My Blood Legacy: Bloodlines

Victor landed on the upper floor of the warehouse and crossed a wooden walkway before dropping onto the main floor. Nera landed beside him, driving her scythe into the boards to soften the impact. The interior was much larger than it had appeared from outside. Rows of crates occupied almost the entire space, but many were empty or served only to conceal corridors between the inner walls.

Dozens of men were waiting for them.

This time, there was no doubt about their intentions. Some were clones. Others appeared to be real vampires. There were also more stitched creatures restrained by chains and several figures covered in bloodstained medical robes. Every one of them looked at Victor and Nera when the two touched the floor.

Victor opened his arms.

"Good evening."

The first group advanced.

The battle stopped being organized at that moment. Victor sent a wave of Black Ice across the floor, freezing legs and trapping weapons. Nera ran across the frozen surface without losing speed, using the shaft of her scythe to break knees, throats, and ribs as she advanced. Victor followed close behind, burning shadows, tearing through bodies, and hurling enemies into the stacks of crates.

A clone tried to escape through a side door. Victor disappeared and emerged in front of him. The man stepped back, but received a punch in the center of the chest before he could change direction. Black Lightning entered through the point of impact and traveled throughout his entire body. The veins glowed beneath the skin before rupturing. Victor grabbed him by the collar and threw the corpse into two other attackers.

Nera ran across all three of them.

The scythe came down once.

The bodies separated.

"Seven," she shouted.

"You skipped some numbers."

"I killed others while you were distracted."

"Convenient."

A stitched creature broke free from its chains and charged at them. It was larger than the previous ones, standing nearly three meters tall, with two pairs of arms grafted onto its shoulders. Nera tried to cut through one leg, but the blade stopped against the thick layer of hardened blood. The creature struck her with one of its arms and hurled her into a stack of crates.

Victor looked toward where she had fallen.

"Nera?"

"I’m fine."

"Good."

He advanced alone. The monster tried to crush him with all four arms, but Victor disappeared between the blows. He emerged on the creature’s shoulder, seized its head with both hands, and released Black Ice directly through the skin. The skull froze, but the outer layer of blood began forcing the ice back out.

Victor noticed the resistance and smiled.

"So you can take it."

The creature grabbed him and slammed his body against the floor. The boards caved in. Victor felt two ribs break, but caught the monster’s arm before it could lift him again. Black Lightning ran through the limb and forced every grafted muscle to contract at once. The joint came apart.

Nera appeared on top of one of the crates and jumped.

The scythe descended from above, now covered in a red layer of energy. The blade passed through the monster’s shoulder and continued down to the center of its chest. Victor took advantage of the opening, thrust his hand into the wound, and released White Fire directly inside it.

The entire body burned from within.

The creature fell to its knees, then collapsed into a mass of charred flesh.

Nera pulled out her scythe and looked at Victor.

"That one counts as mine."

"I burned it."

"I opened it."

"Half for each of us."

"No."

Victor started to answer, but an explosion tore through the side wall. Mirella entered through the opening with her sword covered in blood. The twins followed behind her, both smiling and carrying marks of battle on their clothes. Farther away, Victor saw Natasha advancing through the main entrance with Dahlia and the other members of Squad Six.

Mirella quickly surveyed the scene.

"Underground entrance."

Victor pointed toward a metal door hidden behind the crates.

"There."

"How do you know?"

Rowena answered inside his mind before Victor could speak.

"Because it reeks."

Victor smiled.

"Instinct."

Mirella had no time to argue. She raised her sword and pointed toward the door.

"Victor and Nera go down. The twins clear this floor. Natasha holds the surface. I’ll follow once the path is open."

Victor ran to the door and placed one hand against the metal. Blood seals were hidden within the structure, probably designed to block entry and destroy anyone who tried to force their way through. He felt the lines of energy and realized that disarming them would take far too long.

He pulled the small Blood Bomb from his pocket.

Nera looked at the object.

"Alexa said it was for a last resort."

"We’ve reached the last resort."

Victor crushed the sphere against the door.

The compressed explosion destroyed the metal, the seals, and half the surrounding wall. A wave of vaporized blood traveled through the descending corridor and made several hidden presences below scream. Mirella stared at the opened hole with a tired expression.

"You could have warned me."

"You saw me take out the bomb."

"That isn’t a warning."

Victor was already descending.

The staircase was long, damp, and narrow. The smell grew worse with every step. Chemicals, old blood, exposed flesh, and a decay that did not belong to anything living. Nera followed close behind, more serious now that the confined space limited the movement of her scythe.

When they reached the bottom, they found a stone corridor illuminated by red crystals. Iron doors lined both sides. Some had small windows. Victor looked through the first and saw three vampires strapped to tables, with tubes carrying blood into glass containers. The second held body parts arranged on shelves. In the third, dozens of human and vampiric faces were preserved in liquid.

Nera stopped smiling.

"I’m going to kill him."

Victor continued walking.

"Get in line."

Guards appeared at the end of the corridor. There were not many of them, but they wore armor made of blood and carried long weapons suited for fighting in confined spaces. Victor erased his own presence for an instant, disappeared from their senses, and emerged in the middle of the formation. The first lost his head before realizing where Victor was. The second was frozen against the wall. Nera tore through the rest, using her scythe in short, brutal strikes.

They advanced through two more corridors, always descending in the direction indicated by Rowena. The deeper they went, the fewer guards appeared. That did not reassure Victor. It meant the true core of the laboratory did not rely on ordinary soldiers.

At the end of the final staircase, they found an enormous circular chamber.

Glass tanks lined the walls, each containing identical bodies in different stages of development. Some were only skeletons covered in veins. Others already had skin, hair, and the same face they had seen dozens of times that night. At the center of the chamber stood a stone platform surrounded by channels of blood.

A man sat in a simple chair.

He had the same face as the clones.

But Rowena reacted immediately.

"It’s him."

Victor stopped.

Nera tightened her grip on the scythe.

The man calmly raised his eyes. He looked tired, almost sick, but his smile was far too lucid to belong to someone who had been defeated. His skin was pale, his black hair combed back, and his open coat revealed dozens of thin scars crossing his chest.

"Ghideon DuskBlood," Victor said.

The man rested his face against one hand.

"Finally."

His voice was the same as the projection’s, but it carried weight now. It did not seem to come only from his throat. It echoed through the tanks, the incomplete bodies, and the shadows trapped along the walls.

Victor looked around.

"Are you the original?"

Ghideon smiled.

"Does that question still matter?"

Nera stepped forward.

"It does if I need to know how many times to cut you."

His smile widened.

"A violent child and the new prodigy of the Valentine family. Rosalyne truly decided to insult me."

Victor slowly let Black Ice cover his arms.

"She wanted you alive."

"Wanted?"

"I disagreed."

Ghideon rose from the chair. At the same moment, every body inside the tanks opened its eyes.

The entire chamber filled with dozens of identical presences.

"What a shame," Ghideon replied. "I was looking forward to meeting the Countess."

Victor smiled as Black Lightning began crackling around his body.

"You’ll have to settle for me."

Ghideon opened his arms, and all the tanks began to crack at once.

"Then let’s find out how many of me you can kill before you forget which one was sitting in this chair."