IZEL

I rolled my neck to relieve the building tension. It didn't help, and by the time we got back to the village, I was still pissed. Alek hadn't even tried to cheer me up because he knew not to speak about the Masked Slayer whenever I just came from failing to kill him as it only made me even more upset. 

The Masked Slayer knew how to get under my skin, and I hated it. I hated him. Not only because he was a vampire, but because he was the worst of them all. He didn't deserve to be alive, he killed too many humans to be allowed to continue breathing the same air as us.

"Have the Hunter Vanquisher's left yet?" I asked the cook, Fergus, after we got back.

"10 minutes ago," Fergus said, "Sorry, little V."

Little V. Little Vanquisher, that was his nickname for me. That was a nickname I actually liked, unlike Izzy. I inwardly groaned at the thought of it, my anger threatening to resurface. 

Fergus had known my parents, and after they died, he helped look after me the best he could. Adding extra pieces of meat for me, bringing me little snacks, and just talking to me whenever. The kitchen used to be my favourite place because of him, up until I was permitted to enter the forest with Alek, so now the kitchen is my second favourite place.

"It's okay," I said even though it sparked a flicker of irritation within me. I then looked at Alek, "you can continue what you wanted to say," I told him, knowing I had cut him off with my earlier question.

"Ten birds, seven squirrels, and three rabbits," Alek said as he placed both sacks on the gravel counter in front of Fergus. "And a bunch of grasshoppers and crickets for the chickens."

"Well, what would we do without you two?" Fergus said as he gratefully took our sacks. Alek gave me a sidelong glance, but I didn't look at him. I knew what he meant by it. "I'll make sure to give ya'll double portions."

A smile spread across my lips at the prospect of double portions, but it quickly disappeared when Alek said, "That's alright Fergus, you don't have to. We'll eat the same as everyone else. Their satisfaction satisfies us enough."

"Hey! Speak for your—" Alek covered my mouth with his hand, cutting off my words.

"Thanks though," Alek said before slowly removing his hand from my mouth and beckoning for me to follow him.

I groaned and turned to leave when I heard Fergus' barely audible voice call my name. I looked back at him and he winked at me. I smiled again, knowing exactly what that wink meant, and then winked back at him as I gleefully caught up to Alek, knowing I would have a satisfactory dinner tonight.

"You know, you talk too much," I said, walking beside Alek.

"And you eat too much," he retorted, "it's a wonder you're still so slim."

"It's called exercise with a mix of good genes," I said matter-of-factly, getting a laugh in return. I smiled at the sound of his laugh and the sight of his dimples. I lifted my hand to put my finger into his dimple but he caught my hand inches away from his face.

"Must you always do that?" He asked.

"I do not always do it," I stated, "just occasionally." He snickered and I lifted my other hand but he caught it, inches from his face again.

"Nice try, but you won't get to my dimples that easily," he said and then he gave me a wide, taunting smile. 

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You—"

"Miss Izel," said a little voice. 

I looked down with a smile, knowing exactly who it was. Raya. The smallest, cutest human being alive. She was seven years old and had creamy white skin, ginger red hair, beautiful eyes that put the sky to shame, and freckles covering her nose and cheek area. And her voice was so soft and sweet, almost angelic.

All my attention shifted from Alek to her and I bent down to pick her up. "If it isn't my favourite person in the whole world," Alek raised a brow beside me and I couldn't help my chuckle, "what's up, Raya?"

"Nothing," she said smiling, "I just wanted to say hi."

"Oh, we didn't see each other in the morning, did we?"

She shook her head, "Aleksander stole you away."

"He did steal me away didn't he?" I looked at Alek, "Shame on you Aleksander, shame on you." I looked back at Raya, "he won't steal me again, I'll make sure of it."

"Really? It won't be too hard?" She asked, "when I told my brother I hadn't seen you yet because you went into the forest with Aleksander, he said it was because it's hard not to follow your heart, and that was why you followed Aleksander."

Aleksander and I both broke out laughing. That was a typical thing Raymond would say. He was always teasing Alek and me, like always. He was one of the many that were convinced Alek and I were in some secret relationship.

"Did he now?" I asked as I put her down.

"Yes," she confirmed, "he told me that you should just get married and that there's nothing you can do to him right now because he's gone with the Hunter Vanquishers."

"Emphasis on the right now," I mumbled. When Raymond got back, I would jump him.

