The Divergence

───

The five vampires returned to the clinic through the shattered entrance.

Broken glass crunched beneath their boots. The front desk remained stained with blood, and bullet holes dotted the walls behind it, but the building had fallen quiet now that the shooting had ended.

Lavinia immediately caught the scent of fresh vampire blood.

Sweet vanilla filled the hallway so strongly that she could almost taste it.

She turned toward the treatment room where she'd left the receptionist.

Evelyn sat beside the examination table, one arm extended over the injured woman. Her fangs had opened the inside of her own wrist, and dark red blood, nearly black beneath the clinical lighting, ran steadily into the receptionist's mouth.

The woman swallowed weakly.

Her eyes remained closed, but her heartbeat had strengthened.

More remarkably, the wound in her stomach no longer looked immediately fatal. Torn flesh was drawing together beneath the nurse's hands, closing far more rapidly than any human injury should have been capable of healing. Blood still stained the woman's uniform, but the flow had slowed to a thin seep.

The nurse stared at the injury.

Her hands had gone still.

"...That's impossible."

She whispered the words again, as though repetition might make what she was seeing easier to understand.

"It's impossible."

Evelyn glanced toward her.

Her face had become slightly paler, though not from blood loss. She seemed more unsettled by the attention than the open wound on her wrist.

Celestine stood close beside her, one hand resting gently against Evelyn's shoulder.

When the others entered, she looked up.

"Are the people outside dealt with?"

Valerie pulled out her phone and shook it lightly.

"I called the police."

She looked toward the broken windows.

"They should be here soon."

Rosaline leaned against the doorframe, the pistol she'd taken outside no longer in her hand.

"Most of them won't need arresting."

The nurse's heartbeat stumbled.

Adelaide glanced at her but didn't elaborate.

Lavinia's attention shifted toward Valerie's phone.

The screen was intact.

A faint smile crossed her face.

Then she reached into one of the hidden pockets of her dress.

Her fingers closed around something jagged.

"...Oh."

Slowly, she pulled out what remained of her own phone.

The screen was completely shattered.

A large section near one corner had been torn away where a bullet had grazed it, exposing dark internal components.

A web of cracks spread across the rest of the display, and a thin strip of glass fell loose as she turned it over.

Lavinia stared down at it.

Her crimson eyes widened with genuine sorrow.

"...No."

Valerie looked over.

Then burst into laughter.

Lavinia raised her wounded phone as though presenting the body of a fallen friend.

"Look at it."

Valerie laughed harder.

"That's what you get for trying to look cool while standing on top of a truck."

"I was not trying to look cool."

"You had one finger against your lips."

"I was thinking."

"While people were shooting through the roof beneath you."

Lavinia's expression became deeply offended.

"I was giving them an opportunity to make better decisions."

Rosaline glanced at the destroyed phone.

"And it cost you your phone."

Lavinia slowly lowered herself to her knees.

The ruined device remained cradled in both hands.

"...It was innocent."

Gwendolyn crouched beside her and patted her head sympathetically.

"It died bravely."

"It didn't have to die at all."

Valerie leaned against the wall, still laughing.

"You could've moved."

"I was making a point."

"The bullet made one too."

Lavinia gave her a dark look.

That only made Valerie smile wider.

With a mournful sigh, Lavinia climbed back to her feet and dropped the phone into her pocket, though the missing corner made it painfully obvious there would be no saving it.

Her hands were still coated in drying blood.

Some belonged to her.

Some did not.

She found a roll of paper towels near the sink and began wiping her fingers clean.

The blood came away from her flawless skin easily, though several stains remained on her dress.

Those would fade eventually, just as the damage from the bullets was already disappearing.

She wiped along her forearm.

Then her cheek.

A faint dark smear came away on the towel.

"...I really didn't expect to kill anyone tonight."

Her voice had lost some of its playful tone.

She looked toward the shattered lobby.

"I thought we'd drink blood, meet other vampires if we were lucky, and go home."

Rosaline folded her arms.

"The world throws curveballs."

Lavinia looked at her.

"...Curved balls?"

Rosaline blinked.

"Curveballs."

"Oh."

Lavinia nodded as though she'd understood perfectly the first time.

"Yes."

"Those."

Adelaide stepped closer to the examination table.

"If we hadn't stopped them, they would've attacked another clinic."

Her confident tone carried no uncertainty.

"Or another group of humans helping vampires."

She glanced toward Evelyn.

"Possibly other vampires too."

Lavinia discarded the stained paper towel.

"I know."

She didn't feel guilty for defending herself.

Nor for stopping the attackers after they'd already killed someone and nearly killed another.

