by Alex Dire
“Thank you, Alpha,” said Adrian.
Norman relaxed his arms and dropped them down to his sides. He looked back at his Nymphs. Fear still gripped their faces. What had he gotten them into? All he wanted was to keep them safe and prepare them for their new lives and here they were in the heart of some enemy he hardly understood and didn’t even believe existed until very recently. He glanced over at Elijah who didn’t appear fazed at all. The more he got to know him, the more ‘seventeen’ seemed less and less likely, but Elijah was a mystery he’d have to unravel at another time.
With the audience back in their seats, Adrian strode up the isle in the center of the pews and stopped at a podium.
The Alpha looked past him at the group of vampires standing in the entrance chamber. “Marcus, see to it that our prisoners are comfortable for the time being. Adrian, speak your peace. And be quick with it. It’s been a long night, and we may still have an execution to carry out.”
The threat did not seem to affect Adrian. Execution? How could he remain so confident?
“Yes, Alpha.” Adrian looked from side to side. The whole audience stared back, giving him their full attention. “I realize I have breached tradition and law by bringing these vampires to the Circle. They are six ordinary vampires. Five of them are Nymphs. However, they have a tale to tell about something terrible. Something even darker than a vampire’s heart. Something that, quite frankly, this Circle must take heed of or risk perishing. I bring you this intelligence, though the hour is late and our time almost up.”
The werewolf at the far right huffed indignantly. His perfectly groomed and parted brown hair remained completely undisturbed as his mild voice sang his accusations. “If you’re speaking of the augmented vampires, we’re well aware of them. We’re also aware of your dealings with them. ‘Quite frankly,’ this Circle was greatly disappointed with your resolution of the matter. You revealed yourselves. That is unacceptable.”
Adrian and his brothers had saved Norman. Saved his students. Was secrecy really an expected trade-off for their lives?
Adrian turned to address the speaker. “Hello, Eric. Nice to see you, too.”
The smooth skinned vampire narrowed his eyes.
“However, I believe that matter has been settled. I’m not speaking of the tinkering vampires who replaced some of their own organs with transplants,” said Adrian.
“Out with it,” said a woman on the opposite side of the semicircle.” She had long dark hair as straight as rain, and she rested her cheek in her hand. Her voice was infused with annoyance, but her eyes betrayed something else.
“Very well,” answered Adrian. “Honorable Alpha, members of the Circle, I give you Norman Bernard.”
A jolt of lightning shot through Norman’s entire body. He had not expected Adrian to put him on the spot like this. He looked over at Elijah. Once again, the boy’s face gave away nothing.
Slowly he stepped through the iron doorway. Marcus’s eyes shot daggers at him as he passed through. Norman was certain they’d have been wooden daggers if he’d had his way.
As he entered the Circle, he got his first complete view. Its grandeur contrasted the craggily caves with the fissures and moss they’d navigated to get here. It seemed ancient and austere. The cobble stone walls were even and symmetric. Each brick had ornate carvings etched into it. The circular walls met far above, forming a domed ceiling. The whole chamber flickered with the light of many torches placed at regular intervals along the wall’s perimeter and height.
All eyes turned to Norman. The Alpha tapped his finger on his table. “A vampire has not disgraced this chamber in a long, long time. Approach and speak, Mr. Bernard. Your words will determine the depths of Adrian’s treason.”
Norman approached the podium. Adrian whispered in his ear as he stepped aside. “Make it good.”
Norman cleared his throat and spoke. “Your Honor.”
The Alpha exhaled with disgust at the breach of protocol represented by Norman’s words.
“A revolution is about to occur in the vampire world,” Norman continued. “A group will soon decimate most of us. Then they will subjugate the human world, preserving only enough to maintain food banks.”
“Mr. Bernard,” cut off the Alpha. “We’ve watched you carefully over the Millennia. We’re well aware of your parties and their silly plans. You’ve done nothing but make war. We’ve acted when we’ve needed to. We observed when you’re bickering boiled over its boundaries into war. I’m very sorry your side lost. However, I don’t see how this concerns us.”
