The air vibrated with the dozens of explosions that shook the night sky. Screams of desperation and pain could be heard everywhere. As in a nightmare, the mighty wall of Athylia was brought down. Wall fragments decorated the ground like sand and buried lifeless bodies. More and more buildings gave way under the intense fighting and collapsed like houses of cards.
The air began to crackle as Luna again heard a loud whirring sound on the battlefield. It became faster and faster and sounded like the charging time of a laser gun.
Dozens of red lights flew into the sky and exploded like fireworks, lighting up the night sky.
"Areas 4 and 5 are under attack! "Take cover now!" yelled a tall man in a white cloak. Runes glowed on his clothes. A golden glow settled over him. With a dive, she watched as he jumped behind a wall to take cover.
Luna was confused, and without giving her body a command, it reacted and pulled a woman with dark brown hair behind a building. Everything seemed so unreal as if she was watching a movie about herself in the cinema.
The whirring got faster and faster. With concentrated pressure, a blue light illuminated the battlefield, causing the runes in the walls to glow intensely. Most of the walls seemed to be holding up under the shacking earth and powerful light.
Only a few runes melted from overheating. People were crushed under the walls as they collapsed on all sides after being rendered defenseless or pulverized by the light itself.
As quickly as the light came, it disappeared again. Only destruction remained. Luna made a face. She said Erlich had no idea what was going on here. She stood in a bloodbath while everything around her was shattered.
Suddenly, cracks formed in her vision. Luna saw the woman who had thrown her to the ground get up. Her face was completely black. Then everything collapsed like a window before her eyes. She didn't even understand what was happening.
***
Luna shot out of her bed and gasped for air. Her pajama was soaking wet. She tried to find the light switch but struggled with her disorientation. After a couple of seconds, she hit the light switch causing the lights to go on. She looked straight into the wall, trying to calm herself from the nightmare that ripped her out of her slumber; after a couple of seconds, her glance wandered to the left side into an empty room. The door was closed, or at least she assumed it was. Next to the door was a trash bag she wanted to bring outside before she went to work.
It took her another couple of seconds before she felt safe again and finally got up, only to be greeted by a sharp pain that went through her head and caused her body to tremble. She groaned under the pain and touched her forehead.
'It seems I have to go hunting again. I'm already having fever dreams,' she thought as she got a little concerned. Luna went to the window, pulled the handle to open it wide, and let fresh air into the room. A soft and warm wind was breezing over her skin, making her comfortably shout her eyes. The birds were chirping in the distance, starting the new day.
While Luna walked into the kitchen, she thought about what breakfast she would prepare today. Ultimately, she decided to take cereal out of the cupboard and milk from the fridge. After preparing her breakfast, she turns on the TV to watch the news. It took the old box a while to start.
"The secret service and scientists still face a mystery. Cases of so-called vampire bites have been found repeatedly over several years now. Scientists believe that it's an unknown bat species with the ability to suck blood."
As the moderator started to speak, Luna was just partially awake and didn't fully understand what he was saying.
"The cases are still rare, so it is hard to verify this hypothesis; scientists exclude that an actual vampire is behind those cases right now. We have started a poll on our website where you can let us know what you think is the cause."
Luna looked out of her window and was deep in thought. A sigh escaped her lips at the idea that more and more people were looking for her.
"Today, Professor Grim has also come to tell us something about the so-called vampire bites; he is a professor at the University of Biological Sciences in Leipzig. Grimm is the head of the genetics department, which primarily specializes in genetic modifications. Many people are worried that, like cat bites, a serious infection can develop. What are your thoughts about that," asked the moderator.
'And so their discussion about vampire bites began to unfold,' thought Luna.
"That is truthfully an engaging question. In the last years, we only got a hand full of bites to analyze due to their rareness. While we can say with certainty that none of the cases studied developed an infection so far, I still recommend everyone to seek medical attention if they got bitten, only to be safe," Grimm replied in a grave tone. But it didn't seem he was concerned for the people's safety.
"So what makes it so hard to study those bites," asked the moderator.
"First of all, all victims of an actual bite attack don't seem to remember that they even got bitten and when it happened, making it even fewer people to research." It was known how rare said bites were. And without people reporting about it either, even fewer got recorded.
"The other cause is that those wounds heal at an unnatural speed, which makes an in-depth analysis almost impossible. These insane healing properties seemed to come from a unique protein that always self-destructs at the end of the process. We did isolate these proteins a couple of times, but they almost immediately self-destruct if removed from the wound tissue.
"Those proteins could become a unique medicine because the body doesn't treat them as foreign bodies for some reason and doesn't produce antibodies to attack them," replied Grimm, who seemed frustrated. It was exceptionally tedious to isolate a specific protein, and when this exact protein went into self-destruct mode, it became even more annoying for the scientists.
"How much do you think this will advance cancer treatment in the future?" asked the moderator.
