The Chronicles of a Vampire Hunter (Book 1): Red Ashes

by Justin A. Moore

  “So these bars keep you out as too huh?” My uncle asked.

  “For the moment, until we’re confident your power has run thin and we sedate you.” Thanatos said, baring his wickedly barbed teeth in a satisfied grin.

  “Good.” My uncle said as he produced a sawed off shotgun from under his jacket and I saw the small dark shape of a grenade fly out from between the bars and bury itself firmly into the stomach of one of the more rotund vampires. My left ear rang in pain as my uncle began firing shotgun shells into the face of every vampire that gave him a clear shot. There was a short howl as the fat vampire that has been impregnated by my uncle’s grenade clawed at his flesh. I instinctively hit the deck a moment before the grenade went off with a loud concussion and shredded the vampire and several of his companions and grenade fragments whizzed past my head. The room began to fill with gun smoke and the smell of burnt meat as my uncle dropped his shotgun and drew his revolver, killing more vampires with well-placed head shots. I followed suit and drew my .45.

  “No! Save it!” My uncle shouted. Vampires fell all around us, and slowly the way behind us began to clear as more and more of them filled the room and clustered around Thanatos who hadn’t moved the entire time. My uncle wasn’t even shooting at him.

  I put the pistol away and choked up on my sword, waiting for the moment when a vampire would get close enough to run through. I got my chance and lunged carefully, splitting a vampire forehead with a single thrust. It shrieked once and the vampires huddled even further away from the cage, but those that remained were flashing drooling smiles. My uncle had run out of ammo, and his last few shots didn’t appear to hit anything in particular.

  “Run as fast as you can, I’ll meet you back home. Don’t worry about being seen, just run!” My uncle shouted and took two strides back to the door way and roared. He grabbed the bars in both hands, and sparks leapt and arced over and around him as he pulled one bar and then another from the doorway. He kicked the third bar out of the wall with a flash of red light, and then sank to his knees. His aura seemed extremely weak after the shock. I grabbed him under the arms, but with mammoth strength that I hadn’t expected, he grabbed my arm and threw me into the other room.

  “Run! I’ll handle them!” He shouted again, and instantly his aura flared; it was like looking into the sun. The vampires had apparently de-energized the cage, and were ripping bars from the cage around my uncle. He brandished his machete and spiked knuckles again, and at that moment I didn’t have a single worry about him not being able to make it back.

  “Children, if you could please, bring back the young master Magnus for me.” Thanatos’s voice was loud but plainly spoken, as if amplified without shouting. Every vampire wailed shrilly and clawed frantically at the bars. Several met their ends at the hand of my uncle’s machete. I ran as hard as I could.

  *****

  My strides ate ground as I pumped my power into each one, bounding rapidly away from the warehouse. In a minute I was already over the stream that I had slogged through before. I chanced a glance behind me, and saw several vampires emerging from the warehouse before an explosion blew out a part of the front wall. One of the vampires collapsed and burned, the others spotted me and gave chase. I felt a brief surge of panic as I saw the speed they poured on in their pursuit, their forms blurring with rapidity.

  I stayed focused on the ground ahead of me, only occasionally glancing behind me and keeping a firm grip on my sword. Those vampires were faster than me and probably stronger—they’d catch up in moments. I jumped over the next berm and into the first ditch my uncle and I had crossed earlier, and two of the vampires following me leapt over the ditch, piercing shrieks sounding overhead as they flew. I drew my sword and stood still for a moment as I heard them circle back and leap into the ditch after me.

  I took the first vampires head in a single stroke that nearly jerked the sword from my hands as he flew into the ditch right in front of me. His body jerked and then collapsed as fire erupted from it, and his head all but exploded into ash as his partner landed not a foot from it. The remaining vampire snarled viciously and charged me. I swung my sword hard and the vampire jumped out of the way as the blade struck the ground in front of me, cleaving the water and making a loud ringing sound as it vibrated in my hands. The vampire circled me patiently, and I realized it was just trying to slow me down until the others arrived. I sheathed my sword and reached over my back with one hand and brought my already loaded crossbow to bear. The vampire hissed at me and I cocked my head to one side and gave him a look of contempt as I pulled the trigger. The vampire must not have known about the perils of being on the pointy end of a crossbow bolt, because the shaft buried itself in his chest and he sank to his knees wheezing horribly. Thick black blood dripped from his mouth.

