This story from here on out will be updated monthly. I'm planning to get one chapter out a month, likely between the 13th and the 17th. If a chapter will be earlier or later, I will try to indicate that in the previous chapter.

If there are any questions, please let me know via PM or review.

This story, by the way, takes place July 1985. Dates are referenced herein, so just thought I'd let you know the year.

All of the characters are created by me, aside from Amarillo Lestoat, who is a creation of J.K. Rowling.

When Elliott Myers first Apparated to his location, he thought he made a mistake.

"Hello," he called out to the seemingly empty landscape, his tone unsure.

This area, this heavily forested area, struck him as an odd place to meet. What he was doing here, he didn't even yet know. Wand out, he called out again. "Is anyone there?"

"Shut it," came a gruff voice, and four individuals walked out from behind a grouping of trees. Their wands were all aimed at Elliott. An older man, his faced masked in seriousness, his brown hair tied in a ponytail, inquired at the younger wizard. "You Myers?"

Elliott nodded. "I am, yes." He had hoped that after his identity had been established, they'd have lowered their wands.

Of course, they didn't.

"Who sent you?"

"Fletcher," Elliott replied quickly, not quite sure what his superior got him into. "Connor Fletcher, of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, Being Division."

"Paragraph Twelve of the Guidelines for the Treatment of Non-Wizard Part-Humans prohibits what," the older wizard shot back." At this, one of the wizards in the group, a younger Arab, shook his head, but kept his wand on Myers.

"It prohibits vampires from being hunted down and killed arbitrarily. Can we stop with the pop quiz," Elliott replied, his annoyance getting the better of him.

The Arab cracked a smile, and lowered his wand. Two others followed suit, but the one asking questions kept his raised. "Alexander," stated the Arab wizard, "he's cleared. Let it go."

"Constant vigilance and all that rot," the wizard shot back, but lowered his wand anyway.

"You served with Moody," Elliott asked, connecting the phrase, slightly awe-struck.

"I was there when he got his leg blown off," he gruffly replied. "Name's Taylor. Alexander to my friends. You can call me either Taylor or sir."

Elliott wasn't able to stifle a grin at that predictable reply. "Sure thing, sir."

Before Taylor could reprimand Myers, the Arab wizard spoke. "I'm Shafeek Rezek. And behind me is Mikkel Ødegård," a light brown-haired wizard nodded, his sharp chin giving him a very straight-laced countenance, "and Hui Qian." An Asian wizard also nodded to him, a small grin on his face.

"We done with the introductions yet," Taylor grumpily asked.

Rezek rolled his eyes.

"As you can see, Myers," Rezek said to Elliott, a smile on his face, "not all of us are as well-mannered as myself."

"You have any idea why you're here, Myers," Taylor asked, waving off Rezek's words.

"No, sir," Elliott honestly answered. "I was given a picture of this location by Fletcher, and he told me to report here as soon as I could, and so I did. I certainly didn't ask to be moved to whatever unit this is."

"No one asks to be moved to this unit," Ødegård cryptically stated. "But we really could benefit from your presence. We need to get you up to speed first, though. Brace yourself."

"As ominous as Odi makes it sound," Qian spoke for the first time, "he's right. This may come as a shock to you."

Before Elliott could ask one of the many questions on his tongue, Taylor stated, "We're vampire hunters."

Elliott incredulously shook his head at this declaration. "Vampire hunters? What, like-"

"We hunt down vampires that have either harmed, or we believe will harm, Muggles and wizards alike," Qian explained gently. "We all serve different governments, but this matter is important enough to be dealt with in joint-operations. I'm from the Magical State Council of China. Taylor's obviously from your Ministry. Odi is from the Norwegian Sorcery Administration. Rezek is from-"

"Hey now, let's not go revealing that," Rezek said swiftly, though his tone a good-natured one. "Suffice it to say I'm from Lebanon, but my government tries hard to keep a low profile."

"Wait, why am I here," Myers replied, trying to shake off all the non-pertinent information. "I'm no vampire killer. And we're not even allowed-"

"First off, you're here because Fletcher apparently saw a use for you," Taylor stated. "I'm retiring in a few months anyway, and this little unit needed a Ministry representative when I leave. That is, if you decide to stay. Secondly, while technically speaking, the Ministry of Magic follows the Guidelines for the Treatment of Non-Wizard Part-Humans, we're not in England anymore. We're in Belgium. Those rules don't apply to us."

"Why isn't a representative of the Belgium government here, then," Myers inquired, trying to take this information in as quickly as possible.

"Van Damme was killed a few weeks back, and a replacement hasn't been found," Qian replied simply.

"Killed," Myers asked, shocked.

