The two remained in their den until the sun had dipped down past the horizon and then they slowly crawled their way through the mess of roots and vine-like growth that covered the entrance. Dracula emerged first and stretched out all six of his limbs while Inmoon gave out a long yawn behind him and stretched her own aching muscles. Both sat on the cooling ground and meditated until the sky darkened and the moon and stars shone down upon them. As the two set pace at a leisurely walk Inmoon lifted her snout and gave the air a long sniff.
"Your friends are persistent." She said. "But they are still fools. They travel upwind." She ended her statement with a short laugh and a shake of her head.
Dracula sighed and nodded in agreement. "I had hoped that they would remain at the hotel, but hope has once again proven to be a useless emotion."
Inmoon's expression quickly formed into one of worry and her purple eyes widened as she turned to face Dracula. His voice had been empty, void of all emotion and dead.
"Don't you do this Vlad. Don't shut down. I know it's easier than the truth of things but you can't. If you do….I….I won't be able to do this. I'm hanging on by a thread as it is Vladislav and….Vlad…you are that thread. Don't leave me here alone."
He looked back at her for a few long seconds and slowly his black eyes faded back to blue and he drew her in for a long embrace.
"You can't do that either." Inmoon looked up at him and found his eyes to be hard and stern. "You cannot cling to me like I am your last best hope. I cannot support you like that. YOU are your last best hope not me. YOU, do you understand me Inmoon?" She nodded silently holding back tears and the two continued to walk at a slow pace, burdened by the conversation and the silence now hanging in the air.
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"Look at this, how can you say I'm wrong?"
"Oh please you're just hoping. You want excitement."
"Excuse me?!"
"You heard me this is pointless. We need to stop."
"You saw what happened at the monster festival!"
"So what? They aren't hurting anything why are you mad?"
Slap
"I don't want to hear that kind of talk out of your mouth again! You want to think it, fine but don't you dare say it and don't you even THINK about acting on it you hear me?!"
"Will you two stop fighting!"
"Yeah it's getting annoying and besides she's right."
"What makes you say that?"
"Come here and follow my reasoning with patience okay?"
"Fine."
"Alright, we'll start here where the wolves fed. You can easily see the trail where they dragged the carcass and….once you follow it….to….the end right here, take a gander. See anything missing from the kill sight?"
"Blood. There's no blood."
"Exactly. This is where the wolves tore into that man until they lightened the load enough for them to drag him further into their territory. Right here you can see another drag trail that should lead to the actual kill zone but who knows how far away that is."
"A vampire."
"They're back. They are back and they are killing again."
"As long as there are monsters no human is safe."
"You all saw what happened at the festival right?"
"Yeah, that walking rotting corpse said Dracula's daughter. Not only are monsters still here but they are breeding."
"But….Frankenstein said that Dracula's daughter was in love with a human."
"What did I tell you about those disgusting thoughts!"
"HA, oh please man don't make me laugh. What do you think they did with the boy when they caught him? Plus, love? Monsters don't love."
"That poor boy would've escaped if it wasn't for all of those damn monster fans. They're worse than monsters they help those things to kill their own kind."
"Enough talk. Let's keep moving and stay downwind. It's time to dust us a vampire!"
"Yeah!"
"Whoohoo!"
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"This can't be right." Wayne whispered as he gazed at the mangled remains. "After everything….he wouldn't."
Nothing could be said to ease the horror they all felt at the unmistakable sight of a vampire kill. They were just starting to establish contact with the human world again in a positive manner but of course things were very fragile. Dracula knew how careful they had to be and yet he had gone and done something like this?
"We have to get rid of the body." Murray said gravely.
"Wait guys." Wayne said as he took a deep sniff of the air. "Humans have already been here.
He kneeled down and pointed out several sets of footprints in the soft dirt.
"This is bad." Frank muttered. "This is so bad."
They stood frozen in the dark unsure of what exactly to do. There were so many question and the biggest one was Drac's reasoning behind killing and feeding on a human.
"Mavis can't know." Frank said and everyone agreed.
