Vampire Hunter

by Dante Steel

  Nicoletta nodded. “Definitely.”

  “I cheated and used the sun,” Gary said.

  “Cheater here, too.” Olivia lifted her hand.

  “Be careful you two,” Gary called, and they rushed off, heading east.

  Nicoletta rubbed her forehead. I’m gonna head to town real quick and see if anyone has any of the burn-cure.”

  “I ran out. I’m sorry.”

  “I figured you had. Don’t worry. I’ll be right back.” She patted his arm and kissed his cheek.

  He snaked an arm around her waist. “If I didn’t have to guard the sun…”

  “No. Down, boy. Didn’t you have enough fun this morning?”

  “I wanted more fun this morning. Double the fun.”

  Her eyes widened. “Gary…”

  “I can’t help it. I—”

  “Don’t say it,” she begged. She wiggled free of his grasp and rushed away.

  Damn it. He was hard as hell and maybe getting Nicoletta on board was going to be harder than he had anticipated.

  Ten minutes later, the other two returned. Nicoletta was still at town. Gary hoped like hell she was all right.

  “Did you two run into any problems?” he asked.

  Olivia dropped the last piece of the sun a far distance away from the others and collapsed to the ground. “No problems for us,” she said breathlessly.

  “For who?” he asked, confused.

  “We saw a bunch of gamers get swarmed by the vampires,” Elena explained. “There’s definitely a lot more vampire attacks lately, and they’re stronger than ever.”

  Olivia nodded. “It’s kinda scary.”

  Gary scoffed. “The only thing that’s scary is Smaug.”

  Elena shook her head. “Trust me. These aren’t the same vampires.”

  Gary opened his mouth to suggest maybe they forgo becoming heroes and just keep the sun pieces as easy peasy vampire-killing devices when Nicoletta came back. Her pale skin and tight frown combined with tears in her eyes had Gary swallowing back his suggestion.

  “What happened?” he demanded.

  “The vampires. I was talking to one of the gamers, and he said that the vampires killed his friend. Same glitch as before. Lose the ten lives but can’t leave the game. Just keep coming back again and again until you’re killed so much, your character is no more.”

  Olivia shook her head, disgusted. “What the hell is going on with this game?”

  “That’s not even the worst of it,” Nicoletta said. “First, though, let’s become heroes. I need something good to happen.”

  Gary nodded, and he telekinetically attached the last two pieces of the sun together. Without any help from him, the sun lifted into the air, and the sun’s light flittered down on them. It felt weaker than when it had been directly in front of them, but hopefully, they would have real day now, longer periods of daytime, and even more hopefully, the vampires would stay away during the day.

  “Congratulations, heroes!” the wizard said, beaming.

  “Thanks,” Gary muttered.

  “What else happened?” Elena asked.

  “I found a female wizard just like the one here. Guys, the vampires came up to her and attacked her. An NPC! The vampires attacked an NPC!”

  “Something is terribly wrong here.” Olivia shuddered.

  “And I bet I know who’s behind it,” Gary said grimly. “Smaug.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Gary stared at the three lovely ladies. “Well?” he demanded. “Am I right? It has to be him.”

  Elena nodded. “He’s clearly hacking into the game.”

  “Maybe that’s how he was able to get the dragons on his side in the first issue,” Olivia suggested.

  “Now he has the vampires on his side here,” Nicoletta said. “That’s just fantastic.”

  Gary turned to the wizard. “Tell us how to become superheroes,” he commanded.

  “First, you must become megaheroes.”

  “Yes, yes, fine. Tell us how to become megaheroes.”

  “That is simple. You must defeat the vampires.”

  “So not cool,” Olivia said.

  “Not to be unexpected,” Gary said. “I bet we have to defeat the last standing vampire, the vampire king. Dracula or whatever it’s called in Vampire War.”

  “Or just win the war,” Elena pointed out.

