The werewolves all flinched away from me after my eruption of anger. I needed to give Brenda a few minutes to grab her things before we could leave. I walked up close to Andrew and put a hand on his shoulder. "You clearly have no idea what you are doing... keep your head down and hide your true nature from outsiders. Despite the end of the world our kin and kind are not welcomed by many humans." I did not believe for a moment all of the types of Hunters were wiped out by this situation, if I had to guess they were actually doing quite well recruting normal humans.

"What do you mean?"

"Do not come to me should your pack turn on you or you get attacked by others." I said with a heavy sigh. Werewolves were a troublesome group to deal with, they could spread rapidly as long as there was humans to infect and it would greatly increase their lifespan as well as survivability. However they would become more feral in a sense, following emotional outbursts and their instincts more than thinking things through. Useful but only to a certain extent. Older ones had a better grasp on their own emotions and this made them able to keep their people in check and deal with other groups.

"Are there others like you?" Andrew asked, a bit hesitantly.

I laughed, though I realized I sounded like a movie villain as I did so. "Like me? You mean vampires? Sure, there are at least ten thousand of us around the world, maybe more... but as powerful and strong as I am? Not a one, I am the Eldest."

"You keep saying that, what does that mean?" His tone was annoyed but I shot him a glare that made him step back, not that the increased distance would save him from me if I wanted his life.

"It is literal. I am the Eldest Vampire, the oldest... dead creature still walking around. There might be spirits, Fae, and Outsiders that are older but I am the oldest once mortal creature on the Earth." I explained, my voice calm and slow, it was obvious that he had other questions but held his tongue, finally. "I was serious about everything I've said. If I find you added more members to your 'pack' I will come here and slaughter you all." Too many Weres could cause a frenzy, they would end up killing themselves as well as any living creature they came across. No one knew why but once they reached a critical mass they would all go mad. The only thing that could prevent this was a powerful Alpha, however looking at Andrew he was rather pathetic, even for a young Were.

It wasn't that much longer before Brenda appeared again, she had a large hiking backpack on with her weapon in hand. "I'm ready to go. I've already said my goodbyes." She seemed a bit sad about leaving but clearly she valued her blood brother over these people she had known less than a month.

"Good, let's go." I began to walk towards the wall. I had no intention of going through whatever 'gate' they happened to have in these walls, instead we'd be going over the same way I came in. I leapt up to the top of the barrier and turned around to look at Brenda who gave me a strange look.

I had to assist her in getting up the barrier and picked her up before jumping down on the other side. Setting her down I began to walk away from the compound.

"So, what are you?" Her voice came from behind and I had to give a soft sigh, clearly she was a talker.

"I'm a vampire."

"Yeah? You drink blood?"

"Yes. Human blood."

"Can you drink..." I knew it was going to be that stupid question.

I cut her off. "Human, supposedly Fae, never had the chance to try, and half-breed blood only..."

"So what about mine?" Her voice was a bit curious.

"I cannot drink werewolf blood for sustenance, your blood is like drinking sea water for humans." We were moving at a decent pace but since I didn't need to breath and her physical abilities were enhanced it didn't cause any issue with our conversation. "This information won't help you to kill him, I hope you know that." I paused for a moment before looking at her directly. "If you try to turn a single person at my camp I will kill you slowly then come back to this camp and torture them all to death, letting them know this was caused by you."

"Why are you so violent?"

I couldn't help but laugh at this question, she thought I was violent? That was rather funny coming from a creature that once a month goes on a wild hunt that they end up ripping apart a creature alive. "I am what I am. A survivor, a soldier, and a monster. I will not apologize for any of my actions. I will do whatever it takes to keep myself alive... so to speak. If that means caging humans and taking care of them like a dog so be it, however that is inefficient, I'd rather them keep themselves alive and let me get a bit of what I need from them."

"You are crazy huh?"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"I cannot deny that... so don't push me." I gave her a toothy grin.

As we were moving I did notice that some zombies had noticed Brenda, obviously they could smell the 'human' scent she was giving off. However I wasn't sure of her skill in controlling her transformations so we just picked up the pace a bit. Occassionally we'd hear some sounds in the distance, gunfire, a car engine, and other such things. Brenda seemed to want to go assist the strangers but I didn't deviate from my path. I was taking her back to the manor and that was final.

At least that was my original plan, we were homeward bound and yet we were distracted. A scream came from a building as we passed it... it was a child's voice. We both stopped our run rather quickly, though if I had to guess it was for different reasons. She was probably looking to save a child because it was a child and human nature said to save them. For me a child was a future blood bank that could keep me sustained for additional years even if no others were born... To be honest I would rather have my humans breed and produce more generations but that was for the future.

