Five years had passed since the day Lilith had first set foot within the walls of the Wolfe House. Now on the cusp of womanhood, she stood with unwavering determination, her sword gleaming in the rays of the rising winter sun. Choosing instead to use the outdoor training grounds, the wind howled and the snow continued to fall, but the young woman simply ignored the harsh weather. This place had become a sanctuary for the seventeen-year-old, the clashing of steel against steel music to her ears, allowing her the chance to strengthen her muscles and hone her reflexes.
Isaac stood several feet away, his collar pulled up high and his long coat billowing in the frigid wind as he rushed her at full speed, bringing down his sword to meet her own in a brilliant shower of sparks as she two slashed at one another with extreme ferocity. Lilith's form and technique had evolved immensely in her time at the Wolfe House. Her footwork was flawless, and her reflexes were no doubt enhanced by her mysterious nonhuman blood. The young woman bared her fangs and snarled as she swept Isaac's blade to the side and countered with a strike that would have decapitated him if he simply hadn't stepped to the side and planted a boot in her gut.
Lilith shrugged off the blow, as powerful as it was, and charged him, bringing down her sword in a flurry of strikes that would have broken the poise of any ordinary swordsman. Isaac, a highly accomplished fighter, endured the assault, turning her sword aside and sending a vicious thrust her away, only to have it turned aside. She viciously kicked him in the center of his chest, sending the older man sliding across the snowy arena, the man thrusting his sword into the earth to bring him to a complete halt. He rose to his feet, stretching before raising an open palm.
"That's enough, Lilith. I say we call it a day."
Lilith sheathed her sword, fangs on full display as she folded her hands behind her head.
"Sounds well and good. I'm getting rather tired of snow going up my nose anyhow."
As the two made their way across the snow-covered grounds of the homestead, they nodded to the many hunters that passed them by. A group of hunters entered at the front gate, his mask and long coat spattered in blood and viscera. He rode in on a pure white stallion, the severed head of a beast...some variant of a lycan, tied in a harness by his side.
The hunter leapt off his horse as another came forward and led the horse away, detaching the severed head and handing its owner.
Isaac nodded to the newcomer.
"By the Seraphim! Is that you, Silas?"
The man in question was clad in the standard attire of a hunter, but with some alterations. He wore a long, weathered coat, the color of dusty trails and sunsets, which fluttered in the harsh winter wind. Underneath, he donned a rugged leather vest adorned with intricate tooling for producing alchemical mixtures in the field.
On his head, a wide-brimmed hat casts a shadow over his steely gaze, shielding his eyes from the harsh glare of the sun and eerie moonlight alike. A red bandanna was tied around his neck, both to protect against the elements and as a nod to his own sense of style.
His hands rested confidently on the butts of the two holstered revolvers at his hips, their grips worn from countless draws and hunts. His belt was adorned with ornate silver buckles, hinting at a touch of elegance amidst the rugged wilderness.
His ammunition, meticulously organized and within easy reach, was carried in several leather bandoliers crisscrossing his chest. The scoped rifle strapped to his back was a masterpiece of craftsmanship and precision, a trusty companion on his dangerous hunts.
"I haven't seen you for quite some time, Isaac. You seem to be doing well." Silas replied with a smile. Silas initially extended a hand only for Isaac to forcefully pull the man into an embrace.
"Enough with the formalities brother! You've returned in one piece. That alone is worth celebrating," Isaac pulled away, brushing snow from Silas's shoulders.
"How are things beyond the walls?"
Silas's smile faded.
"Terrible. Life gets worse with each passing day. We're facing a world out of balance, Isaac. The dead refuse to stay dead. I was ambushed by bandits six days ago, and after slaying them all, I watched them return and come for me with the same hunger seen in other undead. I've passed though towns and villages burnt to cinders and infested with abominations. The forests are rife with Duskwraiths, Bone Reavers, and Decay Crawlers. This curse...it's everywhere. With the dead ever growing in number, so does Bloody Mary's army."
Silas looked to Lilith, noticing the glint in her eye at the mention of that name.
"You've grown quite a bit, Lilith. How long has it been? Twelve months?"
"Eighteen months, more like. I see you've been hard at work." She replied, gesturing to the gore on his clothes and the severed head he carried in its harness.