“What I’m talking about aren’t the vampires you’re used to dealing with,” said Norman.
“Yes, yes. We’ve been over this already this evening and in previous cycles,” spat the Alpha. “I think we’ve heard quite enough. Marcus. Let’s find a nice secure place to hold our guests.”
“Wait,” interrupted the woman on the left with the long black hair. “I’d like to hear what this intruder has to say.”
The Alpha shot her a stern glance.
Eric stood at the opposite end of the semicircular table. “How dare you interrupt the Alpha.” He pointed a finger at her. “Know your place and your allegiance, Kara.”
Kara lifted her head off her hand. Her long hair fell below the level of the table. “Honorable Alpha, please allow him to finish. It is Adrian’s right.”
The Alpha muffled a growl. “Very well. Sit, Eric. Reserve your passion for better uses.” He again looked at Norman. “Speak, vampire.”
Norman decided brevity would be his best path out of this stone tomb. “We have encountered a vampire far worse than the ones with transplants you spoke of.” Norman looked around the semicircle. These people would trade his students' lives for their secrets. Would any of this matter. “There is a vampire who has been remade from the chromosomal level up. Reconstructed from his very DNA. Light cannot damage him. Wood cannot kill him. As far as we can tell, he’s indestructible. You are facing a vampire that can operate in the light of day as well as the dark. A vampire with a heart immune to wood.”
“You’ve seen this new vampire?” interrupted Eric.
“We encountered one,” replied Norman. He looked down at the stone floor, recalling the incident. “He destroyed one of my Nymphs.”
A stubble headed werewolf on Eric’s side of the semicircle chimed in. “Silver?”
Norman snapped out of his nightmare memory of Keon's death. “Unknown.”
“I still don’t see how this affects us?” said the Alpha. “There are so few of your political opponents left. Surely you can manage the situation with this new…breed.”
“There are more.” Norman paused hoping he’d get the protocol correct, “Honorable Alpha.”
“How many more?” the Alpha responded.
Exasperated, Eric stood and interrupted once again. “Richard, you’re not seriously entertaining this story?”
The Alpha stood and stared Eric back down into his seat. “Remember your place, Eric.”
Eric slowly sat back down. “Sorry, uncle.”
The Alpha’s eyes widened with anger as a growl escaped his tightening lips. Eric lowered his head. “Sorry, honorable Alpha.”
He remained standing and looked back at Norman without uttering a word.
“There are three hundred in hibernation at a storage building in the city,” said Norman.
The Alpha placed his hands on the table and leaned forward, his eyes widening, “Adrian, this is your territory. Clearly your efforts at monitoring have failed. How you thought bringing these vampires here would save your life is beyond me.”
“There are forty such storage units around the world,” said Norman. “They’re everywhere, Honorable Alpha. There are thousands. And now they know about you. The only question is whether they’ll take you out first along with us, or wait until the full assault begins.”
The Alpha fell back into his seat, marinating in the new information.
Kara crossed her arms. “I
think we owe Adrian an apology.”
Eric pointed a finger at her. “I don’t see how this changes anything. We’ve been content to hide in the shadows and watch for far too long. We need to take care of the vampires once and for all. I say we start with the ones right in front of our noses.”
The Alpha looked past the room, unfazed by the argumentation that surrounded him. The room fell silent for a moment. The gap in sound seemed to wake the Alpha up. “Yes.”
Norman stepped back from the podium, but the growls from the audience kept him from fleeing. He looked back through the iron doorway to where the Nymphs stood. He sensed Felicia’s fear. His eyes flicked to Adrian, pleading.
Adrian looked over to him but remained still, helpless to intercede.
The Alpha stood. Time stopped for an instant as everyone waited for the Alpha to decree his sentence. “Adrian,” he said, looking into the young werewolf’s eye. Norman saw the Alpha searching for a hint of fear. If he felt any, his eyes betrayed none that Norman could detect. “The Circle and I wish to apologize for our misplaced suspicions. This is dire information indeed. It comes to us late, but we are in your debt for bringing it forth. I recognize the risk you took in doing so.”