"What part of 'vampire hunters' did you not understand," Taylor shot back, harshly. "We're not playing paddy cakes here, boy."

"Hey, give the kid some time," Rezek shouted at Taylor. "Listen," he began, now looking at Elliott, "we know that this is a lot to take in. I was transferred here a few years back, and believe me, I know what you're going through." To Taylor, he said, "Let's just explain what's going on here and now, okay? Keep the background information to a minimum"

"Heinstert, a village half a mile from here," Taylor began, pointing westward, "has had three Muggles killed in the last month, sucked dry of their blood. Now, you know and I know that most vampires nowadays are harmless." At this, Elliott nodded. "It's the minority that we care about. This unit was put together initially by the Germany Ministry back in '72. Our objective was to take down vampires who actively posed a threat to others. Members came and went. One of the earliest groups ran amok of a tribe of vampires who preferred human blood as opposed to living the nonviolent life most vampires do. The Lestoat Coterie, they call themselves. How long they've been around, we don't know. But we've been after them since '73. And they've killed almost half of our numbers, Van Damme included. Some of us," he nodded to the group standing lazily behind him, "believe the murders in Heinstert to be the responsibility of this group."

"The Lestoat Coterie," Elliott repeated. "Named after Amarillo Lestoat, I take it?"

"Yeah," Qian replied, nodding. "We got that bastard back in '77, though he was already pretty old by then, and substantially weaker. We're guessing that this Lestoat Coterie was originally formed by Lestoat himself, to ensure that his perverted legacy go on."

"Any idea how many members this Coterie has," Elliott inquired.

"It's really hard to tell," Taylor replied, and Rezek nodded at this. "We've been able to hunt down and kill at least twenty confirmed members, but it's slow-going."

"This is the type of job that takes years to see the fruit of your work," Ødegård added. "I've been here since '79, and I've only been involved in the slaying of four vampires myself."

"Four vampires in six years," Elliott replied, his voice kept low, though he was on the verge of shouting. "Are you bloody kidding me?"

"Hey, we said that this is tough," Rezek replied defensively. "It's hard-going. And qualified, trust-worthy people to join our ranks are hard to come by, especially with pro-vampire groups on the rise."

"Society for the Tolerance of Vampires," Elliott stated, nodding. He knew them - a fringe group at first, they now had substantial membership, and even some Wizengamot members have gotten behind them in recent times.

"Them, among others," Taylor replied in disgust.

"Are we it, then? As far as hunters are concerned? Just the five of us," Elliott inquired, not believing the sheer weight put on such a small group.

"There are a few other units, but we don't know any members, nor do we interact," Qian stated. "Our governments set it up that way so if one of our groups is completely taken out or compromised, they'll still be others out there, and we wouldn't be able to divulge any information about them or their membership under torture, as we don't know them."

"Enough of this, though," Taylor spat. "You'll learn more as we get going. Right now, we need to investigate some ruins nearby Heinstert."

"Are we expecting any trouble," Elliott asked, not at all ashamed to feel his heart rate increase.

"Sure hope to Allah not," Rezek replied. "Those bodies found in Heinstert are probably from an attack months ago. But communities like this aren't really under the Belgium Ministry's eyes, so we only recently caught it. If I were a betting man, I'd say that those who perpetrated the attacks are long gone."

"One last question, if I may, sir," Elliott spoke, looking at Taylor. His superior nodded curtly, and he continued. "These attacks, do we know if they were by The Lestoat Coterie?"

Ødegård shook his head. "We don't know," he brusquely replied. "Could be the Coterie. Could be random."

"But we hope to find out by the end of the day," Taylor added. "So if you want to stick with us, then let's not waste more time. If you aren't up to this, and I have known plenty of people who weren't, then just go."

Rezek gave Elliott a small, yet encouraging, smile, and Qian subtly sent him a thumbs up.

God, I hope I'm not making a mistake, the 26-year old wizard considered. With a deep inhalation of breath, he nodded.

"Let's go to those bloody ruins."

The irony was lost on no one when they reached the ruins in question. Elliott doubled over and regurgitated at the sight. Quite literally, they were bloody ruins, and the stench they faced was abominable.

Qian patted him on the back, queasy himself, as Elliott wiped off his mouth and pointed at the mess he made. "Scourgify," he lightly said, and gone was the vomit. He stood up straight, his stomach still not what he'd describe as stable, but took a second look at the ruins. The urge to throw up again left only after a considerable amount of effort on Elliott's part.

"We have some lungs, half a heart, and a finger," Taylor observed in a distasteful manner, looking at the scene of the slaughter, his eyes slits. "Sacrificial. This is something we've seen only a few times prior."

