Columbine

“I can’t believe it!” Alice complained out loud.

Of course it made perfect sense that the infamous Valentin would disappear into a pyramid that was conveniently so far out of the way that it was a wonder that anyone could find it in the first place.

Furthermore, the captain of their ship hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d told them the effects of pyramids on mages. Alice couldn’t come within a mile of the thing, or she’d be paralyzed from the waist down.

Luckily, Damien didn’t have that problem, so he’d gone ahead and followed Valentin to wherever he’d disappeared to. Alice guessed that there was probably a tunnel underneath the pyramid. Why else would he be gone so long?

Still invisible and fighting to keep her concentration for the vision barrier, Alice sat sweating on the cracked, thirsty ground.

“There’s Egypt for you.” She grumbled.

A bird of some sort flew overhead, squawking in a way that seemed to foretell its demise. Alice hoped that the bird’s fresh corpse wouldn’t fall and land on her. That would fit the day’s chain of events much too well.

Her Demataxt uniform lay discarded next to her. The clothing she’d worn beneath it was gratifyingly skimpy -- no bra, a shirt, and a pair of jeans. Some people would have frowned on her lack of a bra, but then again, they probably wouldn’t have noticed that it was gone in the first place. She’d hoped during her teenage years that by the time she was twenty, a natural miracle would occur and she’d somehow develop bigger breasts. No such miracle had occurred, obviously.

Alice collapsed onto her back and attempted to decrease her breathing rate. The less oxygen she used, the more she’d have left for later. That’s what people trapped underground did. Not that there wasn’t air here, but it sure felt like there wasn’t. But at least it wasn’t like this at night. At night it was actually rather nice.

She had no watch, but she could tell that it was just past noon. There was an eternity of time before she could even begin to see signs of darkness.

How the hell had ancient Egyptians done it? Had the weather always been this unbearable here, or had it been better all those years ago when the damned pyramids were being built? Since Egypt was one of the most ancient and most famed civilizations, surely something had to have been going right?

There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, Alice noticed. Clearly the mages trying to get control of the weather weren’t succeeding. Served them right, for even contemplating such a horrendous concept. Mages were getting a little too cocky nowadays. Before the New Era, everyone at least had a modicum of respect for the forces of the universe. But Alice still wished that it wasn’t so hot.

Suddenly a figure ran out of the pyramid. Alice immediately sat up. She knew it was Valentin due to the fact that he was visible. Following him was the expected shimmer in the air that was Damien obscured by the vision barrier.

Alice’s heartbeat sped up with anticipation. Damien had seen everything. He knew what was going on, and he’d spill it all out to her. Just as soon as he picked his words right. Alice jumped up, shoved her uniform back on, and impatiently tapped her feet.

When Damien finally reached her, she was on the verge of exploding.

“Well?” She asked. “What was it?”

She couldn’t see Damien’s expression, but she could tell that he was shocked. Rarely did she hear him catching his breath as vigorously as he was doing now, even after running for miles. She hoped it wasn’t merely the heat.

“What happened?” She asked again.

“Y-you’re…” He panted, “Not…going…to…believe…this.”

“Go on! Tell me!” Alice demanded.

“There’s an enormous facility underground!” He exclaimed. “Right under where we’re standing!”

Alice looked at her feet.

“And?” She prompted.

“And we were right.” Damien said. “Valentin is helping Sarah Crowe! I saw her down there!”

Alice felt a chill creep up her back. Now that they knew this, what were they going to do? Keep it a secret? Turn Valentin and Sarah in?

“We act like we don’t know anything.” Alice said. “No one must know what we know.”

“We’ve discussed this already.” Damien reminded her.

“Right.” Alice confirmed.

“We’ve got to get back to the infirmary.” Damien said. “I’ll fill you in on the way.”

Alice hopped up onto Damien’s back. With him shamelessly flaunting his essentially demon physique, they would have no trouble at all racing past Valentin’s comparatively sluggish pace and reaching the infirmary before he did.

