Julius walked into the old three-story home. He pulled out a pair of lockpicks and quickly jiggled the old lock open. The door opened with a Creak that he was sure had immediately announced his presence to the vampire.

The inside of the brick house was rundown. The white paint on the walls was peeling, and most of the furniture had been covered by tarps.

"He probably spends his time here in his bestial form," Julius muttered as he drew not his standard pistol but instead an automatic shotgun. He wasn't allowed to pull out his big guns unless his target was both marked for death or tough enough to justify it.

The floorboards squeaked with every step he took as he moved his way through the massive house.

Julius stopped as he heard the back door open. The door slammed shut as someone walked into the house, the kitchen, with assured steps. Julius moved into the living room adjacent to the kitchen. He hid behind the door frame and waited. His finger was on the trigger as the person moved around the kitchen. They moved closer and closer.

Just as it was about to turn into the living room, Julius turned the corner, his finger on the trigger prepared to blow Mathias's head clean off, only to find himself staring into the eyes of Ramona Vasquizes.

"Jesus Christ!!! What are you doing here?!" Julius swore as he lowered the barrel of his gun from her head. "I almost killed you!! I"

"Sorry, I just --" Ramona apologized.

"I nearly blew your head off by reflex, girl! This is a vampire den. What in nine hells are you doing here!?"

He never got an answer to his question. Before either of them could do anything, Mathias moved. Faster than Julius could react, Mathias tackled him in his full vampiric form, smashing through the plaster wall and knocking him back into the living room.

Sprawling on the ground, Julius raised the shotgun to fire, but Mathias yanked the gun out of his hands before he could fire the gun, tossing the weapon behind him. His shotgun skittered across the room and out into the hall.

Julius shot to his feet, pulling his pistol out just in time for Mathias to smack it out of his hands with enough force to embed the handgun in the wall of the house.

"Shit!" Julius swore, "do you know how hard it's going to be to dig that out?!"

Mathias ignored Juliuses question, instead grabbing him by the coat, Mathias threw him into the fireplace. The brickwork cracked as Julius impacted the masonry, parts of the fireplace breaking off onto the floor.

Julius felt Mathias clawed hand grab his head and slam him into the fireplace hard enough to draw blood. Witch, with his reinforced body, was enough to pulverize a normal person's head.

"Your more durable than your partner," Mathias hummed happily. "I bet you taste delicious!"

"I bet you choke on my blood." Julius spat.

Mathias raised his arm to attack but was interrupted by Ramona hitting him in the head in the chair. Julius' mouth dropped open in shock. Not at the act itself but at the fact that the chair had been moving with so much force behind it that it sent Mathias crashing to the ground as the chair exploded into splinters.

"What are you doing? Get out of here!" Julius shouted to Ramona as he got to his feet. It was already going to be hard enough to capture Mathias. He didn't need a third variable in this fight.

"Die, Mother fucker" Ramona screamed as she threw a kitchen knife at Mathias, the blade burying itself in the vampire's skull.

"Thrall obey me," Mathias commanded as he rose back to his feet. "Kill the interlooper!!"

Julius froze. If Mathias had turned Ramona into a vampire, she would be his blood slave and bound to follow his will. It would also explain why she was here and her super strength if he had to fight both of them at the same time …

Julius thought process was cut off as Ramona threw another kitchen knife at Mathias's prone form like a pitcher from the majors. The knife punched through Mathias's body, impacting the plaster wall behind him. Mathias himself wasn't overly hurt due to his vampiric nature, but he was clearly confused about the current situation.

"You tried to eat me!!" she screamed at him, grabbing a fire poker out of the broken fireplace and charging at Mathias.

'Well, she's clearly not under his control.' Julius thought. Then his thoughts quickly changed as he realized Ramona was trying to kill Mathias.

"Goddammit, I need him alive!" Julius roared as he tripped Ramona, knocking her to the ground as he snatched the poker out of her hand.

"Want to tell me why you're going to go off-world, Mathias?" Julius asked as he moved towards Mathias.

Mathias flinched at Julius' words before trying to intimidate Julius, raising his claws up in the air to make himself look bigger, his bat face contorted in a snarl that showed his fangs.

"That's right, Mathias, we know what you're planning. You're not getting off-world."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Shut up!" Mathias hissed. "I'm not staying on this planet just to be mind thrall."

"Well, maybe we can make a deal, you come in to give us everything you know about the Alnune, and if it pans out, we might be able to arrange for you to be placed offworld.." Julius offered. He was very careful not to promise anything, simply suggesting that a deal could be made.

Mathias paused as if considering Julius' offer, then lunged at him.

"How about i eat you inst--" Mathias started to say, but was cut him off as Julius slammed the poker point into Mathias's shoulder and out the other side and into the wall behind him, pinning Mathias to the wall. With a quick motion, he bent the pokers handle back on itself, stopping Mathias from simply sliding off the poker.

"Transmute," Julius said.

Instantly the once silvery poker, which Julius realized was aluminum, turned to pure tungsten.

Mathias screamed as he tried to lash out at Julius. Catching Mathias's clawed hand, Julius kicked out at Mathias's leg shattering the vampire's kneecap. Mathias tried to rip his arm off the now tungsten spike only to find his arm completely pinned.

