Chapter 7

Koshukara is quickly turning into a white sheet of paper. Snow now falls so heavily from the clouds that it starts to become hard to see further than twenty feet through the white barrier. A few people approach their parked cars, but then think better of it, knowing it would be unsafe to try to drive home in this weather. Although it is only two o' clock, the sky is darkening from the clouds hanging overhead. A strong wind has picked up and blows the falling, powdery snow in all directions. The weather is quickly spiraling towards the ferocity of a blizzard. Anyone with a functioning brain in them would stay indoors until the weather calms down.

"Dammit! Why am I out in this?" Nathan shouts as he leads Scarlet down cold alleyways.

He clasps his arms around his shivering body, fighting against the freezing cold swallowing his body whole. Glancing over his shoulder, he glares at Scarlet. The magically transformed hunter's cloak is now wrapped around her body, hiding as much of her skin as possible from the terrible weather. She doesn't respond to his complaining, still subdued from his attempt to inspect her necklace earlier.

Biting his tongue, Nathan rounds the last corner leading to the alley where he had found Scarlet last night. The buildings around provide a little cover from the snowstorm. At least this much is tolerable, but he reminds himself that he still has to bear with the return journey. He curses again just thinking about it.

"Alright we're here. Find whatever it is you need and then we're leaving," Nathan says.

Scarlet walks past him and stares across the snow covered alley. Finally, she opens her mouth and asks, "You're not going to help me?"

"Are you kidding me? You're the one with the magic. Why don't you just lift the snow up or something?"

"So now it's alright to use magic?"

"Quit being a smart ass already!" Nathan snaps, "I'm freezing my skin off here!"

Scarlet mumbles something under her breath and her spell book materializes beside her. It flutters open to a page littered with strange characters and she starts her incomprehensible chanting. Nathan watches as the area around her lifts up and as she walks forwards, the snow drifts back down as another portion is lifted up.

"You got nothing faster?" Nathan asks. She doesn't respond and he sighs. Wanting to find some shelter from the cold, Nathan walks under some cover a back entrance to a shop provides. He leans his back against the wall and sighs, cursing his luck for the hundredth time that day.

"This is just ridiculous," he moans, kicking the ground at his feet. When he does, Nathan notices something strange by his feet. Curious, he crouches down and picks up the thing between his fingers. It's small and white, much like the snow, but it has a black end. He holds it up to his eyes to get a better look.

"A cigarette?" he touches the burnt side and finds that it's still a little warm. It's so cold here that there is no way it could have stayed warm for more than a few minutes. Someone was just here, and he'll wager that he or she still is.

Scanning the back alley, Nathan spots a few tracks in the snow that neither he nor Scarlet made. From their shape, they were made by some heavy duty boots, nothing one would find from the buildings around here.

"Hey Scarlet, I'm getting the feeling that-" he stops when he looks at Scarlet. A tiny, red dot bounces through her snow-coloured hair swaying in the wind as she continues her spell.

"Scarlet, look out!" Nathan shouts as he runs from his cover. She doesn't even register him charging at her. He smashes his whole body weight against her, knocking her over in the middle of her chanting. A blast echoes through his ears and he feels a sharp pain as something grazes his left shoulder. The two of them land softly in a bed of snow with Nathan on top of Scarlet.

"Ow! What are you doing, stupid familiar!" Scarlet spits at Nathan, "Get off me before I blow your body to smithereens!"

"I just saved your ass! Be grateful!" Nathan snaps back. At least now she is back to normal.

"Ah, well done, stupid familiar," a new, metallic sounding voice says, "You managed to catch on before I slew your master."

Scarlet shoves Nathan off her and shouts, "Who are you?"

