“I said move, orhe’llget the bullet.” Arthur’s arm stretched out, the gun steady in his hand, aimed squarely at me.
Gabe stood, shielding me from Arthur. “You won’t hurt him.”
“Gabe, move,” I yelled. “Don’t be stupid. Don’t die for me.”
“I’d always die for you,” he answered. “You’re my beginning and end.”
“See, Jude?” Arthur spat. “If you don’t move away, he’ll get the first bullet, and Vincent will get the second. Is that what you want?” He glared at Jude and narrowed his eyes, like a master schooling his disobedient dog.
“Just listen to him!” I yelled. I couldn’t bear the responsibility if anything happened to Gabe, knowing his stubborn streak and the immense love he held for me.
Jude reluctantly ran to us, collapsing into our embrace. “We have to get out of here. I need to know you’re both safe.”
Arthur bent down and spoke quietly to my father, whose gasps for breath echoed in the stillness. I watched as my dad’s pupils dilated, his jaw dropping slightly in shock. I strained my ears, desperate to catch the murmur of their conversation.
My father vomited a small pool of blood and muttered, “But how did you do all of this?”
Arthur turned to us and solemnly said, “I’m sorry for doing this, Vincent.” There was a metallic click of the trigger as he pointed the gun at my father, and the subsequent gunshot shattered the silence.
It was like everything turned black and white. My father’s body went limp, his blood pooling around him. The look on my dad’s face—etched with terror—is all I remember. The gunshot itself was completely silent to me. His eyes, wide with shock, slowly drooped, mirroring the crushing weight of defeat and loss. He was always one of those people you never thought would die, who would live forever. Yet when he did pass on, it almost seemed surreal that someone so important was nothing more than a normal being.
Arthur muttered a silent prayer under his breath.
“Come on, Vin, let’s go!” Jude tugged insistently on my arm, but I remained rooted to the spot.
“You’ll be safer here. At least until the war is over.” Arthur pointed to the screens. “Ah, it looks like my third wave finally joined.”
The screens showed humans and vampires locked in a desperate battle. The ground was covered in blood, yet both humans and vampires continued to battle on. Broken bodies lay scattered across the muddied ground, their chests crushed under the relentless march of soldiers on both sides. I was fixated on the imposing gates, where a wave of animals in perfect formation stormed the gates. I squinted. “What are those?”
“My babies,” Arthur whispered, his voice full of love and relief. “I’ve been waiting for this day to come. I created my own Dogs to help us win the war.”
A squadron of metal animals marched onto the screen. Their red eyes, burning with intensity, were laser-focused on the vampires, who screamed as they desperately tried to escape. The Dogs exploded into a frenzy of barking and snapping teeth, launching themselves at anyone who dared to approach.
“How did you—why did you?” Jude stuttered next to me.
It all clicked in my mind, like a puzzle coming together. The vampire blood kept him alive longer than the average human.Arthur knew the passcodes for both laboratories. He even knew the dates to shut off the Dogs in the mountains. The Polaroid pictures on the computer. He had the knowledge to create new Dogs. He called my father Sal.
A wave of realization washed over me, and the words seemed to choke out of my mouth. “You’re Dante.”
Arthur turned to me, a surprised look on his face as he shrugged. “Sal had the ego, I had the brains.”
A gunshot rang out through the bunker, and Arthur—Dante—fell to the ground with a smoldering bullet through his forehead. Tears streamed down Jude’s face as he collapsed onto the ground, his gun clattering to the ground with a metallic clang.
“I had to do it.” He sobbed. “I had to. He created more of them. He was going to be another version of your dad—worse probably.”
I knelt, cupping his face in my hands, feeling the warm tears stream over my fingers. “Jude, I love you.” I looked at the black-haired man behind me. “I love both of you.”
Gabe kissed him on the cheek, licking the salty tears from his lips. “You did what you had to do for the greatest good.”
The greatest good. Whatwasthe greatest good in this moment? I stood, a knot of dread tightening in my stomach, and walked over to the screens to watch the Dogs rip the vampires apart. I couldn’t let this continue. The Dogs should never be allowed to walk this Earth again.
Gabe held Jude’s head against his chest, his hand gently rubbing Jude’s shoulder, and I smiled, feeling the warmth of my love for both men. “I have to do what’s right for everyone—for us.”
They didn’t try to sway me, so I ran before they could. I opened the door to the secret room lined with blood, opened the glass box, and punched the red button protruding from the wall.Red lights started blinking around me, and just as I ran back to the two men, all of the doors within the bunker closed shut.
“Vinny, what did you do?” Gabe yelled.
I did it for the greater good. I did it for us. I did it for our future.
