Alexander kept his eyes on the Vampires that strolled into the clearing oozing confidence in their every step as they eyed him and then the Hunter who kept resisting his strong hold on her. As a Vampire at the moment, he could tell that they Vampires who'd walked in were at the minimum forty years older than him and at most around a hundred to two hundred years older.
They looked young of course, depending on when they had become Vampires themselves. This made them effortlessly blend with their own age bracket should the need arise.
"You got the Hunter nice and good newbie, let's take it from here huh?" A cheery male Vampire asked him as he approached the squirming Davina who gave Alexander a glare for not killing her like she had probably hoped.
Alexander simply nodded his head and stood up as he felt the overwhelming desire to obey his superior, before taking many steps away from Davina who lunged at him only to be smacked down by the cheery Vampire. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, you Hunter vermin always trying to take our kind out like we are the bad guys. Did she kill him too?" He asked as he pointed at the ask of the dead Vampire.
"Yeah, I was lucky enough to save myself and take her down, but I couldn't kill her, I was too weak." He replied as he looked at the ground, doing a good job acting like a newbie who was unable to do what was necessary and was deeply remorseful for that.
"Don't be too hard on yourself, no one is born a killer, not even Vampires. We simply do what we must in order to survive." Another Vampire said, this time a female Vampire.
Alexander nodded his head in gratitude before his mind began to go haywire. He was in a terrible situation, one he had never thought he would be when he had taken this mission. Well to be honest he had thought of this scenario, but he had hoped it would never come to this. What was he expected to do now, save the Princess? Under thirty minutes ago his job had been to make Caleb a Vampire, temporarily anyway, but now, he was the Vampire and the only Hunter with the real chance of going into Fort Crag and rescuing the Princess.
"We killed the rest of her squad, want to have the honour of ending the last Hunter that attacked you and your friend?" The third Vampire, another female, asked him as they knelt Davina on the ground and pulled her head backwards. "How about a good ole blood sucking.?"
Alexander blinked at the question and then began to think of every possible consequence of the next decision he could make while looking into Davina's resolute but determined eyes. On the one hand he was expected to happily sink his temporary fangs into Davina and suck her until she slumped dead, however how was he supposed to survive when he escaped with the Princess, because escape he shall. She was the only Hunter he knew right now, that had a very vast experience when it came to killing Vampires, it would only be wise that he kept her alive until he was able to get out of the fortress.
Whatever choice he made would have consequences, if he killed her now, they would believe his half cooked story and take him in, however he would be without help once he got out. He needed her now and after, so he would have to make the decision of saving her life, but with a very smart and logical explanation in order to avoid getting killed himself.
"We don't know why they were here." He said and looked up at the Vampires.
"We do as a matter of fact, they are here to rescue the Princess." The first Vampire said as he stroked her cheeks.
"But how, shouldn't we know how they hope to do that? Also, surely we are interested in getting as much information as we can from her while also having the chance to dole out as much pain on the Hunter as possible. Death to her at the moment is more of a mercy than a punishment." He finished his speech as he kept his eyes on the one he suspected was the leader, the Vampire who was yet to speak out of the four of them.
The Vampire Legion Leader looked at him for a while, considering the words he had spoken, while picking apart how and why he had said what he had said. His nerves were a bit shaky but he had to do everything within his power to keep a very strong hold over how his body reacted to the very intense glare the Legion Leader gave him. The Vampire was either very suspicious, as he should be, or very cautious, as he should be as well. The time he was taking was both refreshing to see, which meant he was a very smart Vampire, but also nerve wracking because it meant the guy was probably too smart even for Alexander to deduce.
Davina on the other hand maintained her own glare at him, she was still pissed that he hadn't killed her when he had had the chance and was now even suggesting that she be out through a life worse than death.
"Today is your lucky day Hunter. You get to spend the rest of your life in our very loving warm embrace." The Leader said with a chuckle. Alexander felt relief at the decision while Davina looked very afraid.
************************
Walking out of the forest, Alexander had to be in a very conscious state pf calm, he couldn't afford to slip up, not now and definitely not when they were in Fort Crag. He had to keep a very good control over his body language and internal body organs that loved to flip when he was nervous.
