As a general rule, our race are terrible parents.  Most of the children we make are accidental before we know better or poorly conceived mistakes based on some former emotional attachment.  Once entering Second Life, most of us undergo a complete alteration of self as the Dark Gift renders its blessings and curses upon us.  As with an apple seed, you never know what the result will be until the tree bears fruit.

I didn’t recognize Cormir, but that didn’t mean I didn’t know him.  I had been so young when I was brought into the world of the Undead; both in years and in attitude.  Barely twenty one, I had grown up living on the streets in the slums of Moscow.  I was part of a gang of between a dozen and a score of kids.  We looked out for each other to enough of a degree that we didn’t have to worry about freezing or starving.

The older we became, the more complicated our needs were.  It didn’t take long for us to get into more trouble than we could handle.  Kids like us were as common and as disposable as toilet paper and all too many people were willing to treat us as such.

I’d seen a lot of kids come and go, as well as more than my fair share of death by the time I had been bitten.  I still don’t know who my Sire was, or what made him or her choose to turn me instead of just killing me.  Perhaps it was a backwards attempt at revenge on one of my companions.

I say this because I awakened in the abandoned warehouse where my crew, such as they were spent most of its free time.  We’d never really evolved past pack mentality, the strongest, fastest and smartest lead and the rest of us followed until we thought we could do better.  When consciousness returned to me I exploded into a ravenous rampage; tearing apart nearly all of the people I had once called family and feasting upon their blood.

My old human self would have been horrified, but the newly born Nosferatu only knew hunger.  By the time I recovered from the blood frenzy my surviving friends had fled.  Very little of what I had been before remained and, like many of my kind, I began to build a small empire based around my newfound power.  Humans did what I told them to and I was allowed to run rampant through my little corner of the Moscow underworld for a short time.

Instinctively, I knew how to create more of my kind and I was beginning to build an army by the time The Tribunal sent the Reapers to ‘deal with’ us.  That is when my Power of Destruction first manifested itself.  That is when I was offered a choice between Final Death and fifty years of service.  None of my undead progeny were offered the same choice.  I had thought them all sent to Final Death.

Now, a lifetime later here was a survivor of that first genesis.  I could… smell his blood.  He smelled like me.

–

“This is where we think they are.”  Cormir’s voice was a whisper in my mind, “There should be at least a hundred of the monsters holed up here.”

“Fine.  Move in and clean them out.”  I said, “We leave no infected alive… if you can call it that.  I’ll cover this exit.  Oh, and this time if there are any humans still alive in there don’t I repeat DO NOT kill them.”

“You’re the boss.” Was his cheery reply.  In spite of myself, I was discovering that his positive, irreverent attitude was growing on me.  He and his armed escort had only been with me for a few days but the ease with which I was able to integrate them into both my modes of travel and my fighting style was a bit surreal.  The soldiers were impressively effective, especially for being simple, un-augmented humans instead of being bloodslaves like Svenka.

I waited outside the door, the Kalashnikov one of the mercs had given me held at the ready and was not surprised when it slammed open with enough force to remove it from its hinges.  A group of figures poured out of the door.  I wasn’t sure if they were human or not so I held my fire, waiting to see what would happen.

“Oh God.  Oh GOD!”  The man in the lead yelled, running away from the building.  “Run!  We have to get away!”  The people behind him ran with a single-minded determination in his wake.  Well shit; this was a group of survivors, not a nest of Infected.

“Cor, stand down.  These aren’t Infected, they’re survivors.”  I made sure the sending had plenty of intent behind it; bending him to my will.

“Sure… the few you saw might have been…”

“If there are Infected in there END THEM if not, leave the humans alone!” I all but dominated his emotions, forcing him to accept what I was sending.  After a moment’s resistance I felt his will crumble.

“Of course Ren.  I will do as you require.”

“Damn right you will.”  I continued watching the dozen or so figures as they ran, waiting to see what was following.  The last person to leave glanced in my direction and I froze.  Its eyes were glowing a faint phosphorescent purple.

“Keep moving.” It said, “I’ll cover the retreat.”  The thing was looking directly at me and somehow I knew it could see me as clearly as I could see it.  The remaining survivors ran down the empty alley toward another building and the last one… the one with eyes like Hex… the one pulsing with a hint of Power finally broke eye contact with me and turned to follow.

Shit, I couldn’t just let it go… could I?  “Wait.” I said, my flat, normal tone of voice hiding the tension I felt.

“You are there.”  It said, spinning back to face me faster than any human could have.  “Who are you?  Why are you killing us?”

“I’m not killing them.” I said, gesturing to the retreating survivors, “And I can’t kill you.”

It raised its hands and cocked its head to one side, “Why?”  The glow was slowly fading from its eyes.

“Because you’re already dead.”  I said, keeping my rifle trained on its head. “Why are you following those people?”

“I was protecting them.”  It said, still standing with hands raised.

“You don’t need to protect them from me.”

“Not from you.  From them” It pointed over my shoulder.

A quick glance showed me a street filled with the dead.  I hesitated, looking at the strange, seemingly intelligent Infected which was still standing with its hands up and then back at the shuffling forms of the mindless ones.  They made my decision for me; the one in the lead raising its face toward me and sniffing loudly before breaking into an awkward run.

“Shit!  Cor!” I all but shouted through our mindlink, swinging my Kalashnikov around and picking them off with precise bursts of lead.  The Infected might be uncoordinated but they made up for it with speed, raw power and utter immunity to pain.

Cor failed to appear before they were so close that I let the rifle fall in its harness and whipped the machete from the nylon sheath at my side.  I wove through the charging bodies, blade flickering as I removed heads in quick succession.  The last of them almost got a hand on my arm, but I deftly twisted and hacked off the offending arm before following up with a brutal overhand strike that split the skull down to the collar bone.

A low whistle made me spin back to the building.  I knew it was Cor by the admiration coming over the mindlink before I saw him in the doorway.  He had his rifle in his hands and was scanning for any other enemies but his attention was really on me.

“Where the FUCK were you?” I demanded, “I call, you come.  That’s how it works.”

“Well, I was trying to obey your first command.  I was inside, protecting the survivors… there’s about fifty or so in there still.” He looked at the bodies strewn across the street, still radiating admiration, “I have to say, that was really amazing, but I have a question.  Why didn’t you just … delete them all?”

“It’s not good to rely too much on your Gift I find.”  I said shortly.  “I’ve seen what happens when someone becomes dependent on it.”

“Did you get that group of them that fled when we broke into the building?  Last I saw they were heading for this exit.”  He said, giving the corpses a closer inspection.  “They seemed… different you know?  Like they knew we were coming or something.  Like they were still able to reason.”

