by E. R. Willis
“You think? Thanks. I just wish they would’ve picked on us instead on Mr. and Mrs. Indigo. They’re nothing but cowards!” Nyx said, still crying.
The door to the kitchen opened. Lord Erebus and Blaze walked in. “We received the news. My condolences. Tell us, what all happened?” Lord Erebus said.
Mrs. Pixy explained the story we told her. Lord Erebus and Blaze didn’t take too kindly on the situation that just happened. “That’s it! They killed innocent people, and almost killed my vampires! Lord Obsidian, we must strike at once! Go round up everyone. Tell them all to meet me at the throne room,” Lord Erebus said, gripping his staff.
“Understood,” Blaze said, exiting the kitchen.
“Strike at once? What are you planning?” Mrs. Pixy asked.
“They’ve been toying with us too much! It’s time to attack! I’m done defending!” Lord Erebus said. “Mrs. Pixy, help out Lord Obsidian with spreading the news. We will all head out in an hour!”
Mrs. Pixy and Nyx left. Lord Erebus turned to me and said, “Come with me. You will join us too, but not in that outfit.”
Lord Erebus led me to the room where they make weapons. He gave me an armor and said, “Wear this. It’ll fit with your body, and help with movement. It also helps with sharp objects. If you get stabbed, the blade will break, and you’ll be okay. Hits won’t hurt, and falls aren’t as painful. Bullets will be deflected, but they have to be regular bullets. Silver bullets can still hurt you. The armor of the vampire will help you. Everyone will wear these.”
“Thank you,” I said, taking the armor.
“Oh, and choose your weapon,” Lord Erebus said, pointing to a weapon rack.
There are a lot of different types of weapons, but I see none that I can wield. “Lord Erebus, I don’t know how to fight,” I said, shy.
“Oh that’s right! Mr. Pixy, which weapon would you recommend for Starr?” Lord Erebus said, turning around to face Mr. Pixy.
“I would say a hammer. All you have to do is swing it. A one handed hammer not a two handed of course. Here, have this one. I’m sure you’ll like it. It’s light, and does heavy damage,” Mr. Pixy said, handing me a hammer.
I took it. It’s beautiful! The whole weapon is made out of pure steel. The head of the hammer is in a shape of a rose. You can see every detail of every petal. Underneath the head of the hammer rose, there are two huge, sharp petals. So I’ll be hitting and stabbing at the same time! I love it!
“Thank you!” I said, bowing in gratitude.
“You’re welcome,” Mr. Pixy said, returning to work.
“Starr, go get ready, and meet back with everyone in the throne room,” Lord Erebus said.
I left, and went to my room. I put on the armor. It’s black leather, and it feels nice. It’s very comfortable. I took my hammer and went upstairs. I sat at a table, and waited for everyone to come for the meeting.
Chapter 18
The throne room is filled, and everyone is wearing their vampire armor. Lord Erebus sat at his throne with Blaze standing by his side. “We are going to strike at three different places tonight. We must move quickly. We have to get all this done before sunrise. I’m leaving a handful of vampires here to guard, so when you finish your task, return back to the fortress. Listen closely, one group of vampires are going to attack and destroy the power and light building. We need to send fear to everywhere here. The other group is going to attack and destroy Katz Inc. downtown. Ravine Katz is the owner of that building. That’s where he makes a living, and money, making propane tanks. The next group is going to be a small group. Starr and Lord Obsidian will track down Ravine Katz’s daughter. Kill her,” Lord Erebus said, standing up.
“Everyone who wants to go and destroy the power plant, come with me, and everyone who wants to destroy Katz Inc. follow Lord Erebus,” Mr. Pixy yelled. “Everyone go!”
Lord Erebus and Mr. Pixy rushed down the middle of the throne room, and out the fortress with hundreds of vampires following close behind. The throne room emptied, and all who’s left is Blaze and myself. “Do you have any ideas where the daughter might be?” Blaze asked.
“I hate to admit it, but yes. She lives on campus at the college. She would brag about how she would drink all night and party. I think that’s why she lives at the dorms instead of with her family?” I said.
