Manu crouched down to look at some old markings in the snow. They were almost gone, hidden under a fresh layer, and he wondered if they could have even belonged to Adda. Perhaps they were of some animal.

Who am I kidding, he thought hopelessly. He was a thief and a lockpick, not some ranger of the wilds. He was about as likely to track Adda in this snow as he was to track down Lork, the god of the hunt himself.

Stupid girl, he thought, feeling more than a little guilty. It was his fault, of course. He never should have said the things he said to her, and he regretted them now. But he had hoped that if he got out of her way enough that she could pretend that he didn’t exist, that maybe then it would make things easier for her.

Could it be his his fault that he found Mira? Surely it wasn’t the fault of Mira herself. Sometimes, things just happened. It was nobody’s fault. It couldn’t have been expected of him to marry Adda simply because he said some words one summer when they hadn’t committed to anything. Their whole futures were at stake. It wouldn’t have even been right to marry a girl if he didn’t love her with his whole heart… it wouldn’t have been fair to Adda.

At least, these were things he told himself to ease the guilt. If she turned up dead, he wasn’t sure what he would do.

“Found anything?”

Manu glanced over his shoulder and saw Razlan standing behind him, mostly out of breath, still playing at being a hunter with that useless bow at his shoulder. “No,” he said, rising. “Nothing.”

“She’ll turn up eventually. She has to.”

“It’s my fault,” said Manu gloomily. “I caused this.”

“Don’t be stupid.”

“It’s true. It’s because of Mira. I think… I think Adda is jealous.”

“If that was the reason then she would’ve killed you. She’s a gypsy, Manu, haven’t you met Sandra? She’s promised to cut my jewels if I so much as look at another woman. No, if she was angry because of you, you would’ve been dead with a dagger through your heart right about now.” He reached out and ruffled his hair. “Don’t be silly.”

Razlan was trying his best to cheer him up. You better not die out there, Adda…

----------------------------------------

Esmi still prayed for Adda’s safe return to camp. Sandra would not allow her to join the men on the search, and the only thing she could do was peer out into the distance hoping to see a sign of her. The caravan came to a halt so they could look for her—that is, until they enough days passed that everyone gave up.

Where are you? Esmi kept wondering. Are you hurt?

The answer would come near nightfall.

Right after her father and the other men returned announcing sadly that there was no sign of her, Deniz said, “We’ll try it again one more day. And if she doesn’t find her way back till tomorrow…”

Adda’s father hadn’t even bothered to leave his wagon. Asshole! thought Esmi.

However, as they all warmed themselves by the fire, Adda emerged from the treeline of the forest, shaking and panting, cradling herself. “Adda!” cried her mother upon seeing her. “My baby!”

She was not alone, however, but with a tall man that chilled Esmi’s blood as soon as she saw him. He was one of the geese, at least he might have been at one point, but he was so pale now that he no longer resembled even those northerners. In the moonlight, his white skin shone as brightly as the snow. And though the gypsies were all huddled by the fires to avoid the cold, his chest was bare, with tiny prickles of ice gleaming off the blonde hairs that ran across his pecs.

“Such a lovely place,” said the northman. The gypsies drew away from him instinctively.

He reached the middle of the camp then stood still, tracking the different faces. He passed from one to the other slowly, still smiling, and Esmi was terrified of those eyes stopping at her. Something told her that he only thing he was trying to decide was who he would first kill.

“Vampire!” whispered Deniz, full of alert.

“No way!...” said Manu, half-afraid, half-awestruck.

It was his words that drew the attention of the northman. “Pretty blue eyes on you, boy. You must be Manu. I’ve heard about you. And let me guess…” The cold dead eyes moved through the throng of gypsies again and settled on Mira. “You must be the lover.”

Adda still stood by, refusing to enter the camp properly, looking at her mother with an unflinching gaze that was terrifying in its confidence. “Take your hands off of me,” she ordered the older woman.

Meanwhile, the northman took a few steps towards Mira. “Come and let me see you.”

As he approached, Manu rushed to get in front of her and keep him at bay. He unsheathed and a dagger and brandished it. “Stay b-b-back!” he stammered. “I’m warning you.”

Deniz looked like he was about to faint. He grabbed his son by the arm and pulled him away. “Get back, boy! Get back! What are you doing? Are you stupid?”

The northman giggled darkly. “You should listen to your father, Blue-eyes.”

He took a step forward, at which point Manu slipped the dagger into his chest. It entered without a sound, and those that saw it gasped. They jumped back while the northman glanced down at the dagger curiously. He pulled it out without a drop of blood spilling. “Not very nice.”

