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

by Justin A. Moore

  “No, you can’t plan to assault a prehistoric vampire. We need to find a way to circumvent him and his progeny and rescue your uncle without immediately being captured.” Lily said while she paced around the room.

  “You make it sound hard. I’ve killed one before.” I said.

  “Yes, you killed Eurus, but his clan was the least powerful of all vampire kind. His offspring were little more than zombies, and of them none are left. Even if you killed Thanatos, those old enough to survive his death would eventually hunt you down or start clans of their own.”

  “Actually yeah, I wondered about that.” I said, “When a vampire dies do all the vampires they made die too?”

  “No, as I said. Only the very old can survive the death of their progenitor.” She replied.

  “How old is old enough?”

  She smiled. “About four hundred years.”

  “Huh.” I replied before realizing she was implying her age. “What was it like in the great depression?” I asked sardonically.

  “Vulgar boy!” She said, dramatically feigning outrage.

  “You’re going to have to stop calling me ‘boy.’” I chuckled, “I only let my uncle get away with that shit ‘cause he’s family.”

  “We’ll see in a couple hundred years, my darling.” Lily replied with a bat of her eyelashes. “I have an idea on how we can help your uncle, we’ll leave at sunset. Do you feel strong enough for travel?”

  I put the bowl of ramen in my lap and the steam made my face feel damp. “I’m working on it.”

  “Good. Perhaps I should eat something more substantial, just in case.” She looked at me and licked her lips, and I stared back unsure of what to think. She stared for a second more and then laughed loudly, yanking the rug up from the trap door in the middle of the floor and opening it, walking down into the darkness. I remembered the blood bags my uncle kept down there.

  As if fate was playing a cruel joke, I heard a shattering of glass from the shop. My first thought was vandals, throwing a brick through a random window or something. I spilled some of the hot broth from my ramen in my lap and cursed as Lily instantly appeared and climbed out of the trap door.

  “Get the shotgun under the bar.” She said quietly as she moved to the door, graceful and feline in her motions. I was momentarily stunned by the change in her demeanor as I saw her move almost without seeming to set foot on the ground to the door to the shop and listen. I rose and walked shakily to the bar, reached over it and felt across the underside and found the shotgun. It was a lever action repeating shotgun with a sawn off barrel and stock. My first thought was that it belonged more in the hands of a robotic assassin than it did under my uncle’s bar. I walked up to Lily and she quickly opened it and went into the shop with myself close behind.

  Two young men, likely in their teens, looked at me with their faces showing a good deal of surprise. They both held handguns, but handled them as if they barely knew how to use them. There was a rather neat hole punched through the glass of the shop door. I recognized one of them, the kid from Becky’s missing persons file. His partner looked very similar to him, as far as style went. He was a little taller and bleached blonde, though his hair was still intentionally mussed in the popular chic.

  “Is that him?” The blonde one asked.

  “Yeah, that’s him.” My familiar intruder responded, his voice shaking. They both pointed their guns low, at my legs.

  Lily set upon them in a flash. Blood splashed on the ground as the blonde boy was suddenly missing his gun hand. He let out a high whining sound as his scream exceeded the pitch of his vocal cords and sank to his knees holding the stump of his wrist. Lily was chewing noisily through the neck of the other kid—his gun hand was also missing. He struggled violently at first and then weakly before his arms went limp and hung at his side. It almost looked romantic if you ignored the blood. The blonde boy seemed to get over his shock quickly and went for his gun, the fingers of his dismembered hand still clutching it. I pointed my shotgun at him.

  “Leave it!” I shouted and stepped forward. Lily turned and looked at me, her mouth and nose covered in gore. She rolled her eyes and dropped the quivering body of the boy she was holding and walked over to the blonde, put her hands on the sides of his head and gave it a sharp twist and jerk. My stomach turned as I heard his neck pop sickeningly and he slumped to the floor, his eyes still searching the room. I just knew I’d have nightmares about that moment for the rest of my life. I looked away from his form and saw two homeless people across the street looking inside the shop—cold realization struck me instantly.

