Derceto watched her three cubs go with Physis and Amanda. She hated herself for doing it and yet she knew that their time of being the Omega wolves was over. They needed to develop on their own. They were destined for other fights, this fight was hers, and hers alone.

She turned back toward the forest fire and the sounds of approaching vampires, masses of vampires. The smoke was making it hard for her to see, but her ears worked just fine. She wished she knew where Mr. Davis was. She would have to hope. This one time, she would put her faith in luck.

She took a deep breath and kneeled down in place, stretching out her claws to the stone and the earth around her. She was the Elder Sage. Soon those vampires would learn why. She reached out through the stone and earth and heaved with every fiber of her being.

The earth beneath her rent itself and burst upwards. The energies that Derceto poured into the earth around was almost too much for even her to bear. The building off in the distance that she targeted, violently ripped itself in two. She could hear screams of pain and yelps of surprise as the building swallowed a dozen or more vampires whole. Derceto reached forth again and forced the building to collapse in on itself crushing those she had trapped.

She plunged her claw deep into the building again and attacked another building, and another, and another. The twisting of the earth beneath him ripped a rift into the pools of magma just below their feet. A geyser of red hot lava spewed up and out, filling the streets with red death.

The Sage’s vision blurred and she fell over. Her body was completely spent. Having everything last drop of her energy to the earth around her in her attacks. She couldn’t move at all. She had put forth her entire energy supply to achieve the destruction that she had dealt. She only hoped that it would be enough. She also hoped that Mr. Davis was alright. She hoped that she had killed every last one of those vampires.

* * * * *

Mr. Davis sprinted ahead, ignoring everything that he knew was right. He had felt the sudden death of Hermes and Thoosa. They were dead. He needed to get to them to find out what happened.

He scaled a building and dove right back down into an alleyway. A bullet grazed where he had just been. He hadn’t heard that shot either. What was going on?

He found Hermes body. The Scout had fallen and his body was splayed out on the street. The grey and brown wolf almost looked like he was sleeping, except for the twisted angle of his neck.

Mr. Davis rolled the body over until he found the bullet hole. A large caliber weapon had taken him right through the neck. It was hard to get any specifics because of the “death shift,” it would have distorted any real evidence that there was to be had. The only thing that he could think of that could do something like this was a high caliber sniper rifle. If that was the case, then they were outmatched here. He would have to take the fight to the vampires in the streets, where the buildings would give him cover and concealment, protecting him from long range sniper fire.

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Hermes, the lithe, quick footed Scout who had saved his life many times and had guided them to safety more than once, destroyed by a sniper shot. He hadn’t even had the chance to face his attacker, or defend himself. Mr. Davis closed his eyes as he laid the wolf down on the street. There would be a reckoning, he swore it. He would avenge his pack mate’s death.

He felt Tyche and where she was. He made his way to the female Sage. He found her squatting on a building ramp on the 2nd floor. He jumped up and knelt down beside her. The Sage was listening for something.

“Have you found anything?” Mr. Davis asked quietly.

“No,” she said in a soft whisper. Her eyes were closed and Mr. Davis agreed with her, the smoke was getting bad and it stung his eyes to keep them open for too long. Suddenly she tensed. “We have to move, now.” Without another word she jumped down from the building and ran.

Mr. Davis was a little surprised but he had long ago ceased to question the instincts of his Sage. She was far more in tuned with the earth than he ever could be and if she said run, he didn’t hesitate.

It took only moments before he realized why she had told him to move. The building they had occupied suddenly rent itself as a great crack sounded through the cavern. He watched as the obsidian building split down the middle. Then, almost as fast, the two sides of the building bent back inward and collapsed in on itself. He needed no further proof as he also caught sight of vampires moving with speed through the buildings now behind him.

He put all his effort into moving faster. He heard another great cracking noise and another and another. It seemed as if the city was eating itself alive. Then he heard what can only be described as an explosion behind them. He stopped and looked as a huge column of red molten lava poured out of the earth.

The lava flowed outward at an alarming rate. Mr. Davis and Tyche had no choice but to take to the building’s rooftops. They would have to take their chances with a sniper or the surety of death by incineration.

When they gained the roof, he crouched low and turned around to see where the vampires were. He couldn’t see any of them right away. He scanned to his right and saw a pale glint of light and then his ears heard the impact of a bullet with flesh.

He jerked around and saw Tyche fall over from her crouch. Her form started to melt back into her black and tan furred wolf form before she even hit the ground. He threw himself flat against the roof of the building. He looked into Tyche’s dead eyes. Tyche, Thoosa, and Hermes, they were his pack, his responsibility. He had failed in his duty to protect them and they were dead now because of it. He looked at his own claws and felt his own heartbeat in his chest. He thought of all the things he could do, deaden pain, regulate his adrenaline levels, run at super human speeds for long distances. He could do all those things, but he hadn’t been able to save Tyche. She had been so close to him, within a foot or two. Why hadn’t the sniper chosen him?

He smelled the vampire before he heard him.