Alice lay alone in one of the mansion’s bedrooms, no more able to sleep than any of the vampires after Lord Victor had told her to stay here. When she asked, he said nothing was wrong, but Alice could sense restlessness all around her. The vampires were worried about something, and Alice suspected Lord Victor didn’t want to show weakness in front of her. Such a thing could undermine his control over her.

Not that there was much that could undermine his control by now. With as long as she’d been there, Victor had fed from her enough times that her body was primed to become a vampire. If Alice died for any reason, provided her heart wasn’t pierced with wood, she would awaken as a newborn vampire, one drink of blood away from permanent undeath. A week ago, Alice would have been horrified by the idea, but Lord Victor was surprisingly convincing. Alice had no idea what she would do when that moment came…when the bloodlust overwhelmed her senses.

As Alice lay there, thinking, the door to her room slowly creaked open. Alice sat up and saw a vampire she didn’t recognize. He of course had his glamour up, so was supernaturally handsome. Flawless pale skin and wavy brown hair lay over broad shoulders and a tall frame. Alice raised her eyebrow.

“Who…”

The vampire quickly raised a hand to his lips, his face serious as he approached slowly. As he got closer, Alice got a better look at his eyes, and at that moment she recognized him. She’d often seen those eyes filled with a warm friendliness that could be contagious. As Alice realized who it was, tears welled up in her eyes.

“Gary…” she said. “No…”

###

Director Farrow reached the nearest phone in the facility, a library near the lab, and called the Night Hunter council. When he got a representative, he shouted with as much urgency as his voice would allow.

“Get me a council member!” he demanded. “I have new information on the nature of magic. That missile could cause destruction on a scale we’ve never seen! Get me someone with a line to the president now!”

###

Alice felt more tears drip down her cheeks as the vampire approached her. Questions swirled in the back of her mind as despair washed over her. Could she even call him Gary anymore? Why was he here? Was there any hope? As he approached, the vampire held his hands up.

“Please, Alice,” he said. “Try to stay quiet. They’ll hear us.”

Wait, thought Alice, why did he use my real name?

She spoke with a glimmer of hope, her voice a whisper, “Gary?”

Gary nodded sadly, “I’m afraid so.”

Alice gave quiet gasp, “Gary, you need to cut a cross into your…”

Gary shook his head, “I know about that. It’s too late. I…this body has already tasted human blood.”

Alice’s despair returned, and with it came confusion, “What?”

###

“What is it?” asked the electronically distorted voice of a council member.

“We have to stop the missile,” said Farrow with as much urgency as his voice could convey. “I have new information. A magic item reacted violently to an explosive substance. It nearly destroyed our laboratory. If that missile lands, it could cause destruction on a massive scale. You have to stop that missile!”

There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment, “Are you sure…”

“I’m absolutely sure! You have to stop that missile!”

More silence, and then the council member said, “I…alright…just give me a moment.”

###

“Why?” asked Alice, more tears streaming down her face. “Why would you…”

“I wasn’t given a choice,” said Gary. “I’ll explain later, but right now, I have a chance to get you out of here. A missile is about to strike this place. I don’t know if it will get past the displacement spell, but if it doesn’t, then that will be our best chance of escape. Jacqueline says that when the missile strikes…”

He didn’t finish. Hearing the name Jacqueline gave Alice conflicting emotions, and the distress was written all over her face. A part of her wanted to believe that Jacqueline was helping like before. The other part could only think about her little brother Arthur. Did she really have an ulterior motive for helping Alice? Could Alice really trust Jacqueline?

Could she trust Gary right now if he was working with her?

“Alice,” said Gary, concerned. “What’s wrong?”

She didn’t answer. She simply didn’t know what to say, but Gary seemed to understand.

“They’ve gotten into your head,” said Gary. “I get it. But you can’t let them…”

Suddenly Gary turned and looked towards the door, “Someone’s coming.”

Gary backed away and leapt to the roof, silent as a mouse. Alice looked up at him crawling up there for just a moment until the door opened. Alice lowered her head to see two female vampires enter the room, both blonde. Alice hadn’t seen her, but one of them was the vampire who had initially kidnapped Gary. The other was one neither of them recognized, though Gary saw his kidnapper and seethed. With one hand, he pulled into his clothing and pulled out a wooden stake.

Alice, for her part, kept her eyes firmly planted on the vampires so she wouldn’t give Gary away. The two before Alice looked at her suspiciously, and they noticed the tears running down her cheeks.

