Change is sweeping through the world, as humanity fights for autonomy, discord tears apart the foundations of the vampire order, and dhampirs return to the world after centuries of war between two powerful peoples. Dhampirs, creatures known to heral...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Damien returned much as expected, slamming the double doors to the anterior washroom so hard one of them cracked on the stone walls. If Vincent had stood one inch to the left it would have cracked his face open too, but he knew better than to stand around hazardous objects when there was a mage around. They had no caution nor poise.
"Ares, tell me he's okay!" Damien demanded.
Ares paused where he was sliding a new dress shirt on Phoenix and somehow had the restraint to not behead the man. There was nothing more insulting the cad could have said to a vampire general.
"What the hell do you take me for?" Ares growled, lacking the composure to put up with Damien's constant mage stupidity completely. "Lorenzo froze the entire eastern study hall as well as the connecting corridors. It melted on his departure and left Phoenix soaked. I was merely changing him into dry clothes."
"You can't blame me for being concerned," Damien growled back, focusing so hard on every inch of Phoenix that he'd yet to notice Vincent leaning against the corner with his arms crossed. "This place is drenched in the scent of blood, yours as well as Lorenzo and Asmodeus'."
"I would die before I let anything happen to Phoenix," Ares responded, glancing down from Damien to Neil. His son had entered the room much more cautiously, and had the wherewithal to check every corner before focusing ahead on his son with Ares.
"Well, pardon if I sound rude, but you're not a match if Lorenzo himself showed up," Damien said, taking a few steps in and kneeling near Phoenix. "Are you okay, Phoenix?" Damien asked gently and the boy smiled. It was a nervous expression, but not insincere. Phoenix loved Damien as he loved Neil.
"I'm okay. Grandpa got rid of the bad men," Phoenix said, and Damien paused.
"Grandpa? We were just in the Copse territory, and Forest was absent but they said he was in society dealing with other matters." Damien looked to Phoenix for explanation but Ares spoke instead.
"Wrong grandpa," Ares said, finishing up Phoenix's buttons and standing.
As the general dropped his hand down for Phoenix to hold, Damien's brain malfunctioned. The man froze as if someone had slapped him upside the head and a few screws had slipped out through his ears. Neil rubbed the bridge of his nose and angled himself toward where Vincent stood.
"Why are you still here, Vincent?" Neil asked. The words spun Damien around like a whirlwind, and his scythe formed in his hand in half a second. "Damien, drop it. The man is a specter so I doubt your weapon will have any effect."
"Leave it to the mage to forget I'm dead." Vincent taunted, smiling to flash his fangs at the man. Dark magic sparked on Damien's hands where he held his weapon at the ready. "As entertaining as it would be to harass you, we have worse problems. Both of you need to get to the Aurion complex."
