Children of the Goddesses (completed)

Prologue

            Sparks of all colors left fast fading trails behind them before exploding into forms of werewolves, witch fire and symbols of each State in the breezy night sky. The sound of little children exclaiming in awe floated in the air like a beautiful melody as werewolf pups, witch younglings and little vampires stood side by side with necks craned towards the sky. Two years ago, on this very night, the Union of the Supernaturals of America was born after months of unrest and conflicts. In those turbulent months right after the disintegration of the Grand Tribunal, an ill-fated first attempt at uniting the children of the Moon Goddess, allies turned on allies and enemies became friends as everyone fought for what they believed in. Even humans were caught up in the crossfire and suffered collateral damages. 

            Yet, self-serving ideals could never become universal nor withstand the test of fire because those who believe in freedom and equality would never rest until light had triumphed over darkness. Two years ago, on this very night after the battle of Wallace Bay, a Union, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that werewolves, witches, vampires and humans were created equal, was forged with the blood and tears of supernatural beings and humans. In particular, it was the ultimate sacrifice of one female vampire that made this Union possible on that night and due to her valor, vampires were granted equal rights in the Constitution of the Union, despite not being creations of the Moon Goddess. Gone were the days where werewolves and witches saw vampires as nothing more than biological weapons of terror created by Lady Lae, leader of the First Witch’s Daughters, to destroy werewolves and any dissenting witches in order to rule over the supernatural world. Instead, vampires were recognized as supernatural beings with agency and though they might not be children of the Moon Goddess, they had earned their rights to become equals of the Moon Goddess’s children. 

            The battle of Wallace Bay was one of the compulsory components of supernatural history that had to be taught at all public schools as stipulated by the Constitution of the Union. Only the private schools run by covens and packs on their own land were exempted from this law as the hands of each State’s Supernatural Offices were still not powerful enough to reach into each and every single pack and coven. It was one of the many imperfections in this young Union but no one was naive enough to believe that the Union would become perfect after a mere two years. This was also the reason for many vampires to relocate to the West Coast after the battle of Wallace Bay. 

            After the death of Lady Lae on the battlefield, the battle of Wallace Bay came to an end. All remaining vampires who were not already fighting on the side of the Alliance Army were given the choice to surrender and pledge their loyalty to the Alliance Army and subsequent Union or be sentenced to death for their role in the vampire army, a private army created by Lady Lae. It was an easy choice for most of them. After all, who dreamed of being a puppet of a tyrant? In fact, if anyone were to ask the remaining vampires why they were fighting for Lady Lae and the First Witch’s Daughters, they wouldn’t be able to give a real answer. Being born into this role was definitely not an answer. The only vampires who refused to surrender were the two remaining Royals who had somehow managed to survive the battle. They were executed on the battlefield while all other remaining vampires were inducted into programs sponsored by the Union to help them reintegrate into society. 

            The program established and ran by High Priestess Brenna of the Tahoe Coven in California was the most successful. Within a year, the crème de la crème of the alumni from her program had not only managed to live independently on their own, but also succeeded in starting thriving entertainment businesses. The most famous of which was the Bloody Comedy Club owned by Emmelene, a female vampire near Hollywood Hills. Word of the Tahoe Coven’s program spread like wildfire across the Union and many vampires who had difficulty integrating into society in other States migrated westwards. It was ironic since vampires were creatures of the night and would have definitely thrived better in States further up north with less sunshine, but the successes of the vampire community in California inspired them to find their fortunes in the Golden State as the humans had done centuries ago during the Gold Rush. 

            Against this backdrop of progress and success stories, no one expected things to develop in any other direction. At least not until success began to breed jealousy, leading to isolated events of violence between vampires, humans and werewolves. As news of bar fights and scruffles between vampires, humans and werewolves hit national news, fear began to rise in the hearts of the werewolf communities of a threat that was very specific and very deadly to them. A vampire’s bite carried poison deadly for werewolves and the only known cure against it was the blood of the Luna of the Gold Moon Pack. Vaccines against the poison were available and research showed that one dose of the vaccine per year was enough to prevent werewolves from dying from vampire bites. The same couldn’t be said for bites from daywalkers, a breed of enhanced vampires invulnerable to sunlight, but the daywalkers were all killed after Wallace Bay. 

            Unfortunately, a key ingredient for this vaccine was the blood of the Luna of the Gold Moon Pack and after the founding of the Union, a decision was made by the State Representatives of all 50 States to discontinue the vaccine. It was simply impossible and unreasonable to expect the Luna to become a blood bag in order to produce this vaccine. Besides, even if she agreed to do it, there still wouldn’t be enough vaccines to go around and vampires were no longer a threat after they had pledged their loyalty to the Union. So when these isolated events of violence between vampires, humans and werewolves appeared on prime time news, concerns started arising even from the more moderate and liberal werewolf communities and soon, there were calls for a national registry for vampires to track and monitor them as a preventive measure. 

            Radical werewolves grew increasingly impatient with the lack of action from the Union authorities and started to work with witches and humans, even before the violent incidents, on joint research programs to subdue vampires. Eventually, a thriving black market emerged for experimental drugs and magic aimed at weakening or even killing vampires, and despite its best attempts, Union authorities were not able to shut down all these illegal activities. The illegal research of ways to weaken vampires in turn drove demand for vampires to use for these research and soon, the black market was not only trading in drugs and magic, but also became a lucrative slave trade. 

            The number of vampires in existence was so low after the Battle of Wallace Bay, with an estimated of only 6000 odd vampires in the entire nation, that no punishment could deter everyone from engaging in the illegal trafficking of vampires. This problem was especially acute in the Northern States which had historically experienced the most vampire attacks throughout the centuries until the collapse of the Grand Tribunal more than two years ago. Even humans became involved in the lucrative illegal activities, since humans were not under the jurisdiction of the Union. The human authorities were slow to respond to damages done by their own to the supernatural beings, often dismissing the possibility of such incidents as impossible using the excuse that humans were much weaker than supernatural beings. 

            As the nation celebrated the second birthday of the Union, a storm brewed on the horizon, obscured temporarily by the magnificent display of fireworks.