The cold kiss and the soft rattle of the iron chains stirred him awake. Seth opened his eyes to scorched cobblestone floors and deep throbbing pain in his shoulder, and an even sharper one in both of his manacled wrists.

To his side hung the rest of the Ravens. Sera's left hand was bloodied, and most of her armor was gone, leaving only a bit of gambeson and leg armor. Ellie was worse off. She had a large gash that exposed her thigh and an open wound on her forehead that stained her white hair and trickled down her shredded gambeson. Brick was shirtless, with a large reddish scar sitting at the center of his chest. The vampire had taken time to heal him. For a moment, he was thankful for that, but he soon recognized that a quick death might have been kinder.

In front of him stood a rusted steel gate with a single thrumming rune sitting at its heart. He squinted his eyes, and he thought it read “Seal.” It and the large open grate on the ceiling of the dungeon, provided most of the light in the dungeon, with the edges of the room blurred in obscurity.

“Ellie,” Seth whispered, but no reply came.

Next, he called for Brick and Sera, but they didn’t stir either.

His eyes searched around to see what he’d missed in the room. Rust coated the chain they all hung from, and a faint smell of blood and brimstone floated in the air. The dungeon had been scorched by fire, and Seth wagered, so had most of the rooms in the temple. The atmosphere of it all seeded a dark thought. Was Hanson right?

If he was, then they’d stumbled upon something truly terrifying. Panic gripped and spurred him forth. They needed to escape before the vampire returned.

He tugged hard on the chains that wrapped around his wrists, assessed them, and put his seven joint years of training to use. He hoisted his lower body up with great difficulty. The wounds that peppered his torso tore open, and he only allowed himself only a grunt before he ground his teeth and continued to work.

He wrapped his legs around the chain and summoned all of his strength to hold his body still while he took a hard look at the lock that shackled him. The chain cluttered and dangled, but he was too afraid to care. It was old and rusted, like the chains they were bound with, and the keyhole was brittle and wide. He wondered how the vampire had gotten it on them.

“Brute force then,” he whispered, hoping he could pry the lock open with enough strength. It would make a great noise, but he’d long tossed aside his sense of caution. Their captor was a vampire, and he would hear them anyways. If he waited, they would end up tortured, dead, or worse. Either way, it was hopeless, not unless he tried something.

“Stop fiddling with your chains,” a voice called out from somewhere behind him, causing Seth’s heart to still, but he did not stop. His desperation emboldened him.

A familiar sensation swept through him, and his body went partly numb. Numb enough to lose his grip of his chains and feel both his shoulders nearly rip out of their socket from their socket when he fell with a jerk. He screamed, and another finger flick rendered him mute, forcing him to endure in silence. His shoulder felt raw, and the wounds on his chest, side, back, and legs throbbed. The fall had undone most of the magical stitching of the health potion he’d taken.

“Good. You’re awake.”

He had a soft patter as a figure emerged from the corner left to the Iron Gate. It was Tamir.

“You were the last to wake. I was beginning to grow impatient after none of them gave me what I wanted. Perhaps, you have some of the answers I need, Seth.” His voice was soft and measured.

Seth’s eyes widened in surprise, and the vampire smiled. His teeth were whiter than his skin. Seth’s eyes darted back to his friends. What had the monster done to them?

“That is your name, isn’t it? Seth, my work here is...sensitive. It must not be disturbed. I need you to fill in some gaps for me. Your friends have been less than forthcoming. The large one refused to wake, and the rest were very uncooperative...I was forced to be unpleasant,” he said with a thoughtful look and a small smile tugging at the edge of his lips. His eyes swiveled back to Seth, “You seem more reasonable than they were. Be honest with me. It will spare you so much pain.”

He stretched out his bloody hand and spoke in an ancient tongue that wormed deep into Seth's ears and muddled his mind. The sound was horrible, he closed his eyes just to steady himself. When he opened his eyes, he found a book floating beside the vampire. It was made from old brown leather, discolored and withering at the edges. A giant circle of winding darkness pulsed at its center. It was mesmerizing, and it reminded him of the camp’s array.

