Working Class Vegas Vamp is a free urban fantasy serial, usually publishing on Tuesdays. It is unedited and subject to change. If published later, it may differ significantly, and will probably include additional material. Typos and English errors are likely; feel free to leave a comment or write me at am {AT} amscottwrites.com (revised as a standard email address. Pesky bots!) Available for a limited time only!

Haven’t started yet? Chapter 1: https://www.amscottwrites.com/2024/10/29/working-class-vegas-vamp-chapter-1/ ‎

Chapter 25

We trod through the gently curving tunnel, the temperature rising as we walked, and stopped in front of a door with a dark-colored wheel in the middle, made of iron perhaps. Mattias grasped the wheel and turned it, a scraping noise coming from the door, then he swung it open. The door was thick rock, with long locking bars attached to a matching wheel on the far side. We passed through the doorway and into another gigantic cavern. Hot air roasted me and dried my mouth. As Mattias secured the door, I moved to the side and took off my jacket, but couldn’t stop staring. And blinking, trying to wet my eyes.

Rather than houses along the sides, ten-foot diameter tunnels roared with flame. Massive gargoyles in their traditional four-leg, horned head beast form blasted fire from their mouths, while two more in human form shoveled black rock–possibly coal–into the tunnels. The human form gargoyles were giants–easily nine feet tall–but their legs were short in comparison to their wide, muscular torsos. None of them wore clothing, which made sense, because it would be burned away.

Mattias walked away from the door. “I’ll be right back.” He disappeared into an opening in the wall.

I unzipped my leather motorcycle pants. I’d be meeting the Council in leggings and a t-shirt after all. But I doubted what I wore mattered to gargoyles.

Mattias returned, and handed me a metal water bottle. “Drink all you need. I can refill it.” He raised his volume so I could hear him over the fire-blasting gargoyles.

“If it stays this hot, I’ll need a lot.” The cavern seemed hotter than Death Valley, and swirled with even hotter currents as the blast furnaces warred for dominance.

“I should have warned you, but I don’t feel the difference unless I walk into one of those.” He pointed at the furnace.

“Is this your heating system for the caverns? Seems like a lot of work.” Solar panels and electric heaters would be easier.

Mattias rumbled, interrupting my thoughts. “No. We are forging new gargoyles. It is a very long, difficult process and not always successful.”

“Oh.” Forged, not born. He was sharing a lot of information with a stranger. Would I ever leave these caverns? “I’m sorry it’s not easier.”

“Come.” Mattias walked away.

I rolled my leathers into a bundle and followed. While Mattias moved at an even pace, I sprinted across the furnace openings, and slowed between them. Sweat poured out of me, evaporating immediately and leaving my skin tight and dry.

At the end of the cavern, I waited for Mattias to open the lock bars, then scampered into the tunnel beyond. The air wasn’t much cooler, but it was better than being dry-roasted in a furnace. I drank the bottle dry and held it out to Mattias after he secured the door. “More, please.”

He shook his head. “In the next cavern. Come.”

We continued along another identical, gently curved rock tunnel, then Mattias cracked the next vault door and pointed a finger, indicating I should go through. The cavern beyond the door was just as large as Outer Shield, but the carvings and tile work were on a much larger scale. The gargoyles, in human and traditional form, varied from giants of twenty feet to human size. Some carved the walls, while others added to the mosaics, the tiles looking miniscule in their massive hands. Others plodded across the cavern. Some slumped or crouched against dark gray mounds sticking out from the walls. The mounds were shaped vaguely like crouched gargoyles that had eroded over centuries of wind and rain, but there was no sign of weather down here. While it was still hot, I no longer felt like a pig on a spit.

Mattias took my bottle and filled it at a towering fountain with a wide pool at the bottom, then led me across the space, winding around the slow-moving giants. “This is Forger’s Rest. All of these people have completed a full forging cycle. They stay here until they are ready to move on. Approximately half return to forging. About a quarter of them shed size and power and rejoin the Inner Shield community. Another quarter join working groups for the Council, and eventually, the Council itself. Rarely, they remain here and gradually return to dust.” He pointed at the mounded backrests at the sides of the immense cavern.

“Those mounds are people?” My immediate reaction was horror, but I couldn’t judge them by human or vampire standards. I held up my right hand. “Wait, I’m sorry. My reaction was ill-considered.”

Mattias nodded once. “I understand. It doesn’t seem right to a biologically grown species. But we are literally forged from carbon, one of the main elements of Earth, so to carbon we return. Forging new life is strenuous, both physically and mentally. Once they give their all to a new life, some can no longer hold onto theirs, particularly if the forging was unsuccessful. It’s not common, but it happens. We don’t know exactly when the soul lets go, so we hope that by leaning against what remains, we bring comfort and ease to their passing.”

