00135. Homines Nocturnae.

A few hours ago Whistler went out with Blade to check into a new nest they found, but they ended up getting split apart halfway through their mission. While separated, Whistler was caught by a group of vampires after he ran out of ammo and was beaten so badly, Blade thought he was already dead when he found the old man. Whistler looked like a jigsaw puzzle in a pool of blood with a couple of pieces missing. It also looked like a lot of his bones were broken in the body parts that still remained.

As Blade moved next to Whistler he coughed up some blood and said in a weak voice, "My bag."

Blade glanced to the side where Whistler's backpack was before he said, "We don't need it. I need to get you to a hospital."

"No… The phone… In my bag." Whistler said between short ragged breaths.

"Phone? The phone for Ezekiel?" Blade asked as he reached for the backpack.

Whistler coughed up a little more blood before he said, "Yes."

Blade was quick as he dumped out the bag onto the ground, before he picked up the phone from the pile of equipment on the ground. After he flipped it open, he noticed it only had two buttons, one of which was a green call button and the other a red end button. He pushed the green button and after two rings the phone picked up and he heard, "This is Ezekiel."

"You said you can bring someone back from the brink of death right? Was that a lie?" Blade asked as he looked at Whistler's body in concern.

Ezekiel's tone was steady and confident was he said, "No, it wasn't"

Blade rummaged through the equipment on the ground as he looked for something to help Whistler as he said, "Whistler's dying. Can you help him?"

"Do what you can to keep him stable, I'll be there soon." Ezekiel said followed by a click.

"What do you mean you'll be here soon? I haven't even told you where we are… Hello? Hello?"

Blade crushed the phone in his hand as he said, "That mother fucker hung up on me."

Whistler coughed up some blood before he weakly said, "Settle… Down. Kid." He coughed again before he said, "I think… This. Is. It… Kid."

Blade glanced down at Whistler's battered body before he said, "Don't talk old man."

Whistler sucked in a shaky deep breath and tried to say something before he coughed up more blood. Blade gently reached over and touched his shoulder lightly as he said, "Just save your strength."

As Blade pulled out a morphine injector from his own pack, a portal of light opened up in front of him. Blade quickly drew his gun but as the portal fully opened up he saw Ezekiel standing on the other side with a few other people. Before he could do anything two women appeared kneeling next to Whistler as a green light shot out of their hands. Blade glanced at the women for a moment as Ezekiel said, "They are going to stabilize him while we move him."

Ezekiel and two other people stepped through the portal with a stretcher before Ezekiel said, "Help us load him on the stretcher."

Within a few moments Whistler was loaded up on the stretcher and everyone moved back through the portal including Blade. They quickly moved into some kinda medical facility from what Blade could tell and took Whistler into an emergency room. As Blade went to enter the room himself, Ezekiel grabbed his shoulder and said, "Just let them work, you'll only get in the way."

Blade glanced at the doors to surgery for a few moments before he said, "Be honest. Will they be able to save him?"

"At this point, most likely. But with his missing limbs… I think his vampire hunting career is over." Ezekiel said.

Blade frowned as he asked, "Can you send me back to where you found us?"

"Sure." Ezekiel said.

As they started to walk back to the portal room Ezekiel asked, "What're you planning to do?"

"Hunt down more vampires." Blade said in a cold tone.

"Want some help?"

Blade studied Ezekiel for a few moments before he asked, "Have you ever fought a vampire before?"

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "Nope. But I'm a fast learner."

"Then I'll give you the crash course on vampires then. First off, forget everything you learned from movies and stories about vampires." Blade said.

"Vampires are stronger and faster than humans… With you being enhanced, they shouldn't give you many issues though." Blade said after a moment of thought.

Blade pulled out a pistol and a couple of magazines before he handed it to Ezekiel as he said, "Take this, it's loaded with silver bullets blessed by a priest. They work better than regular silver bullets on most vampires."

Blade then tapped the middle of his chest as he said, "Best place to aim is for the heart in the middle of the chest. A head shot can also work on lesser vampire's or stun the more powerful ones. But unless you see them dissolve into ash, they aren't dead."

Ezekiel looked over the modified HK 45 Tactical he was given for a moment before he pulled back the slide to see that a round was already chambered. He then checked to make sure the safety was on before he placed it and the extra magazines over a seal he wore on his arm. Once it was all sealed away he asked, "Do you have a cold weapon I can use?"

Blade glanced at the seal Ezekiel just used before he unstrapped a knife with a footlong blade from his gear and handed it to Ezekiel still in the sheath. Ezekiel slid the knife out of the sheath and saw that it was made of silver and inscribed with religious markings as Blade said, "You can use this, but I want it back."

As they walked into the portal room Blade said, "A cold weapon only works if you stab them in the heart directly or sever their head. But never let your guard down till they turn into ash."

After Ezekiel and Blade stepped out of the portal and it closed behind them Blade said, "You also need to be aware of familiars. They're humans who work with vampires, so don't be afraid to kill them."

