The Divergence

The explosion's roar faded into a chorus of alarms, breaking glass, and frightened voices.

For several seconds, the studio lights flickered violently overhead.

Then they went dark.

The sudden loss of illumination meant little to the vampires.

Lavinia's empty red eyes adjusted without effort as the brightly lit studio became a landscape of darkness and scattered emergency lights. 

Humans stumbled around them, phones were pulled out, and someone behind the cameras shouted for everyone to remain where they were.

Evangeline rose sharply from her chair.

Her boot slammed against the stage.

Crack.

The flooring groaned beneath the impact, several nearby pieces of equipment rattling from the force.

"Is coexistence just impossible?!" Evangeline half growled the words, her bright red hair shifting around her shoulders as she glared toward the direction of the explosion. "Can we go one week without someone trying to cause some stupid problem?!"

"Evangeline." Violetta stepped beside her and gently placed one hand on top of her head.

Evangeline's angry expression remained, but she didn't pull away.

Violetta slowly ran her fingers through the fine red locks. "Everyone here appears unharmed. That's the first thing that matters."

Evangeline's shoulders remained tense. "I'm still angry."

"You're allowed to be angry." Violetta gave her hair another gentle stroke before withdrawing her hand.

Violetta's empty red eyes swept across the darkened studio.

All ten vampires were present.

None appeared injured.

Daniel and Miranda were moving.

Alice was somewhere behind the cameras, and Violetta could hear her speaking rapidly with another employee.

The explosion had been loud.

Extremely loud.

Yet the building remained standing.

There had been no second explosion.

No obvious structural collapse followed the first blast, either.

Violetta reached into her dress and pulled out her phone.

"The explosive itself probably wasn't particularly large." Violetta unlocked the screen and selected a number. "If it had been, we would have considerably greater problems."

Daniel nearly stumbled over a cable in the darkness before catching himself against the table. "I appreciate that analysis, General, but I'd personally prefer no bombs inside my workplace."

"Daniel, watch where you're going." Miranda reached toward him before nearly stepping into an overturned camera rig herself.

Daniel caught her arm. "You were saying?"

Miranda steadied herself and sighed. "I withdraw my criticism."

Lavinia paced several steps across the stage.

Her boots clicked softly against the damaged flooring.

Once.

Twice.

She turned.

Then paced back again.

Her golden hair shifted behind her while her expression steadily darkened.

"Are people really this absurd?" Lavinia finally asked, looking toward the hallway. "How many times can someone do something they obviously shouldn't do before they realize they shouldn't do it?"

Valerie looked around at the frightened humans nearby before moving closer to Lavinia.

"It could've been worse." Valerie gently nudged Lavinia's arm with her own. "If the bomb had been bigger, every human here might've died."

Lavinia turned her head.

She stared at Valerie for several seconds.

"I refuse to be thankful people didn't die when the entire event was stupid to begin with." Lavinia crossed her arms tightly. "That's an incredibly low standard."

Valerie's lips twitched. "Fair."

A metallic clatter sounded nearby.

One of the employees had attempted to climb over a fallen lighting rig and lost his footing.

Rosaline crossed the distance almost instantly.

She caught him before he hit the ground and effortlessly pulled him upright.

"Careful." Rosaline steadied the startled man before stepping over the fallen rig herself. "Honestly, I don't feel much about it. It was a bomb, we're all fine, and now I mostly feel bad for your station."

The employee stared at her for a second before managing, "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Rosaline smiled before releasing him.

Violetta lowered her phone after finishing the call. "I'm going downstairs. I want to see exactly what happened and whether anyone was injured."

"I'm coming." Lavinia immediately moved toward her.

Violetta glanced at her before nodding. "Very well."

They hadn't even reached the studio door when Lavinia heard several familiar footsteps behind them.

She looked over her shoulder.

Gwendolyn followed.

Valerie followed beside her.

Adelaide walked a few steps behind them.

All three wore expressions of perfect innocence.

Lavinia stared at them.

Valerie blinked.

"What?"

"I didn't say anything." Lavinia turned forward again.

"You looked like you were going to."

"I was thinking about it."

Gwendolyn smiled brightly. "Then it's good we answered before you could."

Violetta sighed softly, but there was a hint of amusement in her expression. "Stay together."

The fourth floor appeared largely intact.

