Alyssa was in her room, looking for only the things that could be replaced. Pictures of her parents and family heirlooms, as clothing and all the other stuff could be gathered again in the next town or city they chose to reside in next. She was looking around frantically trying to remember what was important to her when the first explosion shook her building and even rattled the windows. Another blast came seconds later and it was clear to her that what happened to Denver was starting to happen to her small town, which caused her to pause and think about that. She was now going to have to abandon the only town she ever knew. She was born here, both of parents died for this place, and now the only home she knew was going to end as well. Alyssa couldn’t help but think that this was her fault. She’s the one who cut the deal with Gabriel, to give him blood for supplies. If she hadn’t done that and maybe had just died out there with the zombies instead, Gabriel wouldn’t have been in Denver that fateful day and an army of California wouldn’t help shelling her town into oblivion. She didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on it, as another explosion rocked her building and this time the windows all shattered instead of just rattling because the hit was just across the street. Alyssa fell down, and the gravity of the situation was now starting to finally press on her. It was time for her to go, and while she wanted to take as many people with her as she could, she had to think of herself and those she cared about. It was at this moment when Gabriel came into the living room as she was also emerging from her bedroom, still a little dazed from the blast.

“Hey!” Gabriel said, as he walked over to check on her, “Are you alright?”

“Is this our fault, Gabriel?” she asked him.

“What?” Gabriel said, “What are you talking about?”

“I mean you went to Denver because of me,” She added, “If you hadn’t done that, this town wouldn’t be in danger and being attacked. We did this.”

“First of all, they are the ones doing this… not us!” Gabriel corrected her, “And second, I’m pretty sure Sean and his family are happy I showed up that day, or him and his family would have been murdered. I’m sorry we brought this fight to your town, but the crazy soldiers out there are the bad guys. This isn’t on you.”

“It just feels like it,” Alyssa said, “And now I have to leave home.”

“Anywhere can be your home,” Gabriel said, “Trust me, I’ve lived in hundreds, maybe thousands of different homes over the last several centuries. You don’t think they’ll be another place you’ll think is home, but it’s the people around you who make any place a home, not the location or structure you’re within.”

“What if we never met?” Alyssa asked.

“They you’d be dead,” Gabriel reminded her, “I know a few people, especially that really amazing sister of yours who wouldn’t want that to happen. We can what if till the cows come home, we need to get the hell out of here. When we’re somewhere safe, we can resume this entire line of conversation over tea.”

Gabriel walked over and checked a cut that was causing blood to fall down the side of her head. It was a small cut cause by broken glass but it wasn’t too serious.

“How are we going to stop this?” Alyssa asked.

“We can’t,” Gabriel said, “And you appear to be in shock.”

“This is all my fault,” Alyssa repeated, “The mayor was right.”

“I’d rather not dwell on that,” Gabriel replied, “We need to get you out of here right now. These shells are hitting too close for comfort. Pablo and Sean have already left and are already rolling for New Lycan. Let’s grab what you’ve collected and fly there as soon as possible.”

“I keep thinking that I’ve forgotten something,” Alyssa said, but she couldn’t remember what.

“Probably,” Gabriel conceded, “But we can always come back later and look for it when it’s all over. Right now we need to get out the hell…”

Before Gabriel could finish his thought, they were interrupted by a bright flash which was the start of a massive explosion. While the blast had come from a few buildings away, it was easy for Gabriel to notice the source. The Californians had hit the cauldron and the hit was causing an explosion even bigger than what he imagined it would be like. The force of the explosion from the cauldron felt like someone had dropped a bunker buster like munition on the small town, as it obliterated nearby buildings and flattened them with ease. Gabriel tried to grab Alyssa and protect her from the explosion, but was unable to reach her in time as the building collapsed around them as they fell through the floor. After he fell through the floor everything went dark for the vampire, and when he saw light again it was only after someone lifted a large piece of rubble off of him. Cornelius looked down at him with a stare that indicated he was a little disappointed, likely for not getting Alyssa out of the building in time before it collapsed. It was at this moment when Gabriel sat up and looked around.

“Alyssa!” he called out, “Where is she?”

“I haven’t found her yet,” Cornelius said, looking around. “And we don’t have much time either, as I have no doubt the dead are crawling their way here. Let’s find her and get the hell out of here.”

Cornelius helped his brother out of the rubble and the two vampires started to search through the rubble at a break neck speed. They were moving so fast, the only thing human eyes would have seen was two blurs zipping around as both men were moving rubble out of their way. Both of them suddenly stopped when there was a loud that caught their attention. Gunfire, coming from the walls.

“What is that?” Gabriel asked.

“The sound of our time slowly running out,” Cornelius answered.

“We need to keep looking!” Gabriel called out.

“You keep looking,” Cornelius said as he cracked his knuckles. “I’ll buy you as much time as you need.”

“Alright,” Gabriel said as he started to move to another area of rubble.

“Not there,” Cornelius called out, “Continue from here, cause I thought I could sense someone here.”

“Really? Are you sure?” Gabriel asked, walking over to where his brother was digging earlier.

“Trust me,” his brother said, grabbing his shoulder. “I have powers you are unaware of, and they’re telling me she’s around here. Keep digging and I’ll make sure no one interrupts your search.”