Adrian let out a deep breath. He made a slight bow. “Alpha,” he said in response.
The Alpha addressed the Circle and audience. “It appears we’ve wasted our time monitoring the remnants of the last vampire war, debating the minutiae of the tiny political factions that still exist. A greater threat has gathered silently under our noses. We must turn our attention to it.”
Eric rose again. “Alpha, I object. Now you are in breach of protocol. Adrian betrayed our existence to vampires and brought them into this chamber. The law says he must die for these transgressions. You are the Alpha. You’re responsible to see that justice is done. It’s the law.”
“Watch your tongue, Eric,” the Alpha spat back at him. “I am the law. It is not your place to question me.”
The stubble headed werewolf rose, “He’s right, Alpha. Adrian is way out of line, and ultimately, these are vampire problems. They’ve had their rebellions and revolutions before. We should stay out. That’s the law. This whole discussion is out of line.”
“Treason!” shouted a voice from the audience. The Alpha’s eyes twitched around the room, clearly detecting a threat in the air. Rumbling and arguing amongst the audience filled the room with white noise.
Kara pierced through it by leaping onto the table. “How dare you accuse the Alpha!” she shouted, pointing a finger at Eric. “He’s your Alpha and your family.”
“Eric, Neil, be seated,” commanded the Alpha with a deep growl.
“You can’t command us anymore,” replied Eric. “You’ve squandered your authority on these vampires and this…” he waved his hand at Adrian, “outcast.” The word seemed to hit Adrian across the face like a baseball bat. “If you won’t deliver the sentence, Alpha, I’ll do it myself.”
The chaotic chatter in the audience grew louder.
The other members of the Circle stood up and joined in the chorus of noise. Some rose in protest, some in support.
Kara pointed a finger at Eric and Neil. “Traitors.” Kara’s rage erupted from her mouth. She yelled and launched herself across the room. She shifted mid-air, and her yell became a howl. She landed on Eric and reached for his throat with her sizable teeth. Eric gripped her furry neck, pushing her mouth away.
Neil shifted into a light grey wolf with two black lines down his back. The pads of his rear feat launched him into Kara, knocking her off Eric. Neil and Kara rolled and snapped their teeth at each other. Fur and blood flew from their violent embrace.
Eric shifted forms and rose to his four padded feet, now a rusty red wolf with a white belly. The instant he was up, he leapt at the Alpha. The Alpha looked over to see Eric descending on him. Too late to react.
The audience erupted into violence. Members shifted to wolves and the room filled with growls, barks, and yelps. The pews cracks as wolf bodies were heaved against them.
Norman began to back away amid the chaos. “We need to get out of here,” he shouted as he looked back over at Adrian. However, Adrian wasn’t there. Norman turned to the Alpha’s chair. A large black wolf had knocked Eric off of the Alpha. Adrian.
Erick and Adrian stood nearly nose to nose, growling for superiority. Neither seemed to be in the mood to submit. An audience member let out a hideous bark and leapt into Adrian, pounding him against the wall.
Adrian yelped. Norman heard several of his rib bones crack with the impact. Judah and his brothers roared into the room. They streamed around Norman, who still stood near the podium and leapt to Adrian’ defense, tearing his attacker away and forming a snarling ring around him.
Eric and two other council members leapt onto the Alpha who remained in human form. He punched at their noses and grabbed at their necks. They bit and scratched at him. The Alpha’s face was speckled and streaked with his blood.
Across the room, Kara howled over the bloody and unconscious body of Neil. She then launched herself across the room again to her Alpha’s defense. She knocked one of the council members off of the Alpha and rolled across the floor with him.
The Alpha still struggled with the other two. One had clasped his forearm in its teeth and shook and tore at his flesh. The Alpha held Eric off by his neck. He wouldn’t last much longer like this.
