Conquering His Cold Heart

Before leaving, the vampires had lined up all the dead bodies of the dead werewolves on the ground as if they were some decorative display.

And although the sounds of gunshots and the battle cries had completely stopped several hours ago, not a single villager was wandering outside of their houses. They knew better than that.

Due to that reason, the village was looking like a place that had been deserted.

Though none of the villagers were outside, slowly a few sets of footsteps could be heard near the vicinity of the battleground. And slowly, a few men came into view.

They all stood in front of the ground where the bodies were on display. And they couldn’t help but get angered after seeing all the dead bodies of their fellow pack members.

“Go and check inside for any other corpses, although I doubt we can find any,” one of the bulky-looking men ordered all the others.

All the others quickly dispersed from there and ran inside the inn.

The bulky man then walked while examining all the bodies one by one. He noticed how quite a few of them had bullet holes in their chest and other parts of their bodies. And almost everyone was either missing their heads or their hearts. Some of them had deep slash marks against their chest and neck.

.....

‘They all were well-trained vampires,’ that man concluded to himself when he didn’t see any wasted slash marks on the dead bodies. They were all deep and accurate. ‘They all aimed to kill. And they did succeed.’

He was still surprised by the fact that he found some bullet holes in a few of the bodies. “Did the human guards do that?” he wondered and then leaned down beside a body with a distinct bullet hole on the left side of the chest.

“But this shouldn’t have killed him even if the bullet penetrated right through his heart. The heart should have healed,” he mumbled to himself and carefully looked for any other marks that could possibly be the main cause of death. But he was surprised when he didn’t find any other signs of death.

He narrowed his eyes and then thought, ‘Is the bullet still inside his heart? Is that why he died?’

He turned that body to see at the back. Just like he had thought, he didn’t find any hole in the back, indicating that the bullet was indeed stuck.

“Hmm…” he grumbled and then turned that body again. And without even flinching, he spread out his claws and dug them right into that body’s chest.

He pulled the heart out to examine it closely. His eyes suddenly widened when he saw the heart. It wasn’t red or black. And it definitely didn’t look or feel like a heart at all.

It had somehow turned into a hard stone-like substance that looked dark grey in color. No matter how much he tried to squeeze, and no matter how many times he smashed it against the ground, the rock didn’t even get chipped.

“How the hell is this even possible?” that burly man grumbled in frustration.

Suddenly, he was disturbed by a man who stood behind him and reported, “Sir, there isn’t a trace of anyone inside the inn. And there are no corpses as well. We checked each and every corner of this place.”

“Hmm… everyone from our side died, huh?” That man got up on his feet and then turned around to face the person who reported. He narrowed his eyes and then asked in a growling voice, “And what about the owners of this place? They should know something about the enemies. How many of them were hurt, and how many of them got killed? They could also know who got killed. Find the owners and get all the information for me.”

That man gave a bow and then turned around to look at all the others who were standing near the door of the inn.

Then he ordered all of them, “You heard the Slayer. Spread around the village and find those who owned this place. Use all means necessary. And bring them back here, alive.”

Those men quickly dispersed from there. The man who looked like he was second in the hierarchy from the beta of the Atkinson clan was also about to rush towards the other houses of the village when Slayer suddenly stopped him and asked, “Wait. I need you to look at something.”

That man turned around to face the Slayer again. He saw the Slayer presenting a rock-like object to him. He took that from Slayer’s hand and then looked at Slayer’s face with a questioning gaze.

“What does that look like to you?” Slayer asked without breaking his gaze from the solidified heart.

The man looked down at his hand and then answered without thinking twice, “A rock?”

Slayer gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes at that man. And he asked again in a rather threatening tone, “Look again. And tell me what you see.”

That man felt a chill shiver in his heart. He quickly looked down at the object in his hand again. This time, he looked at it very closely. He examined the shape very minutely and then suddenly, his eyes widened and his hands became stiff when he realized what it was.

“It’s a heart!” he whispered with his breath. “And not just any heart. This is one of our people’s hearts, isn’t it?” He looked at Slayer for confirmation.

Slayer narrowed his eyes at him and asked, “What made you say that?”

The man let out a quiet sigh and then pointed at a very small, almost invisible hole at the center of the heart. And he replied, “Here. You can see a silver bullet stuck inside if you see closely.”

“A silver bullet?” Slayer quickly snatched that heart back from that man’s hand and then looked through the hole that he showed. His eyes widened just a little when he also noticed a bullet stuck inside that heart.

He then clenched his jaw and tightened his hold on that heart. And he grumbled in frustration, “And of course, those vampires know that silver is poisonous to us.”

The man also nodded his head with a dreaded expression on his face. “Now, I have one more thing to fear other than accidentally getting poisoned by silver through food. I have to be wary of silver bullets as well!”