Alec led the way, and Damien followed. His mind was blank, but his chest was hot with anger. Through a small corridor, and then another tunnel to the left, was another modified sewer way.

“This is the distillery,” Alec said with pride as he parted through the strips of a plastic curtain.

Human bodies were strung up on the left and on the right by the wrists with chains. Their toes dangled inches above the floor. They flopped and twitched like dying fish, as needles and tubes bled them dry into keg barrels that lined the metal grate walkway. Damien saw a thousand-and-one versions of himself chained up in Tartarus. One with his rib cage splayed open. Another, with his teeth ripped out, and yet another wailing and sobbing into the abyss. One with his eyes cut out. Each one a different torture. Each one a grotesque memory. Damien stood alone amongst the different versions of himself. All the vampires were gone. A door opened at the end of the tunnel and light came streaming in.

A crooked demon with a rolling cart hobbled in. He was singing, “Ashes, ashes. We all fall down.” Damien’s heart pounded as the hobbling, bent demon came closer and closer, the bad wheel of his rolling cart wobbling across the grate. Damien snapped himself out of his vision, and Alec was mid-monologue.

“-starting with my backers and my bloodbars, then moving on to live, public feedings, charge per bite, then eventually start selling them individually. And with us properly eating, our powers will grow, our numbers will grow, and we will finally be strong enough to stand against all the demons in this world. It will be glorious.”

“Let them go, Alec,” Damien demanded.

“What?”

“The people. Let them go. I’ll get you blood in any other way I can, however you wish, but-”

Gabriel was coming in with other vampires. They were dragging in the next set of humans to replace the ones on the racks. They were screaming and pleading in abject horror, seeing their fate strung up before them.

Alec stepped up to Damien and spoke in a hush, due to the other vampires entering the tunnel. “Damien. This is the future for vampires, whether you like it or not. We don’t have magick to materialize whatever we desire like you do. We have to claw and scrape to get by, and we cannot be dependent on anyone else to provide for us, to simply hand it to us, especially without us bowing and kissing their ring. We have to be self-sufficient as a community. This is a fight for freedom… and we could really use someone like you on our side.”

Damien clenched his jaw and shook his head. He couldn’t reason with Alec. Damien knew at this point, though he didn’t want to believe it, Alec was just like all the rest.

“N-no.” Damien swallowed.

Alec was taken aback for a moment, and Damien recognized a look in his eye. Alec was contemplating his next move. He adorned a politician’s smile and backpedaled. “Look, this is my fault,” Alec said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have brought you here. It was too much. I never considered your sensibilities. You never have to see this place again if you don’t want to. Do you want us to stay or go?”

“What?... No. No!”

Alec was confused and spoke gently as if speaking to Josanna, “Damien, let’s go home. We can talk this out when-”

“Goddamn it, No!” Damien’s anger erupted, and a shockwave came from the center of his being and reverberated throughout the tunnels. Chains rattled, and vampires braced themselves against the walls. Dust and stone fell down from the ceiling.

“What did- Did you hurt my portal? Damien?” Alec’s eyes were panicked and enraged.

Damien shook his head and tried to understand what he had just done. “I- I don’t know. I didn’t-”

Alec pointed a finger in Damien’s face. “If you damaged my portal-”

Damien’s brow pulled together. “Your portal sliced a guy in half, and you didn’t so much as bat an eye!”

Alec tried to compose himself. “Damien-”

“No.”

“Damien!” Alec had lost all of his politesse.

“No. Let them go.”

Alec smiled. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

Damien retorted, “Then, I’m afraid we aren’t partners.”

Alec side-eyed his men who watched on in anticipation. He whispered, “You are undermining me in front of everyone. This has been the goal since the start. If you aren’t with me on this, then you are against me, Damien Parker. Neither of us want that.”

Damien took a moment to process Alec’s threat, then said with a shrug, “I’ve had worse.”

Alec smiled. “Fine. So be it.” He flared his nostrils and said to Gabriel, “Get him.”

Gabriel looked at the other men, then at Damien. They were uncertain and didn’t move.

Alec barked, “Don’t just stand there! Get. Him!”

In the blink of an eye, three vampires, including Gabriel, were on him, and Alec was walking away past all the hanging bodies.

Damien tried to stand, but each time, Alec’s men ripped him back down. They punched and kicked at his ribs and his face. He felt a bite in his neck, and Tartarus came flooding back. Hellhounds with hellfire eyes were ripping at his soul. He had to get it together. He had to get a hold of himself, of his brain, of his magick. The world came back just long enough for Damien to click his fingers, and he released every hanging body from their chains, their bodies crashing to the floor. The new group of humans Alec’s men had brought in were released from their binds and ran.

The vampires saw the humans getting to their feet and making a run for it. They left Damien in pursuit of the humans, and Damien was able to do the same and run.

Running down the tunnel, his limp got worse, his tattoos, piercings, and scars came back, in his mind. He made it back through the door that led to the sewers. The bouncers on the other side were blissfully unaware of the drama ensuing behind them, and they thought nothing of him busting through the door. They nodded to him.

He composed himself. Damien looked down at his hands and body. No scars. No tattoos. Aware that much of what he just experienced had been in his head, he nodded calmly back to the bouncers. Damien, attempting to appear casual, saw the double doors that led to the dancefloor of the club ahead of him.

