Cold war

　　Irena’s POV

　　After days of meticulous planning, we executed our heist plan to steal the source of Agatha’s power, a deformed creature that she had birthed herself and nourished first with the flesh of its father and now with the children of her followers, it was a flawless operation and the team I put together worked fantastically.

　　As a result of this, we had much more information than we did before.

　　The source of the black substance that seemed to do great and lasting damage to vampires, even one as powerful as me.

　　The substance was made from liquid obsidian, which is apparently very deadly to vampires.

　　And the child produces it from its skin whenever it is fed.

　　I had the child in my custody for five days while I awaited the assembly of the council so we could assess all the information we had gathered to decide our next move.

　　And now that we had the source of her power I had my heel firmly placed on the throat of the Witch of Bloodville.

　　There was nothing to do in the meantime but wonder and speculate, Sodom City had closed down for some time until this whole mess is cleaned up and even Alexey’s business took a toll at first before he and Carlos managed to make everything work over the internet, they’re both so good with their computers.

　　Alexey was always in my home, in my line of sight where I knew he was safe, where I’m certain I can protect him, although keeping him here without his consent always rubs me the wrong way.

　　This is the man I love and yet he barely knows me, maybe someday soon he will, maybe I’ll tell him, maybe he won’t hate me for my lies, maybe he’ll even understand and want to spend all of eternity with me by accepting the change.

　　I was daydreaming, like a little girl, a princess in a castle waiting for her Prince Charming.

　　“Good evening Irena, Munster said from behind me, startling me, Munster was always deathly quiet whenever he moved, like an assassin, and he was always the first to show up for council meetings.

　　We exchanged hellos and pleasantries before falling silent once again as we sat to wait for the rest of the council to show up.

　　Soon after, the rest of the council finally showed up and the council meeting began.

　　We held it in one of my warehouses, the same one we held the child in, we had to build a soundproof room for the child, its screams were unbearable, and a few of my vampires had near-death experiences handling it.

　　The witches were losing their minds looking for their precious ‘child of the mother’ but Carlos set up some sort of frequency jamming system that disrupts their location spells, fighting magic with science he called it, I’m just glad I have him on my side.

　　The council finally arrived completely and so we discussed a lot of things in detail.

　　The resurgence of obsidian and the ramifications with regards to vampire lives especially with the knowledge of the existence of vampires being so widespread amongst humans and hostility and bloodthirst were sparked in them directed at us vampires.

　　They want to kill us, and getting their hands on weaponized obsidian is a good way to achieve that goal.

　　We knew we had to destroy the child, but we needed it to lure the witch of bloodville before we could do anything so rash.

　　Killing the witch was not going to be an easy task seeing as she had an entire network of followers that have proved their willingness to die at her behest, the price for their power I guess.

　　No one had any news on where Babatunde the defiler might be hiding, or what his role in all of this was, his involvement is evident but aside from a few mystically enhanced humans he has seemingly not made any further moves.

　　Something was afoot and we had to get to the bottom of it all quickly.

　　The Armada was as frantic as ever in their prosecution of those they suspected to be vampires, but ever since Magnus’s division has stepped into the role of policing their activities from the shadows, there has been a significant drop in their execution attempts.

　　That was progress, good news, but it seemed like for every progressive move there were three retrogressive moves.

　　We found ourselves in a rut, not a hundred percent certain about what to do but we had to do something, start somewhere.

　　And where better than with the murder of Agatha, the mother; the witch of bloodville.

　　So after a brief and futile argument trying to disagree with the idea to fight the witches head-on presented by a few pussies in the council, the plan was set.

　　We would gather our resources and vampires and lay in wait on a battlefield of our choice, one we controlled, one we could command, then we would use the child to lure out Agatha and her followers to do battle with us where we would murder them all and finally rid the world of bloodville and witches.

　　All the council members gathered their forces equipped with weapons and added courage knowing that this battle could mark the beginning of the end for this regime of witches and also the fact that they would be fighting side by side with their regional leaders.

　　I was admittedly excited as well, I can’t remember the last time I fought a battle of this scale and more so with the council of vampires sharing the same battlefield.

　　I could feel my fingers twitch.

　　I ordered Carlos to shut down his signal disrupting device which he did, now all that was left was to await the witches.

　　We didn’t have to wait for so long after Carlos disabled his device, the child screamed so loudly that its cries could be heard through the soundproof room we had placed it in.

　　It was so loud that it had us writhing in pain and some of us could barely even stand on our feet.

　　“Make it stop!” A vampire yelled just before her head exploded.

　　And then a few others suffered the same fate.

　　“Someone please kill that thing!” Another vampire yelled before having his head explode as well.

　　Just then as we writhed in pain, weakness and handicapped the witches began to arrive, they had come for the child.

