Standing Before Monsters (Vorans and Vampires) (2 page)

“Go,” the girl waved him on as she stopped to begin removing her boots. Stone and pavement couldn’t hurt her skin, but the heels could easily twist an ankle slowing the vampire. “I’ll catch up. So much for the idea of cute shoes,” she finished as he moved at a run.

There were those who would view the voran running on the sidewalk as strange, but it was rush street and late enough to see many strange things happening on the right night.

His senses told him that the vampire was running and gaining altitude at the same time. Nick breathed out in annoyance knowing this was going to be more difficult to maintain discretion and could only hope that no one would look out a window to see a man or woman leaping up the side of a building.

Turning into an alley way, the voran summoned his strength and leaped high up the wall on his right. The buildings weren’t as high here, only a few stories tall and close enough for him to cross from one side to the other moving to the roof in a series of bounds. Each leap would have made a normal man gape in awe, but for the voran it was simple. A man designed by nature to combat vampires had to be able to match them in such maneuvers.

It was a slight distraction, however, and Nick had to concentrate a moment to reassess where his quarry was in relation to him now. He could feel Nicola hurrying after him, but the second vampire was already moving east and seemed to be followed by the three strange readings as well. Could a new vampire hunter or type of werewolf be chasing him? Nick knew how werewolves felt to his mind after being in contact with them over the last couple months, and these definitely weren’t the same.

He gave chase moving in strides that carried him quickly across the roof before launching in a massive leap to the far building. If the vampire was moving east, he was going to have trouble hiding his movements and eventually there would be nowhere to run as he reached Lake Shore drive and the lake. If he was panicked or lost, this could quickly turn into a hunt that Nick would have to give up. He couldn’t risk discovery, but if this vampire were discovered it would do little good for anyone either.

Luckily, the runner led him to a possible place to deal with the vampire and his pursuers in reasonable peace. Taking another leap, Nick landed on the middle floor of a parking garage. The blue presence was still running, but appeared to be trying to lose his pursuers by dodging them within the large building. There were still cars around to hide behind, if he believed that such minor obstacles could aid him.

Nick cursed as he realized that he needed to move up a floor as they ran above him. They were close, but the voran couldn’t see them through concrete and steel. Moving to the outer wall, the voran leaped up using his speed and hands to help pull him up to the next level in a difficult maneuver. The attempt paid off as the man spotted movement in the distance. Though dimly lit as the garage conserved energy at the cost of lighting, his eyes could make out the movement of the vampire and his pursuers.

Charging towards the fight, the voran knew that he would be too late before taking more than a few steps. A flash of metal let him know that at least one of them had a sword, but then a moment later a flare of flame signaled the death of the vampire.

He cursed under his breath and felt the three strange pursuers pause, perhaps sensing him or simply to catch their breath after the chase and fight. There was a surge of energy in each of them before they ran. Nick hurried but as he found the burned out body of a vampire the three simply vanished from his mind. Stopping in stunned silence, the voran wondered at what could escape him so easily.

Maintaining his vigil, Nick looked at the dead vampire. Removed of the source of his energy, the creature should turn to dust. Some vampires exploded in flame, some simply cracked and turned to ash. Examining this body, he wondered what had actually happened.

Scorch marks appeared around him centering on three burnt pieces of concrete. The dead vampire also appeared more solidly collected than usual. In the several minutes of searching the area, where he found signs of the fight, the corpse was unusually slow in disappearing into dust. Cars and even a nearby support pillar also revealed cuts. Single slashes cut cleanly through metal and concrete. The speed and strength to cut stone without breaking the blade had to be supernatural, but there was no sword left with the body.

The cuts that surprised him were those that were ragged and grouped in three to four tears. A swipe at the concrete pillar had scratched the stone without penetrating, but left four of the marks.

“What happened?” Nicola asked as she walked up and leaned against a damaged car to replace her boots.

“I’m not sure,” he confided looking genuinely confused. He sniffed the air trying to find any source that he could relate to those who had attacked the vampire. While he didn’t have a problem with someone willing to kill vampires that deserved it, the man did worry what could have done so and whether they would attack Marek’s coven; if they believed them typical of the blood suckers he normally had to kill.

Nicola tested the air and sneezed. The blond shook her head in surprise. Trying a second time, the girl sneezed again and complained, “Can a vampire have allergies?”

Laughing at the thought, but wondering what was in the air that could make a vampire sneeze; Nick noticed a strange hair on the ground. The smell as he picked it up, reminded him of that of a cat. Holding it out to Nicola, the vampire breathed it in and suddenly had a sneezing fit as she had to back away.

“Well, if this is normal cat hair that might account for a normal person sneezing. Are you allergic to cats?” he questioned realizing that though unexpected the question made him realize that there were things he still didn’t know about this woman whom he had known for so long.

Rubbing her nose trying to get the tingling out of her sinuses, Nicola shook her head. “I’ve had cats before and never noticed anything. Marek doesn’t love the things, but we’ve had several over the decades.” She smiled evilly before adding, “Audrey loves cats.”

Audrey had replaced Nicola as Marek’s love interest, so such things amused the girl apparently, Nick thought of the statement. While it had been a mutual break up, since they made better friends after living with each other for only a couple years than lovers; the vampiress apparently considered Marek suffering through his second love’s preferences as a bit of a joke. Nick didn’t have the time for such a joke at the moment, however, as he tried to piece together what had happened tonight.

“Well, my nose says that it smells like a cat even so. Maybe we’ve stumbled across a type of were-cat? If they’re natural enemies to vampires, they may have a scent designed to rub you the wrong way?”

