The Dhampir Dimension: As Above, So Below

By Viktoria Alukard

The second in the "The Dhampir Dimension" series is a bloody, psychedelic tale of the vampire Enttu. When Enttu discovers a truth about his cosmic descendence it changes the very meaning of his existence, and will ultimately affect the entire universe. The New Selenian Coven must unite against the forces that threaten to destroy planet earth from every dimension!

Enttu's lover Regina awakens as the Neo Goddess Tesla, meanwhile the Dragul and the Holy Grail Industry conspire with forces more sinister than even they could bargain for.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098322694

Book preview

© 2020 Viktoria Alukard. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system , without permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN 978-1-09832-268-7 eBook 978-1-09832-269-4

Contents

Prologue:

End and Start Come Parallel

CHAPTER ONE:

THE NAUTICAL GRAVE

CHAPTER TWO-

NEPTUNIAN FUNERAL

CHAPTER THREE-

MOARTEA LA MARE (DEATH AT SEA)

CHAPTER FOUR-

THE GNOSIS OF THE IMPALER

CHAPTER FIVE-

A NECESSARY EVIL

CHAPTER SIX-

UNHOLIEST ART THOU

PART II:

The Terra-Cosmic Covergence Of The Underworld

CHAPTER SEVEN-

THE IMPERIAL ARRIVAL

CHAPTER EIGHT:

SANCTUS DAEMONIUM, IN SANGUINE MEO

CHAPTER NINE-

SISTER MIDNIGHT

CHAPTER TEN:

DIRTY TRICKS AND BLOODY TREATS

PART III-

The Promised No-Man’s Land

CHAPTER ELEVEN:

SHOUT AT THE INTERDIMENSIONAL DEMON!

CHAPTER TWELVE-

PARALLEL DELUSION: ENTTU’S TRIP

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:

LEVEL BLOODSTEP

CHAPTER FOURTEEN-

PEACE, LOVE, UNDERWORLDS, RESPECT

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:

THE BLACK-TIE AFFAIR

CHAPTER SIXTEEN-

CTHULHU AND COMPANY.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:

THE DISCLOSURE OF THE ECHELONS

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:

THE ELECTRIC QUEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN:

THE UNIVERSAL REVEILLE

CHAPTER TWENTY:

ESCAPE FROM NIGHTMARE HALL

EPILOGUE:

LYSERGIC PROPHECY.

SOUNDTRACK TO THE DHAMPIR DIMENSION: AS ABOVE, SO BELOW

To: My mother Julie, my father Victor, my sisters Marlene, Yvette, and Liz, my son Luke, and my best friend Caleb.

My electrician family from USS San Diego: EMCS Flying Fish Funiestas, EMC Kristen Bowen, EM1 Jia S. Lu, EM1 Francisco Miranda, EM1 Kentrell Wells, EE01, EE02, my EE03 Motor Rewind Shop, and EE07 shops. We light up the world!

Mentors: EMC (RET) James Housel, EMCS (RET) Rudy Chairez, ENCS Ryan Sohl, EMC Cody Guidry, EMC Marie Lou Dalby, EMC Corregio Smith, CTTC Abel Montemayor, RSC James, LSC Raquel Pingeton, EM1 Tremaine Graham, EM1 Jess Buchanan, EM1 RS Ferguson.

To those who are no longer with us, but nonetheless, you are never forgotten:

My beloved grandmother, Guadalupe Morales, who left a powerful legacy here on earth and who blessed me with her beauty inside and out. Not a day goes by that we don’t miss you but I know and I have felt your presence from the higher planes as you watch over us all.

EMNC Andy Thornburgh. I guess heaven needed an expert troubleshooter, so the angels took you per needs of the Navy to fill in the billet of Badass God Electrician. We will forever miss you dearly.

My aunt Mary Isabel Aguirre, you were taken way too soon before your time, but heaven needed another flower. I know you’re watching over us and keeping us safe. Keep my mother company, we’ve never stopped mourning you.

My grandfather Vicente. I am glad I was at least able to make it to your funeral. I know that you would have, and are proud of me. The heritage runs deep in our blood! Rest in Peace Grandpa.

Last but not least comes every snipe that I’ve ever served with, even if I forgot to mention you, I remember faces, and those trying times in the engine and boiler rooms are what made me who I am today and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

"So when you see a ship pull out to meet a war-like foe,

Remember faintly, if you can, the Men Who Sail Below,"

You guys, the Electrician’s Mates, the Pit Snipes, the Machinist Mates, the Enginemen, the Damage Controlmen, the Hull Tech’s, and all the engineers of the Navy are the ones who deserve to be immortalized. You’re always in my heart.

-Truly, Viktoria Selene Alukard, USN Veteran.

Prologue:

End and Start Come Parallel

Dark matter and the glittering array of heavenly bodies surrounded the silver metal and plasma hull of the stately cosmic pyramid vessel that navigated through the mysterious emptiness of dark outer space. It cut the fatal silence in half as it broke Mach speed once it left the orbit of the ruins of the blood red planet, Eyrean. The world it once was, scattered with darkness and impressive mausoleums made of marble and crystal harder than diamond, was on fire from a nuclear attack that all but left it inhabitable.