"Ah, yes. This one here was ambushing passersby on a popular road. I took the liberty of dispatching him. Still, there will be more, eventually. Also, have you had any luck in your research?"
Isaac simply scowled and Lilith kicked some snow from her boot. For the past few years Doctor Faust, Isaac, and herself had been scouring the house's bestiary's and archives for anything that could identify her origin. No ordinary mortal had her...aspects. The fangs, the eyes, her latent ability to conjure flames, and the intricate tattoos that came from nowhere. She stood out like a sore thumb, even when standing next to those like Arden.
Silas gave the young woman a rough slap on the shoulder.
"Keep your chin up, young one. The archives are massive. I'm sure you will someday find what you're looking for. Until then, let's get out of the cold, shall we? I'm damn near frozen."
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"Duskwraiths, lycans, and bone reavers. These are just three of the kinds of monstrosities you will undoubtedly handle while on the hunt." Doctor Faust explained as Lilith sat in his laboratory, large tapestries adorning the walls featuring the anatomy of many kinds of beasts and horrors.
"While we have always lived among monsters, that has not stopped the birth of new creatures as well, no doubt attributed to our current state of affairs." He divulged further, not noticing that the young woman was nose deep in an open page of a dusty tome, fascinated by the highly detailed illustrations and descriptions.
"There are some beasts you won't find in that bestiary, Lilith." The doctor said as he glanced over at her.
Lilith looked up from the pages only to find the doctor standing beside the forbidden door within his lab. The doctor himself didn't call it that, but it was the name she'd given it ever since she began studying alongside him. See, beyond that door was where the doctor's more extreme experiments and specimens were held. Only a select few were allowed to enter, but unfortunately, Lilith wasn't one of them. Evelina, however, had been seen going in and out of that room whenever running errands for Doctor Faust. Lilith tried pressing the girl for information about the kinds of things behind the door, but the girl merely shrugged, claiming that it wasn't anything she hadn't seen before.
"Has anyone told you of the Bloodmoon Hounds?" Doctor Faust asked her.
"This is the first I've heard of them," Lilith replied. "Given the title, do they derive power from that accursed moon? What are they?"
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Doctor Faust's eyes lit up with childlike glee, and Lilith immediately knew she'd been pulled into yet another lecture.
"The Bloodmoon Hound is a type of beast that only appears during the Bloodmoon. They stand as tall as a man, with a maw of razor sharp jaws with enough power to tear through flesh easily and crush bone. Assuming their victim survives a bite from them, those wounds, they'll likely wish they had been devoured."
Lilith tilted her head, crimson eyes narrowed in concern.
"And why would that be?"
"The victim would develop a rather nasty sickness; an affliction that would turn them into a mindless member of the undead. I am currently working toward a solution for this, as lifting afflictions from the undead requires an agent that can purify human blood without causing death. However, problems such as these were always meant to be solved, and I shall be the first to do so."
Lilith turned her attention back to the bestiary, mind full of questions and finding answers to none of them. In the years since the first blood moon, they'd gained no new information in regard to its cause. Even more, Lilith hadn't left the walls of the Wolfe House since the time she arrived. Each and everyday was dedicated to training, both physical and mental. How to kill the horrors of the night. How to craft potions and bombs and all manner of alchemical concoctions. She learned to operate rifles and pistols, how to use weapons of various kinds effectively. Still, she knew nothing of her own origin, and had yet to prove herself as a hunter. And then there was another matter she'd yet to ask the good doctor about...
"Doctor Faust," she began with caution, leaning forward in her seat as her crimson eyes glinted in the light. "I've heard many a story about the vampires we hunt. The forms they take, their brutality, their abilities. However, the only ones I've seen were Bloody Mary and those that accompanied her that night. Is there anything more you can tell me?"
Doctor Faust paused, his scowl deepening into a grimace as he took a seat beside her, looking into the pages of her bestiary rather than at the young woman herself. Maybe it was a distant yet foul memory that she had unintentionally caused to resurface. She was tempted to apologize, and was even about to do so before the doctor finally made his reply. However, as he spoke, was that a twinge of sorrow in his voice?
"Vampires are not merely bloodthirsty predators. They are a curse upon the land, creatures tainted by a darkness that hunger for more than blood. Their very existence defies the natural order, a perversion of life and death."
He retrieved the bestiary laid out before Lilith, flipping through its pages until finally arriving at the desired page, laying it out before her.
