Holy crap! I just realized I haven't updated for over a month! Sorry! Luckily, I think I'm over the writers-block that I had temporarily for this story. I also gave you guys a longer chapter for waiting so long! Thank you all for being so patient and thank you for all of the reviews! Enjoy!
Chapter 7: The Raid
"The information was the same; a warehouse by the river. It is no coincidence or lie." Ravyn stood before Jonathan and Vanessa. The two guild leaders listened with interest to Ravyn's words. Once again, the path to Nacht seemed open.
"Indeed, we have another trail to follow," Jonathan said with a nod. Turning to Vanessa he asked, "How many members will we need?"
Vanessa paused, "It would be better to scout this place, learn of it before we launch any attacks. It is possible that there could be an ambush."
Ravyn sighed in impatience, "We should go as soon as possible."
Vanessa met Ravyn's impatient tone with a stern one of her own, "We are not risking the lives of our members by foolishly running into what could be a trap; I will not stand for it."
"Yet, the longer we wait the larger the chance is that we will find nothing when we get there!" Ravyn snapped.
Vanessa opened her mouth to reply and was cut off by Jonathan, "Enough. We will send a dozen. Ravyn, you will lead. If there is the slightest sign of a trap, you are to retreat immediately." Vanessa moved to argue, but stopped herself; it wouldn't do any good anyway.
Ravyn nodded to Jonathan, "Who is coming with me?"
"You are not dragging me into a vampire nest!" Ivy snapped as she gave Ravyn her shot.
"You're right; I'm not dragging you. You are coming on orders of Vanessa; she thinks you might restrain me from doing anything stupid," Ravyn replied, wincing as Ivy drove down the plunger.
"Ravyn, no one on Earth could stop you from doing something stupid!"
Ravyn chuckled, "That's true. Well, either way, you're coming. And I have to tell you something." The latter sentence was whispered so Nathan, playing pinball on the computer when he should have been working out formulas, wouldn't overhear.
"Is it important?" Ivy asked, using her telepathy. Ravyn shuddered at the feeling of Ivy's words flowing through her mind. It reminded her too much of the vampire's ability to do the same.
Ravyn nodded. Ivy glanced at Nathan who swore loudly as he got a tilt on his game. Satisfied that he would be distracted for a minute, Ivy placed the tips of her fingers on Ravyn's temples and nodded. Ravyn shut her eyes and remembered all she could about her encounter with the strange alien.
It was like watching a movie fast forwarded. All sorts of images flipped by in Ravyn's mind, some foggy, others sharp and defined. With a jolt that felt like a small shock, Ivy removed her hands and shut her eyes for a moment, digesting all the information Ravyn had given her. Ravyn leaned back heavily in her chair; the direct mind-reading Ivy did was taxing on both the reader and the person being read.
Ivy blinked a few times and asked aloud, "That's all you know?"
Ravyn nodded, "At least we know that the vamps aren't up to something bad."
Ivy sighed, "Do you have any idea if we'll be seeing this guy around?"
Ravyn shrugged, "He'll be here a few days is my guess. With luck this will be the last time we see him."
Ivy nodded her agreement, "Have you told Jonathan or Vanessa?"
"No; he is no threat to us… not yet anyway."
Ivy sighed, "From what I've seen, we can only hope this… hunter… doesn't come after us." She walked over to a small freezer next to the wall and pulled out a rack of clear glass tubes, "I've got six vials of the 'sunlight serum' now. I figured we could try them out tonight." Answering the question in Ravyn's mind, Ivy answered, "I experimented with the calcium, but it's going to take a while to work all the kinks out. So far, the effects last only about five minutes; not nearly enough time to compromise for the expenses and time put into making the damned stuff. Besides, it gives the drinker one hell of a stomach ache."
Ravyn stretched and stood, "I'm pretty sure any hunter would rather have a stomach ache than be bitten or turned by a vampire; trust me, I know…"
"Is everyone ready?" Ravyn asked looking back at her crew in the entrance hall of the Guild house. There were five women and five men, not including herself and Ivy. The guys were armed with the more direct weaponry, from huge double-bladed great swords to small short swords more reminiscent of daggers. The women held mainly crossbows, a few hand pistols, and the occasional sword or dagger. They all had on variants of armor, from toughened pieces of leather studded with metal to delicately woven neck-brace like armor, to prevent bites. Ravyn had been given another sword, Ivy had thrown a bit of a fit but she had gotten over it fast enough, and her dagger was sheathed opposite of her sword on her right. Ivy had only a crossbow and was passing out her bottles of sunlight serum to the hunters with the crossbows.
At a unanimous nod, Ravyn gave an encouraging smile, "Let's move out."
