Valdis Thorn didn’t take much satisfaction in meeting with vampires. He found the creatures disgusting, abhorrent and repulsive in every sense of the word. If someone had told him five years ago that he would one day be journeying into the very depths of their dark world on his own volition, he would have called them mad and shot them right there.

But here he was, about to do just that. Again.

He stood in his office which was in the top spire of the white fortress, looking over the impenetrable stronghold that acted as the permanent base for his army of soldiers. His door was locked, his schedule was cleared for the next hour and he had his contingency gripped tightly in his right hand.

You’re a mad old bastard for even doing this again, he thought to himself. He lifted the red portal stone in his left hand and cast it against the wall ahead of him. The stone shattered, and red light burst across his office walls as the portal flooded over the stone, swirling in front of him as an undulating doorway of plasma. He looked through the red miasma and saw the destination on the other side. The Red Keep.

Mad bastard. Mad! Valdis took a deep breath, stepped through the cold portal and found himself standing on the other side, alone in a large marble room that was almost dark. A staircase lay just ahead of him. Thin windows stood at the very top of the room, letting in thin slivers of light. A quick glance around revealed that the only exit would be via the staircase in front of him. The portal snapped shut behind and Valdis jumped at hearing a voice on his right.

The vampire appeared from shadows, almost seeming like she’d walked through the walls themselves. She was tall and shapely, with red eyes and long dark hair. She strode toward him on tall heels, wearing next to nothing.

“Greetings sir,” the vampire said as she stopped a few paces in front of Valdis. Valdis jerked his head back instinctively, raising his hand in reflex and reached for the stake-gun on his belt, the gun that wasn’t there.

The vampire’s bright red eyes flickered to his waist at the gesture. She smiled and held her hands out to diffuse any misunderstanding. “Relax. My name is Lae. I am here to escort you to the High Vistor.” The vampire held out a slender arm as if to her offer her hand. Valdis stared at the hand, his brow knotted with fury and suspicion. There’s no way he’d be touching that thing.

“I’ll just follow,” he said with a low growl. “Lead the way.”

“Oh,” the vampire said and dropped her hand to her bare side. “Very well.”

Valdis didn’t dare take his eyes off the girl. She was a brilliant host, a perfect move from the High Vistor. Valdis wouldn’t expect any less from the creature that was boasted to be the ruler of all vampires. The female vampire certainly looked lovely. Long shapely legs. Slender waist. Full breasts and milk-white skin that was smooth from the neck down.

She looked just like Lyra with her long black hair and thick-lashed eyes. Hadn’t she said her name was Lae? It was no coincidence on the High Vistor’s part. Greet the vampire hunter with a woman that looks just like his dead wife. Psychological chess at its finest.

The vampire girl lifted her bright red eyes and focused them on the shining orb clutched tightly in Valdis’s hand. Her pupils flushed with black momentarily in fear as she realized what it was. She looked up at Valdis. “Is that…”

“Atomic daylight,” Valdis said proudly as he lifted the shining orb up for the vampire to see. The woman took a few steps back instinctively, glancing at the device in apprehension. “Primed to explode at a moment’s notice should I so desire. One word and everything around me is flashed with beautiful daylight. Powerful enough to blind a man.” Powerful enough to torch any vampire in a mile’s radius should anything go wrong. The contraption was extremely new, only developed by the scientists within the Order over the last few months. Valdis hadn’t made a journey to the Red Keep without it.

“You can’t bring that in here,” the vampire said, her cool composure flickering. Valdis was about to argue his point back when another voice echoed out across the dark room, slicing through the air like knives on stone.

“He can,” the voice said, scraping through the darkness.

Valdis and the girl both looked to the silhouetted figure stood at the top of the marble stairs. The girl gasped at the sight of the figure, dropping to her knees, touching her head against the floor. “Sire! I did not expect to see you out here!”

Jaw clenched, Valdis stared up at the figure. The High Vistor. He squeezed the contingency plan in his hand once more, reminding himself that he had an out anytime he wanted. “Vistor. I didn’t expect a personal welcome.”

“Change of plan today Thorn,” the Vistor answered back across the room, his voice sending shivers across Valdis’s flesh. “There is something I’d like to show you. Escorting you to the throne room would be pointless when we are nearer here to my destination.”

“Fair enough,” Valdis said back with little affection. “Let us go then. I don’t have much time.”

“Time,” the Vistor whispered the word back to himself, chuckling at its absurdity. “Such a mortal word.” He turned his head slightly to look at the female vampire who was still bowed against the floor in respect. “Leave us girl and mention to no one what happened here. This meeting is secret. Follow me Thorn. Quickly.”

