The halls of Graham Stoker University flooded with students as soon as class ended, screams and cheers echoing over the sound of footsteps. Winter break was a mere day away and that thought reverted the college students to the mentality of mere twelve year old children. Due to his enhanced hearing, he knew the hell that awaited him and left early, waiting outside the main building. Soon, Sarah and Jason came out, arms wrapped around each other's waist, "Hey there love birds. See you didn't get separated in the typhoon!" he jokedSarah giggled and lightly punch him in the gut. Immediately she began shaking her hand as if to shake off the pain, "Ow! What the heck are you made out of? Obsidian?""Probably just building up a lot of muscle from that part time job right?" Jason asked, supporting the story Chase had spread. The two were both largely in agreement to keep Sarah out of this to preserve some semblance of normalcy in both their lives. "Oh right, I forgot you did that without telling me" Sarah said, making no effort to hide her annoyance, "Anyway, someone's having a party off campus this weekend before everyone goes to their families for Christmas. Wanna come?"That question seemed to have Chase hesitant. Not only did he want to continue his training, but last time he attended a party, he was turned into the blue haired creature the night he is now. As if in a nick of time, Alexis placed a hand on his shoulder, "Sorry, Chase and I have work this weekend" She answered with an unwavering poker face."Again? You sure it's just a part time job?" Sarah asked, raising an eyebrow as a smirk creased her lips "Or are you just making something up so you can have him all to yourself?""Don't be ridiculous. Why would I want to spend more time than necessary with a hothead like him?" Alexis countered, though she couldn't help but smile at the offended look across her Vampire's face"That hothead is right here" He huffed, "She is right though. I've got work""Well that sucks but can't be helped. I'm gonna walk Sarah back to the dorms then meet up with you guys" Jason explained and with a nod between the three of them, he turned away to leave. In less than half an hour, Jason returned and met with them in the dorms, "I'm never gonna get used to seeing a girl just chilling in our room am I?""Probably not," Alexis answered before mumbling a chant, a crimson red circle surrounding all three. In a flash, they appeared in front of the mansion"Whoa! Marie's started teaching you magic!?" Chase asked, his eyes sparkling. Frankly, he had been wanting to learn some magic of his own but Boss has been insisting on learning all his powers"Yeah, Marie doesn't want to transport Jason around" Alexis explained which replaced Chase's awe with anger. Before he could argue though, Jason was already dragging him along. Inside the mansion, they were met with Phil stringing lights along the staircase. A massive tree was visible in the longue which Marie was decorating with help from Spot, "Wow. Never expected to see a mummy celebrating Christmas""Or any undead for that matter. After all, it is a Christian holiday" Jason further noted"It hasn't been Christian for a long time" Phil said, chuckling, "Besides, I don't see why monsters cannot at least enjoy the holiday spirit"Marie smiled as Spot rushed to them, seeming excited now that he had warmed up to those who were once strangers. His excitement changed to aggression before Marie scratched behind his ears "Easy boy. He's on our side" she said, shooting a brief glare at Jason as she calmed down the Chupacabra, "Anyway, Phil's right. We don't have to be all business all the time. So we set up decorations for every holiday except Halloween""Nice. Well when we're done training today, we'll help you out" Chase said, leading the group down into the cave. As always, Boss was sitting at the Computer, looking over what seemed to be newspaper clippings, "Ya know if you didn't go to our school, I'd genuinely assume that you never leave this computer""What are these? Missing person cases?" Alexis asked, looking over his shoulder. The more she looked, the more familiar it became. People disappearing without a trace, specifically teenagers or young adults, all in the dead of night, "Hold on. This one's in Romania. And this one right here is in Australia. Why are you looking in other countries""I went out last night and tracked another Nosferatu. He was talking to who I could only assume was his Ghoul about reporting to New Wallachia that their 'product' would be shipped out soon""New Wallachia?" Chase asked, making sure he heard that right before his eyes