"I tied to be diplomatic," Julius panted as Mathias thrashed around like a fish on a hook. "I tried to be polite, but no, you had to make this hard. So why don't you tell me --"

Julius was cut off as Ramona knocked him over and slashed at Mathias with a third kitchen knife. Where was she getting all of these knives from?!

Mathias jerked to the side, letting Ramona's knife slice through Mathias's pinned arm and free him from the tungsten spike. Instantly Mathias's arm began to regrow.

"Are you fucking serious?!" Julius swore as he watched all his hard work go to waste.

Mathias tackled Ramona to the ground pinning her to the floor. Before Mathias could finish regrowing, Ramona brought her legs up under Mathias and kicked up. Mathias was launched upward, smashing through the ceiling above her.

By this point, it was rather obvious she had somehow learned enough magic to be augmenting her body since the last time he saw her, so he wasn't as concerned about what he was about to do as he would have been yesterday. Julius grabbed Ramona by her shoulders and flung her out the back window like a frisbee. She crashed through the window and tumbled through the backyard.

"And don't move until I come to get you!!" Julius called after her.

Sprinting across the room, Julius raced for his shotgun only to be intercepted as Mathias launched himself from the top of the stairs landing on Julius and knocking him to the ground.

"Enough!! You will be my dinner!" Mathias screamed as he held Julius down as he bit into his shoulder.

Julius screamed as Mathias bit into his shoulder and began to drink him. Or at least he tried to scream. His fake scream quickly devolved into a peal of sinister laughter as Mathias drank from his veins.

"You've done goofed." Julius chuckled.

Mathias looked at him as if he had gone insane, but then his eyes opened wide, and he ripped himself away from Julius, tearing out a chunk of flesh as he did. Stumbling backwards, Mathias collapsed to the ground and began to vomit blood. The vampire keeled over and wretched over and over again. Julius looked at his mangled shoulder with annoyance as he got back to his feet, holding his shotgun.

Mathias, on the other hand, began to tear open his stomach in order to get rid of as much of Julius's blood as he could.

"Huu -- what di …huuu … are you?" Mathias tried to ask as he continued to vomit buckets of blood.

"Yeah, sorry," Julius said smugly. "I'm not technically human and even less edible."

Julius shrugged his shoulders as if it was no big deal. Mathias stared at him as if he was the monster.

"I did tell you you would choke on my blood," Julius said, his smile splitting his face wide in a terrifying visage as his eyes twinkled in sadistic delight as he pushed the barrel of his gun in Mathias's face.

"Now you were about to tell me everything you know about the Alnune? And why do they have you so scared that you're trying to get off world? Or i can feed you more of my not blood."

Mathias held up his arms placatingly as he tried to speak around the river of blood coming out of his mouth.

"Okey okey, I sur … surrender," Mathias choked out, holding up his arms in surrender.

His body shifted, changing from his monstrous bat form into his human form. Julius smiled as he pulled out the specialized cuffs for vampires when the house collapsed.

A massive tree smashed through the roof of the building. Julius was knocked off his feet as the tree began to rip the house apart violently.

"Oh, come on!!" Julius shouted as he rolled out of the way from a branch as it swung for his head. "What did I do to piss you off today?!" Julius shouted to the sky.

Mathias was not so lucky. Tree branches wrapped around his limbs, punctured his torso and bludged him over and over again. If the vampire hadn't just been poisoned, he might have been able to escape, but now he was too weak. The fury of the tree ripped him apart with all the fury of mother nature.

"Stop, stop! I surrender! I surrender!"

Mathias screamed as his lower half was ripped from his body. His body quickly wasted away as his body desperately tried to save itself.

"Save me," Mathias begged Julius, his hand extended towards him in supplication. "Please help me!! I'll do anything, please--"

Mathias was cut off as his head was smashed like a melon by a tree limb, and he moved no more. Julius stared for a moment, then he felt an irrational unyielding rage rising up his stomach, and he knew just who to dish it out on.

🜈🜒🜜🜦🜰🜺🝄🝎🝘🝢

Ramona felt her heart sore as the massive oak stopped pretending to be a whomping willow and returned to its natural state. She patted the tree happily when she saw Mathias's broken form tangled in its branches.

"Good job," she said vindictively as she patted the massive oak tree affectionately.

The shattered door of the house exploded as Julius walked out of the shattered house.

"Did we do it? Is he dead?" Ramona called out hopefully. It was her first superhero team-up.

"Is he dead?! IS HE DEAD?!"

Julius laughed hysterically. Making Ramona feel uncomfortable.

"Oh yes, you got him. Do you have any idea? Any idea at all at what you've just done. You narcissistic, self-entitled millennial!" Julius shouted at her as he got uncomfortably close.

"Um, I," Ramona began, unsure what to say or even what she did wrong.

Then she heard a click, and she looked down to find a thick pair of silver handcuffs decorating her wrists, each inscribed with runes glowing with magic. Immediately she felt weak as if gravity had suddenly increased to the point where all she could do was stand against its mighty pull.

“Ramona Vasquez, I am arresting you for the murder of Mathis Verdan."