LunarEclipse

CH.1 Strangers in the Night

The sound of heavy footsteps echoed in the empty streets of the small city. The Vampire hunter ran down another alleyway and cursed when he came to another dead end. What was it with these big cities and putting fences and walls in the narrow passageways? Lunar sighed and ran his free hand through silver locks of hair. His other hand held his stainless steel automatic. The safety turned off just in case he ran into the rogue Vampire that terrorized the city. He pivoted on his heel and walked back out in the street.

Despite the darkness, Lunar decided against using magic to shed light on the street. He could not use magic for too long anyway, his body would tire out too fast. He could use a light spell for about 5 minutes—hardly enough time to hunt down a Vampire. No good came from magic either since Lunar didn’t even have a grasp on the basics of Lesser Magic. He glanced at his watch, 4 AM. The sun would rise soon, making it more difficult to catch the monster. It could blend in to the crowd of humans in the early morning.

“Damn,” he whispered, ‘How am I going to kill something I can’t even see?’ He continued walking, listening to the echoing of his footsteps, the rhythm relaxed him until he heard another pair of footsteps wandering near him. He tensed and fingered the trigger of the gun. He turned around, quietly and quickly making his way to the source. He broke out into a run when the footsteps came faster. So many thoughts ran through his mind he didn’t notice the figure darting out from the corner of a building and crashing into him. The collision knocked both of them to the ground. The gun flew from Lunar’s hand and landed in the street.

‘Damn!’ He couldn’t reach his gun. Lunar searched for an advantage but found none. Movement in front of him made him look up, he then noticed the other on the ground couldn’t be the Vampire he hunted. The man sat cross-legged and slumped over so Lunar couldn’t se his face. The man rubbed the back of his head and uttered only one word before acknowledging Lunar’s existence.

“Ow…”

Ow? All he could say was ‘Ow’? Lunar flinched when the man lifted his head to look at him. Long, black bangs covered half his face but his glowing scarlet eyes shown through the thick mass of black as if his hair simply wasn’t in the way of his eyes. Those eyes mesmerized Lunar. He had never seen such an unusual color before.

“Um, are you ok?” The stranger asked, standing up and brushing dirt off his pants. He offered his paper white hand to Lunar to help him stand up. Raising an eyebrow at the man, Lunar stood up without assistance. Nonchalantly picking up his gun, Lunar pointed it in the man’s face.

“Who are you and what are you doing out past the city’s curfew?” Lunar demanded, his ice blue eyes bored into scarlet as he pulled the hammer back. The stranger froze, his mouth opened to say something but he shut it. Lunar growled impatiently, lowering his gun he said, “I don’t have time for this. You’re a civilian, right? It’s not safe here, go home now. You’ll just be a burden otherwise.” He turned to walk away when the man spoke.

“Wait! I’m—“

A horrified scream tore through his words and he wasn’t able to finish his sentence. Both of them turned to the direction of the scream. Lunar cursed and looked at the stranger one last time before heading in the direction of the scream.

“Go. Home.”

Lunar raced to where the scream came from, cursing his luck the entire time. What had he done to be put on an assignment like this without any help? More importantly, why did no one in the stupid city stick to the curfew? Being inside by nine O’clock meant be inside by nine O’clock. No exceptions. He already had to send and escort six people home in the past two hours. All of it truly annoyed him. Rounding a corner Lunar nearly got knocked off his feat by the stench of blood.

“Ugh!” His hand automatically went up to cover his face. He never got used to the sight or smell of blood, no matter how many times he came in contact with it.

He slowed his run to a quiet walk when he came to part of the sidewalk that was splattered with blood. As quietly as possible Lunar crept up to the alley where the blood flowed from and poked his head around the corner. The Vampire crouched over the remains of a body, not only drinking her blood but eating her flesh as well. Lunar grimaced.

‘Since when do Vampires eat flesh?’ Even during a blood lust Vampires never ate human flesh.

Lunar aimed his gun at the Vampire’s head and pulled the trigger. The loud bang echoed throughout the streets. The Vampire was nowhere to be seen. The bullet missed its target and imbedded itself into a nearby wall.

‘What? How did I miss?’

The Vampire appeared behind him and punched Lunar hard in the stomach before the human could even think of doing anything. The force of the attack sent Lunar flying backwards in the alley. He collided with a chain link fence that yielded only a little bit before it sprung Lunar forward and face down in a pool of blood. Gasping for breath Lunar tried to get up, but with the wind knocked out of him it made it impossible to move. Not to mention his newly broken ribs made it even worse. His chest felt like it was on fire. He coughed up blood and instinctively circled his arm protectively around his chest.

“Nnn…My…gun…” he searched for the weapon but couldn’t find it in arm’s reach. It took him a few seconds to realize he dropped it when the Vampire punched him.

