Inch by inch Violet made her way across the grounds, careful to stay in the shadows as best she could. Occasionally she tapped her ring, careful to ensure that there weren’t any spells or alarms she would trigger with her movements.
If only those were the only thing she had to worry about. Once more her eyes fell on the ancient mansion in the center of the grounds. Well, ancient was probably a bit harsh. While it did look a bit run down, it wasn’t really THAT old. It at least had proper plumbing and, according to her research, there had even been a landscaper up until a few months ago. As overgrown as everything was now, a lot of what made the place appear so frightful and almost haunted was, likely, the fact she was viewing it by moonlight.
In fact, she knew it wasn’t that bad, she had been here during the day and the place looked a bit shabby but not nearly as threatening as it appeared now. She was letting her imagination get away from her.
Then again, considering what her ‘prey’ was, maybe it wasn’t that surprising that she was imagining things being more dangerous than they were at first glance. Violet took her position behind another tree and peered out from behind it towards the house.
A light was on, on the top floor. She couldn’t see anyone there, but that didn’t mean much. From this angle she’d be unlikely to see them anyway. No, more likely it was the prey of her own prey.
Violet slowly began to inch across the grounds once more, keeping low and almost crawling as she made her way across, careful to avoid stepping on any twigs or tripping over rocks. She swore once this was over she was going to have a long talk with the owner of the estate and help her get some proper landscaping done. Seriously, who just let their home fall into this kind of state?
Then again, she supposed that was probably what lured her prey here to begin with. What vampire could resist targeting someone who was reclusive and lived in some old family home? The more the place fell apart, the more appetizing a target the owner became.
Violet stroked a finger over the silvered blades in her sleeve once more. It was hardly going to be the first mystical creature she’d dealt with, but that didn’t mean she should slack off or get sloppy. No matter how many tools she had, it wouldn’t mean anything if she didn’t get a chance to use them.
Still, she couldn’t help herself from feeling another small surge of excitement. She didn’t usually get these kind of opportunities. Usually when she went on hunts like these she ended up in old graveyards or hiding under bridges or having to fight in sewers. It had been almost two years since she’d actually managed a hunt that made her feel somewhat prestigious.
Everyone always thought monster hunting was sooooo glamorous. Staying up all night, running around through swamps, trying to get a few hours of sleep during the day. Most of the time she lived more on coffee than actual food. Not to mention most people thought vampires were extinct these days and she was just some weird vagrant or should be focusing on vengeful spirits. Most people looked at her more like some wild animal than some hunter of the arcane and horrific.
But not tonight, oh no. Tonight Violet was going to end up rescuing someone who may or may not even know they needed saving. But she’d be thanked in the end, she was sure. All of the evidence was there, she was sure of it. She’d double, triple and quadruple checked all of her notes. Made sure there wouldn’t be ANY doubts.
But it all lined up. There was definitely a vampire here. More importantly, the target was pretty obvious. The young author, Scarlet Moreau. Ohhhhh. She wondered if, after this, she’d actually find out her real name. There was no way that wasn’t a pen name.
Violet slowly began to walk up the steps towards the front door. It didn’t even creak. Despite the fact the place looked old and haunted, it was at least somewhat maintained. She wondered if the vampire would have added a creak later once the task was done. Probably. They were incredibly over dramatic. She inched towards the door and, very lightly, tried to turn the knob.
Locked. Obviously. But the lock looked simple enough. Violet pulled out her lockpicking set and got to work. It took only a moment to creak open. Oof, well, that was less silent, but her ring wasn’t picking up any alarms yet.
As silently as she could, she made her way into the old mansion and closed the door, gently shutting it gently behind her.
Oh dear heavens Scarlet needed a maid. Violet reached down and pulled her scarf up and over her nose and mouth, just to try and ensure none of the dust got into her lungs. A few small lamps were on, illuminating just enough of the old mansion for her to see just how old the place was.
While it wasn’t terrible, it was obvious the inside was nowhere near as well maintained as the outside had been, which was a disappointment all its own. Small piles of dust were swept up to the side, as if whoever had tried to clean them up had made a mere token effort and then just shrugged and walked off.
Judging by the fact she saw a broom leaning against one of the walls near one of the piles, she suspected that was exactly what happened.
Old pictures lined the walls, some she suspected were quite a bit older than her. Scarlet’s family?
Violet felt a small rush of guilt. Here she was, mentally berating the woman who lived here for not maintaining this place by herself. But it couldn’t be that easy. From the rumors she’d heard, Scarlet had quite the large family. Once. But after a tragic accident, the details of which were quite scarce, she’d disappeared into her family home to rarely be seen again. Now she only appeared for the occasional book signing or televised event.
No wonder she was being targeted by this vampire. Living alone in some old mansion, no family, few friends, very little reason to go outside. She just screamed ‘ideal prey’.
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A little voice in the back of her mind warned her that she was being overly imaginative again. As certain as she was that there was a vampire here, it wasn’t entirely certain that they were targeting Scarlet. In fact, Scarlet might not even know they were around vampire at all.
