United Against The Vampyren: Dark Vampire Romance

by Seth Eden

  “Don’t worry about us,” Kal said, walking backwards to shout back at Tess and Crystal. “Just go back to your dorm! Just trust Loren. It’ll be alright.”

  He saw Tess and Crystal glance at each other in alarm just as the first breeder woman was dragged out of the dorm building. Like any other breeder in the middle of the night, she was all made up and wearing lingerie. Her face was bruised up like she’d been knocked around a bit and a stone-faced Vampyren soldier was dragging her by the arm as she screamed.

  “It wasn’t us! Stop!” Finally, she gave up on words and just howled in terror. Behind her, the other breeders in the dorm were being similarly dragged out of the dorms toward the Humvees. Many of them, Mark knew, were mothers of children in that creche. Kal and Mark ran toward the soldiers but stopped at a safe distance with their arms raised.

  “They didn’t do it,” Mark said firmly.

  One of the soldiers stopped short and scowled at them. “What are you talking about? These women are being arrested on suspicion of raiding a creche—"

  “Right,” Kal said. “It was us.”

  The others in Free the Children had (wisely, Kal thought) already sneaked off to their dorms. That was probably because Mark and Kal had quietly warned them to do so on their return even if it was not part of the plan.

  “Kal, what the fuck are you doing?” Tess said tightly.

  “We raided the creche,” Kal said calmly. One of the soldiers, the one in charge, Kal was sure, let go of his prisoner and marched up to Kal. He was an old-fashioned type of traditional Vampyren soldier and he looked at Kal and Mark with disgust. There was a certain stiff brutality about him as he scowled them.

  “Who are you?” He said slowly.

  “We’re deserters,” Mark said, which was a lie in his case. He was doing it to protect the men of his unit. “Call us traitors if you want to. The two of us liberated the children from that creche—"

  “What just the two of you?” The soldier said, snarling.

  “Mark! Stop.” That was Crystal, standing there and holding Tess's hand as the two of them looked on in horror and astonishment. “Don’t do this!”

  “These women had nothing to do with it,” Kal said flatly. “It was the two of us. We’re happy to confess to the Council.”

  The soldier narrowed his eyes. “If you’re lying—"

  “If it was to free their own children,” Mark said, “then where are the children? You think these women care about half-Vampyren babies they were raped into birthing? They’re just common whores. You need to make an arrest tonight. We’re happy to go down. We’re trying to make a statement.”

  The soldier gave them a long look as Tess and Crystal watched with bated breath and then he turned to his men and said, “Let the breeders go. We’re taking these two traitors.”

  He would probably be executed, he thought. That was unless Loren was able to pull off some kind of miracle with the Council. The soldiers were slapping manacles on his hands and Mark’s. When he turned to look at Tess, she knew. She should have known anyway really. But things were happening fast. Yet he could tell now as he met her eyes that she knew and Crystal realized it at the same time.

  The girls could only cry and scream as Kal and Mark were taken away.

  5

  Tess

  Everything had gone according to plan right up until it hadn’t. She could be as angry at Kal as she wanted (and she was) but that wasn’t going to get him out of the Council’s custody. It was so late by the time Mark and Kal were taken away, that neither she nor Crystal bothered to sleep. They couldn’t anyhow, between the excitement of the mission and the terror of seeing their boyfriends taken away. Instead, they took solace in the cafeteria with a fresh pot of coffee and some of Free the Children for company.

  It was useless to try to hide from the breeders what had gone down. Everyone heard about Mark and Kal’s arrest even if they hadn’t seen it for themselves. Tess and Crystal were quiet, brooding into their coffee cups, unable to think about anything but what would come next. That was when a whole group of unfamiliar humans and Vampyren barged through the cafeteria’s double doors. Tess didn’t know them but she guessed they were resistance, if only because the Vampyren men were wearing human clothes like Kal did. One of them even had his hair cut short which Tess had never seen before. The group was headed by a Vamp and human couple. They spotted Tess and marched right up to her.

  “Are you Tess?” The girl said. She looked not much older than Tess and as tough as Mara. She held herself like she was about to kick somebody’s ass the first chance she got and you better hope it wasn’t you. She crossed her arms and cocked her head.

  “Um...yeah,” Tess said. The combination of despair and exhaustion had her off her game, but she nodded. “Who are you?”

  “Name’s Cassie,” the girl said, offering a hand which Tess reflexively shook. She nodded at, Tess presumed her boyfriend, the Vampyren. “This is Danton. We’re resistance from out West. We want to join up with Free the Children.”

  “How’d you find out about us?” Tess said, still a bit wary even as she got to her feet.

  Cassie shrugged. “I mean resistance isn’t centralized but word gets around. If you know who to talk to. Took me a while to track you down, but I finally heard I should go to Urbana-Champaign and find Tess. For a minute there, I thought you were one of the breeders.” She nodded in the direction of the other dorms and Tess tittered.

  “No. I’ve never had the privilege.”

  “It stinks,” another woman said. She was standing behind Cassie and looking a little irritated. “Trust me, I know.”

  “That’s Mindy,” Cassie said with a snort. “She’s out from Vegas.”