Looking to where Scarlet is shouting, I spotted a man dressed entirely in black on top of a building. A black scarf and coat billow in the wind, revealing traces of silver plated weaponry covering almost every limb of his body. A hood covers most of his face, but I can see a shiny, metallic faceguard over his mouth which is probably caused his voice to sound so weird. In his arms is a silver plated assault rifle with a red dot sight attached beneath the barrel of the weapon. This is that shady vampire hunter that I have only heard rumours about being in Koshukara. Why would he be here at this hour?

"My name is of no importance," he says in his strange sounding voice, "What is of importance, however, is this book."

He holds up a small, black bound book for us to see. There is nothing on the cover. From what I can tell, it looks like any ordinary notebook. Hardly anything to make a big deal out of.

"H-Hey! Give that back!" Scarlet snaps.

"I will, to Night Hour that is," the vampire hunter says, following up with a laugh, "They will be so pleased to have this returned."

"Returned?" Nathan asks, "That came from Night Hour then?"

The man freezes up in the middle of his laughter. Sighing, he hangs his head and says, "I shouldn't have said that."

"What's he talking about?" Nathan turns to ask Scarlet, "You stole it from Night Hour?"

"I took it with me when I escaped from them," Scarlet says, "They were going to do something bad with it. Kept talking about a scarlet moon and a new age of vampires while saying non-immortals like me are needed for the ceremony."

"What? Night Hour is a vampire hunting organization! I work for them! And what do you mean you escaped from Night Hour? You aren't talking any sense!"

"Hey, are you ignoring me or something?" the vampire hunter asks.

"You work for them? Are you that stupid?" Scarlet snaps, "That's their disguise idiot! They're using you to kill Halfies!"

"What disguise? They tell me to hunt vampires so I do. Heck, why should I believe you at all? You're a vampire yourself! You could just be trying to trick me!"

"Hello? Guy with a gun here!" The vampire hunter is waving his arms around, trying to get the attention of the two quarrellers.

"What would I have to gain from tricking you, stupid familiar! Listen to what your master says for once! They aren't what they say they are!"

"So you say. My family has always worked for Night Hour! Who will I believe? You or my own flesh and blood?"

"And what happened to your flesh and blood?"

"Why you!" Nathan shouts, grabbing his shoulder as he prepares to strike her.

Before he can, a bullet cuts the air between them. They both look up in shock at the vampire hunter and his gun aiming at the spot between them. Smoke trails from the end of the barrel.

"I was going to let you go, but you two are so annoying that you got on my bad side," the vampire hunter sighs, aiming down the sights again, "Doesn't look like you'll help with the purging anyways."

"Purging?" Nathan asks.

"Shouldn't have said that," He sighs again, pointing the gun at Nathan. "As much as it pains me to kill you, I guess it wouldn't be a bad thing if you died at this point. I can always find another pair that is more willing to work together."

"Stupid familiar!" Scarlet shouts as the blast of the rifle tears through the air. Nathan cringes but no bullet hits him. Scarlet's spell book blocked the bullet just in time. A sound of amusement comes from the hunter above as he keeps firing, but the book only continues to move to block each bullet.

Gritting his teeth, Nathan reaches for his handgun to cover himself, but finds it missing. Knowing he took it with him, he looks around and spots it on the ground, far out of his reach. It must have fallen out when he dived to save Scarlet. He curses himself for not putting it somewhere he would be sure it would not fall out.

Knowing that they would be better than nothing, Nathan reaches for his katanas. Maybe there will be a moment where the hunter gets too close. He freezes up when he doesn't feel anything there either. He hits his head with his palm, realizing his mistake. He left those at the apartment because he didn't think he'd get caught in a fight like this. Now he is useless. He needs to get his gun back.

"Start running!" Scarlet shouts as she fiercely tugs on Nathan's arm.

"Wait! I need my gun!" Nathan shouts, trying to pry her fingers off him.

"Stupid familiar! Do you want to die?"

Nathan manages to break free of her grasp and reaches out for his gun. Scarlet screams at him to get back but he doesn't care. The hunter is laughing as he reloads his rifle, giving Nathan the chance to grab his weapon. Just before he reaches his gun, however, he notices something small on the ground. A small red light blinks back at him from the object.

