The following morning, Sern woke to the patter of rain. He had no idea what time it was. The rushlight had burned down and grey light filtered in through the crack of the door.

Light.

Alarmed, Sern bolted upright. It was nowhere near the vampire. He sighed in relief, and pulled the door shut. He couldn't risk daylight hitting Ranloo in this state.

The door swung back out with a loud whine as he let go. Sern glared at it before turning around.

Wedging his hands under Ranloo's arms, Sern dragged his lifeless body into the dark antechamber, hoping he wouldn't do more damage. Huffing with the effort, he moved backwards into the gloom, stumbled, and lost his grip. For a second he froze, staring in fear. Ranloo didn't move. Sern grabbed him again and pulled him further into the room.

´How're you so heavy?` he grunted.

Tired and miserable, he ventured into the grey daylight. Rain pattered over his head and ran down his dirty face. He tried wiping the muck off with his hands, but it only made it worse.

Sern trudged to a nearby animal market. He wouldn't let Ranloo wake up without food another time. It was too dangerous. Especially if they shared the same room. A chill trickled down his spine at the thought. He scoured the market for suitable animals he could steal, and a few hours later had successfully brought a sheep to the temple and hobbled it. Not the quietest animal, but it'd have to do. Then, exhausted, he lay down for a nap.

Hours passed and the rainy day fell into rainy night. Sern woke well after nightfall, blinking in the darkness, wondering what had disturbed him.

Something pulled at his shoes.

He jerked upright, staring blindly ahead, his breath caught in his throat. A sheep bleated. Groaning in relief, he laid down with an arm over his face, his heart racing. Then he forced himself back up and dug around for another rushlight, flint, and fire-steel in the bag beside him. Soon, he got the rushlight going, illuminating the room with a small flame.

He was surprised to find that not only was the sheep alive, but the vampire still lay on the floor in the antechamber. Worried, he tiptoed closer.

´Ranloo?` he whispered. Receiving no response, Sern dared to approach and nudged him with his shoe.

´You wake?`

No reaction.

Scared, Sern reached down and shook Ranloo by his shoulders. ´Oi, wake up.`

The vampire neither moved nor breathed. Cold all over, Sern shook him more forcefully and called his name several times. But Ranloo appeared to be dead.

Sern balled his fists and drew several deep breaths. Had it all been for nothing? Frustrated, he kicked a rock on the floor and cursed. It clattered against a wall. He didn't want to stay in the temple all night, but neither did he want to leave Ranloo unguarded. Was he really dead? He'd been gravely hurt, he realized that. But still, he was a vampire.

Pacing back and forth, Sern concluded that regardless if Ranloo was dead or alive, he was better off leaving for the night. If Ranloo woke up later, he'd be starving. Sern slipped out the door and, like a swift shadow, left the temple grounds. He walked the dark streets, hands stuffed in his pockets. The pungent stench of the wet alleys assaulted his nose. The city smelled at its worst when damp and hot. He hated summer rains. However, he might find a place to clean himself up a bit if he got lucky.

Did anyone still look for them? Glancing back, his eyebrows creased. They hadn't moved far. It wouldn't be impossible to find them.

Spending the night and morning looking around, Sern heard some unsettling rumours in a bar. Vampires killing people, unholy rituals, and vampire hunters.

´Rituals,` he wondered aloud. ´Vampire hunters?` Not good.

´Yeah,` a drunken man with a bushy beard answered him, unasked. ´I 'eard the vampire'd done some scary rituals, offerin' animals an' stuff!` he exclaimed, lifting a mug of ale. ´Scary stuff if you ask me. They found it in an ol' house nearby.` He eyeballed Sern, bleary-eyed and grinning. Obviously taking delight in scaring him.

´Good thing they're sendin' in those vampire killers,` he slurred and took a swig from his mug. ´They're strong I hear. Gotta be t' kill those undead bastards.` He took another gulp.

´Yeah,` Sern muttered as his stomach twisted. ´Very good.`

He left the bar, the man going on about killing vampires behind him. Vampire hunters. They probably knew more about vampires than he and Ranloo combined. As if the city guards and thieves weren't enough. They had to get away. If Ranloo still lived. As an extra precaution, Sern returned to the market in the morning gloom. Nobody noticed him sneaking off with some bread, carrots, and a rabbit under his arm.

Sern cracked the door to the temple open, slunk in, and set the rabbit down. He pulled out two carrots, put one in his mouth and left the other on the floor for the rabbit. He hadn't been able to secure any other hiding places but would have to do that soon. Hopefully, Ranloo would wake the following night. If he wasn't dead, Sern thought. He hoped not. But it was already afternoon and he had to get some sleep before nightfall. Laying down, barring the door, he used his bag of belongings as a pillow. He twisted and turned for a long time, too many worries competing for his attention before he finally fell asleep.

* * * * *

The crowd jostled in the rain outside the door, straining to see, asking questions and hollering at friends to come look. Four city guards stood watch by the leaning hovel and voices drifted out the doorway.

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Inside, the stuffy air reeked of decomposing bodies. A dead big man, and a goat with its throat cut, lay on the kitchen floor. Rats scattered as they entered the room and a cloud of flies swarmed up. Maggots squirmed everywhere on the bloated bodies.

´Well, what do you think?` the middle-aged colonel asked the two hunters. He was dressed in the same livery as the city guards but had better quality armour, clothes, and weapons. A fancy plume of black horsehair topped his helmet to mark his importance. He frowned, lips tightly pressed together.