I shivered, “What?  Those were Infected?  Jesus… Cor, I actually talked to one of them.”  I had known that the one I had spoken with had been … well he’d been like Hex.  Hex was the one who started the whole plague infection in the first place, but I hadn’t even noticed that the others were dead too.

“Yeah, didn’t you see them?  I mean sure, their clothes were in better shape and they didn’t seem to be rotting but there was no mistaking it… was there?”  He gave me a quizzical look, “Wait, you talked to one of them?”

I nodded.  “It said it was protecting the others from these.”  I gestured with my machete and realized it was still covered in gore.  I bent and carefully wiped it clean on the shirt of one of the corpses before sheathing it again.

“Damn.”  He ran his fingers through his hair, “So… what now?”

I frowned and paused to light a cigarette, “I don’t know.”  I let the smoke trail from my nostrils, trying to think.  “I really don’t know.”

This type of travel was one I knew Hex had truly enjoyed.  Our bodies were more resilient than they had been when we were human and the ability to leap huge distances in a single bound was right out of the pages of comic books.  Normally we couldn’t jump around like outsized grasshoppers though; doing so in a city risked exposing us and it was sometimes tricky to time landings.

In a few minutes I had landed at the spot where I almost entered Final Death.  Opening my senses I allowed myself to experience the world in a way no human ever could.  Even after a day I could smell Svenka here and the momentary emotion connected to that scent caused me not to notice my assailants until they had already trained weapons on me.

“Ground those firearms, that’s Renyovalia.”  I recognized the voice, able to put a face to it but not a name.

“You never introduced yourself last time.”  I said, pretending I couldn’t now smell the phosphorous in the bullets pointed at me.  “Yet you seem to know my name.”

“My apologies.”  The man who stepped from the shadows seemed to truly be stepping … from the shadows.  “I am called Cormir.”

I had heard of undead whose blessing gave them the ability to travel great distances between shadows but had only seen it happen once.  Even then I hadn’t necessarily trusted my senses to interpret what I’d seen.

“Cormir.  Mind forcing your men to lower their weapons since they didn’t listen to your command?  I don’t relish the thought of the burning holes those rounds could inflict on one of our kind.”  The soldiers began to smell of mistrust and fear.  So they hadn’t known.

“Please, when we met last you seemed more in control.”  Cormir said, taking a step to the side and appearing directly in front of me.

I flinched backward in spite of myself.  Shadowstepping was one of the rarest of our Gifts, and as a result was something I was unaccustomed to.  “Why didn’t you tell your men that you were a filthy bloodsucker?” I asked, taking refuge in my usual sarcasm.

“Because they didn’t need to know.”  He said with a shrug.  “What did you tell your group of cavemen up there?”

“Those idiots found me, not the other way around.  Why are you here?”  I didn’t trust him, but I needed his help.  Or someone’s help anyway… and here he was with an armed troupe of soldiers right on queue.  It seemed too good to be true.

“Your blood hit the paper.  I assumed you needed assistance.” He, shrugging again.

“Have you heard anything from the Tribunal?”  I asked, their most recent communication with me had been in the form of an archo-scientific assassin and I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about having another chat with them.

“Haven’t you heard?  There’s a price on your head my dear.  A rather sizable one too.”  He gave me a speculative look.  “I don’t know what you did to piss them off but they’re gunning for you pretty hard.”

“Huh.  I never thought they’d be this aggressive.” I said, “And here you are leading a posse armed with phosphorus rounds.  How convenient.”

“Oh please.  If I wanted to collect I’d have done it long ago.”  He said with a grin and then looked around with a guarded expression on his face, “Can you tell Svenka to come out from wherever she’s hiding?  The thought of one of those silver blades of hers in my eye is less than pleasant.  I never did understand how someone with a head of white hair could be so adept at hiding in the darkness.”

“She’s… missing.” I said, forcing the words out.  “I was attacked by something that was like the sunrise.  I don’t know if she died or if she was captured, but I have to find her.”

“Is there a more hospitable place we could talk?”  He asked, looking around with a twist of distaste on his face.  Some of us never got used to roughing it… others, like myself, never got used to the life of luxury that immortality could grant.

“Not really; I accidentally deleted the only town within walking distance.”  I gestured toward the crater, noting the scent of fear from his men spike.

“Someday you’ll have to show me that Power of yours.”  He said, his eyes shining with greed for just a moment.

“It’s not the easiest thing to control.”  I said with a syrupy smile, “You probably wouldn’t like the result.”

“I just have an attraction to power.” He said, his expression feral, “I suppose it’s why I hate The Tribunal so much; they’re just so weak.”

Well, that was an interesting take on the situation.  I hadn’t known what to expect from him, but certainly hadn’t thought he’d be this straightforward.  Well, if he was really being honest that is… but what reason would he have to lie?  I could care less about The Tribunal and their politics.

“I don’t give a shit about them.”  I said with a dismissive gesture, “I just want to find Svenka and stop this fucking plague from destroying humanity.  You know… so we can all keep Final Death at bay?”

“Well they give a shit about you.  A million shits actually.  What’s this about a plague?  I thought that was just a nasty rumor.”

“No.  I didn’t destroy that town and all the things before it on a whim.”  I said, “The threat is real and my response to it is the only thing that will save the human race.  Or our race for that matter.”

“Huh.  I can honestly say I didn’t see that coming.”  He crossed his arms and gave me an appraising look, “OK, well I guess we can go back to my base of operations.  Such as it is.”

I hesitated, unsure as to whether or not I should put myself any more in his power than I already was.  “I would hate to have to destroy you Cormir.  You had better not try anything nefarious.”

“Nefarious?”  He burst out laughing, “I can tell English is not your first language Ren.  Nefarious.”  He snorted another laugh, “Who even says that in a normal conversation?  It’s like you’re a James Bond villain or something.”

His laughter was infectious; I hadn’t heard laughter or laughed myself in ages.  Soon even his men were smiling.  I finally recovered and looked him in the eye.  “I am not joking Cormir.  I’ll kill you without the slightest bit of remorse if you betray me.  I don’t have time for games.”

His men stopped smiling and trained firearms on me; their faces grim.  I pointed to a large boulder about fifty yards away and allowed the Power of destruction to course through me.  The flare of energy caused a halo of light to surround my body and for just a moment I appeared to have wings made of pure white light.  Then the boulder I was pointing at was engulfed by a flash that made the sun look like a flash light.

When the after image had cleared from their eyes I knew they saw what I did.  The stone was gone, sliced off mere millimeters from the ground.  Cormir walked to where the rock had been and bent to pick up the tiny remnant.  A low whistle escaped his lips.

