Chapter 1 : Hello

The sirens of Zelios screamed at exactly midnight.

Again.

Sera Ward didn’t look up from sharpening her knife.

Around her, the bunker-city moved wit an exhausted routine. Mothers pulled children indoors without looking up. Steel market shutters slammed closed withpractisedd speed. Armed guards marched toward the upper gates while somewhere deeper underground, generators groaned like dying beasts struggling to breathe, rattling pipes overhead like tired bones.

Another breach warning. Nobody panicked anymore. That was the problem. People simply kept moving. Zelios had survived thirty years underground. Long enough for fear to become routine.

Another will be sighting beyond the walls. Another lovely evening in humanity’s rapidly collapsing civilization.

"Romantic,” Sera muttered. The blade scraped against the whetstone with a metallic hiss. Across the weapons table, her partner Jonas glanced up from loading silver rounds into a rifle. “You ever think maybe the universe keeps trying to kill us because you insult it constantly?”

"The universe started it.”

"That feels unlikely.”

She flashed him a grin.

Jonas immediately looked concerned. That was fair. Sera only smiled like that before terrible decisions.

******

The underground armoury buzzed with movement around them. Weapons clattered against metal tables. Hunters checked UV cartridges and silver ammunition beneath flickering fluorescent lights. Steam hissed from old pipes lining the concrete ceiling. Zelios smelled like metal, smoke, and overcrowded humanity.

The city had once been an underground railway network before the apocalypse turned sunlight lethal. Now, thousands lived crammed beneath reinforced steel ceilings lined with flickering UV lamps.

No windows. No sky. Just artificial light and survival.

Children played beside armed checkpoints. Merchants sold fungus bread beside ammunition stalls. Every corridor carried the hum of fear people pretended not to feel.

Sera hated all of it. Not Zelios itself. The fear. Fear made people obedient. Quiet. Small. Sera preferred anger. Anger kept you alive. She slid the knife into the sheath strapped against her thigh and finally stood.

Tall. Lean. And dangerous-looking even when half asleep.

Sera had the kind of beauty that looked accidental, sharpened by survival rather than elegance. Dark curls spilt messily from the braid hanging over her shoulder, constantly escaping no matter how tightly she tied them back. A thin scar cut through her left eyebrow, disappearing into bronze skin weathered by years beyond the walls. Her grey eyes unsettled people most. Too cold. Too observant. Eyes that looked at the world like it owed her money.

Most men in Zelios found her attractive right until she started talking. Then came fear. Or confusion. Occasionally, both. Jonas liked to say Sera flirted the way normal people threatened murder. Sera considered that unfair. Sometimes, she threatened actual murder.

Commander Hale stormed into the armory, looking like he personally blamed everyone alive for existing.

“Ward.”

Sera didn’t look up. “Hale.”

“I hate when you say my name like that.”

“I hate when you appear beside me like sleep paralysis. Yet here we are.”

Jonas coughed violently into his sleeve to hide laughter. Hale ignored both of them. Mostly because after fifteen years commanding Zelios' defenses, Hale had accepted that speaking to Sera was like fist fighting a wildfire.

“Wild nest confirmed in Sector Nine subway ruins. Patrol never returned.”

“Shocking,” Sera deadpanned. “The flesh-eating monsters ate someone.”

“You’re going.”

“Even more shocking.”

Hale slid a worn photograph across the table. Missing civilians. Three adults. One child. The little girl in the photo couldn’t have been older than six, wearing oversized winter gloves and an enormous smile. Something inside Sera’s chest tightened unpleasantly. She hated when children appeared in mission reports. The apocalypse had already stolen enough from them.

Sera’s sarcasm faded slightly. “Survivors?”

“Unknown.”

Jonas stood. “We’ll take a squad.”

“No,” Hale snapped immediately.

Sera narrowed her eyes. “That bad?”

The commander hesitated, which meant yes.

“Scouts reported bodies drained completely dry.”

Jonas swore softly. Not wilds, Wilds were messy. Animalistic. This sounded deliberate. Controlled. Vampire. Ancient vampire. The room suddenly felt colder.

Hale lowered his voice. “There are rumours.”

Sera leaned back against the table. “Wonderful. I love rumours. Usually, they end with someone dismembered.”

“People are saying Husen Vale crossed into the southern ruins.”

Silence.

