The Vampire's Rival

When she becomes your last hope

Taking in the sight in front of me, what the evening would have been like played itself back in my mind's eye.

The décor would have been beyond immaculate. Pristine. Untouched for centuries except for being cleaned and repaired when needed. Art from the past was Lujeo's obsession. He didn't have the talent to create new art, but he could recreate every single piece of art that he liked to perfection! He'd spend years replicating his favourite artists' work, and the Sun Festival was when he brought everything out for show, decking the walls with thousands of canvases. He used to say that the genius of human art was that it was alive. Mortal. According to Lujeo, that was true art.

Just as the sun set, Lujeo would have gotten up to address the guests.

"Welcome to the Sun Festival!" he'd call out in a booming voice.

The crowd would erupt in applause. He was loved and hated in equal measure. It made for an interesting dynamic between him and the vampires in his Enclave.

"Two hundred years ago," he'd continue. Same speech every year. "Humans launched an atmospheric shield to fight ozone depletion. The Shield blocked out all UV radiation from reaching the Earth's atmosphere. They gave us a path to the surface, after millennia of living underground and in the shadows. But they weren't happy with our presence. They weren't willing to accept us as part of their society. They tried to destroy us, even if that meant taking down the world with us. Against all odds, we wrestled the world from their destructive hands. Saved it for us all. Survived! And now, we thrive!"

Lujeo would then raise his full glass of blood, the first he'd had in months.

"To the Human Error!"

The crowd would have joined in raising their glasses.

"To the Human Error!" they'd all say in unison.

But something different had happened to the Sun Festival this year. Screams would have filled the room. The crowd of blood starved vampires would have watched in surprise as dogs poured into the room, wielding three-inch sabre fangs, a few with lurid blue Venom eyes, all of them healing when attacked. I had felt the malice exuding off those creatures. Unchallenged, the pack of vampire dogs would have left no one alive in their wake.

The blood starved vampires stood no chance.

I slowly walked through the main rooms of the mansion, taking in the wanton destruction, searching for Lujeo. The floors were littered with broken glass and spilled blood, garish under the fluorescent lighting. The walls and furniture painted blood red.

"Ruqwik?!"

I was moving before I even thought about moving. Josal, was in my grasp, choking under my hold. I quickly let him go.

"Josal? What are you doing here, sneaking up on me?" I asked, giving him room to recover. I had crushed his trachea for the second time today, though this morning felt like a lifetime ago. "I thought I told you to leave my Enclave."

"I came to tell Lujeo about the dogs! To warn him!" Josal croaked. His eyes were wild. "But he's dead. This isn't your Enclave anymore, Ruq! It's no one's! The others will come."

"No one will claim this Enclave for as long as I'm still alive!" I replied.

Josal stood up straight, his windpipe sufficiently healed for his words to sound less like rocky sludge in a washing machine. He was taller than I was, had pale skin, tousled short black hair, a defined straight nose, sharp square jaw, and even squarer shoulders held up by a massive chest. His eyes had a thicker ring of green around the red irises compared to this morning. He still hadn't fed even though his body had taken enough abuse to significantly drain him.