Forrest Wollinsky: Vampire Hunter [Book One]

by Leonard D. Hilley II

  He looked at me for a long time, breathing hard and grinding his teeth.

  “We all grieve about Momma,” I said, fighting burning tears.

  Jacques nodded.

  Father closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and held it. His hands shook, and the shaking radiated up his arms and through his entire body. After he finally calmed, his voice crackled and whined at a high painful pitch. “It’s just that I miss her so much, son. I’d rather the baron had robbed me of my life than to have taken hers.”

  “I know, Father.”

  Big tears spilled down his cheeks. “Besides you, she’s all I ever had in this world. The only good fortune I truly had. She blessed me with you. You’re a gift unlike any other. I can still see her in your eyes, son. Yours are identical to hers. And soon . . . you’re leaving to pursue the destiny given to you. I’ll be alone then.”

  “I’m not leaving Bucharest until after the baron is dead, and even then, you’re welcome to travel with me.”

  A relieved smile came to his face. Embracing me, he patted my back. “You’re a good son.”

  “Have Jacques escort you home. I need to stay with Dominus throughout the night. I don’t know if he’ll train me further than tonight or not, but at least he can answer some questions for me.”

  Father pulled back and patted both of my shoulders. “Always know, son, that I am proud of you.”

  He stepped to the side of me and looked at Jacques. “My apologies, cousin.”

  Jacques smiled. “It’s late, John. Let’s get back to your cottage. There might be vampires along the way, so keep a watchful eye.”

  “If there are, please allow me the first chance to stake them.”

  “Sure,” he replied, and then he smiled back at me. “But be quicker this next time, okay?”

  I watched them walk along the cobblestone path until they reached the street where the gas-lamps lit the way. The thought suddenly dawned upon me that I’d never asked my father to finish telling me the story Jacques hadn’t completed. The insight of knowing exactly what had prompted my father to become a vampire hunter when the odds had been set against him was information I coveted.

  Dominus walked slowly toward me with his hands resting on his belt. “Well, I speculate that I’ll never come across a trio such as yours during the rest of my life. You are definitely an odd bunch, but you get the job done. Too much scuffling amongst yourselves, though, but with the death of your Momma, I suppose that’s expected. A good mother is the foundation of a sturdy home. Kind of unravels a family for quite some time after she’s gone.”

  I frowned at him. His accent made it difficult to understand some of his phrases, and some of his words simply didn’t register in my mind, as they were lost in translation. I hated to ask what certain words meant because I didn’t wish to offend him, and I didn’t want to make myself seem unknowing.

  “You said that you’re from America?” I asked.

  “Yep.”

  “What brought you to Romania?”

  Dominus grinned. “Now that’s a long story, but the night’s early. I suppose there’s time to tell ya.”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Dominus and I sat upon the large stone at the center of the graveyard. He took a leather pouch out of his inner coat pocket, reached in with his forefinger and thumb to grab a wad of moist brown leaves, and then he tucked them in between his left cheek and gums.

  “What part of America are you from?” I asked.

  He scratched his aged forehead for a moment. “After I entered the Civil War, I didn’t stay long in any given place. You’d asked earlier if I was a hunter like yourself, chosen, and I suppose I am. But hell, it took a damned long time for me to figure it out.”

  “How did you learn that you were?”

  “Lots of people think that the vampires are predominant in this country, but Forrest, they are scattered around the world. War torn countries are places where vampires slink through villages and cities during the night, feasting on the weak and dying. War battlefields are the main places you’ll find these beasts, after the sun has set. Vampires comb the death fields and infirmaries because blood is everywhere. They thrive the most during bloody wars. Sometimes I have to wonder if vampires are some of the government officials that promptly declare war against other countries just to get the blood.”

  “I wouldn’t think they’d need something so drastic.”

  Dominus glanced across the cemetery, as I had been doing periodically since I didn’t want a vampire to approach without us knowing it was there. “They hide themselves better during a war.”

  “How’s that?”

  “With injured people near death, it wouldn’t be unusual for a vampire to drain and kill a human without anyone thinking the death suspicious. No one would question the death. They’d toss the body out on the heap to be buried in a field the next morning. And that was another frightening work detail.”

  “What?”

  “Finding empty graves in the cemeteries on certain mornings without no evidence that anything had dug up the body. Seeing barefoot prints walking away from the grave. I sensed something sinister at play that no one else did. I never told anyone because I didn’t know how to actually explain the feeling.”

  “Did you see vampires during the war?”

  Dominus nodded. “Yep. The first one I encountered frightened me severely. I had peered outside my tent during the night and watched it attack one of the watchmen. The vampire had compelled the man and then bit into his throat. There wasn’t any struggle, and the next day our search found the watchman in the heap of dead soldiers. He was pale, drained of his blood, and the bite wasn’t like an ordinary vampire bite. The vampire made certain to shred the throat to look like a savage animal had tore into him.”

  “So what made you decide to come to Bucharest?” I asked.