The Vampire advanced toward him. Panic settled in Lunar’s stomach, he needed something he didn’t have. A weapon. All he had were broken ribs and a corpse with one third of her body missing. Desperate, Lunar gritted his teeth and pushed himself up. He could climb the fence if he tried. Gripping the cool metal he heaved his body in to a standing position and began to scale the fence. The Vampire grabbed the scarf resting on Lunar’s neck and yanked him backwards. He fell flat on his back and his head slammed into the ground. His vision blurred and came back in white spots. The Vampire towered over him, it certainly looked bigger that before…not to mention Lunar saw double.

The Vampire grabbed a fist full of Lunar’s silver hair and dragged him to his feet. Shoving him against the wall the Vampire tore away the scarf around Lunar’s neck, exposing the vulnerable flesh.

“Not again…” Lunar murmured hatefully. He figured he must have done something truly terrible in the past to end up like this. He didn’t believe in fate or karma but it was nice to have something to blame his bad luck on.

Every inch of his body ached. It hurt to even blink. But when the Vampire pressed its fangs against Lunar’s scarred neck Lunar didn’t care if his body burned in indescribable pain. The last thing he needed was another pair of puncture wounds on his body. He let out a frustrated growl and kicked the Vampire repeatedly in a fruitless attempt to get away. He was going to die either way so he wasn’t just going to lie down and take it. The Vampire, becoming aggravated that its meal was putting up a fight, clamped its massive hand around Lunar’s throat. Lunar stopped kicking and lifted his hands to grasp the Vampire’s wrist and try to pry its hand off his throat.

Then he noticed something strange. He could feel the Vampire’s hand crushing his throat but his hands were not in contact with the Vampire’s wrist. An inch of space separated their skin. Lunar’s eyes widened with dreadful realization. The Vampire created a barrier around its body.

‘No wonder the bullet ricocheted off of it…’ Lunar thought. ‘Idiot…why didn’t you figure it out sooner?’ he cursed, he didn’t know how to break a barrier—let alone see it!

The Vampire squeezed Lunar’s throat harder. Lunar started getting dizzy and his struggling became less and less. He shut his eyes tightly. Only two years had passed since his partner died, he didn’t think he would end up joining her so soon.

A gunshot blasted through the emptiness. Lunar thought it was only his imagination at first until the Vampire dropped him. It let out an unearthly wail and clutched its, now bleeding, shoulder.

“What the hell…?” Lunar questioned between long intervals of gasping and coughing. He rubbed his bruised throat and looked up. The Vampire trained its attention to the new attacker and charged towards him. It gave Lunar a chance to get away but his body wouldn’t follow his mind’s orders. All he could do was watch the fight. He heard another gunshot. The new comer held a gun that looked oddly familiar…too familiar—in fact it looked exactly like Lunar’s gun.

‘Wait…that is my gun!’ forgetting he was injured, Lunar tried to stand up but his body failed him again. He fell on his side and hissed in pain when broken ribs hit the pavement. The world wouldn’t stop spinning, Lunar couldn’t remember the last time he was in so much physical pain. He decided it was best to not move, maybe the new guy would luck out and kill the stupid Vampire. It wasn’t likely…but the guy was able to break the barrier that surrounded the monster…then again anyone who knows the basics of Lesser magic could do that. Lunar stopped his mental argument and was amazed to see the stranger still putting up a fight. Though he abandoned the gun in favor of his fists.

The lanky new comer parried a punch from the Vampire and kicked its knee, causing it to falter. Its injured knee hit the ground and its clawed hands slashed upward, catching the other in the chest. Lunar could hear the fabric of the man’s shirt tear. It was difficult to follow their movements, both of them moved extremely fast, occasionally Lunar would hear a fist collide with flesh and muscle, growling, panting, and grunting but he couldn’t see anything but quick blurs of their silhouetted bodies.

“Who is that guy?” The fact that a human could take on a blood lusting Vampire in physical combat amazed Lunar. A flash of silver suddenly caught his eye. His gun landed next to his feet, ‘Where did that…?’

“Shoot him!” the stranger yelled. Lunar looked up at the Vampire. It struggled to move. Maybe the stranger used a paralysis spell on it. Not that it mattered. Lunar got up to finish the job.

He grabbed the gun and shot two rounds in the Vampire’s head. Its struggling stopped and it fell to the ground. Lunar was tempted to fall down with it but the only thing keeping him upright was the desire to keep the remains of his shredded dignity in tact. He felt like a train wreck. His head pounded, he still had a hard time breathing due to his broken ribs, and when he tried to move every square inch of his body protested. Despite all that he still forced himself to stand and held on the wall for support.

He looked down at his feet and realized what his feet were covered with and what he was standing in, pools of blood and a corpse. A wave of nausea struck him like a slap in the face. He coughed and clutched his stomach with one hand. Lunar could feel the bile rise in his throat as he coughed again. A gentle hand was placed on his shoulder. He looked up with weary eyes to see the stranger that fought the Vampire. The man looked at him with mild concern.

“You gonna be ok?” he asked, holding Lunar’s hair away from his face. Lunar looked at the man more closely. His long black hair covered most of his face but Lunar could clearly see his shining scarlet eyes. It was the man he ran into before.