Very few survivors were able to make it out on one of the three remaining ships of the fleet of over a hundred ships of the royal Daa’Mir Jet Force. It was unfortunate how off guard they were caught and ambushed, and even worse to the knowledge of Theli when he found out who staged the attack and the affiliations of the enemy. The King of his emancipated race was a humanoid tall and slender, with whitish blonde hair and white skin marked with the blue lines of his veins. Theli almost died in battle, rescuing an abandoned infant who was left at the foot of the hangar bay before the ships set off on their one-way journey towards becoming galactic refugees. His beloved Tesla had passed away, but her soul was recycled in part due to the Greys who were expert technicians in harvesting and recycling souls.

Theli commanded a mothership of the same name, Tesla, carrying his daughter Thelma, the unknown infant baby, and high-ranking officials who survived the attack. The mothership served as the central control station for the two other ships, and they kept in communication with each other, signaling to each other once they were out of orbit.

Only the aquatic blue illumination of the hologram control dashboards provided very faint lighting to an otherwise very dark and freezing cold bridge of the ship, where it heavily contoured the angular face of Theli. His eyes narrowed into tunnel vision, into the blank dark infinity ahead of him through the bullet proof glass window. There was a pulling sensation between his blue eyebrows that made his blood sway side to side, and that spot tingled with a throbbing itch that seemed to be generated from his frontal lobe. His cobalt, reptilian eyes disappeared into the back of his head, and were replaced by a thin sliver of an organic silver film that coated his eyeball. The tingling itch spread throughout his body tortuously slow, making his jaw seize up. A low humming, likened to that of very low frequency sine waves filled his mind, and he let the noise rest there until he determined that it was real, and coming from the distance. Through his third eye came in a vision of a pulsating ring made of gaseous lilac dust and black light inside the ring. A wormhole was right ahead of them.

Daa’Mir Commanders of the Lamia and Empusa battleships, this is King Theli from the battleship Tesla. Set your controls to jump-start into mega sonic speed and ensure your degaussing systems and magnetic shields are at full power. On my command, fall into single file formation behind the Tesla and follow the mothership through the wormhole. Set controls now!

The three ships zipped by through the pulsating wormhole, and as soon as they breached the barrier, the stars and cosmic bodies stretched into thin white lines of light from how fast they were accelerating through bent time and space. Theli and the Daa’Mir were immune to the outer G-force effects that caused opposing winds strong enough to vaporize flesh to dust. In the blink of an eye, the lines slowed down drastically back to distant circular orbs of light against the black, frozen canvas of vast outer space. There was an aquatic blue glow underneath the ship’s windshield from the bridge that caught Theli’s attention, and he ordered the helmsmen to divert the fleet of three towards the light, to which their surprise, turned out to be a planet largely covered in celadon waters, with monolithic green patches of land.

CHAPTER ONE:

THE NAUTICAL GRAVE

Onboard USS San Diego (LPD-22). 4th of July, 2018.

G ET EVERYONE OFF THE SHIP!!! Enttu yelled at the top of his lungs, while using all the strength in his trembling forearms to keep the watertight door that led down to Auxiliary Machine Room One from flying open. He kept from letting out a swarm of carnivorous mutant cockroaches.

Regina took immediate charge in directing traffic into the opposite direction and motioned sailors away from the exit ladder near a place called The Trolley Stop, which was right next to the ladder down to Aux 1. She knifed the air with her hands to divert sailors away from the door threatening to burst open. The force behind the hatch must have been incredibly powerful for even a vampire to be struggling to keep it shut. Enttu gritted his teeth and hissed as his biceps shook and flexed, and beads of sweat rolled down his temples. Those roaches were a formidable army in the dense population of vermin they formed up.

A few of her former shipmates immediately recognized Regina and were quite puzzled at how she ended up back on the ship. To prevent unnecessary small talk, she barked orders for them to keep moving, until her former chief caught glimpse of her, in her skintight black dress and heels, looking like a murderous femme fatale. She cleaned up nicely.

Brighton, what are you doing here? her chief stopped to ask her. She tried to not get distracted by him, wanting to stir up a conversation at the worst time possible. She was about to say something, when she turned to Enttu’s direction and noticed the fire in his eyes as he burned both her and the man in his jealousy-filled gaze, through darkened, furrowing brows, as he struggled with the door.

Regina touched her chief’s arm and directed him towards the direction of the mass exodus of Sailors exiting through the Supply Department ladder that led up to the forecastle once passing Repair Locker 2.

I don’t have time to talk right now, Chief. If I see you again, we’ll talk. For now, you need to get out of here, she told him, feeling very strange giving orders to a fellow who was once in charge of her.

Temporarily forgetting about her brand-new condition, her chief caught a glimpse of pearly white fangs extending below her top lip, and silently swallowed a gulp, while retreating into the escaping ranks of his fellow shipmates. For the most part, almost everyone seemed to be on the forecastle by now, as the moving sea of Sailors dwindled in the passageways by the minute, violently pushing each other out of the way in a desperate race for life.