“Did someone enter this room?” asked one of them.

“Yeah,” said Alice spitefully. “The pair of you.”

“Don’t get cute with me,” said the other vampire. “You…”

Gary dropped down from the ceiling. The vampire who had kidnapped him turned only to receive claws in the neck to prevent her from crying out and a wooden stake through her heart. For a split second this vampire, astonished, saw his hate filled eyes before he pulled the stake out and turned to the other vampire.

It was Sierra, newly reborn as a vampire.

Gary stopped at the sight of this newborn vampire. Sierra, for a second, gaped at him while the other vampire fell to the floor, dead, her glamour falling away and her vampiric body turning into a corpse. Seeing her this close, Gary realized that this vampire was familiar to him, but he couldn’t place where he’d seen her before. That second of hesitation, however, was enough for Sierra to react.

Sierra opened her mouth to scream as Gary aimed his claws at her throat and the stake at her heart. Sierra instinctively grabbed both just as they penetrated the skin. While the claws got deep enough to injure her neck and keep her from crying out, the stake didn’t get deep enough to pierce Sierra’s heart.

To Alice, the pair moved in a blur as they wrestled. Soon they pulled each other to the floor, struggling to get the advantage. Alice feared the other vampires would hear them, but none came. In the meantime, Gary scratched Sierra’s neck with his claws to keep her from crying out. Sierra held the stake at bay with one hand as she scratched Gary with the claws in her other hand.

Blood spilled on the floor and soaked into their clothing as they rolled around. A moment later, the stake was wrenched from Gary’s hand as Sierra twisted his wrist. It landed on the floor, and Alice instinctively moved to pick it up. She froze, however, feeling the chains around her mind blocking the very idea of harming a vampire.

The two vampires kept struggling as Alice stood there, her hand held over the stake. She closed her eyes, imagining the chains around her mind, and she pushed. Slowly, she could feel them fade. The chains didn’t fade completely, but Alice as able to push through them just enough to lean down and grab the stake.

Meanwhile, Gary and Sierra continued to scratch at each other. Gary kept going for her neck to keep her from screaming, hoping desperately that no vampires would notice telepathically. After a moment, Sierra got on top of Gary and started scratching furiously. As they ripped and tore at each other, blood drops flying from their skin like fountains, Alice came up, raised the wooden stake with both hands, and stabbed Sierra in the back.

It wasn’t far enough to hit the heart, and Sierra raised her torso, trying to reach behind her to pull the wood out. Gary took the opportunity to sit up and push his body over hers, making her fall backwards. The back of the stake hit the floor and was pushed through her chest, piercing her heart, and bursting out the other end as Gary ended up over her, his arms pinning Sierra down by the shoulders.

Though her neck was destroyed, Sierra opened her mouth as if to scream. Blood gurgled out of her mouth as her glamour fell away, revealing a vampire’s face that slowly morphed into a woman who had been dead for little more than a few hours.

Finally her body went limp beneath him, and Gary, for reasons he couldn’t explain, felt a tear of blood escape his eye. He wiped the blood from beneath his eye and looked at it, wondering why he was crying.

Alice was about to ask him about it, but before she could, Gary suddenly clutched his stomach in pain. He started gasping as if for breath, but Alice knew it was no such thing. Looking around, Alice saw a floor practically drenched in blood. Gary had lost way too much and was getting hungry. He couldn’t drink from the dead women in the room. He couldn’t even drink from the vampires still outside. Vampires may drink each other’s blood as a show of dominance, or as a twisted way to show affection, but only blood from the living could sustain them. Alice knew that at that moment, Gary only had one choice, and so did Alice if she wanted to get out of here.

“It’s okay, Gary,” she said. “You can take some of my blood, and then we can…”

“Stay back!” said Gary urgently, his face pointed at the floor. “Don’t come any closer! He’s coming!”

Alice froze, “Who’s coming?”

Gary looked up at her, the glamour falling away to show a red eye as he uttered a single, desperate name.

“William…”

And as a cold shiver ran across her body, Alice looked at that eye and understood. They had successfully implanted a new personality into Gary, they just hadn’t gotten rid of his true self entirely. Now the two personalities, Gary and William, were battling for control, and with the thirst for blood mounting, the vampire was gaining the upper hand.

Slowly, Gary turned to her and began crawling on all fours like a best on the prowl.