Several doors had opened, and confused employees filled the hallways, but there was little visible damage beyond displaced ceiling tiles and fallen objects.

The third floor was worse.

Smoke had begun creeping through the corridors.

One wall bore a long fracture near the ceiling.

Glass covered sections of the floor, crunching beneath their boots as they moved.

Then they reached the second floor.

Lavinia stopped.

The smell reached her immediately.

Fire.

Smoke.

Burned material.

And blood.

A lot of blood.

The corridor was littered with debris. Part of the ceiling had collapsed, furniture had been overturned, and several doors had been blown inward.

Human voices came from farther down the hallway.

Some frightened.

Some calling for help.

Others crying out names.

Lavinia's empty red eyes moved across the debris.

Then she saw someone lying motionless beside the wall.

She disappeared from beside Violetta.

A moment later, Lavinia was crouched beside the woman.

Her expression changed.

"Rebecca."

The young woman who had greeted them less than an hour earlier lay frighteningly still.

The nervous heartbeat Lavinia remembered from the elevator had become faint.

Too faint.

Blood darkened her clothing.

Lavinia carefully slipped one arm beneath Rebecca's back and another beneath her legs before lifting her from the debris.

Rebecca's head fell against Lavinia's chest.

Valerie appeared beside her.

Her playful expression vanished.

"She's bad."

"I know." Lavinia looked down at Rebecca.

Gwendolyn crouched beside them and examined the unconscious woman's face.

Then Gwendolyn looked toward Valerie.

Valerie met her eyes.

Both eventually looked at Lavinia.

"We can still save her." Gwendolyn spoke quietly.

Lavinia nodded.

She raised her wrist toward her mouth.

Her fangs sank through her skin.

Dark blood, so deeply red it almost appeared black, welled from the wounds.

Lavinia immediately pressed her wrist against Rebecca's mouth.

"Drink."

Rebecca remained unconscious.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then Lavinia felt it.

A weak swallowing motion.

Another.

Then another.

Rebecca's body reacted almost instinctively.

"Good." Lavinia adjusted her hold on her. "Keep going."

Violetta watched for several seconds before looking farther down the damaged corridor.

"I'll check downstairs." Violetta turned toward Adelaide. "Come with me."

"I will." Adelaide immediately moved after her.

Their footsteps rapidly disappeared toward the stairwell.

Valerie looked toward one side of the second floor.

"I'll check the rooms over there." Valerie pointed toward the damaged offices.

"I'll go the other way." Gwendolyn rose smoothly.

Lavinia glanced toward them. "Be careful."

Valerie smiled faintly. "We will."

Both disappeared.

Lavinia remained where she was.

Rebecca continued drinking.

The sucking against her wrist became noticeably stronger.

Lavinia looked down at the woman's face.

Was she angry?

Yes.

She was fuming.

Not at Rebecca.

Not at Daniel or Miranda.

Not at the frightened employees moving through the building.

Not even at humans collectively.

One person didn't represent humanity.

Neither did ten.

Neither did a thousand.

She knew that.

She didn't hate humans.

She didn't want to hate humans.

But how many times was this going to happen?

The blood clinic.

The drive-by attack.

Cordelia's experience with the mob.

Isolde being attacked by the so-called 'Hunters'.

Now this.

And those were merely the incidents Lavinia had personally experienced or knew about.

There were more than a million vampires scattered throughout the world.

How many had experienced something similar?

How many had experienced worse?

Lavinia lowered her gaze to Rebecca again.

The woman's complexion had already begun improving.

Her heartbeat strengthened.

The wounds beneath her damaged clothing were closing.

Vampire blood worked quickly.

Lavinia should have felt relieved.

Instead, her thoughts continued circling.

Vampires had changed.

She knew that now.

Violetta knew it too.

It was harder to simply let threats go.

Harder to see someone attempt to hurt them and respond with restraint.

If someone tried to kill a vampire, retaliation felt natural.

Not arrest.

Not prosecution.

Not waiting for someone else to decide what happened next.

Kill them.

Remove the threat.

Make sure they couldn't try again.

It was frightening how simple the thought felt.

Lavinia's brow furrowed.

Someone attacks a vampire.

The vampire kills them.

Humans become outraged.

Someone else attacks vampires in retaliation.

More vampires kill their attackers.

Humans become angrier.

Vampires become less willing to tolerate threats.

Around and around.

Until what?

