Building up to Christmas with Dusty the Demon Hunter - A Blast from the Past - Trouble Times Three - Part 4

Vampires - Trouble x 3 is my third adventure with Dusty the Demon Hunter. I had a great time with this one, putting folk lore and mythical creatures in with Dusty.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

---

I hope you have as much fun reading as I did writing it.

Dusty the Demon Hunter - Vampires - Trouble Times Three

---

Dusty took her time in figuring out if Jerik was lying to her or not. Neither of her companions could tell one way or the other what she had decided upon, even as she nodded and walked away from the house towards the wooded area where Jerik’s brother had gone.

She stopped and turned towards them. They were keeping their distance from each other in a wary fashion but both stopped when she glared at them.

“Here’s the deal, Jerik. This is my friend, companion and partner in our business. He comes along with me wherever I go and if that’s going to be a problem, let me know now because I need to make plans for how we’re going to help you,” she said.

Jerik blinked in surprise and began to stammer that he didn’t know what she meant, he didn’t need her help, and what on earth was she talking about?

Dusty folded her arms in much the same way that Hunter had when she had asked how he knew so much about vampires.

Jerik was not fooling her but she didn’t have all night to be coy about it.

“Either you tell me all of it or I’ll leave you and your obnoxious brother alone to deal with whatever it is that’s bothering you.”

Jerik’s shoulders dropped and he seemed to sag inside himself at her words. His gaze went to the ground again and he couldn’t look at her.

She heard a deep and despondent sigh and again wondered about vampires and their ability to utilise breathing when they didn’t really need to.

Curiosity got the better of her and she asked.

“Jerik, why do you breathe when you’re undead?”

His expression was puzzled when he lifted his face to look at her. His brow was furrowed and his nose was wrinkled in deep thought. “I think it’s from habit,” he said at last.

“So the sigh was habit too?”

He thought again about her question and realised that she had observed something that he had taken for granted for all the years he had been undead.

“I suppose it must be. You are completely right of course...” but he was prevented from continuing by his brother.

He had been listening to their conversation from the shadows of the trees and had suddenly decided that Jerik was saying far more than he was comfortable with Dusty and Hunter knowing.

The angry brother raced from the trees with frightening speed and took Dusty and Hunter by complete surprise. He took hold of his brother’s jacket lapels and forced him backwards towards the open door of the house.

Dusty cried out in alarm because she thought that the force of their course would take them through the front door and over the threshold – the only thing that was protecting her home from the creatures.

She had no need to worry however, whatever it was that prevented the vampires from crossing the threshold without invitation withstood the force of Jerik’s brother’s anger, and they both bounced off the invisible barrier in an almost comical manner.

They lay sprawled on the ground with the breath knocked from them and Dusty asked herself, “If you are undead, why do you breathe?”

That question was puzzling her to distraction.

Hunter heard her mutter something but wasn’t sure whether she was talking to him or not and when she didn’t repeat the question, he assumed that she hadn’t meant for him to hear.

Hunter and Dusty waited for the vampires to get up and dust themselves down. She was becoming impatient with their silliness.

She knew that they had come to her for a reason, but if they weren’t going to tell her, she didn’t care either way.

She stood with her arms folded, her weight on one foot, tapping the other foot so that she even looked impatient.

Hunter glanced from the vampires to Dusty and back and he could tell that this stand-off was not going to last very long at all. He was right.

“Ok boys, I’ve had enough. I don’t intend to waste any more of my time. See ya.”

She unfolded her arms and walked towards the house. Her path would take her between the vampire twins and Hunter watched carefully.

Before she got to them, the vampires exchanged venomous looks and they moved out of her way to allow her to pass between them with a wide enough margin so as not to make her feel ill at ease.

She passed them and was on the top step, almost through the front door.

“What about your boyfriend? I don’t think he knows the spell that you floored me with and I think you’re too far away for it to be effective,” Jerik’s brother sneered.

“Yeah, you’d think so, wouldn’t you?” Dusty’s reply surprised the vampire.

She didn’t break her stride until she was inside the house and safe. Hunter was outside amongst the vampires but he didn’t seem worried when the vampires turned to look at him. Even Jerik had a malevolent gleam in his eye but Hunter was nonchalant.

Hunter made his way towards the house. He took the same path that Dusty had but they didn’t spring apart for him.

Instead they seemed to loom towards him, threatening him with their silence.

Dusty coughed to draw their attention and the ruse worked. They were expecting some sort of trick from Dusty because of the power she had exerted over Jerik’s brother and they flinched at her cough, giving Hunter enough room to dodge between them into the safety of the house.

Dusty closed the door and she and Hunter listened to the argument as tension between the brothers broke out.

She leaned on the door, facing Hunter, and she smiled.

“What are you smiling about? We barely got out of that... or rather, I barely got out of that alive!”

Dusty put her index finger to her lips to indicate quiet and she listened to the argument on the other side of the door.

“You stupid, arrogant, stubborn moron! You know that the half-breeds are our only hope and the only way to get Cynthia back is with their help!”

The two inside the house listened to the two outside the house. Dusty glanced at Hunter to see if he was listening and if he could make head or tail of the argument between the vampires.

“Why are we the only chance of help?” Dusty asked in a low whisper.

“I don’t know. They should have elders that they can talk to... I would have thought that they would go to them first.”

“Come on then. I think it’s time to stop the twins squabbling.”

Dusty opened the door and the twin vampires stopped their wrestling and looked at her. They had each other at arm’s length and seemed to be in the process of trying to wring each other’s neck. Dusty looked at them with a stern expression, her impression of a strict schoolteacher, she imagined, and both vampires let go of the other and turned to face her.

Neither of them had the courage to look her in the eye and though the one whose name she didn’t yet know glowered at the floor, she accepted that they had calmed down enough for her to speak with them.

“What’s your name?” she asked the newcomer.

He didn’t answer immediately; he glanced at his brother as though asking for guidance.

Jerik lifted his gaze to look at him and nodded that he should answer Dusty.

The other’s shoulders sagged a little and he muttered something indistinguishable. Dusty didn’t catch what he had said and she asked him to repeat it.

“Makin. My name is Makin, it means ‘strong’,” he said.

“Now tell her your true name,” Jerik said, nudging him in the ribs with his elbow. The nudge wasn’t a gentle directive; it hurt him, if his wince was anything to go by.

“Oh all right,” he snapped at his brother. “My true name is Marid, it means rebellious.”

“Those names are Arabic if I’m not mistaken,” Dusty said. “But you don’t seem to be Arabic in your features.”

She was puzzled and Hunter wondered why she was so bothered about the little details but he knew what her answer would be if he asked: ‘The devil is in the detail’.

“We were taken as children. Our parents were travelling and the ship we were on was attacked by pirates. The adults were all killed but because we were so unusual, we were kept and sold.”

Jerik told their story but received a dig in his ribs from his brother for his trouble. Jerik turned to Marid and glared at him.

“We have to tell her the truth of it because if she finds that we have held back or lied, there will be no second chance. You know all of this and yet you fight me. Is there a reason for your refusal to comply? Perhaps it is because you do not really want our sister returned safe?”