ONSET: Blood of the Innocent

by Glynn Stewart

Then the sky lit up with fire as the Mages on both sides lashed out and the lead tanks ran into the antivehicle mines. Most of the chassis of an Abrams leapt into the air, high enough that David could see it spin before it crashed down again.

  “They’re not slowing!” Klein reported. “Multiple Mages. Son of a bitch.”

  David couldn’t see much…but he could See everything. The Elfin Battle Mage was dueling with three vampire Mages. None of them were his equal, but combined, they were destroying the dugout he was hiding in around him.

  “Triggering the claymore line!” Riley snapped—and a wall of fire cut the forest in half. Hundreds of claymores, only about a quarter of them loaded with silver, detonated in one shot.

  “Fall back!” David ordered. “Trigger the second line as they clear it, Riley. Second-line positions, cover the retreat.”

  Machine guns chattered as the Elfin Warriors and ONSET Agents in the forward dugouts abandoned their positions.

  “Can’t make it,” Klein gasped. “They’ve got me pinned down.”

  “We can cover you,” David snapped. “McCreery!”

  “No!” the Warrior snapped. “You’ll need them for the next fallback. Sorry, Commander, but it looks like you’re going to have a lot less humor in your life.”

  Blue light glittered in the heart of the forest, and David made out the silhouette of a single figure rising out of the shattered wreckage, lightning flickering from his hands as Klein charged the vampires. An Abrams tank lifted into the air, lightning crackling around its hull as the battle Mage picked it up and threw it into the forward section of Strykers.

  There was an explosion. Then another. A tank cannon fired, the spray of canister hammering into the flying Mage. Bolts of black fire intersected on Klein’s flickering shield…and then the ball turned into a glowing blue meteor that smashed into the ground with earth-shaking force.

  The light slowly faded around a new crater, and everything was silent for several seconds as David stared in shock at the site of Klein’s self-immolation.

  Then the next salvo of artillery arrived, and the vampires began to move forward again.

  KLEIN’S SACRIFICE had bought enough time for the defenders to fall back to the second set of positions, and the artillery continued to hammer the vampires as they moved up the slope.

  This time, however, the vampires knew the mines were there. Magic lashed out ahead of the handful of remaining tanks, whips of flame and force that smashed into the ground. Detonators were fooled into thinking tanks were nearby even as impossibly hot fire detonated the explosives themselves.

  Spring-damp trees ignited with terrifying pops of steam and splinters as the vampires plowed the way forward with flame and black magic. Machine guns chattered back and forth, and David watched icons flicker out on his HUD as defenders went down.

  Then tank cannons cracked again, this time firing explosive shells into the forward positions. The icons for ONSET 6 flashed red…all of them.

  “Sokol, report!” David demanded.

  The only response was an incoherent scream of rage—and the sight of the team commander leaping out of the wreckage of his sandbagged position with a heavy machine gun in his arms. He charged the tanks at a run, shooting down the vampires in his path and ignoring the bullets that hammered into him.

  Even David wasn’t as immune to harm as Sokol. The man didn’t even flinch until one of the tanks managed to hit him dead-center with an explosive shell…and that simply threw him back until he got back up and charged.

  This time around, the Commander reached the lead tank and grabbed the barrel of the cannon as it swung towards him. David could have bent it or damaged it, rendering the weapon nonfunctional.

  Sokol ripped the gun out of the tank, taking most of the turret with it, and opened a gap that he leapt into the armored vehicle through. The tank ground to a halt in the middle of the fight after Sokol dropped inside, and David could only guess just what violence had taken place inside.

  Rockets took out another Abrams and several of the Strykers, but the whole advance continued around the halted tank until Sokol erupted from it again, dropping onto one of the remaining tanks—only to be met with a black blur of motion that sent him flying.

  When the blurs resolved, the nigh-invulnerable ONSET Commander was locked in a point-blank struggle with two vampire Elders, enchanted knives glittering in the light of the burning forest as they dueled.

