Hunted Blood: Blood Rain

A cold rain fell in the great sluggish river and rooftops of Budapest turning them to gleaming black masses like the backs of immense beetles under the amber lights. Among these sleek boxes walked a woman in a long black coat that glistened with rain. The face rimmed by her shiny red hair was youthful yet severe, pouting with indignation at the weather and the hands stuffed into her coat pockets toyed with slim silver knives. Hunting was the only thing worth venturing out for on a night like this and even that was quickly proving futile. A man's voice crackled over her ear-piece just as she stopped to comb the water from her hair.

"Velle, give your position and report."

Velle sighed and flicked the switch of the throat mike to on.

"I'm just up Belgrad Rakpart coming onto Erzsebet Hid by the waterfront. No action out here whatsoever and I'm soaked to the skin."

"No noise from the others either," came the unsympathetic reply from her team-mate, Assad, "Rendezvous with Droz and Markus at the intersection of Arany Janos and Nador as soon as possible."

"Roger," she muttered shoving her hands back into the coat pockets again and slitting the tip of her finger on one of her prize knives. It healed practically instantly but that didn't stop it from hurting like hell. Silver blades were dangerous things for someone like her, any vampire really,to use. Sucking her finger until it stopped bleeding, she rounded the corner of the intersection and saw the other two waiting. Her immense muscle-bound Droz looking hopelessly but defiantly out of place armed to the teeth with tattoos covering the lower half of his face and tall, lanky Markus who raised his eyebrows and folded his arms at her, wet pink curls of hair partly obscuring his vision.

"Nothing by the waterfront?" Markus questioned her as soon as she was within earshot.

She walked to Droz and stood with him as she replied,

"Silent as a grave. A few drunk guys coming across the bridge and the odd tramp asleep in a doorway but other than that it was all rain and Assad 'reassessing the situation' every three minutes."

"The rod up that man's arse has a rod up it's arse, I swear," Markus muttered, "Reckon I'm just going to go along with Drago and switch off my comm link and say it's a tech fault."

Droz laughed a little bitterly.

"Nya'll have your head."

"Bitch doesn't scare me, she's just Vespers' little Princess. Doesn't belong in a squad of big men like us."

"Perhaps not, but I have been placed in command nonetheless," came the voice from behind him. Nya stood coolly reloading her berettas and looking completely unconcerned about the weather. "And Markus? That 'tech fault' excuse nearly got Meng killed 7 months ago. You remember? Rome. Werewolves. A call for back up that went unheard. Don't even think about it or you'll be lucky if it's just your head I'll have."

Markus scowled but was and Paco came into sight swaggering across the street, their guns and clips in full view. Assad and Meng joined them last and the squad was reunited.

"It seems Budapest is clear." Assad said. "We've seen neither sight nor sign of the Halfbreed and there are none of the usual signs that he's even been here."

Nya shook her head.

"There was some sign. This place is very low on other vampires. For a city this size that's most abnormal."

"So what?"Drago scoffed, "Makes our job that much easier without all them new bloods scurrying in the way. Pah. Wannabes."

"Nya's right," replied Assad deliberately ignoring Drago's comment. "I say we track down the largest coven in the area and find out what's going on."

"So now we're the fucking vampire social workers?" asked Drago, nettled by Assad's indifference.

"We're getting nowhere with simply patrolling," Nya put in, "It's in our orders to track down the Halfbreed no matter what it takes. If we have to resort to manipulating the human Intelligence to find him then we will."

She was dead-set on her mission, the others could see this. It was going to be a long night. Markus snorted.

"Human Intelligence. Now there's a pretty contradiction in terms for you."

Ignoring this, they all set off, eight pairs of metal plated boots slamming the concrete pavements of the Hungarian capital, eight pairs of smooth immortal hands locked around weapons ready to kill any quarry that presented itself.

