The two fangs stopped and looked at the missile that had been launched. It’d missed the target, but in the distance, a few more were in the air.

  “It’s Mithris, my master... they’ve come to join the party it seems.”

  “Yevhen says it’s Mithris. I don’t know how he knows,” Kaz said out loud to Reynolds and Zora as they picked themselves up and popped their ears from the pressure of the missed shot.

  “They’re not bothering to hide it. They have two squat, many-legged machines and several troop transports,” Yevhen said out loud as he faded into existence behind Kaz, emerging from her shadow. She didn’t react to his presence; that’s what he wanted. She played it cool and replied.

  “Good. Rip them apart and then get back to murdering your bearded friend.” He seemed to approve of that and chuckled a bit.

  “What do you think, Bur-Suen? Do we want to put our little duel on hold for a snack break?”

  Bogdan stomped over, now shirtless and his pants in tatters. His body was covered in scars and looked sickly, despite the extreme and absurd muscle tone. She had to remember that vampires were undead and even though they might look alive, their bodies were effectively corpse puppets controlled by their own will.

  “I could eat,” the massive vampire said with a smirk and rolled his right shoulder a bit. His axe had a few more chips in its blade and there was what looked like a bite mark on the wooden handle. There was a noticeable change in his personality, like a dog that had fought hard and now was ready for some play.

  Reynolds had fished out a pair of binoculars and was looking at the mechs in the Mithris formation. “Looks like two Nabokovs. They’re not even trying, are they?”

  As she was thinking about how screwed they were going to be, she noticed a few other soldiers had managed to limp their way over to them. They were injured, to be sure, but she didn’t see any lifeless bodies. She couldn’t say the same from the scout squad, but Lieutenant Kory’s boys seemed to be doing okay. Even Horbach was up, though he was being supported by two of his mates.

  “Do you wanna watch, Kaz?” Reynolds asked, offering her the binoculars, but Kaz flatly rejected him.

  “I’m already going to have problems sleeping tonight; I don’t - ” she cut herself off as flashes of the carnage were pumped directly into her mind. The lust for carnage that Yevhen felt. She could feel the crunch of small neckbones, the warm gush of blood, the ecstasy as it spilled down her throat. She fell over shaking, partly in pain and partly in pleasure. Was this what he felt? Kaz was confronted with just how alien he was, just how wrong he was. How twisted and inhuman he was; his pleasure was in the way people died. There wasn’t something honest or good about that … he fundamentally wasn’t human anymore.

  “Kaz, are you okay?! I - ”

  She held up a hand to stop Reynolds from touching her. He and the others looked concerned and she just hugged herself tighter and shut her eyes against the world. It was horrific. She was really bound to a demon, not some dime-store romance novel vampire.

  “Kaz, seriously. A-are you okay?” This time it was Zora, and Kaz looked up dazed,

  “Yeah … I’m just ... It’s a lot being connected to Yevhen when he feeds. He shared it with me. The fuck if I know why.” She knew why but didn’t want to say. He wanted her to know him, to fear him, to understand just how broken he was. This wasn’t something he wanted to fix - nothing that could be fixed. It was just a part of his nature.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “They’re dead, though?”

  “Yeah... and then some,” she reported and gave Zora a sort of shrug. Lieutenant Kory came up to her and put a hand on her shoulder and she instinctively flinched away before letting it settle on her shoulder again. Human contact felt good at that moment; it reminded her that humanity still existed in the face of things like that.

  The carnage subsided a few minutes later, but the two vampires didn’t return immediately. She knew through her connection to Yevhen that the two were just bantering back and forth - half threats and half subtext. The two twisted souls had known each other for longer than most nations had been around, and they’d been in a pissing contest since 1913 from what it sounded like. She tried to shut them out.

  “Kaz, you have a connection with Yevhen. Report,” Captain Reynolds ordered, though there was a softness to the way he commanded.

