Chapter 14: Chapter 14 - Monster Hunt

John laced up his shoes. Tonight was his first night Hunting vampires. He fought to control his jittery excitement, but he had been looking forward to this for too long. He checked, then rechecked, his shoelaces. He didn’t want them coming loose when he fought.

John was trying to think of an excuse to tell his father, but as he came down, he saw that his father was already passed out on the couch, so he kept on going. John ventured out the door. Donovan, Sam, and Christian were already in the car waiting to pick him up.

“So, your dad gave permission for you to come tonight?” Sam asked.

John felt a stab of fear. His dad could stop him from doing the one thing he really wanted to do. “Yeah,” John lied, “He wasn’t going to let me, but I convinced him that this is what I am Gifted to do.” John felt his fear being replaced with guilt.

Sam stroked his stubble. “One of these days, I need to meet him. The Council will want me to make sure your dad knows what’s going on. We could do it now.”

“Well, he’s sleeping on the couch. You’ll wake him up if you do that.”

Sam walked to the door and looked in. Sure enough, John’s father was on the couch, fast asleep. Sam stood there for a moment, trying to decide what to do.

“We need to get going anyway if we want to check out that lead,” Christian called from the car.

“What’s the lead?” Donovan asked, trying to change the subject so that Sam would forget.

Sam turned away from the house. “It took some digging, but I found the documents for that John Merrick guy who attacked you. I figured that they needed to have some sort of contact information so that someone could pretend to be his parents. There was a phone number and the address for a house. The phone number connected to a discarded cell phone, but the house address was real. I guess they thought that someone might want to meet the parents. Anyway, I scouted the address, and there were still vampires there.”

“Why were the vampires still there?” John asked as the car started down the road. John breathed normally again. He had not realized he was holding his breath.

“I don’t know. If vampires were smart, they would be ruling the world. I guess they figured the vampire who attacked John had skipped town. Vampires don’t often work together, so I’m sure they would make mistakes.”

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They continued in the car until they came to a dark, abandoned part of town. John had spotted a few homeless vagrants, but that was it. They parked the car down the street so that the vampires in the house would not be able to hear. They got out of the car, and Christian popped open the trunk. Inside it was every possible vampire-killing tool they could think of.

Christian handed John a crossbow. “John, I’m also giving you a couple of garlic grenades. I treated your machete with unscented garlic. It’s not as effective as the scented stuff, but the vampires can’t smell it coming, either.”

The rest of them picked out their weapons as well. Christian gave Donovan the same thing as John, except that, instead of a crossbow, Donovan was given a compound bow. Christian grabbed his own compound bow, garlic grenades, and a wicked-looking samurai sword. Sam had already taken his crossbow, grenades, an inwardly curved one-handed sword, and some other odd-looking things that John didn’t recognize.

They moved down the block as quietly as they could. Being that it was his first Hunt, John was third. Christian and Donovan were in front of him, and Sam brought up the rear. His heart thumped so loud in his chest, he was amazed no one else heard it. John crept as quietly as he could and anxiously looked around. Every light on the street was out, and clouds overcast the sky. They marched in gloomy darkness.

John turned to Sam, “Mr. Franklin, why are all the lights out?” he whispered. Sam raised his finger to his lips. “Shh, be careful to make as little noise as possible. It might just be your typical bad part of town, or it might be the vampires making it harder to see for us poor mortals.”

Suddenly, John tripped over a large, dark object that had half spilled out of the alleyway they were crossing. John fell onto his face, his crossbow hitting the ground with a clack. A frantic thought shot through his mind that a vampire was attacking. He groped around in the darkness for his crossbow and looked around. He turned on his flashlight and pointed it down the alleyway.

A homeless man dressed in a shabby trench coat was lying there. His face was pale. Christian and Donovan turned quickly and came back. Sam had his crossbow raised, but the homeless man was already dead. Sam crouched down to check the body.

“There are bite marks on his neck and wrists. Vampires for sure,” Sam said, grimacing. “Some of the marks are old, though. The vampires have been at it for a while.”

“Should we call an ambulance?” John asked.

Sam shook his head. “There’s nothing they can do for him now. He’s dead. We’ll call him in after we check the house,” Chris tian said, grimly looking down at the man, “At least we know the vamps are nearby. Let’s kill them before they can take any more victims.”

Christian and Sam moved away from the body. John and Donovan still stood there, staring at the man. A queasiness churned in John’s stomach.

“We have to move. NOW, boys,” Christian whispered. “And turn off that light.”

John did as they asked, and they slunk toward the house and hid behind a pair of bushes near the front of the yard. It was a small, two-story house with a brick veneer. The roof went up into a peak for each side of the house. Inside the house, light spilled out of what must have been the kitchen. He could see two vampires moving there, cooking something.