  I took a stride forward and took his head off with a swipe from my sword as I drew it. It rolled away from the stump of his neck, his last expression a look of surprise before the familiar crimson fire burned his head completely. I sheathed my sword once again and tucked it into my belt, wrapping the cord around it to hold it in place as I ran. While running I pulled on the stirrup of my crossbow with my augmented strength and drew the string back with little effort, and loaded another bolt. I kept running along the trench of the runoff ditch, and my head would occasionally bob above the berms every few strides.

  Vampires were suddenly everywhere, swarming as if the command from Thanatos had reached every vampire in the city. I swore under my breath as with each stride that sent my head over the berms more and more became visible. I couldn’t see them clearly, but their sickening red auras stood out in the darkness like stoplights. Not far ahead were two vampires I’d recognized from earlier dressed as a pair of homeless men. The stood their ground as I approached. I gave them a grim smile and aimed my crossbow as I ran, and then leapt into the air.

  The crossbow bolt whistled through the air as I reached the apex of my leap and plunged deep into the chest of one of the vampires. The other shrieked and jumped to the side as I aimed the crossbow with one hand at him, but he didn’t seem to know it wasn’t loaded, which bothered me on some level. With my other hand I found the spiked knuckles in my pocket and came down on the other vampire with an airborne haymaker. The vampire tried to catch my punch, and the spikes tore through his fingers as my fist drove clean through his face and out the back of his skull. I pulled my hand back and shook it in disgust, but the blood that was on my jacket and hand turned to dust in moments as the vampire burned. His partner lay flat on the ground, staring at me with wide eyes and gurgling. I pulled a stake from my jacket and drove it through the vampire, driving the splintered crossbow bolt through his body. He gasped once and expired.

  I kept running, but I felt like I couldn’t put on as much speed as before; my power was being exhausted. I’d passed the small park and came to the part of the ditch that turned and ran into a culvert under a road. I saw the place where I’d run into the fence earlier and jumped clear over it. There wasn’t a car coming for quite a distance in either direction so I dashed for the bridge, and found that a vampire was waiting. I lunged at the vampire with another punch and it dodged easily, giggling. I noticed the vampire had thinning brown hair, and it was long. Breasts sagged down from her chest in a loosely fitting tank top.

  “Shit.” I mumbled. Now I had to fight a female vampire, and she might be able to take me. I wasn’t feeling very strong, but I still felt quick. I pulled my sword out of its scabbard and squared off against the vampire. She smiled at me and stood between me and the other side of the bridge. It was a bad place to get cornered, I thought while feeling another surge of anxiety, and lunged at her, testing her speed. She spun out of the way of the blade as I had thought she would, just staying barely out of striking distance. I focused what little power remained in my body into my legs and stomach and shuffled across the ground towards her at alarming speed. Her eyes widened as my longsword bit into her from her right hip to her left shoulder and sliced out t
hrough her back. Barely. I’d almost felt my sword get stuck in bone, but she lay on the ground burning at the end of my stroke.

  My lungs burned for air as I came out on the other side of the bridge right next to the trolley tracks. I ran to the service road and my side ached from the distance I’d run. My power wasn’t fueling my body like before and fleeing was becoming a real trial in endurance. I slowed my pace and controlled my breathing, and my comfortable and familiar strides ate ground steadily.

  A moment later I was surrounded. Six vampires closed in on me while I was in the hazy grip of near exhaustion, and I recognized two as female, with one of the females possessing an aura that burned with horrid, lurid light that I could sense clearly even with my dwindling power. She must have been the oldest. I stood there gasping and encircled, wondering how they’d managed to catch up to me.

  “Come with us boy, we don’t want to hurt you,” The old female said. “You don’t have the strength to fight us now. No more deaths tonight.”