Regina had retreated from traffic control to help Enttu, whom she was damn sure was pissed off at her simply for talking to another male. She wondered if he could read her mind regarding the platonic attraction that between her and the other man, since 2017. He stepped aside to make room for her to assist in keeping the door pressed against the orange gasket to prevent the roaches from coming through, but the way they threw and pelted their bodies against the door frame, in such large quantities of insects, increased the force against the two vampires.

Where is Mawu? Enttu asked Regina, through bared fangs of vexation.

I don’t fucking know, Regina answered back, trying not to make eye contact with him and dancing her way around his apparent jealousy that she could feel in the form of telepathic heat waves.

Not even a second had transpired before the lighting and electrical power cut out again, lending an impenetrable darkness inside the skin of the ship. The USS San Diego rocked violently to the port side again, and this made both vampires stumble and crash backwards on their behinds against the bulkhead behind them. Cold metal kissed Regina’s bared shoulder blades, as she tried to not lose her footing, but still fell to the deck.

The door to Aux 1 violently swung open, crashing metal to metal, powerfully enough to dent the bulkhead the door slammed against. The deafening buzz of rapidly flittering insect wings permeated the silent ambient. Enttu began to swat away at the bugs, and furiously crushed a whole squad of insects under the thick rubber soles of his boots, making a wet crunch as he stomped down. Regina screamed bloody murder when she felt them starting to crawl on her arms with their spiny legs and heavy exoskeletons. Her skin let out a negative charge of current from her stress in her veins, and the roaches fell away to the deck. In the dark, she could see the red glow from Enttu’s eyes as he hissed and growled, plucking insects out from under his shirt and knocking them off the strands of his hair. The roaches seemed to move away from Regina’s presence as she suddenly gave off an equalizing charge that matched their natural frequency, and this repelled the insects away. She swept the dhampir with her hands from his head, his face, his neck, chest, sides, back, all the way to his toes to get the damned bugs off of him, but not without shocking the shit out of him in the process.

FUCK! he complained, biting down hard on his lip. The bugs fell off and either flew or ran away in the darkness. Thinking he would be grateful that she saved him from the nastiness, she caressed the side of his face, but he narrowed his eyes in anger at her, and she raised an eyebrow back at him, telepathically asking him,

What the fuck is your problem now?

Silence from him replied back to her, accompanied by the chirping and hissing of the vermin still pouring out of the door to the main space, appearing as thousands of large black moving sequins that began to cover the left portion of the bulkhead leading to the Trolley Stop. A blood-curdling scream that made their ears twitch and chills to run up their spines, along with the phantom crawling sensation alerted them. Regina left Enttu standing alone in the passageway, until he grabbed her by her wrist. She turned around and snapped back at him.

Fucking let go of me!

You’re not going down there. You’re pregnant and you shouldn’t be fighting,

She shoved him and then disappeared in a flash, down towards the ladder teeming with the insects. He was left rather confused by her reaction, but his attention was soon diverted towards the swarm coming for him. There was no one around, so he could safely perform his immolation spell. He formed two air pistols with his thumbs and pointers and brought them together above his head. A cool gust circled around him as he drew in the energy lingering in the air from the living souls, and he absorbed it into each chakra, from his crown all the way down to his base in his lower spine. His voluminous long blonde hair worn like those heavy metal performers, sashayed in the breeze, as his eyes closed to invoke Sekhmet.

Sekhmet, Sekhmet! Hear me Sekhmet! Lend me your inferno!!!! his thunderous voice echoed within the dark steel passages of the ship.

A circle of blue fire formed around his feet and the flames drew upwards and collected in his hands in an expanding blue ball of flame. He opened his eyes and let forth the blue inferno of his wrath and magic, toasting the insects as well as everything in his path. Unaware of his surroundings, as he was unfamiliar with the layout of U.S Navy ships, the flames also hit a yellow-painted fuel pipe that led down into Aux 1, and from its low flash point, the pipe exploded and burst into flames, catching fire to every deck it traversed. Well, shit.

The air reeked of roach corpses and soon enough, black smoke came rising forth from the main space, carrying the smell of burning plastic of melted electrical insulation of cableways. Enttu took a deep breath, and braved through the toxic cloud of suffocating fumes, as he made his way down the ladder to the main space, almost tripping on the last step of the first series of four diagonal ladders. Roaches screeched in agony of being burnt alive, and tiny bubbles of scorching bodily fluids formed on their shiny black backsides.

Down in the main space, Regina shielded herself from the 1S switchboard that blew up, sending chunks of plastic and metal as pieces of breakers and panel covers hit the bulkhead. She dashed out of the way just in time before being hurled with projectiles, and blue and orange balls of electrical arcing and sparking. A line of roaches exited the space through a large tear in the bulkhead where a fuel pipe had burst into flames and was starting to catch fire to everything down here. The deck plates echoed loudly under her shoes as she ran down the other ladder on the opposite side that led down to the lower level, where the screaming became louder. It was the shrilly voice of a female and it sounded like it was coming from the generator enclosures. When she made it down here, it was dark except for the orange illumination lent from the spreading fire on the other side of the generators. She went up to the enclosure door of No. 2 SSDG, Ship Service Diesel Generator, and ripped the door clean off its hinges. Perched high above, standing atop the grey-painted generator, was a female Sailor who was just as shocked as Regina when they met gazes. The young Hispanic girl was even more petite than she was, probably no more than 5’1", in navy blue coveralls and her hair cascaded down to her shoulders in chocolate-colored ringlets and glasses framing her heart-shaped face.