  “The war ended and these vampires vanished. Right before it was over, though, I had met another soldier who confided in me about his fears. Well, let me rephrase that. He was drunk out of his mind. Once a man drinks that much, he spills his guts about things he’d rather keep secret. Anyways, he’d seen several of these bloodsucking beasts lurking in the foggy night searching through the infirmary tents. And then I told him about what I had seen. Another man listening to our conversation knew what they were. How? Not really sure. But he knew how to kill them. We carved stakes from crude dead pine limbs and cornered two vampires in a tent. He died after he killed the one. The other one had snapped his neck before either of us could react. I got lucky and killed it as it turned on me. It was dumb luck, really, because it staked itself when it flung itself at me. It doesn’t matter who you are or what walk of life you come from, once you see such hideous undead creatures, you’re never the same.”

  Dominus paused and his eyes searched the gravestones again. He scratched at the scruff of hair on his chin before he continued. “Anyways, I hated the war. I hated killing my own countrymen. Hell, it was a senseless war! Relatives on opposite sides of the battle line were shooting at one another. But what troubled me the most was discovering the vampires during the war. I traveled to New Orleans in hopes of working on a clipper ship, anything really, to get away from the reconstruction of the south. I met a black man in the French Quarter of New Orleans outside of a shop that associated with some dark magic; voodoo, they called it.”

  “Like Roy’s shop?” I asked.

  Dominus spit onto the cobblestone and shook his head. “Nothing like that. Roy’s place pales in comparison. I’m talking some gut-wrenching, frightening stuff. Forrest, you’re young. You’re going to encounter a lot of dark things as you mature in your life as a hunter. Vampires aren’t the only enemies you will encounter. Ghouls and zombies are undead creatures that rise from graves in the dead of night, although they are often rarer to find. This man showed me these creatures, and he knew about vampires and informed me of the infestation in Romania.”

  “Did you have a trainer?”

  “The man
in New Orleans gave me some pointers, but once I got here, I acted out of sheer instinct. You said that you get premonitions. I get impulses from time to time, too. When I do, and it’s seldom, I act on them. But overall, I want to rid the world of as many vampires as possible. It’s my contribution and penance for killing men during the war.”

  “Do you only kill the young vampires?” I asked.

  “Not always. I have killed some older ones, which isn’t nowhere nearly as easy as the ones we killed tonight. I could’ve taken all four of these in a matter of minutes by myself. The older vampires are wiser, more cautious, and seldom are they caught out in the open. Killing the new ones is a matter of keeping the population in check. I only hunt predawn patrol at this cemetery each Saturday. During the rest of the week, I’m at different cemeteries or out in the countryside, hunting the older ones.”

  “How many have you killed?” I asked.

  “Hell, I stopped counting after a hundred. It’s no longer a number’s game to me. It’s a survival tactic. Once you build up a reputation after that many kills, it’s the other way around. They start hunting for you.”

  A light fog formed along the south side of the cemetery.

  He stood and stretched. “I reckon that’s all of ‘em for tonight.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yep.” He took a glass flask from his inner coat pocket, yanked out the cork, and turned it up. It looked like an elixir bottle but I doubted that’s what it contained.

  I slid off the stone and stood. “I like your crossbow.”

  Dominus nodded. “It’s quite an accurate weapon for hunting the freshly risen, but not so good when fighting an older one. You’ve never witnessed speed until you try to kill one of those.”

  “Did Roy make the bow?”

  His eyes narrowed and he chewed the wad in his mouth. Finally, he shook his head. “No. Any crossbow will do as long as you use wooden arrows.”

  “You don’t seem fond of him.”

  He shrugged.

  “He told me that you didn’t talk much, and he never could get you to talk to him.”

  “Forrest, I don’t like talking to others, period. I prefer my privacy. And why should I give him information about me and what I do? He knows little about me, and yet, he sent you to the only place where he knows I hunt. He only knew that because I had let it slip. Imagine had I given him a lot more information? It’d put me to greater risk.”

  “From whom?”

  “Other hunters.”

  I frowned. “Why would other hunters try to hurt you?”

  “Let me clarify that,” he said. “Hunters that have been turned into vampires.”

  Chills rushed through me. My eyes widened at the thought. Jacques had indirectly warned me about those on the evening when we first met.

  He grinned and winked. “Yeah. You catch on quick. You understand. A master vampire who turns a hunter has a powerful tool at his disposal. They become much stronger than we are, faster, and ruthlessly coldhearted. And because they were hunters, they can anticipate our moves. I’ve never fought one, and hope to the heavens above that I never have to, but I’ve spoken with villagers in neighboring areas that have seen good hunters like you and I killed by one.”

  “And why would you suspect Roy to give information to one of those?”

  Dominus sighed. “I don’t think he’d intentionally do so, but he lives in that underground dark room of his, which is the best haven for an undead hunter to be. For a while, I truly wondered if he wasn’t a vampire. He never comes out into the sunlight. Ever.”

  “He has a disease.”

  “Yep. I realize that now, but for a long time he had never told me his reasons. I never sensed him to be a vampire though. He didn’t make me uneasy in that sense, but it was everything else: The dark room, wearing a hood to hide his face, and his constant secrecy. He finally confided in me after the baron killed his wife.”