narrowing, "Vicky..." He growled, gritting his teeth at the memory. He clenched his fist before remembering something, "Hold on. I thought you said New Wallachia was more of a belief, not an actual location""That's what I thought. Seems like the Blackharts are making a big move," Boss elaborated as he stood up, "There won't be training today. Instead, I would like you all to conduct an investigation""Huh?! But-!" Chase tried to argue but was swiftly cut off"But nothing. In the two months you've been here, you've been training hard. You still have a lot of room to grow. But you're prepared for lesser missions" He assured, passing Chase two crossbows and a bandolier of wooden stakes, "Besides, this is a much bigger crowd than I expected. I only anticipated you and your Ghoul. But if you're going to work with someone unbound, you three need to learn to trust each other. A triangle of trust is doomed to fail if one piece is weak""So you want to test our trust by throwing us in a potentially deadly situation?" Jason asked. In response, all Boss did was flash a grin that would strike fear into Satan himself. Shivering, Jason just nodded, "Alright, cool. Let's go die together then""Where do we start?" Alexis asked "I will continue interrogating on my end. One thing I do know is, there's a central hub that all lesser hideouts send their products too""So we find the lesser spots and go from there. Sounds good to me," Chase said as they went back up, helping decorate and bake sweets to add a much needed jolly atmosphere to the typically dreary mansion. When night came, Alexis transported them atop the King Building. Jason stumbled and nearly fell off the white beams they stood on if not for Chase catching him, "Hey watch where you're going would ya! I don't wanna explain to Sarah how you turned into roadkill without ever touching a car!""Sheesh, sorry. I'm still getting used to this. It's disorienting" Jason grumbled as he pulled himself back up, "Anyway, you got a plan?"Chase let out an almost awkward hum, looking over his attire, a red trench coat to cover his tools and weaponry, "You two go ground level and I listen from the rooftops? I kinda look like I'm about to get into a fight with some agents in this thing""True. Alright. If you find anything, send a message immediately" Alexis insisted before sweeping up Jason with ease and jumping off the side of the skyscraper, the Inquisitor screaming the whole way down. Chase couldn't help but chuckle as he sprouted his wings and letting his form change to blend in with the knight before flying down. While he could follow them in this nigh-invisible state, he did not trust how long he could prolong it. Better to split up instead of risking reappearing from seemingly nowhere in a public spaceMeanwhile, Jason and Alexis walked out of an alleyway they landed in, the young Inquisitor clearly shaken by the drop, "Can you not do that ever again?""Only if you learn how to get down yourself" She argued as they walked down the streets. Even this late at night, the crowd was still busy, "Perhaps we should wait in that coffee shop. I don't know where to start but it's our best bet to just settle in one spot and keep our ear to the ground""You're shockingly calm about all this" Jason grumbled as they entered. Sitting down at the bar, he ordered two coffees for both of them, "It's gonna be a long night. So drink up. I'll pay" he insisted. As they waited to hear something, there was an awkward silence between the two. The tension could be cut with a knife. Gulping down his worries, Jason asked, "Hey. Do you trust me?"Alexis looked at him, her eyes piercing into him before turning back to sip her coffee, "Chase trusts you. That's all that matters.""I know how he feels. I'm asking how you feel" Jason countered. This resulted in another moment of awkward silence before she finally answered his question."I don't know," She said, "On the one hand, you seem like an alright guy. But you also let me get kidnapped and tried to kill Chase twice""Yeah? Well trust me, that's the last thing I wanted to do""Then why do it?""Not like I had a choice. I'm an Inquisitor. Killing Vampires is my job," He answered simply, "Not exactly one I want but I don't have a say. The church officially disbanded us long ago so to maintain operation, anyone born to an Inquisitor is drafted from birth""Seriously? And I thought my family was messed up," Alexis muttered, looking around, "So what about Chase? I guess he didn't know about it?"Jason shook his head, averting his eyes from her as he looked down to his reflection in the cup of dark liquid, "No, Chase may have