Elsa rushed them back to the doorway they’d come from. She pushed Gemma past the threshold and once more put her shoulder against the stone door. When the momentum swung in her direction Elsa jumped to the other side and saw the door come softly to a close. At least, it almost came to a close. Elsa left a small crack in the door and pressed her cheeks up against the cold stone to get a better vantage point.
Gemma, who hadn’t stopped arguing, felt compelled to do the same and situated herself just below Elsa.
“…And you’re sure the seal is closed up?” asked a masked individual, his raspy voice echoing throughout the hall. He came around the corner with another, slightly shorter, soldier with a similar balaclava on his head.
“It’s closed,” the other soldier answered unsteadily. “I’m almost certain.”
It appeared to the two young women that the taller soldier, the one first to speak, was the man in charge. He turned around on his heel and looked down on his subordinate.
“We don’t want a repeat of last time,” he said, sternly. “The damn thing only works when it opens at the correct time. If these fuckers go pop we’ll have to start all over. You’re on point if that happens.”
“Yeah, Julian,” his man said, “I’m sure I closed it… sure enough, at least.”
“You better be,” said the commander known as Julian, “Because we need their full power if we’re going to see the town under our control.”
“Don’t want a repeat of last time?” the soldier asked.
The commander turned to strike his comrade with the back of his hand. “Shut your mouth and help the others!”
The soldier ran back to the hallway with one hand pressed against his head. He came back a short while later with four other soldiers. In their custody were two vampires, chained and beaten, dragged by their arms so the blood could seep out of their bullet riddled bodies.
The men dragged them up to the pulpit where the commander awaited. With his back turned to the Sunkeeper’s chamber he now had a clear view of the hall they resided. That meant it would only be a matter of time before his eyes were upon the two wide-set pair of eyes at the end of the central hall.
Gemma and Elsa decided it was best to count their blessing and get out of there alive. These men were armed, clad in thick body armor, and if the vampires were any indication, to be considered extremely dangerous. They pulled back from the door and made a hasty retreat up the mountain staircase.
They thought they did the smart thing by getting out of there when they did. They were wrong, and it was their exit that caused suspicion to arise on the commander’s behalf.
The faintest of noises echoed throughout the chamber, not from his men, not from the vampires they kept in tow. He took off his mask to reveal his bald head, bushy beard, and the blood red eagle tattoo etched on his skull. Julian looked to his men, and said, “Throw them in the chambers. I’ll be right back.”
Elsa and Gemma made swift work of the staircase this time. They rushed out the doorway and used their combined might to seal the stone door back up. The door that led to the outside had seen considerable weather damage and proved more difficult for the two of them to close. They left it halfway open and left to put some distance between themselves and the temple they’d come so far to find.
They moved across the rocky ledges at a frantic pace and not once did they look back at the door in the mountain side. They should have.
“Hold it right there, ladies,” the commander said. His view as from the scope of his rifle and it was locked on Gemma Kohl. “You’re going to want to come back here—nice and slow.”
The two of them looked to one another for support, but there was none to be found in either of their eyes.
“Now, ladies,” said Julian with a tap of his finger on the butt of his rifle. “I’m not going to ask again.”
Unsure of their next course of action, Elsa and Gemma had no choice but to listen to the soldier and make their way back up the windy mountain path. Gemma knew her options were limited. She could make a person do many things, awful things, and she could do so with the wave of a hand.
But as she looked into the eyes of a trained soldier, Gemma realized that he’d get a shot off before she was halfway into her into spell. Then Elsa and she would be dead and the secrets of the goddess’ temple lost to her people once more. She decided to harness her powers in secret; to wait until she was in front of him and make her move.
Elsa panicked in the middle of their journey and pulled back from Gemma’s touch. Since the body of the reaper she had been threatened, nearly eaten by one of her closest friends, and attacked by an army of ghouls and their lady in red. Now she could add being held at gunpoint to that list.
“Fine,” the commander said as he watched Elsa hesitate before him. “Have it your way.”
He fired off a shot in Elsa’s direction. It wasn’t meant to strike her, but Julian needed to make a point. He wasn’t about to be played with by these two young women.
Unfortunately for the commander, this act caused the spirit within Elsa to awaken once more. Her eyes burned white and she raised her hands towards the alarmed commander. For the real Elsa, the one now locked inside, it was all reactionary, a response she couldn’t control.
Gemma could only watch in horror, and amazement, as her best friend turned into the warrior of light she’d only gotten a glimpse of on the farm. She watched as the confused commander dumped a full clip into Elsa, but each bullet was taken as if they were nothing to freshly awakened spirit.
Strands of white light cracked from her fingers and shot towards the commander. He tried desperately to load another clip into his rifle. Not that anymore bullets would’ve done him any good. Elsa looked like she could take as many rounds as he could muster and still be able to take more. She appeared unstoppable, and when the time was right, Elsa commanded the light further, faster, straight into the man that stood in her way.