***

The nearest Coven house of any great size lay on a broad boulevard, a vast dark house with every Gothic architectural cliché imaginable carved onto its sandstone facade. Through grotesque stained glass windows candle light glowed and gargoyles leered from every flat surface. It was unmistakably a vampire coven house. Security cameras watched them from all angles from the moment they neared the gate. Not being one to waste any time on pleasantries, Drago marched up to the great studded oak door and banged on it with his fist. The others reluctantly followed and stood before it, weapons at the ready. A fellow vampire could easily be as much of a threat as an enemy if identities got confused. The door opened and a tall, heavy man with sleek blonde hair and a deep purple velvet suit looked them all over. A mortal familiar. He wrinkled his nose taking in their wet garments and unfriendly expressions. And the sheer size of Droz, Paco and Drago.

"Jo ejszakat?"

Drago snorted and said, "Well that's a hell of a thing. Who would have thought the Hungarian familiars would speak only Hungarian? Imagine my surprise..."

Nya rolled her eyes and asked the others,

"Do any of you speak Hungarian?"

The answer seemed to be a unanimous no. Droz spoke up. "I know a little."

He stepped up to the door and said in flawless Hungarian,

"Nem ertem Magyar, beszel Angolul?"

The man smirked and nodded.

"Igen. I speak English. You wish to speak to my Master here? Please enter"

The Night Hunters collectively glowered.

"You understood what we were saying?" asked Drago, clenching his fists. "Then why didn't you speak up before, shit head?"

The man suppressed laughter.

"In my position, Mien Herr, would you?"

In answer, the man got his first punch to the jaw by a large immortal wearing steel knuckle-dusters.

"Hope you bleed all over that stupid suit," he muttered following the others inside.

The interior of the house followed the same pattern as the outside, anything that could be carved, patterned, covered in velvet or embroidered was. They made their way to an immense elaborate ballroom where most of the coven lounged about dressed in velvet or drank delicately warmed blood from high crystal glasses. Someone played the Waldstein Sonata on a grand piano in the corner. The Night Hunters with their weapons and dripping hair were out of place and unwelcome. It nettled each of them that this decadent party was the sole occupation of the upper class of their species. The Master of the Coven was an immense fat man with dark curls of hair and an expression that implied a lot of smugness and not much intelligence. He greeted them like a king greeting old friends to his court. Bustling up to them swathed in green velvet with a little blood around his lips, he shook the hand of a rather bemused Assad and attempted to kiss Nya on both cheeks. She poked the end of one beratta into his ribs.

"We need to speak to you about the disappearance of vampires in this area recently. Your co-operation with our investigation would be appreciated more than your cordiality."

A shrewd expression came into the fat vampire's face and for the first time he showed signs of intelligence. Ushering them over to seats, his eyes wandered over them disbelievingly.

"You are Vespers' famed 'Secret Police' I assume. The Night Hunters. We have only heard stories and rumors of you, the greatest mercenaries from the ranks of the Children of the Night chosen by Vesper to fight our deadliest enemy. It is an honor to welcome you to my home. Please call me Stefan."

Nya nodded and the others looked faintly proud. They had a reputation already. And not a bad one apparently.

"As Nya has said, Herr Stefan, it is your help rather than your hospitality Lord Vesper would value at this moment," Assad replied rather curtly.

"The rest of us wouldn't mind a bit of both, pal," Drago grunted.

Nya glared at him but raised no objection as Stefan summoned towels, glasses of blood and attendants for them. They moved to a smaller parlor and took up more comfortable positions, slouched over chairs and sofas and, in Velle's case, over Droz's broad shoulders.

"Now," Nya began when they were all comfortable, "What can you tell us about action in the area over the last two weeks?"

"My Coven have lost none, but another Coven Master in the city, Julian, has had a blood bank decimated and all those inside vanished without a trace even the humans."

"Without a trace?" said Nya.

"Not entirely without a trace, there was blood everywhere."

"Sounds fairly normal for a blood bank to me." Drago cut in.

"By 'everywhere' I mean all over the walls, the floor, the few corpses left and their discarded possessions."

"And the security cameras?" Nya asked.

"Not yet retrieved. Understand it's not my property that's been destroyed and they're a little wary of sending men in there or so Julian tells me."

"Is that all you can tell us?"

"Complete destruction and apparent disappearance of everyone inside. I regret that is the extent of my knowledge although, I would be pleased to have you all stay for a while. There are only a couple of hours until sunrise."

"Your offer is appreciated, but we can easily make it back to our base by that time and we wouldn't wish to intrude," she replied coldly, motioning for the others to stand. They followed her regretfully out into the chill rain and back to the streets.

