t want to stop making love to him, and he didn’t want to stop making love to her.

  Even though he should. He really, really should.

  Elena had just finished getting dressed when a newcomer approached.

  “I can’t believe we aren’t even superheroes anymore,” Nicoletta complained.

  Gary jerked, startled to see her. She looked as hot as ever in her fiery superhero outfit, and his cock jumped. Damn it, would his cock ever give it a rest?

  “If we became superheroes once, we can do it again,” Elena said. “Trust me. I want to kill as many vampires as I can.”

  “I haven’t run into one yet,” Gary said. “I’ve been here for a little bit. I’ve fought a siren and a fire god.”

  “A siren?” Elena asked. “Was her name Olivia by any chance?”

  He winced. “Can you
handle the four of us remaining a team?” he asked.

  “I’m not going to throw her aside because she can’t keep her hands to herself,” Elena said. “But I don’t want her around me more than she has to be.”

  Nicoleta lowered her dark eyebrows over her eyes. “I feel like I’m missing something.”

  “It’s not important,” Gary said.

  “Gary was comforting me last night. Olivia gave me some bad news about my family. I… Sorry, Nicoletta, I know you like Gary, too, but we were…”

  Nicoletta nodded, her face a blank mask although a bit paler than normal. “Go on.”

  “And then, Olivia was grabbing my boobs! She was there, trying to turn it into an orgy—”

  “A threesome,” Nicoletta continued. “Orgy is when there’s four or more.”

  “Four or more.” Elena’s eyes grew wide as she shook her head. “That’s disgusting.”

  “Love is love,” Olivia said, approaching from around the boulder. “It’s not disgusting. It’s never disgusting. Doesn’t matter if you love someone of another race or the same gender—”

  “Or more than one person?” Elena asked sarcastically.

  “Exactly so.” Olivia shrugged. “If you must know, Elena, I am attracted to you. And Gary. And Nicoletta. So sue me.”

  “You—”

  “Ladies,” Gary said firmly. “Let’s find a town.”

  Elena stomped over to the boulder. She bent down. Somehow, she was powerful enough to lift it, and she threw it toward Olivia.

  There wasn’t enough time for Olivia to move out of the way or even to fly out of the way. She held out her hand, and suddenly, the boulder hung in the air. It had been merely inches from landing on her, and it was still there.

  Gary gaped at her. “How are you doing that?”

  “I… I don’t know.” Olivia dashed out of the way, and the boulder collapsed to the ground, sand flying everywhere.

  Elena was frowning. She was lifting her legs and bending her knees.

  “Is something wrong?” Gary asked her.

  Elena shook her head. “More of me is metal now,” she said. The metal reached up to her mid-thighs.

  “Awesome. I already knew we retained our powers from the first issue, but maybe we’re getting more powerful. Nicoletta, what do you think you can do?”

  “I don’t know.” She wouldn’t look at Gary or Elena or Olivia.

  He crossed over to her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. Elena only just learned that her mom died and—”

  “She did?” Nicoletta glanced over her shoulder at Elena.

  “Yeah, but of course she learned that after entering the game. She’s stuck here.”

  “And the two of you thought having sex would make her feel better.”

  Gary shrugged helplessly. “I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to turn her down.”

  “Of course not. And that was all her. You had the hardest time getting it up I’m sure.”

  “I… Can we not talk about this right now?”

  “Because it’s terribly awkward for you?” Nicoletta asked. “Sorry. Not sorry.”

  “You really do like to argue,” he muttered.

  Nicoletta opened her mouth, probably to yell at him, which he admittedly did deserve, but all he had time to see was a hint of orange deep in her mouth, and he fell to the floor as a blast of fire burst out.

  “Dude!” He scrambled to his feet. “You’re like a dragon lady! That was so cool!”

  “I nearly burned your face off, and you think that’s cool?” Nicoletta shook her head. “I seriously don’t understand you.”

  “That was amazing,” Olivia said.

  Nicoletta ignored her and walked over to Elena. The two began to talk.

  Olivia ran a hand through her hair.

  Gary approached her warily. “Hi.”

  “Hi,” she said, her gaze on the other two women.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You told me—”

  “I know. I didn’t think you would just jump in like that, though!”

  “Yeah, well, watching you two made me horny, and you said that you wouldn’t until they were on board, so I thought… Did you see the way her boobs were bouncing? And her nipples were so hard!”

  “Do you have X-ray vision eyes?” he asked.

  “It’s dark, yes, but I can see,” she said. “I got so turned on that I had to do something.”

  “You could’ve just masturbated.”

  “I didn’t even think of that,” she said.

  “Honestly?”

  “Nope. I was too horny.” She shrugged. “Yeah, looking back, just grabbing her like that was over the top.”

  “Especially when you consider her mom.”

