The morning sun had barely crested the horizon when a sharp, authoritative knock jolted Ted awake.
He opened the door to find a stern-faced vampire in tactical gear standing in the hallway. "Get dressed," the guard grunted.
"Training session. We leave in Five minutes."
Ted rubbed his eyes, the exhaustion of the previous day still clinging to his bones. Reluctantly, he pulled on his boots and made his way to the outer courtyard of the sprawling manor.
The air was crisp. Gathered near a transport truck were six other vampires, all adjusting their gear. Like Ted, they all wore the silver glint of newly forged daylight rings on their fingers. Rick stood by the tailgate, tossing duffel bags of equipment into the flatbed.
"Listen up," Rick barked, his voice carrying over the morning wind. "You're all going to be part of the raid against the wolves later today. Get your gear stowed and take a minute to settle yourselves. We move out shortly."
As Ted hoisted himself into the back of the truck, a young-looking guy with a messy mop of hair sat down next to him. He extended a hand.
"Hey there, I'm Andrew."
"Ted," he replied, shaking the man's hand.
Andrew tilted his head, studying Ted's face. "I haven't seen you around before. You new?"
"Yeah," Ted nodded. "I just got here a few days ago."
Andrew's jaw practically hit the floor of the truck. He looked at the heavy silver ring on Ted's finger, genuine disbelief etched across his face.
"A few days? Man, are you serious? I had to bust my butt doing Ken's dirty work for three years just to earn a daylight ring! You show up on a Tuesday and get one handed to you?"
Ted offered an apologetic, half-smile. "I had a little help. From someone close to Ken."
Andrew chuckled, shaking his head with good-natured envy.
"Well, damn. It pays to have friends in high places, I guess. Must be nice."
They both laughed, the tension of the impending battle easing just a fraction as they bent down to lace their combat boots.
The engine roared to life. A senior guard hopped into the driver's seat, and the truck began to roll forward toward the massive iron gates of the estate.
As the truck bumped over the cobblestone driveway, the heavy metal doors of the back cabin suddenly swung open—someone had forgotten to slide the deadbolt. The driver hit the brakes to let them secure it. Ted immediately stood up, grabbing the heavy iron handle to pull the doors shut.
But as he swung the door, his eyes caught movement in the shadows near the perimeter wall.
It was Laura. She was dressed entirely in black tactical clothing, a thick dark scarf pulled up to obscure the lower half of her face. Beside her was another woman, similarly dressed—her cousin.
They moved with the silent, deliberate grace of people executing a heist.
Ted froze, his mouth opening to call out Laura's name.
Laura's eyes snapped to his. Without missing a beat, she raised a black-gloved finger to her lips in a frantic shush motion, her eyes pleading with him.
"Ted!" Rick yelled from the front of the cabin. "What's the delay back there?"
Ted looked at Laura as she and her cousin slipped past the inner gate, disappearing into the shadows of the manor grounds. He pulled the heavy truck doors shut, slamming the bolt into place.
"Nothing!" Ted yelled back, taking his seat. "Just a jammed latch. We're good."
The truck lurched forward, driving away from the estate and leaving Laura to her mission.
Inside the manor walls, Laura and her cousin walked through the manicured courtyard with terrifying confidence.
The plan was highly dangerous, but simple. Laura's cousin was a prodigy with illusion magic. She was currently sustaining a cloaking spell—a shimmering, invisible veil that hid them from vampire eyes. But it was highly volatile. They had exactly three minutes and twenty-four seconds before the spell broke.
Their inside contact had already orchestrated a distraction, pulling the main guard away from the subterranean prison block. All they had to do was get in, free the elder witch Madeline, and escape through a forgotten underground passageway that Ken didn't even know existed—a tunnel sealed by ancient magic that could only be unlocked from the inside.
They reached the heavy steel door leading down to the prison chambers. It was locked tight.
"Dammit," Laura whispered. "We need the master key."
Breaking the door down with magic would be deafening. With the cloaking timer rapidly ticking down, they hurried down the adjacent hall toward the security room.
They slipped through the open doorway. Inside, four off-duty vampires were sitting around a circular table, playing a lazy game of poker.
Laura scanned the walls. The keys weren't on the hooks. She looked closer at the guards. The heavy brass master key was clipped to the belt loop of the largest vampire at the table.
Laura dropped to her knees, creeping silently across the room under the protection of the cloak. She positioned herself behind his chair, holding her breath. She reached out with agonizing slowness, her fingers wrapping around the cool brass of the key.
She pulled.
What Laura didn't see was the razor-thin, transparent fishing line tied from the key ring to the vampire's belt—a crude but effective trap for pickpockets.
The line snapped taut. The vampire's supernatural instincts flared instantly. He spun around, his hand shooting out into the empty space. He grabbed a fistful of Laura's black jacket.
