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Exposure Level 2 ii
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2024-10-29 19:42:56~ Daniel and the others stood facing what looked like a massive dune. It stretched in either direction as far as their eyes could see. It was hundreds of feet tall, with a single path leading through to the valley on the opposite side. Nothing about it looked naturally made.
Out in the desert, the sun was unforgiving. Gusty winds whipped the fine shards of sand against them. They wore scarves around their faces, goggles to protect their eyes. Every inch of them covered to stay safe from the elements. The downside to wearing protective clothing was feeling like a potato in aluminum foil roasting over an open grill. Through the soles of his shoes, Daniel could feel the heat from the desert floor.
With him were Zigor, Helick, Vescovi, Penny, and five other men. To get to here, they trekked five miles across the Zanu Desert through two sand storms. The
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Enter the Shadows Exposure Level 2 iii
~The hunt was on for the infected vampires from the train. So far, they found one of them dead. Reinforcements from the Mountain were now in the city. Marx brought Shea, Garrick, and Ichiro along with him. Anabella was sitting in her chair in the control room at Anax, her firm. They offered security solutions for businesses and private homeowners and individuals looking for bodyguards and security details. Celebrities, Heiresses, Diplomats—Anax, was the firm of choice. Along with the services listed, there were others. Like surveillance for the entire city of Pentorium. It was the largest city on the continent, comprising five different sectors. Each ran by one of the five heads of the vampires. “One target spotted on the corner of Glendevon and Twenty-third Street,” one of Anabella’s operators said over her headset.
Enter the Shadows Exposure Level 2 iv
~Sven checked the wound on his side. The gash was deep, but it was healing. He stood in a stone tunnel cut off from the outside world. One of his men had tripped another booby trap. It triggered a cave-in that saw the stone roof above them buckling. On the other side of the rubble that had him trapped, there was one survivor. His injuries were grave, and Sven could feel it. The man had minutes to live. None of Salvay’s men made it out alive. As it stood, Sven had lost more than half of his pack. To the abomination he created at the manor. Then to the attack on the prison and the fight at the portal. To the trip here, he lost six—Sven looked at his arm as another sign disappeared—that made seven men lost to this hell-bound trip. On their journey to the temple, Sven lost another three. He’d sent them into hiding to preserve his ranks. He had to figure tha
Enter the Shadows Exposure Level 2 v
~Around them, the tunnel shook. Sven cursed. It would seem that number two was the winner. The wall the symbol was on cracked open, musty air blowing back into Sven’s face. He coughed, using his hand to fan the dust aside. Before him, the wall shifted, opening up to a chamber. There were cobwebs and tree roots everywhere. The roots were strange since there were no trees in the Zanu Desert. Coming here, Sven saw nothing but sand for miles. Salvay was not as cautious. He moved to step past Sven into the chamber. Salvay’s death was inevitable, but it was not yet due. Sven wanted to make sure he no longer needed the man before he ended him himself. “We walked through hell to get here,” Sven said, stopping Salvay. “What makes you think that hell is over?” The chamber was only a few meters wide. Cobwe
Enter the Shadows Exposure Level 2 vi
~Vescovi knew the stories about The Coming. About how the city of Zanu was swallowed back into the sands, from where it rose to glory. Details about its demise were sketchy, and for most, it was a mere story. A fable. One that illustrated the dangers of magic and why the use of it should not be taken lightly. Because of the lore, travelers rarely explored the Zanu desert. The locals tried to warn them that their presence would awaken the revenants. Protectors of the secrets of Zanu. According to the locals, the magic thought dormant was very much alive. They spoke of it like it was a living, breathing thing. Vescovi thought they made it seem more ominous than it was worth. That some details were wholly exaggerated. He was wrong. And to their collective dismay—the locals were right. The magic here countered Ava’s shadow magic. Repelled it. Until the peop
Enter the Shadows Exposure Level 2 vii
~All around them, the sands funneled up into mini-tornadoes. “Brace yourselves,” Vescovi said. One after the other, the tornadoes formed, encircling them in a ring of swirling sand. Vescovi counted nine of them. Blurred figures stood inside the funnel. The revenants. Men and women who had long since passed. Vescovi wondered how Salvay and Sven had feared on their journey here. Vescovi wished for them the worst kind of death. When the earth shifted under their feet, the sand mound they were on gave way. It sent them sliding down the sides, separating the group. Ava, thrown off balance, lost her hold on the shield. It flickered, then disappeared. The earth kept shaking under them, shifting the sands, making it hard for them to stand up against their enemies. As abrupt as it started, the quake stopped. H
Enter the Shadows 23. The Fallout i
~8 months … After the virus break and the ill-fated trip to the Zanu Desert. The fallout from the virus was massive. It extended right across the continent with Pentorium taking the brunt of it. So far, they contained the virus to the five cities of Pentorium, but that was not the only thing on the loose. The footage, pictures, eyewitness accounts all gave away the existence of the vampires. To take down the infected and protect the lives of the humans, werewolves had to expose their existence as well. Suffice to say, the humans did not meet their efforts with gratitude. Relations with the races crumbled faster than a house of cards in a category five hurricane. The lines drawn had the humans on one side, and everything else clumped up on the other.