  “But if we have to kill all of the vampire minions to become megaheroes, we have to do something else to become superheroes,” Olivia pointed out. “So, like Gary said, has to be something other than a vampire. Vampire king maybe or vampire mutant or hybrid or something.

  “A vampire hybrid?” Elena perked up. “A cross between a vampire and a lion would be amazing.”

  “I was thinking vampire and werewolf,” Olivia said.

  “That was done already,” Nicoletta interjected.

  “That doesn’t matter right now,” Gary said firmly. “I think we need to kill as many vampires as we can for two reasons. One, to become one step closer to becoming megaheroes and then superheroes. Two, because it’ll be a blow against Smaug. We can’t possibly go up against Smaug if he’s going to send a ton of vampires down on us. We’ll die.”

  “Great. This’ll be fun.” Elena went to pump her fist into the air, but her arm locked up. “Damn it. Why does that keep happening?”

  “Probably because Smaug ripped your arm off, and I reattached it the best I could.” Gary rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry?”

  “Not your fault but, damn, does it sometimes happen at the wrong time.”

  Olivia walked over. “Can I see?”

  Elena didn’t hesitate and held out her arm.

  Olivia rotated it this way and that. “Hmm,” she said. “It doesn’t hurt at all?”

  “No, it just locks up.”

  “Honestly…” Olivia bit her lower lip. “Don’t hate me. I don’t think it has anything to do with Gary at all. I think it’s the heat. I think it’s the metal.”

  “You think I need WD-40.”

  Olivia nodded and clapped a hand over her mouth. Her shoulders shook.

  Elena sighed. “Go ahead and laugh. It’s funny, I guess, but how in the hell am I supposed to find WD-40 here?”

  “Vegetable oil.” Olivia grabbed Elena’s freely moving arm. “Come on to the tavern with me. We can press some vegetables for their oil, mix with water, and voila! Natural WD-40! Works just as well in my opinion.”

  “Really?”

  “Oh, yeah. I make all kinds of stuff. Soaps, my own makeup, you name it.”

  The two continued to talk as they walked off.

  Nicoletta crossed over to Gary. “They’re getting along better.”

  “Looks like it.”

  She shook her head.

  “What?” he asked.

  “You’re going to get what you want, aren’t you?”

  “I don’t know,” he said seriously. “I know I don’t want anyone to get hurt, so if I get that, I’ll be happy.”

  “Yeah, but…” She exhaled. “That’s asking a lot of us, asking us to share.”

  “I’m not asking that,” he said, turning toward her. “I don’t just want all of you with me. I want all of us together.”

  Realization dawned in her expression, and her eyes widened. “You really want it to be a group thing.”

  “Not just me with all of you. All of us. Together.”

  “You just want orgies and threesomes.”

  “I just want to love you all. Is that so wrong?”

  “It’s impossible,” she muttered.

  “Why? Because I’m in here and you’re out there? Not forever.”

  “You sure about that?” She pointedly wouldn’t look at him.

  “I’m sure. I have to have faith.” He tilted his head, trying to get her to look at him. “Nicoletta, talk to me.”

  “There’s nothing to say. Well, one thing. We can’t just go about killing the vampires. We also have to learn where Smaug is staying.” />
  “I have a guess as to that,” Gary said, shifting uncomfortably.

  “Where?”

  “Dracula’s castle, for lack of a better term for it.”

  “Why do you think he’s there?”

  “Because that’s where I lost him.”

  Nicoletta muttered a curse. “If he gets the big bad on his side…”

  “Nicoletta, he’s the big bad.”

  “I realize that, but if he gets Dracula or whatever on his side—”

  “Won’t change anything. Dracula would’ve always tried to kill us.”

  She exhaled a deep breath. “I guess so. All right, so we’ll avoid the castle.”

  “For as long as we can. There’s a crap ton of vampires on those mountains. We’ll have to clear them out eventually.”

  “Hmm.”

  “You have a plan?” he asked hopefully.