With a roar of surprise, he hurled her across the room. Laura slammed into a metal filing cabinet. The impact shattered her cousin's concentration, and the cloaking spell instantly dissolved.
The two women materialized in the center of the room. The four vampires dropped their cards, their eyes flashing pitch black, fangs dropping as they prepared to pounce.
Laura's cousin didn't hesitate. She threw her hands forward, chanting a rapid, guttural string of Latin.
Instantly, all four vampires screamed, clutching their chests and dropping to their knees. The witch was boiling the blood directly inside their veins.
But before the largest vampire hit the floor, he pushed through the agonizing pain. Moving with blitzing speed, he launched his entire body weight forward, tackling Laura's cousin. They flew across the room, slamming back-first into the concrete wall.
The spell broke.
Another vampire scrambled to his feet, lunging for Laura.
Laura thrust her palm forward. A concussive wave of telekinetic force slammed into his chest, stopping him mid-air and holding him back as if he were pressing against an invisible glass wall. A third vampire charged from her left. Laura threw her other hand out, catching him in the same telekinetic grip.
She stood in the center of the room, trembling, her arms shaking as she strained to hold back hundreds of pounds of furious, supernatural muscle. They snarled, pushing against her magic, inching closer with every passing second.
Behind them, Laura's cousin recovered from the brutal tackle. She pulled a strange, spiraled stake carved from black wood from her jacket. As the vampire standing over her reached down to snap her neck, she drove the black stake straight into his thigh.
The vampire shrieked. Deep, grey veins instantly webbed out from the wound. His skin dried and cracked like parchment as rapid desiccation set in, paralyzing him entirely.
The horrifying sight distracted the two vampires pushing against Laura's shield for a fraction of a second. It was all she needed.
Laura dropped the pushing force, stepped forward, and violently twisted both of her hands in opposite directions. The sickening sound of two necks snapping simultaneously echoed in the small room. The vampires collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
Panting heavily, Laura ripped the master key from the desiccated guard's belt. "Let's go. Now."
They sprinted down the hall, unlocking the heavy steel door and descending into the damp, lightless prison block. Her cousin stood guard at the stairwell while Laura ran to the deepest cell.
Inside sat Madeline. The elderly witch didn't look up, but a small smile graced her cracked lips. "Oh... how I've missed this feeling."
"Madeline," Laura breathed, rushing to the iron bars to unlock them. "I need your help. My sister... she needs the Subjugation Ritual, and we are completely out of time.
Please, you have to—"
"Save your breath, child," Madeline interrupted, standing up with surprising agility. "I would walk through hellfire to get out of this cage. Let us go."
"Laura!" Her cousin hissed from the stairwell.
The last of the vampires in the security room had regained consciousness. "You bitches!" he roared, his heavy boots thundering down the corridor toward the stairs.
"Run," Laura ordered.
They bolted down the prison corridor toward the dead end. As they ran, Laura and her cousin tipped over heavy wooden tables and metal weapon racks, creating an obstacle course to slow the pursuing guard.
They reached the end of the hall. Laura dropped to her knees in front of a seemingly blank stone wall. She placed her palms flat against the rock and began to chant. Slowly, the grinding sound of ancient gears echoed behind the stone. Two iron handles, like those of a massive bank vault, began to materialize and turn on their own.
The guard's footsteps were terrifyingly close. He rounded the final corner, his fangs bared, ready to tear them apart.
But the hallway was completely empty.
The guard skidded to a halt, looking around in utter confusion. He sniffed the air, but there was nothing. Growling in frustration, he turned and sprinted back up the stairs to sound the general alarm.
The second he was gone, the air in the dead-end hallway shimmered. Laura, her cousin, and Madeline reappeared out of thin air. Madeline lowered her trembling hands, having cast a flawless cloaking illusion just in time.
The stone door clicked open. They slipped into the dark, earthy tunnel, sealing the heavy door tight behind them.
They navigated the underground passage quickly, emerging from a hidden grate in the woods far beyond the manor's iron gates. Laura's SUV was waiting in the brush.
Laura helped Madeline into the passenger seat. She turned. "Get in. We have to move."
Her cousin gave a faint, almost distracted smile. "I'll find my own way."
"In this part of the city?" Laura frowned. "It's not safe."
"For witches like me?" she echoed softly. "Exactly."
Laura opened her mouth to protest, but her cousin was already stepping away.
She lingered in the shadows until the car's headlights vanished—then turned, her expression hardening, and descended back into the tunnel.
She moved with lethal purpose, retracing her steps back to the security room. The two vampires Laura had neck-snapped were just starting to groan and stir on the floor.
