Tragic Vampiric Romance - 2 (Patreon)

Her prayers had been answered, and Elettra found herself looking out over the town that night with barely a cloud in the sky. She’d found a chimney to hide behind, sitting on a roof near the church.

Sleeping much of the afternoon had ensured she was now fully alert and she had her rifle ready, loaded with holy-water dipped ammunition. It wouldn’t kill a vampire, but it would certainly slow one down.

And so she waited.

It was hours before another figure appeared. A pale woman with dark hair standing on a tree outside the town’s walls. Elettra tried her best to aim, but the woman was moving too quickly, dancing along the tops of the trees just beyond the town. Far enough that Elettra did not trust her aim.

As such, she set off across the rooftops, ready to bring the hunt to the vampire. It was best to go on the offensive, rather than waiting for another person in the town to die. This vampire had apparently slain three already. Two when the priest had sent his letter and another in the time it took Elettra to be dispatched.

The vampire seemed to know she was being hunted and hurried further from the town, ready to lure Elettra further from the town. Clearly this vampire had confidence exceeding her experience. Elettra had hunted far older than her and survived.

Elettra allowed them to leave the area lit by the braziers along the town’s wall. Allowed the vampire to think she had the advantage of darkness.

Then, moving slowly along the ground, Elettra waited for the softest rustling from the vampire’s movement, spinning around to open fire into the darkness. The flash of the muzzle lit up a look of surprise and fear on the vampire’s face, one of the bullets hitting her in the leg. The ear-splitting shriek that erupted from her dead lungs would have led most to turn and flee, and froze the few who stayed.

As a hunter, however, Elettra had heard those shrieks before and was able to hold her ground and her wits. She instead responded by firing a second shot. That one grazed the vampire, the pale form then retreating into the woods.

Chasing after her, Elettra tried to keep up. It was a struggle, however. Vampires were faster and stronger than humans, even wounded, and this one knew the woods they were in. After a few minutes they’d circled around to the town walls, the vampire slipping over them with a single leap.

Elettra cursed under her breath before pulling out a grappling hook to toss over, then pull herself up over the wall. By the time she was up, the vampire was gone. Muttering prayers to the Virgin under her breath, she stalked the streets of the small town, hunting for any sign of where the hellspawn had gone. She hadn’t expected this vampire to be so quick to run. So aware of Elettra’s ability to end her cursed existence.

Elettra continued hunting for hours, knocking on doors and checking those houses which were clearly abandoned. The townsfolk were far from cooperative, outraged she was drawing them out of their beds, but she was not in San Guerino to make friends. Despite her thoroughness, however, she found no sign of the vampire.

It was nearly dawn when a human shriek sent a rush of adrenaline through her and Elettra raced towards the sound. She found a young woman—no, a girl crouched behind the desiccated form of a large man. It took Elettra a moment to realise the body belonged to the surly baker. No doubt one of the few people who would be up before the first hints of dawn.

She let out a hiss under her breath.

The girl turned to her and began shouting, her sentences only half formed and too totally of the local dialect for Elettra to follow. She didn’t need to know the words to understand the rage and accusations, however.

A sharp response was on the tip of her tongue when Elettra felt the chill of a vampire’s gaze run down her back. She spun around, rifle ready, only to find an empty street.

“It is alright, my child,” she heard a voice speak behind her, and turned back around to discover the priest had appeared from nowhere and was now crouched beside the body and the girl. He was offering soft condolences in that soft and sad voice of his. “He was a true believer. He will be rewarded.”

The girl nodded through her tears, and the pair dropped to a whisper, too quiet for Elettra to hear, even if she’d understood the local diction. After a few moments the girl nodded again, the priest muttered some sort of prayer for the dead baker, then stood staring straight ahead as he led Elettra away by the elbow. Leaving the mourning girl and body behind for the moment.

“The townsfolk will not be happy to see such a prominent figure in the community dead,” the priest whispered, not looking at her. “You were supposed to protect us.”

“A wounded vampire can become more aggressive with the need to feed, and she proved… faster than I expected,” Elettra replied under her breath.

What she did not mention was that the vampire seemed rather more prone and better at fleeing than a newly turned bloodsucker tended to be. Unless there was something that had forced her to learn quickly. Which was not something a few angry villagers could generally manage.

It left Elettra suspecting that there was something else in the area. Maybe there was indeed another vampire that had been responsible for turning the girl. One that had found more subtle ways to feed. Or had come to the region recently, so its attacks were mistaken for the girl’s.

Or there were darker things out there. Worse than vampires crawled out of the pits of Hell on occasion.

Whatever the case, Elettra knew she would need to be more cautious moving forward.

