Dragomira wiped the beer froth from her mouth. Currently she sat at the bar of a small and smoky tavern somewhere in the narrow alleyways near the slums of Dulnitz. Her pale face was hidden in the shadow of a black hood. Generally, her figure wrapped in a long black coat was dressed consistently dark. This didn’t protect her, the only woman present in the tavern who was neither a waitress nor a prostitute – provided that even the waitresses often worked as casual prostitutes – against the fact that she drew on herself the curious gazes of all present men, mostly drunkards and ruffians.

Clatteringly, Dragomira put her beer mug on the counter and shouted with a disguised voice: “Innkeeper, another mug!”

The innkeeper, a burly bearded man with a fierce face and an apron bristling with dirt, grunted approvingly and filled a new mug of beer that he dropped roughly. He wanted to return to his place already when the customer spoke quietly: “Do say, innkeeper, what are the newest rumors about, let’s say, the Lord of this town?”

The innkeeper audibly inhaled air through his nose and looked at the cloaked woman in front of him as if she were mad.

Without saying a word she put a gold coin on the counter.

The innkeeper still looked critically.

A further gold coin joined the first.

With an inconspicuous movement, the publican wiped the money from the counter. Then he spoke with a hushed voice: “You don’t know it from me. When it gets out that I as the brother of the wife of the nephew of the cellarer in the Count’s castle have divulged something, then I don’t risk my neck alone. Yes, there are rumors about the Count and they aren’t the best. I’m well informed. I know what of it is true and what isn’t. It looks like the Count is in cahoots with the King’s younger brother. All the disappearances in Dulnitz and the surrounding area seem also to be on his head. No idea what he does with them but at night screams often can be heard from the castle’s basement. Says at least my brother-in-law who has it from the cellarer in turn but he doesn’t know much himself. The Count probably also rearms, buys many armors and weapons on the quiet. But that’s all I know.”

Dragomira nodded to express her satisfaction. Then she got up, flipped a silver coin covering a heavy tip beside the price for her two mugs of beer at the informative tavern owner, and left the drinking hole without having taken a sip from the second mug at all. She was very pleased. The information she had received confirmed and supplemented what she already knew. Just like that, the woman clad in black disappeared into the darkness of the night without a trace.

Dragomira was no ordinary woman. The slim young woman whose age appeared to be seventeen was in fact already over two hundred years old. It was no wonder, for she was a vampire after all. Her former life and the name she had borne as a human she already could hardly remember but she appreciated the freedom that the eternal darkness of the night gave her. As a bloodsucker she was, so to speak, the arch-enemy of all mankind but there were people who didn’t care about that and even aided her to quench her bloodthirst regularly without causing a stir. Those people formed the organization to which Dragomira herself belonged to. Known under the name of “Night Dagger”, they formed the most famous and most notorious organization of assassins in the empire and the five kingdoms.

The vampire currently was on a mission. Since Night Dagger was an organization for assassinations, the employers frequently changed. At the moment Dragomira was away on behalf of Fulrad, the chancellor of the kingdom of Waldbergen. He and his lord King Gunderich II suspected that Count Degenhard von Dulnitz conspired against the kingdom together with the King’s younger brother Reginbrand and further men. Therefore, the Count, who was the most powerful among the conspirators not at last because of the rich profits from his mines, had to be eliminated. The only puzzling thing was what the disappearance cases had to do with the Count but that didn’t interest the assassin any further. She only had to accomplish her task and could then disappear into the darkness of the night again.

Grandly and in a certain way also macabre, the Count’s castle towered in front of Dragomira. The castle full of Gothic pointed arches and built from dark local stone dominated over Dulnitz like a dark tyrant. Although it was deepest night already, sentries circled on the battlement. In doing so they lit the darkness with torches. But even a guarded citadel was no problem for the vampire. From a safe hiding place she kept an eye on the castle walls and used one of the few moments during which the walls sunk into the moonless night to climb over the battlement with superhuman speed.

Arriving at the round path, the cloaked woman jumped down to the courtyard without bethinking herself and looked for her further way from there on. As a nocturnal monster, Dragomira could still see sufficiently to orientate herself without any problems even in low light. Using her eyes but also her highly sensitive ears, she successfully avoided the guard patrols.

Finally, the assassin found the Count’s bedchamber. Before, she already had made a detour to the office of the Count’s caste but she couldn’t find any incriminating material. To find proof of the conspiracy was the vampire’s second task in addition to the Count’s assassination. Carefully she opened the heavy wooden door. She had already knocked out the valet next door using narcotics and she also hadn’t to fear that women or children were present in the bedchamber – Count Degenhard had no children and was a widower for the last ten years.

Dragomira slowly sneaked up to the canopy bed draped with heavy black curtains. In this large bed the Lord of Dulnitz used to sleep. Gently, very gently she pulled aside the curtain with one hand while she already drew her dagger with the other. The edge of the weapon was laced with poison. The highly potent poison had no effect on vampires and other undead though. Thus the assassin could confidently drink from the blood of those whose throats she had cut with the poisoned dagger.