“Look at that shit… boys she’s the real deal.  I’d avoid pointing guns at her unless you want to be…”  He looked at me with a cautious smile on his face, “Deleted?”

“Damn straight.”  I grinned in spite of myself, “I’m sorry, but I don’t have the time to go to your secret base.  Maybe you can show me your tree fort after this is all over.  For right now, I have to focus on finding my… on finding Svenka and on destroying this infection before it destroys us.  I would welcome your help though, if you’re willing to give it.”

“A bargain then?”  He asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Bargaining means equal exchange.” I said, “What do you get out of the deal?”

“How about you give me a seat in your new Tribunal?” He said with a rouge’s rakish grin.

“My new… do you honestly still think I’m some goddamn revolutionary?”  I asked, incredulous.  “Look Cormir, I just know that I made a mistake about six months ago.  As a result some of my best friends died and a … well for lack of better term a disease was unleashed upon humanity.  I aim to fix things, no matter what.  If anyone has something to say about that I’ll fucking end them, whether they’re the President of the United States or the ruling council of The Tribunal.”

I had unwittingly infused my tirade with a touch of Power; something that Mec had taught me what seemed like an age ago.  The mortals had taken a few steps backward, involuntarily letting their assault rifles fall from numb fingers.

“I won’t stand in your way.”  Cormir said with a smile on his face, “Take what you want.”

“You don’t have what I want.” I said, bitterly.  “What I truly want is gone forever.”

“If I can’t help you, then perhaps you can help me.” Said Cormir, now looking at me with serious eyes.  “There is something I need desperately.  Please come with me.”  He held out his hand but I shied away.  I couldn’t bear to touch him.

“What do you want?”  My voice sounded cold, even to me.  “Why do you think I can give it to you?”

“Because, you gave it to me once before my Sire.”  Cormir knelt before me in the dirt, reaching for me with trembling hands.  “You gave me hope when all was lost, you took my life and gave me more.  You… Renyovalia, you cannot leave me now.”

Oh.

–

As a general rule, our race are terrible parents.  Most of the children we make are accidental before we know better or poorly conceived mistakes based on some former emotional attachment.  Once entering Second Life, most of us undergo a complete alteration of self as the Dark Gift renders its blessings and curses upon us.  As with an apple seed, you never know what the result will be until the tree bears fruit.

I didn’t recognize Cormir, but that didn’t mean I didn’t know him.  I had been so young when I was brought into the world of the Undead; both in years and in attitude.  Barely twenty one, I had grown up living on the streets in the slums of Moscow.  I was part of a gang of between a dozen and a score of kids.  We looked out for each other to enough of a degree that we didn’t have to worry about freezing or starving.

The older we became, the more complicated our needs were.  It didn’t take long for us to get into more trouble than we could handle.  Kids like us were as common and as disposable as toilet paper and all too many people were willing to treat us as such.

I’d seen a lot of kids come and go, as well as more than my fair share of death by the time I had been bitten.  I still don’t know who my Sire was, or what made him or her choose to turn me instead of just killing me.  Perhaps it was a backwards attempt at revenge on one of my companions.

I say this because I awakened in the abandoned warehouse where my crew, such as they were spent most of its free time.  We’d never really evolved past pack mentality, the strongest, fastest and smartest lead and the rest of us followed until we thought we could do better.  When consciousness returned to me I exploded into a ravenous rampage; tearing apart nearly all of the people I had once called family and feasting upon their blood.

My old human self would have been horrified, but the newly born Nosferatu only knew hunger.  By the time I recovered from the blood frenzy my surviving friends had fled.  Very little of what I had been before remained and, like many of my kind, I began to build a small empire based around my newfound power.  Humans did what I told them to and I was allowed to run rampant through my little corner of the Moscow underworld for a short time.

Instinctively, I knew how to create more of my kind and I was beginning to build an army by the time The Tribunal sent the Reapers to ‘deal with’ us.  That is when my Power of Destruction first manifested itself.  That is when I was offered a choice between Final Death and fifty years of service.  None of my undead progeny were offered the same choice.  I had thought them all sent to Final Death.

Now, a lifetime later here was a survivor of that first genesis.  I could… smell his blood.  He smelled like me.

I awoke in the innermost room of the cave where Emilio had led me after a time of unconsciousness I barely had a concept of.  My hunger was mercifully gone, I had taken drinks from a dozen or more of Emilio’s followers, but I could feel terrible loss in its place.  I vaguely recalled the destruction of the second unit of soldiers who had found me after the horror of the first sunrise I had seen in a millennium.  The pain from which I knew my lover had saved me from; likely at the expense of her own life.

“Angel?  Are you awake?”  A voice that trembled with suppressed fear asked.

“My name is Ren.”  I said, thankful that I healed to the point where my words no longer sounded like they were being dragged from a burning building.  “How long have I slept?”

“For an entire day Angel.”  The voice said, still quavering.

“You have no need to fear me.  What is your name?”   I asked, “And please call me Ren.”

“Mi nombre es Maria.” Came the quavering reply, either she had a limited grasp of English or else she was reverting to her native tongue when frightened.  I guessed the latter.

“Thank you Maria.” I said, realizing there was hardly any light in the room.  Although the darkness was no impediment to my vision I was certain my companion was unable to see anything.  I saw a pair of worn jeans, threadbare white t-shirt and abused leather jacket lying next to one of those horrible looking robe things Emilio and his followers wore.  I pulled on the jeans and t-shirt, patting the pockets by habit, checking for things that weren’t there.

“Tienes sed?”  She whispered, forcing the words out.  Are you thirsty?  Now it made sense.  Emilio must have left her here for breakfast.  He didn’t really understand how my vampire body worked and that was just as well.  I didn’t trust him very much; fanatics always make me nervous.  I only really needed to feed when I was exhausted or had burned the life force of the creatures I had fen on

“Do you have a cigarette?” I asked, ignoring her question about thirst.  She didn’t move from where she crouched by the opening.  “I’m not going to hurt you Maria” I said and since she didn’t offer a cancer stick I went in search of a more likely donor.  I knew Emilio was a smoker.

The few people I met in the all but ran away from me.  No surprise there, but I could now much better understand the importance of keeping our kind a secret.  This kind of behavior was annoying; it made me look at them in contempt… and it also aroused my predatory instincts.  Seeing prey running away always made the wolf want to give chase.

Since there was only one way out of the bit of the cave system I had been in, finding Emilio was quite easy.  He was standing in the dying rays of a sunset at the mouth of the cave speaking to an assembled group of people.  As much as I craved the ritual of a cigarette I wanted to avoid a crowd of fearful, or worse adoring, people even more.  The physical addiction of nicotine had vanished with the normal functioning of my human circulatory system.