-

The rest of the morning, as the sun was still slowly rising to shine properly into the narrow valley, Elettra pushed through exhaustion to check abandoned buildings for any sign of the vampiric woman. Coming up empty handed, she used the few hours of direct sunlight, the few scant hours where a vampire could not move freely, to nap in her small room in the inn. It was not nearly enough, but it would have to do for the time being.

She could sleep properly when the vampire was slain.

The afternoon, when the town was in shadow once more, Elettra returned to her search. More awake and alert, she was better able to watch for clues of where the vampire may have been. The third house she checked had clearly been entered recently. The weeds growing on the steps were trampled.

Elettra drew her stake, ready for a melee where she would need speed and precision to stand a chance against a vampire’s power, and entered the building. It was dark, but the broken roof and rotted floors let in more light than a vampire would care for. She made use of those patches of light as a shield. They were in the mountain’s shadow, but even indirect sunlight caused a vampire discomfort.

A crunching noise beneath her feet caused Elettra to halt. The plank she’d stepped on was uneven, and there was something beneath it. Pulling the fallen wood of what had likely been a dresser out of the way, she felt her stomach turn as she stared down at  the skeleton of a child, a few ribs broken due to her careless footing.

While a vampire on the run rarely left traps, she should still have been more careful where she’d been walking.

Trying to push her guilt away for the moment, she knelt beside the child’s form, whispering a prayer for forgiveness and studying the skeleton. What was left of the clothing was mere tatters, but Elettra noticed a wooden crucifix on a necklace around the boy’s neck. Studying the surroundings more closely, it seemed to Elettra that the boy had likely been hiding in a wardrobe, and... well, she was unsure if he’d been killed or merely died of dehydration while hiding. The remains were too far gone for her to be certain.

“The others were over in the kitchen,” a feminine voice said, causing Elettra to jump.

Spinning to her feet, she saw the pale figure of the vampire she’d been hunting. The undead woman looked genuinely morose, a rare thing for the undead.

What she was not doing, however, was presenting any sort of a threat to Elettra. She merely stood in the doorway, eyes flitting to the boy’s skeleton, but apparently unable to linger upon it.

“He was my brother,” she then said. “We were twins.”

“You and this... child?” Elettra replied, certain the boy couldn’t have been more than eight, while the vampire before her was a young woman.

“My family... they were killed by the villagers. We had... we had remained good Christians while the town went and followed the ‘priest’s’ heresy... it had been in secret, but we were eventually found out,” the vampire then, of all things, shivered. “I... I was not killed because I was such a ‘pretty young thing’... that man... that monster waited for me to grow up, wanting to make me his bride...”

She trailed off, her eyes drifting towards Elettra with a form of desperation to them that Elettra had never seen in a vampire. Hunger or the drive to beg for mercy when they knew their existence was coming to an end was a desperation that frequently danced across vampiric features. This, however, was quite different. It felt more human. A need for connection and emotional support.

But the words to go with it.

The idea that the town priest was himself in league with the devil, when he still dwelled in the church itse—the church with its broken crucifix and unhealthy air. There was no sign of it being a hallowed place any longer. Was it truly so unbelievable that the priest had cursed its ground through a deal with dark forces?

The priest who had never looked Elettra in the eyes.

“Help me,” the vampiric woman said. “I am not strong enough to kill him on my own. I have tried to thin the numbers of his servants… but I can not do it alone. I have barely escaped each time.”

Helping a vampire? Elettra shook her head. That was too much. This was surely all some trap, a manipulation by a skilled and desperate spawn of hell. She raised the stake in her hand, pointing it towards the vampire.

“You have a silver tongue, I will give you that,” she said, “but it will take more than one sad tale without proof to stay my stake.”

To her surprise, the woman then nodded, seeming at peace with the outcome. “Slay me, then, but remain here until you prove that that infernal priest is also of cursed blood and end his existence as well. I can see your curiosity is piqued, and I know you’ll succeed where I failed. You’ve done this sort of thing before.”

Elettra took a step forward, towards the vampire, stake at the ready. The undead woman flinched, but held her ground. Feeling doubt climb in her, Elettra crossed the small and ruined room, stopping only when the tip of her stake was pressed against the vampire’s breast.

“If your story is true,” she said, confidence wavering when faced with what seemed to be a vampire expressing selflessness, “then why had the villagers not found you in here this morning? Surely they would expect you to return to your home?”

“They would not because I have avoided this place since the false priest… took me. I did not want to be near them after how I was… tainted,” the vampire replied, as actual tears began to fill her eyes. “But, facing a hunter such as you—I found I wished to say goodbye before my end.”