Enter the Shadows The Fallout ii
~Inside the lab, Marx found the others gathered. Helick, Garrick, Zigor, Ichiro, Shea, and Anabella with Martha and Philippe facing the room. Martha started the briefing once Marx took his seat. “As you all know, we finally figured out what the virus was—is,” Martha corrected herself. She was wearing a white lab coat, her honey blonde hair in a pile on the crown of her head. As Anabella said, the events of the last eight months brought about changes in everyone. For Shea, she had gone cold towards the humans, for Martha, she was more self-assured. When she spoke, she did so with authority. Confidence. She, too, had grown. “As we also explained,” she said, referring to Philippe and herself, “the mechanics of it are genetically coded to the DNA of the vampires targeting what we call the primitive gene.” “It being genetically coded,” Philippe picked up, “m
Enter the Shadows The Fallout iii
~Vescovi looked like a different man. Standing in his cell, hands behind his back, he was a different person. Marx approached the triple-plated ballistic glass. He forced himself to see Vescovi as he is—bitter and angry—and not as he was. “Do you know vampires do not use vervain?” Vescovi lifted his gaze to the vents above him. “We stamped out the plants like weeds. It always fascinated me the choice werewolves made to grow wolfsbane in flowerpots, tending to their weakness.” When Vescovi looked at Marx, his eyes were hard. Marx could sense the other man’s grief, though he gave no voice to it. Suffering a loss of his own, one that left part of him forever lost, Marx could relate. Empathize with the internal agony Vescovi faced with each waking breath. Every time he closed his eyes. But even though Marx felt for him, he could not condone Vescovi’s action
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Enter the Shadows 27. Epilogue: After the Shadows
~ Marx stood looking at the carbonated lump that used to be four people he knew. Four people he loved. Ava, Lochlan, Zack, and Dempsey. Around him, the grass had grown again. The earth showed no signs of the battle that raged there. Mother earth had healed, but he had not. None of the others had. The world was safe, but a gap remained in their hearts that could never be filled. Around the base of the carbon memorial, laid fresh flowers. Every day for the past six months, Martha came with a new bouquet. Today was no different. He arrived as she did. “You came,” she had said to him when she saw him. In her hands, she had more than a dozen bulbs of tulips. Her summer dress fluttered in the breeze, strands of her now brown hair escaping her ponytail. The smile she gave him out shunned the sun, and Marx, for the life
Enter the Shadows The Last Stand iii
~Marx was leading the last assault; one meant to be a distraction. Ava moved her palm away from the wound on her side. Bleeding still felt strange to her. Martha was the only one with whom she could go into details about her plans. “Penny has the last rune. All she has to do is plant it on him. When she does, we have only a few minutes to get our part done,” she said to Martha. “What is our part?” “I’m going to use you like an amplifier. I know how it sounds and yes, it is dangerous. For me more than you.” “Then we can’t do it,” Martha said. “If you’re going to get hurt—” “I have a contingency for that as well.” “Ava—” She
Enter the Shadows The Last Stand ii
~Rea and Cale launched direct attacks on Kunz while Ava tried to unravel his protections. Each layer she pulled apart revealed another was more entrenched and more intricate than the one preceding it. She almost got another layer undone when she heard Cale shout— “Look out.” Ava had enough time to react, the death rune crackling through the air towards her. She split the force in half, saving herself by a hair. In the duel that ensued, Cale made the ultimate sacrifice. Rea tried to stop him as he ran straight for Kunz. Ava threw up a rune between Cale and the King; it was too late. Like dust, Cale disappeared. A self-satisfied smile lifted the side of Kunz’s lips. “Come now Avana. You cannot hope to defeat me. Even with all the knowledge at your disposal, I have spent years perfecting my craft.”
