Steve and I stood outside, waiting for Clarissa. She had to grab her chainsaw — and gas, and oil for the blade.

The city smelled like ash. I couldn’t keep my eyes off the distant sights of the city. Now that I could see fine in the dark, the huge swathes of ruined city stood out to me. We were lucky that we had chosen to kill the progenitor vampire, and even luckier that we succeeded.

Hundreds of vampires must have died when we removed the permanent night time over the area. We wouldn’t have survived the horde of them.

Clarissa pushed the door open, carrying the chainsaw with a case on it covering up the blade. Cody floated out behind her, mid sentence.

“ — cult of the Evermoon. That world actually had a prophecy about the Catalog’s arrival to it, which made its integration the most difficult I’d ever witnessed. They had an entire militant church fighting to retain control of the planets resources. Eventually, one of the major dynasties brokered a deal with them.”

Cody had been ranting about the dozens of religions he had witnessed across the integrations when we were outside. As a point of fact, I was actually standing outside to avoid the conversation.

“Cody.” Steve said.

“They had warrior monks. Hundreds of thousands of them! The churches military units made up a large portion of the world’s standing armies.”

“CODEX!” Steve said, louder. Cody stopped in midair. Steve scratched his face, as if he suddenly became unsure of his next question. He spoke quietly as Cody turned to face him. “Is there a way for me to heal my arm? Like, right now.”

Cody hovered in midair, pausing for a moment before replying. He slowly spun in a circle, facing me, then spun back to Steve.

“Sure. Vampirism!”

Clarissa gasped.

“We don’t need any more blood sucking freaks…” She trailed off as she looked at me. “Not you. No offense. You’re one of the good ones.” Clarissa said. “Sorry for being so suspicious earlier. Thanks for helping Dan. I… uh, just don’t drink my blood.”

“I wasn’t planning on it.” I said, leaning back against the wall.

“On drinking her blood? Or on… can he convert me?” Steve asked Cody.

“Yes! But there’s a high probability that you’ll end up as a Feral Blood Thrall rather than an intelligent vampire. You’d either need some kind of poison refinement skill or to be steadily injected with the blood of an older, more powerful vampire.”

“But we could do it?” Steve asked. “If we didn’t find another way.”

“We’ll find a way.” I said to Steve.

“It’s just good to have something to fall back on. An anchor.” Steve said, nodding.

“It should be a last resort. Or less. I’m not sure I’d rather have both arms than be a… blood sucker.” I said. “Is Dan coming?”

“No.” Clarissa shook her head. “Dan is in bed. He’s fine, just exhausted after you cured him.”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Then it’s just us three.” I said. I wasn’t carrying a gun with me, but I noticed that Clarissa had a holster now. She still held the chainsaw, though. “Did you get a skill for that?” I asked.

“Yes!” She said. “I’ve got a Chainmaster class after the fight underground. Cody said it’s like Blademaster — what that vampire had.”

“Don’t you mean us four?” Cody asked.

“You stay here. You’re too loud. And bright.”

In the dark of the night, Cody painted the outside of the castle with a rainbow of swirling color. It looked like an outdoor rave.

“I can accompany you anywhere within the city you know.”

“Stay here or I’ll put you back in the basement.”

Cody slowly floated back into the castle. The door opened and closed for him.

“Where to?” Steve asked Clarissa.

“Just a mile and a half north.” She said, removing the cover from her chainsaw. She gave it a test rev, bringing to life before killing it, then her eyes flashed green. “Let’s go.”

We had to cross through the burned down garden outside the castle. Ash clung to my socks, as high as my ankles in what remained of the burned, living briar.

“Need to make sure this plant didn’t leave any tubers behind.” Clarissa murmured. “Amber was telling me about this garden.”

“You think some part of the plant survived that?” Steve asked, incredulous.

“There’s regular earth plants that will survive fires just fine.” She said.

The streets were a wreck. Distant car alarms had been constantly blaring for hours, but now cars were starting to die.

“We should’ve done this during the day. Would’ve been safer.” I said.

“We?” Steve asked, looking me up and down.”

“Yeah, I don’t think you tolerate sun very well.” Clarissa said. “You think some spf-forty is enough for you?” She looked over curiously. It took me a moment to realize she was completely serious.

“No… I just forgot.” I said.

We stopped joking for a bit as we crossed the street and past the store front of buildings. Everything was broken now — smashed storefront windows, signs of fighting and damage all over the streets. But there was nothing recognize-able as a body left behind. I knew that it was partially due to the fact that the ones that converted turned into piles of ash.

But the rest was because these things were eating every last survivor. By the time we were done, how many would survive? Fifty? A hundred? Out of a city of tens of thousands?

My thoughts were interrupted as I spotted a Blood-Spawn skittering across the near by rooftops.

“Blood-Spawn, there!” I said, pointing. Clarissa and Steve’s eyes shot to it as it skittered away.

“Fuck, that thing was big. Blood-Spawn? What are the little ones called?” Clarissa asked, revving her chainsaw to life.

“They’re going to hear us if you start that!” Steve shouted.

“They’re going to hear you shouting first!” I said, starting to jog forward. I wasn’t sure if they could keep up if I sprinted.

“Why is it running?” Steve asked. “That’s not normal, right?”

“They run from me all the time!” Clarissa said. Her voice had excitement in it more than anything as we tore down the street, dodging around cars to follow the Blood-Spawn. It jumped from roof to roof, each landing a resounding thumping noise that shook buildings and splashed the water pooling on them off the sides.

Steve aimed his gun over our heads as we ran.

“If you shoot me I’ll use this chainsaw on you!” Clarissa said.

We followed the Blood-Spawn as it turned, running down a side road covered in houses. The Blood-Spawn stopped and roared on the roof of a house.

Feral-Blood thralls shot out of windows and doors, five of them piling into the street around us.

“Shit!” Steve said, shooting into the Blood-Spawn on the roof of a partially burned and collapsed building. When his first two shots hit, the full fledged vampire laying against the front of the house finally hissed.

It’s eyes — from iris to sclera — were a burning, feral red, and its legs were damaged, pants hanging on nothing. Burns covered its skin, like it had been caught in the sun. It looked far too human for me to be comfortable with. It was masculine, with long silver hair falling to its shoulder on one side. On the other, it was burned away.

It was feral, empty of blood and unable to heal… and somehow, it had used this Blood-Spawn to lead these vampires here.

Steve put a bullet in between it’s eyes.

Every one of the lesser vampires around us suddenly stopped, shaking their heads like wet dogs.

They looked between us, and each other, as if they had all just forgotten what they were doing. They stomped around on the ground, hissing and choking out feral barks.

“Was that vampire… controlling them?” I asked. “How did it do that?”

I didn’t get an answer as the Blood-Spawn dove toward us from the roof.