Tarn'se watched the human hunters scatter into the night from his perch on top of the building they resided in.
After meeting the strange female, he decided to follow her so that he may learn more about these vampires for his report to the elders and perhaps get the chance to hunt a few.
He snorted in surprise at how well the humans moved from shadow to shadow, intent on going in the direction of a large stream of water not far from the residence. As he thought about his encounter with the female, he figured that nothing should really surprise him now.
With speed and stealth that more than matched the human hunters, Tarn'se leapt from roof to roof in hot pursuit.
It took barely a half hour to reach the supposed "warehouse". It kind of stuck out from the other buildings by being the only one without lights on in front of it. Vampires had no need for light.
The warehouses by the river were surrounded by forest to the back of them. To the front stood docks and ships in which the warehouses would place their supplies to be shipped up or down river to the many cities. The thick trees and brush provided excellent cover from Ravyn and her team.
Ravyn gestured for all of the team to stay behind as she scouted ahead. One sniper, Vince, followed her despite her orders to stay. Ravyn shrugged it off; she knew that Vanessa would want at least one person to follow her every move.
As Ravyn and Vince neared the building they heard a loud steady thumping noise coming from the warehouse. They glanced at each other; what was making that noise?
Ravyn gestured for Vince to stop as she spotted a vampire guard at the door. Ravyn made an owl call, attracting the vampire's attention. Quickly signaling with her hands, Ravyn relayed her plan to Vince. Vince nodded grimly and stayed put as Ravyn climbed up into the boughs of a nearby tree.
The vampire broke through the thick underbrush spotting Vince immediately.
"What do we have here?" the vampire asked, stalking towards Vince, his sharp eyeteeth glistening with saliva. As he neared Vince, Ravyn dropped down from above, driving her dagger trough the vampire's throat and her sword through its' heart.
The vampire made no more than a quiet gasp to collapse into a pile of ash upon the ground.
With a nod to Vince, Ravyn quickly raced over to the door, keeping to the shadows. Now that she was closer to the building, she could tell its' design was of simple brick with heavy steel doors; nothing special. On the door at eye level, a small checkered window looked into the warehouse. Ravyn took one glance and bolted back to the undercover of the forest.
Vince saw the laughter in Ravyn's eyes and asked, "What is it?"
Ravyn smiled viciously, "It's a club."
Over the years, "vampire clubs" had grown quite popular. Basically, it was a place for all the bloodsuckers to get together and discuss new fledglings, rumors of the plans of master vampires, and basically get a free meal from the unfortunate humans lured into the club. It was not uncommon for the hunters to find dead humans hanging from chains mounted to the walls. Often from the looks of the corpses, the more sadistic vampires had had some "fun" with the humans; namely torturing them.
After meeting back with the group and explaining the situation, Ravyn and the hunters began to fan out around the warehouse. The double doors Ravyn had stolen a look through seemed to be the only entrance to the warehouse, so the other three patrolling guards had to be taken out first. Within a few minutes, the hunters were lined outside the doors.
With a jerk of her hand, Ravyn gave the signal, and the hunters burst in through the doors and began the attack.
The party seemed to be in full swing as Ravyn got off two crossbow bolts, poisoned with Ivy's serum, hitting one vampire in its heart and another in the stomach.
The first promptly turned to ash, as the second collapsed, grasping its stomach, its mouth open in a silent scream. Slowly, the flesh around the wound grew grey, then black and seemed to dissolve.
Ravyn turned from the vampire and moved on to the other vampires whom, finally getting over the shock of a dozen hunters bursting through the door began to either attack or run.
Ravyn dropped one crossbow and drew her sword, impaling the closest vampire to her. Ravyn whipped the sword out of the vampire's chest and into another's trying to keep track of the chaos which reigned around her. She could scarcely tell her allies from her enemies, but she concentrated on the ones that seemed intent on killing her. She lopped off a hand clawing towards her head and rammed the pommel of her sword into nose of another vamp, flipping the sword around in her hand and driving through its' chest.
One particularly large vampire knocked into her, launching Ravyn through the air. Rolling, Ravyn came back up, loading her crossbow quickly and setting loose a previously loaded dart, killing the rushing vampire.
Glancing around, Ravyn took stalk of the situation. The hunters seemed to be winning. It seemed the vampires here were mainly fledglings, no masters or truly strong, older vamps. She could see Vince and two others form a small wall against the rushing vampires as Ivy seemed to be tending to one of their wounded.
Suddenly a vampire leapt over the three and landed before Ivy. Ivy's head shot up and she seemed to lash out at the vampire. The vampire clutched its head in pain and Vince ran it through from behind. Though Ivy wasn't much of a fighter, her mind abilities could cause any unsuspecting being pain should she want to.
