Prologue
“Nyx, he’s running away!” Abigail shouted.
In the midst of a ninety-degree turn, Phoenyx captured from the corner of her eye the figure that ran maddeningly through the dunes. Abigail, a little further on, was busy dealing with two blond vampires, perhaps twins, the silver blade at the end of her stick glittering in the moonlight. The rest of the group was far away. She timed it, couldn’t get him in a race... well, but maybe she dind’t have to.
Nyx ran with the salty wind that came from the sea beating in her face. Her long hair, which with the excitement of the battle was beet-colored, insisted on falling over her eyes. Down below one of the vampires was heading for one of the boats stranded on the sand. She dribbled the stones, climbing over the cliffs with her palms resting on the rough surface, it was as if every molecule in her body knew exactly what to do. Nyx stood and jumped.
She spun once in the air before she dropped to her knees in the sand, now the vampire was pushing the boat into the water. Nyx ran, her legs more than accustomed to running in the sand, although she preferred not to run in those boots. At the top of one of the dunes, a cry of agony informed her that someone had been injured, Nyx looked over her shoulder, her eyes running very fast through the confusion of black uniforms and dark gray cloaks fighting, she didn’t find any of hers on the ground .
Turning back to the enemy, Nyx was shocked to see that the vampire was already safe ten feet from the strip of sand, even in the gloom of the night, she swore she had seen him smiling at her, his skin very pale and his fangs shining in the darkness.
“Ah, not that fast, little bat.”
Nyx tugged the two fans, that were her favorite weapon from the belt, she opened them one on each side of her body, the metal strips opening produced a sharp sound, and when she lifted the two fans above her head, the light flickered on the cold steel. Nyx threw her arms over her head, John’s voice echoing somewhere back in her mind: “move your body, Nyx, it’s like dancing.” She turned, came back with the fans coming out of her hands towards the sea, felt the delicate weight of the two artifacts escaping from the fingers. It was like dancing.
The metal gleamed above the water, blood spurted as the blades of the first fan encountered one of the vampire’s arms, a scream erupted, and then the other fan, who had gone further, returned in a bowed descent, cutting off the vampire at once . Nyx couldn’t help but smile when the two fans returned to her, picking them up on top of her head, despite the freshness of the blood, it was as if she had never let them go.
With the fans back to the girdle, Nyx started to climb the rocks again, although the lull indicated that the fight was over. What a pity, the number of vampires they found on the beach was smaller than they had anticipated, which made the battle itself much easier than Nyx would have liked, yet it was a cool program for a Friday night.
Abigail was crouched beside one of the bodies, looking for something in the pockets of a dead vampire. Nyx approached looking at the corpse’s face, she never ceased to be impressed by the morbid beauty of the children of the night. This one had very pale hair, moon’s color, and the skin was almost translucent, incredibly their blood was one of the reddiest.
The girl looked up as she noticed Nyx, her round brown eyes glittering. Abby pulled a folded paper from the vampire’s coat and stood up.
“What is it?” Nyx asked.
Abby frowned at the paper in her hands.
“Instructions,” she said. “These vampires didn’t come here to attack anyone, they were called.”
Nyx looked around, all the members of the Academy were now moving to gather the bodies in a pile, which would then be burned. It was the only way to kill a vampire.
“What do you think that means?”
Abigail chuckled, running a hand over her face to draw a rebellious curl from her forehead. Nyx noticed a not so shallow cut on her friend’s cheek.
“It means that Tatiana is going to have to report this to the Ministry” she shook her head. “You know how she gets when she has to report something.”
Nyx knew. Tatiana was the Inspector of the Magno Academy, one of many academies scattered throughout Afterland, responsible for training the guardians, humans reponsable to maintain peace among the other factions; wizards, mermaids, wolves, and vampires. It was a rather arduous job. The Ministry, made up of representatives of all factions, regulated all the actions of the guardians, but no one dared to complain. Since the founding of Afterland, humans have never been as prominent as they are now.
“Come on, help me with this one.”
Abby and Nyx dragged the last body to the pile, there must have almost ten dead vampires gathered. Duda took the silver lighter out of his pocket and burned the bodies, which crackled in the stillness of the night, releasing an unpleasant smell of charred flesh. Tatiana called them all, heading toward her pickup.
Nyx still took one last look at the bodies before heading to the car.
