The swamp was too quiet. Even after we put down the fledgling, the air still stank of rot and wrongness. I'd hunted long enough to know when something wasn't finished.
Caleb felt it too. He kept looking over his shoulder, hand never far from the revolver I carved for him. "You're telling me that was it? One baby bloodsucker hiding in the mud?"
I shook my head. "No. Fledglings don't leave claw marks that deep." I pointed to the mud where long gouges scored the earth, crooked and uneven. "That's ghoul work. And if there's one, there's a nest."
Caleb frowned. "Wait—ghoul? As in… grave-eater? That's real too?"
"Real enough. A vampire's leftovers. They dig up corpses to chew on. When their sire dies, they go feral. And the bastard who made our fledgling clearly left some pets behind."
He gave a nervous laugh, though his grip on the revolver tightened. "Great. First vampire, now zombies."
"Not zombies." I checked the edge on my blade, the runes etched deep into the steel catching the morning light. "Smarter. Faster. Hungrier. Stay sharp."
The ground shifted before I finished the sentence. Fingers—pale, rotted—shot up through the mud, clawing for daylight. Then another set. And another.
Caleb swore. "Uh… how many are we talking?"
"Enough."
The first ghoul tore itself free, jaw unhinging wider than human, teeth snapping. Caleb fired before it reached him. The rune-marked bullet punched through its chest. Instead of blood, the wound glowed—smoke curling out as the ghoul shrieked, body convulsing before collapsing into the muck.
Caleb stared at his revolver in shock. "Holy hell."
"Not holy," I corrected, shoving my blade through a second ghoul's skull. The runes along the steel lit up, sizzling the creature from the inside. It spasmed, black smoke pouring out of its eyes and mouth before dropping limp. "Runes. They don't just kill. They cleanse."
A third ghoul lunged at Caleb from behind. I barked, "Move!" and he rolled, faster than he had any right to. The charm around his neck glowed faintly, and he scrambled back to his feet with surprising speed. His second shot blew the creature's leg off, burning the flesh until nothing but ash remained.
He looked at me, wide-eyed, adrenaline buzzing in his veins. "I… I'm faster. Stronger. I felt it."
"Good. That's the charm doing its work. Use it."
The ghouls kept coming, three more dragging themselves from the mud. We fought back to back, my blade carving arcs of smoke and fire while Caleb's shots rang out, each one leaving another monster hissing and burning as it fell.
By the time the last one twitched its final spasm, the swamp stank of charred flesh and gunpowder. Caleb was panting, his grin wild. "That was… insane. I didn't think I could actually do it."
I wiped my blade clean, sliding it back into its sheath. "Don't get cocky. A ghoul is nothing compared to an elder vampire. Remember this."
Caleb exhaled hard, still riding the rush. "Yeah, yeah. Lesson learned. But admit it—I wasn't half bad."
I gave him a look. "You're alive. That's a start."
---
We burned the corpses before leaving. No evidence left behind. The organization liked things clean.
Back at the bunker, I filed the report through the encrypted line. Within the hour, the reply came:
"Nest confirmed. Fledgling terminated. Ghoul threat eliminated. Payment processed. Caution advised. Signs suggest a rogue vampire of moderate age active in your sector. Profile indicates erratic behavior—possible chaos-spreader. Further observation required."
Caleb read over my shoulder, eyebrows shooting up. "So… not just the kid and his pets, huh?"
"Figures." I leaned back, cigarette burning low between my fingers. "Fledglings don't sire themselves. And ghouls don't dig graves without someone telling them to."
Caleb frowned. "Erratic behavior? What does that even mean?"
"It means we're dealing with a vampire that isn't hungry for blood so much as trouble. Not old enough to be untouchable, but not young enough to be stupid either. Just… bored. That's worse."
He gave a shaky laugh. "Worse than an elder? Come on."
I exhaled smoke, watching it curl in the dim light. "An elder plays by rules. Hunger, survival, power. You can predict that. But one that's bored? That kind of vampire spreads chaos just to see the world burn. And you never know what they'll do next."
Caleb was quiet after that. Payment was already in our accounts—enough to keep the fridge full and the lights on—but money felt thin compared to what the report implied.
I stubbed out the cigarette and stood. "Get some rest. This was the easy part. The real hunt hasn't even started."