I leaned against the wall, the distractions of the moment gone allowing me to really feel what was missing.  The needs of my body were sated, however I still felt empty.  Svenka was gone, I hadn’t seen any sign of her at all after I recovered from my frenzy.  What had caused it anyway?  I hadn’t been hungry, instead my last clear memory was of my lover soothing away my need to destroy, calming the overabundance of mechanically augmented thalmaturgic power within me.

Memory struck me like a hammer.  Someone or something had attacked us with a glow that was as hot as the rising sun to my sensitive skin.  Whatever it had been, Svenka had saved me from being destroyed by covering me with her own body, even as I had begun to blister and burn.  My instinct and brutal strength had allowed me to burrow beneath the soft sandy ground and there I had survived.

She didn’t react to the sun’s rays though; she wasn’t one of the undead. But the fact remained that I still couldn’t reach her.  She was either too far away, unconscious or … I had to concede that she might be dead.  I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the rough wall of the cave.  A tear fell from the corner of my left eye, burning as it forced its way through a tear duct that had long since stopped being functional.

During our last conversation, Svenka had claimed that I couldn’t cry.  She wasn’t precisely correct.  We could still shed tears after death, but it wasn’t the same.

“Why do you weep?”  Emilio had approached without me hearing him, both a testament to his stealth and my distraction.  His eyes widened as he saw the trail of red down my face.  We could cry, but the tears were blood.

“For things lost.”  I said, wiping the blood off my face in a dismissive gesture, my voice cold.  “I have work to do.  Do you have any leads on freak activity in the area?”

“Freaks?  You mean those Demons you destroy my Angel?”  The fervor in his eyes began to shine, and my unease at his attention returned.

“Yeah, call them what you will.”

“No my Angel.  You have destroyed all in your path.  We have always followed you, we do not presume to predict your movements.”  Emilio said, his eyes downcast.

“It doesn’t matter.”  I said, slightly relieved that he didn’t know things I did not.  “I will find them on my own.  You all should stay here, I’d hate to risk you.  It’s dangerous where I tread Emilio; more dangerous than you can imagine.”

“We have nothing to fear with you leading us Angel.”  He said, all but bowing to her.

“I am no angel.”  I whispered.

“With you walking before us, the road is perfectly smooth and flawless.” Said Emilio, as though he hadn’t heard me, “As smooth and perfect as glass.”

“I’m going and you are staying here.” I said, forcing the emotion from my voice.  “Any who follow will die, either by my hand or by another.”

“It would be an honor to die by your hand Angel!” Emilio said, white spittle gathering in the corner of his mouth.  “Any of us would gladly open our hearts to serve your purpose!”

“The whole point is to not kill humans.”  I said, “I’m trying to fix this, not make thing worse.”

“You are fixing things Angel.  You cleanse the world of their filth with your holy light.”

“Do you have any vehicles?”  I asked, trying to change the subject.  The sun had just set… it was time for me to go.

“Of course not Angel, your presence renders electrical things inert.”  Emilio showed me his wrist. His watch had stopped at exactly the moment when I had saved him from the small horde of undead that had been on the road outside of Heroica Guymas.  Shit.

I spun on my heel and walked to the cave entrance.  The people outside were separating and going about menial tasks after Emilio’s… sermon or whatever.  One of the men had a hand rolled cigarette in his mouth.

“Can you roll me one of those?” I asked.  He turned toward me, stumbling back in surprise when he saw who had addressed him.  When he looked at me in confusion, I pointed to his cigarette.  I really should have spent more time learning world languages, but growing up in Russia hadn’t offered many opportunities and I’d never wanted to leave the United States after I’d immigrated.

He handed his cigarette over and I took a deep drag, exhaling smoke out my nose and sighing in satisfaction.  My options were limited.  I couldn’t contact the messenger from The Tribunal without the blood on the piece of paper he’d given me the night after Hex had died since it had burned away with my old clothes.  I would have a very hard time accomplishing much without someone to watch my back now that Svenka was gone.

Tonight would be about looking for answers.  Who had tried to kill me, where was my lover and how was I going to call in the cavalry if I needed them?  Damn, I shouldn’t have waited so long.  Taking the last drag on the cigarette, I pinched the end off and crushed the ember underneath my bare foot.  Turning to look down the hill, I gathered myself and leaped in the direction of the town I had most recently destroyed, easily clearing the tops of the trees.

The sun was setting behind the peaks of the Sierra Madres and I was just waking up.  It had been two week since Svenka and I had left San Diego.  Two weeks of bribing officials, sneaking past military barricades and killing the mindless undead.  I felt we were finally starting to undo some of the damage Hex had done in Mexico.

It was difficult, exhausting and completely unrewarding work, but I felt responsible for not recognizing what had been happening to Hex.  I felt responsible for him infecting humans with the virus that Burnham and his traitor accomplice James had concocted; after all him drinking human blood had been my suggestion.  James, calling himself Mec, had been one of my closest companions for years and I’d never suspected he had been working for the enemy.  The thought of delectable human vitae made me groan in hunger.

“Hey baby, you finally getting outta bed?  It’s more than an hour after sundown, this is weird for you.  Feeling tired?”  Svenka was sitting at the desk in the hotel room, cleaning and sharpening her knife collection.

“Yeah, something about seventeen slugs to the chest kinda takes it out of a girl.”  I rubbed the newly healed scar tissue, “Anything moving out there?”

“Shit no, it’s a goddam ghost town.  I think you took out most of that squad of Mexican Regular Militia and they were the only living things in the town.”  She set down the knife she had honed to a razor edge and picked up the next.  “The infected don’t move unless they see food so it’s hard to tell but I’m sure there are a couple hundred of them out there at least.  After you killed the one that could move shit with its brain they all sort of just hunkered down and I was able to sneak you back here.”

“Well, that’s a relief.  I wish I could have saved a couple of the living though.”  I did feel bad about the soldiers but those assholes and their fucking machismo attitude were an impediment to actually stopping the outbreak.

That and I had been hungry.  Fucking ravenous.  It had been awhile since I had worked with The Reapers and I had forgotten how famished I could get when using my abilities to their fullest extent.  Even after my feeding frenzy I could still feel the ache of hunger at the edge of my consciousness.  It seemed like it was a constant companion these days.

“Normally I’d disagree with you darling, but you and I both know that this is a special set of circumstances.  Besides I can’t stand that bullshit attitude ya know?”  She shook her head, “I can handle myself better than any of those fuckers, but you’d think I was helpless judging by the way they treat me.”

“And I can imagine no worse insult for you.”  Svenka had been known as the Mork Varg, the Dark Wolf in her days as an assassin and was one of the least helpless women I knew excluding myself and a few of my fellow undead.  “Personally I don’t give a shit as long as they don’t try to touch me.”

