A low, guttural growl — raw and powerful — stirred the fetid air of the station, thick with the copper reek of spilled blood and the sour musk of wet fur. Every presence froze as if the temperature had plummeted ten degrees in a heartbeat.
Silence swallowed the platform. Even the raging lycans halted mid-snarl, nostrils flaring, ears twitching at the new scent that crawled over their tongues like black frost.
Vampires in the train stiffened; pupils shrank to pinpricks of terror, ancient instinct screaming louder than any wound they now bore.
Kraven's men, until now mere silhouettes in the gloom, stepped forward as one. Trench coats brushing together.
Metal rasped
*shink, shink*
as pistols slid free from holsters. They formed a tight circle, backs pressed, eyes sweeping the dark.
*Clik… clik… clik-clik-clik…*
Footsteps. Precise. Unhurried. Four figures peeled from the shadows as though the darkness itself had birthed them.
Black trench coats caught the sickly platform lamps.
among them, one seized every gaze on the platform.
His eyes were voids — pure liquid black — save for a single glinting ember of red at the core. His face hung halfway between man and beast: cheekbones sharpened, skin shadowed to bruised charcoal, lips peeled back over elongating canines. From the cuffs of his coat, coarse black fur bristled across knuckles; claws slowly extended with soft
*snickt-snckt* sounds, each nail glistening like dark glass. his body kept expanding as he grew taller and bulkier .
A sword of execution waited above them all.
Kraven's death dealers shrank deeper into the shadows as if it would provide asylum. their muzzles trembled though fingers stayed steady on triggers. fear consumed their thoughts as they watched the new arrival walk by.
unfortunately, they had been marked for death.
*Swishhhh — swishhh*
Too fast.
A blur of darkness, that was all they saw.
A breath later:
*Thud. Thud. Thud.*
bodies hit the concrete, throats opened ear to ear, blood pattering like sudden rain.
By the train, the lycan pack cowered. Great wolfish heads lowered involuntarily; whimpers leaked from muzzles that moments ago had howled for slaughter.
Inside the ravaged carriage, Amelia pressed against a shattered window frame, breath fogging the cracked glass. Blood — her own, thick and black — soaked what remained of her gown, turning silk to wet leather. large bite craters wept across collarbone and thigh; claw furrows striped her pale arms like red ribbons. she was no longer as regal as she had been when she and her council arrived. Only pride and centuries of will kept her upright.
*Cluk… clok… crrrk*
Bones twisted, cartilage cracked. Fur sloughed away in wet sheets. A towering lycan shrank, darkened hide receding until a tall, bald black man stood naked among the carnage — Raze. His chest heaved; eyes burned with triumph that now faltered. lucian had warned him of intervention, from the mysterious cult. It seemed like his time was running out.
He stared at Amelia the way a starving wolf stares at a wounded stag — only feet away, ripe for the kill.
Amelia's remaining Death Dealers clustered around her, barrels trembling, the stench of gunpowder and desperation thick between them.
*Clik clik clik clik*
the footsteps got closer — measured and inevitable.
*Shhhhhh-thunk*
The carriage doors sighed open on ruined hydraulics.
Four silhouettes filled the doorway, backlit by flickering emergency strips that painted everything in bruise-purple and blood-red.
Lycans whimpered and retreated. Even Raze's skin rippled again, fur threatening to burst free in fear.
"Ivanov," a deep voice commanded, smooth as grave-silk yet edged with winter, "that is enough."
The half-transformed creature — Ivanov — turned his monstrous head.
*grrrrrrrr*
A guttural growl rumbled from his chest. Then, reluctantly, the change reversed: black eyes bled back to white and crimson iris, then to pale blue; fur sank into skin like smoke sucked into lungs as he staeted getting smaller;
*shlick-shlick*
his claws retracted with gory wet sounds as they retracted. only a tall man remained.
once he reverted to human form, the two immortal species could now breathe easy.
Confidence trickled back into the lycans —
*grrrrrrr*
low growls sounded as many bared their fangs.
The vampires exhaled shakily.
The speaker — Vij —slowly stepped fully into the light. A slender longsword rested lazily in his right hand, tip kissing the blood-slick floor, crimson droplets sliding along the fuller with soft *plink… plink…*. He used the blade like a gentleman's cane.
Raze stared at Ivanov, horror warring on his face.
Vij's gaze swept the carriage — bodies, blood and the trembling remnants of the two immortal species —
then it settled on Amelia. his eyes glazed a bit as a look of melancholy flash past his pale irises.
"It has been a long while, Lady Amelia."
His voice softened, almost tender, as he took in her ruined beauty. He inclined his head in a courtly bow; the other three followed, precise, graceful — knights acknowledging a queen who had once warmed their lord's bed.
Amelia's breath caught. Old wounds ruptured once more as chained emotions threatened to break free. wounds deeper than the flesh wounds she bore, split open inside her chest.
Vij and the others straightened up after a moment of courtesy.
When he looked up again, the softness was gone, replaced by iron wrapped in velvet.
"You stand in the presence of the Forerunners of the Order. By my will, this skirmish ends now. We bid you Lycans to withdraw from the premises, effective at once. You vampires shall depart to your coven. consider this mercy, we are in a good mood".
His stare fixed on Raze, cold as moonlight on marble.
Raze snarled, voice like gravel and smoke. "This act of ours does not break any of your protocols and therefore has nothing to do with you. there are no humans here tonight. would you go against your own code and meddle in our affairs?"
" Your affairs?...We know what Lucian wants.," Vij answered, each word deliberate. "His vengeance will drag the herd into the fire soon enough. after he tastes the power he craves, vampires will not be the only ones he'll go after. such senseless carnage, we do not permit it." He lifted the sword a fraction; blood pattered faster from the tip. "Take your men and leave. Need I remind you why you must comply?"
The carriage lights flickered once — *bzzzzt* — and for a heartbeat the shadows themselves seemed to lean forward as if listening.