Veridian Shores

Chapter 41 - To Kill Gods

"Brooke!" he exclaimed, lowering his axe and darting across the room towards her. She rose from her seat and flung her arms around his shoulders, pulling him into a hug. His free hand wrapped around her and he squeezed tight, as though trying to convince himself she was really standing there.

As they eased apart he searched the room, and found a gaping emptiness in it. He swallowed down the lump in his throat and looked down at Brooke.

"Finbarr?"

Her face tightened, her lips pressing into a thin line as she shook her head.

"Suns," Capper cursed, fighting back the surging of his fangs as his anger simmered ever-hotter.

"Died doing his duty," Arcil said quietly from across the room, his voice uncharacteristically sedate. "He saved her life. He was a brave man."

Capper met the other Elder-Blood's gaze and gave a small nod of thanks. Even Arcil's sniping, sarcastic defences had come down during the ordeal. He didn't look scared, just kind of shell-shocked, as though events were still catching up with him.

"Where's the First?" Gliss asked quietly.

Capper saw the shift in Brooke's expression; saw her pupils dilate and the movement behind her lips that meant her fangs were sliding forth. But he wasn't quick enough to stop her as she shoved him aside and hurled herself at the other vampire with a scream of rage. She swung both duelling rods like a club and Gliss only just reacted in time to jam her sickle against them.

The pair went stumbling into the wall, and then Gliss pushed back savagely, launching Brooke away from her. Capper took his chance, lunging forward and wrapping his arms around Brooke, squeezing tightly and hauling her backwards. She thrashed and kicked wildly, her Aspect boiling like a cauldron of lava and it took all his strength just to keep a hold of her.

Gliss stepped forward and was about to raise her sickle, but another figure suddenly stepped up beside her. The sing of a blade through air filled his ears and the next instant Arcil stood with one curved sword placed against Gliss's throat and a cold expression on his face.

"I wouldn't take another step if I were you," he said, his voice hard as flint. Gliss tensed but didn't risk moving with the razor sharp blade at her neck. Arcil glanced across at Capper. "Have you got this under control."

He nodded, clinging tight to Brooke as her struggles began to subside.

Arcil turned back to Gliss. "Watch yourself," he hissed. "A lot of our kin are dead, because of you. My brother is dead, because of you. The only reason I don't take your traitorous head off right now is because you know your way around this hell hole."

Gliss glared at him, but eventually relented, stepping back and raising her hands. Feeling Brooke finally stop struggling, Capper released his hold on her and moved between them to make sure no further altercations could erupt. For a moment no one spoke, tension fizzing in the air between them.

"You didn't answer my question," Gliss said eventually. "Where is the First?"

"It's in the city."

Ever single person in the room whirled at the sound of an unfamiliar voice. Capper's axe flashed up as he saw a group of vampires from Iron Hollow, unmistakable in their long trench coats and carrying sickles. He could feel their violently trembling Aspects churning in the air, as though they'd been electrocuted. Every single one of them was on a knife edge, fangs bared, their true selves pushed to the surface by the emotional carnage that had been wrought inside the bunker. Arcil and the Baelock guards drew their weapons, advancing in a line to join him.

"WAIT, WAIT, WAIT!" Gliss screamed suddenly leaping out into the no-man's land between the two groups and raising her hands, glancing frantically back and forth. "Everyone put your weapons down!"

"Gliss?" The leader of the Iron Hollow vampires looked at her as though she were insane, and he didn't lower his sickle. "Who the hell are these people?!"

"Garven stop!" Gliss looked beseechingly back at Capper. "You as well, everyone just put your damned weapons down!"

For a moment no-one moved. Every muscle in Capper's body was wound up ready to spring, but he checked that natural, instinctive hostility to the newcomers, at least for the moment.

"Start talking, Gliss," he hissed dangerously, axe still primed to swing.

"These are hunters from my clan," she babbled. "And right now they are not your enemies. The only thing we should be focusing on is the First."

"And who in hellgates are they?" said the vampire Gliss had referred to as Garven. His nostrils twitched. "They smell all wrong."

"They're from Veridian Shores."

"Specifically, we're the people your bitch of a spy robbed so you could set loose a killing machine," Arcil snarled, advancing to stand alongside Capper, his Aspect simmering with anger and his frame visibly trembling. Capper reached out with a free hand, grabbing the other vampire by the arm.

"Hold on, Arcil," he said. "That thing is out there, right now. It's going to kill everyone and everything its path, human or vampire. I don't know if it really is the First, and right now I really don't care. All that matters is that we have to stop it."

"Do we?" Arcil cast a pointed glance at Gliss. "This is their mess. I say we get back to the station, get on a train and leave these fools in the hell they've made."

"Milord, I hate to say it," Lilly interjected softly. "But he's right. We don't deserve to get killed by that thing."

"And everyone – everything – else in this city does?" Capper shook his head. "We need to go after it, and we need to kill it. And to do that we're going to need all the help we can get. They know the city – they can help us."

"So now we're conscripts?" the tall female hunter snorted. "I'm not taking orders from some arrogant prick from a golden throne."

"Then take orders from me!" Gliss yelled, rounding on her. "Because he's right. We can either work together or we can let that thing tear the city apart. What happens then? The clan's dead, and I'm not going to leave Iron Hollow to die too."

The tall female hunter's jaw tightened but she didn't reply, instead standing stone still, an icy expression of resignation on her face.

For a long moment no-one spoke, the air crackling with the tension of competing Aspects until eventually Garven glanced left and right, giving barely visible nods to his two companions. With aching slowness they lowered their weapons. Exhaling a breath of relief, Capper also lowered his axe, nudging Arcil to do the same.

"The vault you released that thing from," Brooke spoke through the intervening silence. "Did you look inside it?"

Gliss looked at her in bafflement. "I've been running for my life ever since, so no I didn't go sightseeing, princess."

"I'd be careful about being flippant with us right now, girl," Arcil said in a cold, calm voice, idly inspecting the point of one of his swords. "Given that you caused everything that's happening right now. Do you know if there is anything else inside that vault?"

"I have no idea!"

"Then there could be weapons," Capper said. "Nothing we're carrying has even put a dent in that thing's hide. We need something older; stronger."

"Gliss, they might be onto something," Garven interjected with a fatalistic shrug. "I mean, we all thought it was meant to be some kinda weapon vault before they let the First out. But maybe it's a vault as well as a tomb. We sure as hell could use some more firepower if you're really thinking of going out after this thing."

Gliss stared at him. Looked back at Capper. To Brooke. Back again.

Her expression tightened and she pinched the bridge of her nose with one hand. Then she sighed and flapped a vague hand towards the interior of the bunker.

"Alright, alright," she said. "I guess it's worth looking. Follow me."