Rulav, standing on an imposing rock, looked drearily at the half-dozen vampires who had arrived as reinforcements during the night. With his hands sunk in his pockets, his jaw clenched, he tried to suppress the anger shaking his guts. By beating the recall of his troops, he hoped better than a bunch of losers dressed like the last of the lowlifes who roamed the streets of Siberia’s poorest cities. With bravado, they waited for their instructions as they chatted with each other, as if their leader wasn’t there, and sometimes jostled each other to establish a semblance of hierarchy. Even though they often only knew each other by sight, they wanted to uphold their position, which they considered right and indisputable. Yet, paradoxically, they ignored the highest point of the pyramid, right i