"What if there's a victim that's being fed upon?" Ezekiel asked.

Blade shook his head as he said, "If they've already been bitten, it's best to put them out of their misery before they turn."

Blade glanced down at the blood on the ground from where Whistler was not long ago as Ezekiel asked, "You haven't figured out a cure for them?"

Blade pulled out his gun and held it up as he said, "This is the cure."

Blade then moved out of the room they were in and into a hallway as Ezekiel followed along and asked, "What if Whistler's infected?"

Blade stopped in his tracks and glanced back at Ezekiel as he said, "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Now enough talk, just follow me and watch your back."

Ezekiel stopped talking and carefully followed along behind Blade for the next little while as he moved through the basement of a warehouse. Unfortunately they didn't find any vampires, it seemed like the ones who were there all took off or were killed already. Since it was cleared, Blade led Ezekiel out of the building and down a couple blocks to his 1968 matte black Dodge Charger.

Ezekiel nodded as he said, "Nice ride, I didn't see this when I was at your hideout."

As they entered the car Blade said, "It was in the back of the warehouse being worked on."

"So now what?" Ezekiel asked as Blade started up the car.

"We're going to another place that should be a vampire nest." Blade said as the car took off down the road. 

In the half hour it took for them to arrive near their next destination, Blade hadn't spoken a word. While Ezekiel wanted to chat with him, he figured it would be best to let Blade be for now, since the man seemed to be brooding.

After they arrived, Blade parked his car on a side street before he said, "We'll walk from here, but be alert. They normally have watchers stationed a block or more out from the main nest."

"Are watchers easy to spot?"

Blade nodded his head as he said, "They tend to stand out when you know what to look for. But they'll most likely look like normal humans to you."

Ezekiel glanced around the area they were in, which was surrounded by apartment buildings before he asked, "Wouldn't it be better to approach from the rooftops and scout the place out first?"

"Be my guest if you wanna go up there, but I won't be able to watch your back if you do." Blade said.

Ezekiel placed his hand over the seal he wore and pulled out two slim com units. He placed one in his ear and handed the other one to Blade as he said, "Alright, I'll head up top and scout from there."

As they came to an alleyway, Ezekiel moved into it and then ran up the side of the building. Once on top he took in the surroundings before he lightly said, "This rooftop is clear. I'm moving ahead to scout."

As Ezekiel body flickered to the next rooftop Blade said from the com unit, "The nest should be three blocks south of here. Just look for the only building with the windows blacked out."

"Copy that. What should we expect to encounter from this nest?" Ezekiel asked as he quickly moved over the rooftops leaving afterimages.

Blade himself quickly moved through alleyways and side streets as he said, "A nest will typically have around thirty vampires and maybe twenty familiars. Ten of them will normally act as watchers at night."

As Ezekiel came to the end of the block he sped up and easily cleared the one hundred foot gap to the building across the street and kept moving. Blade, who was a little bit behind him on the ground, saw the jump and said, "Impressive, but you'll draw attention if you do that closer to the nest."

"I'll keep that in mind." Ezekiel said as he flickered to another rooftop and spotted a couple people in the distance talking on the rooftop of the last building at the end of the block. He stopped moving and hid behind a water tower before he quickly conjured a viewing spell to see the people up close.

As Ezekiel studied the people on the roof he said, "I found a couple people at the end of the block. They're chatting and look to be kepting watch of the area from the rooftop."

"Two? A watcher normally works alone. Give me a moment, I'll be up in a minute." Blade said before Ezekiel opened a portal right in front of him.

Blade stepped forward through the portal and as it snapped closed behind him he said, "That's a useful skill."

Ezekiel nodded as he said, ""I've yet to find a magic spell that wasn't useful."

"Magic? Like turning flowers into doves and shit? That stuff's real?" Blade asked.

"Yes, but real magic is made to be useful, like that." Ezekiel said as he pointed at the viewing spell behind Blade.

Blade turned around and after a few seconds said, "Magic is definitely useful…Those are vampires alright."

Ezekiel chanted a little, while he moved his hands and the viewing spell zoomed out and changed to more of a top down view. With the new angle and distance, they could see an overview of the whole block now. After they studied it for a few minutes Ezekiel said, "There's at least sixty people acting as watchers…"

Blade frowned as he said, "Normally they don't gather in these types of numbers."

Blade pointed at the building with the blacked out windows as he asked. "Can you look inside that building?"

"Give me a moment." Ezekiel said before he chanted a little and moved his hands around slightly.

The view changed and zoomed in on the building in question before it showed the top floor. Over the next ten minutes the spell slowly showed the inside of the whole building going through every room on every floor of the building. Once it was done Ezekiel said, "Alright, that's a lot of vampires."

Blade nodded in agreement before he said, "Normally the main nest is under the building… But for some reason it looks like they are all living in the building itself."

"Okay, but there were easily a few hundred in that building. You said a normal nest is like fifty, so something weird must be going on here. How are we gonna deal with them all?" Ezekiel asked.

"Easy, we kill them."