Elettra stared into those cold eyes, lit within by hellfire. Despite the unholy force animating the woman before her, she could still feel humanity in her.

Amazed at her own behaviour, Elettra lowered her stake. “If we are to work together I would like to know your name.”

The other woman blinked, seemingly with genuine surprise. “My—I… Sole. I think it was Sole, though he used it so rarely and my memories of being alive are something of a blur.”

“…Sole,” Elettra repeated with a small nod.

It was an ironic name for a vampire, but it was not the time nor the place to bring it up.

In an effort to distract herself, Elettra gave Sole a closer examination, truly taking in what she looked like as a person, rather than just assessing her as a target. The pale skin and dark hair she’d noted before, but not the soft roundness of Sole’s face, not the delicate elegance of her nose and brows. Eyes that felt as alluring as any temptation of the Devil, Elettra was certain. As well as lips…

Lips that were nearly as distracting as those eyes.

Turning to look up, out the damaged ceiling, Elettra moved her thoughts to more pressing matters. “We… we will need to get you out of the town. I asked the villagers to stay in place for their own safety, but I am unsure how long they will obey. Especially if they are as in league with a corrupted priest as you say.”

“Once it is a little more dark I will be able to move with ease… if you can keep the priest occupied,” Sole replied.

Elettra nodded, telling the vampiric woman to hide; despite all her training and professional experience screaming at her to not let a vampire live. Still, she would need an ally if she was to face an entire village.

Leaving the ruined house, she did her best to hide any change in her behaviour. She then checked a few others, to further keep up appearances to anyone who might be watching. It was hard to not let paranoia creep into the back of her mind, however. Wondering how hostile the people within each house she passed were. There were still a few hundred townsfolk left, she was certain of it. Even with the years of hardship and decay. They were too much for her to fight.

After a few more homes, to give the impression of thoroughness, she looped back around to the excavated church. The priest was lingering there once more, polishing the various pewter regalia upon the altar.

“Father,” Elettra said as she entered. “I must beg forgiveness. It seems my unfamiliarity with the environment allowed the hellspawn to slip through my fingers.

“That is… disappointing,” the priest said, not looking up from the candlestick he was cleaning. “I had heard better of your order.”

“It is only the first night. Hunting a vampire can take weeks. I shall hunt more defensively in future,” Elettra replied, turning to look out at the increasing dark visible through the door as the town fell further into the mountains’ shadows.

“I suppose miracles are not within the abilities of mortals,” the priest said.

“Indeed they are not,” Elettra replied, walking over to the altar herself.

Her eyes were upon a plate seated there. One polished not to the point of a mirror finish, but still enough to hint at shapes around it. She slowly circled the altar, watching it while she attempted a little small talk.

“You know, it’s funny Father, but I never was told your name.”

“My… name?” he replied, pausing his polishing and staring into a middle distance in the direction of the ground.

“Yes. It is a bit awkward to refer to you as ‘the priest’ at all times. Knowing your name would make my life a little easier,” Elettra said, pausing as she hit the angle where the priest’s reflection should have been hinted at in the plate between them.

“My name,” the priest half whispered, seeming to struggle to remember it.

The boundary of death served as a veil on the memories of life. Sole had struggled and her turning had likely occurred mere months earlier.

“Conti,” the vampiric ‘priest’ said at last, a small smile on his lips.

“Well, I must thank you for your patience, Father Conti,” Elettra said.

Her fingers twitched slightly, and she wondered how far she would get if she put a stake through his heart here and now and then attempted to run for it.

Before she could try it, however, the thuggish gateman entered the church, along with two other men who were only slightly smaller.

He began to say something, only to realise that she was present and so he changed his angle slightly. She could tell by the narrowing of his eyes and the sharpness of his tone that it was about her, but the local dialect of that northern mountain town was much too far removed from her own childhood along the sunny southern coast for her to follow what they were saying. Not when they were speaking with such speed and emotion. Hand gestures and other body language did let her pick up the hostility directed her way, though that was easy. They could have been from another country entirely, speaking a truly foreign language, and she’d have likely picked that up.

After a few moments of shouting, Conti turned, not quite looking at her. No doubt striving to avoid letting her feel his vampiric gaze. “Bruno and his friends would like to take a more proactive position in your hunt, after what happened this morning.”

“As I said yesterday, local help would likely only get in the way,” Elettra began, “however… I think I may have a use for them. If they were to be on alert defending the community, I could go more thoroughly on the offensive. Knowing that the vampire could not threaten the town again.”

Conti gave a small nod, and seemed ready to share that with the others. Elettra soon found herself pressured to head out by them, however. Ruining any chance she had to strike the false-priest.