SAGE

The vampires were too much.

I had known we were outnumbered the moment they poured from their hiding places like a ruptured vein spilling rot into the world, but knowing and witnessing were two different torments.

They came in waves—hissing, shrieking, their pale limbs a blur against the dying light. Everywhere I looked there were fangs and red-rimmed eyes and clawed hands reaching, reaching.

The ancients were faltering.

I felt it in the rhythm of the battle. Their movements, once fluid and devastating, had grown sluggish. They had not fed in days—not on the kind of blood that strengthened their ancient cores and burned away the earth’s taint from...