I closed my eyes, trying to comprehend the pain and compassion. “That’s beautiful and tragic.”

Mattias continued walking. “It is. But less tragic than before we figured out how to bind to this world’s magic. When we arrived, we lost so many. All over the European continent, the remains of our people return to dust, deep in closed mines. Only a few hundred of us survived the gate and the early transition. Even now, we are only a few thousand, split between the Americas, Europe and Asia. But any more would be too great a burden on your world.”

“Would any of the other planets in our solar system be better?” I waited for Mattias to open the vault door.

He turned the wheel. “The temperature of Venus would be better but there’s too much sulfuric acid in the atmosphere. We’d disappear like tears in the rain. The pressure on Jupiter is too great and the rest of the planets are too cold. We’ve adapted to this one quite well, and we have a fulfilling role.”

“I suppose.” While aliens saving humans was popular in fiction, I was more likely to believe they were invaders, lulling our suspicions. Certainly, few humans were truly altruistic. If they weren’t getting an obvious reward, then they were taking a larger one, secretly. But gargoyles weren’t humans. “Just how much of Earth’s magic does it take to sustain your species?”

He shook his head and motioned for me to walk through the opening. “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask the Council. But I don’t think it’s excessive.”

We traversed the now-familiar semi-circular tunnel, and stopped at the next vault door. Mattias opened it and we entered another massive cavern. While still too warm for me, it was cooler than the last. But that didn’t matter in comparison to the gigantic gargoyles in front of me. They wore bipedal forms, but without the details that let their smaller members appear human, and stood in groups of three to ten. The smallest gargoyle was probably ten feet tall, with a five-foot wide torso; the largest at least thirty feet tall. They were linked, either by holding hands, a hand on a shoulder, or they leaned against each other. “I guess that explains the hangar doors.”

“Yes.” Mattias pointed at my water bottle. “Don’t forget to drink.”

As we walked, I sipped water and Mattias explained. “These are working groups for the Council. They monitor the magic by geographic region. The more magic users in an area, the more people it takes.”

Nearing the far wall, I noticed our footsteps were loud in the silence. Before opening the next door, Mattias took my water bottle and filled it at another fountain with an even larger pool at the bottom, then cracked the next vault door. Rather than a tunnel, we stepped directly into another cavern, about half the size of the previous spaces. Seven gargoyles in their traditional forms crouched in a circle, the smallest at least thirty feet tall, the largest almost brushing the suspended lights.

Mattias pointed at the group. “The Gargoyle Guardians Council. Since their voices would deafen you, I’ll interpret. Come. I have to touch them.”

I grimaced. I was tiny next to these behemoths and I really didn’t want to get stepped on.

Mattias chuckled. “Don’t worry. They don’t usually move fast. And before you ask, yes, we use a form of telepathy, but it requires contact.”

But the Council members weren’t touching—except they were. Each had two tails, linking them together. “Before we interrupt them, I’m assuming you grow larger with age?”

“Yes. That’s another reason for the split between Inner and Outer Shield. Outer Shield people can pass for human. Inner Shield are too large, but not strong enough to join the forgers, or they are newly forged and learning.”

This was all too easy. “You’re sharing an awful lot about your species with someone you hardly know. Why?”

Mattias cracked a smile. “But I do know you. I’ve worked with you for years.” He held up a hand. “It’s not the same as being friends, but in some ways, it’s better. I’ve seen how you treat others, how you manage difficult people and your leadership abilities. We can trust you.” He turned and walked towards the Council. “But if you betray us, we’ll crush you like a gnat and throw your prophecy into a forge.”

Anger flooded from the prophecy, but it was tinged with fear. The book must be vulnerable to magical fire, if not mundane flames. “I don’t break my word. But I won’t make a blind promise, either. I need to know what your help costs.” Karski was right—my ignorance was dangerous. I didn’t know how to use magic, other than my instincts or what the prophecy taught me. I didn’t know what the prophecy said or the extent of its abilities. Or what it meant to the other vampires in the world, all of them with more knowledge and skill than me.

In short, I might be safe for now, but I still had a lot of trouble. The Council might help, but I had to know why and how much they expected from me. And I wanted to know what kind of burden they added to our planet. Were they protectors, or a protection racket? “Civilized” invaders rarely benefited the natives.

However, my choice right now was simple. I could leave and die, or listen to the gargoyles and possibly survive.

I followed Mattias towards the looming danger of the Gargoyle Guardians Council.

***To be continued***

Working Class Vegas Vamp Copyright © 2024 by AM Scott. All Rights Reserved.

Cover by Achlys Book Cover Designs