2006, 20th January

Reykjavik, Iceland

A business jet was pulling into the smaller terminal of the airport when sundown finally arrived.

Lucia looked askance to the wine in the fridge built into the side.

She knew precious little about wine, apart from the fact that this one bottle was unreasonably expensive, and out of reach, seeing as she couldn’t really sample it.

James on the other hand, seemed to have found a way around that particular limitation, having entranced a flight attendant on loading up on more than could possibly be healthy for her, then drinking from the woman instead.

Presently, he finally took his stained lips away from the woman’s throat, looking at Lucia with his pupils constricted to dark dots.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t like to top up. As I said, we need the blood for body heat. And this one-”

He ran his tongue once over the woman’s throat, where he had made the incision.

She shuddered, eyelids fluttering shut.

“-is a particularly exquisite vintage.”

Lucia wondered what on earth he was talking about, and how one person’s blood could taste different from another.

“Not that I don’t adore this creepy molester vibe you’ve got going on for yourself-”

James’ face flickered with hot emotion.

“-but I filled up before we got here. And I’m not putting my mouth anywhere your tongue has been, thanks. Are we there yet?”

James wiped off the blood on his lips with a handkerchief that he promptly tossed into a bin.

“Nearly there. We’ll spend the day in a safehouse, and we can set off by boat tomorrow.”

“Set off by boat to where? I thought we were where we were supposed to be already.”

“Well, we’re not.”

They felt the bumps as the flight touched down.

Lucia dug her feet into the carpet as they decelerated.

They both disembarked to where men in uniform awaited them.

“What are they here for?”

“Your father’s men. They’ll set us up for the night. Come on.”

They walked through the crowd at the entryways, escorted by the men on either side.

Lucia was fairly certain bodyguards, or whatever these men were, weren’t supposed to look this wary of the people they were supposed to guard.

Their beating hearts thumped in her ears.

Her pupils began to contract.

She could smell the various assortments of body spray as they jostled their way through the airport crowd.

Her muscles had gone rigid.

It wasn’t physically possible to hear the plasma flowing through their veins, but she was sure she heard it all the same.

“Don’t forget to blink, Bellone.”

Lucia did blink, looking over at James, irritation apparent.

“This wouldn’t be happening if you’d taken a moment to sate yourself, you know?”

“I’ll sate myself later, thanks anyway.”

James shrugged.

“Suit yourself.”

The two piled into a black SUV, which transported them to the safehouse.

Lucia lost herself looking at the lights playing across the sky.

“Your father must really want the both of us dead. Or seriously crippled.”

Lucia snapped out of her reverie.

“What does that mean?”

James fixed her with a stare sprinkled with condescension.

“Summertime is too dangerous for our kind to lurk outside, even at night.”

“So?”

“So that means winter is hunting season for the Draugr. They don’t need to, nowadays, with settled cities, but it’s tradition to these barbarians. You’ll get it when we get there.”

Lionel’s words echoed in Lucia’s mind.

Sink or swim.

Well, she had come much too far to sink.

When they had finally arrived at the safehouse, and James had begun to unpack, Lucia discreetly led one of their escorts aside without a spoken word.

The man seemed to have been expecting something like this to begin with, as he unbuttoned his collar even as the sounds of his beating heart picked up in pace.

Lucia sank her fangs in, and she was proven wrong.

It seemed that blood could indeed taste different from different sources, although she would require more knowledge to determine why that was so.

The day passed them by in a black haze as Lucia lay supine in a dreamless black trance that couldn’t rightly be called sleep.

And with the setting sun, they were off once more.

The Old Harbour had a boat waiting to take them out to the sea.

Lucia scrunched up her nose at the somewhat pungent scent.

As the boat pulled out into the sea, Lucia was content to lean against the rails, feeling the spray of saltwater against her face.

James was inside, discussing coordinates and navigation with the captain.

The black waters below were soothing somehow, in their own way.

Lucia was lost in them.

But she noticed as they began to pass flecks of floating ice with increasing regularity.

Soon growing thicker, slowing the passage of their boat through water.

James ventured out.

“We’re here.”

Lucia leaned out to see their path obstructed by an iceberg.

“Where the hell is ‘here’?”

“The Draugr’s palace.”

“This… is a palace?”

“Don’t look at me like that, I haven’t been here before. But yeah, this is it, according to the coordinates I was given.”

“Well, where’s the gate then.”

“Under the water.” A third, heavy voice spoke from behind them.

