14. VAMPIRES VERSUS ZOMBIES

VAMPIRES VERSUS ZOMBIES

D aemon undid the bowtie around his neck and stuffed it into the pocket of his tuxedo pants. Then he unbuttoned his shirt so that a ‘V-shaped' section of his chest was exposed. The cool night air slid over his bare skin like a lover's caress.

He toed off his shoes and socks. The grass of the museum's back park was damp from dew. He curled his toes against the wet earth and closed his eyes as he simply enjoyed the physical sensation of standing barefoot in the grass.

This was a turning point. A moment of change. A moment of decision. He would not back away from it. The best laid plans in these moments were turned to dust and blew away in the wind.

He tipped his head back and let his senses flow outwards. He smelled death on the wind, of course. He felt Kaly's bony fingers stretched out over the city, aiming their rage towards this small bit of parkland. He knew that Kaly was not going to stop until the dead were noticed.

But does Kaly not realize that humans love a good versus evil story?

Even though Kaly had created the Order, they did not truly understand people. Or rather, they were limited in their understanding of the brighter aspects of human nature. He knew that those around him wanted to wait for another time to reveal the existence of Vampires and himself as king. But this turning point told him that to walk away, to hide in the shadows, would be a mistake.

Will the humans be afraid? Yes.

Will they distrust all Vampires because of Kaly? I do not know that we could avoid that in any case. They are our prey after all. But they can also become us.

If we go back to skulking in the shadows, the darkness that covers us will be incomplete anyways.

Too many will see.

Too many will not forget.

Too many will be haunted.

And they will create greater nightmares about us than if we simply reveal ourselves.

Despite the whiff of death and rot, there was so much life still all around him. The city with its tens of thousands of inhabitants sang to him. Their hearts thumped. The blood whooshed in their veins. They talked. They laughed. They wept. Their machines honked and squealed and brayed. There was the hum of electricity that powered so many of their technologies flowing through the air.

In addition to the sweetness of decaying flesh that walked on bony feet towards them all, he could smell the exhaust and ozone, the fresh green grass, the tang of the nearby sea, the miasma of all living things. He nearly let himself kneel down in the grass and commune. But now was not the time for this singular contemplation. Now was the time of revelation.

"What are you going to do, King Daemon?" Seeyr asked.

He opened his eyelids and smiled at the other Immortal. She looked like the human's idea of justice with that blindfold over her still missing eyes. It would take much time before they returned.

"You're here, Seeyr. You always like to see your prophecies come true," he said. "So you already know what I'm going to do."

She colored slightly. "Yes, well, seeing history being made is rather thrilling even when one glimpses it ahead of time."

She was dressed in a celestial blue gown that twinkled under the moonlight. One of her delicate hands was on one of Sophia's slender shoulders. The other shoulder was occupied by Meffy. Daemon reached out and scratched Meffy between the ears. The cat closed his eyes and purred.

Sophia, who wore a babydoll dress of white and blue that matched Seeyr's in many ways, looked around her with wide eyes. "There's a lot of dead here. Kaly must be straining themselves to control so many from the Ever Dark."

"They have a form here. In this city," Daemon corrected her.

Her large eyes widened. "How do you know? Did they challenge you and then run away? I imagine that Kaly runs from you whenever they see you now."

Daemon chuckled and petted her much like he had Meffy. "I heard them. It is another Eyros form or they could not have spoken to me in my mind."

"Not one that came to House Ravenscroft then?" Seeyr tapped her pale chin.

"No, Balthazar…" Daemon tilted his head and saw what he had known would happen had occurred. Caemorn and Balthazar were starting on their journey as Blood Brothers. It was not one that either of them had ever expected to take, but it was a path that would be good for both of them. It was one hurt he could fix. "Balthazar would have known them immediately. Caemorn will hunt them down when they return together."

Seeyr and Sophia turned towards him. They were open-mouthed. He had managed to surprise two Vampires who could see the future. He felt amused.

