Authors Note: Found this site literally today and decided to throw an Original story at it.

My name, is Michael Dina, and I am a wizard. Not like some vegas stage show, but a magic spurting, spell slinging, wizard. Well, not much spell slinging. I guess I should start with what I do. I’m what is called a marshall. It’s a job that mostly entails of walking up to all the baddies that the world says don’t exist and kindly asking them to go home. Normally with a gun and axe pointing at them. Negotiations tend to break down. But it’s a good job, at least until all the sheep noticed. The governments of the world eventually noticed that people go missing near suspiciously human like rocks, or people who live isolated lives and have murders near them call in sick around full moons. They made a whole group of people to hunt down our weird and wacky world. I normally wouldn’t mind the help, except they’ve decided wizards are weird enough to hunt down. So I went incognito, acted like a mercenary, and tried to avoid the fight. Thus far it’s worked. So let’s talk about how I screwed it all up. It all started with a seemingly innocent job.

I was drugged up, and not in the fun recreational way. I was being dragged by a couple mooks through a tunnel. The good part of this was it was part of my plan. The bad part was the bruises and cuts that littered my shirtless body. The drugs made it so I didn’t quite remember how they all got there, but they were there. If I had to guess, I had just gone through an old school interrogation. I looked up towards my left. I was being dragged by a large man with fangs. Yep, vampire mooks, everyone's favorites. It was also hot, damn dead vampires. They need no air conditioning unlike us weak humans. I looked forward in silence for a little bit, but then it got boring. “So, mook one and mook two, how’s your day going.” The vampire I looked at looked down.

He stood me up, staying markedly silent, and made sure I could stand. After pointing towards the end of the hallway he finally spoke. “Not bad. Nice ink.”

I walked towards the end and glanced down my right arm. I had a few runes tattooed there, as well as a few prayers and designs. I straightened myself up. “Yeah, they’re pretty new, just got ‘em all finished a couple weeks ago.”

He nodded and walked ahead, he walked up to a door and opened it, blocking off the rest of the hallway in one fell swoop. I walked in and was facing a table with two chairs, both were empty. I walked up and sat down in one before slumping a bit. My whole body was aching like I just got shot, a feeling I’m a bit more familiar with than is comfortable. I stretched out and waited. It only took a couple of minutes before a well-dressed man walked in and sat opposite of me. He pulled out a sheaf of papers from his jacket and placed them on the table. “Hello Mr. Dina, you have quite a reputation around here.” I nodded towards him and sat up again. He flipped over the sheet and read over it. “Well, you’ve been looking for us for a couple weeks now. You’ve found us. What can we do for you?”

I leaned over the table and winked at him. “I know how to spot good dates.” He smirked before I continued talking. “In all seriousness, I need to speak to your count.”

He froze, as in completely. If it wasn’t clear he was inhuman before, his uncanny stillness proved it. After a few seconds passed I heard an exhalation. He slumped a bit before talking. “Well, you had a record of rooting out unfortunate acts, how’d you find out?”

I leaned back. “You’re hunting style, people only missing from specific areas, groups always staying safe. A few rogue vampires don’t act with much intelligence. At least a small group.”

He nodded and scrawled a note in the margins of the paper. “I see, well. I shall get the count and see if he will see you. I’ll have a fledge bring you a drink. I hope water is acceptable.”

I nodded. “Nice. Thanks, man.” He got up and walked through the door, looking at his papers. As he walked out the door I heard what sounded like a growl. Probably not my fault. A few minutes later an older man walked in carrying a glass of water.

He was about five foot eight, and was so old his wrinkles had wrinkles. His pale face flashed me a fanged grin and he sat opposite me, sliding the water over towards me. “Well youngling, it appears you know more than I’d like.” I nodded, it appeared the count brought me my water himself. “I am Count Dresa. Ruler of this little community. What can I do to help you?”

I took a sip of the water and put my hands in front of me. “Look count, I’m gonna be honest, you're off your land, and the morts are noticing. It’s not a huge problem right now, but it will be when they connect the syringe marks and drained blood. When the Magii find out they’ll send in a muscle team to break up your gang. I don’t want that, since I live a few miles away. So I came to politely ask you to move away. Might cause some issues for both of us if you stay.”