The Vistor turned from the top of the stairs, disappearing at once as he retreated back through the dark room. Valdis took after the vampire with a start, jogging up the stairs and across the floor until he had caught up to him. Their journey stretched down endless corridors of exquisite marble, across bridges in seemingly bottomless caverns, turning down the many hallways of the Keep, journeying deeper into its heart, feeling more lost each and every second.

“Here,” the Vistor said simply as he stopped abruptly by an indistinguishable metal door that flushed against a red marble wall. He held his hand up to a keypad at the side of the door which beeped a moment later. They stepped inside the door and into a room which contained a vast laboratory. Valdis stepped forward a few paces ahead of the Vistor, mouth hanging open as he looked out at the technological labyrinth.

“What is this place?” he said as he stared back at the hooded figure.

“It has no official name in your language. In Vrakal it is only known as Hravras.”

Valdis winced at the sharp sounding word spoken in the vampire language. He’d only heard the tongue a handful of times in his time on this earth, and it always sounded just as unpleasant. “What does that mean?” he asked, following the Vistor as they ascended a flight of metal stairs into a room that overlooked the vast laboratory.

“I couldn’t begin to attempt to translate. English is such a poor substitute against a language as expressive as Vrakal. In the simplest terms I can think of it means place unknown. This is the High Laboratory. The bastion of our war effort. The only vampires in the Keep that know of this place are standing in this room right now.”

Valdis stared out through the tall glass windows to look at the lab below. “This is what you wanted to show me? I thought we had met to discuss the war?”

“Indeed,” the Vistor answered in his cold voice. “We have, and we shall do that first. Please. Take a seat.” The Vistor held out a withered hand and pointed at the long empty table behind Valdis. They were in an empty boardroom of some sort, where one long table was surrounded by dozens of vacant chairs. Valdis took a seat at the end of the table closest to him. The Vistor stalked slowly down the table until he was at the other end, sinking into the chair like he was part of the furniture itself.

The unnatural grace of the old man sent a shiver down Valdis’ spine. He watched in disgust as the creature pulled back the hood on its cloak to reveal the leathered face of an ancient old man. Luminescent red eyes shone back at him across the dim board room. Brighter than any he’d ever seen before. Valdis shivered, sat forward in his chair and placed his hands on the table, turning the bright orb of light over in his palms.

“The attack was a success,” Valdis said. “From all accounts your men took the northern gate with very little trouble. There were a few casualties on your side, half a dozen vampires downed by the coven that were holding the town at the time. Apart from that there was very little trouble. The few vampires that survived the attack took off from the town and have fled to the north.”

“Very good,” the Vistor answered after a brief moment, his eyes glowing with delight at the news of the victory. “And how did your men do? Any casualties?”

Valdis shook his head. “None. We were protected up in the hills of course, as arranged before the fight. It was unlikely we would have lost any men, and we didn’t. The elevated position gave us the advantage to drop the explosive charges. We used nearly two dozen boxes on the attack, it gave your men a massive advantage when they made the first strike.”

“A brilliant unison,” the Vistor said, his thin lips curling at the edges as he glared across the table at Valdis. “Vampire and vampire hunters, working together at last, defeating a common enemy, each benefitting the other…”

“Uh… yes,” Valdis said, unsure how to respond to the comment. There was no doubt the union between the Order and the Red Circle had helped to maximize casualties against vampires in the Belmont valley, but that union still deeply unsettled Valdis. The true motivations of the Vistor still remained unclear to him. The creature wanted the Order’s assistance in ending the prophecy, knowing full well that it would bring about the end of his own kind.

“You still wonder,” the old man laughed from the end of the table. “Why we are doing this? Why I approached you in the first place?”

“It had crossed my mind,” Valdis said, rolling his fist over the smooth tabletop with unease.

“While I can’t divulge my full intentions, I can only share that our goal is the same. Vampires have reached their natural end. It is time for them to die out. Nature has spoken. I can sit here and watch as my people starve over the next millennia, or I can drag them kicking and screaming to an end that has less suffering for everyone in the end. The time of the undead is over. I hold my hands up and offer the earth back to humanity, as much as it might pain me to do so.”

The vampire hunter studied the old man carefully for a moment, sitting in silence as he mulled his words over. None of it really made sense to Valdis. He’d certainly suspected it was a trap when the Circle had approached him all those months ago, but he’d since played it over in his mind from every angle and found no way for the old man to beat him in this situation. The ‘king’ of vampires was willingly dragging his people into the jaws of doom and he’d handed Valdis the fucking key.