The tools he had used to experiment on the dead Vampire was fortunately hidden, else they would have effortlessly liked him to the machine which would have ended whatever this was before it even began. He was nervous as fuck, but he had to remain calm, despite the fact that the Vampires that were decades older than himself but looked his age, were all dangerous looking with their injuries healing at a super slow pace due to the silver in the wounds inflicted on them by the now dead Hunters.
In front of him was the Legion Leader who carried Davina over his shoulder and moved through the path that led to Fort Crag with relative ease, almost as if nothing was on him, a testament of their superior strength that not even the Hunting Suit could match. Despite the fact that the Hunting Suit could not stand a match to the Vampire Strength, it still helped them do their job of ending Legions of them with relative ease, one of the core reasons why Davina was stripped to her underwear before being taken to the fortress.
"Do you know how to use those?" The male Vampire beside him asked him as he walked right beside him, peeping into his bag that contained the Serum, all thirty of them with herbs over them.
"These?" Alexander asked for clarification as he rapidly worked out the perfect story that was both believable and false. "My father was a doctor who loved to dabble with herbs in order to cure many kinds of illnesses" He said as he looked at the herbs to try and identify them.
"Got something that could heal these silver wounds?" Another Vampire asked.
"It's not in this bag, but I am sure I can find the herbs around Fort Crag or even within it." He said as he looked at the female Vampire before he looked away reminding himself that despite how attractive they all looked, the fact remained that they were bloodthirsty creatures that caused pain and death wherever they went.
His breath hitched however the moment they stumbled upon the scene of the battle between Vampire and Hunter which was being taken care of by some vans that were packed on the side of the road. The dead Hunters were all being piled into the vans like animal carcass that they didn't care about. They basically flung the bodies into the van in order to clear the road for them to pass without any regard to the bodies.
Davina must have noticed it as well as she looked very close to tears but actively fought against the tears lest the enemy found out and made fun of her or worse.
"Never seen dead Hunter before?" The female asked him.
"My first time really. In fact I haven't really been a Vampire for too long, how about you how long have you been a Vampire?"
"70 years and counting." She replied.
"Tell me kid what did you do the very first time you became a Vampire?"
The male asked him as he walked on, avoiding the vans that finished their work. "I tried to see whether everything the books say could kill a Vampire could actually kill me. Tried the wood, the garlic the sun and silver and I must say, garlic is useless against Vampires."
The male Vampire burst out laughing as he threw one arm across his shoulder in a friendly manner. "I like you kid, you see when I became a Vampire I avoided everything, including garlic. I'm Kunle by the way, you are?" He asked.
"Some guy that loves his personal space." He said as he got out of Kunle's very friendly gesture.
"I meant your name dumb-ass." Kunle said cheerily.
"Not everyone is entranced by your personality Kunle, some of us love to have our personal space occasionally." The second female Vampire said as she nudged Alexander with a small smile on her face.
"Oh please, he's just shaken up from almost dying at the hands of a Hunter. He'll warm up soon." Kunle said and left his shoulders to continue bickering with the two female Vampires, leaving Alexander to his thoughts once more.
Alexander took in a deep breath before forcing his nerves down through sheer will. He had just outright lied not once or twice to a living breathing lie detector and had somehow against all odds gotten away with it as if he had lied to a human being. Lying to humans had always been easy for him over the years, with him simply constructing a very believable lie that was based on truth regardless of how little the truth was, while at the same time avoiding any tells that he could have. Lying to a Vampire was something he had run over his mind over the years but had never had the pleasure of testing out his theory on them until now.
He had just run a hypothesis in a very serious life and death situation and come out on top, something that he had hoped would happen but was still a bit shocked that it had actually happened.
Looking around, he observed the Vampires that were all acting lie everything was normal, as if a Squad of Hunters had just been annihilated while at the same time losing their own people. It was not just their nonchalant behaviour towards the events that had just taken place a couple of meters behind them, but it was their nature itself which was as fascinating and as scary in equal amounts. On one hand they were immortal beings capable of living for centuries without aging, only needing the steady supply of blood for a comfortable survival. Their skills also went beyond immortality and drinking of blood, they were also super strong with super-senses with the ability to read minds by drinking the blood of their victims. Shit!