lived with us but he was never officially part of our family. My dad knew his parents so when the accident happened, we took him in. We did our best to keep him out of all this crazy monster and magic stuff. Guess we didn't try hard enough""Cut it out" Alexis said, her voice firm as she held his shoulder in an iron grip, "I don't know if you genuinely believe that or if you're trying to be manipulative. But either way, I'm not buying it. If you could've stopped it you would have""And how do you know that? Like you said, I could just be trying to manipulate you?"Alexis was about to answer but was cut off by the sound of a scream in the alley just outside the shop. Most wouldn't hear it but the Ghoul's enhanced senses made it as loud as if they were right beside her. Before Jason could even leave his seat at the bar, Alexis had already dashed out. She began sniffing like a dog, "Perfume, multiple different scents. Must have been a large group but only the last one was taken in earshot," Jason rushed out, visibly out of breath as Alexis called Chase"Oh hey Alexis, find anything?" The fledgling asked, the head of a Nosferatu resting on the iron hook breaking through his skin. He looked around at the empty cages, the human's scurrying out of the abandoned building like scared mice, "Cuz if this were a competition, I'd be winning""Well this isn't and I've heard someone. Can you meet up?"Hearing that, Chase hung up and immediately rushed there. However, they couldn't afford to wait and so Alexis and Jason hurried into the alley. There was no sewer grate and no signs that the building had been scaled. After some time searching every inch of the alley, Jason's hand pushed against a brick. The wall shakily moved itself down into the ground, revealing a dark hallway, "Smell anything?""No doubt. They went this way""Sweet. Now, let's wait for Chase and-" Jason started to say but Alexis silently ran into the darkness, "Hey! Were you not listening to me?!" He asked and perused her, only for the wall to suddenly trap them inside, "Damn it. They must have known we were onto them.""That's ok. I wasn't planning on leaving until the Vampire was dead anyways" Alexis said, trying her best to navigate. Jason would much rather leave instead of running into the trap but refusing to abandon her, he walked with her, keeping his hand on his pistol he had concealed. As they approached, the sound of hissing and growling grew louder and louder. Before eventually, they reached the light at the end of the tunnel. What they saw though was horrifying. There were no humans, only newly turned Vampires, locked in cages and each at various stages of frenzy. Their sunken eyes and shriveled bodies were a far cry from the two relatively healthy blood suckers they worked with, "They look...starved""When Vampires don't eat after three days, they start to lose their minds," Chase explained, the horror of the plans for these people, "They'll attack blindly, trying to satiate their thirst. They're turning these people into disposable shock troopers!"A laugh echoed through the building, "That's right kiddos! You thought we here in Atlanta dealt in Ghouls and servants?! Our dear Lord Damian needs an army and we're more than happy to provide""You sure are telling us a lot. Let me guess, 'It's because I don't plan on letting you leave alive', is that right?" Jason asked, mocking the monster's grumbly tone, "Also I thought discretion was the specialty of the Nosferatu. Did your sire not teach you that?""You don't get to badmouth my sire!" The vampire hissed over the speakers, "After all, your Vampire buddy ripped his head off and threw him in running water. I was there! I saw the whole thing?!""Oh, that guy? No wonder you're so pathetic if he's your sire. Actually no, at least he had the balls to show his ugly face" Alexis mocked, clearly trying to make him come out. Instead though, the speaker went silent after a loud buzz. The doors on the cages all swung open, the starved vampires shambling out. The disgusting appearance as they moved made Alexis's face contort, "So that's what they had planned for me, huh? Well, guess it's time to put you out of your misery!""Are you crazy? We need to run!" Jason argued but despite his protest, she rushed into the fray, ripping them apart. Were these vampires healthy, it would be much more difficult but her use of teleportation and the physical training made short work of any of these starving troopers. Jason meanwhile was struggling much more. He consistently shot the attackers in the head with holy bullets, either through the heart or the head, halting their healing and