Vampires' Den

In the midst of monster parties, we are in death.

Vampires' Den

I took out my phone and unlocked the screen lock. I knew full well that now was really the time to notify Al. Still, the next moment, the mobile slipped back into my pocket.

"Damn it!" I hissed, then with a quick movement got my coat, and even though half of my shift was still back, I stepped out into the rain. I ran, I ran through the streets, the yellowish haze of the streetlamps and the light coming out of windows sometimes broke through the darkness, yet I felt more and more immersed in it.

I tore open the door of our house, and Alex ran out of the kitchen in fright, his eyes widening when he saw me. He wore a white apron over his clothes, indicating that he was cooking something.

I did not waste any time, but immediately stepped into our room, then opened the closet door, tossed the clothes away, and took a small box out. Alex stopped at the door and watched from there what I was doing. I hesitated for a moment. Alex didn't know what was in the box yet. I never told him even if he asked.

I opened the lid. The mysterious box didn't hide anything special, yet my only treasure lay there. I picked up the snow-white mask made of bone. The only holes were cut out for the eyes, a strange crescent-moon-like mark was engraved on the forehead, and a frightening, devilish smile spread across the mouth, painted with blood-red paint. It was the greatest treasure I have ever received. A magic mask made by hunters.

Underneath the mask were gray pullovers folded meticulously, but the material they were made of was as strong as steel. In addition, many more small daggers rested side by side in their holsters.

"Shay..."

My eyes immediately flashed at Alex's confused face. He didn't understand why I had the hunting gear. He didn't understand why I had a bone mask that only members of noble hunting clans could own. There was no time to explain.

"I need help."

"Where are we going?" the wolf asked.

"Right to the middle of the vampire den," I replied, then pulled my shirt off and put on my gray pullover. The material fully adhered to my skin and took on the shape of my body; it was like a second layer of skin, and despite how heavy it looked, I didn't even feel its weight.

When Alex nodded, I tossed him another pullover.

"Where did you get this armor from?" he inquired.

I shook my head, indicating that the time was really not right.

"Cover your face with something," I said quietly, though my voice was commanding, "Believe me, you don't want them to see your face."

I told him the same thing they once told me, and that made me feel a little weird. Alex solved the problem and put on a black, teeth-patterned shawl to his nose and tied it tightly so it couldn't even slip off accidentally.

I took a deep breath and then blew it out slowly. I put the mask on my face.

"You have a pretty grotesque taste." That's all Alex said in the end.

"I wasn't the one who chose it," I stated.

Alex didn't ask any more questions; he just caught the daggers I threw at him and hid them in his clothes. I kept the last one, slid it between my pants and my belt, and headed for the door. After that, we left the apartment behind. We ran silently beside each other as the falling raindrops drummed softly around us.

We got to the old, abandoned Janus Pannonius dormitory. At the pub, I've heard how they gossiped about these ignobles being in contact with wild vampires rioting in the city. We didn't even have to go too far.

I grabbed the top of the fence and then jumped over it. Alex followed me. Hiding in the shadows, we reached the main entrance. Behind the black iron grilles, only a few windows were broken, but all of them were boarded up.

I pushed open the door, which squeaked quietly. I didn't expect anything else, as vampires often waited for their dinner to serve itself on a silver plate and it would have been stupid to shut out young teenagers.

I exchanged a meaningful look with the wolf and then entered. I surveyed the place; nothing was too conspicuous except a few bumpy graffiti and a lot of rubbish. The porch stood empty beside us, its window broken, with only a ragged chair inside.

Next to the gate, a staircase led to the upper floors. We took two steps at a time, yet we also took great care not to make too much noise. Reaching the third floor, I leaned close to the wall from which the plaster fell in pieces and looked out into the hallway.

The walls were covered on one side with equidistant doors, and on the other side with boarded-up windows. I saw a small group of vampires in the hallway. Some sat on a dilapidated couch, others sat on three-legged armchairs or just leaned against the wall.

An average vampire gang consists of three to six members, but never more than ten — yet there were too many of them. Based on the location of the bloodsuckers, it could be deduced that they were divided into two groups.

One side just stood still, watching as the other group had just killed an elderly couple with the greatest piece of mind as if it was only natural. They probably got them from the wild vampires in exchange for giving the pickpocket to them.

Even moments later, I was hearing in my head the screaming of the woman and the sound similar to the cracking of a dry tree branch as the man's neck broke. Alex stood behind me and I felt more like I saw his every muscle tensing in his body. I knew the only thing holding him back from attacking was the shocking number of vampires.

I heard a quiet noise from the stairs, but it was too late, the vampire was standing in front of us, and as luck would have it, he attacked me first. From his blow, I slammed into the hard wall of the hallway. I heard the concrete crack, and then the necks of the other vampires' cracked too as they suddenly turned their heads toward me.

Alex seemed to have escaped the attack because he didn't end up next to me. Anyway, the other vampires soon got near me, and the smell of the cemetery, heavy with resigning sighs, hit my nose.

"This was nice of you," I said sarcastically, standing up slowly, and leaning on one of my knees. "Is this how you should greet a guest?"

For a moment, every eye fixed on me. The vampires were really surprised, even allowing their eyes to widen and their lips to open a crack. The fear that glistened in their eyes for a moment, I knew, was not of me, but of the dreaded monster who wears this mask in urban legends.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Alex immediately cut the throats of two vampires, but so deeply that only a thin line of skin held their heads on their bodies. At this the bastards immediately awoke from their daze, some attacking the wolf and the other half attacking me.

