Five

Eep vampires!

The dwarf stepped cautiously forward, taking out the letter we had been given at the inn.

“This is the letter, signed by the burgomaster. This is what brought us here,” the dwarf said, holding it up to her.

Ireena glanced over the letter, her frown turning into a full fledged scowl.

“It's all lies, this entire letter. My father could not have possibly written this...Like I said, he died three days ago. We were attacked by wolves and it seemed to have been too much for his heart. My brother is out trying to find people to help us get him to the church...Come in. I guess we'll make use of you lot, since you are already here.”

The woman stepped aside and held open the door so we could enter. I hung back toward the back of our group, just in case, but there were no ambushes waiting for us. She took us into the house and into a room just beyond the once grand entryway. There, surrounded by wilting flowers and the scent of decay, we finally met the burgomaster.

As if on cue, the moment we had all gathered into the room, the front doors were opened and a young, blond man strode into the house.

“Ireena, I wasn't able to find anyone to help...Oh...uh, hello.”

Upon seeing the room full of strangers, the young man paused, his eyes darting from face to face, weapon to weapon, uneasily.

“These people have volunteered to accompany Father to the church. Can you get the cart ready?” Ireena asked.

The young man nodded mutely and scurried out of the room and out of view, presumably taking a back door to get the mentioned cart ready.

“That was my brother, Ismark. We'll go with you to the church...I am assuming you don't know where it is since you are new here.” Ireena explained.

There was some mumbled approval of this plan as everyone began to gather around the coffin to lift it up. Ireena held the door open for us and we passed out of the room and then out of the house. Ismark came from around a corner leading a tired looking horse pulling a crude cart. The cart had obviously seen better days, but still seemed sturdy enough to escort the heavy coffin. Silently we loaded up the coffin and made out way through the town toward the church.

There was still no one on the streets, so our procession went completely unnoticed. The tired looking horse limped it's way up the road and fairly quickly we spotted a dilapitated looking church building at the end of the road. Like the other buildings of the town, it was not in the best of shape, the walls covered in claw marks. We came to a stop in front of the church doors and unloaded the coffin.

My help was not needed, so I stayed at the back of the group, eyeing the many dark corners and shadows that loomed all around us. All seemed...calm-as calm as a place like this could appear. As we went into the church, however, an inhuman scream filled the air, setting me immediately on edge. We carry the coffin through the entry hall, passing four doorways, and entered into a destroyed church hall.

An old priest was kneeling at the alter and praying desperately to his god in a hushed voice. Upon our arrival, he quickly finished his pray and looked up. I hung back in the hall with the doors, every cell in my body screaming that something was not right. I watched as the group explained the reason they are there and ask what was going on in the church.

“It...is my son....He has become evil and cannot be saved...” The priest sighed tiredly.

“What happened? My name is Uda and I've been trained as a monk, so maybe I can help?” The high elf offered.

The priest sadly shook his head.

“He can't be helped...we were attacked and he was...bitten...”

The last word was said quietly, but my ears were keen enough to pick it up. Without a second though, I spun around and immediately began to open one of the doors in the hall. The room revealed nothing, so I swiftly moved on to the room opposite of that one. In that room, I found a trap door in a corner, covered in padlocks.

Uda followed me into the room, noticing my odd behavior. Seeing what I had found he attempted to reason with me.

“I want to try to save his son, will you help me?” He asked softly.

I shot him a glare. He had to be a fool to think he could save a vampire.

“I want to kill him. Will you help me?” I replied darkly.

He began to say something else, but stopped and shook his head. Instead of trying to deal with me anymore, Uda returned to the chapel hall to discuss various things with the others. As they begin to do the funeral rites for the dead man, I took out my great axe and slammed the blade down onto the locks. Unsurprisingly, they shattered under the might of the axe. Surprisingly, only one person came to check on the noise.

Salshire darted into the room and glanced around. Seeing only me, the teifling asked the question I knew would come.

“What are you doing?”

I grinned bitterly at her, but did not answer. Instead, I lifted open the trapped door and swiftly bolted down into the church's basement. As I made my way quietly down, I heard the footsteps of the others as they finally came to investigate all the noise. I could hear their conversation, muffled, but I heard enough key words to know they planned to barricade me into this place. So be it. I was not about to let another vampire get the best of me. Not again.

Before I made it to the bottom of the stairs, however, dim light illuminated me and I turned back to see Uda join me. He nodded to me, frowning, but said nothing.

Together, we made it to the bottom of the stairs and glanced around. A figure moved from around a corner and gleefully called,

“Father! You have sent me food!”

I charged the figure, swinging my axe at it wildly, a growl rumbling out from my throat and I poured my hatred into the attack.

