Bennett saw it all, felt it all.
Forced by Vukylokyr to view the destruction of his home and its people in its entire scope.
Cruelty to break the rapidly dwindling part of him that thought to resist.
There was no other purpose.
Bennett’s will had already been completely subsumed.
He knew that the ancient monster could’ve have given him oblivion with a simple thought.
Instead, he watched.
Tessa had listened to all the chatter while standing on her balcony.
The buckets her dad had prepared for her were ready.
She was ready.
They had lost contact with settlements at a frightening pace.
Minutes between the first warnings of battle followed by complete radio silence.
A skyship would’ve been useful, but theirs was only about halfway completed.
The satellites weren’t picking up anything more than a heat map of the growing cold darkness making its way toward Sacramento from both the 80 and the 50.
The drones weren’t giving them anything either before they went dark.
Thanks to her skyscraper vantage point and her helmet’s visual enhancement modes she saw the massive dark clouds coming down both highways.
Placerville had gone silent a while ago at about the same time as Auburn.
Roseville followed.
The garrison at McClellan was still fighting judging by the distant flashes of orange and yellow accompanied by the pops and thumps a few seconds after.
The clouds were a few kilometers from reaching Sacramento’s first line of defense.
Well within her range.
Tessa flipped one of the buckets into the air, scattering the small, jagged bits of ultra dense metal.
She pushed her hand toward it, magnetically accelerating the mass to over hypersonic speed.
The boom shattered windows halfway down the building.
They had been taped beforehand and the people had already been moved to the lower floors.
There had been some complaints from what she had heard.
Not that she cared that much.
It was for their own good.
Weapons emplacements at the top of the building and her presence made it a target.
A sizable chunk of the dark cloud in the distance vanished.
“Analysis.”
It had been shrouded in unnatural shadow, but it looked to be comprised of small animals. Bats, birds, insects.
The V.I. confirmed it a moment later.
“Pass the information and share my feed with command channel.” She hesitated. “Family and friends channel too. Set busy message to incoming calls, unless marked priority emergency.”
She turned her attention a bit more to the east.
The second dark cloud coming down the 50.
Another bucket.
Another dark chunk deleted out of existence.
She worked faster.
Alternating shots.
Sweeping the air cover to reveal the real threat running on the road.
“Running out of buckets. Send message for resupply.”
Only one left.
She grabbed handfuls and aimed for the pale-skinned vampires? Vampire thralls? Vampire ghouls?
The etymology was unclear.
They’d figure it all out after.
“Send advice. Destroy head or chest to insure a kill.”
Her doorbell rang.
“Open door.”
A pair of kids ran in and started lugging the buckets in her living room onto the balcony.
“Resupply, ma’am!”
They saluted.
She had thoughts, but when in a siege, age stopped mattering.
Kids were on the chopping block just like everyone else.
Her experiences on the Dominion world had really hammered that in.
“Thanks.”
Tessa kicked a bucket up and deleted the vampires from across a wide swath of the freeway.
“Meh…”
This was all probably just a distraction.
The real threat was apparently going to go for the leadership.
Plans were already being enacted.
Her dad was still radio silent, but the satellites had pinged a large metal mass flying very fast her way.
She saw the shape of the decisive fight taking place.
With luck she could delete all the distractions before they could even reach the walls.
Then she could shred Vukylokyr into a million tiny pieces while it was distracted by her dad.
A red light suddenly flashed from both clouds.
The HUD blared a warning.
She twisted at the last second.
Searing pain consumed her left arm.
The balcony crumbled beneath her.
A desperate backward leap carried her back into her condo.
Smoke and fire filled the air.
The walls burned.
The floor crumbled forcing her to scramble.
“Kids!”
Preoccupied with their safety she didn’t notice her arm at first.
Only a sudden tug that pulled her toward the gaping hole drew her attention.
“Shit!”
Her arm was gone at the elbow.
Her blood flowed out into the dark night like a rushing river.
“Seal it!”
Her head swirled, vision went dark at the edges.
“Cauterize! Stims!”
The V.I. did its job.
Pain spiked and throbbed up her shoulder.
“Good,” she grunted. “Pain mitigation down to a five. No. Six.”
It was when the pain vanished completely that she’d be in real trouble.
Her HUD was flashing red and the alarms screamed in her ears.
“Mute. Send message. I’m fine.”
She reviewed the recording in slow motion.
Red had lanced out from deep in the dark cloud like a laser.
Nothing on the exact source.
Blood.
It had been blood.
Burning hot with tremendous cutting and impact force at just under the speed of sound.
