Chapter I
Page i
"Fang"
Bellside, Iowa…
A dark-skinned, young man took a sip of the drink he held in his hand. He was laid back comfortably in his chair as the television gave him something to watch during the lonely night with merely him and his sister. The house equally as lonely, for not another one was present for at least half a mile.
He went to take another sip but was quickly interrupted.
Crash!
The man flinched; the crash sounded more like a window breaking than an object falling.
"Rebecca!" he shouted in concern. He set his drink down on the table and rushed over to a couch, pulling out his rifle from behind it.
The eighteen-year-old coked the rifle and ran toward the staircase. He quickly climbed them and stopped at a closed door. The brother wasted no time and slammed his foot against it; the door swung open and hit the wall.
"What are you doing to her, you bastard?" he shouted to the tall male figure dressed in a black leather jacket.
Rebecca laid on her bed as the intruder placed one hand firmly against the young girl's waist to keep her pinned to the bed, and he removed his other hand from her mouth. Crimson blood dripped from the cut on his hand and the liquid covered Rebecca's mouth as she jolted her head to the side to look at her brother.
"Gordon!" she cried out to him, blood spraying from her mouth.
The man let his bloody hand drop to his side as his other arm held Rebecca on her bed. His strength was so great that he only needed one hand to keep an adolescent girl pinned down.
"You get your filthy hands off of her!" Gordon shouted. He pointed his rifle to the man and pulled the trigger; his practice in shooting animals finally served a purpose.
The bullet struck hard against the man's chest. He fell and landed on the floor, and his grip on Rebecca released.
Gordon watched the man fall, his eyes wide with disbelief. Did he really just kill a man? He moved toward his sister who remained on her bed. "Rebecca? Are you okay?" he asked, but the girl did not respond.
She was not dead, but her eyes were strained shut. Rebecca breathed hard and her body shook ever so slightly.
"Oh, God…Rebecca," he muttered as he let the rifle drop.
Gordon hovered over her for a moment before he moved toward the man on the floor. He knelt down and whispered, "What the hell did you do to her?" He looked at the bullet. It didn't appear to have gone into his flesh; its end stuck out a bit. The body began to twitch and panic set in as Gordon looked at the man's face.
"That tickled," the intruder said with a grin; white crooked fangs grew out from his gums, covering his normal teeth. He sat up and grabbed Gordon's shirt with his bloody hand and slammed his fist into Gordon's abdomen with the other.
The young man was sent back a few yards and landed painfully on his back. He groaned as he grabbed his stomach. Gordon watched the man stand up and rip the bullet from his chest, and a thin line of blood followed it. He flicked the bullet against the wall and bent over to pick up Rebecca.
Gordon fell into unconsciousness as the jacketed man walked over to the open window, Rebecca in his arms. He hopped out and landed two stories below on the grass. The bright moon provided him more than enough light to see as he ran off toward the forest with supernatural speed; the young girl in his arms did not hinder his speed in the least.
…1991.
Two Months Later—
—Bellside, Iowa.
A dark blue, pickup truck sped across the road. A small mist was visible in the moonlight; water particles attached themselves to a 'box' that seemed to be built into the back of the truck.
"I guess you were right," said a man inside of the truck. He had one hand on the wheel and another holding a phone in his hand. The phone was a bit larger then ones seen in modern times. "There is a job here," he glanced down at torn pieces of newspaper that lay in the passenger seat.
"I told you, Daniel," the young man on the other phone said. "I had feeling there was something still in Bellside. Lucky for you that you followed my intuition," he chuckled.
Daniel Elkins sighed and shook his head. "Still doesn't make a lick of sense, Caleb. Usually vampires take any bodies they gather and feed on them in the nest…but these are actually just killing people and only a few missing people have been reported. The only hardcore evidence we have is a body that appeared to have been 'mauled by a mountain lion and drained of most of their blood,'" Elkins said, quoting an exact sentence from the newspaper.
"Should I come to where you are and help you?" Caleb asked, "I'm getting sick of these Chupacabra jobs. We can take these fangs down—"
"Sorry, Caleb," Daniel interrupted, "the nest isn't that big. I wouldn't expect anymore than five vampires. Plus, you haven't even seen a vampire yet; you're just not ready. Vampires are one of the biggest 'game' for us hunters. I wouldn't want to see you getting hurt."
Elkins chuckled as he heard a sigh from Caleb's side of the phone. Caleb was young and always itching for a hunt; this attitude reminded Elkins how reckless he was. He wasn't about to let Caleb into something that he wasn't ready for.
"Just remember I'm only two states over. I'll be there as soon as you need me," replied Caleb.
"Don't count on it. I'm bettin' I'll meet up with another hunter. I'll be fine. Keep safe."
"You too, Daniel."
