Vampire Sunrise

In the Streets

The fiends played their game of hopscotch, then once board skipped out into the darkness. It was unsettling that the fiends were running rampant, but considering what else was out tonight, I was OK with it.

About twenty minutes later, Eleanor thought to me, "We are going to have a great night, my queen. Many, many are on the way to the square to play with us. Would you play too?"

If the three fiends had to ask me to come out, something serious was coming our way.

"Katie, get ready. The demons and I are going to Jackson Square to meet them head-on," I said.

"For the love of the goddess, Alice, be careful," Katie replied.

"Don't worry, we'll be having breakfast together at the coven in no time," I said.

"You don't eat breakfast, Alice," Katie said with a frown.

I hugged her and asked her to pull down the wards so we could go. The moment she lowered the wards, Angel and I moved into our rhythm and went to Jackson Square.

We beat the vampires to the square and met the three fiends. They were sitting on a bench.

"Lovely, the square is fabulous, isn't it?" Eleanor said with a giggle and pointed at the St. Louis Cathedral. She was still covered in blood but somehow now held a lollypop in her hand.

Coming from the cathedral was a congregation like I had never seen before. In the front were priests, cardinals, and whatever other fancy religious folks the church had. The iron gates were down, and there was nothing in the way of the crowd.

Flanking on both sides of the churchmen were vampires. Holy shit, why were vampires walking side by side with the priests? I didn't understand how this was possible.

This alliance made our attack much more complicated and confusing. Demons and minions could not hurt humans; what if the vampires used the priests like battering rams preventing us from retaliating.

I stood and faced the mixed squad of holy and unholy men. If I had to estimate, close to five hundred vampires and at least a hundred religious men formed the battalion. To add intensity to the impending confrontation approaching from our flank were about forty werewolves.

"Now, this is interesting," Loralie said telepathically, standing on her tiptoes on top of the bench, trying to reach one of the floating orbs the witches spelled into place. She was like a child trying to get a cookie off a high countertop. The marching onslaught stopped about fifty feet from us. The werewolves followed suit.

Leading our opposition stood Dean Francis, the ass that threw holy water on me yesterday, and one other man. The other man wore a custom all-black three-piece suit with a blood-red tie. The outfit didn't look stifling; it looked comfortable on his six-foot frame.

He had jet black hair that fell to his shoulder with a single streak of white accenting it. There was also some type of medallion dangling across his chest by a gold chain, and it radiated magic. That man had to be Dominus Strum, the vamp master of the city.

His skin was almost transparent; it was so white. I saw how he fit in as the suck head leader with high cheekbones and gorgeous ruby eyes. He stood motionless, almost casually, like this was just any other meeting at Jackson Square.

Dean Francis said, "Alice, the church has deemed that you must be purged to remove the demon that lives inside of you. We must return it to hell at any costs."

Francis looked at the man beside him, then continued again. "Dominus has agreed to support the church with our efforts to eradicate the evil presence and put an end to your madness."