Lucia turned to see the captain had approached them from behind, rather silently for a man of his girth.

“Under the water is where the ghosts of the sea come from.”

“Brilliant. Underwater. And how are we supposed to get underwater without freezing solid?”

Slipping a baggy diving suit over thermal underwear, Lucia appraised herself.

“Not half bad.”

“You ready yet?” James called from without.

“Yeah, yeah, keep your hair on.”

Coming out onto the deck once more, James and Lucia lowered themselves into the black water below.

Lucia could see nothing beyond the tip of her nose momentarily-

Before the darkness cleared before her, and she could see as clearly as a moonlit night.

And she gasped sharply.

Carved into the underside of the iceberg, she saw gleaming white spires, and pillars of ice, stretching into the depths.

She saw slabs of ice, several metres of length each, ornately carved with serpentine patterns on the edges.

What she didn’t see was a door, even as they swam closer to the sheet of ice.

Then hands reached through the ice without breaking it.

Under the water, neither Lucia nor James could muster the speed to avoid them.

She felt the hand tighten around her wrist.

And she was pulled cleanly through the ice.

In an instant, she found herself in a chamber of carved ice, scrambling for a foothold she did not find.

She fell onto her back, with someone falling on top of her.

She saw a woman, eyes pure white like the ice surrounding them, with a shaved head.

And she saw her fanged mouth approach her.

Instinctively, Lucia caught the woman’s jaw with her elbow.

Her unknown assailant hissed in pain and recoiled.

She took the opportunity to leap back onto her feet, barely keeping her footing steady on the ice.

The other woman crouched down, ready to charge again, and Lucia mirrored her stance.

Before another man stepped from behind her, and clamped a hand down on her shoulder.

Lucia held her stance, motionless.

But the two Draugr ignored her, and disappeared into the ice.

“Nngh…”

James rose from the corridor where he had been sent sprawling.

Rising to his feet, he brushed himself off.

“Right. At least we’re inside now.”

“What the hell was that?”

“I guess that’s how this tribe hunts. We should keep moving inwards.”

Lucia allowed herself to relax.

“You’re awfully nonchalant for someone who nearly got killed a second ago.”

“I don’t think they’re trying to kill us, or they’d have tried a lot harder. I don’t know what that reception was all about, but we won’t find out standing around here.”

Lucia looked ahead at the maze of icy corridors unfolding ahead of her, made all the more disorienting by the light playing across the glassy surfaces.

“Sure. In we go.”

Getting used to their uneven footing on the slick surfaces, they ventured within the palace of ice.

Low, rhythmic murmuring could be heard somewhere deeper within.

There was an intangible power to the humming wafting through the air, and it began to irritate a certain sense Lucia didn’t even know she possessed.

“They must be preparing for their hunts. Their customs are rather… dated, but apparently, they’re still effective.” James said, while shaking his head, as if trying to rid himself of a particularly annoying fly, humming around his ears.

The humming grew more prominent as they walked onward, and the corridors they walked through grew wider.

Serpentine carvings on the ice walls seemed to glimmer with a remarkable semblance of life.

And finally the two of them found themselves in the central chamber.

Grooves carved into the floor carried blood within them, dripping from iron cages suspended above holding their victims, people, carved up skin, but somehow too unaware to scream.

Lucia had the faintest fleeting moment of nausea even as the thick scent in the air enticed her, and her hunger clawed at her from within.

At the centre of the chamber, the blood pooled in a groove dug deep into the ice, even as a woman, wrinkled and grey, sat at the edge, chanting in some strange unrecognizable language.

The chant was carried on by the congregation gathered around the centre, and Lucia spotted the two individuals that had dragged them in through the gate, knelt before the old woman along with the others, silently chanting along.

Then the grey woman caught Lucia’s eye.

And she beckoned to her.

Gripped by curiosity, she walked forward, shrugging off James' attempt to grab her by the shoulder.

She heard him curse behind her, then begin to follow, a few paces behind.

Dipping her hand within the pool of blood, the woman smeared lines of blood across the foreheads of the supplicants queuing in front of her.

And then, before she could protest, she drew a line across Lucia’s forehead as well.

Her senses exploded in a cacophony of colour and sound, and her muscles grew taut.

When she had recovered, the scent in the air was harper than ever, and her hunger howled within her gut.

“What… did you do to me?”

The old woman smiled, revealing a row of perfect teeth.

“Prepared you for the hunt, daughter of Lionel Bellone.”