Norman turned his head back and forth between the struggling Alpha and the frightened Nymphs. Felicia’s fear called to him. He would never be completely free of her needs. He looked into her eyes and connected with her. He knew she felt his intentions. He opened his mouth and hissed as his fangs shot out. Felicia returned the gesture. Norman turned back toward the Circle and leapt.
He descended on Eric’s back, digging his fangs deep into the wolf’s neck. Eric yelped and skittered away.
The Alpha then brought his freed hand around to grasp the top of the other wolf’s snout as it still bit into the muscle of his arm. The Alpha yanked the mouth open. The wolf tried to back away, but the Alpha grabbed it around its neck and threw it across the room. It smashed against the wall and fell to the ground in a lump of twisted limbs and fur.
Felicia blurred through the circle of wolves that had surrounded Judah and his brothers. In a fraction of a second, she’d sent most of the unsuspecting canines reeling about the room.
Norman pulled his fangs out of Eric and let out a monstrous hiss. The charge of fresh blood amid combat put him in closer touch with his vampire nature. Eric whimpered away and joined a group of other werewolves across the room.
“Enough of this,” growled the Alpha in a deep authoritative voice. “There will be no more bloodshed in the Circle.” His own blood flowed quickly from his mangled arm.
Eric shifted back to human form. He was completely naked, but smeared with his own blood which streamed from the back of his neck. “Vampires have shed our blood!” he screamed. “Vampires in our own sacred Circle.”
Norman looked to the faces of the other werewolves who were all shifting back to human form. He saw many grow angry, further enraged by Eric’s words.
“We came to warn you, not to fight you,” said Norman.
“Close your mouth, vampire,” snapped Eric. “You have no place here.”
Most of the people in the room moved over to Eric’s side of the circular chamber. Adrian, and his brothers remained with the Alpha along with Kara, a few councilors, and a handful of the audience members.
“You have shed your Alpha’s blood. You have betrayed us all,” sneered Kara.
Norman could sense that she would have rather attacked than spoken, but the numbers were not in her favor. Perhaps Kara would think differently if she realized that she’d have five vampires at her back.
“No,” replied Eric. “It is he who has betrayed us. He let Adrian go rogue, when all along a threat was developing in his sector. He allowed vampires into our Circle and let one speak!” Eric breath
ed heavily as the words roared out of his mouth. “He is not fit to be Alpha. Eric looked around the room at the ornately carved bricks and ancient torch holders, at the dark stained pews. “There is nothing sacred about this place anymore.” Then he looked to the Alpha. “You can have it, uncle. And your vampires with it.”
Then Eric shifted to a wolf and ran from the chamber, followed by those who had stood by his side.
Norman approached the Alpha who grasped his bleeding arm. “Alpha, I…”
“You came to my defense.”.
“I just acted out of… It was nothing,” replied Norman. Perhaps now he'd earned some faith.
The Alpha looked up from his wound into Norman’s eyes. “You should not have done that.”
This surprised Norman. He thought that if he hadn’t acted, the Alpha would have surely been killed.
“You drew werewolf blood in our most sacred space,” continued the Alpha. “I had many allies in this room, but few would tolerate such a thing. You should not have done that.”
“I’m sorry, Alpha.” Norman's only chance at gaining allies had failed. He dipped his head, unable to find another way forward.
“Richard,” replied the Alpha. “It appears I’m just Richard now.”
“Many will rally with you, Alpha. This is not a time to despair,” said Kara.
“Many more will not” he replied. “Mr. Bernard. The fissures you saw burst open have run through our kind for a long time. Eric was waiting for an opportunity like this. I was a fool to give it to him.”
“It’s my fault,” said Adrian, limping over to the Alpha. “I should have foreseen this. We’ve just been away for so long, and the circumstances seemed so urgent.”
“You are correct about that,” replied the Alpha. “Mr. Bernard, if what you say about these new creatures is true, we have no choice than to join your cause. To deny you would be suicide.”
Norman lifted his head to meet the Alpha's glance. Hope. “Honorable Alpha, I–”