“Great! Do you know which room? That way we can kill her and get it over with,” Blaze said.
“Yes. Like I said, she brags about having parties, so of course she would say her room number. Good thing I remembered,” I said. “Follow me.”
Blaze and I turned into bats and flew to the college campus. I told him what room was hers from the outside. Blaze and I swooped by the window to take a look. We landed in a tree and turned ourselves back to normal. “She’s about to have a party. Did you see all those cases of beer? You must take her out now before everyone else arrives,” Blaze said.
“It makes sense. She works, and she probably just got off? Wait, what! I have to kill her?” I asked, facing Blaze.
“Yes! You have to do it! It’ll be your first kill,” Blaze said. “Try out that new hammer, or claw her face off? Whatever you want to do? I’ll be here waiting.”
“How do you want me to get in there?” I asked him.
“Break in through the window, kill her fast, and come back out. Easy,” he said. “Come on, we have only a little time before everyone else shows up.”
I sighed. I didn’t want to do this. I have always hated her guts, and she always made me feel so unappreciated in class, so maybe I can use this anger to do it? I can do this! I jumped off the tree and ran to her window. I reached for my side where I have my hammer. I took it in my grasp, tighten the grip, and swung the hammer at the window. The window shattered into pieces, and the sound was loud in the dead silence of the night.
I jumped in through the broken window and into her room. She stood in front of me. Her face shows true fear as I neared her with my hammer. “Starr! You’re alive? I’m sorry!” she pleaded.
I didn’t say anything. She put me through hell in school. She’d call me names, she’d push me in the hallways, she’d trip me in the classrooms, she’d say bad rumors about me, and above all, she tried to kill me for my money! I hate her so much! I struck her with the hammer on the side of her head. She screamed, but I could still hear her bones cracking in her skull. She fell to the floor, bleeding. She was still alive. Good, I didn’t want to hit her hard. I wanted her to feel pain.
“Why?” she asked, crying.
I shrugged, and hit her again, but this time in the face. I killed her. It felt good for some odd reason?
I got out of the window, and ran back to the tree. I climbed it, and sat down with Blaze. “You did well. I’m proud of you,” he said, paying attention to the window.
People must’ve heard the window break, and her screams, because they are now standing at the door of her room. Some screamed, and some ran off. Blaze laughed and said, “Let’s head back home.”
Chapter 19
The next night, everyone was running back and forth in the hallways. I went upstairs to the throne room, and saw the same thing. I saw Rose at a table. I went to her and asked, “What’s going on?”
“The city of Vile is going crazy. This morning they said that they were going to form a posse, and try to kill us. That was hours ago, but our guards took them down. We didn’t kill them, we just injured them to scare them off. You know whose idea was to send the people over here? Ravine Katz. That spineless bastard!” she said, bring me up to speed.
“So what now?” I said, taking a seat with her.
“The military is intervening. People all over the world are scared of us. They want us dead. We are expecting an attack, but we don’t know when?” she said, sipping some tea.
“The military! Can we handle them?” I asked, scared.
“Maybe? We have 1 king vampire, 200 lord vampires, and 500 full-fledged vampires. Full-fledged vampires need their rest, or else t
he sun will get them. Lord Vampires can stay up for three days and three nights, and king vampires don’t need sleep. Everyone can attack at night, but the other 500 will need to retreat when the sun rises, leaving a few out in battle,” she said, shaking her head.
I get it now. This is dangerous. Vampires can die this time. “I see. Even if we make it, the other nations can still attack us, and then the whole world. We’ll be fighting forever until someone wins.” I said, sharing her fears.
A loud explosion sounded above us. The whole fortress shook. “What was that?” I said, getting up.
“I don’t know?” Rose said.
It kept happening over and over. Are we being bombed? “Rose! We are being bombarded by the air force! We need your help!” a vampire said, running towards us.
“Very well,” Rose said. The vampire wheeled Rose outside of the fortress. I went with them too.