James began to grab her elbow from behind, but she pulled it away unconsciously, unaware of him even having made that motion.

“Huh? What does that mean?”

“Fledgelings need every advantage they can get during the hunt. I have strengthened your hunger. I have made sure your prey can never escape your senses. I have made sure you will earn your keep here.”

“I’m not part of any hunt.”

“You are if you wish to stay here. Every resident here must earn their keep. You can leave if you prefer, but Lionel sent you here to strengthen ties, did he not?”

“I don't even know why exactly he sent me here, or what I’m supposed to do here.”

The older woman frowned.

"Is that right? So Lionel’s sending off his spawn for us to adopt, is that it?"

Lucia clenched her jaws, but James must have sensed her intent, and clapped a hand over her shoulder.

"Maybe he wants his daughter to know more of the world they inhabit. Maybe he wants you all to know the faces of your rulers. But if you want to question his decisions, go ahead."

The woman with the shaved head, till now content to amble aimlessly behind them, took an aggressive step forward, only to be restrained by the man who was accompanying her once more.

The grey woman held up a placating hand.

“That is the way it is. If Lionel Bellone wants you here, then here you will remain. Hilda, Erik, prepare our guests.”

The stony faced man who Lucia guessed was Erik, gestured to James, and James took off after him after shooting Lucia a warning look.

The woman with the shaven head brazenly wrapped an arm around Lucia’s shoulder, and began to drag her away.

After a few steps, Lucia shrugged the arm off.

“Where are we going?”

“To get you outfitted for the hunt, princess.”

“The name’s Lucia. And what the hell are we hunting anyway?”

“We’re stocking up our larder, Princess Lucia. Unlike wherever you come from, Iceland is a bit more… unforgiving. We can’t all fatten ourselves up on a line of willing slaves waiting on us.”

Hilda continued to walk on ahead, Lucia trailing behind her.

“And we’re hunting… what? People?”

“Yes. If you think you’re capable, princess.”

“What if I don’t?”

The other woman turned, fangs bared in a smirk.

“What are you so afraid of getting your hands dirty for? Just because they’re not lining up to get bitten like you fancy aristocrats like doesn’t mean it tastes any worse-”

“Yeah, that’s the only problem I might have with hunting people to feed on; never mind literally everything else wrong with that sentence-”

“Who’re you trying to fool with that self righteous act of yours, princess? What about the blood sacrifices used in that ritual earlier? If you gave so much of a shit, why not jump into the air and save them then and there, you spineless brat?”

Lucia narrowed her eyes.

“What?”

“You’re half baked, princess. You say you care about these people, but you don’t really; you just feel like you have to.”

“Listen-”

Hilda suddenly snatched her wrist, and squeezed. Hard.

“You don’t believe in anything, and you’re weak. And I don’t know how it works where you’re from, but here, the weak get eaten.”

Lucia tried to connect her elbow with Hilda’s jaw, but felt her foothold on the ice slip, even as Hilda twisted the wrist she had leverage on.

She slammed onto the hard floor, with Hilda atop her, who placed her other hand on her face, even as Lucia struggled to buck her off, and began to dig her thumbnail into her right eye.

“That ritual enhanced your senses, yeah? Too bad pain is one of the senses.”

She felt something pierce her eyelid, and her vision swam with red.

Before the pressure abruptly ceased.

Erik had appeared out of nowhere and bodily dragged Hilda off.

“That’s enough. Save your energy for the hunt.”

But Lucia’s blood was running hot within her veins, and she hopped to her feet with one fluid motion, rage pounding through her skull.

She subconsciously roused the blood, even as her eye healed and cleared her field of vision, and the ambient shadows snaked their way towards her as the light itself around her began to die.

Transfixed as they were by the unnerving display, Erik was still fast enough to intercept Lucia’s wild straight punch on his arm.

Only, she had amplified her power with the blood, and he was pushed a good distance away, stumbling on the ice.

Hilda escaped his grip, and began to charge Lucia, only to find her feet bound by shadows come alive, as Lucia transmitted her supernatural strength through them; entirely instinctively.

Sensing another incoming blow, Hilda snarled and exhaled a cloud of frost, pushing Lucia back.

“ENOUGH!”

Erik’s piercing voice was backed by the power of his iron will, so great it caused both women to stagger apart.

Hilda leaned against an icy wall, exhaling a cloud of fog in a sign of exhaustion.

“So that’s the power of the famed bogeyman Lionel Bellone’s blood. Hunger so great it even swallows the light around it.”

