NIGHTWORLD

26: Back Door of Hell

“I can't see shit down here," Kadir snapped ahead, knocking rocks aside with his foot. His torchlight panned wildly over the rocks, but everything was black beneath the mountain, a grayscale puzzle for them to solve. 

“I can see everything," Jaro replied, gently taking the caracal's paw and leading him around the small piles of gravel. “Come up here, feel this." 

The caracal shone his torch on the wall, reaching out a paw to trace over the slimy bricks. “There it is. An end to these fucking caves." 

Dracula's castle was on the other side of that wall. The Godhead's Lament. We finally came back. 

It felt unbelievable. To be so close after everything they'd been through. The Vampire Emperor, the Lord of Sin, a creature so fierce he had haunted both world's folklore for centuries… Vlad Tepes, the Impaler. Dracula. 

And it's us he wants.

“It'll be over soon," Jaro whispered, leaning in and pressing his ear to the bricks. Muffled through the old stone he heard the unmistakable hum of fluid flowing through pipes. Something thick. Not water. Blood? Jaro remembered Romulus marching him and Kadir through the castle, paralysed victims of his psychic control. There were flowing rivers of blood all throughout the castle, hundreds of undead thralls obeying Dracula's every whim… 

They were all people once. People he killed. And according to Ioana, it was roughly a third of the people that died to a vampire were resurrected as a thrall. It was totally random, not uncommon, but not the rule either. However many thralls stood ready to fight inside the castle, Dracula had murdered scores more.

Suddenly it all felt impossible to surmount. 

Kadir was the first to break the silence. “Let me ask you this, after what happened the first time we were in there, did you think we'd really make it back?" Kadir asked, looking at Jaro through the dark. The cat's reflective eyes shone, beautifully haunting in the gloom.

“Honestly? No."

Kadir chuckled. “Me neither. The moment they tracked us down to Cujac, I was certain we were done for – after that I was convinced we were dead men. Kristian's right, I don't know why I always expect the worst." He reached out blindly, his paw fumbling until it found Jaro's thigh, squeezing. “But we did it. We killed Belisarius, Fyodor… and Ashani. Zakhar too. Four vampire lords dead, only one left now." 

“And Romulus?" The Teardrinker. Dracula's hunting dog. The last Jaro had seen of him had been back inside Steambreather, buried beneath a ton of rubble, less than an hour before the whole factory flooded. 

“I pray to every God there is Jaro, that that bastard is dead already." 

“We'll see." 

Jaro's ears pricked as another sound sparked up behind them, a rock skittering across the ground, torchlight following it. He glanced back to see Kristian, gingerly making his way through the dark. Content to move patiently, he was having far more luck navigating the uneven terrain than Kadir had done.

“Jaro? Kadir?" The marten asked, staring straight at them.

“We're here, Kristian. What's wrong?" 

The doctor nodded, adjusting the glasses on his face. “No, nothing, I… came to find you two but… I guess I got a little lost. Regardless, I discovered something worth considering." 

“More climbing?" Kadir grunted.

“Indeed, but it might be worth it." 

What Kristian had found was a drain. As the doctor said, the trio had to double-back slightly, lowering themselves into a narrow cut in the ground.

“Really? Down there was the first place you looked for us? You kidding me?" Kadir asked, dropping down through the gap. 

“Let's not pretend, Kadir," Kristian replied. “You are one known for doing things the difficult way. I think it's safe to assume why I chose that option." 

The caracal only grunted his reply. Jaro had already moved up ahead, dropping into a crouch by the drain's exit. It was made of concrete, the edges flaking from years of erosion and neglect. A stinking line of teal sludge bubbled out slowly at the base, pooling by the rocks below and dripping deeper into the abandoned mines. Leaning down to get a better look at the inside, Jaro noted the lack of any grates built into the piping. 

“You're suggesting we crawl through this?" He asked, glancing back. “That shit could be radioactive, far as we know." 

“I hadn't thought quite that far ahead," the marten admitted. “I simply thought it was worth examining. Zakhar's technological mysticism notwithstanding, Nightworld's grasp of toxic chemicals is rather immature… I doubt it's that lethal." He poked the end of his knife into the sludge, raising the blade up as the shining pearlescent fluid sparkled in the torchlight.

Frowning, Jaro craned his body even further in. There was black blood on the edge of the drain; not enough to say that it was pumped through… it was more like the remnants of something scuffing itself as it wriggled free. Turning away from the drain, Jaro examined the ground in the little cave. He found claw marks in the walls, bat bones piled in a corner. 

“That thing that attacked us on the bridge," he began slowly, poking gently at a stain of black ichor. “I think it came through here. From inside the castle." 

