by Lily Luchesi
Daniel went to leave the room, and Angelica turned back to the injured vampires. One of the doctors — a wizard — turned to her and said, “They’re not gonna make it. Do you want to make this easier on them so they don’t suffer?”
She looked at Danny and said, “Do you think we should?”
He nodded slowly. “They shouldn’t have to keep suffering.”
The corpses were being slowly eaten away by the holy water from the inside out. The groans and weak cries from the vamps were hoarse, because the throats were the first to deteriorate because the water had been consumed.
Angelica closed her eyes for a moment, gathering her composure. Murder was second nature to her, but she wasn’t fond of mercy killings, ever since her first kill. It had been a possessed werewolf whom she dated when she was eighteen, and she’d had to kill him after he had been exorcised because the demon had driven him mad.
“All right.” She took a blade from her pocket, wishing she had her sword on her to make this easier. She bent over one of the vampires, who looked up at her with bleeding, confused, and pained eyes. “I’m so sorry,” she said to the man, taking her blade and cutting through his neck till the head was completely severed.
She and Danny made quick work of the remaining three vamps, and it took all her strength not to just throw in the towel then. Dakota — if it really was Dakota — was doing her damndest to break Angelica down, piece by piece.
She didn’t know that Angelica had already been broken many times before, and she had always put her pieces back together again. The former cracks in her spirit were battle scars that she wore proudly to prove that, yes she had been broken, but she had survived and would keep surviving.
“I’ll call a ghoul cleanup squad,” she said, wiping the blood from her blade on the napkins they kept in the break room. “And hope that Sean and Daniel found something.”
A clattering that sounded like a desk being knocked over startled them both, and the look they shared was one of frustration. They ran out into the main office to see that Daniel never made it up to Sean’s office. He was currently grappling with a man about the size of a house who Angelica was fairly certain was a werewolf.
Daniel was a fair fighter, taking into account her last lesson as he slipped under the were’s fist to escape, since this guy was about six-foot-nine, and Daniel was a foot shorter than that.
Danny got his gun and aimed at the shifter. “Hey!” he called. “You wanna eat this? Then settle down.”
The shifter stopped immediately and held his hands up in the classic gesture of innocence. Daniel, however, was still in fight mode.
“No — he just sent a video of your kills in there to someone. I saw him and that’s when he attacked me,” Daniel explained. “He’s working for the skin changer.”
Danny’s grip tightened on the gun, and Angelica hated that she hadn’t brought hers, but it was a little hard to hold a weapon when you’re wearing skintight workout gear. The blades just happened to be filched from the training room, and she was lucky she even had those on her.
“Hand your phone over,” Danny said.
The werewolf laughed. “Oh, the royal family of the Undead sticks together! You teach your heirs young to follow the cause, don’t you?”
“What?” Daniel asked. “You people really are psycho.”
“Doesn’t matter,” the werewolf continued. “My boss already has the video, and without context, boy does it look damning, Empress. Your downfall is imminent, and not a moment too soon.”
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a silver blade. Danny went to fire but before he could pull the trigger, the werewolf had stabbed himself in the heart, the silver piercing the organ and ending his miserable life.
There were pinging sounds going off all around the room, and everyone took their phones out. Danny pulled out his and said, “It’s already everywhere — the video of the executions.”
Daniel’s face was pale. “But — but you guys were doing it out of mercy!”
“Doesn’t matter,” Angelica said, feeling a bit shell-shocked. “Just like the shifter said, no one knows why, and by the time we get a statement released, the damage will have already been done. We’re fucked and, except for the people who witnessed this, we’re now considered murderers of our own kind.”
Danny closed his eyes and said, “We’re fucked.”
* * *
Everyone went into action quickly, Angelica to the tech team to try and remove the video from all dark corners of the web, though she knew it was a futile endeavor. The people in the room when the werewolf had announced his plans all made public statements of what they saw and heard, to stay on the Mancinis’ side, and Sean was going to release a statement from them both as well, explaining everything in full and naming Dakota and Jade public enemies numbers one and two.
Danny, however, had a more personal matter to deal with, regarding his now confused descendant.
He took Daniel into Angelica’s empty office and sat the kid down with a cup of hot tea. He knew this moment was coming, they had already discussed it, but having it revealed by the werewolf made it seem like Danny had been hiding Daniel’s bloodline from him.
“Okay, I have seen way too much tonight,” Daniel said, leaning back in his chair. “Is it always this crazy here?”
Danny smirked. “Angelica says it’s usually pretty calm, but I’ve never witnessed anything less than mild panic at the PID.”
“If this is your normal, I’d hate to see it get crazy around here,” Daniel commented. “So...are you gonna tell me why that werewolf thought I was a vampire?”
“Yeah. Funnily enough, I was actually trying to figure out the best way to explain all this to you already, so you didn’t get any more confused than you already are,” Danny said. “You know how Angelica became the Empress, right?”
Daniel smiled. “My favorite bedtime story, the half-human girl who was blood-related to the first female vampire and recreated an entire Empire. Yeah, I remember.”
“You make it sound like a fairytale,” Danny said.