Oh, she really hoped that wasn’t the case. It was an entirely different reaction when you saved someone by stabbing their ‘friend’ who aimed to drain their blood versus the dark figure holding them captive against their will and slowly transforming them into a foul, dark creature of the night.
“No no no no no!” a voice called and Violet went entirely still. “You can’t do this!”
“But I must, I’m sorry, my love,” a second voice said. Almost exactly like the first, yet slightly deeper.
“But what will the duke say?” the first voice asked.
Violet blinked a few times. Wait, duke? That WAS the same person. Was that Scarlet? It had to be. What in the world was she doing? Violet froze when she heard sudden creaking and light thumps. After a moment she realized that whoever was talking was pacing.
“No, no, too stupid. What if he grabbed her and swept her off her feet first?” the voice said.
Violet frowned and slowly made her way up the steps. Was Scarlet alone? Or was the vampire with her? Was that voice the vampire and they just sounded similar?
“Ugh, that’s so stupid. There is no way Lily would stand for that. Would she? No. Even if she… ohhhhh, but what if-- yes! That’s it! Eeeee!” There was another loud thump, followed by rapid clicking sounds.
Typing.
So that was Scarlet. But was she alone? Violet slowly drew a knife from her sleeve, readying herself. If her prey was here, she’d need to move fast in order to keep Scarlet safe. Her knife wouldn’t kill it, but it would slow it down. Three knives could turn most vampires into hard hitting, sluggish brutes. Five could even slow down the big ones. From there they were a lot easier, if still dangerous, prey.
There was a loud thump and Violet froze.
“No no no STOP IT!” Scarlet shrieked.
For a moment Violet thought she was talking to herself again. Except it was then that she heard a far, far different squeak. Light flapping sounds. No more typing.
Then the light in the room above went out.
Violet’s instincts told her to stop, to be cautious. That rushing in was dangerous.
Violet’s instincts also told her that an innocent person was in danger right now and needed help.
She listened to the latter and raced up the stairs. The window was open, the only light from a computer monitor. It glimmered on a pair of glasses that had been dropped on the desk, likely a sign of whatever had taken place a few seconds prior. Scarlet was nowhere to be seen. Guilt flooded Violet’s heart.
She’d been too slow. If she’d just been a little faster. A little less careful. If she--
Violet heard a strange flutter from the window. She quickly pulled back out of the room and hid behind the doorframe, peering into the room.
A bat flew into the room through the window.
Violet couldn’t believe it. Today was her lucky day, it seemed. So long as she moved quickly. She reached down to her hip and grabbed a small, silver lined net, untangling it. The bat was doing a small circle around the room, though she couldn’t imagine why.
It was to her benefit, at least. Violet dashed into the room and threw the net out, holding onto one end. The bat let out a startled shriek when it was snatched out of the air, struggling in vain against the netting.
Not that it’d do it much good. The net was now glowing a light red, alerting her that it was, in fact, a vampire she’d snatched out of the air. Not that she had expected it to not be, she’d only caught an actual bat in her nets once. But it was always good to be sure as she still felt guilty about that mistake.
The bat squeaked at her, but trapped as it was in the net, there wasn’t a lot it could do. It couldn’t even take another form like this. Violet narrowed her eyes on it. “Don’t play games, I know what you are,” she said coldly. “And it’s certainly not a bat.”
The bat went entirely still.
“Don’t even think about trying to go back to your normal form,” Violet said. “I know every trick you have and none of them will work on me.”
It was shaking now. Good.
“Listen here, you foul creature of the night,” Violet said before, less than nicely, dropping it on the ground and stepping on one end of the netting to ensure it wouldn’t be going anywhere. “In that form there’s not much you can do and I’m not against finding out how well this net of mine holds up to being dunked in fire.”
A few panicked squeaks came out from the bat, then.
“Good. Now then. Tell me, where is Scarlet Moreau?” Violet asked.
The bat went entirely still again, staring up at her.
“Well?” Violet asked.
The bat just stared at her. She felt her annoyance grow and she glanced back towards the computer. It was open to a word document with a page half filled.
“Listen here, you little flying rat,” Violet said. “I know she was here, I heard her. Where did you take her?” A new, less than pleasant thought hit her and she glanced towards the window. How far of a fall was it from here? Surely if the woman had been thrown out, she’d have heard the scream? If she looked out the window would she see…
No. NO. She refused to consider that.
The bat stared up at her and then, in a very soft voice, it spoke. “You… you heard me… talking… to myself? Oh… oh gods… can… can you just kill me now, please?”
Violet stared at the netted bat, which was making an effort to hide its face behind its little wings despite the net. There was no way. No possible way. It wasn’t possible. “Scarlet… Moreau?”
“Y-you didn’t hear a-all of that, did you? Please tell me you didn’t, I-I swear I don’t normally do that, I just, you know, sometimes you get really excited and you can’t help yourself and you really heard ALL of it? Oh gods oh gods please tell me you didn’t record any of it oh gods…”
Violet stared at the bat before, very slowly, she just sat down on the ground. Well, she was half right. There WAS a vampire here.