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Bruno gritted his teeth as he was dragged across the ground with the silver chains wrapped around his body. Two men walked on either side of him with pitchforks to make sure he didn’t try to escape—as if he could.
This was not how he had intended the night to go. Suspicion of some sort of supernatural creature killing livestock had led him out to the country to investigate, but the farmers had been less than pleased to see that the Hunter they had called in was a vampire himself.
He could deal with the prejudice—it would always be there and he could agree that it would look suspicious for a vampire to show up when a vampire was a suspected culprit, but the genuine hostility had surprised him.
No sooner had he started his nighttime investigation earlier that night than the men from the village had come to confront him.
“Another sheep was slaughtered tonight,” one of the farmers said grimly. “You have anything to do with that?”
Bruno straightened from where he had been inspecting tracks, remaining calm in order to hopefully defuse the situation. “Whose farm was attacked this time?”
The men didn’t reply. “You know well enough, fang. Now confess or we’ll start shooting. And before you ask, yes, we’ve come properly equipped.”
Several of the men raised guns, pointing them directly at the vampire.
Bruno held up a hand. “This doesn’t need to get out of hand. If you will allow me to show you what I’ve found during my investigation—”
“I asked for a confession, not excuses!”
Bruno pressed his lips flat. “Then you’re going to be disappointed, I’m afraid, because there’s nothing I have to—”
The blast, followed by the whizz of a bullet past Bruno’s ear, put an end to what little discussion had been happening. Silver or not, he didn’t really want to spend the rest of the evening digging bullets out of himself, so he took the only option he had and ran.
The men were after him like hounds after a fox, herding him to the outskirts of the property.
Bruno knew he could easily outrun them, would be able to get back to the main road where the coach waited, and hopefully the team could come back in the morning and defuse the situation.
That was the plan anyway, until his foot found a trap that had been set beneath the tall grass.
Bruno went down with a sharp cry, feeling the burn of silver digging into his flesh.
“He’s down! Get the chains.”
Before Bruno could act, two men rushed forward. They stripped him of his cloak and overcoat before they started wrapping silver chains around him, pinning his arms to his sides and trussing his legs. Bruno struggled, glowering balefully up at the men.
“How exactly do you expect me to investigate the killings if you have me like this?”
“Far as we’re concerned we have the culprit right here,” the man who seemed to be the appointed leader of the group said pointedly.
The trap around Bruno’s ankle was released and he gritted his teeth against the pain as he was dragged across the ground, the chains digging into his flesh. A trail of blood slid across the grass from his slowly bleeding ankle.
The men took him out to the pastures, toward an old cistern that seemed to have been dried up and out of use for a long time. Bruno was heaved unceremoniously over the side, falling with a painful grunt against the stone.
“You can stay there until you’re ready to confess to your crimes, fang. We’ll see how the morning sun loosens your lips—if there’s anything left of you.”
Several of the men spat on him as they left.
Bruno wriggled in the chains to see if there might be a weakness somewhere, but the men knew what they were doing, wrapping them too tightly to give him room for movement. At least they weren’t directly pressed against his skin, but he could still feel the uncomfortable burn through his clothes.
He knew it would be nothing compared to the sun once it came up. He had yet to feel the full effects of the daylight in his vampiric state, since he obviously tried to avoid going out during the day as much as possible and if he had to, he was always careful to wear his full cloak and carry an umbrella with him.
If the true culprit hadn’t already fed that night, Bruno might hold out hope that it would take another sheep and relieve him of the guilt the farmers had assigned him, but that was incredibly unlikely, and it looked like Bruno was going to have to either figure a way to get himself out of this, or wait for the others to realize something had happened.
He rolled back and forth to fully view his prison. The cistern itself wasn’t impossibly deep. He would be able to climb out of it if he wasn’t trussed like a roast chicken.
He wriggled again but the action only caused the chains to press harder against him, the burn more uncomfortable.
He finally gave up and took a breather. His ankle had stopped bleeding finally, but that was the least of his worries at the moment.
He looked up at the sky. The moon was getting lower, he could barely see it now from where he lay. He probably had about three hours before dawn.
Bruno would just have to hope that he would have enough of a shadow to shelter in. He shouldn’t really have to worry until midday and hopefully by then his team would catch on that something was wrong.
The hours washed away as he continued to attempt to free himself. His struggles became more desperate as the sky started to lighten to a pale lavender, hailing the oncoming sun.
The first rays spread over the landscape and Bruno rolled to the side of the cistern that would be kept shaded the longest.
He watched with dread as the sun continued to rise, the bar of light dropping further and further down the stone wall on the opposite side of the cistern until it finally reached the ground.
