Shadows flickered across the jungle path—too quick, too silent, circling them like hungry ghosts.
Every one stiffened. Nova's shield flared to life in a dome of gold, humming around them.
But before anyone could breathe, something dropped from the canopy—silent as mist, heavy as a falling star.
A tall man—no, not a man. Nova wasn't sure what it was.
Skin pale, eyes black as tar, dressed in royal obsidian armor laced with crimson. His scent hit them first—rotted, metal, and something old. Wrong.
He smiled, fangs glinting.
"Hello, Moon Princess."
His voice was a velvet whisper stretched over something feral. "I have been waiting for your arrival for almost two decades."
"Drop your shield." He hissed with a unbothered smile.
Nova froze.
Her eyes flashed silver—sharp, then unfocused—like something inside her snapped into a trance. Her shield fell.
"Nova—!" Fin barked, but she didn't move.
The vampire moved at the same instant, alpha-speed, ripping through the space between them.
His hand wrapped around Nova's throat, slamming her against a tree so fast the bark splintered.
He leaned in, razor-sharp fangs bared, his mouth angling for her neck.
Fin didn't think. His sword was out in a blink of gold light, and with one clean, merciless stroke—
SHUNK
The vampire's head hit the ground before anyone saw the blade move.
The body collapsed a heartbeat later.
Fin grabbed Nova, yanking her free before the corpse even finished falling.
She stared at the headless body. Horrified.
Fin cupped the back of her head, pulling her against him.
"It's alright," he murmured fiercely. "He's not touching you. Ever."
Jax was already scanning the shadows, sword drawn.
"Vampires." Hyran said, "They live in packs similar to us. More will come."
Aeron nodded. "Calling her Moon Princess. Not random."
Nova swallowed, trying to steady her breathing, eyes still fixed on the corpse.
The forest went eerily silent—too silent. The scent of rot thickened.
Hyran lifted his hand, fire gathering instinctively. "Eyes up."
Jax snarled and slammed a golden shield around all of them—thick, humming, impenetrable. He kicked the corpse out of the circle with a sharp, vicious shove of his boot.
"Stay behind me," he growled.
But before anyone could take a step—a sound rose from the jungle floor.
A low… gurgling chuckle.
Fin's grip on Nova tightened.
The severed head—lying in the dirt—twitched. Then its mouth split into a grin. The head laughed.
"Did you think," it rasped, "that death applies to me?"
Nova jolted at the sight and a high, panicked scream escaped her before she could stop it. Her hand flew to her mouth and Fin's landed over it a breath too late.
"Guess they know we're here now," he said, kissing her head once. "That one doesn't count."
Then the body moved. Its hands groped blindly over the dirt, patting around until they found the head. The head laughed harder, eyelids fluttering open, black pupils dilating.
The torso lifted the head and shoved it back onto its neck. Flesh knitted with a wet, crackling noise—tendons snapping into place like pulled threads.
He rolled his shoulders, straightened his spine, and smiled—wide. Too wide. Then he did something worse. Something none of them expected.
His jaw unhinged like a serpent, distending far too wide for anything humanoid.
Nova gasped so loudly Fin put his hand over her mouth again.
The vampire snapped his jaw back into place, as if nothing had happened.
He raised one skeletal hand, and the air rippled—black magic coiling around his arm like smoke.
"Your birthright," the vampire whispered, eyes fixed entirely on Nova, "was stolen once… but not again."
He tilted his head—sharp and birdlike.
"You belong to the Night Throne, little Moon Princess. To me."
The trees around them bent inward. Branches groaned. Dozens of red eyes opened in the dark.
"Run," he whispered. "I enjoy the chase."
Jax kept the shield up, jaw clenched, every muscle in his body coiled tight.
Jax:Move out. Formation Delta. Keep eyes up.
His voice was steady, controlled—pure military command.
They moved. Quiet. Fast.
The vampire who'd first attacked Nova vanished into the canopy, slipping out of sight like smoke.
Branches rustled. A hush fell.
Then—
Hundreds of red eyes opened in the dark.
Figures dropped from the trees in sync, fangs bared, grinning like they'd rehearsed it.
"Ahh," one hissed. "Hunt-and-seek."
Another giggled. "We like games…"
Hyran mindlinked, voice sharp as a blade.
Hyran:No one gets bitten by this vampire or any others we run into.
Rex:How do we kill these bastards?
And then—shockingly—two familiar voices bled through the mindlink, faint but clear.
Redmoon:Is everything all right?
Jax froze for half a second. Surprised they could hear across continents.
Hyran:Vampires hunting us. Hundreds. Beheading doesn't kill.
A pause.
Books thudding. Pages flipping.
Mages scrambling.
Then Beta Fang's voice came through, clipped and efficient:
Beta Fang:You must behead them, remove all limbs, burn the remains into ash, then scatter the ashes across the oceans or continents. Do NOT leave anything intact.
Jax: Copy. Are there any additional ways we can kill them?
Redmoon:They cannot cross sacred thresholds—temples, sanctified ruins, consecrated ground. Find shelter if you can.
Beta Fang:And—assuming it's cloudy if they are out. They burn in direct sunlight. If the clouds break, that's your window.