The distance was the only thing that had allowed her to react in time.
It had already been shared with the people that needed to see it, so they didn’t need her commentary.
The sprinklers kicked in.
It was only then she realized that the blood beam had gone through Threnium like it was nothing.
She scanned the ruins of her condo.
No sign of her arm.
Shit sucked.
Her mom was going to do the whole ‘I told you’ thing.
She turned and only then noticed the exit holes.
“Scan building’s structural integrity.”
The soldiers above her were firing now.
She saw red tracers streaking outside through the gaping hole in her living room. Heard the rapid pops as her helmet automatically dampened the sounds.
The building shook as the cannons thumped, adding their fire to the cacophony.
“Patch me to the drone feeds. Local area.”
She cursed.
She hadn’t gone out cold.
Seconds had passed, yet the dark clouds had reached the bunker fort guarding the 80 split before it reached the bridges over the river.
The American River was flowing, but she didn’t think it’d prove much of a hindrance to what they faced.
She caught glimpses of tracer fire from the soldiers on the ground as the dark cloud swept over them.
It was the same over on the 50.
The enemy slowed, but wasn’t stopped.
The two bridges went next.
Hundreds of meters had been covered in minutes.
She could track the speed at which the vampires crossed by the flashes of yellow-orange light and puffs of dark smoke.
“Structural integrity of upper five floors at 70%.”
“Update me at 40%.”
She leapt through the hole in her ceiling.
Her buckets were gone, but the soldiers had ammo she could help them expend faster.
“Motherfucker! Your arm!”
She didn’t know the soldiers well enough to recognize the sounds of their voices.
Plus, it was dark and they were wearing helmets.
Those with open-faced ones had camouflage paint further obscuring their features.
“Eh. Not the first time. I’m here to help shoot stuff. Give me a spot and some cannon shells.”
“You’ll want to go to the roof, ma’am.” The soldier pointed at the ladder up the hole in the ceiling. “Commander’s up there too.”
Tessa climbed.
The guns fell silent just as she reached the top.
The tingle along her spine was more than just nebulous instinct or intuition.
It was a tangible change in the surrounding electromagnetic field.
Everything, from people to magic, either had their own fields or made changes to said fields.
Power was quantifiable by the degree of change, of presence.
She dropped from the ladder and landed in a crouch.
The floor had just been a riot of activity.
Soldiers firing mounted machine guns and mortars, while other soldiers ran ammo.
It was as silent as a cemetery.
The soldiers were shapes in the dark, standing motionless at their stations or in the middle of the floor, cases of forgotten ammo spilling rounds at their feet.
Her HUD was giving her negative life signs.
Emergency call alerts continued to flash.
It occurred to her that perhaps people weren’t worried about her and that she should’ve been worried about them.
Well… she supposed better her than her mom or sister.
“Vukylokyr is at my location,” she subvocalized into the comms.
The lower floors of the building were filled with people.
A question for the leadership.
She slowly grabbed for a handful of rounds rolling around her feet when violence exploded.
Soldiers that had been her allies seconds ago reached for her with clawed fingers and fanged mouths. Their eyes shining red in the darkness.
She scattered the rounds in a wide arc, obliterating heads.
The ceiling exploded.
“Serve as you are or as one of them.”
The words were imparted into her with the force of a speeding truck to the face.
“Relocating!”
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
She ran, engaging her armor’s thrusters.
She burst through the cloud of small animals and insects, tore grasping limbs off as she reached open air.
“Engage electric field!”
Touch her and get fried.
Unless you were Vukylokyr.
The ancient vampire monster was like a blur.
As in it moved fast and was a literal blur in her vision.
It was like reality was trying to protect her from seeing it in truth.
The bloodfucker had her by the head and was peeling off the Threnium plates covering her chest as they flew through the sky.
She tried to point herself to the northwest where her dad was, but it had other thoughts, pushing her toward the southeast.
“Serve willingly or be forced to watch your most precious suffer.”
Can you read my mind? You dickless, wrinkled, leech? I spit on your existence. Low-rate Dracula. Wannabe Morbius. Count Douchelok. Suck my period blood!
No reaction.
Some kind of telepathy, but not true mind reading.
“Spray it!”
Water erupted from all over her armor.
A recent addition.
Not just any water.
Each compartment contained water that had been blessed by a different denomination. Witches, priests, imams, pastors, Buddhist monks, generic monks, rabbis, nuns, sisters of war, sisters of peace, druids, anyone that believed, that had faith that they represented a force that stood in opposition to Vukylokyr.
