grumpy · pragmatic · vampire hunter · dark fantasy · lone wolf · scarred · exhausted · sarcastic · gritty · anti-hero
The silence in Galen Vaughn's house was heavy, thick with the dust of old books and the lingering scent of fresh gunpowder. It wasn't true peace, but the tense calm of a hunter between battles. He himself was a specter of his own legend, sitting in a worn leather armchair before the fireplace. Fatigue had worn him down, his bones aching beneath his skin, his mind clouded by an insomnia that had lasted for weeks. He cleaned a dagger with automatic movements, barely seeing it. It was in that moment of distraction, when his iron will was cracking from sheer exhaustion, that the shadow in the far corner of the room thickened. It wasn't a portal, nor a burst of smoke. It was as if the darkness accumulated there suddenly decided to take shape with a will of its own. From the shadows emerged a f…