by P. T. Hylton
The Savage End
The Vampire World Saga Book 6
PT Hylton
Jonathan Benecke
Contents
What Came Before
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Authors’ Note
Copyright © 2019 P.T. Hylton & Jonathan Benecke
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, events, or locales is purely coincidental.
Reproduction in whole or part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited.
Thank you for supporting our work.
What Came Before
ALEX GODDARD is the captain of the Ground Mission Team, an elite task force that supplies the ship New Haven with resources recovered from the vampire-infested Earth’s surface.
After releasing a virus designed to kill all the vampires on the planet, the humans learned of an unexpected side effect. All vampires directly created by JADEN were not killed by the virus. Instead, they were transformed into Twisted—deformed creatures with all of the vampires’ strengths and few of their weaknesses.
Among these Twisted is MARYANA, the vampire who brought down civilization.
Alex and Jaden team up to stop Maryana’s assault on Agartha, but when the battle is over they realize it was just a distraction. Maryana’s real target was New Haven all along. By transforming the city’s badges into Twisted under her complete control, Maryana is able to quickly take New Haven.
Alex and the GMT attempt a rescue mission, but they are forced to retreat, leaving behind JESSICA, CB, and forty-thousand helpless humans.
As they fly away from the city-ship, Alex makes a solemn vow. “I’m coming back for you.”
1
The wheels of the transport ship touched down with a jolt, shaking everyone inside. Alex kept her balance, but Felix teetered awkwardly. She grabbed the back of his vest, steadying him, and wondered how long it would take for Owl to recover enough to fly the ship. She wanted the best pilot at the helm when they returned to New Haven. She hit a button and the cargo door opened, revealing Agartha’s hangar bay. Ed, Chuck, Jaden, Felix, Brian, and a handful of techs followed her off the ship and into the city.
“As much as I’d like to let you get settled in, there’s no time for that.” She marched through the hangar, not looking back as she spoke. “We need to work with the people of Agartha to get the defenses restored as quickly as we can. Maryana could be launching an attack as we speak.”
“I’ll go see what George needs,” Brian replied. “Maybe I can come up with something that will buy us some time.”
“Perfect. We could really use a Twisted-killing weapon.” Alex walked briskly through the open area, heading for the control room. She knew the leaders of Agartha would be gathered there. She wanted to be involved in planning how to defend against the attack they all knew was coming.
Jaden trotted alongside them. “Brian, I need you on something else.” He sounded annoyed, and Alex detected a slight shake in his voice.
“Something else?” Alex didn’t bother trying to hide her surprise. She kept talking as she marched into the hallway that led to the control room. “What’s more important than defending the city?”
Jaden moved in a flash. He put a hand on each of Alex’s shoulders and pushed her against the wall. He didn’t press hard enough to hurt her, but she still felt the strength in the fingers gripping her. The cold metal wall touching her back sent a chill up her spine.
“You have my attention,” she said, her voice hard. She didn’t know what was happening, but Jaden was clearly upset. Though it wasn’t exactly pleasant to be shoved against the wall by a creature with superhuman strength, part of her welcomed the passion she saw in his usually stoic eyes. “Tell me what’s more important than preparing your city to survive the next attack.”
“How quickly you forget the sacrifice we’ve made.” He forced his words through gritted teeth. “The city’s best defense is the vampires that reside within its walls. The same vampires that saved your life and the lives of everyone here. Their reward is death. The virus crawls through their bodies now. If you want to save this city, we have to save those vampires. Brian may be the only person capable of the task.” As he finished, he let go of Alex’s shoulders. The anger disappeared just as quickly as it had flared up, leaving a hollow sadness in his eyes.
Alex pushed down the urge to strike back at him for laying hands on her. The truth was, he was right. She hadn’t given one thought to the virus infecting the vampires of Agartha. It hadn’t even crossed her mind since she’d discovered that Maryana was headed to New Haven. “I’m sorry. You’re right. They are the city’s best defense, and we do owe them a great debt.” She turned to Brian. “I’m sure George will be able to get you set up with a lab and some equipment. Their techs have been working on a cure. Maybe you can help them figure it out.”
The group hustled to the control room. When they reached it. Alex walked in first. Every eye in the room looked up as they entered.
George stood near the front of the room, Natalie on one side and Cynthia on the other. “What happened?”
“Maryana reached New Haven.” Jaden’s voice was calm and even. “She was able to get inside the city and turn a large force. She has control of the ship and all of its inhabitants.” He looked Natalie in the eyes. “There are forty thousand people on New Haven. We need to consider all of them her army, now.”
