Dusk has settled over the world, ushering in vampires from every house, and where the creatures of the dark roam, the mages of light rise to meet them. Some fight for their house, while others struggle with what lies inside of themselves, but all fi...
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The Zero Rebellion's complex was underground not a few blocks from them, and its occupants were as sick as the poison they manufactured there. Justice they called it, a poison meant to reclaim the world for humans, for monsters who deserved to suffer and die the most painful of death. The neurotoxin attacked the nervous system, warping a vampire's senses until they could not recognize their own. It blinded their sight but accentuated a vampire's hearing so strongly that a penny dropping was an explosion within their head. Then it warped their sense of magic so they could not tell friend from foe. It was the rebellion's way of returning vampires to nothing, and they wouldn't stop until there were Zero devils left in the world.
What a stupid name for a rebellion.
While vampires had power the likes of which normal humans could not fight against, that did not mean they had to be annihilated. The mages were there for humankind, as intermediaries to the vampires and strong enough to fight any who strayed from the path of peace. Mages like Alec, who had lived his entire life at the mercy of his birth, orphaned by a vampire attack before he even knew his parents, yet saved and loved by the same creatures.
Several vampires waited with Alec now, from the Arc family, ready to take down the Zero soldiers, but none were monsters. They fought for peace as he did, for a future without hate that took children from their loved ones. This ongoing conflict was just another genocide painted over with human propaganda.
Join the fight against the devils or you'll be next.
Such prejudice and violence left the world around them in shambles, buildings downed and broken from attacks using explosives as much as magic. Humans fled in mass, gathering up where they could find safety, and others fell to vampires who fought back merely to survive. This rebellion had erupted into a full scale war that had demolished human infrastructure in most places. Some cities remained with electricity, water, and the basic necessities, but they were few and no one was going out to the mall or watching movies anymore. Food was scarce, and those who didn't work for it starved or risked their lives out on their own.
Justice plants had food and shelter, which was what made all of this more sickening. Fighting those who were just doing what they had to to survive was the worst. What was he fighting for if not them? How many innocent deaths justified them wiping out the poison?
When did it end?
A hand touched Alec's when it started to shake, and he lifted his attention to his cousin where she moved to stand next to him. Ruffled navy hair rolled on Silvia's head in the fall wind, and she pulled Alec's hands up to blow on his chilled fingers with hers. Their skin was so different, Silvia's the golden tan of the Cascades and Alec as pale as a peach like the Copses. The Copse and Cascade mage houses shared blood within many families, and they were the closest of allies.
Silvia was a real mage, infiltrator class, trained by the best, and borne from the strongest blood the Copses had to offer. And Silvia had courage in spades, strength to fight the vampires who sought to take from her, as well as love those she led, human and vampire alike. Alec was as strong as they came, but he was no leader, not like his cousin who had fallen in love with the leader of the Arc vampires.
