Slaying the Vampire Conqueror

by Carissa Broadbent

I thought of another explosion barely survived by a nine-year-old girl. I thought of civilians thrust into tunnels to be used as human shields for a cowardly warlord. I thought of my brother, once a teenager, now a man, sentenced to a slow inevitable death. I thought of innocent vampire children hanging from trees. I thought of the fucking Pythora King. And I thought, Yes. Kill them all.

Fifteen years had passed, and now here I was, as angry as ever. Angrier. And tonight, I felt Atrius’s loss just as strongly as my own. And I just couldn’t anymore. I. Just. Couldn’t.

My only clear thought in this moment now was, Horseshit.

He’d pulled me against him, curling his body around mine, and grumbled into my hair, “They’ll listen to you. If they don’t, we’ll just kill them all.”

I was more vulnerable than I had ever been. But for the first time in my life, I was not afraid. I was at peace with the past, the present, and the future.