"So, I waited until they had gone to sleep, freed the girls and sent them home and then returned to the bandit camp. What I did there, is better off not repeated. Suffice it to say, I was well-fed for days afterward and the few remaining bandits fled in various directions. All away from the village.
"Missy was once again hailed as a heroine and I was again safe. The locals were willing to have one or two of their lads weakened for a day or two every week so long as it kept the village protected. It seemed a functional arrangement. I was kept fed and there were no more threats to the village. I wasn't seen by the villagers, but they knew something was out there.
"This worked well for a while, but then Missy started keeping daytime company with some of the village boys. She was, as you know, very pretty. Then the monster hunters showed up. They had heard rumors of something strange in this vicinity. They were a bit surprised when the villagers denied that there was anything out of the ordinary in the area. They would have packed it up and left, but then Missy and the head monster hunter's son met and became...interested in each other.
"Both the boy's father and I were sure it was just a crush, but the two of them were sure it was "True Love." That still might not have been a problem, but the boy refused to leave without Missy and she refused to leave. She refused to explain why, but I knew she was doing it because she didn't want to go without me. The villagers were not pleased with the idea of Missy going, either. They were convinced that if she went, their protection would go with them, leaving them vulnerable to bandits and villains again.
"A deputation from the village arrived on Missy's doorstep just after sunset one evening. I was watching from the shadows, since her beau had arrived shortly before. I did not want the inevitable confrontation to get any uglier than necessary, but there really wasn't much I could do about it. Several of the villagers dragged the boy back to his father. Possibly a little more roughly than necessary. The others stayed and talked to Missy about the effect of having someone tell the boy's father that there WAS indeed something odd in the area and it was directly related to her.
"When they left, Missy was in tears. She couldn't leave me at the mercy of the hunters. Nor did she want to lose her new boyfriend. Between the two of us, we could not figure out a way for her to keep both, but, as it turned out, neither was going to be possible.
"Apparently, the boy was hurt rather severely during his trip back to his father and said father took exception to it. He tore into the village to find those responsible. After he was done beating the information out of them, he went to visit Missy. The villagers, in order to save themselves, had told him about the bandits and the way the village had been protected since then. In fear of their lives, they told him everything, including the fact that Missy was the one who led them to the original vampire. He jumped to a conclusion. A VERY wrong conclusion.
"Since she had supposedly been left orphaned and alone years ago and had been the only girl to return from the fiend's clutches, he presumed that she must have been turned. The fact that she was regularly seen during the day should have contradicted this view, but he dismissed this as a belated effort on the part of the townspeople to protect her. He and his crew, including his son, came to our cabin shortly before sunrise. Missy was dragged from her bed and tied to a stake in the middle of an open field. I could only watch in horror, but there was nothing I could do to save her then, as the sun was coming up and I needed to get to a safe place to sleep.
"I was terrified for her. I hoped she would be safe until I could rise again. When the sun went down, I raced back to the cabin to find nothing but a smoking pit. Someone had carefully burned it to the ground, leaving nothing but ash. Everything we had saved for years was gone. Now all that was left was the two of us. And they had better not have hurt Missy. I was extremely angry, but there was no way I was going to go just racing in and possibly getting us both killed if they hadn't already done something to her. Or if they were using her as bait to catch me.
"I slipped into the village and saw Missy tied to a stake in the center of the square. There was a large pile of wood around her and I did not think they were planning a barbeque. At least not a pleasant one. The monster hunters were positioned all around her and there was no way to release her without being seen. The leaders son was nowhere to be seen, but the leader himself was standing in front of Missy, talking to her. Or perhaps I should say at her. He was speaking so loudly that his voice clearly carried throughout the village.
"He was explaining to her that since she had withstood the sunrise, she was not a vampire. Therefore, either she was a friend of the fiends or she was a witch. Either way, she was a danger to anyone passing through the area, if not those in the village. Therefore, unless a different solution presented itself, she was to be burned at the stake. The only reason they had waited this late was so that if she had any fiendish allies they could be drawn out and also destroyed.
"The was a cry of despair from a nearby hut, and I could see that the leader's son was being restrained there by his men. The village was getting darker and the leader ordered that torches be lit in a circle around the square, illuminating him and the pyre they planned to use to burn my sister. Like I was going to let that happen. So, I needed a plan and some leverage.
"Since I clearly couldn't get to Missy by myself, I decided to enlist some help. Clearly the villagers were too intimidated to help me, but a few of the boys were more than willing to play anonymous pranks on the hunters. They knew that one way or another, Missy would have to leave and they were not happy about that. Even if she wasn't easy, she was everyone's friend. Besides, these guys had taken over the village and were ALL assholes.
"While the boys were playing their pranks and distracting the hunters from where they were guarding Missy, I slipped into the hut where the leaders' son was being held. After a whispered discussion, I pulled him loose and dragged him out. He agreed to assist in rescuing Missy, but that was before he got a look at me. Fortunately, by the time he did, he was already tied and in my grasp.
"The boy's shriek of terror drew the attention of all the hunters in the square. Assembling my features into the most horrifying I could manage, I dragged the terrified boy into the torchlight. With an evil hiss and a snarl displaying my fangs to their best advantage, I held the boy before me, his shoulder just below the level of my chin. Clearly in easy biting range. I spread my jaws in obvious threat. His father turned an interesting shade of gray.
"'You would kill my little plaything, you foolish mortal?' I shrieked at him in my most terrifying voice. 'Go ahead. You have already destroyed my lair and I must leave this area. I will take this little one in exchange. He is, after all, more to my TASTE.' I leered at the boy again and he actually fainted, if you can believe it. Handy, but, still...After all, I had promised that I would let him go when Missy was safe. It did, on the other hand, convince the lad's father that I was definitely an evil and heartless monster.
