He twisted his leg, locking it with the vampire, before throwing the vampire to the ground with a loud thud.

  "How many more of you are here?" Roman muttered under his breath.

  The other vampire again attacked Roman by jumping on him. Roman dodged it before pulling the vampire's arm and pushing him down to the ground. With one swift movement, he tore off the head of the vampire.

  At a distance, he noticed fire blazing in two trees. With the other trees located close to it, they had to stop it from spreading.

  He made his way towards the place, dodging the bullets of the hunters. But with the number of hunters increasing, it was hard for him to stop the bullets. One of the bullets came to hit Roman's leg, and he staggered forward before catching his balance.

  "Where do you think you are running, you blood sucker?" questioned one of the hunters.

  Another bullet was shot at him, and Roman stepped away before the bullet could touch him. He could feel the pain starting to spread in his body, but this was different from usual. It left a cold chill, and he could feel his body beginning to sweat.

  "Can you feel it? That your death is near? You should die in less than a minute," chuckled the hunter who shot him.

  Roman's eyes fell on his leg, and he noticed blood oozing out. There were other hunters, who shot the vampires, and one by one, the night creatures started to fall to the ground. The bullet that was being used was probably the ones that Melanie's mother had made, and so far, there was no word about the antidote from the infirmary, he thought in his mind.

  "Any last wish for your dead body?" questioned the hunter, waiting to see Roman fall to his knees.

  Roman gritted his teeth before standing straight, "Sure. Where would you want me to bury your body?" He mocked the hunter.

  The hunter's smile faltered, and he glared at Roman for his audacity even when he was on the verge of his death. "You seem to be a haughty young man, well let us give you a good death," said the hunter, pulling the gun's trigger.

  Roman didn't move from his place, and the bullet came and hit right at his chest, where his heart laid.

  The other hunters laughed at the vampire being shot, but when they saw Roman continue to stand in front of them, breathing, their eyebrows furrowed.

  "What happened?" questioned one of the hunters. "The bullet must have killed him by now!"

  "This is why they say you shouldn't speak too much," replied Roman, and he pulled out his own gun, pointing it at the human whose eyes turned wide.

  The hunter poured all the bullets into Roman's chest in a panic, where the gunshot was louder than before. But seeing Roman continue to stand without moving even an inch of his body, experiencing pain, they didn't know what they were fighting.

  "Why isn't he dying?!" questioned the hunter, and when he noticed Roman pull the cork of his gun, the hunter quickly pleaded, "Don't kill me! I won't hurt you!"

  Roman glared at the hunter, "Are you telling it because you don't have any more bullets left in your gun and it needs to be reloaded. Or because you know you cannot kill me?" he questioned. He pulled the trigger, and with one single bullet hitting the hunter, the hunter was killed.

  At the front entrance of Veteris gate, Simon, Melanie, and Conner had arrived. The guards were not around, and the gates were closed.

  "What are we going to do?" Melanie asked with a frown. "All the weapons are in the boot of the car."

  "Maybe one of us can jump over the walls and open the gate?" suggested Conner.

  "How simple," Melanie turned to Conner with a look of surprise as if she hadn't thought about it. "There are electrical wires on top of the walls. If we touch it, we will die," she pointed it out.

  "Looks like there is no other way but to head straight," stated Simon, and he reversed the car. "Everyone sit tight, and maybe duck down and close your eyes," he instructed.

  Melanie looked back and forth between Simon and the gate, and when Simon increased the pressure on the accelerator, she quickly put her arms around her head. The car went straight to crash the gate, and it took two more tries before they were able to open it up.

  Seeing the hunters and vampires fight, Simon said, "Mel and Conner, take the car to the main building. I am sure Dante is still there—"

  "I am coming with you!" Melanie interrupted him.

  "This place doesn't look like it has just hunters anymore. Enoch and his brother are here with his men," said Simon, but Melanie shook his head.

  "I will be more useful there than here," she turned to Conner and said, "Can you take the car, Conner? I have a score to settle."

  "Yeah, I believe you have better experience with the vampires than me," agreed Conner, not bothering to argue, and they got out of the car.

  Melanie picked up some vial solutions and carried the bow and arrows behind her back.

  "Really, darling, this is no medieval period," said Simon, "You would do well with guns because your arrows will exhaust."

  Melanie stared at Simon and said, "These are different. Cillian taught me a few tricks and the arrows are only for show."

  "Well if you say so," replied Simon, and they headed in the direction of where the fight was going on.

  Simon didn't use any guns, but physical combat as he enjoyed it better, saving the bullets from being exhausted. On the other hand, Melanie aimed the vials not at the vampires but between them to fall and break on the ground. Smoke started to spread around the nearby vampires, paralyzing their movement for a few seconds.

  "What is that?" questioned Simon as he fought with one of the vampires.

  "It is a special diffuser made for vampires that stops their movement for a minute. It isn't much. I was still working on this in my room," replied Melanie, and she pulled out the wooden stake from the back of her pocket to run it through the vampires, killing them.

  "Look at you already so capable," Simon praised her, and while he caught hold of one of the vampires, he paused to ask her, "Wait, when did you make this?"

  Melanie pulled out one more stake of wood and turned to Simon, "Ah, I was writing down the formula components after finding out vampire's existence."

  "You mean after meeting me? I am not sure if I should be in awe or shock," replied Simon. He pushed the vampire's head into the hollow bark of the tree.

  "In my defense, I was scared as hell and I thought it would be useful if I ever needed it. I mean Conner got locked up in a dungeon, and then all the other mess. Julie's uncle Ottis had explained to me about his creation, which he was still working on. So I just recreated it," explained Melanie, and she raised her feet to knee the vampire's stomach.

  One of the hunters who caught Melanie and Simon fighting waved at them, not knowing that Melanie had been locked in a basement by her parents before and Simon was a vampire.

  "Melanie! I am so glad you are alive, some of our men have been taken down," said the young man as he wheezed. "Where did you learn to fight like that? You seem pretty good," he shouted from where he was.

  "Took a crash course in the medieval period," muttered Melanie, but Simon interrupted them with,

  "She's my girl."

  Melanie turned to stare at Simon, "That was out of nowhere and not the time to talk about."

  "We didn't get to tell the world though," said Simon, stopping a vampire's hand from reaching his chest and twisting the other person's arm. "With your parents the way they are, it isn't so bad to tell others."

  "They don't know you are a vampire. If they find out, they will personally come to stake you," not to mention Conner's father would be put under suspicion too, thought Melanie. Because he had almost turned into a vampire, he was back to normal or appeared to be normal because of Simon.

  "If they are personally going to come to me, I might as well ask for your hand in marriage," Simon joked with a wide smile on his face.

  Melanie shook her head, unable to retort to him as another vampire came to attack her. She aimed the solutions she had created to fall on the ground in other places, making it easier for the hunters, her and Simon, to kill the vampires.

  She then asked the hunter whom she had spoken to a few minutes ago, "Do you know where my mother and father are?"

  "They are on the East side of this place. Where's Conner?" asked the hunter.

  "He went to check to the main building," replied Melanie, her words drowning because of the groans and screams and the sounds of gunshots.