“No, you did,” Daniel replied. “Angelica was my first superhero, and better than any fictional princess.”
Danny felt his heart warm, remembering those nights with his little great-grandson, sitting by the fireplace while a winter storm howled outside, telling him tales of the woman Danny had loved for multiple lifetimes.
“Did I ever tell you why I’m the Emperor?”
Daniel shook his head. “You never said you’d be the Emperor, I just assumed it was because you married her.”
Danny shook his head. “Then I’d be the Empress’ consort. I’m the Emperor because… Okay, let’s start here. Angelica and I had a falling out because of Augustus, remember about him?”
Daniel nodded. “The very first vampire.”
“Right. Well, unlike Angelica’s bloodline, which had always been born vampires until her, Augustus’ bloodline faded away into humanity, and therefore any paranormal historians gave up on tracing them. Until Sean translated and connected Augustus’ family tree. He found the last living direct descendant of the Emperor.
“The thing about vampire blood is, you can dilute it all you want, if you have a vampire in your direct line, you will always have a drop of vampire blood in your veins, no matter how microscopic. It will show up in strange ways — looking younger than you are by five to ten years, healing quicker than average, enhanced sight or smell or reflexes. Great traits for a cop to have.”
Danny saw Daniel’s eyes widen as realization began to dawn on him.
“Sean traced Augustus’ bloodline to here, to now. He traced it back to me. I was the heir to the Emperor’s throne, whether or not I married Angelica. And that means that you are now the only living heir as long as Angelica and I are childless,” Danny finished.
“And you never said a word to any of your family? No one knew that they were vampiric royalty?” Daniel asked.
“When I embraced my h
uman life, getting married to a human and having kids and all that, I promised Angelica I’d live a normal life. There was no reason to ever explain all of that to anyone, especially not you who already had to deal with your powers,” Danny explained. “I hope you’re not mad. It was only to make sure you had a nice, normal, human life. I never expected you’d ever need to know.”
Daniel grinned. “This is...this is epic, are you kidding? It’s the ultimate bragging right: I am the heir to an empire!”
Danny leaned back, relieved. “I thought you’d be pissed.”
“For what reason? This is great! And it explains why I still look like an undergrad,” Daniel replied.
“You do know you’re not likely to gain the title, right?” Danny asked, surprised that the kid was this excited.
“Hey, you said that the PID has a high mortality rate.” Daniel winked. “Come on, let’s go help everybody out with calming down the masses.”
Danny watched his descendant walk off, ready to fight for his family. The kid was so much like him, and not just in appearance anymore. He knew Angelica didn’t want children, and he respected that, but was glad all the same that he had had the chance to have a family of his own. Knowing he left an indubitable mark on the world made him feel like he’d done his part. He wasn’t like Angelica, a legend in her own right. He was just...Danny. So he had to leave his mark on the world in another way.
Many would say he had made a difference in the world, between being a cop and then working with the PID, but he thought differently. His name would never be remembered, but his family and his blood would live on, and that was enough for him.
He followed Daniel to the tech room, which was filled with equipment he couldn’t name, let alone figure out how to work.
Angelica was pacing behind the chairs of some of their tech agents, biting at one of her long, black nails.
“How bad is it?” Danny asked.
“We’re not sure. Many people already responded to our statement, saying they had actually thought the video was a scam, which is good. But others...people already didn’t like my laws. They wanted any excuse to overthrow me, and now they’ve got it. We’ve got a mass rebellion on our hands, and I’m afraid that we won’t be able to stop it.”
Chapter Eleven
The sunrise came far too soon, and the vampires were forced to take to their coffins before anything was resolved. The only reason neither Mancini was up all day with worries was the strange coma-like sleep that Undeath forces upon its members. Its upside was also its downside: they could always be well-rested, but that meant forced hours of inactivity.
That had been one of Angelica’s biggest reasons for not wanting to turn into a full vampire, as vamplets can walk about during the day providing they were covered up and wore sunblock. She knew it was useless wishing for her old life, where her humanity was not a hindrance, but instead a helpmate, but she wished anyway. Miranda Valdez had nearly killed her with her own blessed falchion in twenty-fifteen, and she went into a coma.
Danny had been the one to decide to make her turn, and while she was grateful for life, there were many days she wished he’d just let her die and finally have some peace. She was tired then, and she was tired now. She wasn’t perfect, no one was, but she didn’t understand why everyone was always out to get her for some reason.
Just because they never stood up for their beliefs and changed the world didn’t mean they got to tear down those who were brave enough to do so. They envied her power, yet had never been brave enough to grasp that power for themselves when they had the chance.
But that was what people often misunderstood about her. She didn’t want power, she wanted peace. And she wasn’t going to let anyone take that hard-won peace away from her.
Once upon a time, she had thought that she’d disband the PID once she’d caught her father, but by then she had known how many threats there were out there, and they weren’t diminishing. This company, this power she wielded, she chose to wield it to keep humanity safe.
For too long she’d sat complacently in the shadows, monitoring and observing. But the time for quiet observation was over: it was now time to do what Angelica Cross did best. It was time to hunt.
When she and Danny arrived at the PID headquarters the next night, she announced her plans to the three men.