Still, the ease with which the night had shifted from curiosity to death lingered strangely.

Her gaze returned to the receptionist.

The wound had almost completely sealed.

Only a tender-looking line remained where the bullet had entered.

Evelyn carefully pulled her wrist away from the woman's mouth.

The bite she'd made in her own skin was already closing.

Lavinia moved closer, then leaned slightly over Celestine's shoulder to look at Evelyn.

"How did you know your blood would heal her?"

Evelyn looked down at her wrist.

"I didn't."

Lavinia tilted her head.

"You didn't?"

Evelyn shook her head softly.

"I just..."

She searched for the words.

"...felt like it would."

The answer settled over the room.

The nurse stared at Evelyn with renewed disbelief.

Celestine gave her shoulder another gentle squeeze.

Lavinia looked from Evelyn's healed wrist to the receptionist breathing steadily on the table.

Another thing vampires simply knew.

Like blood.

Like falling.

Like recognizing one another.

She smiled faintly.

"...Convenient."

Evelyn nodded, though she still looked uncertain.

"It seems so."

Outside, distant sirens began drawing closer.

The vampires' ears twitched almost together.

Valerie slipped her phone back into her pocket.

"Looks like the police are almost here."

Lavinia rested a hand over the remains of her own phone and sighed once more.

"...They'd better appreciate the sacrifice I made tonight."

───

The first police cruiser arrived less than four minutes later.

Then another.

Then three more.

Blue and red lights washed across the parking lot, reflecting from shattered glass, dented vehicles, and the blood staining the asphalt.

Doors opened.

Officers stepped out.

Then...

Almost everyone stopped.

The dispatch had reported an active shooting at the city's blood clinic.

Instead...

The scene before them looked almost unreal.

The clinic's front windows had been blown inward.

Several vehicles sat riddled with bullet holes.

Doors had been torn completely from their hinges and lay discarded several meters away.

Windshields and side windows had been shattered.

Automatic rifles, pistols, knives and empty magazines littered the ground.

The security guard lay motionless near the entrance.

Bodies were scattered throughout the parking lot.

Some still groaned weakly.

Others no longer moved.

Standing among all of it...

Were four vampires.

They looked almost absurdly pristine compared to the destruction around them.

Their dresses had already repaired themselves.

Their skin showed no trace of injury.

Their long hair drifted gently in the evening breeze.

Only faint smears of drying blood remained on their hands and clothing.

The older officer slowly lowered the hand he'd instinctively placed near his holster.

"...Chief."

Another officer swallowed.

"They're..."

"I know."

Every briefing they'd received since the Divergence replayed itself inside his head.

Avoid unnecessary escalation.

Communicate.

Do not assume transformed individuals initiated violence.

He looked around the parking lot once more.

The evidence overwhelmingly suggested the attack had come from somewhere else.

Valerie noticed the officers first.

"Oh."

She raised a hand politely.

"Officer."

Several officers instinctively stiffened.

Valerie blinked.

"...I was just greeting you."

She began walking toward them at a perfectly ordinary pace.

Even that somehow made the officers more nervous.

Every step was graceful.

Measured.

Almost silent.

Her vivid orange hair swayed across her back as she stopped several feet away.

The nearest officer met her crimson eyes.

Or...

He tried to.

There were no pupils.

Only smooth crimson.

Maintaining eye contact felt strangely difficult.

Valerie smiled pleasantly.

"Good evening."

"...Good evening."

The officer answered automatically.

She nodded once.

"My name is Valerie."

She gestured toward herself before sweeping one hand toward the clinic.

"My friends and I came here for blood."

Her hand then moved toward the damaged vehicles.

"Those people arrived shortly afterward."

The officer followed her gesture.

"They killed the security guard."

She looked briefly toward the body near the entrance.

"And they opened fire on the building."

"They shot the receptionist."

His expression hardened.

"...Is she alive?"

Valerie smiled.

"Yes."

"She's alright now."

The officer frowned slightly.

"...Now?"

Valerie nodded.

"Mhm."

"She's inside."

"She's... understandably a little shaken."

That was probably the understatement of the evening.

Being shot in the stomach...

Feeling herself bleeding to death...

Then waking to find the injury simply gone...

Valerie imagined that would take some time to process.

She looked toward the clinic doors.

"I'm sure she's still trying to understand what happened."

The officer made a mental note to speak with her once medical personnel had examined her.

Valerie's gaze drifted back toward the security guard.

"...He wasn't as fortunate."

Her voice softened.

"He died before we could help him."

The surrounding officers exchanged brief glances.

Then Valerie casually gestured toward the attackers lying around the parking lot.

"They're the ones responsible."