  Mindy, Tess noticed, also seemed to have a Vampyren boyfriend who was stifling a laugh at her remarks. “Must be something in the water,” Tess murmured. “Well… okay. Glad to have you. You just drive in? We got food if you’re hungry.”

  “Sure!” Cassie said, scratching her head. “Thanks!”

  Tess watched them file off to the counter of the cafeteria where there was still some hot breakfast warming in big metal dishes under the glass. Her mouth dropped open as she watched the line grow and grow, more of them trickling in from outside. There had to be a few hundred. If they all stayed here, they’d fill up the dorms. Crystal would need to get her hands on more food to feed all these mouths. That was a potential logistical problem but Tess didn’t care about that now. Instead, she found herself feeling a little hopeful even in the face of her boyfriend’s potential execution.

  This wasn’t just a resistance cell anymore. This was an army.

  “Are you sure they’ll let us see them?” Tess said. She was riding shotgun and Keira was driving. She’d been staying downtown, closer to Loren who was always busy with the Council. But Loren sent her to pick up Tess and Crystal. Apparently, they got to visit their men in custody Tess wasn’t sure if she was looking forward to it or not.

  “That’s what he said.” Keira shot Tess a sympathetic look. In the backseat, Crystal was mostly quiet which was unlike her and a bit startling. She’d mentioned something about missing her baby. She had a kid with Mark apparently. But to get around the creches, her daughter had been born in secret and sent to live with Tess’s friends. This made Tess look at Crystal with a new sense of respect. Her life’s work had become freeing children, yet she couldn’t imagine how hard it must be to give up her own for their wellbeing.

  “How does this work?” Crystal said now, finally piping. “Is there a trial or something?”

  “I mean…” Keira shrugged. “If you want to call it that. It’s kind of a kangaroo court. It’s pretty bullshit.”

  “Hey, what’s that?” Tess said now, looking behind her out of the back window. “Is that one of our vans behind us?”

  Keira frowned and glanced in the rearview. It was not just one, but every functioning vehicle from Urbana was following Keira down the highway, even a couple of cars that belonged to matrons fr
om the creche. The girls glanced at each other, baffled. But Tess had a feeling in her stomach and she wasn’t sure if she was hopeful or afraid about what it could mean.

  It could be a death sentence for Free the Children. Or it could be the beginning of everything.

  At the Council headquarters, the multitude of vehicles into which everyone from Urbana had stuffed themselves parked on the street and Tess and Crystal got out of the SUV with some trepidation, having expected to show up there on their own.

  Tess nodded at Mara who came running up to them. “What’s happening?”

  “We’re standing with the guys,” Mara said. Tess looked out on the big crowd forming in front of the HQ and she saw two guards out in front looking edgy. There were several Vampyren in Free the Children at this point, which might have given them pause.

  “So they execute all of us then?” Tess said with a snort. “We’re supposed to be a secret—"

  “This is bigger than that now,” Mara said. “We’re not telling him who we are. We’re just bearing witness.”

  Tess exchanged a look with Crystal and shrugged, making their way to the front doors. She was the leader. She could end this right now and they would follow her direction. But there was something about it that made hope win out over fear. Maybe it was time for a move like this. Maybe with Loren on the Council, honor would win out over brutality.

  There was no way to know without trying.

  The guards tried to stop the giant army-sized horde as they approached the front doors.

  It was the Vampyren members of Free the Children who got in front and stared them down.

  “Are you going to kill all of us right now?” He said darkly. “We’re here for the Council meeting. None of us are armed.”

  The guards seemed baffled and even Tess was surprised when everyone was allowed in, though they were all checked for weapons. The Council members were still trickling into their chambers and they gaped at the gathering mass packing into the room. There would not be enough room for everyone. They’d be spilling out into the halls. Tess thought they’d picked up some strays outside; passersby who got the sense that something important was about to go down with the Council and wanted to show support. That was something alright.

  “What is this?” Mahn the Council member said.

  Keira stepped forward and Tess saw her nod at Loren. “We’re here to support Markole and Kal.”

  “This is highly regular!” Mahn said, and some of the other Council members began to grumble which made some in the crowd grumble and Loren shouted above them as he stood behind his seat at the big circular table.

  “Hush!” Loren said, his voice deep and rising like thunder. “I think we can allow this. If everyone remains quiet.” He glared at the rest of the Council. Tess spotted the members who seemed perhaps sympathetic before nodding and arguing quietly with the stiffer members. It did seem as if there had been a sea change, perhaps even more since Tess and Kal had reported on the creche and she wondered if its liberation had actually changed their minds a little for the better. Everyone finally quieted down and Loren said, “We’ll bring out the prisoners now?”

  Everyone quieted down and the Council members took their seats though they all looked edgy. They did seem like they were attempting to go along with whatever was about to happen. It was as if perhaps they’d been prepared for it. Tess was starting to think Loren’s influence had increased greatly.

  Kal and Mark were marched out and Tess’s heart leapt when she saw him. She actually clutched her chest. It was surprising even to her how much she’d fallen for him, but now she felt tears pricking her eyes when he looked up at her and gave her a small nod as if to assure her he was okay. He didn’t look hurt or beaten up at least. Neither did Mark. That was a good sign anyway.