Lances of achromatic energy shot through Julian’s body armor in rapid succession. Each one struck deeper than flesh and bone. Elsa’s light pierced his soul, and continued to do so until he was brought to his knees in prayer.
“Forgive me,” said Julian, his hands clasped and head tilted to the night sky. “I only wanted to be one of you, brother.”
He exploded into a million pieces of light that fractured off in every direction. It was as if the stars had come down to the mountain, only to drift slowly away from this world, back up to the sky.
When the light dispersed from Elsa’s eyes she fell to the ground with a thud. Gemma rushed to her side and tried to stabilize her friend, but it was no use. Elsa was gone from this world. Where she was Gemma hadn’t the slightest notion.
It was a realm unknown to those untouched by the light. Not for Gemma, the high priestess, or even the man in black understand.
“Elsa, where have you gone?” asked a frenetic Gemma Kohl. “You’ve got to come back to me. Elsa? Elsa?”
Chapter Forty Two
Night Kings: The Red River
Gregory Blackman
It Rolls Downstream
Lukas Wendish awoke to blood smeared vision and hands bound in iron chains. He tried to free himself, but it was to no avail. These shackled were made thick enough for someone of his kind, unbreakable, no matter how hard he tried.
He thought about the events that led to his capture. They were a blur to him. Quick flashes of imagery where he got a boot put to him at every available turn. He never got to see the woman’s fate. All he could remember was that haughty voice.
No sooner than Lukas regained consciousness did he hear the sound of footsteps on the other side of a steel hatch. The hatch’s circular handle spun around at an accelerated pace that forced light to flood into the dank chamber. The sudden change struck his eyes harshly and Lukas recoiled from the light’s embrace.
“Good evening, Lukas,” said that same haughty voice he remembered so clearly in his mind. “I see your wounds have healed... most of them, a
nyway.”
Once his eyes had adjusted Lukas looked up into his captor’s dead eyes. “You know my name?”
“I’ve learned a great deal since we last spoke.”
“You know my name,” repeated Lukas as he wiped the blood from his mouth. “It’s only fair that I know yours.”
“No, no, no,” said the woman, hastily. “You haven’t earned the privilege.”
“Then what should I call you?”
The woman knelt down, placed a tender hand on his bloody chin, and said, “Dear boy, you may call me anything you wish. It makes no difference to me.”
He grumbled a few choice words in her direction, but none of them made a dent in her steel skin. She was right. It didn’t matter her name. All that mattered was that he might never see the world outside these walls.
“I know of you,” groaned Lukas as flecks of blood reached his lips. “You’re the one he spoke of… the bitch in red and black. You’re the fallen princess, come to mourn her departed mother.”
Her gentle hand turned sour and soon her nails found their way across his face in rapid succession. After the blood had been spilled from his body she tugged on his chains for good measure.
“That’s rather rude, and more than a little short sighted, I’ll have you know.” The woman pushed back from Lukas and stormed around the chamber in a frenzied manner. “A princess is still a princess even after her brother steals the throne, is she not?”
“I didn’t kill your maker,” said Lukas, sure to cut straight to the chase.
She slapped him across the face before she broke out into an insane cackle. He would’ve been naked hadn’t it been for the thick coat of blood that covered his body. He was afraid for himself, his pack, and all those attached to the Wendish name. This woman was going to kill him. He was sure of it.
“I know that, silly boy,” said the vampire princess, Corina Petravic, with the lick of her devilish lips. “You wouldn’t have the power to kill my maker with a pack of one hundred at your disposal.”
“Then why am I here?” Lukas asked, defiant in the face of the end.
Corina grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air. The iron chains clasped around Lukas had no give in them left and they dug into his flesh, deeper and deeper, for every inch the lady continued to move him.
“Do you see it? Do you feel it within your bones?” Corina asked of him. She dropped him to the ground with a thud and the snap of a few bones. “The full moon will reign over the night sky soon enough. Then the real fun can begin.”
A broken Lukas looked up to the maniacal woman, and said through pursed lips, “I won’t help you. I’d rather die than be used by the vampire queen… or her kaleidoscopic crony.”
“You might get your wish in the end,” an unimpressed Corina said, “but first let us find out what you’re made of.”
Corina Petravic turned to leave the dank chamber, and with her, any trace of the light that followed her into the room.
“In time all will be revealed,” Corina said with a fleeted glance in Lukas’ direction. “Darkness has come to Salem and it must be cleansed in a river of blood. You and I will be at the mouth of that river, Lukas, and all those that oppose us shall lay in our wake; just as our lady envisioned.”
Corina slammed the door shut. The light was gone and it would remain gone until she willed it to be back. It was all part of her control, Lukas reckoned. Starve him of the light that made him human. Bring the monster to the surface when the full moon shone through.
He watched the circular handle spin around and around. His head spun with it, but by the time it stopped, Lukas succumbed to the dehydration and loss of blood he had endured at Corina’s hand.
The vampire queen saw something in Lukas. Now the barbarous princess wished to see it for herself. Corina Petravic wanted to see what kind of beast lurked inside.
