Chapter 1-Shapes in the Night

Karin sifted through her lessons. "Blasted Mr. Nerima," she thought. "Why did he have to assign so many lessons on the origin of the vampyre." Karin had never seen a vampyre and she honestly did not believe that they existed anymore. Since the Time of the Unveiling, when the vampyres first made themselves publicly known, human forces had killed hundreds, even thousands of vampyres. Almost all were killed during the Wars and the few who remained were eradicated, slowly but surely by the Hunters, until all were gone.

"It takes only one," her Vampyre Lore teacher, Mr. Neimier, told her after she argued why they had to take the class for the millionth time. "To make thousands of them. If he embraces five mortals, and then each of his children embraces five, then each of the next generation embraces 5, until eventually their numbers become stronger and stronger. Just as the original vampyres originated from, who?"

She had sighed and refused to answer, so he assigned her five lessons from The History of the Vampyre, one of their principal texts. Three of the lessons had to be from the Origin Age and two could be from any other period in their history. Karin was planning on doing both of the other two during the Wars of Annihilation, to stress her point that they were gone for good. The Wars were not only fought against the vampyres but with everyone against each other in a free-for-all. The hysteria that the vampyres’ arrival created swept across the world. Old alliances were forgotten, new were forged and thrown away. In the end, there was one, united government. It took seeing past all differences to eliminate the vampyres. To incorporate the many systems of dating from around the world, they had began anew and everything was dated AU, After Unveiling, and BU, Before Unveiling. It was now 60 years AU and 30 years since the wars had ended. Karin had just begun reading the dull text on origins when she heard a noise by her window. No matter what she believed, this text was enough to set her on edge and she literally screamed when the noise first touched her ears.

Her father rushed into the room carrying a Ferusian Assault Stake and wearing a white and blue striped robe over his shorts. Boy did he look menacing. "What is it honey?" he demanded. "Did you see a vampyre?"

"No dad," she said with a sigh. "They're gone, remember?" Her father, Brendan a'Fisher, had been a Prima Vampyre Hunter, the highest of the high. The position had brought him fame and fortune. Now, he was nothing more than a paranoid old man who saw vampyres around every corner. Because of his great services to the United Forces of Annihilation, they lived a comfortable life on a fat pension but no man who had seen what he had seen could ever be the same. Mr. Nerima had fought with her father and always spoke of how much of a shame it was that the daughter of such a great hunter was so ignorant. She wasn't the only one who didn't believe. In a recent poll by The Daily New Republic, 85% of people believed that man had triumphed over the vampyres, 8% believed they were still around, and 7% swore they never even existed and everything had been a giant government conspiracy. It was mostly veterans who believed they were still around because veterans have a tendency to hold onto something for a long time.

"Well," her father said with a frown. "Why did you scream then?"

"I just heard something by the window," Karin replied. "I think it was the cat." Just then the windows burst open and her father shouted loudly. As Karin had expected, it was the cat. The cat was a white and black snow tiger. His fur was sleek and dark as the darkest midnight in some places, while other spots of him were as white as a virgin snowfield.

"Bad kitty!" shouted Brendan angrily. The tiger looked dejected then rolled onto his back, his large paws waving in the air. Brendan chuckled then scratched his belly, "Good, good Zeke." He turned back to Karin once more. "Please be careful," he said to her. "Your disbelief is going to get you in trouble some day. Next time it may not just be Zeke." He turned to leave then paused and set the assault stake on her desk. Then walked out with Zeke following quickly on his heels.

Karin let out a sigh and ran her finger along the shiny edge of the stake. It was a stake only in name, nothing like the wooden spears they used for thousands of years before the Unveiling. It was a reasonably small weapon, something a Hunter would carry as backup. It was nothing compared to some of the high-tech weaponry the New World Government spent trillions of dollars on developing during the Wars. The long shiny shaft contained pieces of genetically engineered wood that could pierce as well as the sharpest alloy.

Suddenly, Karin saw something flash in the reflective surface of the stake. This time, she knew it wasn't the cat. She didn't turn but she knew from defense classes that her lack of movement would also betray her. She started humming and moved her hand toward the stake. The room had turned cold, a sign of the vampyre, the reflection also had been a vampyric shadow. The old tales of vampyres not giving reflectins were found to be untrue. You simply had to know what to look for. The reflection of the vampyre was a white outline of them with a faint tinge of red. Karin couldn't believe her trains of thought. Signs of the vampyre? It couldn't be, they were gone. Despite her mental assurances, her hand still moved toward the stake. Suddenly, a white hand with green and black painted fingernails gripped the hand moving toward the stake. At the same instant, another clapped over her mouth, muffling a coming scream.

"Don't speak," a soft voice said behind her. "If you value your life."