The Vampire's Apprentice

Sable and Az led him through the winding streets of New Orleans, tearing apart any Darklings that got too close the entire time. They took him through several city blocks before finally stopping just outside a large, ornate building.

"City hall," Alain noted, reading off the nearby plaque mounted on the wall. "My guess is she went for the local government first – take care of the leaders and it'll make everyone else easier to deal with."

"Worry about that later," Sable insisted. "Felix and Heather are inside already, we need to-"

A series of loud explosions suddenly erupted from inside the building. Alain went to go charging in, only for someone to call out to him from behind.

"Alain!"

He turned, and was stunned to see Jasper running towards him, a rifle in his hands. Alain stared at him in surprise.

"Jasper?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I told you I'd be right behind you, didn't I?" Jasper asked. He cocked his rifle, then motioned for Alain to head inside. "What are waiting for? Let's go."

Alain wasn't about to say no to an additional set of guns, and so he nodded, and the four of them approached the building. Az ripped the front doors off their hinges, and together they all filed inside.

XXX

The interior of the building was darkened, full of that same inky-black haze that had settled over the rest of the city. Every step threatened to bring with it a coughing fit; it took everything Alain had not to begin retching from just how thick the rot had permeated the air.

"Fuck me…" he managed to gasp out. "Sable, how bad is it to breathe this stuff in?"

"I don't know for sure, but it can't be good for you," she answered. "Let's hurry this up, I'd rather not find out what happens if a mortal is exposed to this kind of corruption for too long."

Alain nodded in understanding, and he raised his bandana to cover his face. It didn't help very much, but he figured every little bit mattered.

More explosions rocked the building, and Sable motioned for the rest of them to follow her as she took off running. Alain double-timed it to keep up with her, his lungs burning the entire time thanks to the exertion and the haze; next to him, Jasper wasn't faring any better, but he was managing to at least keep pace.

Finally, they reached one of the upper floors of city hall, and right as they did so, something came flying past them and landed right at the top of the stairs; after a moment, Alain realized it was Felix.

"Hey!" he called. "You alright?"

Felix gave a grunt of pain as he picked himself up. "'bout time you all showed up…" His eyes landed on Jasper, and he blinked in surprise. "And you brought help, too."

"What's in there?" Jasper asked. "More of those things?"

Felix nodded. "Yup. They hate light, by the way – if you've got a book of matches or something, now's the time to use it. Otherwise, you know what to do."

Jasper nodded, and they all advanced into the room together. As they entered, Alain was finally able to see what had been shaking the building – at some point, Heather had apparently found a small stash of dynamite, and was throwing lit sticks of it around in order to clear out as many Darklings as she could. But for every group she managed to stop, another rose up to face her. He watched as she darted around the room, pausing only to throw what appeared to be her last stick of explosives. He grimaced, then covered his ears just as it went off; the moment it did, he rushed into the fray, already firing his weapon as he fought to get to her.

"Mother!" he called as he ran to her.

She whipped around to face him. "About fucking time you all got here!" she growled. As Alain approached, he saw that she was covered in cuts and bruises, but nothing fatal. Still, she was heaving with exertion, and swaying from side to side unevenly.

"Take a rest," he urged. "Here, get behind me."

She didn't argue, instead allowing him to put himself between her and a small group of Darklings that had started to close in on them. Alain struck a match and used it to light what was left of the rest of the matchbook, and then tossed it at the group; a few of them were destroyed outright by it, but the rest merely shied away from it. Before Alain could put a bullet in any of them, however, Sable swooped in and bisected them all at the waist, leaving them to do little more than crawl around on the ground.

"We need to keep moving," she urged. "We can't be wasting our time on an obvious distraction such as this."

Alain nodded. "You're right. We need to-"

Suddenly, the whole building began to shake again. Alain stumbled, looking over to where his mother was standing, but she hadn't thrown any more explosives. He barely had time to wonder what was happening when a massive hole opened in the ceiling, and a murky-black puddle of miasma came dripping down onto the floor below. Alain tensed as he stared at it, unsure of what was going to happen; he moved to place himself behind the still-burning book of matches on the floor, and as he watched, Felix and Jasper both did the same, lighting their own fires and standing behind them.