Since Hex I couldn’t abide the feeling of any man’s hands on my body.  Not on any part of my body; I wouldn’t even shake hands voluntarily.  I sat up in bed, the sheet falling off my naked torso and grabbed the cigarettes off the side table.

“You gotta let it go baby.”  Svenka climbed in bed and put her arms around me, “It messes up your chi to hang on to this kind of bad energy.”

I lit a cigarette and leaned back against her, taking comfort in the familiarity of her scent and the warmth of her body.  “I can’t.  You of all people know I tried, but I just can’t let him go.  After everything we went through together he’s the only man who ever kept all of his promises to me but one.  The least I can do is remember him for what he was.”

“Listen, he was an amazing guy; pretty much the only one I’ve met who was worth the skin that covered his goddamn body, but he did what he did to help you, not to ruin your life.”  She pulled me close, hands cupping my breasts and I wriggled against her, sighing in pleasure.

“He didn’t ruin my life dear, he didn’t take you away.  Besides, acquiring a little phobia is nothing in exchange for my life.  I’ll manage, just like I always have.”  I took a deep drag on the cigarette and blew a plume of smoke towards the ceiling.

“I wish you’d quit that shit, it’s bad for you.”  She said, more out of habit than anything else.  We had about as much chance of getting cancer as we did of sprouting an extra head.

“I know; that’s why I do it.  If I didn’t smoke I’d probably become a fucking superhero or something.”  It was the only bit of me that remained from when I had been human.  Before I was turned I had never been with a man, let alone a woman, never drank, never danced, never had a true friend.  I could have given it up, but there was something about the ritual that kept me from quitting.  It helped me fit in as well; smoking was a purely human act of self-destruction.

“You are a superhero already.  Haven’t you heard?  They’re calling you la Angelus Terribilus; the Terrible Angel.”  She nibbled my earlobe.  I shivered involuntarily; partly from her caress and partly for how closely the moniker matched my handle when I was with The Reapers… The Angel of Destruction.  “So what’s on the docket for tonight then?”

“As soon as the sun goes down we’re going to destroy this entire town.  Since there aren’t any living creatures within a mile radius of the town square I’m going to simply make it all go away.  They’re too tricky about playing final death for me to take the risk.”  I wasn’t sure I had enough energy to pull it off, but I was going to do it anyway.

“Is that even a possibility for you?  I don’t want to be forced to try and scrounge you up some fresh blood in this fucking wasteland again.”

“I’ll be fine.  We can’t let all the work we did here go to waste.”  She was right though, I was dangerously close to ravenous.  Ravenous wasn’t something I could afford to be, Svenka was the only edible thing within fifty clicks.  If I lost my cool and killed her I would likely walk naked into the next sunrise.

“I don’t think you’ll be fine.  Why don’t we see if we can’t scrounge some explosives instead?  There’s a fuel tank at the gas station and maybe we can find some grenades or …” She saw the look on my face and her voice trailed off.

“It’s only about a night’s ride to the next town right?  From what I’ve seen here I think we’ve just about wrapped up this little portion of the invasion.  I wish I understood why some of these things gained Powers though.  That is very unnerving.” I said, finishing the cigarette.

“I dunno hon.  Maybe it’s a glitch in the infection right?  I mean Hex was supposed to act like these guys wasn’t he?”  Svenka winced at my expression but soldiered on, “From what I’ve seen this thing is some mixture of the arcane and a virus.  Viruses mutate and different people’s immune systems react differently right?”

“Sure, but the ability to turn other being’s life energy into arcane Power is not supposed to be a communicable disease.  Fucking Burnham.”  I lit another cigarette and went to take stock of my weapons.  Svenka sat beside me and began sharpening her knives again.

I laid out what I had been able to scrounge earlier although I was certain there was more to be looted off the bodies of those poor bastards I’d eaten.  That thought reminded me of how similar the shambling lumps of rotting flesh that had once been the population of this little village were to my kind.  With a shudder I ran my fingers through my hair and took inventory.

Three nine millimeters, a pair of forty fives, half a dozen spare magazines and a smattering of ammunition.  I field stripped the first of the pistols, ensuring it was well oiled and in good operating condition.

“Hey, I’ve been thinking Ren.  Those monsters with Power sorta like Hex’s… do ya think maybe they can… that they are sentient?”

I looked at Svenka incredulously, “What?  You think we should try and talk to them?”

She spread her hands, “I dunno, but what if one of them managed to stay sane.  Like he did.”

“It doesn’t matter.  If I let even one of them survive, his death will be for nothing.”  I took a deep breath, feeling the familiar pain that thinking of Hex brought.  Like running your tongue over a broken tooth.

“OK, OK just a thought.”  Svenka shook her beautiful head of white hair, “Have any of your old associates contacted you?”

“Who, the Reapers?”  I put my hand in my pocket, touching a piece of paper that had been given to me a couple weeks ago.  “No, and I don’t expect them to either.  There might be someone I can get ahold of if I need to but I’d rather not if I don’t have to.  This is my mess you know?”

“You can’t do it all on your own you know.”  She said, giving me a stern look, “If you have a favor to call in do it.”

“I’m not doing it on my own.”  I smiled at her, “I have you.”

“Yeah, sure.  I don’t really count though do I?”  The bitter look on her face surprised me.

“Hey.”  I dropped the parts of the pistol I was re-assembling on the table and moved to sit on Svenka’s lap, straddling her lithe form, wrapping my legs around her and the chair back.  I ran my fingers into her hair and pulled her in for a kiss. “You count more than anyone else in the world.”

An explosion rumbled outside, causing the room to shake as though we were being hit by an earthquake.  In its wake, the door was kicked off its hinges and a figure stood in the doorway.  He held a machete in one hand and a large bore pistol in the other.

“Stay where you are.” He said, gesturing with the pistol.  “No sudden movements or I’ll give you an extra hole to breathe out of.”  He was speaking English, which was a surprise.

“You an American?”  Svenka asked, her thoughts mirroring mine as usual, “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Hell.  Now that’s more of a description of this place than a question aint it?”  He looked over the room and the pair of us, “Well I guess you aint infected or else you wouldn’t be talking with me.”  He lowered the gun and sighed.

I laughed, “No problem.  I’m Ren.  This is Svenka.”  I kissed her on the forehead and unwrapped myself from her, standing up slowly.  “Seriously, what the hell are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same question.” He said, giving me a guarded look and half raising his gun again.

“Hey if you want me to show you mine first that’s fine.” I said with a sloppy grin, “I’m on cleanup duty.  There’s a lot of disgusting flesh eaters out there that need to be dealt with.  The locals call me la Angelus Terribilus.”

