"Oh that hurt like hell!" I complained, pulling my head out of the ground.

A demon came out of nowhere and blasted me off the wall. I shook the dirt from my hair and inspected my body. Whatever spell Sig put on me, protected me from most of the flames.

I was still singed, it wasn't perfect protection, but for a vampire, it literally kept me alive. The fire was a big no-no for vampires, so was running water for some reason. No clue why that was a thing, but apparently it was.

Getting to my feet I surveyed the battlefield. The undead forces were still shuffling along the ladder. Acting on the last order I gave them. Edmund should still be on the wall. I could hear is battlecry, no doubt the battle maniac was flinging his axe at the demon.

Thinking about the situation, that was probably a second order. That would mean they have a number of demons, how many will determine whether or not we survive this attack.

Quickly I ran to the ladder, only to witness it burst into flames from a fireball. That demon was flinging around flames like a madman. Well he was a demon, they were known to be crazy and bloodthirsty.

I smiled at that, I mean I am a vampire, so bloodthirsty comes with the territory. Without the ladder, I tried to scale the wall. Vampiric strength aided with that, but still, it took a frustratingly long amount of time to reach the top. Peaking over the side I saw Edmund blasted off the wall and sent flying over my head.

I traced his arc through the sky and saw him land not too far away. Looking back to the wall I saw another demon descend next to the first one. A familiar axe was in one of the demon's heads, the second one chastised the first and yanked the weapon out.

The demon's head was split down the middle. But the moment the axe was removed it started to nit back together. He still looked like a mangled corpse, but he was far from dead as anyone could be.

"Screw this." I cursed, letting go and landing as stealthily as I could.

Turning back to the army, I ordered a retreat and sped towards Edmund. Reaching him fairly quickly I picked up the heavy-set man and ran for dear life. It must have looked quite strange, my tiny self lugging around a giant on my back. Vampiric strength was really a boon for my line of work.

Fearfully I glanced at the sky and was horrified by the scene. Five demons were soaring overhead, each brandishing wands and staves. They stopped just above us and lingered for a moment.

That was when all hell broke loose. The demonic horde began indiscriminately blasting the field below. Fire rained down from the heavens like the wrath of the gods. I suppose in this case it was the wrath of the Abyss.

It swept away the army like a fiery blaze. They carpet-bombed the entire region and it did not look like they would stop anytime soon.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The death torrent advanced towards Sig and I knew what would happen. I sped up, reaching maximum velocity. We traversed the battlefield in mere moments. Sig and the rest were waiting, I could see them barking orders, hopefully, to retreat.

We arrived as the men were ready to leave. "Sig!" I shouted over the clamorous sounds of men. He turned to me, taking his eyes off the descending demons. "Run!" I screamed, dropping Edmund and ducking for cover.

That picture was the last thing I saw as fire rained from the sky. The explosion was deafening and Sig vanished from my sight. The world inverted and a sense of weightlessness proceeded a violent drop.

I woke up, no idea how long after. The first thing I noticed was the smell of fire and brimstone. My eyes adjusted, and I could see through the column of smoke and ash.

Sig was down, the entire command site was in shambles, and fire was everywhere. Looking around I could see a few shambling undead, most of them were on fire.

I rose to my feet, ignoring the pain. Stumbling over to find my friend, I found him charred and prone. But he wasn't alone, Sven was atop him, fangs sunk into flesh and his life draining away.

Without a thought I propelled forward, grabbing the vampire by the shoulders and violently pulling him off. I threw the bastard to the side, instead of crashing to the ground, he easily righted himself.

Red eyes, fangs and blood dripping from his mouth was what greeted me. He even had the gall to smile as he sped away, likely invigorated by my friend's blood. I wanted so badly to hunt him down and tear his head off. But Sig needed me and so I let him flee like the coward he was.

Fearing another attack by the demons, I picked up Sig and ran to a safe distance. Once we were some distance away, I inspected his wounds. He had fire burns all over his body. His survival was probably because of his protection spells. Too bad it couldn't handle consecutive fireballs.

His neck had the fang marks of a vampire and his heart was still. "Sig! Don't you die on me!" I cupped my hand over the wound, but it was fruitless. Nearly all of his blood had vacated.

I listened closely, using every ounce of my senses to locate some sign that he was still alive. No matter how hard I listened, all I heard was silence. "No!" I screamed, trying to deny his death as if my words would raise him from the grave.

My eyes were tearing up but instead of the clear tears of a human, blood dripped from my face and down my cheeks. The blood gave me an idea. I had a vague notion of how vampires were made and so I sank my fangs into my wrist.

Desperately I tried to feed him my blood. But no matter how hard I tried, the dead could not drink. I even attempted to pour the blood down his throat, but the wounds in my wrist kept closing.

I tried everything and nothing worked. No matter what I did, his death kept flaunting its certainty in my face. His body was growing cold, I could sense that. No life remained, every vampiric power at my command told me the same thing.

I was trying to save the corpse of my best friend. A man I had served with for more years than I could count. Burned up by demons and drained of blood while he was weak by that waste of space Sven!

I was going to kill him, that was a certainty but first I would ensure the fallen the respect he deserved.

"Erik, your alive." An out of breath Edmund spoke just behind me. "Sig get up sleepy head, we got to get back to camp." I could hear his footsteps approach, they slowed down once he got close. "Sig?"

"He's gone Edmund, he's dead." I said with a finality I hated.

"How?" That was all he said in that disturbingly neutral tone.

"Sven." I answered coldly.

Edmund paused in his words, leaving a moment of silence. Then suddenly the sound of an axe being drawn and the cracking of a neck.

"Then we best go kill him." He declared and it was music to my ears.

I cradled the corpse of our friend, turning to meet Edmund. His face showed no emotion, it was cold and unmoving. All he did was follow behind as I put one foot in front of the other.