"A bomb?" Nathan curses loudly and jumps back. Not wasting another moment, he dashes after Scarlet and down the alley, trying to escape the bomb and the hunter. To his disappointment, there is no explosion behind him. It must be a trick to keep him away from the gun.

"Just when did he have the time to plant something like that?" Nathan says, "It's almost as if he knew I was going to lose my gun."

"I won't let you get away that easily!" the hunter shouts. Nathan looks over his shoulder and sees the hunter following them from above the rooftops, trying to get a good shot on them. Nathan winces as the gun aimed at him fires again. Scarlet's book quickly responds and the bullets bounce off the magical cover, their crumpled carcases spilling off on either side of him.

"Why is he only aiming at me?" Nathan shouts. There's no way he is going back for his gun without Scarlet's spell book protecting him if he is the target.

"Just hurry up and turn into a vampire so we can use Vampire Speed to get out of here!" Scarlet shouts over her shoulder.

"I don't know how!" Nathan shouts back, following her down another alley. He wonders if she even knows where she is going.

"What do you mean you don't know how? You were one earlier!" more bullets rain down upon them, but the spell book is still putting up a good defense. Nathan wonders how long it'll last though. No magic is infinite.

"It just happened," Nathan says, "I don't know how, it just did."

Scarlet screams in annoyance and makes another turn. "Stupid familiar! You are so useless! Guess I have to do it."

She stops suddenly and turns to face the hunter. Nathan nearly runs over her as he continues to flee, falling face first into the snow in an effort to avoid her. He winces as sharp pains attack his body from scraping against the frozen concrete below the snow. He can't feel his limbs anymore they are so numb from cold.

"Oi! What are you-"

He stops when he hears her chanting a spell from her book. The hunter continues to fire upon her, but the book moves to intercept each bullet. Nathan is amazed that she can still read it the characters when the book is moving so fast. A large dark sphere of energy appears over her head as she continues to chant. The hunter lowers his weapon and watches the giant ball grows above her. Waving her arm towards the hunter, the book disappears as she shouts one last command, sending the massive ball barreling towards her target.

Instead of running, the reaches under his cloak and pulls out something from its confines. A red circle bursts out from the object, placing itself between Scarlet's magic and the hunter. When the massive ball of energy hits the circle, it instantly dissipates, having no effect on the hunter at all.

"What? A magic seal? That's no fair!" Scarlet complains. The hunter lifts his gun and aims it at Scarlet's skull. With her book gone, she has nothing protecting her. Nathan jumps forwards and wraps his arms around Scarlet, pushing her to the ground. The weapon fires and Nathan feels his arm explode in pain as the bullet tears through his flesh. Cursing loudly, he forces himself up with Scarlet still wrapped under his other arm, dashing off in the opposite direction.

"St-Stupid familiar! Let me go!" Scarlet shouts while beating him with her balled fists.

"Not until we're somewhere safe!" Nathan says while biting down hard on his tongue to abide the pain in his arm. She really had no clue where she was going. They are deep in the city's alleys, far from an escape point. If he can manage to get back into the open, they should be safe under the eyes of innocents. Even a vampire hunter won't kill a vampire in front of an uninvolved civilian.

He hasn't been running for long, but Nathan realizes that he can't hear any more gunfire. He slows down a bit to allow himself to catch some of his breath, looking up to the rooftops for any sign of their pursuer. "He wouldn't give up just like that, would he?" Nathan says.

A bad thought occurs to him and he painfully lifts his wounded arm to view his VLAD Unit. The red dot in the center blinks back at him, but so does five other dots. They're surrounded by other vampires in broad daylight!

"As if this couldn't get any worse," Nathan curses.

"What?" Scarlet asks. She sees him looking at his VLAD Unit and frowns. "More Halfies?"

