Chapter 1: Face Snatcher

Under the tyranny of the cold moon, a young boy's tears flowed from his red eyes, his gaze, reflecting the flames that enveloped the bodies of his bodyguards.

Everyone was dead. His mother. His sisters. The castle set ablaze by Horrors of the night.

Now he too would die. The Dynasty of the Crimson family now at its end. A proud lineage of monster hunters laid to waste not by the horrors they fought…

But by the ones they sought to protect.

Laying in the blood of his father, Alex looked up with fearful eyes, the glit of the moonlight reflecting off the blade poised to take his life.

“Plea-”

“Another beer?”

Alexi’s purple eyes snapped opened, the disheveled brown-haired man gazing up at the blonde woman with an annoyed look plastered on her face.

“Hn?”

“Buy another beer or get the hell out of here Alexi, this ain't an inn.” Giselle quipped, the woman mixing a drink for another patron. “You seriously need to do something with your life and not end up like these old louts. No offense.”

“None taken lady!” One of the patron’s named Larry drunkenly replied as the other, Homer, slammed his head on the table.

“Yeah yeah, give me two.” Alexi said, his voice coming out gruff as he rubbed his eyes with a stained leather glove.

Alexi was six feet tall, brunette, his body muscular with callouses coating his fingers from years of hard labor. Even with disheveled hair and drool sticking to the side of his face however, his features could be described as handsome, albeit, rough with his perpetual five-o-clock shadow.

The rogue yawned, taking in his surroundings. The rustic brown interior of the bar filling the majority of his vision.

Two. Three. Six. Not including the two at the table Alexi counted the patrons, his eyes settling on two in particular at the corner of the room barely lit by the fireplace.

“Can you afford two?”

“Hn?”

“I said, can you afford two, mudpie.” Giselle repeated, snapping her fingers.

“What? I'm good for it. Plenty of things around that need killing and if my coin ain't enough,” Alexi mumbled before placing his head sideways on the bar table scented with cider. “Just use my body again.”

Alexi's eyes focused on the corner of the bar, observing the muscular raven-haired woman in scantily clad clothes who was in the midst of seducing a drunken man.

She was tall, lithe with a tone body that was more protein than fat, her delicate face a far cry from the hard muscles that lined her body.

“I told you that was a one time thing! You weren't ta speak of it again!” Giselle spat, slamming two mugs of alcohol onto the bar table next to Alexi’s head. “Coin only! Bastard. Oh, and Soliloquy says you owe her money.”

“Easy! I've got delicate ears luv.” Alexi said, rubbing his blonde hair. “Eh, I owe everyone something. Tell her to wait in line.”

At his response, the bartender raised a brow, almost as if there were was a look of disappointment, yet she said nothing, going back to her work.

Alexi shifted his eyes back on the black-haired woman in the corner of the room, the vixen toying with her soon to be unfortunate victim before finally leading the man out of the bar.

“Alright… here we go.” Alexi rose from his rickity bar stool, grabbing a mug of beer on his way out.

“Hey! Where are you going? You have to pay for that Alexi!” Giselle called out.

Alexi waved her off, the leather clad man stumbling into the cold air of Kinderkelt, a run-down middle of nowhere town that served as a rest stop between the wilderness and the port city of Deslen.

“Fucking hell… gone already?” Alexi swept his eyes across the night, picking up the pair of foot tracks left in the snow.

Alexi adjusted his leather arm guard, the steel shank falling into his palm handle first as he followed the steps leading to an unilluminated desolate alley.

“Well, having fun are we?” Alexi called out, stopping the man feeling up the raven-haired woman pressed up against the brown hovel.

“What? What the hell? Get the fuck out of here!” The man spat, offended at Alexi’s interruption.

“Giorno Polsky?” Alexi asked, sipping on his mug with one hand while his other tightened around his shank.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

“Do I know you?” The balding man said, narrowing his eyes at Alexi.

“Well, that's good enough for me,” Alexi shrugged. “Kris.”

Suddenly the raven-haired woman's knee came up, smashing the man’s crotch, the unfortunate victim of the unprovoked assault on his manhood crumpling immediately.

“Huh-KHK?!”

“You couldn't have gotten here faster? He almost kissed me!” Kris snapped, the heel of her boot coming down on the man's head. “What if he had tried to suck my blood?!”

“Why are you complaining? Your kind can't get converted.” Alexi said, leaning down, his hands rummaging through the crying man's pockets as he sipped from his mug. “Shitbird doesn't even have ten coppers…”

“Wh-why are y-you doing this?” The man sobbed, hands in the air shaking as he began to plead for his life.

Kris and Alexi shared a look.

“Well… Mr. Polsky,” Alexi said, pressing his silver shive against the man's throat and albeit a tiny blade, it was no less threatening than a full-on dagger. “I just happen to know Mr. Giorno Polsky. The original one. Ya know, the one you killed before stealing his face, clothes, and money like the bloodsucker you are. I gotta admit, you do a good impression of a pathetic bastard.”

