I nodded, accepting the explosive devices he handed me.The weight felt wrong in my hands—not physically heavy, but morally burdensome.I had agreed to this mission, had given my word to follow orders.But I was determined to find a way to minimize casualties.
I know why Mercer had chargeduswith this task.It meant a lower likelihood of face-to-face, or fang-to-neck confrontations with German soldiers.It allowed us tokillwhile maintaining the illusion that all we were doing was setting a fuse.Even pulling a trigger at a distance isremovedto some degree from killing a human being up close.The end result was the same, perhaps even more deadly, which was precisely the horror of thisnewkind of war.
It allowed men to slaughter one anotheren massewithout having to look the men whose lives they were taking in the eye, without having to think about their wives, their children, the future they could have had if they weren’t casualties of war.
Progress.
That’s what we’d all believed during the so-called Gilded Age.We were the products of the so-called Enlightenment.The human race, we believed, had advanced beyond barbarism.The eruption of this war proved the Enlightenment a fiction, illusion.All our “progress” had done was give us bigger weapons, more efficient ways of exacting bloodshed, all the while pretending we were more civilized than those who used to kill wielding shield and sword.
This wasn’t progress at all.We’d only “blinded” ourselves to the truth of human brutality, justified our wars under the guise of the advancement of freedom.We’d lost something when we reduced the men who we killed in war to mere “numbers,” to “enemy combatants.”When someone has to face his enemy in war, he has to facehimself.He has to come to terms with the implications of war, the loss of life, the consequences of slaughter.
Humanity was no more civilized than they’d been a thousand years ago.They only knew now how topretendthey were.And here they thoughtwewere the monsters.I believed that my vampiric nature had done less to change meessentially, to denigrate my moral composition, and more to strip away the façade of enlightenment that most of humanity wore like a mask, covering up the monstrosity beneath.
Mercer surveyed the assembled vampires one final time, his gaze lingering on me with thinly disguised suspicion.“This mission is essential to the Allied war effort.Success means saving thousands of human lives.”He paused, his voice dropping an octave.“But there is no success without absolute commitment.No survivors.No witnesses.No mercy.”
His words hung in the air between us, the command explicit and brutal.Catherine shifted beside me, her discomfort palpable despite her silence.Desiderius remained impassive, though I felt rather than saw his attention focus more sharply on me.
“I can complete this mission without unnecessary slaughter,” I said, my voice steady despite the thudding in my chest.“We will destroy the depot.We will secure any intelligence materials.But I will not order the execution of surrendered enemies or those who pose no direct threat.”
The stillness that followed my declaration was absolute—the silence that exists only in the presence of supernatural beings who do not need to breathe.Mercer’s face contorted, veins bulging at his temples as fury overwhelmed his carefully maintained control.
“You gave your word,” he hissed.“You agreed to follow orders without theological objections.Without debate.”
“I agreed to the mission,” I corrected.“Not to murder.There’s a difference that even war cannot erase.”
Mercer’s laugh held no humor, only cold contempt.“Always the preacher’s daughter, aren’t you?The faithful little church girl?Still clinging to your father’s God despite what you’ve become.”He leaned closer, his voice dropping to a whisper meant for my ears alone.“Your defiance has sealed Bishop Harkins’ fate.Do anything less than slaughter every German you encounter, and I’ll send the message.”
My fingers tightened around the explosive charges, the metal casings bending slightly under supernatural strength.“Touch the bishop, and there will be consequences.”
“My, my, Alice!”Mercy chuckled to himself.“Was that athreat?I didn’t think you had it in you.Lean into that anger, that rage, use it to embrace what you are.”
“You think you’ve beaten me?”I shook my head.“You come at me with doctors, injections, and threats.I fight in the name of the Lord!”
“Bold words from someone who can’t even control her own flock anymore.”Mercer stepped back, gesturing to Ruth and Rebecca.“Tell them, Alice.Tell them to choose between your moral qualms and my orders.See where their loyalty lies now.”
I turned to face them—these souls who had been entrusted to my spiritual guidance, who had walked the path of redemption beside me for years.Ruth’s eyes, once expressive and fierce, now stared through me rather than at me.Rebecca’s analytical mind had been reduced to cold calculation, the compassion I had nurtured in her buried beneath chemical control.
“Ruth,” I said softly, reaching for the connection that had once existed between us.“Rebecca.This isn’t who you are.Remember the convent.Remember our prayers.Remember the path we chose together.”
Ruth’s expression flickered for a moment—the briefest hesitation, a shadow of recognition—before smoothing into emptiness once more.
“The mission requires compliance,” Rebecca stated, her voice mechanical and devoid of its former thoughtfulness.“The treatments provide clarity.We follow Captain Mercer’s orders.”
“Efficient elimination prevents future threat,” Ruth added, her words an echo of Rebecca’s cadence, as though they had been programmed with identical responses.“Witnesses compromise operational security.”
Mercer’s smile held triumphant cruelty.“You see?They understand what you refuse to accept.We are weapons now—nothing more, nothing less.That’s how we find purpose, how we find meaning.How we save ourselves.”
“You’re wrong,” I replied, though my voice threatened to break.“We are souls first.We were made in God’s image, no matter how much those treatments cloud their minds.What we do in this war will follow us into eternity.”
“Save your sermons for your diminishing congregation.”Mercer turned away, signaling to his team with a sharp gesture.“We have a mission to complete.With or without your cooperation.The only thing at stake is not how many enemy lives you might save—we will slaughter them all with or without your help—but the Bishop’s life you mean to forfeit.”
I watched as they melted into the darkness, moving toward the northern perimeter with preternatural speed and silence.Ruth and Rebecca followed Mercer without a backward glance, their movements synchronized.Thomas hesitated briefly, looking back at me with confusion clouding his youthful features, before the serum’s influence drew him after the others.
Desiderius stepped to my side, his presence solid and reassuring despite the crisis unfolding around us.“Your moral stand was correct,” he said quietly.“But it has cost us dearly.”
Catherine trembled beside me, her newly turned nature making her more vulnerable to the conflicting emotions that saturated the air.“What do we do now?”she whispered.
I stared at the dark shapes of my former flock as they disappeared into the night, torn between my obligation to Bishop Harkins and my dedication to the souls in my care.The explosive charges felt heavier in my hands, their purpose both clear and clouded by moral ambiguity.
