A Moonlit Night - The Complete Saga

by Adrianna White

  Xander was reluctant, but understood that he had little say in the matter. He walked out the front door, summoner by his side, ready to face whatever evil was headed their way; an evil they could’ve never prepared for.

  Chapter Five

  “I want everyone to behind me!” Xander commanded as he directed the several dozen vampires around to stand back, “If Lady Amata has found our location… I will deal with the intruder myself.”

  The rest of his pack did as he ordered, except Emily, who stood by his side in the face of certain danger. The cold breeze rushed through them, chilling them right to the bone; a warning of things yet to come. Whatever was headed their way, they would see it through together; a vampire and summoner against the coming hordes of their unknown enemy.

  It wasn’t a horde that approached, however, as the silhouette of a single man began to stride towards the castle with conviction. He walked towards the small army of vampires with a self-assurance that stemmed from marvelous powers that not even the mysterious man quite understood. Something was guiding him to this place, whether it was from the Heavens above or from the deepest depths of Hell, it mattered not. All that mattered was the completion of his mission.

  It took Emily a few moments to realize just who the man was, but long before any of the vampires could make the figure out, she knew exactly who was headed their way, and it was no enemy of hers. Like a whisper from the past, Emily heard a voice in the back of her mind that begged her to be cautious, to tread carefully in the wake of recent developments.

  “Steven!” shouted Emily as she disregarded the warnings and ran towards her brother with open arms. She had no idea how her brother found House Franson, but it couldn’t have been further from her mind. “Brother, how I’ve missed you so!”

  She worried not about the dire implications of his arrival, only that he had finally returned to her. It was an emotional reunion, with tears streaming down her face and her heart skipping a beat; but it was a reunion built on a thick layer of hate and mistrust. There was an evil concealed in Steven’s eyes, only she didn’t realize it until it was too late. He was too forgone for even his loving sister’s embrace to save him.

  Her open arms were brushed aside as Steven passed her by and began to speed his approach towards the castle and that of its undead ruler. His cold eyes reflected a deeper understanding of the events that led him to this unholy place. An understanding born from the prophecy his mother has chosen to share with him, and not with his misbegotten sister.

  Xander’s pack of vampires hissed and growled at Steven’s unwanted presence and bared their fangs accordingly. Still, this was Xander’s decision to make, and he commanded them to all stand down.

  “Steven?” asked Xander with a look of disbelief, “I thought you were in the Scottish highlands at the Hunter’s Guild—?”

  Xander’s speech was cut short by Steven’s hands around his throat. With untamed power, he was lifted into the air and sent crashing back down to the ground below. Before he could get another word out, Steven started to relentlessly strike him in the face.

  Xander struggled to free himself, but was unable to do so under Steven’s newfound strength. It was strength unlike he had ever seen before in a human, let alone in a vampire hunter. It was a strength reserved only for the strongest of Xander’s kind, and never before had he met a man that wielded such power. Something disturbing was at work, and as darkness began to overtake him, he wondered if he would ever see this mystery to completion.

  As the blows rained down on him, he began to see flashes of his life pass by. All the evil and misdeeds that he had been an accomplice to now burned bright in his mind, reminding him that karma, in fact, did exist. If he was going to be stricken down here, than he could’ve thought of no one more worthy than the brother of the summoner.

  “Stop…,” Xander choked under the weight of Steven’s hands on his throat; but he wasn’t speaking to the man trying to end his life, he was speaking to the pack of vampires that were descending upon the two of them with inhuman speed and agility. “This isn’t… your battle. Do not harm the summoner’s brother. If my life is forfeit… then so be it. The battle… must carry onward.”

  They were not happy to obey their master’s wishes, but knew the consequences of disobeying. They watched on, some in fear and others in anger, as Xander’s face was repeatedly struck by the unnatural hunter.

  “Steven, stop this madness!” Emily begged as she grabbed onto his withered jacket and attempted to pull him off Xander, “I don’t know what has polluted your mind, but this isn’t the way to our salvation!”

  “You know nothing of my pain!” Steven fired back, momentarily halting his attack while he disputed his sister’s accusations, “We’ve lost everything because of these parasites, and you expect to me show them mercy? They killed everyone we’ve ever cared for! Julia… our father… our mother… their all dead and buried because I wasn’t strong enough!”

  “This isn’t what our mother would’ve wanted,” Emily said, “Giving into your anger was not her way—.”

  “This is exactly what our mother wanted!” Steven barked. He once again brushed away Emily’s touch, but this time he used enough force to send her careening backwards and hard to the ground. He didn’t want to hurt his sister, but the depths of his rage knew no bounds at this moment, for anger had overwhelmed his entire being. There was nothing left for him, but to absorb the fury of an entire species, long buried and forgotten to the world outside. “She chose me as her vessel… not you! You’ve failed to grasp the gravity of your decisions and I’ve come to see that her will is not undone by a fool in love! I’m the one that was sent to end this war and I’ve got the power to prove it!”