"One thing we noticed during our research was that the DNA in the wound got reinforced with so-called telomers that sort of act like stiff bits at the end of shoelaces. Those stiff bits get shorter every time your cells divide. So you can say that the area around the wound is more resistant to cancer and aging, making it more healthy overall. If we can isolate the responsible proteins, new therapies will develop and save millions of lives," Grimm exclaimed excitedly. If he could achieve this, it would secure his second Nobel award.
Luna stood up, carrying the bowl to the sink to wash up. After that, she quickly went into the bathroom to brush her teeth and change clothes. She undressed her pajama, revealing her pale skin color in the process. After washing and dressing, Luna looked into the mirror, where red-brown eyes looked back at her. She brushed her teeth, bound her hair with a red ribbon, returned to the living room to turn off the TV, and saw that the interview was almost over.
"I would like to thank you for taking the time today, and I hope you will soon be able to tell us good news about this miracle protein; after this exciting round of questioning, we now turn to the weather."
Now that the TV was out, she went to her wardrobe to put on her favorite black Jacket, slipped into her shoes, and grabbed the trash bag. Luna opened the door to the garage, only wrinkling her nose in the vile stench; throwing the bag into the garbage container, she quickly made her way to the bike, trying to escape the stench and make her way to work deep in thought.
'It's now around a month since I last sucked people's blood. My entire body starts quivering only by thinking about it. Only today, only a couple of hours before I can quench my thirst. I overestimated my self-control this time; my desire had already started to rampage again. I must go out at night if I don't want to lose control and alert the government even more.'
It was a wonder they didn't get on her tail just yet with all those cameras hanging around; it would only be a matter of time until her secret was found out.
'It's also annoying that only humans can quench my thirst. In the past, every living being was sufficient. But why does that not work anymore? I know I am asking this question myself way too many times; I just can't come up with an explanation.'
Still deep in thought, Luna reached her space of work. She parked her bike, checked if it was locked, and only then went into the building. It was still early morning, and Luna's boss was not there. Luna began to take out plants, putting them outside to present them to bypassing customers. Her boss would come during lunchtime to check if everything was in order.
At 14 o 'clock came the first customer.
'Today was a relatively quiet day, which was good in my current condition.'
Luna suddenly heard the bell and went to the front to take a look, which was indeed a bad idea. A tall man with a black suit, red tie, dark brown belt, and short boxed beard was standing in the room. A mobile phone in his ear showed that he was talking to someone. That wouldn't become a problem, would it?
Trance overtook her body as she saw and smelt the person in the room.
'He looks deliciouesssss; stop Luna, don't lose your consciousness, and give in to your instincts. But he seems annoyed by this phone call; surely no one would miss him. Stop, Luna; now is not the time.'
"Yeah, I checked into the hotel, but my room looks tasteless...Just give me a couple of minutes to buy plants. After that, we can meet at the hotel."
With that, he turned around to look at the plants without even noticing her.
'Look at the veins full of delicious blood.'
Luna's mouth started to fill with water as the desire began to burn in her chest like an erupting volcano, making her heart go crazy. She made her first step toward him, drooling like a child that got his favorite ice cream.
"Excuse me; I want to buy those plants. Is that possible?"
Luna froze. The moment she regained her awareness, she shook her head to get the urge out of it.
"That would be no problem," Luna said, looking him straight in the eyes.
They stayed like that for a couple of seconds before Luna averted her gaze and began concentrating on the plants he selected as if nothing had happened.
"That would be 63, 05€." The man who was forcefully ripped out of his trance didn't understand what she said.
"Pardon?"
"I said that would be 63, 05€. The plants you wanted to buy," Luna repeated.
"Ahh, sure, I was just lost in thought."
She smiled at him while collecting the money.
"Thank you for your purchase. We look forward to seeing you again."
One last time, Luna looked him straight in the eyes before going into the storage room.
After a couple of seconds, his eyes began to shine again. He looked around, searching for something. His confused face; was illuminated by the sun rays coming through the window. He scratched the back of his head while leaving the store.
"It seems I need to sleep more tonight."
The bell rang again, signaling that the man had left the store. Luna sighed.
"That was too close; I almost jumped on him like a feral beast.
I would have sent him to the afterlife if I went berserk her."
The sun was slowly falling to end the day in a couple of hours, and only a few other visitors came today. She was able to get her desire under control for the rest of the day. On the way home, Luna looked around for a nice spot to await her prey. As Luna reached her apartment, she locked up the bike in the garage and jumped upstairs. She had to be quick now because she noticed that her vision had already started to blur. There were still a couple of hours left before it would reach a critical point. But she knew not to challenge luck unnecessarily.
She unlocked her door and quickly put on black clothes, taking her mask; and changing her boots. She opened the window to take a look at the outside. The streets were empty, opposite houses had lights, but Luna could see no one through the windows. Luna climbed out of the window; the cold wind was breezing over her skin. She closed the window behind her and quickly climbed up the wall to the top of the house.
'Hopefully, no one saw me climb up the wall.' With that thought, her hunt was going to start.