But the sound of combat had attracted attention from the rest of the assault team. Two more vampires appeared in the doorway, these ones moving with the coordinated precision of soldiers who'd learned to fight as a unit. Both third-generation, both radiating the kind of predatory confidence that came from decades of successful kills.
The first one—tall, gaunt, with Victorian-era clothing that had seen better centuries—went for Kaine with claws extended, moving in a low crouch designed to get under his guard. The second, broader and more modern in appearance, targeted Marcus with the kind of focused aggression that suggested they'd been briefed on the Ghoul's capabilities.
Kaine's enhanced perception slowed time to a crawl as the Victorian vampire closed distance. He could see every micro-expression on the creature's face, track the exact angle of its claws, calculate the precise trajectory of its attack. His system-enhanced reflexes kicked in instantaneously.
Instead of meeting the vampire's charge head-on, Kaine sidestepped with fluid grace and grabbed the creature's extended arm at the wrist. But rather than the simple redirection the vampire expected, Kaine's grip tightened with hydraulic force and he twisted sharply counter-clockwise.
The sound was like a gunshot as the vampire's shoulder joint exploded. Tendons snapped with wet pops, and the creature's arm bent backward at an angle that defied anatomy. Black blood sprayed from the ruined joint as the vampire's scream pitched into frequencies that shattered the bedroom mirror.
"Fuck me, that was loud," Kaine muttered, driving his knee up into the vampire's exposed ribs with enough force to crack bone. The creature doubled over, and Kaine used its momentum to slam its face into the wall with a wet crunch that left a crater in the expensive plaster.
The vampire tried to pull back, but Kaine had already shifted his grip to the back of its skull. His fingers found purchase in the creature's greasy hair, and he began methodically driving its face into the wall. Once. Twice. Three times. Each impact sent spider-web cracks through the plaster and left increasingly grotesque smears of black blood.
On the fourth impact, something gave way with a sound like breaking pottery. The vampire's struggles became erratic, its nervous system shorting out as brain matter leaked from its ears.
"Should've stayed dead the first time," Kaine said, releasing his grip.
The vampire slumped to the floor, its head a misshapen ruin that barely resembled anything human. Black blood pooled beneath it, mixing with fragments of bone and less identifiable tissue.
[MORTAL ESSENCE ABSORBED: 120 ME]
Meanwhile, Marcus was having his own brand of fun with the second vampire. The creature had tried to grapple with the Ghoul, which was roughly equivalent to wrestling a hydraulic press. Marcus caught the vampire's claws with both hands, holding the creature in place while it struggled with increasing desperation.
Then Marcus began to squeeze.
The vampire's finger bones cracked first, each one snapping with wet pops that echoed through the bedroom. The creature screamed and tried to pull away, but Marcus's grip was absolute. He continued applying pressure with the methodical patience of someone who had literally all the time in the world.
The vampire's wrist bones followed, grinding against each other as Marcus compressed them into powder. The creature's supernatural anatomy was coming apart under hydraulic pressure that defied every law of physics Kaine could remember.
"Jesus Christ, Marcus. You're like a fucking trash compactor with legs,"
The Ghoul tilted his head slightly—as close to acknowledgment as he ever came—and continued his work. The vampire's forearm bones were next, splintering like kindling as Marcus worked his way up toward the elbows. Black blood squeezed out between his fingers like toothpaste from a tube.
When the sounds stopped, Marcus discarded the remains with the casual indifference of someone throwing away a broken tool. What had once been a vampire now resembled abstract sculpture made from bone fragments and leaked fluids.
[MORTAL ESSENCE ABSORBED: 125 ME]
"Where's the rest of them?" Kaine asked, his enhanced senses scanning for additional threats. His system was already cataloguing the tactical situation, overlaying threat assessments on his field of vision like a military HUD.
His answer came in the form of automatic weapons fire from the hallway—not the sharp crack of conventional bullets, but the distinctive energy signature of magitech weaponry designed specifically for supernatural targets. Solar-charged plasma bursts that burned through vampire flesh like tissue paper.
