11

                                    

                                          

                            

                                
                            
                              
                                  
                              
                              
                                
                                  
                                  
                                
                              
                             
                            
                            
                          
                          
                          
"I'm so unloading five rounds of bicuspids into your ass," Mack wheezed between yarking the unsavory contents of his stomach on the ground. It wasn't pretty, mostly brackish bile that carried the sour spoiled scent of something left to bloat in the sun. To be fair, he'd been mostly dead all day, it took time for his system to 'freshen up'. He wiped his sweaty face with the back of sleeve, vowing to burn the garment when he got home, and glared at the nonchalant vampire. His fingers tightened on the bone rifle. 
                          
Eugene or Valentinianus or whatever he called himself wasn't paying attention to the irritated barman, his gaze fixed on the open gate of the city. A mix of emotions played across those pale features, the most prominent being resignation. "Please refrain from shooting me full of teeth, I will be most irate." As if it were a minor inconvenience. Mack frowned. This is where his natural policy of leaving the Edgewise patrons to their own business interfered with his duties as guardian and waykeeper. He knew next to nothing about the vampire standing before him, but that ridiculous excuse for a name was tickling the back of his mind, trying to jog an errant piece of information free. Something...
                          
Eugene sighed. "Let's get this over with. Keep the rifle locked and loaded but try not to shoot anyone unless they try to harm her." With that, he transformed. 
                          
It wasn't a dramatic transformation. He didn't turn into a bat or some other hack b-horror movie trick. It was a far more subtle and dangerous transformation. The vampire stopped slouching, straightening his shoulders as he swept his unruly hair back from his forehead with one hand. His expression iced over, remote and cold, the face of a vicious bastard. Mack blinked at him; the light bulb finally flashed in his corroded synapses. 
                          
"Are you kidding me," Mack hissed, dragging his eyes over the vampires stitched rank on the shoulder of his uniform. There it was, the detail he had missed before, gold embroidery, the signature of the Blood Empire's royalty. "I am so calling in your bloody tab, Eugene." 
                          
"You most certainly will not," the vampire sneered. His voice was different, cultured and resonant. Even his scent was different, Mack catching the first hint of woodsy musk the vampire normally hid so well. It was a complete disguise, down to the essence of his being. Eugene became a different person from one moment to the next. "Try to keep up."
                          
Eugene marched forward. If he had a cape it would furl dramatically in the wind. Ready to bring the thunder, Mack moseyed on beside him, keeping an eye on the windowless buildings around them for movement. He knew what he was looking for. Fist sized nodules dotted the buildings, initially invisible to the eye, unless you knew where to spot them. If he listened hard enough he could probably hear the mechanical whir of thousands of cameras, the empire's digital eyes to the outside world. He was certain a few turned in their direction, following their thundercloud of a prince as he marched toward the barracks. 
                          
Here there were signs of life. Soldiers milled around, carousing and relaxing, egging one another on to do something relatively stupid by degrees. Normal soldiery bonding really. Mack almost felt sorry for them, almost, until he realized the vampire who'd speared him to the ground was among them. A big beast of a man who vampirism had not made him any kinder. Mack could see his single blood filled eye from here, lending him a vicious air. It was absolutely worth this whole shit house of a day as the vampires turned toward their visitors. Recognition drained the scant presence of blood from their pale faces, turning them near translucent as they scrambled to form ranks.