No sooner had they lit the fires than did tendrils of darkness shoot out, aiming directly for their throats the same way it had happened in Los Banos. But just as the darkness was about to close in, it met the flames, and reeled back from the light and heat. The darkness suddenly shrank in on itself, but then it expanded outwards as much as it could, sending yet more miasma spilling over the room. Alain coughed and sputtered as it forced its way into his lungs, but thankfully, whatever corruption was present in it, it wasn't enough to cause anything immediately bad to happen.

Then, through the darkness, he heard a laugh, followed by an all-too-familiar voice.

"We meet again, I see. And so soon after our last meeting."

Alain's eyes widened. "Ansley…? Impossible…! I watched you die!"

"On the contrary," Ansley taunted. "I have merely become more powerful than you could have ever imagined. My mistress has finally showed me the true path forward; I have seen and beheld it, and it is beautiful."

"Your mistress?" Sable growled. "You mean Thorne?"

"Ah, but if only you understood… no matter, however – an insult to my mistress such as you will only continue to be a blight upon this world for a short time. It will be nothing short of sheer bliss to-"

Alain let out a tired grunt, then pulled his shotgun out and took aim at where he thought he heard Ansley's voice through the haze.

"You talk too much," he said, right before pulling both triggers. Twin payloads of buckshot went screaming downrange; he heard them make impact with something fleshy, but that was the only sign they'd actually hit anything.

But then, just as he was about to question whether it'd had any effect at all, the haze began to dissipate enough that he could see again. As the miasma began to clear, he was able to make out a single darkened shape standing in the center of the room, convulsing. The buckshot had blown its head apart, but as Alain stopped and stared, it began to reshape itself, pulling itself back together before his very eyes.

"My, my," the creature said, Ansely's voice emanating out from it despite its lack of any kind of facial features. "So eager to get to the main event, are you? Very well, I suppose we can begin."

Ansley raised his arms, and black ichor fell from it onto the floor. As it did, more Darklings sprouted up from it; Alain counted five at first, then ten, then fifteen… and then, to make things worse, the fires all suddenly went out. His heart skipped a beat, and he turned to call to the others.

"Everyone out, now!"

Nobody needed to be told twice. They all took off in a dead sprint, tearing back through the town hall, Ansley and his Darklings right behind them.

XXX

They all emerged out into the city right as the entrance to the town hall exploded in a cloud of inky darkness. Alain felt it wash over him, the sheer force of it knocking him to the ground, but he was quick to pick himself up and look around for anyone nearby. The first people he saw were his mother and Jasper, and he wasted no time in calling to them.

"You two, with me!" he shouted.

"But the others!" Jasper called back.

"They'll be fine for now! We needed to find a light source powerful enough to take out Ansley!" He turned towards his mother. "Where did you find that dynamite?!"

"That was the last of my own personal stash!" she told him.

"Shit…" Alain looked around, his gaze landing on a far-off light in the distance, barely visible through the haze. "Okay… Jasper, you go for that light. Grab it and bring it back."

"On it," Jasper said. "And what about you two?"

Alain's only response was to break open his shotgun and replace the two spent shells with fresh ones. "Time to finish what we started at Los Banos," he growled. "Go!"

Jasper nodded, then took off towards the light. Meanwhile, Alain and Heather ran back towards where Az, Sable, and Felix were. They'd ended up on the other side of the block; Sable and Az were locked in combat with Ansley, who was fighting them pound-for-pound, while Felix was doing his best to keep the Darklings off them. As Alain and Heather drew closer, they began to fire at Ansley, peppering his body with bullets, but none of them seemed to do anything. Their guns clicked empty, and they went to reload, only for tendrils to shoot out of Ansley's back and aim for them. Heather was able to dodge hers, but Alain froze as the darkness closed in. It was just inches from his face when it was stopped by Sable, who threw herself in between it and Alain, the tendril impaling her through the stomach in the process. She grimaced in pain, and Alain stared at her in shock before shouldering his shotgun and firing off another twin payload of buckshot into Ansley, but to no avail.