Probably insanity¸ was the only thing Valdis could reason as he played it out in his mind over and over again. Whatever it was, he no longer cared. The old bastard had clearly lost his mind and wanted Valdis to help wipe every last vampire from the earth. And that is more than okay with me.

“Anyway,” Valdis said, bringing their conversation back on topic, “The attack on the northern gate was successful. The Red Circle now controls the northern border leading into Belmont Valley. That location will be a massive geographical advantage in the coming months when we launch our joint attack against the Castle Belmont. We’ll have the other gates under our control by then too and you will have slowly filled the areas surrounding the valley with Order soldiers. Every vampire that wants the prophecy to succeed will be surrounded on all sides.”

“Indeed,” the Vistor answered with little interest. “Your men will have victory against these families with our assistance, I guarantee it, but tell me, what other news happens in the valley? I hear rumors another daughter may have been found? My sources whisper tale of many mysterious things that happened in these last few weeks.”

Valdis froze in his chair, grinding his teeth at the mention of the second daughter. It seemed that the Vistor did have ears to the ground in the valley, even if he pretended he didn’t. He tried to laugh the question off, hoping to skirt around the inevitable subject. “Mysterious happenings? I must say it’s a regular thing in a valley full of vampires. Nothing of vast importance has happened to my recollection. We soldier through each day regardless, carrying out what work is necessary.”

“But the prophecy,” the old man said, his voice whispering through the air as a knife. “There has been talk of happenings. They did find the other girl? Did they not? Taken by a feral nonetheless?”

More silence on Valdis’s end. So, the old man did know. There was no avoiding it any longer. “You’re referring to the incident at the burned-out church.”

A dry smile and a knowing nod answered back. “That’s the one. That night. Tell me. What happened?”

Valdis sat back in his chair and pushed it back from the table slightly, taking a breath as he did so. “Well, from what I understand there was a small battle between several factions. A group of vampires stormed the church, led by Eric Belmont and other renegade vampires that serve alongside him. The church was being used as a hostage point by a shifter pack. It was the same pack my group made an alliance with when you first approached us.”

“That’s right,” the Vistor said and nodded. “They were holding survivors of the York clan hostage until an agent of my returned their leader to them. A shifter by the name of Logan Nash. He escaped here recently with a female vampire by the name of Ruth Summers. They killed one of my top generals, a powerful female vampire by the name of Jago Vangzali.”

The news took Valdis by surprise. A shifter and a vampire escaped the Red Keep together? He’d never heard of anyone escaping the monumental fortress. “That is most surprising. I didn’t know about that part. All I know is that there was a battle. The two sides came together but seemed to find some resolution. The prisoners were handed over and a truce was called.”

“And then?”

Valdis took another deep breath. “A group of mine attacked the church with shifters that had fractured from the other half of the pack. A fight resumed, things got messy. A witch showed up. Everything got really fucking confusing.”

“Skip to the part I want to hear,” the Vistor said, whispering the command with cold malice.

“Right,” Valdis said, secretly hating that he felt as though the vampire had taken control of the conversation. “The feral showed up, demanding that one of my soldiers go with him. He claimed the girl was his mate. He claimed the girl was one of the lost daughters.”

Heavy silence lingered in the air between the two men. The Vistor spoke next, prompting Valdis once more, delivering the question he knew would come. “And this girl… how does she fit into your organization… Who is she to you?” The old man stared at Valdis with eyes blazing, nodding slightly for the vampire hunter to share the truth.

“She… she is my daughter. My adopted daughter. The soldier taken by the feral is called Ellie. She is my only daughter.”

Cold and dark laughter erupted across the room, coiling from the lips of the ancient vampire. The sound reminded Valdis of glass being scraped against stone. It nauseated him, and the uncharacteristic animation was unsettling. “A daughter of the prophecy!” he shouted. “Daughter to the leader of all vampire hunters!”

The Vistor wheezed, almost bent over double, wiping non-existent tears from one of the many creases bordering the edge of his eyes. He composed himself after a short moment and sat up straight, taking a large intake of breath. “Apologies Thorn, but it is not often that I laugh. What a world we live in. What a sick and twisted thing this prophecy is… to lean forward and pluck a daughter from the arms of a caring father. Delivering her to the one thing that father fears the most.”

Valdis remained perfectly still, bolt upright, lips clamped firmly over his grinding teeth.

