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The guard opened the door, and Ash stepped into the cell alone. The vampire sitting on the stone slab of a bed looked at her with contempt.
“What do you want?” He sneered, brushing the dark hair out of his crimson eyes. His handsome features were a mask of fury.
“I want to offer you a chance to live,” Ash replied.
“Why should I believe anything you say? You murdered our queen and plan to take her place with no idea what it means to be a vampire. You want to take away all the things that make us the fearsome stalkers of the night that we are and muzzle us to protect your precious humans and Therians. You’re a traitor to your species, and I will never follow you.”
He spat at her feet to emphasize his refusal.
Ash shrugged. “Okay. Have it your way.” She stepped out of the cell and turned to Euan. “You can prepare this one for execution. He will never change and would work against us at every turn.” She raised her voice to carry to all the vampires waiting for a visit. “The vampire race is under new management. Get with the program or die. The indiscriminate slaughter is over.”
Instead of the darkness that Nadya had radiated like an aura, Ash glowed with golden light. The hostile vampire shrank back from her. Ash grimaced and swung the door shut, gesturing for the guard to open the next cell. A curvy young woman with purple and blue hair huddled in the corner. When Ash stepped inside, she looked up and held out her hands.
“I want a different life!” she cried in halting English. “I did not choose this.”
Ash smiled kindly and knelt to help the woman up. “What’s your name?” she asked in Russian.
She looked surprised. “Amaris.” She launched into a rapid explanation in her native tongue. “I was in the school library when someone hit me from behind. I woke up in a dirty basement. I had fangs, and a crazy lady told me I had to fight the dragons. I want to go home!”
“I’m sorry this happened to you, Amaris.” Ash spoke with genuine sadness. “You’ve been turned into a vampire, and the life you lived before is gone. The one who made you is dead, and now you have to make a choice. Join my forces and cooperate with the Therians and humans, or die. When it’s safe, you might be able to visit your family, but your former life is over. I’m sorry you are in this position, but those are your options.”
Amaris sank onto the stone slab that served as the bed and shrank into herself. “I just wanted to be a graphic designer. I have no interest in any war, and I sure as shit am not a soldier. What use could you have for me? You might as well just kill me.”
Ash chuckled. “Amaris, look at me.”
When the vampire looked up, Ash smiled. “I was a college student until a few months ago. You don’t seem evil, and I don’t sense bloodlust in you. Others like you were turned by force and don’t want a life of death and destruction. I’m offering you another way.”
Amaris groaned in frustration. “I’m telling you, I don’t want to fight with or for anyone. All I want is a nice, quiet life.”
“Who said you have to fight? I’m trying to stop the fighting. You said you’re a graphic designer, right? With our world exposed to humanity, we’re going to need serious PR to spin things in a positive light. Seems like a good way for you to fit in with us without exposing your human friends and family to potential danger.
“I can give you a safe home, a place to belong with people who understand what you’re going through, and enough work to keep you designing for several lifetimes. When you’re ready, you can contact your family and have them visit.” Ash kept her tone patient. This young woman had been through enough.
“I’d like that,” Amaris stated hesitantly, hopeful after the darkness she’d known with Nadya.
Turning back to the door where Euan waited, Ash added, “Can you ask Zia to join us? I think she would be a big help here.”
Euan nodded and jogged toward the stairs, returning a few minutes later with the vampire. “Yes, my lady? What did you need?”
Ash gestured at Amaris. “I thought you could walk our newest recruit through the basics and bring her up to speed with how we do things.”
Zia grinned. “This is only the second cell, and you’ve already got someone? Fantastic! Don’t worry, boss, I’ve got this.” Zia stepped into the cell, shooing the others toward the next one.
“This is Zia,” Ash told Amaris as she turned to leave. “Nadya turned her against her will, and she was the first rebel vampire to join the Therians. She’ll get you situated and answer any questions you have.”
As the pair moved toward the staircase, Zia turned back to call, “Send any others who come over to our side up to the east wing dining hall. I’ll assemble blood bags and create a ‘welcome to the good side’ orientation to smooth the process.”
“Thanks, Zia,” Ash said. “You’re my… Well, shit. We need to come up with a title for the vampire queen’s right hand. Ugh, that sounds so weird.”
Zia waved her concern away. “Problem for another day. You have enough to worry about. I’m here, and I’ve got this covered for you, my liege. That’s enough for now.”
Ash nodded and returned to the task at hand. She found an older male vampire willing to follow her leadership in the third cell but struck out with the next two. It went on like that for hours. Viktorija’s people had rounded up well over a hundred vampires, and the ones who’d lapsed into a catatonic state had been herded into cells together. They only seemed to return to a semblance of life when she entered the room.
Ash was attacked three times during the long day, but no one had touched her. She was cursed and blessed and thanked and ignored. By the time she reached the end of the long hall, Ash had brought sixty percent of the captives to her side, which was more than she’d expected. Of the one hundred and forty-three vampires captured, eighty-five had chosen to convert.
In her rush to create an army of daywalkers, Nadya had stopped picking the evil ones and grabbed anyone. Ash would execute the remaining vampires the following day after giving them a final chance to join her forces. If they still refused, Ash would end them. It was a brutal sort of justice, but that was the situation Nadya had left her with.
As the room Zia used for vampire orientation filled to its limits, she realized they needed a barracks. Ideally, a separate facility oriented to vampiric needs and comfort. When Ash joined her after speaking to all the captives, Zia presented the idea and asked permission to search for the ideal location.