***

"He was lying," Assad said instantly, "that was far from the extent of his knowledge."

"I know that," Nya replied, "he may not have been aware that we knew but he was certainly willing to try and get a price for the information and we have no time to deal with him."

"I didn't like that servant of his," muttered Drago, hands shoved into pockets and scowling.

"I don't think he was over-fond of you either, Sunshine, although you gave him a pretty bruise to remember you by," Markus said ducking the return blow that Drago aimed at him. Meng followed silently, deep in thought. He held in his hand a camera no bigger than a matchbox on which were many pictures of the interior of the building along with it's inhabitants. It never hurt to have a little extra information. Velle and Droz walked slower behind talking and thinking about their mission.

"I don't like him. Stefan I mean. And I don't like this, patrolling still with only two hours until sun-up and the base 20 minutes away." She spoke, as usual, in Czech. Droz replied in a neutral mutter, swinging his immense hammer over his left shoulder like a baseball bat.

"Nya and Assad know what they're doing. We must trust their judgement for what it's worth."

"If the Halfbreed is involved, you know as well as I that our esteemed leader has a tendency to get carried away."

"It is as I said then, we will be fine."

Velle stared at him. "I don't follow, Mien Leibe."

"I said we'll be fine because this is nothing to do with the Halfbreed."

"How do you know that?"

"Whoever committed this massacre left humans dead as well as vampires."

"Familiars perhaps."

"Stefan said whoever it was killed everyone inside. That means familiars and onlookers. Correct me if I'm wrong, Velle, but isn't the Halfbreed's self-appointed mission to spare their worthless lives? And doesn't he usually leave corpses and ashes behind? If our informant is to be believed there was barely a trace except blood left afterward."

She gripped his hand. "I fail to see how that helps us at all. One menace to our kind is much the same as another."

"You may be right, Leibchein, but it is all we can do to hope."

She clicked her tongue and shook her head, "I never thought I'd hear the day I heard you talk about hope."

"If we take down the Halfbreed, we'll be free of this contract with Vesper. We may be able to choose our own fights and hunt alone again."

"I admire your optimism."

They stopped outside a large industrial building roughly converted into a blood bank of questionable cleanliness. It was locked up and sectioned off by police tape. This presented no barrier to the pack who stepped into the blood-stained corridors twenty seconds and three hammer blows later. Nya divided them up into four teams of two, one team to each section of the building. She walked off with Assad towards the labs in the left wing, Meng and Markus headed for the staff areas, Droz and Velle took the surgical rooms and Drago and Paco were left with the security and reception area to the right. Very conscious that there was only a little less than two hours until daylight, Nya ordered them all to be brief but thorough and keep in contact.

There was, as they had been told, much blood on the walls and floors and one or two barely recognizable corpses. Furniture had been overturned, windows smashed and even walls dented. Signs obviously of struggles. Unsuccessful struggles if the blood was to be believed. Other than that nothing notable except the security tapes which Drago and Paco retrieved.

They left the building with less than half an hour to return to base, a twenty-minute walk. The sky was overcast so the danger wasn't so great but as with all vampires they instinctively fled the sunlight like humans flinch from fire. They ran the last half-mile making it back to the immense concrete compound with only a few minutes to spare.

These they spent disarming, Nya appointed watch shifts of three hours during daylight, she was to take the first with Meng, Markus and Paco the second, Droz and Drago next and then Velle and Assad until sunset. The time between watches was their own although they mostly just slept through it. Nya herself went to report the progress of their mission to her father. Upon a gut instinct, she left the security tapes from the blood bank in her room and didn't mention it in her analysis. Where this sudden rebellious impulse came from, she couldn't say but concluded that what her father didn't know couldn't hurt him and reporting with more information when they actually had it might be more appreciated. His reaction was predictable, investigate the massacre, find the culprit and destroy them. A mere chore for the great Night Hunters, he said, and with his own daughter leading them, they could not fail. She thought she caught a slight look in his eyes and note in his voice akin to strain. Slight desperation. Was he worried about this? Did he suspect as she was beginning to that perhaps this wasn't just another hit by the Halfbreed? The tapes would tell.