Bruno turned to face the wall, trying to make himself as flat as possible. His skin prickled from the heat as the hour stretched on. The warmth was growing increasingly uncomfortable as his safe zone continued to vanish.
He eventually picked up the sounds of heartbeats approaching, and glanced up stiffly to see several of the farmers from the night before standing at the top of the cistern.
“Still alive, vamp?”
“He’s got too much shelter there,” one man commented, wielding a pitchfork. He knelt on the side of the cistern and used the pitchfork to prod at Bruno, catching the tines under the chains.
Bruno struggled as he was dragged away from the wall, while the men jeered.
The sun hit his face and shoulder in instant agony. He cried out and tried to jerk away from the pitchfork, but his struggle only caused the pointed tines to rip through his sleeve, leaving his arm bare to the light. Blisters instantly appeared where his skin was fully exposed.
“You ready to talk yet, fang?”
“I already told you,” Bruno gritted out. “I’m a Hunter, you’re wasting your time.”
“Way I see it, whether you’re the actual fang we’re looking for or not, it’s not a waste of time to do away with one of you,” the man said decisively, finally stating what Bruno had known all along.
The pitchfork was finally removed and Bruno wormed his way quickly back into the slim shadow, pressed himself against the cool stone as agony seared across his right side.
“Enjoy the shade while you can. Couple more hours and it will be gone,” the men said before they left.
Bruno moaned low in his throat, tilting to see his exposed arm. It was red and blistered and he clenched his teeth, knowing parts of his face and neck would be nearly as bad. They were right though, he wouldn’t have much longer before all the shadow was gone from inside the cistern.
He wasn’t sure how much time passed, but the sun grew closer and closer, forcing him to press himself more and more flat against the side of the cistern until he could feel the heat against his back, burning through his clothes. No matter how much he shifted, he couldn’t escape it, the constant agony. He tried to curl as much as possible to hide his face, but the burn was maddening and he had to tell himself that giving in to his response for flight at the moment would only make it worse.
He eventually became aware of more heartbeats heading closer, but these were more familiar.
Bruno felt a surge of relief as he detected Mista’s scent above him.
“He’s here! I got him!” The gunman shouted, then, “Bucciarati!”
He jumped into the cistern and hunched his blessed shadow over Bruno.
“Hey, are you good?” the gunman asked as he crouched, reaching to touch Bruno’s shoulder.
Bruno flinched, his flesh so sensitive even the light touch was agony. “Get the chains off, Mista,” he croaked hoarsely.
More voices sounded overhead and Abbacchio was soon dropping down next to Mista, yanking his coat off.
“Holy shit, is he staked down?”
No, they just trussed him up. Here, I’ll hold that, maybe you’ll have better luck with these.”
Mista spread Abbacchio’s coat overhead to add more cover as Leone crouched, working at the chains. Bruno hissed as every movement pressed against his scorched skin, and Abbacchio pressed his lips together in frustration.
“They locked them, does anyone have anything to pick this?”
“I do,” Giorno’s voice came from above and he also jumped down. He handed off the umbrella he carried to Abbacchio and crouched swiftly, pulling a lock-pick set out of his pocket.
“Just a minute,” Giorno promised as he made short work of the lock and Bruno finally felt the chains loosen, allowing him to breathe a sigh of relief.
Mista instantly helped him sit up and wrapped Abbacchio’s coat over his shoulders, turning the collar up and putting his hat on Bruno’s head.
“Ready to get him up?”
Leone nodded and Mista scrambled back up. Giorno handed him the umbrella and Mista took that in one hand to shield Bruno as Leone crouched and made a stirrup out of his hands. “I’ll do the work, just get your foot in here.”
Bruno weakly managed to get his uninjured foot into Abbacchio’s hands and the hunter raised him high enough for Mista to grab and help out of the cistern.
Abbacchio and Giorno climbed out as well and helped Bruno to his feet, tucking his arms over their shoulders as Giorno held the umbrella over them.
“I’m sorry it took us so long to get here,” the dhampir apologized. “We didn’t even get back to the house until an hour ago. We caught the vampire who’s been eating the livestock—he was newly turned and has agreed to pay for the damages.”
Bruno nodded, exhausted but glad the case was at least solved. “I’m glad it was you that found him. The farmers would not have gone so easy.”
“Bastards,” Abbacchio muttered.
“I misjudged their prejudice,” Bruno admitted. “But it’s over now.”
They got to their waiting carriage and Bruno gratefully sank into the dark interior. Giorno made sure the windows were closed tightly as Abbacchio lowered Bruno into the bench.
“How bad is it?” he asked.
Bruno cringed as he settled, not having realized just how much he hurt. “I’m not sure. My whole back stings.”
“Narancia and Trish already headed into the village to buy supplies for salve,” Giorno said. “I’ll treat your burns when we get back.”