  “Lily! Vampires!” I pointed and she promptly fled out the door. The vampires seemed surprised and moved to run, but Lily flew like an arrow from one to the other, dismembering them each in turn until their ashes drifted and rolled down the street. She came to my door, and I noticed black spots of burning skin on her exposed arms and face—the sun hadn’t quite gone down yet, nor would it for a little while, yet.

  “Come in, come in!” I said, and she stepped inside. “How the hell were they out in the daylight?”

  “Thick clothing. They blocked the sun. They were also quite old, but not resistant enough to the sun that they retained their strength. They were children of Thanatos. He must be desperate, sending his older minions at you before the sun has even set. The probably compelled these young men to enter because they could not be invited.” She walked back over to the boy whose neck she had been chewing through and his chest rose and fell slowly as he looked at her. He gurgled and blood leaked rapidly from his torn artery, and all the while he had been reaching with his other hand for his gun. She knelt down and picked him up, and he feebly pushed away from her as she wrapped her arms around him.

  “Lily, don’t…” I began, but she turned and glared icily at me.

  “Go pack a bag. Your weapons are in your closet. Be ready to go in fifteen minutes, I will take care of these two. We can’t stay here tonight.” The look she gave me left no room for—nor want of—argument, and I resigned to slowly making my way up the stairs and focusing on the task I’d been given. I felt a growing tightness in my chest as I heard the boy sigh as the life finally left his body and he gave up the ghost, followed by a rapid succession of popping noises as she squeezed him like a juice box. An unceremonious end for the young man who, in all likelihood, was just caught in the crossfire. I realized in that moment why my uncle had told me not to trust Lily, but at this moment I felt like I had no choice.

  I went into my room and began throwing clothes into my duffel; pulling them out of the drawers they had been neatly sorted into and shoving them in angrily. I’d forgotten my pain in my haste and now my battered body complained with twinges of discomfort and aches. I forced myself to pack faster, deliberately throwing unnecessary force into each motion. I felt like I deserved every little hurt at that moment as some meager way of atoning for not being able to save the boys whose bodies lay still-warm in the shop below me. I tasted salt and realized tears were running down my face. I wiped at them and remembered the inglorious end my friends had met in the desert—and not just the ones that fell at the hands of vampires.

  I remembered marines cut down in their prime by random fire from insurgents; kids whose parents wouldn’t know until days later that their son or daughter had died. I thought about the bodies I’d had to help clear from wreckage produced by IED blasts. I dredged up a memory, as I pulled my weapons from the closet and stuffed them into the duffel on top of my clothes, of one marine corporal who had been pinned under his vehicle when it had flipped into a wadi and drowned in a foot of water and stinking mud. I shuddered and let out a quiet stream of harsh sobbing cries as I packed the last of my clothes into the bag and threw on some jeans and a t-shirt, slipping my jacket on after. When I was done I sat on the foot of my bed and held my longsword in my hands, still weeping silently.

  I partially drew the blade, and saw it stained with soot and crusted blood. It had already begun to rust at the edges.
A teardrop landed on the blade and washed a bit of dust from the blade, showing me my reflection. I looked at myself in the reflection of the blade as more tears fell and swept away more grime from the gleaming metal. I had told myself before that it was pointless to cry about those who’d fallen; that I should just focus my energy into becoming a better warrior. But you can’t always lock away the guilt and sorrow and soldier on. Eventually you’ve got to deal with it.

  There comes a time when you can no longer bottle up the pain caused by the deaths of those around you. There’s nothing wrong with crying it out.

  *****

  Lily had pulled the Charger around to the front and I threw my bag in the back and buckled myself in. She drove into downtown San Diego, where everything was brightly lit and people bustled about, ignorant at the moment of how cruel the world truly was. I stayed mute for the whole ride, and so did she. Office buildings and hotels rose high around us and eventually Lily pulled the Charger into a parking garage and got out. I followed suit, pulling my duffel onto my shoulder. I looked at her for the first time since we left the pawn shop, and her face had a ruddy hue to it as if she’d been drinking.

