Left 4 Dead: Blood Harvest Novels & Stories

Dark pools spread beneath the elders, winding through cracks in the broken courtyard until they reach the fractured stones and stop. Every droplet quivers; one bead rolls backward, followed by another, defying gravity. Thin red threads begin to creep across the courtyard slowly, like living veins searching for each other. The blood abandons the bodies that shed it, twisting together in streams that meet, thicken, and rise. A heavy sphere forms between the corpses, rotating with a slow, unnatural rhythm. Inside it, darker currents swirl beneath brighter crimson layers, folding over each other like something alive. The air shifts; the metallic scent of blood becomes so thick it coats his tongu

The base lay in ruins, littered with the corpses of ordinary people, and the air was thick with the pungent stench of blood. The air-raid shelter was an even more gruesome sight. What had once been a refuge was nothing but crumbling walls and debris at present. Conrad stepped onto a puddle of blood. The elderly woman who always greeted him with a smile at the base was now nothing but a severed head. She had been devoured by zombies. “How?! How could this happen…” Conrad’s voice trembled. He tried to reach out, but his arms refused to move. He knelt on the ground and sobbed uncontrollably.

Abram kicked it open, the metal groaning as it hit the wall. "Who goes there?" a voice shouted from below. Abram didn't answer with words. He leaned over the railing and let out a long, terrifying howl. It wasn't the sound of a man. It was the sound of the Blood Hunt. From deep below, a dozen voices answered. The prisoners. They knew. The mountain echoed with the sound of a hundred wolves calling for vengeance. They reached Level Four. The air here was different—thick with the smell of chemicals, antiseptic, and rot. Abram kicked through the final door and stepped into a nightmare.

Three days after identifying Silas Greythorne's handwriting, Sera woke to urgent knocking. Lucien burst in before she could answer, his eyes wild with fear. His voice was tight, almost cracking. "There's been a murder." She was out of bed immediately. "What? Where?" "The Nocturne District. A vampire elder, found dead in his home last night." He handed her his phone. "Look at the positioning." Sera's blood ran cold, and a wave of nausea rose in her throat. The body was arranged on the floor, arms spread, throat slashed. Around him, ritual markings drawn in blood.

She asked, sitting up right. "That's not it." Lauren said, eager to fill Emily in, "These people are believed to be killed by serial killers lurking in the woods. On their body, strange marks were found, a deep black hole, punctured on their neck. Just yesterday, the news claimed that the deaths were caused by vampire's." Emily scoffed loudly and almost laughed but quieted down, remembering she had made a promise to remain sad. "Vampire's? Like in Dracula? Twilight and the vampire series? Or Blade?" She scoffed again. "Trust the media to make up stories to cover the actual cause of death."

My vision started to blur, still feeling that ominous pounding as I faintly noticed the outline of a second person appearing next to Nathan. "I think you've gone a little bit too far," I barely heard them say. "Shut up, David," "Whatever man. But remember, you're going to be sorry later," And just like that, everything faded to blackness. _________________________

“Fall back! FALL BACK!” But it was too late. The battle had shifted. And we were losing. The Cost of War I don’t remember how I moved, how I reached Soraya, how I forced my magic deep enough to keep her breathing. But I did. My hands were dyed red with blood—hers, mine, theirs—there I was in the innermost halls of the fortress. The torchlight was dim over here, but Jameson was yelling orders somewhere nearby, and his sword flashed as he dispatched one attacker after another. Lilith didn’t appear anywhere but I knew she fought, she thrived in the chaos.

I heard some footsteps behind me that made me look at it and there I saw Carmen holding a glass of blood and handed it over to me. Just by looking at it, I felt how my throat dried in so much thirst for it. It's been a while since I felt this adrenaline rush just by looking at something like my life depends on it. I can't help but gulp while staring at my hand that's holding it and immediately drank it up.

I yelled, keeping my eye contact with her a little longer than I should have. "We lost a lot of soldiers..." Baldy said sadly. "Not soldiers, people. We lost a lot of people." He seemed shocked at my words, but he nodded and, in his eyes, shined appreciation. "We shall hold a ceremony for all those we lost." All that was left on the battlefield were human bodies. The demons have all disintegrated. I walked inside; my head held high while I was a big mess inside. My fate depends on whether I can keep my demon half from showing.

Or the metal of the door blocked his sounds. Sal moved through the littered darkness of the basement. He couldn’t find her scent, which invaded his SUV for so long. This place wasn’t better than the Lich’s den. He’d crawled through enough of blood and gore that last night of battle. The mines were a mass grave in the making for the misguided lost who followed Lich’s false promises. The Lich’s victims walked in expecting rewards. What they became were lambs to the slaughter. He’d sacrificed them to his army as food and spare parts. The Lich pieced together the corrupted monstrosities from parts of his victims and followers.