Leslie?! Regina asked the girl, who was both frightened and relieved that her former friend and shipmate had come down to hopefully save her. But why on Earth did Brighton look so sick? She was as pale as a sheet of paper, which was very unusual because Brighton stayed tan year-round thanks to her 100% Mexican genes, and her eyes glowed with an unnatural amber light.

Brighton? Is that you? Because you don’t look like you! Leslie replied, shaking her head side to side.

"Vamonos de aqui! The ship’s on fire!" Regina told her. Leslie refused, and held her stance on top of the generator, with a crowbar in her hand.

Hell no, not with those big-ass roaches out there!

Leslie, please. We’re both gonna die down here if we don’t get out of Aux 1! We need to make it all the way up to the foc’sle!

It must have frightened Leslie at first when she saw Regina take one giant leap from the deck plates to the top of the generator with her and offered Leslie a hand on the way down. She noticed her fangs right away, and immediately knew that the something awful had happened to her friend and had transformed her into another version of the girl she once knew.

What happened to you, Regina?

I don’t have time to explain, Let’s go!

Both girls had just stepped down onto the steel-grated deck and were right at the threshold of the enclosure when a gigantic, patent-black and seething insect came crawling in upside down on the ceiling. It was easily over six feet long and four feet wide, and its glossy wings threateningly lifted from its back and began to vibrate in a blur, ready to fly towards the two girls. Leslie stood behind Regina, who covered her protectively, spanning her left arm over her. The bug cocked its head down and stared at them both through blood-red eyes. When it opened its mouth, lined with razor sharp teeth, a slimy brown substance assumed to be saliva dribbled down onto the deck in a wet splat, then it began to smoke. The slime burned a hole right through the silver steel grating, and it fell into the bilges underneath.

Though disgusted enough to almost vomit, Regina squinted her eyes at the monster, ready to fight it. She placed on hand on the governor of the generator, to absorb the remains of static electricity, and her palms began to glow with blue arcs. She growled as she unleashed plasma-like current towards the insect, and she successfully hit it, watching it convulse as it fell off the ceiling and landed on its back, with six feet kicking up to the sky involuntarily. Regina grabbed Leslie by her wrist and motioned her first through the door, and she’d follow right behind her. Unfortunately, she was seized by her ankle and dragged back into the enclosure, leaving Leslie to fend for herself. Leslie was in too much of a panic to notice that her friend had stayed behind and ran frantically up the ladder beside 1 SSDG, unaware of the flames up above that engulfed the switchboard.

She covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve, and her eyes cried on their own from the stinging of the toxic smoke ascending. She was able to open the handle to get inside of the control console room by pulling her uniform sleeve as a glove over her palm, to protect from the scorching metal of the door dogs. It was dark in here too, except for the illumination of the fire right outside, and she was headed on her way up to the ladder that exited the space, when she crashed head-on with someone.

Her heart beat loudly, and adrenaline nauseatingly coursed through her veins preparing her for fight or flight. She carefully took one step back upon sight of a tall, thin blonde-haired humanoid that she initially couldn’t tell was male or female. Its outfit consisted of an all-black long-sleeved shirt and cigarette pants tucked into chunky combat boots, with two weapons holstered on the side of each thigh. The paper white skin of the being glowed on its own. Its eyes were adorned with the natural eye shadow of exhaustion, and looked down upon her, making her feel very small and timid.

Go on, little lady, but be careful on your way up, a surprisingly deep male voice came from the creature. Leslie looked up at him through her black box-framed glasses, with mistrusting eyes.

Go! he ordered her, pointing aggressively towards the ladder and stepping out of the way for her.

Wow, what a fucking attitude, Leslie thought to herself, quickly galloping her way up the stairs, creating a metal thunder on every steel step towards ascent.

She went on her way without looking back, leaving behind a sweet ephemeral linger of her strawberry shampoo. Enttu made sure that she made it all the way to the top of the ladder, before proceeding into the burning main space, filled with smoke and scorching flames of destruction. It smelt like spent fuel, fiberglass, and burning plastic and metal down here. He coughed a bit into his sleeve as his lungs began to burn from the fumes. The searing heat from outside was seeping in, and he wiped a stinging sweat forming on his brow before he ran out into the blazing danger.

The cockroach monster screeched angrily as Regina drove her stiletto heel through its left eye, causing it to gush out a clear reddish liquid all over the deck plates. The severe pain she caused it was enough for it to let go of her, and the black vine wrapped around her ankle from the creature’s belly uncurled, so she was able to scoot away just enough. It stunk like a broken sewage pipe full of liquid shit and stagnant piss. If Regina survived, a shower was needed to get that stench off. She was about to get up when its forward foot knocked her down again and scratched her calf with the thorny spikes on its forefeet. It felt like the hard, spiky thorns of a rose cutting her flesh open, and she was glad in that moment to be a vampire and have the immunity to diseases, because as a human, that would infect immediately.

