Summer is the greatest time of year for us. Why is it so great? Simple, the days are longer. Longer days mean more safe-time. No creatures lurking at night who would endanger other living things. But in this new age, they've grown quite bold. Who are they? They're an ancient race of cursed beings that feed on the living forces of, well, the living. As for us, we're the ones who hunt them down.

Our mission tonight, the hunt for one of the gang leaders of these beasts. The plan was to bait it using an unsuspecting prey and when it is about to attack, we stop it. The bait was one my our members, a girl in particular. These beasts are usually attracted to women so this bait was perfect. Although she's a girl I wouldn't want to engage her in a fight. My comrades said that she was a seasoned hunter and she wouldn't lose to one of them in a fight even when she's handicapped. Okay that was an exaggeration but I got their point.

The squad grew restless as the moon moved. We eyed our bait with anxiety, readying ourself for a fight.

"God dammit, we were told that the target would come here, now where the bloody hell is he?" One of the men said. Owen was his name, he was a fierce fellow and was not on my lost of people who I could become enemies with.

"Shut up Owen, you're not giving the rookie a good role model," a woman said. It was Gwen. She is what you would call a straight A student, except she's a hunter.

"Oh I'm sorry Ms. I'm Perfect, I'll be quite now," he scoffs and cursed in a hushed tone.

"Sit down and be quite you two, or would you rather go down there and be bait?" The man with a stubble said. He was our leader. John, the only person the whole squad kneels to.

"Don't mind those two, greenhorn," he advised me.

"Yes sir!"

Then there was me. I was assigned as a rookie in this squad to gather experiences and that's why John is calling me a greenhorn.

"Come on Dave, this here is your first assassination right?" Owen bumped me. Yes that's my real name. 

I nodded in response to Owen's statement. 

Gwen wrapped an arm around me and pulled me close, "It's alright! We're the best of unit D so there's nothing to worry about."

Unit D was in control of the local area. Not much action was to be had here though. It's pretty quite, aside from the occasional attacks. The far more dangerous zones are controlled by Unit C, Unit B, and Unit A. Unit A being in control of the most dangerous zone. The area Unit D has is, well, in a sense it's quite peaceful. This is the area where I grew up in.

"Hey there missy."

After some time a voice called out to our bait. The bait was Sam, a member of our squad.

It was a young man. Not that different than the other members of the squad aside myself. I was the youngest one what with still being a rookie in training and all.

Back to the man, he was quite pale. Hair combed to the back. He wore a white shirt with black trousers.

"What are you doing in an alleyway at this hour?"

He approached Sam nonchalantly. The girl stepped back a few times, flustered.

"Uh... Um... I'm supposed to wait for a friend here. She left somewhere with a guy but never came back since. I'm getting a bit worried," she held her hands together.

A pretty damned good actor she was. If I hadn't known she was in the squad, she would've looked like a helpless pedestrian to me. Supposedly, her story was solid. The friend was imaginary but the part where she's gone missing is quite plausible. It was plausible because lately there has been an increase in missing people.

"Oh, would you like me to take you to the police? We can find your friend there," he reached out a hand.

She was hesitant at first but she took it after some time. After that they depart from the alleyway.

"Quick, follow the target. If our intel is correct, they should go to the docks," John stood and made haste, the rest follow him close behind.

John was right. Or should I say that the intel was right. That was the good news. The bad news was that we lost track of our target.

"Shit, I swear they came through here," John punched a wall. It cracked slightly.

"Whoa there boss, come on, they must've went inside one of these warehouses," Owen held another of John's punches back. No more walls are going to break tonight, or so that was what I thought. 

There was actually a method that the boss had figured out in this situation. He emptied his pockets and took a communication device. He pressed one of the button. This was to be used whenever we lost track of the target. What it does is just signal the bait that we had lost track of them and since we're at the docks it was safe to use.

1...

2...

3...

A scream was heard. We rushed towards the source of the cry. It was coming from one of the warehouses. Of course, it had to be a warehouse. The squad rushed in, readying their equipment and so did I. Silver blades and arm-guards. Pretty light stuff but it's just enough to kill these beasts, or so I've learned.

