The tips of Fex’s fingers bled as he prepared a whole web using the pillars of the old parking garage. Once he was done, it looked like a spider’s nest, ready to catch any creature unfortunate enough to encounter it.

Taking in a deep breath, Fex wiped his brow, but he wasn’t done. This was only the first step in his plan, he still needed to find Erin.

Climbing the top of the parking garage, Fex began looking around for her.

"Now if I was a bloodsucker, where would I go?" Fex thought out loud.

The first thing that came to mind was blood, but aside from Fex’s little flask, he doubted that the old settlement had any stores of such things. Besides, he needed to keep his flask safe for Erin’s sake.

"Even if I did find her, she’d catch up to me," Fex contemplated, "Our speed was pretty similar to one another before, but now she’s going to be twice that."

While he was trying to figure out what to do, Fex touched his black dangly earring.

’Ham, come on out.’

Suddenly, his earring flashed, dissipating into black smoke. It had transformed into a flying nose-ring-wearing bull the size of a softball.

"Boss, you finally need me!" The bull, also known as Ham, said with tears in his eyes.

Ham was a specific type of creature called a familiar. They were beings that people could make contracts with for a life-bond. These familiars would then help their masters with tasks as needed. Back where Fex came from, there were several vampires with familiars.

Ham flew to Fex’s chest, and began hugging him profusely, which Fex had to politely remove him.

"As much as I would like to hug, the situation is dire," Fex stated, "I need you to help me find someone. A girl by the name of Erin— Well, she isn’t exactly a normal girl right now."

Fex held his hand out for Ham to land on, and he tilted his head confused.

"Boss, what do you mean not a normal girl?" Ham asked.

Fex nervously gulped, "She’s a bloodsucker."

"You want me to find a BLOODSUCKER—" Ham almost screamed, before Fex shoved a finger on his mouth to shush him.

"SHH! Don’t alert the beasts to my location," Fex reprimanded. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Ham tilted his head down, "I’m sorry boss."

Fex nodded his head, "No, it’s fine. Just find her, and I promise to let you out more often."

"Got it boss," Ham saluted again, before fluttering his wings and flying off into the sky.

Once Ham was gone, Fex jumped across the building roofs looking to see if he could also find Erin as well. When looking at the environment around him, he spotted several beasts, rattaclaws specifically.

When he first arrived, he was traveling on the roof to avoid getting caught up by the beasts, but the gears in his mind turned, and it gave him an idea.

Jumping down, Fex ran through the streets, gathering the attention of the rattaclaws behind him. Once he was satisfied with the number of beasts chasing after him, he jumped back onto the side of a building, and climbed up into a window. The rattaclaws still tried to jump up after him, but he was out of their reach now.

"Yeah, that’ll slow her down a bit," Fex thought out loud.

Making sure that they would stay within the area, Fex shot out a few strings towards the rattaclaws, embedding them into their body, and jumped next to an old lamp post. He quickly tied them, then jumped onto the top of some ruins before they could bite at him.

Fex did this a few more times, using different structures to tie the beasts to. They could eventually break out if given a few days, but all he needed was one.

After a while, Fex took a step back and admired his hard work. Yet again, his fingers were stinging, threatening to bleed again. Using his ability in this way was not what it was intended for.

Just when he thought he was done, a larger rattaclaw lunged at him, but he quickly sidestepped out of the way. Examining the new beast, Fex could clearly see it had long, bushy eyebrows the same fur coloring as its arms, and thicker claws. Chances were, this beast was an intermediate version of the normal rattaclaw as it was twice its size.

"Perfect."

The intermediate tier rattaclaw lunged at him again, but he threw a string out, tying it against its muscular arms, and slammed it into the ground. Then it bit at Fex’s string, snapping it in half.

It leapt, swinging its claws at Fex. He quickly ducked down, and upper cut it, causing the rattaclaw to fling upwards.

Before it landed, Fex shot out 10 into its body, and yanked it towards himself to get kicked in the gut.

The rattaclaw squealed, before trying to bite at the vampire, but he wouldn’t let it. Fex found a sturdy looking support beam and wrapped the strings to it.

Jumping back, this large rattaclaw snapped, clawed, and bit in Fex’s direction, but he was just barely out of its range.

"Just don’t bite the strings, big guy," Fex joked.

Once he was done, he jumped onto a tall building, and soon after, Ham flew back down spotting his master.

"Boss! I found her!"

Taking a deep breath, Fex readied himself, "Well, at least if I die from this, I won’t have to go to Del’s boring classes anymore."

—

The bloodsucker crawled around the decrepit ruins of the old settlement, constantly sniffing the air. It had found itself in a wide open area of what used to be the main plaza of the city.

"REEEEEEEKKKKK!" It squealed.

The being once known as Erin was crazed with hunger, a gnawing want that it couldn’t find a single source to stave off its pain.

Then... The aroma of a sweet delightful scent entered its nose.

Blood.

This made the already hungry bloodsucker delirious. It screamed before crawling frantically like a spider following the scent. The bloodsucker crawled over rubble, stone and walls to get to that delicious smell.

"REEEKKKKK!"

Then it spotted a lone figure in the middle of the street, holding a flask where the source of the sweet smell came from.

"I’m returning the favor for saving my life, you can thank me later."