The Crucivire

Chapter Twenty Eight: Magic and Monsters

The new recruits shot down wave after wave of the defiled vampires, but they were seemingly endless. They crawled on the walls and the ceiling in their attempts to reach the humans, but the recruits barely managed to hold them off as shots made them fall. Vampire bodies littered the floor, turning back to humans, but no one dared get a closer look. Occasionally, one of the recruits would throw an incendiary grenade, burning every vampire in the area and bathing the floor in fire for a few seconds. Still, the vampires just kept attacking. Marcia, Jamar, Harry and Robert were all sweating as they fired their guns.

"They gotta run out of these things sometime!" shouted Robert.

"We just have to hold out until the holy water is restored," shouted Harry. "Then we..."

He was cut off after a twang and a thump. Out of the corner of her eye, Marcia saw Harry fall, an arrow sticking out of his forehead. Looking towards the door to the stairs, they could see vampires aiming crossbows, even as defiled spilled past them.

"Fall back!" cried Thompson, throwing an incendiary grenade.

A few more hunters were hit with crossbow bolts before the grenade went off, filling the hallway with flames. As the recruit hunters retreated further down the hallway, Marcia took one look back at Harry's body. She could see no life in his eyes.

Once the flames cleared, all the vampires, defiled or not, gave chase.

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Cora and Jasmine swung their swords furiously, spilling vampire blood everywhere. The fallen vampires lay in pieces, and a few defiled had their heads cut off with their hearts intact, leaving the heads snarling. From the door in the stairs, a few vampires shot crossbow bolts, but the two dhampirs deflected them. Cora even kicked a defiled vampire in the chin to knock it upward, blocking a crossbow bolt before she cut it in half.

However, with the sheer number of vampires attacking, the pair were slowly but surely forced backward. No matter how many they cut down, more would attack and force them further back through the hallway.

And then Jasmin got hit in the arm with a stray crossbow bolt.

"Retreat!" cried Cora, cutting the head of three defiled at once before the pair of them ran down the hallway.

Further down, at the water tank, a line of Night Hunters had placed simple barricades and held their guns at the ready. Another line of hunters stood atop the tank, ready to reign down bullets from above. Agent Walker stood with the priests at the top, ready to bless the water once the tank was full enough. Within the tank, the water had finally cleared and was just now filling up. There was only a small amount covering the floor of the tank, and Agent Walker shook his head. This was going to take far too long.

"Vampires!" cried a hunter.

Walker looked to the hallway and saw both Cora and Jasmine running, vampires at their heels. He raised his hand.

"Hold!" he cried, trying to give the dhampirs as much time as possible to get to them. "Hold!" He could feel his men read to fire like a rubber band about to snap. "Hold!"

And then the two dhampirs kneeled, going into a mighty leap to soar above the barricades.

"Fire!" cried Walker.

Cora and Jasmine cringed as bullets rained on the vampires. Some defiled had leaped after the two dhampirs and were shot out of the air. The two dhampirs landed in a heap, immediately covering their ears as the hunters shot the vampires.