The moon was wrong tonight.
David Ramirez noticed it as soon as he stepped from the black SUV and into the frozen clearing. The full moon should have been silver, cold and remote, but it burned red like an open wound, casting the pines in a sickly glow.
His breath fogged as he shut the door. Wind cut through his jacket. He checked the woods. Quiet. Too quiet.
Priya slid out behind him, hugging herself. "It's freezing," she whispered, her voice shaking. "This is a terrible idea."
David slung the hunting pack over one shoulder. "We didn't drive six hours for nothing."
"Look at the moon."
"I see it." He paused, eyes narrowing. "It's a Blood Moon. Bad omen."
"Bad omen?" she snapped. "It's a neon sign saying turn the hell around."
But David ignored her, pulling out the aged parchment from his coat. Symbols scrawled in brown-black ink twisted under the moonlight, as if alive.
The Night Vault lies buried where blood is spilled under a red moon.
His grandfather's last words. The old man had died raving about curses, pacts, the Nightkins.
David never believed in monsters—until one had killed his sister.
He tightened his grip on the map. "We're close."
Priya muttered a curse in Hindi, switching on her flashlight. "I'm only here because you'll get yourself killed alone."
They moved toward the clearing's center. The ground dipped into a shallow depression. Overgrown grass and black brambles snagged their boots. In the center, a cracked stone circle lay half-buried in mud.
Symbols covered it. Fangs. Claws. Eyes. A crude sigil of a wolf entwined with a bat.
David crouched, tracing the carvings. His fingers trembled.
"This is it," he whispered.
Lightning forked through the clouds, thunder booming so close it felt like the sky split.
Priya jumped. "We should not be here. This is bad magic, David."
He didn't answer. He wiped rain from the stone, revealing a single word in the dead language his grandfather taught him:
Open.
Something howled in the forest.
Not a wolf. Not a coyote. Something... deeper. Angrier.
Priya shivered. "Tell me that was a dog."
David stood, knife in hand. "That wasn't a dog."
They turned.
A figure emerged from the trees.
Pale skin, black coat whipping in the wind. Eyes reflecting the red moon. Fangs visible even in the dim light.
A vampire.
He smiled slowly.
"Well, well," the creature drawled, voice like silk over razors. "You children shouldn't be out tonight. Not with the moon so... hungry."
David felt the old fear coil in his belly. He remembered his sister's screams, the blood everywhere. He tightened his grip on the knife.
"Stay back."
The vampire laughed. "Or what?"
Priya raised her flashlight. The beam caught another shape slinking through the trees. Massive, lupine. Glowing yellow eyes.
A werewolf.
It circled them, low to the ground, hackles up.
The vampire clicked his tongue. "Don't be rude, cousin. Let the humans speak."
The werewolf snarled. "I'm not your cousin, leech."
David's mouth went dry. They weren't hunting him. They were circling each other.
Priya whispered, "They're fighting over us."
The vampire's smile sharpened. "You have something that belongs to us."
David glanced at the map.
The vampire lunged.
David threw himself back as claws slashed the air. Priya screamed. The werewolf roared and tackled the vampire, both monsters crashing into the stone circle, shattering old wards with a sound like glass breaking in a cathedral.
Red light blazed from the sigil.
The ground cracked.
A howling wind poured from the earth, screaming in voices that weren't human.
David grabbed Priya's arm. "Run!"
But the earth fell away beneath them.
They tumbled into blackness.
He heard Priya screaming. Heard the vampire snarl. Heard the werewolf howl in pain.
The wind became words:
THE NIGHTKINS SHALL AWAKEN.
The last thing David saw before everything went dark was the red moon above, grinning like a bloodstained skull.