Bright red blood ran down the incision on her leg and it dripped inside of the soles of her shoes, uncomfortably moistening her feet. She cursed out loud in pain and then braced herself for the insect’s fangs that were going to make a meal out of her. The breath of the hissing cockroach was that of worst nightmares, overpoweringly rotten with a vinegar after tone, and its brown saliva bubbled underneath its leathery black tongue. With her unwounded leg, she kicked the insect, breaking off a piece of its forward right leg, causing the bug to tumble over. Before taking the risqué leap of faith, Regina inhaled deeply, before committing one of the nastiest acts she’s ever had to do. She leaped up in the air and then came stomping down with her feet together, bearing her full weight down, cracking the head of the insect underneath her. The wet, crunchy goosh as its brains squeezed like a black puree out of the cracks of its skull decorated the deck, squirting in all directions. Regina trembled in a cringe as some of the goo ended up splashed on her feet. She really wished she wore boots for this.

The headless carcass of the bug twitched itself to death, and Regina made her way to the threshold, only to be encountered by another one of those things. This one fluttered its wings and charged straight for her. She was thrown against the wall as it crashed against her, and she landed precisely by the other enclosure door. The impact stunned her only for a moment, but it was enough time for distraction in which the insect impaled her through her right side of her chest, and she screamed out sharply in pain, as a combination of her blood and the insect’s toxic black sebum dripped down her breast, reeking of iron and sulfur. She kicked the bug in its belly, and it backed off, but not without drawing out the forward leg it used to impale her with. Regina fell on her knees, clutching her chest and feeling as her hand filled with her own warm blood. Before her, the mutant bug with glowing red eyes and daggers for teeth stood on two feet in a humanoid fashion. It spread its four free-remaining legs outwards, to make itself look more threatening, before it attacked her. She covered her face as the thing shrieked so loudly that it caused the deck plates to rumble.

Blue fire showcased around the bug from behind, which at first it seemed like this was part of its death-show. The roach’s shrieks then took an agonizing tone so high-pitched that Regina’s ears began to bleed, and the fire engulfed the creature from head to toe. It now smelt of burning shit and vinegar as the insect incinerated and then collapsed in crispy fragments. He uncovered his white and blue-streaked wrist, and Enttu bit down on himself, bringing the wound to Regina’s lips for her to drink his blood. She wrapped her lips around the wound and siphoned just enough until she felt the excruciating pain in her chest coast away to a tingling numbness and her lightheadedness disappeared, just like when she used to guzzle energy drinks as a human to defeat tiredness. Enttu’s eyes were open with bewilderment as his hand pressed against her lower pelvic region, anticipant to feel a little foxtrot of a heartbeat. He exhaled in annoyed relief when he felt the tiny life’s pulse, and then he shook his head sideways, disapprovingly. Regina already knew what he was thinking, and before he could open up his patronizing mouth, she pressed two fingers to his lips to silence him.

Don’t even, she seethed, resisting the guilt trip he was attempting to lay upon her.

Before they could start arguing about petty trivialities at an inadequate time, the metal creaking from above alerted them, and they dashed out of the way together before the forward section of the enclosure ceiling came crashing down on them. The ladder that led up to the control console was blocked off by the spreading switchboard fire, and it was only a matter of time before the entire main space was engulfed in the spreading fires that burned their throats and eyes, and the scorching temperature seared their skin.

Do you know of any other way!? Enttu asked Regina, who covered her face with her forearm to shield her eyes from the black smoke.

His eyes were electric blue in physiological response to the danger. She was surprised that the water mist systems hadn’t gone off on their own yet and then she remembered that the ship had absolutely no power. The other option was the forward uptake that would eventually lead to the weather decks. To get here, they could easily go up the ladder past 2S Switchboard, and open the hatch in the ceiling by the jacket water holding tanks. She grabbed Enttu by his arm without saying a word, and they ran up the ladder past 2S Switchboard. So she wouldn’t endanger herself any further than the danger they were already in, Enttu ripped the hatch door off in a swift pull. It was dark in here too, but the access that went at least five decks up seemed to be clear. From underneath his shirt, where he had a mini-arsenal of bullets and knives strapped around his waist, he took out his glass dagger that Selene the Moon Goddess had given him ages ago. It pleasantly illuminated the dark vertical corridor without blinding brightness. Both of the vampires ascended up in the vertical tunnel, using their gift of flight, too fast to notice the hidden peril lurking about.

The very top hatch that led out into the surface was shut, and Regina would have to rely largely on he own strength to tear it off. She remained concentrated with the task at hand, unaware of the sound that the dhampir heard before she did. The horrifying familiar buzz of fluttering wings grew louder by the passing second, and when Enttu looked down, inches below his feet, there was a gaping mouth full of pointed teeth and a swirling black tongue ready to bite. He cursed out loud as he felt the sharp tip of an antenna poke the back of his leg.

The Realm of the Passing Dead and the Afterlife

Selene extended her arm out to the sky, causing glowing blue crystals to rise from the ground behind her, and when she flicked her wrist forward, the crystals went flying towards the megalithic shadow. It covered a third of the cosmic theater and swallowed the stars, planets, and rainbow-like nebulas. She stood intrepidly, arms over her head, at the threshold of the opened golden gates that led into the courtyard of her palace. The cold, tempestuous winds of the demon’s cosmic presence swept her lavender hair back. So miniscule was she, in comparison to the universal proportions of the behemoth.