Bruno nodded gratefully and rested carefully into the corner of the carriage, the darkness soothing his pounding headache.
Once they got back to the cottage, Narancia and Trish came to greet them with worry.
“Bucciarati! Are you okay?” Narancia asked and his and Trish’s eyes went wide upon seeing him.
Giorno held the umbrella over him as Leone helped him limp inside.
“I’ll be better once I’m out of the sun,” Bruno replied weakly.
The two hurried back inside ahead of them.
“We made up the salve—I used Fugo’s recipe,” Narancia said.
“And I tore up some fresh bandages as well,” Trish added.
“Good,” Giorno replied. “Thank you.”
Abbacchio helped Bruno to his room and settled him carefully on the bed.
“Let me look at your ankle first,” he said.
Bruno nodded and Abbacchio knelt and helped him off with his boots. Bruno gritted his teeth against the pain. His ankle had swollen, making it hard to get the boot off, but Leone eased it out carefully and prodded the area.
“Nothing’s broken. I’ll make up a saline bath to soak it.”
By the time he had gotten the foot bath ready, Giorno came in with the salve and bandages, setting the tray on Bruno’s bedside table.
“Do you need any help?” Abbacchio asked.
“I think I’ve got it,” Giorno said.
Abbacchio nodded. “Let that soak for about five minutes. I’ll be back to get the water.”
Giorno nodded. “He’s going to need fresh blood.”
Abbacchio pursed his lips but gave a sharp nod. “Alright.”
He left the room as Giorno rolled up his sleeves and reached out to help Bruno unbutton his waistcoat and shirt.
Bruno hissed as the material scraped across his burns. Giorno had a grim look on his face as he slowly eased Bruno’s arms out of the sleeves.
“These look incredibly painful,” he said.
“It would have been worse if you hadn’t gotten there when you did,” Bruno replied.
Giorno turned to the tray and took up the pot of salve and some of the clean bandages, folding them into a pad that he dipped into the salve.
“Let me start with your face. Luckily you only have some blistering around your chin.”
Bruno tilted his head back to let his hair fall away from his face and squeezed his eyes shut as Giorno worked. His head was still pounding and he was honestly feeling a little queasy.
Giorno moved steadily down his neck and to his shoulder and right arm which were the worst. He was extremely careful on the blistered parts but the pain was still enough to make Bruno’s nausea even worse.
“I guess I underestimated how bad it really was,” Bruno huffed a wry laugh. “Even in my years Hunting, I haven’t really seen first-hand what sunlight does to a vampire.”
“It’s not pleasant,” Giorno commented.
Bruno was silent for a moment, biting the inside of his mouth to keep from making any sounds of pain, before he asked. “Have you ever been burned this badly?”
Giorno worked in silence for a few seconds before he replied. “Once. I…my stepfather was upset with me and he chained me by my ankle outside so I couldn’t move when the sun was at its height. Dhampirs don’t burn as quickly, but we still feel the effects from prolonged exposure.”
Bruno felt yet more fury for his younger teammate and how terrible his childhood had been. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“I survived,” Giorno shrugged and moved on to Bruno’s back.
The salve was providing a cooling sensation to his burns that was taking the edge off of the constant pain.
“There we go,” Giorno finally said, setting the salve aside. “Now for the bandages.”
He wrapped the linen loosely around Bruno’s arm and torso and though he was still uncomfortable, he wasn’t in nearly as much pain.
Giorno finished by dabbing Bruno’s injured ankle dry and bandaging that as well.
By the time he had finished, Abbacchio returned with a glass of blood and a fresh bandage around his arm. He handed the glass to Bruno who tried not to let his eagerness show at the smell of the blood, his stomach twisting sickly.
“How is he?” Leone asked Giorno.
“Nothing too severe, but we should apply the salve twice a day for a few days. Other than that, just rest and fresh blood,” He turned back to Bruno. “You’ll probably feel nauseous for a while from the sun poisoning, but that should wear off by tomorrow.”
Bruno nodded and sipped at the blood Abbacchio had given him. “Thank you. I’m still learning all of my new weaknesses.”
“This one was hardly your fault,” Leone growled. “Those bastards deserved to lose their livestock.”
“They’re just ignorant,” Bruno said tiredly. “Hopefully someday they will see that vampires aren’t really that far from humans after all.”
He finished the blood and felt quite exhausted. Giorno helped him to lay comfortably on his stomach before he cleaned up the medical supplies.
“Let us know if you need anything. I’ll let you rest for now and be back to change your bandages tonight.”
Bruno hummed tiredly as Abbacchio picked up the footbath and followed Giorno out of the room.
His eyes were already sliding shut and he drifted off in the cool dark interior of his room, grateful for the team he had made.