He smiled again, this one was different, more teeth showed. “Now what an interesting conundrum. However you’ve made a mistake in your negotiations.” I raised my eyebrow and waited. “You mentioned the magii don’t know, so If I kill you I’ll have another couple of years before I need to move my community.” He stood up and pulled a revolver out of his coat, thumbing back the hammer with a calm demeanor. “Though if it’s any consolation. I do apologize, after all, you tried to help.”

I nodded and held up one finger, before reaching for my water. I drank the glass and cleared my throat. “A fair point, I do have one counter to that argument though.” It was his turn to look at me in interest. A glint in his eyes showed me he was going to let me finish.” If you do that then there’s a missing wizard in the area. The search will start up for real instead a lone wizard noticing by happenstance.”

He nodded, keeping the revolver low and, thankfully, not pointed at me. “Well then, let’s parley an easier solution. I turn you, you don’t tell anyone, in a little bit you disappear and we’re all happy.”

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

I nodded, “I respectfully decline your offer. Besides, I doubt even like this you could take me in a fair fight.” It was obvious bait, but a much less obvious feint.

Dresa laughed. “If you think you can taunt me into giving you back any of you trinkets you are sorely mistaken. Besides you mistake my offer as being optional.” He began walking towards me. I smiled when he got within ten feet. Which gave him pause.

I used the pause to stretch my arms, crossing my right arm over my chest, and showing the rune to him. Before he had much of a chance to look at it I screamed. “Sol!” The rune exploded into pure sunlight, and Dresa seemed to instantly change to a standing pile of ash. The revolver fell to the floor, the ashen hand disintegrating from the weight. I walked up and picked it up. I felt cool blood drip from the rune I just used on my arm. I peeked out the door looking left and right. After confirming that I was still alone, I walked out the door and took a left, following the path I was dragged from. Say what you will about vampires, they do have a pretty standard lair system. A long hallway, with feeding rooms at the end, living area in the middle, and finally storage and such up front.

I assumed that the room I was interrogated in was a feeding room, so all my gear was probably up front. Whatever they had given me wasn’t doing any favors for my memory, and I barely knew where I was, but I did know getting caught would be a less than perfect idea. The few memories I had of my master plan ended after burning the count to ash. I crouched low and looked at the blood on my shoulder. The smell would probably alert every leech in the area that I was here, hopefully they’ll assume the count was indulging in a good old fashioned torture session. Before I started moving forward I swung out the cylinder of the revolver. It was full, six shots gleamed at me before I snapped it shut and began moving forward.

The hallway stayed relatively clear, with what seemed to be a young boy running across the hall without noticing me. It was fairly obvious when the living area ended, for one there was air conditioning. Which made the uncomfortable heat change into a much more comfortable temperature. The other hint was that the doors now had labels. Some were vague, like “Training Aids”, however one was useful. “Contraband” I slowly opened the door, and saw two more vampires, looking over my gear.

They were chatting while checking through my stuff. One grabbed my pistol and popped out the magazine. He gestured at his partner. “Say what you will about that wizard, but he is an odd one, he’s etched all sorts of stuff on his pistol here.”

The other one snorted. “You idiot, that’s how wizards work, when they carve those things into their stuff they use it to cast spells.” The other one pulled out my ring, and flipped it around in his hands. I looked at the ring. I remembered another part of my plan, and I was about to have to ruin it. I opened the door and stood up. As the vampires turned I looked square at the ring. “Tvinnr Sol” The ring exploded into a blinding light, even if I closed my eyes it didn’t dull the pure white flash. By the time I was able to see again there were two fresh piles of ash in the room, one had my gun in it. I closed the door and looked at it. “Shit, I’m gonna have to clean that.” I grabbed my gear and found my first aid kit. I dug around in it until I found a small vial full of reddish ash. I grabbed my canteen and dumped the ash inside. I then chugged it down, and felt the slow drip of blood reach a stop.

