Blood Hourglass Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Hunters

In the dark night sky, the moon hid behind the clouds.

A faint, white light radiated from the clouds.

The night seemed to become even darker. Two people stood under a dark, moonlit sky.

“Junyu, you came really quickly!” A man, dressed in casual clothes, greeted Xiaoyu with an amicable demeanor. Next to him stood a man with a solemn expression, who wore a suit. A murderous aura was radiating from his face.

“Xuxing, how did it go?”, Xiaoyu asked while walking toward the man who greeted him.

“It ran away.”, the man with the murderous aura replied.

“Xuqing, what did you say? He ran away? There’s no place to hide in this vicinity.” Xiaoyu’s face suddenly turned serious and a hint of anger could be felt, as if he turned into a general dealing with an emergency military affair.

“In the direction you just came from, did you not see anyone?” Xuxing waited for Xiaoyu’s reply.

“No, I didn’t see anything.”

“I belief there’s a very suspicious place.” Xuqing said coldly.

“Where? ” Xiaoyu asked.

“That house. ” Xuqing pointed his finger towards direction. Surprised, Xiaoyu slightly opened mouth in shock, but did not say anything for a while.

“Do you mean that house?” Startled, Xiaoyu asked again.

“Yes,” the two brothers replied at the same time.

“d.a.m.n! Let’s go!”, Xiaoyu shouted in panic. Immediately, the three of them sprinted to the car and speeded off toward the big castle.

Inside the car someone asked: “Xiaoyu? What’s wrong? Your expression is frightening me!”

“No one should live in that house, right?”

“Yes, I just came from there.” While talking, Xiaoyu continued to increase the speed and the car shot off like an arrow. In the blink of an eye, it disappeared without a trace.

“Impossible. We investigated it before you came. Legends say that long time ago, this house was-”

“Dracula’s Castle.” Xiaoyu blurted out.

“Did you check it?”

“No”

“How do you know then?”, the tone was full of suspicion.

“Someone told me a moment ago. What happened afterwards?” Xiaoyu’s eyes never averted from the road, and it could be said he keep staring in the direction of the house. He seemed afraid that something terrible might have happened.

“The later happenings were very vaguely described in the files and only said that someone paid a small fortune to buy it”. Just when he finished this sentence, the car suddenly stopped and it was parked next to the courtyard in front of the castle’s front door. The three men got out of the car, gently closed the doors, and did not directly enter the castle, but stopped right in front of the gate.

“We absolutely can’t let the girl inside the house get injured.” Xiaoyu touched the gate and it instantly opened. He remembered clearly that he closed it firmly before he left, but now…. When his eagle-like eyes discovered something – he turned his head and said to the other two: “It must be hiding inside.”

“Understood.”, the two replied in unison.

Entering the castle, the trio walked through the lobby illuminated by lights. The lobby door was still open, but Xiaoyu remembered that he did not close it when he left. Therefore believed that nothing might have happened and thinking she might still be sitting at the table drinking tea. However, he did not know that just moments after he left someone else came in.

— (A few moments ago)—

Crack! The front gate opened.

“Daddy came back so early. Perhaps he was able to finish his work ahead of schedule. Coming home earlier was a natural thing and was also perhaps the most unnatural thing is this house. Who would believe that an office worker would be living in such a ancient house?!” That was what I thought in the beginning.

I took the cup he drank from to the kitchen and washed it before putting it away. After getting a new cup for daddy, I poured in some tea and waited for him to come in. I was waiting for him to tell me in a caring manner, “It’s so late, why didn’t you go to sleep? You don’t have to wait for daddy.” However, after waiting for a few moments, he did not come in. Everything was so quiet and this silence had a strange feeling. There were no footsteps, as if the sound a moment ago never happened. Then who opened the door just now. Who just came in?”

“I will find out as soon as he comes in.” I thought to myself while sitting at the table, waiting for his arrival. Sitting there quietly, I listened to the all the movement in the surroundings. However there wasn’t any. Forget about it, I’d better go take a bath! I put down the cup and went straight upstairs. Taking my pajamas, I walked into the bathroom and began to fill the bathtub water. While lying in the bathtub, everything was so quiet. Nothing had happened, as if I was the only one in the house, but I clearly knew that I was not alone.

“Jing’er, where are you?” Xiaoya’s brother’s voice came from downstairs.

