"Relax," Wren said, just a few feet behind her, closing the gap to stand by her side. Still in his black cloak, hood up, he lifted his face just enough for her to see his smile. Mer blushed from the kindness shining inside of his grey eyes. The man seemed so much mellower when he wasn't in a standoff with Rush.

Dark magic coursed through the air, and Damien was at her side in an instant, just as several vampires arrived before them. They were all powerful leaders, and she didn't like how their auras surpassed Rush's in strength and rivaled her father's. Behind each of those men stood a few shadows–their generals. The two house heads were surveying them to see what they'd face. Without the vampires here, and half of the mages in another place for their flank, they were bare.

The blond with rings in his lip and his hair cut off half of his head she remembered from his fight with Lorenzo. Hel Valk was a name that was hard to forget. The man fought with lightning, which could whip out and fry a human in an instant. Next to him, another vampire stood with grey hair as long as Forest Copse's, tied back in a loose ponytail that draped over his arms. Essence Fuse, if she recalled, the one that Lorenzo had conceded to so he didn't blow them to high heaven.

"Hel Valk, and Essence Fuse," Kopje said, taking a step forward. He was a real mage, hardened and scarred from constant fighting in the north. His eye was dark under the flip of his hair that huddled on top of his scalp.

"Kopje Cinder," Hel acknowledged him. "You've seen better days." The man laughed with is men, but Kopje remained firm.

Vampires appeared behind them in number until they gradually overshadowed the pitiful dozen mage generals they had to protect the front doors of the complex. This was not boding well, and the more men appeared, the more nervous she became. A hand on her shoulder made her jump, and she turned to Wren's expression of calm. She did her best to mirror it as she turned back to face the vampires, but they'd noticed.

"Not much of a fight this will be with half of yours shaking in their boots." Essence laughed with a few of his men, his stupid silver hair shining in the light as he whipped it to his side.

"If we shake, we only do so in anticipation for your demise, Essence," Kopje growled, and it warmed Mer. This man knew just what to say to defend and rally them. He was right. There was no other reason to shake, and her father was here with her.

She had allies.

They weren't alone.

Just concealing half of their forces for surprise.

"Tell me, Hel Valk, do you like to dance?" Wren asked, his head lowered.

"Have you lost your mind, mage?" Hel spat, turning to him with spite.

"Not at all. I just really like dancing. It's not fair for me to choose though, so I'll flip a coin. That makes it's much more fun." The mage pulled out a silver dollar and she gaped at him as he tossed it up and caught it before settling it on his thumb. "Heads you dance, Hel, tails it's Essence."

The coin clinked as his nail smacked it into the air and tossed it the few feet forward where it landed with a jingle in front of Hel. Neither of them could see the result from where they were, but Hel bent down to pick up the coin.

"Heads, it seems. But I'm not dancing," Hel hissed, but it silenced and every vampire there took a step back as Wren dropped his hood.

"Wren Song," Hel rasped as if the man were physically choking him.

Mer's stomach flipped as she met with Wren's grey eyes, now drenched to black where the whites of his eyes had been. Below him, a circle of magic spun, climbing up his skin and out from him at the same time. Chains of shadow crawled along the ground and snapped out to connect with Hel's feet.

The house head screamed, shrieking as the shadow chains snaked up his legs, constricted around his center, and plunged into his eyes. Hel raked the skin off of his face until the chains crawled out to his arms and pulled them down. Then everything was quiet with all eyes on Hel. Mer cringed as Hel smirked and she saw the same expression on Wren's face.

"It looks like we're dancing, boys." Wren and Hel spoke as one, and they cackled together as chains burst from Hel's legs and grabbed every Valk vampire within reach.

Everything exploded, figuratively and literally. Essence Fuse dropped his hands with two spells in them and the air burst into flames that claimed the entire area in smoke and magic. Mer backed away as the explosions met a wall of flames that stretched in front of her, and she turned to Kopje where he held the shield in place to protect them. With another flick of his hands, Kopje cast a spell that created a gust of wind to blow the smoke away, and Mer took a step back at what she saw.

Just ahead of them the vampires were fighting each other, or rather, Wren was fighting the Fuses using some of the Valks. It was something truly grotesque and she understood the fear that had shone in the vampires' eyes as they'd seen Wren.

To her left, one of the controlled Valks ripped out the throat of an Essence, casting a spell that sliced another vampire's arms off, but shortly after, it struggled to move and gasped as it hit its knees. Its skin bubbled and light magic seeped out of its arms, fighting with the dark magic that it was controlling. With a screech, the vampire collapsed and fell apart. All the remained was a mess of destroyed flesh and the life inside of it hissed away. The chains on it sank away and flicked out to grab the next Valk who wasn't fast enough.