The small trail of blood was still there though. My throat tightened and I brought my hand up to my mouth. I coughed, and when I drew my hand away there was blood on it. “Shit” If I had to guess the water was laced with some type of magic poison. I looked around before putting back on my shirt, which was a button up with the death star on the chest like a company logo. Some wizards always look professional, those wizards normally do not get poisoned in a vampire cave. I threw all my gear together and shoved it in my backpack. I tossed the still glowing ring in there too. At least it wouldn’t be seen as easily there. I grabbed the second pistol in my gear, The only difference between the two old .45s was one had a piece of black tape around the grip. I kept that one handy as the other one was placed in an under the shoulder holster. I checked to make sure the round was still in the chamber, and ther shiny silver glint on the round proved it was. I peeked out the door, a few of the vampires had started walking towards where I was being held. I turned towards them and they all stopped. I brought up the pistol as they turned to face me. The first one to make let out a guttural roar and began charging towards me. He was fast, Usain Bolt fast. I only had to wait a little bit before he was close enough to shoot at. I fired and he hit the dirt. The others stopped. Bullets didn’t kill vampires. They didn’t know my silver bullets had a wood core. Sure they couldn’t shoot very far, but staking a vampire with a gun is far to useful to pass up. I slowly walked out, and coughed again. The blood splattered over the floor, and when I looked up they had all charged. I had time to get off maybe one or two shots before they were on me, only issue was there were a lot more than two. I raised the pistol, and a voice behind me screamed. “DUCK!”

I hit the dirt on pure reflex. Though I was glad I did as the air behind me exploded. I became blind, everything was pure white. My ears were also ringing, everything around me seemed to fade into the background. I felt myself cough more, but couldn’t hear it. When it all faded down the vampire ahead of me were sprawled out, some crawling towards the back of the cave, some had large wooden poles stuck inside them. I felt myself coughing more as my ears began hearing things again. I pawed desperately at my med kit on my back, until a hand grabbed mine and forced it on the floor. I heard the same voice. It was feminine, with a fair bit of gravel in it. “And what do you need so bad, hmmm?”

I forced out words though coughing up blood. “Red jar with blue liquid, back bag. Please.” it took a moment before I felt another pair of hands dig around my bag area. I probably would have said a mildly rude comment, but my full faculties were eaten up by trying not to die, apparently, once the crap in that water took effect it dug deep. I felt them withdraw something and pull me into a sitting position. I heard the pop of a cap and the jar was put to my mouth. I drank it down like a college student shotgunning beer. My nasty potion held an old spell, which basically reset your digestive tract. After two sips I pulled back, and threw up, which stopped the poison and whatever drugs were still in my system, with an obvious downside. I supported myself with my knees for a moment before standing up. “Well, no clue who you are, but thanks for the help.” I said this while turning around. When I finally faced my saviours I was pointing down the barrel of about eight or nine guns. I looked over them. “Or maybe I should wait to thank you.”

The person up front looked me over before lowering their weapon. They were wearing solid white armor, It looked like old school scale mail, but it was probably much more effective. The same person tapped their helmet and pulled it off with a hiss of pressurized air. It was a she, and an Amazonian female at that, clocking in at about my height of six three. She had ginger hair that was in a ponytail down to her shoulders, with it tied up like that it also showed a thin scar that cut across her forehead.. She looked me over before talking. “Well, I assume you know you’re coming with us then?”

I shrugged. “Well I had a hot date tonight, but I guess she’ll have to wait. It’s not often a bunch of stormtroopers offer to take me to their base.”

One of the people behind her sniggered. She glared behind her. “Can it.” She stuck out her hand. “Cpt. Eleanor Quaine. Task Force Ares. Hand over all weapons and you won’t be harmed.”

I had never heard of her group, but guns make me twitchy. “Michael Dina, hunter of the freaky.” I handed over my pistol and the knife I kept on my belt. I also passed her the revolver I had unsafely shoved in the waistband of my pants while getting dressed. “Darn, I just got the revolver today to. Can I get a receipt?”

The good captain did not give me a receipt and opted instead to walk away and put her wrist up to her mouth. “Speartip to Olympus, request pickup for three. Tip, guard, one tourist.” There was some kind of squeaking chatter from her wrist and she walked out. The person who sniggered earlier walked up and gestured at me to follow. Lacking any way to say no, I decided following would be a wise choice. As soon as we walked out of the building I remembered where I was. A warehouse somewhere near Frankfurt. What I didn’t recognize was the floating thing in front of me. It had what looked like a black helicopter body, with a weird disc instead of any blades. Eleanor walked up and climbed inside before offering her hand to me. I grabbed it and she hauled me in, she also pushed me towards a seat. I took the hint and sat down. And that’s the story of how I met Eleanor Quaine. That’s also when I found out that the mort’s had noticed us, and that they were apparently fighting back.