Forrest Wollinsky: Vampire Hunter [Book One]

by Leonard D. Hilley II

  I held the crossbow and steadied my aim toward the ghoul that was the farthest away. I figured if I struck it, the others would follow its pursuit of me when it charged. I stepped out onto the main street and fired. The arrow struck the ghoul in the gut, bringing a loud howl of pain and a growl of instant anger. Its eyes fastened onto me as it yanked out the arrow and tossed it aside.

  In a frenzy this creature’s eyes widened and grew into large dark circles. The long tongue oozed drool mixed with blood. It chattered madly and leapt to its feet, running toward me. The other ghouls did as I had hoped. They abandoned their meal and ran in my direction.

  I turned toward the narrow alley and tore into a sprint. I never imagined those beasts could run as fast as they were moving. My feet thundered as I clopped along. Near the rear of the shop, I turned and the tip of my large boot struck a rock, knocking me off balance. I dropped to the ground with a hard thud. I caught myself with my right hand, careful not to crush the crossbow in my left when I hit the ground.

  By the time I pushed myself back to my feet, the ghouls squealed with excitement. They were less than a few yards behind me. They were gaining on me, and I still had a ways to go before I reached the pen where Dominus waited.

  I glanced over my shoulder. They were closing in fast. I cursed beneath my breath with words that I had heard Dominus say but I didn’t know what they meant. Anything to release my inner frustration.

  My footsteps struck heavily as I ran, and I tried to pick up my pace, unsuccessfully. One ghoul leapt forward and grabbed at the back of my long coat. Its sharp claws snagged into the cloth. It flung its other hand forward and attached itself to the back of my coat.

  I kept running as it clawed its way up my back. A low guttural sound came from its mouth. It pulled itself to the edge of my shoulder and its long wet tongue wrapped around the front of my neck. I grabbed its tongue and yanked the beast in front of me, snatching its claws from my leather coat. Before it had a chance to bite with its jagged teeth or sink its vicious claws into me, I turned and slung the beast toward the other five ghouls.

  It squealed its protest, striking two of the ghouls pursuing me. The crash didn’t deter or slow them, not even the one I had thrown. They ran on all fours, scampering like the vile hungry predators they were, panting, and grunting with their slippery long tongues hanging out the sides of their mouths.

  At least they were running away from the village, but I wasn’t certain that Dominus’ plan would work. Mainly because I wasn’t certain I’d get there before they dragged me down. While I might be able to fight off one or two, I couldn’t keep six of them from overtaking me. And I didn’t want to end up like the vampires. Being torn to shreds and devoured wasn’t part of tonight’s agenda.

  The hay shed attached to the calf’s pen was the largest structure in this area outside of the village, so it wasn’t difficult to know which direction to head. As I came closer, I looked for Dominus, didn’t see him, and immediately I became concerned.

  Another harpy? More vampires?

  I hoped not.

  But he wasn’t within view.

  Follow the plan, I told myself.

  The small gate to the pen was slightly open. The calf was gone, so I assumed Dominus had released it. Otherwise, the ghouls might not follow me into the shed and slaughter the calf instead. I didn’t know if they fed off of livestock or not, but since they were some type of demon, I guessed that the calf would hold their interest less than I did.

  The hoarse hissings and gurgling sounds coming from the ghouls were unnerving. I kept running, focusing upon the gate, and hoping I made it through the entrance, into the shed, and out the other door without getting slashed or bitten by these frenzied beasts.

  I pulled the gate open enough to squeeze through and headed for the open door. Dominus lay face down on the oil-saturated hay, right inside the shed. He was unconscious. I didn’t have any time to waste or the ghouls would all be on me, and my young life and Dominus’ were over.

  The side door of the shed where I was to exit and secure was partly ajar. I dared a glance over my shoulder. The ghouls were fighting amongst themselves on which one entered the pen gate first. I kept moving, shoved my wide shoulders through the narrow door, grabbed Dominus by the arm, and pulled him out the other door.