Noting that the spell that formerly gripped him no longer did, he spoke. “Wh-what is that book?” Seth couldn’t keep the shiver out of his voice. He instinctively tugged on his chain again, even though he knew he shouldn’t--not in front of the vampire-- no punishing finger flick followed. Instead, the vampire supplied in an even, measured voice.

“She is my grimoire, Amadriel, and she’ll help me keep you honest.” He flipped open the girthy book with a wave, thousands of dark-stained, heavily runed pages flickered past, and Seth found himself unable to tear his eyes away. Those were more runes he’d seen in his life -- significantly more complex than anything he might ever see again -- and they were all shadow runes. And that was not the strangest thing about them.

“How is that grimoire possible?” he asked, almost without realizing. “It’s all runes with no...words. Mages of the towers have grimoires with words in them but never runes.”

The book stopped flipping. It stopped on a page with heavy blood runes, and the vampire’s black eyes darted up to Seth. It scanned him for a moment. “You talk a lot, Seth. That is good. It’ll make this quick.”

Seth's snapped shut at that, and the monster’s lips twisted at the corner.

“You’re terrified. Your heart is beating so fast, I fear it’ll burst before I get anything out of you. Why do you ask the questions you ask?” he asked. His easy confidence and cruel smile; it reminded him of the hag. He was toying with him, but he felt compelled to answer, and so he did.

“I-- I want to understand,” he stammered. His heart drummed against his ribcage, but he still carried on. The black gaze of his captor demanded it. “I still held out a chance of escape when I thought you were just shadow mage, but your grimoire… the runes in there shone like they still carried magic. Not even the high priest of the Church of the Six should be able to do that. You’re something else, aren’t you?”

The vampire chuckled, though Seth assumed it was an evil cackle with his pale skin and dark eyes.

“Honest and an inquisitive mind. You are of good stock, Seth. It’s nearly a shame to waste such fine material. You would have made a fetching half-blood. If you stay honest and I find your answers sufficient, I might answer your questions before sending you off.”

Somehow Seth doubted he would.

The vampire’s eyes fell back to the bloody page, and Seth gulped hard and braced himself. His captor placed one hand on the page and another on Seth’s chest. A gushing warmth filled it instead of the numbness he’d expected, and he grow even more anxious, but his heartbeat didn’t quicken like it was supposed to.

Instead, his worries and fear grew distant, almost as if they were unimportant or unreal. Every fiber of his being wanted to rage out, scream, but he remained eerily calm. What is he doing to me? he wondered, but that feeling too was buried under the avalanche of overwhelming warmth. A dozen more thoughts came and got snuffed out by the avalanche until it settled, and the warmth stopped, leaving him feeling numb inside and half-asleep. The vampire seemed far less scary up close.

“The heart of Venir, one of my finest spells,” the vampire said. “It will guide you to answer me truthfully. If you resist, it will cause you more pain than you thought possible.”

Seth looked down at the vampire’s hand. His fingertips no longer laid on his heart, hovering over it instead. Trails of black blood spread from them into five thumb-sized holes on his chest, with intricate red runes laid around it. It was drawn with his blood. Seth felt his chest slowly tighten-- his body’s delayed response to the growing panic that threatened to overwhelm him.

“The numbness is a peculiar side effect, and it provided a lovely base for my most useful spell,” the vampire added with a smug satisfaction in his voice. “No doubt, the one you’re most familiar with.

“Now, to begin. What do you know of this temple?”

Seth’s mind felt wooly and slow until the question came. “Nothing more than the story that Hanson told us while we traveled” He provided an answer faster than his body and mind could resist. He now understood the power of the spell. It dulled his mind and urged him to speak as thoughts formed, but something was amiss. Lying was possible, the vampire had said as much. He didn't understand how the loophole worked, but he had a feeling he would find out soon enough, and it might be their ticket to freedom.