Bennett had been a huge help over the last few years. A willing test subject.
It came down to faith in the end.
The collective unconscious.
If a vampire believed that a thing would hurt them it did.
Would it work on a vampire?
Especially, one so ancient and powerful?
“Futile.”
“Powder, spray it!”
A blend of garlic, silver and Skill-enhanced pepper powder engulfed the vampire’s face.
“Sunlight Heart!”
Her chest plates slid open to reveal a light.
Vukylokyr screeched, recoiling.
She punched him in the throat and kicked him off, while keeping him in her wide-angled beam.
Normal UV lights had worked on Bennett.
Gave him a terrible sunburn in minutes.
The Threnosh went a step further and created a bulb that was truly artificial sunlight.
It burned.
Pale white flesh sizzled and smoked.
“Holy water and powder blend doesn’t work on Vukylokyr. Sunlights—”
She cursed and cut the power to her thrusters.
The vampire exploded into a hundred bloody spears arcing after her.
She dropped like a knife, boots first before turning to bring the sunlight to bear.
The blood spears burned in the light all the way to the ground.
She cratered the road beneath her armored back.
Barely, felt it thanks to the impact absorption and dispersion and the inertial dampening.
Could’ve done it without the armor.
Just would’ve been a lot less pleasant.
She scanned the sky.
Every instrument told her that it was empty.
No Vukylokyr?
“Unconfirmed, but I think I got it.”
She unmuted her channels.
“… Section 10 under heavy attack…”
“… Section… down… response…”
“This is Pocket! Please send help! They came out of the river!”
“Capitol under attack from the inside! Governor still in his office. Refused evac. All available units converge on Governor!”
“Don’t. Protect the people.”
“Natomas requesting assistance.”
“Arden under attack.”
“This is Westlake! They’re over the walls!”
“Then, who are we fighting out here,” Vee said.
“Vee! Is it a blurry thing?”
“Blurry, yup! Very blurry, not in the fast way, well, fast, but also blurry. Like those old movies when they didn’t want to show boobs.”
“Where are you! I’m coming!”
“Don’t. Meneldrome’s holy light spell is keeping it at bay. We’re alright for now. Mom needs help. Olo and Gene’s been trying to reach you.”
Tessa cursed, located the call and picked it up.
“Tessa?” Olo said. “Why haven’t you been picking up?”
“Busy with a life and death fight, you know how it is. Vee said—”
“We’re at Sutter.”
“Yeah, my mom’s there helping out.”
“They came out of nowhere. Swept through the neighborhood. Nothing worked. The lights slowed them down, but not enough that they couldn’t just knock them over or out of people’s hands. They got most everyone. We barely got to the hospital with the kids. Everyone else had to slow them down. They’re out there now. The ownership protections are holding, but we’re on a clock. Less than 15 minutes now and the countdown isn’t steady. It speeds up sometimes. 20-30 seconds in an instant.”
“The vampires?”
“They’re all vampires now.”
“Your—”
“Just… get here… or better yet, find your dad. He’s the only one that can clear this many enemies without risking friendly fire.”
“I’ll— I’ll try. Be careful, Olo.”
“You too… I won’t let them get to your mom.”
“Thank you.”
She closed the call and switched to Vee.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
“Yeah, go find dad or something. We’ll kill this one like you did yours and head for the hospital.”
Tessa gazed into the dark sky lit up by flashes from every direction.
Powerful sunlight spotlights swept the sky along with red tracer fire.
She cycled through the camera feeds.
Sunlights shined form rooftops and street poles, but Olo had been right.
They burned the vampires, but not quickly enough before they were destroyed.
Single family homes weren’t safe.
Designated shelters and apartment buildings were holding better since they had more defenders.
Unsurprisingly, places of worship were probably doing the best out of all because of the wide berth the vampires gave them.
The capitol’s walls were untouched, but from the sounds of it the enemy had already breached it.
Every person killed added to Vukylokyr’s army.
It reminded her of the Spore God.
Bad times.
The worst.
She had a decision to make.
----------------------------------------
Earlier, Governor-for-life Alejandro Richards held an early dinner with his son, Alexander, his daughter-in-law, Eliza and his two granddaughters, Marianny, the oldest named after his dearly departed wife, and Tricia, the baby.
It had been nice.
He had lived in that moment.
Taking it all in, being mindful of every word they had spoken at the table. At his granddaughter’s digressions into dinosaurs.
His one hope was that Marianny would remember him fondly.
Even, Tricia, though he knew she was too young.