  I suppose she had been.

  Her lips were set in a firm and determined line and she strode purposefully out of the parking garage. After a few minutes I looked up and noticed the building we were walking to was a rather prestigious hotel in the Gaslamp quarter. Eventually we made our way inside and I followed Lily to a counter where a smartly dressed young blonde woman sat at a computer, presumably taking check-ins. My attention wandered as I absently looked around, focused more on introspection at the events over the last couple of days. I heard the words “No reservation,” and felt a subtle pressure in my mind as Lily compelled the woman into giving us a suite, and handed the woman a small rectangle of plastic. Her credit card was black. Fitting, I thought.

  A bellhop came to take my duffel and I looked at him for a moment with a blank expression, still lost in my own thoughts. Lily dismissed him politely and we took an elevator up to our floor. I followed Lily mindlessly to our room and dropped the bag next to the door. Lily immediately went into the bathroom and I heard the shower turn on. I felt like I needed a shower, but I felt like I needed sleep more. I was acutely aware of the throbbing pain in my shoulder from carrying the heavy duffel. Sleep would have been really nice right about then.

  I walked around the room briefly, taking in my surroundings. The room was all done up in pastel shades of cream, tan and muted golden browns. It was lavishly furnished with a plush couch and matching tan chairs, a dark wooden desk, and full entertainment system. There was even a kitchen with marble counters. I would have loved to stay in a place like this a few months ago, but now I was just glad that nobody had recently died there.

  I drew the curtains on every window, not caring about what I could see outside. My limbs had started to shake again, both in combination with my own weariness and the shock from the brief struggle I’d just been in. I hadn’t done a single thing, but the shock was still there as if I’d been fighting all day long. Exhaustion was washing over me, and I felt strangely cold in my stomach. I went to the bedroom, which was separate from the living space.

  There was only one bed. I found myself not caring, and stripped off all my clothes and tossed them on the floor after closing yet more curtains in this room as well. I still cared enough, though, to pluck my .45 from the bag and chamber a round, placing it on the table next to the bed. I crawled into the bed and rolled over onto my side, burying myself under the sheets. I tried to sleep right away, not wanting to think about Lily or the kids from earlier or god damned vampires anymore. I didn’t want to worry about my uncle right now being held in what were likely far less comfortable accommodations. But, predictably, the harder I tried to fall asleep, the harder it was to drift off.

  I heard the gentle patter of bare feet and a sudden weight on the bed. I considered rolling over and pushing her off, but instead I closed my eyes and laid there. I felt the covers move and then humid warmth as Lily slid up against me, pressing her bare flesh into my back. Her skin was still hot and damp from the shower. I felt both a rush of revulsion and lust combat each other in my mind and stomach, but I didn’t move even as she slid an arm over me and pulled herself against me.

  “John?” She whispered, her lips brushing the back of my neck. I didn’t respond.

  “John, I’m sorry.” She said, and I felt her lips touch my neck once again in a kiss.

  Alarms went off in my head.

  I threw the sheets off of me and rolled out of the bed, snatching my gun as I fell, and came up pointing it at her. She lay in the bed, her eyes wide, and I felt my power spark within me, hungry for the fight.

  “J-John?” She stammered. It would have been so easy. There was no way, vampire or not, that she would survive a barrage like the one I could deliver. I tightened my finger on the trigger, but then released it and backed up to the wall.

  “Shut up. Don’t move. Do not fucking touch me.”

  She nodded, but otherwise was completely motionless. “Okay.”

  I slumped down the wall and sat on the carpet, my arm braced against one knee, pointing the gun at her. My naked flesh quickly began to cool, and the cold brought on a calm that eased me rapidly to sleep.

  *****

  Dreams always seem real, even when you know they’re not. It used to be said that if a person preferred their dream world to reality that the two would change places. Despite all the horrors that had befallen me in a short time, I still preferred reality to the nightmare visions that danced through my mind as I slept.