A fleet of over one thousand silver, saucer-shaped craft driven by the Greys, hovered over the castle in the sky . An arsenal of plasma weaponry aimed towards the interdimensional demon, who swallowed the vampiric souls of the Selenian coven when it entered through the Realm of the Passing Dead, the mausoleum formerly guarded by Alucard, entrusted to the vampires, Nicolae and Dayanara. The shrilling echoes of tortured screams distorted the radio frequency of the wireless communication systems onboard the spaceships. The interior of the ships was dark except for the blue LED of the control dash, and the light bouncing off the oversized liquid black, almond eyes of the grey aliens that inhabited them. Though horrific to look upon, they aided Selene, Sekhmet, and the vampire souls across the galaxy that had perished on Earth.

Basilisk’s claw swiped down and destroyed several ships, and they combusted into orange and black clouds of flame and smoke, crashing down into the infinite abyss of outer space. It was just enough time for Selene to board Sekhmet’s mothership, a floating silver pyramid whose inside was lined with Eyrean steel mined by the Daa’Mir hundreds of thousands of years ago. It was an ancient humanoid king named Theli who had gifted Sekhmet with his beloved ship, the Tesla, after he lived out his last remaining days when he touched down on Planet Earth after the exodus of his people. Theli was slain by human hand, and it still made Sekhmet’s blood boil over with rage, but she made a promise to him to not destroy the planet, for it would quite possibly bring it upon itself. She did hide him away in an undisclosed location that was later inundated in a perpetual, global deluge. The pyramid hovered above Basilisk’s horned head, and his glowing ruby eyes, each larger than Jupiter.

Red lasers shot forth from his eyes, and they cut cleanly through the middle of the courtyard of the castle, causing the severed piece of property to float off not too far from the castle, becoming a floating annex. Selene made her way to the bridge, past the blood bank and Plane Simulator, where they had once kept the vampires Enttu and Regina for training. Here, there was an open space that allowed the cold, dark atmosphere to permeate, unforgivable to mortals. There was a glass passageway that led to escape pods that could cut through wormholes in the universe, though Selene’s intentions were nowhere near the thought of escaping and leaving Sekhmet to fend for herself. On the arches of her feet, she balanced herself over the cold metal rails of the passage, and she stared defiantly at Basilisk, with a determination to fight him to the death.

Selene! You must not do this sister! Return to the ship!

Selene ignored Sekhmet, who was standing behind her, outstretching her gloved and jeweled hand to her sister, who only looked back at her before facing Basilisk.

Sekhmet, go! Escape while you have the chance. Don’t let him get to those kids!

Adrenaline spiked in her belly, and waves of kundalini traveled up her body, drawing in the energy of the celestial bodies above her. Before her, Basilisk continued to eat and destroy approaching craft of the Grey, and several of the aliens floated off into space as severed body parts accompanied by plasma pistols. He crunched metal, flesh, and bone under his planetary-sized molars, unfazed by the razor-sharp edges that cut his mouth open. A crescent of blinding white light appeared on Selene’s chest, and she threw her arms up, causing violent winds to encircle her and Sekhmet’s craft. One final time, her sister tried to drag Selene away forcibly, but Sekhmet was launched against the bulkhead of the launching pad. With one arm, Selene opened the hatch to the escape pod with the sole volition of her mind, and then she cocooned Sekhmet with her energy and lifted her up and inside the pod.

No!! Selene, stop this right now!!! Sekhmet screamed, pounding her fists against the bulletproof plexiglass windshield, as the hatch slammed shut and Selene prevented it from being unlocked. It clicked into place and hissed as the cabin pressurized to habitable conditions.

The demon roared into triple-voiced maniacal laughter that boomed through the space, witnessing the genuine, pure hearted acts of love and divinity from Goddess to Goddess. Selene would have never predicted this day to come so soon, as Basilisk’s invasion wasn’t felt, because he stealthily blended into the universe, concealing as a shadow behind the gaseous nebulas, underneath the rings of Saturn, and embodying the very dark matter itself that composed him. It was either Selene to pay, or it was going to be the day that everything that ever existed was to go away in the lacuna of eternal erasure.

From out her throat flowed a deafening operatic wail likened to the most refined sopranos of Earth, from Europe. Its invisible waves made fountains of blood spurt down the black reptilian neck of the beast, and he whined in agony as his eardrums exploded. Oceans of blood covered over nearby moons, and coated over the remaining fleet of spaceships, rapidly corroding through the impenetrable metal hulls. Selene’s solid black eyes turned into two windows of blinding solar light, and the moon on her blue-skinned chest expanded through the galactic horizons, blinding the demon from retreating any further into the Afterlife. A few souls of the Selenian vampires were expelled from his mouth in the form of whimsical blue light, and they quickly sought refuge in the floating remains of the castle, where crash-landed spaceships full of dead Greys had encrusted on murals and the crystal floor.

