Kael woke up to the taste of concrete dust and the sound of his phone ringing. His head felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it, and when he tried to sit up, the world spun like a carnival ride.
"Jesus," he groaned, spitting out blood and grit. The mysterious black blood had eaten a perfect circle into the concrete where it had spilled, going down at least six inches. Steam was still rising from the edges.
His phone kept ringing. Marcus again.
"What?" Kael answered, his voice rough as sandpaper.
"Dude, where the hell are you? Those weird guys came back, and this time they had questions about blood banks and butcher shops. They know you were at Moretti's."
"Shit." Kael struggled to his feet, his vision still flickering at the edges. "How could they possibly—"
EMERGENCY RESTART SEQUENCE COMPLETE
BLOOD SYSTEM BETA VERSION 0.7 - ONLINE
CRITICAL ERRORS DETECTED
SYSTEM INTEGRITY: 67%
The blue interface materialized, but it looked wrong—text flickering, edges fuzzy, like a computer monitor with a bad connection.
"Thank god," Kael breathed. "I thought you were dead."
USER VITALS STABILIZED
WARNING: CONSUMED SUBSTANCE INCOMPATIBLE WITH CURRENT SYSTEM VERSION
ANALYSIS: DRACONIC BLOOD DETECTED
"Draconic? As in dragon?"
AFFIRMATIVE
DRAGONS ARE TIER-S SUPERNATURAL ENTITIES
THEIR BLOOD CONTAINS POWER LEVELS BEYOND BETA USER CAPACITY
"There are actual fucking dragons?"
MULTIPLE SUPERNATURAL SPECIES EXIST
SYSTEM DESIGNED TO INTERFACE WITH VAMPIRIC ENTITIES ONLY
CROSS-SPECIES BLOOD CONSUMPTION NOT RECOMMENDED
"Maybe lead with that next time," Kael muttered, then spoke into his phone. "Marcus, I need you to listen carefully. Pack everything important and get out of the dorm. Go to your parents' house or something."
"What? Why? Kael, you're scaring the shit out of me."
"Good. Be scared. I've told you! Those guys aren't human, and they're probably going to—"
A new window suddenly popped up in his vision, completely separate from the system interface. It looked like a chat program, with a simple text box and a blinking cursor.
EMERGENCY CHAT SESSION INITIATED
CONNECTING TO CUSTOMER SUPPORT...
PLEASE WAIT...
"Customer support?" Kael stared at the new window. "The fuck?"
CONNECTION ESTABLISHED
You are now chatting with: TechSupport_Admin
TechSupport_Admin: Holy shit, you're alive.
TechSupport_Admin: Dude, your vitals dropped off our monitoring system completely. I thought you were dead.
Kael looked around the empty loading dock, then spoke aloud. "Who is this?"
TechSupport_Admin: Can you not type? Use mental commands to respond. Think your words at the interface.
Kael concentrated: Who the hell are you?
User_KaelV: Who the hell are you?
TechSupport_Admin: Tech support. Obviously. Name's Dave. Been monitoring your system since you went online.
User_KaelV: There's tech support for this thing?
TechSupport_Admin: Dude, there's tech support for everything. You think they'd release supernatural enhancement software without customer service?
User_KaelV: This is software?
TechSupport_Admin: Jesus, did you not read the terms of service?
TechSupport_Admin: Wait, nobody reads those. My bad.
TechSupport_Admin: Look, short version: You're running Blood System Beta Version 0.7. It's experimental supernatural enhancement tech developed by... well, that's classified. Point is, you're one of about fifty beta testers worldwide.
Kael's mind reeled. "Marcus, I have to call you back."
"Kael, don't you dare hang up on—"
He ended the call.
User_KaelV: Beta testers? There are others like me?
TechSupport_Admin: Like you? Sort of. Most beta users are existing supernatural entities who volunteered for the program. You're... unique.
User_KaelV: How am I unique?
TechSupport_Admin: You're the only human who's ever successfully bonded with the system. Usually it requires some level of existing supernatural physiology. The fact that it worked on you at all is kind of miraculous.
TechSupport_Admin: Also kind of terrifying from a security standpoint.
User_KaelV: Security?
TechSupport_Admin: The system was designed to enhance existing vampires, make them more efficient, give them better control over their abilities. But you... you're essentially a human running vampire software. You're glitching the whole program just by existing.
User_KaelV: Is that why I almost died drinking that dragon blood?
TechSupport_Admin: YOU DRANK DRAGON BLOOD?!
TechSupport_Admin: Are you insane? That could have killed every beta user on the network!
User_KaelV: How was I supposed to know? The system said to experiment with different blood types!
TechSupport_Admin: With NORMAL blood types! Cow, pig, maybe some exotic mammals if you're feeling adventurous. Not apex predator supernatural entity blood!
TechSupport_Admin: Christ, I'm surprised you didn't spontaneously combust.
Kael looked at the acid-eaten hole in the concrete.
User_KaelV: I kind of did. The blood ate through concrete when I spilled it.
TechSupport_Admin: Yeah, dragon blood does that. It's basically liquid magic. Your system probably absorbed enough to level you up about fifty times, but the power surge nearly fried your neural pathways.
User_KaelV: So I'm more powerful now?
TechSupport_Admin: Check your stats.
Kael pulled up his character sheet. His jaw dropped.
