Chapter 8

Not all vampires could go out in broad daylight. For that to happen, most vampires had to have a special daylight ring. But the problem was that not all vampires could afford this luxury daylight ring that allowed vampires to walk under the sun.

The sun, stake, and vervain together with ginger was a vampire's greatest enemy and in the wrong hands could cause damage to them.

Werewolves if Chicago knew that so they always carried at least one of these mentioned instruments of torture.

Werewolves were strong but not as strong as vampires because their strength usually came from a full moon and without that full moon their strength was reduced.

The daylight rings protected them from harm from the sun an allowed them to walk as freely as vampires did.

The daylight ring was very rare and not a lot of vampires had one but if you did, it added a sort of higher ranking to one in the vampire community.

Being the king of vampires, Rick didn't need a daylight ring. The ability to walk under the sun without fear of being burnt to ashes was one of the perks that came with being a vampire king.

He knew that most vampires envied the position that he had and would love to take it for themselves if the opportunity presented itself.

But so far, no one had attacked him openly. Even though vampires craved his position, no one would be stupid enough to attack him head-on without any form of backup or ambush.

Rick was currently driving towards the area where Tony had given him a call, alerting him on the location of the moon staff.

There was no guarantee that the location was even a correct one but he was willing to try all options if that meant that he would at least get even if it was a whiff of the staff's power.

Just thinking about that staff in his hands made him ecstatic.

He pulled into the curb by the side of the street and looked around him. The street was deserted and there was no one in sight. He had excellent hearing and he scanned the street around him to pick up any sounds that the normal ear couldn't easily pick up.

He heard a sound to his left and knew that it was the footsteps of someone that was approaching the car.

Rolling down the window, he saw Tony walk towards the car.

"It's just me, Rick. We have the area where we think the moon staff can be found surrounded."

"How many vampires did you let in on this news?"

"A total of six."

Rick felt like slapping Tony's head. Most times, his vampires weren't the brightest of them all.

"Where are we exactly?" Rick asked, falling into step beside Tony as he started walking forward and away from the car.

"Earlier, at three pm this afternoon, we had gotten a call from one of the men that we had placed on sentry duty. There had been talks about some sort of staff that was being moved from one of the local museums."

"Museum?" Rick asked baffled.

"Yes, museum. At first, we hadn't been sure it was exactly the moon staff that was being talked about but after further Intel, we found out that the description of the staff when it was released for the exhibition was the one that you had described to me."

Rick was still confused about what the moon staff would be doing in a museum of all places. He knew that he was playing a dangerous game by letting a lot of people know the description as well as what the moon staff was.

Loyalty wasn't big when it came to vampires. They weren't as loyal as werewolves who could stick with a pack leader for long periods of time.

Vampires were more like a bunch of backstabbers trying to make their own way in the supernatural world.

"That still doesn't explain why we are here as this location clearly doesn't look like a museum," Rick said in growing irritation as he looked around him.

Sometimes, Tony liked to waste time gnawing through little details instead of hitting the nail directly on the head. If it wasn't for the fact that he had given him tangible news about the location of the moon staff, he would have long hurled him towards the car.

"Well, our intel said further that the owner of the museum got wind that there were vampires in the area that wanted the moon staff."

Rick was shocked. True that there were humans scattered all across Chicago that knew that vampires existed but every time he found out, it still shocked him.

It showed how careless Chicgao vampires could be when it came to covering up their asses.

"So, you are trying to say that the museum owner knew that a bunch of vampires were eyeing his precious artifact."

"Exactly so, yes."

They reached the end of the curb and Tony had taken a turn left and right ahead of them was a house.

"So, what did he do about it?"

"Well, he took the artifact home as any other museum owner would do when something was being looked at."

Rick couldn't believe that the moon staff was so close to being collected. The thought made him ecstatic.

Tony stopped a few feet away from the house and Rick suddenly realized why they were there.

"This is the house of the museum owner."

Rick took one good look at the house that he was looking at and knew that something was definitely wrong with the whole process.

First of all, was the fact that the house just stood there waiting for any stray vampire who got wind of the moon staff to just come over and attack it.

Secondly, something told him that this wasn't the house of the museum owner. He wasn't sure but he just had a hunch that something was not right.

"Where are the other six that are manning the building?"

"Spread around, we didn't want to draw too much attention to ourselves. Who knows what this guy has at home that could stop a vampire."

Rick scanned the house. It was dark, the windows were all curtained up. Not even a shred of light could be seen from outside the windows.

The house just stood there like a coffin in the dead of the night.