  “Not right now. Maybe for later. Come on. You and I can start to go vampire hunting.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” Gary grinned.

  Together, they headed back toward the volcano. There weren’t a ton of vampires there, but Gary lassoed himself another fiery whip, and they cut over to the west. A cluster of twenty vampires were there, and they slew them in no time between his whip and her fireballs.

  “You’re getting better at using that whip,” she commented. “Flicking that wrist like a pro.”

  “I can think of another place where I’d like to use my whip-flicking talents.”

  “Keep dreaming,” she retorted.

  Farther down an ash-covered beach with no water, they killed more vampires. Most of the time, Gary had to connect the fiery whip with the vampires two or three times before the fire would catch on and burn them. Nicoletta’s fireballs had to be larger and wider to kill them.

  “It’s taking more fire to kill them, isn’t it?” she muttered, wiping sweat from her brow.

  “Yes, and that sun doesn’t seem to be weakening them any.”

  “This shit is for the birds,” she muttered.

  They came around to a bit of sand that masqueraded as quicksand. Each step was a chore, so Gary took to flying and aided Nicoletta so she could hover, too.

  A sudden stampede of feet had Gary halting in mid-air. A large group of vampires were racing so fast along the sand that they were merely blurs.

  “Rain down your fire!” Gary called.

  Nicoletta did as he said, and he used his whip. The longer distance away from the vampires meant he had to use more wind to get the fiery whip down to meet them. Because of the increased wind, the fire from the whip was dimming some.

  “Relight me?” he called.

  “Sure!” Nicoletta sent him a blast of fire that nearly went all the way back up the whip to his arm.

  “Temper it next time,” he shouted.

  “Aw, come on, now. You’re on fire!” She winked at him and then slammed a fireball through a vampire’s face.

  They were more powerful than before, but so were the vampires. It took some time for them to kill them all, and by that point, they were exhausted. Gary’s whip had gone out again. At least he had enough strength to fly them back to the entrance to the underground town.

  Down in the tavern, they found Olivia behind the counter. The NPCs didn’t seem the happiest about her and Elena being back there, but they didn’t complain.

  “How’s it going?” Nicoletta asked, leaning against the counter.

  A perky bar wench with her tits hanging out approached. “Can I get you anything?” she chirped to Gary.

  “You can cover up,” Nicoletta snapped.

  “Cover up what?” the bar wench asked.

  Nicoletta grabbed a cloth and placed it over the nearly exposed tits.

  The bar wench removed the cloth and flittered her eyelashes at Gary. “Can I get you anything?”

  “Four iced waters,” Gary said.

  “Coming right up.” She jumped, her boobs somehow not popping out, and she disappeared into the back.

  “Developers, making the bar wenches jump. What the hell?” Nicoletta grumbled.

  “Don’t worry,” Gary said. “Your boobs are better.”

  “You shouldn’t be looking.” She slapped him.

  “Of course he looks,” Olivia said. “He’s a guy.”

  “I don’t just notice a girl’s boobs,” he protested.

  “Oh, so you’re an ass guy?” Elena asked.

  He couldn’t believe this. “Why are you all ganging up on me?” he complained.

  “You’re the one who wants all of us,” Nicoletta said.

  Gary grew very uncomfortable, all the more so because he was also very hard. He pressed against the counter, trying to hide his bulge. “Ah, well, I think we need to work harder on killing the vampires instead of killing the mood.”

  “There is no mood,” Elena said.

  Olivia was mixing some water and oil, not that they mixed well. “Let’s try this,” she said. “I hope it works.”

  “Even if it doesn’t, thank you for trying.”

  Olivia lifted the bowl and then hesitated. “We might not want to do it out here.” She tilted her head toward where a group of five male gamers were watching them.

  “Good point.”

  They started to leave the tavern for their room when Gary heard Olivia add, “You know… you’re gonna get all wet. You might want to take your top off…”

  Nicoletta shook her head. “You and her. So alike.”