“Who is Hanson?” The first answer came fast, catching his sluggish mind almost unaware.

“He is an Igrit knight,” Seth said. “A powerful one from the way he handled all those vampire knights for that long without dying. He came up with the plan to lead all of the vampire knights to the trap we set up at the clearing.” He hadn’t had the chance to lie, and he doubted that he would in the future, but he didn’t say everything he knew. The spell showed a flaw, and he felt his heart slowly palpitate at the discovery.

“Where is Hanson now?” the vampire’s voice turned harsh.

“I--I don’t know.” Seth’s voice shook. He was thrown by the sudden change in the vampire’s voice.

“I know you were sent in after him. You were supposed to get him out, but you attacked and killed one of my knights instead,” he said in a louder voice. “What changed?”

Tiny beads of sweat formed on his forehead as he spoke. “I made a choice. I didn’t find Hanson after the device went off, and your knights were recovering faster than we had planned for. We would all have been slaughtered. I had to make a decision. I targeted the biggest threat to us. I figured Hanson would have wanted us to do the same.”

A bigger omission, Seth thought. He expected to lose his mind from the pain if the numbing finger flicks were anything to go by, but nothing happened. His eyes wandered over to Sera and Ellie. He’d interrogated them but somehow hadn’t discovered he’d set off the device. Hadn’t he cared enough to ask? Or perhaps Hanson took precedence. The next question and the look on the vampire’s face confirmed his hunch.

“Do you think he escaped somehow, or he perished in the battle, Seth?’ he demanded. “Tell me what you saw?”

Seth gulped. His face was covered in a cold sweat, and he noted that his mind was almost clear with his heart beating so fast. That solved that mystery. He resolved to keep as much as he could with omission and buy time-- for what, he did not quite know himself. Perhaps, Hanson, or even the General, if the latter felt so inclined.

“I saw Hanson crash into the perimeter we set off just before the device went off. That is all I saw.”

“Did my guards mention anything about him when you engaged them? Anything that would suggest that he is dead?”

He was in a hurry, Seth noted. He couldn’t find Hanson, and he thought he might have doubled back to fetch more knights, or worse, the General. His entire operation was at risk, and he was losing control. He was going to be impatient and rash, and they were in danger. Perhaps I could use this to my advantage, Seth thought.

“The vampire that used the hammer said something about dealing with him after we are dead or dealt with,” Seth said. His new strategy became to answer truthfully and delay without pissing off the irritated Tamir, but it didn’t work well as he expected because the vampire instantly caught on.

The vampire’s face contorted into a vicious scowl. “You’re not giving me the answers I need, Seth. I’m less inclined to allow you or any of your friends to draw breath for a moment longer or give you the answers you want.”

“I have been truthful,” Seth said with a gulp. “I have answered every question you’ve asked.”

“But you haven’t told me everything, have you?” the vampire’s voice dropped dangerously low.

“I didn’t--”

“Don’t take me for a fool,” he growled, cutting Seth off. “Your sister tried keeping her heartbeat even in hopes of fooling my spell, and the god-obsessed fool refused to open her mouth for nearly an hour and lied at every turn when she did speak.”

His dark eyes grew even darker. “Now! Tell me everything you know!”

But he couldn’t. He had to delay.“I’ve kept nothing vital,” Seth insisted, and the vampire clenched his fist, flaring the runes hard. The warmth in his chest turned to a fierce cutting pain that sliced deep into his chest. He gurgled blood. It felt like millions of tiny blades minced his heart, and suddenly they spread through every vein and mixed with his blood.

He screamed in silent pain, unable to speak. Tamir had made his body numb again. And he was trapped in the feeling for an unknown amount of time, and when the pain let up, both eyes were rolled back, his body violently jerked back, and his shoulder nearly popped from their sockets. Bloody welts blossomed all over his body, and the biggest one was on his chest.