The man's eyes went round, the green irises staring at Alexi expanding with the whites of the sclera turning black.

A Face-Snatcher, a lesser form of vampire cursed to wear the faces of those it killed.

The monster’s jaw unhinged, attempting to blast Alexi with a sonic boom. But Alexi anticipated the movement, his hand, slicing the creatures throat just as mana began to coalaest.

Brackish blood and steam poured the creature's slot neck, it's eyes wide. In a panic the Face-snatcher turned into black smoke, reforming a few feet away as a naked man fleeing through the cold winter night.

“Great. It's getting away.” Kris said, shaking her head.

“No. I got this.” Alexi said before taking the beer mug in his hand and throwing it, the cup arcing through the air where it struck the vampire in the back of the head.

The monster went down, slamming into the snow with an audible thud.

“Such a waste of good booze.” Alexi muttered walking forward.

“Eh. It was so-so.”

“Really? I think Giselle does a good brew.”

“He's still moving by the way.”

“I see that Kris.”

“He's running again.”

“I can see that!” Alexi yelled, taking off after the lesser vampire.

Shaking her head, Kris reached into a nearby wooden barrel, picking out a bow and a quiver of arrows.

Alexi quickly closed the distance between him and the Face-snatcher, the monster spinning to snarl at his pursuer with all visages of humanity warped to reveal rows of sharp teeth and a slick tongue.

“Fuck you're ugly.” Alexi said, drawing the legendary blade that hung off his hip.

The Guillotine. A mighty blade once used to cleave the skulls from the heads of criminals and dissenters alike. A weapon once wielded by a tyrant king whose name was now a crime to speak.

Alexi held the broken blade aloft, the silver weapon more akin to a short sword than the long splendid blade it was so famed for.

“Crimson!?” The vampire spat, eyes wide with fear at the crest still visible on the base of the weapon’s edge.

Alexi’s eyes narrowed. It wasn’t everyday a monster recognized the Crimson banner on sight.

Shit. I better end this quick.

Alexi shot forward, swiping, the creature's hands forming claws that clashed against the delmecian Silver in a show of sparks.

“THIEF! THIEF! I'm being assaulted!” The Face-snatcher screamed, its claws billowing smoke as the nearby domiciles began to stir with lights.

Fuck!

“Hurry this up!” Kris called out.

“I'm trying!” Alexi spat, escalating his assault. The vampire avoided the hunter's wild swings, turning into smoke once more in an attempt to flee into the air.

But Alexi wasn't having it, reaching into his pocket he threw a bag into the air, the silver particles intermingling with the smoke to disrupt the monster's flight.

The face snatcher reformed, falling out of the sky with Alexi twirling the Guillotine in his palm.

Alexi dashed forward, blade slicing the vampire's midriff with the monster shrieking.

“What's going on?!”

“What's all that racket?!”

“Someone's being attacked!”

A crowd began to gather, the town stirring, Alexi's attack strong enough to severely injure the vampire but too shallow to confirm the kill.

“Help me! Help me!” The vampire screamed, running past several bystanders with Alexi in pursuit.

“Damn it! Out of the way! Move!” Alexi barked, knocking an elderly man out of his path as he ran after the vamp.

Sensing Alexi hot on its heels, the Face-snatcher spun, entering a nearby hovel just as a woman began to exit to spy on the commotion.

“Crimsom, bastard! Stay away!” The Monster barked, claws digging into the woman's neck as she began to shriek. “Get back or I'll open her neck!”

Alexi entered, the room, eyeing the one bedroom abode with the vampire moving towards the window, the only other means of escape.

“By all means go ahead.” Alexi shrugged nonchalantly.

“What?” The vampire said in disbelief as the woman struggling in grasp continued to scream.

“And when you do there won't be anything stopping me from putting this shiny little needle into your heart,” Alexi spat, pointing at the shank in his hand. “So go on mate. Flip that card.”

The lesser vampire frowned, eyes scanning the room before suddenly, his head snapped to the left from an arrow entering its head.

Nice work Kris!

Seizing the moment, Alexi shot forward, yanking the woman out of the vampire's arm as his shank found the monster's heart.

“Y-you! C-crim-!” The Face-snatcher let out, eyes wide, its pale skin turning into a shade of dark grey as Alexi covered the monster’s mouth with his thick leather glove.

“Sssssh. Shhh. Go to sleep. Didn't you know that name is illegal to say?” Alexi whispered, snatching the vampire’s face and slamming the monster onto the floor of the one-room hovel. “What if someone hears you?”

The creature quickly began to disintegrate, its skin flaking, curling back to reveal not red flesh but tendrils of inky leeches laced over one another to give the illusion of a human body.

Within moments, the monster turned to stone, its face locked in a picture of horrified torment before it crumbled into ash.

“Well… that's that then.” Kris said, kicking the ash as the woman who had, moments prior been a hostage of a creature of the night clung onto Alexi, kissing him. “Guess I’m sleeping alone tonight too...”