Chapter 36: The Ambush

Targoviste

'Oh, shit!' Trevor was the next one to see what had caught Yvette's attention.

He didn't see Yvette's eyes twitch. Sypha turned around. Trevor and Yvette turned too. The doors opened. Three Night Creatures stood at the door. The three of them shifted back into a back-to-back circle. Sypha's hands were lifted and Trevor drew out the Morning Star. Yvette flicked out her crossbow.

'You want me to deal with this?' she asked. 'You guys look kinda wiped out.'

'By yourself?' Sypha asked.

Yvette fired one arrow up from the crossbow and then flung up a throwing dagger. Two Night Creatures dropped from the roof. They laid there dead. But there was a roar and the other three Night creatures came at them. Sypha immediately transformed a giant ice shard into her hand. Instantly, Trevor said, 'Try not to burn the barn down while we're in it.'

'I did that one time!' Sypha insisted as they all charged.

'One time was enough!' Trevor swung the Morning Star at the nearest Night Creature.

Sypha charged another and stabbed with her ice shard. 'It had a giant spider in it!'

Yvette smirked as she shot past the third Night Creature, hooking her crossbow around its neck. The beast roared and clawed at the wood, now lost in its fur. They, Yvette mused as she gave the crossbow a hard yank, sounded like an old married couple. There was a loud crack as she broke the Creature's neck. Another hard yank and a twist and the head came flying right off.

Trevor snapped out the Morning Star again, hitting but not destroying. He dodged the Night Creature's claws. 'It wasn't giant!' He snapped the Morning Star out again.

'It was ten feet tall!' Sypha argued, forming ice shards and firing them. The Night Creature dodged.

Trevor tossed three throwing knives into the neck of the demon. 'It was only eight.' He grabbed his short sword and sliced the beast's head off.

'So what?' Sypha demanded, stabbing her Night Creature through the throat. 'Eight feet tall isn't giant?'

Yvette ignored their arguing and looked up, eyes narrowing.

'Fuck me!' Varney murmured. 'These bastards again.'

'They're very good, aren't they?' his right-hand man, Ratko, remarked.

'They're annoying!' Varney crouched down.

'And young,' Ratko mused.

'Hm,' Varney mused. 'I suppose.' Ratko did have a weird obsession.

'Pretty,' he muttered, 'smooth skin.'

'What?' Varney asked. 'Did you want to nick down there and marry them?'

'I want to wear their skin,' Ratko leaned forward a bit.

But they'd beaten them all and the blonde woman had stopped. She looked up, directly at them. Moonlight shone on her face. She wouldn't be able to see them. Humans never could. But she knew precisely where they were. Varney suddenly realised who she was. And she was loading her crossbow.

'Another time,' he said. 'We gotta leave though.'

'They can't see us,' Ratko said.

'No, but blondie down there knows where we are. She nearly killed me once in Cornwall.'

Ratko sneered but left with him when the blonde turned her crossbow directly at them.

Yvette lowered her crossbow. 'Damn.'

'What was that?' Trevor asked as he and Sypha walked over to her.

'Couple of vampires,' Yvette said. 'I recognised Varney…kind of.'

Sypha frowned. 'Kind of?'

Yvette narrowed her eyes. 'It looked like him, but it didn't feel like him.'

There was the sound of footfalls and two people suddenly ran in. They both stopped short. They were tall, well-muscled men. One of them had a cloak over his head. They looked at the Night Creatures, and then up at them. There was a look of pure shock on their faces but they looked between each other. They both had weapons, suggesting they had been organised by someone to fight back the Night Creatures.

'What's wrong?' Yvette asked. 'Haven't you ever seen wandering demon hunters before?'

The men looked at each other, and then back at her, and shook their heads.

A moment later, a woman rushed in between them. She stopped short. 'Did you do this?' she asked, gesturing to the Night Creatures.

Trevor shrugged. 'Just another day.'

Yvette looked down. 'Yeah. Quite a good ambush.'

'It was not for you,' the woman said. 'The trap was for us.'

A remark that made Yvette instantly suspicious. 'And you are?'

The woman walked over. 'Zamfir. Head guard to the Underground Court of Targoviste.' She shook Yvette's hand. 'You?'

'Yvette Belmont,' she said. 'This is my cousin, Trevor Belmont, and his partner, Sypha Belnades.'

Zamfir shook their hands.

Yvette then gave a pleasant smile. 'So there's actually still a Count of Targoviste? I'd have thought it would be wiped out in the first attack.'

Zamfir smirked, as if proud of herself. 'No, the ruling family of Targoviste survived Dracula's first assault. But later the vampires and Night Creatures came and it was safer to move them to the catacombs under the city.'

'Still in the city?' Yvette asked. 'That's a little careless, isn't it?'

The men behind her, meanwhile, looked between each other in confusion.

Zamfir's smirk fell away. 'What do you mean?'

'I'm from a noble household myself,' Yvette said. 'It is common practice, across the world, when a country's capitol is attacked, to remove the ruling family and to remove them from the country entirely. This puts them out of reach of the attackers and allows the defenders to focus on repelling the threat, rather than having to split their attention between that and protecting the royal family.'

Zamfir seemed stunned, as if this had never occurred to her. Then she seemed to recover. 'They did not want to leave the city.'

'Hm,' Yvette said with a trace of scepticism. 'We would be most interested in meeting such brave rulers who stay in their city while their country is being ripped apart. I am sure they interact with their subjects on a daily basis.'

'I'm afraid I'll have to determine if you can be trusted first,' Zamfir said. 'I run the resistance against the devils. Hell itself has attempted to curse our golden city, but we will not allow it.'

Yvette inclined her head.

'We have been following signs of some plot to return Dracula to Earth,' Sypha said. 'Does this mean anything to you?'

Zamfir stepped over. 'This is a nest of vampires in the city who wish it. They are trying to find the Underground Court to ransack its many magical treasures for their cause.'

'What sort of people are down in the Court, if you don't mind my asking?' Yvette turned to her. 'The guards and the royal family, obviously, but I assume the gentry are also taking shelter down there.'

'Oh, yes,' Zamfir said.

Yvette nodded. 'We ought to stick around a bit to see what we can do about this nest of vampires. We're career demon hunters, after all.'

Zamfir immediately turned and clapped them on the shoulders. 'We would be delighted to have you join the royal struggle.'

It was weird, and all Trevor managed was, 'Well, good.'

'Please,' Zamfir said, 'help us save Targoviste.'

'Fine,' Yvette said, 'but for tonight, I think we ought to find a place to rest. I expect we'll see you in the morning.'

Zamfir smiled and nodded. 'Yes.'

The three of them nodded and talked away. Yvette led Trevor and Sypha out of the barn. As they went, the two men passed them on their way to talk to Zamfir. Yvette noticed something as they did and her hand shot out and returned to her side, undetected. Well, it was almost undetected. Trevor waited until they got to the other end of the street before he asked.

'What did you just steal?'

Yvette held up a small blue stone with an odd marking on it.

'What is that?' Sypha asked.

'I think I know,' Trevor said, taking it from his ancestor.

'It was in one of their waistbands,' Yvette explained.

'How did you know it was there then?' Sypha asked.

Yvette chuckled. 'Slayer senses.'

Sypha groaned in aggravation. 'And I've seen enough glowing rocks for a while. They lead to trouble.'

'Quite right too.' Trevor tucked the stone away. 'Why invite trouble? We never do that.'