Emma's bare feet ran softly across the forest floor. She moved silently under the midnight moon, swiftly as a shadow where anyone that might have caught her would have believed her a forest spirit or, a phantom fading through the trees. She caught his trail and followed his scent, using her keen night vision and sharp sense of smell.
She would find him.
"Vance?" She called quietly, so as not to disturb the creatures of the night. "Vance?" He'd been gone for nearly two weeks, longer than he'd ever been away. Every so often Vance would leave her home and disappear. Her parents reassured her he would always return, and he usually did after a few days.
This time was much longer and she worried, staying up late those nights and watching the surrounding dark forests from the castle towers waiting for him until her father found her and ordered her to go to bed. One night she even snuck out of the castle and sought her famed vampire-hunting uncle to help find him.
"Please!" She begged. "You must find him. He could be hurt!"
"You'd know if he was hurt, kid." Trevor said gruffly. "Thanks to that magical blood bond your mother set on him. The sucker will come back don't you worry, and if he doesn't it's not the worst thing."
"He has to come back!" Emma stomped her foot. "He's my best friend! He wouldn't abandon me! Please!!"
Trevor shrugged. "Fine. I'll find your loyal pet for you, just wait here while I get my hunting gear. Don't look at me like that, little angel, the gear helps me track down vampires. I won't kill him." He ruffled her hair and told her to wait, and she did. When Trevor returned, he returned without gear and with her scowling father.
"She's all yours, Alucard." Trevor grunted. Emma shrunk back from her father's glare. "Let's go." Alucard commanded her with an underlying growl.
"Listen to your father, kid." Trevor advised, amused by Emma's refusal. In other circumstances the young girl would have relented and followed her sire home, but she knew the moment she stepped inside the castle , he would ensure she wouldn't sneak out again. She couldn't risk that for Vance's sake.
"If you won't help me, I'll find him myself!" Emma clapped her hands together in a blinding flash, making a run from the village while the adults were disoriented, speeding on wolf paws into the dark forests. She cowered beneath the roots of a large tree, concealed from sight by the bat swarm whirring above.
When the swarm flew off she shuffled onto her paws and sniffed the air, miraculously catching Vance's sharp scent. She followed her nose, a wolf pup loping through the woods until the scent grew stronger, and mingled with blood.
Emma whimpered and cautiously shifted into human shape, running along the scent and calling Vance's name. The blood scent grew stronger and a trail of it ran alongside her feet. Dread crept into her heart as she saw evidence of a bloody struggle.
"Vance!" She cried, praying he wasn't hurt. "Vance where are you!?"
By miracle she found him, but she wished she hadn't.
Vance hunched over a blurry shape, sucking voraciously at its throat and pinning it with sharpened claws. The cloud passed from the moon, revealing the grisly truth Emma's parents wanted to shield her from.
Vance fed on a human. His victim's eyes glazed lifeless and its skin bone pale. Emma froze in horror, and when Vance jerked his head, jaws dripping and bloodied, his burnished eyes caught the sight of the terrified girl.
"Emma." He rasped horrified and bewildered by her presence.
Emma shuddered with tears streaming from her eyes. Vance dropped the corpse and quickly wiped his mouth. "Emma, it's all right love. I'm not going to hurt you." He slowly approached her the way one would with a frightened animal. He hoped she'd never see him like this.
Emma's entire body shook when she sobbed. Her eyes locked in wide eyed terror on the vampire and the drained human corpse behind him. "Emmaline I'm so sorry. It's going to be okay. I'm not going to hurt you I swear. Let me bring you home."
Emma turned and ran from him.