Raya walked up to Alek, looking up at him and shaking her pointing finger at him in warning, "don't steal her away again."

Alek's mouth curved into a smile before he picked her up and spun her around, her laugh wrapping around them. "I'll steal you next time then," he said then put her down.

Raya stumbled, still slightly dizzy, but smiled. "Deal."

"Raya!" Called a woman, her mother. "Come and take your bath."

"Coming!" She called out to her mom, then looked at me, "bathing is no fun."

"I know. Bathing is no fun, it's like a chore," I said.

She laughed and nodded in agreement.

"Bathing is no fun but being dirty is less fun," Alek said.

"And Alek's no fun either," I whispered to Raya, loud enough to make sure Alek heard me too. He scoffed but I got a laugh from Raya.

I gave her a big hug before she ran off to her mother.

"So, she's your favourite person?" Alek queried.

"Raya, Fergus... then you," I listed.

"Third?!" He asked surprised, then scoffed, "as if."

"It's true." I lied, "You're in third place."

"I'm definitely first, I'm sure of it now."

"How?" I asked.

He suddenly placed his hands on my shoulders and turned me so I faced him before looking straight into my eyes, his brown eyes glittering. He had pretty eyes. "You may be a great Vanquisher, but you're a very bad liar." He said, then he ruffled my short, kinky hair and walked off.

"I am not," I snickered, knowing that also was a complete lie.

*****

After my wholly satisfactory dinner, I was sure that sleep would come easy. It didn't take long before I felt myself slowly falling into the depths and comfort of sleep, the dream world slowly creeping into my state of mind.

I heard a scream and felt myself frown. 

Great, a nightmare. 

I heard another scream, louder this time. Then another, but this one didn't stop. The scream wasn't stopping. The screams weren't stopping. I felt my brows furrow, not sure which state the screams were coming from.

An alarm sounded, startling me. My eyes burst open. It was loud. Really loud. It took me less than a second to register the sound, and as soon as I did, my heart dropped.

Vampires. They were here.

I quickly scrambled out of bed, grabbed my dagger from under my pillow and headed for my door but it flew open before I reached it, and on the other side stood Alek.

"You just woke up," he said, clearly not surprised as he handed me a sword and other necessities. Including my bow? I just took it without asking questions, "I had a feeling you were still sleeping, being the hard sleeper you are, that is."

"What's going on?" I asked as I strapped on my thigh sheath and put my dagger in it. "Vampires? How? How long?"

"They timed it," he said. "Knowing half of us would be gone hunting them, they sent some to attack us. And the alarm has been going for like five minutes."

Five minutes? It didn't feel like five minutes at all, it felt like less than one.

"Is this the attack?" I asked, panicked.

"No. We think they just found it as an opportunity. Half of our numbers are gone which would make it easier to attack."

"How's it look?" I asked as we made our way out. Heading the opposite direction of where the villagers were running. They were running away from the danger, but people like us ran towards it.

"Not sure, but there's a lot of them."

I noticed some action far ahead of us and I began picking up my pace when Alek suddenly caught my arm, stopping me.

"We're snipes this time," he said as he lifted his bow, "there's too much fighting already, it's chaos. The Roi already has a bunch of Vanquishers with him so we've been ordered to fight from higher above."

"But—"

"We're one of the few with good aim and good sight," he said before I could complain. "We won't be the only snipes. Smith ordered us, we have to get someplace high. Come on."

Now was not the time to disobey orders, not when lives were on the line, so I followed Alek. We climbed onto one of the high steel platforms and positioned ourselves in a way that wouldn't disturb the other. There were bodies, a lot of bodies on the ground. My chest tightened at the sight.

I positioned my bow, nocked my arrow and pulled my bowstring, releasing one arrow after the other. It took me an amount of time to release each arrow because I had to aim, like really aim. I needed to make sure I had my aim right so as not to risk hitting any Vanquishers. The Vanquishers were in uniform, which made it easier to tell who was on my side and who wasn't, but with the numbers and rapid movement, I had to be 100% sure my arrow was going to hit a vampire before I released it.

Footsteps and screams suddenly sounded behind us, lots of footsteps and screams which grew louder and louder by the second. I looked back and saw villagers running toward us now.

Daggers!  

They were surrounding us, luring the villagers in so they had nowhere to go. Damn these vampires.