  Steven resumed his attack, sending blood splattering to the ground underneath his fury. A vehemence that he believed was completely justified. “Today you take your final breath, creature of the night! Your trail of blood and death ends here… at the hands of a flesh-and-blood man! You deserve nothing less than the full extent of my power—!”

  Steven screamed out in agony as a white blast engulfed his very soul, like the ethereal hands of a divine presence that wished nothing more than the violence to end. It was his sister, and she had heard quite enough.

  “You’ll listen to me, Steven,” said Emily with her arms outstretched, the power of the summoners flowing freely from her hands, “Even if it takes every ounce of strength I have…”

  And it did take every fiber of her being to halt her brother’s actions. They both dropped to the ground as the light subsided and dispersed into the air. The vampires were quick to swarm over their fallen leader and drag the unconscious body of Steven from off his bloodied frame.

  “I said leave him be!” Xander growled as he picked himself up slowly. He was bruised and bloody, but not defeated. His wounds would heal, although he feared the emotional ramifications of Steven’s actions would have far-reaching and dire consequences. “Esther, I want you to see to Emily… I’ve got this under control.”

  “Yes, Sire,” said Esther with a diminutive nod. She helped the barely cognizant summoner to her feet and began to shuffle back towards the castle entrance.

  “Please… he knows not what he’s done,” Emily moaned, drained of all her energy, “I must speak with him when he awakens.”

  She was weak, her powers exhausted and only just able to lift herself with the help of Esther’s embrace. It had taken everything she had to stop her brother, who before this moment was only human. Vampire hunter, or not, his powers came from a source she had never encountered before. She could hardly believe that his powers had, in fact, come from their mother.

  What was even more difficult to comprehend was that if these formidable powers had been bestowed upon Steven by their mother, than it would confirm Emily’s worst fears— her mother had truly abandoned her.

  “I understand, Emily,” said Xander with a newfound respect for the woman under his care. Much to dismay of the vampires under his co
mmand, he knelt down and picked the battle-scarred Steven from off the ground.

  “Lord, you cannot be serious,” Ava protested, “This man almost ended your life… and you’ll see him brought into our home? We must be vigilant against our aggressors, or we’ll see ourselves to an early grave.”

  “You’ll do as I command, Ava,” replied Xander with a look of dissatisfaction, “This man has shown power that I’ve never seen before… not once in hundreds of years… and I worry that it indicates a changing tide in the war we’ve worked so hard to see finished.”

  “Whatever the reason for his arrival,” Xander continued, “We’ll find the true meaning of his newfound strength, or we may die beneath the weight of powers that we are blind to. I sense a great disturbance in the air tonight… and I fear that his coming signals a greater threat that we aren’t even close to understanding.”

  Chapter Six

  A world away from the events that transpired on the steps of House Franson, five hooded individuals were proceedings over the very matters that Xander and his conclave wished to uncover the meaning of.

  They aligned themselves in a circle, separated by a pentagram painted with the blood of the fallen and decorated with their entrails. It was an unholy sight, one born out of purpose and ill-intent.

  “Elder Kun, I trust that all that must be done as been completed with the utmost care and deliberation?” one of the hooded men asked as he sat at the apex of the pentagram.

  “It has, my brother,” the Elder known only as Kun replied, “The blood magic is sowed deep within our prophet. Soon, the time shall come when it’s awakened in its purest form. None will find themselves safe… and all that has been done will come undone. I pray, Elder Ulic, that we’ve not forgotten our true path with these most necessary of actions.”

  “Do not concern yourself with these matters,” Elder Ulic replied with a grunt, “What we risk by using the dark arts pales in comparison to what we might lose if the summoner is allowed to reach the Temple of Prometheus.”

  “I understand,” Elder Kun answered, “I just pray that we don’t lose ourselves in the process. It would be a shame to lose all that we’ve worked so hard to accomplish.”

  “Relax, brother,” Elder Ulic said, “All that we’ve worked for will survive… and will be given a new life, and with it a new sense of purpose and power. Through its fruition will come a new age for our kind… a golden age where our people rule supreme.”

  His arms rose high into the air, and with it, the rest of Elder Ulic’s brothers began to chant from their unholy lexis, that of a long-dead and forgotten magic. Through them, great power was awakened in the vessel they called their prophet, and through the prophet, all their monumental goals would be achieved.

  A bright spark burst forth through the center of the pentagram, with the image of Steven appearing as the light settled. He was the prophet of which they spoke, the harbinger for all their disdainful ambitions. It was through them that the hateful fires burned deep within his subconscious and stirred him to these appalling acts.

  “The false prophecy has steered him right into his sister’s arms,” Elder Ulic continued, “What he believes to be an apparition from his mother is nothing more than the vision we wished him to see. Soon, my brothers, he will be unable to contain the hellfire that rages in the depths of his heart; an instrument of destruction that the summoner will never be able to see coming.”