A hiss echoed through the jungle.
Then a female vampire dropped down in front of Jax. Skin peeling. Jaw crooked. Half her cheek missing. She pressed herself against his shield and leaned close, whispering directly to Jax.
"Drop your shield."
Jax's magic collapsed instantly.
Fin's went up immediately around the group.
Nova gasped and grabbed Jax's arm. He blinked confused and then jolted seeing the vampire inches from him with just his shield in between.
Another vampire—female again, rotting worse than the first—leaned over Fin and whispered into his ear.
Fin's shield shattered too. The jungle erupted with movement.
Vines hissed. Hundreds of vampires circled.
Jax grabbed her hand, and mindlinked.
Jax:Stay behind us, Nova. Don't let them get close.
The vampire who had attacked Nova laughed from the shadows.
"Run," he whispered again, his voice echoing through the trees. "I'm hungry."
The shadows moved first.
They surged through the jungle in a blur of speed and claws and hollow-eyed hunger. Fin barely had time to shove Nova behind him before one of the creatures slammed into his side with the force of a falling boulder, knocking him straight through a bush.
Another lunged for Nova—And this one was faster.
It hooked an arm around her waist, talons locking like iron, and in the next breath she was ripped off her feet and carried into the jungle at full alpha speed. Leaves and branches tore past in a violent blur, the air cutting at her face.
"NOVA!" Jax roared—but three vampires slammed into him at once, tackling him into the undergrowth.
Rex lunged, shifting mid-air, fur erupting into molten gold light—but two vampires dropped from the canopy and forced him sideways, sinking blades into the dirt inches from his snout.
Fin barely got his sword up before a gaunt male vampire slammed into him like a falling star, their combined momentum shattering a tree trunk behind them.
Aeron fired a blast of gold magic, but the vines themselves turned traitor. Serrated tendrils snapped around his wrists and yanked him backward through the foliage.
Hyran unleashed his fire dragon, but a swarm of vampires crashed into him all at once, driving him down the slope in a spray of leaves.
They were all separated.
Dragged, slammed, scattered into the jungle.
The only sound was Nova's gasp—and the sickening thud as she was thrown over a vampire's shoulder and carried at alpha speed through the trees.
The vampire's grip was iron, but her mind sharpened instantly.
Golden light burst up her arm—channeling Fin—without even touching him. A dagger of pure gold formed in her palm.
She didn't hesitate.
Nova drove the blade into the vampire's heart with a furious twist.
It shrieked—a horrible, jagged noise—and dropped her. She rolled, hit the ground hard, and came up on one knee, dagger raised.
Just in time to see its body collapse into ash.
From the ash, immediately, it reassembled.
Limb by limb.
Rib by rib.
Snap. Snap. Snap.
Head last.
It smiled at her with a jaw that should not have reattached.
"White wolf…" it hissed. "Shift for us."
She bolted into the brush, running at full speed, heart hammering.
Branches slapped her arms. Leaves tore at her cheeks and hands. The jungle blurred.
Behind her?
Laughter.
Dozens of voices, layered like overlapping nightmares.
"Run, little luna…"
"Let us taste you…"
"Shift, we want the white one…"
"I wonder what the daughter tastes like?"
"Oh, she smells just like her mother—"
She tripped, hit the ground hard, and rolled. For a split second she couldn't breathe, lungs burning as something sharp clawed up her throat.
Then her wolf cut through it.
Seraphine: They want panic. Panic makes mistakes. We don't.
Nova forced air back into her chest, pushed to her feet, and took off into a sprint.
Seraphine:Breathe. Stay with me. Fear is loud, but it is not in control.
Nova:Thanks.
She ran blind, unsure where the others were, every sense stretched thin as she listened for anything that might give them away. A footstep. A breath. A mistake.
Then twenty more shadows peeled away from the dark and gave chase.
_________
Back at the clearing, Rex's wolf took the hit head-on.
Another creature struck Jax from behind, hooking an arm around his shoulders and dragging him into the trees.
Fin didn't get two steps toward Nova before a shadow slammed into his legs from the side while another hit his back. The combined force ripped his footing out from under him.
He shifted mid-fall and a furious black wolf hit the ground in his place.
Xeon's growl ripped the air apart as his jaws closed around the nearest vampire's shoulder—tearing it free.
The limb reattached like the creature was made of clay.
Rex's wolf caught another vampire mid-lunge and hurled it into a tree. The impact tore the creature clean in half.
Both halves hit the ground.
Then they moved.
Jax's shift came next—black fur exploding outward as he slammed into an attacker with brutal force. He snarled and ripped a vampire's head free.
It struck the ground laughing as its body lurched toward it.
Jax mindlinked, sharp and urgent.
Jax:Where is Nova?
Aeron carved through them with spellfire, bodies flying apart in pieces. Three fell. Ten replaced them, crawling over the wreckage like the ground itself was spawning them.
Hyran answered with disciplined arcs of flame, reducing vampires to ash in roaring sweeps.
For a heartbeat, it worked.
Then the ash moved. Bones crawled. Flesh bubbled back into place.
Half-burned figures rose again, still on fire, grinning as the flames failed them.
Fin: Regroup! Find Nova.