The Vampire's Apprentice

There hadn't been much time to split into evenly-sized groups, of course. In their haste, Alain and his companions had split apart and tried to muster the various disparate personnel into something resembling even a halfway-cohesive squad, and they'd mostly failed miserably, which was evident the moment Alain had started taking off running and had realized that Sable was still sticking to him like glue.

"So much for splitting up into even groups," he told her as they sprinted through town.

"Give me shit for it later if you must," Sable grunted. "I picked a direction and started running the moment I had another vampire, some Rougarou, and some soldiers along with me. Not my fault we ended up together."

At that, Alain looked over his shoulder and saw the squad the two of them had inadvertently assembled together. True to Sable's word, there three vampires – four, including her – along with four Rougarou, and twenty dismounted cavalry soldiers armed with long guns.

"Hey," he said to the group of Rougarou. "I need you four to try to find Elder Owen."

"How do you expect us to do that?" one of them asked.

"Hell if I know," Alain confessed. "I figure you guys are part wolf, right? That means you've got to have a much better sense of smell than anyone else in this town does. Think you can track him if you know what a vampire smells like?"

"Without getting his scent confused with the other vampires now in the city, you mean?"

"Well, Owen is an elder vampire. I figure that's got to have some kind of specific scent to it compared to a normal vampire."

The four Rougarou exchanged a quick glance with each other. After a moment, they all shrugged. "Worth a shot," one of them confessed.

Then, without warning, each of the Rougarou drew close to the nearest vampire and began to smell them. Alain didn't miss how the vampires – Sable included – suddenly shrank back as the Rougarou approached, but decided not to comment. After a few seconds, they all separated, and then began to talk among themselves for a moment before looking back to Alain in surprise.

"...You may be on to something, human," one of them confessed. "This city reeks of vampire, but there is something distinct beneath it. It is difficult to describe, but there's something there. Two things, in fact."

"Does one lead back to where we just were?" The Rougarou nodded. "That's Thorne, the other elder vampire. You can ignore that one."

"Very well… then follow us, we'll-"

Off in the distance, Alain heard the far-off staccato of sudden gunfire, and braced himself for a fight.

"Get ready," he said to the others as he unslung his new shotgun and worked the lever, chambering a shell. "Keep moving and don't get cornered, whatever you do. The vampires will need to clear a path for the rest of us, with the soldiers providing backup. We'll need the Rougarou to track Owen as best as they can."

The others all shouted an affirmative as they readied their weapons and kept moving through the haze. As they continued to press on, they eventually emerged into the center of a city block, and as they stepped foot onto the street, a series of inhuman screeches echoed around them. Alain tensed, shouldering his new Winchester.

He wasn't a moment too soon, as several figures came running for them out of the haze. They looked like the Darklings from earlier, only this time, they were all blood red instead of a deep black, and they were fast. Whereas the other Darklings were far more lethargic and sluggish in their movements, these new crimson Darklings sprinted at them, arms outstretched and screeching the entire time.

"Open fire!" he shouted.

A chorus of gunshots sounded from behind him, and Alain winced as his hearing was nearly obliterated in the blink of an eye. Still, despite the sudden onset of tinnitus, his aim was true – the first Darkling to enter his sights had its head disintegrated by a blast from his Winchester. He hurried cycled the action to chamber a fresh shell and transitioned to his next target, only to find the Darkling in the midst of being torn apart by two Rougarou.

The other Darklings weren't faring much better. Between the Rougarou and the vampires tearing them limb from limb and the hail of bullets coming from Alain and the soldiers, they didn't have a chance. In the blink of an eye, every Darkling was lying on the ground in pieces, still mostly very much alive but now utterly incapable of doing anything to harm them, at least temporarily.

"Keep moving!" Alain called. "Rougarou, to the front! Don't stop tracking Owen!"

The four of them shouted affirmations, then they all grouped together again as Alain and the soldiers hurriedly reloaded and continued on their way.

XXX

It may have just been a trick of the light, but Alain could have sworn that the deeper they got into town, the darker it became, despite the fact that it had to be close to morning by now. As they ran, he turned to Sable.

"Hey," he said, getting her attention. "How are we going to kill this guy once we get to him?"

She blinked in surprise. "We'll have to think of something. You know a vampire's weaknesses – fire, headshots, the sun… for now, worry about tracking him and stopping whatever ritual he's about to try and perform first."

Alain pursed his lips, but didn't argue. Sable had a point, after all – if they couldn't find Owen in time and put a stop to the ritual, then it almost certainly wouldn't matter how they tried to kill him afterwards, since they'd all likely be dead by then, anyway. Or even worse, turned into one of those damned Darklings.

The Rougarou led them through town, taking them past yet more of those crimson Darklings. Alain couldn't help but note that there were no longer any people out on the streets – either they'd all fled the city by now, barricaded themselves inside, or were currently dead on the ground outside.

"Jesus…" he muttered as they passed by one such scene, corpses of men, women, and a few children having piled up on the pavement, each of them having been torn to bits by the Darklings. He locked eyes with the glassed-over gaze of a young girl, who was staring lifelessly up into the air, and held that view for a moment before Sable put a hand on his shoulder, causing him to turn to her.