“Another vampire crawling out from their nest, what's new?" Kadir growled. 

“Ah-ah, not just a vampire," Kristian remarked. “I was only offered a brief glimpse at the creature but… there was something wrong about it. Consider. The Lady, Belisarius, Fyodor, Romulus, Zakhar, even De Vaune and that tarantula guarding his manor… they all remained relatively intact. Their physical shape wasn't significantly transformed by their infections, ignoring the fangs and claws. The Lady was clearly a viper, Romulus clearly a wolf… that thing on the bridge, what was it?" 

“Maybe a feline, once upon a time," Jaro guessed. “But impossible to say."

Kristian's eyes lit up. “I think it was a prototype."

Sneering at the stink, Kadir stood up, aiming his flashlight at Kristian's feet. “What's your point, doctor?" 

“Vampirism in and of itself does not cause fur loss. Look at Jaro, he is as physically attractive as ever. The prototype on the bridge, consider the distended skeletal structure… the signs of cancerous growths, the infections… I've only seen it on a vampire once before." 

“At my father's house, in Hungary," Jaro replied. The two of them looked at him, surprised. “Where all of this began. The vampire that attacked us there was like that, maybe not quite as fucked up… but it had no fur, and it was feral, sick, too." 

“Indeed." Kristian sniffed. “Isla and I hypothesised that it was due to illness from being stranded out in the Hungarian wilderness after bumbling through the Source. But perhaps it was something else?" 

“Like what?" Kadir asked. 

“Who is to say?" Kristian replied, shrugging. “Some kind of new vampire? An evolution, or a malignant growth?" 

“It doesn't matter," the caracal said shortly. “It bleeds. It dies. Just like the rest." 

“I always imagine what we could learn, if their corpses could be preserved instead of burning up into ash." 

Jaro turned away. “I think the drain is our best way in. Let's get the others and see where we're at." Kadir and Kristian shifted awkwardly, exchanging a look. “What?" 

“Frankie," Kadir said.

“What about her?" 

“You infected her, Jaro," Kristian said softly. “Without asking anyone, Frankie included. Now she's a vampire."

“And she's alive." 

“But Zakhar is dead," Kristian explained. “Without his surgery to lobotomise the parasite, or remove it entirely…" 

“We'll figure something out, don't worry." Jaro grit his teeth. What other option had there been? Did they expect him to let her die? 

I'm done letting others down.

“When Dracula's dead, there'll be plenty of time to decipher Zakhar's studies. We can give her the cure then." 

“Jaro…" Kadir came forward, reaching out a paw and grasping his arm. “Do you actually think we'll stop him?" 

“I…" He faltered slightly, and that slight pause allowed a flood of doubt and indecision to come rushing inside. Quickly as it came, it vanished, Jaro's resolve hardening. “I don't have a choice."

“We could try for the Source," Kadir suggested. “If we time it right, we can make it through. Nuke this place behind us." 

“And if that doesn't stop him?" Jaro shook his head. “Besides, what would you tell Ioana? Oh, sorry, we turned your home into an irradiated wasteland, everyone you know is dead or dying?" 

“I'm just saying. It's not our world. Maybe we should think this through before throwing our lives away." His paw tightened on Jaro's arm, it would have been painfully tight for a mortal. He's scared. Of losing me. Their eyes met. I'm scared of losing you too. Was it really so difficult to say?

Jaro looked between them, his throat closed up, but he forced the words out. “I love you both. We haven't been allowed the time to dwell on that. Whatever happens once we go inside that castle… I dunno. I won't let you down, I promise. But I know we have to stop Dracula, here and now. There's no one else, no other way."

Kristian pulled into their little huddle, his own paw slipping into Kadir's free one. “He's right."

“I just can't lose more people," Kadir said, voice choking slightly. He looked away, squeezing his eyes shut, body shaking. “Fucking hell."

Jaro shrugged. “I can't promise we'll all survive this."

“Shut up," Kadir snapped, tears welling. 

“But we tried, and we had a good run." 

“It wasn't enough time, damn it!" 

Kristian leaned in closer to the caracal. “And it isn't over yet, Kadir. We don't need to mourn each other just yet. We've got each other, right?" 

Finally Kadir pulled away from them, showing his back as he wiped at his weepy eyes, sniffing. “I don't cry." 

“It's alright," Jaro said. 

“Let's just go back. I'm sick of smelling this fucking drain." 

Jaro paled deep inside.