  Steel flashed red and one of the vampires spun backward, his entire throat removed by the Commander’s Mage-blade. Gunfire echoed and the second vampire collapsed as Stone dumped a full burst from his own heavy machine gun into the man.

  “Get back here!” Hellet shouted, the Mage tossing firebolts to cover Sokol’s retreat.

  For a moment, it looked like he was going to stay out in the line of fire, continuing to fight, but then Sokol finally responded to Hellet’s shout, running toward the remaining positions.

  He didn’t make it. He was still fifteen feet short of the bastions when a whip of black fire cut through the night, wrapping around Sokol and yanking him back toward the tanks as a tall woman in an old-fashioned cloak strode out of the advancing army.

  “You do not kill my children and run,” her magically amplified voice echoed over the field. “Face me, Orel Sokol. We have old blood to settle.”

  “Who the fuck is that?” David demanded.

  “Elsa Ambrose,” Riley told him. “Matriarch of the Ambrose Familias.”

  “Oh, fuck.”

  VAMPIRE MATRIARCH AND ONSET COMMANDER smashed together in the middle of the battlefield, the light of the burning trees around them a stark and horrifying highlight to their combat.

  David wanted to order his people to just shoot her…but the vampires had temporarily stopped shooting and advancing, and his people needed the breather. Clearly, none of the fangs were going to steal a Familias Matriarch’s kill—but he was quite certain they wouldn’t stand by while his people riddled her with bullets, either.

  Sokol used the momentum of her yanking him toward her to deliver a solid two-footed kick to the cloaked vampire’s chest, but it barely seemed to faze her. She smashed him to the ground with a single hand, black claws that might or might not have been formed of magic flashing out to slash across his skin.

  If she drew blood, the wound healed before anyone saw it. Sokol’s invulnerable skin resisted her strikes, and he slashed out at her with his enchanted Mage-blade. She flung him away before the knife could touch her, however, and continued to advance on him, fire lashing out.

  David could see her tearing off the other Commander’s armor, piece by piece, but Sokol simply ignored the blows, rising to his feet and charging her. There was a blur of knife and fists and claws, and then Ambrose went flying.

  From the way she landed, the blow would have crushed a mortal woman’s ribcage—but Elsa Ambrose was an Elder vampire with centuries of learning how to control her gifts. She simply looked angry.

  More whips of fire slashed out. Sokol had already proven she couldn’t hurt him, and charged into them. Instead of trying to bring him down, however, the tendrils of fire wrapped themselves around his limbs. The Commander was once more yanked from the ground, dragged through the air to hang suspended in front of Ambrose, struggling against her spell with all of his inhuman strength.

  “My dear Commander,” she said loudly, running those black claws along the side of Sokol’s face. “Did you think, after all this time, that I had not researched you? Studied you? Learned just what your strengths and weaknesses were?”

  Her claws yanked the back of his head up, pulling his mouth open before the ONSET Commander could stop her. Then her free hand stabbed into Sokol’s mouth, the claws presumably tearing down the inside of his throat.

  David could hear Sokol choking over the radio for several long seconds before he went finally, dreadfully silent.

  34

  Ambrose didn’t slow after killing the Commander. She tossed his body aside like a toy
and then advanced on the Omicron positions, the rest of the vampire force resuming their drive forward behind him.

  “Mason, Riley,” David said calmly as he started moving. This wasn’t the kind of fight he could leave to his subordinates. One Familias Patriarch was dead, but so was an ONSET Commander.

  The honors were even so far, and he couldn’t take the risk.

  “McCreery, stand by for air strike,” he continued as he leapt the unmanned barricades of their final surface position and drew Memoria. “Wilbur, what’s your ammo level?”

  “We’ve emptied the ammunition trucks and are down to twenty or so rounds,” the Army Major replied. “We can keep this up for a while yet, but the guns themselves are going to start having problems shortly.”

  “When I call in the air strike, go to rapid fire on all your guns,” David ordered. “I take it they won’t hold that fire for long, but I just need a minute. Once you’ve dumped as much fire on the bastards as you can…move out.”

  “Move out?”