  I nodded. “He told me about that, too, on the day my mother was killed by the baron.”

  Dominus frowned. “Before or after?”

  “Before.”

  He frowned and his jaw tightened. “Interesting.”

  “Why?”

  He shrugged and changed the subject. “How’d you befriend a werewolf?”

  “He’s my father’s cousin.”

  Dominus cocked a brow. “Is that a fact?”

  I nodded.

  “Why didn’t you get your father to train you?”

  “He told me some useful things, but he’s not a hunter like us. I was hoping to find someone who understood the inner connections to whatever guides us.”

  Dominus smiled. “That voice doesn’t resonate too loudly for me, at least not if you drink enough.”

  He turned up the flask again and then he corked it.

  “What do you plan to do until sunrise?” I asked.

  “Walk the streets and alleyways since nothing else should appear here tonight.”

  “Think you’ll encounter more vampires?”

  Dominus chuckled. “The area’s highly populated with them.”

  “Is Dominus your given name?”

  “You may be the size of a man, but you’re ever as inquisitive as the child you are.”

  How could I argue with that? I was still a child, mentally. To the best of my knowledge no potion or concoction was available to age my mind. I suppose the hurt showed faintly on my face.

  He sighed. “I chose the name for myself when I arrived.”

  “Why?”

  “I never liked the name Frank, which my folks had named me. Besides, Dominus sounded, well, dominant. Works good for me so far.”

  I extended my hand toward him. “It’s time I head back to my home. Thanks for giving me a bit of your time.”

  “Now, it’s not that I think you’re incapable of handling yourself, but I think you should stick with me until dawn. I’ll follow you back to your cottage in the morning, if you don’t mind the company.”

  “That’s fine. My father won’t mind if you need a place to sleep.”

  Dominus said, “Besides I need to apologize to your cousin. I was a bit hard on him.”

  “I thought you had something against werewolves.”

  “Let’s just say that I’ve had some bad experiences with them. Not all are defenders of humans. Some are controlled by vampires.”

  “He was a prisoner of one of Dracula’s grandsons for a time.”

  “I suppose it’s good fortune that he escaped.”

  I nodded.

  “With his hatred toward vampires, he will prove to be a strong ally for you.”

  “He’s already become one.”

  “Tomorrow night, well after dark, I’ll take you to a little village where a small clan of vampires hide. Between the two of us, I think we can exterminate them.”

  “How many?”

  “Six.”

  Upon first meeting Dominus and being exposed to his crass nature, I didn’t expect I’d want to associate with him at all. But once it became only the two of us, he opened up more readily. The vampire hunter’s life might be one of the loneliest occupations in the world, but even the most reclusive eventually desired the company of someone else, if only to exchange stories. Once Dominus decided to give me details of his past, he had lowered his emotional shield, but it wasn’t something I had expected him to do for any extended period of time. Quite possibly he could decide after the morning sun broke the sky, to revoke my invitation for tomorrow night’s journey. I decided to take it an hour at a time. No need getting my hopes up for an entire day.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Dominus and I had taken a small alleyway where the thin veil of fog hung like a curtain of smoke. I thought about my father as we walked and stopped walking.

  Dominus turned to face me. “Is something wrong?”

  “My father was in the baron’s lair, and he said that the doors he fled through opened into a cemetery.”

  “What doors?”

  �
��From some type of crypt with stairs that led to the baron’s chambers?”

  Dominus thought for a moment. “This cemetery doesn’t have anything like that.”

  “Do you know one that does?”

  He nodded.

  “Can you take me to it?”

  Shaking his head, Dominus looked into my eyes. “Not tonight. I wouldn’t face a master vampire alone, and right now, with your lack of experience, that’s what I’d be doing. No offense.”

  I didn’t take any.

  He gave a slight grin. “Hunt with me for a few nights and prove to me you’re capable of defending yourself. Then, if you have enough gumption, I can take you.”

  I frowned, staring back at the cemetery. His offer was the best I’d get, and given the circumstances, I didn’t blame him. I had one vampire kill to my credit, which was essentially nothing since the vampire had not been raised for even an hour.

  “What caused this contention between the baron and your family?”

  “Bodi, the child vampire.”

  Dominus chewed the tobacco and then spit. “How come?”

  “My father was hired to kill Bodi by the child’s parents. The baron interfered and tried to kill my father.”

  “So the baron turned the child?” Dominus asked with narrowed eyes. His gaze darkened.

  “I hope not,” I replied. I explained what else my father had said about being imprisoned inside the lair.

  Dominus gave a sharp whistle and shook his head. “My guess is that the baron must have then. He took an immense affection to the child. A master does that to his own children, those he turned himself. If one of his children sired a new vampire, he’d not be as given to protect it. For the baron not to kill your father based upon the child’s request tells me the child is his direct sire.”

  That assumption, which I believed was probably the case as well, left me with only two choices to remove Bodi from remaining one of the undead. I had to kill Baron Randolph, which destroyed all of his offspring, or I had to stake Bodi. The second choice I’d rather not be responsible for doing.