The Villains Must Win

Even Marris, stubborn and battle-hardened, was barely holding on. She swung her axe with brutal force, roaring curses as she carved through the enemy.

But there were too many. They swarmed her like a tide of black insects. One caught her arm, another tore into her back. She kept fighting until they tore the weapon from her hands and brought her to her knees.

Selis screamed her name.

Marris final act was defiance—spitting blood into a vampire's face before they sank their teeth into her throat. Then she disappeared beneath a writhing pile of bodies.

Selis stood paralyzed. Her legs refused to move. Her weapon trembled uselessly in her hand. It was over. This was it. They were all going to die.

The last stand of Delta Squad, nothing but a sad, bloody smear on the chapel floor.

It was her time too, and she would pay ten stars to the system again just to revive into this world.

But then—

The vampires stopped.

Like a signal only they could hear had been given, they froze. Heads turned. Eyes gleamed in the dark.

Then, without a word, they retreated. Melting into the shadows with eerie silence, like wolves abandoning a half-eaten kill.

Selis stood in the center of the carnage, panting, blood-soaked, blinking in disbelief.

What? Why retreat now?

And then she saw him.

A man stepped through the broken chapel doors—tall, lean, dressed in a long black coat that brushed the floor. His eyes glowed faintly beneath his hood, and the air bent around him like he brought the cold with him.

Salister.

He walked with the calm of someone who already owned the room, the battlefield, the dead. Every vampire that passed him bowed their heads in silence before vanishing into the dark.

Selis staggered backward, her heart thundering louder than any scream.

What's going on?

What was he doing here?

He wasn't supposed to show up this early. This wasn't how the story was meant to go.

Selis stared, heart pounding in disbelief as Salister—the infamous villain of the continent, the nightmare whispered among hunter circles—stepped into the blood-soaked chapel like he'd simply taken a wrong turn on his evening stroll.

"You . . . ," he said, his voice like frost sliding over steel. "Are you Selis Everhart."

Not a question. A statement. A cold, undeniable fact.

Selis swallowed hard, mind racing. This had to be a mistake. He wasn't supposed to appear until much later like all villains do. That's how these things worked.

She'd barely started planning how to even find him—let alone face him—and now here he was. In the flesh. Calm. Composed. Surrounded by the aftermath of a massacre, like it was just background noise to him.

The worst part?

She wasn't sure if he was here to kill her . . . or recruit her.

Her voice cracked as she forced out words that sounded way braver in her head:

"Uhm . . . is this the part where you, like, dramatically murder me? Because, honestly, I wasn't prepared for that today. I skipped lunch."

She offered a weak, bloody smile, hoping sarcasm could buy her a few seconds of life. Maybe confuse him. Or distract herself from the sheer absurdity of it all.

But Salister didn't smile. Didn't blink. Just took one slow step closer, eyes never leaving hers.

The villain she'd been trying so hard to figure out how to find . . . had found her first.

And she had absolutely no idea what to do—because she was caught completely off guard at their first meeting.

She had imagined this moment a hundred different ways. Maybe she'd meet him during a mission, cloaked in shadows. Or he'd be a silhouette on a cliff, eyes glowing red while the wind howled dramatically.

Not . . . like this. In the middle of a massacre. With her covered in someone else's blood and brain matter.

Then he spoke again.

"You . . . You're the one the old hag told me about."

"Huh?" Selis blinked. "Old what now?"

"You're the one who's going to bring her back to me," he said, each word low and sharp like a blade being unsheathed. "My love. My mate. The humans stole her. Drained her. Used her powers for their twisted games. But you—" his eyes narrowed—"you're the one that hag said could bring her back."

Selis stared at him like he just declared she was the Chosen One in a poorly-written prophecy. "Me?"

"It's the only reason you're still breathing."

". . . Okaaay, I feel like I missed about seven chapters of backstory here."

Salister didn't smile. Didn't blink. "Give me Emerald. That's all I want. Bring her back, and this war ends."

Selis raised both her hands. "Wait. Wait-wait-wait. Let me get this straight," she said, pointing between them. "You—the guy who commands vampires like they're trained hellhounds—are not here to kill me?"

"No."

"And instead, I'm alive because . . . you want me to save your girlfriend?"

"My mate," he corrected darkly.

"Right. Mate. Sure. And she's being held hostage by humans, and if I bring her to you, you'll . . . what, retire and live in a vampire beach house?"

He stared at her, jaw tightening. "We will end this war. With the humans. But the traitors will pay. Those who betrayed her . . . and us."

Selis blinked slowly. "You do realize I'm a human, right?"

"All the better," Salister said. "Only a human can walk into that place. Their base is laced with talismans, barriers, charms—vampires can't enter. But someone like you? You're perfect."

"Wait, hold up. Emerald is a vampire?"

"She's mine," he growled. "We lived peacefully . . . until hundred years ago, when humans discovered what she could do."

". . . What exactly could she do? Heal? Fly? Make good coffee?"

"She grants power," Salister said, voice deadly flat. "Her blood . . . it strengthens humans. Enhances them. But only a handful are compatible. Those who aren't . . ." His lips curled into a bitter snarl. "They become what you call vampires."

"Oh." Selis blinked again. "So basically, your girlfriend's blood is a cheat code."

"Yes. And your people have been using her. Farming her. Making super soldiers."