KAEL VYRNHEART - LEVEL 12 BLOOD DEPENDENT
STRENGTH: 89 (+78)SPEED: 76 (+65)CONSTITUTION: 82 (+71)PERCEPTION: 91 (+80)CHARISMA: 45 (+33)
SPECIAL ABILITIES UNLOCKED:
DRAGON'S BLOOD (PASSIVE): +50% TO ALL REGENERATION
DRACONIC RESISTANCE: IMMUNITY TO FIRE, COLD, ACID
ENHANCED FLIGHT: AVAILABLE AT LEVEL 15 (REQUIREMENT REDUCED)
"Holy shit," he whispered.
User_KaelV: I jumped from level 2 to level 12?
TechSupport_Admin: Yeah, and that's with the system limiting the absorption to prevent you from dying. If you'd consumed the whole container, you probably would have hit the level cap and exploded.
User_KaelV: There's a level cap?
TechSupport_Admin: For beta users, yeah. Level 25. The full release version supposedly goes higher, but that's premium tier stuff.
User_KaelV: Premium tier?
TechSupport_Admin: Oh right, you wouldn't know about that. There are two versions of the Blood System. Beta version like yours, and Premium. Premium users get better features, higher level caps, more stability, customer support that actually knows what they're doing.
User_KaelV: You don't know what you're doing?
TechSupport_Admin: Dude, I'm a college dropout who got this job because I knew basic programming. Half the time I'm just googling solutions and hoping for the best.
User_KaelV: That's... not reassuring.
TechSupport_Admin: Yeah, well, welcome to the world of supernatural tech support. It's not exactly a well-established field.
User_KaelV: Who runs this thing? Who created the Blood System?
TechSupport_Admin: That's way above my pay grade. All I know is the company is called Crimson Dynamics, and they're... secretive. Like, really secretive. I've never met anyone higher than my immediate supervisor.
User_KaelV: What about the Premium users? What are they like?
TechSupport_Admin: Scary as hell. Most of them are ancient vampires, some werewolves, a few other things I can't pronounce. They've been around for centuries, maybe millennia. The system just makes them more powerful.
User_KaelV: And they know about beta users?
TechSupport_Admin: Some do. The ones who volunteered for beta testing obviously know, but they signed NDAs. The problem is, there are Premium users who think beta testing was a mistake. They think giving this kind of power to "lesser" supernatural entities is dangerous.
User_KaelV: Lesser entities?
TechSupport_Admin: Newer vampires, shapeshifters, that kind of thing. And humans... well, they definitely don't think humans should have access to this tech.
User_KaelV: So there are Premium users hunting beta users?
TechSupport_Admin: I'm not supposed to tell you this, but... yeah. At least three that we know of. They're trying to eliminate beta users before the official release. They think we're security risks.
A chill ran down Kael's spine.
User_KaelV: How do I identify them?
TechSupport_Admin: Premium users have different interface colors. Their system displays are gold instead of blue. And their eyes... their eyes glow differently. More intense. Usually red, but sometimes other colors depending on their base supernatural type.
Red eyes. Lord Castellan had red eyes.
User_KaelV: I think I've met one of them.
TechSupport_Admin: Shit. What did they look like?
User_KaelV: Tall, pale, silver hair. Called himself Lord Castellan. Had two guys with him, all wearing expensive suits.
TechSupport_Admin: Oh fuck. Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck.
User_KaelV: What?
TechSupport_Admin: Lord Castellan is premium tier alpha user. He's been with the program since the beginning. Ancient vampire, probably 800+ years old. He's killed at least six beta users that we know of.
User_KaelV: Six?
TechSupport_Admin: He considers beta users to be abominations. Thinks we're polluting the vampire bloodline or some bullshit. If he's hunting you specifically...
The chat window suddenly started flickering.
TechSupport_Admin: What the hell?
TechSupport_Admin: Someone's trying to trace this connection.
User_KaelV: Trace it?
TechSupport_Admin: They're tracking the chat back to my location. This shouldn't be possible. The support channels are supposed to be encrypted.
TechSupport_Admin: Unless...
TechSupport_Admin: Oh shit. Premium users have admin privileges.
The text in the chat window started turning red, and Kael could hear what sounded like alarms in the background through the connection.
TechSupport_Admin: They've found me.
TechSupport_Admin: Listen carefully. Whatever you do, don't trust anyone with red eyes. The premium users are hunting betas, and they have access to system admin functions.
User_KaelV: Dave? Dave, what's happening?
TechSupport_Admin: They can track you through the system interface. You need to find a way to go offline, hide your signal somehow.
User_KaelV: How do I do that?
TechSupport_Admin: I don't know. I'm sorry, I don't fucking know.
TechSupport_Admin: There's something else. The dragon blood you consumed? It didn't just level you up. It changed your system signature. You're showing up as something else entirely on our monitoring systems.
User_KaelV: Something else like what?
TechSupport_Admin: I can't tell. The readings are all scrambled. It's like you're not even running the same software anymore.
TechSupport_Admin: Maybe that's good. Maybe it'll help you hide.
TechSupport_Admin: They're almost through the door.
User_KaelV: Dave?
TechSupport_Admin: Remember what I said about the red eyes. Don't trust them. Don't trust anyone with red eyes.
TechSupport_Admin: And whatever you do, don't let them capture you alive. What they do to beta users... it's worse than death.
CONNECTION TERMINATED
CHAT SESSION ENDED
The window disappeared, leaving Kael alone with his flickering system interface and the growing certainty that Lord Castellan was far more dangerous than he'd realized.
His phone rang again. Unknown number.
He answered without thinking.
"Mr. Vyrnheart," Lord Castellan's cultured voice purred through the speaker. "I do believe we need to have a conversation about your recent... upgrades."
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