Droz slept badly. He was never much of a sleeper at the best of times but tonight for some reason he felt especially uneasy. The destruction of the blood bank or their narrow escape from daylight perhaps were to blame. Velle slept easily at his side, their legs entwined, her arms thrown across his torso. Pushing her off him, he rose and dressed intending to spend the four hours until his shift at the firing range. Velle woke just as he opened the door and sat up.

"Restless, Mien Leibe?" she asked.

"Sleepless at least. I don't like this."

"What do you think of it all?" she asked, rising to stand with him.

"It wasn't the Halfbreed, it was something worse. Something not so selective in its victims or predictable in its actions."

"Perhaps some other vampire hunting group?"

"No bullets. The only weapons mortals can effectively use against us are projectiles and there wasn't a single one. Also no ashes. The place had a strange smell, but it wasn't ash."

"Rest, Droz. You only have a few hours until your watch and you'll need strength."

"Velle, vampires can do without sleep almost ad infinitum. I think you only sleep out of habit."

"Humor me then, lay with me a little while I sleep please."

"This time could be better used on the firing range..." he began

"When we're this close to a confrontation, Leibchein, what possible use is one more practice?"

"The more we train the better our odds of success..." he attempted again and was this time cut off by her kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply. He sighed, giving up and slipped his arms around her waist kissing her back so hard he almost pushed her over. They slept eventually.

Just before sunset that evening, Nya gathered them all together and they watched the security tape that showed exactly what happened as the pale, bald emaciated man went through the vampire surgeons and human security guards before tearing apart the whole building in his thirst for blood. It left them speechless. How could such a threat have arisen so quickly and unnoticed? It was untraceable and seemingly unstoppable. Assad turned to Nya and spoke, "Does the Lord Vesper know of this?"

She paused choosing her words carefully, "I have not yet informed him that we have the tape in our possession. I... forgot to mention it last night."

He looked at her cynically.

"It is crucial that he knows everything about this investigation. Withholding information from him could get us all into a lot of trouble and doom our mission to failure."

By now the others had noticed them and looked round to watch the inevitable argument.

"I will inform him of it, do not think I want this mission to fail any more than you do, Assad. We have no way to find this thing but to patrol until we find more evidence of its presence. This is what we will do; divide into groups with comm links active and scour the whole city if need be for this menace or any trace of it that could lead us to it."

"So pretty much same plan as last night only with a view to actually achieving something tonight?" said Drago clearly unimpressed, "Well I think we should be able to manage that alright, Boss. What I want to know is whatever happened to 'we're getting nowhere with simply patrolling'? Those were your exact words weren't they?"

Paco sniggered and the others except Meng smiled. Markus spoke, agreeing with Drago, "This is fast turning into a job for beat cops and boy scouts your high and mighty-ness."

She scowled.

"Regardless of your opinions, that is what you will do. Without a definite location to search or any leads willing to speak, this is the best idea we have. Form two groups of three plus one of two. Now split."

Drago sighed with mock exasperation. He gestured to Paco and Markus.

"Come on then, boys. Let's go play hide and seek with the mystery skinhead vampire slayer."

Nya teamed up with her second in command as usual and Meng, Velle and Droz formed the last team. They collectively armed, synced their comms, sectioned up the city and marched out into the night.

***

Nya and Assad took North Buda including the park district, Drago's group took South Buda from Alagut and across the river Meng's group covered Pest. It was a long boring walk and Drago frequently grumbled that he wished they would meet some threat just to break up the monotony of houses, parks, shops and roads. The streets were still bustling in the early evening so they were forced to keep their weapons out of sight and speak of their mission only in the ancient vampire language, which they all knew close to instinctively although they frequently lapsed back into English or Czech.

It was Drago's group that hit the first action in a side street off the waterfront. A skinny bald figure suddenly sprung on Paco as he trailed behind the other two. The thing's nails scraped down his face and it was with difficulty he beat it off and yelled for them. They turned and opened fire without a second thought. Flawless marksmanship allowed them three hits to the creature's body before with an unearthly shriek it bolted from the alley out into the wide pavement of Bem Rakpart. They instantly gave chase hollering down their throat mikes for back up. Nya's voice replied instantly.