Twelve Months to Midnight

That said, it would be foolish to assume vampires have nothing to fear from werewolves in smaller numbers. When it first formed, the Fraternity had one hundred and sixty nine members. In the almost four thousand years since then, twenty seven have been killed by other vampires, a dozen by human hunters (including those working for the church), nine have simply dropped off the record, and fifteen died or were killed in unrelated incidents such as wars or natural disasters that left them nowhere to go when the sun rose. Of the remaining one hundred and six, a total of twenty lost their lives to werewolf packs. A nineteenth-century historian named Chorley once wrote that vampires were some divine balancing act; the lesser of two evils that “by the grace of God” kept the wild packs of supernatural animals from the door of civilization. Imports and Exports Saturday, March 18th, 8:05 AM Despite my family arriving here on longboats, something in the last twelve centuries had driven the seafar...

It’s rare for a wolf in the wild to go solo, and almost unheard-of for a werewolf to do so. There’s a reason why ‘Lone Wolf’ is an idiom. Your typical werewolf won’t go down the shops for milk without four or five friends as backup, and none would be foolish enough to take on a vampire without the support of their entire pack. Despite vampires making their homes in cities and werewolves preferring the wild, they’re still two apex predators with strong territorial instincts sharing an ecosystem, and this has led to an unceasing animosity.  The last time a vampire was killed by werewolves was more than a century and a half ago in New Orleans. It took ninety werewolves, and more than sixty didn’t survive, but those that did still called it a victory. Aftermath Friday, March 18th, 10:21AM “You’re back!” said Tierney. “I am!” I called back. Tierney was working on a signal down on the tracks while Cormac and I stood on the platform of Connolly station about ten feet away. “You need more ...