The Divergence

───

Chief Daniel Mercer closed the office door behind himself.

The sounds of the station immediately became muted.

His office wasn't especially large.

A desk.

Several filing cabinets.

A bookshelf.

A coffee mug that had long since gone cold.

And spread neatly across the desk...

Crime scene photographs.

The blood clinic.

The damaged vehicles.

The dead security guard.

The attackers.

Mercer rested both hands on the desk and stared at them for several long seconds before reaching for the phone.

The call connected after only two rings.

"Mayor Holloway speaking."

Mercer straightened unconsciously.

"Madam Mayor."

Mayor Amanda Holloway didn't waste time on pleasantries.

"I've already been informed there was an attack."

"I need your report."

Mercer exhaled slowly.

"It was worse than the preliminary reports suggested."

"I'm listening."

"There were twenty seven attackers total."

"They arrived heavily armed."

"Automatic rifles."

"Handguns."

"Knives."

"One improvised incendiary device."

"They opened fire on the blood clinic."

He looked toward one of the photographs.

"They killed the contracted security guard almost immediately."

"They also shot the receptionist."

A brief silence followed.

"And the vampires?"

"They retaliated."

"How many?"

Mercer looked at the casualty report.

"Most of the attackers died."

"The remainder were critically injured."

"They were transported to hospital."

Mayor Holloway remained quiet.

"And your assessment?"

Mercer rubbed his forehead.

"My assessment..."

He searched for the right words.

"...is that they never stood a chance."

"The attackers?"

"Yes."

"They brought enough weapons to engage a conventional police response."

"They weren't remotely prepared for vampires."

He remembered the reports.

Doors ripped from vehicles.

Bullet impacts.

Witness statements.

"Firearms were only marginally effective."

"The vampires healed."

"They avoided sustained fire."

"The entire confrontation lasted minutes."

The mayor quietly acknowledged him.

"I expected as much."

Mercer frowned.

"Did you?"

"Yes."

"The federal briefings suggested firearms would have limited effectiveness."

"They understated it."

Mercer leaned back into his chair.

"There's something else."

"I'm listening."

"The evidence..."

He hesitated.

"...suggests several attackers were killed after they were no longer capable of resisting."

Silence.

Then...

"So?"

Mercer blinked.

"...So?"

"Madam Mayor, that's significant."

"It may be."

She answered calmly.

"But it isn't what killed them."

Mercer frowned.

"They were killed by vampires."

"They were killed," Holloway corrected gently, "when they decided to drive to a government-supported blood clinic with automatic weapons."

"They murdered a security guard."

"They nearly murdered a receptionist."

"They endangered nurses."

"They endangered civilians."

"They initiated every part of that confrontation."

Mercer looked down at the photographs.

"I understand that."

"But..."

He stopped himself.

The mayor continued.

"Daniel."

"I know exactly what you're thinking."

"You think we're protecting monsters."

Mercer didn't answer.

His silence answered for him.

The mayor sighed softly.

"Tell me something."

"How often do humans kill other humans?"

Mercer frowned.

"...Every day."

"I know."

"No."

Her voice remained calm.

"I asked you to think about it."

"How often?"

He looked toward the station window.

"...Far too often."

"Exactly."

Another pause.

"Now think a little further."

"What happens..."

"If vampires and werewolves stop believing they themselves were people..."

"And start believing they're monsters?"

Mercer remained silent.

The mayor continued.

"How many officers died today?"

"One."

"How many attackers?"

"Most of them."

"And yet..."

"They still struggled to injure seven vampires."

Mercer closed his eyes briefly.

He knew where this conversation was heading.

"If those seven had wanted to kill everyone present..."

"They could have."

He didn't disagree.

"They didn't."

"No."

"They cooperated."

"They answered questions."

"They accompanied officers voluntarily."

"They even waited through interviews."

She paused.

"And one of them spent half the evening worrying about a broken phone."

Despite himself...

Mercer almost smiled.

"...Yes."

"I read that report."

Her voice softened.

"Daniel."

"If you value any chance..."

"Any chance at all..."

"Of this world remaining peaceful..."

"You need to keep perspective."

He looked again at the photographs.

"What exactly are you asking me to do?"

"I'm asking you to control information."

"The investigation continues."

"The incident remains active."

He frowned.

"The dead?"

"The attackers intended to disappear."

"They arrived prepared for violence."

"They forfeited any expectation that events would unfold neatly."

Mercer was quiet for several moments.

"...Families will ask questions."

"They will."

"We delay while identifications and investigative procedures continue."

"We release information carefully."

"No speculation."

"No sensationalism."

Mercer gritted his teeth.

"...How much do you intend to control?"

"It was over twenty bodies tonight."

"How many tomorrow?"

The mayor gave a short, humorless laugh.

"And what alternative would you prefer?"

He didn't answer.

She continued.

