Kensington

~1 week, 6 days until transmission

"Look, there's the wolfpack that Cecil mentioned."

Howls reached the four of them high in the night sky as they steered clear of the skirmishes down below. Amidst the crushed debris that had once been rows of stately Victorian-style buildings, only monsters remained anywhere in sight.

Two-story residential flats lay in ruins, sometimes for entire lengths of a street at a time. Brick, wood, siding, didn't matter – werewolves did not discriminate when it came to the destruction of building material, especially if someone lay just on the other side of it. The only glass to be found anywhere were the shards scattered across the sidewalks, glinting soft reflections back up at them like the stars they were unable to see through the Shroud.

If Stratford was considered vamp country, then Kensington definitely had been claimed by the wolves. Not to the degree that Greenwich still was, mind, but enough that nobody should have any reason to come here even if the Mad Prince hadn't wanted to sequester this borough off from the rest.

And yet, here we are. Chasing the sounds of gunfire and watching our homes be trampled underfoot by the beasts who pushed us out onto the streets to begin with.

Henry watched as a small crowd of vampires tried to lure a lone wolf into an ambush, only to have the tables turned on them by another wolf concealing itself within one of the few remaining houses still standing. The front of it burst outward in a shower of splintered wood and cracked stone, leaving the vampires little time to do more than be crushed underfoot, stunned as they were.

"Bloody hell," Dee muttered next to him, watching the same sight take place. "Almost enough to make you want to feel sorry for the poor blighters."

"But not quite enough?" Henry asked.

"Never quite enough."

Henry hummed in complete agreement. On that, there was never any debate. Admittedly a rather low bar to clear, but… nice to have common ground regardless.

They left the monsters to their bickering below, deciding they were better served just sailing to their destination undisturbed now that it was only a few kilometers away. Claire kept her eyes on the ground, scanning for anything that looked like a group of living people they could rescue.

"Soooooo… what's the plan?" she asked Henry, listening intently for the next burst of gunfire. "Because realistically, we should have something better ready to go than just… having you run around in front and nearly get killed."

Henry grunted in response. He didn't want to admit that she had a point there… but she did.

"…Let's do things a bit differently this time, then," he agreed, thinking for a moment. "Can we throw skeletons at the problem to start, and see where things go from there?"

"That's literally just what your first plan was, before you went off on your own." She turned to face him this time, eyebrows creased slightly in response. "Maybe something different this time? Because, looking at this from our perspective, 'seeing where things go' is what got the Mad Prince chasing you in the first place."

"...Point taken. Uh... how about we start with figuring out who takes on which targets once we get there?"

Henry leaned back a bit, giving space for the other three to offer advice. He… was at a bit of a loss on how else to go about this, currently. He wasn't exactly a one trick pony when it came to strategizing, but that didn't hide the fact that his plans tended to boil down to 'run in, then throw all your gimmicks at the problem until either it's solved or you run out.' It tended to work – and work pretty damn well, he might add – about half the time. Being able to repeat the same strategy multiple times with most of the consequences removed had that advantage.

Usually, all he'd ever needed to do was hit his head against the brick wall long enough for it to break. Though, looking back on the other half…

He'd begun to realize that maybe he should have started taking advice much, much sooner.

Dee started with the summary of what they might expect. "That Morowitz guy said there was at least one 'bigwig' chasing him and his men, so I'm guessing that was one of the three arch-vampires that raided the warehouse. Probably some smaller fry, too, but how much is unknown at this point."

Henry nodded. "My guess would be less, rather than more vampires. And not all three arches. They might've been numerous before the warehouse, but they can't be that much more numerous after we hit their numbers hard. Plus I'd be willing to bet money that they've split their forces somehow, and Robb and Grace are fighting at least one of them by now."

"Think they'll be okay?" Claire asked with a hint of worry. "Because if we're inadvertently leaving people to their deaths by doing this, I don't want any part in it. I know it's a little late to be having second thoughts-"

"Hey, hey, easy. They'll be fine." he waved a reassuring gesture back to her. "Grace can be a real heavy hitter when she wants to be, and I lined up some other assurances during that run across the river."

"...Other assurances?" Giselle questioned, adjusting the hem of one of her gloves with a quizzical expression. "I thought you were just trying not to get manhandled once you ended up over there."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Well… heh, there was a fair share of that, too, but multitasking is my middle name. You all saw the Constable almost shoot me, right?"

Several sets of eyes narrowed as he brought that up.

"...Where are you going with this," Dee asked slowly.

Henry almost carried on, on a slightly different wavelength to the mood of the others. Sure, at an academic level he understood they were just worried about his life, but to him… what was one more death at this point?

...Oh wait, he then realized. I might be stuck as just a normal guy, if this clone situation doesn't change soon.

"Relax," he reassured again, his confidence deflating back down to reasonable levels. "it's just what was happening at the time. He wants to see me dead, and I promised him a better time to do it, where I'd meet up with him for a fight guaranteed. After that hit he took, I think he was inclined to agree that postponing was a good idea. And in exchange, he has to go help out the escape efforts and make sure they're all safe, too!"

"...That's...huh." Dee backed down, thinking over what Henry said. "That's pretty clever, not going to lie. He agreed to all that?"