  They had taken every precaution when preparing their culpable plans, but there was one thing these so-called elders failed to consider; that one of their own would have a vested interest in the wellbeing of both Steven and the last remaining summoner known as Emily.

  Samuel hugged the stone wall of the inner chamber tightly, afraid to give away his position. He had come to them in hopes of guidance, but what he found was something more sinister than he had ever believed possible— the Hunter’s Guild were aligned with Lady Amata and her goals in seeing a world where no summoner walked the earth.

  This revelation bore heavily on Samuel’s soul. He wanted to confront the elders, but knew that his words would fail persuade them to see the light. They had given themselves utterly and completely to the blood magic in which they dealt, and nothing he could say would change that.

  There was only one course of action left for him to take. He slipped away from the inner chambers, his sights set on finding Emily and his wayward young apprentice. Only there, he could attempt to undo the evil that had befallen all of them.

  The End

  The Beast Within

  Chapter One

  The Sacrament. It was a crude tradition that vampires negated to their ghoul underlings, a ritual to be carried out by a single warrior while the undead lay asleep in their coffins. Emily had demanded a test of her powers and asked to perform this ritual alone, but Xander would have none of it, and he made sure his finest champion accompanied her in the trials.

  They were to find enough food for the entire clan, lest the vampires run dry. For a group this size, that meant at least a dozen of the largest animals they could find; deer, wolves, and maybe a bear— all in the hopes of keeping their unholy masters from setting eyes upon them.

  It wasn’t that Emily didn’t try to evade her companion, but the burly and stout Horace was a master hunter, old and wise in the ways of tracking. He was Xander’s right hand, a man that valued above many of his own kind. He was dependable and trustworthy, two qualities not often found in ghouls. They were bloodthirsty and even hungrier for positions of wealth and power; even if it meant betraying their masters to the highest bidder.

  Emily had never be interested in anything remotely similar to hunting in her old human existence, but there was a purpose in her actions and their deaths would save the lives of many ghouls that still lived and breathed like normal men. She’d take whatever she could get right now, anything to keep her mind off her comatose brother, felled by her own hands.

  It was a harrowing situation that she had been be placed in, forced to choose between saving Xander’s life and risking her brother’s life. Emily thought she had her powers under control, but had to learn a hard lesson when she almost ended Steven’s life. It was the reason she was here today with Horace, in hopes that she could learn to temper her powers through their use in battle conditions.

  Horace followed close behind at every turn, always managing to help slay the beasts that she stalked. First it was the pack of five wolves that she encountered after several hours of searching, and then it was the two deer that almost slipped from grasp and right off the edge of a cliff. He was good; she’d have to at least give him that.

  “What do you think?” Emily asked with her head cocked forward, “Think that bear’s big enough to finish up our little hunt?”

  A resounding grunt was Horace’s only reply as they peered through the bushes and gazed at the enormous grizzly bear. While he may have held a wealth of knowledge in the martial arts, he lacked in the most basic of pleasantries and kept silent most of the time.

  “I’ll take that as a no,” Emily answered back, “Well we’ve been at this almost six hours… how many more kills do we need?”

  “The bear will be enough,” Horace said with a smile, “And it would’ve only taken three hours, but I thought I’d let you do all the tracking.”

  “I knew it!” Emily shouted before she realized a hushed voice would be needed to get the drop on the beast. She could’ve sworn she saw the bear perk it’s ears forward and quickly lowered her voice to a whisper. “All those times when I asked if we were on the right trail and you said that we were… you were lying to me. Well, did you get a good kick out of it?”

  “I did, miss,” replied Horace with a grin now stretching from ear to ear, “There’s not much to laugh about in my line of work. I’ll take whatever I can get.”

  The two burst into laughter, once again forgetting their situation behind the bushes. The grizzly was quick to remind them, and let out a deafening howl to signal intent. It was headed
right for them and it didn’t look pleased.

  “Get out of the way!” Horace yelled.

  “No, you get out of the way!” Emily protested in the face of certain danger. Horace tried to push her aside, but she held her ground and summoned all the power at her disposal.

  Horace rolled forward and drew the blade that he concealed within his pants. He struck deftly, right in the ribs, as the beast approached the two of them. The bear reared backwards on his hind legs and swiped Horace aside little thought to its own wellbeing. Horace yelped out in pain as he smashed into an oak tree and was sent hard to the ground.

  This momentary distraction was all Emily needed, and she fought back with the rage of a dozen stampeding gazelles. They tore through the bear’s psyche and attacked where he was most vulnerable, from the inside out.

  The grizzle bear’s howled turned to a whimper and it crashed to the ground with a booming thud. It died shortly after, when its breathing slowed and it finally gave in to the inevitable.