The shadow of the night hunters

Five

I followed the neutrals, while we searched the houses, they tried to explain to the people what was going on, but they didn't listen. Then the hard way they got them out and went inside.

The little I saw in one small house was a few beds and certain objects. The vampire wasn't in any of the places I checked. I had visited him about thirty times with my companions. The search by the group was a failure, we found nothing.

We gathered together with the rest of the group and none of us had had any results, suddenly we heard gunshots coming from the east of that town.

We all ran out to see what was happening. We saw many people hiding in their houses. Something had happened and when we arrived we saw a sad scene.

Two hunters had died and another was wounded, his two legs had been torn off, the two who were still alive were trying to give strength to their companion, but there was nothing more to do for him, Albert approached him and ended his suffering. 

He immediately stood up and said.

"Albert immediately stood up and said, "Don't stand there looking, we must look for him, he must be near here"

The hunters went to look for the vampire in all the nearest houses. While I stayed to see what had happened.

A girl about my age, black hair, blue eyes, round face, some freckles. She was wearing some kind of blanket. Maybe she was the victims' daughter. She was a little taller than me. She had a serious look on her face and approached me.

"I want to be a hunter like you, who should I talk to?"

"You can't be, this is for men"

"I want to kill that demon, he killed my parents yesterday"

"I'm sorry, but you can't"

"Then, could I see the person who got hurt yesterday?"

"I don't know, I'm not a hunter, I just followed them to kill that vampire that destroyed my village. Something happened like you did"

She was disappointed to talk to me and left. She was right, I wasn't talking to any hunter, I was just talking to an attaché.

After that, I felt helpless and went to find Albert.

"Can I see Denver?"

"He's at the lodge further away, just ask for him there"

He was strange, this time he looked more civilized, yet I wondered why he hadn't gone to look for the vampire like Denver did. I didn't tell him anything just asked him that and went to look for the leader.

[...]

I arrived at the lodge that Albert told me, where he would be.

"Where is the hunter?" I asked the receptionist.

"He is in the first room, just knock on the door" he answered.

I walked over there and knocked. Someone opened the door and it was that girl.

"You?"

"Yes, I'm sorry I'm leaving"

Denver looked at me and smiled.

"She's just like you, they are thirsty for revenge, she wants to go with us too. She said that she was left alone and her parents were not from here, she was the last of her children so she would have to go to other towns to look for her relatives"

"It is dangerous for a girl to go with a group of men who go from town to town"

"She will join us"

"Why will you let her join us?"

"It's a decision I've already made. She will be in charge of helping us heal wounds and cook for us. Her parents were doctors. It's necessary to have someone like that"

"Okay, I'm not going to discuss that, just tell me, why did you go alone to look for that vampire?"

"I'm the leader, I must be aware of what happens in this place, if I hadn't made the rounds that girl would have died"

"But you could have done it with someone else"

"It was my own initiative, besides, no one else would have done it, everyone was tired from the trip"

"All right, I just want to give you back your necklace"

"Keep it, you need it more than I do"

"It's yours, I'm not supposed to wear it"

"Stop behaving like that, just take it and that's it"

I ended up accepting it and put it back on.

"The best thing you can do is to go help the group, maybe you have the skills of a vampire, as well as your wounds heal fast, you could be agile and fast like him"

He took out a stake he had in his tunic and gave it to me.

"Stab him in the heart, if you can see it"

A little confused by the confidence he had in me, I left the room and went to look for my companions.

[...]

I returned to the place where the rest of the hunters were.

They were still looking for him, but they could not find him.

The neutrals were sitting on the sad street and as soon as I arrived, they began to talk.

"It's strange, how is it possible that we can't see, we already checked the 70 closest houses and we didn't see anything" said Esteban.

"It seems that he was invisible" added Emiliano.

Seeing his dismay, I spoke.

-Talvez has powers.

"Child, that is not possible, they are demons that suck blood, they do not belong to the Greek myths"

"But there is a possibility that it could be so, maybe my power is to counteract my curse"

They looked at me as if I was crazy and Marcos answered.

We have a crazy non-bloodsucker, what a thing.

"Well, there will also be a girl in the group" I answered.

Esteban kept thinking and started talking.

"What are you talking about? It's forbidden to have women in a group of hunters"

"I didn't know that. Denver allowed the daughter of the doctors who died yesterday to travel with us"

"He told you they were doctors? -Yes, why?"

"Yes. Why?"

"It's good and bad. We are a bunch of men, it will be uncomfortable for her, but she is right, some of our comrades died for not treating their wounds in time"

"I don't understand why they didn't travel with one before starting this mission"

"The only one who was a medic was killed by a vampire. He had no training to fight a demon like that"

"Okay, I understand. Sorry for asking something like that"

"Are you upset because you're no longer the rookie of the group?"

"No, no, I just don't like having a girl. Obviously you guys will send me to take care of her"

"Don't worry, she's going to be very busy with the work she'll be assigned"

"Why?"

"She's not only going to be a doctor, she has to cook, I don't think she likes Albert's seasoning, he cooks really horrible"

While we were talking the three neutrals and I arrived at the lodge, when we went in there the girl was there. 

"Denver, what is that girl doing here?" asked Esteban, pretending he knew. 

"She is the new member of the group, her name is Elena, she will be with us momentarily. Until we finish the mission" 

"You know, Albert's group won't like this" Esteban said again.

"I know, but there is no rule that forbids it"

"It's okay, you just have to know that this puts more and more down the little confidence that everyone had in you"

The girl interrupted the conversation between Denver and the neutrals. 

