Abaddon

Abaddon Part 7

"And you're sure that we will find a nest here?" Agatha asked. She rubbed her eyes, still groggy from her few hours of sleep as the last rays of evening sun cast rounded shadows over the graveyard. She dragged fingertips over the cool, porous stones as she walked.

"Not certain, no. But this is my best guess. I think it is the most likely of all the possibilities I found today."

"But a graveyard? Seems a bit obvious, no?"

"Of course, but it's obvious for a reason, Agatha. Because it is exactly what a vampire would do. That's also not the only piece of evidence we have."

"You're in charge of evidence, Charles. I'm in charge of killing." Answered Agatha, pulling a thick, wooden stake from Charles' jacket pocket and gripping it tightly.

"Yes, but I'd love for you to listen and at least try to comprehend our reasoning. Investigation is a part of your training as well, Agatha."

"You've told me. If they're holding large numbers of vampires, they must be turning them all at once. They would need an area to hide many bodies without their being noticed and they would need a place hidden away from sunlight. Sewers are likely as well, but they almost certainly started their operation where they felt most comfortable, in the crypts. Did I miss anything?"

Charles looked at her and smiled proudly. His breath was heavy as he marched over the soft dirt.

"And yet you let me waste my breath repeating myself." He chuckled.

"I wanted you to feel smart."

At this, he laughed loudly.

"I can assure you," said Charles "that I am quite smart. One of the highest exam scores the watchers' council has ever seen would attest to that."

"Ah, but I've never taken the Watchers' exam, now have I?"

"This is true. You are an unknown quantity to say the least."

It was the soft, bright rustle of grass which put Agatha on guard. At first, simply far off and behind her, but quickly she localized the rustle to just behind her right ear and about twenty feet away. The growing thump of rapid, soft steps on hardening mud told her it was approaching quickly, whatever it was. She noticed that the sun had fully fallen behind the horizon, giving them no natural protection. Suddenly, the thuds stopped and a change in the wind told Agatha that someone was leaping at them.

All of this had taken less than a second and she knew she couldn't turn quickly enough to catch their attacker. She settled for shoving Charles, hard. He left his feet and slammed heavily into a faded gravestone, knocking the breath from his lungs and leaving him squirming on the damp ground.

Agatha had only a moment to see his landing before cold skin and sinuous arms engulfed her and drove her into the dirt. She managed to kick and create enough space to turn onto her back and face her attacker.

She did this just in time to grip both of her hands tightly around the straining neck of a viciously aggressive vampire, stopping it from bringing its open mouth down upon her neck. Instead, it snapped loudly, slinging a mixture of spit and blood from its badly chapped lips onto her face.

"Charles! Charles! The stake!" Agatha shouted laboriously. The vampire snapped at her like a rabid coyote, flailing its arms wildly in the air. For this, Agatha was thankful, as she wasn't sure she had the strength to hold the beast at bay if it began to use its arms.

The vampire was bald, shirtless, and wore white pants which were as pale as its skin. Only the few spots of mud and red gashes on its arms and torso brought any color to the stringy monster.