  Growls and maddening snarls snapped inside the pen. Apparently the ghouls had stopped their petty dominance struggle and gotten through the gate. Their dark eyes peered at me as they rushed into the hay shed heading for us. I shoved the door closed, pressing my weight against it. A second later, I bolted the latch into place. They screeched and clawed at the wooden door, unable to control their bloodthirsty behavior, ravaged by their never-ending need to satiate their hunger for human flesh. Their lust to get to me prevented them from even noticing the other door was still open. They could easily escape and charge around the pen toward us. I was thankful that the beasts weren’t too intelligent.

  I patted the pocket where Dominus had put the matches until I found them. I grabbed several before flinging myself over the fence and shoving the other door closed. I latched it. The desperate beasts lunged their weight against that door, trying to break through. Claws protruded through the cracks and holes. They hissed, snarled, and growled with such unearthly sounds. Even though they were on the other side where I couldn’t see them, their aggressiveness still made me wary. I expected them to burst through the walls at any moment. They scratched viciously, desperately.

  I struck a match against the rough door. The match burst into a large flame and slowly shrank. Loose pieces of hay stretched beneath the door, some of which had been doused with the flammable oil. I stooped and lowered the match, touching it to the hay strands. The flame flickered slowly, growing slightly, and a few seconds later, the fire grew even larger. The hay acted like a wick, sucking the flame toward the door, and allowing the fire to crawl beneath the door. Once the flames began rising on the other side, the dry hay ignited quickly.

  The hungry cries from the ghouls changed into anguished high-pitched screeches of terror. They flailed against the doors and walls, trying to break through, but the wood held them as the fire grew inside. Flames licked from the edges of the wood-shingled roof. Their piercing shrills sent chills down my back and hurt my ears.

  I crossed the fence and grabbed Dominus, lofting him over my shoulder, so I could get him away from the side of the burning shed. I set him down near the back of a shop and watched the shed. As the fire increased in size, the cries of the ghouls diminished.

  I moved Dominus around to the front of the shop beneath the awning. After a bit of searching I discovered a wooden wheeled cart set at the rear of a building. I pulled it to the spot where the vampires had been dismembered and their entrails were strewn. The road was a bloody mess with an awful indescribable odor that tugged at my gag reflex. I held my breath and tightened my throat while pinning my chin to my chest, trying to suppress the urge to retch.

  Grabbing the moving ghoul body parts, I tossed them into the cart. I came to what remained of Aron. His head had almost been severed from his shoulders, but not enough apparently to have killed him. His arms and legs had been ripped from his torso. I stared down at him and almost leapt backwards when he blinked and glared at me. He flashed fangs but his threat lacked any vehemence. He wasn’t dead but his expression showed his displeasure. Not that I blamed him, given the circumstances.

  I pulled a stake from my coat pocket.

  His eyes glanced toward it and then back to me. “I did my best to stop them.” His lordly tone was apologetic.

  I nodded, having forgotten that the dagger still controlled him. I thought about releasing him from its bondage since he poised no real threat to me now. But what point did that serve? A moment for me to boast my victory or for him to curse me. Neither mattered now. The small village was free of the vampires, and I hoped this was the last of the ghouls. The irony was in me ordering a former aristocrat to servitude as his final act before his death.
Although, I was guessing that he probably deserved a worse fate than what he was given.

  I pressed the stake against his chest, directly above his heart and pressed the heel of my right hand upon it. “You did good.”

  I shoved my weight atop the stake. It sank deep. His eyes widened. A moment later his ash smoldered beneath me, and what remained of his two female companions were ash as well. I finished gathering up ghoul body parts and hurried back to the hay shed.

  By the time I returned, the flames had risen high in the night sky. The roof was gone and the sides were nothing more than a burning skeleton of a small building. I wheeled the cart closer and began tossing the body parts into the center of the flames. The flesh bubbled and popped.

  After I tossed the final hand onto the fire, I stood and watched the tall flames licking higher. The heat felt good against my skin. Dissolving boards cracked and fell inward, onto the huge fireball that had engulfed and was feeding off of the dry hay bales.