“I’m here.” I wore a white dress that reached the floor and slowly walked out of the room. Standing on the second floor’s corridor, I have a complete view of downstairs.

“Are you alright?” He asked nervously.

“Does it look like I’m not alright?” I asked coldly.

“Xiaoyu, who is she? Is she your girlfriend?” A teasing voice asked him, and when he turned around, he saw that Xuxing was grinning at him.

“Don’t spurt nonsense. She is Xiaoya’s cla.s.smate. “Xiaoyu hurriedly explained

“Why did you come back? Don’t tell me you chased a n.o.ble into my house.“ I ignored their laughing and asked coldly.

“Oh G.o.d, how do you know that?” Xuxing was startled.

“Xuxing, be quiet.” Xiaoyu stopped him from talking and said:”Jing’er, we discovered that a vampire entered your house.”

“I don’t care, I want to sleep. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” Just as I wanted to turn around and enter my room.

“I found him. Bern, you have no way to escape anymore.” A voice suddenly shouted. Just when I heard that voice, I saw a shadow spring from behind Xiaoyu and head straight for the stairs. Exactly at that moment, another shadow shot out from the guest room next to me and rushed to where I stood.

“Don’t!” With those two small words, everything stopped. It was as if time froze. The first shadow turned out to be Xuqing, and I see him standing motionless in the middle of the stairway. Behind me stood another shadow, and both Xiaoyu and Xuxing remained frozen in the same place.

“Don’t you dare to move, or I’ll suck her dry. I don’t think you would want to let this beautiful, young lady become a mummy.” I felt an ice-cold hand stroking my neck, gently touching my snow-like skin.

“Alright, we won’t move, but you can’t hurt this lady.” Xiaoyu agreed to his request.

“Take your hands off me.”, I said coldly, I was not even taking this matter seriously.

“Miss, you’re not afraid? You dare to even talk to me in such a tone.” The person behind me wondered.

“Jing’er, you’d better keep quiet. I won’t let him hurt you. “Xiaoyu words indicated that he didn’t want a conflict between me and that vampire. He meant well, but I didn’t appreciate it.

“This is between him and me. Don’t stick your nose in it.” I answer him expressionless.

“Miss, what are you doing? Jun is only interested in your well being.” Xuxing scolded me after not able to bear watching anymore.

“You are a part of the secret party?” I didn’t reply to Xuxing, and instead asked the vampire behind me.

“How do you know?” He seemed to panic a bit and probably didn’t expect to be asked such a question.

“You were hiding outside the window for so long, but still did not come out. You probably did this in order to comply with the first commandment: Don’t intervene with the real world” I coldly gave him the answer he wanted to hear.

“Who are you?”

“I advise you to quickly let go of me. You cannot hurt me.” I didn’t respond to his question.

“Who are you?” He repeated his previous question.

“She is not a human! Hahaha!” Accompanied by this kind of disgusting laughter, a person came out of the room on my right.

“Luvian, I missed you so much that I came to visit you. I didn’t think I would stumble onto such an interesting scene. Hahaha!” She was dressed like a 1960’s courtesan, wearing a purple dress with a slit up to the hips and held a small fan in her hands.

“Did you just come back from a patron, or were you waiting until midnight to join one?” I coldly ridiculed her.

“You, you are so heartless. I came to see you with well-intentions, but you, you treat me like this.” She put on a pitifully expression, as if she was a young madam being mistreated by her lover.

“Alright, treat as if I pity you. I will gift you something. Take the one behind me to play!” I said without hesitation.

“What do you mean?” The man behind me couldn’t bear it any longer.

“Nothing much, Luvian said that she’d give you to me.”

“Who are you?” Bern asked again.

“She’s not a human.” I repeated the same answer as she had used before.

“Then what is she?” Xiaoyu, who was standing also downstairs, seemed to be interested in this matter.

“A thousand year old monster.” I said rudely.

“How can there be monsters in this world?” Xuxing didn’t seem to believe it.

“I can’t help it if you don’t believe me. However, you can ask her yourself.” I showed a helpless expression.

“Pretty lady, what are you?” Xuxing stupidly asked.

“What do you think?” She didn’t seem to take offence and asked Xuxing with a naïve tone.

“…….” Xuxing was speechless after hearing this question. He didn’t know to reply and stayed quiet.

