Chapter 12 The Flame in the Night

Chapter 12 The Flame in the Night

South Reconstruction District, Valenfort 23:40.

The wind carried the smell of smoke, burning iron and blood.

From the ruined remains, Valenfort still tried to breathe, though each inhale was a keening groan.

Beneath streets that once blazed with neon, only flickers of flame remained now coming from the crimson hotspots where those infected by Genesis had become half‑human, half‑blood beings, lurking in the dark.

The Crimson Pact, an alliance of rebel vampires and outcast humans, had become the only force daring enough to enter.

At its head: Evelyn Cross and Lucien Draven.

---

Headlights sliced through the dust, catching on Evelyn’s blood‑streaked face.

She wore a scorched, torn black leather jacket; at her hip hung twin plasma pistols and a silvered holy knife now stained dark with her own blood.

“Third hotspot. Forty‑two infected, twelve lost control,” Kael’s voice crackled over the radio. “Evelyn, don’t let them touch the source of blood in you, they react violently to your energy.”

“Copy.” Evelyn answered, eyes hard, and stepped into the dark.

Lucien followed close behind. His cloak was spattered with blood, his yellow eyes glinting in the night like blades.

“Don’t split the team, Cross.”

“I don’t need protection.”

“Not protection,” he said quietly. “Restraint.”

She didn’t reply. They moved in silence down the dim corridors of the old factory, where the walls wept as if alive with blood.

---

Inside the main workshop.

Twisted bodies convulsed, clinging to rafters, nails grown into hooked iron. Blood leaked from their eyes, mouths and chests. Their screams were a rasping hybrid of human and animal.

Lucien extended a hand; blood energy radiated from him and formed a red shield around Evelyn.

“You can’t kill these with ordinary rounds. Only fire will do.” His voice was hoarse.

Evelyn nodded, drew the flame nozzle from her sidearm, and pulled the trigger. A ribbon of blue plasma swept out, devouring the creatures in a sea of fire.

Screams reverberated. The smell of burning flesh and iron‑sweet blood mixed into the heavy scent of death. She ground her teeth; the flames reflected in eyes that were slowly flushing red.

Lucien saw it and knew she was losing control.

“Evelyn, stop. You’re letting the black blood take over.”

“I can’t… if I stop, they’ll kill the others!”

“I said stop!”

Lucien lunged, seizing her from behind and snapping the weapon from her hands.

She thrashed, but he held her tight, letting his blood mingle with hers that familiar surge of energy snapped her back to herself.

Evelyn collapsed, gasping.

“I… I almost heard it again. Genesis’s voice.”

“You’re not alone in this darkness.” Lucien murmured. “If you burn, I burn with you.”

Their eyes met in the firelight fierce and desperate like two beacons flickering above an abyss.

---

Hunters’ Headquarters Security Level A.

Deep beneath Valenfort, Alaric Graves stood before a massive machine sheathed in silver. Ancient vampiric script was engraved along its flank: Seraphim The Flame of the Holy Blood.

An elderly engineer, hands trembling as he wired the energy conduits, said, “Sir… Seraphim has never been tested. It… it uses anti‑matter holy energy. If activated, not only vampires but humans with mixed bloodlines will”

“Silence.” Alaric cut him off coldly. “This world has gone past its limit. If I must burn the city to end the cursed line, I will.”

On the map display, Valenfort was clear. A bright red dot marked the sector where Evelyn and Lucien were fighting.

“Initiate Seraphim.” Alaric ordered.

The engineer hesitated. “But sir, what about the Crimson Pact”

“They are tools. If a few lives must be sacrificed to save humanity… so be it.”

The yellow lights in the control room flipped to blood red. The enormous machine began to howl as plasma rotors spun, producing a sound like angels breaking their wings.

---

At the hotspot, at the same time.

“Evelyn! Holy energy spike in the area!” Selene shouted over the radio. “The Guild… the Guild is doing something! The radiation is killing our vampires!”

Lucien’s face tightened; blood trickled from his nose. “Seraphim… they’ve triggered Seraphim.”

Evelyn turned, stunned. “What did you say?”

“It’s the Hunters’ ultimate weapon made to erase the pureblood line.”

Above, the sky tore open. A column of white‑gold light stabbed through the black clouds and struck the industrial center. Everything ignited. Vampires screamed as ash fell like red snow.

“Evelyn! Withdraw now! Or” Kael’s voice cut off.

The signal went dead.

Lucien wrapped his arms around Evelyn and wove blood energy into a ward around them. But Seraphim’s light pierced through like a holy spear, scorching the air itself.

“We won’t make it, we're going to die here!” Evelyn shouted.

“No.” Lucien roared. “Not while you’re here.”

He placed a hand on her chest, and for the first time Evelyn felt the burning heart of a pureblood.

“Take my blood. Use it!”

She shook her head. “No! You’ll die.”

“If Valenfort is wiped out, my death means nothing. But if you live, there’s hope.”

Lucien poured his blood into her. His body began to dissolve flesh and blood melting together into a blazing crimson light. Evelyn screamed in despair.

Seraphim’s column descended, but instead of incinerating them, Evelyn’s black blood erupted, transforming into enormous crimson wings that enveloped the area.

The Seraphim flame faltered.

For a moment, Valenfort shone like a dawn after hell.

---

As the light waned, Lucien knelt, blood leaking from his eyes. Evelyn supported him; her whole being radiated a red aura the result of fusing pureblood blood and black blood.

“Lucien… you” she began.

He gave a faint, bitter laugh, voice ebbing: “You… have control of the blood now. You overcame Genesis.”

“Don’t say that. I’ll save you.”

“Evelyn…” he whispered. “When the world calls you monster… remember, I once saw in you… the light of a human.”

He fell, his yellow eyes dimming, leaving a streak of black blood on her skin.

Evelyn trembled, staring at her glowing hands as tears mixed with blood and fell to the floor.

“I won’t let them take anyone else.”

She rose and looked toward the burning city. On high, the Hunters’ observation tower signaled withdrawal but Evelyn knew the real war was only beginning.

---

Control Room Seraphim.

A voice crackled over the radio: “Sir Alaric, Seraphim is back‑firing! Power systems have inverted! We can’t… stop it!”

Alaric tightened his grip on a silver sword; a fanatical light shone in his eyes.

“Good. Then let this flame burn everything. If blood is sin, I will be God’s hand.”

He withdrew an emergency activation key, his voice like an oath: “Seraphim! Phase Two, engage.”

The screens flared.

A gigantic holy circle appeared over Valenfort’s sky, slowly rotating like the eye of God preparing to open and unleash a blood apocalypse.