  “Because we’re open to love?”

  “Because you want more than your fair share.”

  “What is fair?”

  Nicoletta closed her eyes. When she opened them, there were tears. It never ceased to amaze Gary how lifelike the avatars could be, how many emotions they could show, how amazing it felt to make love to one.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I regret that the first time we made love was when it was through your avatar, but I do not regret making love to you.”

  “Was it making love? Or was it fucking?” she whispered.

  “It was love,” he said firmly. “For me at least.”

  She blew out a breath.

  The bar wench returned with the waters and leaned over to give Gary an eyeful of her boobs as she placed each one down. “Anything else?” she asked.

  “We’re good.”

  “Holla if you need anything!” She jumped, boobs jumping too, and headed over to the five gamers.

  “I don’t want upset you ever,” he said.

  “When you came over before your birthday, when we were talking, that’s when I fell for you,” she said. “I wanted you then. I wanted to be with you. I never thought…”

  “I didn’t intend to fall in love with you and Elena and Olivia. It just happened. Isn’t that how love is? It’s just something that sweeps over you? A tidal wave that you’re powerless to resist?”

  “I don’t know. I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been in love before, not true love.” She glowered at her water as if she resented it for not being vodka.

  “I’ve never been in love before either, so imagine how I feel.”

  “You’re crazy.”

  “For all of you.”

  She snorted. “I don’t know if I can do what you’re asking of me.”

  “If you noticed, I haven’t come right out and asked.”

  “True.” She offered him a wavering smile. “I’ll… I’ll let you know if I’m ready. If I ever am.”

  “That’s fine by me.”

  Nicoletta laughed and smiled. She lifted her water glass in cheers. “You don’t have a choice,” she teased.

  No, he really didn’t.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Not a minute alter, Elena and Olivia emerged from the back. Gary couldn’t help noticing that Elena’s superhero outfit wasn’t wet, which had him thinking that she had taken off her clothes and dried off before getting dressed again. Fuck, he had just calmed down, and now he was all turned on again.

  “Better now?” he a
sked.

  “Yes.” Elena beamed.

  “Sorry you aren’t,” Olivia whispered in his ear as she walked by. He glanced at her, and she winked. Gary just shook his head.

  “We need to come up with a game plan,” Nicoletta said. “We need to kill as many vampires as possible.”

  “Any ideas?” Elena asked.

  “Can we use the volcano again?” Olivia suggested. “All that lava goodness and heat just waiting to burn vampires to ashes.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Gary said. “How can we lure the vampires over there, though?”

  “Easy enough.” Elena shrugged. “Bait.”

  “Have you seen how fast those vampires are?” Nicoletta asked. “We can’t outrun them. We’d be killed! We’ve barely able to kill them fast enough as it is.”

  “Believe me, I know. I’m the one who has to kill them barehanded, face to face. It’s not easy.”

  “You do make it look easy, though,” Olivia said.

  “I try.”

  “Olivia and I can lure them,” Gary said. “We can fly. They can’t reach us.”

  “They won’t want to go into the volcano, though, and there will be too many for them to be magically thrown in,” Nicoletta said, the wheels in her head clearly churning.

  “Could you make it erupt?” Elena suggested.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said. “I doubt I’ll be able to control it, all of that ash… other gamers could get swept in it.” She snapped her fingers. “Do you think you can smash the sand through enough so that I can release the pressure and cause more geysers? If you did it in a ring, we might be able to make it collapse and form a dome-less volcano that they could fall into.”

  “I don’t see why not.”

  “All right. Seems to me we have a plan.” Gary rubbed his hands together. “We ready to do this?”

  Olivia and Nicoletta just stared at him.

  “Oh. Need to sleep, huh?”

  “Yes, please,” Nicoletta begged.

  “We’ve been going for so long that we aren’t even standing up to play.”

  “Seriously?” Gary scratched the back of his head. “You can play while sitting? I didn’t realize that.”