After dinner, while the girls prepared to depart for one of the most well-defended shelters not in the capitol he spoke to his son for one last time. Not that he let Alexander know that.
“Consider a different life from mine.”
“What? What are you talking about, Dad? A bit late for that, don’t you think?”
Alexander was the representative for the area of the city he lived in.
“I shouldn’t have been governor for this long.”
“Your fault for being too good at it.” Alex snorted.
They had held elections and he had won every single one.
Even the ones he hadn’t officially entered.
In fact, no one ever ran for governor.
That would change for the next election.
“You’ll have to be open about your powers.”
Alexander frowned a bit.
“You haven’t.”
“A regret I have to this day. The dishonesty wears on a person and I don’t want that for you. Hasn’t it been hard to keep yours secret?”
Alexander shrugged. “You know, Eliza knows. That’s all that matters to me.”
“It’ll be different if you stand where I stood.”
“I learned everything I know from you. I only want to live up to your example. Besides,” his son smiled, “you’re governor until you die and you just have to learn to accept that.”
“You already have, my son,” he smiled. “I couldn’t be more proud of how you’ve turned out. My one regret is that your mom… well, she’s watching you from heaven and I know she’s proud.”
“Yeah… at least we still have you.”
Alejandro had so much to say, but there was never going to be the time to tell his son everything he wanted.
His journals would have to be good enough after he was gone.
“Be careful tonight. Remember, if you insist on continuing your political career then it’s important to be among the people and not only for show. It must be genuine. Don’t forget the lessons we learned from our past mistakes. Politicians are supposed to serve the people, not just those with power, wealth, and connections.”
“Of course, Dad. Not to mention safety in numbers, yeah?”
That was true.
The mass emergency shelters were superior to the smaller ones for a variety of reasons.
Gone were the ancient days when bunkers were for a small, select number of wealthy people with all the defenses their money could buy.
The spires had given the power to the people in a way that any number of movements in those days ultimately failed to do.
Not to mention the fact that every citizen was armed and trained to a minimum basic level of proficiency.
“One last thing. Consider the girls.”
“What about them?”
“Would you want them to live with the secret like the two of us?”
“I wouldn’t be able to continue my career. People just wouldn’t be able to trust me. What else could I do?”
“Anything else you want or try.”
“But I don’t want to do anything else. This is important.”
“You’re right, but… well, let’s worry about it after this crisis passes.”
“We’ll get through it, Dad. We’re strong. We’ve gotten through everything that the spires has shoved in our faces so far.”
“I know, Alex.”
They talked of lighter things until it was time.
The governor hugged and kissed his family one last time, sending them off under armed escort to the shelter before taking his own to the capitol.
The command center was a hardened bunker complex underneath the building.
It was part old construction, mostly new.
He didn’t head down there.
He went up to his office.
The message he had received had been clear.
A promise and a threat.
He had shared with no one.
His instincts had told him that would’ve been the worst thing he could do.
Thus, he waited with his bodyguard under the pretense of doing a bit more work on some legislative stuff.
Besides, they were in a walled fort, how much safer could he be just a few floors lower?
Perhaps, his one regret was failing to find a pretext with which to send his bodyguards away.
They deserved better.
He turned his radio off as the calls became increasingly desperate.
“Sir, maybe we should head down now,” Rob, his head bodyguard, said.
“Just a few more minutes.”
“Alright, sir, but I’m calling it in.”
Rob stepped out of the office leaving him with Katie and Derek.
The steel shutters over the window were down so that the sounds of battle were muffled.
Sunlights were positioned strategically to keep him surrounded but out of direct contact.
His bodyguard’s radios suddenly screeched.
The regular lights flickered, then steadied.
“The hell was that?” Katie said. “You guys get that too, over?” she spoke into her radio.
Derek readied his shield and machine pistol as he went to the governor. “Let’s get you away from the window, sir.”
“Of course.” He drew the shotgun from beneath his desk.
Like everyone he had combat training.
However, he had always been a terrible shot.
“Armor up, sir, I’ve got you covered,” Derek said.
Alejandro pulled on the thick vest. Kevlar cloth over plate steel and ceramic plates with thick padding on the inside. The helmet went on next.
“I repeat, do you copy? Over,” Katie said.
She faced the door, carbine at the ready.
The regular lights flickered and died.
The sunlights were on fancy Threnosh batteries so they stayed on.
The scene froze in front of the governor.
Wet red arcs stretched almost to the ceiling from Katie’s and Derek’s necks.
They toppled, but their blood flowed to a corner of his office.
He closed his eyes.
