The menacing looking street only got worse the further down we traveled. There was blood everywhere, almost like the vampires had put their human prey in a grape press and squeezed every last drop out of them for use in painting their hideous scene. With the intense scent filling my nose, despite my attempts to ignore it, I struggled to keep bile from crawling up my throat. Between that and the slamming headache I was still dealing with, all my senses were dialed up to 11. 

Body parts were strewn throughout the street and on top of buildings. The bodies down here also lacked heads, and the body parts were so mangled that it was impossible to tell the age and gender of the victims, nor how many humans were killed to construct this trap.

However, the appalling sight that accompanied us as we trotted on the street back out of Rosethorne was not the only difference from yesterday. Where the buildings and village appeared untouched the day before, now there was blatant evidence of an attack on the town. Doors were smashed in or torn apart. Any decorations or small furniture on the street or in houses was destroyed. Not a single window was left intact. Destruction was everywhere. 

“If I’m not mistaken, Duncan, this was the street we came down yesterday, correct?” Julius asked. 

Duncan nodded. “I noticed that myself.”

“I don’t imagine it looked like this yesterday, did it?” Ash asked, the concern in his voice notable.

“No. Someone has taken great pains to reveal what happened to this town. The fact that it was accomplished in barely half a day is also concerning.”

“You don’t think it was magic, do you?” I asked.

Everyone turned to look at me, confusion on their faces.

“I mean like, do you think it’s possible it looked like this yesterday, and someone used magic to veil the truth from us? Then, when they knew we would return, they dissolved the spell to let us see what happened all along?”

“You mean the pie was a lie?!” Kit exclaimed.

“Will you get off your damn pie?” Dorian shushed him. “That kind of question feels like your area of expertise, Julius. You think she’s on to something?”

Julius quirked his mouth in thought. “It’s possible. As most of you know, magic amongst humans is extremely sparse and limited. I humbly suggest that I am one of the more capable humans of our age, and even this sort of deception would be well outside my capabilities.” He continued to think as he rode closer to a large blood stain on the side of a building and stared at it intently. 

“I might be able to veil something for a few minutes at most, but definitely not something the size of a whole town. That being said, the Gods saw fit to bless our enemies with more magical prowess than we humans possess. And a vampire’s true abilities are all but a mystery now. It’s possible we could be facing a foe with that level of magical potential, however horrifying that may be.”

He reached out and let his fingertips rest a hair’s breadth from the side of the building and the swath of blood. He closed his eyes and grunted in concentration for a few moments, then gasped for air and wiped at some light sweat that had gathered on his brow.

“I regret that I’m unable to determine if any magic has been used here. I do not sense any, but that doesn’t mean it was never there.” he reported.

“Great. I’m liking this less and less.” Chad muttered.

“No use dwelling on it.” Duncan ordered. “We see what the state of the village is now and that is all the evidence we need to move forward.” He kicked his horse into a trot, eager to get out of the grisly street. We urged our horses to follow and rode until we spilled out of the borders of Rosethorne.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The bloody array continued out of the town and off in a direction further north into the pines. The body parts started to taper off the trail once we got out of town. Unfortunately, we did not have the numbers to stay alert as well as cut through the forest. The horses had to be abandoned early, likely as our enemy intended, as we followed our macabre trail towards the hungry vampires that no doubt awaited us at the end.

“I hate this. I hate it, I hate it!” I complained, as I hacked at yet another pine limb snagged in my blouse sleeve. Dorian reached over to free me, and I nodded in thanks. “They’ve planned all of this. Maybe not our initial split, but I wouldn’t put it past them anticipating us splitting up to cover more ground anyway. Now we’re fewer in numbers and on foot, with no choice but to follow this wherever it leads. Our only other option is to give up and turn back around.” 

Dorian nodded in agreement. “I know. I’ve been trying to think of ways to be more proactive about this, but nothing is coming to mind. We’re kind of at their mercy. They know when everything is going to happen.”

I brushed at yet another pine that had grabbed me and succeeded in ripping through my blouse sleeve, leaving a scrape on my arm underneath.

“These stupid trees!” I raged at the limb and shoved at it angrily, only to have it whip back and hit me again. I grabbed at my arm again and noticed what looked like droplets of blood. I pawed at the area, looking for another tear in the sleeve and where I might have been cut, only to realize nothing was there. 

Only then did I notice red flakes falling across my vision and landing on my white blouse, staining it. I looked up and saw more of them falling through the sky. I held my hand up and let one land in my palm, which immediately melted. I looked up again at the red cloudy sky overhead and raged at it.

“You have got to be kidding me!” 

Dorian and Ash heard me and stopped as they noticed my distraction.

“What is it?” Ash asked. He too, looked up for a moment just in time for a red snowflake to hit him on the nose, forcing him to blink in surprise.

“It’s red snow. It looks like blood, but it’s red snow!” I exclaimed. I looked around and saw it wasn’t yet falling hard, but it still stained wherever it fell. It wouldn’t be too long before the trees and any exposed ground would be colored with the appearance of blood.

“Such foul sorcery!” Duncan hissed. 

“Such a flair for the dramatic! If they weren’t so keen on eatin’ me, I’d rather like these creatures!” Kit laughed. 

“Come on. If this weather keeps up, it will only make things more treacherous. We must keep moving and hope we find them before this weather makes a turn for the worse.” Chad urged. 

“I say we turn back.” Julius suggested. “As our prince has so kindly pointed out, the weather has turned, and we are already in unknown enemy territory. Our blood trail will soon be lost amongst this new obstacle, and we will neither know the way forward nor back. As Duncan has implied, our courage in this moment is folly. This is as good a sign as any that it’s time to abandon our task, before we suffer any casualties.”