[INCOMING HOSTILES: 4-6 CONFIRMED]
[TACTICAL ASSESSMENT: OVERWHELMING FIREPOWER]
'Professional gear. Military grade. Someone with serious resources wants this operation shut down.'
Victoria and Clarissa had taken cover behind the bed, their vampire reflexes keeping them low while energy blasts scorched the air above their heads. The human thrall was still sprawled across the mattress, too blood-drunk to process the fact that people were trying to kill him in several different ways.
"Any idea who might want you dead?" Kaine asked Victoria, checking Soulrend.
"Could be anyone," she replied, her voice tight with fear and supernatural rage. "The insurance company, Richard's business partners, other vampires who don't appreciate competition."
"Or," Clarissa added with grim satisfaction, "it could be the people we stole the original plan from."
'Of course. Insurance fraud was someone else's idea, and they don't appreciate amateur hour muscling in on their territory.'
The weapons fire stopped, replaced by the sound of tactical movement in the hallway. Whoever was out there was repositioning for a final assault, probably with the kind of overwhelming firepower that would reduce the bedroom to smoking rubble.
[ENEMY MOVEMENT DETECTED]
[BREACH IMMINENT: MULTIPLE VECTORS]
[RECOMMENDED ACTION: AGGRESSIVE PREEMPTION]
"Marcus," Kaine said, system-enhanced reflexes already mapping out their next moves. "Time to earn your keep."
The assault came from three directions simultaneously—the hallway, the window, and through the floor from the room below. Military precision, overwhelming firepower, and the kind of tactical coordination that suggested serious training and unlimited funding.
But Kaine's enhanced perception was already processing the attack vectors. He moved with predatory grace, Soulrend singing through the air as he met the first wave of attackers.
The vampire coming through the window never made it past the frame. Kaine's blade took its head off mid-leap, the creature's momentum carrying its decapitated body across the room in a graceful arc that ended with a wet thud against the far wall. Black blood painted the expensive wallpaper in abstract patterns.
[MORTAL ESSENCE ABSORBED: 110 ME]
Two more came through the hallway, moving with coordinated precision. The first one raised some kind of magitech rifle, but Kaine was already inside its guard, his enhanced speed making the creature's reflexes look glacial by comparison.
Instead of going for a clean kill, Kaine grabbed the vampire's weapon and reversed it, driving the barrel through the creature's open mouth and out the back of its skull with enough force to spray brain matter across the hallway. The magitech rifle discharged once, sending a plasma bolt through the vampire's head and into the ceiling above.
"Brush your teeth next time," Kaine said, releasing the weapon as the vampire's body hit the floor.
[MORTAL ESSENCE ABSORBED: 115 ME]
The second hallway vampire tried to flank him, but Kaine's system had already calculated its movement pattern. He spun low, Soulrend carving through both of the creature's legs at knee level with surgical precision. The vampire toppled forward, black ichor fountaining from its severed limbs.
Rather than finish it quickly, Kaine planted his boot on the vampire's back and grabbed its head with both hands. One sharp twist, and the creature's neck separated with a sound like breaking celery. But instead of stopping there, Kaine continued the rotation, spinning the vampire's head a full three-sixty degrees until vertebrae ground against each other like millstones.
"Didn't your mother teach you not to turn your back on people?"
[MORTAL ESSENCE ABSORBED: 108 ME]
The vampire coming through the floor—apparently they'd blown a hole in the room below—emerged right into Marcus's waiting embrace. The Ghoul caught the creature by the throat and began to squeeze, but this time he varied his technique.
Instead of crushing the vampire's windpipe, Marcus inserted his thumb into the creature's eye socket and began to apply pressure. The vampire's struggles became frantic as it realized what was happening, but Marcus's grip was absolute.
The eye burst with a wet pop, vitreous fluid running down the vampire's cheek like tears. Marcus continued pressing, his thumb sinking deeper into the socket, penetrating brain tissue with methodical precision.
The vampire's struggles ceased as Marcus's thumb found something vital. The creature went limp, black blood leaking from its ruined eye socket like oil from a cracked engine.
[MORTAL ESSENCE ABSORBED: 130 ME]
"Show off," Kaine muttered, but there was deep appreciation in his voice.