Lunar nodded and stood up, waving the other’s hands away from his hair. He started to walk but slipped on the blood. Cursing as he fell he waited for the painful crash on the cement. It never came. The stranger’s two long arms wrapped themselves around his midsection. Lunar was grateful that the red eyed man caught him…but those same arms pressed against broken bones.

“Ah..!” Lunar hissed, trying to escape the man’s arms. As though he understood, the red-eyed man moved his grasp to Lunar’s shoulders.

“Sorry, does it hurt?” he asked. Lunar glared at him and rolled his eyes.

“No,” he said sarcastically, “I’m just doubled over in pain because it’s funny… Who the hell are you anyway?”

The other laughed through his nose, “Heh…sorry, I’m—hang on.” He stooped over and put one arm behind Lunar’s knees and the other supported Lunar’s back as the man picked him up and carried him out to the street.

“W-w-w-what the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Lunar demanded, turning bright red. He kicked and squirmed trying to get out of the man’s arms.

“Calm down. I’ll drop you if you keep moving. You don’t look like you can walk at all...and I think introductions back there would be kind of awkward.” He nodded his head to the alley.

“Like it isn’t awkward now?”

The man laughed and set Lunar down on a nearby bench.

“That’s better,” he said, “My name is Eclipse Engel and, assuming that you’re Lunar Frost, I’m your new partner.” Lunar’s eyes widened and his shoulders sagged.

“Why didn’t you tell me that when I ran into you earlier?”

Eclipse shrugged, “Well, it’s kind of hard to talk when someone’s got a gun pointed in your face.”

“Whatever—Now what are you doing!?” he swatted Eclipse’s hands away when he started to unbutton Lunar’s shirt.

“Relax. You’re hurt right? I can fix you…sort of” Lunar raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“What do you mean ‘sort of’?” that didn’t sound at all reliable. Eclipse ran a hand through his sleek black hair and sighed.

“I know a little bit of healing magic…I’m still learning and I’m completely self taught so I can only really stop your wounds from bleeding and mend broken bones about half way. It’s better than nothing…so will you let me help?”

Lunar bit his lip and looked at his feet. Half way was better than nothing but…he looked back at Eclipse. The man was busy poking the little pink furrows on his chest, the only wounds he got while fighting. This guy didn’t look very trustworthy. Eclipse looked up from his task of poking his chest and locked his scarlet eyes on Lunar.

“So can I help you or not?” he asked, keeping his eyes trained on Lunar. Lunar stared back and somehow got lost in all the different shades of red that made up Eclipse’s irises that he hardly registered the fact he gave Eclipse permission to heal him.

A smile pulled at the corner of Eclipse’s mouth as he pulled Lunar’s shirt away. He placed both of his hands on Lunar’s chest and closed his eyes. Lunar suppressed a shudder, Eclipse’s hands were cold. Slowly they began to warm up. Eclipse’s hands suddenly got hotter and it felt at though hundreds of tiny needles were jabbing themselves into Lunar’s skin. He gasped and bit his bottom lip when he felt his bones cracking and shifting into place. It was more painful than he had imagined.

“Just relax, it’ll be over soon,” Eclipse said soothingly, trying to calm Lunar down. Lunar grit his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the agonizingly slow process to stop. After a few more seconds Eclipse exhaled and removed his hands. “That should do it,” he said smiling at the silver-haired young man. Lunar grumbled a quick ‘thank you’ and buttoned his shirt.

A dull gray light washed over them. Lunar looked up and realized the sun began to rise. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. Another sleepless night had passed.

“Hey what do we do now?” Eclipse asked Lunar.

“Hm?”

“We killed the Vampire. What do we do now?”

“Oh,” Lunar scratched his head, “Go call headquarters, they’ll send someone to clean up the mess.”

“I don’t know the number.”

Lunar rolled his eyes and dug around in his pockets to find a copy of the phone number. He handed the slip of paper to Eclipse and pointed to a phone booth down the street. Eclipse walked off to the phone leaving Lunar alone. He leaned back and stretched, his muscles were still sore but his ribs weren’t bothering him so much.

‘…Knew what he was doing after all…’ Lunar mused. There was definitely something strange about Eclipse, though. Something Lunar couldn’t quite put his finger on.

Eclipse came back a few minutes later and explained some people would be around in an hour, in the mean time they were to keep the locals from going near the gore.

Eclipse dropped a gray, blood stained strip of cloth on Lunar’s leg. Lunar recognized it as the scarf he always wore to keep the scars on his neck hidden. Mortified, his hands flew to his neck to cover the old cuts and puncture wounds. He quickly grabbed the scarf and wrapped around his neck.

‘Idiot! Why didn’t you know this was missing?’ he scolded himself. He felt like a traitor to his old friend because he forgot about it, ‘I’m sorry…Mireille…’

“That’s really important to you, huh?” Eclipse asked, giving him a toothy grin…too toothy. Lunar couldn’t stop staring in horror at Eclipse’s fangs.  

“You’re a Vampire?!”    

TBC