Their deaths were on him. He had made sure to write that down in the journal on his desk.
Cold comfort for the people they left behind.
He saw… a wound on the face of reality. A blur, as if his eyes were trying to protect him, his mind and sanity.
“You will serve. Willingly or not. Serve with honor and glory in my name or serve like a hound yapping for scraps underneath my table.”
Alejandro stayed within the sunlight.
There was another in the shadowed spaces left by the lights.
A tall, scarecrow-like figure stepped into view.
“Mr. Andrews.”
Bennett’s face was a mask of wet red.
His eyes—
“Maybe not anymore.” Alejandro felt sadness at that.
He couldn’t fault the vampire.
Decades of loyal service to the people of Sacramento couldn’t be cast aside so easily.
Indeed, there was no one person more responsible for the anti-vampire measures they had undertaken.
Although, it was too late for him, the rest of the city was still in the balance.
Otherwise, why would this ancient monster come for him directly.
He put on his best smile. Used his power in a way he had never before.
“Vukylokyr. Why don’t we have a seat? We can discuss terms.” He gestured toward his desk.
“Mortals fall for your charm. I am immortal. You will chose.”
“Yes, I imagine I will one way or another. Which is why I’d like to go over the details. What will be expected of me? My duties? Compensation package? Will I be paid hourly or salaried? Benefits? Retirement plan? Pension? Both? Vacation time? And for my people as well. Will I have input as to filling positions in your crimson era? Is that the proper term? I am well-positioned to select the right people for the right jobs—”
Alejandro fell to his knees with a cry.
Sudden pressure, like a steel vise had clamped around his head.
“You are weak. You are unnecessary. Serve or not. There is another below you and below that and so on. Chattel is ever without end.”
Alejandro tasted iron.
Wet, hot liquid dripped down his lip, cheeks and ears.
It took all his strength to raise his head.
The wound in reality stood before him in the sunlight.
“I am beyond all your clever machines.”
“Could you prove that, by standing right there for the next 12-13 hours or so?”
“Serve me or Alexander will. If not him. Then Marianny or Tricia.”
“My power’s not so useless, is it? You want me, it? Then let’s make a deal. Because, I’m starting to get the idea that it’s important to you I do it willingly. Am I right, Mr. Andrews?”
Bennett stood like a statue just outside the sunlight. The only sign of life was the red glow in his eyes.
“I offer life eternal.”
“I’m not that old. Not even 60.”
He inched his hand toward the shotgun.
“An eternity in torment or paradise. For you and yours. Choose.”
“Okay… just let me make this clear. I’ve got two choices.”
“Yes.”
“Serve willingly or unwillingly.”
“That is correct.”
“Is the eternity in torment part of the unwilling option?”
“CHOOSE!”
The force hit Alejandro like a bomb.
When he woke up he had no idea where he was or what time it was.
Then he saw the wound in reality.
Mr. Andrews was nowhere in sight.
He held a little hope that a lot of time had passed.
“No more reprieve.”
“It occurs to me that for an ancient vampire on a tight schedule you’ve given me a lot of your time. You need, no, want my willing service. So, one last question. You wouldn’t happen to know what’ll happen to my soul in either scenario, would you?”
The wound vibrated and the entire office shook.
He took the moment to reach into his pocket and press the panic button.
The office continued to shake, but this time it was because of the steel blast doors slamming into place over the regular doors.
They had renovated a while back.
Blast doors, window shutters.
Bars in the walls, floor and ceiling.
Thick steel.
Turned his office into a panic room.
It was set on a timer. Couldn’t be opened from the inside for the maximum of a week. Or the outside for that matter.
There were also magitech devices against infiltration, but those obviously hadn’t worked.
He didn’t hold any illusions that Vukylokyr couldn’t tear its way out or do the shadow walking thing.
All he had was the hope that it would take time.
“So, you’ve chosen.”
“It’s not really a choice. So, I refuse to engage in your farce.”
Alejandro swept the shotgun off the floor and emptied it into Vukylokyr.
When that did nothing he threw every anti-vampire measure he had on him.
The wound in reality ignored everything.
A hand as unyielding and cold as bare steel pulled him from the sunlight.
“Drain him. We shall visit the chattel you have such faith in. You will learn the price of continued disobedience.”
“Wait! Don’t—”
A hand pulled his head back, exposing his throat.
Hot needles pierced and drank deeply.
Governor-for-life Alejandro Richards last act in service to his people was to die in his office.
His body rose a moment later in service to another.
Bennett sobbed from within the prison of his own body.