Shadows past (the past of Alex) Scene 1 As the night descends

The year is 1209 AD and Alex is on the hunt for his cousin Theodore who has gone astray and is feeding on the blood of innocent humans and now it comes down to either helping his cousin to stop feeding on the innocents or eliminating him.

     As he had for the past hour Alex watched the dwelling for any signs of life. There was a sense (for at least Alex could feel it) that something was wrong about the place. Almost a forbidding presence to the place. For Alex could hear no sound of birds singing their songs throughout this wooded area. No animal hunted these woods and no sound once so ever of human life could be heard emanating from the structure before Alex.

    

     A strong wind had been blowing from the south against the dwelling for the better part of that hour that Alex had been waiting, And because of this wind it had been blowing away any scent that may have been able to reach his nose if there had been no wind at all. This lack of scent made it impossible for Alex to discern if his cousin had visited this home or not. For though with the help of a Werewolf trainer training him in the arts of the hunt meant that his senses had been raised to three times then what they would be normally for a human, he could still not pickup a trace of his cousins scent anywhere do to the strong wind blowing against the house.

    

     If Alex could be thankful of anything this evening than it would have to be for the bolder that he had strategically placed himself behind an hour before (just before the wind had picked up.) The boulder was tall and wide which was the perfect thing to deflect the wind from his body (which it did so perfectly) so it would not carry his scent to his would-be prey if his cousin was indeed inside the home that lay before Alex.

    

     Though Alex did not assume for a second that his presence had not gone unnoticed. For Alex well knew that a daywalker could see the heat given off by the body of any one that was among the living. and as such Alex might have been spotted already and not even know it.

    

     Such was the case over two months ago when him and a group of warrant officers (warrant officers being vampires who were in the royal guard who had been charged to hand out death warrants to feeders who would not turn from the villainous ways) had tracked his cousin and a group of daywalkers who had been sired by his cousin to a farming village in east Transylvania.  There he and the group of warrant officers had found the entire village slaughtered. Most had been murdered in cold blood (they had been found not even feed upon). Those murdered had been murdered for the shear enjoyment of his cousin and the other feeder daywakers. Those few that had not been murdered out right had been feed upon (completely drained of all life). Eventually the daywalkers who had delighted in this murderous onslaught had been tracked down a month later and culled, but that had come as to little to late for the two hundred villagers a month earlier.

    

     And as for Alex's cousin, he had fled only a short time just before Alex and his group had entered the slaughtered village. He must have seen both Alex and his group coming from the body heat that they gave off. And this was where Alex had winded up now, for Alex had tracked his cousin into this region of Transylvania and this was where Alex had hoped to finally end it here and now should Alex truly find his elusive cousin. Alex well knew that there were nightwalkers in the area and that they had arrived with Alex (for these were the same nightwalker warrant officers that had been with Alex at the slaughtered village) and that these nightwalkers also sought the death of Alex's cousin.

    

     As Alex continued to wonder if he should approach the house and see if there is anyone home and if so if they had seen anything unusual or simply to move on, the decision was suddenly made for him.

    

     The sound of what appeared to be a young woman's scream could be heard filtering out of the open windows of the dwelling before Alex.

    

     Running then towards the closed dwelling's door with all the haste and speed that Alex's legs could muster Alex broke from the protective embrace of the boulder which had up until this point shielded his smell from detection from those within the dwelling. Running then towards the dwellings closed door Alex prepared to shoulder his way through the door (for Alex had know way of knowing if the door was locked or not and had no time to check).

    

     Slamming then his left shoulder into the door with all his might, Alex could hear as the wood of the door around the lock splinter and give way. As the door swung inwards to reveal the people within, Alex moved his right hand to the left side of his belt, to curle his fingers around the carved handle portion of a stake and pulled it free from its sheath.

    

     Though Alex knew that a mere stake held no real threat to a daywalker, not unless the daywalker was caught out of its element (which was the daytime and the sunlight) and caught at night. Then a simple stake to the heart would kill the daywalker (for a daywalker was still technically among the living and as such was bound by living law).

    

     But mattered most about this stake was that it had been painstakingly soaked in saltwater and thus made this simple stake a lethal weapon against any a Vampire. For it was the saltwater that was the key to ending a Vampires life. For if it wasn't direct sunlight or fire that was used against a nightwalker, or an arrow to the heart or head at night to fell a daywalker, then a stake soaked in saltwater could do in both types of Vampire. Though with a daywalker the saltwater had to be feed directly to the heart to kill the daywalker (or if the daywalker ingested saltwater it would be equally lethal do to a datwalker still being alive and thus subject to the law of life).

    

     Alex had even gone so far as to carve into the bottom half of the stake a grip of sorts that consisted of a five rings etched into the wood (one above the other) which had been meant to give a grip so that Alex could better wield it in battle against his cousin. For though he did not wish to kill his cousin, he knew he had but no choice but to stop his cousins tyranny and blood lusting ways. But what made this hunting of his dear cousin all the harder on Alex was of the history that lay in his cousin's past. For his cousin's parents had been feed upon and slain by a nightwalker when he had been only three months old back in their homeland of Britannia. With his cousin's parents feed upon and slain, it meant that he (his cousin) would have been next (for a feeder seldom cared about the life of a child and saw them as just another food source).

    

     What had saved the then child's life had been the actions of a Werewolf named Bruno, who from a distance had seen the senseless slaughter of his cousin's parents. The Werewolf Bruno had raced with all speed to save the family from the slaughter but had ultimately reached the family to late (for by then his cousin's parents had been slain) only to snatch the baby boy from the Vampires arms, and with a free clawed hand the Werewolf Bruno had slain the Vampire responsible for his cousin's parents deaths. After which Bruno had managed to track down by scent his boy's kin (namely Alex and his parents) and had told them to flee Britannia and head for Transylvania where a nightwalker family named the Dracul's (a family that even the Lycan both trusted and respected) would protect them.

    

     This they did do (namely flee to Transylvania) and everything had been perfect for just over twenty years, at least until just three months ago when a group of nightwalker's had feed upon his and his cousin's village. For when the nightwalkers had had their fill they had turned to siring other members of Alex's village into Vampires (namely daywalkers). One being his cousin and ever since then his cousin had shown dread and death in his wake and Alex had followed hoping to end his cousin's feeder ways once and for all.

    

     As the swinging door finally came to a rest open, Alex saw before him who he sought. His cousin stood two feet in front of a window at the right hand rear wall holding a young woman. He held the woman with his left hand clinching her left wrist and held her head by her jaw (her head tilted to the right leaving her left side of he neck bare to his protruding fangs).

    

     As Alex entered the dwelling his cousin became aware of his presence.

Author's Note

I apologize for any punctuation because I have a problem with that, but I hope you enjoy this story. Please leave reviews on this or any of my stories, it would be much appreciated. Thank you.