“Dakota is gonna keep fucking with us as long as we let her. It’s time for us to do something more than spying and hypothesizing. It’s time to smoke her out and finish this once and for all.” She went to the computer and put it on a projector. “This is the Dakota I knew. Judging by what Hermes saw, she increased her height, kept the blonde hair and — according to the witnesses who saw the first vic at the Congress Hotel — still thinks looking like a Playboy bunny is the way to go. Stylish, but not afraid to get her hands dirty.”
The photograph showed a pretty blonde with tanned skin, fancy and scanty clothes, and bright eyes surrounded by enormous fake eyelashes.
“If she is the skin changer, then her reflection in glass would show her true appearance, but only in the right light. And you can rest assured that that appearance isn’t pleasant. Anything can be killed by decapitation — except for sirens and demons — so that’s always an option with her. But there’s one thing that can kill a skin changer by literally eating away at them and there’s no way to stop it.”
She clicked a few buttons and a chemical combination appeared on the screen.
“Yeah...not all of us have six degrees behind us, Angie,” Danny said. “What is this?”
“It’s...acid. I think,” Daniel said. “There was a course I had to take before going forward into my medical studies, about criminal forensics and postmortems. The corpse had been eaten away by acid. Nasty as Hell.”
Angelica was impressed. “Very good, Daniel. But this isn’t just acid. This is aqua regia. Hydrochloric acid mixed with concentrated nitric acid at a ratio of three to one — more hydro of course.”
“Of course,” Sean said, rolling his eyes. “All right, if that’s the formula I’ll send it down and see who can mix this up for ya.”
“Thank you. Daniel, you think you’re good enough with a short sword to be of assistance?”
Daniel nodded.
“Okay, for Jade...we need witch-killing bullets.” In order to kill a witch or wizard, they also needed to dispel their magic from their body. That was done with iron bullets into which a Wicca pentagram was carved. They needed to be shot five times anywhere on the body, but at least once in the heart, in order for the magic to be dispelled. And to ensure that their spirits didn’t return as vengeful spirits, you had to cut out their heart and bury it, and then burn the corpse.
It wasn’t necessary to do all those steps, and only non-magicians needed to use a gun. Another witch or wizard could use magic or potions. Angelica just liked to be thorough, especially with evil ones who made themselves immortal like Jade did, and like Fiona Guilfoyle had once upon a time.
It was time to take the fight to them, and Angelica wanted to be prepared for any creature Dakota might’ve gotten on her side. Vampires, obviously, but maybe werewolves and ghouls and God knew what else wanted in on the action, too.
“Angie...are you sure we can handle this?” Danny asked quietly. “I mean, the biggest group we ever had to face were those demons Leander and Fiona sent after us, and we had Brighton and Mark, but still wound up being overpowered. You had to put on the sprinklers with holy water to get us to finish the battle and win.”
“No need to remind me, that’s a night I’ll not soon forget,” Angelica replied. “We have Daniel and Sean now.”
“And God knows who she has,” Danny said. “I don’t mean to discourage you, but I think we might be a little out of our depth here.”
Daniel was watching them carefully, listening to what might transpire. Angelica didn’t like it, but that wasn’t the battle she needed to fight right then. Nor was Danny’s pessimism.
“Danny, demons are different. Vamp
ires, for all our powers and glamours, are extremely easy to kill. One quick cut to the throat. Same with werewolves. It’s Dakota and Jade who are our biggest threats, and I still believe that the four of us can take them, as long as we can find them and get the jump on them and not the other way around,” Angelica said.
“I’m not sure if you’re optimistic or insane,” Danny said.
“Why can’t I be both?”
Daniel cleared his throat. “I, um, I know I’m like the intern here, but can I make a suggestion?”
“Be our guest,” Angelica said, hoping her voice didn’t sound as sarcastic as she wanted to be.
“You know how in war they send people to the battlefield like in shifts? One wave to thin the herd and then the second, stronger wave to finish off the bad guys? Why can’t you do that? If she really does have a shit ton of creatures behind her, you can ask your agents to thin the herd, and then the four of us can get the big bosses.”
Because this is no one’s battle but mine, Angelica thought, but she knew they’d never understand her sentiments. She’d started this venture with the PID alone, she was born to be the Empress, and this was her fight. When she’d begun relying on others to help her, starting with Director Dominic, she’d felt like she was failing her mission. It was silly pride, her biggest sin, but there you had it. It didn't help that nearly everyone she ever enlisted the help of had died horrible, painful, premature deaths.
“I don’t want to endanger everyone,” she replied.
“So you’d rather we all die instead of enlisting a few extra bodies?” Daniel asked.
“Watch your attitude,” she snapped. “I don’t want to see people die because of me! There’s been more than enough of that happening! I can’t stop Danny and Sean from following me into fucking no-man’s-land, and apparently I won’t be stopping you, either, but I can spare everyone else a painful death!”
Hermes. Brighton. Mark. Her security guard Bart. Harriet. Director Dominic. Helena Collins, whose death she still couldn’t get over, as it had been the only one caused by her own hand. Half the building when Leander sent his demons to possess and murder them. Too many had died in her name and enough was enough.