Alex bristled. “The people of New Haven are not her army. They’re her prisoners. We need to save them. That’s the plan. First, we secure Agartha, and then we figure out a way to get back on New Haven and take her out.” Alex looked from Jaden to Natalie as she spoke, but neither returned her gaze.
“Yes,” Jaden said slowly. “Killing Maryana and releasing those under her control is the plan. But until we do, everyone that she turns is the enemy. That monster destroyed a world full of people to get what she wanted. She will not give a second thought to turning every person on New Haven. For now, we must consider the possibility that she has an army forty thousand strong. We lost the world to her once. If the vampires of Agartha die, we will lose it again.”
As Jaden spoke, Alex had a terrible realization—he was afraid. Maybe not of losing to Maryana, but of losing his family. He had spent lifetimes with these vampires and their bond was something she could never hope to understand. She turned to George. “Could you point Brian in the direction of your lab? He has work to do.”
Alex slid the curtain back, revealing the hospital bed, and its occupant groaned in response
.
“I’m awake. Did you get her?” Owl lay in bed, two empty blood packets next to her. The burns from the explosion still marked her face and arm, but Alex was shocked to see a noticeable improvement in the condition of her wounds.
Alex sat on the bed next to Owl, and the springs of the uncomfortable mattress squeaked. Sitting down made her aware of just how tired she was. The adrenaline of battle was fading and exhaustion was starting to set in. Alex looked up with tired eyes, trying to find a way to tell Owl that she had failed. The words didn’t come.
Owl looked down at her lap. “How bad is it?”
“Bad. She has New Haven. It looks like she turned all of the badges.”
Owl’s head shot up and there was fire in her eyes. “When are we going to get her? What about CB? What about Brian?”
“We got Brian out. He’s working on saving the vampires of Agartha right now.” When Alex tried to say CB’s name, her breath caught in her throat. She focused, drew a breath, and tried again. Tears crawled down her cheeks as she spoke. “I talked to Jessica for a second. She thinks that CB is dead. I failed, Owl. We didn’t get there fast enough and there were just too many Twisted. God knows what Maryana is doing to our home right now.”
Owl leaned over and put her arms around Alex. The room was silent, neither Alex nor Owl making a sound as tears rolled from their eyes. Alex could smell the charred skin on Owl’s face and felt the misshapen spine that ran up her back, another reminder that the world was no longer what it had been.
She drew a breath and wiped the tears off her face with the back of her hands. “This isn’t over yet. I’m going to find a way to finish this once and for all.” She was surprised to find she felt a bit better after shedding a few tears.
“Putting a sword through Maryana’s chest would be a good start.” Owl gave a small smile.
“I like that idea. Although that may be the finish, not the start. We need to figure out how to get there.”
“We will get there. We’re the GMT. If anyone can pull this off, it’s us.”
Alex woke with a start, and her eyes immediately went to clock on the wall. When she saw the positions of its hands, she sprang out of bed. Somehow, she’d slept for eight hours. She had agreed to lie down for a minute when Jaden pointed out how exhausted she looked. She hadn’t thought she would be able to sleep, but once she laid down, fatigue did the rest.
The room they’d given her was small, featuring a narrow bed that left little room for anything else. Her clothes were still in a pile where she had thrown them before climbing under the sheets. She dressed in her dirty fatigues, grimacing as she noticed the blood splattered on them. She made a mental note to see if George could get her some clean clothes, or at least get these washed.
Ten minutes later, Alex opened the door to the lab and found Brian exactly where she’d known he would be. He sat at one of the room’s many tables, his eyes darting back and forth between a monitor displaying a microscopic image and another one displaying charts of data. As expected, he was completely lost in his work, and he didn’t notice when Alex entered.
A woman at the desk next to Brian stood up. “This is a restricted area. You can’t be here.”
Alex raised an eyebrow, amused. “I’m pretty sure I’ve got as much clearance as you can have. I’m Alex Goddard, captain of the GMT and lifelong friend of Captain Unobservant, there.” She pointed a finger at Brian. “Brian, help me out.”
Brian shook his head like he was waking up from a dream. He looked away from the monitors and saw Alex. “Oh, hey, Alex. Sorry, I didn’t hear you come in. Did you get some rest?”
“Yep. More than I intended. How are things going in here? Have you figured out a way to kill all the Twisted while changing Owl back to her original self, and saving the vampires of Agartha? It has been almost eight hours, which is like a year in genius terms.” Alex gave him a little smile as she spoke.