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"It's just through here." Inmoon led Dracula through a tight grove of trees that hid the mouth of a cave. She parted the leaves hanging over and ducked through the low entrance.
Once the two had entered she lit candles around the interior and moved the simple wooden table out of the center of the room. She took out her blade, cut away a lock of her fur and placed it in a small bowl formed into the stone floor. She muttered a few words under her breath as she took a candle and lit the hair on fire. There was a loud clunk and a hiss as a section of the floor sunk in and slid away to reveal a stone staircase.
"I have to thank you for the extra security. You are a genius when it comes to magic. Hell, you're even better than Zeyphx and he's a Warlock." She chuckled as she vanished down the staircase into the darkness.
In a few minutes she was back with her cloak folded and tied to her back. Her brazier was gold and matching chains lashed it to her chest. Black cord criss crossed down her back and around her forearms and thighs that held throwing knives, sais, and daggers. A scarlet loincloth covered her lower half, the material nearly touching the ground between her legs. Gold cord wound around the base of her tail holding her skirt comfortably to it. On each of her fingers and thumbs was a steel ring shaped perfectly to fit her fingers and wrap around the claws in a long wicked hook, lengthening them and increasing their chance to kill.
She handed him a book bound in cloth and covered with dust and a sword nearly as tall as her with a blade nearly as wide as her waist.
"Here's your Tome and Sirith." She said as he grasped the book.
He reached behind him and grabbed a long staff, also bound in cloth, from its spot between his wings and handed it to her as he took his sword.
"And here is your staff."
He placed his sword between his wings were her staff used to be and hooked the cloth bound Tome to its holder at his hip. Inmoon unwrapped her staff and held it firmly in her grasp gazing at it like an old friend. At the top of the sturdy wooden staff two stones were bound firmly with black cord. Both were ovular and sharpened at either end, the bigger sat on top and the stone beneath that was slightly smaller. In the space between the two stone hammers held a falcon's skull decorated with feathers. The sides to the hammers were covered in bird talons embedded into the stone. All together it was a fierce weapon.
Inmoon stomped hard on the floor and the stone slid back to its rightful place. She dragged the table back over and the two sat down for a moment. She pulled out two apples, bread and cheese from a nearby cabinet and poured both of them a glass of blood.
"No killing to get this. Blood banks are pretty cool." Inmoon laughed and Dracula gave a little chuckle.
"Alright." Dracula started as he poured both of them another glass. "The best route would be to head up to Scotland and find Isobel, then over to Ireland to find Lorelay. After that we get on a plane and head to America to find Viore and last we head to South America and get Zeyphx."
Inmoon nodded as she finished off her apple core in a single bite. The two ate the rest of their meal in silence then stood and silently made their way back out into the forest.
"We should travel through the day. I have fed on human blood it will not harm me and we need to hurry. Autumn is reaching its end and we have until the winter solstice until all hell breaks loose. Literally."
Inmoon nodded as she tied her war hammer to her back and settled on all fours wiggling her hindquarters in anticipation of a run. Dracula smiled and laughed as he took to the sky and the race was on.
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The group had been doing their best to track Dracula and his friend but with every night the two pulled further ahead. The only way they could have done that was if the two were traveling through the day but the sunlight burned Dracula as it did every vampire. Also there was a group of humans that appeared to be tracking the pair as well and one could only assume that their intentions were less than noble. The group made the decision to focus their efforts on the group of humans instead of Dracula. He may have run off leaving them with nothing to go on but they still trusted him with their lives.
"Our best bet is for me to track them by sight. As I said baby diapers have killed my sense of smell." He let out a loud sigh and a quiet growl.
"You okay Wayne?" Griffin asked.
"No. I don't like her."
"Drac's friend?"
"Yeah…..Inmoon I think was her name?"
"Why not?"
"She's not right. Her fur is silver. Silver kills werewolves. I don't like it. She puts me on edge. If I had my way Dracula and all of us would be nowhere near her."
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Ooooooookay chapter all done. Next chapter I introduce a new character! Reviews are much enjoyed! Review away! Wheeeeeeeee! Now…something….Idk I forget what. OMG…..THE SILENCE! DOOOCTOOOOOR!