Back to the others. Devna, Ioana… and Frankie. They hadn't spoken since he infected her. The vrykolakas had her now, twisting her morals, transforming her into a monster – just like Jaro, when they first came to Nightworld. A mortal woman slowly being devoured by evil. A part of him wondered if Frankie could fight it, keep her conscience. She was strong, she knew what happened. Maybe she could resist it, at least for a while, long enough for them to decipher Zakhar's cure.

Could you? Right before his final surgery, Jaro had been on the edge of losing himself to the devil within. The others had been little more than prey in his eyes. Frankie's strong. But nobody's that strong. He needed to talk to her.

The three of them climbed back up through the gap in the rocks, keeping quiet as they made the short journey back to the others. Torches had been hung for light, and the looks on Devna and Ioana's face wasn't positive, as they chewed away at some of the dry rations the team had brought along from Orobos. 

“What did you find out there?" Ioana asked, in Wallachian. “Please be telling me it is a way inside. I am sick of being under all this stone."

“I think we found a way inside," Jaro replied, glancing back. “It won't be pleasant, but it's quieter than blowing a hole through the wall. The longer we can be inside without Dracula knowing we're there, the better." 

“I was examining our supplies," Devna said. “We have two silencers for pistols. Everything else is going to draw too much unwanted attention." She passed out a silenced handgun to Kadir, keeping one for herself. “There are more silver stakes to those who need them." She eyed Jaro, digging around in her pack and offering up a tiny double-barrelled shotgun, hanging in a little canvas holster. A pistol grip and a sawn-off barrel, a two-chamber buckshot. “Take this. You should not be without a gun." 

“I don't really need it, Dev." He raised his wrist, still armed with Frankie's predator-blades. Even without them, he was strong enough to tear a man in two now. His paws were shaped into wicked claws, and his fangs were like razors. His whole body was a weapon. 

“Take it anyway. Only two bullets, maybe is important."

Jaro rolled his eyes, but accepted the gun, strapping the holster around his waist. It was a bit bulkier than a pistol, but he couldn't deny that it would pack a punch.  

“Are you going to talk with Frankie?" Devna asked, the snow leopard's ears pinned back against her head. 

Jaro cast his eyes further back beyond the group. Small canvas shelters had been set up in a narrow gap, to keep the damp off them while they each took turns sleeping a little before the mission. He could feel the newborn parasite waiting beyond that, like a tickle in his brain. 

“You should."

“I know."

He nodded, giving Devna and Ioana a wan smile before heading off. 

The sense of the parasite was like a frequency you couldn't hear. The closer Jaro went, the more he felt it, pulsing in his organs, rippling down the centre marrow of his spine. There was a new vampire back there, more powerful with each passing minute.

The dingo sat with her back turned, hunched over a split boulder. She made no sign of acknowledging him as he stopped behind her, but Jaro knew what it was like – she knew he was there. Instead, the dingo only stared at her paws, slowly clenching and unclenching her fingers. 

“I know how it feels," he said softly. She didn't flinch. “To look at your own body when it doesn't feel like your own. You know it's you, but it's like…" 

“Like sitting in the back seat of your own car," she finished for him. It was apt. “Struth. I'm a monster now, I guess." 

“I'm sorry, Frankie," Jaro explained. “I couldn't stand there and watch you die for nothing. I had a chance to save you." 

“Everyone dies for nothing, Jaro. It's the living that matters." 

“Did Kristian administer his serum?" When Jaro had first joined Team Two, Kristian had administered the Hellsing serum to try and slow the growth of his parasite. It had partially worked, but at a cost. 

“Yeah, nah, he did," Frankie said, pushing to her feet. She moved differently now, more gracefully, as if there was no resistance. Is that how I look?

“Wasn't much fun at all. Become a fuckin' cunt leech, or die a slow death of mercury poisoning… ain't much of a choice." 

“It's just a slow down," Jaro said. “Once we stop Dracula, we can go back to Orobos and use the cure on you." 

“Cure me?" She glanced back at him, an eyebrow cocked. “Or make me like you?" 

“Cure," Jaro insisted. “Then you can live a normal life somewhere sunny. I promise." 

“Never bloody ends out here, does it?" She asked, laughing. “Just when I think we got Nightworld all figured out, it throws another curveball." She sniffed back tears, wiping at her eyes. “You gotta admire it, I suppose." 

“I'm sorry." Jaro didn't know what else to say. It was just like Boz, in that damn pool. No. Not again. He refused to be so useless, curling his paws into fists. “You're my best friend, Frankie. Maybe it was selfish, but I need you out here, I can't do this alone. But I understand what you're going through, and when we're done, I'll do anything to make it right."

A pause passed between them, one Jaro couldn't read. He half expected her to try and kill him again.

