We step onto the cobbled road, the snow melting in some patches over the strong sunlight from up above. The road leads straight to the town square where I remember the lone clock tower when we first arrived in this country, and all the hustle and bustle of the street vendors and the youths. But as we walk through the town, I get an unshakable feeling that something's not right.
"What time is it?" I ask Rio.
"Almost noon," he replies with a scowl on his face reflecting the same worry that's hitting the pit of my stomach.
"Blood," Rio utters, sniffing the air.
Those of us who heard Rio utter the word try to sniff it out for ourselves. My nose leads me to somewhere at the back of the line. I look back to see a young man whose arm got ripped off by a swarm of vampires and smell the blood and medicine under his amputated dressing.
"And vampires," Alex observes, emitting a low growl at the back of his throat.
A wandering breeze hits my face and I wince at the sudden stench of death all around me that seems to have come from nowhere. The group begins to murmur uneasily now that the wind is passing all the way down. My ears twitch to the subtle creek of a wooden floorboard and the scutter of footsteps in the buildings nearby. I look up and catch sight of a figure swiftly moving out of view in the shadows.
"Stay in the sun," I advise the rest of the large group, gazing up at the clear sky, thankful for the Sun Goddess's blessing of the day.
A chain of whispers goes around warning of the vampires hidden in the shadow of the buildings nearby proceeding all the way down the line. To this, the vampires in the buildings start to talk among themselves.
"They're hungry," Ganzorig remarks. "Newborns."
Suddenly, a crazed looking vampire steps out from a front door, lunging at us. As soon as he steps out into the sun, his skin instantly sizzles and burns. He drops to the floor, too agonized to crawls back to the shade, and dies in a matter of seconds, his body turning into a lump of ash as a gust blows his remains away.
We hear the chime of the clocktower striking 12 pm in the town square up ahead. And I shudder at its echoes.
"Do you think Valentina's here?" Bianca asks over the chiming, agitated by the growing noise and the hisses from the buildings in the shadows.
Wherever the vampiress may be, I get the feeling that the decrepit soul that's possessed her body has something to do with all of these newborns. History is shaping up to repeat itself, as the First Son raises a new army of vampires.
When the chiming of the clocktower stops, the hisses and the noises from the buildings stop, too. And there in the middle of the town square, basking under the light of the sun, is Valentina shrouded in a cloud of black.
Her face is serene and her eyes are closed in contentment as she sits by the steps of the clocktower. Her black-and-white hair blows freely in the wind as does the billowing smoke from the black cloud encompassing her body.
The three of us approach cautiously—Rio, Bianca and myself—ready at any moment's notice to defend ourselves against whatever ploy The First Son may be playing at. Meanwhile, Alex and Ganzorig circle the outer rims of the town square ready to capture Valentina's body.
I scan the other buildings that are now in view, especially those to my right that come in the way of sunlight. A small head pokes through a window, curious at the scene below. Almost instantly, a hand shoves the head back, reprimanding in whispers. I wonder how long these survivors have hidden and how many more there might be.
YOU ARE READING
Sun & Moon
ChickLit"I'll have a whiskey and the lady will have a shot." A very tall man appears right beside me with a curly dark lock of hair resting above his brow that reminds me of Superman. His nose slopes down straight like a Grecian sculpture. His voice is cool...