Lucia had mostly recovered her senses, even though bloodthirst screamed in her gut and her limbs were beginning to feel the effects of the chill around them.

She had used too much of the blood. She would have to hunt now, regardless of her feelings on the matter.

One look at Hilda confirmed the provocation had been on purpose.

“Don’t worry, Lucia Bellone. We’ll make a predator of you yet.”

Lucia fought down the haze of hunger gnawing at her belly.

“Maybe I should just prey on you instead.”

Hilda’s grin got even wider.

“Come and try, princess.”

“We’re not-” James' sudden appearance at her back startled her, distracted as she had been, “-hunting people. Where would we even find people to hunt out in the middle of nowhere anyway?”

“Quite right.” Erik had placed himself bodily between the two women once more. “We’re going hunting atop the drifting ice. Seal.”

James fastened the helmet on his diving suit once more, and handed Lucia the helmet that had fallen onto the floor during the earlier skirmish.

Meanwhile, Erik and Hilda stripped down to nothing.

Lucia wondered once more how they maintained body heat.

Clearly it had something to do with their unique strain of blood.

Erik grabbed James by the wrist, and then pulled him through the ice.

Lucia didn’t quite understand how that worked either, and she didn’t have to wonder as Hilda grabbed her without warning and pulled her through as well.

They surfaced to be greeted by the night sky, shining with all the colours of the rainbow and illuminating the sheets of ice they stood on, a dazzling and haunting display.

Lucia’s ever growing hunger accompanied by her amplified senses carried her forward to where she was certain to find prey.

And she spotted a figure, prone, lounging on the ice.

She was about to move forward, when Hilda discreetly tapped her shoulder, and shook her head.

Prowling forward, the woman carefully walked along a wide arc, regularly stopping to feel the flow of air on her skin.

Getting closer, she dipped into the water once more.

And breached it from behind her terrified quarry in a predatory frenzy.

They both disappeared into the water once more, and Lucia thought she had lost it.

Until Hilda emerged through the very ice in front of her, this time bearing a grey skinned seal, leaving a trail on the white ice from punctures on it’s skull.

She flashed Lucia a feral grin full of challenge.

Or at least, she chose to perceive it that way.

The four nocturnal predators set off once more, navigating the fields of floating ice.

Even natural born predators would have trouble making a prey of seal quite so often.

But there was nothing natural about these vampires as blood sorcery enhanced their sense to track prey over miles, unnatural thirst driving untiring predators ever onward.

At a certain point, James stopped, standing rigidly at attention, before he raised a foot and brought it crashing down onto the ice.

From the shattered cavity in the ice, he pulled a tiny seal, wriggling futilely in his grip.

And promptly snapped its neck.

Erik nodded once in approval, and they moved once again.

Even further as the ice grew thicker, they hit the proverbial jackpot, to see a group of three seals on a floe of ice in the distance, rolled over on their sides, unaware.

Erik began to stalk forward, before Hilda touched his arm and stopped him, then looked at Lucia with purpose.

A challenge.

Silently, she pried off her mask, feeling the chill air against her skin.

She had only used her ability once before, entirely driven by instinct.

But she did not forget how she had called on the power of her blood, and simply did so once more, with the easy confidence that usually accompanied experience she did not have.

Her hunger physically reached out, to devour the very light, the heat and the sound around her.

Shadows pooled at her feet, and stretched on, unnaturally.

As was the speed of light, so was the speed of its death, and the seals, even sensing oblivion approach, could not escape the embrace of the shadows.

Warmth and strength was leeched away from her prey’s limbs, but Lucia dug deeper still.

The blood pumped power through her limbs, and in a burst of speed, she fell upon her prey.

Her hunger howled within her, and her fangs ripped through blubber and she felt a spray of warm blood go down her throat.

Sensing motion on her side, she lunged once more.

“Lucia!”

James’ warning voice snapped her from her frenzy.

She looked up as the shadows receded.

The ice was sprayed with blood, and one of the seals’ bodies was damaged beyond recognition, useless to bring back.

James had stopped her before she ripped into her remaining prey the same way, and had nothing left to show for her hunt.

Erik’s eyes were opaque, his posture guarded.

Hilda’s on the other hand, glimmered with excitement.

Lucia was vaguely aware of slippery creatures still wriggling beneath her grip.

Adjusting the placement of her fingers, with one fluid motion, she squeezed, and felt wet snaps beneath her grip.

Picking up her trophies, she joined the others.

"I'm done. Let's go."