“I would consider that of vast importance Thorn,” the Vistor said, his usual dead expression taking back control of his face. “I wouldn’t like to think you’ve been keeping things from me. Full disclosure is of utmost importance if we want our plans to succeed.”

The vampire hunter looked down at the ball of atomic light in his hand, turning the glass orb slowly. What would happen if he unleashed this thing right now? He could activate the device, use his remaining portal stone and teleport back to the safety of the white fortress. One move and he could destroy one of the most powerful vampires in the world. That could be a great advantage to the Order. It was tempting. Very tempting.

“I’m not keeping things from you,” Valdis said as he pulled his eyes away from the orb of explosive light. “It didn’t seem worthwhile reporting the development. Ellie’s abduction was most unexpected, but I don’t think it’s a major development. Several of my soldiers escaped the conflict with their lives intact and reported the night to me in great detail. The vampire is insane by all accounts. He has nothing to do with the prophecy, and neither does Ellie. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was dead now.”

The Vistor studied Valdis with enquiring eyes. “You seem very calm for a man that suspects his daughter might be dead.”

Valdis shrugged it off. “Every soldier in the Order understands the risks of their work. Ellie knew what she was getting herself into when she signed up for this life.”

“Be that as it may,” the old vampire replied, “I suspect your daughter’s abduction is no happy accident.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Valdis said, jaw squeezing tight in his skull as his body tensed.

“Your daughter is most likely part of this prophecy, whether you like it or not. You raised the girl did you not? Surely you would know if she had the spiral mark at the base of her back?”

Valdis squeezed the glass orb of light in his hand so hard that it nearly broke. His involvement in Ellie’s upbringing had been scarce at the best of the times, but he knew for a fact that his daughter did contain the mark. “She doesn’t have the mark,” he said firmly. “I know.”

The Vistor stared back at Valdis with indifference he raised a finger to his temple and tapped. “You humans are always so easy to forget that we hear everything Thorn. She’s a pretty girl. Blonde hair. Large blue eyes. A face like innocence.”

“You read my mind?!” Valdis said, pushing his chair back.

“Ever since we first met,” he said plainly, flicking his eyes down to the orb in Valdis’s hands. “I’d also encourage you to test your little device if you wish. That thing will have little effect on me Thorn. You might take out a few hundred of my men, but the rest would be on you soon enough. You’d be dead within the hour.”

Valdis pulled his hand back from the table, looking down at the ball of light. This thing was supposed to be his fail-safe contingency, but the old bastard was acting as if it was nothing at all. Had he walked into a trap? Was this some sort of setup?”

“Relax,” the Vistor said and pushed back his own chair from the table, standing to his feet. “Such a fight would be a pointless waste when we can achieve so much through cooperation. You have nothing to worry about. Your little ball of magic might make you feel safe, but in all honesty, it is not required. You are in no danger here. Your updates are most interesting to me either way, and I’m glad we could meet again. The second daughter… a vampire hunter.”

“The vampire that took my daughter was clearly out of his mind!” Valdis said, pounding his fist against the table as he stood to his feet. “There’s no way she’s part of this prophecy! No child of mine will breed with a vampire!”

“That will remain to be seen,” the Vistor said in his low voice. “For now, such things don’t concern me. My men will find the two at some point and we will clear it up one way or another.” Turning, the old man looked away from Valdis and approached the windows overlooking the lab, his arms crossed behind his back. “Come with me down to the lab. I’d like to show you the next phase of our attack.”

Valdis walked over to the window at the words, keeping his distance from the old man. He looked out through the glass at the sprawling lab below them. Long rows of equipment-filled tables stretched across the room. Large silver vats sent steam up into fans on the high ceilings. Vampires in long white coats stood to attendance at complicated looking machines, holding test tubes of brightly colored liquid up to the light and making notes about their observations. Valdis stared over it all, wondering what the Vistor had in store here exactly.

“Next phase?”

“Yes. It is the ace up my sleeve. A hidden weapon that holds more power than both our armies combined. My scientists have been working around the clock to bring this thing into fruition.”

“Sounds promising,” Valdis said, turning his head to glance at the old man.

“Oh, it is,” he said with a whisper. Not taking his eyes from the lab below them. Silence beat and then he glanced back at Valdis. “Follow me and you can see how our world ends.”

Valdis swallowed at something in this throat, suddenly aware that he was quite afraid. “Our world?”

“The prophecy,” the Vistor answered back. “I want to show you the weapon that will end all vampires. The thing that will crush the prophecy. The thing that will crush the lost daughters.”