There were few who could say they recognized a vampire when one presented itself in front of them. And of those few, even fewer returned to their families to tell a story. Many years had passed since a vampire had set foot in the city and Aria did not know much about them, only what her father had told her when she was little.

The stories and legends about vampires, told by the parents of all the children of Korotsk, were now always the same and the memory was gradually fading. Some, the most imaginative, filled the stories with unhealthy improvisations and disrespectful anecdotes, while others omitted macabre details almost to make those creatures that were anything but good docile.

To Aria, the stories seemed so absurd and out of touch with reality that she had never believed in their existence. It seemed strange to her that such unreal figures could exist and that they even fed on human blood. Until that moment, she had taken them for what they were: stories and legends.

At school, there had never been any mention, at least officially, of the presence of these monsters. There had never been any articles in the newspapers that talked about them and even in the daily newspaper there were never any conversations that mentioned them. Sure, every now and then you could read the headlines of the news that told of disappearances or sudden deaths, but it didn’t go beyond that.

Apart from that, Aria had never understood why the government discouraged venturing out of the city, having guards who controlled who entered and exited. The streets, both the internal ones and those in the various neighborhoods, were quite safe and a girl like her, for example, could walk down the street without anyone having florid her hair. There were entire squads of police on the road and even a drunk knew not to raise his hands on strangers.

If you wanted to leave the city, and if you had a little money saved up, you could pay guards for an escort. That's how Aria and her father would go to their country house every now and then to spend a weekend away from the buildings and the smoke of the factories.

All her life she had felt protected and safe.

Her heart, however, accelerated at the sight of the vampire and for the first time she realized she was afraid.

The vampire approached step by step. He had a slow pace and emitted a guttural sound from his mouth, always present and constant.

Aria, after screaming, looked for a way to escape him. On her right was the wall that would have taken her to the street, but it was too high to climb over and, even if she had succeeded, the vampire would certainly have caught her first. On her left, however, the garden continued into the thick of the hedges. Behind her, finally, in contact with her back, was the door they had come from.

She tried to open this one but, despite her attempts to force it, the door did not open.

"Stupid!" he exclaimed, referring to the prince. The door had a defect and Sergey hadn’t had time to fix it yet. When it closed, in fact, the hinges remained stuck in the wall, triggering a complex system of combinations that ensured the door was hermetically closed. After so many years of use, however, the hinges had ruined the basis of that system and it was necessary to use the second lock to open the door, a lock that was only on the inside.

It was one of those secondary doors that her father had never given importance to and that no one cared about, except Aria at that precise moment, because it would help her escape certain death.

“Damn!” she banged her fists against the thick wood; a tear ran down her cheek.

Then she threw herself into the hedges of the garden, getting grass on her dress and running to find other guards.

The vampire followed her, slowly, perhaps to savor the fear of his prey. He continued to run his tongue through his teeth already soaked in blood that was dripping onto the ground. Then, he lunged and attacked the girl with his long claws, but Aria knew how to quickly throw herself to the side. The wig fell to the ground and so did she. Searching among the branches of a hedge, near a tree, she managed to find a wooden stick that she used to block a second attack.

The vampire's claws remained stuck in the stick and the creature let out a moan. But not of pain, but of melancholy because his prey was still alive.

One thing was certain to Aria: the next blow would be fatal.

She closed her eyes, accepting her fate and starting to cry like a child. Could her life ever end like that? She was only sixteen and she knew she still had her whole life to have fun and do the activities she loved most. She thought back in those moments to her bookshelf and how she hadn't yet started the novel her father had given her for last Christmas. Or how she had promised Sergey that one day she would help him cook something.

All thoughts vanished when she opened her eyes again. The vampire was getting closer and now his face had a sinister smile, twisted and not very symmetrical. His eyes became volcanic and his breathing labored.

This was how it had to go. Killed by a vampire.

But instead… there was a rustling.

A girl was running toward them holding a sword in her hand. With a leap she reached the vampire, impaling him in the rib making him step back a few steps.

Now that Aria was able to catch her breath, she could see that the girl must have been the same age as her. She was wearing strange leather clothes as if they were real armor. No helmet, but to protect her head she had a kind of tiara with small shields on top. Her boots, soaked in mud and water, were yellowed in color and must have had several bowshots behind them.

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“Who are you?” Aria asked almost instinctively. She tried to stand up behind her, but had to crawl on her side when she realized her ankle was starting to hurt. Still, the girl stood between her and the vampire to protect her.

“My name is Liza.”

Holding her sword tightly in both hands and holding it in front of her, Aria could see Liza’s warrior stance, worthy of the best soldiers in Korotsk. She often saw them training on the training grounds, and when she compared them to the girl, she could see a look and skill second to none. There was a sense of challenge in her eyes, and the entire time, she never took her eyes off her enemy.

It was time for the vampire to attack again, lunging at Liza. The latter, after dodging with great agility, struck a clean blow with the sword to the creature's back, which fell to its knees screaming in pain and putting its hands on its back to keep from bleeding too much.

The two wounds that the vampire had suffered emitted a sound that resembled the burning of the flames of a fireplace. A red cloud came out accompanying the blood and the wounds worsened as the seconds passed.

With a final blow of the sword, Liza severed the vampire's head making it spin in the air to end up in the tall grass. The body fell with a thud to the ground.