"Focus," she insisted. "There will be time for them later."

Alain blinked, but nodded, hefting his shotgun once again as he continued running.

Off in the distance, he could still hear sporadic gunfire – a sign that, if nothing else, the other groups were still around. He couldn't tell who was in which group, but there were enough gunshots for him to know that plenty of them were still up.

"I don't get it…" he muttered. "This is too easy."

"Perhaps Owen blew through his resources early?" Sable mused. "I doubt he expected the Tribunal to arrive, let alone be so willing to work with others."

"Even if he didn't, this still seems too easy. The entire damn city was drowning under Darklings just a short while ago, and now all he has to throw at us is a few small hordes of these new red ones?" Alain shook his head. "Something isn't right…"

"We're getting close," one of the Rougarou suddenly announced, getting Alain's attention. He immediately ran over to her to confirm.

"You're sure?" Alain asked, earning a nod.

"Positive." The Rougarou raised a finger, pointing forwards. "He's in there."

Alain squinted, trying to peer through the haze. After a moment, he was able to make out the outline of what appeared to be a large prison, of all things, the stone walls and guard towers stretching high into the sky.

But more than that, he was able to see the various bodies that littered the ground just outside the gates. And that was enough for him.

"Come on," he urged the others as he hefted his shotgun once more and began to cautiously move towards the prison, the rest of the group following after him as he went.

As they drew closer, Alain saw that the corpses were the remnants of two of their groups. Bodies of vampires, Rougarou, and human soldiers alike were strewn about the entry to the prison, all of them in various states of disrepair; it looked as though they'd been caught by surprise, if the expressions of fear frozen on what was left of their faces were any indication.

"Shit…" one of the soldiers behind him breathed. "...What the fuck took these guys out?"

"I don't know," Alain offered. He turned to Sable. "See anyone from our group? Felix, Az, Jasper, or Heather?"

She shook her head. "Nobody. Still, that doesn't change the fact that-"

Just then, a series of gunshots rang out from inside the prison. Alain immediately pulled his weapon's stock into his shoulder once more, then began to advance.

"Sable, you're with me," he said. "The rest of you, stay out here. If we're not back out in five minutes and you don't hear any gunfire after that, go find some of the other groups and come in after us."

"W-what?" one of the soldiers said. "You're just going to leave us out here and go in by yourselves?! That's crazy!"

"We're just going to check things out," Alain said without looking back. "But I suppose we can take a few of you with us if you'd like. Any takers?"

The rest of the group exchanged a quick glance with each other. Alain didn't expect any of them to accept his offer, and was surprised when two of the Rougarou, one of the vampires, and five of the soldiers stepped forwards.

"Alliance or not, I won't let some hot-shot mortal outdo me," the vampire said, striding forth like he was at a fancy banquet.

Alain blinked, but nodded nonetheless. "Alright. Fall in behind Sable and I and watch our backs."

They all nodded, and together, the ten of them pushed their way inside the prison.

XXX

The first thing that hit Alain was the overpowering stench of blood. The second thing was the sheer sight of it all. It was everywhere – the floor, the walls… even the ceiling, somehow.

"God…" one of the soldiers said, gagging as the smell hit him, too. "What the fuck happened here?"

Alain ignored the question, instead signaling for the others to follow him. They moved past the administrative area and towards one of the cell blocks, and things only got worse as they did. Apparently, Owen had started the attack on New Orleans here, with the prisoners themselves still stuck in their cells. Every single one of them had been hideously mutilated beyond recognition, their gore painting the insides of their cells, making the entire building resemble an abattoir more than anything.

They continued on through the cell block, the humans retching the entire time. Somehow, even the vampire and Rougarou, while not sick in the same way, seemed taken aback by the entire thing.

"Hell below…" the once-cocky vampire muttered as they passed by a pair of cells which were now full of little more than an ankle-deep puddle of blood and gore.

Again, Alain ignored the exclamation, instead focused on moving through the prison as fast as he could.

And his pace only quickened when he heard a loud burst of rapid-fire, panicked gunshots, which then tapered off into nothing but silence. For a moment, there was no noise throughout the prison aside from blood droplets falling from the ceiling.

And then, the stillness was interrupted by a pained scream, one that Alain recognized. His eyes widened as he turned to Sable.

"Felix…" he muttered.

And before she could tell him to wait, he sprinted off once more, heading deeper into the prison.

XXX

It didn't take long for Alain to find the source of all the noise. The winding path through the gore-soaked prison eventually led him out to the interior courtyard. Predictably, the entire area was surrounded by bodies, both prisoners and members of the various groups they'd assembled to find Owen. But that wasn't what got Alain's attention.

There, in the center of it all, was Owen. He was standing tall, staring up at the sky. And in his arms, he held Felix, who was futilely grasping at his chest, Owen's hand jutting out of his back.

As Alain watched, frozen in shock, Owen withdrew his hand, the sickening squelch echoing through the courtyard. Felix fell to the ground, writhing and groaning in agony as he clutched at his wound. Owen raised a hand and went to lick Felix's blood off it, and as he did so, he caught sight of Alain.

Slowly, a wide, wicked-looking smirk crossed his face.

"Hello, Smith," Owen greeted. "I've been waiting for you."