"Would you like Oakridge to become the city that declared war on vampires?"

"No."

"Would you like your officers confronting them with service pistols?"

"No."

"Would you like every blood clinic in the country attacked by copycats?"

"...No."

"Then don't confuse doing what feels satisfying with doing what keeps people alive."

Mercer looked out across the station.

Officers continued moving through the halls.

Most of them had families.

Children.

Parents.

Friends.

None of them had signed up to fight supernatural beings.

The mayor spoke again.

"Get your department in line."

"Reason with vampires whenever possible."

"The same goes for werewolves."

"Increase security around blood clinics."

"Increase security around blood storage facilities."

"Crack down immediately on violence directed toward transformed individuals."

"And if transformed individuals commit crimes?"

"We investigate."

"We arrest when possible."

"We negotiate when possible."

"We don't escalate unless there's no other option."

Mercer nodded slowly.

"I understand."

"One more thing."

He waited.

"The reports concerning vampire blood."

"The receptionist."

His expression sharpened.

"Yes."

"What about it?"

"That information doesn't leave official channels."

He frowned.

"Why?"

The mayor answered without hesitation.

"Orders from above."

"Federal?"

"I wasn't told."

"But they were very clear."

"The healing properties of vampire blood are not to be publicly disclosed."

Mercer leaned back.

"...Understood."

The mayor sighed.

"Daniel."

"Some countries are holding together."

"Some aren't."

"Smaller governments have already begun losing control."

"Do not let Oakridge become one of the first cities to fall."

He quietly nodded despite knowing she couldn't see it.

"I'll brief my command staff."

"Good."

"And Daniel?"

"Yes?"

"Don't let your officers step out of line."

"They're frightened."

"I know."

"But frightened people make poor decisions."

"I'll make sure they remember that."

"Thank you."

The line went dead.

Mercer slowly lowered the receiver.

The office fell silent.

Only the faint hum of fluorescent lights remained.

His eyes drifted back to the photographs covering his desk.

The security guard.

The attackers.

The blood clinic.

Broken glass.

Blood.

He looked at them for a long time.

Then quietly gathered them into a single stack.

The photographs slid back into their folder.

He closed it.

Rested one hand on top.

And after a long, weary sigh...

Placed the folder inside the bottom drawer of his desk.

The drawer clicked shut.

Outside his office, phones continued ringing.

Inside...

Chief Daniel Mercer simply sat in silence, wondering whether the world had changed too quickly for anyone to truly keep up.

───

The bathroom door clicked shut behind Lavinia.

For a few moments, she simply stood there, listening.

Even through the walls, the house was alive to her sharpened senses. Eleanor's heartbeat drifted faintly from downstairs, steady and reassuring.

Somewhere in the living room, Valerie laughed at something Rosaline had said, the bright sound carrying through the floorboards.

Gwendolyn was wandering around the hallway, humming to herself.

Lavinia smiled.

It still amazed her how much she could hear.

She set her ruined phone on the counter before reaching behind herself and undoing the golden clasps running from her waist to her chest.

One by one.

Click.

Click.

Click.

The black dress loosened.

She slipped it from her shoulders, the cool fabric whispering against her flawless skin before pooling in her hands.

"...First time," she murmured.

It really was.

Since becoming a vampire, she'd never actually taken the dress off.

She draped it carefully over the counter and dampened a towel beneath the faucet before beginning to wipe away the dried blood that had accumulated from the night's events.

Most of it came away surprisingly easily.

The fabric almost seemed alive in its own subtle way. The scratches and bullet holes she'd noticed earlier were already gone, and the tears from where she'd been flung across asphalt the previous night had vanished entirely.

"You're almost cheating..."

She chuckled quietly.

"If humans had clothes like you, tailors would go bankrupt."

Finishing the last stain, she folded the towel and finally looked up.

The mirror greeted her.

Standing in simple black underwear, she stared at herself.

Her flawless skin looked almost luminous beneath the bathroom light.

Long golden-blonde hair framed her face, cascading nearly to her waist in soft waves.

Thick golden eyelashes surrounded those unmistakable crimson eyes, eyes without the warmth of human pupils, only smooth scarlet that reflected the light faintly.

She slowly raised one hand.

Opened it.

Closed it.

Opened it again.

Her fingers flexed effortlessly.

These hands...

She remembered grabbing someone by the shirt and throwing them several meters.

Remembered driving a knee into someone's stomach hard enough to fold steel against them.

Remembered her nails dragging across a man's face.

The memory should have unsettled her.

Instead...

She simply remembered it.

"The old me wouldn't have done that."

Her reflection continued smiling back at her.

Lavinia tilted her head.

"...Wouldn't he?"

She wasn't actually sure anymore.

The person she had been certainly wouldn't have possessed the strength to throw someone through a windshield.

Or run faster than a speeding car.

Or ignore bullets.