“Alright,” Gabriel said, “I’ll dig here.”

Gabriel started to toss out more rubble where Cornelius was working as his brother walked away from the flattened building towards the gunfire. The source of the gunfire were the town’s guards that hadn’t been killed yet, shooting at the undead as they started to crawl through the holes in their walls that were created by the shells that had been fired at them by the army outside. Some of the guards watched with surprise as the unarmed man walked past them and towards the dead crawling through their walls.

“Hey man,” one of the guards called out, “You need a gun?”

“I’ll be alright,” Cornelius said, looking back at him, “Save it for yourself, but I thank you for asking. I’ll be alright.”

What the guard didn’t notice because he was too busy trying to defend his town, was that the nails on Cornelius’ hands had extended just and inch and a half. While that wasn’t very long, it was long enough as the Vampire’s nails were sharper than katanas. Cornelius walked up to the zombie and sliced it’s head clean off with one swipe of his hand. He then zipped out of town through the hole that was made by the shelling and outside the walk to see the hundreds, maybe thousands of undead that were being unleashed into the town by their invaders. Once again Cornelius zipped around at a lighting like pace, decapitating every zombie he passed by with great ease, killing almost a hundred of them per minute. Gabriel’s powers were nowhere near a strong as his own, nor were his nails as sharp, as the Dark Prince was the only vampire strong enough to dispel of this many undead as fast as he was taking them down. Over the next several minutes, Cornelius managed to kill over a thousand and even used his speed to stack their bodies at the wall to cover up the holes that were made by the dropping bombs.

Right after he stacked all those undead, Cornelius zipped over to the position where the invaders were shelling the town. He killed a soldier right off the bat, and removed a shoulder strap the solider was wearing that had several grenades attached to it. Before any of the other soldiers could respond, the Dark Prince took each grenade and at high speeds ran up to each cannon that was being used to shell the city. He unpinned a grenade and dropped it into each barrel and ran off for the next cannon before any one could see he was there. After each barrel had a live grenade stuff into it, Cornelius ran off in a new direction and up the Sergeant that had taken over command after the General was murdered. Cornelius ran right up to the Sergeant and put one of his big hands around his neck, lifting him into the air off his feet.

“Did I not give you sufficient warning to what would happen if you angered me?” the big vampire asked the Sergeant, his eyes glowing red with anger.

“I don’t take orders from blood suckers!” The Sergeant defiantly called back.

“I see,” Cornelius said, thinking about it. “I’ve tried everything else, so I might as well give this a go as well.”

Before the Sergeant could respond. Cornelius proceeded to punch a hole into the man’s chest which stopped his heart from beating and killed him. The soldiers around him were about to respond, but the grenades he stuffed into the cannons started to go off, destroy them all. The munitions around them were also causing even more explosions and chaos which gave Cornelius all the cover he needed to leave the area and zip back into town to check up on his brother. By the time he arrived, Gabriel was holding Alyssa’s lifeless body in his arms. She was badly injured, unresponsive and there were tears in Gabriel’s eyes as he was looking back at his brother.

“I don’t think she’s breathing.” He said to Cornelius.

The big vampire didn’t hesitate to spring into action, as he walked over and took Alyssa from him, aware that his brother was shaken by what he had found.

“I’m taking her to your apartment in Nashville,” He told the little brother, “You know I’m faster and I used to be a field medic during the wars, so I’ll start treating her the moment I arrive. You’re the surgeon so her life is in your hands. Get to the apartment as fast as you can and be ready to do whatever it takes to save her when you arrive. Is that understood?”

Gabriel didn’t respond as he just stood there staring at his brother. Cornelius responded by slapping his brother across the face with an open hand. He had to let go of Alyssa for just a second, but brought his arm back fast enough to prevent her from falling at all while he smacked some sense into the vampire before him.

“We don’t have time!” he called out, “Follow me and get to the apartment as fast as you can or she dies!”

Before Gabriel could respond, Cornelius launches into the sky with Alyssa and flies away so fast that there’s a sonic boom created as he breaks the sound barrier. Gabriel was about to launch into the air himself when he noticed that someone was watching them from a short distance. One of the townspeople just watched Cornelius take off and looked back at Gabriel with a shocked look on his face.

“What are you?” the man asked.

“You don’t want to know,” Gabriel said, “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what.” the man called out.

“For everything,” Gabriel said, before launching into the sky himself.

He turned in the direction he needed to go to get back to his apartment in Nashville, flying back to that city as quickly as he could. As Gabriel made his way towards the city, he started to think about what he wanted to do for Alyssa, determined to use his skills and medical knowledge to save the woman that he cared about. Gabriel wasn’t going to lose her that day, or any other day for that matter. He didn’t want this day to be their last time together, as he wanted more time and more chances to make up for the mistakes that caused the disaster he was fleeing from. He would make things right for her, but first he had to make sure that she didn’t die from her injuries. When he arrives to the apartment, Gabriel would do whatever he possibly could to make sure Alyssa lives to see another day. It was all he could think about as he flew as fast as he could unaware of what fate had in store for them all in the world of monsters.

TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT NOVEL... COMING IN 2022.