###

It had only been a few minutes since the council left to try and stop the missile, but to Director Farrow it felt like an eternity. He tapped his foot nervously as he watched the seconds on the clock go by.

“Come on,” he said. “Come on.”

Finally, the council member called back, but not with good news.

“I’m afraid the missile has already launched,” he said. “I’m still trying to convince them to disarm it.”

Farrow felt his blood run cold.

###

Lord Victor couldn’t stand all this waiting. The missile could drop at any moment, and if it somehow penetrated the displacement spell, it would mean the end of his plans and his life. The suspense was driving him mad. He’d seen the power of those human weapons more than once in his long life, and it always filled him with awe. It was moments like that when he could respect what humans had accomplished, even as it galvanized him to put them in their place once and for all. It frustrated him that all he could do right now was wait for the weapon to fall.

To make things worse, he had this strange feeling that he was missing something, that something was wrong. It was probably just the missile, yet he couldn’t shake that feeling entirely. He stifled it as best he could, however.

What could possibly be wrong aside from the missile?

###

The glamour kept falling away from Gary’s face, revealing more and more of the vampire beneath. Gary looked terrified, but his body seemed to move on its own. All four of his limbs carried him on, closer and closer to his prey. Alice backed away, her eyes wide with terror. She wanted to run, but she had nowhere to run to.

“I’m sorry,” said Gary, bloody tears streaming down his face. “I’m sorry. I can’t hold him back when he’s hungry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Alice’s back hit the wall as the vampire inched closer and closer. Soon the glamour had fallen away from half his head. One side of Gary’s face showed the glamour, where Gary was crying, his eyes wide with terror. The other side of his face showed the vampire, a hungry look in its red eye and its mouth licking its lips in hunger.

“Gary…” said Alice softly. “Please…”

But she knew her pleas were in vain. Gary was losing control, and as he inched closer and closer, the glamour continued to fall away. After a moment, Gary’s desperately terrified face disappeared, leaving nothing but the ravenous vampire William. He crawled up to her, then slowly began standing.

“She…she needs me…” said William. “Lady Fara…needs me…to stay strong…so I can serve her…”

“Gary…”

Finally, the vampire wrapped his arms around Alice and bit into her neck. She gasped at the pain, tears welling up in her eyes. Somehow, this bite hurt more than when other vampires bit her. William began drinking, and Alice could feel the blood flowing from her neck.

The newborn vampire was ravenous and didn’t stop for even a second. Alice could feel herself growing dizzy as more and more blood flowed from her neck. As he kept drinking, Alice’s vision went blurry, her head spinning as her thoughts began to slow.

Before long, everything went dark.

###

“I’m sorry,” said the council member. “I told them what you told me, but they won’t disarm the missile.”

“Why?!” Farrow demanded. “There’s no point in taking the risk when we don’t even know if it will work!”

“I…I don’t think they believed your story.”

Did they think he was compromised? Farrow didn’t know, he just dropped the phone and fell backwards into a chair, his eyes wide as he stared off into space.

###

As the hunger began to fade, William slowly felt himself slipping away. A moment later, Gary’s consciousness began to creep back in. Without the hunger to strengthen it, Gary was able to push the vampire away and regain control. The moment he did, he realized he was biting someone’s neck.

He pushed Alice away, letting her fall to the floor. Gary stood there for a moment, watching her lay there, her face pale and sickly. He could see the two new holes where he’d bitten into her. The glamour had reasserted itself, but it didn’t cover up the blood covering his face, especially around his mouth.

“No,” said Gary desperately, reaching down to her. “No…please…”

He grabbed her shoulders, but he could feel no blood pulsing through her veins.

“No…”

Gary embraced Alice’s body, beginning to sob, tears of blood dripping down his face. He stayed that way for a moment, mourning, saying he was sorry over and over again. It wasn’t given long to grieve, however. Soon, a voice began talking in his head.

“Gary,” said Jacqueline. “Gary…we don’t have much time. The missile is almost there, and I can’t keep shading your actions from the others much longer. I’ve been subtly whispering thoughts to keep vampires focused on the missile, but Lord Victor is going to notice one of his thralls missing before too long.”

“What’s the point?” he said in his mind, still embracing Alice. “Alice is…”

“There is still a chance to save her,” said Jacqueline.

“How?” he asked, looking up. “By letting her wake up as a vampire?”

“She may save herself from even that fate.”

By becoming a crucivire? Gary looked down. He had no idea if that would work.

