Blood-Mage Hunters

The Fire Of Vengeance

Cyrus instantly took off his shirt and dashed outside of the cabin, running all the way to the lake, jumping without any hesitation in the water, earning a couple of cheers from the group of teenagers swimming near the edge. After a few seconds, Cyrus's head came back to the surface, a big grin going from one ear to the other. He went underwater again, swimming further away into the lake, a couple of teenagers following him.

"That guy's dope!" one of them laughed, swimming near Cyrus with a few other of his friends. "Wanna play water volley with us?" he asked the vampire, throwing a beach ball at him.

Cyrus easily caught it with one hand and gave the teenagers a wicked grin. "Hell yeah," he laughed. "Prepare to lose," he challenged them, throwing the ball in the air and hitting it with his palm, sending it flying towards them with incredible speed.

The teenagers yelped and moved out of the way, afraid to get hit by the ball coming at them at full speed. When it made contact with the water, a big splash went in all directions. After a moment of staring with big eyes at the ball, they all burst out laughing. "You'll have to go a little easier on us," a boy laughed, taking the ball back in his hands. "If we all go against him then we might have a chance of winning," he told his companions, looking at Cyrus with a determined look in his eyes.

On the dock, Reia and Lucius watched Cyrus playing with the teenagers, both of them laughing. "He's a literal child," Lucius shook his head like an adult watching a little kid playing, a soft smile on his face. They both sat down on the edge of the dock, letting their feet submerge in the warm water. "It really is nice out here," Lucius said, looking around at the glistering water and the trees surrounding them. "It's like you're closer to nature here."

Reia softly nodded his head in agreement, continuing to stare at Cyrus playing in the water. "I wish we could just stay here forever," he whispered, his voice followed by a short laugh. He shifted his gaze towards the water in front of him, moving his feet around. "I mean, wouldn't it be nice? The three of us living in a quiet and beautiful small city like this, peacefully living our lives. No more missions, no monsters we have to fight, no Biter," he quietly said, finally looking at Lucius.

The other vampire stared at him in silence as he spoke, his features softening at his words. Lucius completely understood what Reia meant. As much as he loved saving innocent people and making the world a better place, a part of him -one small, selfish part- wished he could just turn his back on everything and simply run away and live a normal life away from all the problems that they had to face every day. And he knew the others felt the same. But he also knew that this was nothing but a fleeting dream -something that couldn't happen in the near future.

He sighed, giving Reia a sad smile. "That would be really nice," he whispered, looking in the distance at the now setting sun.

*******

After Cyrus was finally done bullying those poor teenagers, he joined Lucius and Reia, who were now sitting at a table with a bunch of other people, all seemingly working on something. When he got closer, Cyrus noticed that they were all preparing some lights and painting some decorations for the festival that would take place tonight.

"What are y'all up to?" he asked the other two vampires, sitting between them and shaking his head like a wet dog, water droplets flying everywhere, making both Lucius and Reia groan in frustration.

"We're helping the locals finish the decorations for tonight," Reia answered, turning his attention back to the water dragon made out of paper that he was currently painting.

"You should make something too," Lucius suggested, making small flowers out of paper and placing them in a big container in which hundreds of other paper flowers were. "Make some fireworks or something. That way you won't be as useless anymore," he said, not even looking up from his work.