Mira froze, her heart beating wildly as the vampire stood next to her. “You’re so beautiful, aren’t you? I’d almost feel bad about hurting you.” A white hand came up and brushed against the warm, soft skin of her face. Its icy touch made Mira shudder and fall back.

“Leave her alone!” Manu kept yelling. “Leave her alone.” It was Deniz that held his son at bay, trying to calm him down before he got himself killed. “Just kill me! Leave her alone.”

“You must love her a lot,” said the northman. “To want her to stay alive so desperately.” He gripped Mira by the neck and began to choke her, raising her up.

Manu finally broke free of Deniz and slammed against the vampire. He was a strapping young lad, but his strength was pitiful by comparison and did nothing to even shake the balance of the towering vampire.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Mira was dying in his grip, and as his strength failed to solve anything, Manu began to scream and plead. “Let her go! Please! She’s done nothing to you. Why are you doing this?” Hot tears streaming down his cheeks, he fell to his knees and groveled. “Please, sir, I’m begging you. Puh-puh-puhlease…”

The vampire glanced down at him. “You really love her, don’t you?”

“Please take me…” begged Manu. His tearful eyes faced the vampire, his arms outstretched as if he were ready to receive death. “She’s innocent. Please…”

Deniz and Sandra were both trying to pull him up to his feet. “Stop talking and get up!” Sandra ordered. “He’s a monster! Don’t you understand that?”

The northman narrowed his eyes and scrutinized them. “I can see that you’re serious. You do love her. Your life for hers would be a fair trade.” He let Mira fall to the ground. The other women pulled her away in haste, checking her abused neck to see if she could still breathe. “However, that isn’t a real sacrifice. It’s easy to be dead. Easy to think of nothing. Have you never looked at how my people sacrificed others? You sacrifice your child. Your loved ones. You don’t sacrifice yourself. But I believe your commitment, Blue-eyes. I do. And I accept your trade. Your parents, for your woman.”

Before Manu could respond, the northman vanished. For a moment, Manu thought that he might have gone out of existence like a ghost, but it was only when the screams alerted him that he turned and saw the vampire at his back facing his father.

The northman lifted Deniz off the ground and tore into the old gypsy’s throat with his bare hands, as if he were digging into a loaf of bread. Hot steaming blood gushed out into the icy air, and for a brief second the vampire licked his lip and seemed to enjoy the thrill of it. Then he burrowed two fingers into the hole in the old gypsy's throat and splintered the entire body down to the groin. There was never as much as a word out of the old man. Viscera cascaded out of the open chest, till all that was left of Deniz was his emptied carcass and the tangle of wet ropes of flesh at the vampire’s feet.

It happened so quickly that Esmi could still see the old man’s eyes moving in his head. She raised her little hands to her mouth and suppressed a scream, so frightened by what she saw that she could barely think.

And she remained equally quiet and frozen even when the northman tossed Deniz’s torn body aside and grabbed her mother. Sandra shrieked as he put his immense hands to the side of her head. His thumbs pushed in through her sockets and crushed her soft dark eyes. Then, those same strong hands squeezed the skull from the sides. Even as Sandra screamed, an unholy crack sounded as the tough bone of her skull broke and splattered the northman’s face with hot blood. He closed his eyes and went on with the grim work, crushing her skull as the whole camp watched in motionlessly terror. Then, as Sandra last shriek of horror pierced the night air, her cranium collapsed inwards with a sickening crunch that silenced her forever.

The vampire’s hands continued squeezed the broken skull between his palms and packed the dripping pieces as if he were making a snowball. Sandra fell forwards, her body just as before, but ending instead in a fleshy thumb half the size of her normal head.

The vampire whirled back upon Manu happily. “A fair trade, Blue-eyes! Two parents for a wife. She’s yours to keep now. Enjoy her.”

Manu glanced to the bloody ball of flesh that was now Sandra’s head and then at his father’s shiny insides that caught the glare of the fire. He shuddered and pissed himself , then fell to his knees, burying his weeping head in the snow.

Esmi could not understand what happened to her mother. She blinked and watched it all without reaction, her mind unprepared to handle such a thing. It can’t be real, she thought. It couldn’t have been.

Razlan padded over to the remains of his wife and looked at her with eyes as dead as those of the vampire. The northman noticed him. “My wife…” whispered the half-gypsy. “You killed my wife,” he said matter-of-factly, almost emotionlessly.

The blonde’s brows shot up. “Your wife? I thought…” He glanced over to Deniz’ body and then back to Sandra. “Oh my. That is”—he chuckled darkly—”quite a mistake.”