Selene gave the duel her all she had within her, and along with banishing the interdimensional behemoth from her and Sekhmet’s land, she also went with the explosion of light, that ultimately vaporized her from the inside out, an infernal sun. Her remains of stardust traveled through hell and then back up to heaven faster than the speed of sound. A shroud of white light swept over the palace, stunning the vampiric souls into an exhausting confusion that rendered them to lay on the ground and fall unconscious into slumber. Selene served her purpose for the greater good. Her stardust recomposed back into her figure, this time, as crystalline grey stone.

Inside the white sphere that was the escape pod, Sekhmet was swallowing her tears and regaining her composure, when the systems inside came on automatically. It smelt of burned plastic in here. On the deck, she had found a golden artifact that her ancient lover, Theli, had left in here when he made expedited repairs to the electronic and logic functions to the master computer of the pod. He was her last sliver of hope in this time, and she picked up the golden metal and held it against her chest, as her mind reminisced the beloved memories of their days of glory spent between Mesopotamia and a refuge he dwelt in called Lemuria.

Sekhmet waited for the light to dissipate away back into galactic blackness speckled with distant stars, to decide if she was going to step out, and head back to the bridge of the pyramid craft, which she did not want to leave behind since it was Theli’s materialized gesture of sans-pareil love when he became enamored with the Warrior Goddess of Destruction and Rebirth, the matron of the very first vampires to ever exist. She did not expect for the claws of Basilisk to tear the sky once again and recover from the Moonlight Assault of Selene that pulverized her to a dust that would soon shield over the broken palace. Without a weapon to fight, and with her sister’s ability, the hatch refused to open no matter how many times she pressed the button for the unlock function. The blood red glow of Basilisk’s eyes mirrored off the silver surface of the floating pyramid as he drew in to consume it and Sekhmet all together. Without doing or touching a thing, Sekhmet was suddenly glued to her seat, as the jets beneath the craft protruded out from below. Before Basilisk caught her in the palm of his hand, the white sphere disappeared as a rapidly travelling, thin white light into outer space, with Sekhmet in it.

CHAPTER TWO-

NEPTUNIAN FUNERAL

"B ut I can sing about this place, and try to make you see. The hardened life of men down there, ‘cause one of them is me. I’ve seen these sweat-soaked heroes fight in superheated air. To keep their ship alive and right, though no one knows they’re there. And thus they’ll fight for ages on, till warships sail no more. Amid the boiler’s Hellish heat, and the turbine’s mighty roar. So when you see a ship pull out, to meet a warlike foe…Remember faintly, if you can, ‘The Men Who Sail Below.’"

-Author Unknown, The Snipe’s Lament.

News reporters and media broadcasting populated the already-teeming street of North Harbor Drive, where traffic flooded and blocked the bewildered San Diegan crowd. Every soul witnessed the megalithic warship appear off the coast about a week after they were reported missing, following a bizarre supernatural incident in Kapaho Bay. The USS San Diego wasn’t due to come back from their deployment until February of the following year. A blood red sky hung lowly over the skyscrapers and tinted the ocean to an inky black pool of violent waves, terminating into white seafoam against the cement levees. Red and blue alternating lights lined the strip along the Seaport Village area all the way down past the USS Midway museum. Many desperate spouses, families, and children of the victims onboard the USS San Diego were gathered around the statue of the Kissing Sailor, filling the air with screams of anticipation and anguish for their loved ones.

The warm, salty air felt so foreign against his face as he made it out of the ship with his lover, and fresh ocean air replaced the toxicity of fiberglass and fuel in his lungs. Enttu witnessed a vast liquid black expansion of the Pacific Ocean due west and it ended in a crimson horizon as dark as the skies had become in Bucharest. He leaned over the grey metal railing on the starboard side of the forecastle, catching his breath, limbs weak, and lips quivering from the still-pumping adrenaline in his blood. Oh, blood. The rich iron scent of the stuff that was sprayed on the walls and lay spilt in puddles on the nonskid weather deck aroused his hunger, and his mouth began to water. He was here for less than a minute before he realized the Regina left him alone. She had made her way to the frightened and angered mob of the former Sailors she had served with and was welcomed with confused stares as to how the fuck she ended up back onboard with them. There was no easy way to even begin to explain that she was directly tied in with this catastrophe and that it stemmed from the resurgence of a Great Demon. Surely, someone would ask her what the fuck she was smoking in Romania. Leslie, her curly-haired friend silently came forward from the sea of Sailors and she tossed her arms around Regina, which was both unexpected but heart-warming at the same time. Regina hugged her back tightly, and then their tears began to run hot, uncontrollably, to the ground. They walked away from the crowd to speak amongst themselves.

Girl, I don’t know what’s happening. But I’m so happy you came to get me, Leslie said, through heavy sobs that coursed painfully through her body.

If I told you what was happening, you wouldn’t believe me. It all started with me going to Romania in the first place. It’s a long story,

Leslie stared at Regina momentarily, and noticed the fangs sticking out of the corners of her top lip when she spoke. So, the question followed right away.

Regina, I’m gonna ask you something and don’t take this the wrong way,

Go ahead…

Did you, legit, become a vampire out there? Because I told you that you don’t look like you no more,

Regina nodded silently to answer an awestruck Leslie, who stood with her arms crossed.

