After killing the monster, Axel looked at the bloody axe in his hand. He had to clean it. He swung the axe and splashed the blood on it to the ground. He wiped up the rest of the blood with a napkin. Even though the axe smelled even worse, there was no water on it now.
After examining the monster some more, he returned to the others. Felix saved them all. The female vampire was sucking the blood of a rabbit she had caught.
When he saw Axel, Felix covered his nose. "Dude, you stink, damn it." The blood on Axel's axe smelled disgusting. Even though normal humans could not smell it, vampires could.
Recognizing the scent, the female vampire turned to Axel. "This is the smell of that monster," she started to approach Axel. She stood in front of Axel and ran her hands over Axel's body. The vampire's hand was on Axel's axe.
Axel pushed the vampire away. He hadn't expected the alien vampire to be so bold as to touch his own weapon. "You killed the monster."
She noticed that Axel was quite strong. There must have been few vampires who could kill this monster. Everything fell into place when the vampire remembered Axel's axe. She had heard about an axe-wielding vampire.
She thought the things she heard about him killing 5 vampires by himself were exaggerated, but today she believes it to be true. "I'm Elena, thanks for your help." Elena smiled and looked into Axel's eyes.
"You're welcome," Axel said with a straight face. Axel motioned for Felix and Maxwell to follow. "I wonder if I can see the monster's body as well?" Elena was curious about the final state of the monster that had hunted her. Axel nodded in agreement. Axel didn't want to waste time running since the monster was far away.
When Axel started to run, the others started to follow. Axel didn't run fast so the others could catch up.
When they got to the place where the body was found, the body was on the ground, but there was something different. The severed limbs of the beast were slowly healing. Its head was beginning to meld with its body. Axel realized he had to burn the monster.
Elena felt uncomfortable again after seeing the monster. "I guess it was a tough fight," Felix said with a laugh. Looking at the creature, it had no limbs and Axel didn't even have a scratch. Maxwell studied the monster with interest.
Axel wanted to examine the monster's body parts and organs, but they had no choice but to burn the monster to kill it.
Axel took the creature's severed legs and extracted the bones. He was curious about the strength of the weapon he could fashion from them. Elena watched Axel with interest, seeing a man like him for the first time.
Meanwhile, Felix and Maxwell gathered wood to burn the creature. When they had enough, they began piling it on the creature. Axel calmly tested the strength of the bone he had obtained, confident that he could make a weapon out of it. When he tested its durability, he found it even stronger than his own axe.
By dusk they had gathered enough wood. They had the option of cutting down trees, but decided against it because the trees in the area were at least a thousand years old. Felix and Maxwell had brought the fallen tree that was blocking the RV's path. They had chosen an open area to prevent a wildfire. After preparing the wood, they poured some gasoline on it.
When Felix had everything ready, he looked at Axel and their eyes met. Felix took a match and locked eyes with Axel again.
Axel closed and reopened his eyes, silently agreeing. Felix struck the match and threw it on the wood. The gasoline ignited and a massive fire erupted. Axel stared at the flames without blinking, Maxwell looked at the sky, and Felix looked at Axel. Elena also stared at the roaring fire.
Axel and his friends had killed many vampires and burned their bodies. Even though Felix and Maxwell knew they were doing the right thing, they didn't enjoy it. They didn't want to be reapers.
Axel, on the other hand, was more serene because of his past experiences. Even though he felt compassion for others, he knew that his enemies wouldn't show him any mercy. Recently, they had killed a vampire who had shown no mercy to a baby.
Axel had first tried to warn the vampire, but it had ignored him and threatened him instead. Once threatened, Axel had grabbed his axe. It was too late for the vampire to realize its mistake, as its head had already fallen to the ground, separated from its body.
Axel didn't even blink as he killed the vampire. His expression was unchanged. Although Felix and Maxwell had been uncomfortable with Axel's behavior at first, they had come to understand it later. Axel's ruthlessness was necessary.
Once they understood that, they supported Axel in that regard, but they couldn't be as ruthless as he was, because Axel had seen the darker side of the world more than they had. The first blood he drank after becoming a vampire was that of his own family.
After hours of waiting, the fire finally went out. Elena had already left. Axel got up from the rock he was sitting on and stretched. The sky began to clear. As Axel walked towards the RV, Maxwell followed.
Felix had left early to get the RV out of hiding. The dawn sunlight was just beginning to filter through the forest, and the rustling of the cottonwood leaves made the atmosphere peaceful.
Maxwell preferred the sound of rustling leaves to the songs Felix had been listening to all day. There was a light breeze. Starting the day like this after a rough night gave them energy.
Axel remembered his life before. He used to smoke in moments like this, but now he could only drink blood. Before, remembering his past would depress him, but now he had a philosophy: don't mourn what is gone, celebrate what was. Since adopting this philosophy, he smiled whenever he remembered his past.
When they arrived at the RV, Felix was sitting in the driver's seat humming a tune. Axel entered the RV and fetched water to clean his axe. After washing the blood off his axe, there was still a foul smell. He stored the axes in the RV's hidden closet. He showered and felt clean. He put on a black shirt and pants.
When Axel got in the driver's seat, he switched places with Felix. Even though Maxwell was clean, Felix was still dirty.
Axel checked the supply of blood bags. They had enough for about two months. If they ran out, they could feed on animal blood or get more blood bags from the specialty hospitals in Washington. They had come to Shelton, a town near Olympia, for a reason.
They had seen some news in the newspapers about many missing persons cases. Axel was sure that something supernatural was going on here. Their original plan was to continue their journey without stopping here, but curiosity got the better of them.