"Well… not in direct words. But the implication-"

"Okay. Stop. There goes my confidence. You're saying you didn't at least get a verbal contract?"

A beat of silence clung to the conversation. Dee remained skeptical, but Henry stuck to his guns.

"He's not that kind of guy," he answered resolutely. "He'll do it. When it comes to non-Devils, he's probably one of the most selfless guys out there. And as for his business with me…"

He turned around staring back out towards the river in the direction Robb and Grace had went.

"He wants my head more than anything. In what world would he not decide to kill two birds with one stone?"

< -|- -|- >

"WHY. WON'T. YOU. FOOKIN. STAY. DEAD?!?!"

A pistol shot punctuated every word the Constable spat in the copy's direction, not so much angry at the development as extremely, extremely frustrated. At this point, Robb could empathize with the much bigger man. He'd recovered somewhat from his close scare with death, and seeing the lengths this apparent local legend was needing to go to in order to keep Henry at arms length was…

Frankly, it was starting to get a bit scary how much punishment the clone could take.

Another high-caliber round tore through Henry's shoulder, leaving a clean puncture straight through and causing the whole limb to go limp for a second. No pained cry, no tensing in response to the wound, just the same, slow approach. One foot in front of the other.

Then, like every time that was tried before, the crystal flashed from green to orange and he regained control of what should have been a completely severed muscle group. The damage was still clearly there, but… whatever he was doing, it allowed him to ignore it completely.

He must have been more lead than blood at this point. Several bullets were halfway embedded into his forehead like macabre piercings, one eye was gone as well as a good amount of the right side of his face, and he was still charging forwards on cracked bones and twisted limbs that should have left him barely recognizable in the dirt.

The only thing the image was missing at this point was some zombie-like groans. Instead, they just got the same crazed rambling, this time with vocal cords in significantly worse condition.

"You will not be the one to save us all, measured peacekeeper." His address to the Constable rasped in his throat as he spoke, gasping for air through rattling, open wounds as he charged forward. "You are bound by the decisions of others, others whose hubris could not anticipate our own arrogance. Even if you were to turn back now, that is too late to change. But you… you can still save some."

"Shaddap an' bloody die already!" The Constable pistol-whipped the clone in the head with so much force, an audible crack sounded out leaving its head twisted at an odd angle. "And if this is the sort of bullshet I can expect from the rest of yas, I might jus' drag ye back to 'em kickin' and screamin' so they can deal with you personally! Hubris or not, they certainly can handle you!"

Despite Henry's head being bent in such a way that he physically couldn't face the Constable, his one remaining eye locked dead on to his opponent. He laughed.

"And somehow… you can't bring yourself to." A mirthless chuckle spilled from the mouth of the walking corpse, continuing to inch closer even now. It was a weak, phlegmy laugh that escaped, but the muted tone of it only added to the eerie chill that ran down Robb's spine as he watched from the sidelines.

"I wonder… how different we would see each other if your 'tests' weren't so poorly managed…"

"Alright, that does it!"

He aimed his guns at the crystal, apparently finally looking to end the fight permanently. Both hands pumped the triggers several times each, unloading round after round at the new target in an attempt to whittle the structure down.

One struck dead on. Then another. Every last bullet seemed to strike with pinpoint accuracy, even the ones that seemed a little off at first. Robb could've sworn the trajectory of one of the beams of light trailing the bullets curved, just ever so slightly.

With each impact, a piece of the crystal flaked away. Cracks began to spiderweb across the surface, and for the first time so far the duplicate seemed to feel actual pain. This, of course, only made it redouble its efforts to land a blow on the Constable, aiming for exposed vitals like the neck and a few larger arteries.

"And so my time has come," Henry almost whispered as parts of the crystal began crumbling. "There is more I yet need to unearth. The last level and its secrets are so close... And yet-"

His words died mid-lunge.

The sound of shattering glass filled the air, and at long, long last the clone died. Like a puppet with its strings cut, the corpse of Henry finally fell to the ground, utterly lifeless.

"Finally," The Constable grimaced. "I'd been worried there might be something worse that might happen if I tried that, but in the end, the only option was going for the obvious weak spot. Mental note for later, I suppose."

He turned around, looking to Robb with renewed interest.

"You," he commanded. "Ya look strong enough ta be in charge here, so get the rest of these folks ready to move as soon as possible. I can promise that the arch-vampire here will be dealt with in short order, but it's in your best interest to get yerselves ready fer a hike. I'll explain more on the road, once I wrap up."

"U-um…"

"Do it now, son. Unless ye want to end up in a world of hurt."

"Right… okay, ah…"

Robb got up and headed back to the lines of soldiers, slightly confused as to exactly what he had just witnessed in totality. Everything in his head just felt like a bit of a jumbled mess, and he really felt he needed some way of sorting all this insanity out.

…Maybe once this was all over, he'd ask Claire for a one-on-one talk. She was a former therapist, she'd said…

The Constable watched him go, making sure that his instructions would be carried out from a distance. Once he was alone on the battlefield, he finally pulled the knife that had dug deep into his forearm free from where it was lodged.

"That's gonnae leave a mark..."

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.