The door behind him burst back open, and a half-naked human man stumbled through, followed shortly thereafter by Gabriel. The vampire restrained the human as the bouncers stood there in confusion. Gabriel pointed at Damien and cried, “Get him!” The bouncers looked up at Damien. Their noses twitched like they were memorizing his scent, and in a few twisted bone-cracking movements, they became snarling salivating wolves.

"Fuck.” Damien ran, and the wolves bounded after. Damien pushed open the double doors into the main floor of the club. He hopped over a red velvet rope, protected by more werewolf bouncers. He sprang into the crowd of vampires who were too busy dancing to notice him. The music assaulted Damien’s ears. The lights were strobing, and four werewolves were stalking him through the crowd. The partygoers shrieked and leapt out of the way when they finally noticed the wolves, and slowly but surely, the way was parted for them.

The wolves herded the crowd like sheep until they had trapped Damien in the center of the dance floor. The wolves stared him down, growling and snapping their teeth.

“It’s because my mom’s a cat! Isn’t it?” he yelled at them.

The music shut off, and Alec’s voice echoed over the buzz. “Enough. Let him go. Mr. Parker is the least of our concerns.”

The wolves transformed back into bouncers and stared up at Alec and Gabriel, who stood on a metal walkway above their heads.

Gabriel held the half-naked human man by the hair. The man was on his knees, fighting to free himself from Gabriel’s grip.

Alec addressed the crowd. “It is my honor and my pleasure to announce that our time has come. We are creating the world we have only dreamed for ourselves for so long. Gone are the days of meager meals dressed up like cocktails. In our world, we eat when we are hungry, and we get to play with our food.”

The vampires around Damien laughed.

Gabriel brought the man to his feet and offered him to Alec. He accepted the gift, and Alec pressed the man’s back to his chest and bent the human’s head over his shoulder, so the soft flesh of his neck was exposed.

“Gone are the days of working the night shift. In our world, day has turned to night, and we have no other reason to hide from the light. The spotlight is ours, and it is our time to shine in wealth and abundance and freedom.” Alec breathed against the man’s neck, teeth exposed, poised to bite like a threatening viper. “Bon sang ne saurait mentir,” he said, and he plunged his fangs into the human’s neck, ripping the flesh. After pulling his mouth from the man’s neck, he grabbed the man’s skull, pulling his head backwards until the man’s tendons snapped and his skin peeled away from muscle, where the base of his neck separated from the shoulders. Hot blood sprayed Alec’s snarling face. He dropped the writhing body onto the metal walkway, and the blood poured down to the bar floor below. Alec tossed the severed head into the crowd.

In a gust of wind, every vampire in the club ran to the fountain, leaving Damien and the werewolf bouncers alone in the center of the bar. He and the bouncers watched in horror and disgust as the vampires scampered over each other to lap up the blood dripping down from the grate above.

“That’s fucking vile,” one of the bouncers said.

Another one spat, “Fucking vamps.”

Damien asked, “Why do you work for them?”

They both chuckled, and one said, “Can’t exactly get a job at the tailors.”

The other asked, “Why do you work for them?”

“I don’t,” Damien answered.

“Oh.” He spied Damien’s neck. “Just sort of figured.”

Damien reached up and felt his neck. It was bloody. There were two puncture wounds towards the back, just under his ear. They stung when he inspected them, and he winced. He was bitten. He thought the bite had been the memory of the hellhounds, but it had been real. He looked back up at Alec and Gabriel. Alec was smiling down at his children, but Gabriel was looking directly back at Damien.

Gabriel gave him a little wave, and Damien heard in his head. Alec is gonna be pissed when he finds out I got to bite his little pet first. He’s been wanting to do that since he first laid eyes on you.

Get out of my head, Gabe!, Damien thought.

We need to talk. Meet me at Devereaux’s in an hour. Bring Josanna.

Damien responded, Yeah, I don’t think so. I’m done with this shit. With all of it. Done with voices in my head. Done with being imprisoned and getting chased by fucking dogs. Done with this whole damn thing, with fuckers trying to tell me how to live. Damien trailed off in stream-of-consciousness thought as he was headed towards the front door.

Damien. Damien. Please, Gabriel called in his mind.

Please what, Gabe? I wouldn’t fucking try me right now. I will burn this mother fucker down.

I’d be happy if you did!

Damien hit the sidewalk and wove through the crowd. He kept his head down and kept as close as he could to the buildings. He wasn’t even out of the club for ten seconds when he realized just how alone he was. He hadn’t been alone in this world since Thanatos found him in the sewers.

Gabriel’s voice sounded further away, when he said, I think you’re the only one who can stop this!

Parts of him knew he could fix it all, but other parts of him knew that those solutions never lasted. He knew that what was happening was wrong, but that in righting it, something worse could happen. He had seen it thousands of times. It was best to just let things be. Let them deal with their own problems instead of teaching them to rely on his magickal fixes. He could try to create some world isolated from everyone and everything, where he could spend the rest of his days far away and safe from the fickle whims of others. Maybe like a cottage in the woods…Damien stopped and sighed. If he was going to have free will, he should use it responsibly. Gabe? Damien thought loudly, You still there?

Yeah? He sounded hopeful.

Damien took a breath. One hour, and stay out of my head with your psychic vampire shit.