We are Shadows: Prologue
Heavy boots echoed through the empty warehouse as well armed soldiers poured through every door and opening they could find throwing out flash bang grenades which exploded into brilliant balls of light upon detonation. Once the floor was secured the soldiers filed in forming a perimeter as a lone man parted the crowd. Samuel Hale was a decorated soldier of a secret military outfit that combated the most dire threat to the known world, Vampires. Creatures of myth and legend this unit had existed since the times of kings and castles under various names but was now known as the Stalkers hunters of the hunters. Currently they were stalking a very powerful vampire that had made a den in the confines of the city, this was curious for two reasons normally vampires stayed in the underground the only area the Stalkers couldn't reach because they lacked the ability to get past the gates and secondly when they came up from the underground they generally didn't like to stay around long because if they spent too much time they'd meet their end at the hands of the sun. Ultra violet light was poisonous to a vampire and the only way to actually kill one, Stalkers had spent centuries harnessing the power of sunlight using ancient magics and more recently the marvels of modern technology not that they didn't keep a few spells and chants in their back pocket. The most recent development the Photon Bullet gave them a fighting chance against the physically superior and deceptively strong prey allowing them to engage at a distance. Put together their arsenal rivaled that of the strongest military in the world but still they were losing, every engagement came with casualties and the vampires were no closer to being wiped out for all their efforts truly it was an eternal struggle of light versus darkness.
However for Samuel it was much simpler, he wanted to punish the ones who hurt him and his wife Melissa and his brother in law Lance. The equine soldier stood head and shoulders above his companions because of his sole drive to find the vampires that tore his family to pieces and make them suffer and repent for their crimes. Having joined shortly after being rescued by the Stalkers Samuel and Melissa were opposite ends of the same coin, both victims but where Samuel sought violence Melissa sought peace and became a medic for the Stalkers treating turned victims before they could completely transform and saving lives while Samuel ended them. The two found one another after many long nights together patching Samuel up having already been intimately close it was to no one's surprise when the two lovebird equine finally tied the knot and made their marriage official, Melissa retired to a nice home in the suburbs and Samuel continued working to fund their new life, planning one day to have little colts of their own. Samuel looked down at the empty compound and sighed, they got away again.
"Captain you need to check this out!" A soldier reported via the radio attached to Samuel's chest reaching down he hit the trigger confirming that he heard the broadcast. Samuel walked through the abandoned den, there were the remains of victims and signs that something had been living here recently. It wasn't until he reached a descending staircase to a sub floor that Samuel saw the true horrors of what had occurred. Chained to the wall in a basement a female lion heavy with child hissed and snarled, fangs protruded snapping at the onlookers. "What do we do captain?" The soldiers were confused and conflicted, of course she was a vampire now, her rights as a citizen were abolished and she was to be treated as a hostile enemy but none of them could bring themselves to pull the trigger, aware of the life still inside her
Samuel sighed closing his eyes and reaching for his pistol he fired two shots, one into the woman's head and the other into her belly, a blistering red ball of light exploding from the muzzle and searing a hole through both points. "Your god damn jobs soldier, no vampire left alive, no exceptions." Samuel responded and the woman went slack. He turned to walk away but heard the most unnerving sound he had ever heard, the wails of an infant. From deep inside the corpse of the vampire a writhing squirming life cried out for release, with a gush the woman's water broke and out spilled a blood soaked crimson furred lion cub, landing hard on the floor as his mother dangled above him suspended dead. "God, oh my god...." Samuel twitched firing seven more shots of Photon at the infant not even wanting to entertain the thought but each shot simply phased through him hissing as it harmlessly passed over. "He's not one of them, how.. the.." Samuel had never seen something like this, the only explanation was that this woman was pregnant before she was turned, the child was normal. "GET ME A TOWEL NOW!" Samuel barked his command making the other soldiers jump, walking over and looking at this pitiful existence born in the darkness of a vampire den but not a vampire itself. "I'm sorry..." Samuel knelt down and scooped up the cub covering his uniform in blood and amniotic fluid taking his pocket knife from his belt and cutting the umbilical cord severing the contact between the deceased mother and the newborn cub. "I.. did something awful to you, the first thing you've ever seen and it was death." Samuel looked down at the furry mess and took the towel as it was handed to him rubbing the filth and gunk off, beneath the mess was a bright tan furred little male lion. "Oh, hello.. um, welcome to the world?" Samuel wasn't very good with conversations, much less so with a child who's mother he just shot in cold blood.