“Don't get soft on me now, cunt," she said finally. “You're a mate. And this?" She turned to face him, paw circling over her chest. “She'll be right. One thing at a time, right?"

“Right."

“Now tell me. Did you find a way into that bastard's house, or what?" 

Jaro grinned. “I think we did."

“What are we bloody waitin' for then?" Frankie grinned, slightly manically. “I've been fixing for that fuckers head since day dot."

“We just… wanted to make sure you were alright."

Frankie's expression quickly soured, and she closed the distance between them, jamming a finger into Jaro's chest. “I'm not fucking alright, Jaro. How could I be? With this worm in my chest, and him out there right now, so close we could touch him. He's planning to turn all of Europe into an abattoir. So really it doesn't matter whether I'm alright or not. If we fail, the whole world will bleed. Isla's team is fringe. If the vampires get through, no one will be ready for them. So forget if I'm alright, worry about if I'm ready." 

“I… You're right. Are you ready?" 

She grinned once again, paws braced on her hips dramatically. “Well, I ain't here to fuck spiders, am I?" 

Jaro couldn't help it, he broke into a laugh. “Frankie… please don't ever say that again." 

She hefted her things, moving towards the tents. “C'mon, let's pack up and get a move on already, I've been waiting for this a long time." She pushed her fist into a paw, cracking the knuckles for effect. 

“You might change your mind when you see our way in," Jaro mumbled, following after her. 

“Yeah nah, I've climbed through a few drains in my time, mate. Trust me – except for the stink, they always look worse on the outside."

            The drain was far worse on the inside. Each member of the team had pulled gloves over their paws, and those with longer tails had tied them up around their waists with spare belts. Nobody wanted to touch the green-grey sludge any more than they had to. 

           “Easy, easy," Frankie whispered behind Jaro. From ahead of him, Kadir shushed her, for the third time. Jaro couldn't blame anyone for the tension, his eyes were watering for the sickly acrid air, the hairs on the inside of his nose singing. Not knowing where the drain ended up, the team had opted to travel without flashlights, and Jaro figured it was a mercy for them not to be able to see too well. His own vampire eyes gave him all too much clarity of the sludge, dotted with small pockets of dry spongy mould, swirling pearlescent colours mixing around like oil. Tiny rat bodies bobbed slightly in the chunks, clumped together old grime like milk left in the sun. 

He tried to push the sights from his mind, instead looking up and focusing on Kadir's rear. Beyond that, Jaro tried to listen. They'd been inching through the filth for what felt like hours, but his watch claimed it had only been fourteen minutes. The going was slow, but the unmistakable sounds of the castle were growing louder, reverberating through the stone. There was clanking machinery, gears and pistons, the pumping of fluid, the grinding of metal. At one point Jaro even heard a huge burst of flame erupt somewhere. No voices yet, no body sounds, but they were definitely getting closer, breaching into the heart of the Godhead's Lament. 

And what happens when we reach it? Devna had tried to grill Jaro and Kadir on what they'd learned the last time they were inside. Unfortunately, acting under Romulus's influence, the memory was hazy for both of them. The way in had come from some small back door at the base of a buttressing tower, and the way out had been a chaotic dash, their only thoughts on getting away from the dozens of thralls nipping at their heels. It wasn't much help. 

What they did know was that unlike Belisarius, Dracula preferred using thralls to Black Tongues. Maybe the animated corpses were more reliably obedient, maybe he was just old fashioned, but either way they'd be dealing with the mostly mindless undead inside, rather than free-thinking amped up mercenaries. For the most part, anyway.

Hundreds of undead monsters. A gigantic maze of a castle stretching in every direction. The most powerful vampire that has ever lived hiding somewhere within it. And Romulus. He was waiting for them, even if the others remained hopeful that he'd drowned back at Steambreather, Jaro knew better. The Teardrinker wouldn't go down so easily.

But I'm ready. More than ready. Jaro was eager. Eager to get back at the bastard for all the humiliation and fear he'd put them through. Ashani was powerful and Belisarius was cruel, but none of the other Lords had dogged the Team like Romulus. Forcing them to fuck for his own amusement, literally stealing their free will. For the hundredth time, Jaro redrew Chevron's protective runes in his mind. Remembering himself. Remembering his own strength, and the wards that would keep him safe from the vampire lord's influence. 

“We need to pick up the pace," Kadir hissed back at them, gesturing at his watch. Zakhar's herald had agreed to bring the Homunculus to the castle, setting the weapon loose as a distraction when the time was right. They'd agree that the Team could fire out a flare if they wanted to begin early, otherwise the herald would set the monster loose at midnight. None of them knew what to expect from Zakhar's creation, but whatever it was he had thought it a big enough distraction to pull away the majority of Dracula's thralls. There was little choice but to trust he'd been right.

