De Vries felt his jaws tighten. “You’re babbling. Get to the point.”

“I will try one more time,” Wake said, but if you don’t get it on this pass, I’ll be forced to leave without you. Imagine a world where every human and meta had all of the strengths of a vampire, without any of the drawbacks. No allergy to sunlight, no bloodlust, no fear of getting a splinter under your skin. Where disease is virtually unknown, and most important, a world where the evil ones, those dark vampires that exist now, would become second-class citizens. Doesn’t that sound like paradise?”

For just a moment, De Vries held his breath. What Wake was suggesting was fantastic, beyond anything he’d ever thought possible. “You’re saying that you’re trying to save the world from vampires by turning everyone into vampires?”

Wake nodded.

A chill washed over de Vries. “You truly are mad. You have no idea what becoming a vampire does to a man’s soul, and I don’t think you’ve given the slightest thought to the ramifications of mutating the whole world without anyone’s consent.”

De Vries moved quickly, hoping his words might have thrown Wake off-guard. He leapt through the air, feeling the mana build under his skin. The moment of truth.

Wake stared at him coming, and simply waved his hand in the air, a look of boredom crossing his skeleton face.

De Vries felt his body crash into a barrier that wouldn’t give. The momentum bent his back, and Wake’s barrier slammed him to the ground. He felt his body wrack with pain as the drain of his own failed spell coursed through him.

“So the little vampire wants to play? We can play.” Wake’s voice was distant over the roaring pain in de Vries’ head.

He felt exhaustion wash over him. He didn’t have much left to give, and he knew that another spell of that power would knock him unconscious.

Wake stared at him for a moment. “I can see that the fighting has weakened you. Perhaps another time I’ll have the chance to see how you might have fared if the playing field were a bit more level, so to speak. However, that pleasure will have to wait for another day. I’m sorry you couldn’t see the light.”

With that, Wake stepped around de Vries and walked toward the two waiting helos, which began to power up on his approach.

With everything he had left in him, de Vries played his last card, he focused himself channeling his power into a tiny corridor, aimed not at Wake himself, but at the chip Wake still held in his hand.

Pushing outward, with an effort that caused stars to dance in front of his eyes de Vries lashed out with his spell.

The chip in Wake’s hand exploded.

Wake stopped walking, and looked down at his now empty hand, as if he’d never seen it before.

De Vries tried to get to his feet, but was simply unable to make the effort. Even concentrating enough to change to mist form was beyond him for the moment. He was completely at Wake’s mercy, and for the first time since seeing his unborn, vampire baby, de Vries was filled with fear.

Wake looked at him for a moment, then started to laugh, the sound rising into the air like the scream of a banshee. Still laughing. Wake turned and walked to the closest helicopter.

De Vries struggled into a sitting position, listening to the whine of the rotors. He shook his head, and turned to look back toward the burning glow of the complex.

Just over the side of the hill, he saw a form approaching, standing tall and walking with a quick, confident stride. For just a moment, de Vries couldn’t figure out what he was seeing, but then his sense of smell told him. It was Rachel. and she was carrying something over her shoulder.

She reached him in moments, and as she came closer, he knew what she carried. It was a rocket launcher, the same kind Julius’ men had used to hit the compound.

“You solid?” she asked, her voice emotionless, exhausted. De Vries nodded.

She jerked her thumb toward the two helos that were just starting to lift off the ground. “That the bad guy?”

Again, de Vries nodded.

“Good. Thought so.” With that, she pulled the rocket launcher from her back, and settled it onto her right shoulder.

“You know how to use one of those things?” De Vries found the strength to stand.

“Point and shoot. What could be simpler?”

De Vries laughed. “Might as well save the round. He’s got magic power enough to bat that thing out of the air. You probably won’t even get close.”

Rachel shrugged. “Never know until you try.”

De Vries watched her track the twin flying forms and heard the settling of her breathing. Then she pulled the trigger.

A gout of flame shot out the back of the launcher, as the rocket flashed through the night sky, tracking the lead helo, which was just below the other one.

De Vries watched in fascination as the rocket ran true, and for just a moment, he let himself hope that Wake was less prepared than de Vries imagined.

Suddenly, de Vries could see a ripple of the flames around the helo, and he knew what was happening. Wake had called on a fire elemental. The rocket detonated in mid-air, well before it hit the helo, and de Vries knew that Wake had managed to escape death again He was about to say so to Rachel, when the second helo flew directly into the path of the blast and exploded.

Like a train wreck in slow motion, the burning wreckage of the second helo tipped downward, smashing into the one carrying Oslo Wake.

The first helo collapsed as its engines flamed out.

Both copters came crashing to the ground.

41

The shadows are deadly enough at night, my friends: do not let them grow to darken the sky at noon.

– 

Martin de Vries, Shadows at Noon, posted to Shadowland BBS, 24 May 2051

Rachel stood in the middle of Warren’s old flat, the noon sun filtering through the windows and making the dust motes dance in the air. She looked around at the sculptures that stood in all the places she remembered them, but now were coated with a layer of grime.

It had been two weeks since the battle out in Hell’s Kitchen. Two long, hard weeks that had changed everything for Rachel. They had searched the wreckage of Wake’s helicopter, but had found nothing they could identify as Wake’s body. Maybe he had somehow managed to escape, even though it seemed impossible.

So they had backtracked. Evidently. Julius had come across something about Zulu BioGen before the first assault, and it turned out to be the only lead worth anything. The company was owned by a series of dummy corporations, which finally led them to something called UbiqueGenetics, ou of Austria, UbiqueGenetics was the sole property of one Oslo Wake.

So de Vries and Short Eyes were off to Austria, and Sinunu was going with them.

Rachel ran her fingers through her short hair, brushing her palm against the new datajack just below her hairline. She had thought about letting the hair grow back out, but she couldn’t bring herself to do that. Just as she knew she could never again return to her old life.

Rachel walked over to the work table and threw back the drop cloth from the piece of stone sitting there. The demon was just as it had been two weeks ago, though it seemed more like two lifetimes. It had been almost ten days since Warren was released from the private clinic, but he hadn’t set foot back here. Hadn’t come back to the things he’d loved so much. Instead, when he learned of his father’s death and that the workings of his fathers and his uncle’s wills had made him sole owner of Fratellanza, Inc., he’d gone straight to his father’s former mansion in Magnolia Bluff and taken up residence there. Apparently, he planned to carry on the D’imato name and business.

Rachel hadn’t even been able to see him since his release.