"Give him here." A white tailed doe strode into the compound and stretched out her hands holding a blanket and a sponge. "He needs to be examined for deformities and given a proper cleaning, don't worry, I won't hurt him Sam." Samuel turned to look at the doe, Melissa's replacement Chloe Masters was as capable and enthusiastic of a medic as anyone could have hoped for in their platoon. "I promise." Chloe looked at Samuel's hesitant eyes as he handed over the cooing and squirming cub. "Hello there cutie, oh aren't you a joy!" Chloe loved children holding a newborn was perhaps the height of her experience in the unit Samuel sighed knowing that the child was safe.
"Look for others, she might not have been the only one, if there are more get them out then eliminate the parent, if they're vampires too... then." Samuel swallowed his words but his men understood saluting. "Dismissed." That night there was a report of seventeen captives all casualties, no other ones were with child but various ones were in stages of pregnancy. This place was a laboratory, a breeding laboratory. Normally vampires couldn't reproduce if they wanted to extend their numbers they had to turn and hope that the victim was strong enough, vampirism was a disease that altered the genetics of the body tuning the victim to be able to sustain itself on hemoglobin, blood sugar. Vampires didn't need to drink the blood of the living any blood would do technically but if they wanted to remain strong they needed quality blood and dead man's blood was often vile and toxic. Left alone a vampire could exist eternally without drinking a drop of blood but the strong ones needed regular and constant supplies to keep their enhanced abilities. When a victim turned they had three days before the change was permanent if they could get an anti virus before their DNA was altered they could be saved, Melissa and Chloe did this regularly, but to make another vampire you needed someone willing to give themselves over, the disease could be resisted with enough will power though the results wasn't pretty often people who failed to become full vampires would become Ghouls a type of lesser undead creature unable to convert others but not immortal like a vampire a truly terrible fate.
"Here he is!" Chloe returned holding the infant lion in a swaddle his bright brown furred muzzle poking out. "So Captain, I'll ask again, what are you going to do?" Chloe asked bouncing the baby in her arms.
"I don't know.." Samuel responded sighing and Chloe smirked.
"Weren't you and Mel trying to have a baby?" Chloe asked and Samuel looked up at her, she wasn't suggesting. "Well I just so happen to have found a perfectly healthy baby that needs a good set of parents who know how to deal with vampires because Sam this isn't over, they may have left him here but they'll come back and whoever you give this child too will face the brunt of their attack, the question is how important is he to the fangs and are you willing to condemn innocent people to die?" Chloe had a sharp tongue when she wanted.
"No, I get it, I'll take him home and fly the idea past Melissa... if she accepts we'll adopt but if she says no then I have to give him over to Stalker." Samuel sighed he knew that if anyone ever found out where this child came from he'd be discharged and imprisoned but nobody should be subjected to being a test subject just because they were born strangely and Chloe was right if he put the child up for adoption there was no telling how many people would die in the attempted recovery of the child, he didn't know why the child was left alive but he did know that it was intentional, this cub was something to the vampires, something important that they wanted the stalkers to find, a warning?
"Good I can be over next week to give Mel a baby shower!" Chloe was excited and Samuel nickered shaking his head.
After the raid the reports were filled, seventeen dead, no friendly casualties, and no abnormal discoveries. None of the men were told what happened to the infant but Samuel took the next few days off. Returning home to an expecting and very surprised wife. Samuel told Melissa that he found the baby in a raid being held prisoner, he wasn't turned but his parents were deceased. Melissa didn't need much convincing the chestnut mare was already in love with the bright yellow ball of fluff the moment she got her hands on him.
"Of course Sam, I wouldn't throw out a soul in need especially one so cute but names.. names... how about Jack?" Melissa pondered and Sam laughed.
"We should call him Lucky." Melissa smiled and nodded.
"Jack Lucky Hale, welcome home."