I turned around again, readying my bow to shoot any vampiress coming from the other side of us but quickly realised I couldn't release my string. I couldn't tell the difference between the people and the vampires. Only the Vanquishers were in uniform, but I couldn't tell which were villagers and which were vampires, not in this light and the swarm of numbers. 

Alek lowered his bow, just as helpless as I was. There was too much movement down there, and bodies suddenly started dropping, one after the other. The vampires were using this to their advantage, blending in with the villagers and killing them in the crowd.

We couldn't snipe them because we couldn't tell the difference, and the Vanquishers couldn't either. They could only kill if they were one hundred per cent sure they were killing a vampire, and by the time they were sure, they were killed.

I noticed a vampire effortlessly twist the neck of one and then disappear into the crowd before I could even blink. Another vampire threw someone high into the air, only for them to be trampled in the throng.

They were taunting us.

Another vampire got daring and decided to suck the blood of one of the villagers, but the shrill scream that erupted from the villager was enough to get the attention of the nearest Vanquisher, who ended its life. That was what it got for being a greedy thing.

"SOUND TOWER!" I heard someone shout in my earpiece, I flinched at the suddenness and loudness of it.

Sound tower? Alek and I were up on the sound tower but what about the sound tower?

I gasped

"The emergency protocol," Alek and I remembered at the same time.

Of course! How could we have forgotten about that? 

Alek grabbed the string that would sound the horn at the same time I did. We pulled on it and my ears rang upon hearing the sound, and I couldn't help but smile at that, knowing the vampires wouldn't be able to handle the frequency. 

I looked down in time to see everyone dropping down like flies. Everyone but the Vanquishers. And the vampires, who were shrieking from the sharp sound, their hands on their ears.

Just like fire drills, where villagers took emergency cautions and were told what to do in case of a fire, we had a vampire drill. The drill was invented in case of an ambush. We envisioned ourselves being surrounded by vampires like this, crowds of villagers bordered by vampires. At a time like that, it would be hard to tell who was who and because we didn't have an emergency bunker, we decided to invent an emergency procedure instead. 

As taught, the alarm sounded from the sound tower and as soon as it went off, all the villagers fell to the ground, as if playing dead, so that the Vanquishers would be able to tell who the vampires were and get rid of them.

Without hesitation, the Vanquishers stabbed anyone and everyone who remained standing without uniform through the heart or head. Where there were fewer Vanquishers available in a certain space, the snipes took care of it.

We killed a majority of the vampires before they realised what was going on, and seeing that they now had less of a chance of victory, they began fleeing. 

Cowards. 

But when a vampire suddenly grabbed hold of the nearest child and fled with them, my heart stopped. The vampires weren't fleeing alone, they were grabbing a child, or two, and running into the forest with them. They were going to save them for blood, or drink them right there in the forest. 

The children's screams were almost as loud as the noise emanating from the sound tower. The snipes, including Alek and I, took out as many vampires as we could as fast as we could. I shot down one vampire after the other but was suddenly rendered frozen when I heard the scream of a familiar voice. 

"RAYA!" I heard them scream. Raya's mother.

My eyes frantically searched the crowd until I spotted Raya's mother, screaming her child's name in a way that made my heart drop. I looked around, surveying everything, and then I saw her. She was in the arms of a vampire, but no matter how much she thrashed it didn't release her, and her screams didn't seize as it led her towards the forest.

I hurriedly nocked an arrow in my bow and aimed at the vampire that had taken Raya. I kept my eyes on it, aiming carefully, trying to ignore the screams and the activity below and around me. I released my string, launching my arrow. It hit the vampire in the back, but it only stumbled before removing the arrow and continuing. 

I missed the heart.

The vampire entered the woods, disappearing with Raya. She was gone, as well as all the other children that went in there. They were going to die in there. I knew that I probably wouldn't make it in time, but I still needed to go after her. I still needed to try.

By the time I reached the ground, the fighting had seized as all the vampires had been taken out, all but the ones that took children. Vanquishers darted into the darkness of the forest to rescue them, and I sprinted along with them. The vampires had taken them for one reason and one reason only. To drink them alive.

I heard footsteps behind me, but I didn't have to look back to know whose they were. "I thought you might need me," Alek said, catching up to me. 

"Always," I said, knowing he would have my back.

I forced my legs to move faster. I had Alek by my side. A sword in my hand. And murder on my mind.

It was all I needed to save Raya.

And I needed to save her.