A group of lord vampires are holding up their hands in the air. They are generating a dark red shield that is protecting the whole fortress from the bombs and missiles that are being fired from the jets. The military wouldn’t stop. They kept firing everything at us from above. This is all horrible! Rose joined the lord vampires, and raised her hands. When she did, the shield deflected all the hits that it had received, and the bombs and missiles hit every jet in the sky.
I didn’t know what to do? I’m too new here, and I don’t know how to fight. Golly, I’m useless! “Starr!” I looked up and saw Lord Erebus at the gate entrance.
I went over to him. “I see Rose is out here. Good, we can win this small battle. I’m in the front, Mr. and Mrs. Pixy are on either side of the fortress, Lord Obsidian is in the back, and Rose is in the center with Nyx. We have a good defense. Starr, can you do me a favor?” he asked me.
“Yes,” I said.
“Tell Lord Obsidian to lead a small unit outside of the fortress. I must know how much we’ve got left, and go with him,” he said.
“I can do that. I’ll be back when I can,” I said, running off to the back of the fortress.
I got there, and saw Blaze and the other vampires fighting off a small unit of soldiers. They got done within minutes. I told Blaze what Lord Erebus had said to me. “Right, stay close to me then,” he said.
Blaze quickly explained to the other vampires on what was going to happen. A group was left behind to guard the back of the fortress. Blaze, a few other vampires, and I ran into the woods through the back gate. We covered a mile all around the fortress. We stopped a few times to fight off some soldiers, but that was it. There’s nothing anymore.
We were about to turn back around, but we heard a loud hiss behind us. “Watch out!” Blaze said, tackling me down. A missile almost hit me! It missed us and hit some trees instead. A vampire that was with us, turned into a bat, flew up a tree, and turned into himself again. He attacked a soldier that is sitting on the tree. He scratched the soldiers face. The soldier fell from the tree with a missile launcher.
“Thank you,” I said to Blaze.
He helped me up and said, “No problem. Come on, let’s head back.”
We ran back. “Tell Lord Erebus that I think just one more wave of soldiers and that’s it,” Blaze said, guarding again.
I ran to the front gate to let Lord Erebus know. “Good to know. I think the last wave is about to hit us. I see them coming,” Lord Erebus said, eyes straight ahead.
I looked and saw tanks and more soldiers. In the sky, I also saw about ten more jets. “Get somewhere safe,” Lord Erebus said, readying his staff. His staff looks wicked! It’s black, and at the top, it has an orb that is glowing a black color. At the bottom of the orb, there are sharp spikes jutting out.
I ran inside the fortress, but stood at the doorway. I wanted to see. The ground started to shake as the jets fired more attacks at us. Everyone in the center shielded us, and the fortress. Wait a second? What are the jets dropping? They look familiar? Are those…yes! They’re flash bombs, and they are dropping a lot! I closed my eyes and looked away. I saw brightness through my eyes, but I was okay. When I didn’t see it anymore, I opened them. I looked back out.
Oh crap! They tricked us! They used the flash bombs to distract us. It worked. When the flash bombs went off, the bright light made everyone close their eyes. The lord vampires holding up the shield kept up with the protection, but they didn’t see they soldiers jumping out of the jets. The soldiers are now inside of the walls, and they are smoke bombing the place!
Everyone is coughing, which is making the lord vampires holding up the shield lose concentration. The jets kept bombing, and the shield is beginning to lower every time it’s getting hit. “Leave this to me! Everyone, attack the soldiers!” Rose said, yelling.
All the lord vampires that were with Rose left, and did what they were command to do. I have to help! I stepped out and took out my hammer. I started hitting as many soldiers as I could. I didn’t even realize that many had gotten in?
“Mother! It’s too much for you!” Nyx said, yelling as she fought close by to Rose with a spear.
“Nonsense!” Rose said, grinning an evil grin. Her eyes turned red, and her skin began to rejuvenate. She no longer looks old, but young. She stood up from the wheelchair, and began to laugh. Her arms are still up, and the shield is dangerously low to the fortress roof. The bombs and missiles just keep firing from the jets.