He let out a slow breath, a skeptical look on his face. “I’ve heard of her.  Don’t know her story though.  My name’s David Jackson… I was on vacation and the resort was overrun with these things. I managed to get away somehow and holed up in this little store for a few days.  Found the gun behind the counter and the machete in the garage…”

“For fuck’s sake, will you just come in the goddamn room and sit?  I wish you hadn’t fucking broken the door dipshit.” Svenka was taking his entrance into our lives with her usual acidic wit.

“Hey, I was just looking for a place to lay low for the night.  I heard you talking and decided I had to check on it.  I haven’t seen anyone who wasn’t one of those… things… for about a week now.  I honestly didn’t think I was going to find people in here.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if his story added up properly, but I was too tired to think clearly.  It was all I could do not to stare at the vein on his neck.  I licked my cracked lips with a dry tongue.  To distract myself, I picked up the door and propped it in its broken frame, wedging it in place with pieces of broken furniture.

“We’ve seen a few local militia and military but they don’t fare very well against the undead.” Svenka said, picking up her whetstone and beginning to work a notch out of the edge of one of her knives.  “We have some special equipment that gives us an edge over them though.  How about you?  How have you managed to stay alive this long?”

“Undead?  Fucking seriously?”  He was looking a little wild around the eyes, hands clenching reflexively on his weapons.  “How do you know that?”

“What did you think was going on?  That this was just an elaborate hoax or that you’d somehow wandered onto a movie set?”  Svenka rolled her eyes and put the finishing touch on one of her slender silver blades, “I’m sure you noticed that they don’t die unless you take their heads off right?”

“Actually I’ve mostly been hiding the entire time.”  He admitted, “I haven’t needed to actually shoot anyone.”  He moved to the couch, “I’ve seen the aftermath though, I guess I just didn’t want to admit it to myself.”

“What was that explosion out there?” Svenka asked, “Was that your doing?”

“Baby, you need to get him out of here.” I said to her over the mindlink.  It had been quite some time since I used it but I couldn’t let David know what was going on, “I don’t think I can hold myself back.  I’m just so hungry.”

“Yeah, I noticed you drooling over him.  I was hoping you’d just bite him and be done with it.” She replied, “I know you need sustenance.  You’ve been using the Power too much lately.  I can’t afford to have you weak.”

“No that wasn’t me.” David said, “I’m not sure what’s going on but I think the gas tank on the other side of town went up.”  He set his weapons down on the table and sat heavily in a chair.

“David, it’s not safe here, you shouldn’t stay with us.”  I said, unable to keep myself from walking toward him.

“Shit, you’re the first living people I’ve seen in this place.  I don’t like the idea of going back out there by myself.  Especially with night approaching you know?”  He looked at me, “Wouldn’t it be safer to stick together?”

“Not for you.”  I could feel my fangs growing.  Svenka looked at him with a mildly sympathetic expression on her face.  Although she was technically mortal, the bond she shared as one who had tasted my blood extended her lifespan long beyond what was normal.

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”  David asked, looking between the two of us.

In an instant I went from being halfway across the room to his side, one hand holding his head and the other gripping his arm.  I was breathing heavily, my predatory instincts only ignited further by the frightened whimper he released.

“We aren’t exactly living people.” I whispered into his ear, “I am sorry David, but I need this.”  My fangs pierced his neck like hypodermic needles and his vitae flowed into my body.  He didn’t even struggle, instead he let out a low moan of ecstasy and relaxed in my arms.  Well, I supposed the Kiss was different for everyone.

To my intense relief, his blood was much more filling than I had expected and my hunger was sated long before I drank enough to kill him.  He fell back in the chair, looking at me through hazy eyes.

“Who… who are you?”  He murmured, a slight smile of pleasure still on his lips, “Who are you and what did you just do to me?”  The relaxed smile faded into a look of fear as he saw my fangs slowly retracting into their sockets and realized I was licking his blood off my lips.

“I told you before.  I am The Terrible Angel.”  I said, the fresh blood seemed to be making me slightly giddy.

“Hey Renyovalia, what the fuck are you doing?”  Svenka asked, grabbing my arm and shaking me.

I could feel the Power building in me.  There was a shrill whine right at the upper register of my hearing; far beyond anything any human could hear.  What the fuck was I doing?  A low laugh escaped from David’s lips.

“I am a gift.” He said, a dangerous smile spreading over his face, “A present from The Tribunal.  A leftover from your friend James, or so they tell me.”

Oh no.  “Svenka.  You have to get out of here.  Get out now, he has something in his blood.  I’m losing control my darling and if you get caught up in it I won’t forgive myself.”

“I’m not leaving your side.” She said stubbornly.

“Too late.” David said in a singsong voice, “Annih-“ Before he could finish uttering the Latin word that long ago had programmed me to release destruction one of Svenka’s slender silver blades blossomed in his throat.  His mouth moved but all that came out was a harsh and bloody gurgle.

“We need to move dear.  They know we’re here and he’s likely the first of many.”  Svenka swept the pile of handguns and magazines into a backpack, leaving the one I had partially disassembled on the table.

In a twinkling, all her knives disappeared into their sheaths and she was dragging me out the door with the bag slung over one shoulder.  I knew she was seriously nervous because she had David’s machete in her left hand and had even tucked his 357 magnum into her belt.  She never used guns.

I trembled with Power, it was as though the sun had set inside my chest instead of dropping below the horizon.

“Stay with me Renyovalia.  Stay with me my beloved, just let me get you away from here.”  She whispered in my ear, “Fight it, don’t let these bastards win!”

“I’m going to remove this place from existence.”  My voice sounded hollow in my own ears, “I will make it go away.  It shall be destroyed in a pillar of fire.”

“There’s no need my beautiful, terrible angel.  There is no need.”  She was moving fast, we were on the edge of town already, on a bluff that overlooked what remained of the small town.  “I don’t think there is anyone else left in there.”

My head still throbbed; I trembled with the desire to destroy.  “I can’t take that chance.  If one, even one of them survives it begin all over again.”

“If you’re going to do it, at least wait until you calm down.  I’ve seen you like this before, you have no restraint right now.  You’ll likely do more damage than you want to, and even worse you’ll exhaust yourself.”  She lowered me to the ground and sat behind me, pulling me back to lean against her.

I could feel her slow and measured breathing, the slow beat of her heart, the warmth of her body.  I would never feel warm like that again, but my connection to her allowed me to check my desire for devastation just enough for me to regain control.

A deep sigh escaped Svenka’s lips, “I can feel you letting go.”

