Sol trembled with terror as he locked eyes with a creature hidden in the shadows in front of him. He could feel the vampire's overpowering thirst through its gaze. It was male, with once-attractive features twisted into bestial features. It sneered, exposing its teeth. Sol could smell the thick copper stench of the fresh blood dripping from the creature's fangs. All of Sol's instincts were screaming at him to run and get as far from this place as he possibly could.

That's a thin-blood vampire. It looks like it hasn't fed in a while because its features are all twisted. What's it doing out before the sun sets? Hunger must have driven it out from its lair. I knew I shouldn't have taken the shortcut through this alley, but I stayed too long at work. There was no choice because I needed to get home before the sun went down.

Sol's whole body froze when the thin-blood vampire straightened, drawing his notice. It dropped its meal to the cobblestone pavement with a wet thud. The vampire's victim was a man with an overgrown beard, dressed in ragged clothing. Sol had often seen him begging in this part of the city where the guards were laxer in their duties.

The man gasped in shallow breaths as he dragged himself across the uneven ground in an attempt to escape while the vampire's attention was diverted. His motion caused the vampire to break its gaze away from Sol and return to the unfortunate beggar. It reacted with superhuman speed and grabbed the man by his ankle with one hand, causing the man to whimper in fear.

"Help me…Ahh!" the beggar's pleading was cut short by a scream.

The vampire suddenly hissed as a murky sunbeam seared it from above the narrow alleyway. It gripped the brick wall with its free hand to leap upward and catch the ledge of a broken shuttered window, all while still maintaining its grip on the terrified man. The thin-blood levered itself into the room, pulling the beggar in behind it.

"No, please let me live. What are you doing?..." the beggar's voice could be faintly heard from the vampire's lair as final rays of sunset touched the window ledge.

"Fuck!" Sol cursed as he stopped himself from fleeing after hearing the beggar's cries from inside. He knew of only one reason why the beggar was still alive.

The thin-blood's marked me and wants to keep the beggar fresh, or else he would already be dead. I have no choice, if I want to survive this, I have to hunt it first. In the night, I won't even be able to see the vampire coming. My only saving grace is that it's only a thin-blood and there is daylight left. If I had to face a full-blood and managed to live, their entire clan would hunt me down to serve as an example of what happens to mortals that dare resist them.

Once a person was turned into a vampire, they became a thin-blood. The full-blood clans would then accept them and awaken their bloodline. Each clan bloodline was bestowed by the Queen of the Night when a thin-blood distinguished themselves to gain her favour. Each clan possessed unique attributes, but all full-bloods gained enhancements to their strength and agility. Only thirteen full-blood lineages exist since the Queen united the seven kingdoms under her iron rule. The older a vampire is, the more powerful they become. As the first, the Queen of the Night is the most powerful and has ruled for centuries. Humans are regarded as nothing more than livestock and have only enough freedom to keep them from revolting against their new masters. Mortal servants, known as familiars maintain order throughout the day as the Queen and her kin rest.

Sol focused his scattered thoughts to sift through everything he knew about vampires and their weaknesses. Though all that he knew was common knowledge.

What I do know is vampires are harmed by sunlight, silver and the sunburst of the Lord. The sun has almost set and silver is outlawed. I don't have anything on me to make a sunburst. So, my only option left is to somehow force the vampire into the sunlight. I don't need to kill it, only slow it down while I find somewhere to hide until morning.

Sol regarded the brick wall, searching for handholds to climb up to the broken shutters of the vampire's lair. He steadied his trembling hands while taking a deep breath and closing his eyes to overcome his anxiety. A moment later, he placed his hands against the wall. He felt the rough edges of the brick under his fingers tips and tested his weight against it. The brick held firm. Sol resolved himself and began to climb, it only took a short amount of time to reach the ledge. He hesitantly peeked inside as his eyes adjusted to the gloomy interior beyond the ray of sunlight. Dust hung in the air as the room was revealed. It was littered with debris with a trail of blood drops leading to an empty doorway leading into darkness. The door had been torn from its hinges and tossed across the room, partially embedded into the wall.

Sol gripped the window ledge under him tightly while bracing his feet against his foothold. As he hauled himself inside, the brick under his foot crumbled away. He tensed in trepidation as the fragments clattered to the cobles below. He was petrified in place while listening for any sign of the thin-blood vampire inside. The room remained eerily silent. Sol let out his unconsciously held breath now that he was confident he hadn’t drawn the creature’s attention. He rolled over the ledge into the room.

Pushing himself into a sitting position against the wall beneath the window, Sol attempted to regain control of his erratic heartbeat when something glinting in the filtered sunlight caught his attention. He crawled across the floor and pushed aside the debris that had been piled in place to deliberately cover something. Picking up the object, he inspected it in his hand. It was a sunburst, the symbol of the Lord, tarnished black with age. It smelled faintly of woodsmoke. Wiping his fingers against it, Sol couldn’t find any soot but some of the black smudged away to reveal a metallic glint underneath.

What is this? I’ve never seen this type of metal before. Wait, is this silver? The thin-blood must have piled whatever it could find on top to shield itself from the sunburst. How did this even get here? Whatever, there’s no time to think about that now. I’ll treat it as the Lord watching over me. He must have sent me a miracle in my time of need.

Sol gripped the sunburst tightly, desperately clutching it to his chest while pushing himself to his feet. Glancing behind him, the sun was getting low on the horizon. As he watched, the sun retreated as the sun disappeared below the opposing rooftop. The room quickly plunged into darkness. Sol startled, a sound came from deep inside the open doorway.

Expression grim, Sol picked up a large shard of wood that was on the floor. It had come from the door embedded in the wall. He gasped as he unexpectedly got a large splinter in his palm. A thin stream of blood welled from the wound as he removed the splinter.

“Shit. If the thin-blood didn’t know I was here before. It does now.” Sol cursed softly to himself, gripping the impromptu weapon tightly in his injured hand, the pain completely ignored.

Sol cautiously advanced through the open doorway holding the sunburst in front of him in one hand and the wooden stake in the other. The light sound of Sol’s blood dripping onto the floor was unnoticed by him but very audible to the undetected predator watching him from the darkness.