  “In my defense, she seemed to take the news rather well when I told her,” Olivia said defensively. “She told me that she wasn’t close with her!”

  “That doesn’t matter. She has no parents now. She’s lost.”

  “I didn’t know her dad was dead, too. Geez. That sucks. I feel even worse now.”

  “I know—hey, I don’t think…”

  But Olivia was already walking over to the other ladies.

  Gary hung his head. He had a feeling this wasn’t going to be good.

  Olivia cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. I never meant to—”

  “You can’t just go around grabbing people’s breasts and trying to force threesomes on a person,” Elena said.

  “I know that. I thought—”

  “You clearly weren’t thinking,” Elena said. “A normal person wouldn’t do that.”

  Olivia grimaced. “It’s not that I thought you shouldn’t have a say in your body. It’s just that I thought Gary—”

  “Gary doesn’t speak for me, okay?” Elena whirled around. “Gary? Are you going around telling people that I want to have someone else included when we make love?”

  Gary winced. “No. It’s, ah… complicated.”

  “There’s nothing complicated about any of this,” Elena exploded. She marched over to the boulder and punched it.

  The boulder shattered into a hundred rock shards that flew out everywhere.

  The closest ones just bounced off the metal portion of Elena. She was fine.

  Olivia darted in front of Nicoletta and held out her hands. Somehow, the rock shards in her direction didn’t hit her.

  Several went toward Gary. They were far too many flying far too fast for him to turn them all aside, and they all blew past the sand wall he built. Gary had to get out of the way, and suddenly, he was. He could move objects with his mind because of his powers. Now, he could move himself, which meant he could fly.

  “Looks like you have a second power!” Nicoletta called. “You can fly! And, Olivia, you can make other items fly, too. That boulder, those shards. Elena has more metal, and I can breathe fire.”

  “We might not be considered superheroes anymore,” Gary said, “but we’ve managed to enhance our superpower anyhow. That’s pretty damn cool.”

  “Yeah, cool,” Elena muttered.

  “Hey, look, I know you’re upset, and I get that,” Olivia said walking over to Elena. “I’m sorry. I’ll say it a hundred times, until I’m blue in the face. I’m sorry about what I did. I’m sorry about your mom. I’m sorry you’re stuck in the game. All of it, I’m sorry. But you can’t try to hurt us.”

  “You’re avatars. You’ll be fine.”

  “Any one of the shards could’ve killed Gary,” Nicoletta pointed out quietly.

  Elena glanced at Gary and hung her head. “I didn’t think—”

  “It’s all right. Let’s try to find that town and hopefully, you can rip some bats in half along the way, okay?”

  “That sounds so disturbing,” Nicoletta complained.

  “It does, but it might be what I need,” Elena admitted. “Let’s go.”

  Elena marched off first, followed by Nicoletta. Gary went next, and Olivia brought up the rear. He felt terrible. The lad
ies had all been friends, but he had effed that up. He couldn’t fault Olivia for trusting him to keep his cock in his pants until they all were ready and willing to share him. God damn it. Thinking about him and Elena and Olivia had him so ready to start masturbating that he wished there was another rock he could hide behind so he could alleviate some of the mounting pressure.

  They headed south, and suddenly, the sky above them turned even darker, a feat Gary wouldn’t have thought possible. Just as suddenly, a dark figure stood before them as if out of nowhere. The lack of visibility made it impossible for Gary to see any of its features.

  “A vampire,” Elena warned, and he had to assume she was right.

  The vampire made a mad dash toward Gary. He barely had time to jump up and fly over the monster’s head before the vampire passed beneath him.

  Nicoletta opened her mouth, but if she was trying to breathe fire, nothing came out.

  “Use your hands,” Gary shouted. “Use your hands!”

  But already the vampire had changed targets and was now going after Elena. Gary could hardly even see the creature. It was moving that damn fast.

  The sound of metal on metal or a tooth against metal made Gary wince. Elena had brought up her forearm for the vampire to bite instead of the soft flesh of her neck.

  “A little help here!” Elena cried.

  Nicoletta set out a blast of fire, but the vampire was already speeding away with Elena. Gary tried to use his power to slow down the vampire, and maybe he did a little, but Olivia suddenly had the vampire in the air, just the vampire and not Elena.

  Nicoletta sent up a fireball, and the vampire gave an inhumane cry as it burst into flames and fell back to the ground as ash.

  And Elena was lying on the sand, not moving.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Gary dashed over to her and immediately forced her to drink one of the potions that healed him. She swallowed some, even though a bit of the liquid poured down her chin.

  Finally, she shoved him away. “Wow,” she said.

  “What happened?” Olivia asked.

  “What did the vampire do to you?” Nicoletta asked.

  Elena stared at the sand. “He kept trying to bite me—”