I looked back into her face, her eyes were closed but tears leaked from them, rolling down her cheeks.  I reached up to touch them, trying to remember what being able to cry was like.

“Why are you crying?” I asked, leaning on her, grateful for her strength.

“Because dear one, you can’t shed your own tears anymore.”  She said, her arms hugging me tight enough that my ribs threatened to crack.  I lost myself in that embrace, not wanting to be anywhere else, not wanting to be with anyone else.

“I don’t care.” I said, “I can’t trust anyone else.  Not anymore.  Only you.”

Her arms tightened around my torso with more strength than I thought she possessed.  I looked away from her face and saw something glowing almost like the sunrise.

“No!  Ren look out!”  She rolled over, forcing me to the ground beneath her.

Then the burning began.

–

“What the fuck happened here?”  The Sargent surveyed the town, the burned buildings still smoldered and corpses of soldiers and civilians alike scattered everywhere like leaves in the fall.

“Sorry sir, we are still working on details.”  His subordinate said, “I don’t know what else to say but that it looks as though some wild animal tore this platoon of soldiers apart.  The wounds appear on the hamstrings and throats of our men, leading me to believe this was the work of wolves.”

His voice faltered, “I know this sounds like something out of movie sir.  A bad b-rate movie.  But look at this.”  He pointed to a soldier and the gaping wound across his throat, “You can’t deny that this wasn’t the work of any human.”

“And this one?”  The Sargent gestured toward the white blonde woman at his feet.  From behind she looked completely normal, but when they rolled her over the outline of a smaller person seemed to be burned into her body on the front.  It looked like she had tackled a burning mannequin.  He shook his head; this was just too strange.

“Sir!  Sun is setting sir!  Your cabin has been prepared sir!” A lieutenant was standing at attention to his right.

“Very well.  I will retire and tomorrow we will go over this godforsaken town.  I expect answers do you understand?”  He turned to go but his left foot was caught on something.  Looking down he saw instead of a branch or a rock a human hand was grasping his ankle.  It protruded from underneath the loose soil and had a firm grip on him, just above the laces of his tightly laced boot.

“What in the hell is this?”  He kicked his foot, and another hand burst from the ground, this one grabbing him slightly above the knee.  A guttural roar of hunger, confusion and rage erupted from beneath the earth.  The hands dragged and pulled at his leg and a scarred, bleeding figure tore itself from the ground, climbing up his body.

He screamed in horror, clawing his pistol from his belt and emptying round after round into the thing’s face.  Pieces of skull and brain splattered on his leg but the monster ignored the damage, opening its mouth impossibly wide, showing row after row of razor sharp needles instead of teeth and bit down on his inner thigh.

Blood, oceans of blood, more than he ever imagined could be contained in his body flowed from the horrible lacerations on his leg and the thing seemed to revel in consuming as much as it could and letting the rest flow over its face.  The last thing he saw were the wounds his pistol had inflicted knitting themselves back together before the white light staring at him from the place where the thing should have had eyes burned away everything else.

–

Agony subsumed my being.  I was a thing of pain, made of pain, existing only by the providence of pain.  The light of the moon hurt my eyes.  Looking to my left I saw the remains of a corpse, its leg having been savagely bitten off just above the knee.  The events that had led up to this were hazy, indistinct memories.

My skin was cracked and blistered.  It felt like someone had been using my head for an anvil.  The simple act trying to stand broke open a myriad of bleeding scabs.  I steeled myself and attempted to take in my surroundings.

A massive crater, perfectly cylindrical and close to a mile across lay before me.  The edge cut off mere inches from my feet.  I knew this destruction more intimately than anyone alive or dead.  I had done this.

After a few attempts I finally gave up trying to stand.  Unimaginable hunger wracked my gut, I had felt the madness of Frenzy before and knew it wasn’t far off.  Where, where was my lover, my anchor, my beloved?  I reached out through the mindlink and found nothing.  It didn’t necessarily mean she was dead.  I couldn’t allow myself to consider that.

“Are you OK?”  A voice interrupted my silent misery, speaking Spanish.  Terror skittered around the edges of his speech, “We saw what you did.  We know who you are.  We will help the Terrible Angel on her crusade against the sickness if we can.”

I recognized the voice, it sounded vaguely familiar.  I managed to move my head enough to look at the speaker.  It was dark and the moon was a crescent in the sky, but I could easily see him.  Dark vision was one of the benefits of my Dark Gift.  He was wearing some sort of rough spun cotton robe, looking like a religious pilgrim from a forgotten age.

“I was there on the mountain pass.  I was the first to begin spreading the word of your existence.  The Terrible Angel who will deliver us from a world gone mad.  She who has the power of destruction and can cleanse the sickness.”  He said, his eyes now almost glowing with fervor.

Now I knew who he was.  The last time I’d seen him he had been wearing military fatigues, sitting in the middle of the road anemic and exhausted from me drinking his blood, fighting off the shock of seeing the monsters Burnham had created in action.  “Emilio.”  I croaked, “What the hell are you doing here?”

“You remember me?”  He asked with a smile, “I have been looking for you, following you so that I could repay you.  We have walked for days, our numbers growing as we came.”  He gestured   behind himself and I could see a group of men and women dressed in the same kind of robes Emilio was wearing.

“What happened to you?  Who could possibly put you in such a state?”

I looked at my body, blackened and burned almost beyond recognition.  “I don’t know.”  He helped me to sit.  If I didn’t know better I would say I had been briefly exposed to the sun, but I wasn’t about to let a stranger in on that little secret.

“Take what you require.  I know of your needs.”  He pulled the neck of his robe down.  I could see the thick blue vein throbbing there, begging for me to drink.  In my weakened state it was more than I could handle.

I could hear the cries of horror from the assembled people as I sank my fangs into him, but Emilio was moaning in ecstasy.  “Yes, more!  I remember this feeling!”  He melted against my body, begging me to take his life essence, to drink it all.

By sheer force of will I stopped before I killed him.  My skin slowly regrew, knitting itself back together to the increased dismay of my supposed followers.  The clothes I had been wearing, sturdy army fatigues, were completely burned off the front of my body.  As I sat up, I left the remainder on the ground behind me and stood naked in front of the small army of people.  I still felt weak and in more ways than one.

“Was there anyone else here?  Did you see what happened?”  My voice was slightly less rough now, but I was far from whole.

“I saw from afar.  You brought your holy cleansing light to this place.”  Emilio’s voice was shaking with fervor, “You removed the evil and the unbelievers, leaving nothing but perfection in their place.”

“Are you sure it was me?”  My voice shook with grief.  I knew he was right though, there wasn’t anyone else who could do this.  Not anymore.

“Of course, who else could it have been?”  He gave me a slightly unfocused look.