“You will die if I do that two more times, but take this as your very last chance. I’ve run out of time and patience.” The vampire was shouting. “Your sister mentioned that your mission was secret and the army was marching out without you, but I refuse to think the General did not put contingencies in place? Could Hanson be on his way back with a whole squadron of Igrit knights like himself? Is the ritual at risk?”

The Vampire grabbed a fistful of Seth’s hair and yelled into his ear, “Tell me everything you know, damn you, or I’ll turn you and your stupid team into half-blood monstrosities.”

A memory came to him as his pain-addled mind stitched itself together. It was the worst day of his young life. The day Ellie taught him to deal with torture.

She strung him to a chair in the basement of their stone home in Copeland. It was just after they’d completed a mission and he’d been nearly captured. She figured it was as good a time as any to teach him about torture. She laid out a tool kit with rusted knives, blades, and other exotic tools. He was barely a teenager at the time, and she said in clear and certain words after two hours of instruction.

“There is no surviving through torture from a vampire. Escape if you can, though, but without magic, I doubt you’ll succeed.”

“Then what was the point of all of that?” he demanded.

She fixed her eyes on him and drew close enough for him to see the blue shimmer in her irises. “Don’t hold out hope that might never come. You’re going to be a soldier for the empire. One of the hundreds of thousands. Delaying the inevitable if there are no alternative means of escape is foolish, Seth.”

His face was near-white with fear after her words, but some part of him did not believe her. However, during their first year of training, Sergeant Hopi repeated the same advice almost verbatim.

That advice seemed almost ludicrous to him even after four years of fighting and toiling. He couldn’t let one ill mission spell the end of him. He was so tired, but he still held onto hope. That bit of hope grew when his eyes rolled forward and swept past the iron grate in the ceiling that let the light in.

He was near-hysterical from the pain and almost doubted what he saw. It was Hanson. He stood just past the edge, out of the path of the light rays filtering into the dungeon room.

Seth did not look up a second time to confirm for fear that the vampire would notice. He was sure Hanson had come for them, but a line of thought caused him some pause. Why had he not made a move?

The vampire released his hair and grabbed his chin. “Speak!” he demanded.

Whipped and disoriented from the pain, Seth chose to change his tactic. He would delay and confuse instead of focusing on staying honest. It would keep the monster focused on him and less likely to sense Hanson’s attack when he struck. Besides, he’d run out of truths to tell.

“Hanson is alive,” Seth said, but no blinding pain followed, which caused the vampire's white brows to crinkle in confusion.

“Lies!” the vampire finally declared with a snort, but his face betrayed his doubt. He looked at the floating grimoire beside them, then back at Seth.

“You did something, didn't you?” he asked. “How did you fool my spell?”

“I did no such thing,” Seth said with an even voice. “I thought intensely about the events I witnessed and surmised that he should be alive.” The warmth in his chest wriggled, and he almost cursed himself for trying to fool the vampire’s senses in the first place. He knew he was lying.

The vampire’s face twisted in abominable rage, and he pulled back from his spellbook and backhanded Seth so hard it echoed through the dungeon. He rang like a bell, and the vampire steadied him back to yell in his ear.

“Do you take me for a fool, you fucking cattle? Do you? I’ll show you?”

Tamir pushed him back with one hand, disengaged his spell, and flipped through his grimoire until he found a page. It had devilish illustrations and was covered in red and shadowy runes. Seth hearing cleared in time to catch the last of the vampire’s furious mutterings.

Blood pooled out of his fingers wrapped into a large floating ball the size of an apple.

Red blood runes scribbled up and down its surface. His black eyes turned blood red, and he yelled.

“I have a communion with the Blood Gorger himself. The God-king who ruled over this pitiful land centuries in the past. I've been preparing for this ritual before the armies came here. I've wrung out entire villages, murdered more knights and scouts than you would ever imagine, all for my Lord. Finding the Bright blood vessel was supposed to be my greatest achievement yet. The work of my young life, and you dare make a mockery of it?”