Without breaking her stride, the cousin flicked her wrists, using her magic to violently snap their necks a second time, plunging them back into darkness.
She walked over to the vampire she had paralyzed with the twirly black stake. He was completely desiccated, frozen like a horrific statue. She grabbed him by his combat boot and began to drag his heavy, rigid body out through the secret passageway.
Deep in the rugged hillsides outside of Charleston, the afternoon sun beat down on the vampire recruits.
Rick stood atop a steep, rocky incline. Behind him sat a large boulder with a single, small white rock resting on top of it.
"Again!" Rick shouted.
For hours, the objective had been identical: get past Rick and grab the rock. And for hours, the result had been identical. Ted and the other six newbies would charge up the hill, only to be brutally swept, thrown, or tackled back down into the dirt by the veteran vampire.
Ted hit the ground hard, gasping for air as the wind was knocked out of his lungs.
Rick paced at the top of the hill, looking down at them in absolute disgust. "Are you kidding me? Not even one of you can slip past me? You are faster and stronger than any human on earth, and you're fighting like clumsy children!"
He sighed, rubbing his temples. "Fine. New deal. If just one of you manages to get past me and grab this rock, training is over. We all go home. At least that way I can be sure one of you has a fractional chance of surviving tonight."
Ted pulled himself out of the dirt, wiping sweat from his forehead. "We've been at this for four hours, Rick. My ribs are bruised, Andrew looks like he's going to pass out. We might as well just go home now."
Ted turned his back on the hill, ready to walk away.
"Of course," Rick sneered, his voice dripping with venomous condescension. "That makes sense. You're a quitter."
Ted stopped walking.
"It's a pattern with you, isn't it?" Rick continued, intentionally pushing the knife in deep. "You get turned into a vampire, things get hard? You quit. You run away. Your girl gets taken right out from under you? You quit. You roll over. And now you're faced with a minor physical challenge, and what are you doing? You're quitting again. You're pathetic."
A dark, boiling rage erupted in Ted's chest. The air seemed to turn red.
He didn't think; he just moved. Ted exploded off his back foot with terrifying velocity. He blurred up the hillside, completely ignoring the feint Rick threw at him. He ducked under Rick's heavy clothesline arm, absorbing a glancing blow to his shoulder that would have shattered a normal collarbone, and slammed his hand down on the boulder.
He grabbed the white rock.
Ted spun around, chest heaving, his eyes burning with unnatural fire. He aggressively shoved the small rock directly into Rick's chest.
"Don't you ever call me a quitter again," Ted snarled. He turned around and walked away from the group, heading straight toward the edge of the woods.
Rick looked at the rock in his hand. A faint, proud smile touched his lips. He looked at the bruised recruits. "Pack up the gear. We're done here."
Rick followed Ted's path, eventually finding the fledgling sitting on the edge of a high cliff, aggressively throwing stones into the sprawling gorge below. Rick walked up quietly and sat down on the dirt beside him.
"So," Rick said softly. "What's your story?"
Ted threw another rock, watching it plummet into the tree canopy below. "What do you mean, what's my story?"
"Everyone has a story. A reason they keep walking when they're dead," Rick said, looking out over the horizon. "I lost my entire family in the Second World War. Bombs took my wife, my son... took everything. I was bleeding out in a trench, totally convinced that the world was hell and all was lost. But Ken found me. He gave me his blood. He gave me a second chance at living."
Rick picked up a pebble, rolling it between his fingers. "I thought I was just a monster. But I found purpose. I served in the army for years after that. I used this curse to protect people who couldn't protect themselves."
Ted looked at Rick, the anger slowly draining out of him, replaced by genuine curiosity. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because you're angry, kid. And anger is a good fuel, but it burns out fast," Rick said, standing up and dusting off his pants. "I'm telling you that this isn't the end of the world. You're not just a bloodsucker.
Find something to fight for. Find something to live for. Otherwise, you won't survive the night, talk more of the century."
Rick patted Ted on the shoulder. "Let's go back. It's almost time."
The sun sank below the horizon, plunging the world into a deep, heavy darkness.
At the edge of the sprawling forest, the vampire army had assembled. Hundreds of them stood in perfect, terrifying silence, the moonlight reflecting off their pale skin and dark weapons.
At the absolute front of the vanguard stood Ken. He looked out into the absolute blackness of the tree line. His eyes bled into obsidian. His fangs dropped.
Ken raised his hands high into the air and let out a deafening, blood-curdling battle cry that shattered the silence of the night.
Behind him, the army of the undead screamed back, a terrifying chorus of violence and hunger.
Deep within the shadows of the woods, golden eyes opened in the dark.
A massive, scarred wolf stood among the branches of a towering oak tree, looking down at his pack. His breath plumed in the freezing air.
"It's time."