“Jing’er, stop joking. What exactly is she? Xiaoyu chose to let me answer.

“A vampire.” I replied truthfully. Except me and her, everyone downstairs and upstairs was completely stupefied.

“What, she is also a vampire?” Bern, who was standing behind me, spurted out this sentence in surprise after a while.

“Thousand years old?” Xuqing, who was standing silently for so long, at center of the stairway suddenly said those three words, half in doubt and half asking for confirmation.

“Exactly, to be honest I don’t remember clearly anymore. Let me calculate for a moment. I should probably be over 1500 years old by now.” She proudly mentioned her own age, followed by a bunch of outrageous laughter.

“The older the antiques, the more valuable they are. However women on the other hand, the older they are, the more unwanted they become.” I probably told her the eternal truth, but I kind of felt happy when quarrelling with her. The reason being, probably in some aspects, she and I were alike.

“You, You!” She was at a loss of words from anger. After calming down, she said “Since you’re in such a bad mood today, I will leave first.” She turned around and left.

“Bern, why are you not following me?!” After walking two steps, she suddenly turned back and shouted.

“Why would I follow you?” Bern angrily asked.

“Didn’t you hear a moment ago? Luvian already gave you to me to play with.” She explained.

“Why should I listen to her?” Bern was so angry, that he wanted to start a fight after finding himself being gifted away by a little girl.

“Do you want to stay and become prey?” She told the real reason why she wanted to take Bern away.

“I have a hostage. They don’t dare to try something.” Bern answered with confidence.

“Do you know the Pupil of Blood?” She asked and abruptly changing the subject.

“I have heard about it. According to legend, the second generation vampires had 13 descendents who created the 13 great clans. Later, they rebelled and exterminated the second generation vampires and it was said that the Pupil of Blood was made of the blood from the second generation vampires.” Byrne said in detail.

“You actually know a lot about it?”

“The Elders have warned us that if we see someone wearing the Pupil of Blood necklace, we must absolutely not offend that person. It is said that there was a curse on that chain and the one wearing it is the proxy of the second generation, watching in their stead, waiting for the ultimate fate of the traitors.” Bern continued and told everything he knew.

“Knowing this, you still dare to take Luvian hostage?”

“What does she have to do with the Pupil of Blood?”

“She is currently the owner of that chain.” She had never talked to seriously before. “What do you want to do to her?”

The moment her voice quieted down, the hand, that was pinching my neck, immediately pulled back. Exactly at that moment, she grabbed Bern in a split second and rushed down the stairs. When the present hunters recovered, they had already disappeared into the vast darkness of night. The moon appeared, but there were always places that its illumination could not reach. Whatever is happening there or whatever happened there, the humans will not know. Maybe, the humans did not even want to know either.

“Quickly chase them!” shouted Xuqing from the middle of the stairs as he rushed out the door.

“There is no need. You can’t catch up with her and even if you catch her, can you injure her? You cannot imagine the power of a thousand year old n.o.ble.“ I stopped them.

“You seem to be helping them.” Xuxing suddenly said.

“I was helping myself. I let her take away Bern, because I don’t want my home to turn into a thousand year old vampire’s battlefield. Preventing you from chasing her is because I don’t want to see Xiaoya heartbroken when her brother has an accident. ”

“Thank you, I know you are acting in our interest. With our current ability, we absolutely cannot match against a thousand year old vampire.” It seemed like Xiaoyu understood my good intentions.

“Alright, you should go back now. You don’t have to shut the door, daddy didn’t come back yet.” I sent them away.

“I want to talk to you, can I?” Xiaoyu had no intentions to leave.

“Tomorrow, I want to sleep now.” I said without even considering it. In fact, I already guessed what he wanted to talk about with me. Without waiting for his response, I turned and went into my bedroom to lie down to sleep.

“Jinyu, who exactly is she?” The empty lobby transmitted Xuxing’s cold voice.

“Let’s go, we’ll talk on the road.” Immediately, I heard a series of footsteps disappearing in the distance and I knew they were gone. I closed my eyes in order to sleep, but surprisingly I was unable to fall asleep for a long time. Everything that happened today flashed before my eyes as scenes flashed in my mind. The me of today and the me of the past were totally different people now. Perhaps, it was because I had already chosen to become a normal girl.