If Seth had been afraid before, he was terrified now. Veins around the vampire’s face, neck, and arms bulged with sanguine energies. It occurred to him that he might die before Hanson made his move.

“No! I didn’t--” Seth defended.

“I warned you, did I not!” he cut him off. His blood-red eyes shone dangerously. He took several steps away from Seth and pointed the floating globe at his Ellie.

“No!” he screamed.

“She will pay the price for your folly. I will take her from you first, then the godless trash. That will teach you respect. Maybe then, you’ll be honest with me.”

“Wait!” Seth yelled.

“No more waiting,” his voice had transformed; it was gruttal and primal. “There could be hundreds of knights marching on me as we speak. This could very well be the end of decades and toil. No more begging. Only the truth.”

He stretched his fingers, and the ball hovered closer to Ellie’s unconscious head, and Seth screamed.

“Make your move, Hanson. For gods sake.”

Tamir eyes darted over to him, but it was too late. Several javelins of fire melted through the iron grate and rained down on him. The globe of darkness and rune exploded, spreading its sinister energy through the room, and the vampire screamed as his robe of darkness burst into flame and his grimoire disappeared. The darkness from the explosion washed over Seth, shaking him to his very core.

Hanson dropped from one many holes formed by the rusted grate with a stomp and fired off a ray of plasma that sliced through all of their chains. Seth landed on his feet, and the rest of the team dropped down hard on the dungeon floor.

Looking at Hanson, Seth judged that he was only slightly off than he was. Only bits of his breastplate and left pauldron remained from his full plate armor. His blond hair was matted down, and his face was slick with sweat, with specks of blood scattered through his body.

“It was a risky thing you did,” Hanson said with his eyes still fixed on the vampire. “Giving up my position like that. I wouldn’t have let him kill any of you... I suppose that hardly matters now. The General has been alerted. He’s sending a second team to retrieve you, and I’ve used the surprise your sister kept in her bag. Darkfire bombs. I’ve laid it throughout the complex. Once I activate the magical seal, this entire place comes down.”

“Black firebombs,” Seth’s pulse raised. They burned so hot, their fires turned monochrome and melted stone. They were also notoriously unstable. You were as likely to melt the skin from your bones from jostling them around as you were to murder your enemy. That was why the Emperor outlawed them. Clearly, the law did not apply to the General.

“Wake them up, and get them all out of here,” Hanson yelled, snapping Seth out of his thoughts. He stretched his hands forward, and two swords and a dagger popped out.

"Hurry, I can't hold him back forever."

Seth blinked in surprise at first at the magic summoning, but then his words, “He’s not dead.”

Hanson ground his teeth, “not nearly.”

The fire that enveloped the vampire had died down, pushed back by a thin layer of aura that Seth noted that the Hammer-wielding vampire also had. Most of his robe was gone and beneath it laid a toned physique scrawled in runes. Goosebumps broke out on Seth’s skin at the sight of the runes. They seemed to almost glow in the dull firelight. Wasting no time, he quickly retrieved a sword from the pile that Hanson had graciously provided and scrambled to his team.

“You must be Hanson,” he said slowly. “The one they all lied to protect. It would seem you made it to the General, but no matter, I have contingencies in place. You will submit to me and disarm those black firebombs now, or you will suffer!” His voice boomed, and he stretched his hands forward to trigger his numbing ability again.

“Watch out!” Seth warned, but Hanson was a step ahead. He fired a generous ray of near-white fire that steamed his aura shield.

He raised his hand to shield his face and screamed in outrage. ‘You’re all abominations! Your Emperor and magic knights are insects compared to the Lord. I will enjoy watching him lay waste to your Empire.” he snarled.

“That won’t happen,” Hanson said. “Not while the General is alive to keep monsters like you in check.”