But I missed. The blood sucker easily dodged my swing and danced away from me, laughing. Uda was right behind me and tackled the vampire. My guess was he planned to restrain the beast, but he also failed. Rather than go for Uda, the vampire turned to me as I was regaining my balance and lunged at me. I was not prepared for the attack at all, having expected him to attack Uda rather than me. His disgusting nails slashed across my chest, leaving deep, bloody gashes and one of his hands twisted into my fur and yanked my head back. My neck was his.

I could feel my life draining from my by the second and struggled weakly free of his grasp. I stumbled backward, my vision blurring and distorted, my breathing heavy. I knew I was probably going to die if he got a hold of me again.

Seeing this, Uda took his chance and once again tackled the vampire to the floor, restraining him.

“Father! Father, help me, they are hurting me!” The vampire screamed, struggling wildly.

I dropped to my knees, my head spinning, and was forced to rest a moment. Above us I could hear a scuffle break out, likely between my companions and the priest.

“We aren't hurting him! We've just got him restrained since he is attacking us!” Uda called, but his words were ignored.

My mind was going fuzzy and I knew there was only one thing left for me to do. I had to kill that vampire, no matter what it took. If I died, so be it. As long as I took that monster down with me I could at least pretend he was Selakiir. I struggled back up to my feet, growling. My mind gave way to my animal instinct.

“Nukka, don't...don't attack him. It's fine right? There's no reason to!” Uda called out, but I did not hear him.

I would not recognize what he had said until later, when I lay awake after my nightmares. At that time, my sole focus was on that monster and there would be no escape for it! I lurched forward, readying to attack again, but my foot seemed to catch on something and I face planted into the packed dirt of the basement floor. My strength had fully escaped me and I could not get up. My vision darkened, but I stayed barely conscious.

The next thing I knew, Salshire, Globar, Mendla, and Gorwin were standing at the bottom of the stairs, watching with shocked and horrified expressions. I was coming out of my animal craze and struggled back up to join them at the stairs. As I walked away, the vampire began to howl about all of the food that had come to him. He ripped himself free of Uda and stumbled away, salivating.

Globar quickly cast a healing spell on me and I felt my wounds heal slightly and strength return. I was about to give my thanks, but the vampire suddenly attacked Mendla, and she very nearly crumpled to the floor. At this time, Vidette, the cleric joined the chaos, swiftly leaping down the stairs. Watching all this, Uda began to cast a spell. I thought I recognized a few of the words and could only guess he was attempting a sleep spell on the vampire.

Fool.

My companions began to move, surrounding the vampire somewhat and blocking the stairs. Shaking my head, I swiftly pulled a vial of holy water out of one of my pack's pockets and readied my bow. I dipped an arrow into the vial and shot the arrow at the vampire. This time, I did not miss. Seeing my attack seemed to have some sort of attack, Salshire launched an attack of her own, but she was thrown off by the speed of the vampire and missed. At the same time, Globar attacked with their axe, but since the vampire had moved to avoid the attack from Salshire, the dwarf also missed.

Having caught the attention of the vampire, the vampire went for Globar, sinking his teeth into the dwarf's neck. Before I could do anything, the dwarf crumpled down onto the ground at the brink of death. Vidette and Uda both began to cast spells at the vampire, so I swiftly moved my position and readied a spell I had never used before.

It was far moe powerful than I had ever expected; the thunderwave spell moved out from my hands, electrifying anything it touched. I was lucky that my companions avoided it and only the vampire was in range, but I could tell from their burning glares that I would need to work on figuring out the range of this spell. Selshire and Mendla both unleash attacks of their own and hellfire eats at the vampire for a moment.

Furious, the vampire swiped at Salshire, but he missed. She was starting to ge thte hang of his movements, it seemed. While the vampire was distracted, Vidette cast a healing spell on the fallen dwarf and they wake up. From there, everyone begins to throw spells and attacks at the vampire. I am sure they had all grown tired of the battle and wanted to fully end it.

 Vidette's final spell light the vampire up like a flame in the darkness and the vampire fell.

A feeling of relief spread throughout the group, although several dirty looks were shot my way. My shoulders sagged and I stayed slightly back as Vidette set the vampire's body on fire. Tiredly, they shuffled back up the stairs. I hung back for a moment, but eventually followed.

Upstairs, I paused at the sight of the priest on the floor, dead. My mood darkened. I followed my companions out of the church and found Ismark and Ireena waiting, clearly annoyed.

“Are you done yet?” Ireena sneered.

Author's Note

Hmm, not sure how I felt about the writing the fighting...what did you think? Was it interesting to read or boring?
As always: First draft, unedited, please forgive my horrid memory.