The seconds that followed seemed to last an eternity.

Liza crouched down to inspect the corpse, examining the skin for something. Aria, on the other hand, remained still trying to calm her childish impulse. The tears had stopped falling due to the adrenaline given by the fear, but the sobs still bothered her breathing.

"You saved my life..." she said holding her arms. She was cold, maybe she had a headache and all she wanted at that moment was to stay warm between the covers of her bed.

“It’s strange,” Liza detached one of the vampire’s canines with a sharp blow, “it’s been over forty years since vampires have been seen in the city.” she carefully examined the canine still stained with blood, “This one didn’t even know how to fight, and yet he managed to kill two… no, three guards.” she licked the blood from the canine, “Yes, definitely three different flavors.”

The girl, then, approached Aria to help her up.

“Luckily for you, I followed this bastard’s tracks, that’s why you’re alive.”

“What was he doing here?”

“I don’t know. We’ve been following his movements these past few nights and we noticed that he was getting closer to the city. It was obvious that he was plotting an attack. And now, in fact, he decided to act today. In addition to the dead guards…” and he pointed to the corpses that sprouted like mushrooms from the ground, “I also counted two dead civilians, but he didn’t drink their blood.”

The Duchess caught her breath, turned to the prince and tried to wake him up with two pats on the face, but her hand stopped abruptly when she remembered that it was strictly forbidden to touch him without his consent, under penalty of death. Even in a situation like that, she didn’t want to risk breaking the law, especially when her life was at stake. So, she strained her right ear near his mouth and could hear his breathing.

“The prince fainted.” she said to Liza.

“He’ll wake up soon.” the girl said. She lifted the prince bodily by the collar of his uniform and placed him against a tree. Aria’s gaze, with open and trembling eyes, took in the scene. Then, she realized she hadn’t asked the question she should have asked before.

“Who are you?”

“A huntress.” Liza answered, adjusting her belt strap and then putting her sword in its scabbard, “We are tasked with protecting civilians from vampires and our ultimate goal is to exterminate these creatures.”

“A huntress…” Aria’s father had never told her about the existence of hunters in his stories. He always said that the police intervened to save Korotsk and that we should be proud of the government’s work in containing the threat. Plus, he had told her that the King was so strong that he possessed magical powers, but she had never believed those stories.

“Is it silver?” she pointed to the sword.

“Yes. It is the only material capable of causing pain to the vampire and killing them by cutting off their head. If you use wood, as many believe, the body is regenerated the following night. Also, forget about garlic, running water and wooden crosses, no vampire has ever been hurt with those things.”

The huntress, after making sure that the prince would wake up soon and that medical attention was not necessary, approached the duchess, looking her up and down, making her remember her father’s stern look.

“You, you did well with the staff. Few people survive an attack… and when I say few, I mean I’ve only counted two, so far. Now we’re at three.”

“Well… if it weren’t for you… by now… I...” her voice was shaking.

A slap landed on Aria’s cheek.

“Rule number one, never underestimate yourself.” she touched her arm and pressed hard on the skin. Then, her hand moved up to her face, pressing on her cheeks. It finally slid down to her hair, making Aria feel safe. But all good things ended when Liza pulled her hair, making her let out a groan of pain. Her head went back and she could see the stars in the sky.

Without thinking twice, she tried to slap Liza, who blocked it without much difficulty.

“Fighting spirit, I like it. We can work on that.” she released her hair and, as if nothing had happened, turned to walk toward the perimeter wall.

“You know, you could make a career as a huntress.”

“Me?” the shock on her face was so great. She barely knew the difference between a sword and a foil and she certainly didn’t have what it takes to kill vampires. Especially if that meant cutting off their heads. With that image in mind, she almost threw up, but she held back.

Plus, unlike the other male nobles, she had never even used a sword in practice and her father was quite against her participating in tournaments and court games. Maybe she knew how to use a knife, maybe a staff, but Liza’s offer certainly seemed hasty.

“Yes, you. You seem to have all the right stuff. Remember we all started from the bottom, but you by touch seem like a good candidate and there's always time to learn.”

“By touch? You were tearing my hair out!”

Aria didn’t know if a hunter could hurt a civilian like soldiers or if they also had to follow the rules, so she didn’t yell at her and just sat there, silent, waiting for something to happen. She didn’t want to answer her. Her head knew she would refuse, but her heart…

“Stone square, fourth house on the left from the well. Our academy is there.”

At that moment, Liza turned to look back, but not to look at Aria, but rather her gaze slid to the wooden door. Heavy footsteps were getting closer and closer.

“I have to go now. Don’t tell anyone about this meeting.” Liza leapt up and touched the cover of the wall, where she looked left and right to observe the street. She turned one last time to Aria.

“We’ll be waiting for you.”

Liza jumped, then disappeared from Aria's view.

The duchess remained alone for a few moments. The night was silent and all the animals that populated the garden had already fled and were now dozens of catapults away. It was a strange feeling she felt, because she was afraid of being alone, especially in the dark, as the light coming from the street lamps was dim.

But after seeing a vampire being killed with her own eyes and knowing that a huntress was still nearby, fear did not come alive and, in fact, she did not feel as protected as in that moment.

"Aria!" a familiar voice exclaimed; it was her father.

In a few seconds she found herself surrounded by the police and the nobles of the court.