“Would you leave her body at the mercy of Lord Victor?” asked Jacqueline. “She’ll have no chance to save herself if you leave her here. He’ll make certain of it.”

Gary thought about it, but not for long. Gary couldn’t shake the overwhelming despair hanging over him like a dark cloud, but he wiped the blood from his face and nodded.

“What now?” he said.

“Pick Alice up and wait for the missile,” said Jacqueline. “You know plan.”

I do, thought Gary. When the missile landed, he’d give control of his body to Jacqueline. Assuming the missile didn’t penetrate the displacement spell, he would be blind and deaf from the sound and the fire, but Jacqueline could lead him out. She’d been in that mansion many times and knew it like the back of her hand. The explosion itself would warp and disperse the sunlight, so all he had to do was reach the outside of the blast radius. The dust kickup would protect him from there and he could get Alice far away from the other vampires.

Gary picked Alice up in his arms. He stood in the middle of the room, looking down at her face. She almost looked peaceful. Gary also looked at the dead form of Sierra. He still didn’t recognize her. His memories from the moment Fara first bit him were fuzzy, but he felt like he knew that woman, and had this overwhelming sense of shame that he failed to save her. Well, at the very least, he’d do what he could to save Alice…if that was even possible.

A moment later, he could hear the roar of the missile approaching.

###

Still standing in the great hall, Lord Victor couldn’t get that feeling out of the back of his mind, the feeling that something was wrong. He could already hear the missile approaching and could sense fear from the vampires all around him. Just to calm his nerves he began checking on other vampires. All were waiting for the missile to drop. Nothing was out of place. His vampiric servants were on edge, and his thralls were…

Victor tensed up. He couldn’t sense Clara.

Immediately he spread his wings, knelt, and jumped up, flying to the balcony above. The other vampires were so focused on the missile they didn’t even budge. As Victor landed, ready to dart to Clara’s room, he heard it outside.

The missile was about to land.

###

Gary waited, hearing the roar of the missile as it fell. He took one last look at Alice’s face, and then relaxed his mind, letting Jacqueline Castellane guide his body like a willing puppet on strings. Seeing through his eyes, Jacqueline waited.

The missile struck the ground just outside the mansion, unleashing an ear shattering boom and an expanding inferno. As the flames reached the trees, it passed through them harmlessly. Enough sound and light penetrated the displacement spell to see and hear it, but the sheer heat and destructive force was left behind. Most of the vampires writhed in pain as the sound and flames flowed past them, all except for most of the elders, who stood stoically.

Victor ran through the mansion fast as the wind. Even as the explosion reached him, making him blind and deaf, he ran forward with the memorized layout of the mansion in his mind.

Finally, the explosion reached Gary and Alice, the flames washing over them harmlessly. Jacqueline led him out, helping him burst out the door and into the hallway. He ran close to the wall to slip past other vampires unaware of their presence. Gary could feel the pain in his ears, but he held Alice close as Jacqueline moved his legs. They practically soared down the hallway, rushing to escape before the explosion ended.

Gary and Victor passed each other, unaware of each other’s presence as the explosion roared around them. Gary ran on, straight through the hallways until he reached stairs in the back.

Lord Victor reached the bedroom where he had left the thrall he called Clara, but when he placed his hands on the bed, she was nowhere to be found. He turned, seeking his mind out to find them, but all vampires were blind and deaf from the sound and the fury of the inferno around them.

Jacqueline kept Gary running, even as his ears and the ears of the vampires in the mansion bled. They eventually reached a back door and Gary kicked it, snapping it off its hinges even as it was held down by vines that had crept over it. Gary, still surrounded by fire, ran out into the forest, the explosion ironically blocking out the sun. Gary ran fast, eventually reaching the cover of the trees as he escaped into the forest.

###

Victor stood alone as the explosion finally cleared from the room. Fortunately, it seemed that the displacement spell had protected them after all. Unfortunately, Clara was gone. Somehow, she had been taken from him, and Victor couldn’t fathom how that was possible. No one could hide from him in this mansion.

Except, as he quested through the minds around him, he noticed one more mind missing.

“Fara,” said Victor mentally. “William is gone.”

“What?” she answered back. “Yes, you’re right. I can’t sense his mind at all, and...Clara is gone too?”

Victor could sense her concern.

“It’s not possible,” said Fara. “There was nothing left of Gary Frasier. Only William Duval remains. I’m sure of it.”

