“An intruder!”, a few men screamed as Jonathan was approaching the end of the stairs with his last strength. They seemed to be guarding a large ornate door.

They were screaming and Jonathan only managed to fight them off haphazardly until the large doors opened with an enormous thud.

“What is this commotion outside my chamber?”, a deep male voice shouted, the kind of thing you would say when you’re trying to sleep and people outside your house won’t turn the music down.

“There’s a hunter!”

“You…?”, the man from the chamber said in shock and considered for a second, then said: “Let him in.”

The men shoved Jonathan inside the room and closed the doors behind him.

“Finally. We meet”, he huffed. Jonathans vison was getting blurry, but he still recognized the Vampire in front of him.

Every hunter knew his face. A man of unidentifiable age, with long, slick black hair with a few greying strands in between, deep set red eyes and a red cloak lazily hung around his shoulders over an expensive suit.

“You’re here for the artifact”, the vampire concluded. “But are you really going to fight be in this state?”

“I have to”, Jonathan said and tried to get into his fighting stance. He made a few steps toward the vampire and made some weak slashes toward him, the last one was blocked with bare hands, so the vampire yanked the sword out of his hands.

“I am not going to fight you as weak as you are.”

“I am not weak!”, Jonathan hissed and stumbled forwards.

“How is Marissa?”

Time seemed to freeze around Jonathan, and he fell onto his knees in surprise as if the vampire had just delivered a fatal blow to his legs. He was sure he misheard him. There was no other way.

“How is your mother, young hunter?”

“How do you know my mothers name?”, Jonathan screamed furiously, his voice cracking. He was using his last strength to get into hand-to-and combat with the vampire, but he just grabbed his wrist, turned it, so that he had to submit in pain. The vampire immediately let got of Jonathan and he fell again, this time with his face to the floor.

“How is Marissa?”, the vampire repeated, his tone softer than before.

“She’s dead”, Jonathan spit out, “Killed by your kind.”

“That’s a lie.”

“It’s not!”, Jonathan tried to get up again, at least to face the vampire. Tears of pain were streaming down his face. “Why would I lie about that?”

The vampire crouched down before him. Jonathan was shaking, frozen in place. This vampire had all control over the situation, there was nothing he could do anymore.