It seemed like a condo complex, or maybe apartments, I couldn't tell the difference. What was strange is that I didn't see any zombies around it. The scream came from the fourth floor if I had to give a guess. I gave a nod as we both rushed the front door and slammed it open, my side flew off into the lobby while hers was still hanging on the frame, still that showed she was much stronger than a normal human, the doors were those large security doors downtown complexes used. "We need to find the child!" She yelled as she started into the building without thinking.

I sighed and stopped for a moment to look at a map to find the staircase. Once I located it I ran at full force, blurring past Brenda and slamming the door open before heading up to the fourth floor, pinpointing where the scream had come from. The hallway on the fourth floor was lined with blood, but not in splatters that came combat or getting eaten, there were runes and markings. "Bindings? No, protection... from the dead? But ruined." I saw a few of the marks had clear smears going through them, like a human hand had smudged it.

There was laughter from up ahead as well as much softer crying. It sounded like three adult men laughing and a young female crying.

I blurred down the hall to the door the sound was coming from and listened for a second. "-bitch bit me."

"Doesn't matter, the older one's dead."

"You didn't have to finish her so quickly, now what?"

"Well..." The voice seemed to be indicating something and I gave a monstrous roar as I burst through the wall, yes there was a door but the wall was more shocking. I was a monster who ate people, killed, tortured, and so on but even I had some standards. My fury was released in full, my aura was a physical thing at this point, seeming to wrap around all those present. I reached the one who made the suggestion and my left hand grabbed between his legs and tore outwards while my right grabbed him by the shoulder to hold him in place while I feasted, drinking his blood in front of the two others. They didn't move, they couldn't, but I could smell urine, at least one had pissed himself.

Less than a minute passed before I dropped the now desicated corpse and turned towards the one who had complained about how they had killed the 'older one' too quickly. He received a similiar treatment as I drained him dry as well. The last one had fallen and was blubbering like a child at this point. I wiped the blood from my chin, obviously I looked ghastly, not all the blood could get into my mouth when I fed like this. I gave him a bloody grin while I leaned down, sniffing a few times then my eyes landed on the necklace he wore. "A Soldier of Saint Michael? How many of you are there?!" I roared as I grabbed him by his throat and lifted him into the air.

"How dare your Order show itself in my territory!" I threw him across the room we were in forgetting about the child. My fury was stoked and I wanted answers.

"I... I don't..."

I caught him before he could crash into the wall and slammed him into the ground cutting off his answer. I forced him to lock eyes with me. "You will tell me everything I want to know... now how many of your brothers are there?"

"We had a dozen Soldiers and one Priest..."

"Where are you located?"

"We all got seperated after the base at Saint Mary's was overrun by the dead."

"Do you know where any of your brothers are at now?"

"No..."

"What were you doing here?"

"There was a Witch... 'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live...' We were only following orders..."

I growled in his face before a sick idea popped into my head to punish this man. "Very well... go ahead and kill yourself now." I could see that he was trying to fight back but my will had completely overtaken him, shakily he pulled a gun from his holster and put it against his temple, finger flinching repeatedly before it was finally pulled. Blood, brain, and skull fragments peppered my face as I gave his dead eyes one final evil grin.

At this point I regained my calm face and wiped a bit of the gore from my face to turn around and see a young girl, maybe twelve or thirteen. In front of her was an older woman, maybe early thirties with a several bullet wounds in her chest, she was clearly already gone. "I see... girl, are you alive?" Her sobs had stopped some time ago without me noticing, however I did see she was still breathing. I took a slow step towards her and was rewarded with a sudden wall of fire erupting in the room seperating us, she had waved her arms at me in a panic.

"Ah! A sorceress? Wonderful... wonderful..." While they were rare and extremely powerful she was clearly unused to using her powers. Using my teeth I pricked a finger and began to draw sigils in the air rapidly, my blood hanging suspended before I pressed the sigil forwards. It collided with the wall of fire and both seem to simply blink out of existence, it seemed she was still rather weak. I approached but she seemed terrified of me, that was probably my fault to be fair, I just ripped open two men with my teeth and made the third kill himself simply by telling him to. "I am not going to kill you... honestly that would be a waste, not mentioning the simple fact your blood is much more valuable than normal humans your power will be a great use to the survivors of this world... I'm Max." I gave a smile forgetting my teeth were still covered in blood as I held out a blood stained hand to her.

Obviously she screamed, then suddenly she calmed down, a strange look settling over her eyes. "Rose Evilian of the Circle of the Setting Sun greets Lord Eldest." Her tone did not sound like a terrified youth who had watched her mother die and then their killers get torn apart.