I gripped at my hilt as I saw the image of the beast. An ordinary man. He would look like an ordinary man in any eye, but his aura, his aura was wicked. A presence that would make shivers run through your spine, and it did. He glared back at us. In front of him was Sam, on the floor, holding a hand against him. Owen charged for the man and was dodged pretty easily. His goal was only to clear a path for Sam. She retrieved her equipment from Owen and readied herself.

"How do you wanna do this John?" Sam adjusted her arm-guard.

"Surround him, there's only one exit, there isn't much room where he could escape to."

We surrounded him with ease. But there was something wrong, way wrong. He wasn't retaliating. He seemed fairly calm despite being in a locked situation. He took a smoke and lit it. We proceeded in caution.

"You really think that this amount of people can stop me?" He scolded, "you guys are disrespecting me."

Suddenly, his presence became stronger, much stronger. His body started to enlarge itself. His limbs grew longer, his mouth grew slightly forward, his fangs now twice the size of our thumbs, his ears pointed outward. In that process, most of his clothes were torn to pieces if not by the transformation, by he himself. I almost lost grip of my silver sword. This was the first time seeing them up close in action. We had studied about them at the academy before, they were called primal form. I couldn't believe that I would see them in my mock mission.

John gripped his sword tighter, "change of plans, spread out! Don't let him escape!"

The beast charged and swatted Gwen aside. She flew across the room and hit a steel container.

"What the fuck is a pure-blood doing here? We didn't get this on the intel," Owen cried out, running towards Gwen to help. The beast had other plans, he jumped in front of Owen and pounced at him. Owen barely dodged him but he managed to put a scratch on it with his silver blade. The beast shrieked in pain. John followed up with a shot of his handgun, loaded with silver bullets.

"Gwen, you still with us?" Owen shook her shoulder.

The young woman's eyes opened slightly, "Yeah, crap what the hell is with that thing."

"You know about those pure-bloods, this one is on me though, no action for you."

"Fine, do whatever, make sure it hurts," she requested.

"Right-o," Owen stood and joined the battle again.

I had tried to make a hit on its back but instead he hit me with the back of his hand. I stood my ground somehow and slashed his arm. He back-step a few times to safety. Owen wanted to give him a second wound but he got caught. The beast's arm held his head high and attempted to crush it. Owen cried out in pain, trying to slash his way out with his head. He hit a few times but the beast chose to bore with it. John came in with Sam to try and free Owen. Sam was parried by the beast's free hand. John managed to give him a cut on the ribs while both its hands were busy. In its pain, it kneeled and released Owen. He saw this as a chance to cut him down and so he did. He stroke the beast's arm off in revenge.

The beast was now helpless, "You're not humans," he declared, his fingers pointed to me.

"Nor am I, now, what are you guys planning?" John crouched, seeing the beast eye-level.

"Your little business is over, we're going to take over again in some time. We've made our move and we're not giving you a turn to make yours," it spat on John.

In disgust, John cleaned his mucus covered face. "He's useless now, cut his head off Sam."

"Alright," she did a clean job in taking care of it. The decapitated body now slides down lifeless. Sam burnt the remaining body and stared at it intently as if looking for something. I slumped back next to Gwen, leaning back on a steel container. I held my injured arm, the one that blocked the beast's attack.

"I didn't know you were a Damp," Gwen questioned.

I scratched the back of my neck, "err... Yeah... It's not rare at all right? Being half of us and half of them I mean."

"Not really, John and Owen are Damps. If Owen wasn't a half-breed his head would've been crushed by now heheh," she tried laughing but it hurt her instead.

"You'd love to see that, don't you Gwen? And after running to your aid like the prince-charming I am, you're so ungrateful," he sat in front of us.

"Of course not! Why I'd be devastated seeing you get torn in pieces!" Gwen sarcastically announced. Owen grunted it away.

"Come on people, we have to get back to base and report in," John tapped his foot to Owen. Sam returned shortly after cleaning up the mess, in another sense, burn the evidence away and put the ashes in a container. We left the building and headed back. The night was nearing its end, we could see that dawn was coming. I didn't realize that it took us almost half a day to assassinate just 1 of them while they almost killed one of us in minutes. The gap in our strength is great. But that won't stop us from killing them. Why? Because we're vampire hunters.