The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Taking the Next Step

18:35 local time. Two hours previous, the unassailable fortress protecting the heart of the vampire government, the Nocturnum, had fallen to the Wolf Pack and their allies. That was followed by the fall of the city to the forces of House Lash, led by Lord General Darktower and the First Dragon's Own Assault Regiment. The clan war against the usurper Demaskieros and his allies was over.

And yet, as Lash watched with folded arms Chescu and her House Ionescu nestari bundle a restrained Demaskieros into a NightHawk gunship via its rear troop ramp, Orimov and one of his corporals right behind them, he got the feeling that it wasn't truly done. That the fight wasn't quite over. A sensation only reinforced by the vista beyond the powerful Qos Viran vessel of the city of Varos Ejzhaka, the capital of the Children of the Night. A city that was burning.

The disparate clans and houses that had supported Demaskieros's call to action had provided more resistance to the Dragon's Own than anyone, Lash included, could've anticipated. Even news of the traitorous Toreador council being captured and the coup crushed didn't force the patchwork defense to lay down their weapons.

Lash had to give them respect for that. One would be able to resist the sun's killing light more successfully than stop the Dragon's Own from achieving their objective in combat.To stand fast in the face of the massive assault House Lash's most elite regiment had launched against the city was to show the true vampiric courage, as many overwhelmed and ultimately heroic forces had in the past.

Yet, in the end, it had availed them nothing. In two hours Lord General Darktower had cut their way through the defenses to reach the Nocturnum, which had been completely secured by that point by Lash's company, Chescu's House Ionescu nestari, the Vorinov troops, and Naryan's Force Recon. And three hours later, an hour earlier than even Darktower had estimated, the city was completely in their hands.

The big vampire's eyes abruptly narrowed in thought. In the end, did it matter? Demaskieros's capture, while accomplished at great cost and effort, had almost felt ... anti-climatic. The glory of open battle against one's enemies had been given to the Dragon's Own and their commander, Lord General Darktower. The traitorous Toreador had been taken after a ceremonial knife fight with his champion where the odds were heavily against Lash with Romanescu filthy with nanites.

Yes, it was a great victory. But it didn't feel like it had delivered justice and vengeance for all those vampires that had fallen to the broad-reaching conspiracy that was Demaskieros's take-over of the council. Perhaps he would feel different about it after the traitor stood trial before the Conclave. But, somehow he doubted it. His warrior heart had demanded Demaskieros's blood spilled onto the ground to cool, unwanted. To watch the Toreador lord being bundled into the gunship to be taken to his trial before the Conclave left that warrior heart feeling cheated. Even though he knew the Conclave would sentence Demaskieros to death.

A look to his left yielded members of the Wolf Pack checking and stowing their equipment as they talked to members of Narya's Force Recon, which were doing the same. Overhearing some of it, he nodded in satisfaction at how happy they were with their efforts in the battle.

So was he. Now, if only he could get some true closure.

"Regretting not tearing out Demaskieros's throat with your own fangs, aren't you," Narya said in a light voice as she stepped to his side to give him a nudge with her elbow. "I know the look."

Lash sighed and nodded.

"It didn't quite end the way I promised myself it would, after being ambushed by the Hand at the Frankfurt airport," he admitted with a frown. To which Narya snorted.

"That's because the only way it would've ended in a way that would've made you happy was if you had personally killed each one of the vampiric traitors that opposed us with your bare hands and bared fangs," she dryly noted. "Not every battle can end in total annihilation of your enemies, you know."