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Chapter 4: Vampire

  Emma sat stunned. Even though her ears were no longer ringing, she was too dazed to recognize the bells. By the time she came to her senses, she was surrounded by villagers with pikes and torches in hand.

  The leader of the mob was a young man who stood in front of the rest of the group. He stared at Emma with bewildered eyes, gazing over her pale body in fear. However, much to the villager’s credit, they didn’t attack Emma right away.

  “Don’t move,” the man said. He took a deep breath and knelt before the vampire. “What are your intentions?”

  The little girl from before attempted to run towards Emma from the crowd, but she was grabbed by another woman. “Stop, child, she’s dangerous.”

  Emma’s eyes flickered between the dead monster, the man, and the child before settling on the corpse of the woman—the monster’s only victim. The blood dripping from her body provided a sickeningly sweet smell like nectar. By looking at her, the smell threatened to overpower Emma’s senses. It threatened to spur her vampiric engine to life, making her want to exsanguinate the body of the poor victim right now.

  However, Emma reeled herself in and turned back towards the villagers. Every small movement she made was enough to make them uneasy. Each time she turned her head, the villagers quivered or put their hands on their pikes. The torch grips became just a little tighter. The situation had become like a taut rubber band.

  A small memory surfaced in Emma’s past life. She remembered those police shows where people put their hands up to show they’re not hiding anything. Slowly, Emma lifted her hands as a sign of good will.

  “That’s enough!” The man yelled, waving his torch in front of her face. “I said don’t move!”

  The child finally managed to break free from the elderly woman’s grip and jumped between Emma and the villager. She spread her arms out, defending the vampire from the mob.

  “Stop! She saved me! I told you. She saved me!”

  “Get back, Sora. Don’t you know what she is? You can see it in her eyes. She’s a monster!”

  “How can she be a monster? She’s not attacked anyone! She saved me! She killed...She killed the monster who…”

  Emma placed a tender, cold hand on Sora’s shoulder. The vampire felt nothing from the death of the woman, but for some reason, this scene was different.

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  The vampire smiled at the little girl, knowing that it wouldn’t change a thing. If anything, the pearly fangs only made the villagers more weary and served to make Sora quiver.

  Emma sighed as she stood. “Thank you, but they’re right.” Emma looked at the impaled corpse of the frost troll. “I am a monster.”

  She pointed at the few people investigating the beast. “Move away from my bounty. If you allow me to get my sword, I will spare your lives, but if you think of getting in my way…”

  Emma channeled frost magic into her hand, forming an ice sword of her own and pointing it at the villagers. “I killed the troll without even flinching. What do you think will happen if you stand in my way?”

  Sora stared at Emma in disbelief with her mouth agape. “Lady?”

  “That goes for you, too. I promise I will leave all of you alone if you don’t interfere in my business. Get in my way...And I will kill you.”

  The lead villager stared at Emma with wide eyes, but he nodded. With his free hand he pushed several other villagers back and prevented them from moving forward. “Do as she says!”

  Emma stretched her arms and cracked her neck. She smiled in content at the villagers who backed away. The vampire unsummoned her ice sword and walked towards her fresh kill, prying the bloodied sword from the beast’s maw. She made a show of wiggling the sword around before walking towards the gaping hole in the wall.

  “Make way!” The torchman yelled.

  Emma grinned as the people parted. She exited the building without a word. She didn’t even glance back at the little girl before disappearing into the snowy night.

  The vampire walked beneath the stars away from the village, wondering what would happen next. Would the villagers put a bounty on her head? How long would it take someone to be dispatched that would track and kill her?

  “Either way, I need to figure out a way to blend in with normal people.”

  Emma stopped next to a frozen river, peering at her reflection in the ice. She noticed that after consuming Karlack’s blood she’d become more humanesque, but it wasn’t the same as being human. No, she still looked like a corpse.

  “I should have tried the blood of that monster while I had a chance!”

  Emma groaned and fell on her rear. She looked down at her slender hands. There was much that was different about her new form that she had yet to explore. She found that if she focused on her fingers, she could produce sharp claws that were capable of cutting through the blocks of ice she summoned.

  At first she thought her new form was perfect. However, she realized a glaring problem while fighting the monster. When she regenerated, the thirst for blood became even worse afterwords. Even while sitting next to the frozen river, she could feel a slight ache in her fangs.

  Of course, there was the more obvious problem. Her form struck fear in people’s hearts. Even after defending Sora from a monster, the little girl still cowered when she saw those pearly fangs. The monster allegations were not escaping Emma any time soon.

  The vampire sighed as she stretched out on the ground, forming a snow angel beneath the stars. She looked towards the sword next to her that was slightly buried in the white fluff.

  “At least I have you, Karlack. Do you think I will be fine if I reach a city? Maybe there are more vampires somewhere else?”

  The sword didn’t reply. Instead, there was only the whistle of the cool Winter winds.

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