Chapter 136: Caleb’s Stand
Caleb POV
The shadowy figure lunged at Lily from behind just as she knelt beside the injured Void Walker. Without thinking, I threw myself between them, taking a blast of dark energy straight to the chest. Pain burst through my body like lightning, but I stayed standing.
"Get away from her!" I shouted, my voice echoing through the twisted world we’d somehow ended up in.
The attacker pulled back his hood, showing Viktor’s cold smile. "Little brother Caleb. Still protecting people, I see."
My heart sank. Viktor was supposed to be dead. We’d all seen him fall into the dimensional tear months ago. But here he was, his eyes shining with the same terrible light as the other corrupted Original Vampires.
"You’re working with the Moon Goddess," I said, helping Lily to her feet. The Void Walker she’d been trying to heal writhed in pain nearby, its form changing between solid and shadow.
"Working with her?" Viktor laughed. "I am her biggest success. She showed me what we could become if we stopped caring about guilt and weakness."
Behind him, more forms emerged from the darkness. Elena, another of our apparently dead siblings. And worse - at least a dozen Void Walkers, but these ones moved with purpose instead of dumb hunger.
"They’re not random monsters anymore," I whispered to Lily. "Someone’s controlling them."
Lily’s face went pale, but she didn’t back down. "The cure might still work. If I can reach the part of them that’s still-"
"Still what?" Viktor interrupted, having heard her with his vampire senses. "Still human? Still good? My dear girl, goodness is just weakness wearing a pretty mask."