Four

Erin Nightwind

On a night like this, it was expected of the town to be filled with serenity and quietude but when the ear-splitting scream of a young girl tore the veil of silence, her eyes snapped open from her slumber and her senses heightened.

She sniffed the air in her bat form, hanging upside down her favorite cave as she unfolded her flexible thin membrane and launched into the air, flapping her wings in the direction of where she heard the terrifying screams.

The wind rushed into her lungs, carrying a smell of mischief and-was that lust? She grunted in distaste and disappointment at the love birds she could sniff from afar, she thought a poor girl was in danger.

Glancing up for the time, there was a red display of numbers in digital form amidst the celestial occupants of the blue sky–It was seven fifty pm, she still had time to surf around before their royal family movie time. Her eyes rolled skyward and she settled on a tree, taking the position of a wise owl by observing the surrounding.

The playful screams disturbed the peace of the street and she spread her wings open, rubbing her face multiple times and nursing the feeling of loneliness that sat buoyantly in her heart. The faint crescent moon in the sky mirrored a silvery claw as it dimly shone on the two lovers smacking each other playfully.

"What are you doing?" Erin questioned, squinting her peanut-sized eyes at the lover's retreating figure. "Get out of there!" She screeched, forgetting she was too far to be heard by the ignorant fools.

"Catch me if you can!" The girl who seemed to be not older than age eighteen spun for a brief minute to look back at him before taking off and Erin bit her bottom lip a little too hard in anger. Why was she going to such a restricted area?

The boy ran after his girlfriend and Erin thought he was gullible. After much thought, Erin decided to leave them to their fate when they were no longer in sight. She flapped her wings and floated in the air, ready to leave for her palace.

Unexpectedly, a resounding scream grabbed the strings of her attention and yanked them–Erin halted, instantly snapping her head to the direction it came from. There the scream was again, but this time it wasn't that of a flirting young adult, it had fear laced to it. The bat shrugged, she had no business with the two.

Erin took off, waving her wings in the air towards the path that led to her kingdom and it was silent again, just the way she liked it. She took in a lungful of air and swirled in the air, enjoying the way the atmosphere embraced her in its finest of them. It wasn't too cold or too hot, it was just right. Maybe a little bit cold.

The loud barking of dogs filled the place, ridding it of its quietude. A sudden howl overtook the voices of the dogs and their barking seized. Erin's face was pulled into a scowl when she sniffed them to be none other than wolves. She wrinkled her nose in distaste, flying faster to make it home before eight-thirty.

"Help!" A high-pitched voice raced into Erin's ear, halting her in her tracks.

Considering it to be nothing, Erin resumed her flight nonchalantly till loud howls rid the air into her ears, causing her bat hair to stand at attention.

"Help me!" The voice screamed again but this time, Erin could perceive blood, blood-filled with lies and lust. "He-"

The sentence was cut short when loud growls filled the air and Erin's sense of hearing heightened. She could hear loud thuds like that of a beast approaching a scared virgin.

Erin froze at a spot, shuffling her gaze from the distant view of her palace and back to the place a girl was screaming for help. Her heart cramped and she felt a sudden connection to the screaming young adult.

Another scream, Erin charged in the direction of the outcries as fast as she could, hearing an echo of the heart of the endangered. The moment she reached a barrier that separated this village from the human world, she held her breath and wiggled her legs in the air, pushing her body backward as she came to a halt. She shook her head furiously, not wanting to trespass but the cry for help led her on and she crossed it without a second thought.

Peering down at the earth, she sighted the young girl sitting in a pool of blood and hugging what seemed to be a dead body as she sobbed. She was surrounded by vicious wolves who had a strong thirst for blood and Erin lose balance as a memory hit her like a lightning bolt. Her small bat frame fell like a light feather and landed in one of the bushes like a dead body on her back and she shivered, cold wracking her body.

"Erin!" The young female cried, waking Erin from her reverie and she released her breath, feeling her muscles increase with a slight headache stabbing at her head. She squeezed her eyes shut and hair began to sprout out of her head. Her limbs elongated rapidly and her wings were now replaced with feminine hands that yanked furiously at her hair. She was mad, mad she couldn't protect him and this time, she would protect this person.

Two human-sized eyes popped up and her face increased in size, transforming into her vampire form. Her slender fingers shrunk inhumanely, giving rise to ten sharp, blood-seeking blades.

She jumped out of the bush, launching at one of the wolves, and dug her blade fingers deep into his back. Blood gushed out of his back and she pulled them out, earning the attention of the other wolves. They stood, ready to attack as they dug their claws into the dirt and growled. Erin chanced a glance at the terrified girl and felt bile bursting in her throat when she recognized her face. She had been wondering how the stranger knew her name but this moment answered her question.

What in Dracula's name are you doing here?

Erin asked mind-linking with the familiar face.

It was a mistake, help me!

Who is he, do you mean you got into trouble for a boy neither myself nor father knows from Dracula?

Please, he's dying.

Erin lengthened her fangs, cutting the young girl off from the mind thing, and flew into the gut of a beast, driving them to the ground. She straddled him and slit his throat but he didn't go down without driving a fist into hers and clawing her arm, ripping the handle of the dress apart and causing blood to dribble out of the scratch. Soon, all the werewolves turned and were attacking her.

Run, Amelia! Erin mind-linked again after getting tossed by the wolves with her back hitting a rock.

What about him? Amelia enquired.

Leave him and run!

Erin instructed, groaning from the impact of the rock. Suddenly, Amelia transformed into a wolf that mirrored an Alaskan dog and fled on all fours. Erin battled but didn't think she could hold it anymore once the wolves began to multiply.

A dusty brown wolf had dug all five of its claws into her stomach but she cut his head off and kicked him in the gut, sending him to crash on the ground as the last wolf grabbed her by the shoulder and sank its talons into her flesh. She screamed, sighting a handful of wolves running towards them from afar. She left a kick in his groin, causing him to stagger but without letting go of her shoulder.

Instantly, she bent her knees and pushed herself up, springing into the air and twisting her body so she could go behind him. In one insane second, she bit the side of its neck, relieving a moment from her past as flashes of it added fuel to the inferno in her system and she pulled her head back, biting out his flesh and ripping his gut away with her blade fingers. The wolf whimpered, transforming into a naked man who curled up in a fetal position on the floor.

Erin looked ahead of her and spotted the wolves, getting closer to her. Just when she was about to run, a hand gripped her leg and her eyes enlarged, almost falling out of their sockets from the intense grip.