Here's another chapter, fresh from my little mind! Thank you all for the reviews!
Chapter 5: New Predator
There was a loud whirling noise and the vampire hissed loudly, dropping Ravyn to the ground, clutching her throat. Ravyn looked up to see that somehow the vampire's throat had been slit.
Not one to question luck when it came along, Ravyn jumped up, holding her dagger out defensively.
The vampire spun back to her and hissed, "So the hunter brought friends." Ravyn blinked. She didn't remember Jonathan or Vanessa mentioning that they were sending back-up, but at the moment, Ravyn was quite grateful.
Still hissing the vampire took another stab with its dagger, narrowly missing Ravyn's stomach. Ravyn glanced around, trying to find who had helped her and where they were.
Unfortunately, the vampire wasn't about to give Ravyn time to look around. It was furious now and kept teleporting every few seconds, eventually managing to trip Ravyn. Looming over Ravyn, the vampire smiled, its' foot on Ravyn's chest and the dagger not far away.
"This is the end for you, little hunter," the vampire said, drawing the dagger back for a stab.
And with a burst of blood, a large hole appeared in the vampire's chest. The vampire screamed in agony as it was lifted off the ground and thrown away from Ravyn, landing roughly on the ground. For her position, Ravyn could tell that the vampire's heart had not been hit.
Ravyn looked to her savior to find nothing there… but there was something. A shimmer rose from the ground, blood for the vampire somehow floating in the air as if it was on some invisible wall.
Electric crackling came from directly in front of her and a being appeared where the shimmer had once been.
Ravyn couldn't help but gape at the thing. She had never seen anything like it. It was huge! It had to be at least seven feet tall! Its' skin was a brownish red, speckled with blacks and oranges. Sharp black talons extended from where the finger and toe nails would be on a person. It wore a leather-like loincloth along with a blackish-silver metal armor strapped on its shoulders, arms, and legs. It had black dreadlocks strung with golden rings that protruded out from a hidden face. The mask on the thing was the creepiest part. Reflective lenses bore into Ravyn as she stared back, wondering exactly what this thing was.
Then she noticed the weapons. A sort of gun was mounted on the thing's shoulder, pointing at Ravyn. It had two long and lethal blades coming out of some sort of contraption on its wrist. There were also different objects in holsters on the thing's belt which Ravyn could not discern the purpose of them. It also held a spear that was still stained with the blood of the vampire.
"It least that explains the whole 'exploding chest and flying thorough the air' thing," Ravyn thought eyeing the spear. Hundreds of questions ran through her head from: "What the hell is this thing" to "Why did it spear the vampire". At the moment, she settled for staring at the thing in shock.
A loud hiss caught the attention of both Ravyn and the creature. The vampire had healed and was now eyeing Ravyn and the creature with rage. The creature tilted its head and seemed confused about the vampire. Ravyn didn't blame it. If this thing knew anything about humans, it would know that a stab through the chest should kill one.
The vampire eyed the creature with a venomous look, "I see the hunters have got a new sort of pet. Let's see how well it's trained." The vampire disappeared and the creature seemed to growl. Ravyn had finally regained her wits and ran to hide behind a nearby dumpster. She wondered vaguely how this thing would handle a vampire. Ravyn saw the vampire appear behind the creature silently. Ravyn bit back a warning; she didn't really know what side this thing was on even though it saved her butt twice.
The vampire crept up slowly and pulled out its dagger. Ravyn blinked and the next thing she knew was the creature had used lighting-fast reflexes to catch the vampire's stab and throw it into a building. The vampire collided with the brick wall and fell to the ground, a few pieces falling down around her.
Ravyn was impressed. This thing was as fast as a vampire, if not more. The creature watched the vampire stand and hiss angrily at it. The vampire lunged again and Ravyn could tell that this time the vampire wasn't just angry, she was vivid. The vampire's dress was now torn in a dozen places and splattered in blood. Ravyn chuckled softly; so much for her favorite dress.
The creature seemed almost bored of the vampire's antics and quickly pulled out one of the odd objects Ravyn had seen in its belt. Pointing and firing at the vampire, a metal net shot out pinning the vampire to the wall behind her. The net slowly began to wind down, crushing the vampire, the metal digging and cutting into her skin. The vampire hissed in raw agony, but somehow managed to find the focus to teleport out of the net.
The creature gave another growl and looked around for the vampire. This time Ravyn saw it appear above the creature on the top of the build she had been netted to. The vampire had lost her dagger in the fight and now was crouched above the creature. Even from a distance, Ravyn could see the vampire's wicked fangs as it prepared to jump on the creature and bite.
