The City of Fire and Shadows

Chapter 2

I still can't believe that it all happened so quick - my dad was captured by Flavia Drakon and her vampire scouts. Carlos and his sons, Oscar and Pierce didn't even have a chance - they were just killed in an instant. It's like the vampires didn't even care about them when they realized that my dad was a paladin. But now they have him, and where they're taking him scares me the most. Why would vampires kidnap a paladin? Since he was taken, I've been following them for hours in our old Dodge Charger, and it seemed like that they were heading towards Toronto.

I stared at my phone mounted on the dashboard. Since the vampires took over, they shut down the cellular networks to prevent human resistors from communicating with each other. But my phone is no ordinary phone. It's the Wisteria Azure. Unknown to most except for the most diehard phone enthusiasts, Wisteria Azure phones can communicate directly with each other and track each other through a low frequency radio signal. Kind of like a walkie-talkie, except you can also send texts that aren't as fast as conventional SMS. But it's thanks to the Azure phone in my dad's jacket that I'm able to track him. It's also thanks to this technology that I deliberately stayed 20 minutes behind them. It took all my willpower not to just speed off right behind them right after he was taken. But if I wanted to save my dad, I had to do this right. Do this smart, as he would say.

The blips on the tracking app showed the SUV heading down Highway 11 to Highway 400, their destination not in doubt - yep, they were heading towards Toronto, the home of the vampire prince, Reginald Drakon. I glanced at the palladium spatha in the passenger seat. This sword is all I have left of him - no, don't think like that, Audrey! But I can't help it. Just thinking of Toronto gives me an uncomfortable feeling.

You know, Toronto was once my home, before all this went down. Before we were forced to flee. But that wasn't the only reason why I felt a sense of unease. After the vampires won their war of conquest against humanity, they partitioned the world into various vampire-ruled states, a series of vampire fiefdoms nominally subservient to the king of all vampires, Vlad Drakon. It was vampire feudalism, vampires ruling humans as their lords and masters. And for whatever reason, Drakon's son and heir, the Crown Prince Reginald decided to make his home in Toronto. He even decided to change the name of the city to 'New Toronto', just in case it wasn't clear that he was now in charge.

Reginald himself was definitely a force to be reckoned with. As the son of the Vampire King, Reginald ruled Toronto as his own personal playground, free from the infighting and ambitions that usually plagued the vampire lords due to his status. From his center of power in what was once Casa Loma, he imposed an entrenched hierarchy common to all vampire states: vampires as the rulers of society; under them, the second class collaborator humans; and at the bottom of society, the slave class humans who do all the dirty work and serve as a food source for vampires through periodic, mandatory blood "donations". And despite the fact that his father ruled the world from far away Transylvania, no one, human or vampire dared to move against him. It also helped that his close ally, Barry Druzillia, a vampire lord who called himself "The President of the United States", possessed one of the largest armies of all the vampire lords. Even House DuLancey who now ruled a large chunk of Quebec and the Ottawa region won't dare mess with Reginald. Simply put, House Drakon were clearly the rulers of Toronto and its surrounding regions.

But here I am, driving on a suicidal trip into the lion's den, armed with nothing but a fancy sword. I snapped out of my reverie of self-reflection as I noticed the ruins of Canada's Wonderland in the horizon. The tracking app showed that the SUV that I've been following at a distance exited from Highway 400 not too long ago. That's strange. Highway 400 would've led them right to the Toronto core, but instead they did a detour to Canada's Wonderland. What were they planning? Did they know that I've been following them all along? It couldn't be. I was at least 20 minutes behind them. They wouldn't have been able to see me. Was this some sort of trap? Regardless, if I wanted to save my dad, the only thing I can do is follow their route and see what happens...