Chapter 1: Innocent Vampire

Danica’s blood was boiling, seeing a male and a female being intimate three tables away. They were unaware of her watching them. A man and a vampire. She forced herself to calm down; a hunter needed to be clear-headed. 

Leaning against the back of the chair, she scrolled her smartphone screen as though she was relaxed and bored out of her mind, instead of planning how to take out the bitch. It should be tonight. The night was still young.

A partition half-covered their table, but the observant could see what they were doing, or rather what she was doing to him, to be specific. Was bloodsucking illegal? No. But what the vampire was going to do was illegal.

Her hands were so itchy with the urge to pull a pistol out of hostlers hidden beneath her shirt, and to send a bullet straight to ‘her’ heart. That would be pointless, not to mention Danica would be thrown into jail for assaulting an ‘innocent’ vampire. As much as she handcrafted these bullets with silver and wood, a single shot was nowhere near enough to kill one of them.

They separated. The vampire whispered something to his ear, and he nodded, his eyes dazed. The man was young and looked wealthy given his suit and the watch. ‘She’ gestured to a server, and he cleared the bill. 

Quickly, Danica did the same. Damn, this cost a lot. She only ordered juice and salad, but what did she expect from a restaurant like this? When she arrived, they had grudgingly let her in, eyeing her clothes: a black shirt, jeans, and a long coat. 

They rose from their seat. The man stumbled before he straightened up. It’s clear that he’s suffering from anemia, but the vampire giggled and said something like he was drunk and a few people from surrounding tables smiled understandingly. The vampire was sucking his blood as a delicacy, which was just a common thing. People were used to that, especially when the bloodsucker looked rich. 

Keeping a healthy distance, she followed the elegantly dressed couple towards whom their server and the doorman treated with all smiles and respect unlike towards her, a badly dressed loner girl. 

They headed to the parking lot, and she followed. She was one cruel vampiress despite her graceful looks. The strapless dress half-revealed a tattoo on her breast. Although it looked familiar, she could not put her finger on it. Where had she seen it before? It appeared to be a black semicircle surrounded by something red.

Pretending as though her SUV door was stuck—although it actually was sometimes—, she examined the area if this could be a blind spot from surveillance cameras. No chance. Even if there was, what was she going to do after her business? Stupid idea.

The vampire took the driver’s seat while the man seemed to be in a dream world. Ten seconds later, she drove after the red sports car heading to the outskirts of Umbre City. 

She hit the gas to catch up with her target that was speeding away fast, almost looked like it was trying to cut anyone off that could have been chasing them, or maybe it’s purely bloodlust. 

Miles covered, and finally, the red car parked under an oak tree beside a cornfield. They had left the urban area a good mile behind. The effort ‘she’ put into a meal; that’s why the ORP (the Other-races Police) was deceived. Danica drove past them as though she was here coincidentally. 

At the first corner, she pulled over. Her SUV was black and not obvious at night, which made no difference to night creatures. She took her coat off. After making sure the semi-automatic pistol and the revolver were loaded, she took a wooden dagger out of the glove compartment.

She had to be very careful in approaching them. Complete silence and staying out of sight were essential. Darkness alone was not enough for those glowing eyes. Still in the car, ‘she’ was already sucking him dry. 

This vampire had killed half a dozen people that she was aware of. Always young handsome males. She had never been there on time. 

Crouching behind the thorny bush, Danica aimed the area around ‘her’ neck, the most fragile place, with the revolver that was loaded with ordinary bullets. That would only break the window but it wouldn’t matter. She had another plan ready in her other hand. 

The environment was quiet, so quiet that she could hear the vampire’s sucking noises. The man was no longer moving. If she had approached them recklessly, she would have been dead meat instead of saving him.

“BANG!” The glass shattered. The vampire swiveled around in her direction like a robot. ‘She’ was fast, too fast, as expected from one of their race. But Danica was not slow, even though she could not match her speed. 

With her left hand, she fired the second shot with the pistol loaded with wooden bullets, which went straight to her neck. She then sprinted to their car while the monster was temporarily incapacitated, and opened the door. The pale hand stretched out. It rasped her shirt. This one could still move.

“I’m not your everyday vampire, little insect,” the vampire uttered with her damaged vocal cords before slamming her against the open door. With the impact that nearly cracked her spine, the door broke apart from the car.

She ended up on the ground along with the broken door. Before the vampire could make a lethal move, she fired another shot, which only hit her arm. Danica was a dead shot with handguns, but this had been a random shot while struggling for her life. She tried to get up.

The bullet slowed the vampire down, but not nearly enough as ‘she’ grabbed and pushed her to one wheel in her sitting position. The amount of stamina this one had, slightly surprised her. The vampiress was right; she was not an everyday vampire. 

The pale hand reached out to strangle her neck. “Humans are like pests. I crush them every day. You’d just add plus one.” The grip was choking her, and the back of her neck stung. The long nails. If not because of the two shots, this grip would have crushed her flesh and bone. She put her fingers between the cold flesh and her neck while her free hand doing something else.

“You–don’t–impress–me. You–are–nothing.” she squeaked out the words for distraction. That said, she slammed the wooden dagger into ‘her’ heart. It took a few seconds to take the effect. Then the vampire stopped moving and dropped to the ground. 

Getting up with difficulty, Danica was wheezing, like a fish out of water. In the car, the man was dead when she checked his pulse. She dialed the emergency ORP number and reported what had occurred. Since there was a dead body and his blood coated the vampire inside out, this should take care of the evidence business.

Danica crouched down by the now grey body and slid down her dress slightly to see the tattoo. It had been bothering her for some reason. In its full picture, it appeared to be a rimmed black circle amid red stars. Now it looked even more familiar. 

She took a picture. Although she wanted to look it up, there was no time to dilly-dally here unless she wanted to deal with the ORP when they arrived. They were jerks. Besides, she was starving. The salad was like a quick snack. Her line of job was energy-consuming. 

At a quaint diner on the outskirts, she ordered pasta and garlic bread. The diner was small and was nearly empty. While waiting for her meal, she made an image search on the tattoo online. The results popped up. Just as she read the top result, she cursed out loud. “I’m screwed.”