Even the nearby soldiers stopped moving. One name. That was all it took. The Crimson King. Monster of the north. Executioner of Blackwater Settlement. She remembered the aftermath of that massacre vividly.

Smoke. Blood. Bodies frozen in the snow.

She’d been thirteen. And ever since then, she wanted to kill Husen Vale slowly. The vampire is responsible for hundreds of deaths beyond the walls. Possibly thousands.

Sera stared at the photograph without blinking.

Jonas carefully said, “Rumours spread every winter.”

“Not like this,” Hale replied.

Sera finally stood, grabbing her coat.

“Well,” she said flatly, strapping knives across her thighs, “if it is him, I’ve been meaning to stab that bastard for years.”

*****

The blast doors opened with a thunderous groan. Freezing air rushed inside immediately. The outside world waited beyond the walls of Helios like a corpse that refused to stay buried. Darkness stretched endlessly across ruined streets and collapsed buildings coated in snow and ash. Ancient skyscrapers leaned like broken gravestones beneath the poisoned sky.

No stars. No moon. Only clouds thick enough to swallow light whole.

Thirty years ago, governments tried to weaponize climate control during the Resource Wars. One catastrophic detonation shattered the atmosphere instead. Ultraviolet radiation flooded the planet.

Daylight became lethal within minutes. Skin blistered instantly beneath direct exposure. Oceans poisoned. Crops failed. Entire populations burned, trying to flee beneath skies that suddenly wanted humanity dead. Then, the vampires emerged. Not created by the apocalypse. Revealed by it. While humanity hid underground, vampires inherited the night. And they ruled it brutally.

Sera pulled her scarf higher over her mouth. Behind her, Jonas adjusted his rifle.

“You know,” he said carefully, “one day your habit of antagonizing terrifying creatures is going to backfire.”

“One day?”

He sighed. “You make optimism difficult.”

They moved through the ruins with practised silence. Boots crunching through ice. Weapons ready. Every shadow is dangerous. Somewhere in the distance came the horrible shriek of wilds hunting prey. Sera ignored it. Fear made noise. Hunters stayed quiet.

******

Sector Nine subway station appeared beneath a collapsed overpass half-buried in snow. The entrance yawned open like the mouth of something dead.

Jonas checked his rifle. “I hate subway missions.”

“You hate all missions.”

“I specifically hate underground murder tunnels.”

“That’s fair.”

The air smelled wrong. Too much blood. Even before they descended the broken escalators into darkness. The station below looked like a slaughterhouse. Bodies covered the floor. Wild vampires are torn apart with impossible violence. Limbs scattered. Blood painted the walls black-red beneath emergency lights.

Jonas froze. “Oh hell.”

Sera slowly drew a silver knife. Nothing moved. No feeding. No sounds. Just carnage. And at the centre of it all. A man sat casually atop the station bench. Like the slaughter surrounding him was mildly inconvenient dinner entertainment.

One black boot rested over the opposite knee. Dark gloves covered elegant hands holding a crystal glass filled with crimson liquid. Black coat immaculate despite the blood surrounding him. He looked almost bored. Beautiful in the way storms were beautiful. Deadly enough to ruin lives.

Sera knew instantly who he was.

Husen Vale lifted his eyes toward them. Dark hair fell carelessly across pale skin untouched by warmth or sunlight for centuries. But his eyes.... His eyes were monstrous. Gold near the centre. Deep crimson around the edges.

Ancient eyes. Hungry eyes. The eyes of something that had watched civilizations die and remained amused afterwards. Husen slowly looked up at them. His gaze settled on Sera first. And stayed there.

Something unreadable flickered across his expression. Interest.

“Well,” he said smoothly, voice echoing softly through the station, “that took longer than expected.”

Jonas whispered, “Run.”

Sera threw the knife instead. The silver blade flew straight toward Husen’s throat. Fast. Precise. Lethal.

It struck perfectly.

Thunk.

Jonas stared in horror.

Husen looked mildly inconvenienced. The knife protruded directly from his neck. Blood slid slowly beneath his collar. A long silence followed. Then the vampire sighed. “Rude.”

He pulled the blade free with elegant annoyance and examined it under the flickering light.

“Silver-edged,” he mused. “Custom balanced.” His gaze lifted to Sera. “Do you sharpen these yourself?”

Sera reached for another knife.

Husen smiled slowly.

And somehow, that....was more frightening than the bodies around him.

Because monsters snarled. And predators smiled.