Before anyone could comment or object, a burst of energy shot through our group between us and skewered Julius in his lower right side. He screamed in agony as he collapsed, gloved hands grasping at the wound, blood immediately pouring from it. 

Ash quickly jumped to action and put his glowing hands on Julius to begin working at healing the wound. It looked bad. The magic had ripped through his side, and I could see the large gaping hole that the two of them were desperately trying to seal up. Julius wasn’t making any further sounds of anguish, but the strain on his face said plenty. 

The rest of us whirled to face the direction of the shot and unsheathed our weapons. Despite our best efforts to locate our attackers, there was nothing to be seen. Only the sound of scraping on trees and whispered snarls. 

“Me thinks they heard we weren’t plannin’ on stickin’ around.” Kit mumbled. 

“Indeed.” Duncan agreed. “Dorian, stay with Ash and Julius. Give Ash the time he needs and then get them out of here. The rest of us will advance and start this skirmish away from your position.”

Dorian nodded and the rest of us started to move towards the menacing sounds ahead before Dorian grabbed my arm and whirled me to face him.

“Stay close to Duncan. Or Chad. Or, hell, even Kit, alright? Promise me! And if things get bad, do as Duncan says and run. I’ll leave a trail or something for you to follow.” It had been a while since we had prolonged close eye contact like this, and I had forgotten how striking his green eyes were, like a polished shimmering jade. They were wide with worry. 

He then hugged me tightly. “I can’t lose you.” he breathed. 

I gave him a quick squeeze in a hug of my own before he released me, and I hurriedly turned away. 

“Amelia, please be careful!” I heard Ash call out as I dashed through the light snow and pines to catch up with the rest of the group.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

As we pushed through the forest, I could still feel a hammering in my skull, only now it was in tune with the steady beating of my heart, pounding with every step I took. Adrenaline had done me a favor and all but washed away the painful reminders of last night, and now my head just throbbed in sync with the drum in my chest. What time was it? The thick red clouds above concealed the position of the sun in the sky, but I couldn’t imagine it being past noon already. 

There was still time. We could finish this and be back at the fort in time for supper.

It’s either that or we end up being supper.

The blood snow had at least stopped, but it had fallen long enough to dust everything with a reddish tint. It made the trees themselves look hungry, which wasn’t a welcome visual as they continued to grab at us as we pushed by. The air still had the sinister chill, beguiling the summer season, and I could see my breath heavy in the air. Luckily, the adrenaline forcing blood through my body was keeping me warm, otherwise I would have been freezing in my now damp clothes.

As we haphazardly pushed ahead, the dense forest kept us from staying in a tightly knit pack, and we were now more loosely spread apart. I bounced up next to Chad and Duncan, per Dorian’s request, and tugged on Chad’s arm lightly to let him know I was there. He turned abruptly in surprise, but immediately calmed and smiled lightly when he realized it was just me. 

“Stay as close as you can, my star.” he whispered.

The blood now rushing to my face for a whole different reason, I darted my eyes back and forth for any signs of our impending threat. My ears were alert, listening for any tips, but there were too many conflicting sounds now, where there had been silence for so long. The sounds of feet crunching through the layer of snow on the ground, the scratching of claws or something else just as sharp on the trees. The sound of our heavy breathing and pushing through the trees. All of it made it hard to focus on a direction.

Suddenly Duncan raised a fist and, despite how spread out we were, everyone took notice and stopped, the crunch of snow abruptly halting. I narrowed my eyes to look through the trees to find what Duncan had sensed. For several moments, I saw nothing. The trees were so thick I couldn’t make out farther than a dozen or so feet in front of me but darting my eyes between the available spaces between then yielded just more red dusted black limbs. 

Then I saw them.

It was like they appeared out of thin air, as once I finally saw them, I was sure I’d glanced that direction before. They were maybe 20 feet or so ahead of us, standing in a rough line and waiting in a small clearing. Duncan slowly moved forward, signaling for the rest of us to follow behind. Once we made it into the clearing, I got a better look at them. There were ten of them that I could see, and I had to assume they were vampires. Unlike the thralls from before, these ones were clearly a cut above. But they looked nothing like the transformed monstrous human villagers from Rosethorne. In fact, nothing about them looked human at all. 

They looked like dark elves more than anything else: elegant, and evil. They were very handsome, with sharp thin features. Each of them had a skin tone varying from very dark black to purple or a lighter grey. They had pointed ears, with most of them decorated with some loop or piercing, and their hair colors were all a variation of black to silver. Their hair styles and lengths also varied wildly, with most just being slicked back, but with a common trait of looking clean, soft, and straight. Their eye colors were also varied unnatural shades, all over the darker or menacing color spectrum, not a brown or blue eye among them.

Their clothes were all well-kept and almost regal. They wore straight pressed pants and had button-down colored shirts and vests over them. An occasional vampire also had a cloak or cape draped over their shoulders, but most of them wisely went without, as the draped clothing displayed an occasional tear in the fabric where a tree had marred their fashion. Their clothing matched the rest of their color schemes: dark and deep colors of black or some variation, with purple or red trim here or there. They all carried the same bored, emotionless expressions on their faces, and were all armed, mostly with bladed weapons, but none had them drawn. Once we had all crossed over the trees into the clearing, the tallest one in the middle of the line spoke, a deep rumble with a hard edge to his voice.

“Finally! It’s about bloody time! I would say it’s getting cold out, but I’m sure you’re aware we don’t care about the state of the weather. Instead, I’ll show you the courtesy of complaining about something we can all relate to.”

He smiled wickedly and a tongue flicked over his sharp teeth.

“Waiting on you has made us hungry.”