Countdown sequences ran across the screen of the control terminal. Xander Valdis stood from his chair and walked toward the wall of windows looking out at his creation. The second attempt at the Dark Sun Machine powered on just beyond the windows. Protons accelerated down the tubes, flying faster than the human mind could comprehend. Xander licked his lips and ran his tongue over his sharp canine teeth. He ached for the feast. Now was the time, no more test runs.

His lab assistant Brone counted down behind him at the dashboard. Xander stood in reverence for the genius of his machine, his creation. He threw his head back and laughed, his pin-straight hair a black curtain over his lab coat. Xander smiled broadly at his lab assistant, feeling the adrenaline building inside him. For a ten-thousand-year-old vampire, it took a lot to make Xander feel alive, and he had never felt it as strongly as he did in that moment.

“Where is Esher?” Xander said to his half a dozen vampire and dragon lab assistants. They were dutifully focused on the operation of the Dark Sun Machine.

This was the moment of Xander’s crowning achievement. After two thousand years of weakness, the immortals would rule again.

The elevator door slid open and the dragon prince Esher Poisonclaw strode into the room wearing a black pinstripe suit and a big gold watch. Esher crossed the room and grasped Xander’s upper arm, smiling broadly. Esher’s sharp white teeth showed behind his curled lips and his eyes glinted red in the laboratory light.

“Xander,” he greeted.

Xander stood back from Esher’s grasp, straightening his lab coat and tie.

“Soon we feed,” Xander said. “Our strength will be returned to us.”

“I have waited so long for this, blood brother,” Esher said.

Infinitesimal protons moving at infinite speed crashed together, deep in the bowels of Xander’s accelerator. The machine throbbed and moaned. Wires buzzed with molten energy.

“We achieved fission,” Brone said.

Xander’s heart pumped thick red blood. Two thousand years of imprisonment were over. Time for the true rulers of this world to take their rightful place. Xander scratched his long fingernails over the bulletproof glass. He bit his cheek, tasting his own blood. His weapon hummed to life. It was a thing of beauty; a particle beam strong enough to bounce off his satellite and impact the sun.

Blood slid down his chin as he bit his cheek harder. His eyes grew as he waited for The Event. Esher’s voice boomed behind him as Brone counted down to fire. Xander licked the blood from his lips, panting with excitement.

“Three…two…one…fire,” Brone said from the control terminal.

The beam of translucent energy shot through the tubes, accelerating from the underground lab and into space to hit the satellite that would then redirect the beam at the sun. Xander flew to the terminal, sitting in front of the screen to watch a video feed from the surface. The sun still shone. It would for roughly ten more minutes. Esher slapped Xander’s back, but Xander couldn’t feel it.

The video feed flickered.

“Are we losing power?” Xander demanded.

“That was just static, sir. Our zero-point generators will keep us online when the world goes dark.”

The video feed showed a bright clear day over downtown Denver. Normal human life moved on. Xander smiled.

Then it happened.

The sun grew bright, burning red and shooting toward Earth in a flash. A massive booming vibration resounded throughout the scene. The blue sky burned orange from the massive coronal ejection. On the highway, in the distance, cars stalled on the road, crashing into each other.

Xander could almost hear the screams. He laughed, clenching his fists. Any moment now. Seconds ticked on and the light from the solar flare dimmed. A circle of blackness emerged from the center of the star. The great cooling of the sun had begun. The hydrogen of the sun bonding with nuclear oxygen particles from the particle beam made water. The nuclear water doused the outer layer of the star.

The black spot grew wider and wider, moment by moment, as the world grew dim. Soon, a faint pink glow covered the once bright world. The black center circle inched over the sun until only the outer rim remained, casting the world in twilight.

Xander had felt a surge of magic right behind the veil from the moment the sun flared. As the nuclear water put out the fiery sun, the world went cold.

The coronal ejection had knocked out the human electric grid at the same time it took out the veil. Access to the dimensions of magic and power had returned to Earth.

Xander stood, screaming gleefully. The vampires and dragons around him howled with newfound strength. All were on their feet, power coursing through their long deadened veins. Esher hissed beside him, his dragon wings stretching wide.

“It is time we emerge from this prison,” Xander said, walking toward the elevator.

Xander and Esher stepped inside and the zero-point powered elevator shot upward from the deep underground lab. Xander could already smell the scent of human fear, death, and destruction.

They emerged in the lobby of Valdis Enterprises. Light illuminated the marble tile on the lobby floor. The zero-point generators had weathered the electromagnetic storm. Xander took off his lab coat and threw it at Brone as he emerged from an elevator.

Striding to the front doors, Xander fixed his tie. Tonight, the hidden would become revealed.