“Perhaps Jacqueline found a way to hide that personality in the back of his mind,” said Victor. “Regardless, it seems that vampire, whether Gary or William, has absconded with my Clara.”

“Do we go after them?”

“No,” said Victor, shaking his head. “There was no way to track his direction in the explosion, but now that this has cleared there’s too much sunlight around the mansion to reach the forest safely. Furthermore, any dust kicked up by the explosion will be outside the blast radius. We’ll have to wait until nightfall.”

“I’ll fix this,” said Fara. “I promise you I will fix this.”

“I trust you,” said Victor. “But we clearly underestimated these humans. We cannot afford to do so again.”

He felt Fara respond in the affirmative as she left his mind. If Lord Victor still breathed he would have sighed. As it was, he simply went to the bed and lay down. After the events of today, he would need some sleep.

###

Gary didn’t know how long he ran for. All he knew was that he ran until the flames began to run out. He barely made it into the dust cloud outside the blast radius before the flames ended and the sunlight broke through. He could feel the back of his foot singed as he entered the dust, but the damage wasn’t bad. Under the cover of the dust cloud, the area was filled with a hazy orange light.

From there, Gary kept running, using a zigzagging pattern and leaping from treetop to treetop to make his scent harder to track. Eventually, he was far enough away from the mansion that he was comfortable to hide Alice…if he decided to. He took one particularly large leap to a tree, then leapt down at the base of that tree.

He put Alice down in the dust filled woods and knelt beside her.

“So,” he said in his mind. “If I leave her like this, she will wake up as a vampire.”

“Yes,” he heard Jacqueline reply. “If you wish to spare her from this fate, you may drive a wooden stake through her heart, but as I said, there is hope that she can save herself and live again.”

“By becoming a crucivire,” said Gary doubtfully. “Can I…”

“No,” said Jacqueline. “You cannot carve the cross into her skin for her. Alice must resist the bloodlust and do it herself.”

Gary remembered when William had faced that bloodlust for the first time. The other presence in Gary’s head hadn’t hesitated to drain some poor man of his blood. It was like an out of body experience, with Gary helpless to do anything lest the vampires discover his presence in William’s mind. He had hoped to at least save Alice, but…

“Can she do it?” he asked. “Can she resist it?”

“Her brother did,” said Jacqueline. “And her father was a warrior who died in the line of duty. There is strong blood in her family, and she has benefitted from that strength thus far. I have the utmost faith that Alice can do this. Still, you’ve known her longer than I have, so I will leave the choice to you.”

Alice’s father had been in the military. Gary remembered her mentioning that, and in the mindscape, she had talked about the return of her brother. Maybe she was strong enough to do this, but Gary felt himself torn. He feared being the one who let her become a true vampire, but he feared being the one who ended her life as well.

As Gary knelt beside her, he grabbed Alice’s hand and squeezed. He thought of all the cases he’d worked on her, and all the times they’d struggled to find someone who was lost. It was rare that Alice gave up, even when it seemed hopeless. He thought of Alice’s drive and passion that was so strong she trusted a vampire and fought in the mindscape to help him and Penny escape.

Yes, Alice’s will was strong. If anyone could overcome this curse, it was her.

Gary cleared some vines away and placed Alice in the crook of some tree roots. He then spent a few moments covering her body in vines so that she’d be protected from the sun when the dust cleared.

Before he covered her face, he leaned down, cupped her head in his hands, and kissed her forehead.

He let her go and covered her face with the vines. Then he stood. After drinking so much of Alice’s blood, he had her scent running through his veins. If he doubled back, he had a chance to spread that scent and lead the vampires away from her.

And in truth, he didn’t think he could face her right now.

Gary turned and leapt to a tree before making a giant leap to a spot where he’d already landed. From there, he deliberately spread his scent so that the vampires would pass her by if they came that way. Soon he be far away from that place.

###

Director Farrow sat in his office, pouring a stiff drink out of a crystal bottle. Technically he was still on duty, but at that moment, he didn’t care. He drank the entire cup in one go and then leaned back, trying to calm down.

Thankfully the missile hadn’t triggered a reaction. It had simply exploded. However, according to Jacqueline Castellane, the displacement spell had worked, and the mansion had survived. They were no closer to turning this situation around than before. He’d have to smooth things out with the Night Hunter Council later and present his evidence that the missile could have gone wrong.

Not now, though. Now, he needed to relax, no matter how impossible that seemed.