Julius shook his head. “Stronger?” His voice was soft. “I don’t see any strength in you, Marco. All I see is a craven coward who has always preyed on the weak.”
Without warning. Marco moved. Using his legs to awkwardly propel him across the floor, he managed to move with a speed that surprised even him.
Julius never flinched as he triggered his flamethrower. Marco screamed as the fire consumed him. It felt as if his entire body were being ravaged by a million razors. Through the flame, he saw Julius. and let his momentum carry him forward.
The last thing he felt was the flesh of his brother’s neck part beneath his burning hands.
38
There will come a day, make no mistake about it, when humanity is going to have to rise up against these monsters, and take the fight to them. There will come a time when normal people will grow weary of the night being ruled by the forces of evil. Then, and only then, will they finally rise up in the morning, and drag the vampires of Ordo Maximus out of their darkened rooms, and expose them to the deadly, cleansing sunlight. Let just pray that day doesn’t come too late.
–
Martin de Vries. Shadows at Noon, posted to Shadowland BBS, 24 May 2057
With a curse, Rachel kicked the still burning body of Marco off of Julius, who lay in a growing pool of his own blood, choking.
Rachel knelt by him, quickly pressing her hands to Julius’ wounds. “Julius?”
Julius managed a tired smile. “Finally beat him at something.” He coughed, and choked up blood.
Suddenly Rachel’s world turned into an inferno, Explosion after explosion tore through the compound, ripping the structure apart.
De Vries was the first to react, as the wall of flame spread down the hall.
The next thing Rachel knew, the vampire had taken hold of both her and Julius and flung them out through the door, Rachel landed, still clutching Julius to her chest, She looked up just in time to see de Vries streak out of the burning building with Warren and Sin over his shoulders.
A ten-meter gout of flame followed them, and seemed to lick at his back like a hungry beast whose prey has just managed to escape its vicious jaws.
Then the flame was gone, snuffed out by the shock wave that followed, a shock wave that caused the entire compound to crumble in on itself.
De Vries hadn’t stopped running. He carried Warren and Sinunu to one of the still functional vehicles and yelled orders to the man driving it. Rachel watched as the two limp bodies were loaded up and the vehicle streamed out of sight. She wanted to be with Warren and Sin, but that would leave no one with Julius.
Nearly deafened by the roaring in her ears, she lifted her head, and called out for help. “He’s dying.”
Within moments, de Vries was there, with Killian on his heels.
Rachel looked up at the vampire. “You’ve got to help him!”
De Vries knelt beside Julius. He studied him for a few moments before doing what she guessed was some kind of magic. Then he looked Rachel in the eye. “I can heal him, but he’s infected now.” He pointed to the blood-soaked ground where Julius had fallen.
Rachel looked down at Julius, who was gazing up at her, trying to speak. She leaned close, and with an effort, she could make out his voice over the shouts of the men around him.
“Rachel, it’s my time. Accept it.”
Rachel looked into his eyes, and knew there was nothing she could do to stop the inevitable. Her heart hardened again and she stood.
“Give me the flamethrower,” she said.
Surprisingly, it was Biggs who handed her the weapon.
She strapped it on and pointed the nozzle down at Julius’ body. He was in pain and would soon change as the virus took control. Rachel stepped back and triggered the flame watching as the man’s body was consumed by the ravenous jaws of fire.
She tossed the flamethrower to the ground, and looked up.
De Vries smiled softly at her. “I know it’s difficult.”
A trembling hit Rachel, and she sat down heavily. “Not as difficult as it should be.”
De Vries nodded. “Listen, there’s something I have to do, and I’m not sure how it’s going to work out. So if I don’t see you again, I want you to know that you’ve shown an old vampire what being human means again.”
Rachel looked up. “Where are you going?”
De Vries smiled, and looked behind him, then back at her. “The bad guy is getting away, and I’m probably the only one who can stop him.”
With that, he turned to mist and disappeared into the smoke of the battlefield.
Rachel looked around her at all the wreckage. Among the battered vehicles, two were still burning.
Just off to her left, she saw a few of the Fratellanza men loading a heavy green container into one of the Citymaster trucks. She knew that box, had seen a number of them being loaded.
“Hey!” she yelled to the men with the container. She struggled back to her feet. “Hey, boys. Let me talk to you for a moment.”
39
Lucky for us, cybemancy isn’t widespread and probably won’t become so-this drek is heavy magic. Stands to reason that the few magicians who know the rituals guard their secrets very, very carefully and probably charge staggering fees for their services. The clinics apparently can’t do the whole cybermancy thing without these mages, and there are maybe only three or four of them on the whole planet. And nobody knows for sure who the frag they are.
–
Posted to Shadowiand BBS by Captain Chaos, New Magic e-doc, 10 January 2057
Pakow hit the ground hard as the shock wave caused the earth to roll beneath his feet. For the better part of a minute, he simply lay there, the pain ratcheting through his body. He smelled blood and feces and knew he wouldn’t last much longer.
Choking on the foul dust that floated through the air, he tried to stand, but found he couldn’t.
So close, he thought, just another hundred meters and I would have made it.
His hand tightened convulsively on the chip he still held. I’m sorry, Shiva. I let you down again.
With that thought, Pakow grew angry. Wake had done this to him. Wake had cost him everything, and for what? For some stupid project that was supposed to save the world. What good would it do to save the world when saving it meant changing it beyond recognition?
Fueled by his anger, Pakow found the strength to pull himself up onto his hands and knees. The back of his coveralls were drenched in blood, as was the front. In the dim orange light from what was left of the compound, the blood was black, and looked evil.
Pakow almost smiled at the thought. I’ve seen more blood than most living men, and this is the first time I’ve ever thought of it as being good or evil. I guess it takes dying to put things into perspective.
He pushed himself to one knee and then to his feet. Staggering like a drunken man, he made his way toward the helipad.