  Mahn got to his feet and cleared his throat. “We’re here to discuss the case of Markole and Kal. They are Vampyren brothers, and self-admitted deserters of their respective units. They have also confessed to raiding the creche which was liberated—"

  At the mention of the word “liberated” a couple members gasped and grumbled to themselves. That was interesting, Tess though. They were using the language of the resistance.

  “Kidnapped,” Mahn said, correcting himself, though he didn’t look happy about it. “The children remain missing. This meeting is to decide whether their confession is sufficient for sentencing and if so… to declare sentencing. We also do not know the current whereabouts of said children, some of which include Vampyren offspring…” That seemed to be the end of his speech. He nodded to Loren.

  Loren stood and clasped his hands in front of them. He looked out at his fellow Council members and gravely said, “If we’re going to use the word ‘kidnapped’ in reference to children in creches, I might remind the Council that every half-Vampyren infant has been forcibly taken from their human mother who also forced to birth them—"

  The Council grumbled a lot at that and Tess smiled to herself, the crowd behind her crowing in agreement. Two of them got up and argued loudly with Loren and there was much flailing of hands before things calmed down again.

  “Moving on,” Loren said, clearing his throat. “There is an unusual number of supporters here for Markole and Kal. I imagine they have something to say?”

  “Loren!” One of the older Council members said. “This is unacceptable!”

  “Shut up, Jalen,” Loren all but snarled, narrowing his eyes.

  Nobody stopped him. Tess smirked to herself. This was going better than she’d thought.

  The old guard was now outnumbered.

  “We do have something to say.” The speaker was Danton and one of the other Vampyren men who had shown up with the resistance the day before stepped forward with him. “My name is Danton and this is Alek. Like Markole and Kal, we are deserters.”

  Alek said, “And we also want to confess to the raiding of that creche.”

  “So do we!” Several others shouted from the crowd.

  “So do I!” Tess said, stepping forward with Keira and Crystal as they joined in, shouting their confession with everyone else, including the breeders and their matrons.

  “So do I!” Loren’s voice thundered above the rest and a few members of the Council gasped before several of them stood up and said the same.

  Tess tried and failed to swallow the lump in her throat. She never thought this was possible, not when she remembered the brutal first days of the invasion when it had felt as if the world was ending for good, and not when she thought of the things she had seen in creches and when she remembered hearing the stories about women who were forced to breed. That brutality had an end date and that justice had a real shot, had never seemed realistic before. And yet, her work had always functioned under that assumption, when she thought about it. Why bother to free children from their imprisonment if there was no hope for their futures?

  Now Loren spread his hands before the holdout Council members who looked more than a little perturbed by this turn of events. “Fellow Council members, who among us is not fatigued from this endless fighting, this colonization? We have brutalized a species because they offered us land, blood, offspring. We’re at an impasse now. We have children with the humans. Many of us have relationships with them. And perhaps more importantly, there is now a much greater threat than humans that we will soon face and if we don’t find unity between our species, we will find our death as a people. I would like to vote that we find a real solution to the creches, that we abolish breeding pits, and that we endeavor to find a way forward as Vampyren and humans together in a shared government. I also vote that we release these two men who have obviously given a false confession. I would like the Council to vote on all this.”

  “I agree,” Mahn said and several other Council members nodded though the holdouts looked angry. “Our solution to the creche report was no solution. Before these two men came forward, we were under the impression that these children had been liberated by their own mothers and who among us di
d not feel some amount of sympathy for them? If you didn’t… you have forgotten what it means to be Vampyren. We have tried to devalue humans but they are every bit our equal and we can no longer pretend they are not deserving of rights. We can no longer ignore the Lucian threat and our need for humans as allies. I vote with Loren on every point!”

  It was four men on the Council who jumped to their feet and one of them who shouted, “This is outrageous! I order the arrest of Loren! And Mahn and any other Council member who has expressed solidarity with them! Guards!”

  Tess looked to the guards standing around the chambers. They looked at each other uncertainly and Tess noticed how very tired they looked. That was, she thought, perhaps the thing that swayed most of the Council and the Vampyren who had come around to their side. They were just tired of all this.

  The guards nodded at each other and approached Loren. Everyone in the room seemed to tense up. But the guards walked right past them to the holdouts of the Council, calmly coming behind them, and before the Council members could react, the guards silently drew their daggers and slit their throats. The four Council members gasped and their blood gushed all over the table, their eyes bulging in surprise before the light went out of them. There were a few members who Tess suspected had been on the fence, perhaps with no loyalty of their own and only waiting to see what would happen. She could tell who they were because they jumped to their feet and gaped at the dead Council members, paling and probably afraid they would be next.

  Loren said, “That’s… not how I hoped things would go but...here we are.”

  Mahn slapped his hand on the table and said, “Then let’s vote!”

  Loren held votes on all his initiatives and they all passed although the one about breeders was very close. Tess stood there, astounded. History had just been made. She had not expected this. Mark and Kal were let go and Tess ran to Kal, throwing her arms around him.