  “You have… a funny way… of convincing a guy to go along with you.” I said, breathing hard. Something was bothering me, like an itch in my mind. I couldn’t quite place it, probably because it was hard to concentrate when I could taste the acid in the back of my throat from running so hard.

  “Just lay down your weapons and we’ll take you with us. We won’t hurt you. It’s in your best interest, and your uncle’s.”

  “Hah,” I said. “As if you could even try to stand in his way.”

  “Our father has him locked up very securely right now.” She said, smiling at me. Her teeth were black and red, as if rotten and stained. “Our father would like very much for you to accompany him without similar…” she clenched her fists, and I heard her knuckles crack. “…Restraints being necessary.”

  “Some invitation. Can’t say I believe you got my uncle, I’ll just have to wait and see.” I said. I felt the trolley tracks vibrating under my feet, and suddenly realized that’s what was bothering me. There was a trolley heading my way and it had just stopped behind me. Shortly it would take off again. I wasn’t sure where I was going with this train of thought—heh, get it?—but it was a good piece of information to have.

  “We’ll give you a moment to consider the offer.” She said, with measured indifference.

  “Thanks. Let me just think for a sec.” I said. I dug deep inside myself, for that special place where my power lived. It came to me weakly, and light danced over my skin for a moment. I dug deeper, remembering what I had done when I fought my uncle. I grasped at that feeling of necessity, at the feeling that my power was a deep well, and all I needed to get more of it was a longer rope. I needed that next level of power, that strength that lay just a little deeper…

  I need to win, damnit! I thought desperately as the power began to come to me. It was tenuous at first, but then… There was a familiar sensation like a balloon popping in my head, a sharp pain and then flooding warmth throughout my body. Light burst from my body in dancing golden rays that stabbed into the night, and the sensation was twice as strong as when I had first begun my training. So was the strange air of confidence bordering on superiority that I felt. The vampires hissed around me and charged at me as one—I leapt straight up.

  I hung in the air for what seemed like minutes. Everything appeared to move at a crawl. I felt serene and fluid, like I was making no more effort than it would take to sit in a hot tub. I pulled the stirrup on my crossbow and loaded it while rising through the air. The crossbow shook slowly in my hand—an odd sensation—and I realized I had slammed the string taut without meaning to. Calmly I pulled a bolt out and nocked it, aimed at a vampire, and pulled the trigger. I repeated this three times until my ammo was depleted. As I fell I drew my sword and landed lightly on my toes. Three vampires knelt around me, and the other three had moved beyond the range of my sword arm.

  I looked around me calmly, and noticed the trolley had finished dropping off a handful of passengers and had begun to crawl towards me down the tracks. It seemed to move so slowly, but I wasn’t worried. I felt no fear or compassion for the vampires encircling me. The three that lay motionless on the ground, they felt fear. I felt nothing but contempt for them. I cut the tops of each of their three heads away with effortless strokes from my blade that cracked on the air as I dealt them. The other two younger vampires backed further away, and the older female vampire held a balanced stance. Something about her struck me as odd. She did not fear me the way the others did. I wanted to rectify that before the trolley came.

  I strode forward imperiously, and the two young vampires moved so slowly as to seem to be standing still. The eldest vampire kept pace and sidestepped away as I cut both of the younger vampires in half from crown to navel. I kicked one at the remaining female and she batted it aside, mirroring my look of disdain. She kept circling away from me, and I tested her agility with a pair of thrusts from my blade. The metal sprang through the air and missed both times. A small corner of my mind suddenly wished I had some manner of swordsmanship training or at least a more familiar weapon, but that thought was obliterated instantly by a wave of what I think was arrogance, or something more primal but similar—cold anger and indignation, maybe.

  She smiled at me with her twisted mouth and circled me with swift strides, staying barely out of my striking range. My contempt for her grew into a sick kind of loathing. I dashed at her, striking at her with my sword. She stepped inside my strikes and I felt cold pain across my stomach as her hands flurried at me. I leapt back with a snarl on my face. She raised her hands and ran her tongue over her jagged dirty fingernails, smearing my blood over her lips.