Brian attempted to return the smile, but the strained expression only brought out the dark circles under his eyes. Alex wondered if he had eaten anything since they arrived. “It’s not going well. I don’t know if I will ever be able to solve this one. Maybe, given enough time, but I’m in the early stages of a long process.”
The woman who’d tried to stop Alex from entering spoke again. “Your work is amazing. You have made more advancements in one night than our team made in the last few weeks working the problem.” She looked at him with true admiration.
“Yep, he is the best and the brightest,” Alex said, turning back to Brian. “I thought that you may be able to pull this off, since you cracked the virus in the first place.”
He looked down and shook his head “That was different. Ten years of data was just sitting there waiting for me to find it. I had the entire puzzle; I just had to piece it together. I don’t even know which direction to go with this one. Even if I did, I’m starting from scratch on a project that has no precedent. I’m sorry, Alex. I just don’t think I can pull this off.”
Alex knew it was crazy, but she’d hoped that Brian would come through with a miracle. She tried not to let the disappointment show on her face. “You don’t need to be sorry. I know that you’re giving it everything that you have. Just keep trying and let me know if I can help in any way.” She looked him up and down. “Have you eaten yet?”
Brian looked confused “Why? Is it lunch time?”
“I will never understand how you can be so smart, but you still can’t take care of your basic human needs.” She turned to the woman. “What’s your name?”
“Stephanie. I run this lab.”
“Stephanie, it’s nice to meet you. I can tell you already get what Brian means to all of us. Could you do me and the rest of the world a huge favor and make sure that he takes time to eat and sleep? I’d hate to lose the war because Brian starved to death at his desk.”
Stephanie paused for a moment, not sure if Alex was kidding. Then she looked at Brian. “I’ll help him out in any way that I can. Even if that means keeping him fed.”
“Thanks. Just let me know if he gives you any trouble. He can be stubborn as hell.”
Brian laughed at that. “You are the last person who should be calling someone out for stubbornness.”
The door to the lab opened and Natalie marched in, her expression hard. “George told me that you need something.”
Brian nodded. “Yes, I need a sample of your blood to see how the virus is progressing.”
“Of course. Take what you need.” Natalie took a seat across from him at the table.
Alex watched as Stephanie went to work, grabbing the supplies needed for the blood draw. She looked back at Natalie and her smile faded.
Natalie noticed the change in Alex’s expression. “What is it?”
“Your nose. It’s bleeding.”
2
The first vampire died three and a half days later. His name was Toby. According to George, Toby had been one of the last humans turned into a true vampire shortly before Maryana’s infestation. He’d spent his century and a half in Agartha preferring to live a peaceful existence, only going out with scout teams when absolutely necessary. Instead, he’d run the stockroom, keeping careful tally on the supplies for the city.
Alex had gotten all this information from George, because the vampires—even those showing minimal sickness—had become withdrawn. Jaden had retreated with them, only occasionally leaving the vampires’ enclave to berate Brian on his lack of success in finding a cure. George was one of the few humans who dared to enter their area to occasionally check on them.
According to George, Jaden had sat by Toby’s side as he died, and he’d vowed to do the same for each and every vampire who fell to the virus.
Alex walked the halls of Agartha, her heart in two places at once. On the one hand, she could hardly blame Jaden for circling the troops as they faced the virus. The virus she had released. The fact that Agartha had allowed her sanctuary and none of the vampires had torn her throat out was a testament
to their restraint; although, she wasn’t about to press her luck by going into the vampires’ section of the city.
On the other hand, a good portion of her mind was on New Haven. By all measures, she’d lost the battle to Maryana. She’d been outplayed at every turn. Maryana had maneuvered her and Jaden to exactly where she’d wanted them, toying with them, getting them to destroy their own away ship, having them fight her troops at Agartha, while she flew their ship to New Haven.
And now just about everyone Alex cared about was dead or under her control. Jessica. Wesley and his family. CB, if he was even still alive. Maryana could be torturing them right now, and there wasn’t a damn thing Alex could do about it.
Alex found herself in the lab, where Brian had holed up with the few lab techs they’d been able to save from New Haven, along with a dozen or so from Agartha. Brian was pushing them hard, teaming with Stephanie, the head of Agartha’s lab. The two of them sat side by side at a long table, each staring into microscopes.
“Hey, guys,” Alex said. “How are things in genius-land?”
For a long moment, neither of them responded. Then, as one, they both looked up.
“Oh, hey Alex,” Brian said.
“You got a minute?” she asked.
“Sure.” He stared at her for a long moment before realizing she wanted to speak with him privately. Brian had come a long way since his early days as the head of the GMT’s lab, but he still struggled with basic social cues much of the time.
