Veridian Shores

Chapter 45 - A Story Better Left Untold

She couldn't believe they'd done it. The whip hung limp in her grasp as she stared around the scene of desolation that had transformed Iron Hollow's market plaza. Her body ached all over from where the First had flung her into the concrete – she knew several bones had been cracked at minimum. However, she'd gotten off lightly compared to many of the others.

Gliss limped gingerly through the ruined terrain of the plaza, grimacing at the smell of dead ash. Garven was gone. So too were several of the Glaive and Baelock guards. Who knew how many other vampires and humans had been massacred before they'd arrived on the scene. She made her way slowly and painfully to where Capper lay.

To where the First had died.

Brooke was already there when she reached him, cradling the other vampire's head on her lap, speaking to him in words too faint for Gliss to make out through the lick of the flames and blare of alarms in the air. She could see he was still moving, but his skin looked wrong, marred by strange snaking tendrils of grey that pulsed and squirmed as though they were alive, appearing and disappearing at random.

She edged closer, gently coiling the whip around her body from shoulder to waist to free her hands, but she stopped moving abruptly when Brooke looked up, hate blazing in her eyes. Hate and accusation. Gliss pressed her lips tightly together and stood her ground, waiting. Eventually Brooke returned her attention to Capper.

The others slowly trickled in from the surrounding area; Altus supporting Arcil while the Elder-Blood clutched the ruined mass of flesh and bone that had once been his side. Lilly came flitting down from her vantage point like a frightened fox, crossbow clutched in shaking hands. She saw the surviving hunter from her group, Anka, virtually carrying Lucille, the Glaive guard's shattered body still recovering from the spine shattering impact she'd received at the hands of the First.

They watched in a numb silence as Brooke laid Capper down flat against the ruined ground and slowly withdrew the crystalline bolt from his shoulder. As the bolt slipped free a strangled howl of pain escaped from Capper's throat and one of his hands clenched against the ground so hard that a chunk of concrete simply shattered under the force. Brooke flinched back for an instant before tossing the bolt aside and gently brushing the hair from his dirt- and sweat-soaked scalp.

"It's okay," she said hoarsely. "I'm here. Try not to move."

Capper shook his head, his whole frame visibly trembling as he levered himself into a sitting position, his movements jerky and uncoordinated, as though something had knocked his brain and body out of synch. Eventually he managed to wrestle his body into a standing position and sucked in a massive, shuddering breath.

"Is it dead?" he rasped, his face tight with pain.

"It's dead," Brooke told him. "We did it."

A thin smile edged across his features and he glanced at Lilly. "Nice shot."

"Thank you... milord." She gave a small nod, hugging the crossbow close to her.

Capper looked around, as though for the first time registering the sheer scale of the destruction. He shook his head slowly, disbelieving.

"What a mess," Arcil muttered. "Was it worth it, Gliss?"

She turned a black stare on him, anger filtering through her pain. "We didn't know," she hissed back.

"Oh, I can see that," Arcil chuckled bleakly. "But 'we didn't know' simply won't do. Do you understand what you've done here?"

"I didn't kill these people," Gliss snarled, taking a step towards him.

"No," Brooke muttered sadly. "You've done much worse than that."

"What?!"

"That thing just tore through the human district of this city! It killed, dozens – maybe hundreds of people in front of everyone. It killed vampires too, and all of it happened right out in the open. The authorities here know about us now!" Brooke laughed, a shrill bitter sound that cut into Gliss's ears like glass. "For thousands of years our whole species has stayed hidden, and in one night you've destroyed it all. They'll come for you now. None of the clans here are safe any more. You've brought the humans down on them, and that's a war you'll never win."

Gliss trembled with rage, embarrassment and helplessness. Part of her just wanted to lash out with the whip, to fight the whole world until nothing was left standing. But she just stood there, glaring back at them, unable to formulate a single word.

"So that's it then." With a groan of effort Capper trudged towards her and her eyes flickered to the great-sword he still clutched in one hand, the blade scraping across the ground with every step. She swallowed hard, the guilt gnawing at her with a vengeance as she looked into his face. It felt like an eternity ago that she'd walked through those docks on Veridian Shores and Capper had found her. He'd been smiling then. Now, looking at what she'd done to him she just felt hollow. He was bloodied and bruised, his face a mask of exhaustion, marred by those strange grey tendrils that coiled across his skin. They even found their way across the whites of his eyes.

"You did this," he said heavily, hefting the great-sword. "And someone's got to answer for it."

Gliss faced him, trembling, struck cold by the realisation that this was the end. So many dead, a whole world ripped apart and her home drowned in blood and flames; there was no atoning for that. Capper's glare bored down into the very deepest part of her, pulling at all the shame buried deep. She didn't want him to say another word. She just wanted it to be over with.

"Do what you have to do," she told him shakily, straightening up, head held high.

"She deserves to die," Arcil grated.

"Yeah, I guess she does," Capper muttered. He looked down at the great-sword then back up to her; exhaled long and slow. Then he raised the weapon.

Gliss gulped down the lump in her throat, eyes locked on the blood-darkened blade as he drew it back. It was as though it moved in slow motion, inevitable as an avalanche. Then he gritted his teeth and swung.

Agonizing pain exploded across the left side of her head as bones cracked under the crushing force of the swing, but even as she crashed to the ground with a scream of pain, Gliss knew it wasn't a killing blow. At the last second Capper had turned the sword, striking her across the face with the flat of the blade rather than taking her head off.

"But I'll leave that to someone else," she heard him say dimly. "I've had enough killing for one day."

Levering herself into a sitting position she looked up at him, the vision in her left eye blurry and tinged with crimson. She tried to speak but he'd shattered her jaw with the blow, so only a burbling noise escaped.

"You see, Gliss," he continued, couching down on his haunches to bring his face level with hers. "If I killed you, that'd be the easy way out. You wouldn't have to live with what you've done; wouldn't have to face it. I just don't think that's fair. So stay here. Maybe find what's left of your clan and try to fix this." He leaned closer. "But if I ever see you again, I'll kill you. That's a promise."

Then he stood and turned away, staggering off into the night. One by one the others followed him until only Brooke remained, a grim expression on her face. The girl stared for what felt like an eternity, before she too turned her back, marching into the darkness.

And just like that she was alone. Groaning in pain, Gliss picked herself up off the ground, looking blearily around at the destruction, the lick of flames and screams of the dying eddying in the air. It was over, for now.

She should have been dead, she knew that, but at the last instant Capper had stayed his hand. Whether he intended this as a punishment, or if he simply hadn't been able to bring himself to kill her she didn't know. She'd been willing, there and then, to give her life. Now that the vampires from Veridian Shores were gone, the strands of the old Gliss Raynor began to come back together. It was time to act, to do something to stem the tide of mayhem that she had unleashed by finding the Keystone and bringing it here. It would be dangerous, maybe even impossible, but that didn't mean she would give up.

Gliss was a survivor.

She would survive this.