Chapter 6
Xin felt the bullet land squarely in his right shoulder from behind, nicking his collar bone on entry. He howled and nearly turned into a werewolf at that moment. His teeth gnashed as the wound bled. He felt the hairs on his neck nearly give way to the sharp bristles of his supernatural self. Luckily, he reined in the werewolf transformation. Not yet, Xin thought, deliberately calming his beating heart. Then he stilled. His nose twitched at a familiar smell - vampire.
Xin stood at his full height, his face a mask. If he was having fun before, now he was deadly serious. "Vampires, here?" Xin snickered. He turned, spiraling out of the darkest fringe of the clearing and slashing a gunman across the back diagonally from left to right. He was dead. His body did not regenerate. He was human. But there was a vampire…somewhere.
"Hmph." Xin placed his hand in his pocket, casually walking into the jungle canopy that shrouded his presence. As he did so, three men with firearms walked into the clearing Xin had been using as his vantage point since he had arrived on the site.
Xin watched the men closely circling the clearing. He studied their expressions. The dead bodies they had encountered so far on their way to base headquarters must surely have them spooked. If he weren't so astutely trying to accomplish a stealthy approach, he would surely have enjoyed having a fit of brazen laughter at their expense.
The men were anxious and their movements were jerky. Beads of sweat leaked from beneath their black berets down the side of their faces, disappearing into the damp open collars of their black fatigues. Their eyes frantically searched the dense darkness of the tropical jungle around them.
Xin stood up. The clearing was not much to bolster his position: everyone was about six or seven feet from each other. He withdrew his twelve-inch hunting knife and held it by the blade, lifting his throwing arm. As the man farthest from him turned around, Xin flung the blade with such force into the man's chest that the gunman was thrown back to land hard against a tree trunk. His rifle released a few shots, drawing the attention of the two men closest to him.
Xin used the diversion to come upon the remaining men from behind. He pierced the shorter of the men through his jugular with his blade.
No, Xin thought to himself quietly.
He drew his sword upward, slicing through the rest of the man's neck before the blade entered the other man's head, slicing it at such an angle that the head was severed diagonally, leaving one eye intact. The third man was dead before the body of the second man collapsed to the floor.