Enter the Shadows 26. The Last Stand i
~They came through using three portals. Cale and Rea helped Ava to create one large enough to transport all of their forces. On the other side, they emerged on the field of battle in Hedgewood. The ground was scarred black. Trees toppled over and uprooted. It looked like a nuclear weapon went off, turning black everything in its path. The familiarity of the scene had an itch running down Marx’s spine. This place was either where they would claim victory or where he would walk over the corpses of the people he loved. He brushed his somber thoughts aside. Victory was their only option. To Ava, who stood on his right, Marx said, “Your handy work?” “I may have caused a patch here and there.” She bobbed her head from side to side. It was such a human gesture Marx found he had an urge to smile. He allowed his amu
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back xii
~ Storming Hedgewood had to wait. Ava’s ‘problem’ required a second’s more thought. So close to the end, Marx was growing impatient. They needed to strike while they could and delays after delays were shifting the advantage square into the enemy’s hands. He folded his arms across his chest, keeping his face void of his emotions as he listened to Ava. “He has layers of protection wrapped around him like a shawl,” she was telling them as they stood inside the lobby of Anax Corp. Having the conversation on the outside felt too open. While they conversed, the last of the civilians and the injured were being ushered to the safety of the Mountain. Those left behind were there to fight. Marx found he was itching to fight. Ava continued. “We got through three of them before we had to retreat.” “Kunz spent years perfectin
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back xi
~The sky was a battlefield. Above Pentorium, spreading out for miles, the shadows fought amongst themselves. Those made from the spirits of dead vampires clashing against those created from werewolves. Marx had control of the latter. It was surreal watching it all unfold. Anabella came to stand by Marx as he stood gazing up at the result of his power. Power he would never have dreamed of having. Explaining to the others what he could do would have paled compared to the scene unfolding over their heads. “This is what Sven wanted from her,” Anabella said about Sven and his sister, Marx’s mate, Celeste. “And when he couldn’t take it, he planned to break the seal on the portal.” “I can’t imagine having that man’s thoughts inside my head,” Marx said. “I rather
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back x
~Vescovi’s head throbbed as if a drummer band was marching across his forehead. Making his way through the tunnel with his men, a blast came out of nowhere, knocking them down and rendering them unconscious. He woke up in a crumpled heap with his men, all in various stages of recovery. It took him several tries to get to his feet and stay there, the drumming in his head growing louder with each movement. Walking straight was a task, but it was urgent that they get to Xavier and the others. They were delayed enough as it was getting the remaining civilians under Anax Corp ready for transport to the Mountain. Pentorium was under an evacuation order. He paused when he saw that the panel leading out of the tunnels was open. It was plausible that Xavier had left it like that since it was their way in and out, but Vescovi could not ignore the prickle at
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back ix
~Martha moved to run to Nico as a shadow took possession of his body. Four steps in his direction, she stopped. Nico faced her direction, his eyes twin pools of swirling mist. The thing inside of him had his lips turn up in a smirk. With hot tears streaming unchecked down her cheeks, Martha clutched her fingers into tight fists. The words came from the pits of her stomach. The ground under her feet undulated, rippling with energy as she spoke them. Nico charged in her direction, his face twisted in rage. Martha held up her hand, palm open, continuing the chant, repeating it with fervor and a new understanding. Death fueled shadow magic. Hate. Anger. All the dark things that sullied the world. The spell was the most powerful she had ever attempted since Ava infused the revenant soul with hers. She had to release control to it. Allow the magic to ru
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back viii
~Martha couldn’t breathe, her anxiety tightening her chest. Through her link with Nico, she could feel his growing distress. It urged her to move faster as she sprinted through the hidden tunnels leading down into the subway. Back at Anax Corp, Vescovi was assembling a team, a process that was taking longer than was comfortable with her. Nico and the others needed immediate help. Communications, already spotty, had gone dead. Not a single response, only the constant frying of static. Unable to stand around doing nothing while the man she loved probably laid gutted and dying, Martha snuck off when no one was looking. None of the others knew what she was planning to do. If they did, they would have tried to stop her. She was the passive one. The one who chose not to fight. For a werewolf, her reliance on that part of herself never went past her prim