  I was running through the night, the lights of the San Diego skyline showed brilliantly in the distance. I was in full battle gear and wearing my Marine Corps uniform. Thanatic vampires danced, grinning, around me, and I realized I wasn’t alone. Morris was dragging Kelly behind me—blood was seeping from his flak jacket and splattering in the dust behind us. Just beyond the light that mysteriously illuminated us I could just barely make out the stooping forms of vampires licking at the ground. I ran faster.

  “Sergeant!” Morris shouted and then pointed to the left. I looked, and there was the Charger. I went to Morris and grabbed Kelly’s other hand and we dragged him together, shuffling clumsily over the terrain. The vampires crept in closer, and then I was taken off my feet as several grabbed me and hauled me bodily away from my comrades. I reached out to them and shouted wordlessly as I saw Lily walk up and twist Kelly’s neck around before taking Morris in her arms. I went for my gun and tried to fire it, but vampire fingers pried it away. I struck at them, but every punch slowed down just before contacting them, causing no damage. They grinned at me.

  When Lily finished, she turned and smiled a crimson smile at me and was suddenly on me. Her mouth opened wide and filled my vision.

  I woke with a start, sitting straight against the wall. Lily wasn’t in the bed anymore, and the blankets had been taken off of it and draped around me. My gun sat upon the nightstand, just out of arms reach. I looked at the curtains, and no light tried to push through them. The sun had set a mere hour or two ago. I tried to do the math to figure out how long I’d been sleeping, and couldn’t. My mind felt like it was packed full of cotton, just waiting for someone to go to work on it with a drill. I got up and put my clothes back on, they lay where I’d thrown them. I walked around the suite, and Lily was nowhere to be found. I figured she waited until I fell asleep and left. I was asleep for mere minutes, and aside from some stiffness, my aches and pains were gone. I scratched an itch on my arm, and encountered the bumpy surface left by freshly extracted stitches. I felt over the rest of my body, and all my stitches had been removed.

  Moments later Lily walked in holding two large bags of Jack-In-The-Box. She smiled at me, and I looked at the bags of food. My stomach clenched painfully with sudden hunger, and I all but attacked Lily as I took the bags from her and reached in and pulled out a burger. She laughed spiritedly at me, a crystalline and
beautifully feminine sound. I felt slightly affronted by it, as if all of the machinations of nature were bent against humanity being able to resist her and her kind. I considered that feeling for a millisecond before thinking it was probably just a chick thing, and nature wasn’t exactly picking favorites as far as living or undead. Hopefully.

  “Well now, look at who’s finally awake. I hope you don’t mind that I took the liberty of removing your sutures.” She said, jumping onto the large tan couch and laying back on it, stretching out. She was wearing different clothing, freshly acquired I guessed. Faded jeans and a t-shirt with some Japanese cartoon character featured prominently on the front.

  “How long was I out?” I asked while chewing my cheeseburger, slightly disoriented.

  “Almost exactly twenty-four hours, if you just got up.” She said, reaching into the bag and snatching a burger for herself. She peeled off the wrapper and nibbled off the melted bits of cheese that had gotten stuck to it.

  “God damn, a whole day…” I found myself growing agitated, full of anxiety for the sake of my uncle.

  Lily seemed to pick up on it. “We’ve got an appointment today. We’re going to go see a friend that your uncle and I are both mutually acquainted with.”

  “Outstanding.” I said, and began to devour another burger. “Who exactly are we going to go see?”

  Lily smiled mischievously at me. “Oh, we’re just going to see a couple girlfriends of mine. I figure now is a good time to catch up on gossip and things.”

  “How does that help us?” I challenged her. “We’ve got some pretty damned pressing issues to take care of.”

  “It’s a surprise. Now, go get ready or we’ll be late.” Lily said as her grin widened fiendishly. I gave up on pressing the matter further. I had literally no way to find my uncle without trusting this woman—this vampire—so I had to work with what I had. If that meant doing it her way for now, then so be it.