The Vaunt Apartment Complex, Southport, New Jersey.....
8:00 P.M.
With his daughter spending yet another night at The Runnels' residence, Victor Harlowe once again found himself home alone. He had not visited Charlotte's place since the previous night and was more or less interested in drowning his sorrows in a bottle of cheap red wine while listening to his record player in the darkness of his own home. He was sitting on the floor in place of his usual armchair and sofa as he clutched the half-empty bottle while closing his eyes and taking in the melancholy tune that surrounded him.
He was thinking about her again, he couldn't help himself whenever he'd been alone. She'd been the love of his life and the only family he had when she became his wife. His parents had long since died due to being killed by clanless Werewolves who had been well-versed in hunting mankind and werewolf hunters.
Victor could still feel her sweet kiss upon his lips as he reflected on the first time they shared one. Veronica was as headstrong and observant as any woman he'd ever known. It was possibly what compelled him to see her more often than not when they were at odds in the beginning.
She never let him get away with anything so to speak and he seemed to enjoy the challenge she presented when charging head-first into any and everything. Their fourteen-year-old daughter Savannah had been much the same which prompted Victor to reel her in a time or two despite his admiration for her gall.
"You shouldn't be drinking that." said a familiar voice that got his undivided attention.
"Can I help it if I wanted to see you?" asked Victor still turning up the bottle he clasped once more.
Veronica seemed disappointed in his recent behavior, although she understood why he felt the need to act out. He'd been in pain for a very long time. Eleven long years of it since the moment he'd gotten the call about her body being found in a darkened alley so far from home and anyone that ever knew her. It ripped the poor man's heart into pieces to see the woman that he loved lying on a metal slab amid the eyes of strangers as they set to work scribbling their various assumptions about her and her life's end on a clipboard.
"Victor," she said softly with what appeared to be sadness behind her brown eyes.
"I miss you," said Victor knowing all too well that this was quite possibly another dream...but he didn't care. As long as he could see her and hold her in his arms again.
He got up off the floor and dropped the wine bottle in the process causing a bit to spill as he stepped toward her.
"Victor, honey you have to wake up," she said trying to get through to him. "You are in danger."
"No," he replied. "I want to be with you....at least in my dreams...I...I love you so much."
She could see the tears streaming down his cheeks and wanted so badly to comfort him, but it was to no avail.
"Do you remember when we first got married?" he asked doing a bit of pleasant reflection. "You were so lovely in that white silk gown that I couldn't rightly take my eyes off you."
"I remember," she replied with a sad smile. "But that's not why I am here."
"I know...something about danger," he replied trying to put it out of his mind but his experience and skill prevented it. "I am in some sort of danger..."
Veronica nodded.
"All I wanted was a few moments with you," he said sadly. "It's all I have left of you."
She touched his face and he kissed her hand as more tears streamed down his cheeks. Victor couldn't take his eyes off the woman he loved recalling everything about her down to the smallest detail including that of the mole on her left hip that was only revealed when she'd been naked. All too well he recalled how he loved the sound of her voice whenever she moaned in his ears when they made love and the stern manner in which she carried herself when she'd been getting into business affairs and seeing to the welfare of everyone she cared about.
"Remember your promise," she told him her voice as stern as ever.
The heartbroken man dropped down to his knees before her, resting his head against her belly as she ran her fingers through his curly brown locks as she had when she was alive. He savored the moment, closing his eyes at the distant memories of the feel of her soft hands moving along his body. There was truly no other woman like her in all the world. Still, he knew what she was waiting to hear even as he reluctantly concluded that their "visit" of sorts was over.
"I will see to it that Savannah has a good life," replied Victor as she and everything else faded away.
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
He awoke to find himself once more alone in his apartment nursing a half-empty bottle of wine and gripping his father's silver crossbow. His keen ears picked up the sound of rustling and broken glass as something or someone moved toward his apartment complex at top speed almost breaking through the wind as it moved poised and ready.
Victor snarled angry that he'd been awoken from his dream of his late wife as the wetness of his previous tears still soaked his cheeks and glistened in the dim light of his apartment. The record he'd been listening to still played although it was on a different song.
He gripped the silver crossbow tightly as he surveyed the scene. His heart beat wildly within the confines of his chest as he moved about the living room poised for attack despite not knowing who his opponent would be. He knew it couldn't have been human the way it moved and he caught a glimpse of something in the shadows as its eyes glowed bright red.
All at once, Victor Harlowe found himself staring into the face and fangs of a female blood-sucking vampire. It was completely nude with translucent pale flesh and visible pubic and arm hairs as he advanced upon him reeking of rot, death, and soil like that of a freshly unearthed corpse.
Moving swiftly, Victor managed to avoid its claws as it swiped at his chest and belly. He attempted to aim his crossbow at the wretched creature but missed due to the sheer speed and his lack of coordination due to the drink in his system. He had been out of his element when it came to vampires, as they were more something his wife dealt with in her spare time but he did his best to combat the creature as it advanced attempting to kill him in mere seconds.
The weary father had given as good as he'd gotten crushing a vase on the head of the shrieking beast as it tossed him about the apartment toppling furniture and into a nearby wall. Victor scrambled to retrieve his crossbow only to be swiped across the stomach via the sharp claws of the blood fiend and tossed back into the wall where he struck it and his body folded in a heap of blood flesh and newly exposed guts while he gripped the crossbow in his hand much too afraid of letting it go than dying at that point.
Stubbornly, he didn't wish to give the wretched fiend the satisfaction of his demise and was about to shoot it in full view when another creature moving at almost blinding speed had rammed the blood fiend into a nearby wall.
Furious eyes of a low glowing orange met those of the dying blue eyes of the man crumpled via the nearby wall. They knew each other, or rather they had something of an arrangement during the light of the full moon.
Victor smirked spitting up blood as he met the eyes of his associate of sorts. He clung tightly to the crossbow fading in and out of consciousness as the newly arrived partial werewolf combatted the blood fiend that attacked him. He could feel his body growing cold as the warm wetness of his crimson blood oozed from his wounds and pooled around his body which was paralyzed due to hitting his spine on the wall behind him more than once.
He still had use of his upper body and wouldn't hesitate to unleash his fury via the silver crossbow.