The cold, wet cobblestone streets of Hailgalad were silent on that dark night. A lone woman walked the streets. She was on her way home from her work in the foundry, they say. That was when it struck, the Killer of Krell Street.

A shriek ran through the streets. It was the kind that would make your blood run cold.

“Get the captain,” a guard, who was knelt beside the woman’s body, shouted to his companion as he spied two puncture wounds on the woman’s neck.

***

“A vampire?” Captain Marshall said, dumbfounded. “There has not been a confirmed vampire killing in this city in a hundred years.”

He stood with his arms crossed as he stared at the lifeless body that laid on a table in the solider’s barracks. A sheet covered her except for her neck and head. The skin was a cold white and two holes were just below her ear.

“What was she doing on the street at that hour?” Marshall asked.

Caleb, a young solider who worked as the captain’s aide replied, “She was headed home from her work at the Bridges Foundry. It is the one over on Krell Street.”

The Marshall stared at the woman as fear coarse through his veins. If they were right, and one of these monsters was loose in the city, then they would be a few wrong moves from many more people sharing in her fate.

After a moment, he looked at Caleb, “I guess the foundry is our first stop.”

***

“You said her name was Sasha?” a man flipped through records on his workers.

“Yes, she was murdered last night, can you tell us anything about her that might help us?” Caleb asked impatiently.

“No family to speak of from her documentation. It looks like she lives in a work house down the road,” the man said with his head buried in the papers.

“Is there anyone that might want to harm her? Any suspicious people hanging around here?” Marshall pushed the owner.

He shook his head, “She was one of our night shift workers. I am never here after dark, so I have probably never met her. You would have to speak with our overnight foreman, Ulrich.”

Marshall gave out a sigh, “Very well, we will be back tonight.”

***

The evening was cold and rainy as the two soldiers approached the foundry once more. Torches blazed and workers shuffled in every direction.

The two soldiers made their way through the people who barely noticed them. They seemed to have a coordinated chaos that moved with astonishing efficiency. Fires bellowed as liquid metal was being poured into casts.

Caleb wiped his brow, “I wouldn’t last a night in this furnace.”

“These people are tough,” Marshall agreed as they made their way to the owner’s office.

Inside, a large man was busy working through a number of ledgers.

“Evening,” Marshall said as he opened the office door. “I am Captain Marshall. This is my aide, Caleb. We are a part of the army investigators.”

The man did not raise his head, “What do you want?”

Caleb flashed Marshall a suspicious look.

“We are here about Sasha,” Marshall said.

“Do you know where she is? We are short today.”

“She’s dead,” Caleb said dryly.

The man dropped his pen as he raised his head.

“I am sorry. We get so caught up in work our quotas. I had no idea,” the man said in a somber tone. “How can I help you?”

“Do you know anything about Sasha that could help us? Any enemies or people she speaks with often?” Caleb asked.

Ulrich shook his head, “Sorry, I do not know much about our workers. I wish I could be of more help.”

Marshall was quiet as he thought, “Thank you for your time.”

Caleb flashed his captain a look as if to say, really that’s it? But, the captain looked to have a larger plan in mind. He smiled and nodded as Ulrich did the same.

“Feel free to speak to any of the workers when they are on their breaks. I am truly sorry for the girl, but we have quotas to meet.”

“Of course,” Marshall gave a polite smile as the two soldiers left the foundry.

“What do we do now?” Caleb asked his captain.

“We watch the foundry tonight,” Marshall said calmly.

***

The two soldiers sat in a nearby guardhouse. There was a few other soldiers there that were getting ready to go on their patrol.

“Any leads on the murder, captain?” one of them asked.

“Nothing, but we are on watch for tonight,” the man said as he took a sip of tea.

In the distance, sprouts of fire flared up as the foundry was in full swing.

“Interesting someone of your rank is taking such an interest in one death,” the soldier said.

Marshall put his tea down and faced the solider.

“Any death in this city is a tragedy. You should remember your place, soldier,” he said sternly.

He bowed his head, “Apologies, captain.”

With that, the two were off on their patrol.

Caleb scoffed, “Some guard. You would think someone in his position would be for caring of the soul of Hailgrad.”

Marshall just stared over at the foundry. They could see the silhouette of Ulrich in his office as he worked away.

“What did you think about Ulrich?” he asked.

