Rain drop was falling on the ocean, masking the sound of the waves crashing into the white sand. Ryker was sitting in the sand and was watching a boat bob in the water. It had been a day since his mom had told him that he was in danger.
He was alone at the beach, needing to clear his head.
His phone started vibrating, a message from the groupchat, reminding him of their F-rank exam in a few hours. Putting his phone away, he stared out at the grey sea.
"Alucard."
The name his mom told him. He found absolutely nothing on that family on the internet, not even on the dark web. It was as if that family has been erased. The only information came from his mom, an old fairy tale.
"Dracula had two children, one with a vampire and one with a human. The Alucard line was from that human mother."
The rest of the story was just nonsense to him. A fairy tale to scare misbehaving vampire children. His memory of Dracula was all the proof he needed to know humans were extinct.
He picked up a shell and threw it into the sea. The water was dark.
"Ouch," someone said in the ocean.
Ayla's head popped up from the water, holding her forehead where the shell had hit her.
"Ayla? What are you doing here?" he was shocked to see her.
But the mermaid kept rubbing her forehead, her long blue hair plastered to her face, "I live in the ocean," she said matter-of-factly.
"You're not going to ask me to mate with you again, are you?" Ryker's cheeks were red.
"No..." she fiddled with her fingers, "Unless?"
Ryker nodded no, "I'm good thanks."
She pouted, "So you are here to mope then?"
"Something like that."
The mermaid swam closer to the shore, her tail making a gentle whooshing sound in the water, "You smell of different vampires. One that is powerful... like my grandmother but more."
She sniffed the air, her nose twitching like a rabbit's, "And a dryad? Have you mated with a dryad? Is that why you smell like grass and sunshine?"
His ears were turning red from her prying nature and blunt questions, but he couldn't help but laugh at her innocence, it was refreshing after the past few days.
"No I didn't mate with a dryad. What do you mean your grandmother?"
"Grandma baba," Ayla said, as if the name should mean something to him.
"Right you're a landie. You wouldn't have heard of her, she stays in the trenches," Ayla looked out at the vast ocean, her expression thoughtful, "She told stories of the only person to ever refuse her, a powerful vampire with dark hair."
Tingles ran down Ryker's spine. Was she talking about Dracula?
The mermaid looked back at him, her blue eyes searching his.
"Not Dracula silly. I said dark hair, not purple. He was the leader of the aluga? Alugi?"
Ryker's throat went dry. This was too much of a coincidence.
"Alucard?" he finished for her, his voice barely a whisper.
The blood in his veins went cold.
If a mermaid from the trenches knew the name "Alucard," then his mother's warning wasn't a fairy tale.
"YES! That's the one! Alucard."
The mermaid clapped her hands together, splashing water onto the sand in her excitement.
"I think baba still regrets not being able to drown him, she says it was a real challenge," Ayla's eyes glazed over, lost in her grandmother's tales.
"She told me, that vampires only bring heartache. Maybe she felt bad for the merman's who weren't being drowned?"
This mermaid was confusing Ryker even more. She seemed to know a lot. But at the same, she seemed to know very little.
"Is your grandpa alive? Or is he also sleeping with the fishes?" he asked.
"Which one?" she tilted her head, "I have thousands," she said, proudly puffing out her chest.
He blinked.
"Thousands?" he rubbed his forehead, "Of course."
"Anyways I should get ready for my exam," he said, standing up and dusting the sand from his jeans.
Alya panicked and quickly took out her phone from her mermaid bra, which was somehow waterproof, "Uh uh your number?" she said, wiggling it in the air.
A snort came out from the vampire, and he agreed and typed in his number. Immediately afterwards she sent several messages, some hearts, some photos of her and her friends, and one picture of what looked like a baby whale.
"Did you get my pictures?" she asked with puppy eyes.
"Yes I did," he felt the vibration in his pocket.
"What were they?" she asked again, biting her lips anxiously.
Ryker tilted his head, confused on why she was asking.
"They're... hearts... and a baby whale," he was wondering where she was going with this conversation.
"You forgot one," her blue eyes turned into pools of sadness and disappointment, "I also sent pictures of my friends."
His heart ached, seeing her so sad.
"I didn't forget them," he tried to reassure her and even showed her his phone as proof.
This managed to calm the mermaid. Her entire demeanor shifted from sorrow to pure, unadulterated joy in the blink of an eye.
"Thank you! Sometimes people give me the wrong numbers and I never know why," she said with a sad smile.
A thought occurred to him.
"They perhaps didn't want to bothered with mating proposals," he said.
Alya shook her head, "That's not it. I haven't proposed to anyone else," she defended herself.
He chuckled, ruffling his hair as he left, waving a final goodbye.
"I'll see you around, Ayla," he said.
With a big smile, she watched him leave, waving enthusiastically until he was a distant silhouette against the grey horizon. Then she ducked back under the waves, disappearing into the mysterious blue.
Mermaids were just another weird species in a world filled with them. They had access to the internet just like him, maybe they had forums complaining about vampire heartbreaks.
But Alucard, that name was linked to the mermaids. He needed to talk to Alya again soon, maybe even meet her grandmother. He now had one goal before leaving for Meridian Academy: to find out more about this supposedly extinct family.
Hours passed and Ryker was now standing in front of a familiar dungeon, ready for his exam.