Hi there everybody! This is my first post on Fictionpress, and I am very excited. I waited with bated breath, until the three days were up after my registration and I could start posting!

Anyway, this is the first chapter of the first book in a series I am currently writing. It will be 6 books long when I finish. Book one is completely finished except for a lot of editing work to be done, and book two is nearing its completion as well. I plan on posting two chapters a week, so you catch up to the end of book two as soon as possible.

I have several friends that have read this and loved it, and I hope you like it as much as they have.

The Nights Embrace:

By Night Silver’s Whisper:

Book one of the Vampire Hunter series.

Dedicated to the Buffy the vampire slayer TV series, from which many of my ideas came from, and also from where a lot of my inspiration came.

Prolog:

Life as a vampire hunter is hard. You live, while fighting death everyday. So many have died, hoping to make a difference. The truth? The war will never end, but what else do we have to fight for? Priests say that rebirth is a gift, it is a curse, and we fight that curse every moment of our lives. It turns respective men, into blood sucking demons, and beautiful woman, into selfish nothings. This curse, which was cast upon this world many years ago, now plagues us. That which humans think of as a wonderfully beautiful night, is possible death to us. What humankind thinks of us a great novel idea, is the kind of storyline we live everyday, and hate. But, what else can we fight for?

Agile let out a laugh so maniacal it would put any movie or anime villain to shame.

Tangling with her opponent, they were a pair of silver silhouettes painted in the moonlights glow, their senses lit up with silver fire. The male opponent buckled under a blow from the female. He regained his balance with a quickness only he and his kith possessed.

With speed swifter than his, Agile ducked his oncoming punch. She tripped him. He stumbled, giving her an appeasing opening on his back. She let it slide, knowing that through her efforts, another would present itself. Years of hard practice and training had proved this.

She let the distance between them settle, took the moment to breathe grayness into the air. Agile touched a thumb to her swords pommel, a weapon which had hung limp at her hip until now. She drew it slowly, watching with amusement the expression that came to the vampires face at the gradual scraping noise.

“Hear that?” She spoke, laying a lusty kiss upon the blade she knew better than any male mouth she’d ever explored. “Ever tasted a blade?” She asked. “I would even say it’s better than blood, but alas, I wouldn’t have a clue.”

She crossed the expanse separating them, her sword, Revere, poised for action. He stumbled back in order to avoid the downwards slash. He fell on his ass as a result.

She relinquished this opening in his defenses as well.

He scampered away from her. His hunter pursued him with an easy stride.

“You’re screwing with me.” He snapped. Agile laughed.

“If we were doing that,” Agile flippantly replied, following after her quarry. “You’d already be staring up at the stars, and I’d be doing something far more fun than laughing.”

She brandished her blade at him carelessly, but relentlessly. Revere was patient, she would be too. Patience was important to the art of vampire hunting. This was a simple truth, one written into her head by her teacher. It was unforgettable, just as it was incontrovertible.

“What is with you?” The vampire drawled, stealing safety behind the nearest tree. Agile jabbed Revere around the side. The vamp skipped out of reach with a yelp.

“And what else would I be doing? Asking you for tea?” She chuckled at her own humor, her thin lips stretching into a smile. She swung around to chop off his head. He ducked, and she pulled back before Revere thudded into the wood. She and her sword had been together far too long for either one of them to be damaged now.

“I thought hunters just killed us, but you fight with the same passion as my kind.” He scuttled to the next trunk, the knees of his fancy suit getting smudged with grass and soil.

“Now, now my little vampy, you know who I am. Your kind very well knows the name Nighter.” She snickered devilishly. “When you faced me, you knew what bitch you’d taken as your opponent.”

The vampire’s patience had waned. He let out a yell as he fled his shelter.

She waited, legs apart, a hand fisted on one side, her sword hanging still on the other. Each hunter had a fighting stance unique to only them, and this was hers. It was similar to that of the man who’d taught her everything she knew. Devil, the hunter who surpassed her in skill, had a stance very similar to hers. Although, since he’d been the one to train her for the past six years, it would stand to reason that her stance was a take-off of his, rather than vice-versa.

The vampire leapt at her, his image blurring as he sailed through the air, and she spied teeth protruding from his blue tinted lips. His weight threw them both to the ground in a tangle of limbs. Agile drove her sword into his chest and punctured his heart. He collapsed, the only thing keeping his body from smothering her was Revere keeping him aloft.

He did not burst into dust.

“Like a typical man to a typical woman, GET OFF.” She growled.