She lowered her hand.

"They attacked first."

That part remained simple.

They had come intending to kill.

Not just vampires.

The security guard.

The receptionist.

The nurses.

Everyone inside.

The security guard had gone to work expecting another ordinary shift.

Instead...

He'd died protecting strangers.

Her smile softened.

"...I'm sorry."

Silence settled around her.

Then her thoughts drifted back to the attackers.

She had considered sparing them.

The thought had crossed her mind.

Even while she fought.

Even while she struck them down.

She simply...

Hadn't wanted to.

Lavinia rested both hands on the sink.

"I didn't know them."

"They annoyed me."

"They endangered people."

"So I crushed them."

She expected guilt to follow those thoughts.

Fear.

Revulsion.

Something.

Instead...

Nothing really changed.

Her emotions remained remarkably steady.

Not absent.

Not cold.

Simply...

Resolved.

She laughed softly.

"...Why am I overthinking this?"

She met her own gaze again.

"They regretted it because they were losing."

"They weren't sorry."

"They were desperate."

She had seen the change in their faces.

Hatred had become terror only after the fight turned against them.

Not before.

She exhaled.

"I don't want to kill people."

That much was true.

"I also don't want people shooting at my friends."

That was equally true.

Between those two thoughts...

The second one won.

Every time.

She looked down at herself again.

Aside from a single small mole resting above her right breast, there wasn't a single imperfection remaining anywhere on her body.

No scars.

No bruises.

No evidence she'd ever been grazed by bullets.

Or thrown into a concrete wall.

Or dragged across asphalt.

Perfect.

Almost unnaturally so.

"...Ridiculous."

She reached for her dress.

The fabric slid smoothly over her shoulders.

She straightened it before fastening each golden clasp with practiced motions.

Click.

Click.

Click.

When the last clasp settled into place, the dress fit perfectly once again, hugging her figure before flowing naturally to her knees.

She gave the skirt a gentle shake.

Not a wrinkle.

Not a stain.

Not even where blood had soaked into it earlier.

Lavinia couldn't help herself.

She twirled.

The layered black skirt blossomed outward before settling gracefully around her legs.

"Heh..."

"I really do like this dress."

She smoothed the front once more before brushing her hair over her shoulders.

Satisfied, she reached for the handle.

The door opened.

And immediately...

"Oh!"

Gwendolyn stood outside with one hand raised, apparently just about to knock.

The two vampires blinked at each other from less than a foot apart.

Lavinia recovered first.

"...Were you waiting outside the bathroom?"

Gwendolyn smiled innocently.

"I was!"

"...Why?"

"I missed the show."

"The... what?"

"The changing."

Gwendolyn sighed dramatically.

"I could've seen Lavi changing."

Lavinia stared at her.

"..."

"..."

Then, without changing expression...

She lifted one leg.

Thump.

Her foot planted squarely against Gwendolyn's backside.

"Yip!"

Gwendolyn stumbled several steps down the hallway, windmilling her arms before catching herself against the wall.

She turned back with exaggerated betrayal written across her face.

"Lavi!"

"What?"

"You assaulted me!"

"You deserved it."

"I was merely expressing disappointment."

"You were being creepy."

"I was being appreciative."

"Those aren't synonyms."

Gwendolyn rubbed the back of her dress dramatically.

"I've been wounded."

Lavinia glanced at the completely unharmed vampire.

"No, you haven't."

"My heart has."

"You don't have one beating either."

"...That was mean."

Lavinia finally laughed.

A genuine, relaxed laugh.

"You'll recover."

"I don't know..."

Gwendolyn sniffled theatrically.

"I may require emotional support."

Before Lavinia could answer, Valerie poked her head around the corner.

"There you are."

She looked from Lavinia...

To Gwendolyn dramatically holding her backside...

Then back again.

"...What happened?"

"Lavi kicked me."

Valerie nodded once.

"Reasonable."

"Hey!"

Rosaline appeared beside Valerie, peering curiously down the hallway.

"What'd she do this time?"

"I said I wished I'd seen Lavi changing."

Rosaline blinked.

Then immediately pointed at Gwendolyn.

"Yeah, deserved."

Even Celestine, quietly emerging from another room, covered her mouth to hide a tiny smile.

Gwendolyn looked around at the unanimous verdict before placing a hand over her chest.

"I see."

"There is injustice in this household."

"There is justice," Lavinia corrected.

"And then there's you."

Eleanor's laughter floated upstairs from below, warm enough that everyone paused for a moment before smiling.

Gwendolyn sighed dramatically.

"...Fine."

"But next time..."

"There won't be a next time."

"You never know."

Lavinia rolled her eyes affectionately.

Then, together with the others, she headed downstairs, the earlier weight in her thoughts feeling strangely distant now, carried away by familiar laughter and the comfortable company of people who, somehow, already felt like family.