Chapter 36

Amelia watched Nate take off. She was startled. She thought she’d convinced Nate to refrain from taking vengeance but the minute she cancelled the spell and let him go he took advantage. Now he was too far to be bound with the spell.

She ran after him, but Nate was so far away she knew she wouldn’t get there before he killed Anza. She pumped her legs and ran with all the speed she could muster. Her life depended on it.

The forest was filled with tall trees and canopies that blocked out sunlight creating pools of shadow. Suddenly one of the shadows moved and appeared before her.

Amelia recoiled away from the shadow but it was moving too fast. As the shadowy figure got within arm’s reach she briefly caught a glimpse of a woman with a face full of boils appear before her, the woman had a head that inflated up and down with each breath.

“I’ll have to borrow you real quick.” The woman said in a warbled voice.

Amelia wanted to scream for Nate but her mind was clouded. It wasn’t long before darkness welled up and claimed her.

…

Aiden was walking down the streets of the Asylum when he saw a mid-sized group before him. This group of people were staring across the street with great interest. As he approached, several of them turned to him.

“Boss?” One of the women said. The group consisted of twenty werewolves.

“What’s going on?” Aiden questioned.

A woman with a scar running from her eyebrow down to her lip stepped out in front of the group, shouldering aside the werewolves who didn’t move out of her way fast enough. When she was in front of Aiden she had an angry look on her face.

“It’s the vampires.” She said gesturing to the building across the street. “They’ve snatched a group of humans against their will and entered their blood den. It’s like they’re not even attempting to follow the rules.”

“Boss we gotta do something.” Another werewolf said.

“I don’t see what the problem is, they’re just humans. Why do we have to do something?” Another werewolf argued.

“Fuck the humans, it’s the principle. The vampires have been allowed to get away with shit for far too long. Can you imagine if one of us did that? Anza herself would’ve hunted us down and executed us without argument.” Another werewolf pointed out.

The group of werewolves began arguing amongst themselves. Aiden stood there unsure of what to do. He’d been a victim months ago, and now he was the un-official leader of the werewolves. He was thrust into this position without any experience of what to do.

Not doing something wasn’t an option. He felt a bond with these people. Whether that was the werewolf in him, or just from their acceptance of him, he didn’t know.

“Silence!” The woman with the scar shouted. Immediately all the werewolves quieted down. Werewolves respected strength, the fact that these werewolves obeyed her orders spoke volumes about her strength.

The scarred woman turned to Aiden. “We should enter the blood den.”

Aiden nodded his head. Without further prompting the woman turned to the werewolves and began speaking. “Vampires are at their weakest after feeding, most likely they’ll be drunk on blood. They’ll get rowdy but don’t do anything rash, not until we find the humans they’ve kidnapped.”

“What do we do once we’ve found the humans?” A werewolf asked.

The scarred woman grinned, “We slaughter them. Once we find the humans then we have all the justifications for our actions. Need I say more?”

The werewolves grinned in response and began crossing the street. Aiden watched as they stormed the buildings entrance, as soon as they entered he could hear screaming and yelling coming from inside.

He walked across the street wondering why werewolves and vampires had such animosity towards each other. Why build an asylum to house both races?

His train of thought was disrupted when he saw a vampire stumble out of the building. The vampire had pure black eyes, even the whites of his eyes were colored black. He stumbled down the steps on wobbly legs, fangs protracted and dripping with blood.

As he came down the last step, he tripped, sending him to his knees. The man looked around and saw Aiden standing before him. A pink tongue slithered out of his mouth and glossed over his bloody teeth. “Come here boy.” The vampire smiled.

Aiden disappeared. The vampire felt a sharp pain on his neck, then suddenly his head was flying. The last image he saw before darkness claimed him was his headless body spurting blood.

The werewolves had finished killing all the vampires when Aiden entered. A few tried to escape but in their drunken state they were easily dispatched. Aiden entered the lobby of the building and saw bodies scattered everywhere.

Some of the bodies began bursting into ash but there were dozens of humans who were lying on the floor dead.

“We were too late to save them.” The scarred woman said upon seeing Aiden’s face.

Aiden nodded absent-mindedly. After a few seconds of silence he noticed all the werewolves staring at him.

They want me to do something… but what? Dam, I wish Nate was here. Although Aiden was a werewolf and felt like part of the pack, he wasn’t ready for the sudden leadership role he was placed in.

He looked at the scarred woman for help. “What do you think?” He asked.

“Well I—“ Before she could finish they heard screaming coming from outside.

Aiden and the group of werewolves rushed outside. Looking to their right they saw a mob of people running and screaming down the street. Behind them were another group of people chasing.

Focusing his eyes, Aiden saw that there was something wrong with the second group.

“They’re dead?” He heard the scarred woman voice from behind.

The second group attacking the first were all walking corpses. Some of them were indistinguishable from the living, only visible wound being a scratch or a bite mark. Others were walking skeletons. They ran, limped, crawled to their targets: the living.

“Zombies… those are fucking zombies!” A werewolf shouted from behind.

The group of humans ran past the werewolves who were still at the building entrance. When the zombies noticed the werewolves they began running at them. Half the zombie group split off and went after the humans.