"What are those anyways?" Nathan shouts, trying to find a way around them. There isn't one. The vampires cover every possible exit. It's almost as if the hunter lead him here.

"A Halfie is part vampire and part human," Scarlet explains, "They aren't pure bloods like me."

"So they're dhampirs?"

"Right you are kid!" a new voice says. Nathan looks up just as he sees a kick flying towards his face. He drops Scarlet and dives to the side, just narrowly avoiding the attack. He lands heavily on his bad arm and shouts out in pain.

"You idiotic familiar!" Scarlet screams, "You dare drop me like that? I need to punish you for that!"

"Forget about it for now!" Nathan shouts from where he lies, "Use your magic and get rid of them!"

"Don't order me around!" Scarlet snaps, but rises anyways. Her book materializes again and opens to a page where she immediately starts chanting a spell. Suddenly, she starts to sway. Feeling that something is wrong, Nathan pushes himself up just as the book drops to the ground before fading away into nothing. Scarlet screams as she doubles over, Nathan reaching her just before she hits the ground.

"Oi! What are you doing!" Nathan shouts, "We're getting attacked here!"

"Not yet…" Scarlet chokes out before her eyes close. Her body goes limp in his arms as she falls unconscious. Nathan curses as things just keep getting worse. His assailant walks up to him, keeping to the shadows. Nathan catches the glimmer of a knife in his hand.

Reaching for his neck, Nathan feels relived that he still has his amulet. This is his only hope of surviving now.

"Time stop!"

The red magical aura bursts from the amulet, freezing the billowing snow in place around him. The snow inside the barrier falls to the ground as the haze settles, leaving everything in a pinkish hue under all the white the snow paints. Nathan rises to fight off his attacker, wincing from the pain in his bad arm.

Laughter sounds all around him and Nathan notices that the other four enemies his VLAD Unit picked up come out of hiding.

"What a dense kid," one of them says, "We've heard about you, the hunter with the amulet. Now that there is no time, the sun can't burn us! Its rays don't enter this place anymore."

"Dammit!" Nathan curses, realizing he forgot about that part. However, he has no weapons. His only chance lies with the power of his amulet. All of them stand out of his reach, surrounding him on all sides. There is no means of escaping without defeating all of them.

"A spell book?" one of them says, making Nathan turn to face him, "I know you said you saw a pure blood walking in daylight, but you never said it was this weak."

Three balls of dark energy appear in his hand, making Nathan gulp. This guy has golden hair unlike the other dhampirs and he seems to give off a powerful aura. Risking a look at his VLAD Unit, Nathan notices that his dot is solid red, not blinking like the others.

"Are you a pure blood?" Nathan asks.

He smirks in response to Nathan's question. "They called you a hunter, but I see you're more of an ex-hunter now. Allowing yourself to be bitten by likes of her who gave up her immortality? You must be a really pathetic excuse for a hunter."

Biting his lip, Nathan lashes out at the vampire with his right arm. He merely steps to the side and strikes him in the chest with the palm holding the three magical spheres. Nathan coughs out blood when his back explodes in pain and falls to the ground with a hard thud. Scarlet moans in pain as his limp right arm strikes her, but otherwise remains motionless. The dhampirs around him start laughing when he struggles to get back to his feet, but his motor skills fail him.

"You're not even worth the time of a true vampire such as myself. He's all yours," he says to the dhampirs, "Leave the vampire to me though. She needs to understand why it was a mistake to throw away true vampirism."

With the four dhampirs closing in on me at that moment, I reflected on how I knew that hunting vampires would eventually get me killed this way. After all, it's no secret the job entailed getting into risky business like this. I just never expected it to happen so soon. Looking over at Scarlet, I see that my right hand lay over her pelvic area. I instantly felt an overwhelming sense of misery for having to die in such an embarrassing state. Or should I feel miserable? Later I would find out that something about this position at that moment would end up saving my life…