Ravyn turned from the scene, diving into the mass of vampires, cutting down all that were in her way, always looking for a glimpse of Nacht.
Tarn'se watched the battle with interest. He had slipped through the door with his cloaking on and simply observed the battle. These humans were good fighters, there was no doubting that.
Glancing at a group of the vampires gathering in the corner, about nine, Tarn'se decided it was his time to hunt.
Disabling his cloaking, Tarn'se rushed with a battle cry at the vampires. They seemed shocked at his sudden appearance, only beginning to realize he was a threat when he ran one of them through with his wrist blades and speared the other, making sure his aim was precise and through the being's hearts. The vampires bared their fangs and leapt at him, using speed far beyond any human's.
But Tarn'se was ready this time. Dodging one slashing attack, he used his spear to stab another vampire and slashed at another with his wrist blades. The one vampire collapsed to dust while the other leapt away with a cry of pain. The vampires quickly regained their composer and leapt at him all at once.
Tarn'se smiled and spun on a circle, his spear slashing through at least three of the vampires, killing them effectively. The other three seemed unsure of what to do next. One disappeared suddenly and reappeared behind him, but Tarn'se simply pulled out one of his disks and flipped it behind him, lopping the creature's head off. Tarn'se caught the disk and threw it at one of the two vampires which had decided to flee. The disk cut cleanly through its neck and zipped back to Tarn'se.
The final vampire had run off in the direction of the main battle. Tarn'se slipped his disk away and pursued it, grinning all the while. This was the hunt he had been waiting for.
Ravyn couldn't help but feel and overwhelming sense of despair when she realized Nacht was not there. The vampire master would have undoubtedly come out to fight the hunters if she was. Nacht was no coward to hide in the corner and watch.
Ravyn was so distracted, she didn't notice the vampire behind her until it knocked her to the floor. Ravyn brandished her sword and prepared to defend when the vampire was stabbed straight through the chest. Dissolving into ash, Ravyn saw the familiar mask of her alien "friend" looming over her.
"You again! What the hell are you doing here!" Ravyn shouted over the noise, though it seemed to be dying down as the battle began to wear down. Most vampires had either fled or were on their last legs. Any powerful ones that remained began to teleport away; the young ones could only teleport to close by areas that they could see.
"Hunting," The alien replied simply.
Ravyn opened her mouth to speak when Ivy grabbed her arm, "Ravyn the battle is over. All that is left are a few captives." Ivy's blue har was dappled with purple with vampire blood; she had obviously seen more action than Ravyn had seen. Ravyn noticed that the main noise was caused by the ever pounding music of the stereo systems the vampires had hooked up. The music was silenced quickly by one of the hunters ripping the plugs from the wall.
Ivy glanced over at Tarn'se, yelping and giving a small jump. Not removing her eyes from Tarn'se she asked Ravyn, "Is this your… alien friend you told me about."
Ravyn nodded, "He decided to come and join the fun." Looking at Tarn'se, Ravyn said, "If you'll excuse me, I have some business to attend to."
Ravyn walked over to where Vince and the other hunters were holding three vampires, two men and a woman.
Glancing at them Ravyn smiled coldly, "Well, you obviously know your chances of leaving this place alive are incredibly low. Now, if you give us some information, perhaps that chance will become greater."
"What information?" one of the male vampires asked. His hair was of a bright ginger color, somewhat matted with sweat and blood. His black eyes looked somewhat appropriate for his oval, thin face.
"Where Nacht is hiding?" Ravyn asked.
"We shall never tell you! Our sire is great and she will crush you puny mortals into the dust and laugh as you cries…" The vampire woman got no more words out as Ravyn stabbed her through the chest with her sword. It was not a very merciful nor honorable action, but Ravyn learned a long time ago, if you didn't kill a vampire the first chance you got, that was just another you'd have to kill in battle with a bunch of them coming at you.
Looking at the remaining two, Ravyn gave them a questioning look. One of the men disappeared and reappeared by the door, trying to run. He was quickly cut down by the hunter hiding outside the door.
Ravyn turned to the last one, the one with the ginger hair. He seemed oddly calm about the whole situation. With a sigh he lowered his eyes, "Her palace is in the wildlife preserve about ten miles in, near the L-shaped lake."
Ravyn raised her brows, surprised, "And you are telling us this why?"
The vampire shrugged, "I never liked Nacht; she was an always an egotistical bitch. And I'm going to die anyway, so I figured…" he shrugged again, as if his explanation was enough.