Caleb shrugged, “He seemed like your typical foreman. Worried about quotas and making more gold. Wait, you don’t think he could be the killer.”

Marshall scrunched his face as he thought, “He was awake at the time of the murder. He knew the victim. Think about it, if you were a vampire, it would be the perfect cover to find victims.”

“I suppose he is out at night, but I did not notice anything strange about his teeth,” Caleb retorted.

Marshall scoffed, “We do not know the first thing about these creatures. Can they only come out at night? Do they have sharp teeth? I will admit, I have only heard about them in stories. I am afraid we are a bit out of our depth of knowledge.”

The two sat there for a long while. After a time, workers were beginning to leave their shifts. The silhouette of Ulrich could still be seen shuffling around as a sudden scream came from down the street. The two soldiers looked at one another and ran out of the building.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

***

The biting cold hit them as they pushed on, down the street. They came through the fog as they saw the guard from the barracks knelt by a body.

“S-she’s dead,” the man said with a shaky voice.

Marshall knelt beside him and quickly went to scan her neck. To his horror, there were two puncture wounds there.

Marshall’s stomach dropped as he tried to hide the marks.

“Is that what I think it is?” the guard asked.

“Where is your partner?” the captain asked, trying to change the subject.

“Sometimes we take different roads to cover more ground. She is on another street somewhere,” the guard said frantically.

“Did you see anyone else on the street?” Marshall pushed further.

“No one, not a soul,” the guard replied. “Were those marks from a vampire?”

Marshall scoffed, “It was a dart of some sort. There are no vampires in Hailgrad. Be on your way, soldier, before something else happens on your watch.”

The guard bowed his head and walked away into the night as Caleb knelt next to his captain.

Marshall looked at him as he said, “We need help if we are to solve this riddle.”

***

A woman stood in the barracks, studying the two bodies. She wore gold armor as a matching shield was strapped to her back and mace hung from her belt.

“Two victims in two nights?” she asked aloud as her mind worked through the possibilities.

“Yes,” Marshall said. “We thank you for coming and thank you for your discretion, Maeve.”

“No problem,” the paladin said as she leaned in closer to the second victim. “I would have brought the rest of the crew, but I knew the complete cast of the Defenders of Sol visiting a barracks of the royal army would raise suspicions.”

“We cannot afford mass hysteria, but we know nothing about vampires and their ways,” Marshall replied.

“Anything for an old friend,” she said.

After a pause, she said, “Have you smelled them?”

“No, why?” Marshall’s gaze narrowed.

“Leave it to you royal army guys to miss the details,” she said with a wry smile. “They have the same perfume.”

She walked over to the satchel the first woman was found with. Inside, a small bottle of liquid had the tag LeBelle’s Shop of Herbs.

“It looks like we have our lead,” she said as she held up the label.

***

The three companions waited until Lebelle’s opened their doors that next morning.

Captain Marshall opened the door was greeted with a, “Good morning soldiers, how may I help you?”

A small, old woman welcomed them with a quiet voice. She had a kind face as she stood behind the store counter.

“Good morning,” Captain Marshall said. “Are you Labelle?”

She laughed, “Oh no, that was my grandmother. I am Carmilla. How can I help you””

“Well, Carmilla,” Maeve stepped forward. “I was wondering if you could help me with figuring out how many people have purchased this perfume from your store.”

The paladin produced a small bottle on the counter. The old woman had a strange pause as she picked up the bottle.

“Well, dear,” she started. “We have not sold this in quite some time. I can get that information for your though. One moment please.”

She disappeared to the back room as Maeve and Marshall looked at one another. They remained quiet, but each held a strange look in their eyes.

She returned with a short stack of papers. The old woman held them back for a moment as she looked at them.

“I am going to need these back,” she said. “But you can have them for now.”

Marshall nodded his head as he said, “Thank you, very much.”

With this, the three soldiers left the shop as they felt an ominous watchfulness on them.

***

When they came back to the barracks, the three started to check the sales records against the reports of murders or missing people in the area. After they were finished, they came to a chilling discovery.

“Almost everyone who purchased that perfume is either dead or missing,” Maeve said in astonishment.

“Why give us these records?” Caleb asked in a confused tone. “This only implicates the shop.”

Marshall shrugged, “It is possible the woman knows nothing about these events. The shop and the killer could be unrelated.”

Without a word, Maeve took the perfume bottle and stood up as she sprayed herself. She took off her armor and put on a heavy cloak.