Abruptly, she felt his hand grasp her shoulder. She felt his nails bite through her T-shirt, dig into flesh. Without grimacing, she kicked her leg up high, connecting with his head. He crumpled. She rolled away.

Standing, Revere dripping at her side, the blue liquid slid into a bright crimson as oxygen breathed upon metal.

The vampire sat up, spat blood to the grass. This time Agile grimaced. She tried to avoid injuring her opponents that seriously until the very end. Since this had been her occupation for so many years, she’d learned all the secrets and intricacies of it.

“You were supposed to be a cold blooded killer.” The vampire complained.

“Did I disappoint?” She replied, arching a brow.

“No,” he wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “I just didn’t expect you to be such a loony bitch.”

Agile gave a loud laugh.

“Loony?” She boasted. “I’ve heard you guys spout a lot of nonsense leading up to your dusty deaths, but this is a new level of vampaty.” She shook her head. “But I highly doubt that ‘Loony Nighter’ is what the papers will call me.”

As the silence simmered in their ears, infected the crisp winds that fluffed their hair, sent chills up their spines, Agile spared a thought to the mortal media. She’d been in the newspaper a couple of times, the front page only once. Agile always got flack for it from the other hunters. However, it only caused for her amusement.

Speaking of amusement, the vampire had it scrawled across his face, amusement he didn’t deserve. Agile returned the expression dispassionately. Above, the midnight sky twinkled and winked with stars. They paled his skin, darkened hers.

“So this is it?” He spoke. “You are the one the vampires avoid and humans fear? You are laughable!”

“Laughable?” She asked smoothly. “Laughable, is the lies you tell yourselves so you can pretend to be almost human. Laughable, is the way you think life has opened up for you, now that your blood has stopped pumping.” She brushed her purple-dyed hair back from her face. “Laughable, vampire, is that you’ve died and been born again, and you think you’ve gained something.”

He lunged. She stepped aside, whispered behind him, pressed Revere to his throat, her breasts to his back. The coldness of his flesh soaked through her tucked in purple button up shirt. The smell of decay filled her nostrils, and even the aura of death surrounding him like an unwavering ghost, was inhaled into her lungs.

“Do you think I will shudder at your touch, your smell, the taste of your curse?” She whispered. “In the end, you shall realize it is you that will shudder at the caress of my breath, shiver at my scent….and ache at the taste of my curse.” Soundlessly, she swept away….took a lazy swipe at his back. Blood ran down his shoulder blades, colored his belt.

“I’ve had enough.” He spoke, voice gruff.

“Oh, does the blood bother you?” Agile laughed, and when she next looked into the creatures eyes, she wasn’t surprised at what she discovered. She saw the hate, but also the pride. She knew these emotions both. They were among the few feelings she allowed herself. All others were filtered out by the mask she wore. Devil had taught it, she upheld it.

The vampire leapt, throwing fists and feet. He landed no blows, but she did. In minutes, he was covered in little cuts that hardly bled. As a human, they would last for months. As a hunter, under the tender care of their doctors, they’d surely become pride worthy scars. As a vampire, they’d have vanished by dawn.

But he wouldn’t live that long.

She skipped up behind him once more, delivered a kick to the base of his spine. Down he went, giving her the chance to vanish into the canopy of trees above. Every tall standing figure was a redwood, the type only California provided. Her eyes dancing down between the entwining limbs, skipping away from the leaves that obstructed their way, and finally, her gaze lit upon her prey.

With this small standstill, Agile’s ears drew in the forest sounds, the whispering pines, the trickling of water against stone, the howling wolf pack striking up a tune. Agile’s ears gave each its moment to shine, and her nerves quieted.

Agile could see fear come to him, it seeped into the pores of his flesh, which released it instead of sweat. It grew inside his cheeks, dribbled out in the place of saliva. It even sank into the corners of his eyes, and spilled forth, replacing tears.

“Poor little vampire, all alone.” She threw her voice, so to the vampire it seemed she spoke from all directions. It was an old hunter trick. “Lost in the dark, without a home.”

The vampire’s circular movements grew more frenzied as his desperation intensified. His eyes were bloodshot, mixing oddly with the blue silver eyes he inherited when he earned the vampire genes.

The game was a good one, one that she never exhausted. Her opponents played well, but she would always come out the victor. She concocted the rules, chose the pieces, the playing board. It was similar to what goes into a stories creation. Every twist and turn of events, every life stolen, every death dealt, in this game, they were all of her making.