“Take this!” Rose hissed. The shield bounced back, and was fired at the sky. The shield hit the jets. The jets came crashing down into the woods, away from the fortress. Rose put up another shield just in case, but I think that was it? All the air bombings are over.
I’m glad to see that we are winning! I kept fighting, but I saw a soldier creeping up on Rose from behind. Nyx, and everyone else, are too busy fighting. I ran, and smashed the soldier’s head and helmet in. The soldier died on impact.
Rose heard that, and turned around to see me with her hands still up. “Thank you, Starr!” she said, smiling. She’s beautiful! She looks like a beautiful woman from the 50’s. Very refined and fair skinned.
The battle resumed for another hour. We won. The remaining injured soldiers left, and the fortress is quiet now.
Chapter 20
The next night, Lord Erebus called for a meeting. We rushed to the throne room, ready for anything. Ever since that last attack, we have been wearing our vampire armor. We have to be ready in case anything happens. “We did excellent yesterday. Some of us got injured, but none of us died. I have terrible news though. We are going to have to fight off all the nation’s military, plus more. The other nations are sending some help to aid Paradisus. We are in deep trouble. We have to come up with a strategy so that we may overcome them. Any suggestions?” Lord Erebus said, looking out into the faces of all the vampires.
“What! You mean we are expecting a huge attack? We might be able to do a lot damage, but in the end, we are going to be outnumbered,” a vampire said.
“This is all crazy! We are going die!” another vampire said.
Everyone started to get out of control. The room filled with panic and anger. I sighed. This is not fair. “What’s wrong?” Blaze asked me, who’s sitting by me.
“I feel responsible for the war. If it hadn’t been for me, none of this would be happening. It all started with Ravine Katz’s daughter, and then it just went awry after that. I’m sorry,” I said, feeling glum.
“Don’t do that to yourself. If it wasn’t for you, Lord Erebus wouldn’t have been cured,” Blaze said.
“Yes, but the outcome wouldn’t be this dangerous,” I replied.
“No. It’s not your fault. It’s Ravine Katz’s. You think that this war started with an injury to his daughter? No, it’s us. When they realize that we are vampires, they got scared. They spread the news to everyone, and now we are feared. They think we are killers, and that soon we will take over the planet, but no. The people want us dead. They tried killing us, but we defended ourselves well in every situation. Now, it’s an actual war. All the nations a
re going to be here, attempting to eradicate us,” Blaze said. “So stop saying it’s your fault. It’s Ravine Katz’s accusation towards us, and the people living in the world believing him that we are trouble.”
Blaze is right. That made me feel better about myself, but I still don’t know what to do though? If the military of every nation is going for us, then we might be wiped out? It’s just too many people. We are only 701 vampires, and 500 of us need to stay out of the sun. If only all of us were lord vampires. We could have a chance, right? The lord vampires can stay up three days and three nights. We could do a schedule of who’s sleeping when, so either way, we’ll still have a huge number out in the field.
I turned to Blaze and told him about what I was just thinking, and if it would work? “That’s interesting. It would. You want to know why? Not only can lord vampires stay up that long, but we only need about eight or nine hours of sleep. After that, we are ready to go for another three days and three nights. Not to mention the dark magic that everyone else can be wielding. They could heal themselves too! We could have a huge advantage, but I don’t think we can do that,” Blaze said, sighing.
“So, how can a full-fledged vampire turn into a lord vampire?” I asked, wondering why some haven’t turned into that.
“It can take years. It depends on how you live too. It was easy for me. I fought for Lord Erebus, and I have killed many people. So many that I lost count. I also have a burning revenge for taking out the warlock that killed my father. It took me 20 years to become a lord vampire. There are full-fledged vampires here that have been that for over 100 years, and still not a lord yet? I don’t know? I think everyone here deserves to be a lord vampire. They have been faithful and loyal, and they have been in the same fights as I have. The most recent vampire here, besides you, is my sister’s husband, Dar. We got him in the 80’s, so even he deserves to be one. He’s a guard, he trains hard, and he’s been with us for a decent amount of years,” Blaze said, trying to explain.