“We, on the other hand, do not have the luxury of time. If the government doesn’t nuke the city, the Elysium Order will. Standard operating procedure for lost-town scenarios does include a quick sweep for survivors, but they don’t actually care about people. Those that do get rescued will typically be inducted into their order. I wouldn’t put it past them to skip straight to scorched-earth for Lansing.”
“Since when did you become an expert on Elysium Order tactics?”
Wayne shrugged. “Been researching them lately.”
“Oh?” Sarah narrowed her eyes in his direction. “What priceless artifact do you want to steal this time?”
“You’re the last person I want to hear a lecture from. Don’t think I have forgotten about your hobbies.” Wayne stood from the bed and moved for the door. “We need to find a way out of the city.”
Wayne stilled as he felt a hand rest on his shoulder.
“You’re not going to mention it?” Sarah said, her voice so soft that Wayne had to strain to hear.
For a moment, he made no move. There was so much to do, so much to consider. At the worst, he had expected a deceased sister. Wounded at best. For her to have become a vampire had never entered into his fears.
“How did it happen?”
“Went to bed around eight on New Year’s Eve. Woke up in my bed with pointier teeth at sundown the night before last. Sent out the message a few hours later.”
“Two days?” Wayne turned to look her in the eyes. “And you didn’t willingly–”
“You think I’m stupid? Of course I didn’t.”
Wayne searched her eyes, looking for any hint of deception. He found none. Blinking, Wayne realized something else that was missing. “Your eyes are the same as mine.”
“What?”
“You don’t have the Blacksky eyes.” Wayne took one of her hands in his own, just for confirmation. “And you don’t have claws. What strain are you?”
“I don’t know,” she snapped, slapping his hand away. “It didn’t come with an instruction manual.”
“Have you fed?”
Sarah’s eyes went wide before she turned her gaze to the side.
Understanding, Wayne let the matter drop. He turned back to the door. “Nevermind. It doesn’t matter. You’re still my sister and you didn’t attack me. That’s all that matters. We can discuss your condition more after we’re safe. Or even on the way, for some of it.”
That said, Wayne threw open the door and stepped out.
His frown immediately deepened. “Zoe,” he said to the little girl wringing her hands, “where is Serena?”
The little girl spun to face him, taking a step towards him as she moved. Her step turned into a stumble as she retreated backwards upon seeing Sarah.
Watching his sister out of the corner of his eye, Wayne was pleased to note a hurt expression cross her face. Pleased because it wasn’t hunger or malice.
“She won’t hurt you,” Wayne said as he put on his kindest smile. “This is my sister, Sarah.”
Something–probably my smile–made Zoe take another step back.
“This is a survivor we found,” Wayne said for his sister’s sake.
“‘We?’ You dragged someone else into this?”
“A vampire that wisely decided against trying to kill me. Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“Well, she started out attacking me…” Wayne shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. Where did she go, Zoe?”
“Something smelled good. Serena went to find out what.”
“Something?” Wayne sniffed, but couldn’t smell much of anything behind his mask.
“I smell it too,” Sarah said after taking a few breaths of her own. A dazed look clouded her eyes. “Blood. Fresh and warm. Lots of it too. More than a single person for sure.”
Wayne grit his teeth together. She just ate two people plus some of my blood. How gluttonous is that girl? “Whatever,” he said. “I told her to stay here. We don’t have time to go rescue her from an Elysium Order trap.”
Both of Zoe’s hands clasped around her mask. “It’s a trap?” she said with a gasp.
“That or a big fight going on. Either way, not something we want to get into.”
“But,” Sarah said, taking an unsteady step forwards, “but I need–”
Wayne clamped a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Sister or not, if I have to break your legs to get us out–”
Not having turned on his mental acceleration, Wayne didn’t have time to react. His sister wrenched out of his grip. An elbow found its way into the pit of his stomach.
Collapsing to his knees, Wayne tried to regain control over his breathing.
Zoe screamed as Sarah charged into a full sprint. Luckily for the girl, Sarah, and Wayne’s conscience, Sarah completely ignored Zoe in her rush to the door.
Vampire out of the way, Zoe walked up to Wayne.
“Definitely a trap,” he groaned out. “Both ate recently. I don’t believe that Sarah would go into a frenzy just because of a little blood.”
“You’re going to save Serena, right?”
Wayne rolled his eyes. Using Zoe’s shoulder to steady himself, he pushed himself back to his feet, rubbing his stomach as he went. “If she’s still kicking.”
Putting a hand on Zoe’s head, Wayne considered telling her to stay where she was. With the front door gone, the house wasn’t as safe as could be. He decided to keep her at his side in the end.
“Let’s go see if we can’t find a couple of vampires.”
—
Finding their wayward vampires turned out to be much simpler than expected. Zoe helpfully noted in which direction both Serena and Sarah had taken off running. From there, it was a simple matter of walking in a straight line.
The music helped as well.
Classical hymns blaring over half the town only reinforced the feeling that this was a trap. The music would attract what the smell of blood did not; thralls, ghouls, and possibly humans.
It certainly gathered a number of thralls and ghouls.
Smoke obscured most of his view, but what he could see spoke wonders. Humans stood around the edges of the park, all looking in, all watching. A ghoul would occasionally slip through and shamble towards the center. They didn’t last long, usually winding up torn apart in seconds.
A wide vat filled to the brim with thick red liquid sat in the center of Washington Park. Lights had been set up all around it alongside speakers and fans. The fans served to push around the soot-filled air more than clear it, but they did clear it enough to offer a slightly better view. Wayne had a feeling that they were to spread the scent around the city more than any sort of environmental control.
And they performed that task admirably.
At least ten vampires swarmed around the vat. Rather than drink from it, they were too busy fighting their competition.
Probably intentional, Wayne mused from his position atop the park’s tallest slide. He didn’t know of any way to poison a vampire, so whipping them up into a frenzy and having them fight each other was a decent way to cull the group to manageable levels. Then again, if anyone could find a way to poison a vampire, it would be the Elysium Order.
The plan would probably be more effective at night. More vampires would be awake and therefore there would be greater chaos around the vat. But daytime was safer for regular humans. Gathering all the vampires, thralls, and what-have-you to specific points gave the Order free rein to do as they please. If Wayne didn’t miss his guess, this would be the time when the nuns would perform their token check for any regular humans.
Which meant that the end of the city was drawing near.
Needless to say, he was beyond pleased that they had actually decided to check for humans. That gave him the time he needed to get everyone out of the city. Unfortunately, everyone currently included at least one of the vampires involved in the brawl near the vat.
Sarah, being a trained earth mage, was wiping the floor with her opponents. Literally, in some cases. She carried no focus but was just as effective at manipulating earth as she had been in life–which was to say: terrible. Still, it was a distinct advantage over the other vampires.