Adda joined in and stared at the two mangled corpses. There were tears in her eyes as the blizzard blew around her and her lips shook violently, some drool escaping down one side as if she couldn’t even swallow. The northman eyed her. “Don’t you dare cry. This is what you wanted, girl. Now where is that father of yours?”

Adda raised a trembling hand and pointed to her wagon. Her mother saw the northman walking towards it and screamed. “No, no! Please! Please, sir, don’t!”

When she got within his reach, the vampire grabbed her by the neck and crushed it, then tossed her lifeless body aside. It all happened so quickly and soundlessly that it seemed like she had only lost her balance and tripped, but she was dead. Adda’s eyes went over to her mother and blinked hot tears.

The northman entered the wagon and dragged her father out by the scruff of his neck. The fat man had pissed himself as well, and shook so badly that he could hardly stand. “I heard that you like to beat little girls,” said the northman.

“N-No!” he stammered, looking at the corpses surrounding him. “It’s not true, I swear! I swear on all the Gods! She’s lying, she’s fucking ly—”

The vampire punched him, and he was no longer smiling. Adda’s father fell back, his face caved inwards into a pulpy mess of flesh and broken teeth and bone. He wheezed as he struggled to breathe through his what was left of his face, gurgling blood with every dying breath.

The northman glanced at Adda. “You wanted him. You got him.”

Still tearful, Adda went and stood over her father. He was trying to speak to her, to reach up to her…

… and she kicked him. She kicked him in the side of the head as hard she could, weeping, and did so again. She kicked, and kicked, and kicked, sobbing harder as time when on, then stomped down on his face. “You bastard!” she shrieked, becoming more unhinged with every passing moment. “I hate you! You fucking bastard!!”

The vampire watched her. Then he nodded. “Good girl. Now you can finally feel happy and free.”

But there was no joy on Adda’s face. Instead she fell to her knees next to her dead father and wept.

He made his way back to where Razlan stood and sighed. “You know, I feel bad. I was only after the guilty one and his family. Let me make it up to you.”

Esmi remained in the doorway of her wagon like a shadow, watching it all unfold, but her heart jumped at the prospect of losing her father as well. She could already see what gruesome faith the vampire had in store for her poor, poor Daddy, just like her Mommy.

But instead, the vampire slit his wrist with a dirty fingernail and held out the dripping, open vein to her father. Dollops of blood so thick and red fell out that they looked black in the darkness.

For no reason at all, Esmi thought of how sweet it had to taste, that thick and delicious blood, like black honey…

“Drink it,” said the vampire. “A gift, in return for what you’ve lost.”

Razlan stared at him defiantly. “No.”

“It won’t turn you into one of us, don’t worry. It’ll just give you health. No diseases, no sickness. Keep you young longer. Give you time to find a new wife. That’s all. It's the least I could do. Believe me, this is an honor bestowed upon few mortals. But I’ve always been a fair man. So drink.”

It was a trap, Esmi could sense that, even though she desperately wished she could drink it. Razlan must have sensed it too, because he made no attempt to go for it. His unblinking blue eyes held the vampire in utter contempt and disgust.

“Drink it!” ordered the vampire imperiously, and for a moment the rustic accent of the northman was washed away, replaced instead by something far older and far more terrifying. The face that had been so pale before darkened, and the eyes glowed red. “Drink, mortal. Refuse my gift at your peril.”

Razlan glanced down at his dead wife, then back up to the vampire. He took a step forwards…

And spit in his face.

The vampire barred his fangs and snarled. As the rivulets of hot spit trickled through his frozen beard and down his chest, the mouth twisted into a disbelieving smirk. There seemed to be an almost childlike purity to the laughter that now came, and it seemed to actually embarrass him, so that he covered his mouth.

“Crazy gyppo.” Esmi thought she could hear admiration in those words. “That’s fine,” he said. “There are others that beg for my gift.” He padded over to Adda as she wept and yanked her back savagely by the hair. The moment her eyes spotted the open vein, she rushed it like a mindless animal and began to feed, licking desperately and sucking out as much the rich dark blood as she could.

The northman glanced at the sky above as the blizzard picked up speed around him and inspected the chaos he unleashed around the camp. “You bury those bodies tonight,” he instructed, raising one gnarled finger as an old teacher might. “Or you’ll attract bears and wolves.” He paused and smiled again. “Or worse.”

Then, he picked up Adda in the same way Esmi had seen her carry her bunny before, and headed back into the woods with her at a relaxed pace.

That night, as the caravan shrieked in mourning and sobbed under the dreaded stars, Esmi and Razlan shed no tears at all. They withdrew to their wagon, and said nothing to anyone, not even to each other.