  “Yeah. I’m not going to shell my own position, and after we fall back to the bunker, there’s nothing else you can do,” he told the Major. “Once you cover our retreat, get the hell out of Dodge as fast as you can. This place isn’t going to be friendly to anybody before the night is out.”

  “Okay,” Wilbur acknowledged with a sigh. “Wilco, Commander White. Good luck.”

  He’d almost reached the remaining positions, leveling with Stone as the big Empowered, currently resembling a somewhat mobile statue, laid down heavy fire with a machine gun. They were delaying the soldiers, but Ambrose was simply walking forward like the gunfire was a light rain.

  Mason and Riley converged on him as he passed Stone, Young attached to Riley as usual.

  “What’s the plan?” Riley murmured.

  “Kill Ambrose,” David said shortly. “See if we can get any of the other Familias leaders to come out and play. Then cover our retreat with fire from on high.”

  “Nice. Simple.” The Elfin Lord drew his sword. “Shall we?”

  Fire flared up around the three Mages and David smiled grimly.

  “Do try to keep up,” he told them, then launched into a full sprint toward Ambrose.

  The vampire cackled as she saw them coming, a booming, twisted laugh that echoed around the mountains.

  “Finally. A challenge!”

  She lifted her hand and lances of black light flashed out, aiming at David. He dodged several, parried two more with his sword, and leapt over the last handful, his Empowered strength carrying him in a high arc that he knew was going to attract gunfire.

  A quarter-second of prescience was enough for him to twist through the air and dodge each bullet, slamming to a landing facing Ambrose from only a few feet away.

  The vampire tossed back the hood of her cloak, revealing Elsa Ambrose to still be astonishingly beautiful. Her raven hair was tied back in a teenager’s ponytail above delicately pale skin and warm blue eyes, eyes easily lit up by the massive grin on her face.

  “I haven’t had this much fun in years, Commander White,” she told him as the claws on her hands extended farther, growing to match his sword in length. “Come to me; let us see the strength that slew the great Marcus Dresden!”

  David grimaced and focused, moving toward her with a speed he knew would be a blur to watching eyes, and lashing out with Memoria.

  The shadowy claws parried, knocking aside the demon-forged blade with almost casual ease. One hand defended her from his strike and the other dove for his face, two-foot-long claws slicing at him.

  David twisted out of the way of the claws, recovering from the parry and yanking the sword back to him in time to block Ambrose’s next strike. The sword smashed into her shadowy claws and shattered the entire collection.

  Shards of broken shadow scattered away from the vampire’s hand, and she leapt back several feet, clearing an open space between them as she eyed him with interest.

  “Less than I had feared, Commander, but so much more than I’d expected,” she told him brightly. “I see how our beloved leader fell.” She threw out her hand, conjuring new claws with a gesture, and smiled. “And you brought friends!

  “I just don’t think that’s fair, do you, Commander?”

  With a gesture, the vampires behind her opened fire. Bullets and magic hammered into the defenses of the three Mages closing up behind David, but they advanced regardless to stand by his side.

  “I don’t think anyone here thought this was going to be fair,” David pointed out, stepping forward as his companions spread out, forming a deadly semicircle around Ambrose.

  “Well, then, let us play!”

  Ambrose moved. One moment she was standing still, the next she’d half-disappeared into a swirling, terrifying dance that conjured bolts of black lightning that hammered Young’s shields, specifically, as the vampire charged.

  David met her before she reached the Elfin Second, Memoria connecting with a force only Empowered strength could deliver as he bodily collided with the vampire Matriarch. The blade scored along her flesh and she snarled at him in pain, twisting in her dance to turn the full force of its power on him.

  He had no shields of his own, but the black lightning slammed into a shield around him anyway, his companions protecting him as he struck out. Shadow and electricity played around them as he met Ambrose once more, his sword lashing out at her as she struck at him with magic and shadowy claws alike.

  Every blow he launched, she parried. Every strike she returned with, he blocked. He was faster and stronger and could see the future—but she had three centuries of combat experience on him.

