Chapter Thirty-Seven:
I covered that ground in about half a minute.
I could have been there sooner, but I took a slower pace so as not to alert my real prey. I didn't want to risk prematurely cutting across the path of any Rogues moving in, and alerting them to my presence. Slow and cautious was the game plan for tonight.
It was probably too late for the human couple at any rate. The vampires were probably already feeding before the bodies struck the ground, the kindest thing I could do for them would be to let the vamps finish feeding to make sure they were really dead.
Otherwise, they might come back as vampires themselves, if they managed to make it through the three-day torture of the change.
Still… the knowledge that people had died in the best manner opened to them under the circumstances wasn't very comforting, especially when I began to scent fresh blood at about seventy-five yards from the scene of the attack.
My fangs ached behind my mask as soon as I caught the blood scent, and slid down. I tried not to think about this new perplexing reaction, which had started the day Angel had un-wittedly struck her mug of mixed cattle and human blood under my nose as a prank. It was bad enough that the girl herself stirred the reaction in me for completely different reasons. It was unsettling after all this time to think I might be closer to vampire than I wanted to freely admit.
I attempted to tell myself that it was only the hunt that was stirring me, even though I knew well that it was a self-serving lie.
The scene I found when I arrived was very much what I had expected it to be, but that didn't make it any easier to view.
A pair of young male vamps were posed over the still bodies of a young man and woman, both so busy gorging on the blood of the couple that they were ignoring everything else that was going on around them. They were huddled too low to the ground, which severely limited your sense of smell, especially when over a new kill while the blood was so fresh and overwhelming to heightened senses.
Such neglect was a typical, and sometimes fatal, mistake of recently turned or very young vampires.
I silently eased into a good position after surveying the immediate area for incoming Rogues, and drew several arrows from the quiver. I nocked the first one to my bowstring as I settled in to wait for the real predators to arrive.
I had to curb my sudden urge to kill both red-eyed vamps, reminding myself that I was after much bigger game tonight.
The recurve bow was gripped in my left hand, where my little finger also pinched the shafts of two more arrows to the outside of the bow's riser, in a ready position to be nocked and released in rapid secession.
The technique was ancient, and used by both Samurai and Ninja archers. It also had been perfected by the infamous Mongolian horsemen during the time of Genghis Khan. Using it at this range, I could put three arrows in the air before the first one had struck its target.
I would wait patiently to see what developed. Consoling myself with the knowledge that if none of the Rogues showed up by the time this pair was finished feeding, at least these two vamps were enjoying their last meals regardless.
If none of the vampire hunters took these two as bait, I would kill them, dispose of the bodies so as not to warn any Rogues that might stumble across them, and then move on to see what else I could find, as I had a few hours left to me yet.
It was a fairly big park for one hunter to thoroughly cover after all.
As fate would have it, I need not have worried about this situation not panning out, because within a minute we had company. Before the two red-eyes had finished feeding; I detected the scent of burnt copper on the breeze, just as I made out stealthy movement in the shadows and trees behind the vampires I was using as lures.
The Rogues had crept onto the scene, and using the red-eyes' poor tactical position, had out flanked the unsuspecting pair.
I myself froze so not to attract any attention, remaining still until I was sure no additional Rogues were approaching the waylay from my direction as I was down wind from them all. I managed to locate at least three newcomers as they settled into superior positions to ambush the unsuspecting feeders.
They crept in very close using the trees and shadows, and waited. I heard or saw nothing more coming in from my location. And judging by how close these Rogues were getting to their quarry before attacking, I figured they must be only three in total number, and doing their best to cut off any possible escape routes for the feasting vamps.
I briefly speculated on what they were still waiting for a few moments later, when they still hadn't made a move. Why they didn't pounce once they were in position, and had the best advantage they were going to have in this instance?
Then it occurred to me, they were waiting for the two vamps to finish their feeding before they took them.
I could only conclude that perhaps they preferred freshly fed vampires over ones that hadn't eaten recently. Just as I once learned that even the golden-eyed vamps preferred the blood of predators to vegetarian animals.
There must be some better value in the blood of a satiated vampire to the Rogues.
At any rate, I no longer had to worry about the two bloodsuckers that had just killed two people; their fates were just about signed and sealed.
I only had to wait for the Rogues to make their move, and see exactly what it was I was dealing with as far as their true numbers, just to be sure.
The wait really wasn't much longer, though it seemed like an eternity to me as I waited for something to happen. I guess I was out of practice with using my patience after fifty years.
Both the vamps finally finished, at close to the same moment, and as they attempted to rise from the cooling corpses they'd made, the Rogues sprang their trap.
Two leaped from overheard branches, using their body weight to drive the vampires back down on top of their dead prey. The human hunting vampires tried to fight, but their limbs were hindered as they became entangle with the limbs and clothing of their kills. Human bones snapped and became limp and unpredictable, compounding the red-eyed vamps efforts to free themselves.
The third Rogue I had detected rushed in at ground level from a nearby shadow to close with the group. This last one quickly ducked down and I saw it make several very quick movements that caused the pinned vampires to howl out in un-imaged pain.
When that figure stood upright again, I saw it held what looked like several large clumps of flesh in both its talon-fingered hands. He held the chucks over his head, and squeezed them like fruit, to let the blood inside drain into his mouth before tossing the chunks of flesh aside. I then realized the third Rogue had torn out the calf muscles in all four legs of the unlucky pair of vamps, rendering them unable to escape.
