Blood Moon Born

Chapter Four

Loae had never felt air so freezing cold and dry all at once. She was grateful for the lack of wind, but could still feel her skin crackling by the second, as if the air around her had turned to ice-fire and set her ablaze. But the freezing feeling came second to the sickening stench in the air. The group of hunters stood at the outskirts of the village, but it was evident that the massacre here surpassed any of the towns they'd stopped at thus far. For seventeen straight days, they stalked through the wilderness together, hunting down this pack of bloodsuckers — always two towns ahead of them, leaving piles of dead corpses in their wake.

"Everyone has to be dead," Olufemi said. "No one could survive this." She looked at Dayirr expectantly, hooking her mace back onto her belt.

"Bloodsuckers'll be onto the next village by now," Jumonke posited. He leaned down and spread his map onto the packed earth. There was a series of symbols where he'd marked off the villages they'd already been through. Circles meant the vampires had stopped in this area, picked off a couple of people, then left. Squares meant they had killed off livestock and animals, but no mortals. And Xs...Xs meant the entire town was decimated. This village would make the third X on the map. "If we start riding now, we can make it to Uafri by sunrise. The bloodsuckers will have to hold over there."

"Aye, then," Dayirr said. His voice sounded calm, but they could all feel the rage hissing on the inside. After all, these bloodsuckers had started in their own village. Seven villagers, including a young mage girl.

Olufemi climbed into her horse's saddle. Jumonke rolled up his map.

But Loae didn't move. She stood several feet in front of them, staring down the main road that shot straight into the village.

Dayirr noticed. He crunched through the frozen earth to stand beside her. "What is it?"

"The bloodsuckers are still here," Loae said. Her eyes were all black—iris, whites of the eyes, pupils—all consumed by darkness. In the last town, they'd come across a blue witch hunting stray villagers in the next town over. Loae had eaten her fill of the witch's heart. Appeased, the Seven Dead poured their power into her. The others didn't like being near Loae when she was like this, buzzing with power drawn from the darkest reaches of the Void. Consumed with nothing else but a revived taste for blood and even more power.

"How many?" Dayirr asked.

"Seven."

"Seven bloodsuckers?" Olufemi asked, incredulous. She scoffed. "I'm surprised they haven't slaughtered even more people."

"We'll need to send for more hunters," Jumonke said, shaking his head at the town before them. "Think we could keep them cornered here till sunrise? Maybe some warding runes or Void-fire torches or—"

Dayirr's voice was quiet. "Loae? Should we call for more hunters?"

Loae shook her head. "Wait here."

Jumonke jumped to his feet. "Wait now!" He rushed to them, a hand on Dayirr's shoulder. "You can't let her go in alone, yarund. Seven freshly turned bloodsuckers?"

"She isn't alone. Is she?" Dayirr asked. The three watched Loae as she headed towards the village, ever step quickening her pace.

Quiet gripped the village. Many of the bodies were in pieces, unrecognizable as mortals. They were thrown carelessly, dispersed on the ground, flung half-way out of their homes as if they'd tried to escape before their lives were taken. A stack of dead mortals lay in the center of the village, drained bodies piled high. The very ground beneath Loae's felt squelched loudly with their blood. The blood of an entire village, soaking the earth here. This land would be cursed for ages, for as long as it took the blood to sink all the way down to the earth's core.