Neither Corina nor Lukas truly knew what the lady in red saw in him. It could’ve been everything, but it could’ve easily been nothing at all. Corina thought a bloodletting would awaken the true Lukas Wendish, but the truth was that she hadn’t the slightest idea what would open that door.
This was a woman that would do anything to get what she wanted. And what the dark princess wanted was him. Everyone else was collateral damage.
Act Four
Darkest of Depths – Old World Cull
Chapter Forty Three
Night Kings: Darkest of Depths
Gregory Blackman
Forlorn Lovers
Lukas Wendish had been to hell and back these last few days. At least, what he assumed were days. There was no light to transition him from day to night. There was only the light Corina Petravic provided him with each of her laborious visits. He stirred on the floor of his cell floor. In his fractured mind he was in a million different places; all of them of the dark princess’ choosing.
He awoke to find Corina Petravic atop him. She writhed in pleasure, back and forth, calling out to the archdemons of the nine circles while she did so. He pushed Corina off as fast he could, only to find that they were no longer in the cell. He was in an open meadow surrounded by a forest. Corina Petravic, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found. He stood alone in the fields of grass, not a sight or sound in all directions.
Lukas was drawn to the night sky above. There a full moon hung in the sky, closer to the Earth than he’d ever seen before. He tried to contain himself, but the moon’s power proved too much for the young werewolf to tame. It forced his claws to the forefront and tore at his flesh.
When the bile and flecks of skin ceased to pour from his body there was only the wolf that remained in these fields of green.
Much like the nosferatu they were endlessly at war with, the lycan race was bred for the hunt. But unlike their stealthy counterparts the wolves were built more for power than grace. While the original lycans that escaped through the Hell Gate were lost to the world, their shadow lingered behind every werewolf across the globe. Whether it was in their staunch posture or their muscular frame, the werewolves of today shared little in common with the creatures they took their name from.
The werewolf in this particular field was unhinged from reality; in that dark place it lay locked up, save the one night a month they were released from their supernatural binds. The true Lukas Wendish was free at last and he used every moment he had at his disposal. He tore through the fields at a frantic pace with hopes that he’d get to the forest he could see in the distance, but no matter how fast he ran, those trees remained just that—in the distance.
He snapped and snarled at the cruelest joke of all. The woods were a place every werewolf was born and raised, and it was said to know the forests that bore them was to know the true wolf inside.
The werewolf outside was furious at the dark princess, only he hadn’t the slightest notion of whom that woman was. Not truly. She was a mystery to him still, a vengeful presence in his mind that refused to go away.
Suddenly the forests he sought rushed into the foreground. He leaped into them with the tenacity of a werewolf that just came unchained. He soared for a brief moment, with his ears pinned back and fur aflutter in the wind.
It ended all too quickly for the frenzied werewolf. Lukas crashed to the ground with a thud, uncertain of what’d struck him, but all too assured of his response. He jumped back to his feet and searched for what he believed was the dark presence in his mind.
It wasn’t Corina Petravic that stopped Lukas in his tracks. It was the raven haired beauty with eyes afire that blocked access to his homeland. The sight of one familiar, yet unknown, brought both Lukas and the werewolf out of the dream state.
Lukas wasn’t prepared to enter back into the land of the living. When he awoke he struck the back of his head against the stone floor. If the pain wasn’t enough to coax a response out of him, the peculiar way the dark princess sat before him would’ve done the trick.
Corina didn’t watch him with the eyes she was born with. Those eyes were blacke
d out and void of any presence. She watched with her third eye, the one hidden away from the world, and the one that allowed her the control over men she desired.
All of a sudden, Corina opened her eyes and parted her lips into a devilish smile. Her gaze didn’t falter for a moment, not until she jumped to her feet and put a bare foot to the sternum of an already beaten down Lukas Wendish.
“That’s it,” she said with damnable conviction. “That’s been it all along. I found the one thing that makes you tick—the key to unraveling your mystery.”
Corina left the basement chamber without as much as a snide remark at Lukas’ expense. She was a woman on a mission with another firmly within her sights and when she found that person there would be a reckoning unlike any they’d known before. No one would get in her way, and those that had would be forever regretful of that decision. That was her promise to the vampire queen. Eat or be eaten.
Chapter Forty Four
Night Kings: Darkest of Depths
Gregory Blackman
Pack Mentality
It was almost sundown in the Salem Willows. This expansive park on the water’s edge of town was home to many different kinds of people in the daylight hours. Children, mothers, and their pets walked these pathways without a care in the world, unaware of the darkness that spread once the cover of night passed over the park.
A group of vampires had made the Salem Willows their home while the threat of unknown attack loomed overheard. For a race that considered themselves the top of the predatory food chain, vampires were unaccustomed to a life on the run. They spent so much time on the hunt that they never thought they would be the ones hunted. At least, that was the case for the younger kindred, the ones who didn’t remember the Old World. The reapers torched all of their holdings and what they left standing the crusader factions set fire to a hundred times over. They were lost to the world, relegated to movies and fairy tales, and forever to stay to that way.
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