• The war had been going on for centuries, but it had never amounted to gunshots and blood… until now. Unfortunately, for both races, the war for human territory was one that could not easily be settled. Jack Silverthorne, a vampire general, did not really care to have for a war at all, but each race was just as painfully stubborn as the other, and neither would compromise. It was tough being a war leader when all you wanted was to avoid a fight.
    The fallen angels were a race rich in tradition, and had the age to prove it so. They wouldn’t allow vampires to into the territories they had claimed for they felt that vampires were beneath them, and once this had become known the vampires refused to allow the angels access into their territories as well. With both races patrolling their borders fights had continually broken out until the first blood was spilt.
    They had reached their last resort…blood shed, and there was no stopping it this time.
    “I’m really not up for this, Greg.” Jack admitted to his second in command, Gregory Hasbaen as he looked down at the map placed in front of him on the kitchen table.
    “Neither is anyone else, but it can’t be avoided any avoided any longer my friend.” Gregory replied, he couldn’t stand the tension that consumed the large townhouse, and when he couldn’t stand something he would drink until he could.
    “Here’s an idea… why don’t you become the general, and I’ll take your job?” Jack asked unenthusiastically as he ran a hand through the black hair that hung to his wide shoulders.
    “First of all, no way in hell would I ever want your job, and B who says that you’d be my second in command? I don’t think that you’d be able to handle the rigorous demands that come with it.” Greg replied as he slumped down into a recliner.
    “You’re right, because I would probably keel over from the amount of energy it takes to sit around on my a$$ all day and consume beer after beer until I retched all over a room.” Jack pulled his hair back with a black leather tie, and then gave a sarcastic sigh, “I have no idea how you can survive from all the pressure place on you.”
    “Bite me man. You know you can be a real a$$ sometimes. I need to make one thing completely cleat… we… need… beer.”
    “What happened to the pack we just bought?” Jack asked though he already knew the answer.
    “I needed a little bit to relax, so we should go pick up another case soon. I a feeling that relaxing is going to be something we’ll need to do a lot of in the next few days.” Greg said with a sigh, truthfully no one wanted this war to happen, but nothing could stop it now not even the deities that had given birth to both races.
    “You drink more beer than anyone I’ve ever met. If you weren’t a vampire I’m very sure that you would be dead by now.” Jack said taking a sip of his blood laced wine. Vampires were nothing like those in story books and fairytales. Real vampires existed just like humans except that they needed blood, but that could be taken from blood bags now. Jack went to church, and could touch both a cross as well as holy water. Mirrors showed his image, and garlic was one of his favorite seasonings. The only major difference between the vampire and human race was that vampires could live as long as they wished at peak physical condition. Idiotic humans, he thought to himself.
    “Sorry man, but like I’ve said before I’m stressed about this whole d**n situation. Those angels have their heads so far up their a**es that it’s unbelievable.” Greg took the final swig that was left of his beer, and then tossed the can into the trash bin beside the chair he was presently sitting in.
    “All too true…” Jack retorted as he dropped into the chair across from his friend.



    Lenne Kaine was walking around her tiny apartment when a knock sounded at the door. As per usual, she was instantly covered in goose bumps as she walked toward the white painted wooden door that led from her apartment to the bright red hallway outside it. Bright red… that was the color of blood. The color that haunted her thoughts every time she dared think about her father in his fragile condition.
    Lenne was the princess of her people, the fallen angels, but she had no desire to be so. Leaving had been so hard for her to decide to do after a bullet had nearly killed her father the king. So much blood had poured from the wound, and though she had been able to keep him alive he was still at the very moment teetering on the verge of death. The race was on the cusp of a war, and with each day the king’s health grew worse. Lenne grew afraid to answer the phone, or even the door knowing that it could be Nurse Lydia with news that her father had finally passed.
    “Hello?” she asked with much more confidence than she felt once she was standing in front of the large white door that separated her pretend world from the reality of what was actually happening.
    “Princess Lenne? May I please be allowed access to your home? I must talk to you about something most urgent.” a voice sounded, and suddenly the room temperature plunged to twenty degrees below zero. That voice was the only one that she was loathed to her, and that was because it belonged to known other than Lydia, her father’s nurse.
    He truly must have died. How in hell can a man like that become so weak and frail? He was such a giving person, and now he’s dead. she thought to herself as she opened the door, and allowed the woman inside.
    “What is it you wish to speak to be about?” Lenne asked as she seated the woman on her couch.
    “Your father wishes for your help with the up coming confrontation. Many people will be wounded severely, and his wish is for you to be a nurse, but not only for our race, but for the vampires as well. The king wishes to spare as many lives as is possible, and with your amazing healing talent we shall certainly have need of you .” Nurse Lydia explained with her head bowed so her face was shielded from Lenne’s view in a show of respect.
    Though Lenne had given up the title as princess she soon found that no one from the castle would honor her wishes and leave her be. When Lenne thought about though the woman had a point, and her healing ability would indeed become useful once the war had begun. Besides wasn’t it her job as a member of the race to help her people?
    “Of course I will be of service to the hospitals, and I will also offer my help on anything else that must be seen to.” she replied, and then Lenne was also staring at the ground. “How is father?”
    “I’m sorry to say milady, that he is not well at all. He’s been sleeping gradually more each day, and sometimes he will even sleep away a whole day. I fear that end is nearer than we all think it is.” Lydia replied.
    Lenne put on her bravest face, and said, “I am sure that even in this condition that stubborn man will surely outlive me. Just wait a few more days, and he will be as full of life again as he was before.” This at least was her hope, for she feared her father’s passing more than anything in the world. Her mother had died during Lenne’s birth, so she had never known the woman, but to lose the one relative left to her would kill her in a way nothing else ever could.
    “I must be on my way, Princess so that I may assure your father that you have decided to help with the healing process of the battle. I can promise to you that your father will be overjoyed to learn that this is what you wish to do. Good day, milady.” Lydia bowed, and exited the apartment on her own as though the nurse had been their a thousand times.
    “Father… why is it that you can’t just slay this dragon as you have all the others? I miss my father who was a vital, happy man. I want back the man who could thwart every evil villain alive.” Lenne spoke aloud, but to herself. “I can only pray that you live long enough to see our species through this oncoming war. Nothing will be left of our race if we are to lose our king to death at this time, and nothing will be left of me if I am to lose you so suddenly either.”