  A strange sensation passed through my body and into my mind. Memories came to me like a rushing river bursting through a dam. Not memories from my past, but someone else’s. Others. Knowledge from books I had never read. History. Death. Images, some delightful and others, horrifying, flooded my mind. I closed my eyes, processing the knowledge being gifted to me. Although some of the information might be considered by some as a curse to behold.

  When I opened my eyes, I noticed something on the ground. Dominus’ hat. I picked it up and dusted it off while listening to the fire crackling and popping.

  I reflected upon the night’s events. I had faced six vampires, killing three of them and cunning the other three into fighting for me, which led to their demise. That put my kill total to eight. For two nights’ time that wasn’t bad, and I already had two more than my father.

  Placing my hand upon the hilt of my dagger, I knew I was ready to face the baron and kill him. I wanted to kill him while the pain of my mother’s murder was fresh in my mind. Killing Baron Randolph might not end my father’s tortured, agonized soul, or the ache of my loss, but I hoped it brought some closure in knowing the monster was dead and he could never harm our family again. But weeping an ocean of tears never cleansed a tarnished soul stained by the loss of true love. Even the passing of time didn’t erase the pain. Lessened it, perhaps, but it never truly faded.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  After the fire settled a bit, and I was certain it wouldn’t spread to anything else on the outside of the village, I returned to the shop where Dominus was propped against the wall. With a gentle hand, I shook his shoulder.

  He tilted his head and squinted, trying to focus on me.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, handing him his hat.

  Dominus put on the hat and glanced around. “The ghouls?”

  “All dead.”

  He reached his hand toward me and clasped my forearm. I pulled him to his feet.

  “Quite a night of training for you,” he said.

  “I survived.”

  Dominus chuckled. “The vampires?”

  “All dead, too.”

  “All six of them?”

  I nodded.

  His eyes widened. He looked impressed. “See? I told you that you didn’t need me.”

  “It would have helped.”

  “Nah,” he replied in his gravelly voice. “You’d learn to rely too much on me. What you’ve needed was a confidence boost and that’s what you got tonight. Albeit, not intentional on my part. Trust me. The harpy was a surprise I’d never have expected through all of eternity.”

  “First one?”

  “Hell! I hope it’s the only one I ever have to deal with.” He smiled. Laughter tugged at the wrinkles around his eyes.

  I grinned. “So you didn’t know a stake would kill it?”

  He shrugged and picked up his crossbow, groaning in the process. “It has a heart. Piercing it surely would kill it. I figured it was the best hope I had. I reckon I was right, but I probably should have waited until we were closer to the ground. So that puts you up to what? Eight kills now?”

  I nodded.

  Dominus patted my shoulder. He took out a square of tobacco and bit off a new hunk. “Good. Now, I’m guessing you carried me all the way here? ‘Cause I sure don’t remember walking.”

  “I did.”

  “Sorry,” he replied. “I got dizzy at the shed and don’t remember anything else.”

  “I understand,” I said with a slight shrug. “I’m ready to go after the baron.”

  “When?”

  “Tomorrow night.”

  Dominus shook his head, chewing on the tobacco. “No. Not tomorrow.”

  “Why not?”

  “Give me a couple of days to recuperate, Forrest. I’m not spry like I used to be. I have quite a few years on you. I need to be in top shape before we enter the lair of any vampire master. With my head hurting, I won’t be alert enough. Promise me that you’re not going to enter alone.”

  I shook my head and frowned. “You don’t need to worry about that. I’m not a fool. I have better sense than to ever do that.”

  “Revenge can blind you to unforeseen risks.”

  “I realize that.”

  “You told me before I lost consciousness that the dagger had worked?”

  “Yes.”

  “What happened before you came close enough to draw upon its power? Did he send any of his lesser vampires after you?”

  I nodded. “Three of them.”