　　Magnus was the quickest to act and the only one who was cognitive enough to think of a plan.

　　He made his way to the soundproof room and threw open the door causing the scream to suddenly grow louder and explode a few more heads.

　　Magnus must’ve suffered it the worst though as he was right in the thick of it but he was undeterred.

　　His determination was admirable and even Munster couldn’t help but be impressed as his disowned son Magnus made his way towards a literal death machine targeted at vampires.

　　He pulled out the flask he always carries around in his pocket and emptied his alcohol reserve on the child before pulling out a match and lighting the child on fire, as the witches rushed towards him to keep him away from the child.

　　The pain from the fire burning caused the baby to scream so loudly that it sent Magnus and the three witches who were close enough to him flying backward.

　　I caught Magnus and prevented him from falling and held him in my arms. He had bloody ears, a bloody nose, and even blood tears. I was worried, I thought my friend was dead, and because vampires have no real heartbeat or pulse there was no way I could know.

　　Then suddenly Magnus coughed as he looked up at me and said,

　　“I can’t believe I just did that,”

　　“Yeah you did Magnus, you’re a hero,” I replied relieved and grateful that he was still alive.

　　“No, I mean I can’t believe I used all the alcohol, I didn’t mean to at all, it was the scream, it messed me up, fuck!” He swore as his giggling graduated into a cough.

　　“Carlos!” Magnus called out as the other vampires and even the witches started to stir, “check your inside left pocket,” Magnus instructed.

　　“Magnus, stop stashing alcohol in my things!” Carlos demanded as he tossed the alcohol at Magnus who caught the flask perfectly.

　　He sat up and took a huge gulp and just like that most of us vampires were back on our feet and ready for a fight.

　　Around this time the last of the witches had stirred up and recovered as well and now we stood opposite a bunch of angry witches that we had pissed off.

　　But these weren’t just the faces of angry witches, these were the faces of women who had sacrificed their children for nothing.

　　There was devastation in their eyes, desperation, and rage, all directed at us vampires and all to be exacted right here, right now.

　　The witches charged at us as we braced for impact and the open war began.

　　It was an all-out war, body parts flying from every corner as the witches were being ripped to shreds.

　　But vampires were being killed as well, all the witches were armed with obsidian stakes, a product of the liquid obsidian they had been mining from the child for so long.

　　Obsidian stakes were much more dangerous than normal stakes in the sense that they could cause death to a vampire if that vampire was stabbed in any vital or dangerous area as opposed to the traditional, stake through the heart rule.

　　Obsidian stakes could kill a vampire if it was stabbed in the stomach, and even if it didn’t the injuries caused by these stakes hurt way more than normal and took too long to heal, ultimately slowing and weakening a vampire in a fight and for a few hours after.

　　And we were faced with witches wielding these deadly weapons.

　　Witches, powerful practitioners of the dark arts who could start a fire or send a grown man flying across a room by simply speaking the command words of a spell.

　　This was most definitely not an easy battle, but we were winning.

　　We were beating the witches, dwindling their numbers, and confiscating their obsidian stakes.

　　Hundreds of witches faced off against hundreds of vampires locked in intense combat for hours at a time.

　　As I chopped down witch after witch I kept an eye out for my people, I had lost too many of my people and was unwilling to lose any more.

　　They all seemed to be doing just fine.

　　Magnus was of course as graceful as ever, completely untouchable to the witches as he glided past them dodging their attacks and snapping their necks as he moved from witch to witch killing each one he came across.

　　August was fine too, she was locked in combat with a particular witch and they traded blows for a while, matching each other’s attacks every time.

　　I thought of intervening and doing away with the witch myself to make sure she wouldn’t get hurt, but that’s when she dodged three consecutive attacks before maneuvering her way to the witch’s back and twisting her neck so that their eyes met one last time before the witch collapsed to the ground.

　　Carlos was never one for violence and after losing his sister Monica I was desperate to keep him from harm, but even he handled himself well coordinating his attacks with Pablo who had driven all the way here from Mexico to join our ranks in the war efforts against the witches.

　　I also kept an eye on Rita who I had grown to care for deeply and convinced to join my ranks permanently and defect from Shiva’s ranks.

　　There seemed to be absolutely no need to look after her though as I could barely see her apart from a blur that had the colors of the clothes she had on, and everywhere that blur rushed passed, witches fell dead.

　　Throughout the fighting there was one person I eagerly sought out but could never seem to spot even though it seemed like I caught glimpses of her now and again, it didn’t make sense.

　　I continued killing witch after witch and catching glimpses of Agatha in my peripheral vision but I couldn’t seem to get a read on her throughout the fighting. I had too many things going on in my head to properly track her though and so I decided to fight on hoping to eventually run into her.

　　I mean it’s not like she could be avoiding me, could she?