A Suprise

"How did this happen?" I stammered as I turned to Lucas, struggling to process the horrific scene before us. It had unleashed painful memories I'd tried to bury deep inside me.

As we cautiously made our way through the corridor, we stepped carefully over the gruesome remains scattered across the floor. Unrecognizable faces of witches lay in tatters around us, and it seemed that the entire coven had met a devastating fate.

"I can't say for sure, but it looks like we've walked into a dangerous situation. We may even be trapped here now. We need to contact Lys immediately," Lucas said while examining one of the fallen bodies. "And we should search the area and set up runes to protect the house temporarily. Anna, do you think the witches here used protective runes as well? It doesn't seem like they worked," he asked as Anna went to the entrance to place a rune.

Anna replied, "Yes, I think that's likely if you look at the splintered door and floor it seems like it. If someone enters this house, we'll know about it." Meanwhile, I entered the next room to the left and carefully pushed the door open to reveal another gruesome sight. The lifeless bodies of two small children, their heads severed, lay at the far end of the room. The sight turned my stomach, but I couldn't afford to dwell on my emotions. I grabbed the brushes and ink we had with us and quickly set to work, painting protective runes around the windows.

As I worked on the last symbol in what appeared to be an office, I felt an unusual force pulling at me. It was an unsettling experience, something completely new to me. This particular coven seemed to favor the color red, as it dominated the textiles in the house. I searched the dimly lit room, which had only one broken light. After some time, I spotted a small chest, and as I approached it, an intense throbbing in my head washed over me. I could tell the others felt the same.

Just as I was about to open the chest, I felt another force that seemed to be breaking through some kind of barrier. We all quickly realized that someone was trying to destroy the protective runes we'd placed. I grabbed the chest and rushed out of the room, yelling, "Something's trying to get in!" and running toward the others. Anna, who was upstairs, had already set the traps on the stairs, while Lucas passed me on his way up after contacting Lys. He mentioned that she'd send help as soon as possible and joined Anna.

Soon we heard screams and the sound of splintering wood. I smiled at the others and raised my hands, closing my eyes. "Wood and hearth, protect this home. Guard our rest where love has grown," I repeated the incantation until I felt the wooden floor begin to crack beneath us. My spell to activate all the runes had worked, and I grinned as I saw that the runes on the windows had also glowed slightly, causing the wood to crack. Satisfied with our preparations, we positioned ourselves in a fighting stance and prepared a few offensive spells in our minds to cast as soon as we saw the intruders. Now we could only wait for our unwanted visitors.

I could feel through our connection that we were all nervous and overwhelmed with fear, but still making eye contact, we began to take deep breaths and try to calm ourselves. It would be fatal to be overwhelmed by emotions at such a crucial moment.

Suddenly, four people rushed up the stairs with guns in their hands. Fear surged through me as I took cover behind a wall. "They have guns! Take cover!" I shouted urgently to the others. As Anna and Lucas took cover, two of the intruders came toward them with guns drawn. Before they could react, the wooden floor beneath them creaked and shards of wood flew out, hitting all four men. They stood frozen in the hallway, pierced as if turned into lifeless statues. I closed my eyes, trying to sense if anyone else was in the house, but there was no other presence. "I think that's it," I reported to the others as I cautiously approached the impaled bodies. Searching for clues or evidence of the intruders' identities, we found only tattoos on their wrists.

"Do any of you recognize this tattoo?" I asked as I examined the markings. Lucas and Anna examined the tattoos and shared the immediate feeling of fear. "So who attacked us?" I inquired.

"As far as I know, only the big vampire clans give their soldiers tattoos like this. And if I remember correctly from class, a vampire squad usually consists of at least five people. Four regular soldiers and a squad leader, which would mean that at least one vampire is still on the loose. I'm not sure which vampire group they belong to, there are just too many big clans in Europe," Anna replied while Lucas took a picture of the tattoo and sent it to Lys.

We searched the rest of the house and I remembered the locked chest I'd found downstairs. While Anna collected the weapons from the intruders, I handed the box to Lucas to put in his bag. "You never know when these might come in handy. That was quite a pack of dogs, but our traps got five of them before they could get upstairs," Anna said as we came down, weapons in hand, to see five new impaled bodies.

"Now, unfortunately, we have no way of knowing if there is still a vampire or even more of them on the loose, looking at the amount of bodies in this house. We have to be as careful and vigilant as possible from now on." I sighed as I saw the bodies myself.

"All the important things seem to have been taken by the vampires, except for this locked chest. Let's take it with us and try to find out who exactly our enemy is. I can tell the gas station guy is working with them, so we should pay him a visit," Lucas explained as we gathered at the entrance.

Anna summoned a bird with a quick chant to scout for possible surprises, while I used a spell to locate all living things within a 500 meter radius. Only four living souls appeared on my radar, including Anna, her bird, myself, and Lucas. There were no unusual signs.

Our new mission was to visit the gas station to determine if the attendant was indeed in league with the vampires, as we suspected. We considered the possibility of capturing him. I was sure he wasn't a vampire, otherwise our abilities would have detected him immediately, so it should be easy to capture him. After a 10-minute walk, we arrived at the gas station and hid behind the building to avoid being spotted by the attendant. Our primary goal was to determine if he was working with or for the vampires so we could plan our next move.

"How can we tell if he's a 'dog'? To me, he's just standing behind his counter doing nothing," Anna whispered as she crouched behind the building.

The typical term for humans who worked for vampires was 'dog', sometimes 'slave', but the first word was much more preferred by the modern world.

Lucas made a suggestion, "One of us should distract him while the others try to get into his office. Maybe we'll find something useful in there. If not, we can confront him and examine his wrist. I think the easiest way would be than to approach him directly and ask for his help. We could deceive him by claiming that only one of us survived and needs help."

"But what if he becomes hostile and attacks the person pretending to need help? Should the others ambush him from behind to help if necessary?" Anna expressed her concern.

I replied, "Yes, and the person diverting his attention should use protective spells to shield themselves from bullets. He won't expect us to approach him that way."

Finally sure of our plan, we nodded and began our little mission.