The vampire summoned a black metal mace seemingly out of thin air and charged Hanson. Hanson summoned a runed spear in retaliation and met the vampire in a clash.

Seth took that as his cue to flee, so he shook Ellie and Sera who were blinking awake from the fall and noise. They both stared on in shock as Hanson fought back the vampire. Their limbs coiled and waved at impossible angles, and their weapons sparking and clanging with each powerful clash.

“We need to go now!” Seth yelled. It was all the help they needed to get moving. Sera skated around the fight and picked up weapons, and Seth and Ellie carried Brick on their shoulders. They both cringed from the weight and pain but muscled through it. Sera handed Ellie a sword and held onto the dagger herself.

“How are we getting past them,” Sera asked. Seth watched the impossible fight in quiet hope and said.

“Hanson will open a path.”

As if in response, Hanson coated the blade of his spear in fire and lashed out with a wide fiery cut. The vampire took a large step backward and slammed hard into the rusted metal grate with the floating rune. It faded as the vampire seemingly pulled all his power and shouted a spell in an old tongue. A dozen or so spikes burst out of his shadow and shot towards the group at the other side of the room.

“Oh no, you don’t.” Hanson yelled back as he pumped his chest forward. A large swathe of flame erupted from him and gushed forth like a fountain. The stone on the walls and floors heated up, and the air grew stifling hot. The Heat swept away the vampire and the rusted grate, leaving a molten archway where the vampire had once been.

“Gods,” Sera muttered, and Seth and Ellie shared a collective look of appreciation and terror.

Hanson fell down on one knee and spat blood. “Go, now! He’s not dead.”

His words jerked them from their daze and sent them fleeing through the molten archway. Seth looked back to the man briefly before they left and mouthed a “Thank you,” but he didn’t hear it. Down a passage, directly in front of their door, they saw a tangle of red and white stir.

“Definitely not that way,” Seth said, so they charted down the path to their right, lit by floating blue orb light. They passed hundreds of cells just like the one they’d been kept in as they ran, the grunts and explosions from the fight behind them pushing them to move further despite their fatigue and wounds mounting. Seth had it worse than any of them but worked through it in silent pain.

The dungeon complex opened up to a large august chamber, which Seth assumed was the main hall of the temple. A wide circle of darkened marble statues sat at the edges, with large arches and scorched pillars situated at entrances and exits. A dozen globules of orb light floated up ahead, illuminating a complicated magic circle at the center that thrummed with sanguine energy. It smelt of blood-- and thought Seth he’d imagined it--shadow magic.

“Gods,” Seth said, wrinkling his nose. “This must be the ritual he was talking about.” Though he was disgusted by the smell, he found himself drawn in by the complexity. “It’s the most advanced magic ritual I have seen.”

“And hopefully, we’ll not be here when it’s complete,” Ellie said, casting a wary eye at the circle.

“Uvu protect me,” Sera reached for her rosary for comfort but did not find it, and that caused her entire being to shiver. It seemed being without it scared her more than the ritual itself. She looked over to her captain with obvious pain in her eyes. “What did you bring us here?”

Ellie's eyes avoided Sera’s and wiped a stray line of blood wetting her eyebrow. “We move around it,” she announced. “No upsetting things. We need to get out of here before those black firebombs go off.” Behind a few stone statues, Seth spied a large globe with golden metal stoppers bearing fire runes for ‘Ignite’.

“Sera, can you scout ahead and look for an exit.” Ellie didn’t avoid her eyes this time. She clenched her fist and twisted her lips, but Sera eventually nodded and ran off.

Seth and Ellie stepped forward into the chamber and hugged the walls, towing an unconscious Brick along. They stuck close to the arches and pillars. As they passed, Seth noticed that some statues and pillars still retained their former luster, while others were barely recognizable. The statues were all of a single entity, striking a unique pose. “Malleck,” he whispered, and Ellie looked at the face of the closest statue to her. It was of a man dressed in regal armor, holding a 7 feet spear to his side. His hair was bunched back, his jaw was square, and he had eyes that seemed to almost peer at them.