  “When you seek to use the dagger against Randolph, he’ll send dozens of his lesser vampires after you. He’ll do everything possible to keep you at a great distance. He’s aware that you possess that dagger. The master here didn’t know about it. Depending upon his age, he might not have even sensed it. But we cannot enter Baron Randolph’s lair without a precise plan. It cannot be a spur of the moment venture. We need every step mapped out. I understand why you want the baron dead. And we’ll need more than four people, too. The risks are too great.”

  I agreed. “May I ask you something?”

  Dominus gave a simple nod. “Sure.”

  “After you kill a vampire, do you ever get an odd feeling?”

  His eyes narrowed. “Like what exactly?”

  “It’s hard to explain. A surge of excitement rushes through me. After I killed this master, I could see a lot of images that seemed like memories, but not my own.”

  He grinned evenly. “You’re a true vampire hunter, Forrest. Chosen at such a young age but your body grew so fast. Faster than your mind. Best I can make of it, and I’ve not quite received exactly what you’re describing, but it’s a way to increase the wisdom of your mind. It helps your mind mature faster.”

  “So, I’m absorbing the vampire’s memories?”

  Dominus shrugged. “His, and possibly some memories from any of the vampires he has made. Increasing your knowledge makes you a better hunter.”

  “I don’t doubt that. I was only curious because I didn’t know what was happening.”

  He chuckled. “Boy, we’re not given a manual. Although there were times early on that I wished we were.”

  “Trial and error?”

  “Don’t forget dumb luck, too,” he said, nodding.

  “I’ve had my share of that.”

  “We all have, son,” he replied. “I’d have had better luck hitting water and not a rock earlier.”

  “Let’s head home.”

  He nodded. “Yep. We should leave before sunrise, or they might charge us for the hay and shed.”

  “Even though the vampires and ghouls are all dead?”

  “Where’s your proof?” Dominus asked. “There’s something you need to remember whenever anyone ever hires you to slay a vampire.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Draw up a contract ahead of time. Make sure the magistrate signs it before you kill anything. Have a trustworthy witness verify all of your kills. Since vampires generally vanish after you properly kill them, you have no
proof. Sometimes now, they might leave behind a brooch, necklace, or a ring that can identify them. That’s a good thing, but if they don’t wear anything like that, you have nothing if you don’t have a witness.”

  “Where do you get a witness?”

  “Well, when they hired me to kill the vampires in this village, one of the townspeople stayed with me after dark as my witness. Most villages and cities won’t take the word of a hunter’s witness should you have a traveler with you.”

  “Why not?”

  “Avoids them from being hoodwinked. Some people who aren’t hunters have been known to travel from village to village, demanding coin for professed kills even when they’ve never killed anything. So a lot of town leaders have written bylaws to prevent such things from occurring. I have a contract written up for hires, too.”

  “So, nothing we argued would be in our favor in the morning?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. We, or rather you, killed all of these for free. Of course the training experience is invaluable.”

  “That’s true. But even though they had hired you before, they won’t take your word for this?”

  “Here’s another thing in their statutes. Usually, the person that acts as the witness gets a small percentage of the reward, which is why they want someone from their town. Prevents outsiders from getting all of the money. Now I don’t mind that cut, but it can be a real pain ensuring that your witness stays alive during the hunt. If he dies, no pay.” He laughed. “And most likely, no rehire if they ever need another hunter.”

  “Then I suppose we should leave,” I said. “Since I don’t have any way to pay them. However, I think killing the vampires and ghouls is worth more than what they have lost.”

  “No argument from me.”

  During the several hours it took to get back to my home, I worried that my father might be dead. I worried about Rose as well. Now that I was killing vampires, I feared for the wellbeing of those I held dear.

  The sun was breaking the morning sky as we took the last turn in the road before I could see the cottage. I feared the worst. My chest ached and my stomach felt hollow. Finding my mother dead had been the most unexpected, horrifying experience in my life. I doubted that anything could be worse in life. But, it was too soon to lose my father, and I wouldn’t put it past the baron to kill him, too.