The scarred woman walked forward and made eye-contact with Aiden. “This is the vampire’s doing.” She stated as a matter of fact.

“How do you know?” Aiden couldn’t help but say.

“Vampires are essentially walking corpses. They’re undead. Who else but Vampires could make the dead come back to life?”

The fastest zombie was before the scarred woman. With minimal effort the woman slashed at its throat with a transformed hand. The wicked claws cut the zombie’s neck open like a warm knife through butter.

…

Mikel drank his fill from the naked girl sitting on his lap. When he was finished he pushed the girl off his lap. The girl fell to the floor on the verge of death. Even though she was about to die, her body writhed in ecstasy as the vampiric stimulants coursed through her.

As the blood settled in his stomach Mikel felt himself growing stronger. The Founding had outlawed draining humans long ago for the sake of anonymity, and to keep from drawing the attention of the White Council. But many vampires did it in secret.

A vampire didn’t have to drain a human. In fact, all one needed was half a liter to satiate their hunger. But draining a human and drinking in their life essence empowered them. He knew the real reason why the Founding forbid them from draining humans is because they wanted to keep power in the hands of the old folk. The older a vampire was, the stronger they became. The only way for new vampires to catch up would be to drain humans and absorb their life essence.

Mikel was absorbing this life essence, willing the blood to regulate through his veins when the doors were burst open. A vampire fell through the door and crashed to their knee, gasping for breath. The other vampires in the red room looked at the vampire in annoyance.

Once the vampire could speak he addressed Mikel. “The werewolves wiped out the blood den on twelfth street.”

“What?!” Several vampires shouted as they leaned forward in their seats.

The man nodded. “I don’t know why but they did. They were being led by that Anima. Attacked during feeding time.”

Mikel closed his eyes as the other vampires broke into discussion. Focusing on the blood in his stomach he directed the blood through the veins in his body, strengthening his physical body. With each revolution the blood made he felt his power increase. Once he was finished the blood in his stomach was completely consumed.

Once the blood was completely absorbed it lost its intoxicating affects. Newer vampires were too un-skilled to do this. Learning blood cultivation required centuries of practice through trial and error.

He stood up and silenced the vampires squabbling with a single hand. “The mutts were allowed to shelter under the same roof as us and instead of being grateful this is what they do? It’s time we showed them who’s on top of the food chain.”

Mikel grabbed his claymore hanging above the fireplace and walked out the door, dozens of vampires followed behind.

…

It was one o’clock in the afternoon. The sky had been clear-blue an hour before, but now there were blankets of grey clouds swelling overhead. It wasn’t long before the clouds released fat drops of rain that pummeled the ground.

For the locals of California, rain was viewed as a blessing, but for the prisoners in Black Watch Asylum it was bad omen.

Down below in an empty apartment complex parking lot, two groups of people stood there facing each other, standing still. All around them were people running around screaming as the zombies gave chase. Buildings were on fire, the few cars within the Asylum were speeding by, mowing down prisoners and zombies alike. It was madness.

But none of that affected the two groups standing within the empty parking lot. Even the terrified prisoners who ran from zombies didn’t dare enter the parking lot because they knew, those standing within the parking lot were even greater threats. So great a threat that even the zombies avoided them, which terrified the human prisoners.

These zombies were nothing like the movies: shambling, clumsy corpses that were easily outran. No, these zombies were just as fast as before they were dead, and they felt no pain, no fear, no mercy. They were intelligent enough to realize they were no match for the vampires and werewolves so they gave them a wide berth, choosing instead to hunt the weak humans.

Aiden stood in front of a group of werewolves. Many of whom were transformed into their four-legged counterpart. Only a couple of werewolves were skilled enough to morph into their werewolf-human hybrid form.

Across the parking lot were a group of vampires, all geared for battle. Several of them carried swords, and other medieval weapons. The one vampire in the lead carried a claymore with one hand. He looked at Aiden and the werewolves with a sneer across his face.

The lightning overhead flashed illuminating both groups for a second. The two groups stood there in silence, waiting for someone to make the first move.

From the corner of his eyes Aiden could see the werewolves standing behind him, dozens of six-foot tall werewolves that were on all fours, snarling with slobber coming down their faces. They were a terrifying bunch. He looked over at the vampires and saw their weapons gleaming in the dark.

He knew the odds were in their favor. Werewolves held the advantage when it came to raw power. But the vampires had their advantages as well, underestimating them would be a fatal flaw.

“Why don’t you crawl back to your hovel, mutt, before I add another scar to your face.” The leader of the vampire shouted suddenly.

The scarred werewolf standing by Aiden’s side flinched subtly. “You’re a coward Mikel, still hiding behind that magic sword of yours. Why don’t you toss that aside and face me like a man?” She replied. The werewolves behind her yipped in laughter.

Aiden stepped forward, his whole body rippling with a grey fur coat that was inscribed with glowing blue lines. “Leave him to me.”

A building beside them exploded, tossing rubble and body parts all over the road. The explosion was closer to the vampires, making them glance to the side in distraction. As one, the werewolves took that distraction as an opportunity to strike. They charged across the parking lot just as the vampires recovered from their brief distraction and began charging at the werewolves. The two sides met in a furious clash of claws and metallic weaponry.