  My insides turned cold as the false confidence that had accompanied the surge of power I’d called on began to dwindle. This vampire was far older than the others I’d faced and her strength and skill was well beyond mine. I glanced at the approaching trolley, knowing I’d have to time my getaway just right. She smiled and continued to circle me, and I realized she didn’t know what I had planned. A few more seconds and I could get away.

  I whipped my sword through the air in arcs that seemed to split the air with brief trails of condensation forming behind them. She dodged easily, as I had foreseen. Two quick thrusts drove her back far enough that I was safe from her snatching me out of the air as the trolley passed, and I leapt onto it. I had to crouch to avoid the electrified cables that hummed as they powered the trolley. I smiled coldly at the vampire, and she smiled back. Then she ran after me, and jumped onto the trolley not three feet away from me. My eyes went wide with horror as he grabbed my arms in hers and pinned me down on the lipstick red roof of the trolley car. Her breath burned my eyes as she inched her face closer to mine.

  “Maybe I should have just a little taste, to take the fight out of you.” She said and bared her fangs. She lowered her face to my neck and I felt her cold purple tongue run over the side of my throat, sending shivers of revulsion through me. I tried to push her off, twisting my sword awkwardly to try and pry her off. She shrugged it away absently as if it my struggles were no more than the buzzing of a fly trapped in a spider’s web.

  I closed my eyes. My heart beat pounded in my ears, and the sickening creature on top of me gave a kiss to my neck as I went still. I was hoping she’d take her time. Give me just a moment to concentrate. She hesitated, perhaps sensing defeat in me. I used that instant to focus and bring even more strength out into my limbs and drive her away from me. I sensed the arcing current of my power already rushing through my body, and saw it in perfect clarity in my mind. I drove it into a rushing torrent of surging strength, drawing more and more out. Every muscle in my body tensed as terrible raw power pulsed into my muscles, fueling them with incredible burning rage that wracked me with pain so terrible as to be nearly paralyzing—but at the same time intensely pleasurable, almost orgasmic. There was something different about my power this time. Something eager and hungry. My mind burned as I spoke.

  “Oh, God, yes. Finally.”

&nb
sp; The calm I had previously felt was completely gone, replaced with a hatred and hunger for destruction so strong that I felt as if I was losing control of my body, and some mad demon was the one who would work my limbs for me. I opened my eyes and saw the bulging black and yellow eyes of the vampire on top of me, staring at my face in confusion. I grinned at her, and broke her grip almost effortlessly. She tried to regain her grip on my shoulders, but I drew back my sword and grabbed her by the throat so that she couldn’t bite me. Her jaw clacked loudly as she snapped at my face, kicking and struggling against me. My skin felt hard, as if some pressure from beneath would keep everything else from getting in. Her scratches tore through my clothes, but drew no blood, leaving slightly pink lines against my flesh. I laughed loudly and plunged my sword into her left side.

  “Break her.”

  I twisted my sword, evoking more frantic struggles and a shocked scream from her before I crushed her neck with my hand, and then jerked my sword to the right in a sawing motion that cut through her torso in moments. She kept trying to scream, her face a mask of terror, panic, and anguish. Her hips and legs hung to the rest of her body by a shred of flesh and sinew. Disgustingly intrigued, I gave her a shake and the shred of meat tore, and her legs tumbled off of the trolley and burned on the ground. I looked at her eyes, and she stared right back at me. I saw my reflection in those eyes.

  “Beautiful.”

  My grin faded as my mind began to scream in horror at my own reflection in those dark glassy eyes of the still living vampire I had just cut in half. Blood ran freely from my eyes and nose, dripping from my chin. My mouth had been a cruelly upturned snarl of sadistic satisfaction, but was now wide and aghast, and blood had stained my teeth red. My muscles bulged and twisted like so many snakes under the skin, writhing with a new life of their own, and my skin had split of its own accord in places, exposing the steaming red meat beneath. I howled in surprise and terror. Part of me, though, reveled in this expression of my power.