Jaro nodded back at Kadir, signalling the others behind him. The team moved quickly now, trying to ignore the frothing churn beneath their feet. The drainage system was mostly straightforward, with small inlets placed along the route letting more of the slime in – but too small for anyone to climb up through. More than once they had to double back after making a wrong turn at a crosspoint.

“How bad would it be if none of this led anywhere," Frankie whispered at Jaro's back. He could tell from her surface thoughts she was pretty confident that was the case. “Trudging through all this, just to go back and knock the bloody wall down anyway?" 

“Be just our luck, right?" Jaro whispered back.

“Quiet, both of you," Kadir snapped, stopping in place. “If you looked ahead instead of joking around, you'd see." Jaro blinked, and realised that the caracal had his paw resting on a ladder rung. It was rusted and coming loose out of the wall, but the footholds were clear and leading upwards. “An access hatch," he added, pointing up. 

“Hallelujah," Frankie muttered, so low only Jaro's ears picked it up. “It's a good day when I'm proven wrong." 

“Weapons ready," Kadir said, hefting his silenced pistol. “I'm gonna go first, but if I get seen by an army of freaks I'll yell, and Jaro you get up as fast as you're able. Got it?"

“Copy that," he said, nodding. Behind him, Frankie and the others all prepped their weapons. Jaro caught sight of Ioana scowling at the ladder, yet another obstacle made difficult for an amputee.

“This is it," Kadir whispered, Kristian softly translating for Ioana. “Through the hatch and it's the endgame. Save the world or die trying. You know what the plan is, stick to it, and don't let any of them take you prisoner." The team nodded together.

Jaro checked his watch. Less than an hour remained until Zakhar's herald would unleash the Homunculus at the castle base. Cutting it fine. 

“Fuck it." Kadir inhaled deeply once more, scowling as he caught a whiff of the foul waste, then began to climb. 

Jaro followed, the others cautiously climbing up after. The caracal paused at the top of the ladder, bracing his back against the wall as he reached up to tug on the hatch's lever. 

“Here goes nothing," he said, yanking sharply. Jaro made a fist by his side, twisting to unlock the blades mounted in Frankie's weapon. His shoulders tightened, ready to launch himself up if Kadir started shooting. 

Surprisingly, the mechanism slid across with barely a squeak, gliding seamlessly. More of Zakhar's little maintenances. 

Silenced gun-barrel leading the way, Kadir rose up out of the hatch.

Jaro stared up as the caracal's torso poked up, gun levelled out. If he still needed to breathe, Jaro would have let out a sigh of relief as no shots were fired. It's clear. 

“Anyone there?" He asked, already knowing the answer. 

“No, it's empty, but… I don't know what this is," Kadir replied, not bothering to whisper as he climbed up into the room. Concerned, Jaro scrambled to follow, hopping out of the hatch and dropping into a wide open space.

He and Kadir only stared as the others clambered up behind, trying to make sense of the scene before them. The room was longer than it was wide, every surface covered in slate grey tiles and lit by flickering oil lamps.

Before them stood a row of five raised caskets, or at least, Jaro thought of them as caskets; an array of deep body-sized chambers, their walls built of a nearly-black wood and their edges lined with silver. Crude pipes fed into the side of the caskets, pumping in what exactly Jaro couldn't have hoped to guess. Beyond that row laid another, and another – totalling six rows of five.

Inside each one Jaro saw a body lying still – mutated and furless, tubes and mechanical pieces sticking crudely into the grey, limp flesh. Experiments.

“Look," Kadir said, stepping up to get a better look at one of the casket inhabitants. Jaro stayed by his side, throat closing up as his stomach turned. “More new vampires, just like on the bridge."

Just like the one on the bridge, this vampire had double-jointed elbows, distended jaw bones, and over-extended fingers. The skin was stretched like tarp over the wicked bones, teeth too big for its mouth poking out of thin lips like tusks. The thighs were powerful and muscular, but the calves beneath spindly and knuckled. It looked sick.

“The one we killed must have escaped from here, no other option," Jaro said. It looked like an evolution of the vampire that infected him back in Hungary. So it came from here too.

Kristian poked through between them, leaning in to examine the creature. “Fascinating. We're witnessing some kind of vampiric industrial revolution… I have to wonder though, have we found answers, or only more questions?" 

“I don't know, but it's alive," Jaro said, watching the eyelids flutter. It was unsettling. When the other mortals slept, he could still pick up their thoughts – even if they made little sense. This thing in the casket was mindless. “Could it be a coma? Vampires don't sleep." 