"Czysta, Poland," Rezek replied, his body facing away from the massacre, appearing decidedly ill, which made Elliott's inner struggle to fight back his nausea slightly easier to bear, "and what was the other one? Belila, Bulgaria?"

"No, no, Belila was that grave robbery," Qian stated, shaking his head, his voice hollow. "The other one was Gura Siriului."

Qian, Ødegård, and Taylor all convulsively shuddered.

"Romania," Rezek explained, under his breath, to Elliott. "Before my time. It was bad, though. One of the veterans of our unit, a Greek named Panagakos, left after that."

"What's this sacrifice indicative of," Elliott inquired, forcing himself to keep staring at the ruins.

"This area's been marked," Taylor stiffly replied. "It's definitely the Coterie, We think it's some type of recruitment attempt, but we're not quite sure. The important thing is, Myers, that you came to us at a very interesting time. How old would you say the remains are?"

"Oh, um," Elliott began, thrown off by this question, "that's not really my area of expertise."

"Where were you when Fletcher moved you here, anyways," Taylor asked, his eyes flickering over to him. "Not an Auror, I take it."

"I worked investigative detail for the Goblin Liaison Office."

Taylor couldn't help but scoff at this. "Okay, then investigate. Is there anything about this scene that stands out?"

"The fact that no animals have finished off these remains strikes me as odd," Elliott quickly replied.

Qian gave an approving nod. "These remains are about two weeks old, give or take a few days. The reason there are no animals is because of what Taylor said. This area is marked."

"What does that entail? We're not being watched, are we," Elliott spoke, looking over both shoulders.

"No, but that'd make it easier to take them out," Rezek joked. "Right now, they're likely in some hidden crypt or something. Which means we'll be here a while," he added with a sigh.

"Our last job took place in the middle of Croatia, so honestly, this isn't too bad," Ødegård countered. He looked over at Taylor. "We camping out nearby?"

Taylor remained silent, staring past the ruins to a few bushes. Bushes with broken branches.

"Qian, you have any idea about vampire activity in this area? Numbers, reports, anything?"

"Heinstert's two casualties aside? There was rumblings about activity over in Schockville a few months back, but me and Van Damme checked it out. Nothing."

At this, Taylor remained silent. "Something's not right," he finally announced. "Rezek, Qian, secure this area. We're camping here."

"Here," Rezek repeated, eying the ruins, Qian already walking away from the group, his wand out. "Are you joking?"

"Do I joke," Taylor spat.

"Okay, okay, message clear," Rezek muttered, and went the opposite direction of Qian. Ødegård pulled out five sleeping bags from his tent. None of them, under Elliott's critical gaze, looked all that comfortable.

Taylor seemed to note his critical glances and nodded. "These are meant to keep you warm at night, and they do that well enough. As for comfort, well, we can't get too complacent now, can we?"

"Something else you learned from Moody," Elliott replied.

"Might be," Taylor grumbled, taking on of the sleeping bags from Ødegård. "Once Rezek and Qian are done setting up protective barriers, we can regroup and come up with a plan. We've got some bread and meat if you're hungry, and Rezek always carries an ungodly amount of water on him. It's not luxury, but it'll do."

And it did.

30 minutes later, the group of five were sitting on their sleeping bags, the dusk quickly departing. The levity provided by Rezek created a far calmer atmosphere as he tended to the fire. As much as levity could when they were a mere four meters from the ruins.

"No worries, mate. I lost that bloody sausage in the third pub," Rezek finished, throwing some twigs into the flames.

Ødegård groaned. Taylor shook his head, though a grin was present, should one look closely enough. Qian stared off into the distance, possibly not even listening. As for Elliott, despite hearing the joke plenty of times prior, he still smiled at Rezek.

"You might have gotten me to laugh if I hadn't heard it ten times before," Elliott stated. "Still, good try, chap."

"Taylor, you don't think we're headed toward another Gura Siriului, do you," Qian asked, keeping his eyes on the fading horizon. He turned toward the older wizard. "That's not what this is, is it?"

"I won't lie," Taylor replied, shaking his head, sounding as though he expected the sudden shift in tone. "I don't have a good feeling about this. But we're prepared if anything like that does happen again."

"If I may, sir," Elliott spoke, "what happened there?"

"Odi, you want to do the honors," Taylor replied, and everyone's eyes flickered to Ødegård, who nodded.

"We had gotten reports from the Romanian administration about increased vampire sightings. This was back in '78 I think. Small pockets of wizarding communities, mostly rural, witnessed them. They didn't harm anyone. Not then. But they sent us out to investigate it. We were a bigger unit then. Myself, Taylor, Qian, Vasile from the Romanians, Panagakos from the Greeks, and Hofer from the Germans. When we got there, all was quiet. Oh, there were signs of vampire activity," he explained, his voice quivering slightly at this recitation, "and it was obvious, but no deaths, no bodies, no maulings."

