Blood-Mage Hunters

The West

After they had freed the vampire village from the hunters, the villagers insisted that the three of them rest there for a few days. The vampires they had saved were extremely thankful, continuously giving them home baked goods and other gifts. As much as they were enjoying it and wishing they could remain there for a little longer, Reia, Cyrus and Lucius had to leave shortly after. Since they were in the North-West part of the kingdom, they decided now was the best time to head towards the West -presumably where The Biter was turning humans into vampires at that time.

"It's more quiet than I thought it would be," Lucius stated as they walked through the western city -which was once roaming with people, but was now mostly empty.

It was as if everyone had abandoned the city, leaving everything behind and making the scenery almost look post apocalyptic.

"Where the fuck is everyone?" Cyrus asked, looking around the empty streets and shops as a slight breeze made his black coat flutter behind him. "Did The Biter eat them or something?"

"God, I sure hope not," Reia answered, half-jokingly. "There are still some humans here. I sense their scents," he added, closing his eyes and focusing on the smell of the remaining humans.

"Yeah, me too," Lucius agreed. "They don't seem to be too far away."

All three of them carefully walked through the empty streets, soon arriving near a secluded alley. They looked at each other before nodding and entering the darkness and shadows casted by the buildings in between which was the alley, going forward until they heard a quiet sob, followed by a few others and some voices.

"Is anyone there?" Lucius asked, his voice ringing through the darkness, the other voices and whispers instantly stopping. The silence hung heavily in the air, so Lucius added: "We're not here to hurt you. We just want to know what happened to your city and everyone in it."

After a few more moments of silence, a shuffling noise came from the darkness, followed by a few cautious footsteps. The shape of a human appeared in front of them, their clothes raggedy and their skin full of bruises and cuts. Then, about 8 more humans appeared from behind the first one, all looking just as bad.

"Who are you?" the human asked, looking at the three vampires with a ferocious anger in his eyes, reminding them of a cornered animal. But, behind that anger, there was fear. "What do you want from us?"
"We are The Blood-Mage Hunters," Reia stepped forward, putting his hands up and trying to show the humans that they weren't a threat to them. Upon hearing that name, a few of them visibly relaxed, the light of hope coming back in their eyes.

However, their "leader" was still cautious of them. "And what do you want?" he asked, fully focusing on Reia now.

"To do some hardcore drugs with y'all," Cyrus's voice made the human's attention snap to him, his brows furrowing in confusion. "Jesus fucking Christ, are you dumb or something? We just told you we're here to help and find out what the fuck happened here," he rolled his eyes at the human, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning on the brick wall.

"Cyrus!" Lucius scolded him, giving the vampire a nasty look.

"Both of you better shut the fuck up," Reia snapped, rubbing the bridge of his nose and emanating a dangerous aura as a warning for his two companions -which made them stop, thankfully. Then, he turned his gaze back towards the confused humans. "As my friend over there said, we want to help you and find out what happened here. We're after the vampire that we think caused all of this and, with your useful info, we might be able to finally catch him," Reia calmly explained, all of the humans listening to him and seeming a little more reassured then before.

"It's already too late. They all left," the human in front said, looking at the ground as his eyes turned glossy.

"By 'they', do you mean the other people that used to live here?" Lucius asked.

"They were no longer the people we knew," the human sadly said, shaking his head. "He turned them into something else. He turned them into his monsters."

Reia gulped and Lucius and Cyrus both stilled, visibly tensing at the human's words.

"That's The Biter all right," Cyrus sighed, trying to feign calmness, but Reia and Lucius noticed the way his jaw clenched and his knuckles turned white.

"But if they left, why didn't you try to leave too? You could have gone to a neighboring town or village and ask for help," Reia asked.

At the same time, all the humans shook their heads, turning pale. "Leave? How could we do that when some of his monsters are still roaming around, hunting us down? Why do you think we were all hiding here?" a middle aged woman from the group of humans said.

As if on que, from behind the three vampires 10 more figures emerged from the darkness, their bodies being surrounded by a malicious aura. The figures licked their lips as they stared with hunger at the humans in the alley, showing their sharp fangs as they did so.

"Are these the fuckers you were referring to?" Cyrus asked, standing straight and getting into a fighting position in front of the humans, shielding them from the approaching vampires.

Reia and Lucius did the same, standing in between the vampires and humans, prepared to fight.

"Don't they seem... Stronger than usual vampires?" Lucius asked Reia, seeming a bit agitated.

"They are stronger," Reia simply stated, looking at the vampires with a dark look in his eyes, his hands slightly trembling. "The Biter wants to create an army. And he doesn't want weak soldiers. He gave them some of his blood," he explained, his jaw clenching and staring at their enemies with such hatred that Lucius was a little taken aback.

"I'll just blow these fuckers to bits," Cyrus excitedly said, licking his lips with a wicked glint in his eyes.

To be continued...

Hi! If you liked this chapter, don't forget to vote it! :P