What Wren was doing was destroying them from the inside, stretching chains of light energy into their bodies and dancing them like puppets. But like Rush had explained to her years ago, light magic corrupted and killed vampires from the inside out. The magic Wren used tortured them as he used them until there was nothing left but husks that he discarded for the next.

It was wrong, but what choice did they have.

"Dusk Aurion, calm down," Kopje said next to her, and she turned to his empty expression. How could he not care that the man now behind them was killing these people, using them as nothing more than tools as they cried out and begged to die.

"Kill the Song!" Essence growled, and with his echo of power more vampires emerged from all around them. The third house of vampires, the Silvers surrounded them, and Mer backed up a step.

Spells formed all around them, but they were their own, light magic, transportation spells. Mages and vampires both appeared in their defense, Lorenzo de Fleur and his men showing up in what had just been empty space. It took none of them long to notice Wren standing behind them, frozen in his spell as he marionetted the Valk leader and any he could catch of his men.

"The fuck is a Song doing here?" Lorenzo growled, turning their own allies on them, and Damien intercepted them.

"Keeping people alive," Damien said as he formed his scythe. "I didn't know about it until recently either, but you can't switch sides now."

"You'll not hear the end of this after, mages." Lorenzo growled, sparking dark energy around him and ushering his men into the fight.

The Fluers and the Silvers clashed, mixing with the chaos that surrounded them. She stood in front of the complex with the mages who were to protect the main doors, but she was starting to think she should have stayed with Rush. Thankfully, Luna stepped forward to take the lead and the rest of the mages formed up with her.

"It's all right, Dusk," her aunt said, flicking her gaze to Wren with understanding. "We just have to protect him and the complex. The vampires and mage generals will take care of the harder fights. We are to protect Wren from the trickle that makes it through."

With her aunt by her side, Mer stood and took a breath as the first vampires started to trickle through, as she said. With Essence's command, they all gunned for Wren, but they had a wall of vampires to make it through. First, the Valks who fell apart one by one, surrounding their master who was able to live much longer with Wren's power. Hel Valk's lightning magic coursed through the air as he fought, picking off vampires who got too close, toasting and reducing them to charred flesh. A stench that she wouldn't soon forget filled the battlefield, charred vampires and slouched away flesh.

Those who passed the Valks had to contend with the Fluers, and getting past them was no easy feat. Lorenzo de Fluer's ice magic spun through the air in crystals of death that shredded most of the vampires as they tried to pass, but he could only cover so much ground as he moved, and a few made it to them where they stood as a shield in front of Wren Song. Behind her, his magic hummed in her ears, vibrated down her form, and stretched in front of them in his name sake, a dreary song of death.

The first vampire moved so fast that Mer didn't see him, but he hit the ground in a crackle of light magic not a few yards in front of her. Dammit. She had to pay attention. Mer focused on the chaos ahead of her and took away the images that were assaulting her, replacing them with her senses. Since her body absorbed the energy around her, she could sense the power as it fluctuated, where it was strongest and weakest, and where the holes were that the vampires could slip through.

Dark magic filled one of the holes, and she called on Shiva. Magic flowed through her, dark on one side, light on the other, and her bladed wings spread forth in a plume of sharpened feathers that fragmented much more than they had the first day she'd called him. Instead of three charges of light and dark, she had nearly a dozen of each now. They were smaller bursts of energy, but she needn't use Shiva's power with every blow, just have them at the ready to rely on if a vampire came too close. Until she needed them, she would rely on her own spells.

The vampire that made it through was downed by flames as they burst from Kopje Cinder's hands to her right, and she focused on the next one. She couldn't hit them when they moved, not like Luna and Kopje could. She wasn't great at aiming, but she could hit them when they slid through the narrow gaps in their allies' magic pressure. Predict where they are going to be and strike where it' easy to hit. Why she was thinking about Talamayas Sol, she didn't know, but she did as he'd said.

Waited for one to move for a gap.

And strike center of where they were so she wouldn't miss.

Dark energy crackled up one arm as she cast her dark lightning spell. It was a watered down version of the one she'd practiced with Rush earlier that year, and it snapped hungrily and flew for the dark magic that made it through. The vampire went down with a screech, not quite dead, but wounded enough that a Fleur turned back and ended him before returning to the front lines.

She wasn't the best fighter, but she didn't need to be. They had to stop these vampires and there were so many that anything she could do helped. With Luna and Kopje at her side, and the more powerful vampires ahead of them, they would fight together. In the mix of energy, she could feel her father as he moved with the Fleurs, spinning his scythe and ending vampires one by one, only to have them replaced.

There were so many, and they were so few.

Whatever, Neil's plan was, he better move.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Word Count: 2098