“Is it even truly a vampire?" Kadir asked. “Looks pretty far removed from what we've seen."

“They die like vampires." 

“That's what I do not understand," Kristian muttered. “The vampire has one seed to give, one chance in its entire immortal life-cycle to infect another. Isla always thought it an evolutionary trait, to keep the population from eating all of their food."

“Didn't stop it from happening to Nightworld," Kadir added. “They can't help themselves, they've drunk this place dry, and they're planning the same for our world." 

“Well, yes." The marten leaned in even closer. “New vampires. Dracula seems powerful enough, so for what purpose?" He prodded at the thing's neck, unable to help himself.

The creature jerked suddenly, eyes shooting open to reveal deep crimson pits. It arched its back off the casket floor, jaw stretching open with two long strands of saliva linking the jaw top-to-bottom. 

“Shit!" Kadir cried. 

The monster was fast as it lunged out at them – but Jaro was faster, brandishing his wrist-blades and punching them clean into the monster's chest. Steam and ichor burst out, and the new vampire deflated slowly, limbs curling up as it crumpled to ashes. 

“Careful, doctor," Jaro said, retracting his blades as he shot Kristian a sharp look. 

“Of course… apologies." The marten adjusted his glasses, ears flat against his head. “But still, raises the question… is Dracula applying a domino effect? Forcing each one of these creatures to infect the next? That seems… impractical, and it doesn't answer the question of their unique physiology."

“Oath," Frankie added from the side. She was looming over a workbench stacked high with papers and notebooks. “Impractical is right. Take a look at this."  

The notes were all written in archaic Wallachian, but there was no translation required for what she was holding up to the light: a floor plan of the laboratory, including the rooms above and below.

“Oh my god," Kristian gasped, stepping forward. “Ten floors. Three-hundred new vampires, possibly more."

“That ain't all mate," Frankie said, dropping the map and looking down at the scribbled maps. “I don't think this is the only silo in this castle. Who knows how many there could be?" 

Kristian leafed through the pages. Again Jaro was struck by the strange technological imbalances of Nightworld. Words were written with ink and quill, yet the science behind them seemed almost more advanced than on Earth. 

“But how does Dracula plan to control them?" Kristian wondered aloud, sliding papers across as he tried to make sense of them all. “They seem almost rabid, like feral dogs." 

“It doesn't matter," Kadir said. “What matters is that we stop him from ever trying. It's time to move, clock is ticking."

“In a moment," Kristian snapped, raising a journal in shaking paws. “I can't believe I missed it but… Zakhar wrote these." 

Jaro's chest went cold. “You're certain?" 

“No doubt. The lettering and note-taking method is identical to the documents within his castle. It even references Orobos projects."

“So a snake lied to us," Kadir grunted. “I knew Ashani did us a favour by killing him."

“Why?" Kristian muttered, shaking the pages in disbelief. “Why lie to us?!" 

“They weren't as estranged as Zakhar would have had us believe," Jaro said. “Guess he got sick of taking orders, wanted to take the army for himself."

Frankie tutted. “Classic bait and switch."

Kadir shoved between them all, snatching the documents and slamming them onto the bench. “Listen, it doesn't matter now. Vampires lie. They're evil. What matters is finishing what we came here to do."

“But was Zakhar's herald in on it?" Jaro asked. “We need the Homunculus to distract the thralls. What happens if he leaves us high and dry?" 

“He won't," Kristian said, not sounding altogether certain. “Whatever his motivations, I believe Zakhar wanted us to succeed in stopping Dracula. Sabotaging that makes no sense." 

“Enough," Kadir hissed. “We are running out of time, Kristian. We need to be ready to strike when the distraction begins." 

“No, this is dangerous," Kristian said, pointing at the array of caskets. “If the diagrams are correct, then the base of this project is only two floors above us." 

Kadir growled back. 

“The kid's right, mate," Frankie said, laying a paw on the caracal's shoulder. “We wanna make sure these things aren't gonna wake up when the fireworks start." 

Kadir glared back, huffing through flared nostrils, but finally relented. “Fine, but it has to happen fast. We have twenty-six minutes until the Homunculus arrives." 

“If it arrives, that is," Devna muttered.

“Shut it," Kadir snapped, already searching for the stairs. Opening a door, he glanced up briefly, hackles up high on his neck, tail swishing behind him. “Alright, keep quiet, we don't know what's waiting up there. Kristian at the back, Dev and Jaro on me." 

The Team nodded, quickly falling into formation as they rushed up the spiralling staircase, twisting around and around as they reached two floors higher. Kadir saw the door first, wordlessly gesturing for the team to brace against it. 

