When Stars Bleed

And so it began. The fight for the underworld. The fight for the greatest power ever known, and if it falls into the wrong hands...no one is safe.

"How are the men?" Drake asked not looking up from his map. By now, me and my men have taken over thirty percent of the underworld. Luck was on our side...but for how long?

"Good. Yet our numbers have fallen about twenty-five percent. We can't win this war without great numbers," I said standing beside him. I was covered in many different colors of blood, dirt, ash, and sweat.

This was a harder war then I excepted it to be. With all our strength and vampire abilities, it was nothing compared to the numbers we faced. We were always outnumber mostly seven to one. Yet we were winning.

Drake sighed, "You'll have to resurface to the human world. Take the men, rebuild your army."

I was shocked. We haven't been above in the past two centuries. The blood down here is sweet, but never as sweet as it is above.

"M. Shadows...is everything okay?" Drake finally looked up, locking gazes with me.

"Yes. I'll take all the men, I think our walls can hold. I'll be back within a few weeks." He nodded and excused me. I grinned as I met up with my brothers.

"We're going back up." They all shared my smile.

"Assemble the men, we leave at first light." I walked over to the edge of the land, before it dipped into a black fiery hole. We were constantly surrounded by fire and wastelands.

Why Drake wanted this underworld, was beyond me. But one thing I knew for sure, as soon as we win this world, I'm taking my half and never plan to lay my eyes upon Drake again.

As soon as the light hit the dark dirty sky, we went back to the world we were ripped out of. I don't know where we landed, but the sun had just set. Everything was changed. Buildings were bigger so were the crowds of people.

Silently I lead my men through the large town. I wondered what happened to our old kingdom. Did it survive? Did it crumble as soon as we left?

My men were greatly weakened from the previous day's battle, so it took all they had to not be tempted when they passed the blushing maidens. A solider pointed us the way to the castle. Of course we gave up our swords when we were in the presents of the King and our story fell through. I told the King that we were just visiting and we were weary from a battle nearby.

He agreed to house me and my men for the next couple of nights. In the morning most of men stayed inside, afraid of the Sun, its been so long since they've felt the sun's kisses. And they didn't enjoy the way the sun snapped at their skin now.

I walked with the king with my brothers behind me through his garden. His Kingdom was the most powerful for miles upon miles. It was also very rich. The maidens it was home to, were far beyond beautiful. The soldiers that called it home were very experienced and were great in number.

The King kept on boasting about how well his kingdom was, and I couldn't wait until I could rip it from under him. I grinned and my brothers grinned as well, once they read my thoughts. All of a sudden I felt James grow with excitement.

I looked around until I found the cause, it was a beautiful maiden, not a day over 19. She was gorgeous with her long black hair and green eyes. They reminded me of Zachary's when he was alive. They were bright and for a second they were locked on James's piercing blue ones.

James smiled with pride as the girl looked away, color coming to her cheeks. She was dressed in a light red dress, that had too many layers for her to be in anyway comfortable this could only mean one thing...that she was a princess. And she was headed in this direction.

James was taken over by her scent, his face was starting to change, his muscles tighten and he leaned forward. All of this happened in less then a second.

'JAMES! Control yourself. We can not show ourselves.' I yelled into his head, his eyes were wide and still locked on her.

'James...' Haner gave him a slight warning, while placing his hand tightly on his shoulder. James nodded and stood as if he was inanimate.

'Good' I growled

"Ah this is my lovely Kayci" The King held out his hand to his daughter, which I'm guessing was his pride and joy. But this man had too much pride in too many things.

"Princess Kayci," I said while I bowed deep and took her hand, placing the smallest kiss on it. She smiled, but it was not directed towards me, but towards James. I stood and moved to the side, introducing my brothers, saving James for last.

"And this is James, also another leader in my army." James grinned and drifted forward, placing a kiss on Kayci's hand. Her cheeks turned a deep red and she tried looking away, yet her eyes were somehow glued to James's.

"My daughter is be betrothed to the prince of the neighboring lands. What a day it'll be." The king grinned, shoving whatever he could in our faces. If he only knew, what we were going to do.

We perfected our plan over the following days and once it was perfect we would shared it with the men. We were going to attack as soon as the sun was gone.

All of this boastful King's men would soon be ours. It would be simple, we came in this Kingdom with less then 200 and now we'll be leaving with more than 500.

The sun was going down and my men emerged from the rooms, filing into lines. We were ever so quiet as we spilt up and headed to our assigned places. Although, as soon as we attacked we wouldn't keep it so quiet.

As my men feasted, I rejoiced. Long ago, this would have affected me, but now that's inconsequential. Winning this war is my everything.

The city was on fire, screams were heard from every corner of the streets. My men each held two or three sleeping vampires in their arms as they disappeared and went back to the underworld. Me and my brothers waited until all five of us were together again, we were waiting upon James.

"Where is he?!" Brian growled. Jonathon slowly pointed to figure walked away from the flames and towards us.

"JAMES!" He was carrying something in his arms. It couldn't be...he wouldn't...but he did. In his arms he held the sleeping Kayci.

"I couldn't leave her." James smiled while looking down at her.

'I think...I think she's my one. I'm feeling a strong pull to her, even while she sleeps.' He rubbed his cheek against hers. I smiled and nodded

"Let's go home to hell." We shared a small chuckle before faded out, going back to our war.