Triple Moon Rising: An Omega's Destiny

Chapter 147: Vampire Guilt

DMITRI POV

The spatial tear nearly swallowed me whole.

I threw myself backward as reality split open like a wound, showing the dark space between worlds. Cold air rushed out, bringing whispers in languages that hurt to hear. My vampire strength was the only thing that stopped me from being sucked into the void.

"Another one," I gasped, pulling out my phone to mark the position. "That’s the fifteenth tear this week."

I’d been hunting these dimensional wounds for three months, ever since Lily gave herself to stop the Devourer. Each tear was a memory of what my kind had done. Vampires had fed on dimensional energy for centuries, weakening the walls between worlds. We’d made it possible for monsters like the Devourer to break through.

And now Lily was paying the price for our greed.

My phone buzzed with a text from Viktor, my vampire clan leader: "Stop this foolish journey. Come home."

I deleted the message without answering. I couldn’t go home. Not when I knew the truth about what we’d done.

The tear in front of me pulsed, getting larger. Through it, I could see shapes moving in the darkness. Things that shouldn’t exist were trying to push through into our world. I grabbed my rescue kit and started working.

The dimensional patch felt cold in my hands. It was made from crystallized moonlight and phoenix tears, materials that cost more than most people made in a year. I’d bought hundreds of them with my own money, using every coin I’d saved in five hundred years of life.

"Come on," I muttered, pushing the patch against the tear. "Stay closed this time."

The wound fought me, trying to spread. The things on the other side pushed harder, feeling weakness. For a moment, I thought I’d lose the fight. Then the patch took hold, closing the tear with a flash of silver light.

I fell against a tree, exhausted. Sealing dimensional tears drained my vampire energy faster than anything else. But I couldn’t stop. Every tear I failed to close made things worse for everyone, especially Lily.

My phone rang. The caller ID showed "Unknown," but I recognized the number. It was Sage, the witch who’d been studying Lily’s change.

"Dmitri," her voice was frantic. "I need you at Silver Peak immediately."

"What’s wrong?" I asked, already running toward my car.

"Lily’s changing again," Sage said. "And the physical damage is accelerating. The tears you’ve been sealing? They’re reopening, all at once."

My blood went cold. "That’s impossible. My patches are forever."

"Not anymore," Sage answered. "Something is overriding them. We need your skills to figure out what."

I drove to Silver Peak faster than any human car should go, my vampire reflexes the only thing stopping me from crashing. The closer I got to the pack area, the more dimensional disturbances I felt. The air itself seemed unsteady, like reality was coming apart at the seams.

When I arrived, chaos met me. Pack wolves ran back and forth, some bringing emergency supplies, others helping evacuate the elderly and children. The sky above Silver Peak flickered between day and night, showing views of other worlds.

Sage met me at the pack house door. "It’s getting worse," she said without welcome. "Lily’s transformation is causing ripples across all dimensions. Every patch you’ve put is failing."

"Where is she?" I asked.

"Basement. But Dmitri, you need to know something first."

Sage grabbed my arm, her grip surprisingly strong for a person. "Lily isn’t just facing the Devourer anymore. She’s become something new. A Guardian. And she’s connected to every dimensional tear you’ve been closing." noveldrama

We ran inside and down to the basement. Through the reinforced window, I could see Lily floating in the middle of the room. But she looked different from the last time I’d seen her. Her body flickered between solid and transparent, and her eyes glowed silver like stars.

"My God," I whispered. "What have we done to her?"

"It’s not what you did," said a voice behind me. "It’s what you’re still doing."

I turned to see Caleb, one of Lily’s mates. His eyes were red from crying, but his voice was calm and angry.

"Every dimensional tear my kind created is connected to her now," I said, understanding flooding through me. "She’s trying to hold them all closed herself."

"And it’s killing her," Caleb responded. "She’s using her own life force to keep the barriers steady. But there are too many tears. She can’t hold them all."

Through the window, Lily’s words drifted out, weak but determined: "Dmitri’s patches... breaking down... can’t hold much longer..."

I pressed my hands against the glass. "Lily, I’m here. Tell me how to help."

Her silver eyes found mine. "The vampire feeding... damaged more than just barriers... it changed the dimensional fabric itself... every time your kind fed, you created micro-tears... thousands of them..."

My heart stopped. "How many?"

"Millions," Lily whispered. "Hidden tears throughout the world... all connected to vampire feeding sites... and they’re all opening at once."

"That’s why my patches are failing," I realized. "I’ve been sealing the big tears, but the small ones are pulling them open again."

"There’s more," Lily continued, her form getting more transparent. "The Void Walkers... they’re using the vampire tears as anchor points... they don’t need to possess someone... they can create their own doorways..."

Sage grabbed my shoulder. "What does that mean?"

I felt sick. "It means every place vampires have ever fed is about to become a portal for attack. Every big city, every population center. My kind has built a worldwide invasion network without realizing it."

"How do we stop it?" Caleb demanded.

I looked at Lily, seeing the pain she was trying to hide. She was holding together reality itself, using her own soul as glue. And it wasn’t enough.

"There’s only one way," I said quietly. "I have to go to every vampire feeding site and forever seal the tears from the inside. But to do that..."

I paused, the weight of what I had to do resting on me.

"I’d have to sacrifice my vampire essence at each place. It would take hundreds of vampires working together, and we’d all die in the process."

"Then we convince them," Caleb said.

"You don’t understand," I answered. "Most vampires don’t even know what we’ve done. They think dimensional feeding is normal. They won’t believe the threat until it’s too late."

Suddenly, alarms started screaming throughout the pack house. Through the small basement window, I could see the night sky starting to crack like broken glass. But worse than that, I could smell something that made my vampire instincts scream in fear.

Other vampires. Hundreds of them. And they were coming fast.

"Dmitri," Lily said quickly, "Viktor found out what you’ve been doing. He’s bringing the full vampire council to stop you."

Before I could ask how she knew, the pack house shook as something huge landed on the roof.

"They’re here," I whispered, and for the first time in five centuries, I was truly afraid.