  The world shrank down to a single dark-red blade and half a dozen shadowy claws as David fought for his life. He sheared the claws off one hand, but she simply dueled him with the other as she regrew them.

  She pushed him back a step. Then two. Then he forced her to fall back. Despite her magic and inhuman vitality, he could keep this up for hours…and he was starting to realize she couldn’t.

  “David!” Mason suddenly screamed as the defensive shield around him collapsed and he realized he’d missed a critical shift in the battle around him. A second vampire, the glow of power around him easily equal to the one around Ambrose, had joined the battle.

  The second ancient vampire had disrupted the shield David’s allies had maintained around him, and Ambrose’s power slammed home. Pain tore through him as black lightning slammed into his skin, and her grin returned, exposing long, sharp teeth.

  “Mine!” she snarled, and dove at him with her fangs.

  David could regenerate injuries that would kill even other supernaturals, but he was only slightly more resistant to injury. His body, however, had adapted to handle the power and speed of his Empowered movements, and lightning, while painful and potentially lethal, wasn’t crippling.

  Fire still burning in his muscles, he struck. Memoria flashed out in a straight-arm thrust that met Ambrose in mid-charge and ran clean into her heart. She collided with him, the force of the impact throwing him to the ground, but the sword was still buried in her chest and her fangs didn’t connect as she gasped impotently at him for several eternal seconds.

  And then finally died.

  THE MAGE DUEL continued around David as he shoved Ambrose’s body aside and sprang back to his feet with the sword in his hand. Riley was bearing the brunt of the fight, much as he had done against Romanov the night before, but this time, the vampire he was dueling wasn’t trying to protect his minions as well as fight.

  And a Mage’s reserves didn’t replenish overnight. Riley was still badly weakened by the energy he’d expended to take down Romanov. Even with Young and Mason in support, he was barely holding his own, and to David’s Sight it was clear that the Elfin Lord was weakening fast.

  The Patriarch they were fighting saw the same thing. A new flurry of blows, fire and lighting and shadow alike, hammered down on Riley, pushing him back step by step as the unknown vampire’s laughter
echoed off the hills.

  “So, this is all the Lord General has?” he mocked Riley. “It seems I should not have been so afraid of Petrov after all!”

  Bright light flashed as Riley threw a burst of power back at the vampire, stabilizing on his feet and holding up his sword.

  “I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass,” he gasped out. “I will not yield.”

  “I am Nazario Santos Cortez,” the vampire told him, “and I do not require you to yield. Simply to die.”

  A single lance of pure black shadow blaze from Cortez’s palm, cutting through the shields of the three Mage’s to hammer into Riley’s chest and fling the Elfin Lord back thirty feet or more. The magical aura around Riley vanished like a popped soap bubble.

  “McCreery, Wilbur—now!” David snapped, charging toward where Riley had fallen. “Mason, Young, cover him.”

  The two Mages threw up a doubled shield over the Elfin Lord, focusing their efforts on defense as Cortez laughed, his voice clearly magically amplified as it echoed off the trees and mountains.

  Then the artillery arrived. Wilbur had clearly been paying attention to the battle, as the first six shells bracketed the vampire lord perfectly, the explosions silencing his laughter and his magic with equal force.

  David knew there was a small but significant chance the vampire had survived being blown to pieces by six 155mm howitzer shells, but Cortez was definitely out of this fight.

  And then, as the second salvo slammed home into the lead elements of the vampire formation, the remaining Pendragons came sweeping silently over the mountain. Hellfire missiles ripple-fired, silver-laced explosions walking their way along the armored vehicles and advancing vampire infantry.

  The silver-laced explosions were ONSET’s usual blast-fragmentation warheads, but the containers they’d received after the previous night’s engagement had included some of the original Hellfire missiles: with anti-tank warheads.

  Most of the stolen M1 Abrams were already gone, the primary target of every heavy weapon and Mage David commanded. The remainder didn’t survive the Pendragons’ pass as missile after missile reduced tanks and APCs and chunks of mountain to burning debris.