"Bloodless creatures that prey upon the living, gaining pleasure from the pain they inflict upon others. As you know, vampires are immortal beings, sustained by the depraved consumption of human blood. But their appetites extend beyond simple sustenance. The essence of their victims fuels not just their physical forms but their insatiable hunger for power. Take the Red Queen, for example. Her love of power is what leads her conquest across the country. She most likely will not end her invasion until she's drained this entire land of its blood."
He took hold of a chain around his neck, pulling up from beneath his tunic to reveal a silver pendant in the shape of an eye. A holy garment to ward off the night's evils.
"Now, as I'm sure you're more than aware by now, there are quite a few ways to dispatch them. After all, a vampire's bane lies in the light of the Seraphim. Holy symbols, consecrated weapons, and sunlight are their greatest weaknesses. Long ago, it was common for people to pierce their hearts with wooden stakes, but the failure rate was simply too high. It's far more effective to cut through their flesh with silver dagger and pierce their heart that way. When you finally have the opportunity to embark on the hunt, you'll come to learn just how nicely imperial silver takes to undead flesh."
"For creatures with so many weaknesses, how can they possibly be as dangerous as they are. How did a huntress like my mother fall to one of those wretched things?" Lilithy asked, silently shutting away the image of her mother on the stake.
"Your mother was one of the best, but even the greatest of hunters can meet a gruesome end. Knowing Aurelia, she faced the Red Queen with everything she had. However, never forget that the Red Queen is an ancient evil. The longer vampires live, the more souls they consume, the stronger they become. Never forget this, young lady."
The good doctor fell quiet, rising to his feet and excusing himself as he retreated to the room beyond that mysterious door, leaving Lilith alone with her thoughts. Though he had not given an explanation, his pain was clear.
As Lilith gazed at that page of the bestiary, at that detailed anatomical illustration of the vampire, her stomach churned.
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That night, Lilith paid a regular visit to the Wolfe House archives, the greatest library she'd ever seen. In the dimly light of the library, Lilith's fingers traced the spines of dusty tomes, her gaze fixed on the myriad of titles that surrounded her. The smell of aged parchment and ancient knowledge hung heavy in the air, creating an atmosphere of anticipation.
She came here every night, spending hours searching for answers, something that could explain just what kind of blood was flowing through her veins. However, her search was cut short when she heard the heavy doors of the library open and close.
It took only moments for Evelina to find Lilith sitting at a table, skimming through the pages of a leather-bound book before slamming it closed in frustration.
"Here to lecture me on my sleeping habits again?" Lilith asked, leaning back in her chair as she pushed the dusty tome away from her.
"Not tonight," Evelina replied. "I've come to deliver urgent news from hunter Isaac. Soon, we embark on your first hunt."
Lilith's crimson eyes widened, the young woman nearly knocking her chair over as she suddenly stood upright, hands slamming down upon the table before her.
"Tell me everything."
Evelina took a seat across from Lilith, cold eyes locked onto Lilith.
"Something unholy is on the prowl in the town of Mistwood. Citizens have been vanishing at night, their bloodless corpses turning up in the morning. What connects these deaths is the fact that all of these bodies have been found near the entrance of the Mistwood Catacombs, a historic mass grave that has been used for burial ceremonies for centuries."
Lilith strummed her fingers excitedly upon the table's glossy surface.
"Vampires..." She whispered.
Evelina nodded.
"We do not know how many. There could be one, two, or a dozen. The only way to learn the truth is to find it for ourselves. Until we depart, take this time to prepare yourself."
Evelina rose to her feet and made for the library's doors, only to pause before leaving.
"This is your chance to prove yourself, Lilith. So, remember these words: bravado will end your life. Panic will end your life. Keep your wits about you, and always remember...the battle is not over until your prey has been slain, or you are dead. Fight with everything you have."
With that, the huntress left Lilith behind, the young woman's excitement becoming a cocktail of emotions. Rage, hate, joy, and curiosity.
The young woman was finally venturing beyond the walls of the homestead. She hadn't been outside the walls since the day she collapsed in front of the main gate. She thought of the Red Queen...Bloody Mary, the monster who had set her on this path. Even if Lilith wasn't ready to face her, she needed to start somewhere. And plunging a silver blade through the heart of one of her kind was the ideal place to start.