“How much of what Hanson said about the legends are true?” she asked without ever stopping.

“A good bit of it,” Seth said, considering his captor’s spells and abilities.

“We must never come back here,” she looked at him. “To the borderland. Nothing is worth getting involved with whatever that vampire worships.” Seth nodded in agreement, considering what he’d learned. Blood spells and the ability to immobilize people with a single flick of his wrist. It made his blood cold. Seth couldn’t imagine what he must have done to acquire that kind of power.

“This way,” Sera called out ahead of them, pointing to a great archway to the side. No light came from it, but it led to a wide stairwell that climbed far up. By its size, they figured worshippers must have used it, so they followed it, hoping it led to some kind of exit. The stairs were steep, and Sera had to help with Brick’s legs, but still, the climb was agonizingly slow. Seth’s felt his mood lift when they reached the very top

“Finally,” he gasped. At the top of the stairs was a long path that led to massive stone double doors half-buried in a mountain of rubble. Halfway up the stone heap, a single light shone down on a platform from a hole in the ceiling. Hanson or any of the other knights must have carved out a path with magic.

A sudden explosion rocked the entire temple. A wave of heat washed up the staircase, and the smell of shadow mixed with blood and brimstone floated to his nose.

“We need to move now!” he yelled. “Hanson is setting off the Blackfire bombs.” Sera and Ellie’s face blanched, and they both doubled up immediately, dragging Brick behind them.

A second, more intense wave of heat washed over them just as they reached the hole. Seth pulled off what remained of his tattered gambeson shirt and wrapped it around Brick’s torso, and Ellie and Sera immediately recognized what he’d planned. Both women pulled her Gambeson, adding to the makeshift rope.

“Give me a hand,” Ellie said, so he did. Sera was the next to go up, leaving Seth to do the pushing and the two of them, the pulling.

“Come on, big guy,” Seth groaned as he lifted and pushed.

“I’ve put up with your bullshit for too long for you to screw me over while you die in your sleep,” Sera huffed while she pulled from the entrance up top. “Gods help me, I’ll murder you myself if you don’t get your ass up here.”

Ellie seemed resolved to suffer in silence, but even she let out a grunt of victory when they finally got Brick’s upper body through.

“Yes,” Seth laughed out loud. A second later, and his body would have given out. The smell of blood and shadow had grown since they began, and he’d heard the shouts of Hanson and the crazed vampire echo down the hallway once or twice, but he’d chosen to ignore it. A quick look backward showed him that the black fire had made its way into the hallway, but it was still clear. There was no Hanson or murderous shadow vampire. Now to get out of here.

He climbed a bit of rubble at the edge to give him more clearance and jumped for the hole as the girls dragged Brick over. He missed the ledge when a thunderous boom shook the passage and shifted the rubble underfoot. He tumbled down halfway down the mountain of rubble, but he sprang up to his feet almost immediately, raring to again until a familiar power seized him. He almost didn’t feel his leg slip as he tumbled the remaining height of the rubble and fell to the floor.

“Shit, shit, shit.” They’d taken too much time.

“Are you okay?” Ellie called down through the hole.

“Run! Get out of here,” he yelled back. He knew Hanson had fallen the moment the power seized him, and he gazed back with a grim certainty to the full view of the approaching blackfire.

It parted to reveal a hobbling figure of his captor. He was cloaked in a shadowy, inky aura Seth recognized, with his left arm gone and most of his torso absent. A streak of black blood trailed behind him. He misstepped and fell into the passage wall beside him for support.

“You!” he said with a scathing voice. “It’s all your fault.”

Ellie edged towards the hole in an attempt to join the fight, but the vampire screamed “No!”

He cast an arrow of darkness that struck the entrance of the opening, filling the chamber with more rubble.