Elkins closed his phone and laid it down on the seat beside him. He lay back against his seat as he swept his light brown hair away from his blue eyes. The age difference between himself and Caleb was roughly twenty years. Elkins acted like a father figure to him, and many of the other hunters he interacted with.
It was still night, and the doors to the police station opened wide as Elkins walked in. He hadn't even bothered to change his clothes.
A man stood behind a desk and looked up at Elkins with a questioning face on. "I'm here on account of the young girl's body you received yesterday," he pulled out an FBI badge from his tan leather jacket's pocket that read 'Andy Nez'. "It's still here, correct?"
"Yeah, we still got it," the man said. He straightened his back, "but we already had an agent come in yesterday. We thought the examinations were over and the body's due to be taken away in a few hours."
"I'm just doing a follow up," Elkins explained. "Our last guy didn't do too good of a job with the examination."
"No surprise. The boy that came didn't even look like he was twenty," the officer chuckled as Elkins shrugged his shoulders. "All right, c'mon," he said.
The officer unlocked the door; Elkins took control and opened it himself as the officer looked at him, surprised. "I'll be done in a few minutes," he said, but the officer seemed to disapprove with the fact that Elkins was going in by himself. "Now, please," he demanded, and the officer simply walked away.
He went to work, quickly removing the sheet from the girl. A gash was right below her throat, the bones very much visible. Upon pulling back the sheet even more, several other gashes could be found, just as deep as the first. "One…two…three…four," Elkins said with a sigh. To him, each gash mark was another vampire. "They all fed at once," he guessed, "there are at least four."
Elkins covered the girl back up and walked out of the room. "Hey, I got a question," Elkins asked as the officer glanced over. "What did the last agent that came through here look like? Name too, if you don't mind. I'm just checking the authority on the guy."
"Uh…" the man attempted to think back to the 'agent' who came in yesterday.
Elkins stepped out of his truck and walked to the small bar before him. He moved inside and glanced around the room. It wasn't very full, but three people stood out from the others; they each wore darker colored jackets. Their roughness and rowdy nature made them the center of attention in the tavern.
At the other end of the bar Gordon sat by himself. He held a bottle in his head and drank from it occasionally; he either stared down or took a quick glance over to the three unruly, young adults. He appeared quite anxious.
"Damn it," Elkins muttered after he had watched the people in the bar for a minute or so.
He moved over to Gordon. Elkins' thoughts were raced for a few moments; a plan had to be devised.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, son?" Elkins yelled. He grabbed Gordon by the arm.
"Get your hand off of me, man!" Gordon responded, terribly confused.
"I told you not to come to this damn bar; you're not old enough! As long as you live under my roof…" Elkins' grip was tight; he easily pulled Gordon out of his seat. He walked to the exit of the bar, and many of the people inside refused to look at the sudden argument. "…You will live by my rules!" Elkins looked back to Gordon who had been attempting, in vain, to remove Elkins hand from his arm.
The two left and the doors soon closed behind them. Elkins moved a few yards away from the bar before letting go of Gordon. "What the hell is your problem?" Gordon shouted as he moved away from Elkins.
"Those three punks, they're vampires, right?" Elkins asked.
Gordon looked at Elkins with an open mouth, "W-well…I think so. I've been watching them."
"Smart move coming to the bar. Alcohol is the next best thing to a vampire. Plus, drunk people are always easier to catch," Elkins explained. "However, this isn't a job for a kid. Nice job with tricking the officer, but like I said, not for kids."
"You can't tell me that," Gordon said as he shook his head. "I've been working this job for a week now. I got the general idea where their base is—"
"It's called a nest, not a base," Elkins interrupted, "for clarification. This is exactly what I'm talking about. You're an amateur."
"Listen, please," Gordon pled, "you don't understand. One of those bastards took my sister. I can't give up on this hunt; this is personal."
A sigh came from Elkins. He looked back into the bar; the three vampires were busy with socializing. "All right," he said, "you gotta follow me, then. Vampires can pick up scents easily; they might think one of us is a tasty meal or a hunter. That act I pulled in there might've not been enough to fool them. We'll hide until morning and then we'll go to where you believe the nest is."
Gordon nodded. "Thank you."
Elkins put his hand out. "The name's Daniel Elkins."
Responding with a firm shake, the young man said, "Gordon Walker."
Suddenly, a loud crash came from the tavern; the hunters attention was drawn to it.
"What are you doing?" the bartender yelled to the man in the dark colored jacket who held the bartender by his collar.
Screams and confusion rose in the bar as the man in the jacket opened his mouth. He revealed to the bartender a set of fangs that overlapped his normal teeth. Without warning, the man bit down hard into the bartender's shoulder; a sudden eruption occured, blood quickly covered the man's face. "Aaaah!!" the bartender shrieked in pain as the two other vampires looked on with a smile. They patiently waited for others to run by them so that they may claim their snack.
To be continued…