“What are you doing?” Marshall asked in a concerned tone.

“There is only one way to get to the bottom of this. We need another murder.”

***

Marshall and Caleb sat in the same guardhouse where they watched Ulrich the night before.

“I do not like this,” Marshall said nervously.

“Me either, but she is right,” Caleb pointed out. “Anyways, I reckon she is better equipt than either of us to handle a vampire.”

Marshall took a sip of tea as he watched the foundry. Inside, Maeve was posing as a new worker. A good pair of hands was hard to come by, so she was accepted on the same night that she showed.

After a long while, she finally emerged from the factory. The two saw her as she made her way down Krell Street. In the darkness, she looked like any other person of Hailgalad.

Hopefully, the perfect trap, Marshall thought to himself.

He got up to follow his friend, but Caleb grabbed him.

“Not yet,” he hissed. “We cannot ruin this chance."

They stood at the door, swords in hand when they heard the signal. The pop of a firework blew close by and the two soldiers were off like a flash.

***

As they ran, they came to a guard keeling over a body. Marshall’s heart sank and they got closer to the seemingly motionless figure.

Then, the guard turned around and flashed sharp fangs and glowing eyes as Maeve laid underneath him, struggling.

Without a word, the two soldiers tackled the vampire, but he fought back with a terrible strength. He thrusted out a sword that narrowly missed Marshall’s neck as he ducked under him.

In the light of a full moon, the two dodged blows as Maeve tried to regain her bearings. The vampire moved with unnatural speed and power as the two royal soldiers could only hope to try and remain upright. After it came after Marshall, it turned to Caleb and with a terrible roar, as the creature tackled him to the ground.

Just as the vampire went in to bite its victim, a ray of golden light came from the sky. It stuck the creature that wailed in response. Marshall looked to see it was Maeve who casted the spell. She swayed as she held her hands outward.

“Don’t just stand there,” she barked. “Get it!”

They both ran forward and tackled the vampire to the ground. Marshall found that the monster was in a weekend state as they were able to get a hold of him. In a flash, Maeve had put strange golden handcuffs that glowed faintly around the creature’s wrists. Just as she did that, around twenty royal soldiers circled them. Their silver armor shone brightly in the lamplight as they lowered their spears.

“What are you, creature?” Marshall asked angrily.

“A superior being, one beyond your mortal comprehension,” the vampire hissed.

“Where is your hive?” Maeve asked as she laid her golden mace on the monster’s back.

It writhed in pain at the weapon’s touch, but the beast did not speak. Maeve pushed the mace in harder and the vampire screamed.

“The pain will stop, just tell us where it is,” she said. “I know you are not the leader. You are just a lowly grunt. They do not care about you. Tell us and we will make the pain go away.”

After a time of terrible torment, they broke the creature.

“LeBelle’s Shop of Herbs,” was all the vampire was able to utter as they all looked at one another.

“Stay with this monster,” Marshall instructed some of the guards. “Everyone else, with me!”

***

Marshall ran down the street with his companions and royal guard hot on his heels. The rounded the corner to find the quaint shop LeBelle’s Shop of Herbs to be completely dark. The captain’s heart beat quickly as anxiety built up in him.

He and Maeve went to ether side of the door. He had his sword in one hand, and she had her mace in her’s. Caleb stood in front of the door, ready for his order.

“Now,” Marshall shouted.

Caleb sprinted forward and smashed through the door. Maeve and Marshall came in right after him, ready to strike. Within moments, the small shop was filled with soldiers in bright, silver armor. Light from their torches searched through every crevice of the shop.

“Over here,” a voice shouted from the back room.

Marshall, Maeve, and Caleb came over to the soldier to find a false wall that was half open. They pushed it back and it revealed stairs that plunged into the darkness.

As the soldiers filed down the stairs, they came to a large cave that looked to have been recently cleared out. In the center of the area, a blazing fire was going that had a number of records and other books burning away in its embers.

Maeve was bent over, picking up some loose papers.

“It looks like they moved the den,” she said in a frustrated tone.

“What do we do now?” Caleb asked as he nervously looked around the cave.

Marshall looked at his old friend, “I am going to need the help of your defenders, Maeve. Can you track these monsters down?”

“We shall do our best,” she said as she drew herself up.

“Areandel be with you,” he said. “May you find them swiftly before more people fall victim to the Killers of Krell Street."