She grasped two branches growing at eye height. She stepped forward, releasing her hold on the tree altogether. Descending, she weaved her body in-between the branches, landed on the grass in a crouch. The vampire whirled to face her. She saw his relief, which swiftly slid into fearful surprise. She came upon him, Revere swinging in from the right. She twisted him around, jerked his back against her. She pinned him, her blade pressed against his throat.

“Tell me,” she mused. “Can a man’s inner fire….still burn even when the coals are dead as the dirt supporting it?” Her free hand had bound his against his chest, which made a finger close enough to bite. She jerked her hands away, cursing, moved off to the right.

“If I get vampy-rabies, I shall be oh so pissed.” She growled, rubbing a finger over the marks on her thumb.

“Now you have me laughing.” He said, the sound uttered from his throat was strained. “I would have thought you’d know more of my kind, despite the fact your human.”

“Hey now,” Agile warned. “Don’t go calling me names and besides,” she paused to grin. “It’s not you’re completely loosing.” She motioned to where his nails had raked her flesh.

The injury burned, but she ignored the nuisance. Using her metaphorical mask, she erased the pain. This was another skill passed onto her by Devil. He wore it too, but his was much denser than hers.

Her enemy’s eyes alighted upon her shoulder. Smiling as she was stricken with genius, she ripped away the sleeve. The movement reopened the cuts. Moonlight bathed her skin, revealing all the intricacies of her wounds to their inflictor.

She drew nearer. He stiffened. His eyes skipped over her features, the blood, the sword she’d switched to her other hand.

Agile paused, took a fingertip, ran it through the crimson captivating her companion. The seduction made her heart race, her blood rush, her eyes glint. In his gaze, she saw lust, just as powerful as the aching hunger in his canine teeth.

She ended the charade.

Just out of punch-range, her arm fell and Revere rose. With the speed of hunter’s breath, she lunged forward on one foot, jabbing her blade to the vamps left shoulder, at the joint. Because of his previous distraction, he did not dodge.

He gazed at himself, the blood flowing down his front. For a second, his eyes flashed. The genetic blue silver flickered to a different shade, an earthly hazel.

Then there was a terrible “scraping noise” as a weapon whizzed over her shoulder and thudded into the vampire right alongside Agile’s already impaled sword.

He dissolved.

She whirled from the scene, coughing and pissed.

“God damn-it! Cobweb! I’d already ended him!”

Twenty feet from Agile a girl leaned against a tree with her arms crossed. “And a fine job of it you’ve done.” The new arrival observed the scowling woman. “You cut him three times before the end.”

“All play, I assure you.” Agile growled.

“Oh, of course.” Was the sarcastic response. They shared a glare.

This was Cobweb, a girl of eighteen years, and rivaled Agile as a bitch. Cobweb fought with the same group of hunters Agile did, Night-blades.

Dark red hair fell on broad shoulders, brushed slightly pointed ears. Eyes were a dark orange, catlike. Long muscled legs wore black jeans, a black T-shirt concealed breasts more impressive than Agile’s. Cascading over shoulders and back, brushing against her ankles, fell a crimson cloak. At her hip, a hand axe hung, identical to the one that had dropped to the ground after killing the vampire.

“I have to scowl at your sickening pride though.” Cobweb sighed wistfully, glancing off to the side. “No other hunter would play with their prey…”

“No other hunter has her name scrawled across the papers.” Agile drawled, smug.

“Oh, if I had a penny for every time you mentioned ‘that’ bit of information….” Cobweb laughed. “I’d be lounging in a three story condo in the deserts of Utah.”

“The vampire pickings are scarce there.” Agile spoke. Cobweb’s eyes slid sideways.

“Perhaps LA then.” She finished loftily. “The men might appreciate my attentions and skills more than those I surround myself with here.”

“What skills are we speaking of?” Agile asked with amusement.

“Laugh away, Agile, but one day I shall surpass you.” Cobweb sighed, as if she found this bemusing.

“In what area are we speaking of?” The purple haired girl laughed. “Because I don’t believe I was aware that the men I’d dated had conferred with yours over our kissing skills.”

“Did I say I was referring to kissing?” Cobweb inquired.

“Did I say I wanted to know what you really meant?” Agile sighed irritably.

“I will say though,” the redhead continued. “I meant a lot worse than smooching.”

“I highly recommend you inform your future men of that!” Agile chuckled. “You might save them from walking into work the following morning with a limp!”

“Wonderful Agile,” Cobweb sighed. “Just wonderful.”

Thoughts?