“I counted at least five floors.” Damien told her as he ran. “They get smaller as you go down, so the facility is probably cone-shaped.”

“Like in that movie!” Alice exclaimed. She didn’t remember exactly which movie it was, but she’d definitely seen one with a cone-shaped underground lab.

“Exactly.” Damien said.

“What was it called?” Alice asked.

“Resident Evil.” Damien said with fondness in his voice.

Back when he’d still lived with Alice in Switzerland, he’d watched every movie he could get his hands on. Alice had to have had at least a hundred DVDs painstakingly collected via Internet delivery. He’d watched them all and still scoured the web for some illegally-uploaded films afterward. Alice didn’t know if he missed them now, but hopefully he‘d had his chance to detox from the addictive power of horror movies.

“What else?” Alice prompted.

“It’s vacant now, but you can tell a bunch of people -- scientists, probably -- used to live there.” Damien continued. “There’s still leftover labs and equipment.”

“Any tanks filled with aliens?” Alice asked.

“No.” Damien said.

“But there’s also a floor with nothing but bedrooms. That’s where Sarah and her familiar were when I saw them.” He continued. “The top floor was a mess. The earthquake really affected it. I think that’s why Valentin was going there in the first place -- to make sure they weren’t hurt.”

“Were they the only ones there?” Alice asked.

“No, there were two more -- a woman and a vampire.” Damien explained.

“A vampire?” Alice exclaimed.

“I was shocked, too.” Damien said.

How had they managed to find a vampire, of all creatures? Let alone a tame one? Something was stranger about this than about anything else. No vampire that Alice knew of would ever willingly consort with humans and not eat them after growing bored. Vampires were typically that way. It was part of their nature. Part of the way their brains worked.

“Are you sure it was a vampire?” Alice asked.

“Positive.” Damien said.

This meant something. Alice wasn’t sure what it was exactly, but she had to find out.

“We have to read the file again.” She said, though she had no enthusiasm for doing so. That file was probably the thickest thing she’d read all year, with its fifty pages devoted to Sarah Crow’s criminal record, as well as her familiar’s. Surely in all those pages of life stories, there had to be something to hint at how a vampire could possibly have gotten involved in the entire mess.

Vampires were among the hardest things to catch, let alone kill. Their very nature made them want to hunt and kill others, and they could do it in the blink of an eye. Even demons had trouble matching their speed. Their strength was nothing short of extraordinary, as well. There was a joke that was prone to circulate around Demataxt cocktail parties that vampires were the earthly dimension’s own demons.

Their only redeeming quality was that there were only thirty or so in the entire world. Vampirism was a difficult thing to catch, and the percentage of people to survive it having caught it was very small. In all the time that the planet had existed, only thirty had managed to survive to the present day and age.

“What about the woman?” Alice asked.

“Nothing too special about her.” Damien shrugged. “I have a feeling she owns the facility, though.”

“Why?” Alice asked.

“She was more upset about the earthquake than anyone else.” Damien said.

Alice glanced back over her shoulder. They were moving so fast that the pyramid had already faded out of her range of vision. Valentin’s running form was still visible, but he had no chance in hell of catching up with them. Unless he embraced the demonic part of him, that is. Alice hoped that that would never happen.

Half demons certainly had a penchant for surprises. One thing they could do that normal demons or even demon hybrids could not was choose when to be human and when to step into their demonic persona. With a father like Asmodeus, Valentin would no doubt pack a hell of a punch if he suddenly decided to embrace his full potential. Alice hoped that he would never have to resort to that. It would symbolize so much more than a demon lord’s son embracing reality. It would no doubt mean something more terrible.

“What are we going to do now that we know this?” Alice asked.

“I’m not sure.” Damien shrugged. “Confronting him might not be the best plan.”

“So we’re going to pretend we don’t know?” Alice elaborated.

“Exactly.”