This time, Ravyn felt a warning was necessary. No creature deserved a bite from a pissed off vampire. Ravyn knew that most vampires, when they bite a human, made the taking of blood a wonderful, blissful sensation, so the human would not struggle. One of the things that frightened hunters most was the thought of getting addicted to a vampire's bite and spending the rest of their lives looking for vampires to provide the drug-high like sensation.
But one thing a person could never want would be the bite of a pissed off vampire. If a vampire could make its feeding feel wonderful to a person, it could also make it incredibly painful. Some hunters which had survived a bite from an angry vampire described it as having acid or fire in their veins rather than blood, an experience they would rather die than feel again.
Now, this thing was about to have that exact pain be dealt to it by the vampire that lurked above its head.
"Above you!" Ravyn shouted loudly. The creature spun looking at her as the vampire leapt. Distracted by Ravyn's warning the creature was hit full force by the vampire. Ravyn cursed and ran out of her hiding spot to assist.
Tarn'se was getting increasingly annoyed. He had killed this creature three times, but somehow it just kept jumping back up!
Now it had disappeared out of his net.
Growling in annoyance, Tarn'se scanned the area. The female human had disappeared when the undying creature had attacked him. A cowardly move by the human hunter, but at the moment running away and planning a better strategy was becoming an increasingly good idea as the creature did not reappear.
Tarn'se had long ago decided that the creature he now hunted was not human. No human could withstand all of his attacks. But this left him with a problem: He knew how to kill a human, but how could he kill this thing?
Suddenly, the strange voice of the human female called out to him.
"So it has not fled yet," Tarn'se thought.
He spun to look at her and yelped when a heavy weight landed on his back. Hitting the ground he heard a hiss from the creature; too close for his like. Rolling and fighting to get the creature off of him, Tarn'se saw the creature try to bite him.
That was when he noticed the fangs. Longer and sharper than his own teeth, the creature kept snapping at him, aiming mainly for his neck.
He also noticed how strong this thing was. It had continued his roll and was now on top of him, almost pinning him to the ground. Tarn'se realized how dangerous this thing really was.
Knowing that he had to get this thing off of him, Tarn'se fired his shoulder-mounted plasma caster at the creature's head. He missed but the searing heat of the blue-white bolt burned the side of the creature's face. It screamed in pain and leapt back.
Tarn'se quickly got to his feet and flicked his wrist, the two blades popping out of the gauntlet strapped to his arm. The creature stared at the blades then crouched, hissing and baring its teeth in anger, preparing for another of its fast pounces.
It screamed as the human female jumped it from behind, stabbing it in the throat with a dagger.
Ravyn pulled the vampire to the ground and started slugging it for all it was worth. The vampire hissed weakly as it made sad attempts to fight back; the fight against both Ravyn and the creature had drained it almost to the point of death.
Ravyn wrenched the dagger out of the vampire's neck. The vampire gave a yelp and Ravyn watched the skin close quickly around the wound. Not letting the vampire recover, Ravyn dug the dagger into the vampire's chest, not touching its heart, but coming pretty damned close.
Leaning in Ravyn whispered, "Your death can be quick or long and drawn out. I don't really care. Tell me where Nacht was the last time you saw her and I'll go for the quick and painless one."
The vampire panted, it's breathe coming in ragged gasps, "It was in a lumber storage house on the left side of the river. I only went there once, but Nacht was there. I know nothing else…"
Ravyn looked at the vampire, wishing that she had Ivy's power to read mind so she could tell whether this vampire was lying or not. She didn't think it was… it was too much of a coincidence for both vampires she had tracked down to both mention a warehouse by the river.
Ravyn nodded and pushed the dagger down, deep into the vampire's chest, piercing the creature's heart.
Shuffling away on her knees, Ravyn watched the vampire scream and eventually die, its body turning into noting more than a pile of ash. All that remained was the tattered lavender dress the vampire had worn. That was the nice thing about hunting vampires. There were no worries about the bodies, and discarded clothing was common to find everywhere in the city.
Ravyn sighed. Well, she knew where she night find Nacht and the guild would now back her in any assault she may plan on this "warehouse" by the river. Exactly what the warehouse was for, Ravyn could not imagine.
Ravyn turned and began to stand, finding herself staring at two sharp blade points, aimed at her eyes. Ravyn looked past the blades to see the tall creature standing before her.
After all she had seen that thing do, Ravyn muttered only one word,
"Shit."
Yet another cliffhanger, oh how I love them! Please review!