Jaro and Kadir took cover with the door in between them, Devna and Frankie knelt down ready close behind, Ioana and Kristian waiting at the rear. There's a chance Dracula is right on the other side of this, Jaro realised. They had no way of knowing where the dread emperor was waiting. If he was surveying his experiments, they could be about to commit suicide. He quashed his anxieties, claws curling. Too late to back out now. 

Kadir mouthed silently, “One, two." He nodded. 

Jaro didn't hesitate, he threw himself forward, snapping the door's hinges with a twang as he blew through the wood in a hail of splinters and force. A thrall snarled as the door smacked into it, both crashing into a giant glass column filled with teal slime. The glass shattered and fluid began streaming out over the bricks. 

At the far end of the room stood two mortals, eyes wide with shock. So he does use Black Tongues. A small squad of thralls stood between the Black Tongues and the team, scattered around the columns of fluid, copper tubing, and crude surgical equipment. 

“Wh-who DARES?!" Cried the first of the Black Tongues – a fox – finally finding his voice. He threw his forceps aside, stepping towards them indignantly. “Do you know what you–"

He was cut short as Kadir shot him through the head with a loud spit from his gun, red mist splattering out on the wall behind him.

The thralls squealed as they leapt to defend their masters. The second Black Tongue – a white wolf – dashed for the door to escape. Devna and Kadir opened fire into the thralls as Frankie and Ioana drew silver stakes in lieu of silenced guns.

Jaro left the thralls to them – launching himself to the side and hitting the wall, instantly springboarding off it and hurtling himself forward across the room in the blink of an eye.

The fleeing white wolf had barely reached the door when he glanced back, crying out meekly as Jaro fell upon him like a dropped bomb. He crashed into the man's back, crushing him against the wall as something broke with a sickening crack.

The two of them fell to the ground, and Jaro flipped the man onto his back, glaring down at his face. 

“Interloper!" The wolf hissed, shoving upwards with both paws. There was a flash of silver and pain shot into Jaro's side. He snarled, reflexively stoving in the wolf's head with a single blow. 

“Jaro!" Kristian cried, rushing over. Jaro tried to tug at the knife embedded in his side, but the moment his fingers brushed the silver a thousand tiny needles went shooting up through his flesh. 

“Motherfucking bastard," he growled through gritted teeth, shaking his claw out. Kristian slid to his knees by one side, yanking the blade out effortlessly, his paws squeezing tight on Jaro's shoulders. 

“Are you alright? You have to be careful!"

“Yeah, yeah, I'm good," Jaro grunted, as the agony slowly receded, his body healing. “I just need a second. Ah, damn it. The thralls?" 

“All done, the room is clear." 

Jaro nodded, looking back. The lab would have been perfectly at home inside Zakhar's tower back in Orobos. Giant glass columns, more equipment that seemed too advanced for Nightworld's level of technology, and strange mystical runes etched across every other surface. 

“Kristian!" Kadir called from the front of the room. “I think I found the answer to your questions!"

“Come on," the marten said, offering Jaro a paw up. The wolf took it, the two of them jogging over to join Kadir. 

The closer he got, the more Jaro could feel it. A looming dread, a scratching panic that began in his sternum and crawled up through his throat. The sense of eyes on the back of his head, an exposure, a vulnerability. 

And behind all that, a great weight. An immense shadow that dwarfed everything before, so tall and wide it eclipsed every inch of the planet.

“Jaroslav, are you well?" Ioana asked, gently pinching his elbow. Jaro blinked, realising that he'd stopped in place, and now only stood shaking like a leaf. 

“I'm…" His mouth was so dry. What the fuck was that thing? “I'm alright." 

Kadir and Kristian stood at the very front of the room, silhouetted by a wide vat of amber fluid.

“What is that?" Frankie whispered. She could feel it too, the raw power curling within.

Floating in the centre of the fluid like an infant in the womb, was a bulbous red maggot as long as Jaro's forearm, and twice as thick. Sickly blue veins criss-crossed its varicose hide, dozens of suckers and tiny claws slowly clenching and opening along its spongy underbelly. Tubes and wires jutted from every inch of it, pumping things in and sucking more out, conduits of vile power.

It was horrible to look at. Something about that thing locked you in place, lighting up every single impulse of disgust and revolt you'd ever had. A hundred thousand ancient signals designed to scream danger firing all at once. 

But worse than how it looked, was how it felt. The sheer psychic presence of the worm swallowed Jaro and the entire continent whole. He'd never felt anything like it, never seen anything so large or powerful to help form a frame of reference.

“What is that? What the fuck is that?" Frankie whispered, her breathing picking up pace. For the two vampires, it was like witnessing an atomic bomb.