Yeah. Much to my surprise, vampires are very real,

Just as she finished saying this, the tall brooding presence of Enttu appeared right behind her, and this caused Leslie to gasp out loud and jump right out of her boots. It was the same girly-looking male who had indirectly saved her life down in Aux 1. He stared coldly down at Leslie through his slate-blue eyes, narrowed in suspicion and mistrust. She stared back at him through blank, wide eyes and a partially opened mouth. He was tall and so alarmingly skinny, it looked like it would’ve hurt to live like that. His hair was very nice, long and thick; a glossy platinum blonde that was the envy of what all those Instagram models paid thousands for. It did make him look like a girl though, and if he didn’t ever speak, he could easily pass off as one. He was pretty enough to be a supermodel, but not sexually attractive for Leslie’s taste in men. It didn’t take her long to figure out that he was somehow intimately tied to Regina from the way his hands gently caressed her shoulders, though she didn’t reciprocate his icy touch.

Hi, Leslie said, whilst twinkling her fingers at the androgynous vampire on her held-up palm, I’m Leslie. I’m Regina’s bestie from the ship,

Regina giggled through closed lips, amused at how Leslie’s attitude came out of its shell, unfazed by even the King of the Underworld. Then again, he didn’t appear fazing to anyone, initially. Enttu dropped down on one knee so he wasn’t towering over little five foot one Leslie, and he gently took her hand in his, a soothing warmth inside the icy cocoon of his palm.

Pleasant to meet you Leslie. My name is Enttu. I am a vampire. We exist. I come from Romania,

The exchange of pleasantries was a brief one, suddenly interrupted by a blood curdling scream, followed by the wet sounds of ripping human flesh and the hair-raising chirp, chirp, chirp, hssssss from those insectoid abominations. The mob of Sailors scattered in all directions as the mutant insects appeared alongside the outer bulkhead that led from the shore power stations and onto the forecastle deck. Enttu disappeared in blurring vampiric speed, and then reappeared in front of the six-foot long insect that hurled its corrosive spit at him. He covered his face, and then he flicked his wrist at the creature, simultaneously launching a small conflagration that emanated directly from his very being. The flames torched the face of the insectoid so severely, that one of its eyes boiled off and hung off its face like a ball of stringy, bloody yarn.

They had to dock the ship sooner than the time that the Harbor Police would take their sweet asses getting there, and luckily for the crew, the Midway was within a good enough proximity so that Regina, quick-witted and innovative, could employ a technique that had just freshly sprung into her mind at that moment. She could magnetize the two metal hulls to attract one ship to the other so the remaining Sailors could safely dock onto the floating museum and then continue their exodus back into the loving arms of their desperate families. She floated into the air, which left the crowd of Sailors who used to know her with their jaws fallen to the ground in astonishment, and she motioned for them to stay calm, while in the distance, the increasing sounds of struggling between Enttu and the insectoids didn’t help to tone down the uneasiness. He sizzled the bugs using his magic he was born with and no one dared to question it when their lives were at stake. A tower of flame shot forth from the forward stack of the ship, like an erupting volcano spewing out metal and insectoid debris in all directions. The fire from the main spaces had spread to the rest of the inner skin of the ship, and it was only a matter of time before a massive explosion was to come. The weather deck would implode from the overwhelming stress of the searing heat and the combined weight of the crew amassed on the melting steel. Regina levitated between the bow of the LPD-22, and the stern gate of the Midway, about two hundred feet away.

Do not touch the metal railing! she instructed to the frightened crew. She touched the hull of the ship to extract the dregs of static electricity remaining, and with that, she sent forth a steady trail of electric blue plasma from her palm, and the bolt successfully reached the stern of the other ship. She began to feel a subtle pulling, as she polarized the other hull negatively whilst draining the free-floating electrons from the hull she touched with her right hand, shooting electrons out the other. The USS San Diego began to give in, and slowly, the entire bow turned toward the direction of the Midway, and the polarized ship began to pull the other ship towards it, and the speed of the attraction accelerated. The crowd of her shipmates that once knew her began to cheer her on. It was a warm and fuzzy feeling to partake in something bigger than herself, and it wasn’t the free-flowing current in her body speaking. By her own moral code, she had to do the right thing, even if it wasn’t the easy thing.

The bugs were all fried and plastered into organic puddles that reeked of sewage on the nonskid deck or welded against the bulkheads. Enttu set up a flame barrier to prevent any more of them from coming through. He glided towards the crowd of Sailors gathered near the port side rail, where the ship was making its rapid approach alongside the aft starboard side of the flight deck of the Midway. The problem was the evident height difference and the violent rise and fall of the waves caused by the increasing proximity of the ships. And then, there was a problem of collision that didn’t occur to Regina. She escaped through the bottom sliver of the hulls concaving away from each other, alongside the bottom curves of the keels, and skimmed barely above the water, narrowly avoiding being crushed to death.

The USS San Diego collided against the USS Midway, and this caused the museum ship to careen alongside the dock and to tilt port side, but luckily, the heat of the polarized metals was beginning to weld the two ships together. Regina energized the entire hull of the San Diego with the touch of her fingertips, and this caused for the Midway to swivel back towards them, creating a perfect downward slope to travel up to. There was shoring available to create a makeshift ramp, and she grabbed it off the flight deck of the Midway, that was luckily closed that day in response to the total darkness that