Ravyn glanced at Ivy, who moved next to her to confirm the vampire's words. Her eyes flashed as she glanced into the vamp's mind, then she nodded. "Fair enough," Ravyn said, leveling her sword. Suddenly her arm was grabbed. It was Ivy.
"Don't kill him. He is no threat to us." Ivy was looking at the vampire with pity in her eyes.
Ravyn stared at Ivy as if she were insane, "Ivy, in case you've forgotten, he's a vampire."
"Yes, one that is now labeled as an outcast and traitor. He will be too busy running he won't have time to cause trouble."
Ravyn sighed; she knew that one day she would regret leaving this one off. Yet, Ivy had a point. Once a vampire was labeled an outcast, no other vampires would trust nor help him; and most likely Nacht would send her minions to have him destroyed. He was pretty much on his own now, "Fine, you will be released. However, one false move and your hide is ash in the wind."
The vampire stood slowly and turned to Ivy, "My thanks, Milady." He held out his hand palm up, holding a small object in his hand. Ivy took it with a nod. The vampire grinned then disappeared.
"So, what's with your friend over there?" Ivy asked. Tarn'se was looking through the vampire's weapons that lay scattered on the floor, picking up a small dagger off the floor, and then slipping it into his belt.
Ravyn shook her head and turned to Ivy. She had been counting the losses. One hunter, a young woman, was dead, one other was wounded somewhat severely, and the others, if anything, had some cuts, bruises, and scratches. This had been an easy fight, and most of the vampires had been fledglings, each probably less than a century old.
"I leave him alone; he leaves me alone," Ravyn answered, "Simple."
"I think Vanessa and Jonathan would like to meet him. He really helped us out here."
"Are you crazy? Bring him back to the Guild?" Ravyn asked.
Ivy shrugged, "He killed a good couple vampires. Maybe he could be useful in the raid on Nacht's home."
Ravyn shook her head, "No, no, and no."
"I'm gonna ask him," Ivy said then darted over to the alien before Ravyn could grab her.
"What are you doing?" a human voice asked. Tarn'se turned and saw Ravyn's companion staring curiously up at him.
He was someone annoyed how she showed no fear of him, but he answered by holding out the dagger of one of the creatures he killed, "Trophy."
The human glanced at the knife then held out her hand, "I'm Ivy." Tarn'se stared at the outstretched hand, confused. Did it want something?
"Ivy! Get your butt over here!" Ravyn barked marching over.
Ivy withdrew her hand and ignored Ravyn, "Would you like to return to our guild? Our… leaders would be very… interested in meeting you."
"I do not associate with prey species," Tarn'se growled. He was half tempted to simply leave.
"See, he isn't coming, now come on," Ravyn growled trying to drag Ivy away. But Ivy wasn't giving up so easily. When she set her mind to something, she often got it. And the alien turned and began to walk away; Ivy concentrated, trying to see if she could get any thoughts or feelings out of the alien. All she got were a few pictures of the battle and three strong feelings: annoyance, pride, and boredom.
"Before you leave!" Ivy called, "Perhaps you'll be interested in something I have to offer you!"
The alien paused then said, "Nothing you could possibly have would interest me in the least."
Ivy smiled, "How about another fight?" The alien stopped in its' tracks; she had got it listening. "We will be fighting even more vampires soon. If you meet with our leaders, we will be able to take you along with us. The battle will be very dangerous; even better than this one. We could use your help…" By all of the info Ivy had gathered about this creature from Ravyn, his appearance and actions in the club, and the brief glimpse in his mind, she had guessed as to what would interest him most.
And she had hit right on target.
Tarn'se paused and considered. He could try to find more of these "vampires" on his own, but from the way they were, who knew how long that would take him. And there was no doubt that these humans would be able to find more; that was what they did. Meeting with their leaders was a small price to pay for the information he could gather for his home world; not to mention the honor he could gain…
But what keeping his species a secret? The laws forbid contact with intelligent prey species. The contact he had so far was only allowed due to the need to gather information about the new species, the "vampires". Would meeting with these human hunters' leaders be allowed? These humans seemed to have no connection to the human "government" that caused the Yautja so many problems; nor did they seem interested at all in him with the exception of gaining his "help" in another attack.
Tarn'se decided.
The alien didn't respond. It merely turned invisible and disappeared.
"See! I told you he wasn't interested."
Ivy sighed, "Damn. I guess you were right."
Ravyn and Ivy helped get the others organized and headed out of the warehouse, oblivious to the invisible being following them.
I'll try to get the next chapter up soon! PLEASE REVIEW! (Also a note to all my "Ancient World" fans, the story is temporarily on hold. I cannot get in contact with Amouthea but as soon as I do I WILL update.)