Jaro felt it. He understood it. The darkness, the hate. The leech was not only alive, it was pure evil.

“It's a vrykolakas," Jaro said. “It's Dracula's seed."

“You mean?" Frankie retched, turning away. She already knew it, of course, but hearing it confirmed tipped her over the edge. “That's the thing curled around my fucking heart?!" She doubled over, vomiting on the floor. 

“Surely you did not imagine it was pleasant," Devna said. 

“Fuck you Devna! You don't have that thing inside you!" 

They don't feel, Jaro realised, looking at the others. All they saw was a grub. To Jaro and Frankie, it was the most dangerous thing they'd ever encountered. What will it be like when we meet the one it came from?

Kristian stepped even closer. “A live specimen, and Dracula's own seed." He looked back, and oddly enough… Jaro saw wonder in his eyes as the marten's gaze traced over the tubes connecting the parasite to the outside world. “Still alive, still under his control. This is how he is making the new vampires, this is why they are so deformed. They're only husks, each one given only a tiny percent of his power… linked to him, tied permanently…" Almost without seeming to realise it, Kristian reached out, laying his paw on the glass. “The original sin that grew his army." 

“An army large enough to eat the whole world," Jaro whispered.

“Burn it," Frankie grunted, wiping her lips as she dragged herself back to the glass, slamming a fist against it and staring the parasite down. “It needs to die." 

“What?" Kristian asked. “This is half the reason we came here, Frankie. This is what Isla was building towards. It's weak and practically helpless, if we took it apart we could learn everything there is to know about the vampires. All their secrets, finally ours." 

“It isn't weak," Frankie spat back. “Can't you feel it? What the fuck is wrong with you?"

“She's right," Jaro said. “This isn't just any parasite, Kristian. It belongs to the most powerful vampire to ever exist, and you're right, it's powering a whole army. One of those things infected me, that means each one might only be a slivered husk, but they're capable of spreading."

The revelation was nauseating, and Jaro rubbed at his own chest. The vampire that infected me came from here. Directly from Dracula. 

“You can't," Kristian added. “We need it. That's the cure Jaro! To you, Frankie, to develop an antivenom that would have saved your father!"

Jaro blinked slowly, taken aback. Kristian paled, realising what he'd said. 

“Would?" Jaro asked. “Would have? My father is alive. He's in Prague. You said so."

Kristian only stared back. “I'm… sorry, Jaro. It was Isla's idea, to help keep you from giving up!" He came forward, tears in his eyes. “I'm sorry, I love you, I did not mean to hurt you. I should have told you but… we just kept going and there wasn't a moment to do so. But, with this, we could prevent that from happening again. We can take away their power." 

“No," Jaro said, shaking his head. He closed his eyes. You'll never be able to make things right with your father. He's gone. He'll never know who you really are. All so Isla could use him. “No."

He opened his eyes and pushed forward.

“Don't!" Kristian cried, but Kadir quickly grabbed him, pulling him back.

Baring his teeth, Jaro punched through the glass, the smell of rotten eggs hitting hard as amber fluid drained from the tank. The parasite was torn free of the wires and tubes connecting it to the system, thrashing as it slipped out from the chamber and fell to the floor, wriggling like a fish on the tiles. 

“Not so powerful now." Jaro pointed at it, turning back to Kristian. “That is Dracula's legacy. A piece of him in the world. Think of the risk, Kristian. An army of those things we fought on the bridge, capable of infecting the entire world. A vampire earth. Do you want that? Do you want to allow any kind of risk of that happening?" 

The marten finally relaxed, shoulders falling. He looked away. “I only wanted to understand them. But I suppose… you're right. The risk is too great. I'm sorry." 

“There's no other option," Jaro said, raising his boot. “Monsters like this can't be allowed to exist." 

And then he crushed it beneath his heel.

Jaro felt it like a sudden silence overtaking a loud room. A psychic storm suddenly blinked out of existence. He hadn't realised how much pain just being near the parasite had been causing him, until it was gone. 

“Can you hear that?" Devna asked, cocking her head. 

“Yes," Ioana replied, dropping to her knees and pressing her ear to the floor. 

Jaro didn't need to crouch down. It reverberated through the stones. Hundreds of vampire bodies screaming out in agony as their bodies ruptured, melting and burning as they collapsed into ashes. 

“It's done then," he said, standing up straight. He met Kadir's eyes, and Kristian turned away, wiping away tears. Ioana breathed deep, and Frankie nodded, her jaw tightening. “Dracula's army is dead."

“Only one left now," Frankie sniffed. 

Kadir checked his watch. “We're out of time. The Homunculus is here now."