The thought of them drinking Davina's blood, though a terrible fate, was something he couldn't have them doing especially if they wanted information. All it would take for his stint in the fortress to come to a very brutal end would be a mind reading being done on Davina, they could simply look into her mind and find out everything they needed to know and more. They would see him with the Hunters planning a way to get Caleb in unnoticed, they would also know exactly what happened just a couple minutes ago. They would know he was no Vampire but a Hunter way over his head, on a mission that was very impossible but a mission he had to accomplish if he wanted to keep the innocents safe.
"Hey kid relax, we are home." Kunle said as he placed a hand on his shoulder to calm his heart which was beating at a speed even he was surprised he had let his heart beat at. He was at a stage where if he were human, he would have a heart attack or a panic attack because boy his problems had only gone from bad to worse, he had jumped from the frying pan straight to the fire, his situation was so precarious that he was drowning in all the worse case scenarios that were actually worse than the human mind's average worse case scenario.
"Happens to the best of us after a traumatic event, you'll only get better, trust me." The first female Vampire said in sympathy as they got closer to the monstrous walls of Fort Crag.
The walls of the fortress were as high as one could imagine, it was so high that if not for the spell placed on it by the Witches long ago to hide the castle, it would have been seen from a mile by humans. The only reason the Hunters knew about it was because the Witch Hunters had stumbled upon it while hunting for Witches. Them knowing it made it possible for them to then locate the place over the years and then through satellites.
Said walls were not only high but were very thick, only four missiles could break through the walls, unfortunately even after that, it would be impossible to get to the Vampires even after a breach because despite how manned the fortress was and how high the castles was the real fortress was underground and impenetrable.
"I'm okay, just thoughts of how I would have died if it were not for you guys." He said after bringing his breathing down.
"It's perfectly understandable kid. How long have you been a Vampire by the way? You are quite young." The 70 year old Vampire asked him as she walked closer to him.
"Six months going to a year." He replied as they finally arrived at the gate of the fortress that was already wide open before stepping through. The moment his entire body entered Fort Crag, he knew deep in his heart that nothing was ever going to be the same again.
Fort Crag was nothing like he had imagined in his head, yes there were dozens of Vampires manning the walls and the sparse streets, but to see Vampires that were selling goods and services was a bit jarring. It was almost like he was in the ancient human kingdoms and not in the 21st century Vampire Stronghold. They all looked too comfortable and too happy to be seen as Vampires from an outsider, honestly if he had known nothing about Vampires, he would have assumed that he was in a cosplay event and not in the most secure Vampire Stronghold in the whole Africa.
The lack of natural light was not even noticed by his super sharp eyes that could detect even the darkest object in the darkest room, regardless, there were street lamps that shown brilliantly which lit the path and the things that went on topside.
"I'm Ayomide by the way." The seventy year old Vampire said before she pointed at the second female. "She's Misturah and sixty."
Alexander nodded his head in gratitude at finally having a name and age to describe them in his head before he gave them a small polite smile. "What's his name?" He said indicating to the Legion Leader.
"Malachi, and he is 200 years old alright, me on the other hand I am just a year above a century." Kunle said with his usual cheery voice that made Alexander's head hurt, how the hell did he get to be so upbeat all the time?
After a couple more distance had been covered, they arrived before a castle where Malachi dropped Davina quite harshly and then ordered the rest of his Legion to take her to the Torture Chamber that he hypothesized was below ground.
"Do you know anyone around here?" Malachi asked him with a curious look rather than a suspicious one.
"Other than you and your Legion? No." He replied as he tried to think of a way to get underground because that was where he supposed the Princess was. With Davina also there, he needed to go down there and make sure to help them both get free so that she could use her experience to get them both out of Fort Crag and back home.
"I heard you telling Ayomide that you knew about herbs that could heal silver wounds." Malachi said. "Is that claim true or false."
"It's true." Alexander replied while fighting the urge to be nervous around the Vampire. The only good thing that was going for him at the moment was the fact that he actually knew exactly what could heal silver wounds, he had to know it anyway if he had hoped to succeed in his experiment.
"Well, if what you say is true, then I would like to extend an arm to you, an opportunity for you to join my Legion and become my Healer. The pay is great and you get the privilege to drink blood from the bottomless source that is UBN." Malachi said and stretched his hand for a handshake.
Alexander looked at Malachi and wondered if taking the deal was the only way he could go underground and finish the mission Caleb had been given. Was he willing to be a part of the mass killing of many civilians all so he could maybe save the Princess and Davina?