It had been a few hours since Felix and Dinah’s encounter with the man calling himself Ven. They had jogged through most of the forest and were now on its edge. An open plain of grass and occasional dirt lying ahead of them in every direction they could see.

  It seemed like their opponent was the only human hunter in the area, neither of their supernatural senses picked up anything other than this world's small creatures as they had fled.

  They both stood around awkwardly, they hadn’t actually spoken at all during the time since they abandoned the forest clearing.

  “Here, catch.”

  Dinah tossed Felix something which he caught in his hands, upon unclasping it in front of him he realized it was the blue pendant she had swiped from him.

  “I don’t like owing people for things, that you’re a vamp would make it even worse. Consider us square now.”

  Dinah didn’t make eye contact as she said this, instead scanning the open clearing.

  Felix didn’t say thanks, it would go against the whole fact that she beat him into a bloody pulp and stole his possession in the first place, that he rescued and cooperated with her in response made them far from even in his opinion. Although something about that fact bothered him.

  “You have a full Werewolf transformation right? So why didn’t you use it back there?”

  Dinah finally looked his way, a mixture of annoyance and embarrassment on her face.

  “I don’t exactly have the best control over that form yet, I was going to turn before you showed up, but If I used it while you were around I was just as likely to tear you apart as the human, not exactly a winning recipe.”

  Maybe they were a bit more even then he’d like to admit.

  The light of dawn began breaking over the horizon, the first night in this strange human world about to come to an end. Felix covered his eyes, he could feel himself weakening under the glare of the star.

  For vampires exposure to it had been fatal once upon a time, though they had evolved to endure it like other species over time.

  Monsterkin were only able to operate on half of their power when not underneath the light of the moon or the equivalent black star in Hallow Haven.

  This wasn’t a complete death sentence, according to what was taught at Nightshear the human diviners that relayed approximate positions of Monsterkin to hunters could not do so during the day, thus most of the hunters normally retreated somewhere until night fell again.

  Dinah began to walk away, but Felix wasn’t about to let things be that easy.

  “Just so you know I don’t have anything against werewolves, I think our species and the two of us have a lot more in common than not, if you want we can at least cover each other's backs until-”

  Dinah paused and quickly turned to face him again.

  “Listen, the last time one of my species trusted yours they wound up face down choking on a negotiating table. It’s going to take a lot more than one temporary truce to mend that rift.”

  She sighed deeply.

  “Besides I have something I’ve gotta do on my own…”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  Dinah thought for a moment how crazy it was she was about to tell this to a vampire, perhaps his earnestness was winning her over more than she would care to admit.

  “My twin sister Valerie is on this Trek as well. She’s everything to me, my purpose to live and get through this shit show. You remind me a lot of her actually, naive and empathetic to a fault instead of a hard-ass like me. I’m going to find her and make sure we both make it home, no matter what.”

  So that was who she meant in their earlier telepathic conversation.

  “How do you intend to find her? From what I understand this world is as vast as our own, with both of you constantly on the move it’s far more likely you’d find the portal back before each other.”

  Dinah pointed towards her single earring.

  “My sister also has one of these. They work on the same logic as our bodies do with the portal, except immediately effective. I can tell she’s somewhere west of here and I’ll get a better sense the closer we get. Hopefully it will only be a week before we find each other.”

  Felix was impressed with the craftsmanship of the Werewolf artifact and could only lament that the Vampires had no equivalent, else he would have had three made for himself, Emily and Leo.

  “I wish you the best of luck then.”

  Felix ended off, ready to put distance between himself and the forest.

  “Yeah, you said you have people you care about too? I’m guessing at least a few of them are on this Trek so…best of luck to you all getting back as well, I guess.”

  Dinah’s words were gruff but well meaning.

  While it was hard to call them friends or allies, they were at least two monsterkin bound by similar circumstances. That’s more than could be said at the start of the night when they were locked in battle with each other.

