Unmasked | Book 1 in "Dark Descendants" (Editing)

Chapter 2

The bat's claws dug into the bark of the tree as it silently watched the figure walking around the ruins with a lighted torch.

Foolish human, he thought as the said human stopped in an old, dusty room that was half destroyed. He was exposed to the night, with nothing to protect him except for his lighted torch that lit up his face with an orange glow. He was not aware of the danger one creature could cause, one who was watching his every move with a predatory gaze.

The human, called Zach, had ventured out here to see for himself the ancient ruins that supposedly had a body in it. But so far, his curiosity was not satisfied.

He huffed and continued his search, until he heard a snap.

Spinning around to the direction it came from, Zach held the torch up and squinted to see something, anything. But then he let out a gasp.

A pair of sinister red eyes stared out at him, reflecting the light of the fire.

But as soon as they came, they were gone.

Gulping, Zach started to regret going back here. Maybe it would be better if he did not find the body.

He turned around again to take one last glance at the place, then cried out in shock.

Those same red eyes were just a foot away from him, belonging to a handsome young man who stared at him like a cat would to a bird.

"Dude," Zach started uneasily. "What's wrong with your eyes?"

The next thing he knew the flame went out and he was enveloped in the terrifying darkness. He was breathing loudly and unevenly now as a bad feeling settled itself between his shoulder blades.

What made things worse was the deafening silence.

Suddenly the heel of someone's hand came into contact with his face and he cried out in pain, falling backwards as he dropped the useless torch and clutched his nose.

But the creature didn't stop. He grabbed Zach's head in a secure grip, lifting him back up from the ground. He turned himself in a three-hundred and sixty degree spin, gaining momentum to throw him into the trunk of a tree.

Zach landed against the bark, coughing up blood as he clutched his broken arm. The blow knocked the air out of his lungs. He struggled to breathe properly. The creature's strength was unimaginably incredible. The creature tilted it's head towards Zach as his heart beat sped up.

Thudthudthudthudthudthudthud.

He glanced up at him in fear, who was now revealed again by the moonlight.

"What do you want, man?!" Zach demanded. "Why are you trying to kill me?!"

The creature still remained silent, his paleness making him almost glow.

Zach knew better than to call for help, but he was frozen in fear as the creature took a step forward. Then another. And another.

Clouds covered the moon again, but his red eyes remained glowing as the rest of his body was just a dark silhouette.

His gaze dropped to the blood that dripped off of the human. Then suddenly a dark smirk formed onto his face as his canines lengthened into long, sharp fangs. Light purple lines emerged beneath his eyes, starting from the bottom of his eye-whites. It gave him an almost ill look.

Zach didn't stop the piercing scream of pain he let out as the creature was suddenly in front of him with unbelievable speed, holding him immobile as he dug his fangs into his throat.

*****

Once Zach's heart stopped its rhythmic beat, the vampire released his teeth from his neck and let his body drop to the ground.

Blood trailed down his chin, forcing him to wipe it off casually.

"Y'know you could've at least been nicer about it." A new voice spoke, but the first vampire didn't have to look up to see his brother standing there.

"Vampires don't do 'nice', Joe," he retorted, walking right next to his victim's head as he made his way to farther down the forest to turn back into his bat form. "Remember that."

"And you're just gonna leave the body here in the open?" Joe asked him, nudging the dead boy with his boot as if to prove his point.

The creature looked back at him, eyes turning back to his normal color; pitch black. "It's far away from civilization, let the birds pick on him," he joked.

"But what about the girl, Fallon?" Joe asked loudly, once again catching his elder brother's attention.

He had stopped and glanced at Joe with an unreadable look before mutely disappearing into the dark night.

Joe sighed and raised his head to the sky. He stared sadly at the moon, wishing he could undo what happened to them. What made them like this.

What turned them into monsters.

Because even he loses control and slaughters human beings, stealing them from their loved ones for his own meals.

He snapped out of his thoughts as his gaze dropped to another figure moving through the woods with a flashlight.

"Zach?" It was a female's voice, but all Joe could focus on was her quick heartbeat. Music to his ears.

"Zach, where are you? I was worried so I came to find..." She trailed off when her light came into contact with the dead body.

She let out a shriek and stumbled back, tripping onto the ground. Joe sucked in a quick breath of air when a wave of the sweet smell of blood hit him.

She had hurt herself.

She soon spotted Joe, then screamed again as she saw his iris involuntarily turn blood red.

"I'm so sorry." He whispered before lunging at her in a flash.

He'd like to think he was just tying up his brother's loose ends, but this was almost entirely because of his uncontrollable blood lust.

One that all of his kind were cursed with.