When she reached out for the red velvet blanket that was pulled even over the head and lifted it cautiously, there she then saw – a wolf lying. And that was no ordinary wolf. As big as a grown man, the black wolf sprouted golden brown wings from its shoulders and its tail was that of a serpent scaled bilious green.

When the blanked was barely lifted from the wolf monster’s figure, it glared with fiery eyes at the cloaked figure in front of it, opened its muzzle filled with menacing fangs, and without warning it shot an explosive flame from its throat.

The dumbfounded Dragomira had barely any time to avoid it although her reflexes were many times better than a human’s.

Thereupon, a satisfied laughter rang out from a shadowy corner of the bedchamber.

The room suddenly filled with bright candlelight blinding the vampire in addition to the previous flash. A downright lean man with sharp facial features and decreasing hairline scornfully gazed at the assassin from ice-blue eyes while his lips sneered at her.

“You will not be able to kill Us so easily!” Degenhard von Dulnitz declared with confidence “Rather it is you who will soon regret your impudence. After Our good Vine had told Us about your hidden attack, We have been thinking on how to prevent your evil deeds. Our dear Marchosias will see to it that you receive your just reward for your deed.” In doing so, the Count pointed on one hand at a gigantic lion with fiery eyes at the other end of the room, sitting on the back of a black horse and entwisted by snakes, on the other hand on the winged wolf which stood on the bed now.

When she heard this it gave Dragomira a chill. She knew the names Vine and Marchosias just too well, as they were nefarious demons that could be summoned by black mages after all. There was no doubt that the Lord of the castle couldn’t be saved anymore because he had bought the demons’ services with the price of his soul. Likely the missing people whose disappearance the innkeeper ascribed to the Count also served the satisfaction of the demonic helpers.

The assassin immediately decided to abandon her job, consistent with the rules of the organization Night Dagger which stipulated that the life of assassins had priority when the completion of the task was unfeasible. As fast as she could she tried to put distance between the demons and herself.

“Not so fast!” Count Degenhard shouted and gave a sign to the wolf demon.

Marchosias caused a veritable firestorm flowing out of its mouth which not only set the canopy bed and the room on fire but nearly annihilated the vampire by a hairbreadth too.

As fast as she could she had jumped at the ceiling of the chamber and was now struck there. Since her hooded cloak had caught on fire, she had to let it go so that her figure became obvious. Dragomira was a slim but athletic woman with pale skin and long legs. She was dressed exclusively in black, wore men’s trousers for the sake of flexibility instead of the usual women’s dress. Her pointed face was characterized by a narrow nose and a pair of blood-red eyes. The long auburn hair was bundled into a ponytail.

The Count of Dulnitz’s eyes widened in surprise. He had reckoned with a male and primarily human assassin. Nonetheless, he didn’t plan to spare a female attacker.

The demon Marchosias now spread its wings and attacked the vampire in the air.

Dragomira found herself in a tricky situation. Since she had to hold on to the ceiling with her hands and feet so as to not fall down into the sea of flames, she also couldn’t draw her dagger to defend herself.

The winged wolf exploited this chance of course. With an open mouth it pounced onto its prey and bit into her calf with full power.

The pain caused the assassin to yell loudly so that her pointed canines typical for a vampire became visible. When the power left her leg, she wasn’t able to stay at the ceiling any longer and fell into the flames.

Satisfied, Marchosias turned to its current master and wagged its serpent tail in a dog’s manner – a behavior which belied its high intelligence.

Count Degenhard also appeared highly pleased with the assassin’s demise. That half of his bedchamber caught fire as well and his retinue started to flap, he accepted it quasi as collateral damage. Wouldn’t he call the luxurious bedchamber of a king his own anyway after he would have overthrown the king and disposed of his co-conspirator Reginbrand?

Suddenly a burning figure dashed forward from the sea of flames, straight along underneath the steed of lion demon Vine, and plunged itself into the dark night through the lead glass window, the shards of which thus also fell into the depth.

Startled, the Lord of Dulnitz had to assert that the enemy presumed dead still had more life in her than he had thought. Since the hurrying steps of the alarmed castle staff coming running with fire water could be heard in the distance at the same time, the demon summoner commanded the two infernal creatures that they should hide from human view. On the next day he would allow investigation about what became of the vampire, for she couldn’t have come far. It should show that the Count was seriously mistaken though. Except for scorch marks and blood residue in the castle’s courtyard nothing more could be found and even Vine’s visionary power could only assert that the assassin was already located outside of Dulnitz and that she was still alive. Something denied further insight for the demon. It succeeded to take a look into the future though and announced that the paths of the assassin and the Lord of the castle would never meet again. Put at ease by those words, Degenhard von Dulnitz let the happenings of the previous night rest without losing a word about it ever again.