´Definitely a vampire,` the taller of the hunters answered softly. ´You can see the bite marks on that one's neck.` He indicated with a gloved hand.

He wore a black brigandine with metal plates riveted to the leather, black breeches covered by protective leather tassets, and high boots. On his head sat a wide-brimmed black hat, shading his square face and pale eyes, and obscuring most of his short blond hair. His nose showed signs of being broken more than once. A scar ran down from his left ear and neck. He wore a crossbow on his back and a short sword hung from his belt. He was in his early thirties.

The other man, in his late forties, wore a mix of an Eldon paladin's shiny plate armour and the lighter armour favoured by his companion. Shorter but of a much heavier build, and had a full beard and dark brown eyes. His long brown hair was kept into a ponytail. A battleaxe and a big knife hung from his belt. He wore a backpack with various hunter equipment.

´I'm intrigued by the goat,` he commented. ´What's that about?`

´It's strange indeed. Maybe some ritual?` The tall hunter rubbed his jaw thoughtfully.

The bearded man looked at his companion with a frown. ´A vampire doing unholy rituals? What's the world coming to?`

The tall man shrugged. ´Maybe not, could be killed for another reason. I don't see anything else indicating a ritual going on.` Crossing his arms over his chest, he studied the room.

´How old do you think this is?` the colonel asked behind a hand, nodding his head towards the bodies.

´No more than a few days,` the soft-spoken man answered. ´See the maggots? They're still crawling around. No more than five days at most. Probably less. The vampire can't be too far away.`

´Yes, it seems like he made a run for it yesterday.`

The tall hunter beckoned for the others to follow and walked into the other room, where the smell was less obtrusive. A splintered chair lay on the floor, footprints showed in the dust, and there were fresh indentures in the walls at shoulder height.

´Odefin. I think this is a young vampire, not yet used to its new,` he hesitated for a moment, ´life.` He cocked his head and tested with his fist against one of the marks.

Odefin nodded his bearded face. ´I think you're right, Tea. Older vampires are better at covering their tracks.` He looked around the dusty room. ´And they usually live in better conditions.`

Tealas removed his hat and used it to cool himself. ´It left a dead man in the open street yesterday and one fatally wounded. It's definitely new.` He turned on his heel and strode out of the building.

´Make way!` the guards shouted and pushed through the throng gathered outside. Odefin and the colonel followed. They walked a short distance down the street to where a dead man had been found. He'd been removed, of course, and examined already by the hunters. He'd had bite marks on his neck as well as a broken forearm. Presumably to disarm him. A bloody knife had lain right beside him.

It seemed logical, Tealas thought and put his hat back on. The blood in the street slowly washed away in the rain. Unfortunately, it made tracking the monster almost impossible.

Tealas turned to Odefin and the colonel as they came up to him. ´Do you think we could talk to the men who saw the vampire?` he asked softly.

´Yes, of course. We have them in the gaol for now,` the colonel said.

Three men waited at the gaol, one of them a man called Olsek. He wore the ragged clothing and shifty expression of a common thief, Tealas thought. But he had seen the vampire and gotten away with it. He was luckier than he knew. The wounded man was still unconscious, and he might never wake again. They could only wait and hope.

´Tell us what you saw,` Tealas said in his customary calm, quiet voice.

Olsek fidgeted nervously. ´You see,` he began. ´We came just in time t' see the vamp' turn tail. Tall dark bugger with long black hair,` he explained. ´Twas night you see, an' we couldn't see much. Also, our buddy lay in the street, dyin'.` His gaze swept the floor. He cleared his throat and continued. ´He seemed near wasted. The vamp' I mean. Was bleedin' all o'er the place. Our buddies hit him hard.` He said the last bit with a note of pride in his voice.

Tealas nodded. ´Was he alone?`

Olsek glanced at his friends. One of them shook his head near imperceptibly.

´Yeah, we reckon,` Olsek said.

Clearly a lie, Tealas noted. So the vampire had an ally. A friend, or possibly even a ghoul. But that wasn't too likely if the vampire was as young as it seemed. ´Tall, dark hair,` he commented.

´Sounds like it could be the same one the man with a stranger in his cellar described,` Odefin rumbled and placed his large hands on his hips.

´Yes, probably,` Tealas agreed. ´The dead man in the house. Did you know him?`

Olsek nodded. ´Yeah. We met the vamp' when out lookin' for 'im. He'd been missin' a few days,` he explained. ´We feared somethin'd happened.` He brushed a hand under his nose.

´Something had happened,` Tealas said quietly and beckoned for Odefin to step aside with him. The vampire had killed only three or four as far as they knew. And a goat. He wondered what that was about and scratched his chin. ´I think this vampire is no more than a week old,` Tealas mumbled. ´Two at most, if it got lucky with its victims the first week. Also, probably on its own, no master vampire teaching it. I think it should be fairly easy to take down if we can find it soon, before it gets the hang of it.`

Odefin nodded. ´Can we utilize the city guard to start a larger-scale search?`

The colonel cleared his throat, puffed out his chest, and folded his arms behind his back, looking important. ´You can use some of the city guards for this purpose,` he agreed. ´But we can't have them all looking for a needle in a haystack, so to speak. Jaris is a big city and has many problems accordingly. We simply cannot spare too many of them for this task.`

The hunters agreed. If they got some help it was fine by them. The city had to pay them either way. If it took longer, the vampire would get stronger and the price would go up in turn.

´We need to hurry if we want to catch him,` Tealas said. ´Let's meet here with the guards you can spare tomorrow morning at sunrise. We'll begin the search then.`

The colonel smiled. ´That's settled then.`