Wrinkling up her face in confusion a moment, Nicola shook her head as she thought about it. “I’ve never heard of any such thing, but if you’re right that three creatures smelling of cat went after the vampire; does that mean they only were after him or do they hate all vampires?”

The last question was asked in worry. After losing four of their members in a turf war against superior numbers, the woman looked leery of having another fight on their hands.

“Whatever they were, they took him out in a strange way. He didn’t combust from being struck by silver or having his heart spiked. The body didn’t turn into a pile of dust either. He still is holding onto his form, at least beyond the normal dead rogue we’ve seen.” His eyes lifted from the scene to the pretty blonde who was beginning to look uncomfortable with talk over dead vampires. “Don’t worry, you’re safe with me. With as much of my blood as you’ve been sneaking in between your regular doses, you may not even smell like a vampire to a werewolf.”

She knew that he was trying to make her feel better and the naturally joyful woman tried to rebound as she replied, “I can’t help it that I love how you taste and it’s not just for your blood. There is something about your smell that just turns me on.”

Giving him a smile, the vampire did her best to look unaffected by the dead vampire.

The voran summoned a blade of light from his right hand to prod at the pile of dust finally breaking it down so that the air could whisk the remnants of the vampire away. He needed to hide the evidence as best he could or risk drawing even more attention to the creatures of the night. Cyrus’s hostile
takeover had triggered worry among the police investigating the dozens of disappearances over such a very short time, so any new strangeness needed to be avoided.

As the dust of the body began to clear away, the voran looked for any signs of the man’s identity; but no wallet could be found and his clothing was dust like the rest of the vampire. Standing up and releasing his aura blade, Nick shook his head at the girl. “Whatever he was up to, these other hunters left no trace of who he was. If he had a wallet, it’s as gone as the rest of him. I guess we’ll never know if he was a former Cyrus acolyte or a rogue, but we’d better get out of here before someone calls the police to check on the chaos caused up here.”

Nodding as the girl turned with his hand in the small of her back gently caressing her, Nicola slipped her left arm around his back before leaning into him. Looking like any affectionate couple as they walked through the parking garage and found a stairway that would eventually lead to the street, the two confused hunters of monsters worked their way back towards the busier streets and the revelers enjoying the night.

“Now can we go for a dance?” the vampiress asked wistfully as they walked along the sidewalk towards Rush Street.

Three figures stood watching the west. Dressed in dark clothing that allowed good freedom of movement, each carried a mask in hand. In the design of a panther, tiger and striped cat, each mask was held tightly like a treasure needing to be guarded.

“There was a second vampire back there,” the woman said shaking out her brown hair.

“There was also another hunter between us and it,” the brown skinned man between the two stated as he placed his mask in a slim pack on his back. “Besides didn’t you read the strange scent on the second vampire? It didn’t smell of death the way the first did.”

The last figure held a silver sword that he was wrapping with a thick brown cloth. “We were sent for Cyrus by Barong. Someone else managed to kill him for us, but his strays need to be cleansed before another arises to cause more trouble.”

“Adding a sword to your collection of trophies, Alad?” the woman leaned forward to ask derisively.

“We can’t leave it for police to find, now could we? A sword laced with silver would raise some suspicion with the locals, Lamassu,” the one known as Alad replied tying the cloth with a few black strings.

Cutting the two off with a raised hand, the brown skinned leader ordered, “Enough you two. We’ll move to new hunting grounds to throw off the other hunter. If he was tracing the scent of the cat, the change should throw him off.”

“He isn’t kasha,” Lamassu stated as the three walked across the street beginning to move north.

“There are others who hunt the night predators,” the leader reminded the woman.

Chapter 2- Puppy Love

As the morning rays of the sun peeked through the window, Nick raised the plastic bag holding three strange hairs within examining them closely. Judging them to be either a light brown or a dark blonde in color, if they were from a human, he wondered if tan wouldn’t be more accurate if it came from some form of cat. While he didn’t believe it to be a real feline of natural origin, his nose told him that whatever he had chased was definitely from that family. The odd thing was the reaction from Nicola as she had sniffed the hairs last night.

A vampire didn’t catch a cold or get sick from any normal human malady. Having allergies before they were turned, didn’t mean they would have them afterwards. They were dead to their old human frailties in truth. Even though his blood helped Nicola retain most of her humanity, it didn’t make her human, so in theory cat dander shouldn’t affect her in the least.

Maybe the source was a new form of monster hunter that he didn’t know about. If they were as rare and secretive as his kind, there might be no information even as a legend or myth about them. His only hope was that somewhere along the line some human had witnessed a similar creature and recorded it for him to find. He hated being clueless as to what he faced and more importantly the man worried about his friends’ safety if these creatures were in the city to hunt vampires. Not every vampire was an out of control killer thirsting for blood at all times. Marek and his clan had been working with him for a century and there had been no slips for decades for example. They strove to be as much like humans as they could be.

Placing the hair samples next to him on the couch, Nick took his laptop from the coffee table sitting before him and put it on his lap opening it before starting his browser. He sat with it open a moment looking at the search engine debating on what to type. That was the problem any time that he needed to learn more about the supernatural creatures he dealt with in his life. Sifting through the fiction for the truth was often the hardest part of the story.

Moving through one search after another, Nick remained distracted until he heard movement from the hallway.

“Up as usual,” the woman’s voice stated with a yawn as she walked into view. Wearing just a long t-shirt, one that was his if he wasn’t mistaken, an attractive brunette with long legs and bared feet stretched looking perfectly comfortable with the man sitting there looking at her.