Seth felt Tamir’s grip slip for a brief moment, and he seized that opportunity to climb up to his feet. He picked up his sword he’d dropped, got into a fighting stance, and called out through what remained of the entrance. “Get help. I’ll try to hold him off.” He was able to keep most of the tremble from his voice this time. He knew he’d lost his chance to leave when he felt the vampire grip him.

“What, No!” Ellie said. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m coming down there. I’m your big sister, for fuck sake. I’m not leaving you with that thing.”

“Brick needs attention, and someone needs to get help.” She was going to die if she tried to help him.

“I’ll get help,” Sera offered. “Ellie can help you hold him off. You don’t need to do this by yourself.”

“You talk like I do not stand before you.” The vampire snapped and interrupted them by firing off several more darkness arrows at it. The blasts sealed the hole, burying them both underground in the rubble. He leered at Seth dangerously. “You don’t understand what you’ve done. I will make you pay greatly--”

“Oh, shut up!” Seth yelled, startling himself and the vampire. “I’m sick and tired of you and the fucking borderlands. Fuck you, and fuck the hag. I’m not afraid of you. Come at me and be done with it.”

He fixed the vampire with an iron stare. He’d been crushed, stomped, tortured, and flung around like a rag doll, and he’d had enough. Enough of the fear and weakness. He might die, but at least his sister was safe, and he would do so on his two fucking feet. He was done being afraid.

Seconds passed before the vampire recovered from the daze, “Insolence!” his voice carried through the corridor. “I will drain your body and doom you a fate far worse than death.”

Tamir opened the fight with a volley of shadow arrows. Seth skated left to right, ducking underneath three arrows and parrying two others with a well-timed upward swish of his blade. His heart pumped harder than it had ever, and he surged forward to close the distance.

“You are weak, and you will fall as that ridiculous knight did. You’re here alone with me.”

Seth advance slightly faltered at learning of Hanson’s death, but he shook off the weakness. “I’ve heard enough talk,” Seth yelled back. He was beginning to think he could win. Hanson had severely weakened him. He just needed to deliver the finishing blow.

He managed to parry ten arrows and dodged another 12 before a stray arrow nicked him in his exposed shoulder. He tucked and rolled back onto his feet without waiting to wince or complain, the adrenaline carrying him through. The vampire also took several cautionary steps backward, seemingly more concerned about Seth’s advance than the approaching Black fire.

The closer Seth ventured to Tamir, the stronger and faster the darkness arrows became. Eventually, his wounded shoulder gave out, and he missed a well-timed parry, and three arrows slammed into him, ripping through his midsection and sent him sprawled on the floor. He felt his organs and bones tenderized, and his stomach rip open.

The vampire sent out a tentacle of darkness that wrapped around his neck and yanked him close. He lifted him up with his only functional hand, dismissing his tentacle, and with a predatory grin, sunk his teeth deep into his neck. Seth screamed out as he nearly passed out from the pain. He felt his lifeblood drain out of him, and for the first time, he genuinely dawned upon him that he was about to die.

He fought back with the last dregs of his strength, punching and clawing, but Tamir hardly seemed to notice. He continued to drink until everything grew numb. Just as he was about to lose consciousness, the vampire slammed him hard into the stone wall.

“I won, cattle,” he said with a long satisfied grunt. “My next drink was supposed to have been at court, but your blood did nicely.”

Flesh grew to cover his stomach, generating organs and bones, melding them together at a visible rate. Tamir summoned his grimoire with a wave of his hand and said with a seething glare.

“I will make you a ghoul for what you’ve done, and your friends are next. I always keep my promises,”

“No, no. Please.” Seth croaked out in between gasps as he bled out on the floor.

Tamir opened the page and started the incantation, and just like before, the runed globule formed on his waiting blood-stained palm, and his eyes grew bloody red. He shoved the spell orb deep into his bare, wounded rune-scrawled chest, and everything went black.