"We camped out there, half a kilometer away from Gura Siriului. Aside from Hofer and Taylor, no one thought there was anything to be concerned about;" - at this, Taylor mournfully nodded along - "we just planned to stay there a few days to make sure, and Vasile was informed by his government that he was to make sure there was no threat to the nearby communities. And for the first few nights, it went well. But maybe we got sloppy, because on the fourth night there, Vasile disappeared."

"We didn't know much what to think. Perhaps he'd been called in by his government? But that didn't make any sense, as we hadn't come to any conclusions," Ødegård continued. "We split off into pairs to search for him. Qian and I, Taylor and Panagakos, and Hofer went alone, because he was the senior member at the time. He was with the unit what," he asked, looking over at Taylor, "just one more year than Panagakos?"

"Not even," Taylor replied. "A few months more was all."

"Well, anyway," Ødegård stated, looking back over at Elliott, "we split up. And when we regrouped, Hofer didn't join us. So then, as one group, we combed the land again. It didn't take long to locate Hofer." At this point in time, he gulped before going on. "He was dead, though it happened very recently, I'd wager. His throat was torn open and a message, predictably written in his blood," Ødegård added with a grimace, "said 'Gura Siriului.'"

"We buried Hofer on the spot," Taylor added. "It's protocol. And we went off to the village. The same village that was days ago perfectly peaceful was now the scene of a butchering. The small wizarding community of ten people were all dead, massacre. The same for the twenty or so Muggle villagers."

"An utter bloodbath," Qian stated, shaking his head.

"Among the bodies were Vasile. He was still alive, but his mind was addled, is perhaps the best way to say it," Taylor explained. "He was able to speak and make sense, though. The Coterie set it up as a trap to get us here and then lower our numbers. They meant to kill all of us, but we were able to locate them a few days later and take out five of them. The one remaining vampire, we let live, so he could give the Coterie a message for us."

"What was the message," Elliott quickly asked.

"That in time, we would kill every last one of them, and there's nothing they could do to stop us."

"Personally," Qian spoke, "I didn't think it was the wisest move, but I was outvoted."

"Hofer and Panagakos served for a long time together, so after Hofer, Panagakos lost his spirits and left. I was thinking about leaving myself, but Odi was still new to this all, and I didn't want to leave just him and Qian alone."

"It was bad," Qian replied unnecessarily. "And this, well, it sort of feels the same."

"I have no idea if we were lured here," Taylor gruffly stated. "And for the time being, we should act as though we weren't. Just keep your eyes open and remember, constant vigilance."

A silence came over the group as they contemplated this. Rezek stoked the fire slowly, mechanically, gazing into the sputtering flames. Ødegård read a novel, Norwegian, and so Elliott couldn't tell the content. Qian was again looking out at the distant trees, worry quite apparent on his face. Taylor was in his sleeping bag, zipping it up from the inside.

"Today's been a bad first day, perhaps one of the worst," Taylor said, pulling Elliott out of his daze. "Think about what you want to do. This career isn't for everyone. But it needs to be done. And Fletcher sent you to us, so he puts faith in you. Whatever choice you make, we'll have your back. Sleep on that."

Elliott, for what it was worth, tried.

But he couldn't. Elliott glanced upward. The clouds were trying their best to block out the bleak darkness; the darkness came through in patches, undeterred. What struck the young wizard most were the stars, the few stars in sight, that hung in the sky, the overhanging branches above him reaching out to the light. A cloud passed overhead; the stars were gone.

A leaf skated the grass, and Elliott sighed.

The goal was noble; to rid the world as best as possible from the threat of vampires. But the numbers were not positive. And half of this specific unit was killed by one collection of foes? That did not bode well at all for Elliott. He knew the job likely did have to be done, but why him? Why would Fletcher send a member of the Goblin Liaison Office to hunt vampires? That flummoxed him still.

But he was here, and at least for the amount of time it took to figure out this location, to figure out if vampires posed a threat to nearby villages, Elliott would remain.

The thought was not so comforting. The stories he heard earlier tonight even less so. But the fact he had come to an answer of what he was going to do did take a bit of a load off his chest. Breathing deeply, he closed his eyes.

The night was cool. It was calming, even. But Elliott Myers was far from calm.

Because he just heard a rustling of leaves. And there was a distinctive lack of wind.

Taylor's mantra, that of 'constant vigilance,' stuck with him, and while he knew that Qian was up still, keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary, Elliott stayed up too.

And the rustling continued.