“Take me to the nearest shelter.  I require time to rest and think.”  I wasn’t about to tell him I would burn like a torch in the sun, and I couldn’t handle thinking about the possibility of Svenka being gone.

“Of course.”  He stood, wobbling slightly on his feet, “We move to the cave at once!”

I attempted to lend him a hand but he waved me away, “You save your strength for your own tasks.  I am unworthy of any more assistance from you.”

In spite of these words, he toppled and would have fallen had I not caught him. “Don’t be foolish.  Carrying you is less difficult for me than wearing clothing is for you.”  I brushed off his attempt to stop me as easily as you would wave away a mosquito and cradled him like a baby.

“Which way to this cave of yours then?”  I asked, and began walking in the direction he indicated, not caring if the others were following.

This wasn’t what Emilio had envisioned when he joined the Mexican military. He was crammed in the back of the truck with twenty other soldiers bumping over uneven road in a remote mountain region near Heroica Guymas.

“What the fuck are we doing out here again?” He asked, reaching into his pocket for a pack of cigarettes.

“Supposed to be some kind of gang violence they say. Probably some fucking drug cartel or another would be my guess.” Said John, he insisted on being called ‘John’ instead of ‘Juan’ as though having worked for a few years in the United States somehow qualified him for an American pronunciation.

“How long does this trip take? It’s almost sundown and we’ve been sitting in this damn truck all day.” As Emilio spoke, the truck lurched to a halt, horn sounding repeatedly. He could hear the driver yelling something. Out of boredom, he stood up and shouldered his rifle. “I’ll go check it out.”

He hopped out of the truck, grabbing the canvas that covered the back of the duce and a half vehicle he had been riding in to steady himself. Walking up to the front, he could clearly hear the stream of profanity coming from the driver’s window.

“Get the fuck out of the goddamn road you stupid piece of dog shit! What the hell is wrong with you stupid bitch?” The horn blared again.

Emilio looked in front of the truck and saw a woman in ragged clothes sitting with her back to the vehicle, rocking slowly back and forth. Her hair hung in a matted mess halfway down her back, she appeared to be wearing a night dress.

“Hey there, are you OK?” He asked, starting to walk towards her. Once he got closer, he could smell her. She was rank; like she had rolled in rotting chicken fat.

“Lady, you need to get out of the road.” He said, circling around to get in front of her. Emilio stopped in shock, the look on his face must have reflected his disgust because the abuse spouting from the truck ceased. The woman’s eyes were sunk into her head and a sickly milky white color. Her mouth was open and her teeth were broken at harsh angles. In her hands she held the bottom half of what used to be a human leg, the shoe and sock still on the foot. The rest was mostly clear of flesh except for a couple of lumps.

“What the FUCK is going on?” He brought his rifle up to his shoulder, watching in disbelieving horror as she tore one of those bloody chunks of human flesh from the bone with her teeth, chewing in silent pleasure. A gunshot from the truck snapped him out of his shocked state.

“Emilio get your fucking ASS back here!” John yelled, he and several other soldiers were standing next to the truck, firing shot after shot at something over Emilio’s shoulder. He glanced behind himself, there were perhaps twenty or thirty shuffling forms coming down the road. Some were walking on legs that ended just above the ankle. Some had missing arms. All had the same sunken eyes that the woman in front of him had.

The woman in front of him. Where the hell did she go? The leg was laying on the ground, completely stripped of meat. Emilio could faintly hear the screams of fear and anger from his comrades. He could smell the thing’s carrion breath and feel it on the back of his neck. There was no way anything could move that fast. No way. He trembled, unable to move his body unable to take his eyes from the beauty of the sunset, refusing to acknowledge what was happening to him.

A whistling sound followed by a wet thunk made him glance left by reflex. There was a bright silver knife with a handle wrapped in para-cord seeming to hover over his shoulder. Thunk thunk thunk, it was joined by three exactly like it. The creature behind him slowly fell over, four knives making a neat diamond shape, forehead, each eye and right in the mouth.

“You’re lucky. This one was blind and cigarette smoke confuses their sense of smell.” A stunning woman with white blonde hair stepped out of the jungle, one of those silver knives in either hand and a bandolier with dozens more falling across her chest. She looked back the way she had come and yelled in English, “Ren! Let’s go before those goddamn cowards come back!”

Emilio realized every one of the soldiers in his company had abandoned him. There was a flicker of motion and another woman emerged from the trees, her camouflage clad body and long dark hair blending with the shadows. “The sun’s almost down Svenka. Give me a few minutes.” Her voice sounded tired.

“Have you looked down the trail? We don’t have a few fucking minutes.”

“There aren’t any who can manage Power are there?”

“No but they can RUN! Jesus Fuck, can you hurry? I don’t fancy becoming dinner.”

The creatures down the trail as one turned to look at them. The ones that could began running; not like humans at all but a gracelessly hurling themselves forward with massive leaps. Emilio remembered his rifle and started firing but it didn’t seem to do anything but put holes in them.

“Fine fine.” There was a sigh, “It’s harder when the sun is out.” Emilio watched the woman in the shadows stood straight and spread her arms wide as though she was imitating the crucifixion. He blinked in confusion, she had wings. Wings of fire and light.

“You’ll want to close your eyes.” The white haired woman had her back to the dark haired one, looking down the road at the approaching creatures with her arms folded. He noted idly that she was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses.

For an instant, the entire world seemed to hold its breath. Then there was a flash of light that made the sun seem dim. A section of the jungle in a perfect circle pattern no longer existed. The figures on the road were simply not there anymore, trees alongside the trail ended a few feet from the ground as though sliced with some impossibly large razor blade.

“Are you OK?” Emilio realized the white haired woman was talking to him. “Did any of them touch you?”

“What is happening? Who are you?” He asked, too bewildered to answer her question.

“The men you were called in to support are all dead. The people they were called in to assist are all dead. It’s the apocalypse Emilio and we are a pair of Horsemen gone rogue.” Her nose wrinkled like a hound scenting, “I can tell they didn’t touch you, the smell of carrion isn’t coming from you at all.”

“I need a favor from you Emilio.” The sun had dropped behind the horizon, its rays barely shining enough light to see by and the woman in black had silently moved to stand next to him. “I’m tired and I can’t afford to be exhausted here. You might be the last human I see for quite some time.”

“What do you mean?” He asked, remembering the wings, the light, the destruction. His rifle hung limply in his hands, forgotten again. She looked into his eyes and he stared back into hers, unable to look away. Those dark orbs of hers seemed to expand to fill his vision. “How do you know my name?” He whispered.

She put her arms around him, “Shhhhh, it’s going to be OK Emilio.” He never felt her teeth pierce his neck.