"'No! I will give you the girl, but you must return my son to me!'"
"'And why should I do that? She is of very limited use to me now that she no longer has a home to lure the young men to. This lad will make me an excellent consort as I create a new empire of the undead.' I laughed diabolically at the boy's father and started backing out of the light. 'If you insist upon the exchange, however, I will allow it. You will come alone with the girl to the end of the path that leads from where her house used to stand to the cave of the hot springs. In less than one hour. She can lead you there. You will send her alone into the cave and then go back to the ashes of her cabin. There you will find this boy. If you are late, you will never see him again. Until you hunt us both down.'"
"He was struggling with Missy's ropes when I left and appeared to be turning down all offers of assistance from his friends. I tossed his son over my shoulder and raced off to a point where I could see both the cave and the cabin. The cave was a good place to go, because there was an exit on the far side of the mountain that I had found the year before. Missy knew how to get there, but as far as I knew, no one else did. It led into an trackless wilderness miles from any other human habitation and I would have to wait a while before we could openly return to the village.
"It normally does take just over an hour to get to the cave from where they were, but he did somehow make it in time while dragging an apparently unwilling Missy behind him. He practically shoved her into the cave and then turned an nearly flew back over the path to the ashes. Of course, I did leave the lad in a suggestive position, but without any unnecessary punctures. The temptation was there, but it would have been a nasty trick.
"Meanwhile, Missy had run through the cave to the far side. By the time the hunter and his men tried to track us through the cave, the trail ended in a cave-in. There was no other way through. We were safe, for the moment.
"The idiot was more tenacious than intelligent, however. He and his men dug through the cave-in and found the path to the far side. By then, we were getting ready to return, but we were warned of their approach by the noise they made. We hid in the forest until they had gone several miles in the wrong direction following what they believed to be our trail. Then we went back through the cavern and collapsed it behind us again. Hopefully, that would hold them for at least long enough for us to get somewhere far from our lifelong home.
"We fled what had been our home with most of the treasure Missy had received for helping destroy the monster that had made me like him, but we did not go as far as we had intended. We had barely gone three days down the road when Missy was captured by a petty lordling out in the forest on a hunt. I was asleep in a shallow grave, but I could not help her until after sunset. By the time I found her, she had been dragged to his castle, bathed, and dressed in a wispy bit of nothing. She knew I would be coming after her, so she had offered only minimal resistance in order to avoid the intended end result of the evening.
"I arrived just as the lordling was sharing a final glass of wine after what Missy later told me was a wonderful dinner. He was beginning to push her toward the bedroom when I tapped on the window. Like an idiot, he opened the window and Missy invited me in. He was delicious. So were his guards, but I really didn't think it would be a good idea to stay.
"Missy grabbed a few more practical clothes and whatever items of value that were laying around. She also collected a few days worth of food for herself and we fled back into the wilderness. We traveled for several nights, hiding during the day, before we arrived on the outskirts of what appeared to be a large city. I found a deep cave for the day and Missy and I got some sleep. The next night I was getting hungry again and I left Missy for a short time to find a meal. When I got back, I found her hiding in the back of the cave in terror.
"She had been getting ready to light a fire and prepare herself something to eat when she had heard someone approaching through the forest. She had quickly hidden herself in some thorny bushes and listened in terror as the group of hunters who had chased us from our home and the lordling's trackers examined the cave where we had spent the previous night and then congratulated each other on finding our trail. They were going to hide in the forest and then follow us the next day to our next resting place where they would capture Missy and kill me. Missy would be returned to the lordling's son and that would be the end of us.
"I took Missy to the city and made sure she had a safe place to stay for the next few days. Then I went out hunting those that hunted us. I found their camp a few miles into the woods. It was less than two hours before dawn, but they were preparing to start their hunt. They assumed that we would avoid populated areas and keep to the wilderness. And they probably would have been right, if we hadn't known they were after us.
"Listening to them talk, I was glad that Missy was not going to be anywhere near their hunting party. But I was worried about the future. When one of their party left the safety of their group, I took him. Quietly. They never knew what happened to him. He just stepped into the darkness and vanished as far as they were concerned. By the time they realized there was something wrong, I had taken two more.
"Before dawn, I left them enough of a trail to make them think they were still following us. They followed the trail throughout the day, getting further and further from Missy. They did not find my resting place that day, and that night I took two more and led them still further from the city. I returned there briefly to warn Missy to keep herself under cover and that I would not be back for a few days. Then I left to lay more trail and mislead our pursuers. By the end of the sixth night, they were so far out in the wilderness that there was no way they would be returning to where Missy waited for me. They were also down to less than half of their original strength.
"Even though they had taken to staying in pairs and then trios, I had still managed to take a few each night. Now, the rest were too terrified to stray from their watchful groups between the hours of sunset and dawn. They knew they had been led from their quarry and were being hunted, but there was nothing they could do now except stay together and hope I would make a fatal mistake.
"I decided to finish the job once and for all. I left what appeared to be a faint trail into a deep mountain cave that went on for miles. There was a lake at the bottom of it and plenty of smaller caverns to allow air in. It could have been custom made for my purposes. I set up a number of traps to collapse the tunnels once all my enemies were inside and went to sleep in a crevice barely large enough for my body.
"When I awoke, I checked on the cave and found that it had, as intended, collapsed upon itself. From the sounds and smells, almost all of those seeking my destruction were trapped inside. The few that had escaped the trap had scattered to the four winds and I hunted most of them down before dawn. Missy was safe.