  As Dinah walked away westward and Felix turned his own attention north, he couldn’t help but get the feeling he hadn’t seen the last of the Werewolf woman with pixie white hair. Fate had an odd sense of humour when it came to which paths crossed together along its road.

  ————————

  Felix had been marching onwards for several hours, the full light of the sun now hanging overhead. He never figured the loneliness would get to him as much as it was.

  No light hearted jabs from Leo, no logical inputs from Emily, no warm embraces from his mother, even Alex Tepes’ attempts at bullying him were preferable to the eerie isolation he felt despite the wide open path he travelled. He never realized how much he missed those small moments of his life until now.

  As ill advised and short sighted as it was in hindsight, perhaps that had been the reason he extended the invitation to Dinah to travel together temporarily, the company of a long time rival to his species preferable to none at all. In spite of all his training, he’d never thought to prepare for this aspect of the Trek.

  He gripped the blue pendant, now stored in his jacket pocket rather than around his neck. He couldn’t help but be more paranoid after the trinket had been snatched so easily, to say nothing of how its unique ability had a workaround.

  Regardless of its utility, it held just as much importance as a reminder of what he was striving to survive for. As a reason to keep his head in the game and remember that he wasn’t alone in spirit.

  Another shadow flew over his head, the third of the past hour. He gazed upward to see an animal soaring in the sky. A native to this world no doubt, far smaller than Harpies and the like he would’ve been intimately familiar with from textbooks.

  “Birds” they were called, although any specifics beyond that he wouldn’t know. Information on things in the human world were spotty and mostly gotten from interrogation of human hunters. The separation from the other sentient species did no favors in this regard as they no longer could share knowledge in a collective pool.

  Felix came to a stop. The grassy plain in front of him mildly sloped into an area with a pond. The water was gleaming in the sun, a few odd rocks and one large boulder were darted around the edge of it.

  Now was as good a time as any for a brief respite.

  Felix slid down the incline of the shallow hill, the fresh leafy scent of the blades of grass strong in his nose as he reached the bottom.

  He approached the body of water tentatively, he fell to a knee and palmed some of the liquid in his hands before splashing it onto his face. It was refreshing, even if it did not provide nourishment in the same way blood would.

  In his first night in the land of humans he had already faced two near death scenarios, one of which would have outright resulted in his end if not for the mercy of the opponent, while the other may have gone much differently had the puppet master taken them seriously from the start.

  To top things off, that was the shortest night, seeing as how the monsterkin were transported at this world's stroke of midnight, it was only half the length he would now see from here on out. That meant, if the average held true, he could be in four or more similar situations a night.

  Even just the thought made him tired, both humans and Monsterkin tended to get more powerful as the nights went on and they refined new skills and techniques, therefore no matter how much stronger he also became over the month, it would remain a fierce struggle to the bitter end.

  Evidently this was why humans had the advantage over them, for each individual Monsterkin there was only one Trek, while a human could participate in countless hunts over their lifetime.

  Sighing, he made his way over to the large boulder and took a seat, staring into the clear blue sky that hanged overhead. Felix had to admit to himself that if it wasn’t such a treacherous world there would be a serene beauty to the surroundings which he could truly appreciate.

  Suddenly, something caught Felix’s eye. From his pocket the pendant began to glow red for the first time, which meant…

  The boulder beneath him began to shake, it then violently shot upwards as Felix tumbled off, his back colliding hard with the grassy earth, knocking the breath out of his lungs.

  He quickly stumbled upward and drew his weapon with a shaky hand, now locking eyes with a creature which was nearly eight feet tall, its skin smooth yet textured like one would expect from a well made stone wall. A Golem as they were known.

  “YOU DISRESPECT ME?” The golem billowed, body quivering in anger.

  “ME CRUSH YOU!”

  Now was as good a time as any for Felix to realize that the day could be just as dangerous and unpredictable as night.