I assumed this was the Rogues' version of hamstringing their quarry, as it had the same effect as slicing the Achilles tendon did on humans. If your legs were taken out, you obviously can't run away no matter if you were human or undead.
I suppressed a shutter; because I could only think about how glad I was that the Rogues had not had the opportunity to use that very same technique on Angel when they had first attacked her that fateful night.
The other two Rogues pinning the red-eyes down had already torn into their throats and were beginning to feed. The third paused for a moment, to lick its bloody hands clean. When it was finished, it threw back its head and unleashed an unearthly howl into the night.
I silently cursed as I realized it might have been calling the rest of its coven mates to come join the feast. The very last thing I needed was to be waist deep in a coven of Rogue vamps!
Especially when I only needed or wanted just one of them alive to answer questions.
I quickly moved into a better shooting position and drew back the bowstring, feeling the strong limbs bend as I took up the one hundred and seventy-five pound draw. I doubted that there was a full human that could draw the weapon, but you needed draw poundage that high to penetrate a vamp's hide… and titanium shafted arrows to withstand the stress of both release and impact.
The composite limbs of this bow were still new even if they have been in storage for decades, and weren't completely broken-in yet all though I had shot several practice rounds with it that afternoon back at the house. The limbs gave the tiniest of creaks as I almost reached full draw. The sound was almost nonexistent, and a human standing five feet away surely never would have heard it.
But the howling Rogue vamp did.
The howl abruptly trailed off, as the vampire-hunting Rogue lowered his head just the slightest bit to look curiously in my direction. I doubted if it could see me right away with the way I blended with the dark and shadows, but I froze anyway.
The creature looked my way for several seconds, but apparently couldn't spot me as I suspected. The Rogue turned his head to scan in other directions, and as soon as his eyes left me I competed my draw.
My right hand found its anchor-point just under my jaw line and locked in, just as the vamp start to track his gaze back my way again. I lined up the shaft of the arrow with my target, and then hissed lightly through my teeth in barely a whisper.
The Rogue's head immediately spun back in my direction. It could have been anything, a bit of movement, a glint of starlight off the razor edge of the broadhead, but something must have given my position away this time because he locked right on me.
The Rogue's eye's narrowed and he started to bare his teeth in a scowl, but I loosed the shaft as soon as it lined up where I wanted it.
The first arrow leaped from the bow rest with a sharp hum, the next two arrows followed behind it in less than a human heart beat.
The first shaft slammed into the howler's still partially opened mouth before he could close it, and drove him backwards a step. The second arrows joined the first in the same spot, and had enough force left to punch out the vamp's neck and bury the broadhead into the thick lower branch of a tree the Rogue had backed himself into. The trick barbs in both arrow shafts slammed open just after impact and buried themselves into the wound channel, hooking into vampire flesh to hold the Rogue tightly in place.
I usually do my best to plan my shots like that, but this time I have to admit is was sheer luck the vamp staggered back that far. I had also hoped that one of the arrows would have punctured the spinal column at the throat, but no such luck, as I could see the Rogue's feet kicking as it tried to free himself from the barbs.
The third arrow plowed into forehead of the closest feeding Rogue, just as she picked her head up to see what all the commotion was about. She did a somersault with the impact and ended up on her back just a few feet from her prey, and the dead human that vamp had been feeding on prior to its own sudden demise.
That Rogue wasn't truly dead of course, but several inches of folded-steel broadhead and titanium arrow shaft were enough to scramble her brains and shut her down for a short period of time.
In all the years of fighting and killing vampires, I had never found a better method at evening the odds against a vamp then something that disconnects the brain from the body, either permanently or temporary. So head and spine shots, and shots that pinned them to something solid were the only two rules of thumb.
Not much else you can do against a creature that's virtually indestructible… when you're not.
The third and final Rogue rocketed to his feet just as I nocked a new arrow from the quiver. It hissed in my general direction as he zeroed in on where the attack was coming from. It took a leap toward me over the bodies to cover half the distance that separated us and I released as soon as his feet hit the ground.
The speed of an arrow is deceptive when viewed from behind as if leave the bow or from in front as it heads toward you, this vamp found that out the hard way.
He made a move to the snatch the shaft out of the air, most likely to show his contempt for being attacked with such an antiquated weapon. He misjudged and closed his hand around the spinning broadhead, and barked in surprise when the blades shredded his hand and fingers. He probably wasn't use to being injured either.
The Rogue growled at me as it cradled his wounded limb, and instead of continuing his charge it turned away, deciding withdrawal was the better part of valor, and began to run in the other direction.
I nocked, drew, and shot in one smooth motion. My next arrow caught up with him just as he past the bodies laid out on the ground. It took him in the thigh and penetrated all the way through, as I wanted this one alive for the moment to question.
The special barbs in the arrow shafts snapped open just after impact, making the arrow extra hard to pull out of the vamp's body.
He staggered for a few steps, but that single wound to the leg barely slowed him down. I put another shaft into this other leg, and that slowed him down quite a bit now. He was sort of hopping forward, while fumbling with trying to remove the arrows at the same time, when a third and a fourth arrow hit him through both legs and effectively pinned them together to hobble him.
This time he went down in a head-over-heels tumble.