I’ve felt it before. A thousand years ago. When the Coven of Crows hunted as one, when we descended on villages and cities and left nothing but blood and darkness behind, this is the fear we inspired. The terror that made grown men weep and mothers smother their crying children to keep them quiet.
This is the cold certainty that something ancient, angry, and absolutely inevitable is coming.
And there’s nothing,nothing,you can do to stop it.
Dread stands in the middle of the clubroom, and his eyes have gone completely gold-white, the god form bleeding through against his will. Faint battle sigils glow beneath his skin, pulsing with Divine Energy. His voice comes out layered, human, and Divine, speaking as one.
“They’re coming.” It’s not a warning… it is a prophecy. “I can feel them. Not just approaching. They’re descending. Gravity reversed and dragged down from the heavens.” His head turnsslowly toward me, and those burning eyes lock onto mine. “They’re coming for you, Crave. And they’re bringing judgment.”
The Dreadfield intensifies.
Now I’m seeing it.
Seeing them.
The Coven of Crows is manifesting in my territory. Nyx’s shadows are consuming everything. Thanatos paints the streets red. Erebus is erasing my brothers from existence one by one. Moros is showing me every future where this ends in blood and ash.
And Khaos…
Khaos simply exists, and reality breaks under the weight of his presence.
I see my club destroyed. My brothers dead or scattered. Everything I’ve built for centuries is crumbling in a single night.
And worst of all, I see Sloane, her blood glowing crimson-gold as the Coven tears her apart to understand what she is, what she might become, because they willnotallow her to exist without their control or permission.
“Enough!” I snarl, my vampire speed carrying me to Dread in an instant. I grab his shoulders, forcing him to focus. “Dread! Regain control.Now!”
He blinks, the gold-white fading from his eyes. The Dreadfield doesn’t vanish. It never fully vanishes when he loses control, but it recedes enough that everyone can breathe again.
The room comes back into focus slowly.
Scorch drops to one knee, smoke pouring from his nose and mouth as he struggles to contain his dragon fire. “Jesus fucking Christ, Dread. Warn a brother next time.”
“Wasn’t intentional…” Dread gasps, his voice fully human again. He touches the bronze coin in his pocket, carrying his mother’s name, his anchor. “It just… happened. The threat is real. They’re coming, Prez.”
I release him and turn back to face the room, every eye on me now.
Waiting for orders.
Waiting for their president to tell them how to survive what’s coming.
“The Coven of Crows,” I say quietly, and even saying the name aloud feels like summoning something best left sleeping. “My former family. The monsters I left behind when I chose this life over them.”
Rogue’s jaw sets firm. “Then we fight.”
“You can’t fight them.” The words taste like ash. “They’re not only powerful, they are also fundamental. They’re what vampires become when they stop pretending to be anything else. When they embrace the darkness completely.”
“Youfought them,” Oracle points out, his phoenix flames rekindling now that the fear has receded. “You walked away. You defied them by existing outside their covenant.”
“I didn’t fight them. I just… left. And they let me go because I wasn’t breaking their laws. I was choosing a different path.” I look around at my brothers, my club, my family. “But Viktor? He’s forcing their hand. And when the Crows come to deliver judgment, they’re going to want answers I might not have.”
The silence is heavy.
Then Hades speaks up, his necromancer’s calm fully restored. “So, we give them answers. Or we give them a fight they won’t forget.”
“And if we can’t win?” Hex asks, always the pragmatist.
I meet his glowing blue eyes. “Then we make damn sure they remember why the Eternal Sins MC doesn’t go down without making the world bleed first. Lock it down,” I order, slipping into full president mode because that’s what my club needs right now.