"Kaly turned them both," he added.

"That explains it then!" Seeyr whispered. "How their Second Lives have been so intertwined. Why Christian is Speaker to the Dead."

Daemon nodded. "I cannot undo what Kaly did to them both as fledglings. But I hope they can find some peace with each other."

Meffy mewed as if to say that he hoped so too. That earned him a kiss between the ears by Daemon. The kitten melted under his lips and looked up at him with huge eyes.

"Do you want Meffy on your shoulder?" Sophia asked generously.

He knew that she adored the kitten. He would not have taken him from her even if he hadn't intended a bit of a show. A cat on his shoulder might be just too much for the humans to accept. He told himself that was why and not because some people might be more obsessed with the kitten than with him.

"Did you see Julian fight?" Seeyr asked. There was a smile in her voice. She sounded proud of him.

"Of course," he answered with a note of pride as well.

He had watched Julian defeat three of Kaly's creations. His fledgling even now was in control of himself, though covered with blood and with the lust of the fight still in his veins. Julian's nature was that of a cool man of action so it made sense that would translate into his Second Life. But still, it was pleasing to see.

He had not stepped in or made himself known to his fledgling, because he wanted Julian to feel he was free. Free to succeed on his own and free to fail, too. Daemon would just ensure that a "failure" did not lead to any permanent harm for Julian or anyone else of their kind.

"We can watch him again! Oh, and Christian, too! It will be like one of their videos, but even more thrilling!" Sophia clapped her hands together. "You know that they're going to revive their show, right? All about Vampires and what Bloodline people should choose and all about the Ever Dark and it will be wonderful!"

He and Seeyr turned to where she was looking with a rapturous gaze. About 100 feet away, down the shining lawn, the Vampires were charging the dead. All of the police had been put under some kind of trance by House Wynter so they would stay out of harm's way during the fighting. But they would remember that they had been saved and who by.

"You could just take over the dead, Daemon, and end this," Seeyr pointed out.

"Indeed, but what fun would that be? Our Vampires haven't had a chance to battle for good for a long time," he said and crossed his arms at the wrists behind his back.

"You'll let them have their fun and then…" Seeyr paused.

"Yes, and then ," he answered her with a smile.

The whump-whump-whump of the helicopters above him had another smile coming to his face. The camera crews had seen the commotion down below. The House Wynter Vampires could not stop all of them from seeing.

One of the helicopters' searchlights sliced through the darkness of the back lawn and part of the battle was revealed. Julian and Christian surrounded three of the dead. The two of them had been fighting together for over a decade and naturally knew each other's moves. But there was a nascent mind link between them that they were not even quite aware that they were using.

Daemon felt the rising excitement and perplexity as the media in the helicopter started reporting what they were seeing. His hearing expanded to catch the breathless words, "I don't know how to describe this. There are people dressed as… well, dressed as zombies . The ‘zombies' look real. Don't they look real? . Roger, zoom in on that group of five there. Are they fighting? My God, is this some kind of performance art?"

Julian came at the dead's front while Christian lightly circled around. While the dead were concentrating on Julian, Christian chopped the legs out from under them. They then stomped all three heads. He felt Julian's dismay at this, thinking how would the families of these people feel to know that the mortal remains of their ancestors had been crushed under foot. But there was nothing else to do. Get rid of the head and that stopped Kaly's control of them for the most part.

There was silence from the reporter in the helicopter for a moment then, a deep swallow, then, "This--this is movie magic, folks. Real practical effects. I wonder how they did that. Roger, Roger, can you get closer to those… ah, heads ?"

The media in the front heard the report and started to move en masse towards the back. The police tape was strung out, but that was nothing to the reporters' forward momentum. It snapped.

Police, who had been focused on keeping the media from the front, were not quite prepared for this herd-like movement towards the side of the museum. Cops started shouting orders for the press to get back and stop where you are ! But the talk of zombies had the media too in a lather. They slowed, but did not completely stop with those orders. Police sprinted to form a line and stop the press from seeing the zombies.