Until vampires decided the easiest solution was to make humans too afraid to attack them?

Kill and intimidate until opposition crumbled into obedience?

Lavinia hated how natural the answer felt.

It would work.

That was perhaps the worst part.

Vampires were strong enough that brutality could solve many immediate problems.

Someone attacked you?

Kill them.

Someone threatened you?

Kill them.

A group hunted vampires?

Kill enough of them that the survivors stopped.

Resistance continued?

Keep going.

Eventually, fear would accomplish what patience couldn't.

But what kind of world would remain afterward?

Lavinia exhaled slowly.

"No."

Rebecca continued weakly drinking from her wrist.

Lavinia looked toward the damaged hallway.

That couldn't be the answer.

It was too rigid.

Too simple.

And simple answers to complicated problems usually created entirely new problems.

Humans would resist.

Of course they would.

If vampires attempted to force them into obedience, humans would fight back.

Then vampires would retaliate.

Then humans would retaliate again.

Death.

Pain.

Loss.

On both sides.

Lavinia lifted her wrist from Rebecca's mouth.

The punctures were already closing.

She bit into the same spot again.

Fresh blood welled immediately.

Lavinia returned her wrist to Rebecca's lips.

"There."

The sucking resumed.

Lavinia's ears twitched.

Farther down the corridor, she heard Gwendolyn moving debris.

A frightened human voice answered her.

On the opposite side, Valerie was speaking rapidly to someone.

Both were helping.

Vampires helping humans after someone had just bombed a building while vampires were inside it.

Lavinia smiled faintly.

It shouldn't have felt remarkable.

It wasn't remarkable.

Why wouldn't they help?

Rebecca shifted in her arms.

Her eyelids fluttered.

Then opened.

Green eyes stared upward in confusion.

Rebecca's gaze remained unfocused for several seconds before finally settling on Lavinia.

"L... Lavinia?"

"Hi." Lavinia smiled down at her. "You're okay."

Rebecca blinked slowly.

Her lips remained around Lavinia's wrist.

Then her eyes widened slightly as awareness returned.

Lavinia laughed softly. "Don't worry about that part. You were dying."

Rebecca's expression shifted.

Fear.

Confusion.

Then realization.

Her gaze moved around the destroyed corridor.

She tried to move.

Lavinia gently tightened her hold.

"Don't yet." Lavinia kept her voice soft. "Give it another minute."

Rebecca relaxed again.

Lavinia looked down the hallway.

Her ears twitched once more.

Gwendolyn was still moving.

Valerie had found someone else.

Far below, she could faintly hear Violetta speaking.

Lavinia sighed.

Had she sighed this much as a human?

Probably not.

She hadn't been someone who constantly worried about the future.

Things happened.

She dealt with them.

That had generally been enough.

Now she was thinking about species relations and retaliation and what the world might look like years from now.

She missed worrying about normal things.

Werewolves, vampires and humans could coexist.

They already were.

Every single day since the First Divergence had proven that they could occupy the same cities.

Talk to each other.

Work together.

Help each other.

So why couldn't everyone simply give it a chance?

Lavinia looked down at Rebecca.

The woman's skin had regained its color completely.

Her breathing had steadied.

The blood staining her clothing remained, but the injuries responsible for it were rapidly disappearing.

Lavinia finally pulled her wrist away.

Rebecca instinctively followed it slightly.

A tiny sound of dissatisfaction escaped her.

Lavinia froze.

Then she stared at her.

Rebecca looked faintly embarrassed.

Lavinia couldn't help laughing.

"No more."

Rebecca swallowed and weakly protested. "But—"

"No." Lavinia shook her head, golden hair shifting over her shoulders. "I can't give you any more blood. I don't want you getting addicted to it."

Rebecca's eyes briefly dropped toward Lavinia's wrist.

Lavinia raised an eyebrow.

"Don't look at it like that."

Rebecca managed a tiny smile.

"Sorry."

"You're forgiven." Lavinia carefully shifted Rebecca before rising to her feet with the woman still in her arms.

Rebecca blinked as she suddenly found herself several feet above where she'd been lying.

Lavinia lowered her gently until her shoes touched the floor.

She kept one hand around Rebecca's arm. 

"Can you stand?"

Rebecca cautiously placed her weight on her legs.

Her green eyes widened.

"I think so."

Lavinia loosened her grip slightly but didn't release her. "Are you okay?"

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