being the closest thing to killing them. They dropped but inevitably, he had to reload. That's when they struck. They charged him, all trying to dig into his neck, only to be met with the clanging of metal. They hissed and backed away, the taste of silver driving them even madder as they tore at their own skin in hopes of making the pain stop. This provided the necessary time to reload and continue his killing. Meanwhile with Chase, he flew over the streets of Atlanta, trying to find the location provided. It was very vague, likely due to unfamiliarity with the area, "Ok. This isn't working. Slow down Chase. Shut up, and listen" he muttered to himself and closed his eyes. Using his ears, he finally heard the hissing and gun fire. Without a second though, he dove towards the roof but was kicked away"Wow, long time no see!" A familiar voice said, "Glad you kept the blue hair"With Chase not coming, this left the remaining two to fend off the shock troops themselves. Jason was running low on ammunition and Alexis was exhausting herself. The two of them were back to back, "Any ideas? My fists can only do so much and my soul can't take much more either" Alexis asked between her heavy panting. Her stance was getting shaky as it became harder to keep her hands up. Jason looked around, struggling to think of anything with the resources they had. Besides the singular light that illuminated the room and the speakers, there wasn't much. That was all he needed though to form a plan. He repeated the question he had asked before."Do you trust me?""Huh? Why are you-?""Just answer!" Jason demanded"Fine, yeah! I trust you! Happy?" She asked"Good, hold them off for a while and when you hear me whistle get to cover" Jason ordered, jumping off the heads of the Vampires before scaling the wall of cages up to the speaker. Pulling out the back, he began hurriedly fiddling with the now exposed wiring."How much longer?!" Alexis called out, slowly being overwhelmed by Vampires who dug into her flesh"You said you trusted me didn't ya?" Jason snarked before whistling. In accordance with his prior orders, she threw the Vampires off her and rushed behind the metal back of the cages. Jason did the same, plugging his ears as a familiar boom echoed through the room followed by a bright light. When it all subsided, Jason's ears were ringing as he stared at the charred corpses of the vampires. The ringing eventually passed and Alexis came out with only minor burns, no worse than his. Her annoyance was written across her face, to which Jason could only shrug, "What? Nothing kills a blood sucker quite like fire so they taught me how to make things go boom""Clearly. But you just made my job ten times harder. Can't sniff out the Vampire if everything smells like an overcooked porkchop" She said before trying to focus. She could hear the sound of computers as if someone were rushing to finish something. Once she pinpointed the source of the sound behind the walls, she simply slammed the back of her fist against it, shattering the wall before she tossed the mass of computers aside. Before them was a Nosferatu, just as hideously deformed as the first one. Without any effort or resistance, Alexis lifted him up by his loose skin, "I'm going to ask you a few questions. Answer honestly and you may live""I-I-I-!" The monstered tried to stutter out only to be met with a back hand that made him spit blood"Talk only when I say so" She demanded, throwing him hard onto the ground and pressing her boot against his throat, "First, where were these people going? We know there's a main hideout?""U-Under the capitol...L-Lord Vlad has all of security enthralled...""Who is this Vlad?" She asked, putting more pressure on"Ack! Vl-Vlad Blackhart! He runs our operations...in this city""I see. Now, final question. You turned all these people but not me? Why?"Through his squirming, the Nosferatu managed to smirk, "It's because of...you... Had your little boyfriend not come to save you, we wouldn't have to expedite the process?...""So because you knew he may catch on, you decided to start turning them sooner? Pathetic" Alexis grumbled, raising up her boot. She had tuned out everything else, every question, every plea for his life before smashing the Vampire's skull beneath her foot, "C'mon. Let's go" she ordered and turned to leave. This time though, Jason grabbed her wrist"No. This time, we're waiting on Chase," he ordered, his voice firm as he tried his best to keep hold of her, knowing she could snatch her arm away or simply throw him aside on a whim, "I have your back but we can't keep going headfirst into situations