Vampire Apocalypse: Descent Into Chaos (Book 2) Read Online Free

vampire. He had not made
contact with the other cabals for anything and expected the same in
return. He had been quite a senior vampire during the war, and many
had seen him as a direct threat to Von Richelieu himself. He had
only come to America to satisfy a particularly insatiable appetite
for carnage. He had already won large estates in the initial
battles in Europe but quickly grew bored as territory after
territory fell too easily. It was only in America that battles had
been fought that satisfied his blood lust—at least until the serum
had been used and the human defense had crumbled almost
overnight.
    He was over four hundred years old but his ambitions
and bloodlust had been satiated by the war. At least, this had been
what he had informed the council when he had removed himself from
the committee and also from the resulting carnage as the vampires
fought over the spoils. It was understood by the thralls that
Harris questioned that Von Richelieu had let him go mainly because
his numerous attempts at removing him had failed. Nero had retained
enough respect from the younger vampires so that they turned their
greedy attentions toward easier and less established prey.
    The surviving thralls had been most informative as to
the relations between the cabals. It seemed that the vampires had
pretty much kept to the old state lines when carving up their
territories after they had taken over. This was the easiest to
administer and control, except for some notable exceptions where
lines had been stretched to include certain advantages depending on
the level of strength and political weight each vampire master
could exert.
    Cases in point were their own neighboring cabals. The
states, formerly known as Michigan and Indiana were now controlled
by the Von Kruger and Wentworth Cabals respectively and bordered
what had been Nero’s Cabal, in the old state of Ohio. It seemed
that there had been a long rivalry between these two states that
predated the vampires’ coming. At the centre of this rivalry was
the Dade Nuclear Power plant that was situated just over the border
in Michigan. Before the energy crisis this plant had powered all
the surrounding states and the plant drew its employees from both
sides of the state line. The plant had become a popular place to
work and had always been seen as a shared resource by both
states.
    As the energy crisis of the last few years had
worsened, however, things began to sour between the two states.
Michigan had stopped supplying power to her neighboring states and
people had flocked to Michigan, leaving the other states,
especially Indiana, with poor resources and too few people to
manage what was left.
    When the vampires had come, Von Kruger, a two hundred
year old vampire from Bonn, Germany, had used his seniority to
redraw the map to include the power plant in the newly drawn
Indiana state line. Wentworth, the former governor of Michigan, had
ranted for over a year before settling down to his fate.
    The need for heating and power really only affected
the thralls, as the vampires were nocturnal, so he really couldn’t
argue too loudly. Von Kruger, as the elder vampire, could have
demanded Michigan, as it was more generously populated, but had
opted for the warmer state. Wentworth, with a much larger
population to feed upon had relented and an uneasy peace
reigned.
    Neither vampire had given a second thought to the
thralls. Wentworth’s army, far bigger and better armed, began to
grumble and complain about the arrival of an early winter. They had
used up their entire stock of oil and fossil fuels last winter,
convinced that they would be able to obtain at least a small feed
from the power plant for the next year, but negotiations had broken
down and they had been left with nothing. Their barracks were cold,
their food was rapidly going bad without proper
refrigeration—though the cold weather alleviated this somewhat—and
the lack of power left them literally in the dark; they even had