Az wasn't doing much better, it seemed – he was taking blow after blow as well, and his strikes were becoming erratic and weak. For the first time, Alain could have sworn he saw Az breathing heavily from exertion, and that came as a shock to him. Az had always seemed so invincible, but against someone like Ansley, even he was struggling merely to keep up.

They needed to think of something fast, otherwise they were all dead. Alain looked around, desperate for something he could use, but found nothing; all he could see was Felix firing at yet more Darklings, his muzzle flashes cutting through the haze like a hot knife through butter.

At that thought, Alain paused, his eyes going wide with realization.

"Felix, Heather!" he called. "I need you with me! Az, you and Sable keep the Darklings away from us!"

"What?!" Az managed to get out. "What are you-"

"Muzzle flashes!" Alain called. "Just trust me, okay?!"

Az gave a hesitant nod, and without another word, Heather and Felix began to fight their way over to him as Sable and Az took on the Darklings. Alain wasted no time, instead charging directly into Ansley' and pressing his revolver flush with him, then pulling the trigger as many times as he possibly could before it went dry. Six bullets left the barrel, but he didn't care about that.

Rather, he just wanted the bright muzzle flash that accompanied every shot.

Ansley let out a pained yell as the light cut into him, and Alain hurriedly retreated to reload. Heather and Felix instantly realized what he had in mind, and did the same, closing in and emptying their weapons into him at point-blank range. Ansley let out a scream of anger, and went to launch more tendrils of darkness at them, but as they left his body, Alain noted that these were different – they were slower, and far less deadly than the last ones had been. He was able to leap out of range of the one headed for him, as were Heather and Felix.

"It's working!" he said as he holstered his pistol and shouldered his Ithaca. "Keep it up!"

Felix and Heather gave him shouts of affirmation, then once again, they all closed in on Ansley at once. The incoming barrage of light proved too much for Ansley to handle; Alain watched as the shadowy figure began to melt into the floor, a pained, shuddering gasp escaping from him as he dissipated. Slowly, a grin of triumph split his face.

It died just a moment later, when Ansley suddenly surged forwards and grabbed him.

Alain's shotgun fell to the ground as he grappled with Ansley, doing his best to prevent himself from being consumed. To his alarm, darkness began to creep up his arms, and he struggled in Ansley's grasp, but it was no use – he couldn't break free, even as Heather and Felix continued to shoot at his assailant.

"I don't care if I end up back in the Underworld," Ansley breathed. "So long as I take you with me."

Alain let out a pained gasp as he felt the bones in his arms creak. Weakened as he was, Ansley was still horrifically strong; it was only a matter of time until his arms gave out, and then he was done for. Ansley knew this, and went to apply more pressure, which caused Alain's knees to buckle. A scream of pure rage, defiance, and pain erupted from his throat, one last act of resistance before he was finally consumed.

But then, a split-second before Alain's strength was about to fully give, an oil lantern came soaring through the air courtesy of Jasper, impacting against Ansley's back. The lantern shattered, spilling its contents all over him; Ansley let out a primal scream of sheer agony, his grip strength loosening enough that Alain was able to free himself. He fell backwards, and was caught by Az, who helped him up. Together, they all watched as Ansley burned, writhing on the ground, the black ichor shrinking to nothing before long.

And then it was quiet, save for the far-off sounds of fighting elsewhere in town. Alain breathed a sigh of relief, then began to massage his arms.

"See you in hell, Ansley…" he muttered.

Once he was sure it was clear, he looked around for the others. They were all in rough shape, but none more so than Sable; she came staggering over to him, a desperate look on her face, and Alain wasted on time in allowing her access to his neck. She drank greedily for just a moment, then forced herself to stop, pulling away with a grimace.

"Are you okay?" Alain asked. "That was a nasty hit that you took. Thanks for that, by the way."

"I will be," she insisted. "And… don't mention it."

Alain nodded, then turned to the others. "Alright, people – we've still got a vampire to take out before it's too late. I know you're tired, hurting, and low on ammo, but we don't have time to rest or resupply. Anyone who wants to back out, now's your chance." Not a single person said anything, and Alain nodded. "Didn't think so." He took a breath, then turned back towards the city hall.

And without a word, he began to march towards it, flanked by his friends.