2006, 7th February

Los Angeles, USA

“Ortega, wait. You’re leaving your group behind again.”

“Huh? Oh, right. Well, keep up then, why don’t you? And not so much shouting, seriously.”

“The tunnels are closed off to the public, dude. That’s the whole point of us using them, remember? And I doubt the Hall of Records keeps hours like these.”

“If you’ve not been a government employee, then you have no idea what kind of hours they keep. Now quiet down.”

“Lighten up, dude, it’s not like we’re hiding from people, we’re hiding from the sun. People are easy to deal with.”

“I sometimes forget how young you actually are,” Jason Ortega shook his head in exasperation.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Terrence Porter was, in fact, young, not an ancient monster masquerading as a youth, his appearance as a twenty something being perfectly faithful to his chronological age, as he had been turned only recently.

Terrence and Jason both wrecked for the same master, Jason being several years Terrence’s senior, and they had currently been tasked with moving something he needed all the way from Los Angeles back to Miami.

The porters that followed them had been told that the sealed containers they carried contained methamphetamine, but both Jason and Terrence could smell the blood within the containers.

Preserved blood, or even organs for all they knew, circulated across several networks crisscrossing the length and breadth of the United States, providing food to a select clientele of discerning palate.

Something had recently disrupted their supply lines, and their master was growing impatient.

Jason turned to bark an order at the mortal porters when the lights in the passage went out.

Both Jason and Terrence reacted immediately, drawing their automatic weapons, but the mounted flashlights did little to dispel the oppressive darkness, and even their enhanced senses did not permit them to see more than an arm’s length ahead of them.

A spine chilling growl rattled across the blackness of the corridor, accompanied by the unmistakable scent of blood.

The vampires grouped tight around the mortals they were escorting, sensing they were all still alive- but someone else had been slain in these tunnels tonight.

The darkness was starting to wear thin, and Jason pressed forward, taking the lead, the scent of blood growing thicker as they pushed on, until he felt the slick below his boots, though he couldn’t see the blood pooling below him.

Silently, he knelt to inspect the body, placing his light closer to the corpse- a man, bespectacled, no one he knew.

He rose and turned to Terrence and the three men following-

There were supposed to have been four.

As he had knelt, something had soundlessly snatched one of them.

“Shit-” He swore, and the men began to panic as they noticed.

“Terrence, take the rear- we’re making a run for it.”

The younger one nodded as the shadows thickened around them, then off they went, the mortals even colliding against the walls and each other, before Jason came to an abrupt halt, the ones in the rear swearing as they collided with his back.

Ahead of him, a creature barred the way, humanoid form crouched over another person, shadows somehow having grown thin enough around it’s silhouette that he could make out what seemed to be a plain shirt, sleeves rolled up, as the creature was hunched over it’s victim- the fourth porter- its facial features obscured by a veil of dark hair.

Then it looked up, and its eyes red shifted the light from Jason’s flashlight and reflected them back, a blood orange stare, something that could be mistaken for a woman were it not for the raptor-like facial features.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The creature pulled her victim up by the hair with her left hand, pinching the sternocleidomastoid with the index finger and thumb of her right, and the man, who had been thrashing in her grip so far, utterly froze.

Then, faster than the eye could follow, her right hand moved, and carotid, muscle and jugular were severed in one go, blood spurting from the man’s throat like a fountain as he howled.

Terrence responded with a startled howl of his own, blindly letting a panicked burst of gunfire loose before Jason grunted and pushed his muzzle downward.

The creature in front of them seemed unfazed by the bullets, and had even manoeuvred her victim into their flight path, his throat having taken quite a few bullets, nearly severed by the onslaught.

A display of speed that was worrying, if it had not been a fluke.

Deciding not to sink her fangs in, she lapped leisurely from the spray of blood as it dribbled down her chin and soaked the front of her shirt.

With a yelled expletive, Jason turned his companions around, taking the rear himself, and they ran.

They had to keep pace with the mortal porters, a fact Terrence seemed to have forgotten as he darted clear ahead of anyone, only to trip over something obscured by the shadows.

Another corpse.

And it wasn’t the only one.

Jason had led the team through these very tunnels, so where had these corpses appeared from, and why had they been planted in their path?

It seemed the creature was toying with them, provoking their fear.

Whatever the case, even if they managed to escape, there would be no using these tunnels again- another route blocked off.

Perhaps that had been the intent all along.

Jason sighed in resignation, handling his weapon with both hands and planting his feet.

“Terrence, take the three of them and run back up to the surface.”

“What?”

“Do it before that thing catches up. Go! I’ll hold my ground as long as I can.”

Wordlessly Terrence and the others race ahead, disappearing into the darkness, while Jason made his last stand.

Minutes passed, and Jason assumed, if he could still sweat, he’d be sweating right now.

Then the shadows retreated.

And a shockwave blew Jason off his feet, as debris rained down around him, and he hugged his knees below his chin, rolling with his fall to avoid being crushed.

In the next moment, he was looking up, not at the ceiling of the tunnel but the night sky.

Groggily, he pulled himself to his feet, and looked around himself.

Bodies, mingled in with the debris- no vehicles, though, so this particular section of the tunnel hadn’t been directly beneath a road, though the incessant honking meant one couldn’t be far.

He saw the remains of his remaining porters strewn amongst the debris.

Terrence was nowhere to be seen, but the scream that tore through the night, even over the relentless din of American traffic having been interrupted by what would seem to be an accident, told Jason all he needed to know.

But for some reason, the adversary did not make its way to him, having spared his life for purposes he did not yet understand.

Magnus was still leafing through some texts in the library when Lucia made her return, front of her shirt smeared with crimson.

She caught the look in his eye, and said, “You don’t approve.”

“I get the advantage of having done it.”

“That’s not what I said.”

“What do you want me to say, Lucia? No, I don’t approve, but I also understand who you are.”

“Hmm,” Lucia prowled over to the man in dead silence, “But you are struggling with who you are. Your nature is at odds with the rest of your species. Is that what this is about?”

Magnus laughed mirthlessly, but did not reply.

“I may not be Michael, but that much is plain enough to anyone that knows you. When you talked to Astrid, did you feel duty bound to help her when she asked?”

“Not really. Honestly, I’m not sure what I’m doing here. I’ll fight by your side, of course, but not in the kind of thing you did tonight.”

“And I won’t ask you to, Magnus. Give me that much credit at least.”

The silence they shared grew uncomfortable, before Magnus nodded, taking two steps backward.

“At least tell me you got what you set out to do tonight.”

“It’s a whole trafficking network. I could have combed through the states more meticulously, but it seemed more efficient to drag a section of this business to the surface, preferably in a spectacular fashion that can’t be ignored.”

“Well, you certainly made sure of that. But what you did also risks more exposure than we may strictly be comfortable with, along with toeing the line on Apotheosis’ non interference policy. Damage control is likely to be relegated to the local Ulfhednar… which is where I suppose I come in.”

“The half bloods are also sure to work closely with the local security companies, especially after tonight. With you keeping an eye on their activities while I continue watching for unusual traffic patterns through the states, we can mostly map out where the half bloods hide themselves. We’ll thin the herd and deprive our opponent of a food source to amplify his power at the same time.”

Magnus leaned back and sighed; the plan certainly seemed clean and uncomplicated in theory.

He only hoped the execution would stick true, and that he wouldn’t be forced to question the actions he would have to participate in for the sake of his friends.