The press were clamoring to get past. They were telling the police that there were hundreds of people coming up to the museum from the back. The police didn't let them pass, but there were calls back to the officers that were supposed to be guarding the back of the museum. House Wynter Vampires had the police tell them that there was nothing wrong. But that lie wouldn't last long.

"Are they starting to panic yet?" Sophia asked.

"Not quite yet, dear," Seeyr said as she squeezed her fledgling's shoulder. "They still think it's all some kind of game."

The spotlight next fell on Arcius and Rajani. Arcius was not wearing his robes, yet he was just as conspicuous as ever in a sleeveless black leather vest and pants. Julian thought that Arcius looked like a biker daddy, whatever that was. He would have to ask for more information.

Rajani was in an elegant red sari. The two of them advanced upon two of the dead. The Confessor moved like a Berserker. He roared as he clotheslined both of them. The dead fell backwards. Rajani knelt down and ripped the head of one of them off. Like Julian, Arcius slammed his heel into the other's head and ground his heel into the skull.

"I can't get over these effects! I mean it truly looks real, doesn't it, Roger? How much money do you think they spent on this?" The reporter's voice had taken on a slightly hysterical tone.

Some of the police from the front were looking down the side of the museum. Even without the multiple beams of light from the helicopters slicing through the night and showing the dead shambling forward. Every officer that jogged down to get a closer look were captured by House Wynter Vampires and sent back to the front again with stories that stretched the imagination of many.

"House Wynter is truly trying. It is an admirable effort," Seeyr murmured.

"It will be all for nothing though," Sophia said with a sad hum as she scratched Meffy under the chin.

"Yes, well, all the graves opening up and corpses littering the ground… that can't be explained away. Perhaps it could, but… no, not it won't work out well that way," Seeyr stated.

Their attention was drawn back to the battle between Vampires and zombies as the reporter screeched, "Does that guy have a skull ? He's cradling a skull!"

"Oh, Elgar! He looks so--so, well, even though he's in sweatpants and a hoodie, the skull really brings his look altogether," Sophia said kindly.

"Not exactly the elegant Vampire look," Seeyr agreed with a little moue of distaste.

She liked Elgar very much, but Seeyr had managed to immediately go from rags to formal gowns after her imprisonment. She thought that he should make more of an effort.

Elgar's still emaciated form shuffled in his overly large clothing. He kept Christian and Julian well in sight. But no one would think of him as a threat. He looked like a mad person. He might be mad, but he was incredibly dangerous.

Four of the dead were moving towards Julian and Christian's backs. The boys were unaware of them. Elgar was not. He shuffled towards the four. Kaly must not have recognized Elgar, because the dead swerved with almost lascivious looks on their faces, thinking that they would take him down easily. A Vampire's body rended by their sharp fingernails.

"The one with the skull doesn't look like he's aware of what's going on," the reporter joked, but there was strain in his voice.

Elgar, in fact, wasn't looking directly at the dead at all. Daemon could hear him murmuring to Eyros' skull, promising his Master that he would keep Julian and Christian safe from the nasty corpses.

The first of the dead was a foot away from him. It was a man in a suit that was hanging off his mostly skeletonized frame. Elgar didn't rear away from him. He didn't make a violent movement towards him either. Elgar reached out, seemingly blindly as he was still staring at the skull, and took the creature almost into an embrace. His lips were even with where the creature's left ear had been. He whispered something. The hair on Daemon's arms rose as the magic left Elgar and flowed into the corpse.

"What was that move? They're supposed to be fighting the zombies, right, Roger? Not saying sweet nothings to them!" The reporter laughed but it was definitely hysterical this time.

The dead man staggered back from Elgar then went very still. Daemon watched, fascinated.

"By the Immortals, can he use the Whisper against Kaly?" Seeyr asked.

"It appears so. There's only a fraction of Kaly's mind in that body. It seems he's able to control that part," Daemon murmured just as the dead man spun around and went after the other dead.