The officer looked over the scene again.

"...All of them?"

"Mhm."

"They attacked first."

He hesitated.

"...What happened to them?"

Valerie tilted her head thoughtfully.

"...Most of them died accidentally."

A long silence followed.

"...Accidentally?"

"Mhm."

Valerie made absolutely no effort to explain further.

The officer quietly decided perhaps he didn't actually want details.

Behind Valerie, more officers cautiously spread across the parking lot.

No one drew a weapon.

Not because they weren't frightened.

Quite the opposite.

The reports concerning vampires had repeatedly stressed how ineffective firearms could be.

Looking at the torn-off car doors...

The dented body panels...

The shattered glass...

The advice suddenly seemed very reasonable.

Several officers approached the security guard.

One checked for a pulse despite already knowing the answer.

Another quietly covered the body with a sheet retrieved from one of the cruisers.

Crime scene investigators began photographing everything.

The shell casings.

The damaged vehicles.

The weapons.

The bullet impacts covering the clinic.

Nothing suggested the vampires had initiated the violence.

The evidence overwhelmingly pointed the other way.

The clinic doors opened.

Several officers looked up again.

Lavinia stepped outside.

She seemed completely unconcerned by the police presence.

Instead, she walked directly toward Valerie and the officer she'd been speaking to.

As she approached, she reached into one of the hidden pockets of her dress.

The officer instinctively tensed.

Lavinia withdrew...

A phone.

Or rather...

Most of one.

The display had shattered into countless cracks.

One corner had been completely blasted away, exposing tiny electronic components beneath.

She held it out solemnly.

"...Will I be compensated?"

The officer blinked.

"My phone."

She pointed toward the ruined device.

"They broke it."

Silence.

Lavinia looked genuinely heartbroken.

"I only bought it recently."

Valerie bit the inside of her cheek.

She was losing the battle.

The officer slowly accepted the broken phone.

He looked at it.

Then at the destroyed parking lot.

Then back at the phone.

"...You're asking about... this?"

Lavinia nodded.

"It wasn't my fault."

"They shot it."

Another pause.

"I think..."

She looked thoughtfully at the broken corner.

"...That probably counts as property damage."

The officer opened his mouth.

Closed it.

Opened it again.

"I..."

"I honestly don't know."

Lavinia looked mildly disappointed.

"...Oh."

A snort escaped Valerie.

She immediately covered her mouth.

Lavinia glanced sideways.

"You laughed."

"I did."

"You laughed at my phone."

"I laughed at the timing."

Lavinia folded her arms.

"I was giving them an opportunity to make better decisions."

Valerie finally burst into laughter.

The nearby officers looked between them in confusion.

Lavinia continued, sounding completely indignant.

"I wasn't trying to look cool."

"You were standing on top of a truck," Valerie managed between laughs.

"I was thinking."

"They were shooting through the roof."

"They shot my phone."

"They also shot you."

"They shot my phone."

The officer stared.

She seemed considerably more upset about the phone.

"...Right."

He carefully handed the remains back.

"I'll... include it in the report."

"Thank you."

Lavinia accepted it with obvious relief before carefully sliding it back into her pocket.

"...It was a good phone."

The officer gave a tiny nod.

Then quietly excused himself.

He walked briskly back toward his patrol car.

Opened the driver's door.

Picked up the radio.

His voice remained remarkably calm.

"Dispatch."

A burst of static answered.

"Go ahead."

"...Requesting the chief."

A brief pause.

"Reason?"

The officer looked back toward the clinic.

Four vampires stood calmly outside.

Inside, he could see three more through the shattered entrance speaking quietly with nurses.

The receptionist sat in a chair near the reception desk, wrapped in a blanket someone had found for her.

She looked pale.

Confused.

Occasionally touching the place where she'd been shot as though expecting to find the wound again.

She wasn't bleeding.

She wasn't injured.

She was simply staring into space, trying to reconcile memory with reality.

The officer looked back toward the parking lot.

The dead security guard.

The scattered automatic weapons.

The torn-off car doors.

The shattered windows.

The fourteen attackers.

Then back toward the vampires.

Not one of them appeared injured.

Even the one who'd complained...

Hadn't complained about being shot.

She'd complained about replacing her phone.

He pressed the radio button again.

"...You're going to want the chief for this one."

Another pause.

"...Understood."

"The chief is on the way."

The officer lowered the radio.

He watched the seven vampires for another long moment.

He honestly couldn't decide what unsettled him more.

The fact they had survived an ambush from heavily armed attackers without lasting injury...

Or the fact that, after everything that had happened, the most heartfelt complaint he'd heard all night concerned a broken phone.