The first vampire to reach me immediately pulled his hand to punch and slammed his fist into my mask. He was surprised that I didn't try to block or avoid the blow concentrating the incredible power of the bloodsuckers in one assault, yet he was most astonished when I didn't collapse dead but instead grabbed his wrist. I could hear the smaller or larger pieces of the bottom of my mask tapping sharply on the ground.

It's only a week until the next full moon. I felt the monster inside me slowly eating up my body, crawling into my skin, stirring my blood, and beginning to forcibly take control of me. I tried hard to restrain the beast inside me, but the startled gaze of the vampires around me immediately let me know that I had only partially succeeded.

I could imagine my own gaze right now. The slowly darkening eye whites, the blue iris vibrating with rage, and the elongated pupil.

"Halfling," one of the bloodsuckers hissed.

That one word was enough to bring me to my senses before I lost my head. If I have a bloodbath here and now, I won't know what I want.

"Where's the boy?" I asked.

The vampire's second row of teeth popped out from hiding as he snarled in disgust at me.

Instinctively, I pulled up my lips and showed my canines. It seemed terribly humorous to me at that moment, somehow imagining our sight as if a domestic cat was hissing at a lion. Somehow his seven-centimeter fangs looked a bit scarier than my canines.

Still, the man raised his hand and each of his buddies stopped in motion and froze. They were no longer trying to attack either Alex or me, just quietly watching what was going to happen. I seemed to be able to find the boss right away. He made his fangs disappear, for it would have been quite difficult to have a meaningful conversation with them in his mouth.

"Who are you?" he asked, his voice coming from the bottom of his throat, threatening.

I knew well enough, it was my unusual look that stopped him in his plan to taste me. There was someone else in my family who had eyes similar to mine — and this guy no doubt knew him.

"It doesn't matter who I am," I replied, releasing his wrist. "I want the boy."

"What do you want to do with him?" He narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"It's none of your business," I said. "Give him to me."

As if summoned by my words, the mentioned boy also appeared. One of the doors opened with a soft noise and the thief stepped out, tearing the tape from his mouth. Excellent, it seems the little gremlin kid would have freed himself even if I hadn't come to save him.

The vampires immediately got their eyes on the boy, but the little thief was only staring at me confused, totally disregarding them. Somehow, he seemed to recognize me immediately. Each of the bloodsuckers started toward him, leaving me and Alex behind.

"Shit," I hissed.

The brat's face immediately turned pale, and with noble simplicity, he froze. He took a few steps back, but nothing else. Doesn't anyone teach kids to run with all their might at such a time?

Alex did all he could and tried to kill the bloodsuckers who concentrated only on the thief in sight. Meanwhile, not caring about the rest, I rushed forward to catch up with the one who was only a few steps away from the boy.

The vampire fell dead at the boy's feet before he could even reach him, and the bloodsucker's head puffed loudly beside him, then rolled away. I led my relentless gaze to the terrified boy, then looked back at the approaching vampires, and finally at Alex.

"Go," roared the wolf, "Take him out! I'll hold them back until then."

I nodded, then turned to the frozen kid and got him on my shoulder in a quick motion. After that, I ran to one of the boarded-up windows and kick-jumped out of it.

The boy screamed deafeningly, even though we had only fallen three floors. I tried to land on bent knees, yet the landing didn't go as smoothly as I imagined. Because of the extra weight, my ankle, which I first arrived on, was immediately broken.

I hissed, but I could already feel the tingling as it healed. I didn't stop even for a moment; I jumped over the fence and just ran. I only slowed down when we had been fleeing for half an hour. I threw the boy to the ground, and he landed with a loud whoop. I sat down on the bench at the bus stop to catch my breath.

"Your friend," the boy said, "will he be alright?"

"Alex?" I nodded. "I'm just holding him back anyway. He doesn't like to change in front of me. In any case, he would crush them even in his human form."

He remained silent for a while, but in the end, he was unable to hold in the question. "Why...?"

"It's not important, just show the way," I growled and stood up.

He nodded silently.

We were already in one of the secluded corners of downtown when we were found. The goblin emerged from the shadows and attacked me. He smashed me into the wall with such brute force that it shattered behind me like glass and buried me with debris.

I always hated goblins. Shitless creatures, two-meter-tall steaming piles of mud that exude such a terrible stench that is a deadly sin in itself. They have short, stocky legs and long arms, their eyes glow yellow, and their skin is as hard as a rock.

The gluttonous cry shook me out of contemplation about how much I hated life because it brought me together with the cat kid. I tossed the pieces of concrete off myself and slowly straightened up.

This immediately caught the goblin's attention, and with its enourmous fist, it slammed me again to the still-intact part of the wall.

The boy shouted in fright, knowing that there was no such creature that would be able to survive that blow a second time. Apart from me.

Indeed, I am a freak. A mixed-blood mongrel.

I'm not as fast as the fae. I don't even have the magic that they use. I'm not as strong as vampires. I don't have a razor-sharp second row of fangs to protect myself with.

But I have something truly peerless, something unique to me: my incredible self-healing ability. I have something that none of the species has — a body that is truly, audaciously difficult to destroy.

A moment later, as the goblin took his fist off the wall, he noticed in astonishment that I was nowhere to be seen. I jumped on his back and drilled my claws under his hard skin, severing the head from the stinking pile of meat in an instant. I threw it away like a big stone and then jumped off the falling body.

I quickly wiped the bluish, corrosive blood into my clothes, then glanced at the petrified boy, who was sitting collapsed beside the opposite wall.

"Are we leaving or what?" I asked, and he immediately collected himself and jumped up.