"Are you getting this? Please tell me you're getting this, Roger!" the reporter cried. "It's an all-out brawl. Looks like there are defectors!"

Elgar whispered into another dead woman's ear then another dead man's then another and another then another. The dead started attacking each other. It was like watching an infection in action with Elgar "infecting" the dead with his Whisper. The dead were wrenching each other's limbs off. They tackled each other. They gnawed at throats, ripping off hunks of rotting, dry flesh and stringy tendons.

"How are they doing this? Why are they doing this?" The reporter's voice was soft, uncertain. He was starting to question what he was seeing. It was all too real. "Who would see this if not for the accident at the museum?"

"It's the tipping point." Sophia was clutching Meffy to her chest now, who squeaked his displeasure. She soothed him with more pets.

"Not quite yet, dear, but yes, it is coming," Seeyr stated

"No one could have known what would happen at the museum tonight if it was an accident," the reporter continued to think out loud as the death and destruction continued below him.

Julian was decapitating the dead right and left. Christian was spinning the dead towards Julian as his fledgling moved way too fast for a human to do so.

The reporter said, "So why would someone actually put all this money, time, effort and energy into this flash zombie mob-fight-or whatever this? There are hundreds of people down there. The fight moves… the special effects… I've never seen anything like this!"

"We are doing well against the dead. Kaly's numbers are flagging," Seeyr said. "He needs more corpses."

The reporter continued to muse, "These things must be connected. Could this be some kind of publicity stunt? Are the people in the museum really dead? I mean the mayor is in there. All the city luminaries. Could they truly all be dead?"

This was not something a reporter would normally say, but the shock of what he was seeing had unlocked the reporter's mouth and he couldn't stop himself. Those words also triggered an awareness in Daemon. His head shot towards the museum.

The bodies in the museum… ah, of course… reinforcements.

Daemon heard the footsteps within there. More dead had risen. They were walking towards the exits of the museums. Unlike the corpses that Kaly had to work with before, these were fresh and supple and would cause much more damage than their rotten comrades. Soon they would spill out into the night and attack the humans in the media. Or at least some of them. Kaly would want someone to video the whole thing. It needed to be seen .

"Daemon, the doors," Seeyr reminded him lightly.

"Yes," he answered and used the power of Ashyr to bar the doors, trapping the dead inside.

But the doors to the front of the museum were glass. The rooms beyond were well lit. While most of the media was clustered by the side of the museum, trying to see the zombies, some were at the back, still able to see the doors. Of course, it didn't help when one of the officers let out a startled scream as the dead pressed themselves against the doors, the sheer pressure of their bodies would break the glass eventually, but they were trapped for now.

Cameras were suddenly pointed at the front doors. Reporters were now breathlessly reporting that the "flash zombie mob" included the luminaries like the mayor, judges, lawyers, doctors and the simply rich.

One female reporter recognized one of the women who was pressed against the glass. "That is Lucinda Gordon! I don't understand… her face… her nose is being… omg it's breaking! There's blood! The glass is shattering!"

"We need to let those people out!" One of the officers called and he and another female officer raced up to the doors.

The Acolytes had lost control when people's faces were being crushed against glass. The officers were tugging on the doors, but Daemon's use of the Ashyr gift kept those doors shut. But the glass was cracking and soon he would have to be holding back the bodies of the dead.

"My God! What is happening in there? The people in the front are being crushed! They have to be saved!" another reporter shouted.

The glass was a smear of blood as the press continued unrelentingly.

"Ah, Julian is going to be so upset. You must tell him that you intended this to be the time," Seeyr broke into his reverie.

Daemon turned back to his fledgling. Julian and Christian had taken down two dozen of the dead but more were boiling up after them. There were simply too many to move around them, no matter how fast.

So Julian teleported .

And that was caught on film. And no one, absolutely no one who was there, would believe that was a practical effect.

"It's time, Daemon," Seeyr said. "Time to show the world who we are and who you are."