" want to leave this town, and live in another city, I have nothing left, no relatives nearby and I doubt that they will receive me"

"But you will join a group of nomads who sleep in the open"

"I know, but I don't want to end up married to someone from here. My parents were merchants in a city that I will be able to reach with your help"

"Okay, if you both decided so, we won't intervene" commented Emiliano. 

The neutrals left the place and I followed them. I felt uncomfortable, because I had told them. 

Outside the three of them looked calmer with the girl's answer. 

"They are not going to tell her anything else" I asked recklessly. 

"For now we have to see how the group behaves. We'd better go, we'll discuss this later, we have to get ready to attack the vampire in the night hours. We all have to be together and analyze everything that happened" Emiliano commented and we headed to the restaurant to have breakfast.

[...]

In the evening hours we all got together and arrived at the same place where the vampire had been seen for the last time and killed three hunters. The ground was paved with stones and other hard materials. All the streets had torches to light the way and increase our vision at that hour.

"We are going to stay here until dawn" said Albert. 

They all became serious and none of them refused. A group went to the lodges to get their weapons, while the inhabitants looked at us when they saw that we were grouped together. 

The only thing I could do was to look at the sky and hope it would get dark fast and kill that guy, little by little the whole town locked up early, apparently Albert had warned them. 

It looked like a ghost place, no one could see anyone but us and everyone had their torch waiting for him to appear. The sound of a door announced the appearance of that monster. 

In front of us he came out. He was on the roof of a two-story house, completely covered in blood, the bastard bit more people and seemed to be smiling. 

Everyone pointed their guns at him, and fired, but his wounds healed within seconds of being shot. He came down from there as if he had nothing. And he came down showing us his wings and showed us he was not afraid of us, he looked haughty and cocky. Everyone was ready to kill him until he made a stop sign with his hand and everyone did it. The worst of all was that he began to speak. 

"Stop, why don't we make a deal, I will give you my power, and you will not die, you will be immortal, only you will not be able to go out during the day. I can kill all of you tonight, but I am someone very generous"

They were all surprised at the civilized side that demon showed. 

"Don't believe him! -I shouted when I saw them so focused on his words, I had the feeling they were being manipulated, You are going to kill innocent people, is that what you want? "

He turned to me and said. 

"You are the clear proof that they can live like humans, you are a success story" 

I looked at Albert and without thinking twice he shot the vampire and the rest followed him.

He jumped and came down to us. 

As had happened before, they all shot at him, but it didn't seem to do him much harm. 

He stood in front of Albert. With his red eyes and that expressive look. 

"It's useless, your guns are useless, join me and you can live forever, refuse and I'll kill you all!"

Albert was dismayed, the silver bullets did nothing to him, and he looked very strong. Worst of all, in the house where he came out, he bit people who one by one got out of there and ran through the town. 

I thought Albert was going to give up at that moment, he was defeated by the vampire, but footsteps echoed in the distance. They forced everyone to look away from the scene. Even the vampire felt a little frightened. The full moon had illuminated that person's path.

A man was in one of the streets, and he came with his torch, it was Denver who had gotten up from his bed and came here. 

He and the vampire were looking at each other, there I remembered his last indication, I took out the stake and threw it to Albert, while everyone was watching him. 

The monster obviously realized this, and tried to grab it with his hand, but his arm started to burn and he was forced to let go. 

Albert picked it up from the ground and tried to stab the vampire, but he slowly backed away, it seemed that he had lost his confidence with which he challenged us, besides his wound did not heal, it was still the same. 

The other hunters blocked the streets before a possible escape of this one, but they all made a mistake, they were underestimating this vampire. 

He made an indescribable deafening noise. Calling the others he had turned here. 

We were shocked, almost fifteen of them arrived. We hadn't realized at what point he bit so many people, and they were all up on the roofs watching us, with those red eyes. 

At that moment I was affected by hearing that sound, I had the impression that something was calling me and I fell to my knees on the floor. 

The neutrals tried to lift me up, but I tried to prevent them from approaching me. 

"Stay away from me, I don't feel well, I could do something to you" I said at that moment.

From the position where I was, I looked around and in less than two minutes the panorama had changed for us, the demons were stronger and the weapons were not hurting them enough, and they were also attentive to their leader. 

Several of the hunters didn't care about this and started to shoot all the other vampires and the rest followed them, but the important one was in front of us. 

Emiliano moved fast and grabbed the vampire from behind, putting his arms on his head trying to immobilize him. 

"Albert, kill .... "

He ran up to the two of them, but the vampire bit the hunter on the arm. Even for me it was stupid and dangerous what he did. And with the hand that was still good, he threw him against a house. 

The demon, looking annoyed by what happened, pulled out his wings to leave immediately. 

The few hunters who were watching him surrounded him and shot him, preventing him from leaving. 

Albert was on top of him trying to prevent him from leaving. Taking advantage of the fact that he had to simultaneously heal his wings to fly. But the strength of that vampire was much more than him. He took his arm and bent it, and grabbed him by the neck, to kill him in front of all of us. 

That would have been the end for another hunter, but Denver appeared out of nowhere and pulled out another stake and buried it in his back. He let go of Albert who was gasping for breath. 

The vampire looked affected but did not disintegrate, he had not received the stab in the heart, but it was close. 

He saw us and lunged at Denver, totally pissed off.

I was scared, for the strength I had I could break his arms, but the opposite was happening. Denver was apparently matching the vampire, and pushed him back with his strength. I saw the occasion and opportunity to end this situation. I came out of nowhere when the creature wasn't expecting it. I took one of the stakes that was on the floor and drove it through his heart. While he was neglecting it.

This time it turned pitch black and began to disintegrate little by little. Until there was nothing left. For a moment I had some peace, but I had to come back to reality.

Several hunters were lying dead on the floor. Our fight against the other vampires was not over.