The intensity of the pain quickly faded into a strong throbbing down the left side of my chest and my eyes unclenched. The day felt overly calm as if nothing else was moving and nature was isolating us in order to protect its own serenity. I could hear nothing though I saw my brother scramble to his feet. A snarl crossed his face and it seemed I could see the square bottoms of two of his teeth poking beyond his human teeth where his fangs should have been. The balding vampire was on one knee poking his head around one corner of a building and bringing his rifle up despite the shot to his shoulder. Leaving my rifle lying on the ground I pushed up and broke into a sprint. A shot went off, but my mind only distantly registered the sound. My brother’s eyes went red as I charged him with every ounce of energy that I could force into my legs. A bullet grazed my arm digging a furrow through the grey flesh and viscous blood, but it did not slow my stride. My entire world narrowed to his frame. I crossed the distance to him as he pulled his rifle up. I pulled the pistol at my side without even thinking and it moved from the holster into firing position as if my nerves had wound their way through its butt, wrapped themselves around its barrel and clustered in a dense bundle in the trigger. I squeezed with my index finger as gently as a mother would her newborn’s finger. It popped in my hand and still I flew on towards him as if I meant to crash into him and bring us both to the ground even as the gun returned to firing position and I squeezed its trigger again. The first bullet struck him in the center of the chest and the second followed. I continued firing even as he toppled backwards in the middle of the street. I ran right up to him. He looked up and seemed surprised to see me, his eyes wide with fear and pain and his lips rustling back and forth with whispers. Lying there in the street with a spreading stain of black blood running across his chest he looked human again. All the smooth power and speed was draining out of him and his wan skin was only the result of blood loss. I did not lean down to hear what he said. I felt empty and cold. “Drain me,” he spat as if he could be turned a second time, as if he truly believed that he was still not a vampire. There seemed to be no boundary remaining between his tattered shirt and the ripped flesh of his chest. It rose and fell rapidly for a vampire. His arms and legs skittered back and forth across the pavement like a crab that’s been flipped onto its back. I lifted my gun and leveled it at his head. Bullets flew by me hissing through the air like angry bees. My brother snarled at the barrel of the gun. “You fool. Without me they’ll be back to being hunted by next summer.” I fired into his mouth even as his lips continued to move. Instantly his face disappeared into a pit of teeth, blood, brains, and stringy bits of flesh. Then his body lay as still as the dead town around us. To his vampires I must have looked as if I was standing with my head bowed in morning as I stared down at his corpse. But bowed to what? I could no longer recognize him. Here was a body that was no longer my brother. Had it even been my brother for the last few years? He had given no evidence of peace at the end, only fought on with every last bit of inhuman power that ran through his flesh and why not? There was no promised land at the end of this vampiric lifetime. Blood was all that it promised, and any fool could see that its supplies were dwindling across the land.
Shouts filled the air and then a hot sting caught me in the buttocks spinning me around and flinging me to my knees. Blood oozed out and ran down the back of my thigh. My brother’s vamps moved towards me, making their way slowly as they fired and crouched behind what cover was available. I emptied my clip in their direction and then bolted towards the river turning down the first side street. The vamps rushed up behind me but stopped at my brother’s body. I could hear their gasps and their uncertain murmuring, but I didn’t slow and continued to fly towards the river. I expected the wailing and gnashing of teeth to rise up and fill the air behind me. I expected them to fire their weapons in salute, or in anger and depression. Instead I was met with only the sound of the wind channeling through the buildings. The sun burned through the sky directly in front of me burning me with its rays even as the cold wind slowed my movements. An incredible wave of fatigue swept over me and all I wanted was to crawl in a dark hole and hide until night fell upon the land. My head buzzed with the hunger so loudly that it muddled my thoughts. My hands shook.
Now I was alone in the world. If I returned north at best, I would be driven out to face the cold alone and at worst I would be shot on sight. The preacher had not made any promises regarding my fate, or asked me