like this""We don't have time. Maybe there's a chance we could still-""You heard that little rat. They're turning them early. Even if they're not starving monsters, we still need to put them down," Jason argued as he stared her dead in the eyes, her deadpan look in stark contrast to his filled with worry and frustration, "All we can do is stop this so nobody else is a victim. It's too late for anything else and it's certainly worth not throwing your life away over"Alexis stared blankly, her face almost unreadable before she asked "What do you care?""What sort of dumbass question is that?" Jason asked, "Do I need a reason to care for a person's safety?"For the first time since they split, a smile crept across her face, "A person, huh? Fine. I guess we'll do it your way" she said and walked out, leaving Jason confused as he followed behind her. With no other way, they backtracked to the false wall just in time for it to shatter"Hey guys! You ok?" Chase asked, stepping over the pile of bricks"Yeah. Where were you?" Jason asked"Oh, I just ran into a speedbump. It's fine now. We should get going to the Capitol building""Must be one hell of a speedbump if you learned that" Alexis asked, suspicion written over her face. Still, she decided to teleport them back to the mansion, "We should at least report our findings first. If that's really the largest hideout in the city, we can't go unprepared""Wow, look at you thinking things through," Jason teased as they walked in. The remaining residents were already together in the living room, seemingly taking a break from decoration"You're back!" Phil exclaimed hurrying as fast as his decrepit legs would take him, "I'll treat these burns right away""It's ok. We're fine. Anyway we found the hub" Alexis said, cutting straight to the chase, "As well as... what they're doing to the people they take. It's worse than Ghouls"Boss looked up from his book, promptly shutting it with a boom that echoed through the house, "Tell me everything"With that, the trio explained their findings. Alexis did most of the talking but Chase was unnaturally silent. When Alexis was done, the group looked at each other, clearly trying to process it all, "So they're turning humans into frenzied vampire canon fodder. What for?""What sort of nation doesn't have an army to protect its interests?" Phil asked as he finished patching up Jason's burns, "However, what those interests are may vary. My men were purely in the interest of defending our land but I doubt Vampires are capable of such a noble cause""That is something we must think of some other time" Boss said, "Phil, would you kindly conduct reconnaissance?""Of course, Boss" Phil agreed, his bandages dropping to the floor as a small cloud of sand left the building. Boss then turned to the group"All of you rest, train, do whatever you must. When Phil comes back, we shall conduct a raid together," he ordered before retreating to the library for research. When that happened, Chase went straight down into the cave, motioning for Jason to follow"What's up?" Jason asked, confusion painted across his face before catching a sword in his hands"Boss said to train so let's train," He answered, iron hooks coming slowly tearing through the skin between his knuckles, "Besides. I need to blow off some steam""That 'speedbump' you mentioned?" Jason asked, "Ya wanna tell me what really happened?"Chase hummed, seemingly thinking it over. He then got into a fighting stance "First to ten cuts wins? If you win, I'll tell ya"Hesitantly, Jason agrees and the match begins. The sound of metal clinging rang through the cave the two deflected and dodged each other's attacks. Chase easily got the first five cuts before Jason could adapt to the hooks but as soon as he did, it became like clockwork to him, deflecting and using the opening to even out his cut count. Chase quickly backed away, using his active camouflage to blend into the darkness. Jason, visibly frustrated, started wildly swinging at whatever noises he heard only to receive a slash in the back. With a final scream of annoyance, Jason spun around, managing barely cut Chase's neck only to be met with a claw grazing his cheek. Gritting his teeth, Jason grumbled "You never planned to tell did you?""No. Sorry I lied, but I needed the stress relief" Chase said, his look of satisfaction quickly fading. He looked away and gently pulled the hook away. Despite the admittedly annoying fight, Jason placed a hand on Chase's shoulder and smiles."No worries. But whatever happened, just know even if you don't trust me, I'll always have your back. Now let's kick some ass tomorrow"