  “Bogdan ghouled a dozen soldiers and is sending them back across the border as a present. He made the rotting corpses swallow explosives with a pull pin hanging out of their mouths,” Kaz said rather matter-of-factly, putting the terrors in her mind away for now. She’d have to deal with them later.

  “Fuuuuuuuuck me…” Kory said, letting out a deep exhale and Zora covered her mouth. Ghouling was when a vampire turned a living person into a mindless undead thrall, a zombie, and puppeted their meatsack until it rotted away or otherwise disappeared from the earth. It was a grisly fate for sure.

  “Yeaahhhh...” Kaz agreed, letting out an equally long sigh; she knew just how screwed up the world they lived in was.

  Just then Yevhen and Bogdan returned, walking across the bombed-out plain the group found themselves in. The Arcadians had tossed down a few chemlights while they were waiting to see what would come next. The eyeshine of the vampires, the smaller Yevhen still in his funerary suit, and the monstrous shirtless Bogdan with his axe, reflecting in the green glow of their little ring of light.

  “Took you long enough,” Kaz said defiantly to her demonic pet.

  “Had to savor our meal...” he said, his lips stained red and little flecks of blood splattered on his white shirt. He could have modified his form however he wanted, but he had chosen to leave them there...

  “So what then?” she asked. “You two about to duke it out again?”

  “Nah, that ship’s sailed,” Bogdan growled in his low voice. “We’ve settled it. At least for now.”

  “Settled what?” she asked cautiously, half expecting them to have divvied up who of the Arcadian soldiers they’d kill, but Yevhen just chuckled, shaking his head in response.

  “We agreed that he’s a half-witted Sumerian whore and I’m an arrogant pile of shit. Those are the terms we settled on, I believe,” Yevhen mused.

  “An arrogant pile of donkey shit. Don’t think I forgot about Scotland, Callum,” Bogdan spat, apparently using one of Yevhen’s old names, “But... yeah. Yevhen has convinced me your racket is going to be a lot more bloody and fun than stomping about in the woods, feeding off the occasional convoy. I want a real goddamn war. A vampire war!” His eyes lit up again as he said that last part and he literally licked his fangs. “But I ain’t signing any contract! I’m here for the carnage. The Pillar demands it, so I’m on board! Those other fangs can eat me! I’ll rip them apart and watch them burn. I’m on top and no chipped-fanged blood sucker is gonna say otherwise!” Bogdan’s profanity offended Zora who took a step back.

  There was mention of that “Pillar” again but she pushed it aside to look at Reynolds. They’d come out to eliminate Bogdan, but if he was no longer neutral, and if he was willing to join... they couldn’t turn that down. Militaries hired fangs all the time, and even if the price was steep, having a second strix-level threat in their pocket was not an expense Arcadian command could turn down.

  Now, should they trust him?

  Absolutely not.

  But they had no choice if they wanted to win this damn war and survive.

  I know not the names of the lesser members of their kind, but their generals are known to many men. They have been around since the earliest days of man and thus have been called by many names and titles.

  Bur-Suen, he who is called “Mountain”, is a general of The Pillar who is also called “Mégês”. Fear him most for his might, for in that domain none can claim to be his equal.

  Know you the name of “Callum of the Scots”, though he is far older than that name. It is he who quarrels with Bur-Suen. He alone knows the secrets at the heart of matters and is perhaps The Pillar’s truest student.

  Ward yourself against she who is known as “Slaninkova”, who was known as “Aimée, Svetlana”, and as the “Lady of White Feathers”. She commands legions and in her service are many terrible creatures and other vampires.

  Call not the name “Silas” or “Ezra” for he is a false preacher who tempts those who are weak of heart to sin in his name. Many are his cults and far does his ungodly influence range.

  I know little of she who was “Regina Pinto”, I know only that she once owned a manor and held a title among the Portuguese. Fear her not for her might, though be wary of that, but for her ability to go unnoticed among people during the daylight hours.

  -The Red Gospel

  Chapter 12, Verse 23-28