Rick felt thrilled. He knew that the vampires were waiting for him to make the first move as they thought he was fairly indestructible.

Well, to a good extent he was indestructible. But that didn't mean that what hurt other vampires couldn't hurt him. He could still be hurt but for those things to be effective they needed to be used on him in large amounts.

"What are we waiting for then?"

Tony looked away from Rick and glanced off in the direction of the house.

"With you being the king we thought that you could check out the condition of things for us first before we began our own movement."

In the darkness of the night, Rick smiled. Funny how vampires finally acknowledged him as their king when there was an apple on a tree that was out of their reach.

Rick turned back to look at the house. Normally he would speedrun over to the door of the house and bashed it in but since the owner knew some details about vampires, he decided against that cause of action.

Humans when aware could be very dangerous.

He approached the building curiously and carefully. Not wanting to draw unnecessary attention to himself.

When he reached the door of the house he peered inside through the transparent glass doors that showed what was going on inside the house.

It was thoroughly dark but he didn't need to worry. His excellent vision was more than enough to let him see what was going on inside the house.

When he looked around, he realized that the house was empty. From what he could see inside, there was furniture and all that stuff but there was no one inside; it looked abandoned and without any sign of life.

Rick tried to open the door and found out that it was locked.

Tony was suddenly standing close to him and before he could stop him, he had sent the door out of its hinges with one powerful kick from his leg.

"What the hell did you do that for? We could be walking into a trap this very minute."

"What trap, the house clearly looks abandoned," Tony said, striding inside the house.

That was when Rick heard the sound. It sounded like a fast whirring noise, as though someone was dragging a thin cable over some sort of frictional surface.

Then the boom.

Rick was a vampire, the king of vampires meaning that what ordinary vampires would be hit by, he could easily dodge.

He turned his head around just in time to see what looked like little bullets coursing through the air towards his location.

The bullets had already hit Tony and were heading straight for him.

Rick easily sidestepped out of the way and cast a wild look around the room.

His hunch had been correct; they had walked straight into a trap.

His vampire sense suddenly picked up movement to his left, right, and behind him. The air was filled with a stinging smell.

When Rick looked at Tony, he realized that he wasn't standing up, rather he was writhing painfully on the ground clutching his stomach as blood poured out of his lips.

Rick realized with a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach that the bullets had been laced with vervain.

Fuck.

Outside, he heard a scream of pain and rapid-fire of what sounded like arrows thudding into flesh.

Another cold feeling of dread washed over him like a bucket of ice-cold water.

These weren't ordinary humans. These were something else.

They were vampire hunters.

Fuck.

Suddenly there was another rattle of gunfire close to him and he speedran out of the building and over to his car. Just as he was about to open it he heard a beeping noise and the car suddenly exploded.

Rick was flying through the air and he hit the ground hard, his breath knocked out of him.

When he looked at his stomach, he was surprised to see six needles sticking out all of them containing a green fluid which he knew was vervain.

With that amount, even a vampire King stood no chance. He was starting to get dizzy.

He started to try to get up from the ground but his whole head was firing up in pain like someone was constantly dragging a sledgehammer across his head.

Rick managed to drag himself up to his feet and when he did so painfully there were little black dots filling his vision.

The vervain was kicking in fully and he was having a hard time staying on his feet.

He looked around him. Asides from the smoldering metal pieces of his car that were sending huge, black, thick clouds of smoke into the air there was no one in sight.

He knew that Tony was dead. Shot by vervain in the house earlier.

Rick looked left, looked right, and when he looked forward standing right in front of him was a woman.

A woman?

Was it a woman who had caused him such pain? Was it a woman who had killed several of his men?

"Who- are...you?" He stuttered.

The vervain wasn't even allowing him to process his speech properly.

The woman walked towards him and stood right in front of him.

"Rick, the self-proclaimed king of vampires. Are you in shock?" The woman said dryly.

Even through his pain, Rick managed to smirk at her.

"No, I'm just stunned by your beauty."

The woman didn't smile. Her face remained passive.

"This is a warning to all the supernaturals out there. Let them know that the hunters are back and this time around we aren't staying down like a bunch of hunted rats."

"Why don't you tell them yourself?"

"I believe you have gotten the message very well Rick."

Then the woman raised her hand and he could see what looked like a pistol. There was a shot and he felt another bullet thud into his chest.

He fell to the ground and he could see the darkness of the night above him. Then the head of the woman appeared in front of him.

"Goodnight Rick, don't let the bats bite."

The last thing that he remembered was the woman's laughter before he fell unconscious.